Brotherly Bonding Time

Chapters

2.1--First Stop
2.2--To Save an Orchard
2.3--How to Earn a Cutie Mark
2.4--Useless?
2.5--Fun Times
3.1--Stuck in a Tree
3.2--The Big Sibling
4.1--This Town is Too Small
4.2--Into the Hills
4.3--Dirty Fighting
4.4--Lost Relatives
5.1--Another Town, Another Party
5.2--The Circus Train
5.3--Funny Business
5.4--Flim Flam vs. Sandwich
5.5--Tiny Web of Assistance
6.1--A Magical Affair
6.2--Tricks of the Trade
6.4--Disaster at the Expo
6.5--What Happens in Las Pegasus Stays in Las Pegasus
7.1--Train to Ponyville
7.2--Leisure Time
8.1--Anticipation of the Summer Sun
8.2--Sunrise
8.3--It's Going to Be a Long Day
8.4--Royal Pain
8.5--Liven Things Up
8.6--Shame and Regret
8.7--Swap Meet
9.1--I Don't Feel So Gouda
9.2--Welcome to Our Town
9.3--Not Quite Party Animals
9.4--Overwhelming Mess
9.5--Identity Crisis
9.6--Second Wind
10--July
11.1--The Shining Vocals Competition
11.2--First Round
11.3--Simple Joys
11.4--Behind the Curtain
11.5--When Weirdness Gets Messy
11.6--Ease of Pain
12.1--Golden Years
12.2--Double The Fun
12.3--Clowning Around
12.4--A Celebration of a Half-Century
12.5--Mirrors
13.1--Feelin' a Little Younger
13.2--City Park
13.4--Growing Up Too Fast
13.5--A Bridge Too Far
13.6--Forgive and Forget
14.1--A Word With Mom
14.2--Bring Me to the Valley
14.3--Taking the Heat
15.1--The Flowerwood Inn
15.2--High on the Mountaintop
15.3--Today While the Sun Shines
15.4--Come, Come, Ye Equines
15.5--Sugar Apocalypse
15.6--Where is My Solace?
15.7--A Firm Foundation
16.1--Sorrel Canyon
16.2--Welcome to a New Day
17.1--Friendly Faces
17.2--Voices of Unreason
17.3--Restless in Seaddle
17.4--Behind the Lenses
17.5--Trouble Swings In
17.6--Sing Your Heart Out
18.1--Peanut Butter and Jelly
18.2--Too Many Cooks
18.3--Taking It Around Town
18.4--I Don't Give an Edam Anymore
18.5--Failed the Smell Test
18.6--Cool Reception
19.2--Say Uncle
20.1--These So-Called Beautiful Ponies
20.2--Tommy in the Middle
20.3--Reworking On the Fly
20.4--Fair For Its Time
20.5--For Beauty and For Profit
20.6--No More Mr. Nice Guy
20.7--Past, Present, and Future
21.1--DNA Sample
21.2--The Trial
21.3--Heart to Harsh
22.1--The Final Countdown
22.3--Musings
22.4--Brink of Tragedy
22.5--Preying On Pony Minds
22.6--Loose Threads
22.7--Mining for Answers
23.1--Sweet Dreams are Made of Cheese
23.2--A Trip Down Memory Lane
23.3--My Own Personal Tartarus
24.1--Eclipse
24.2--Something in the Water
24.3--Close to Home
24.4--Standing Up
24.5--We Are All Gathered Here Today...
1.1--A Good Ol' Break
1.2--Just the Two of Us
6.3--The Experiment
8.8--Resurrection of the Summer Sun Fair
9.7--A Town Worth the Time
13.3--Lost in Manehattan
15.8--Ever Onward
19.1--Just Grin and Bear It
22.2--The Sandwich Horror

2.1--First Stop

Setting off to Ponyville, the pair was lucky that little difficulty had come upon them on their way there. The weather was nice, the days were peaceful, and none of the animals that they encountered were hostile. Tomato had been expecting more, but he supposed that his imagination prior to the trip had just been running wild with every possible thing that could go wrong. Still, with the journey just beginning, they still needed to be on guard.

Still, it didn't prevent him from being curious about the surroundings he and Cheese found themselves in on a daily basis. Very rarely had their family taken trips, and even then the trips were usually not far from Manehattan. The farthest that Tomato had been personally was to Ponyville, and that was with friends.

Never had he thought that he'd see so many beautiful fields and meadows and forests within a short time. Never had he seen such a variety of flora and fauna comfortable in the environments that they called home. And never had he slept in a different place each night, exchanging stories, counting stars, and partaking in leftover party food that Cheese somehow carried around.

Soon enough, Cheese was sensing that they were drawing near to Ponyville.

Cheese's excitement was palpable. It was obvious to Tomato that Ponyville was his brother's favorite place in the world, if only for a certain pink mare. He figured that if Cheese were to settle down, it'd most likely be there, where he could see Pinkie Pie. After all, often seeing the pony that had inspired you would most likely be exhilarating.

Cheese was speaking a lot about Pinkie and her "absolute perfection". Tomato raised an eyebrow, seeing as his own interaction with Pinkie was anything but perfect. Still, he had seen newlyweds with the same sparkle in their eyes that Cheese had. He had seen many couples on moonlit strolls in the park, with smiles very similar to the one on a daydreaming Cheese. And he had talked with classmates who had gushed over their special somepony, not unlike Cheese did about Pinkie.

Looking at Cheese and sensing his excitement, Tomato couldn't help but feel disappointment about one certain couple, who despite being married, was definitely lacking in love. He wondered if one or both parties had felt that swell of emotions that many a pony had felt, and what it was like for them until things went stale. Looking back, things already been pretty empty at least back to Tomato's first memory of them.

He shook his head and snorted. Think happy thoughts, Tommy. We're just about to arrive at our first stop, throw our first party on this trip, and if Cheese does turn out to be in love with Pinkie, be supportive of him.

That's when Cheese turned to him. "Hey... is everything all right?"

Tomato cleared his throat. "My mind's just wandering, that's all. Why do you ask?"

"You were looking kind of sour."

Tomato blew a quick raspberry. "Well, I'm trying to think happy thoughts. Say, how long until we get there?"

Cheese smiled, grabbed Tomato's foreleg, and dragged him up the hill. He stopped at the crest, and did a grand gesture toward a simple little town. Rising above the humble homes was a grand, crystalline tree, gleaming in the sunlight. Though Tomato still felt that it clashed with the rest of the town, he supposed that it was a grand enough home for a princess.

A grinning Cheese then said, "Here we are... Ponyville."

The two slipped into town, with Cheese listening around for hints of what the party was about. So far, all he had heard was snippets of conversations that he was certain had nothing to do with the party. He had noticed the townsfolk staring at the two ponies in cowpony getup, but that was par for the course.

Behind him, he noticed Tomato pulling his hat over his face, glancing nervously at the townsponies. It was peculiar seeing him act so shy, but perhaps he just wasn't used to the staring. Cheese stretched out his tail to pull him closer and patted his back in an attempt to comfort him. "Don't worry, these ponies take weirdness in stride. We'll be fine."

He noticed the ponies whisper, although there were a few who weren't very quiet. He heard murmurs of "Aren't they hot under those ponchos?" and "Is that who I think it is?" and some similar things, but he and Tommy still needed to be low key until they met up with Pinkie.

They found themselves at town hall, looking around the square for any sign of Pinkie or her friends.

"So, where do you suppose she usually is?" Tomato asked. "What does she do when she's not throwing a party?"

"Well..." Cheese began. "She lives and works at Sugarcube Corner, sometimes does some Friendship Council stuff with her friends in Twilight's castle, goes and solves friendship problems on occasion, goes around cheering ponies up, spends time with her friends, plays with me whenever I drop by... oh, and sometimes she goes to save Equestria."

Tomato gave him a funny look. "Eh? You're making saving the country sound like no big deal."

Cheese shrugged. "Probably is a big deal. Can't imagine either one of us having the fate of the country in our hooves."

"True. So... are you saying that she could be anywhere?"

"Well, yeah... but hey, if a party's going to be thrown here, that means she's in town and not out saving Equestria!" He pursed his lips and tapped his chin. "I wonder if she and her friends have done that recently..."

"I just hope this party's not a funeral."

Cheese shot him a glare. "Tommy, I don't plan funerals--unless they're for a fellow party pony that wants to have ponies celebrating their life instead of crying over their death." He noticed Tomato's skeptical look, and then covered his mouth when he realized what he said. "Please, Pinkie, don't be dead..."

A giggle sounded above them. "Silly Cheese, I'm not dead!"

Cheese looked up and locked eyes with the pink-coated and raspberry-maned mare that they had been speaking of. She was hanging upside-down from the railing of the hall's second floor balcony, and wearing the most adorable smile on her face. He was in awe of how her blue eyes were gleaming, and for a moment, he felt like it was just the two of them in the world.

Of course, he snapped out of his trance, and exclaimed, "Heya, Pinkie!"

Pinkie held a huge grin as she waved, and then fell ungracefully from the railing and landed face first in the dust. Cheese gasped and rushed to her side, while Tomato winced.

As Cheese helped her up, Pinkie said, "No worries, I'm okay."

Cheese was brushing dust off of her coat. "Goodness, Pinkie, you need to work on your landings."

Pinkie puffed out her cheeks. "Not as much as Boneless 2 needs to work on his dancing--last I saw him, he was a little rusty."

Cheese looked at the rubber chicken on his back. "He's been practicing, Pinkie... honest!"

Pinkie giggled, and looked at Tomato. "Hiya, Tommy! Lookin' good in that cowpony outfit!"

"Uh... thanks," Tomato mumbled.

Cheese chuckled and looked around. "Okay, Pinkie... who's the party for, and what do I need to do?"

Pinkie's smiled faded and she tilted her head. "I wasn't planning a party."

Cheese was taken aback by that statement. "What do you mean, Pinkie? My Cheesy Sense lead me here, and told me that this party was going to be a doozy." He looked worriedly at Tomato, who looked just as confused as he was.

Pinkie gasped. "Really? You mean there's somepony planning a big shindig without me? Or there's a party for ghosts around here somewhere? Or maybe it's the birthday of one of Fluttershy's animals? I know today's not anypony's birthday..."

Cheese checked his mental calendar. It was already past Pinkie's birthday, and it was definitely not the Summer Sun Celebration yet. He didn't know if there were any festivals that Ponyville had this time of year, and like Pinkie said, it wasn't anypony's birthday. What was going on here?

A trio of fillies--one on a scooter and towing the other two in a wagon--nearly crashed into Cheese, which made him jump in surprise and land in Pinkie's forelegs. The one on the scooter exclaimed, "There you are, Pinkie! Geez, I thought we'd never find you."

Cheese climbed out of Pinkie's forelegs. "Huh?"

Pinkie waved to the fillies. "Hi, Scootaloo! Hi, Apple Bloom! Hi, Sweetie Belle! Hehehe, you wouldn't believe it, Cheese and Tomato Sandwich stumbled upon my hiding spot, and I couldn't help but say hi!"

Apple Bloom hopped out of the wagon. "Well, they sure made hide-and-seek with ya easier!" She turned to the two stallions. "Howdy, Cheese Sandwich! Howdy, Cheese's brother!"

"Pinkie just said his name was Tomato," Sweetie Belle said. She looked up, smiled, and waved at Tomato, who waved back.

"Eh, repeat it often and it'll stick," Tomato said.

Cheese chuckled, and then asked, "Say... you fillies wouldn't happen to know of any kind of special event that's happening in this town, do you? My Cheesy Sense brought me here, and it hasn't failed me before."

The fillies nervously looked between each other, and at Pinkie, who was starting to look suspicious. Cheese could see the beads of sweat forming on the fillies' foreheads, the nervous pawing at the ground, and the glancing around at seemingly random places. That's when he started to connect the dots.

Suddenly, Scootaloo blurted out, "Pinkie! Tell us your cutie mark story!"

Pinkie blinked. "Did you forget it?" She tapped her chin. "Or did I forget to tell you about it..."

"Well, uh... better safe than sorry?" Sweetie Belle said.

"Eeyup," Apple Bloom added. "Why don't we take you to the Crusaders' clubhouse, and you can tell us there?"

Sweetie Belle jumped excitedly. "Yeah, because we have snacks!"

"Ooh, I'm up for a good snack!" Pinkie clapped her hooves.

"Yeah, and when you're finished... uh..." Scootaloo looked at the two stallions. "Maybe Cheese and Potato can tell us their stories."

Cheese stifled a laugh, while Tomato put a hoof to his face. The latter sighed and said, "Wrong produce."

"Oh, whatever, let's just go!"

Cheese rubbed the back of his head. "Er... go on without me. I've got to locate the event that caused my Cheesy Sense to go off." He noticed the sad look on Pinkie's face. "Don't worry, Pinkie, once all is said and done, we can have plenty of time to catch up."

Pinkie sighed. "Okay, Cheesy... oh, and if you find my friends, please let me know. I haven't seen them all day!"

Cheese tipped his hat. "Will do."

Pinkie leapt into the air. "Great!" When she landed, she grabbed Tomato and told him, "You're going to love my cutie mark story: it's a gem!"

Tomato sighed. "Let me guess... it involves a party."

Pinkie gasped. "Shhh! Don't spoil anything!"

Scootaloo hopped back onto her scooter and Apple Bloom back into the wagon with Sweetie Belle. She zoomed off, with Pinkie tailing them while dragging Tomato with her. Cheese waved goodbye at them, holding a grin on his face. Once they were out of sight, however, his face fell and he scratched his head.

"What kind of surprise party are they planning for her? Is it a late birthday party or something?"

That's when Rainbow Dash hopped out of the clouds and landed beside Cheese. "Ha ha ha! Now Pinkie's anniversary party will be awesome!"

Cheese turned to her. "Anniversary party?"

"Psht, of when she moved to Ponyville! Everypony in town's pitching in to throw one for her!"

"Really?"

Rainbow nodded. "It's a good thing you're here, too, because the way Twilight is organizing things is giving me a headache. I don't even know what she's talking about half the time."

"Well, what are we standing around talking for? Lead the way, Rainbow Dash."

Once they were at Sweet Apple Acres, the Scootaloo had slowed down to a more leisurely pace on her scooter, slow enough that Tomato was comfortable walking beside the wagon carrying Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. They all listened as Pinkie told her tale of how she threw her first party for her family.

Watching Pinkie leap from tree to tree, Tomato recalled how she had done that back during the Fall Festival. This time, she seemed to be doing acrobatic stunts in the trees, and he couldn't help but wonder if she was showing off. He wondered how she was still rambling on about a rock farm when any other pony would be out of breath by now.

"...and then, they smiled! Oh, seeing them smile was such a relief for little itty-bitty me, especially since I was worried that I had done all that work on the party for nothing! And then we all started dancing, and then my big sister Maud came in and pointed out my cutie mark!" She lowered herself from a branch, hanging by her tail, and giggled. "You should have seen her smile! It was the biggest one she had ever done!"

"I would have expected them to yell," Tomato said.

Pinkie dropped from the branch and bounced to her hooves. "They did yell! It was happy yelling!"

"Happy yelling, huh?" Tomato had done that a lot as a colt, so it was no mystery to him. If only that was the kind of yelling his mother had done when Cheese first returned home and presented the family with his cutie mark. But alas, she was never a happy mare.

"Hey! I do happy yellin' a lot!" Apple Bloom said.

"Well, a lot of us do happy yelling," Scootaloo added.

Sweetie Belle tapped her chin. "Isn't that called cheering?"

"You're right," Tomato told Sweetie Belle. "It needs to be it's own separate word to distinguish it from angry yelling, yelling to talk to a faraway pony, and--YIKES!" Tomato jumped as a gray, fanged, pig-like face with red eyes suddenly popped into his vision upside-down. It hissed in response to his shout.

"Hey! What are you doing out of the sanctuary?" Apple Bloom snapped, hopping out of the wagon.

Pinkie gasped and glared at the creature hanging from Tomato's forelock curl. "Bad vampire fruit bat, BAD!"

"Vampire fruit bat? What, is it going to bite me and turn me into a vampire?" Tomato sneered.

"Not on my watch!" Pinkie pulled out a fruit hat, put it on her head, and bounced away, cooing in a singsong voice, "Come and get it..."

The bat hissed at Tomato once again, and then flew in pursuit of Pinkie. The other four watched the scene of the bat following Pinkie and being joined by some of its friends. Tomato glanced at the Crusaders, who were looking at one another.

"I wonder how many bats got out of that sanctuary," Sweetie Belle said.

"So far, it looks like a lot," Scootaloo stated.

Apple Bloom looked at the trees in horror. "This is awful! If all those bats aren't rounded up soon, they'll suck every apple dry! And if they suck every apple dry, Applejack and Big Mac won't be able to harvest them! And if we don't harvest them, we can't sell them! And Ponyville is going to starve!"

Tomato looked up at an apple on the branch above him, and watched as a bat swooped in and suck the juice out of it, spitting it onto his head. He growled as he wiped it off. "There's certainly going to be a lot less revenue for your farm if this keeps up. One of us needs to go and get help for this situation."

Scootaloo jumped and hovered. "Or maybe this is our chance to get a fruit bat roundup cutie mark!"

Tomato blinked. "Now, wait just a--"

"No, we can't wait! The Cutie Mark Crusaders are not going to abandon the farm when it's being attacked by bats!" Apple Bloom declared. "Pinkie Pie ain't backin' down, so why should we?"

Tomato looked at Sweetie Belle, who was the only one who looked unsure about this plan. With a sigh, Tomato said, "Because none of you fillies have the proper equipment to gather them--honestly, this is best left to adults."

Another bat flew over, and spat out the apple it had in its fangs. The mushy fruit landed straight on Sweetie Belle's horn, and she squeaked out an "OW!" She turned to the bat and glared at it, removing the apple from her horn. Then she turned to her friends, and said, "Are you sure that we shouldn't just get Applejack?"

Apple Bloom stamped her hoof. "We can't waste any more time! We need to put the bats back in the sanctuary now!"

"Besides, Tomato can tell the others if he really wants to, since that's his idea," Scootaloo said. "But for now..." She hopped back on her scooter and flapped her wings. "We have bats to catch and cutie marks to earn! Come on, girls!"

With a nod, Apple Bloom hopped back into the wagon with Sweetie Belle.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Tomato said. "Girls, can't I just explain a little problem with--"

Before he could finish, however, the Crusaders zoomed away from him and deeper into the orchard. He stared for a moment, and then grumbled under his breath about their refusal to listen to him. He put a hoof on his face for a brief moment, and once he removed it, he took a deep breath.

"I don't even know where anypony is!" He stomped his hoof. "Grr... where is that darn party being planned?"

Author's Note

This took longer than I wanted it to. I'm always the least proud with chapters that take me awhile to churn out. :raritydespair:

But anyway, after my cry for help, I decided on the "Moving to Ponyville" anniversary. I dunno, it was the one that made the most sense to me. Nevertheless, I'm glad that I managed to get over this hump.

Although, I didn't intend to get into vampire fruit bat territory. But seriously, what is stopping those bats from just flying over that fence and slurping up those apples in the main orchard...?

2.2--To Save an Orchard

Pinkie hopped through the orchard, humming a merry tune as she did so. With a fruit hat strapped to her head and the hissy squeaks and chirps from the bats behind her, everything was going smoothly. She could see that she was gathering more and more bats from the trees, and if all went according to plan, they'll all be back in the sanctuary!

She bounced past a large, red stallion tending a tree and waved at him. "Hiya, Big Mac!"

Big McIntosh looked up and nodded in acknowledgement. His jaw then dropped at the sight of a black cloud made of vampire fruit bats chasing Pinkie, the sweet aroma of her hat too much to ignore. He continued to gape at the sight, followed by the Cutie Mark Crusaders in pursuit of the cloud.

Big Mac put a hoof to his face. "Oh no..." He sighed and turned around. "Better get th' net..."

Pinkie just kept bouncing on forward, the sanctuary now in her sight. Victory was within her reach, and Sweet Apple Acres was going to be safe. No more apples would fall victim to hungry animals. No mean vampire fruit bats were going to devour her friend's--and possible family's--orchard while Pinkie Pie was around!

She was almost there. The fence called to her, telling her to bring the bats home. The aroma of her hat just needed to keep the bats' attention for just a little while longer...

All of a sudden, at one moment when she landed on her hooves, something crashed into her, sending her tumbling forward, her fruit hat flying off. She found herself at the bottom of a pile of fillies, a wagon, and a scooter, aching from the impact. Stars were in her vision, as were many a fruit bat.

She shook her head and looked forward, only to spot the bats snatching her fallen fruit hat and sucking the fruits dry. She gaped at them, hearing the sucking sound from their mouths as the fruits withered into ugly, wrinkly, mushy skins. Once they were done, each member of the little group burped before flying off.

The Crusaders climbed off Pinkie, and then she proceeded to jump forward, growling and shaking her hoof in the air. "Hey! I was using that to lure you bats! You weren't supposed to eat it yet!" She stamped her hoof. "Now I have to make another one..."

The Crusaders lowered their heads in shame. Apple Bloom looked up at her, saying, "We're sorry, Pinkie Pie..."

"Yeah, I didn't mean to crash into you," Scootaloo said.

Pinkie was looking up at the bats flying above her. "No time to apologize--we need to find some fruit and make a fruit hat!"

"Aren't apples fruit?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"We've lost enough apples!" Apple Bloom snapped.

Pinkie turned to them. "Apple Bloom is right! I'm going to town to find some fruit that the bats haven't touched."

The Crusaders' eyes widened, and they opened their mouths to protest. However, before they could utter a word, Pinkie sped off, leaving the trio standing there, gaping at the dust cloud that Pinkie left.

"She left," Scootaloo said.

Sweetie Belle bit her lip. "Uh oh... she's not supposed to know about the party!"

Apple Bloom gazed at the bats flying around. "But we can't just leave the orchard to fend for itself."

"I got it!" Scootaloo leapt into the air and hovered for a moment. "One of us can go and keep her away from the party!" She looked around, and then spotted Big Mac with a net, trying to catch some of the bats. "And the two of us that are left can help Big Mac catch the bats."

"Well, who's gonna go?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at each other and then back at Sweetie Belle. "You are."

Tomato wished he had a homing signal on Cheese.

Wherever his older brother was, it was where the supposed party was, and where everypony else was sure to be. He had figured out that it was a party for Pinkie, due to the Crusaders dragging her out of town.

He wished they had at least paused to give him the location. Then again, he didn't really know where he was going.

He passed by house after house, shaking his head at each one. Wherever the party was, in wasn't in one of those humble homes. If he were to guess, it'd either be outside or in a larger building like the town hall or the castle.

He sighed. If only he knew where to look first.

He heard the panting of a foal behind him, and he turned around to find Sweetie Belle sitting there, sweating and wiping her forehead. She looked up, with eyes that seemed to be asking for his assistance.

"Did you chicken out of catching the bats?" he asked.

"Huh? No, I didn't!" She took a deep breath and asked, "Have you seen Pinkie Pie around?"

"Afraid not. Did she escape or something?"

"She's looking for fruit to make a fruit hat."

Tomato pursed his lips. "Okay then... say, do you know where that party is? I figure that the other ponies are there, and we need their help with the bats."

Sweetie Belle stood up. "It's around the castle. I'll lead the way. But be careful, we don't want to ruin the surprise for Pinkie."

"At this point, I don't think whether or not it's a surprise matters, since, well, the bats."

Sweetie Belle groaned, and she cantered around him. She took the lead, and Tomato waited a few moments before following her. As much as they needed to hurry, he didn't want to press her to go a full gallop. Still, he wondered how the other two were faring against the bats, and how well Pinkie's first fruit hat worked.

And then it hit him. Two fillies, facing off against a colony of bats--

"Wait, you left your friends to fight the fruit bats on their own?"

Sweetie briefly glanced back at him. "No, they're with Big Mac. He's big and strong, he'll be a lot of help! And to be fair, you left us."

"I assumed Pinkie would watch you, but apparently she's a bad babysitter." Tomato snorted. "Maybe you should ride on my back and I can gallop to the castle."

"But what if you get--"

"I can see it right there!" Tomato pointed to the spires of the castle. "I'll be just fine. Now, let's go--killing time means we're killing fruit." He trotted beside her, and used his tail to hoist her onto his back. "Okay, hold on tight!"

Sweetie Belle wrapped her front legs around his neck, and then the stallion bolted, startling her with his surprising speed.

Tomato galloped through the streets of Ponyville, his heart pounding and his ears filled with the rapid rhythm of his hooves hitting the pavement. Not very many ponies were out and about, though those that were jumped at the sight of a lanky, vermilion stallion nearly crashing into them.

Tomato didn't have time to apologize, nor could he even say it with the panting that overtook his lungs. His windpipe was burning, his legs were aching, but he still went full throttle. Not helping his breathing was the filly hanging on his neck for dear life.

Soon the castle was within reach, and Tomato gave himself one last push. He could see many ponies working on the party, just like Sweetie Belle said. Sure enough, Pinkie's friends, as well as Cheese, were there. They had put up streamers, banners, and balloons galore, and there were several activities being set up. The only one he processed was the tug-of-war, with the mud puddle in the middle.

The very reason that he processed it was that he tried and failed to stop before he fell in. So he went tumbling in face first, with Sweetie Belle still on his back, and both yelped before they went splat in the mud.

The yelps got the attention of everypony there, including the party planner and the friends of the mare which the party was for. After a moment of of confusion looking amongst each other, the ponies ambled to the mud puddle to find a now muddy Sweetie Belle, sitting atop what looked like a dead stallion lying face down in the mud.

Rarity gasped. "Sweetie Belle!" She telekinetically lifted her sister out of the mud. "My goodness, you're a mess! What were you doing in the mud?"

Tomato lifted his head and raised a hoof. "My fault." He then splashed his face back into the mud with an ungraceful splat.

Cheese walked into the mud and helped him up. "Geez Louise, Tomato, I never thought you'd end up tripping into a mud puddle like that! I expected a more sophisticated fall."

Tomato scowled at him, and then swatted him so he fell face first into the mud. "Like that?"

Cheese looked up with a muddy and unamused face. "Okay, okay... that was a bad joke..."

All of a sudden, Pinkie popped up from the mud between them, holding a disappointed look as she looked between them. "Hey! I thought you were done with that feud! You two be nice to each other!"

Everypony simultaneously groaned.

Pinkie looked around in confusion and asked, "What?"

Twilight sighed. "Oh, Pinkie..."

Rainbow Dash crossed her arms. "So much for a surprise party."

Pinkie blinked and looked around at the food and decorations around her. She also saw the disappointment on everypony's faces, to which she pursed her lips and said, "I could forget about this party so I can be surprised later."

Tomato started wiping the mud off of himself. "Well, now that everything's been spoiled... I need to tell Applejack something."

Applejack blinked. "Uh, what you have to say?"

Tomato bit his lip. "Well... your orchard's under attack."

The cacophony of the bats' screeches and hisses were giving Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo earaches. The juice of many an apple was spilled on the ponies, and the bats were not shy about discarding mushy apples on the heads of their pursuers. Some even dared to divebomb them and give them a few scratches here and there.

Big Mac gave a buck that was only hard enough to shake the tree and scare the bats out of it. Then, with a net in his mouth, he attempted to catch some of them. He only succeeded in snagging one, however, and he had to drag it to the sanctuary, making sure it didn't escape his clutches. And in attempting to throw it back in, the bat flew the opposite direction. Big Mac growled and stomped on the ground, and then tried to catch the bats again.

He noticed Apple Bloom had caught some bats as well. Too bad that those in her net were flying in harmony, carrying the filly off the ground and leaving her legs dangling. Apple Bloom had her mouth clamped down tight, shouting something incoherent at the bats.

Big Mac sighed, and galloped toward Apple Bloom to help her.

Scootaloo was zipping around on her scooter, net in mouth and hoping to snag some bats as well. Unfortunately, they were all flying too high for her to reach, even when she jumped. Her attempts to hover even resulted in her falling, missing her scooter, and crashing down to earth, dropping her net.

Getting up and brushing herself off, she grabbed her scooter once again and sped through. She looked around for anything that could make a good ramp, enough to give her a boost to snatch some of the bats. She looked to one side; there were trees. She looked to the other; there were more trees. She looked forward; there were still more trees, and she had to swerve to keep herself from crashing into one.

Finally, she spotted a rock, which had the perfect slope to get her some air. With a smirk, she sped on forward, flapping her wings to give herself a boost. Feeling the wind blow through her fur and her heart racing, she was ready to soar.

She flew off the rock, and she found herself high enough that she could touch the bats. She swung her head to snag some bats... only to find that she had forgotten to pick up the net when she fell.

"Aw, horsefeathers!" she shouted.

And then she found herself plummeting back down to earth. As she braced herself for impact and the inevitable broken bone, she was suddenly intercepted in midair. She blinked, and looked up at her hero. She grinned.

"Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow nodded proudly. "Of course it's me! You think I wouldn't notice a filly falling from the sky?"

She turned around and sped back the direction she came, startling some bats out of the flying pattern. The disrupted bats hissed at her, but didn't bother to chase her.

She landed in another part of the orchard, joining her friends--minus Applejack and Pinkie Pie--as they surveyed the scene before them. Behind them sat Tomato and Sweetie Belle, who appeared utterly horrified at the sheer number of bats that flew both above and between the trees.

Rainbow set Scootaloo down and turned to Twilight. "Is it just me, or did those things multiply?"

"Well, obviously, they reproduced since the last time we dealt with them," Twilight replied.

Hearing them speak from where he sat, Tomato added, "They also reproduced in the last ten minutes."

Rainbow glanced at him with a sneer and asked, "Why did we bring him? Cheese would have been more help than his dipstick brother."

"Cheese is keeping the preparations going," Twilight answered. "Besides, Tomato was telling us how this started, remember?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "He didn't even make it exciting."

Applejack came out of the trees, with Apple Bloom and Big McIntosh behind her. "...now, Apple Bloom, I appreciate that you want to help--but after you bein' almost carried off like that, I figure we'd have to wait a little longer before you can catch varmints like that."

"Applejack, I couldn't just let the farm go to ruins!" Apple Bloom protested.

"Don't worry, I won't let that happen." Applejack looked up at her friends. "Okay, looks like we rounded up all the Crusaders. Now we can round up them bats and put 'em back in the sanctuary." She turned to Fluttershy. "You been practicing yer bat speak?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Of course I have. I'm still not perfect, though..."

Applejack walked to her and patted her back. "We ain't lookin' for perfect--just enough to get the bats to listen."

Then Pinkie Pie hopped on the scene, carrying several fruit hats. "You wouldn't believe how much fruit I found! I made seven fruit hats!" She started hopping around, putting the hats on each one of her friends, as well as Big Mac. "We can attract seven times the bats!"

Twilight looked up at the fruit hat she was now wearing for a brief second. Then she looked forward at her friends and said, "All right, girls... and Big Mac... let's all go get those vampire fruit bats!"

"Darn tootin'!" Applejack exclaimed. She looked at her brother. "Ready for a fruit bat roundup?"

Big Mac nodded. "Eeyup."

As the group wearing the fruit hats started to leave, Tomato raised a hoof. "Is there any way I could help?"

Applejack stopped and turned around to face him. She rubbed the back of her head. "Er... unless ya can speak bat like Fluttershy, I doubt there's much you can do. Why don't you just take the Crusaders to where the others are settin' up the party?"

Pinkie stopped her pronking and gasped. "Wait! There's a party?"

Both Applejack and Tomato raised eyebrows at that. Then Applejack told the Crusaders, "You gals can help Cheese Sandwich set things up. I'm sure he'd love the help."

Apple Bloom stomped a hoof. "But I wanna help save the farm!"

Applejack lowered herself to eye level with Apple Bloom. "Don't worry--my friends and I can take care of it."

Tomato nodded a bit numbly. "Yeah, I guess seven adult ponies is enough to handle a swarm. Besides... maybe there'll be more opportunity to earn your cutie marks helping Cheese."

Sweetie Belle gasped. "You don't think we'd be party ponies like Pinkie or Cheese, do you?"

Tomato shrugged. "Maybe. But there's only one way to find out."

Scootaloo grinned. "Well, why not? I'm up for it."

Apple Bloom looked at the orchard and back at her friend, biting her lip. She looked at her older sister and asked, "So... the orchard'll be okay?"

Applejack nodded and hugged her. "We've saved it plenty of times. We can save it again."

Once she was released from the hug, Apple Bloom hesitantly walked away. "All right. I'll go help with the party..."

Applejack stood up straight, nodded, and then turned around. Apple Bloom watched her sister gallop into the trees before she turned around. The Crusaders and Tomato then began to walk all the way back to the castle grounds.

Author's Note

Ever played Panda Pop? I'm playing it on Facebook, it's frustratingly addicting, and I can't get writing or drawing done if I keep playing that spawn from the underworld! :flutterrage: I'm on Level 154... grr...

But, yeah, more vampire fruit bat madness! Now with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Big McIntosh involved! ~~Big Mac's name frustrates me...~~

Nevertheless, I wasn't at much of a standstill with this chapter than the last one. Had a little trouble in some areas, but I wouldn't consider it a groaner. :pinkiesmile:

2.3--How to Earn a Cutie Mark

So much for being useful in catching the fruit bats.

Tomato dared not show his disappointment over it to the Crusaders, lest they start asking questions about it. He didn't want to tell them that he felt useless, just because his mark only specified one talent that would not help the situation, and that no one bothered to ask him if there was anything he was good at that would. For all he knew he might end up discouraging them. All he was content to do was just let the Crusaders talk amongst themselves while they went across town to the party.

Despite Apple Bloom being noticeably sadder, she was still talking animatedly with her friends, discussing what kind of cutie marks they'd get in helping set up the party. If there was anything he could glean from these fillies, it was that they weren't patient about getting their cutie marks. He himself hadn't been in a rush to obtain his, and it had appeared soon after his tenth birthday.

Hopefully, they'd figure it out. But for now, they were setting up that "not-much-of-a-surprise" surprise party.

Just what am I supposed to do when we get there? Tomato wondered. Goodness knows I'm no good with any parties.

He still had that one time stuck in his mind--the one time that Tomato had thrown a party. All it had been was a bunch of colts fooling around, running all around the house, and fighting over an accordion until it was thrown against the wall and broken. Hardly anypony expected little Tommy's stupid decision that day would lead to such a drastic change in the lives of their family.

It still hurt to think that if he had been a good little colt that day, just watching over the house, then he would be a different pony. But, then again, so would Cheese. The question was who they would be today.

He wasn't paying attention to much of the conversation, so he was surprised when it ended up with Sweetie Belle turning to him and asking, "So, how did you get your cutie mark?"

Tomato blinked. "Huh? You want to hear my story?"

Scootaloo scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Well, obviously, he got it by doing his dad's taxes."

"He could have got it how Filthy Rich got his," Apple Bloom said. "Huh, now that I think of it, I don't know how Filthy Rich got his."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Well, I earned my cutie mark during my school's fundraiser."

"Well, what kind of fundraiser was it?"

"What was it for?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Is this story going to be boring?"

Tomato cleared his throat. "Well, it all started after an incident which involved the chalkboards..."

"I don't believe it," Tomato's mother grumbled, reading the school newsletter. "Why did those little demons use the chalkboards as sleds?"

Ten-year-old Tomato laid on the couch, staring at the ceiling. "I dunno."

Mom looked up from the table, tapping her hoof. "They were former friends of yours, surely you know what they were thinking."

Tomato sighed. "School rebellion... sticking it to the mare... terrorizing five-year-olds..."

Mom facehoofed and groaned, then left her seat to pace around the kitchen. "Foals today... such little animals that their parents refuse to tame and thus causing nothing but destruction. Hmph, they should see how I got Tomato to behave..." She opened the fridge and took out a cup of yogurt. She gingerly licked it. "Before, he'd run around like a maniac and break valuables... now he's perfectly quiet..."

Tomato felt his already down spirits sink even lower. He knew reminding her that it wasn't her that got him to calm down was fruitless. Bringing it up would only remind him of how he had caused his brother to run away.

The mare returned to the table, still taking scoops of her yogurt with her tongue. "And now they have to replace the chalkboards. Be glad that you ditched those monsters--you would have become a criminal by the time you hit your teen years."

Tomato blew on his forelock. "Technically they ditched me because I was crying over my brother."

"Well, crying over your brother is neither going to bring him back nor boost your standing in school."

They way she had said that made him fear that Cheese was dead. Having run away a couple years before, he had been impossible for the police to track down. Manehattan was a big city, and he could have been anywhere in it. Or he could have left it. Either way, Tomato kept imagining worst case scenarios where Cheese got hit by a cab, or fell off the bridge, or got eaten by a dragon or a hydra or even Cerberus. No matter what happened, it was all Tomato's fault.

Mom tapped her chin. "But perhaps participating in that fundraiser will get the other students to notice you."

"What if I don't want to be noticed?"

"Oh, please, you were always wanting attention before."

"I changed my mind."

"That's no excuse. I wonder what excuse you have for your grades slipping."

Tomato rolled over and buried his face in the couch cushions. "What's the point?"

Mom finished the last of her yogurt, and then crushed the cup. "The point is, I want you to grow up to become a respectable stallion, one who is well-behaved, diligent, and in control of his emotions. Honestly, what pony in this city would hire a stallion who still cries over something that happened in colthood? You know that big colts don't cry."

Tomato groaned. "I don't wanna do the fundraiser..."

His mother sighed and turned around to look out the window. "Very well... I guess you just want to wallow in that puddle of self-pity of yours... which will only get deeper as you disappoint the whole school... all your little friends will be sad you didn't join in. Your teachers would be disappointed that you didn't help get those new chalkboards. Your poor mother would be disappointed that you didn't contribute anything to such a noble cause."

She glanced back, seeing Tomato with a still buried face. "And your brother would be so shocked and disappointed to see you like this. Imagine if he came back through that door, seeing you on that couch and behaving so selfishly. After all, wasn't it your selfishness that drove him away?"

He rolled off the couch, landing on the floor face up. He bit his lip, guilt stabbing him in his heart. What if Cheese did return and saw that Tomato was still a selfish colt? No doubt he'd turn around and go back to being a runaway, definitely never coming back. And there was no doubt that of the few left that still liked him at school, like his friend Bluejinx or his teacher Miss Periwinkle, they'd turn against him for not doing anything to help the school.

"I... I guess you're right, Momma... I should stop being selfish..."

It was the time when school was supposed to be out, yet the classroom was still full of foals. Tomato sat in the back, casually wiping his glasses with his cloth, glancing around at any shapes ready to make a move toward him. He noticed a shape walking to the front of the class, and he placed the glasses on his muzzle and the cloth on his desk.

The class looked at the bare wall where the chalkboard once was. An easel stood there in its place, with several posters resting on it, the cover being that with a picture of smiling ponies surrounded by dollar signs. Beside it was a dark-haired, purplish-blue mare with a sweet smile.

"Wow! I'm amazed that so many of you are participating in the fundraiser!" she exclaimed. "Already, I can tell that this is going to be fantastic."

A butter-yellow, dirty blonde filly tossed her hair. "Well, of course I'm participating, Miss Periwinkle. I'm an upstanding citizen, unlike the barbarians that destroyed all the chalkboards."

"Now, now, Creme Brulee, we don't call other ponies names," Miss Periwinkle said. "Especially those that have been suspended."

Creme Brulee crossed her forelegs and pouted. "Well, if they had behaved, I wouldn't have called them barbarians."

"Calling them names won't encourage good behavior."

Tomato sweated when he heard Creme Brulee speak. He could feel his heart beating and his face warming up as he looked at her. It felt so weird and awkward, and he didn't dare speak to anypony about it, lest they laugh at him for it. The only pony he had ever told about it was his brother Cheese, and he thought it was silly. So, he just suffered in silence, staring at her, and somehow wanting her to be his very special friend.

But, alas, she hated him, so all he could do was fruitlessly pine for her.

Miss Periwinkle clapped her hooves and let her eyes sweep the class. "Anyway, the school has put me in charge of the fundraiser this year. Our fundraiser project is going to be a white elephant sale."

One colt piped up, "We're selling elephants?!"

"Well... not exactly. You see, a white elephant sale is where ponies sell items that they no longer want or can use. We're going to donate old things that are not needed in our houses anymore and sell them to ponies who'll find them valuable. It's akin to the saying, 'One pony's trash is another pony's treasure'."

"So I can sell that banana peel that my maid forgot to pick up five weeks ago?" Creme Brulee asked.

The entire class recoiled in disgust at that statement. A horrified filly even shouted, "Ew! Why didn't you pick it up yourself?"

Creme Brulee tossed her hair. "Because it's not my job. Sheesh, that idiot didn't even find it yet."

Miss Periwinkle gagged. "Well... whatever the case... no, you may not sell a banana peel. Selling literal garbage is not going to get us anywhere." She took a deep breath. "Anyway, our goal is to raise over 400 bits, which we will earn by selling the donated items. All of you will be letting ponies know about this event, helping run tables, pricing the items, counting the money... and I need a special helper to help me track the progress of the fundraiser and make it go as smoothly as possible."

One filly cried out, "You mean... like a boss?"

"More like an assistant, but this student will be my co-manager. So, who's willing to be my special helper?"

A bunch of excited foals threw one hoof in the air, chattering and pleading to be picked. Tomato looked around, amazed at all the foals who jumped at the chance to be the boss. He wondered if they were doing it to help the school, or just because they just liked the idea of being in charge--sort of. A simple glance at Bluejinx sitting beside him, who was one of the few who didn't raise his hoof, made him consider just a lowly job of running one of the tables.

However, for some reason, he felt something compel him to raise his own hoof. Some sort of magic was making this position call out to him, and was driving him to make his hoof be seen, as he ended up climbing up on his own desk, standing up on his back hooves, and waving the raised front hoof like a maniac. For a moment, he felt like his old self, and unable to be embarrassed at his own action. He was confused at his own actions, though, as was Bluejinx.

His efforts paid off when Miss Periwinkle spotted him, smiled, and said, "Well... how about our own Tommy Sandwich back there?"

All the foals simultaneously shouted, "WHAT?!" and turned to the red-orange colt standing on his desk in the back. Tomato cringed at the stares and the glares being shot his way, and he just wanted to melt into a puddle.

"Come on up to the front, Tommy," Miss Periwinkle said.

Tomato hopped off his desk and made his way to the front of the classroom. He could hear the whispers about him, and a bunch of them mentioned his brother in some way or form. He heard "crybaby", "why's he so lame now?", "my mom says his mind is sick", "he's going to ruin the fundraiser", and "the only way this could be worse was if his brother was here."

He found himself at the front of the class, facing all those who had been former friends. He had learned the hard way that they had merely been fair weather friends that only liked him because of the attitude he portrayed on the surface. They had never cared for Tomato's love of his brother, nor did they care that he was a smart kid. As long as Tomato had been wacky and playful and random, they kept him around.

While he was thankful that Bluejinx still had his back after the accordion incident, he was still terrified of the other students, who believed he had betrayed them over his geeky brother. It was a good thing that Squirt, Carpet Burn, and Jumbo Thumbo weren't there--they were merciless.

Still, why did he raise his hoof?

Miss Periwinkle smiled at him. "Thank you for raising your hoof. I'm really happy that you're getting involved with this, and I'm sure you'll be a big help."

"Well, thanks," Tomato murmured.

Creme Brulee gaped at the two. "If I may, Miss Periwinkle... but just why did you chose that airhead?"

A bright red colt shouted. "Yeah! Everypony knows all he ever thinks about is that brother of his who's probably dead!"

Tomato glared at the colt, feeling an urge to punch him on the nose. But he held still, not wanting to disappoint the teacher.

Miss Periwinkle shook her head. "Brick, if there's anything you don't do, it's mock somepony's lost loved one. If you're going to bring up Tomato's brother just to tease him about it, then I'll have to talk to your parents about it. He has every right to be sad about it, so I don't want to see or hear anypony bullying him about it. Understand?"

Brick rolled his eyes. Creme Brulee glared and said, "But, really... him, over me? Um, hello, rich filly over here!"

"Rich filly who refuses to pick up her own banana peel," Bluejinx snickered.

Miss Periwinkle clapped her hooves. "All right, everypony, let's design fliers."

"That Creme Brulee filly sounds an awful lot like Diamond Tiara," Apple Bloom stated.

Tomato assumed that this Diamond Tiara was Ponyville's local rich, snobby filly. Why he once had a crush on one of those, he had no idea. "Well, she was adamantly against me being the teacher's assistant and above everypony else. She thought that I had no idea what I was doing. Though, to be fair... I thought the same thing and wondered why I even volunteered."

He looked up at the castle spire a ways away, and figured that they were halfway there. They kept on walking. "At first, the only donations we had were white elephant figurines. It was kind of funny, but it wasn't enough. So...

The ink-stained duo waltzed out of the print shop, holding more fliers than could conceivably be carried by two ten-year-olds. Still, the little red-orange colt and his blue unicorn buddy had decided that it was high time to go above and beyond, especially after seeing the pitiful donations at school earlier that day.

Bluejinx used his magic to keep his obscenely tall balanced. "I think we made too many extra fliers. Are you sure that you can convince ponies to donate better stuff to our school?"

"Please, we're adorable," Tomato said, balancing his tower with little effort. "Besides, if there's a kind of advertising that ponies will listen to, it's a song."

Bluejinx raised an eyebrow. "Um... have you forgotten where we live? Besides, I can't sing."

Tomato waved his free hoof. "Relax, I'll do the singing, and you just be cute and hand out fliers. Now..." He set his eyes on a random stallion just walking down the street. "Watch..."

Tomato set his stack down, and zipped in front of the stallion, who jumped at the sudden appearance of the little colt.

"What the--?! Hey! What do you think you're doing, kid?" the stallion yelled.

Tomato summoned his best puppy-dog eyes and started to sing,

"Mister, give me a moment please
To tell you of my cause
My school needs some new chalkboards
And our learning's now at pause..."

The stallion rubbed the back of his head. "Eh... listen, uh, kid, that's sad, but I'm not sure if I could--"

"I may be unimportant now
I'm still quite very young
But me and my classmates will grow up
And we'll be stupid if my song goes unsung..."

"Uh... I don't get how--"

Tomato stomped his foot in the beginning of a little dance.

"Do you want morons to be your workforce
Do you want to deprive foals of learning?
Of course you don't! That's why I'm pleading
For you to help us with some money-earning!

I'm honestly not asking much
Your contribution reduces chance of fail
You just have to donate what you don't need
To our white elephant sale!"

The stallion blinked. "White elephant sale? Huh, I was expecting Filly Guide Cookies..."

Tomato pouted and raised an eyebrow. "I'm a colt, thank you very much."

"I know, I know! I just don't want to be sold anything right now!"

Tomato took a deep breath, continuing with continued dancing and cartwheels,

"We won't sell you chocolate or cookies
We'll just be taking old stuff off your hooves
You don't even have to come to the sale itself!
Just donate, and give our school a chance to improve!"

Tomato cartwheeled back to the front of the stallion in a big finish, and panted as he hoped his message got through to the guy. The moments were long and still, even as both the target stallion and a few others stared at him. The staring made him feel like he was about to fall to pieces.

The stallion nodded. "Well... I've got a few old records I don't want anymore... still in good condition. I suppose those could suffice."

Tomato hopped to his hooves. "That'd be great, sir! Thank you!"

He beckoned Bluejinx to come forth, and the unicorn complied, levitating the flier to him. "The information's on this paper. We look forward to your donation."

The stallion stared at the paper a few moments, and smiled. "Well, I have to admit, you put on a cute little show. I like your singing voice; I'm surprised you haven't earned your mark yet."

Tomato looked at his flank. "Eh, what you gonna do?"

As the stallion left, Tomato and Bluejinx high-hoofed each other for a job well done. But they didn't have time to rest long, for some other pedestrians were approaching them to ask about their little fundraiser.

"Did you go around all of Manehattan?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Eh... no. Frankly, I'm sure the majority of Manehattanites wouldn't have cared about one school's white elephant sale. Still, after handing out fliers and singing to potential donors--"

Scootaloo interrupted, "I thought you hated singing, if your last visit told us anything."

"Hey, I was more liberal about singing in my younger years. Besides, our pitch was great, since we not only got a lot of donated items, we also managed to sell the majority of the stuff to many of the residents from all the neighborhoods we visited. That week was surprisingly better than expected! Heck, some of the fillies decided to bring homemade cookies to hand out to the patrons, we managed to convince Creme Brulee's father to have a bouncehouse installed to distract the younger foals, and I was in charge of collecting the money earned each day from each table.

"Believe me when I say that they had not said a word against me... in fact, they were scared of me. Bluejinx told me that I was not only getting hopped up over my excitement at actually doing something worthwhile, but I was also being rather abrasive when chewing out some of my classmates for not doing their work, or for trying to sneak some of the profits away, or my personal favorite, sticking a wet slice of toast on the brick wall."

The Crusaders stared at him blankly.

"...eeyeah, I don't know how they did that either. I didn't notice that Creme Brulee might have been getting jealous of how I was doing so well. Rumor has it that she saw my cutie mark appear and got mad because I was of a lower class--I shouldn't get a rich pony mark!"

"Wait, are you saying you're actually poor?" Scootaloo asked skeptically.

"Nah, just lower middle class. As for how much we managed to raise..."

Sitting in the classroom, a weary Miss Periwinkle wrote in the book that was open in front of her. "All right, just need to add up all these bits that we managed to raise. How many did we manage to earn at each table today, Tomato?"

Tomato set aside the last box of bits he was counting. "Well, Mr. E's table earned 38 bits, Mr. Jasper's table earned 40, Mrs. Paper's table earned 32, Miss Glimmerheart's earned 21, Mr. Yodel's earned 29, Miss Chalkdust's earned 14, Mr. Starmaker's earned 26 and our table earned 35. In total, that'd be..." He clicked his tongue as he processed the answer. "...235 bits."

Miss Periwinkle put a hoof to her mouth, and started chuckling. "Oh, my goodness! You're fast. So how did you convince so many ponies to come? You're really doing more than what is needed."

"My house is kinda boring, so I been doing more stuffy-stuffs and stuff around here. Also, ponies like singing."

Miss Periwinkle laughed some more. "Lots of ponies like music." She started to jot down the number Tomato told her.

Tomato drummed the desk with his hooves. "I'm gonna tell you right now that we got more than twice our goal... so can we brainstorm what the extra money should go to? Maybe a new school bell 'cause the one we have is kinda rusty? Adding to the playground? Or we could give it away to charity."

Miss Periwinkle looked at him and set down her pencil. "You're right about that, Tomato. I mean, we ended up with 875 bits! I'll discuss what we'll do with the extra money with the other teachers, but goodness! I didn't think we'd get that far..."

Tomato hopped out of his seat and approached her. Miss Periwinkle patted his head, and said, "I bet your parents would be so proud of you and your contribution. And I think the other students have a little more respect for you now."

Tomato raised an eyebrow, ready to dispute that. He wasn't sure if hiding from him was considered respect, but at least they hadn't said a word about Cheese during that week.

He sighed sadly. If only Cheese could see that I did something good. He turned around and started to head toward the door.

Miss Periwinkle looked up. "By the way... love the cutie mark."

Tomato stopped in his tracks. "Wait, what?"

He turned around and looked at his flank. Emblazoned there was what looked like a fusion of a tomato and a money bag. Blinking, he gingerly touched it with his front hoof. He turned to find the exact same mark on his other side, and he moved his leg, spun around, and sat down.

"I... I don't believe it..." He looked up at his teacher. With a great leap, he exclaimed, "I got my cutie mark!" He started to bounce around the room as Miss Periwinkle watched.

He hopped from desk to desk, the same energy from a few years before returning to him. "This is great! This fundraising stuff got me my cutie mark! Does that mean I'll be rich when I'm all grown up? Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, I got to show this to Mom and Dad!" He landed on a desk in the front and stood up on his back hooves. "Today, Tomato Sandwich is a colt no more! He is a proud, strong stallion!"

He tumbled off the desk in an ungraceful manner.

"And there you have it. The story of how I earned my cutie mark." Tomato rolled his eyes. "I wasn't even really trying--it just came when I was ready, apparently."

"I guess you don't have to do taxes to earn that cutie mark, huh?" Sweetie Belle said.

"Pfft, I wasn't willing to touch 'grown-up homework'."

Scootaloo stuck her tongue out. "I sure wouldn't want to. Still, it was a better story than I expected."

"Cheese's is better--he's the better storyteller."

"Speakin' of Cheese, what did he think of your cutie mark when he first saw it?" Apple Bloom asked.

Tomato felt a chill run through his body, and a pit formed in his stomach. The words exchanged that day came to mind, and he could already feel the hot tears well up once again. His tail reflexively covered his cutie mark, and he ended up walking faster, almost in an effort to get away from them. That memory was not one he wanted to relay, and it was something that he wanted to forget. If anything, it would almost certainly rekindle his anger towards Cheese.

"Tomato?" Sweetie Belle asked.

His composure fell as he spun around and barked, "NO!"

The three fillies froze at Tomato's tone. Seeing the look in their eyes made his heart feel heavy, and he stroked his mane. He knew that his tone of voice was uncalled for, and Apple Bloom didn't know better. From their point of view, he must have looked like a huge jerk. He looked away from them and sighed.

"I don't want to talk about it." He looked forward, with the castle grounds in view. "The castle's right there... go ahead and make yourselves useful."

The Crusaders looked at each other, and silently passed him. He watched them run forward, hoping to find their special talents in helping Cheese and the townsponies set up the party. Tomato sighed once again.

"Maybe I'll just find the library and read a book there."

Author's Note

None of the sources on fundraising I checked really specified if students could be assistants to teachers like Tomato was here, but, eh, Equestrians are more trusting of their kids than a lot of real life adults are, so I personally think this issue is minor.

Next thing that happens is somebody telling me off for inaccuracy of a common thing in real life.

We only sold chocolate bars and cookie dough in my day... although recently my sister was selling mattresses. :rainbowderp:

But, yeah, fundraiser was the best thing I could come up with for Tomato's cutie mark story. That question came up on Tommy's blog a while ago.

2.4--Useless?

"All right, just a little more to the left," Cheese said, waving his foreleg in that direction.

The two pegasi that were putting up the banner nodded, and attempted to obey Cheese's command. The one on the left side moved just fine; however, the one on the right side went too far, and crashed into her fellow pegasus. Cheese winced as they crashed into some panicking earth ponies carrying some food. Popcorn, nachos, and donuts were dropped, and a punch bowl was thrown into the air.

Five seconds later, a now wet and sticky Cheese Sandwich had that very bowl as a new hat. Blinking, he removed the bowl from his head and gave it to the sheepish pony who had carried it before. After the pony left, Cheese licked his lips, and remarked, "Mmm, cherry."

"We're ready to help, Cheese Sandwich!"

Cheese spun around, and there stood the Cutie Mark Crusaders, standing there and grinning. He smiled back at them.

"Well, looks like they got you girls out of the fray! Hopefully that bat problem will be solved in time for the party."

Apple Bloom huffed. "It could go quicker if they'd just let us help."

Cheese took out a towel and started wiping the punch off of him. "I'm sure they know what they're doing, kiddo--now, let's see what kind of assistance you can provide here..." He looked around the place, trying to locate anypony in need of help setting up something for the party. His gaze went from the castle, to the mud pit, to the karaoke, to the two pegasi picking up the banner, to the ponies picking up the food that was dropped, and finally, to Spike putting some balls in the recently built ball pit.

Cheese pointed to the dragon. "Why don't you go ahead and help Spike? He has a few things that I'm sure he'd like some help with."

The Crusaders looked to where Spike was. Scootaloo tilted her head. "Just what is he doing?"

"Several things actually. Filling the ball pit, lighting the tiki torches, making some of the food--" He looked back at the ponies picking up the dropped food, grumbling as they did so. "--sewing some shirts, stuff like that."

"Sewing some shirts?" Scootaloo asked.

"He picked up a few things from Rarity," Sweetie Belle said.

"Twilight wasn't lying in calling him her Number 1 assistant--quite adept at doing a lot of tasks," Cheese said, stroking his chin. He discarded the now-dirty towel, and started drying himself off with another towel he pulled out of nowhere. "Still, it doesn't mean he's a superpon--er, I, mean, dragon. Like I said, he'd appreciate the help." He winked at them.

The Crusaders looked at Spike, trying to open another bag of balls, and then back at Cheese. Applebloom tapped her chin. "Well... okay! Come on, Crusaders, let's be Spike's helpers!"

"What kind of cutie mark would a Spike helper have?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"We'd more likely get a cutie mark in one of the things we're helping him with," Scootaloo said.

"Well, let's go!" Apple Bloom galloped toward the dragon. "Hey, Spike! Want some help?!"

Spike looked up and hollered back, "Sure! I'd love it!"

Scootaloo followed, along with Sweetie Belle. However, the latter stopped in her tracks, and turned back around. "By the way, Cheese, I just remembered... what did you think of your brother's cutie mark when you first saw it?"

Cheese blinked and dropped his towel. "Huh, you really want to know?" He tapped his chin, trying to recall the day he first saw his brother's cutie mark, while at the same time wondering what brought that on. Did Tomato tell them his cutie mark story, or was Sweetie Belle trying to predict Rarity's eventual reaction to her cutie mark?

Clicking his tongue, he finally reached that very moment. Tomato was happy, he was happy, Mom was--oh, shoot. Oh, shoot. What happened after the initial welcome was not something he wanted to tell the filly. In truth, he wanted to forget it himself. At least he didn't have to provide details to answer the question.

"Well... I can tell you I was surprised. Ehehe, I mean, that energetic scamp I called a brother having a talent with money? Who knew? Especially after Mom didn't trust him for awhile after he swallowed a bit..." Cheese shook his head, smiling fondly at the memory of little Tomato. "I guess sometimes life takes you for a loop and gives you a special talent that nopony expected. I've met a few ponies that earned an unexpected cutie mark."

"Is that so?" Sweetie Belle tapped her chin, and then shrugged. Upon hearing her name being called, she turned back around. "Oh well. I've got to join the other Crusaders now!" With that, she galloped off.

Cheese waved to her, and then scratched his head. "That was kind of out of the blue." He then focused his attention to the ponies still cleaning up.

Those very ponies were surprised when he waltzed over to them and presented them with a vacuum cleaner, questioning just where he got it. With a chuckle, Cheese only replied, "Try this; it's a whole lot easier!"

Tomato was now meandering through the streets of Ponyville, having given up looking for the library after very little luck in finding it. Perhaps Ponyville was just one of those towns that just didn't have one. It struck him as a little odd, since libraries held a lot of useful information, but maybe they had other ways of learning in this town. As far as he could guess, there might be one in Princess Twilight's castle, given her reputation for loving books.

But that was the one place he didn't want to go. The castle grounds were where the party was being set up, and he really didn't want to be bothered by anypony. Especially not by Cheese, however well-intentioned he may be.

He passed by a window, the interior of the building dark enough so that he could see his reflection. Tomato stopped and turned to the image of the tall, well-dressed stallion staring back at him. He slowly ambled forward, and reached forward with his hoof. He touched the glass, which gave the image of touching his reflection's hoof. He moved the hoof up and down, and jokingly said, "Pleasure to do business with you, sir."

He grinned, and held it for only a few seconds before it fell and his reflection looked glum once again. His hoof still touched the glass, and he gazed into his reflection's eyes, which underneath the nice clothes, the slicked-down mane, and the overall serious, professional look, revealed a soul that was just so... broken.

He couldn't put his hoof on why, though. He and his brother mended their relationship, surely that meant he was better than he was before, right? He was happy now, right? For what reason would his reflection make him look so sad?

He glanced at his cutie mark, but immediately looked away, reasoning that there was no way that it was a mistake. After all, since the day he earned it, he was told time and time again that his mark is a privilege and that he should be grateful. His life was perfect, and he was a shoo-in for success, according to everyone's interpretation of his mark. Nopony could shill any abuse to a pony like him and leave scars.

Heh, too bad that I screw things up. Everything bad that happens to me is my own dang fault...

He looked at the window again. To his surprise, instead of the sharp-dressed stallion from before, there stood a grinning, curly-haired version of him, lacking the glasses and wearing a very tacky, green button shirt with red polka dots. Tomato stumbled back after seeing the sudden change, and immediately looked at his sleeve, which was still a long, brown suit jacket sleeve instead of a short, green sleeve. Blinking, he looked back at his reflection, which hadn't changed from the silly version of himself.

He touched the glass once again, and he was face to face with his other self, who smiled and waved at him. Tomato blinked, tilted his head, and tentatively waved back with his free hoof.

"Hiya, Tommy!"

The sound of Pinkie's voice snapped him out of his trance. He shook his head and found himself staring at the well-dressed stallion once again. He took a step back and kept on staring, wondering what had just happened.

Pinkie Pie was right beside him, looking at Tomato's reflection in the window as well. "Oooh, making friends with your reflection, I see!"

Rainbow Dash landed right next to her. She took one look at the window and scoffed. "Gee, full of himself, isn't he?"

Tomato scowled at her, but he didn't feel like responding with a snide remark of his own. He still stared at his reflection, expecting it to transform and wave at him again.

Applejack trotted onto the scene, raising an eyebrow at Rainbow's statement. "You're one to talk, Rainbow."

Rainbow whirled around to face her orange friend. "Hey! At least I can back up my awesomeness."

Soon, the other three arrived, and Tomato noticed that they were all covered in patches of dirt and bearing several scratches from their time at the orchard. He could hear their heavy breathing, and the majority of the group had their heads slumped forward.

"I assume all went well?" he asked.

"We got 'em back in their sanctuary," Applejack said. "Big McIntosh is making sure they stay in."

Rarity sighed, pulling junk out of her mane and wiping mud off. "But not without sacrificing the full volume and radiance that my new shampoo had provided for my hair. And let's not forget the nasty scratches that mar all of our coats! Ooh, they sting so..."

Fluttershy bit her lip. "The bats may have been just a teensy bit contrary."

Twilight groaned. "I had to cast a sleeping spell on them."

"Hey, it went better than last time," Rainbow said, looking at Fluttershy.

Tomato glanced at Fluttershy, who backed up and hid behind the rest of the group. "Um... what happened last time?"

"You don't want to know," the girls responded in unison.

Tomato blinked. "Okay then... so, you girls going to help with the party?"

Pinkie perked up. "Wait, there's a party?" Her brow furrowed and she looked between her friends. "How come nopony told me?"

The others gaped at her, and nervously looked between each other. Tomato was merely confused, and scratched his head at the thought of Pinkie Pie actually managing to forget about the surprise party that she had seen with her very eyes. However, seeing the clear apprehension on the other mares' faces convinced him to keep his mouth shut.

The tense moment ended when Rainbow Dash suddenly tapped Pinkie on the head, shouting, "Tag! You're it!" and zooming away.

Pinkie gasped and glared at the direction where Rainbow fled. "Nopony tags Pinkie Pie and gets away with it! Oooh, I'm going to make sure you're 'it', Dashie!"

With that, she sped off in pursuit of the rainbow-maned pegasus. The rest of the girls breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, why are we keeping it a secret again? She already saw the party," Tomato said.

"She still wants us to treat it like a surprise, and she has elected to try to forget about it," Rarity said, still pulling some sticks out of her mane.

"And speaking of the party, what are you doing out in the streets?" Twilight asked. "Shouldn't you be helping set it up with Cheese and the rest of the town?"

Tomato brushed his hoof on the pavement. "Oh... well, me and parties don't mix well, to be honest. I'm a walking disaster in that department."

"Are ya sure that ain't an excuse to be lazy?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I threw a party once, it ended in disaster, and I received..." He clicked his tongue, hoping to say it in a way that wouldn't elicit questions from them. "...uh... a pretty harsh punishment for it. And we all know what happened at the Fall Festival. Really, I shouldn't touch them--just stand back and let Cheese do his thing."

The four mares looked at each other, unsure of whether or not to buy it. Tomato forced a grin, but he couldn't bring himself to look any of them in the eyes. He wanted to hit himself for how he was behaving--he wasn't lying!

He cleared his throat and asked, "So, uh, do any of you know if there's a library around here?"

The girls froze, and almost immediately Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy glanced at Twilight. Tomato nearly jumped at how her eyes glimmered with hurt, even when the rest of her face was stoic. Applejack patted Twilight's back, her expression softening toward her. Rarity and Fluttershy held the same look, glancing at Tomato a couple times but mainly focusing on Twilight.

Tomato felt a twinge of guilt. Was it something I said?

Twilight shook her head, took a deep breath, and calmly answered, "There's one in the castle. I'll show you. Follow me."

Twilight began to walk forward, with Applejack and Fluttershy following. Tomato stepped aside to let them pass, while Rarity started to go, but then took one look at her body.

"Oooh... I need a bath."

Twilight sighed, lit up her horn, and all girls in the vicinity had their mud and grime disappear. "There, better?"

Rarity took one look at herself again. "I suppose it'll do. Thank you, Twilight."

Tomato raised an eyebrow, tempted to call foul. But, seeing as he already said enough, he kept his mouth shut. He only silently followed the girls to the castle, feeling like a useless idiot.

Standing atop a large and fantastic playground that he and several others had just finished constructing, Cheese spotted four of Pinkie's friends coming on the scene, as well as Tomato. With a grin, he threw himself onto the slide, and slid down, with front legs raised and a joyful holler ringing out of his mouth. He felt the wind on his face and the pounding of his heart, and he felt just like a little kid.

He exited the slide with a flip, and landed just in front of the group. "Hey, girls! And Tommy. So, how'd the fruit bat thing go?"

"Hello, Cheese," Twilight said. "Well, we got them back in the sanctuary. It only took a lot of fighting, screaming, and a sleeping spell to do it."

Cheese nodded. "Ah, yes, one of those less agreeable types of creature. I've run into a bunch of those over the years. As of now, the only things I didn't encounter would have to be... uh..." He scratched his chin, and shrugged while saying in rapid succession, "Bighoof, vampires, and werewolves."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "That's because Bighoof and vampires are just myths and werewolves became extinct long ago. The ponds were evaporated long before Luna became Nightmare Moon."

"Pardon, Twilight, but what do you mean by ponds?" Applejack asked.

Twilight turned to her. "I've read that long ago somepony enchanted ponds with a wolf plague. Drinking from one under the full moon could turn the nicest of ponies into a bloodthirsty monster."

Fluttershy squeaked. "Goodness... I wouldn't want anypony to turn into a monster."

Cheese took a step back. "Neither would I, but that was more than I needed to know."

Twilight grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that. I just thought I needed to elaborate on why you never encountered any of those."

"Um... about Bighoof... it could be that he's just shy," Fluttershy stated.

"Maybe he just hates ponies," Tomato suggested.

"Okay, can we just stop talking about this? We do have a party to set up." Cheese made a grand gesture toward the large playground he had just came off of. "Now, what do you guys think about that fine piece of work? I just tested the slide, those ponies are testing the swings, some are testing the jungle gym--I think the foals will like this."

Applejack looked up and down the structure, making note of the ponies using the swings and climbing on it. "Looks awful sturdy so far... but I'll go look up close just to make sure..."

With that, she started trotting toward it.

"Anyway, you girls better get back to what you were doing before the... bat thing." After Rarity and Fluttershy nodded and left to do whatever it was that they were doing, Cheese jumped to Tomato's side and slung a front leg over him. "Now... what should I have you do...? Let's see, maybe you could help decorate! Or you could go and cook or bake some things--after all, if there's any Sandwich that can cook, it's you! Or... or... um..." He hoisted Tomato up and hollered, "Hey! Anypony around here need some extra hooves?"

The ponies paused in their duties to look at Tomato, with the wheels turning in their head. Then, with contempt on their faces, answered, "Nah."

Cheese huffed and put Tomato down. "Geez, what's their problem?"

"They associate me with disaster," Tomato answered.

Cheese snorted. "Hey, the Fall Festival was a problem because we were fighting. Last I checked, it was the both of us." Not to mention my mood usually affects the party, and since I was in a bad mood...

"Even so, I can tell they don't like me."

"It was only one party that they saw you at," Twilight said.

"Yeah... one party with multiple events that went haywire, with me present at all of them." Tomato snorted. "Run for your lives, the killjoy screw-up has returned."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," Cheese said. "Okay, stop thinking of yourself that way. You're not a killjoy, and you're not a screw-up. I mean, it doesn't matter that you've made a pretty bad first impression while I've been here enough that the town kinda knows me, and that my first impression was pretty good--but then again, I've screwed up trying to impress Pinkie, I sorta made her feel... inferior..." Cheese rubbed the back of his head, blushing over those events. "But, hey, if I can make it up to Pinkie, surely you can make it up to Ponyville, right? You know, show them just how truly of an amazing pony you are?"

Tomato's face had gone from neutral to a fairly intense glower. Forcing a smile, Tomato answered, "Wow, thanks Cheese, that makes me feel so much better! They'll be in awe of how unspecific my amazingness is!" He frowned once again, and marched past him. "I'm going to find a book to read."

As his brother stormed off, Cheese blinked and scratched his head. "Um... what just happened?"

"I'm pretty sure what you meant to say came out wrong," Twilight said. She started following Tomato. "I'm going to help him locate the library."

Cheese stood there, blinking as they walked away. He reviewed what he had just said, and ran a hoof through his mane. He looked up once again, and they had already went inside. He sighed.

"Geez Louise, Tommy," he muttered. "You're a little touchy, aren't you? You weren't ever this touchy as a colt... nor were you this reclusive." He looked at the ground. "That was me who was."

It was so tempting to be bitter about his colthood, but Cheese knew he couldn't do that. It might sabotage his efforts of reaching out to Tomato. He just needed to shove it aside, and just forget about it. If there was a way to keep it out of mind with nothing to trigger the memory, Cheese would take it so that his own problems couldn't get in the way of party planning or bonding time.

He heard somepony cry out, and spun around to find that the swings snapped off of the playground. A couple of dazed ponies still sat on the seats, with Applejack and another pony helping them up. Wincing at the scene, he took a deep breath and set off to go fix them.

Twilight opened the door, and proudly presented the collection of books present in that very room. Tomato walked in, and whistled in sheer amazement at how many books there were. They were neatly lined up on the gleaming shelves, all sorted by their genre, their subjects, and their authors. Tomato took a deep whiff of the combined smells of musty old books and freshly printed ones.

He glanced at Twilight. "You must really like this room in the castle."

Twilight nodded happily. "Of course! Whenever I have time to myself, I just go in here and insert myself into any of the worlds that each one of these books hold. What's even nicer is when I get to share one of those worlds with a friend."

"Truth be told, I could hardly consider myself your friend--this is my second time in Ponyville after all. Still, I am grateful that I have a chance to read a book from a library in a princess' castle--oh wow..." Tomato's eyes went wide and he blinked. "I just realized how lucky of a stallion I am. You're my favorite princess now, Twilight."

Twilight blushed. "Oh, you don't have to refer to me as princess. I'm okay with us being just casual acquaintances."

"Ah, gotcha." Tomato walked toward a chair, pulling a random book out with his tail as he did so. He sat in the chair and opened the book, still holding it with his tail. "Perfect place to be out of the way."

Twilight frowned. "Why don't you want to help set up the party? Not only is it the anniversary of when Pinkie moved here, it's also kind of a late birthday party and a Thank You for all her efforts to make ponies smile. And as crazy as the Fall Festival went, she did have a hand in helping you and Cheese begin to rebuild your bond. Not to mention... Cheese really would like it if you helped."

Tomato sighed. "As nice as that sounds... I'll only be in the way. Attending a party, yeah, I could do that. Helping set one up? I'm useless."

"Are you sure you're not just trying to convince yourself of that?"

"No, I'm absolutely certain that me and parties just don't mix like that."

Twilight opened her mouth, and then shook her head. "Very well, have it your way. Just remember that you can't get away with this stunt in every party this summer. Sooner or later, your brother will get tired of you doing this. Make sure you find something you can do, okay?"

Tomato buried his face in his book. "Ugh... okay."

Twilight nodded. "All right, I'm going to help with the set up some more. I hope you have fun reading about..." She leaned close and peered at the cover. "...'Chip the Magic Pebble'."

And with that, Tomato was left alone again.

2.5--Fun Times

The matriarch of the Sandwich household wished that her son could express his excitement in a more subtle way.

It had been two years since Tomato had expressed his joy by running and bouncing around the house, leaping on furniture, and coming dangerously close to shattering her vases and knick-knacks. His whoops and hollers gave her a headache, and his boundless energy made her heart race, especially when he nearly jumped on her. All the while that he did this, she wondered what the point of his zipping around was, since it served no purpose in any place.

Tomato took time to bounce on each cushion on the couch, weaving the tale of how his days at the fundraiser went. He jumped over the lamp, his tail knocking it over. His mother nearly had a heart attack upon seeing it fall, but Tomato caught it with his tail and set it back up, before continuing on his energetic rampage. She was so dazed, she could have sworn she saw him scale the wall, run on the ceiling, and slide back down the opposing wall. At least, she thought she was just imagining him doing that.

The colt's words were coming out too fast, and they were garbled in her ears. Rubbing her temples, she thought about how she had preferred it when the foal had been depressed. At least he had been quiet then.

Tomato leapt over the coffee table and bounced around some more. "...and then when I was heading home, Miss Periwinkle pointed out my cutie mark!" He turned and proudly showed off the picture on his flank. Waggling his eyebrows, he said, "Pretty nifty, eh?"

His mother blinked at the design of the cutie mark. For years, she had expected that when Tomato's time had come, it would have indefinitely been a ridiculous mark matching the colt's energy. Not even him doing well in school had made her think otherwise. She had still expected a squished tomato symbolizing bad comedy, or a bottle of ketchup blasting off like a rocket. But, what she saw in front of her was a tomato shaped like a money bag, complete with a dollar sign.

She pursed her lips. "What a surprise."

Tomato nodded and started bouncing again. "Yep! You were right, Mom, doing the fundraiser was the best thing I did! I got a good idea of who I'll grow up to be!"

His attention was diverted to the opening front door, where a tired, tall, cinnamon-coated stallion carrying a suitcase in his mouth ambled in. Tomato grinned and sped to him. "Dad! Dad! I got my cutie mark!"

His father merely glanced at Tomato's flank, patted his head, and said, "Good job, kiddo."

With that, he simply walked into the kitchen, presumably so he could do that 'grown-up homework' he always did. Tomato sighed, and shook his head. Didn't he ever get tired of those dumb papers? Would it kill him to be more excited that his son earned his cutie mark?

After a brief pout, Tomato turned to his mother once again. Resuming his bouncing, he asked, "So, Mom, Mom, Mom, how should we celebrate? Ice cream? Pizza? Trip to the park? Museum? Ferry? Mare Liberty? Come on, Mom, don't leave me hanging and pick something!"

"Tomato Matthew Sandwich," his mother replied. "We don't need any fancy nights out to mark this milestone in your life."

Tomato frowned, and plopped onto his haunches. "Why not? Bluejinx went out for ice cream when he earned his cutie mark."

"If Bluejinx jumped off a cliff, would you do it?"

"Mom, Bluejinx is not stupid. Ice cream is harmless!"

"Too much can make you sick and rot your teeth." His mother stood up and stretched. "Celebrating something every foal goes through is a waste of time when you could be doing more productive things with your newly earned cutie mark. Besides, you had enough fun at the fundraiser itself, no? Isn't that celebration enough? You have no regrets, right?"

Tomato's ears drooped and he drew on the floor with his hoof. "I have one regret."

She raised an eyebrow. "And that is...?"

"...that Cheese isn't here to see it."

His mother sighed. "Tomato, the longer you keep moping about your brother, the less seriously anypony will take you. In fact, it's hard to take you seriously when you're bouncing around like a kangaroo in this house." She pointed at his cutie mark. "That mark is for serious ponies only, and since you can't trade it away, well, we'll just have to work on fixing that careless attitude of yours. No one appreciates a careless pony. Is that understood?"

The excitement of receiving his cutie mark evaporated, and once again, Tomato felt crummy. Not only had he been selfish, but he was careless too! No wonder his brother and most of his friends abandoned him--he was a bad pony.

"Yes, Mama."

She nodded. "Good." She glanced at the clock. "It's time for bed, young colt. I want you to be a well-rested pony."

Tomato nodded, stood up, and walked to his room. After slowly making his way through the hallway, he slipped into his room and shut the door behind him. With a sigh, he looked up at the two beds before him.

They had neglected to remove Cheese's bed from the room, mostly in the assumption that he'd eventually come running back from wherever he ran off to. It had been two years since he left, and the bed still remained.

With a sigh, he climbed into his brother's bed, with the blue-and-yellow quilt and the striped pillow. He looked at his own bed for a brief moment, before turning away, and curling up in a ball. He pulled the quilt over himself, and lied still, hoping to feel Cheese's presence once again.

"Hey, big bro," he mumbled. "I earned my cutie mark. Do you like it?"

Elsewhere in Equestria, in the mountains outside of Salt Lick City, that other colt felt the muscles in his flank tightening and relaxing in succession, and a tingling sensation buzzed through his body. Accordion notes rang in his ears, and the name of his destination popped into his mind. He jumped at the feeling, dropping the rubber chicken he carried on his back.

Once the sensation had passed, he picked up his chicken.

"Cheesy Sense is telling me to go to Manehattan, Boneless," the colt said, his voice cracking. He gulped. "I guess I'm ready to return..."

He looked at his cutie mark, a grilled cheese sandwich torn to look like an accordion. He took a deep breath. "Well, we'll see how much of a loser Cheese Sandwich is now."

He turned his nose to the east, and stood up. Though just a colt of thirteen, Cheese already felt like a worn, rugged traveler. He looked like one too, a brown poncho draped on his body and a cowboy hat atop his head. The only thing that kept him looking completely like one was his large glasses.

He started working his way through the woods, wondering what changes had taken place since he had left. If there were any big changes to the city, he'd have read about them in the newspaper. He doubted the neighbors were any nicer, or that his parents would put in a better effort of raising him and his brother.

And then there was Tommy. The little rascal that seemed to never run out of energy. The little twerp who was way too friendly and way too reckless for his own good. The little ketchup squirt who had broken Cheese's accordion.

Cheese sighed. He never really gave Tomato a chance to apologize. After all, it was an accident, and Cheese did have a couple of years to cool off. Even when trying to hate him, he couldn't help but miss the one pony that had thought he was worth something. And maybe, just maybe, Tomato missed him.

He reached the peak of the mountain, and looked over the valley. He then turned to Boneless. "Yeah, I think I'll check up on my baby bro. What is he, ten now?" He chuckled. "Yeah, it's about time we catch up... and I need to introduce you two."

Cheese trotted down the hallways of the castle, looking for the room that his brother was hiding out in. The entire set up was all finished, and somepony was out fetching Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. He was going to have Tomato at least participate in the big holler of "surprise."

He had the directions to the castle library that Twilight had told him in his head, though he forgot which door it was. He had been in the castle before, having been given a tour by Pinkie before, but he never really cared for the library to memorize where it was. He kind of regretted it now, but how was he supposed to know that he'd make up with his brother? And how was he supposed to know that Tomato would become a bookworm? Just how did Tomato turn into one?

He knocked himself on the head with his hoof. "Geez, Louise, Cheese, stop it. There's no need to compare his old self and his current self. He just... grew up, is all."

He passed by a mirror, and only took a mere glance at it. However, that one glance was enough for him to notice something was off. He backed up, and gazed at his reflection. He was taken aback by what he saw.

The stallion in the mirror had his hair, coat, and eye colors, as well as his build and face, but he didn't see it as himself. The stallion was dressed in a black suit jacket, with a yellow tie. His hair was slicked back, with curls at the end. And he had those large glasses on his muzzle, with a sharp glare behind them accompanying the large frown his mouth made.

Cheese backed up, and immediately looked at his shirt and felt his muzzle. No glasses, and he still had the yellow polo on. He looked back up at the image, and rubbed his eyes.

He blinked, and his normal reflection was in the mirror, with a look of confused horror on its face. He scratched his head. "That was weird."

He looked around for anypony who happened to be in the castle and saw that, and shook his head. He continued to meander through the hallway, looking for a door.

Tomato had long since finished "Chip the Magic Pebble", and moved on to a longer book. He had grabbed one on Equestria's wilds, it's creatures, and it's myths and lore, and balanced the open book on his tail for his usual reading position. He was aware that his holding of the book was unusual, but it was quite comfortable for him.

He had already gone through reading about the wild and rugged Clydesdale known as Bighoof, a fierce dream demon that infected innocent ponies with toxic magic until Princess Luna defeated and imprisoned her, about hydras, Changelings, Cerberus and Tartarus, and sirens. There were mentions of Discord trapped in stone--obviously the book was outdated now--and of that magic-stealing centaur, Tirek.

Tomato shuddered at the memory of that beast storming Manehattan and quickly and effortlessly draining the magic of the entire city. Everypony had been left so weak and tired when it happened, and Tomato could only remember just sitting in defeat and staring into space until all the magic was returned to all Equestria.

He turned the page, and read about a dark magic spell used to fuse animal instincts into a pony. Tomato rolled his eyes, figuring that no unicorn would be stupid enough to use it. What was its use? Shaking his head, he found himself thankful that he was an earth pony.

He continued to read. "...it has been said that this spell was once used to fuse the user with a wolf, and thus the first werewolf was born. Pleased with the development, the unicorn cast a spell on several ponds to give others this blessing. Unfortunately, most ponies who drank from this pond became bloodthirsty and feral, and it was soon contagious by bite. An epidemic filled the land, and Celestia herself had to put a stop to it before too many ponies were either infected or killed. She created a spell to cure ponies, and evaporated all the ponds that held the spell. Almost as quickly as the werewolf epidemic had began, it had ceased."

"Hey, baby bro! Whatcha reading?"

Tomato looked up at the grinning Cheese Sandwich leaning against the doorframe. "Something about dark magic that creates unnatural animal-pony hybrids. It's horrifying, but that makes it interesting."

Cheese nodded and straightened up. "Makes me wonder what it's like, being part animal. You think I could be part chicken?"

"Psht, as if. Everypony know dark magic corrupts, so there I doubt you'll run into a unicorn who's powerful enough and willing to try it. Plus... part chicken? Really? I'm sure that if we did run into somepony willing to try it, he or she would more likely choose, say, a wolf, or one of those vampire bats in the apple orchard."

Cheese shook his head. "Anyway, baby bro, party's finished, and you're going to help us with shouting 'Surprise'."

Tomato stood up, still holding the book and reading it. "Hm, okay. Pray I don't blow my voice out."

Cheese raised an eyebrow at the casual strolling Tomato did, with his head turned to the book that his tail still held. "Do you really have to keep reading?"

"This book has some interesting information--I don't want to put it down! Besides, I kind of want to know what we might encounter this summer."

Cheese whickered in annoyance. "Tomato, I've lived on the road since I was eleven--I know how to survive in the wild. We don't need some guidebook on things that I've either met before or most likely don't exist. Besides, we have a surprise party to unveil, so just quit stalling and put the book down."

"Funny, I pegged you as the type to believe in Bighoof. What if I want to read it when I'm bored?"

"Ugh, it's Twilight's book, not yours. If you wanted to read during this trip, you should've packed a couple of books. Besides, who needs to read when you're having a party?"

"You'll tick off a lot of bookworms with that sentence. And I meant for the in-between down time for when you're busy planning things with Boneless Two. I'm quite uncreative, so I need something to do when you're talking to an inanimate object!"

Cheese gasped and glared at him. He grabbed his tie, and yanked him out of the room, making the younger brother drop the book. Cheese proceeded to drag Tomato through the hallways of the castle, grumbling under his breath.

Tomato groaned. I suppose I should have packed a couple of books before going out of my niche.

Once Cheese had dragged Tomato outside, everypony took their places, with Cheese hiding out in the top layer of the cake so that he'd pop out. Tomato just sat beside it, keeping himself out of sight. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Spike were sitting in front of it, with everypony else sitting various places by it, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the guest of honor.

Tomato was close enough to the cake that he could smell it, and he could feel his mouth water. The blue frosting looked sweet, light, and fluffy, laced with a beautiful golden yellow on its edges and covered in balloon-shaped cookies, enticing his stomach to growl. He tried his best to look away from it, but it still drew his eye. It also drew the attention of his hoof, which attempted to sneak a bit of frosting while no one was looking.

He grabbed it, and hugged it close to his body. "Nuh-uh, Tomato. Sneaking frosting off someone else's cake is rude."

However, he found himself leaning over, opening his mouth wide, and breathing in the aroma of the frosting. He could already feel the taste of it on his tongue, and his stomached roared as he leaned.

"What are you doing?"

He realized what he was doing, straightened up, and slammed his hoof into his mouth. He looked at the trio of fillies sitting near him, and sheepishly scooted away from the cake. He noticed several other ponies staring, and he continued to scoot until he was behind a tree.

Taking his hoof out of his mouth, he attempted to spit out the unpleasant taste. With a sigh, he stood up and peeked from behind the tree, looking at everypony smiling as they stared straight forward, hoping to spot any of the ponies that had been out. Once either the pegasus that was doing the fetching or Rainbow Dash arrived, Pinkie Pie was not far behind.

Tomato knew Pinkie was a good pony. A little irritating and intrusive, but still a good pony. Her good intentions could have made his and Cheese's feud worse back at the Fall Festival, but things did miraculously work out. If she really did a lot of good things for Ponyville, he wouldn't blame the townsponies for celebrating. Heck, Cheese did tell him that she inspired him to become a party pony.

Part of him felt like he should be out there on the front lines, since it would show he acknowledged her intervention in the feud. But another part still hated how disastrous the entire thing was, and wanted to hate her for meddling. Another part felt like that the only reason he even liked her was because Cheese did, and he hated that shallow reasoning.

Rainbow Dash and another pegasus had arrived, taking their places near the cake. And soon enough, Pinkie trotted onto the castle grounds, and everypony jumped up, threw confetti, and hollered "SURPRISE!"

Pinkie gasped. "A surprise party? For me?! Is it my birthday again already?"

Pinkie's friends jumped forward and wrapped her in a group hug, all giggling. Rainbow laughed and answered, "Pinkie, your birthday was a couple of weeks ago."

"Well, then, that was a fast year!"

"Oh, no, darling," Rarity said as the group broke the hug. "We just felt awful for missing your birthday due to that adventure we had that week."

"And we thought, 'Why not the anniversary of the day you came to Ponyville?'" Applejack added.

"And then we figured that everypony could help out as a thank you for being their friends and going out of your way to make them happy," Twilight said.

Fluttershy nodded. "And we are all very lucky to know you."

Pinkie blinked, looking around at the smiling ponies all around her. When she spotted Tomato behind the tree, Tomato feigned a smile so he didn't ruin the moment. She continued looking around until she was on the brink of tears, and she wrapped her friends in a big group hug.

"You're all the best! All of you!" She released them and bounced back. "You guys are the best!" She pointed at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "And so are you fillies!" She pointed at the Cakes. "And so are you!" She pointed at another pony, and another, and another, all the while saying, "And you! And you! And you! And you! And you!"

Tomato just leaned on the tree, looking up at the cake and wondering when Cheese was going to pop out. He shook his head and looked at Pinkie excitedly point at ponies and refer to them as 'the best.' He recalled when he was a colt that happy and excitable, and he could easily see his younger self in Pinkie's place.

She pointed at him, and hollered, "And you, too, Tommy!"

Tomato took a step back at that statement, and felt warm inside from being pointed out like that. However, before he could smile at her in response, he heard somepony grumble, "Him? Hmph, he didn't even help set up this party, that lazy stick in the mud."

His urge to smile was gone, and he remembered a key difference between his younger self and Pinkie Pie.

He had been selfish.

Pinkie looked around, trying to locate a pony that she hadn't called 'the best.' Her smile fell into a frown. "Wait a minute. Where's Cheese?"

And that was when the top layer of the cake exploded, and a bright orange pony leapt from within the cake, doing a back flip. Once he landed back on the cake, fireworks exploded behind him,blue, yellow, and pink balloons rose, and he flashed a grin Pinkie's way, waggling his eyebrows at her. "You rang?!"

As the crowd cheered, Pinkie stared up at him, her jaw slack and her blue eyes shining. Blush was gracing her cheeks, and her blinks were slow. Her friends took one look at her, glanced between her and the smiling stallion atop the cake, and most of them let out giggles and "awws", while Rainbow just blinked and rolled her eyes.

Cheese stood up on his hind legs and laughed. "So I hear you're calling everypony 'the best!' Don't leave your party pony pal out!"

Pinkie shook her head and giggled. She took a deep breath and shouted, "Well, Cheesy, you're the best party pony friend I've got!"

Cheese laughed some more, pulled out an umbrella, and leapt off, using the umbrella as a parachute. "Glad to hear it! And now... once I land, we can get this thing started!"

Pinkie giggled. "Okey-dokey-loki!"

The party was a blast.

Everywhere that one could look, there were ponies having fun. Some were bouncing around in a bouncehouse; some were jumping into the ball pit. Some were playing tug-of-war; some were singing at the karaoke. There were ponies chowing down on the cake, ice cream, nachos, and other refreshments that were being served.

Cheese was having a blast, playing his accordion and singing and dancing for the crowd. He happily took note of how they were bouncing to the beat and singing along, and added a few tricks to his act. He managed to cartwheel with his accordion still in his hooves, and did a back flip. When he landed on his back hooves, he leaned back far enough to look at the foal behind him upside-down, and made a silly face for the filly. When the filly giggled, he sprung back up and summoned several small balls to juggle with his tail.

Tomato, on the other hand, just hung back and munched on some pizza, watching the partygoers have their fun. He especially had his eyes on the colts and fillies running from activity to activity, shouting and laughing as they did so.

He didn't want to admit that he was a little envious of their carefree nature. The way that they just enjoyed the simple things in life, the freedom to be themselves, and sing and dance and play, and being loved by the adults in their lives. He especially was a little pleased to see some of the foals being encouraged by their parents to try an activity in the area.

He hadn't been as happy as those foals since he was eight. And even then, he never recalled either of his parents being like the ones he was seeing. These ponies were acting more along the lines of Bluejinx's mother.

He glanced at his brother, who was still being goofy to entertain the crowd. He sighed.

"How do you do it?" he mumbled.

Pinkie Pie suddenly popped up beside him. "Well, he's been doing it for years! He's got the party pony gig down! Of course, between you and me, his act needs a little polish."

Tomato blinked. "Huh? Uh, no, Pinkie, I'm just wondering how he can keep high spirits, despite the crud that he went through when he was a colt? Despite being alone all the time with only a rubber chicken for company? Despite me, his own brother, pretty much ruining his life until he threw me out of it?"

Pinkie gave him a funny look. "Tommy, don't say mean things about yourself."

Tomato scoffed. "Well, sorry, I'll apologize to myself."

Pinkie patted his head. "Yeah, you should do that. Because both Sandwich brothers are super duper! Cheese is the Super Duper Party Pony, and you are the Super Duper..." She looked at his cutie mark. "...uh, Business Pony? How did you earn your cutie mark?"

"Fundraiser."

"Were you happy to get it?"

"Well, yeah, I was excited to get it."

Pinkie clapped her hooves. "Goody! Because after all, if you're not happy with your cutie mark, then why'd you earn it?"

Tomato's ears drooped, and he looked at his cutie mark. Staring at it, he replied, "I, uh, guess I'm just glum because I'm just out of my niche and feel I just don't have a place here."

Pinkie patted his head again. "There, there, Tommy. It's only the first party on your trip, and I'm sure you'll find some way to help in the next party. And it's okay if you want to stop being super serious and enjoy the party." She pointed to the karaoke tent. "May I suggest the karaoke tent?"

Tomato was about to retort that he doesn't sing, but he was interrupted by, "Hey, Pinkie! You want to do the pie-eating contest?"

Pinkie gasped and bounced. "Boy, do I!"

She was about to run off, but paused to whisper, "And one more thing: the saddest ponies have the brightest smiles."

With that, she sped off to partake in some pies, while a confused Tomato just stood there. He sighed and shook his head. Taking the last bite of his pizza, he walked toward the karaoke tent, figuring that there was no harm in watching other ponies sing.

He didn't know how long he was there, but he found himself entranced by each song that was sung--with the exception of some of those who were just terrible singers. He recognized some of his favorite songs, and under his breath, he sang along.

"What's the matter with the carriage I'm pulling?
'Can't you tell that's it's out of style?'
Should I get a fresh white coat of paint?
'Are you gonna run a miracle mile?'"

All of a sudden, Cheese sat right next to him, and plopped a bowl of ice cream in front of him. Blinking, Tomato gave him a funny look, to which Cheese shrugged in reply.

"I'm full," he simply said. "You want it? That is... if you like the flavor."

Tomato stared at him for a moment, picked up the bowl, and replied, still singing along with the music:

"It's still rocky road to me."

And then he took a bite as Cheese snorted and laughed. Cheese put a hoof to his face and shook his head, muttering, "Okay, okay, that was good timing..."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "It was a lame joke. The ice cream will melt in embarrassment for me."

Cheese let a few more chuckles out, and then straightened up and exhaled. "Well, baby bro, the party's wrapping up, and we'll have to leave soon."

Tomato swallowed his bite of ice cream. "Is that so? We're not spending the night here?"

Cheese clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Tommy, Tommy, Tommy... I don't like taking advantage of a town's hospitality. I'm afraid that I'll get too comfortable, and spend more and more days there, when the rest of Equestria needs a party pony to come in and help with their big shindigs!" He leaned a little too close to Tomato's face. "Not every town is lucky to have their own party pony like Ponyville is."

"So you don't want to settle down."

"The road is my home, baby bro."

"Huh. So... how often do you visit?" Tomato asked, taking another bite of ice cream.

"Huh?"

"How often do you visit Ponyville?"

Cheese scratched his front leg. "Well... I visit every so often to catch up with Pinkie, that's all."

"You visit for Pinkie?"

"Of course, she's my friend. And her friends are my friends too."

Tomato stirred his ice cream. "And you don't have any other friends in any other towns?"

"I have a pal in Appleloosa. I know a magician. I know a few other party ponies in Equestria. My little brother is my friend, and I consider his friends my friends."

Tomato ate some more ice cream. "Aw, I feel so special. But not as special as your girlfriend, eh?"

Cheese's face flushed red. "Tomato! I thought you stopped calling her that!"

"Oh, you just love this place so much then," Tomato took another bite, and swallowed before continuing, "I bet that if you ever do decide to settle down, it'd be here, in this happy little small town, home to the one mare who inspires you, who you adore, and you will not allow anypony to speak ill of her name!"

Cheese pouted at him. "Oh, ha ha, you must think you're so funny. Look, just like you and Flora, Pinkie and I are completely pla--"

Suddenly, said mare jumped on him, hugging him tightly. "Thank you so much for coming and helping, Cheesy! I'm glad you came and celebrated my late birthday, anniversary of coming to Ponyville, and Thank You party! My friends told me just how much help you were!"

Then, without thinking, she planted a big smooch on Cheese's cheek, which made the stallion freeze up. Once Pinkie released him, he crumpled on the ground in a heap, delighted sighs coming from his mouth.

Pinkie blinked. "Cheese?"

Tomato looked over him. "I think you broke him." He sighed, set down his ice cream and stood up. "I'm not dragging him out of town. So, you have a spare couch or something?"

Author's Note

And here's another chapter! And this is the last of the Ponyville arc, which was frankly longer than I intended. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable thing for me to write. :raritywink:

And the song that was playing at the karaoke (with altered lyrics, of course):

And you CheesePie fans may squeal now. :pinkiehappy:

3.1--Stuck in a Tree

After spending the night in Ponyville, Cheese and Tomato trotted out, awaiting the Cheesy Sense to tell them what their next venture would be. In the meantime, they were heading up into the mountains and into the White Tail Woods, camping out once again.

Now, while Cheese was completely relaxed, happy to sleep under the stars and tell tales of some wacky adventures he had, Tomato was a little unsure about being in the woods. Of course, when he let that slip, Cheese tried to assuage his fears with, "Don't worry, we're not in the Everfree Forest. That's the forest that has all the monsters. But here? We're just fine."

Tomato had read lines like that in some horror books. Usually the ponies ended up dead.

Still, Cheese was the one who survived in the wild for more than a decade. Surely he knew what he was talking about. If he didn't, well, Tomato would have become an only child far too quickly for his liking. Then again, he had practically been an only child since Cheese ran away.

Tomato shook his head and looked up at the stars above him. He felt rocks and sticks on his back, even with Cheese having cleared the space as much as he could before laying down the tarp for both to sleep on. While he was glad that Cheese had the uncanny ability to pull things out of nowhere so that they didn't get dirt on their backs, he just wished that he cleared the junk away better.

Tomato breathed in the cool night air, still looking up at the stars. It was amazing just how many there were up there. For some reason, looking up at them made him feel at peace, like the stars were angels' peepholes to the world below.

As his eyes grew heavy, he removed his glasses and laid them beside him. Curling up under his serape, he still felt as if there was still something wandering these woods.

Tomato woke up to facial hair.

Feeling his muzzle, he wondered why it took him until now to notice that he was growing not just a mustache, but a little goatee as well. How long had it been visible? Did the Ponyvillians see it and just not comment on it? Then again, most of them disliked him, so none ever came close enough to notice.

He sat up and stretched with a yawn. He shook his head, put on his glasses, and looked at his surroundings. The sun shone through the trees, creating a subtle glow on the white trunks and the flowers around them. Birds were perched on the branches, singing with all their heart and soul, providing a lovely melody for the forest. Squirrels were chattering in a way that was not disruptive, and actually enhancing the song. A gentle breeze rattled the leaves and the nearby brook babbled, adding to the harmony. Tomato remained silent, entranced by the music that nature was creating on such a beautiful morning.

Tomato rolled up the sleeves of his white button shirt, due to it being a little warm. The breeze brushed his cheek, and the natural song was inviting him to sing along. But he still remained silent, fearing his contribution would just disrupt the melody.

He still felt his face, wrinkling his nose at his new beard, and turned to shake Cheese awake. However, he recoiled when he saw his brother turn to him with a sudden jerk, wide-eyed and with a big grin. With a surge of fear and equally wide eyes, Tomato scooted back.

Cheese jumped up on his hind hooves and stretched, giving out a loud yawn in the process. Smacking his lips and going back on all fours, he turned to Tomato and said, "Mornin'!"

Blinking, Tomato replied, "Good morning."

Cheese shook himself, and took a look at Tomato's face. "Hey! Nice mustache! And the goatee complements it well."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry, but I don't like it."

Cheese chuckled. "Tommy, you don't have to keep up appearances; we're in the wild right now, nopony will judge you for growing a beard."

Tomato still stroked his muzzle, irritated with himself for not being able to stop. "I personally find it annoying. And I don't want to go through the trouble of maintaining the thing. Do you have a spare razor?"

Cheese sighed, and pulled one out of wherever. Giving it to Tomato, Cheese warned, "Careful, you don't want to shave off part of your coat."

As he accepted the razor, Tomato added, "A mirror would be nice. I need to look where I'm shaving."

Cheese groaned, and pulled a mirror out of the same place. He cartwheeled to a tree near the brook, and leaned the mirror against the trunk. He cartwheeled back to his spot, grabbed Tomato, and dragged him to the tree. Taking a deep breath, Cheese said, "All right, don't drop the razor, don't cut yourself, don't tear off your red fur and leave an ugly pink furless patch on your face, don't tease any animals, and most importantly, don't break the mirror. That's bad luck."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Gee, you're superstitious. You need to calm down. Say, you have any shaving cream?"

Cheese snorted. "No. The only cream I have is..." He reached into his mane, and pulled out a can. "Whipped cream!" Giving it to his brother, he added, "I've shaved with this stuff for years, give it a try!"

Tomato stared blankly at the can. "You've got to be kidding me..."

Cheese shook his head and rubbed his chin. "Nope!"

"...Cheese, this'll make my fur clump together. And don't you ever worry that it'll attract animals?"

"Psht, it hasn't happened yet. Don't worry, the kind I have is nice and fluffy, good on the skin, and when you're done, you can lick it off!"

Tomato opened his mouth to argue, but decided that it wasn't worth it. He set the can and razor down on a nearby rock, reached into the brook, and splashed his face with water. Then, looking in the mirror, he picked up the can, sprayed the whipped cream on his hoof, and spread it all over his face.

Cheese grinned. "Glad you see it my way. I'll start up the campfire for breakfast. We're going to roast some of the leftover carrot dogs!" He set Boneless 2 down by the razor and can and patted the rubber chicken's head. "You two watch each other, okay?" With that, he spun around and trotted away to gather some firewood.

Tomato sighed and looked at the chicken. "Whipped cream... can you believe it, Boneless 2?"

He paused to stare at the inanimate object, and then slowly turned away to face the mirror. "His crazy is rubbing off on me already... I'll be a maniac before the summer ends..."

He grabbed the razor with his tail, and carefully began the first stroke. As he did so, he sang:

"I'm shavin'
Shaving off unwanted hair
While I am in the woods somewhere
Getting ready for the day..."

Cheese used his tail to launch a stick onto his back, letting land on the pile that was already on his back. He whistled merrily as he trotted through the woods, giving his contribution to the song that nature was already singing. He gazed upward as happy birds flew above him, chirping along with his whistling. His trot was even giving a nice beat to the melody, and his head bobbed as he listened to the wind in the trees, the babbling brook, and all the animals doing their thing.

Truly it was going to be a magical day.

Cheese would have sang, but there were no words that could be sung for nature's song, so he just kept on whistling. He had the firewood carefully balanced on his back, so he was not worried. He scanned the ground, spotted another stick, and as he passed it, he picked it up with his tail.

No Cheesy Sense yet, but it would come. If it didn't come within the next week, then he'd be worried. It usually meant his magic was drained or he was seriously emotionally compromised, like if he was having a bout of depression or something like that. But, he knew neither was the case, and he expected to be on his way to the next town soon.

Now, the question was if Tomato was going to be a party pooper again and not help. Even though the citizens of Ponyville were not too keen on his brother after the Fall Festival incident, Cheese was still a little bothered by Tomato declining to help. So what if the only party he threw ended badly? It was only just one, and Tomato had been eight at the time. Surely Tommy could be a much better help as an adult.

Plus, if he could assist in managing a fundraiser, then he couldn't be that bad at helping set up a party.

As he picked up the next stick, he noticed that it had gone silent, and he could feel a chill run down his back. He froze, and crouched down, adjusting his ears to listen for anything strange. He bit his lip and glanced around, his nerves suddenly growing uneasy. On his left, there was nothing. On his right, there was nothing. Behind him, there was nothing. And still, this sense of dread held him.

His ears twitched, and everything was still. The atmosphere of where he stood was strangely eerie, even though it was broad daylight. He couldn't help but feel that he was not alone, though he heard nothing. It was like the calm before the storm, and he kept expecting the coldest rain, the harshest wind, and the hottest lightning to strike him. The silence made time stretch even longer, and he felt as he had stood there for hours.

Finally, he could hear a distant crunching. It was faint, but it was enough to break the silence. He raised his head and pursed his lips, wondering what it could be. He could hear faint snorts and heavy breathing as well, which prompted him to run through a list of large creatures in his mind. Was it a bear? Was it a monster that wandered out of the Everfree? Was it a moose?

He shook his head and snorted. "Probably just a fellow traveler. Big pony... like Big McIntosh, or Bulk Biceps, or a Royal Guard. Nothing to worry about."

He looked at the sticks on his back. Still hearing the crunching, he muttered, "...yeah, that's enough firewood."

"...I've never lost any beard I've ever missed,
But I've never used any cream like this!"

Tomato grabbed the can of whipped cream and thrust it into the air, his eyes squeezed shut and a wild grin on his face. And then he bellowed out,

"I'm... SHAVING!"

His song was interrupted by loud crunching behind him. He jumped and dropped the can, which rolled into the brook. Tomato blinked, looked around, and then looked straight at Boneless 2.

"Did you hear that?" There was a pause before Tomato smacked himself and grumbled, "Of course not, he's not alive..."

He then shrugged and crawled to the bank to grab the can. Much to his dismay, it had floated out of his reach, which elicited a groan from him. He dropped his face in the dirt, at which point he remembered the whipped cream on his face. With a sigh, he muttered, "And now I can't lick it off."

He leaned into the brook and splashed his face to wash the cream and dirt off. After that was done, he rose up, and turned to the mirror to examine his work. As he looked in the mirror and felt his face, he felt something breathing down his neck. The breathing made a chill run through his body, and his heart began to pound.

He looked to another spot in the mirror, where he found the can of whipped cream right behind him, between a large set of dirty, yellow teeth. Gulping, he slowly turned around, and found himself face to face with a large, brown, Clydesdale horse.

The horse had a wild, matted dark brown mane, and was dirty from head to enormous hoof. His nostrils were flared, his red eyes were caught in a fierce glare--in which Tomato could see his terrified reflection in the pupils--and he was stomping one of those unnaturally large hooves of his. Tomato could feel each breath on his face, which fogged his glasses, and he broke out in a cold sweat, his heart racing. His heart beat even faster when the large horse crushed the can with his teeth, chewed it, and swallowed it without any difficulty.

With a sheepish grin, Tomato murmured, "Uh... hi, Bighoof?"

Bighoof roared and jutted out one of his front hooves in a punch. Tomato gasped and rolled out of the way of the punch, which ended up shattering the mirror.

Tomato stopped his roll and panted, looking back at the fragments. When Bighoof roared again, Tomato grabbed Boneless 2 with his tail and bolted, with the larger equine in pursuit.

One moment, Cheese was just trotting back to camp, with plenty of firewood and a growling stomach. The very next moment, he paused as his little brother sped past him, shouting, "Cheese, run for your life, it's Bighoof!"

Cheese blinked, turned, and gave the still-running Tomato a funny look. "Huh? Bighoof?"

He jumped as he heard heavy breathing from a large creature, and turned back around to find a large horse galloping toward him, a roaring neigh coming out of his drooling mouth. Cheese's blood ran cold, and he didn't give himself enough time to process the horse before he turned around and sped off in the same direction Tomato did, dropping the firewood and screaming at the top of his lungs.

His mind raced and his hooves did their rapid beat under him. Bighoof? Bighoof exists?! Just how did Tomato end up meeting Bighoof of all ponies?! He was going to have to ask Tomato how this mess happened... if they got out of this alive.

He winded through the trees, both to dodge and to attempt to confuse the much larger equine. He darted to the left, ran around a tree, and then darted to the right and did the same. He continued this in a zigzag pattern, which made Bighoof attempt to do the same, though his turns were noticeably much less sharp. Bighoof would crash into a tree, shake his head, and resume the chase... only to run into another tree. Cheese was too terrified to laugh at the continued running into trees that Bighoof did.

However, during his winding, Cheese had to leap over a bush at one point, and it slowed him down enough that Bighoof caught up and attempted to bite at his tail. That prompted Cheese to gallop faster, even though his legs were beginning to hurt and his lungs felt like they were going to explode.

His eyes darted around the woods as he ran, wondering where Tomato could have gone. If Tommy still could run as fast as he did in colthood, then he should be okay. Unless he ran off a cliff, or in the way of an oncoming train, or into another wild animal, or--

Bighoof snapped at Cheese's tail again, and Cheese forced his aching legs to run even faster, dodge trees, and jump over rocks and bushes. He cursed himself for letting his mind wander, and focused on coming up with a way to get rid of Bighoof. He looked all around for something--anything to get this feral horse off his tail. He glanced back at his pursuer, still roaring out those wild neighs.

However, found himself crashing into Tomato, and the two ended up rolling into a ball, bouncing a few feet forward. They would have stopped had it not been for the landscape dipping into a swell, and the Sandwich ball rolled down the hill, quickly getting the two covered in grass stains, dirt, and small pebbles. Cheese could see his world spin, and he could feel his stomach lurch as he kept rolling. His head hurt, and he closed his eyes in an attempt to stave off the nausea.

Finally, the rolling stopped when they crashed into a tree with a thick, red trunk. Cheese's head hurt even worse now, and he now had a rubber chicken in his face. His stomach churned, and he felt like throwing up.

Both Sandwich brothers sat up in a daze, but Cheese quickly shook himself out of it when he saw that Bighoof had not faltered in his pursuit and was barreling down the hill. Panicking, Cheese tucked Boneless 2 in his shirt, grabbed Tomato's tail with his mouth, and shimmied up the tree.

By the time he reached a branch too high for Bighoof to reach, the brown Clydesdale slammed into the trunk, which would have made them fall had Cheese not had a tight grip on both the branch and his brother's tail. He made sure Tomato was settled on the branch, though it was difficult when Bighoof started bucking the tree to shake them out. The entire thing was quaking, and Cheese and Tomato hugged the branch tightly, nearly lurching off of it.

As Bighoof kept bucking, Cheese yelled, "Tomato, what happened?!"

A buck and a rattling tree later, Tomato answered, "I didn't do anything! I was just shaving and he snuck up on me!"

The tree rattled again, and Bighoof roared. Cheese huffed. "Why's he so mad?!"

"I don't know!" Tomato clung on for dear life as the tree shook once again. He panted and asked, "Any ideas to get rid of him?"

Cheese held on, watching Bighoof bucking the trunk. "Well... uh..." The tree shook again, which was not helping Cheese's queasy stomach. "Ugh... I could throw up on him..."

Tomato let out a groan, which was rattled by Bighoof. "I guess I was right. He does hate ponies."

They had expected another buck, but to their surprise, Bighoof just snorted and paced by the tree, wickering at them and stomping his hoof. After a moment of sitting, Bighoof merely nickered and trotted off, and started to graze on the hill.

Cheese and Tomato sat up on the branch, and looked at the horse in astonishment. Cheese whistled. "Well, what do you know. We met Bighoof."

Tomato pouted at him. "Thanks for stating the obvious."

"Well, we know he exists for sure. You know a lot of ponies have been trying to snap a photo of him since cameras were invented? And nopony would believe that there was a crazy, wild horse living in some forest somewhere? It was almost as ridiculous as the Headless Horse!" Cheese's eyes widened. "What if the Headless Horse exists..."

"Due to it being headless, I doubt it," Tomato replied. He looked down at the grazing Bighoof. "Sheesh, you'd think this guy would live in the Everfree."

Cheese shrugged. "Eh, guess he can't compete with some of the creepy stuff in there. I've been in there more than once, I know. I once debated living there."

"...why? The folks in Ponyville don't like that place."

"Their fears made me decide against it." Then Cheese's face brightened and a smile came to his face. "Aha! I got it! You know how music soothes the savage beast?" He put a hoof behind his back. "Well, with my trusty accordion..." His face fell as he ended up patting his own back. "...where's my trusty accordion?"

Tomato pointed downward. "Uh..."

Cheese looked to where Tomato was pointing, and gasped at the sight of Bighoof now holding his accordion. Even worse was the trail of party implements that Cheese had accidentally dropped during the chase. His jaw was slack as he looked at the mess, as well as watched Bighoof play the accordion loudly and off-key.

Cheese bit at his hoof. "Oh, no no no no no, why? Why? Out of all the times to drop it, it had to be while being chased by Bighoof? Ugh, come on, my accordion's a delicate instrument!"

Tomato tapped his hooves. "If it helps... I saved Boneless 2."

Cheese hit his head against the trunk. "Well, I guess we'll be up here for a while... hopefully it can't get any worse."

Tomato bit his lip and crossed his legs. He looked away from Cheese in embarrassment, muttering something under his breath.

And then, Cheese felt a sharp pain in his flank, and the familiar accordion notes played. His tail pointed to a random direction, and Cheese groaned and hit his head on the trunk again. "Why now? Ugh... Cheesy Sense says to go to Nickerlite."

Tomato narrowed his eyes, shifting uncomfortably on the branch. "Are you always this testy after getting chased by a monster?"

Cheese turned and glared at him for a solid ten seconds, in a manner that told him to shut up. With a snort, he glanced down at Bighoof and said, "He's wearing your suit jacket."

"What?!" Tomato took a look at Bighoof, and sure enough, he was wearing the jacket, which was visibly ripping. "Oh, come on!"

"...take one down, pass it around, no more buckets of oats on the wall."

It was the evening, and the both of them were still stuck in the tree, passing the time by singing songs. Bighoof was still at bay, playing with the stuff that Cheese had dropped, and laughing like an idiot the whole time, though he occasionally barked to keep the Sandwiches in line and out of his way.

Tomato rocked on his part of the branch, legs still crossed and his tail on top of them. He looked at Cheese, who had just barely finished the verse. "Is he still there?"

Cheese looked down at the base of the tree. He sighed. "Yep, he's still there."

"What's he doing now?"

"Um... apparently my accordion and a rock wearing a party hat are in love. Seriously, he's got a soap opera going on down there." Cheese's leg twitched, and he slapped it. "Augh, he better leave soon or my Cheesy Sense is going to kill me!"

Both of their stomachs growled, to which Tomato said, "Or we'll die of starvation. Seriously, I hate that we're not allowed to eat." He rocked some more, and he crossed his legs even tighter. "Or relieve ourselves."

"Well, hopefully he'll get bored of us soon."

Tomato scowled. "Perhaps if you didn't make me use whipped cream as shaving cream..."

Cheese glared back. "Oh, you're blaming me for this?"

"Hey, I did say that it would attract animals. As of right now, Bighoof is an animal."

"In that case, let's call Fluttershy, I'm sure she'd be a big help! Besides, you didn't have to use it--heck, you didn't have to shave, ya know!"

Tomato snorted. "Facial hair feels weird to me. Why would I keep something I don't want?"

"Tough cookies, it's better than needing to go and having to hold it in all day while sitting in a tree." Cheese leaned against the trunk, pulled out a harmonica, and started to play a sad tune.

Tomato blinked. "Uh, Cheese? A harmonica is a musical instrument."

Cheese stopped playing. "Yeah, and?"

"Remember that idea you had about music soothing the savage beast?"

"Oh?" Cheese looked at the harmonica, and his eyes widened. He smacked himself on the forehead. "Oh! Duh, why didn't I think of the harmonica earlier?"

He whistled, getting Bighoof's attention. "Hey! Bighoof!"

Bighoof roared in response, making both brothers flinch. Still, Cheese continued, "Now, now, don't be like that. Let me play you a song on my lovely harmonica here." With that, Cheese took a deep breath, and started to play the first song that came to mind.

Tomato recognized the tune as one of his favorite songs, and silently wished that a piano was there to accompany it. Still, he had to gauge the reaction of Bighoof, who was intently listening to the music. Both Sandwiches watched as Bighoof blankly watched them, his ears twitching and his head tilting. The horse pursed his lips as he was trying to decide what to make of this song.

Finally, after about a minute or two, Bighoof roared, turned around, and bucked the tree. The resulting shake made Cheese drop the harmonica, and Tomato nearly falling off the branch, only to be saved by his tail. Now hanging from the branch like a possum, Tomato watched as Bighoof crushed the harmonica, and then threw the flattened instrument somewhere far away.

Cheese clung to the tree. "Did he not like the song?"

"Stupid horse, having no taste," Tomato snarled.

Bighoof roared once again, and started to buck at the tree rapidly. The tree was now in a constant rattle, which made both their stomachs churn and both their heads ache. Even worse, Tomato was in a precarious situation from where he hung. Although his tail was usually reliable, neither he nor Cheese believed that it could hang on for long in this situation. Tomato could already feel his grip loosening, and he looked at the ground pretty far down below. Hitting it was not going to be fun, and being within Bighoof's reach was going to be less so.

One final buck would make Tomato fall, and he was bracing himself for the inevitable.

Luckily, the final buck never came, as before Bighoof could do it, a mare shot out from the woods, jumped on his back, and caught him in a chokehold. Both Sandwiches watched in amazement as despite all of Bighoof's bucking and roaring neighs, the mare still clung on, without any sign of letting go. Bighoof ran away from the tree, still trying to kick her off, but it was all fruitless.

It was about a minute before she made a single move to wrestle him down, and she held him down on the ground for several seconds, giving him quite a nasty stare. Bighoof kicked and screamed to try to fight her off, but he soon cowed under her glare. He started whining like a puppy.

"Bighoof, what did I say about harassing travelers?" the mare scolded.

Bighoof looked away in shame.

The mare clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Shame on you, Bighoof! I told you time and time again that you don't bother ponies that are camping out here! I told you to mind your own business and keep yourself hidden, and they'd leave you alone. But, no, you just had to try to kill them, huh?" She released her grip on the larger equine, and both stood up. "Now... go. Go to your cave and think about what you've done."

With a hanging head, Bighoof turned around and ambled off. With a sigh, the mare looked up at the tree where the Sandwiches were. "You can come down now. He won't bother you no more."

Cheese let out a sigh of relief, and jumped down to the next branch. He grabbed Tomato from where he hung, and then climbed down the rest of the way. They met the mare at the base of the tree, seeing her up close. It turned out that she was an older mare, with a pink coat, golden eyes, and a light brown mane done up in a bun, with the exception of some bangs hanging from her left.

"Thanks for the help," Cheese said.

"Oh, it's no problem. I'm terribly sorry about Bighoof. Some days he's shy, and some days he's hostile. Can't really tell how he's feeling on any given day."

"So, uh, is he your kid?"

"Oh, no, he's not--I don't have any kids. I'm not even married! Still, I have to parent him whenever he pulls a stunt like this." She blew on her bangs, and then smiled warmly at them. "So what are your names, dearies?"

"I'm Cheese Sandwich, and this is my brother, Tomato Sandwich." He thrust out a hoof.

The mare took the hoof and shook it. "I'm Sedimentary Rock--but you can call me 'Seddie.' You're welcome to stay at my cabin until morning."

Cheese looked away. "Oh, well, we don't want to take advantage of--"

"Oh, no, I insist. Bighoof might forget about my scolding... again." Seddie sighed. "He always does."

Cheese sighed as well. "I guess when you put it that way... one night won't hurt."

Seddie clapped her hooves. "Good! I have a couple of spare rooms for lost hikers and campers. I promise you'll be safe. Follow me."

Seddie trotted off, with the Sandwiches behind her. While they did so, Tomato asked, "So... do you have an outhouse I can use?"

Author's Note

I have no idea how ponies trim their facial hair--but considering that they grow facial hair, I assume that they do. Let's not take this seriously, I only came up with that scene because I wanted to do a little parody of this song:

I'm going to be honest, the Garth Brooks cover is better--believe me, I have both on my Mp3. It just works better as a country song...
For some reason, when I was little, I had heard it as "Shaving", and I still find it funny to this day.

This chapter was kind of sort of inspired by the Bigfoot scene in A Goofy Movie. Except Bighoof is meaner... eeeeuggghh...

Oh, yeah, and raise your hand if you're happy to see Seddie again! That is, if you've read The Rock Farmer's Daughters...

3.2--The Big Sibling

Cheese forced a grin as he waved goodbye to Tommy from his seat at the table. The younger brother was being taken to the zoo by one of his friends, leaving Cheese home alone with Mom once again.

Tommy waved back. "Bye, Cheesy! See ya later!"

As Tommy shut the door behind him, Cheese's face fell, and he went back to the grand old torture of childhood.

Homework.

As he faced the paper, he glanced at his mother, who was sipping at a glass of water. When she finished her sip, she sighed, and looked at the garbage can, which miraculously did not have anything broken as a result of any burst of energy from her younger son. Then she looked at her older son, who had never broken any of her things. She shook her head.

"Siblings... quite an enigma. They always manage to be so different while bearing similar traits. I mean, just how did I end up producing both a quiet son and a rambunctious son?"

Even if he didn't have a pencil in his mouth, Cheese would have not answered. He rolled his eyes in response, knowing that the inevitable comparison that was coming. He tried to focus on his division, which unfortunately required him to divide big numbers with big numbers. He was stuck on number five, which meant he was wasting the afternoon on this stupid paper. He squinted his eyes, suppressing a snarl at the numbers lying before him. Who invented homework?

His mother sipped at her glass, rubbing her head. "I remember when my sister would drive me up a wall. I've tried to keep her in line, but our mother and father wouldn't let me. They always saw her as the little angel that could do no wrong, just because she was younger. Puh, all she was was a lazy, timid filly who always cried her way out of trouble."

Cheese winced. While he had his own problems with Tomato, at least he wasn't bad enough for Cheese to let out a string of insults about him. He was a little bit glad that Tommy was out with with friends this time, since if he kept bothering him, Cheese would never get his blasted homework done. He shook his head. If only all his outings were this convenient.

His mother finished her glass. "I'm glad you never got to meet her; she left once she earned enough money from her job and bought a house somewhere far away. I don't know, she never told us where she was moving. Even so, she would have been a bad influence on you boys had she stayed."

Cheese was curious about his aunt, but it was best not to question it. After all, what if she was as bad as Mom said? He nearly shuddered at the thought of his Dad's sister, Cocoa, who was not very nice.

His mother sighed. "Siblings are such a curse, I wish I had been an only child."

Cheese raised an eyebrow. She was exaggerating again. If siblings were such a curse, why did she have two foals? Why would she want to curse her firstborn with a little brother? And if anything, playing with Tommy made him happy. Though he wondered if Tommy was just happy to have fun, no matter who he was playing with. Would it have made any difference if Cheese wasn't around anymore, now that Tommy had made friends?

"Now, your brother's smart, but he's a destructive little animal. You're a mellow colt, but you're lagging behind..."

Cheese leaned into his hoof. Here we go again.

His mother walked to the sink, washed out her glass, and took out a towel to dry it. "Somehow, I need to make you two have the best of both worlds, so I won't be a failure as a parent. Imagine what you could become once you get those grades up. A doctor, a lawyer, a businesspony--perhaps even the mayor! The possibilities are endless, Cheese, and hopefully you'll become one of those I mentioned, settle down with Dolly's little girl, and maybe rise to the top and become a respected member of society. And Mozzarella will be a proud mother."

Cheese gagged. "Mom, I told you, I don't like Balcony Flowerbox."

Mozzarella scoffed. "Nonsense, Cheese. That's what all colts say about a filly that's their destined. Your father didn't like me when we were foals."

Cheese pointed at his glasses. "Mom, she called me four eyes and made fun of my hair."

"Some foals express affection that way. Besides, Dolly and I agree that you two would go well together. And if she and I agree, well, it must be a perfect match."

Cheese cringed. "Mom!"

She opened a cupboard and put the glass in it. "Don't argue, Cheese. Mother knows best. Besides, your brother has good taste in fillies."

Cheese stuck his tongue out. "Creme Brulee's worse... I need to knock some sense into Tommy..."

"He already has sense in that department. He just needs to learned to be sensible with that energy of his. Otherwise, he'll end up breaking something expensive."

Cheese sighed, and looked at his math paper. At this rate, with his mother yammering on, he'll never get it done. Though the thought of asking her for help was arising in his mind, he knew it was useless, and would most likely bring more of her scolding.

Mozzarella walked out of the kitchen, went to the coat rack, and grabbed a coat. As she put it on, she said, "Now, I have a book club to go to; your grandmother's coming over to watch you and make sure you finish that homework. After all, last time I left you home alone, you kept playing your noisy instrument instead of finishing that essay on frogs."

Cheese snorted. Of course she took a potshot toward his accordion. It wasn't like it was hurting anypony; all he was doing was making music. Still, he was tempted to smile upon hearing that Gramma was coming over. Being as nice and smart as she was, there was no doubt in his mind that she'd be a ton of help in helping him finish his homework.

Plus, he was curious about this sister of Mom's.

Cheese still sat at that table, at least now starting to get long division. Beside him sat his grandmother, Cucumber Melon, gently helping him through his problems. She spoke slowly and softly, going quiet to let Cheese answer the question once she had given the proper instructions. She worked with him on the last problem, watching as he wrote down the final numbers.

"...and that should leave you with a remainder of five," the green unicorn said.

Cheese breathed a sigh of relief, spat out his pencil, and ran to the coat rack to stuff the paper in his saddlebag. He then jumped onto the couch, glad that it was finally done. He smiled at his grandma, who walked in and climbed on the couch to sit with him. "Thanks, Gramma. I was worried that I'd never get this dumb division. After all, if I don't get it, Mom would yell at me again."

Cucumber shook her head. "Do I have to keep reminding her that scolding you like that instead of working through the problem will get her nowhere? There's challenging your children, and then there's just stressing them out."

Cheese turned and threw himself onto one of the throw pillows, looking up at the ceiling. "I hate math."

"Lots of ponies do, Cheesy, dear. Sometimes I wonder if it's even necessary."

"Necess... airy?"

"Necessary. It means needed."

"Oh." Cheese twiddled his hooves. "Is it?"

Cucumber nodded. "When you need to count things quickly, figure out how much time it would take to get from Point A to Point B, manage the bits you earn, to figure out just how many certain things you need for a certain event, make proper measurements for when you're building something... oh, goodness, why are there so many branches of math?"

Cheese whickered. "I don't know, but Tommy seems to have it figured out."

Cucumber blinked. "Oh? Well, good on him."

Cheese snorted and grabbed another throw pillow to mash in his face. "Why did he have to be the smart one? He keeps almost dying for being dumb! Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't save him and just let him die."

Cucumber gasped. "Cheese! That's an awful thing to say!"

Cheese sat up. "Sorry, Grandma, but he better stop running into the street, or leaning too far when we're near the bay or on the bridge or on a building, or approaching a scary-looking pony with candy. Maybe if he died, Mom would stop telling me to be as good at math as he is." He blew a raspberry. "It's only because he's got the easy math. Wait until he gets to division with BIG numbers."

Cucumber stared at him for a moment, her brow creasing. "Cheese... are you jealous of your brother?"

Cheese fell back onto the throw pillow. "No. Why?"

"The way you're talking, you sounded like you were jealous. I smell a sibling rivalry brewing."

"Why would I be? He's the one who's jealous of me!" Cheese grinned. "I'm the one who plays an instrument. He keeps wishing he could."

Cucumber pursed her lips. "I really need to talk to Mozzarella about how she treats you boys. I'm worried that she'll drive you two into a bad relationship like she and her own sister are in."

Cheese sat back up. "I wanted to ask about that. Who is Mom's sister? Is she as bad as Mom says she is?"

Cucumber sighed, and leaned back into the couch. "Your aunt Honeydew was a shy little filly, who could hardly bring herself to talk to very many ponies. She made it no secret that she hated city life, and oftentimes, the rudeness of some ponies made her cry. Yes, she was very sensitive, and didn't really want to share some of her personal desires with anypony.

"However, she loved nature and flowers and animals like there was no tomorrow. She loved it when we camped, and let me tell you, she was the type to roll in the dirt and make weird chirping noises at random objects. She'd play in the river, crawl through hollow logs, and pretend that she was a pegasus. Your grandfather and I held great joy in watching her explore, and wished for the day she'd bloom and express herself."

Cheese giggled, twiddling his hooves. "I know how she feels. I'm... kind of... shy myself. Say, was she a unicorn like you, Gramma?"

Cucumber shook her head. "No, she was an earth pony like your grandfather and mother. Anyway, she was pretty much the opposite of your mother." She frowned. "Unfortunately, instead of focusing on common ground, like the fact that they both had a love for dress up and enjoying swimming, they kept fighting about the things that set them apart. And, well... it always ended with Honeydew crying."

She rubbed her temples. "No matter how much Pizza and I tried to keep them from fighting, the fights only grew worse and worse. Honeydew always accused your mother of being too bossy and mean, and your mother always accused her of faking her crying just to get attention and being a spoiled brat. Their teenage years were a nightmare..."

She sighed. "Once they reached adulthood, Honeydew packed up and left, telling us that we let your mother be mean to her for far too long. After that, we never heard from her again. Our hearts were broken, and we thought ourselves horrible parents for letting it get out of hand."

She turned to Cheese. "I hope from the bottom of my heart that you and Tomato don't end up like that. Your bond has been a joy to behold since you've first held him and called him 'your baby'. Can you try your best to keep that bond strong, even after those times you do fight?"

Cheese crossed his front legs. "I don't know... he's got lots of new friends now, and hasn't played with me in a while." His face fell. "I'm just the lame, four-eyed geek that everypony picks on. He doesn't need me to embarrass him when he's got the 'cool kids' hanging out with him."

Cucumber leaned forward and put a hoof on his shoulder. "Don't worry, it's only the excitement of a new experience getting to him. He'll come back around. After all, no matter how many friends he has, there is nopony... absolutely nopony who can take your place in his heart. Not even his future spouse--if he ends up with one--could do that. It may not seem like it now, but he'll still need you for years to come."

Cheese looked into her brown eyes, pursing his lips. He slowly nodded, and just accepted the hug from his grandmother.

"Oh, I love you so much. You're such a wonderful colt, and I know you're destined for something amazing."

As they broke the hug, Cheese asked, "Gramma... you think when I'm grown up, I could find Aunt Honeydew? I'd like to meet her someday."

Cucumber chuckled. "Be sure to say 'hi' to her for me, Cheese."

The longer he sat on the red-and-purple plaid couch across from Sedimentary Rock, felt himself growing comfortable after sitting in a tree all day, and breathed in the pine smell, the more and more familiar that the mare looked. It struck him as odd, because when he went through these woods before, he never ran into anypony. Especially not Bighoof of all ponies. Boy, he couldn't wait to tell that crazy story, and he wondered if Tomato would tell it, or just assume that nopony would believe him and keep quiet about it.

He and his brother were wrapped in blankets, and in their hooves were mugs of hot cocoa. Tomato was looking curiously around at the pictures that hung from the walls, while Seddie sipped at her own cocoa.

"Well, you certainly like cats... and trains... and rocks," Tomato said, looking at each picture.

Seddie put her mug down on the coffee table and nodded. "I've always wanted a cat. Unfortunately, my father was allergic to not just cats, but also dogs, rabbits, and several other kinds of animals, so we never had a pet. Trainspotting is one of my hobbies, since I've found them fascinating since I was a little filly. As for the rocks... well, I grew up on a rock farm..."

Cheese chuckled. "What a coincidence! I have a friend who grew up on a rock farm. Gee, no wonder you're so tough."

"Yeah, rock farmers do develop great strength. And keeping Bighoof in check keeps me strong."

"Do you know how he came to be?" Tomato asked.

Seddie shook her head. "I don't. He just appeared out of nowhere one day and attacked me. Of course, I beat him into submission and he hasn't crossed me since." She giggled. "So, where are you boys from?"

"Manehattan," Tomato answered.

"Oh, Manehattan." Seddie sighed and leaned in her hoof. "I've been there... lots of character, lots of diversity, but also a lot of attitude! I've bumped into many a snippy pony while I was there."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "I hear that a lot. In fact, that's how my friend's first day was."

Seddie tapped her hooves together. "Oh, that wasn't my biggest problem. Quite frankly, the tall buildings scared me."

Tomato blinked. "I don't hear that often."

Seddie shrugged. "What can I say? Sometimes I wonder how they stay up. I just kept imaging a major disaster in that city that would make buildings fall over, or crumble, or shake some ponies off the buildings. No matter what, my mind just kept going to a worst case scenario involving skyscrapers where a lot of ponies die!"

Tomato stared at her for a moment, put his mug down, and hid under his blanket. "Thanks for getting it into my head. Sheesh, the buildings are supposed to be stable, lady!"

Seddie rubbed the back of her head. "Also, I couldn't catch a cab."

"It happens."

Cheese cleared his throat. "Well, if I'm going to be honest, I've actually been out on the road since I was eleven. I'm just dragging Tommy around on a road trip this summer to show him the rest of Equestria and strengthen our bond as brothers."

Seddie put a hoof to her chest. "Aww... so are you the older brother?"

Cheese nodded. "Yep! You got it on the first try!" Cheese put his mug down, reached behind his back, and pulled out a slice of cake. As he gave it to her, he said, "Your prize, ma'am."

Seddie blinked as she received the cake, and stared at it for a moment. As she sniffed it, she began to laugh. "Oh, my! Where did you get this?"

Cheese put a hoof to his lips and winked. "Shh... a party pony doesn't reveal his secrets."

"Not even to his brother," Tomato remarked from under his blanket. Cheese elbowed him in response.

Seddie giggled. "Like a magician? Well, I wouldn't want to ruin the magic now, would I?" She took a bite out of the cake, and hummed in delight. She gazed at the lump where Tomato hid as she chewed.

She swallowed her bite, and told him, "Make sure you appreciate the things that your big brother does for you; from what I gathered from my own big brother, it's a pretty tough job to look after your younger siblings. Cheese here is like... the gift that was prepared for you before you were born!"

Cheese put a hoof to his chest. "D'aw, I'm a gift? You're too kind."

"Well, you're both gifts to each other from your parents, am I right?"

Cheese's grin fell, and he glanced at the lump under the blanket. He recalled the day Tomato was born. As far away as it was, Cheese could still remember the soft colors of the hospital room, the nurse writing down the name of the newborn foal, the excited but reverent whispers of his grandparents, and the new baby smell. But most prominent was how amazed and happy he had been to cradle his baby brother with his own small forelegs. Cheese had not been much bigger than baby Tommy, but he still felt strong as he held up the little foal and announced, "This my baby."

But for the life of him, he couldn't recall if his parents smiled or not.

Cheese forced a grin, and he nodded. He felt like he was lying, but there was no way he could read his parents' minds. He was probably just overthinking it.

Seddie sighed, set her cake next to her cocoa, and leaned in her hoof. "Yeah, it's times like this that I miss my own brother."

Tomato poked his head from under the blanket. "Is he dead?"

"Oh, no no, he's... actually, I haven't contacted him in a long time. I don't know what he's been up to since the last time we've seen each other. Oh, I sure hope he married that mare he was courting..."

"So, uh... when did you last see each other?"

"About thirty years ago."

Cheese nearly jumped out of his seat. "Uh... just what happened between you two that made you unwilling to speak for that long?"

Seddie raised her head and raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Unwilling? Are you saying we're feuding?"

Cheese and Tomato glanced at each other and winced. Clearing his throat, Cheese said, "Oh, no, no, no, I didn't mean to imply that... okay, maybe I did. But that's just because neither of our parents saw eye to eye with their siblings, especially since our mom's sister ran off and we never met her, and Tommy and I are kinda sorta recovering from our own squabbles and--"

Seddie leaned forward and shoved a hoof in Cheese's mouth, her brow furrowed. Once she removed the hoof, Cheese sank in his seat, and it was his turn to hide under his blanket.

Seddie sighed once again. "It wasn't that we had a bad relationship--oh, no, we actually got along pretty good. It's just... I was a foolhardy teenager that didn't listen to his warnings about some things I was doing, and ended up getting myself into trouble and getting humiliated for it. The last time I saw his face, there was just so much shock and disappointment in it that I couldn't bear to look at him. So... really, I've just been too ashamed to talk to him for all this time."

There was silence. Cheese slowly brought his head out of the blanket, looking around and trying to find the words to say. Seddie picked up her mug and sipped, her eyes looking downward and her face somber. Tomato reached forward and picked up his mug, and started gulping down his cocoa. After a moment of thinking, Cheese gave up on coming up with consoling words, and did the same as Tomato.

Once the cocoa was finished, Seddie looked at the clock. "Perhaps you boys should get to bed."

So it was that they were spending the night in one of Seddie's spare rooms, where she'd let travelers and lost hikers and campers stay so they didn't have to spend the night outside. After all, with Bighoof out there, they were most certainly in danger.

The brothers laid in two beds that were across the room from each other and near the window. There were a couple of other beds on the other side of the room, and Cheese wondered just how many ponies had been lost at one time. There was a nightstand with a lamp between his and Tomato's beds, and there was a couple mirrors on the walls. But, other than that, the room was pretty bare.

Cheese laid awake in the dark, staring at the ceiling. Once morning rolled around, he'd have to gather all his party items, fix his accordion again, and then he and Tomato would head to Nickerlite. If he recalled correctly, they had to find the rail line and follow it there. Then, whatever shindig was being planned in the small town would be grand.

Still, he couldn't help but ponder about his role as the older brother. He glanced at Tomato, who was curled up into a ball and facing the wall, with slow, even breathing that indicated a peaceful slumber.

He recalled hearing somewhere that a big sibling was like a mini-parent, a foal who'd have to watch someone from a young age and be their protector, even though their parents were usually around. Seddie was right in saying it was a tough job, since he knew from experience just how irritating a younger sibling could be. He remembered all the times that Tomato had done something stupid to nearly kill himself, his obliviousness, his klutzy nature, the continual pestering to come out of his room and show Tommy's friends just how "cool" of a pony he was.

Even now, when he had become a far more mellow pony, Tomato found new ways to be irritating.

Cheese shook his head. Sometimes he wondered why he was born first. Sometimes he wondered why he wasn't an only child. Sometimes he wondered that out of all possible brothers and sisters, he got Tomato.

He looked at Tomato again, and just noticed that this was how their room had been arranged when they were foals--minus the extra beds and with more furniture, of course. Staring at his little brother, he was half-expecting Tomato to jump out of bed and right onto him, like when they were colts. He half-expected a request for them to sneak a midnight snack from the fridge. He half-expected a random telling of a dream, like that time Tommy blurted out his dream of Cheese being a dog and they played under a full moon.

He smiled. Of course it was those little, funny moments of bonding and playtime and inside jokes that made putting up with Tomato's annoying moments worthwhile. Those moments where Tomato would happily greet him when he came home from school; those days when they'd play in the fall leaves or the snow in the park; those hours they'd spend being cowspies and fighting Dr. Sauerkraut. Those colthood days when they had been two peas in a pod who believed they'd be "best brother buddies" forever.

He sighed. He was still ashamed to say that those days didn't last.

He had made a promise to Grandma that he'd try his best to keep their bond strong. But so much of the stress from nearly every single thing that was in his life got to him, and it didn't help that she and Grandpa had passed away soon after, so he had no one to turn to. And in turn, he shut out Tommy out of jealousy of all the friends, the high marks, and the praise the younger brother earned, and resentment of his own situation.

Cheese huffed and turned to face the wall. Why am I doing this again? His life back in Manehattan couldn't have been that bad if he had it good as a colt. Please, somepony tell me what he needs me for.

He wanted to hit himself after thinking that. He had to remind himself that the trip was only just beginning, they didn't even do a Summer Sun party yet, and that this whole thing would be worth it. After all, he was doing this because he loved his little brother, and wanted to see him happy.

Also, he Pinkie Promised. An that was a promise that he couldn't break.

Still, he couldn't help but worry that things would go bad again. He didn't want to end up like Mom and her sister or Dad and his sister. He didn't even want the kind of shame that isolated Seddie from her brother. He felt torn by her words spoken just a couple hours before, and the words of his mother from long ago.

Is Tomato a blessing or a curse?

Author's Note

And now, another flashback. :raritywink:

And more on the Mozzarella and Honeydew story. :trixieshiftright:

And more Seddie. :pinkiehappy:

And hot cocoa. Now I'm thirsty for hot cocoa. :derpytongue2:

Pfft, yeah, I'll just say now that the flashbacks won't exactly be in order. After all, we first have the Tomato's cutie mark flashback, then the setup for the big confrontation that made things worse between Cheese and Tomato, and then a flashback to before their grandparents died.

Eh, I just thought this flashback fit the chapter. :unsuresweetie:

Oh! I almost forgot! Credit for this "Balcony Flowerbox" filly that was set up for Cheese by his mom mentioned in the flashback goes to Scoots2. I hope you don't mind... I liked the idea... :twilightsheepish:

4.1--This Town is Too Small

Once morning came and Cheese had all his things gathered and his accordion and Tomato's suit jacket fixed, Seddie led them both, all dressed up as cowponies again, to the railroad. She navigated the woods quite easily, and kept an eye out for Bighoof, in case he was having a second bad day in a row. On the way there, she explained that following the railroad made for easier travel since they were heading to Nickerlite. Usually the train tunnel was an obstacle, since going through it meant that they were at risk of being in the way of a train with no escape, so she was taking them to an area past that point.

Once they were there, Seddie said, "And here we are. Things should be mostly smooth sailing, as long as you keep a good distance away from the tracks."

Cheese tipped his hat. "Thanks a lot, Seddie. We appreciate the help."

Tomato nodded. "Who knows how long we'd have been stuck in that tree if you hadn't come along."

Cheese playfully nudged his brother. "Reminds me of the time you got chased up a lamppost by a pack of dogs."

Tomato scowled at him. "Good to know."

Cheese turned to Seddie and grinned at her. "Are you sure that you don't want to come to the party? It's going to be fu-un..."

Seddie's face fell, and she backed up. She grinned nervously, and said, "Oh, I'm not all that big on parties these days--they're always too loud and the refreshments always make me sick. And there are a lot of drunkards walking the streets of Nickerlite, and I'm not big on that--I prefer Ponyville anyway. Besides... you never know when Bighoof is going to have a bad day. A lot of ponies go camping this time of year, don't ya know? They might be in danger..."

Cheese and Tomato glanced at each other. Something seemed a little off about her, especially with that forced grin. Before either could say anything, she exclaimed, "Good bye!" and rushed back into the forest.

Blinking, Cheese turned to his brother and said, "Well, she seems nervous about Nickerlite. I don't see why, it was just fine last time I visited."

Tomato pursed his lips. "Bluejinx works there during school breaks, and he doesn't have many complaints aside from most of the townsfolk being idiots."

Cheese grinned. "Hey... looks like we're seeing your pal soon!"

Tomato smirked. "Oh, yeah... boy, is he in for a surprise."

Cheese laughed and looked at the railroad. He turned right, and trotted alongside it. "Come on, baby bro! The party can't set up itself!"

Tomato rolled his eyes and followed.

It was about an hour of walking before they spotted some buildings. Once they did, they sprung into a full gallop, not going to waste another second. After all, the sooner they could get there, the more time there was to set up whatever party was going to be.

They soon found themselves looking down a dusty street of what looked like a small Old Western town. Various shops and small businesses lined the street, built out of what looked like old wood. Ponies were going in and out of the shops, with those exiting carrying various goods. In the case of one building, a pony with a strange headgear walked out, startling some ponies. Another building had a bottle shoot out of its doors and shatter on the door of the shop across from it. And another building had a pony with a scarily large smile trot out with a couple dozen loaves of bread.

Tomato watched as a cabbage cart rolled down the street and barrel towards him and Cheese. They sidestepped before the cart could hit them, and witnessed the collision between the cart and the train coming into the rock-themed station. The result was an explosion of cabbage leaves and splintered wood. Not five seconds later, a green pony dashed in between them, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"When I hear about small towns, they're usually described as 'sleepy'," Tomato remarked. "Or 'quiet'. Or 'peaceful'."

Cheese was still staring at the weeping cabbage merchant. "Yep, Nickerlite's a lively place." He walked forward, with Tomato alongside him. "Careful, these ponies have a tendency to gossip. The last time I was here, I had to pretty much beat them over the head with what the true definition of a party pony is."

Tomato quirked an eyebrow. "Which is...?"

Cheese sighed. "A spreader of joy and laughter--not some crazy drunk pony who goes around making 'love' and nasty messes in every town they go in. Seriously, they thought that about Pinkie..."

"Seriously? As far as I can tell, her mind doesn't even go there."

"Exactly! A lot of ponies don't seem to get it!" Cheese took a deep breath, and patted Tomato's back. "I'm sure glad you do. I was worried you wouldn't."

"In the long run, the crazy drunk pony you described would cause a lot of misery. I've met a few at school, and I hated them. Always telling me that I'm too uptight and need to get out more and do stupid junk like you described..." Tomato blew on his forelock. He glanced at Cheese. "Ever thought about giving Mom a wake up call like that?"

Cheese snorted. "I've tried. Got the same old verbal beatdown about how she's right and how I need to stop throwing my life away. You see why I don't visit often?"

"For years I thought it was because you hated me."

"Nah, I always liked you best, even when you were being a stubborn little grumpypants."

Tomato narrowed his eyes and glanced away. "Gee, thanks."

From the corner of his eye, Tomato spotted something blue. He turned to it, and sure enough, there was Bluejinx, whistling a merry tune as he set up a poster. He tapped Cheese's shoulder. "Hey, look who I found."

Cheese turned and spotted the blue unicorn. "Oh, goody! Are you going to sneak up on him?"

"Maybe... maybe not. Either way, he's going to be surprised," Tomato chuckled, casually strolling toward his friend.

However, as he walked, a pair of laughing foals crashed into his front legs and made him stumble. His chin hit the dusty road and made him bite his tongue. His back legs were still standing, albeit in an awkward position with his rear end up in the air, while his front legs were lying spread out in front of him. His hat covered his face, and his stomach felt just a tiny bit queasy.

"Stayman! Idared! You done gone and made somepony trip over ya!" a rough, male voice with a drawl yelled.

Cheese rushed to Tomato's side, and pulled him up by way of grabbing the collar of the serape. He fixed his brother's hat and dusted him off, as a large, green, red-headed pony passed by them, grumbling under his breath. He stopped when a filly and colt came back and slid to right in front of the Sandwich brothers.

Tomato couldn't help but compare how they looked to Flora. Both of the foals were light green with strawberry blonde hair, much like she was. Of course, the foals had green eyes, while Flora had blue, and the colt had freckles while the filly had her mane done in braided pigtails.

"Pardon us, Mister! We just got awful excited for the party!" the colt said.

The filly nodded. "Eeyup, and--" Her eyes fell on Cheese, and she lit up. She jumped forward to hug his legs. "Well, howdy again! I thought I'd never see ya again!"

Cheese grinned at her. "So, you remember me..."

"Eeyup! You here for the party, Mr. Cheese?"

Cheese smiled proudly. "Why, yes I am! I even brought my brother along for the ride."

That was when they noticed Bluejinx had turned around and was grinning at them. "Ah, I knew I heard a familiar voice!"

The green stallion gave Bluejinx a funny look. "You know the crazy Pie mare's beau?"

Cheese flushed red and backed up a few steps. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not jump to conclusions, fellas! Pinkie and I are amigos! Like, super duper party amigos that throw parties together from time to time! Yeah, you're just reading too much in it, guys... ehehe..."

Tomato turned to him and quirked an eyebrow. "Huh. I guess that smooch on the cheek at the last party was completely platonic."

Cheese grew redder than Tomato's fur as Bluejinx and the other pony laughed. He shot Tomato a glare and growled, "You're not helping!"

Tomato backed up and pursed his lips, tempted to stick his tongue out at Cheese. With a sigh, he turned to Bluejinx and asked, "So, mind introducing your friend and... whatever type of relative of his those twins are?"

The green pony narrowed his eyes at him. "My name is Cortland, and I'm only here because my brother and sister tripped you. And you are?"

Tomato gave Cortland an impassive look in return. "Tomato Sandwich."

The little colt marched up to him. "I'm Stayman!"

The filly jumped. "And Idared!"

Bluejinx then added, "They're Apples."

Tomato raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Apples, eh? So, what relation are you folks to Applejack?"

Cortland snorted. "Cousin."

Cheese popped up between them. "Ooo-kay, we are getting off track--what's the shindig about? My Cheesy Sense pulled me here, and it doesn't lie!"

Bluejinx walked forward and said, "It's the mayor's birthday. We were planning on having a surprise party in that field by the train station." He pointed in the general direction of the train station. "As of now, the Pie family is distracting him and his wife. How they're going about doing it, I have no idea."

"Goin' on about the history of rocks and makin' him fall asleep?" Cortland grumbled.

"Maybe they're showing him how they farm rocks," Cheese suggested with a grin.

Tomato glanced at the poster, which turned out to be a wanted poster for a rough-looking mare and stallion pair, labelled "Roanie and Stride". Pursing his lips, he jokingly suggested, "Perhaps they're out hunting those ruffians."

All went silent after Tomato said that. The way that the others looked at him made Tomato regret his joke, and silently remind himself that he was not the joking type. He winced as he expected somepony to yell at him.

It was Cortland who did so. "That was the most doggone stupid suggestion I have ever heard! The mayor is a short and scrawny little thing; he wouldn't last a minute against thugs like that! You think it's funny to joke about a couple of robbers like that? Well, you must think them gang members in cities like Manehattan, Chicacolt, and Los Pegasus must be hilarious!"

He looked up and down Tomato's body, and then lifted his poncho to find a brown suit jacket with a white button shirt and green tie underneath. He snorted. "You look like the type of pony they'd be after. Scrawny, and lookin' like a million bits. I wouldn't be surprised if you end up dead."

Cheese had his face in Cortland's faster than a wink, glaring daggers at him. "Hey! Don't you dare speak to my baby brother like that!"

Cortland blinked. "Baby brother?" He glanced at Tomato. "You really think of him as a baby?"

Stayman laughed. "He don't look like no baby! Does he cry a lot?"

Idared giggled. "I think he woulda been a mighty cute baby!"

Tomato's lips were tight, concealing the grinding teeth that laid within his mouth. Sometimes he wondered if Cheese always called him "baby bro" so he could be secretly condescending while still keeping that Pinkie Promise. After all, Tomato couldn't find that phrase endearing--more like rather insulting considering his age. He glared at the scene before him, wondering why he even bothered to humor Cheese with calling him that.

It's no different from those ponies back home who still think of me as that clumsy and annoying colt, even after I've outgrown those tendencies, he thought.

Cheese backed up from Cortland's face. "So? Foal or stallion, he's still my little brother, and I don't like that you implied those crooks would kill him should he meet them. You don't even know Tommy!"

Cortland huffed. "Oh, really? What would he do in a situation like that? I heard his kind turn tail and run off like the yellow-bellied cowards they are."

Cheese snorted. "Oh, sure, you'd assume that. But Tommy would..." He blinked and tapped his chin. "Tommy would... he would... uh..."

He's thinking of the Bighoof encounter, isn't he? Tomato exhaled through his nose. What else was he supposed to do? Hit him with the mirror? With Boneless 2? Try to imitate one of those crazy wrestlers?

Cortland pulled a wry grin. "Uh-huh... go on..."

"Well... well..." Cheese growled and stamped his hoof. "My brother's not a coward!"

"Well, why ain't he standing up for himself? Too afraid of my muscle?"

"Hey, everypony needs a second opinion. Besides, I'm his big brother, and I'm not about to let him be insulted like that."

"And you think the mayor should go after outlaws?"

"No, that's dumb, but he kind of included Igneous Rock in the joke, and Iggy's a pretty strong guy, so I don't think it was that bad of a joke..."

Cortland rolled his eyes. "You both have an awful sense of humor."

Cheese gave him a sour look, and growled in his low, gruff voice. "Listen here, cowpony..."

Tomato tuned out the argument, kicking at the dust. If anything, Cortland was right; he was the kind of pony who would retreat from that kind of situation with his tail between his legs, or just be the pony in distress, hanging out in a tree or lamppost, or nearly falling off something, or almost getting hit by a speeding carriage. He glanced between Cheese and Bluejinx, the two ponies who always had to rescue him from whatever disaster he got himself into.

He remembered a little term he overheard his mother use to describe him: A walking disaster. Cortland, in his argument with Cheese, was bluntly calling Tomato a burden. And looking at his own four legs, he received a silent reminder of how he was not built for outdoor work, and a flashback to a broken accordion reminded him of how he and parties don't mix.

He looked at his cutie mark. What good would that do out here?

Bluejinx came between Cheese and Cortland, and pushed them apart. "Okay! Okay! That's enough, you two. We have a party to set up, and it's best not to make a party pony angry." He leaned toward Cortland and whispered, "Seriously, Cortland, they're terrifying."

Cheese sat down on the ground, took off his hat, and pulled a pen and notepad out of it. "Righty-O! Sheesh, sometimes I forget I have a bit of a temper. Anyway... what do you guys have planned so far?"

Stayman hopped up and down. "Our family's providin' an awful lot of apple treats! We have caramel apples, apple pies, apple fritters..."

Idared looked up dreamily. "The candy shop owners are bringing lots and lots of candy! Oh! And I hope they bring their foal! She's so cute..."

Cortland crossed his forelegs and rolled his eyes. "There's gonna be a hoedown, too."

Bluejinx shrugged. "I'm just helping with the decorations. I can show you the party site if you'd like."

Cheese scribbled everything down and put the things back in his hat. He stood back up, slammed his head into his hat on the ground, and those rose back up with the hat on his head. "Not a bad idea. I'd like to know just where I could put the fruit punch lake and the hippo rides."

Bluejinx gave him a funny look. "Do you realize how dangerous and surly hippos are...?"

Cheese waved a hoof in dismissal. "Rupert's completely tame! That's a party pony guarantee."

As he and Tomato followed Bluejinx to the site, Cheese whispered to Tomato, "Okay, now, I was thinking that you could help Bluejinx decorate. I'm sure he'll be happy to have you as a helping hoof."

"Isn't he a unicorn? He has magic to do it himself." Tomato growled.

"Hey, now, don't judge based on pony type--that's a no-no. Besides, I've learned that unicorn magic can't do everything itself. A simple hoof can work wonders..."

"I might break something..."

"Sheesh, quit being so hard on yourself, you'll be fine. And then, once everything is all finished, you two go out to the Pies and retrieve the mayor. Then you three can happily trot on back, and then, boom! Surprise! Sound like a plan?"

Tomato was silent for a moment, pondering Cheese's plan. He remembered how Princess Twilight had told him that he couldn't avoid helping with the setup of a party all summer, and how it would rub Cheese the wrong way if he did. The last thing he needed was to get on Cheese's bad side again.

Besides, unlike Ponyville, Nickerlite didn't have a party disaster that involved him.

He glanced back at Cheese. "What if I run into Roanie and Stride?"

Cheese laughed. "Don't worry, baby bro. Last I heard, they had been in Dodge Junction. You'll be fine."

Author's Note

Yippee, this one turned out to be another groaner.

You'd think a chapter that puts us back in Nickerlite, and introduces us to main 'verse Cortland, Stayman, and Idared (and Mr. Green!) would be more exciting. Well, I had a rough time writing this, and as such... this is sub-par compared with some of my other chapters. Ugh... :ajbemused:

Hopefully, I can make things more exciting in this segment.

4.2--Into the Hills

The setup went off without a hitch--minus a few dropped treats and a few lost balloons. Still, none of those warranted a funeral, and were easily replaced. Ponies were excited for what Cheese Sandwich was planning, and everything was set up faster than expected.

Tomato still didn't feel fulfilled. All he did was carry a box of things, and occasionally hold down a ribbon so it could be tied. As nice as the colorful decorations were, he still felt like he didn't contribute enough. He was just a waste of space.

Still, he couldn't help but admire the party. The bows and ribbons were all in the mayor's favorite color--which apparently was various shades of purple. There were several kinds of cakes, cookies, and candies on the tables, and the bowl of fruit punch was big enough for about a dozen ponies to swim in. A mini-train, hippo rides, a large trampoline, and several makeshift bowling alleys were set up for the foals, and a large space was set apart for folk dancing.

The only things that were bothering Tomato was the presence of a clown and the unholy number of pickles and bowls of sauerkraut--the latter of which bothered Cheese as well. He opted to stand as far away from the pony and food as possible, and was even prepared to use Bluejinx as a weapon, much to the latter's annoyance.

Cheese stood proudly in the center, nodding in approval of everything. "All righty, then! Everything's all set up and we can start this thing once the mayor has been fetched. Bluejinx, Tomato?"

The pair saluted him, and trotted into the hills.

Once they were gone, Cheese sat down, and pulled out a hat full of strips of paper. "Who wants to play charades?"

The hills were quite lonely. There was nary a sound to be heard besides the clopping of all eight of the two stallions' hooves and the wind. All sounds of the party waiting to get started had ceased, and it was just two friends walking alone.

The hills had started out grassy. As they walked, however, the grass was beginning to get sparse, while rocks started to spot the landscape. Gradually, they came across less and less grass, and more and more rocks. They both found themselves watching their step, adopting evasive maneuvers to avoid tripping on rocks.

"Don't they ever smooth out this path or anything? You know, for pulling a cart?" Tomato asked.

"I've asked--Igneous Rock says that the rocky path doesn't bother him," Bluejinx says.

"Uh-huh. And if they're rock farmers, why are they called the Pies? And why didn't they name their daughter 'Rose Quartz' or something like that? I wouldn't expect the dull and serious type like Cheese described to name their daughter 'Pinkie Pie'."

Bluejinx chuckled. "Some folks around here joke that a 'Pinkamena' is some kind of rare mineral."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "And I'm a vegetable."

Bluejinx snorted and shook his head. He turned his head toward the mountains, which rose up beyond the nearby forest. His smile fell into a frown, and he stared at the snowy peaks sorrowfully and almost fearfully. His trot slowed down to an amble, and his ears twitched as if he were hearing something. He still gazed upon them, with his eyes widening as he grew more and more fearful.

Tomato noticed him slowing down, and then backed up to see why he was in such a trance. He didn't know what was going through Bluejinx's mind, and started tapping his shoulder. "Hey, Blue? Bluuueee? Hey, we have a job to do, remember?"

When Bluejinx didn't respond, that's when he pushed him. The unicorn stumbled to the side, and tripped on a rock. Once he landed in the dirt on his side, he looked up and glared.

"What was that for?" he spat.

"What is it about those mountains that's so hypnotizing?" Tomato asked. "Do you dream of being a mountain goat?"

Bluejinx snorted, and hoisted himself up. "Psht, no. I don't even like mountains."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "What, you have a personal vendetta against the landforms?"

Bluejinx glared at him. "No. I'm just not comfortable with the thought of ponies that actually like to climb those things. I mean... that's how I lost my father. He went mountain climbing on one of his free days, and he fell. He had been missing for a week, and when he was found... it was not a pretty sight."

Tomato blinked. "Oh... oh." He cleared his throat. "I know you've said before that he died when you were five, but I never knew until now just how he died."

Bluejinx sighed. "Yeah. It's kind of why Mom moved away from Nickerlite when I was small."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... you lived here when you were little?"

Bluejinx nodded. "Yep, I was born here. It was a very long time ago, and I could barely remember anything about this town before I started working for Aunt Purple. All I remember is clinging to Dad's leg whenever he brought me to town, sitting in the corner whenever I was at a group playdate, and just playing inside the house because I was a really shy colt. Seriously, I couldn't even recognize most of the ponies my first summer working."

"So... you don't have much memory of your father?"

Bluejinx looked at the mountain again. "He's the most vivid memory of this place I have. He was big and intimidating, and Aunt Purple said that he was one of the strongest ponies in town behind the Pies and the Apples--but he was also very kind and helpful." He resumed his trot. "Of course, Mom has told me that he used to be a criminal as a teenager, before he was abandoned by his gang, arrested, and sent to work at the Pie rock farm with other crooks to be reformed."

Tomato trotted beside him. "Okay, why didn't you tell me your interesting family history earlier?"

"Come on, would you admit your father had been a criminal?"

"...point taken."

Bluejinx nickered. "Yeah... as you know, he was successfully reformed, met my mom, they fell in love, married, and then had me." He sighed and looked up to the heavens. "Yeah, his last words to me were about how excited he was to see me use magic when it came time for it to manifest. And then he said that he was going to go exercise, kissed Mom goodbye, and that was the last time I saw him. The coffin was closed at the funeral."

Tomato looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry. I know it's been years, but still... I'm really sorry about what happened to your father."

Bluejinx sighed. "I know you are. Don't forget, Mom and I moved to Manehattan soon after. I met you while I was still grieving. And I won't forget that hug you gave me once I told you. I was worried you'd ridicule me for not having a dad."

Tomato recoiled at the last sentence. "Why would I do that? I saw you were sad, thought about what Cheese does for me when I'm sad, and thought it'd be helpful. So I just did it."

"And then you bopped Squirt on the nose for laughing at us."

"I don't know why we were friends with him; he was a jerk."

"Yep." Bluejinx shook his head. "I swear, had we not broken things off with them, I'm afraid we would have become monsters with no regard for anypony's feelings. After all... they weren't sympathetic to you when Cheese ran away."

Tomato looked down at the dirt. "I know. I don't think your father would have approved of those friends of yours."

Bluejinx snorted as he turned to look at the mountains again. "He wouldn't have wanted me to become as problematic as he was. Stupid mountain, with its steep cliffs that one could easily fall off of... why do they exist?"

Tomato scratched his chin. "I've read a tale of an ancient alicorn which had ample power over the earth and great strength--greater than any earth pony. She created the mountains and valleys and canyons and other landscape things to give more diversity to the landscape, the flora, and the fauna. She disappeared a long time ago, but there are some that believe that the earth alicorn will return. Whether that's for better or for worse, I don't know."

"And where did you read this?"

"I read it in this interesting book in Princess Twilight's castle while Cheese and I were in Ponyville."

"Hmph. I still don't like mountains."

"I don't expect you to suddenly like them after what I told you. After all, when something bad happens, you tend to avoid things that remind you of that event. I don't blame you for not wanting to be near any. Again, I'm really sorry about your father--I wish I could have met him."

Bluejinx turned to him and smiled. "He would have liked you." He faced forward again, and then stopped and pointed ahead. "Aaaand, there's the Pie house! I wonder if we can convince them to attend the party."

"Heck if I know. Cheese said they're stubborn."

Bluejinx snickered and broke into a gallop. "Race ya!"

Tomato stopped in his tracks, blinked, and then started to run himself, yelling, "Blue, that's not funny!"

They sped to the house, with Bluejinx laughing all the while. Tomato, on the other hoof, wasn't so thrilled to be sprinting. While he did understand that it was better to hurry and fetch the Mayor, that didn't stop the classic side stitch quickly forming in his side. He nosed his flank, wondering if it was something he ate that was making it hurt.

Naturally, he failed to notice where he was going and smacked face first into the front door.

He fell into an ungraceful heap just as Bluejinx arrived. With a grimace, the unicorn remarked, "Ouch... uh, well... at least you won."

The door opened to reveal a purplish-gray mare, with short, silver hair and apple green eyes. Glaring and tilting her head, she looked up at Bluejinx and said, "Hey! Mr. Bluejinx, was this guy trying to break in? If he was, that's the most stupid way of going about it."

Bluejinx bit his lip. "No... he just wasn't looking where he was going, Limestone..."

Tomato shot a hoof up and announced, "Burger, I am not! I am the ultimate alicorn..."

"Where are your horn and wings, then, oh crown prince of Equestria?" Limestone replied.

"Sesame street... what does it mean...?"

From behind Limestone came another mare, this one being light gray with darker gray hair, and violet eyes accompanied by thick eyelashes. Upon looking at Tomato on the ground, she grimaced, backed up behind her sister, and whispered, "Is he all right?"

Tomato shook his head, and quickly stood up. "I'm all right, I'm all right! I ache a little, but it's nothing. I should really look where I'm going."

Bluejinx cleared his throat. "Well, anyway, we're here for the mayor."

"Good." A stocky older stallion strode out the door. He had a tan coat, gray sideburns, and gold eyes. He wore a black work hat, a white collar, and a black tie. The years were evident on his face, and his barrel and legs were solid and steady. He twirled a strand of wheat in his mouth, and he gave the ponies before him an impassive but stern gaze that was sure to cower even the biggest of ponies. Tomato blinked at the sight of the pony, and wondered if this pony was the mayor.

Soon after, a shorter and skinnier pony with a purple coat, a white sash, a monocle, and a large white mustache hopped out. "Oh, hello, boys!" He paused an looked at a confused Tomato. "Ah, so Purple Prose's nephew has made a new friend! A tall and suave city boy from the looks of it. I dare say that that's adorable!" He turned to the tan pony. "Don't you think that's adorable, Igneous?"

Tomato's gut was telling him that the shorter pony was the mayor.

Igneous rolled his eyes. "Tis fine."

The mayor clapped his hooves and turned to the door. "Ginger! Ginger! Come meet the journalist's new friend!"

Bluejinx chuckled nervously. "No, no, Mayor... he's actually an old friend from Manehattan. I've known him since I was small."

An off-white, redheaded mare came out soon after. She simply looked at Tomato, and said, "Hm. Well-dressed."

Tomato forced a grin. "Um, thanks?"

Igneous was looking at him as well. "By all accounts, I haven't seen thee before. So why does thy face seem so familiar?"

As Tomato felt his face in confusion, Limestone and her sister stared at him closely, trying to find the answer. They rubbed their chins, scanning him up and down. She swiped Tomato's glasses off, and looked into his eyes only for Tomato to swipe them back and snort at her. She growled back, and the two were caught up in a little glaring contest.

The gray one glanced at her father. "Pa, he looks like that party pony friend of Pinkie's."

Igneous slightly raised an eyebrow. "Hm, so he does. It's probably just a coincidence, Marble."

Bluejinx laughed. "Hardly! This here is Tomato Sandwich, brother of Cheese Sandwich."

The mayor gasped. "You mean that super duper party pony that worked with Igneous' daughter in the Grand Festival of Gratitude a few months ago?! You're his brother?!" He jumped forward, grabbed one of Tomato's hooves, and started kissing it. "All families of party ponies must be blessed by the Princesses herself!" Each smooch on Tomato's foreleg got harder and wetter than the last. "You must have been such a wonderful and inspiring big brother to Cheese!" He kissed the leg some more. "I thank you in behalf of Nickerlite!" He kept on kissing the leg.

Tomato glared at him. "I'm his younger brother. And would you be so kind as to get off of me?!"

Igneous pried the mayor off of Tomato's foreleg. "Mr. Mayor, these two shall escort thee and Ginger back to town now."

The mayor sheepishly grinned and rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, erm, right."

Limestone turned to Igneous. "They'd better hope that Roanie's gang doesn't attack them, because the Tomato fellow's legs look like bones with sleeves, and the last time I checked, Bluejinx isn't exactly a master spellcaster."

Bluejinx sighed. "My magic's at least strong enough to carry a full grown pony."

Igneous twirled the wheat in his mouth. "Hm... their return trip is risky, especially since now they have the mayor with them. Bandits and Diamond Dogs will attack anyone they perceive as weak. Perhaps it'd be prudent that a couple of us go with them and ensure a safe trip."

Tomato and Bluejinx looked at each other in alarm. The latter turned and said, "Eeyeah, some extra muscle will be nice."

Limestone spat. "Puh, sure, I'll keep an eye on these fools. I'm the only pony who could keep them from getting squashed."

Igneous sighed. "Now, Limestone, do not get caught up in pride. Thy sister is just as capable of handling those as thou art." Igneous looked at Marble, who was wide-eyed with fear at the implication of that. "Darling, I'm well aware of how strong thou art, and I trust thee to keep these ponies safe by your sister's side. Thou didst defeat Bert and Ernie, after all-gang members should be easy."

Marble stared for a moment before nodding, and then slinked up to her sister's side.

"I wish thee well, and come home safely, my daughters," Igneous said.

Limestone huffed."Let's get going already, Marble--the sooner we finish this, the sooner we can get home and have supper.

"Mm-hm," Marble mumbled.

The sisters trotted to the sides of the other ponies, and they started walking the path back to town. Tomato merely glanced at them, thinking about how odd it was that Pinkie Pie had grown up with those two, plus an extra sister who wasn't home apparently. Just how did Pinkie turn out the way she did when she was born here? Then he wondered how often she visited her family.

Bluejinx had another thing on his mind. "Who's Bert and Ernie?"

Limestone curtly responded, "Diamond Dogs. They kidnapped us once."

That was when the Mayor stopped, shouted, "Hold on!", and turned around to interrupt Igneous going back inside. The tan pony groaned from the Mayor's presence, and turned to give him an annoyed look, which the mayor clearly didn't read correctly when he asked, "So, Iggy... do you like waffles?"

"No." Igneous slammed his front door.

Author's Note

Don't you just love groaners? I sure don't! :trollestia:

And so, we get a little family history lesson from Bluejinx. :raritywink: I admit, I had to resort to making him a small and shy colt that didn't get out of his house much when his family lived in Nickerlite so it didn't contradict too much with his portrayal as a 'newcomer' in The Rock Farmer's Daughters. :twilightsheepish: I wasn't really focused on developing his backstory beyond 'Tomato's childhood friend' at the time.

Hooray, we see the Pies again! :pinkiehappy: As for how the heck Tomato knows of their relation to Pinkie--Cheese met them and told him about them in a letter in the epilogue of Brother Bothers.

4.3--Dirty Fighting

The group of six walked through the hills, the mayor animatedly jumping around and chattering away about random subjects. He seemed especially fond of Tomato, or rather his position of being the sibling of a party pony. Tomato wanted to remind him that Marble and Limestone's sister was a party pony, but the small stallion just wouldn't shut up. It didn't help that his voice was just so obnoxious that it grated on his nerves and made his fur bristle. Tomato wished Ginger would tell her husband to calm down and keep his mouth shut.

He glanced at Bluejinx, who had his head slouched forward and was rubbing a temple, and then to the Pie Sisters, who held half-lidded looks and exchanged eyerolls every time that the mayor said something stupid and obvious, with Limestone letting out loud groans and snapping, "Shut up!" every so often, though that was in vain. He looked at Ginger, who showed no reaction to anything. She didn't even appear to emote at any point.

Tomato suddenly found the mayor on his head, curiously holding his forelock and saying, "You know, I've never seen forelock this curled for somepony with straight hair." He yanked it further. "They're usually on those with curly-"

In response to the forelock being pulled, his mane exploded into its natural curls, launching the mayor into the air. Tomato froze as he noticed the others staring at him. He shot a glare at the giggling Marble and guffawing Limestone, who still laughed even when he made it clear that he didn't like it. In fact, they almost seemed to be teasing him.

Bluejinx caught the mayor with his magic, and put him on Ginger's back, saying, "Put a leash on him, please."

"And a muzzle," Tomato added, trying to slick his hair back.

Limestone stared at him as he tried to do so. "You never mentioned your hair was curly."

Tomato groaned. "Yes, it is. Makes it a little difficult to slick back, but I manage."

Limestone and Marble glanced at each other. Then Limestone continued, "Why do you even bother? Trying to keep it straight seems like more work than it's worth--on my farm, doing nonsense with our hair wastes precious rock farming time."

After a couple dozen swipes, Tomato finally managed to slick it back to his usual style, his forelock springing up as it always did. "Well, I'm no rock farmer, I'm a business student. Ponies don't take me seriously with curly hair. Combined with this suit, it looks ridiculous, and ponies have a tendency to stare, which I don't want them to do."

Marble patted at her hair and muttered, "I personally think curly hair is beautiful... our sister pulls it off quite nicely."

Tomato sighed. "It fits her personality... not mine."

Limestone pointed at his head. "Okay, pal, explain how you slicked it back so fast-there's no way naturally curly hair can be that easily managed!"

Tomato's mane exploded again. Tomato was silent for a moment before he growled and glared at Limestone. He went to work at slicking it back again, snarling, "Don't point it out! It refuses to stay whenever it's pointed out."

The mayor clapped. "I like your hair, mister! Are you a party pony, too?"

Tomato turned to show him his cutie mark. "No."

Bluejinx whistled, looking around at the hills nervously. "Um, hey... we should get moving. We have to get to town soon, and I have the feeling that we're not alone out here."

Ginger blinked and said. "Listen to the unicorn. Roanie and Stride are at large, and there's a chance that they'll target us."

The mayor gasped and buried his face in Ginger's red mane, Marble and Limestone merely glanced at each other, and Tomato scoffed, saying, "Okay, Cheese told me that they were last seen in Dodge Junction. Quite frankly, I don't think we'll see them."

They had barely walked a few steps when the ground rumbled. Shortly after, a large Diamond Dog burst out of the ground, mounted by a smug-looking mare, sending dirt flying everywhere in their wake. She was followed by a wicked-grinning stallion doing the same. Then several others riding smaller Diamond Dogs burst out of other places in the ground, leaving holes in the landscape and sending waves of soil falling on the group. Each dog jumped out of the holes and landed before them with a tremendous slam, and then both equine and canine cackled as they laid their eyes on the shocked group before them.

The mare grinned. "Well, well, it looks like we've finally met the mayor of this pathetic town, eh, gang?"

The stallion chuckled. "And looks like he assembled the most pathetic entourage to protect him! He really is a dunce, Roanie."

The members of the group blinked, and then glared at Tomato, who sheepishly shrugged.

Roanie slid off the biggest Diamond Dog, and casually strode toward Ginger. From what Tomato could see, she was definitely a roan, with dark gray legs and face, with the rest of her body looking a lighter gray from the white intermingling with the gray. It surprised him how much she looked like Rarity, though she was an earth pony and had green eyes. She was wearing a brown, wide-brimmed hat, a brown vest, and brown boots. She was dirty from head to hoof, but she was clearly wearing the dirt proudly.

She reached Ginger and thrust out a hoof. "Name's Roanie." She tilted her head toward the mint green stallion on the other big Diamond Dog. "That's my husband, Peppermint Stride. And of course, the gang, and our new Diamond Dog friends."

Ginger swatted the hoof away. "Drop the nice act. I know what you're here for."

Roanie backed up, and scowled at her. She took a deep breath and stood up straight. "Good to know. Then I suppose you know that if you ponies do exactly as I say, nopony gets hurt. After all, need I tell you about the last ponies that refused to cooperate?"

The mayor pulled his face out of his wife's mane, quaking violently. Looking up at Roanie, he sputtered, "W-W-W-What do ya want with me?"

Roanie glared at him. "Your honey figured it out before you did, you idiot. Me and Stride wanna try runnin' a town, and little ol' Nickerlite seems just right for us and our friends. After all, if a knucklehead like you is the mayor, how hard can it be?" Her eyes narrowed, and she snatched the mayor off of Ginger's back. "You best give it up, lest you and your friends meet a very messy end in these hills."

Ginger grabbed the mayor and held him close. "You're not going to hurt him, and I'm not allowing you to run our town into the ground!"

Bluejinx stomped a hoof and stepped forward. "Yeah. Who gave you the right to just demand the position of mayor when you don't even live here? I'm certainly not willing to let you outlaws just waltz in and take over."

The mayor shuddered some more. "I am!"

Tomato glared at him. "You're not helping."

Roanie shook her head slowly, clicking her tongue. "You morons seem to be forgetting something... we're stronger than you, you're outnumbered, and..." She pointed behind her. "We've got the Diamond Dogs on our side."

Bluejinx smirked. "Well... we've got Pies on our side."

Roanie blinked. "Whaddya mean 'pies'? What's pastry got to do with anything?"

Limestone and Marble glanced at each other, with a devilish smirk on the former's face and the latter donning a more serious, stony expression, and nodded at one another. It was then that they bolted forward, rolled into balls, and bowled all the Diamond Dogs over, with the ponies either getting squished under the weight of one of their mounts or flying off in random directions. The sisters sprang out of their balls, and once they landed, they turned around and pawed at the ground, snorting at their opponents.

As Roanie stared in shock, Bluejinx smugly replied, "I meant the Pie sisters there, those tough and lovely mares. They're rock farmers--you know, some of the strongest ponies in Equestria? It's a very good thing that they came along with us."

Roanie growled, and then swung around to punch Bluejinx to the ground. "Shut up, Jasper!"

Tomato jumped at the action, and without thinking, he instantly rammed her away from his friend. As he paused to help Bluejinx up, he asked, "Who's Jasper?"

Dazed, Bluejinx replied, "...the friendly ghost?"

"No, I said, 'Jasper.'"

Bluejinx shook his head. "Well, the only Jasper I knew was my dad, but there's bound to be plenty of other-"

That was when they heard a voice roar, "Nopony touches my wife!"

Tomato was suddenly tackled by Stride, and the two were rolled in a ball, bouncing along the landscape like a tumbleweed. During each bounce, Tomato could barely hear Bluejinx ordering the mayor and Ginger to get help, and Roanie shouting something at Bluejinx. As he and Stride rolled farther and farther, the latter started trying to beat him up.

Tomato's head was dodging each punch from Stride, with the fear that one of those hooves might just crush his head. He could feel one scrape his cheek, and the other nick his ear. Both wounds stung, especially when they hit the dirt, and the rocks that were scattering the ground were no help each time that they stabbed at his back. He could hear his own heart pounding in his ears, and he started praying for a way out of this mess he was in.

Meanwhile, Limestone and Marble dragged each pony and Diamond Dog away from the direction that Ginger and the mayor ran. Or rather, they stood in between them and bucked them away.

The ponies were fairly easy to knock out, since they quickly learned that both Pies were too fast to let them pass so easily. They go beyond the imaginary line that was set by the girls--they were met with a pair of gray hind hooves. What had seemed like dainty little mares before proved to be quite the obstacle, and there were hoofprints on the faces of multiple ponies.

The Diamond Dogs were harder for the Pies, however, and one large one in particular leapt over them, barking, "Ribbit!" as he did so. Once he landed, however, an angry Limestone grabbed his tail, and dragged him back to the designated fight area.

Marble grabbed a couple of Diamond Dogs, and threw them into their comrades. She looked back, watching as the mayor and his wife still ran. She saw another of the thugs run after them, and jumped toward him. She landed on his back, grabbed his neck with her hind legs, and then jumped forward, making him tumble forward onto his face. Then, Marble bucked him back to the fight area, hitting one of the larger Diamond Dogs in the face.

Limestone was still pulling the larger Diamond Dog when she was tackled back first to the ground by a couple of stallions. She let go of the dog's tail, and the dog hopped away, croaking like a frog. Her head hurting and her ears ringing, she looked up at the greedy looking stallions above her. She didn't like the smirks they sported, and she was offended that they were even looking at her like that. She snorted, and she kicked the two off of her, rolled onto her stomach, and went back to fetch the ribbiting canine.

Bluejinx was face to face with Roanie. He wasn't quite sure just what he was doing--he wasn't trained in any form of combat. He wasn't even sure if the one thing that he could use--his magic--was even particularly useful for this situation. The best he could do with it was just lift her for a short time to inconvenience her--and even then that required his entire concentration and he couldn't do anything else.

His heart pounded as he and the mare circled each other. He kept glancing at the Pie Sisters, hoping that one of them would come over and save him from this pony. He did not want to be face to face with an outlaw.

The first thing that Roanie did was pounce toward him like a cat, and Bluejinx instantly grabbed her with his magic, making her freeze in midair. She scowled at him and shook his head.

"What a coward you are," she sneered. "Fitting, considering you resemble an old friend of mine."

Bluejinx held his breath, his brow sweating. Already, he could feel himself being strained by the weight of Roanie. She was heavier than Tomato! Still, he still held on, knowing that once she was released, she was not going to have mercy.

Roanie smirked. "Yanno, it was these very hills that I last saw him. I can't help but wonder if your name is Jasper Horseshoe Jr."

A surprised Bluejinx dropped her, and promptly received a buck to the face. He was thrown back by the impact, and rolled in the dust several feet away. He laid there for a moment, feeling the skin around his eye beginning to swell. He shakily got to his hooves, wiping drool from his mouth. It was faster to mentally put the pieces together over what she had said than to regain his balance.

He saw Roanie galloping toward him for another attack, and once again he summoned his magic to make her freeze. However, this time, Roanie only smirked.

"Idiot got caught by the sheriff and farmers living around here, and was forced to work on a rock farm. Hmph, serves him right for sparing that pathetic little unicorn mare. To think he used to be so fiery and daring before getting weak in the knees."

Bluejinx tried to throw her, but his magic failed him, and he found himself thrown, landing on some rocks and receiving some bruises and cuts. Once again, as he was getting up, Roanie came his way, and he stopped her with his magic once again.

Roanie clicked her tongue. "Can't rely on your magic forever, buddy. Besides, you have that little unicorn's eyes. No doubt in my mind that you're Jasper's son. So, where's your Pa?"

Bluejinx bit his lip and looked at the mountains. That was where he was last. Where he was last before he died. That place had ensured that Jasper Horseshoe would never again see his wife or his son. The very thought left Bluejinx misty-eyed, wishing that he was still alive.

He was unsure of the consequences of an honest answer, but either way, it wasn't going to be pretty. After all, he was fighting his father's former gang. He had always wondered what they were like, but he never would have guessed it was the infamous Roanie, Stride, and their gang. He felt his magic waver, so he was going to answer quick.

He took a deep breath as his magic released her. "He's dead."

Roanie blinked, and her brow furrowed. She reared up, and then punched him, making him stumble back and land on some more rocks. She ambled toward him, her face in a snarl.

"Darn it! I wanted to kill him myself! He nearly got me and Stride caught thanks to his stupidity! Good thing it backfired..." She grabbed Bluejinx and brought him up to face level. "Still, I wanted to see him one last time before I spat in his face and threw him off a cliff! Ah, well... I guess you'll have to do... say hi to Jasper for me..."

Bluejinx glared at her, and then used his magic once again. However, he used it to lift several rocks, and chuck them at her with full force. The first rock made her drop him, and the second one made her stagger back. Bluejinx backed up as more rocks pelted her, a smirk of satisfaction on his face.

"Don't get too cocky," he said. "Especially when I can still grab other things with my magic."

Roanie roared, and threw rocks at him back. There was soon a rock-throwing war.

"This is stupid."

Cheese gave Cortland a funny look, and nudged him. "Aw, come on, Corty! Nothing wrong with acting like something silently and letting others guess what you're acting like! I mean, look at your pop!"

Cortland looked up at the center of the field, where his father, Haralson, was strutting and sticking his nose up in the air. As ponies laughed, Cortland's face turned red, and he covered it with his hat. "Like I said... this is stupid."

Cheese blew a raspberry and muttered, "Geez, you're grouchier than my brother." He turned his head to look at the hills where Tomato and Bluejinx had gone earlier. "Speaking of whom, shouldn't he and Bluejinx be back by now? I hope they didn't run into any trouble."

That was when he spotted an off white, redheaded mare, carrying a small, purple stallion with a big white mustache on her back. He heard somepony holler, "Hey, there's the mayor!" and soon enough, everypony else had leapt up, and shouted, "SURPRISE!!! Happy Birthday, Mayor!"

The pair had frozen in their tracks, and the mayor gasped upon seeing the party. He screamed in delight, and started running around and rambling excitedly about the wonderful party he had received. He especially screamed upon seeing the pickles, and started to munch on them happily. All the while, his wife just stared blankly at him.

The mayor gurgled, "WOWEE! I didn't expect such a great birthday present!" He galloped toward the giant punch bowl and dived in, swimming without a care. He peeked out of the bowl, spotted Cheese Sandwich squeezing out of the crowd, and waved at him. "Hoo hoo! And the Super Duper Party Pony strikes again! Equestria is blessed to have you!"

Cheese chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head, shouting back, "Hehe, yeah!" He looked at the hills again, and nibbled on his hoof. The mayor and his wife were here, but without Tomato and Bluejinx. He felt an deep pit in his stomach, and he felt like he was going to explode with anxiety. He turned to Ginger.

"Say, uh, Ma'am, did you and your husband happen to pass by two stallions; a short blue, white-haired unicorn and a reddish-orange earth pony about my height but an inch shorter not counting the dark hair which should be slicked back even though it's actually curly and he wears glasses and we have the same eye color and he's dressed all stuffy and businesslike even though he should really lighten up and--"

Ginger stopped him. "Cheese Sandwich, we ran into a gang in those hills."

Cheese blinked. "A... gang?"

Ginger nodded. "A gang of about ten, lead by Roanie and Stride, and they were riding Diamond Dogs. The two stallions you sent to pick us up, as well as two of the Pies, are distracting them while we're getting help... unfortunately, my husband's a little distracted right now."

Cheese's face turned red, and he was grinding his teeth. "And you left my baby brother to fight a gang?! Four against ten ponies plus some Diamond Dogs?! They're outnumbered, even with two Pies at their side! You practically left my brother for dead out there!"

"Calm down, calm down!" Ginger was wide-eyed at Cheese snapping at her like that. "Look, I'm getting the sheriff and some of the toughest stallions in town."

Cheese glared darkly at her as he put a helmet on, and growled in a low voice, "I can take care of them myself."

Tomato never thought he'd see the day when he'd be wrestling with a smelly outlaw in the middle of nowhere.

For a guy whose first name was "Peppermint", this guy reeked. Tomato was debating just letting Stride bash his head so he didn't have to deal with the awful smell. Then again, Tomato never wanted a messy death like that, so his head just kept on dodging Stride's punches.

They somehow ended up rolling to a place where Tomato could see the Pie residence, and could feel the presence of rocks everywhere they rolled. He still couldn't get Stride off of him, they were both covered in dirt, and he still had no idea just how to get out of this situation alive. This was something that he couldn't get Cheese or Bluejinx to rescue him in time; he was on his own.

His face ended up hitting the ground, and unfortunately, he got dirt in his mouth. He spat the dirt out, and a glance told him that it had become mud from mixing with his saliva. He looked forward at the rage in Stride's eyes as another punch was thrown. Tomato turned his head, getting scraped by the hoof again, and his tongue just flopping out involuntary. He nearly spit out the dirt again, but looking at Stride's eyes gave him an idea.

As they continued to roll around, Tomato took every opportunity to get some dirt in his mouth. Turning his head to dodge a punch, finding his face forced into the ground, and his feigned attempts to escape the ball, which resulted in him being yanked by the tie back in and hitting the ground face first. He used his tail to redirect the ball into less rocky paths and to make it a little more difficult for Stride to hit him.

He swished the collected dirt in his mouth, trying hard not to cringe at the taste of mud. Still, he kept tight lips as he dodged the punches from Stride, and was gauging for the right moment to strike. His neck was hurting, so he didn't know how much longer he could keep this up. As far as he knew, he only had one shot.

After a while, Stride broke the ball, and opted for the option of just lifting Tomato up by the collar so he had a cleaner shot. The scrapes on Tomato's face were not good enough for him, and he was certain that there was no escape for Tomato this way. The younger stallion's lanky limbs could not compete against the older one's muscles, and that meddlesome tail was out of the way.

"Now, hold still; I'm teaching you a lesson in not touching another pony's spouse!"

Tomato glared at him, and merely bent his neck back to dodge the punch that came after that sentence. Though his muzzle got scraped, his head sprung back into place, and in doing so, he spat out the mud right onto Stride's eyes. The bigger stallion gave a shout in surprise, and ended up dropping Tomato in order to wipe the mud out of his eyes.

Tomato smirked and pumped a hoof. "Bullseye!" Then he hopped back up onto his hooves, and sped toward the house.

He reached the house and rapidly knocked on the door, glancing back at Stride. His heart pounded as the bigger stallion had wiped the last of the mud off his face, and was blinking to remove the rest, dirty tears streaking down his face. Tomato pawed at the ground nervously, hoping that Igneous or somepony else in the house would answer before Stride could see enough to find him.

A white mare with grayish green hair opened the door. She looked up and down at the pony before her and asked, "Can I help thee?"

Tomato glanced behind him, seeing a red-eyed Stride gallop toward him. "There's this crazy outlaw trying to kill me."

She looked behind him as well, and snorted. "Of course there is." She trotted out the door and then stood in between Tomato and the approaching thug. She turned around, and once Stride was close enough, she shot out her back hooves, knocking the pony out with a single buck. Then she turned around, poked the unconscious stallion, and grunted in satisfaction. "That should do it."

It was then that Igneous came out of the door. "Cloudy, who's at the-" He spotted Tomato and grunted. "Thou hast returned quickly. What be the emergency?"

Cloudy pointed at Stride on the ground. "This fellow was bothering him."

Igneous blinked and approached the unconscious form. He took a deep whiff of him (much to Tomato's confusion), and said, "No doubt about it, this pony is Stride from that gang he leads with Roanie. I had a feeling they were around here..."

"Have you met them before?" Tomato asked.

"One of their members was caught, and worked here to be reformed with other criminals years ago, before our eldest daughter was born. Luckily, he was one of those who was successfully reformed." He grunted as he turned to the hill. "Come, Cloudy, let's check on our daughters--if they sent this fellow over here for help, that means they may be having trouble."

Cloudy nodded, and the two galloped off into the hills. Tomato stood there awkwardly for a moment, unsure of what to do. He looked at Stride, and though he was certain that pony was going to be out for a while, he didn't want to stick around and find out. Plus, he was worried about his friend.

So, he took off after the couple.

Marble panted as she chased a pair of ponies and a Diamond Dog the direction away from town. Her coat was soaked with sweat, and she could hear her own heartbeat, and wondered if anypony else could hear it. Her throat stung and her lungs felt like they were going to burst. But she kept on running, not even pausing as she scooped up dirt and chucked it at the thugs. She hoped that the morons would fall into one of the holes, but much to her chagrin, they ran around them, and she unfortunately tripped into one of them.

After her face hit the dirt at the bottom, she got up, and took a moment to catch her breath. How did those bandits manage to enlist the help of those Diamond Dogs? She had a gut feeling that they bribed them.

She climbed out of the hole, and resumed her gallop. She reminded herself that she and her family had defeated Diamond Dogs before, and this was no different--aside from the bandits. Still, the fact that they kept on scattering was frustrating, and there was also the matter of how they were distracting her and Limestone from helping Bluejinx with Roanie.

The unicorn was having a bad time. He was covered in cuts, bumps, and bruises, and he had a black eye. Each effort to stop Roanie with his magic had lasted a shorter time than the last, and Roanie was breaking out of them, and aiming rocks at his horn. Bluejinx loped around her in an effort to dodge, though he wasn't fast enough to keep himself from getting hit by rocks.

At one point, a rock hit his leg, and he stumbled face first onto the ground. Gritting his teeth, he tried to get up, but he cried out and fell once again. Bluejinx looked up at the evil smirk Roanie sported as she trotted toward him.

Marble wanted to help him, but unfortunately, a couple of Diamond Dogs had grabbed her by the tail and were pulling her away. She protested and dragged them forward, reminding them that they couldn't move her that easily. And then they were reminded of her sister when they were rammed away by Limestone.

"Grrr, I wish I was as strong as Maud!" Limestone complained.

Marble sighed. "So much for your pride. I wish she was here..." She looked at Bluejinx once again. "Come on, we need to help him!"

Limestone sighed. "Why did he think he could take on a bandit as notorious as her? The lunatic."

"We'll ask that later, let's go!"

They had barely sprinted forward when they were grabbed by the big ribbiter and his equally large partner, being ridden by two of the outlaws. The two ponies cackled at them.

"Good going, Hank and Goliath!" one hooted. "You dogs seriously have a problem with these ponies? You two big ones just need to grab 'em and your buddies'll take care of the rest!"

Limestone growled at them. "You better let us go, bub! Don't make me break your arm!"

Marble snorted. "Do we need to remind you what happened to Bert and Ernie?"

Hank and Goliath looked at each other nervously, and tightened their grip on the sisters. The ponies just laughed, and one of them hollered, "I sure hope you're joking just to scare us! Because seriously, how could two pretty little ponies like you deal with big dogs like these?"

That was when a furious Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz came speeding in, and before anypony knew it, they had rammed the two Diamond Dogs in the gut, knocking them over and making them drop their daughters. They bounced on back, catching their daughters and then giving them a brief hug of relief before setting them down.

"Good heavens, how did this mess come about?" Cloudy said. "I'm just glad you're unharmed."

"I know we raised you well in defending yourselves, but being outnumbered like that could have made serious wounds far more likely," Igneous said.

"We're fine," Marble said. She pointed to where Bluejinx was. "But we can't say the same for Blue--"

"Hey, wait, what's Potato doing with Roanie?" Limestone interrupted.

Igneous turned, and discovered that Tomato had hopped onto Roanie and was pulling on her neck to force her away from Bluejinx. With a gasp, he shouted, "What dost thou think you're doing?! Roanie's more dangerous, thou fool!"

Tomato didn't listen. Anger had overtaken any fear that he had, and to see this criminal laying down a beating on his most faithful friend had made any self-control evaporate, and that same old colthood impulsiveness had arisen within him. He knew he couldn't win a fight against her--but that doesn't mean he couldn't distract her any way he could. He started to consider doing his mud-spitting trick like he did with Stride.

Unfortunately, Roanie grabbed him, threw him over her head, and slammed him into the ground. She pinned him down, and snarled in his face.

"You think a noodle like you can wrestle me?" She reared up one hoof. "I bet I could bash your head in with one punch!"

Before she could strike, however, a great BOOM sounded, and she was blown away by what seem to be a giant, flying pie. Tomato blinked at the sudden and seemingly random thing that saved him, but from the corner of his eye, he spotted a colorful tank. The pieces came together in his head, especially when the pony that sat on top of the tank slid off and landed in the dirt.

Cheese Sandwich held a solemn glare as he marched over to Tomato, picked him up, and dusted him off. Then, he continued on to the splattered remains of his giant cream pie, with a dazed and messy mare sitting in the middle of it. He stopped short of the pie, and held his stony look.

Roanie looked up and groaned. "Great, another noodle? Just who do you think you are, blasting a pie at--"

"No. Who do you think you are?" Cheese chided in a gruff voice. "I've heard of you and your gang--robbing ponies, beating them, leaving them for dead... I do not understand in any way how that could be fun. And I'm a party pony--I practically live and breathe fun! What kind of sick pony gets their kick out of making others miserable?"

"Aw, who are you to judge, you son of a donkey?"

Cheese shook his head. "Using slurs like that is low. If you're miserable, there's no need to bring others down with you. I was miserable once, but I dedicated my life to making others happy. It's a heck of a good medicine, don't you know?" He narrowed his eyes. "But, if you're perfectly happy with just making ponies suffer, not caring how much they hurt, whether from their injuries, or suffering from trauma, or losing precious memories, or being unable to pay their bills... then I don't understand you. If there's anything Equestria doesn't need, it's criminals who make the lives of nearly everypony that much harder!"

He snorted and turned around. "I suggest finding a different way to use your special talent that's a lot more worthwhile and a lot less destructive. Everypony's lives will be better off that way... including yours. In the meantime... prepare for a comfortable time in prison." He looked back. "And lastly... nopony harms a single hair on my baby brother."

He marched away, glancing at the other thugs and Diamond Dogs, who were just staring at his party tank. Normally, he'd be concerned if ponies were scared; but this time, he was perfectly content with it if it meant that they wouldn't hurt anypony else while the thing was still around. He looked at the Pies, and almost immediately his coldness snapped into a sunshiney demeanor as he waved at them and holler, "Howdy, Iggy, Cloudy, Limey, and Marble! Beautiful day for a party, isn't it?"

Igneous sighed and shook his head. "I don't understand that colt. I do understand why Pinkie considers him a friend, though."

"Birds of a feather," Cloudy mumbled.

Cheese walked to Tomato, who was trying to help Bluejinx up. "Oh, man, ouch... you don't look so good."

Bluejinx glared at him. "I don't feel so good, either..." He looked at Tomato. "How come Stride didn't pummel you badly?"

Tomato rubbed the back of his head. "I, uh... spat mud in his face." He noticed the other two staring at him, and said, "I'll tell you later."

Cheese nodded, and then looked beyond the party tank. "Don't worry, guys, we've got some backup on the way, and this gang will finally be behind bars. Now, to get Blue here some medical attention..."

Author's Note

This part was originally supposed to be in the last chapter, but then I decided to make it easier on me to break it into two. Still, this is the longer one of the two.

Oh, look, outlaws! Oh, look, Diamond Dogs! Oh, look, Pies!

...this chapter and some future plans make me wonder if I should change up the tags a bit...

4.4--Lost Relatives

Tomato trotted through the front door, humming a whimsical little tune. He opened his eyes before him and saw no one in the living room, so he took a deep breath and shouted, "I'm home!"

He had just come home from a fun day at his friend Bluejinx's house, which involving playing dodgeball in the attic and listening to Bluejinx's grandma's old polka records. He recalled how excited he had been when he recognized the sound of an accordion and shouted, "My brother plays that thing!" It had only been him and 'Jinx at the house, since none of his other friends were invited, but he had sworn that he was going to show them just how great his big brother Cheese was, and hopefully help him not be so shy.

He didn't quite get why everypony didn't like Cheese. He didn't like hurting ponies, and says sorry and gives a hug whenever he hurt Tommy--usually by mistake. He was super nice and lots of fun! Oh, if only they could see that. But, Tomato felt like he was surrounded by dummies who didn't even bother to remember Cheese's name.

After there was no answer, he walked into the kitchen, wondering if Mom had finally put something good in the fridge. He found his father, Hay Burger, sitting at the table, doing his grownup homework like he always did.

Tomato hopped up on a stool and hollered, "Hi, Dad!"

The shout startled Hay so much he threw his papers into the air as he whinnied. The cinnamon-coated stallion had his front knees up to his chin, and watched the papers float down, gazing at them in some sort of deep trance and not attempting to catch them. It was almost like he was expecting the papers to come to life and attack him. He muttered something under his breath, and didn't even bother to look at the colt at the table with him.

Tomato could see his father's chest rising and falling, and remarked, "Hey, cool, I can see you breathe!"

That was when a glare was shot his way. Hay sighed and asked, "What do you want?"

Tomato gently brushed a hoof against the table. "Where's Mom and Cheese?"

Hay slid off the stool and started to pick up his papers. "Uh... what did she say... um... something about her parents... oh, right, hospital."

Tomato blinked. "Who's sick?"

Hay looked up. "Grandma and Grandpa."

Tomato gasped. "Oh no! I hope they get better!" He frowned. "Why does Cheese get to go see them? Won't he get sick?"

Hay Burger managed to gather all his papers and set them on the table. "He won't catch what they've got. Besides, he got to go because he was here and you weren't. You missed the opportunity, kid."

Tomato laid his head on the table. "Can I go see them, Daddy?"

"I'm busy. You can go later."

Tomato banged on the table. "But I wanna see them now! I wanna give 'em medicine!"

Hay groaned. "The hospital has medicine. Now, be quiet, I can't concentrate on my paperwork when you're screaming."

Tomato stuck his tongue out. "Why do you have grownup homework all the time? Can't you be a fun dad like my friends' dads? Can't we be buddies like Bluejinx was like with his Dad before he was dead? Why are you always busy?"

Hay looked up at him with a glare. "You can't have everything you want. Now, pipe down! You're giving me a headache!"

"But, Daaaad... don't you hate homework? I hate homework, Cheese hates homework, my friends hate homework..."

"Puh, there's something I hate more than homework."

"What's that?"

Hay snorted. "It's none of your business. Go to bed."

Tomato pouted. "But I'm not tired..."

"Just go to bed."

"It's not even dark yet!"

"I don't care, go to bed. I need to work."

"Why don't you play for once?"

Hay Burger stood up and shoved his face uncomfortably close. "Go. To. Bed. And if you don't listen, I'll be forced to spank you for disobeying."

All the color drained from Tomato's face, and he quickly hopped off the stool, running to his room. As he left, he heard his father grumble, "Ah, now my headache will subside. How in Equestria does that kid have good grades in school? At least Cheese is quiet..."

Tomato had slipped away from the birthday party to check up on Bluejinx. The walk from the field to the print shop gave him an opportunity to just think about what had transpired earlier. He wanted to pat himself on the back for one-upping Stride by mixing up some mud in his mouth and spitting it in his face; at the same time, he wanted to kick himself for failing to be there for his friend.

It also terrified him to know that they could have been killed by their encounter. Perhaps it had been better that Tomato had been wrestled all the way back to the Pie Farm, given that Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz were the toughest older couple that he had ever met. And the mayor and Ginger did manage to get Cheese running over there with his good old party tank.

Tomato sighed. He wondered just how protective Cheese was going to be after this. Tomato didn't even let him know where he was going, so he was prepared for a little chewing out from his big bro.

He found the print shop and knocked. He entered it once he was invited in by Bluejinx's aunt, and then made his way up the stairs. He hoped that he wasn't going to be too intrusive with his visit.

He found the door, and knocked. He heard Bluejinx answer, "Who is it?"

Tomato replied, "It's your friend Tomato."

A laugh was heard and Bluejinx said, "Come on in, buddy."

Tomato opened the door and walked in. The room was simple, with just a desk with a lot of papers and a lamp on it, a dresser, and a bed. He stopped and stared at Bluejinx lying on the bed.

He was wrapped up in bandages, though thankfully not enough to look like a mummy. The gauze was wrapped around his head carefully, keeping the thankfully intact horn in mind. He was patched up on his chest and legs, and he had a cast in his right foreleg. His left eye was swollen and purple. The unicorn held a book in his magic, which was a small relief. As banged up as Bluejinx looked, Tomato knew it could have been worse.

"So, how are you?" Tomato asked.

Bluejinx gave him a wry smile. "Still sore, but I'll live."

"Ah, I see. Whatcha reading?"

"The Count of Pony Cresto."

"Gotcha." Tomato pulled the chair from Bluejinx's desk with his tail, and sat on it. "Is there anything I could do for you?"

Bluejinx waved a hoof in dismissal. "Aunt Purple's got everything taken care of. I'll be fine."

"Suit yourself," Tomato said, shrugging. Tomato thought for a moment, tapping his chin, and then something popped into his mind. "Say, Bluejinx, I wonder why Roanie called you 'Jasper'."

To his surprise, Bluejinx responded by tossing the book at him, which bonked him on the nose. In response, Tomato yelped, covered his throbbing nose, and snapped, "What was that for?!"

Bluejinx now glared at him, crossing his front legs. "Would you like to know why she singled me out?"

"Because you pretty much took her challenge of four vs. twenty?"

"Nope. Would you believe it, she figured out I'm the son of a former member of her gang!" Bluejinx laughed derisively. "Jasper Horseshoe, the outlaw that was captured and set straight! She thought it'd be fun to kill me in place of my already dead dad! I even look like him!"

Tomato blinked. "Okay... ouch."

Bluejinx snorted. "The way she was talking to me, I wouldn't be surprised if she had been spying on our family, and had pushed my dad off a cliff on that stupid mountain. I swear, I don't get why Flora likes those landforms so much..."

"She says they're home. After all, she's mentioned that Neighton has mountains nearby..." Tomato said, scratching his chin. He wondered if it'd be easier to single out the Neighton where she lived with that information in mind. He shook his head. "But that's beside the point. Roanie had absolutely no right to do that to you. I hope Cheese's words got through her skull."

Bluejinx sighed and rubbed his cast. "She just reminded me of how much I miss Dad."

A bit of envy arose within Tomato, much to his chagrin. It didn't feel right to be jealous of a pony bereaved of a parent, but considering that Bluejinx had nothing but good memories of his father, Tomato still resented his own memories of either being ignored or shooed away by his own. Sometimes he had wondered what the point of a father was.

Tomato picked up the book, and set it back on the bed. "If you'd like to keep reading... here."

Bluejinx took the book in his magic, and opened it back up to read, muttering, "Thanks." With a glance, he added, "If you don't mind... I'd like to be alone. Just go and enjoy the party."

Tomato stood up, and nodded. So he turned and walked out the door, gently shutting it behind him with his tail.

Meanwhile, on the stage near the dancing area, Cheese bounced off the ball in a backflip, and landed on his hind hooves as he played the final notes of his accordion solo. His pride swelled as the crowd cheered, and he bowed. He set his accordion down and clapped along with the crowd, his laughter ringing out over them. He grabbed the microphone in front of him and cleared his throat.

"All righty then, ponies! I'm overjoyed that you enjoyed that solo." He adjusted the hat and bowtie he was wearing. "Now, our next act is that of the piano colt from the saloon. I don't know how often you ponies visit the saloon, but the owner told me he's got quite the way with those keys and a nice voice. So, without further ado, let me introduce Merry Keys!"

Cheese turned to smile at the colt, who smiled back, and then began to play. As the crowd went quiet, Cheese jumped off the stage and trotted to where Igneous and Cloudy sat, eating a pretzel and a bag of rock candy respectively.

"You folks having fun?" he asked, grinning.

Igneous grunted. "Well, this thing is... interesting. I can see why thou and my daughter fought over one of these events."

Cheese blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I was, uh, just trying to impress her... but I just, uh, sent the wrong message, y'know?"

Igneous and Cloudy glanced at each other. Then Cloudy said, "Impressing her? For what reason?"

Cheese's face went redder and he fanned himself. "Well, I, uh--look, I saw her when I was a colt and got inspired to be a party pony. I-It was my way of saying thank you... gone wrong... then gone right..."

"Thou should have thought things through," Igneous stated.

Cheese brushed his hoof on the ground. "Eeyeah. At least Pinkie and I are friends now."

That was when Tomato came trotting in, and sat down. He glanced at the stage, and said, "Huh, that guy's got talent. Sounds like my favorite musician."

Cheese plopped down beside him and gave him a funny look. "And where were you?"

"Visiting Bluejinx. Wanted to see how he's doing." Tomato looked at the rock farmer couple. "I never took them for the party type."

Cloudy munched on another piece of rock candy. "We will enjoy one on occasion, courtesy of Pinkamena. But we're only here to wait until Marble and Limestone are done with their merriment. In the meantime, Igneous has his pretzel and I have my rock candy."

Cheese stood up, pulling Tomato up with him. "Well, as long as you're enjoying yourselves that way." He turned to Tomato. "Let's go find something to do! Heh, I wish we could have brought Seddie with us--I'm sure she would have really liked this party! Shame that she was so shy. Even Marble's having fun."

Igneous had been taking a bite out of his pretzel when his eyes popped open in shock. The piece went down his throat with a sudden swallow, and it travelled down painfully, threatening to choke him. He knocked on his chest, and took a deep breath. He groaned, and as the Sandwich brothers began to walk away, he stood up and hollered, "Hold on!"

He marched right up to a surprised Cheese and Tomato, who had turned to him. "Who is this 'Seddie' that you speak of?"

Cheese blinked. "Oh, there's this mare who lives in the woods between here and Ponyville, takes care of lost hikers, and wrestles Bighoof on a daily basis--"

"Yes, Bighoof exists, don't question it," Tomato said.

Cheese gave Tomato a funny look for a brief moment, then continued, "Anyway, 'Seddie' is just short for 'Sedimentary Rock.' Say, Igneous, why are you interested?"

Igneous blinked, and then his brow furrowed. "That's my sister."

Cheese jumped. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! You were the brother that she was talking about?!" He grabbed Tomato and shook him. "Tommy! We found Pinkie's long lost aunt! Do you know how overjoyed she'd be to find out she had a long lost aunt?!"

Igneous gave them an impassive look. "I have already told her and her sisters about Aunt Seddie... but, yes, she'd be overjoyed. Only thing is how Seddie would react to seeing me after thirty years..." He huffed. "It would have been nice to receive a letter from her so I wouldn't think she's dead."

"Wouldn't think who's dead, Pa?" Limestone asked, with Marble securely clinging onto her and nibbling on cotton candy.

Igneous opened his mouth to answer, but Cloudy came behind and said, "Believe it or not, these boys ran into your Aunt Sedimentary."

"Whoa, really?" Limestone gasped. She looked at Cheese. "You can't be serious! How did--wait... did that Cheesy Sense thing of yours track her down, or does your brother have superpowers of his own?"

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "No, Bighoof chased us up a tree and Seddie saved us."

"Psht, there's no such thing as Bighoof."

"You'd be surprised."

Marble glanced at her sister. "But, Limey! Our Aunt Seddie!"

"I know, I know, Marble!" She sighed, looking upward in a reverie. "What news... I'd love to meet her. She left before Ma and Pa got married. How will Maud and Pinkie take it when they hear the news?" She narrowed her eyes at Cheese. "You better not be lying to us in some kind of cruel prank!"

Cheese backed up. "Why would I do that?"

Igneous cleared his throat. "Settle down. First I'll find her in that forest and confirm Cheese's claim, and if she's truly there, I'll smooth things out with her. Then we can have our family reunion. I just hope she's not afraid to see me... but, for now, I assume you girls are done with your activities?"

Marble and Limestone nodded, with the latter grumbling, "She wouldn't let go of me."

Cloudy walked forward, and told them, "Well, let's go home. I'm tired, and it's getting dark. Hopefully the rocks are ripe enough for harvesting tomorrow."

"Yes, Ma," the girls said.

As the mares all left, Igneous turned to the Sandwiches, tipped his hat, and said with a small smile, "If Pinkamena trusts thee, I do as well. I am grateful that you boys have found my sister." And with that, he trotted after his wife and daughters.

Cheese waved goodbye, grinning. Then he turned to Tomato, nudged him, and said, "Pretty cool that we found Pinkie's long-lost aunt, eh?"

"Strangest coincidence of my life so far," Tomato remarked.

"Imagine if we found Aunt Honeydew!"

Tomato sighed. "Cheese, if you haven't found her in the past decade, how do you expect to find her this summer?"

Cheese waved a hoof in dismissal. "Oh, I have a hunch we'll find out where she went." His face fell into a frown. "I have a feeling that her reunion with Mom wouldn't go as well as I'm sure Igneous and Seddie's will."

"Mom's bossy, what do you expect?" Tomato sighed. "And Dad's not much better... I don't think he liked us all that much. Hmph, well, why didn't he just leave?"

Cheese shrugged. Then he grabbed Tomato with one of his front legs and drew him close. "Enough of the depressing stuff--let's enjoy the rest of this party while we can!"

Cheese ran back into the fray with his brother in tow.

Author's Note

Aaaand we wrap up the Nickerlite arc! What is the next adventure that awaits the Sandwiches...?

5.1--Another Town, Another Party

After spending the night in Nickerlite, Cheese got a signal to go to some town on Equestria's east coast named Halterside. He had never heard of the place before, and he wasn't sure that very many ponies did either. But, he had been to plenty of towns that nopony really knew about, and those were some of the easier parties he had thrown.

But the Cheesy Sense also told him that the party that was being planned was in a couple of days. Since it was going to take too long to get there by hoof, he and Tomato had to take the train. So, they said goodbye to the Nickerlite residents, and boarded the train to Halterside.

The train chugged along through the grasslands, the hills, and the mountains, passing by towns and cities at high speed. Outside the windows, passengers could see brief glimpses of everyday life of not only other ponies, but various other creatures as well. Many shades of green zoomed past under the cool twilight sky, dotted with fluffy clouds. Cheese heard the other passengers murmur about what shapes they could see in the clouds. He heard "sheep", "dragon", "flowers", "a laughing face", and many others.

Looking outside up in the sky, he could see an entirely different shape from the others--except for the laughing face. The face, however, was attached to the body of a rearing pony. The head and rear were adorned with a fluffy mane and tail, and the muzzle resembled that of a mare. He could barely make out the cutie mark, and in his head, her sweet voice rang loud and clear in a bell-like melody. Staring at the cloud, he sighed happily. He glanced at Tomato, wanting to ask him what shape he saw in the clouds, but he frowned upon seeing him with his nose in a book.

He inwardly groaned. He tilted his head to see what Tomato was reading, finding that it was that copy of "The Count of Pony Cresto" that Bluejinx lent him. He didn't quite know what was so exciting about some count, but then, who was he to judge a book by its cover?

He pursed his lips, and put a hoof to his chin in thought. A long time ago, Tomato was the little energetic runt that barely had any time for reading, and was more into loud and active play. With that in mind, he wondered how he ended up becoming such a bookworm. Though if he had to guess, he was probably nagged into it.

He turned back to the window, and whined when he found that the cloud's head had floated away.

That caught Tomato's attention. "What?"

Cheese pointed out the window, pouting. "Pinkie lost her head."

Tomato leaned to the window to see what he was talking about. With a bored expression, he said, "That cloud looks unremarkable."

Cheese crossed his forelegs. "It looked like Pinkie five minutes ago. And now it looks like the headless horse."

Tomato straight back up, and turned the page of his book. "I don't see it. You've lost your mind."

Cheese sighed and got back to looking out the window. ""Gee, lacking imagination, aren't you?"

"Hey, I get pictures in my head when I read--that requires at least some imagination."

Cheese snickered. "I still have more. Now, who was the one who came up with the cowspies? Or Dr. Sauerkraut? Oooor, who's the one who plans the parties? Like I've said, I never plan them by the book, and this next town's going to be in for a nice surprise once we arrive."

Tomato rolled his eyes and focused on the book. "Brag of your creativity all you want. Pray that I don't have to fill in for you at some point."

The pair stepped off the train, and took a deep whiff of the morning air. The smell of the sea air was much more pleasant than that of Manehattan, though it helped that Halterside was clearly one of those small towns that was well-kept and clean. Houses of various shapes and sizes were lining the cobblestone streets, and smiling ponies were trotting the streets and chatting with neighbors.

"'Kay, we're here..." Tomato said. "Now what?"

"We locate the party site, and then just go from there," Cheese answered.

"...great."

The two trotted on forward. As they made their way down the street, several ponies turned and curiously gazed at the two ponies in cowpony getup. Tomato could hear a few snickering, and some foals were loudly asking about the two strange ponies. Tomato huddled close to Cheese, the stares from the townsponies seemingly mocking him. He glanced at Cheese, who was clearly ignoring the stares and more focused on finding the party site, and wondered how he could stand having all those eyes on him.

Strange to think that this is the pony who used to be painfully shy, he thought. How did he overcome that?

Suddenly, he tripped on a rock, and would have fallen face first on the street had Cheese not noticed and grabbed the serape just before Tomato's muzzle even touched one of the rocks. Cheese straightened him back up, patted his head, and continued walking. Tomato blinked, looked around at some giggling mares, and then sheepishly shuffled back to Cheese's side.

"Geez, do they really need to stare? They're giving me the creeps," Tomato grumbled.

Cheese chuckled. "It comes with wearing the costumes, baby bro. At least... if they're not distracted by something weirder."

"Like an alligator crawling out of the sewer?"

"Something like that."

That was when Cheese froze and blinked. He lifted a hoof and muttered, "Hold on..." Pursing his lips, he held still right in the middle of the street, twitching his ears as if he was receiving some kind of signal. Tomato and the onlookers gaped confusedly as he held a scrunchy face, and he seemed completely oblivious to Tomato waving his hoof in front of his face.

Suddenly, he jumped and he landed on his four hooves and pointed forward with his muzzle. "Fellow party pony at 12:00!" He turned to Tomato. "Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that I can sense other party ponies."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "And you didn't do this with Pinkie, because...?"

"At this point, I'm subconsciously drawn to her, like, it just happens without me noticing sometimes and--hey, wipe that smirk off your face, it's not like that!"

Tomato snickered. "I thought you liked smiles..."

Cheese pouted. "Not those kind." He turned around and started to head in the direction he pointed earlier. "Come on, we're going to find this fellow party pony so that this party can evolve from good to great! Because party pony collabs are a lot of fun!"

Tomato followed. "Ah, so how many have you done..." As Cheese opened his mouth to answer, Tomato added, "...without Pinkie?"

Cheese growled, and then sighed. "None... well, actually, I've worked with the great Ponyacci once, but that was a long time ago, when I was a colt and still learning the ropes. But... with Pinkie I've done quite a few." He stopped right there, beads of sweat forming on his brow as he glanced at the smug Tomato awaiting elaboration. He gulped, and then started to gallop. "Let's just find that party pony! Maybe he or she needs our help!"

Tomato blinked, and then sped off after him. "Cheese, wait up!"

"Goldie, be careful!"

The cream-coated, freckled mare looked down at her silver-coated brother from the roof of town hall. She rolled her eyes as she tied the water balloon to the streamer, and carefully placed it on the eaves. "Shilly, you're getting worked up again. Look, bro, I know what I'm doing."

Silver Shill sat on his haunches and tapped his hooves together. "You know the doctor said you shouldn't strain yourself. Are you sure you haven't bitten off more than you can chew with setting up Halterside Town Day?"

Comedy Gold tied another water balloon to another streamer. "Nope! I'm just ensuring that I don't get rusty!" She patted the balloon. "That oughta do it... hoo boy, I can't wait until these start falling and hitting ponies. Perfect for cooling off in the heat!"

She looked up the street, and saw a couple of lanky stallions galloping toward them. Focusing her eyes and adjusting her glasses, she called out, "Look, Shilly, we've got strangers in town!"

Silver Shill blinked and turned around just as the two stallions skidded to a stop in front of him, startling him and making him stumble backwards into a tripwire. The wire set off one of Comedy Gold's balloon streamers, and a water balloon landed and exploded on his head, leaving him a soaking wet stallion. He looked up and pouted at his sister.

Goldie giggled. "Thanks for testing my water balloon streamer attack! And don't pout, that's how you got that underbite." She grabbed the streamer and pulled it back up to tie another water balloon on it.

Silver Shill sighed, and turned to the two noticably taller stallions in front of him. "Can I help you two?"

The lighter orange one stepped forward, and said in a gruff voice, "I got word that there's a party in this here town."

Silver rubbed the back of his head. "Well, uh... yeah, it's Halterside Town Day. My sister up there is still setting things up, so you might have to wait a bit before the carnival begins, sorry."

The stranger chuckled. "Oh, I'm not here just to have fun at a party..."

Silver blinked. "You aren't?"

The stranger threw off his cowpony attire, revealing a yellow polo shirt and a curly brown mane. "Nope! I'm here to help set things up!" He shot out a hoof and shook Silver Shill's vigorously. "The name's Cheese Sandwich, the premier party planner in all of Equestria!" Cheese gestured to the reddish stallion. "This guy's my brother, Tomato. He's here because I'm spending some quality time with my baby bro."

Tomato rolled his eyes, and slipped out of his serape and hat, revealing more businesslike attire. "It's been an interesting summer so far."

Cheese let go of Silver Shill's hoof, and the shorter stallion blinked before he smiled. "A party planner, eh?" Then he called up to Goldie, "Hey! This guy's here to help! You don't have to do this entire thing by yourself!"

Goldie leaned from her spot on the roof and scowled. "I heard. And frankly, I don't appreciate it. Because, really, why do you keep insisting that I can't set up the carnival by myself, Shilly? Let's not forget I earned my cutie mark saving the school carnival, and if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have earned yours!"

Silver rubbed his temples. "Goldie, we've been through this. It's not that I don't think that you're not capable, it's just you're still recovering from surgery, and I'm worried about you straining yourself too hard. Please just let our visitors here help... in fact, I think I read about this Cheese Sandwich in the newspaper once... he must know what he's doing..."

Goldie huffed. "Why doesn't he strike a bigger town like Baltimare, instead of stepping on my turf?"

Cheese shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Sorry, Miss, but my Cheesy Sense pulled me here, and I can't leave until an epic party has been planned."

Goldie glared daggers at him, and then jumped off the roof of the town hall. She then took off the pink polka-dotted and teal cloak she wore and used it as a parachute. Her barrel was wrapped up in bandages. She drifted down gently and landed gracefully on the path, her strawberry-blonde curls bouncing under the bandanna matching her cloak. Even so, there was clearly a pain-filled wince on her face.

As she tied her cloak back on, she said, "I'll have you know, Mr. Cheese Sandwich, that despite my brother trying to baby me, that I've been setting up celebrations since I was a little filly. Heck, I'm pretty much famous in this town for beating the official town event planners time and time again."

Silver Shill gave her half-lidded eyes. "You got in trouble."

"Ah, but the mayor has trusted me to plan this year's party, no? Not some outsider waltzing into town dressed like a cowpony!"

That was when an older, cobalt blue mare trotted out of the doors of town hall, then stopped at the sight of the other ponies with Silver Shill and Comedy Gold. Blinking, she asked, "Hello, Comedy Gold, I assume that the preparations are going as planned?"

"Uh, yes, Mayor Azure! Oh, wait a minute!" She pulled a bridge from behind her back, which would have hit the stallions had they not ducked. She set it over the stairs and where some tripwires crossed. When she finished positioning it, she called out, "Okay, cross! I don't want you setting the tripwires off before the celebration starts!"

A puzzled Mayor Azure crossed the bridge, asking, "Tripwires...?"

When she finished crossing, she turned around, and looked up and down the building, spotting the shine of some of the tripwires, and the streamers and balloons. She sighed. "Why did you set this up?"

"It's gonna be hot today! Nothing like water balloons for a nice cooldown!" Goldie answered. "I was going to put them on every building, just so you know."

Mayor Azure looked around, and noticed the barebones plaza. "Miss Gold, you're usually faster than this! What is the reason that the carnival's not all set up?"

Silver Shill stepped forward. "She's still recovering from her surgery, so she's not up to par."

The mayor looked at him with a sour expression. "And why didn't you inform me of this earlier?"

"You girls kept interrupting me!"

Mayor Azure sighed. "Miss Gold, if we want this carnival set up by nine o'clock, we can't go by your usual method of... whatever magic it is that helps you set this all up by yourself and yet still have energy to keep on entertaining the ponies. You'll have to have assistance from other ponies besides your brother. In fact, I see he's already got a couple others along for the ride."

Her eyes bugged out at the sight of Cheese. "Silver Shill, how did you get that pony here? Isn't he the Super Duper Party Pony?"

Cheese chuckled. "Well, actually, my Cheesy Sense told me to come here. Normally, towns with party ponies of their own don't need me, but if it's a big celebration, or a party for the party pony--or in this case, the local party pony not up to par--then I'll be there!"

Mayor Azure clapped. "Oh, good! You'll be plenty of assistance, Mr. Sandwich." She looked at Tomato. "As well as that red guy with you... pray tell, what is your name?"

"Tomato Sandwich."

Cheese pulled him close and grinned. "He's my baby brother."

Ignoring Tomato's scowl, the Mayor chuckled and said, "Well, Tomato, you must be really lucky to have such a wonderful older brother. I can't imagine the swell birthday parties he has thrown for you every year! Hm, I wish my brother was as good as yours."

Tomato sighed. "Yeah, brother of the century."

Goldie groaned. "Mayor, I don't need any help! I can set this entire thing up on my own, I've done it before!"

Silver put a hoof on Goldie's shoulder. "You need to slow down and take it easy, and just do the small things that don't require too much effort. I don't want you getting hurt."

She snorted. "Will you quit babying me?"

"I'm not babying you..." Silver tapped his chin. "Did you remember your pain medication?"

Goldie groaned, and she stormed away, presumably to fetch the medication she left at home. The others stared as she trotted off, and then looked at Silver Shill.

He sighed, and said, "Sorry about how she's acting, especially towards you, Cheese. She's the baby of our family, and well, she's always trying to assert her independence. I just wish she'd let go of the stubbornness while she's still in recovery--it worries me."

Cheese sighed. "Yeah, younger siblings tend to worry you sometimes--Tommy here used to get into some crazy situations that I had to rescue him from."

"Don't remind me," Tomato said.

Cheese clapped. "Anyway... where shall we start?"

Author's Note

AUGH, THIS TOOK TOO LONG TO WRITE.

Yeah, so after about three weeks--because of my FIMfiction anniversary drabbles and the season 5 premiere and a Party Favor oneshot coming and other stuff that needed attending to, plus a little bit of writer's block--we finally move on to the next town! And it's another I completely made up, being the hometown of a character that no one really cares for... besides me for some reason. I don't know why I like Silver Shill...

Also, stubborn little party pony sister is stubborn. Goldie, listen to your brother.

5.2--The Circus Train

"That giant chocolate fountain's making me hungry... no, wait, I forgot to eat breakfast... but, still, that fountain doesn't help!"

Tomato quirked an eyebrow when Silver Shill said that. The shorter stallion was practically drooling over the tall, mountain-like structure pouring waterfalls of chocolate into a pool that Cheese set up in the town square. The smell wafted toward his nose, and Tomato himself was feeling a little peckish.

He attempted to distract himself from it by gazing at the seashell-themed decor that Goldie had been setting up along with the water balloon traps. The shells hung from wires that she had used her party shotgun to attach to multiple buildings and the mini roller coaster that Cheese had set up. It was the few things that she could do at her relatively slow pace, and though Silver still fussed over her involvement in setting up the carnival, she still did all she could, unwilling to just sit by while Cheese Sandwich was on her turf.

All around them, the roller coaster went around the perimeter of the plaza, it's hills dipping to splash into pools and arching high enough to be entrances into the decorated town square. A mini pirate ship that served pizza and had singing and musical instrument playing animals to entertain the foals was next to the town hall. The classic hippo ride (Tomato couldn't figure out just where Cheese kept the hippo between parties), a tarp where a little food fight involving pies, jello, and balls of ice cream would be held, and a roller skating rink were also dotted in the square, as were many other activities. The table of food items that could be dipped in either the chocolate fountain in front of Tomato and Silver Shill or the cheese fondue fountain next to it was not too far away. And lastly, stereos were strategically placed so that the music could be heard all around them.

Tomato could only imagine the fun that the townsfolk would have once things got going. Already he could see mare, stallion, and foal alike running around, prancing around the streets and laughing at some of the antics Cheese did. Still, he couldn't help but wonder just how much this party would cost if it wasn't for Cheese having those strange powers of his. The roller coaster alone would have cost a lot--more than he was sure any small town budget would allow.

"I'm tempted to just dunk my head in there and just eat it all up, " Silver snickered, still gazing at the chocolate fountain.

Tomato was jarred out of his thoughts by that statement. "Okay, two reasons why you shouldn't do that: one, you'll get chocolate in your hair, and two, you'll get your hair in the chocolate."

Silver sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Curse me and my forgetting to eat breakfast!"

That was when Goldie casually walked by and just stuck a piece of buttered toast in Silver's mouth, saying "There you go," and continuing her walk towards some other attraction.

Silver blinked, stared at the toast for a few seconds, and then just gobbled it up. Then he called out to her, "Thanks!"

He turned to Tomato and smiled. "I gotta admit, it's fun having her as a sister. I never know what kind of surprises come out of her next... good or bad..."

Tomato nodded. "I can imagine your experience is similar to mine, given my brother is pretty weird for a career."

Silver looked around. "I can see that. Hm, only thing that's predictable about Goldie is that she's stubborn."

"Thing that is predictable about Cheese..." Tomato sighed. "He's nomadic. Makes me wonder if things would work out with Pinkie..."

Silver tilted his head. "Who's Pinkie?"

"His girlfriend." Right after he said that, he got a rubber chicken to the face.

"There's nothing romantic between me and her!" Cheese hollered from the pirate ship.

Tomato scoffed and whispered to Silver, "He's in denial."

"Er, I dunno anything about that kind of love," Silver replied, looking at the chicken on the ground. "Most I can say is that one winter when I was a colt, I was smitten with my neighbor's cousin when she tried my dad's special mix of hot cocoa and liked it." He chuckled to himself. "I remember that we were joking around about her name and the drink being both named 'Cocoa'. Haven't seen her since, but she was sweet."

"I once crushed on my richest schoolmate; she humiliated me as a teenager, and now I hate her." Tomato snorted at the memory. "What did I even see in her?"

Silver pursed his lips. "Okaaay...." That was when he noticed ponies filing in under the roller coaster hills. "Oh, would you look at that! It must be nine o'clock already!"

Tomato took out a pocket watch and checked it. "So it is. Cheese should start playing his accordion right about... now."

As if on cue, Cheese jumped out of the pirate ship, and was playing his accordion for the crowd. The townsponies were at first shocked by the appearance of this stranger, but they soon smiled and started cheering and clapping for him as he kept on playing and singing his theme song.

Silver bobbed his head to the beat for a few moments, and then stopped when he realized something. "Oh, I better go check on Goldie! If she's feeling any envy right now, it won't be good for her... especially if she challenges him to a Goof Off like the last clown she encountered!"

Tomato was left a little confused as Silver scurried off to find his sister. Still, he shrugged it off, and decided to try to find something to do. So he put away his pocket watch, and started to stroll toward one of the activities.

However, a moment of realization hit him, and with wide eyes, he pulled open his front pocket, only to find it empty, and then pat his person all around. He spun in a circle until he stumbled onto his haunches, blinking in utter confusion.

"I don't remember owning a pocket watch!"

This was a carnival unlike any other in Halterside. Before, it had been just a regular fun fair with cheap games, a bouncehouse, and some carnival food. However, this year presented a pleasant surprise to the citizens of Halterside with a bigger festival in the town square. Seeing the wide array of activities that were present to them, the townsfolk gleefully went to the first thing that appealed to their tastes, though some stood around awkwardly trying to take it all in.

To say that Comedy Gold was disappointed was an understatement. She was jealous of how Cheese Sandwich managed to whip up something amazing for Halterside Town Day, while all she could do was just decorate with her little party guns. And even those were embarrassing compared to that gigantic party tank of his!

She sat curled up in the corner, watching the ponies having fun. Ignoring the aching in her barrel, she watched the whole thing with bitterness. She especially had her eyes on Cheese Sandwich, wishing she could just waltz up to him and smack him with a banana cream pie. Who was he to steal her thunder?

That was when Silver Shill found her and sat next to her. "Hey, why the long face?"

Goldie snorted. "What right does he have to party on my turf?"

Silver stared at her for a moment and started rubbing her back. "It's only for today, don't fret. You'll be party planning again once you're all better."

"Hmph, even then, next year they'll still compare that festival with this one. How am I supposed to top this guy's party when next year rolls around?"

"Well... maybe... you could, you know, take some notes? I mean, learning from somepony is better than being jealous of them."

"They'll call me a copycat! No, I need to find some way to outshine him!" Goldie huffed. "You know how the entertainment business is--if one gets cold, they won't get sold, and they get put in the back on the discount rack, like a can of beans!"

Silver shook his head. "I don't want you hurting yourself now. The doctor said to take it easy."

"I can't just sit back and watch him get praised for this cheap amusement park knockoff."

He sighed. "It's not about the attention, Goldie. As long as these ponies are having fun and no one's getting hurt, I think it's good enough."

Silver's ear twitched at the sound of faraway circus music, and he perked his head up. Blinking, he stood up, and craned his neck to hear it better. It steadily grew louder and louder, and he started wondering why the circus was coming to town on that day. He looked at the patrons, and everyone was looking in the direction that the music was coming from. Even Cheese Sandwich was curious about the sudden circus music, while Tomato was plugging his ears with a sour expression on his face.

Goldie shakily lifted herself up with a grunt, and then asked, "What's everyone looking at?"

Silver watched as a colorful three-car train came chugging under one of the roller coaster's arches, presumably being the source of the circus music. His eyes widened as he spotted the two ponies who sat on the chairs on the open roofed locomotive. "Oh, no, not them!"

The train stopped, and the two yellow-coated, red-and-white haired unicorns dressed in striped vests and boaters--distinguishable by the fact that one sported a mustache-- stood up and looked around. They smirked at each other, and the clean shaven one sang:

"My, my, my, what a beautiful town
With many a curious pony
Take a deep whiff of the salty sea air
And take in the view of the sea"

The other joined in with:

"As marvel as this is to us
For these folks it's mundane
Let us break their monotony
With what we've got in this traaaaaiiin!"

One of them pulled a lever, and the cars opened up to create a stage. An extremely muscular pony crawled out of the first car, and twirled his mustache. He flashed a wry grin and waggled his eyebrows.

The unicorns continued to sing.
"The Flim Flam brothers introduce
Tyrannosaurus Pecs
Muscle is his special talent
And he can juggle weighty objects!"

Boulders rolled out of the train car, and Tyrannosaurus Pecs took his cue and juggled them, much to the awe of the crowd.

Cheese Sandwich was standing beside the mayor, who asked, "Did you arrange for this circus train, Mr. Sandwich?"

Cheese shook his head. "I never even heard of this circus train." He turned to Tomato, who had just strolled up next to him, and asked, "Have you heard of it?" When Tomato shook his head in response, Cheese tapped his chin and narrowed his eyes.

From the second car, there came out two ponies--a bearded mare and a regular looking earth pony stallion. Flim and Flam continued to sing:

"When she was just a tiny filly
Miss Whiskers already had fuzz
But her ability to grow it at will
Never fails to create a buzz!"

On cue, Miss Whiskers held her breath, and her beard grew right before the crowd's eyes. "Oohs" and "aahs" were heard, as well as some applause.

Flim and Flam gestured to the stallion.

"Now Jeff here may look normal
To the naked pony eye
But watch what happens when we shoot him
Into the great blue sky!"

A cannon rolled out of the car, and Jeff hopped in. He was blasted into the air, and much to everyone's amazement, he landed on a cloud without falling through. He grinned at the cheering townsfolk and waved at them from his perch.

Flim addressed the crowd once more. "Now, seeing a pegasus born without wings is a very rare sight."

"One in a million chance of it happening!" Flam interjected.

"A lot of these ponies with us are one in a million, brother of mine."

"Ah, yes, why don't we just bring them all out!"

At Flam's word, a bunch of strange ponies marched out of the cars and started to walk among the townsfolk. One pony was extremely tall, another casually walked upright, and another walked on all fours with her belly up. One pony had a square head, another had square hooves, and another was just a normal looking filly... until she looked at Tomato, winked at him, and said in a sultry mare's voice, "Hey, handsome."

Tomato cringed at that. "I don't know if that's a filly with a mare's voice, or a mare in a filly's body."

The next moment had a clown laughing in Tomato's face and honking his horn, which made him yelp and jump into Cheese's forelegs. Quaking and sweating, he cried, "Cheese, make it go away!"

Once again, Flim and Flam sang:

"Behold the members of our circus train
Coming from all places in Equestria
They're glad to be part of our family
And they're all happy to see ya!"

They gestured to the top of the middle train car, where a puff of blue smoke appeared, and then cleared to reveal a white unicorn mare, with an azure and lavender-streaked mane in a French braid, and wearing a black tuxedo and top hat.

"And now for our Grand Finale
One that will make your hearts stop!
The lovely Silk Shimmer will do magic feats
That'll make you drop your jaw and--"

"STOP!"

All activity stopped to look at the short, silver-coated stallion in the back, glaring at the Flim Flam Brothers. The twins blinked at the sight of said stallion before regaining composure and smiling at him.

"Ah, Silver Shill, our old friend," Flim said.

Flam clicked his tongue and shook his head. "It's in poor taste to rhyme a word with itself."

Silver marched to the front of the crowd, who murmured in confusion about the whole thing. When he reached the front, he asked, "All right... what are you two doing in Halterside? And where'd you get that train, and how'd you get all these ponies to work for you?"

The brothers looked at each other, and laughed. Once they were done, Flim said, "Why, that accusatory tone of yours is not very polite, Shill."

His brother patted Silver's head. "The poor fella's convinced that our circus train is some sort of scam."

"Ah, yes, some unfair scheme just to get some bits."

"A unimaginative con, designed to fool ponies as if they didn't have a brain cell."

"Have you no shame, Shill? Assuming that we're unable to turn over a new leaf?"

"Definitely learned a thing or two from Applejack, hm?"

Silver grimaced. "Er..."

Both slung a front leg over his shoulders. Flim chuckled and said, "Still, no hard feelings from us. You quit because you thought you were doing the right thing. How could we resent you for that?"

Flam grinned at him. "By the way? How's that sister of yours? She feeling any better?"

That was when Comedy Gold popped up between them. "I'll have you know that I'm just fine!"

The brothers jumped at her sharp tone. One of them whistled, while the other said, "My, my, she's a fiery one."

Cheese and Tomato Sandwich shuffled to the front of the crowd, the former clearing his throat and saying, "I'm sorry that your song was interrupted by him--as well as Silk Shimmer's performance." He gestured to the curious mare on the top of the train car. "Still... are you two here to contribute to Halterside's Town Day?"

The Flim Flams looked at him, let go of Silver, and strolled toward him. Taking a close look at him, Flim said, "Ah... looks like the famous Cheese Sandwich is in this town as well!"

Flam scratched his chin. "Quite the coincidence, eh, brother?"

"Sounds like a cause for celebration!" Flim then narrowed his eyes at the stallion beside Cheese. "Although I do question his decision to bring his father along."

Tomato jumped at the sound of that. "Father?! Excuse me, but I'm not old enough to be his father!"

Cheese scratched his chin, silently noting Tomato's strong resemblance to their own father. Then, he corrected, "Technically, he isn't even older than me. He's my little brother, Tomato."

Flim laughed. "Well, silly me! Still, that does explain the baby face."

Tomato blushed furiously. "Excuse me, I'm an adult."

The Flim Flams ignored him. Flim then said, "Now, I'm sure you may be inclined to believe Silver here."

Flam then added, "But, believe us when we say that we're only here to make ponies here smile, much like you do."

"After all, what greater reward is there than leaving a positive impact on a pony's life?"

"Surely, you won't mind us holding a show with our buddies in just a corner of this town square, hmm?"

Cheese tapped his chin. "Well... I suppose that it'll make this party better..."

Silver jumped forward. "I'm telling you, Cheese, don't do it! They've scammed ponies before, and believe me when I say that they're not the type to change their con pony ways so quickly."

"Oh, pipe down, Silver Shill!" The mayor said, strolling to the front. She put a hoof on her heart and said, "Pardon me, but since this is my town, and Cheese is merely a guest, let me just say that it would be wonderful if you contributed to the festival."

Silver piped up, "But, mayor--"

"Shush, you!" She turned back to the brothers. "Now... where were we?"

As the mayor discussed payments and what was to be done with the circus train with them, Tomato was having a bad feeling about them. He didn't quite know if it was just their smug grins rubbing him the wrong way, or he was still just miffed about the clown in his face, but he didn't quite trust them. Just looking at them was making his back tingle for some reason. He looked at Cheese, who looked neutral about what was taking place, and at Silver, who was annoyed at being shut up.

Goldie just sat behind the Flim Flam brothers, sitting on her haunches and just seething over yet two more stallions and their lackeys stealing the spotlight. They were destroying her credibility as a party pony, and she wanted to do something to outshine them.

She looked up, and noticed Jeff starting to sink through the cloud. She watched as an alarmed Silk Shimmer quickly zapped him with a spell, and Jeff stopped sinking. Both ponies sighed in relief.

As Silk Shimmer looked to see if anyone saw that, Goldie looked away and started to snicker.

Author's Note

The hardest part of this chapter was coming up with the Flim Flam Bros' scheme here. As I read and reread the comments in my journal entry asking for help, the idea for the circus train popped into mind, and the rest was easy as cake.

Plus, I'm surprised that I actually got Silk Shimmer into this story! I thought she'd only be limited to one story, just as a supporting character in one of my oneshots.

Anyway... Goldie, what are you up to...?

5.3--Funny Business

The festival was back in full swing once the Flim Flam Brothers had their circus integrated into the celebration. A good chunk of ponies were watching the show, and being wowed by the the strength of Tyrannosaurus Pecs, the acrobatic cloud jumping of Jeff, the beautiful magic tricks of Silk Shimmer, and the feats of the other ponies. The audience was flinging their spare change onto the stage, which was often swept up by the Flim Flams or one of their lackeys after each act.

From a table on the pirate ship, Silver Shill was slurping his soda noisily and with a red face and a glare pointed at the circus. Across from him, Tomato Sandwich just quietly munched on a slice of pizza, his eyebrow raised at Silver's strange behavior, while simultaneously being a little cowed at the stares of other ponies and the performing animal band.

Tomato swallowed his bite and asked, "Are you all right?"

Silver slammed his drink on the table. "I'm not! I still can't believe the mayor let those weasels be part of the festival! I tried to tell her that they're con ponies, but nope! She keeps telling me that they must have 'turned over a new leaf' since I last saw them."

"Mind telling me what they did to make you so angry?"

Silver sighed. "Ever since Goldie got sick and needed surgery, me, my mom, and my other sisters Platinum Pen and Pearly Whites have been trying to pay off the hospital bills. I tried and failed multiple times to get a job, often being turned away because I didn't quite pitch myself the best. By the time I met the Flim Flam brothers, I was pretty desperate. And even when their idea of selling apple and beet juice as a miracle tonic rubbed me the wrong way, I stayed, because I was sure that no one else would take me. I just thought, 'better to lie than to let my sister die or put us into debt.'"

"So... you got yourself involved in a scam to pay for your sister's surgery," Tomato said.

Silver nodded. "We sold the tonic in several towns, with Flim and Flam singing a catchy song and me... well, I pretended to be crippled so I could be 'cured'. We got away with the lie... until we reached Ponyville."

"Hey, that's where Pinkie lives."

Silver shrugged. "I didn't meet this Pinkie. Instead I met a pony named Applejack, who threatened to blow our cover after her grandmother bought some of the tonic."

"Oh, yeah, I've met Applejack. She's actually one of Pinkie's friends."

"Really? Anyway, she caught me being 'cured' a second time, chased me, and then Flim and Flam came in to quell her anger. They pretty much said that she had a choice of outing us and ruining her grandmother's happiness, or just let us sell the harmless tonic and let ponies believe it was a miracle cure." He rubbed the back of his head. "I felt bad for her, since they had played the family card with me, but since the tonic was a fake, I figured that her granny being sincerely healthier than Goldie meant there was no harm done."

Tomato stuffed the rest of his pizza into his mouth and swallowed the whole thing. "So... what happened then?"

Silver stared at him for a moment, noting that Tomato didn't even chew that rather large piece. Shaking his head, he continued, "Oh, well, we were selling at a swim meet, where the grandmother and Applejack's little sister were doing some impressive tricks." He chuckled. "She's a spry old mare, I'll give her that. Anyway, Flim and Flam started billing the tonic as 'Applejack approved' and well, she wasn't very happy about that. And she was even less happy when her grandmother decided to do a high dive into a small pie tin."

"Wait, what?" Tomato blinked. "Okay... that is just stupid."

Silver nodded. "Applejack saved her, of course, but when Flim and Flam encouraged the grandmother to do it again, I was just disgusted. I mean, they'd let an old mare break her neck--or worse, die--just so they could earn more bits? I don't know about you, but I think that would have turned away customers because of that stunt."

"Because it's common sense to stop an old lady from doing that and say that the tonic doesn't make ponies invincible. It would have been obvious it was a fake. Plus... the Apples are highly respected in Equestria, so maiming or killing the matriarch... yeah..."

Silver laid his head on the table. "I was pretty disgusted with myself for going along with the lie until it got to that point. I know I had a good reason for doing so... but let's be honest, more often than not, you're judged by actions, not intent. Applejack finally said that the tonic was a fake, and then when it seemed like Flim and Flam were going to smooth talk their way out of it... well, I decided to provide backup for her. And then they left the town with minimal consequence. Needless to say, I quit working for them and went to earn money elsewhere."

"So, how are things going with that bill?"

"Oh, Mom negotiated with the hospital in order to lower the cost, Penny managed to win a case in Manehattan, Pearl had a well-timed raise, and I sold off the costumes I used in the scam, so we're well on our way on paying it. Everything went well in the operation and Goldie's getting better every day, but I'm worried about her exerting herself before she's completely healed." Then his eyes widened and he scrambled off his seat. "Speaking of whom, where'd she go? Oh, I hope she's not getting into trouble!"

Before Tomato could say another word, Silver Shill dashed away. After staring for a moment, Tomato leaned in his hoof and drew his hoof in circles on the table. He glanced at the rest of the square, where he could see Cheese rolling around on a giant cheese wheel, playing his accordion with vigor. He could see the other ponies laughing and cheering at his stunt, and nearly let out a laugh himself when someone threw a pie at his face.

"Ah, and there's the strapping young Sandwich from earlier!"

Tomato blinked upon finding himself joined at his table by the Flim Flam brothers. Furrowing his brow, he asked, "Uh... don't you have a show to run?"

Flam waved a hoof. "Nothing to worry, dear boy--Silk Shimmer can handle things on her own."

Tomato's eyes went to the train, where the white unicorn was levitating foals through rings of fire, much to the terror of parents in the audience. Recalling Silver Shill's story, he wondered how she ended up as one of the Flim Flams' lackeys, as well as the other ponies.

Flim leaned on the table. "Forgive us for calling you Cheese's father earlier, young colt--it was a joke in poor taste."

Flam chuckled. "A joke based on the clothes you wear and the demeanor you put forth."

"Though we would have truly--"

"Undeniably--"

"And positively have been truly confused had it not been for your baby face."

Tomato huffed and turned away pouting. "I do not have a baby face!"

"Oh, don't worry about it, Tomato," Flim said. "A baby face means you're going to age well."

Flam chuckled. "Still, I can see why he dresses in a suit. After all, he seems like the type who wants to be taken seriously."

Tomato whickered in annoyance. "You got that right. Okay, what do you want with me?"

Flim grinned at him. "We were hoping that we could give a few pointers to you, so that you could bring your talent to its fullest potential."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "Thanks, but no thanks. I can learn from plenty of others."

"Oh, come on, don't you want to earn lots of money? It's obviously your special talent, am I right?"

Flam clucked. "I don't know, I think he'd prefer to learn the party trade from that brother of his."

Flim laughed. "Ah, but doesn't Cheese Sandwich have a good pitch? That song of his gets stuck in your head after all."

"I do believe you're right, brother of mine... shame when we spoke with him, he said that the majority of his parties are nonprofit. How does he live?" The two of them looked at Tomato in hopes of an answer.

Tomato gave them a bored look. "I don't know. He says I wouldn't comprehend it. And I can't really learn the trade, since I'm not a party pony."

The twins burst out laughing, which made Tomato nearly stumble out of his seat. His stool fell to the floor, but he caught himself by his tail and balanced on it. He quickly swiped the stool, and put it back in place before sliding back on.

Flim finished laughing first. "You have quite the sense of humor, Tommy-boy. Come now, if you can't learn from your brother, we can give you some nice tips so that you could grow into something extraordinary."

Flam swung a fist. "Ripen into a glorious pinnacle that businessponies everywhere will aspire to."

"I can see you being so big, millions of ponies will envy your success."

At the word "envy", some unpleasant memories cropped up in Tomato's mind, and he started to sink. It didn't help that even with their positive tone, they were still making him rather uncomfortable. He attempted to rationalize it in his mind by thinking, It's that circus theme they've got, is all. I've never really liked circuses, since the music's annoying and... clowns....

He froze when Flim slung a front leg over his shoulder. "Now, now, now, Mr. Sandwich, do realize a business pony cannot be coy."

Flam appeared on his other side. "Especially when trying to promote whatever product or service you're offering."

"Speaking of which... what kind of business are you planning to be involved in, boy?"

Tomato swatted them both away. "Okay, you're in my personal space! Do you need to ask questions that close? I don't want to feel your breath. Not to mention you both need mints."

Both brothers shook their heads at the same time. Flim clicked his tongue and said, "No need to be rude. Seriously, is that the best way you can avoid the question?"

Tomato huffed and grumbled, "I'm sure I'll be in the financial department... somewhere in some company... I'll figure it out. Right now, I'm just in college, still learning."

"Oh... you'll figure it out, eh?" Flim chuckled. "And yet you're dressed like somepony completely confident and sure of their goals in life."

Flam tapped his brother's shoulder. "Let's not forget, brother of mine, that a tomato is a fruit pretending to be a vegetable."

Tomato's face turned redder than it already was, and he sharply exhaled hot breaths through his nostrils. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Flim smirked. "Well, I suppose if you don't want our two bits, I guess we'll leave you to 'figure it out'."

Flam nodded. "We wish you the best of luck, young stallion. Maybe if you remember how you earned your cutie mark, things will sort themselves out."

Flim and Flam started to trot away, snickering. One of them then said, "I'm sure someday he'll get that ponies do whatever it takes to earn bits as quickly as they can. Something tells me that he'll become quite the pennypincher once he gets in the game."

The other laughed and said, "I'll be sad if he doesn't ever get into the game with how shy he's being."

Tomato snorted as they trotted out of his earshot. Crossing his forelegs, he growled, "I'm not shy! I will figure it out... if I don't, Mom will get on my case."

His gaze fell from the brothers to his cutie mark. He took a long, hard look at it, examining every detail of it. The slight triangular shape of the dark red tomato's globe, emblazoned with the classic dollar sign, seemed like a foreboding cutie mark. The leaves being tied up reminded him of how trapped he felt. But, as class after class had told him, a cutie mark was a representation of who he is.

His tail whipped around to cover the mark, and he wondered whether or not he had earned the wrong mark.

Comedy Gold's plan was simple enough. All she had to do was kidnap that white unicorn mare, and then the cloudwalking spell on that pony pretending to be a wingless pegasus would wear off--exposing the Flim Flam brothers for the liars they were. All she needed was an opening where she couldn't get caught.

From her perch behind the circus train's stage, in the support beams of the roller coaster, Goldie watched Silk Shimmer create a magical tightrope between clouds for Jeff to walk across. Scoffing, Goldie took a frying pan from within her cloak, and twirled it. "I can't wait to use this."

So she sat there, waiting for the moment when Silk would have to leave the stage. As admittedly impressive some of the tricks were, Goldie had to remind herself that this entire thing was a fake. Jeff was an earth pony, Miss Whiskers' beard was a fake, the things that Tyrannosaurus Pecs lifted were actually really light and he was just wearing a muscle suit--the only thing she was sure was not a fake was Silk Shimmer, given she was casting a whole lot of spells. If anything, she seemed to be above average in magic ability.

Which would make it all the more sweeter when everything came crashing down due to her being missing.

Silk Shimmer made the rocks that Tyrannosaurus Pecs juggled larger, and she made hoops that Miss Whiskers leapt through with her now walking beard. Silk herself summoned a lot of doves, which formed into a flying carpet for her to sit on. As her "carpet" soared above the crowd, she blew kisses and pulled thornless roses out of her sleeve, tossing them to the crowd.

Goldie scoffed at this and rolled her eyes. You have some nerve showing off like that.

However, when Silk pulled out a long balloon and blew it up, she tried her best to twist it into a balloon animal... with her hooves. Of course, her attempts resulted in it slipping out of her hooves, and it drifted down to the audience. In a panic, she blasted it with magic. Instead of levitation, however, the balloon exploded into flaming confetti, much to the fright of the audience.

Alarmed, Goldie stashed away the frying pan, and took out a water machine gun instead. She quickly shot at every piece of confetti before she hid behind a support beam. She held her breath, awaiting the moment that somepony would find her.

A pause occurred instead, and while there was murmuring, it sounded as if they assumed it was part of the act. Goldie exhaled, and she rubbed her aching side. Things were getting a little too excitable for her, but why quit when she had a fraud to reveal?

Finally, the moment came when Silk Shimmer jumped off her dove carpet, and announced, "Well... uh... I hope you enjoyed my magic tricks! I'll be back later with more, so don't you fret!"

She hopped off the stage and trotted to the other side of the train. The unicorn sat down, took a deep breath and wiped her brow. Crossing her front legs, she grumbled, "Ugh, levitation! I messed simple levitation up! Oh, Celestia, I'm so stupid... no wonder Kazam's ahead of me in this business." She stood up and walked away, shaking her head. "And Party Favor would balk at what I did to that balloon..."

She unknowingly walked directly under where a certain party pony was perched...

CLANG!

Comedy Gold's leap was swift, and a frying pan knocked off Silk Shimmer's hat and met her skull before the unicorn even knew it. The clang produced a warped echo, and Goldie grabbed Silk's suit jacket and attempted to pull her away. But she quickly discovered that she had two problems.

One she found out when her side started to scream, with a harsh stinging sensation on her skin, while inside felt like a crocodile ripping her muscles and organs apart, radiating throughout her barrel. She found herself unable to get far in that kind of agony, so she plopped herself on the less painful side of her body, breathing through her teeth. She checked under her bandages, only to find a sight that wasn't very pretty. She groaned, now regretting not listening to Silver about taking it easy.

Her second problem came when she realized that Silk Shimmer hadn't been knocked out. She was awake, wincing from her throbbing head, and her blue eyes were giving Goldie a glower that was hardly lenient. In fact, she looked nearly ready to kill her.

"What'd you do that for?!" Silk snapped. "I didn't do anything to you!"

Goldie bit her lip. "Uh..."

Silk levitated the frying pan, and then tossed it away. "You've got some nerve assaulting me like that. What, you don't like me or something? You hate magicians? Or is this a weird way of asking if you could join our little crew?"

Goldie put her front hooves on the ground, and lifted herself up. Even though pain was gnawing at her side, she kept herself from crying out, only letting out a grunt between her teeth. Taking deep breaths, she growled, "Why would I want to join a fake circus and scam ponies?"

Silk's eyes widened. "How did you--uh, I mean, I don't know what you're talking about."

"What, you didn't think I saw you perform a cloudwalking spell on Jeff?" Goldie spat. "He ain't no wingless pegasus, he's just an earth pony! And I'm sure Miss Whiskers is just wearing a fake beard that's enchanted, and that those 'boulders' Tyrannosaurus Pecs are in reality, super light."

Silk scoffed. "Seriously? What proof do you have...?" Her eyes widened as it clicked. "Oooh, you were trying to expose them by taking me out of the equation..."

"You're obviously a powerful unicorn, you didn't need the help of those scammers to show your stuff. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got twins to destroy." Goldie snorted, and started her slow, agonizing walk. Her stomach was churning as she did so, and her world was slowly starting to spin. Pain radiated from her left to her right, and her hooves felt heavy. But there was no way anypony was going to stop her now.

Silk Shimmer hopped right in front of her. "Please don't tell anypony! I joined this troupe because I wasn't doing very well and getting overshadowed by my older brother, and the Flim Flams were helping me back up on my hooves! Look, I'll take you to the hospital in exchange for--"

"I don't need to see a doctor!" Goldie snapped. "Gosh, why does everypony insist on babying me?"

Silk Shimmer scowled at her. "I'm not babying you, I can tell that you're seriously in pain--stop being such a stubborn brat!"

Goldie attempted to shuffle around Silk. "I'm... not... in... pai--" She bumped into a support beam, and then she screamed. She was on the verge of both tears and collapse, but she was still keeping herself steady. She glanced at Silk, who was giving her a look of pity. Pouting, she grumbled, "Don't give me that look."

That was when they both noticed the Flim Flam Brothers strolling up to them.

"Ah, I see you're making new friends, Silk Shimmer," Flim said with a smile on his face.

Flam nodded. "And with that adorable little sister of Silver Shill's."

Silk Shimmer chuckled and said, "Yeah... in fact, I was just about to take her out for ice cream!"

Goldie scoffed. "I'm lactose intolerant."

Flim clicked his tongue. "There is no need to lie, girls. We heard poor Comedy Gold screaming in agony."

Silk's smile fell. "Oh... well..."

Flam waved a hoof. "Don't worry your pretty head, Silkie. We're feeling generous today, and so we'll gladly take your friend to the hospital."

Goldie snorted. "You can forget it, you poor excuses of ringmasters! You're just trying to butter me up so that you can get away with fooling audiences with those ponies just given a temporary superpower by your lackey here!"

Silk jumped, and whispered, "Shush, you! Don't let them know you're onto them!"

Goldie ignored her. "At least the showoff that got here first is doing genuine tricks and stuff, and is not lying just for profit. I have to say, as irritating as that wannabe cowboy is, at least he's a good party pony. Pfft, as if you can top one of those ponies, I should know, I'm one of 'em."

Flim and Flam glanced at each other, not quite impressed with her rant. One of them lifted his hat and pulled out a spray can.

Goldie continued, "Anyway, Silver was right when he said you were untrustworthy. It's a real shame that he had to work for you bozos just to--"

Flim nonchalantly sprayed her with the spray, and Goldie collapsed in a snoozing heap.

Flam shook his head. "Shame that we had to use the Spray n' Scape."

Silk groaned. "Guys, she could barely move! You didn't need to use it."

"She talks too much," Flim said. "Besides, we can't have her exposing our little secret, and it's difficult to convince a stubborn filly like that not to talk."

Silk put a hoof to her face. "Then what are you going to do with her? I don't know any memory removal spells, and even if I did, those have nasty side effects."

"Theoretically, if she had damaged anything of ours, we'd have to expect her to be able to pay us back..." Flim scratched his chin as a smirk came upon his face.

Flam nodded, the same smirk coming upon his face. "Yes, yes, either with money, or with her own hard work--though only after she heals from her problem."

They turned to Silk Shimmer. "Say, Silkie, you know any glamour spells?"

Author's Note

Well... this chapter is... something. :applejackunsure:

Yeah, I headcanon Silver Shill as having three sisters--Platinum Pen, Pearly Whites, and Comedy Gold. Not sure if Penny and Pearl will ever appear, though. Probably will show them if I ever get around to writing a Silver Shill oneshot--and yes, I do have an idea for that.

Goldie's being kind of an idiot here, I know. :facehoof:

Lastly, the Spray n' Scape... came about by this video my cousin made with some classmates.
It's been deleted from YouTube, so have to link to it elsewhere.

5.4--Flim Flam vs. Sandwich

Once he took a bow and let the group on guitars take the stage, Cheese waltzed over to the nearest bench to sit down and catch his breath. He set Boneless 2 down next to him, pulled out his canteen, and guzzled down his water. Smacking his lips and wiping sweat off his brow, he noted that the sun had reached its zenith, and dare he say that it was not being kind. Not only was he sweating, but he could see the better part of the party's attendants getting themselves wet in any way they could. Standing near the splash zones of the roller coaster, dunking themselves in the plaza's water fountain--though some got confused and jumped into either the chocolate or cheese fountains--calls to go to the beach, setting off Comedy Gold's water balloon tripwires, and even bringing kiddie pools from their homes.

"I wonder if Princess Celestia ever receives complaints about the sun being too hot?" he muttered. He held up his rubber chicken and squeaked, "'I'd like to formally request the Princess to turn the sun's heat down'."

It wasn't long before Tomato came and sat down next to him, sighing loudly and leaning into his hooves. Cheese glanced at him, noticed that he was still wearing the jacket, and said, "Tommy, take your jacket off. It's hot."

Tomato didn't even look at him. "I noticed."

"I don't want you getting heat stroke." Cheese leaned over and quickled swiped the brown jacket off of Tomato, leaving the buttoned shirt on. "You really should have chosen a short sleeve shirt, to be honest."

"Hm, thanks."

Cheese blinked. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

Cheese scooted toward him, and put a hoof on his shoulder. "Look, you don't need to be afraid to just talk to me. Can't keep your feelings pent up forever, you know? Besides, no concern of yours is too trivial or ridiculous for me to ignore, am I right?"

Tomato whickered, his nose pointing to the circus train. His eyes followed the pony cartwheeling on the clouds. "...it's nothing."

Cheese looked in that direction. "Does the circus bug you? Because you know..." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "...clowns."

Tomato snarled. "They better stay over there and not get in my face again. Besides... ugh, it's nothing."

"Don't tell me you're afraid of the Flim Flam brothers lying and this thing being a hoax like Silver Shill said, are you?"

Tomato sighed. "Even if it is a hoax... it doesn't really seem like they're doing any harm. They are just entertaining ponies."

"There may be an angry mob if they're exposed. Ponies generally don't like being lied to."

Tomato blew on his forelock, and watched Miss Whiskers bemoaning some sort of plight about an orphanage she grew up in, earning her some charitable donations. "Especially when money is involved..." He started to play with his cheeks, rubbing with his hooves in circular motions just to get a feel of his own face. "Doesn't feel like a baby face..."

Cheese tilted his head. "Huh?"

Before the matter could press on further, Silver Shill skidded to a stop in front of them, his back to them. His eyes were wide and dashing to every place in the square, his legs were trembling, and he was gnawing at his hoof. His chest was visibly heaving, and he was sweating like crazy.

"Hey, Silver, what's going on?" Cheese asked.

Silver whirled around and yammered, "Oh, man, I can't find Goldie anywhere! She's not here, she's not at home, she's not at the park, she's not at the beach, she's not at that weird toy store she likes, she's not anywhere! Oh, man, if she strains herself while still recovering, I don't think I'll be able to forgive myself!"

"Whoa, there," Tomato said. "Calm down, panicking won't get you anywhere."

"I know that!" Silver snapped.

Cheese glanced at Tomato. "Hey, now, Tommy, I reacted the same way whenever you wandered off when we were colts." He hopped off the bench and stood up tall. "Besides, I can sense other party ponies. In fact, I sense her over there."

Silver turned to see that Cheese was pointing to the circus train, where true to form, that cream-colored, strawberry blonde mare was hanging out near the engine. The shorter stallion breathed a sigh of relief and wiped his brow.

"Oh, thank goodness. Say, what is she doing--"

BOOM!

The alarmed crowd let out a cacophony of yelps, screams, and shouts in response to the exploding engine, while Goldie stumbled back in response to the sudden gushing smoke. She looked right and left as if she didn't know what to do.

Silver's jaw dropped, and then he yelled, "Goldie!"

Goldie turned her head to see him, and then she dashed off to behind the train in a panic. Silver took off running in pursuit, and after giving each other uneasy looks, both Cheese--after flinging Boneless 2 onto his back--and Tomato followed.

Once they reached behind the train, they were surprised to find that the Flim Flam brothers had already caught her with their magic. They were behaving rather coolly with her, merely shaking their heads in disappointment.

"For shame, Miss Gold... for shame," Flim said. "To think we thought that you were so sweet and innocent."

"I had always heard that party ponies were honorable," Flam said. "Nopony considers sabotage to be honorable."

They glanced at Silver Shill, who was hanging his jaw in disbelief. Flim turned to him and said, "Oh, Shilly... I'm so sorry you had to see this--but your sister decided to bust up our engine out of pure envy."

"Envy?" Silver repeated.

"Envy!" Flam exclaimed. "And now that our engine is busted up, we cannot chug this train to the next town."

"And well, we all know that fixing it costs money, so, it'd be nice if you could pay for reparations," Flim said, idly examining his hoof.

Silver gulped. "Flim, Flam, I'm really sorry about Goldie doing that to you--really, I am. But, the thing is... we're still paying off her hospital bill, and I don't think we have enough to even pay for repairs. Money's been tight ever since our father died."

Flim clicked his tongue. "Justice doesn't take pity on those bereaved of a parent. Either you pay for the repairs with approximately... 500 bits, or your sister here would just have to work for us in order to replace those profits we spend on a repairpony."

"Flim, Flam, she's not fully recovered from her surgery!"

Flam stroked his mustache. "She should have thought of that before attacking us like that."

Flim strode forward, put himself beside Silver, and patted his back. "Don't worry, Shilly, we'll take good care of her, and she'll only work minor jobs until she can do... party pony stuff."

Silver and Goldie looked at each other. The latter looked guilty to the point of tears, and after staring at him with big blue eyes for a few moments, she turned away. The former, while initially showing sorrowful concern on his face, slowly narrowed his eyes, put a hoof to his mouth, and tilted his head.

"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Cheese exclaimed. "Excuse me, but... are you seriously telling us that you're enslaving her?"

"There's a difference between slavery and working off a debt, Mr. Sandwich," Flam said.

"I just--I, uh--look, maybe I could fix your engine."

Flim laughed. "An engine is different from an accordion."

Cheese gave them a half-lidded stare. "I have a party tank--I have to know how to maintain it."

"Doesn't mean you know how to fix a train engine."

"Well, I wouldn't call it a standard train engine, considering the way this thing's built, but, hey, I've picked up on fixing things over the years--I took a few lessons when I was a teenager. Trust me on this--I fix the engine for free, you don't lose any money, Silver and his family don't go a step backward in paying that hospital bill, and I'm sure they'll figure out a way to punish Goldie for her mischief without having to lose her." Cheese clapped and grinned. "Everypony wins! Right, Boneless 2?"

The rubber chicken flopped onto the ground.

Flam scoffed. "The punishment still has to fit the crime. Besides, nothing is free, Cheese Sandwich. Just how do you set these parties up without it being costly?"

Tomato stepped forward. "For crying out loud, just take his offer. It's the best option for all parties here. There's no reason for you to refuse it... unless you're just using this as an excuse to add a party pony to your troupe, because after all, aren't they ponies with bizarre powers, that are perfect for a circus? Sounds like she'd be very profitable, huh?"

The Flim Flam Brothers turned to him. Flim then said, "There's nothing wrong with her being profitable, you should know that! I suppose we were right about you... you're just a naive colt just dressing up as an adult just so he could be taken seriously. You still have a lot to learn..."

Tomato ground his teeth. "I have nothing against her being profitable--I'm against how you're planning to extort her. And I am an adult! You know nothing about me!"

They ignored him, and turned to Silver. Flam tousled his mane and said, "She needs to spread her wings and fly, Shilly! Fierce loudmouth she may be, but with us, we promise that she'll bloom into something extraordinary!"

Silver huffed and glanced at Goldie once again. "Doesn't change the fact that you're trying to justify kidnapping her."

"It's not kidnapping if we're discussing it," Flim said.

"Look," Cheese said, picking up Boneless 2 and slinging him back on his back. "I get that she should be held accountable for her actions--but party pony powers aren't meant to be used for profit. The fact that you're refusing my offer so that you could use her against her will to earn a quick bit--while she's still healing, mind you--doesn't sit well with me. I'm surprised she's not disputing it!"

"We're magicking her mouth shut."

"What?!" Silver shouted.

Flam twirled his mustache. "So... are you going to fight us over this?"

Cheese shook his head. "No, I'm not interested in a fight."

"Not even a music fight?"

"I like music... but, not fighting."

Flim chuckled. "What's the matter, Cheesy... chicken?"

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "I've already got one." He turned to show them Boneless 2. "See?"

"Nice looking chicken it is. Say, his name is Boneless, right?"

Cheese pursed his lips. "Technically, it's Boneless 2, Boneless sacrificed himself in order to save Equestria."

Silver looked to Tomato for clarification of that statement, but Tomato raised his hoof and gave him a look that said 'don't ask.'

Flam nudged his brother. "I wonder if Cheese Sandwich is as 'boneless' as his chicken."

Cheese frowned. "What did you call me?"

"Oh, nothing, just a little something suggesting that you don't have a spine."

Flim snickered. "Or a skeleton for that matter."

As the twins laughed, Cheese's face fell into a stony glare, and he growled, "Nopony calls me boneless! You want your music battle? I'll give you a music battle!"

Silver looked at him. "Cheese, it's two against one! That's hardly fair!"

"Silver Shill is right!" Flim gasped. With a smirk and a glance at Goldie, he said, "Why don't we make things interesting, and make it a battle of duets? The Flim Flam brothers versus Cheese Sandwich and..."

Cheese stretched his front leg to the side, and drew Tomato close to him. "Tomato Sandwich."

Tomato's eyes widened. "Wait, what?!"

"Flim Flam Brothers versus Sandwich Brothers, I see," Flam said. "Winner decides the fate of Comedy Gold."

Both parties prepared for the music battle later that afternoon. Sitting in the shade of the pirate ship pizza parlor, where Cheese Sandwich tuned his accordion and sang a few practice notes, the other member of the Sandwich party was clearly not happy with the turn of events. In fact, he expressed his displeasure by smacking his brother on the back of the head.

"How could you drag me into this?!" Tomato snapped, leaping to his hooves and pacing back and forth. "You know I don't like singing in public!"

Cheese rubbed where Tomato hit him. "We agreed it was going to be a duet battle--and quite frankly, you're my only option."

"You didn't ask Silver Shill if he could sing!" Tomato pulled at his mane. "This is his sister we're fighting for! Why'd you agree to a duet battle? You can defeat them on your own!"

Cheese blinked and chuckled. "I'm really flattered you think that."

"Yes, I do." Tomato smoothed down his mane. "And I'll only hold you back."

"Now how can a stallion with a great singing voice hold me back?" Cheese leapt to his hooves and pulled Tomato to his side. "When the Sandwich voices combine, the Flim Flam brothers won't stand a chance!"

Cheese then sat back down, and played a few practice notes. "Heck, I bet you could defeat them on your own if you wanted to."

Tomato sat down, wishing that they were sitting on grass instead of cobblestone. Still, he bore it, and he turned to the circus train on the other side of the square. He stared at it, shaking his head at the cage Goldie was put in to prevent her from causing more mischief, or so it was claimed. He wondered what the Flim Flams' game plan was, especially against Cheese Sandwich.

And even though Cheese was confident in him, Tomato worried about being nothing but an obstacle.

In an open space in the square, all the party's attendants were watching from nearly every corner. Some watched from the pirate ship, some from the fountains, some from the tops of houses, and many others stood in a large circle around the two duos. Both sets of brothers stretched their muscles, and made sure their throats were clear and their voices were working. The Flim Flam brothers made sure their dress was clean, and Flam groomed his mustache. Cheese made sure his accordion was in tip top shape, while Tomato was busy looking at the large crowd that was gathered, edging closer to Cheese for comfort.

Silver Shill sat next to the cage that Comedy Gold sat in, watching from the train. After a brief glance at the competitors, he looked at Goldie and said, "Funny thing that you have four stallions fighting over you, and none of it is romantic. Hardly happens, am I right?"

Goldie didn't answer, staring straight ahead.

Silver pouted, and leaned against the cage. "Goldie, this may be our last chance to talk, and your mouth isn't magicked shut this time."

There was still silence.

Silver sighed. "Remember the day we earned our cutie marks? You know, how you took charge and made changes to the school carnival because it had a reputation of being boring? And how I had to work hard to convince everypony that it was different that year? Hehe, yeah, it was a blast. I especially liked the Chocolate Dolphin Slippery Dandy."

"The what?" Goldie said, with a completely different voice from before. Her eyes widened and she covered her mouth.

Silver laughed. "Caught ya. And from the looks of the attendance of the other freaks..." Silver leaned over to count the members of the troupe. "...looks like you're either one of the clowns or that unicorn magician. Snake Shiner, am I right?"

'Goldie' snorted and growled, "I think that guy's taking a nap again... and the name's Silk Shimmer!" Then, realizing her mistake, the disguised Silk did a facehoof. "D'oh... ugh, how'd you know?"

"I'm Goldie's brother. Okay, you, where is she?"

Silk sighed. "In the train, asleep because of a knockout spray. So... what part of her did I get wrong?"

"Frankly, you were acting too passive to be her. She's a fiery and stubborn mare."

"Mmm, true... she did hit me with a frying pan."

"She what?"

"Shush, the battle's about to start!"

Silver went quiet, and watched as the scene before them unfolded. The Flim Flams and the Sandwiches had finished their stretching, and looked around. Then, Flim stood up on his hind legs and started to address the crowd.

"Welcome, welcome, ponies, to our grand music battle!" Flim announced with gusto. He was back on all fours. "We present to you the clash of the musical talents of the Sandwich Brothers and the Flim Flam Brothers. I suppose you're wondering what the point of this match is, and why we musicians have to fight. Well, we had a little dispute about what should be done about our little saboteur..."

Flam joined in with, "And thus, we're settling our argument. But not to worry, it's all in good fun! Anything to entertain you ponies, am I right?"

"And it's an honor to go toe-to-toe with the amazing and hilarious Cheese Sandwich... aaand that brother of his that I forgot the name of."

"Hey!" Tomato snapped.

"His name's Tomato, brother of mine," Flam reminded.

Flim laughed and smacked his forehead. "My mistake then! Well, then, if you folks are booing anypony during the match, don't throw him."

Tomato leaned over to Cheese and whispered, "Why are they so intent on getting on my nerves?"

Flim continued, "And now... it's time to list off the rules....

Each verse from one side needs to be matched by the other
At least one line has to be sung by each brother."

Flam joined in with,

"Both siblings have to be equal, have to be in sync
If one does all the work, what would all these ponies think?"

Cheese stepped forward, and sang,

"I can accept those rules, I can say that they seem fair
My baby bro and I will certainly treat them with care."

Tomato gulped, and added,

"And now that we've got that covered, let this battle begin
Sandwiches vs. Flim Flams... let's see who will win..."

Tomato jumped upon hearing the music's sudden swelling, and looked around at the crowd starting to bounce. Glancing back at Cheese getting ready to start playing his accordion, he wiped sweat off his brow and quietly tried to bid his racing heart to slow back down to it's regular, steady beat.

Flim and Flam marched forward, smug looks on their faces. Flim opened his mouth and sang:

"Entertainment is a delicate art
You never know just what'll hit their hearts"

Flam then added, looking straight at Tomato:

"An audience can sense the slightest bit of stage fright
And you better pray hard that things will turn out all right."

A grand gesture of the hooves toward the Sandwiches indicated their turn, and Cheese didn't hesitate to use his tail to spring himself into the air. While in midair, Cheese started to play his accordion.

"A creative use of talent can go a long way
It's great when ponies want to hear you sing every day!"

Cheese landed next to Tomato, and nudged him. The latter pulled at his collar, and cleared his throat.

"Wh-when all is said and done, and when you celebrate
Be sure that you didn't serve all that's on your plate."

Tomato breathed a sigh of relief, glad his turn was over. He glanced at the crowd, who seemed a little confused at Tomato's choice of words. It didn't help that Cheese commented, "I don't think they quite got your metaphor."

Flim and Flam chuckled, and sang together.

"They say two is better than one
That it is double the fun
After all, isn't that what siblings are for?

But consider it a test
When you have to sing a duet
As a team effort, not your own little war!"

Silk put a hoof to her mouth. "I come from a family of three."

"I'm the third of four," Silver replied.

Cheese was now circling the Flim Flams while rolling a cheese wheel, a baffled and terrified Tomato sitting on his shoulders and clinging to his head. With a grin and a wink toward the confused twins, he sang:

"Tommy and I don't have to be twins
To be a super duper team!
A three-year gap isn't really that much
For two brothers who can open up and sing!"

Squeezing his eyes shut, Tomato added,

"Cheese alone bears a load of talent
Quite useful considering the job he does
I would say that he doesn't really need me
To get this crowd abuzz."

The crowd was starting to cheer, stomping in applause for the scene in front of them. Tomato's eyes were squeezed tighter, and he cursed under his breath about being reminded that there was an audience. Even with his jacket off, Tomato's coat was already growing damp with sweat.

Flim and Flam just watched the cheese wheel circle them, and just glanced at each other. Flim looked up at the stallion rolling it.

"My, my, my, what an interesting trick
I do wonder where that cheese wheel came from."

Flam then added,

"I must agree that it is very impressive
And I hope that up there they're both having fun."

Cheese then jumped and kicked the cheese wheel onto its side, and landed on it to use it as a stage to dance on. Once Cheese reached the ground, the shock of the impact made Tomato release Cheese's head and fall flat on his back, muttering an "Ow...". This went unnoticed by Cheese as he sang,

"Well, what can I say? I strive to be fun
And to make my parties great for everyone
From the very moment I earned my cutie mark
Making others happy is how I do my part!"

Cheese gestured to the still-aching Tomato, making minor twitches to tell him that it was his turn. Upon noticing, Tomato stood up, brushed himself off, and cleared his throat again.

"Well, I, um, I just sing sparingly
It's not really a talent I like to flaunt, you see
I guess I'm good, at least that's what I've been told
But because my brother asked--"

From the corner of his eye, he spotted a tannish-yellow form topped with red-orange. He turned to it, and for a moment, there stood his mother, looking on disapprovingly at both her sons. She especially glared at Tomato, and shaking her head, she said, "Do I see a music note on that flank?"

Tomato's tail instinctively covered his flank, and he could feel a lump in his throat. Just what was he doing?

That was when Cheese shouted, "Tomato!"

"Eek! Potato casserole!"

Everything went silent for a moment as they processed what he sang. And then, the crowd burst out laughing, as did the Flim Flam Brothers. At the sound of the laughter, Cheese grimaced and put a hoof to his face, while Tomato flushed beet red. He looked at the very same spot where Mom had been standing, but she had disappeared.

From their place near the train, Silver Shill and the still-disguised Silk Shimmer watched the screw up in disbelief. Silk put a hoof to her mouth, while Silver cringed. The former turned to the latter and said, "Well, that can't be a good sign."

Silver pursed his lips and gazed at the ground. "I just hope it's a little hiccup in their performance. I mean... they can't lose!" Then he turned to her once again. "You know, you're a nice and very talented mare... why are you working for them?"

Silk sighed. "Well... I was promised more exposure, and told me that I'd be big enough to take on the Mystical Master of Magic, Kazam. And, well, since the guy's my older brother and thinks he's better than me, I just want to show him what I'm made of and have him take me seriously! And from joining them, they got me involved in faking freaks of nature so they could run a mini-circus. Sure, we're lying, but it can't be that bad."

"Silk... I've worked for them, and I've thought the exact same thing. But I learned that a little white lie can snowball into a disaster. I mean, an old mare nearly killed herself because she thought the miracle tonic we were selling made her invincible. Sure, your circus seems like harmless entertainment... but do you really want to be involved in a kidnapping? Just so Flim and Flam can profit off of a party pony?"

Silk grimaced. "Well... when you put it that way..."

Back in the square, the crowd ceased their laughing, as did the Flim Flams, who climbed onto the cheese stage. Flim stepped forward and crooned,

"Well, Tomato, I will admit
That was a close one
You're lucky that lyrics don't matter in this fight
Or else you and Cheese would have been done."

Flam then added,

"I cannot imagine how embarrassing that was
To say something random like that
And be the target of mocking laughter
For a verse that clearly fell flat."

Cheese huffed.

"I assure you all that he won't do that again
We all make mistakes, no need to fret,"

He glanced at Tomato, and noticed that he was sweating. Silently cursing the heat, he added,

"It's probably just the heat getting to his head..."

In one swift motion, Cheese grabbed his brother, sped to the nearest building, and set off one of Goldie's balloon tripwires. Almost instantly, water balloons exploded on their heads, and they were soaked in less than ten seconds.

"Ta-da! Now we're all wet!"

Dripping wet and shivering, Tomato couldn't help but hear the phantoms of the laughter earlier, and the lump in his throat swelled. He wondered if anyone would notice if he was crying, but realizing that it would be undignified and a haunting memory about how funny it was when he cried made him hold back. Plus, that would make them lose the battle. So, he swallowed the lump, and shakily sang,

"Well... uh... at least my mistake rhymed
And that all of you are really having a good time,"

He took a deep breath, and marched on forward, holding his composure. He had to remember why he was doing this. He was going to help his brother win this. He was going to help Comedy Gold out of her jam. He was going to show them all that he was more than the narrow definition of his cutie mark that his mother had put upon him. He stood steadfast and looked the Flim Flams in the eyes.

"But we won't be beaten, you cannot bring us down
We'll show you what we're made of, and--"

That was when a clown came onto the scene with a bag of peanuts, and looked around, and stared straight at Tomato with tired, soulless eyes. "Hey... I take a nap and you guys are all singing? Geez, you're all rude."

Panic surged within Tomato, and he bolted off into the other direction. "Oh, Celestia, not a clown!"

Cheese's jaw was slack as he gaped at the scene before him. Then he shook his head and yelled, "Of all the times for something like that to happen, it had to be now?!" With a groan, he started to chase Tomato, shouting, "Tommy! We're not done yet!"

Flim and Flam laughed. The former clutched his stomach and said, "I didn't see that one coming!"

The latter replied, "Pfft, who would have thought he was afraid of clowns?"

Cheese ambled back to the cheese stage, dragging a chocolate-covered Tomato by the tail and grumbling about the lousy random luck that was the clown. He shot a glare at said clown, and the clown understood the silent threat that Cheese was sending him and ran off. Then he looked up at the Flim Flams.

With a chuckle, Flim sang,

"Forgive us for our tired clown
But the fella does need his sleep."

Flam added,

"We opted not to wake him up
Since when he's tired he gives ponies the creeps."

Cheese snorted.

"Well now since that's all done and over with
We can get back to business..."

He looked at Tomato, who was now sitting up and gazing fearfully at the crowd. Here he was, sitting in the middle of a street, covered in chocolate due to trying to hide in a certain fountain. He could see them all grinning and snickering at him, presumably from the three things from the last several minutes being very silly. And downright embarrassing.

He looked down at the ground, cursing himself for doing something outside of his cutie mark. He squeezed his eyes shut, wishing that he could just disappear.

"I... I... I can't."

Cheese's face fell, and he grabbed Tomato by the front leg. "Yes, you can, Tomato! After all, aren't we a team?" He tried to lift him to his hooves, but to no avail. "Come on, I know you have it in you! Why are you giving up?"

Tomato slid his foreleg out of Cheese's grasp. "Because I'm a burden, that's why!"

Cheese stepped back in surprise of Tomato's sharp voice. Cheese kept gazing at him, even when Tomato turned away, buried his face in his hooves and muttered, "Just bury me so I can suffocate in the ground..."

Cheese jumped at the sound of Flim and Flam laughing. When he turned to face them, Flim said, "Well, that sounds like we won, don't you think, brother of mine?"

Flam nodded. "And thus, we'll have Comedy Gold work off her debt to us for busting up our engine."

Cheese didn't show it, but he could feel his blood boil. The option he had presented was perfectly fine, especially since if his parties were free despite using things normally high cost, his fixing of the engine would be as well. The mere fact that they refused so that they could have an excuse to force a party pony to join them was making him want to hit them over the head with a crowbar. He even went through a music battle against them to convince them, and he lost. All because Tomato couldn't get a grip.

Flim and Flam opened up the cage, and let 'Goldie' jump out. She glanced at Silver Shill, who seemed unusually calm considering the circumstances. So, she looked up, and listened to what they had to say.

Flim started with, "Now, now, Comedy Gold, I know you must be scared to be leaving home like this. But, I assure you, we're not bad ponies, and we'll treat you kindly. You'll be encouraged to do your best during your time with us."

Flam added, "Imagine all the places that you'll see! The ponies that you'll meet! All the attention that a pony could ever want! Why, we'll make sure you'll become a bigger party pony than Cheese Sandwich over there!"

Then they looked at Silver Shill. Flim put a hoof to his chest and said, "We still assure that there are no hard feelings from when we last met. All we ask is that you're strong enough to let her go and spread her wings."

Silver raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you let her speak for herself? Or is Silk Shimmer going to be talking for her?"

Both twins' eyes widened when they heard that. Pulling at his collar, Flim said, "Whatever do you mean, Shilly? Why would Silk Shimmer--"

That was when 'Goldie' spoke up. "Because I'm not Comedy Gold!" She pushed aside the Flim Flam Brothers with telekinesis, and then marched to the middle of the square. There, she let her disguise fade away to reveal her horn, white coat, blue and lavender streaked hair, and her magician's hat and outfit. Then, she said, "I'm Silk Shimmer."

The crowd gasped, and Cheese gaped at the reveal. Tomato was glancing over his shoulder, just as surprised at the event. Everypony started to murmur, wondering where she was going with this.

Her horn glowed, and from the engine came what looked like two small balls of yarn. "The engine isn't broken--I was just putting a couple of my smoke machines in there to frame Goldie for sabotage. She never really sabotaged us--she tried and failed to do so by hitting me with a frying pan. And I still have the bump...

"Yes, Flim and Flam were faking this whole thing so that they could add a party pony to the troupe. After all, party ponies are some of the strangest and most amazing ponies in Equestria--I should know, my younger brother is one. And if he was the one in this situation, I'd be just as upset as Silver Shill is. And... well... let's just say... I quit!"

The twins jumped and rushed to her. Flim begged, "Reconsider your decision, Silk Shimmer! You're our star! If you're not with us, our whole circus is going to fall apart!"

Flam took her hoof. "We'll give you a raise! We'll make the living conditions better! We... we'll give you your favorite fruit snacks!"

"Fruit snacks?" Tomato muttered.

"They're yummy, Tomato," Cheese whispered.

Silk swiped her hoof away. "After this deception, forget it. I'm not working for somepony who has to lie to get what they want. Let your circus die, I'm done with it." With that, she trotted to the train, opened up one of the cars, and levitated a sleeping Goldie out. Then she and Silver trotted away from the train and toward the Sandwiches.

Flim and Flam were stunned by Silk's words, but it wasn't long before they noticed the glares of the townsfolk. They glanced at each other, and with nervous grins, they hopped back onto the train, urged the rest of their troupe onto it, and then chugged away before anyone said a word.

Cheese snorted. "No wonder they didn't want me to fix it. It wasn't even broken!"

"I humiliated myself for nothing," Tomato grumbled.

Silk grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry for all the trouble. I should have known better than to just help them frame her and let them attempt a kidnapping like that. Silver here talked me out of going through with this."

Silver shrugged. "I just didn't want to lose my sister... especially when she's still healing. I just wish she wasn't so antsy."

Silk's eyes widened. "Oh... uh, Silver?"

"Yes?"

"We need to take her to the hospital. She hurt herself and might've ripped open an old wound or something."

Silver held a grin, squeaking like a dying mouse, and his eye twitched. After a few moments, he fainted.

Author's Note

I hate how long this chapter took. :ajbemused:

But yeah, between bouts of worry about how this would turn out, trying to come up with lyrics for the song, multiple distractions, real life, and weak motivation, I slowly wrote this thing. But, lo, and behold, the Flim Flam Brothers and the Sandwich Brothers had their battle!

Duh, of course Cheese and Tomato were going to lose.

5.5--Tiny Web of Assistance

Together in death was often billed as a romantic phrase. Cheese didn't get what was so romantic about it.

For one, there was the sharp sterile smell of the hospital room and the heart monitors eerily breaking the silence. Two, Grandma and Grandpa were pale, and the way they gazed at the ceiling before they even noticed their daughter and grandson come in worried him. And three... the doctors had not looked very happy.

All he had seen were weak smiles and soulless eyes. All he had felt was the gentle and strained patting on his head that his grandpa gave him, unable to speak to him. His grandma's normally soothing voice had been quiet and raspy as she told him how much of a brave and kind soul he was, and that she regretted not living long enough to have a chance to say goodbye to Tomato. They seemed like zombies, and all Cheese could do was keep a brave face as he fought back the lump in his throat and bore the ache in his heart. The experience had been surreal for him, as if he was in some creepily somber nightmare.

Even now, when it was clear that they had passed, he still wanted to wake up.

He thought karma would be nice to Grandma and Grandpa if he behaved. He tried to be a good boy, he really did. He did his homework, even though he hated it. He wasn't like the other big brothers that beat up their little brothers--usually punching Tommy was an accident. He was quiet, he sat still, he paid attention in class (sort of), he obeyed Mom even when she was being mean, and he most certainly helped out at the pizzeria.

Oh, no, who's going to run the pizzeria now that Grandma and Grandpa are dead?

Cheese didn't know when he started crying. Time froze when the fact had hit him, and when it resumed, the fur on his face was soaked. He wiped his eyes and turned away, not wanting his mom to see. As he was often told, big colts don't cry, and he was afraid that he'd be scolded for devolving into a blubbering mess.

Mozzarella's inhales were sharp, and she said in a shaky voice, "At least we were here in their last moments. We might as well break the news to your father and brother." She turned to him. "Chin up, Cheese. I need you to be a big boy."

Cheese merely nodded.

It was quiet when they returned home. The door was shut behind Mozzarella and Cheese with a click, and they looked forward into the still, dark house. The only light that was on was the one in the kitchen, which signaled that Cheese's father was still up, doing the grownup homework he always did. Cheese stood and watched as his mother walked into the kitchen to break the news to him, and the looked at the floor.

He still wanted to believe he was still just asleep. He wanted to believe that he could still go to the pizzeria, and be greeted by his jolly grandparents and their customers. He wanted to believe that he could still be supplied with a slice of warm pizza, and eating it as Grandpa told a joke about a grapefruit diet or a pony in tacky clothes, or one of Grandma's stories of when she lived in Canterlot. He just wanted to believe they weren't gone. There was no way they were!

His ears twitched as the conversation between his parents started.

"Hay Burger," his mother began. "My parents just passed away."

There was the usual grunt, followed by the scribbling of a pencil.

"We need to set a date for the funeral."

There was another moment of silence.

"Inform our friends... any remaining family... write an obituary...

Another moment of silence passed, and Cheese held his breath.

Mozzarella growled, "You could at least pretend to care."

Hay scoffed. "So? You didn't when my parents died."

"This is different. Years ago, you kept visiting after my sister left because you liked my parents, and they liked you--your parents didn't like me all that much. I don't see why you don't think this is a big deal."

Hay snorted. "Kind of hard to return the favor of comfort you never gave me."

Cheese could barely remember when his other grandparents died. He had just stood there, during two different funerals, just watching ponies put the coffins in the ground, and his father just growing more and more reclusive. Granted, Cheese had been three and didn't quite understand it, while Tomato had just been a newborn. But, he knew his dad had been a different pony before, as evidenced by pictures of him playing with Cheese as a baby.

He heard his mother growl. "I swear to Celestia, you ask too much! It's been six years, Hay; will you just move on, already?"

The sound of hooves slamming on the table made Cheese jump to his hooves. "I ask too much?! You should read a record of what you say--half of that is being demanding of either me or our son!"

"We have two sons, I have no idea which one you're talking about!"

"The older one. You know, Cheese?"

"Thank you for clarifying," Mozzarella spat. "And I'm only demanding that he does well in school so that he becomes a respectable stallion with a well-paying job and a high social status. Celestia knows I've had enough embarrassment and grief in my life."

"Oh, embarrassment? What, are you still sore that your mother left Canterlot high society to marry a humble pizzeria owner in this neighborhood? And here I was, thinking you were grieving due to the way you demanded my sympathy."

"I am grieving! I have no family aside from my sons left--unlike you, who at least still has a sister!"

"You seem to have forgotten that I don't even like my sister."

Cheese sighed and shook his head. He started to stroll to his room, determined to miss the rest of this argument. They always rant about how their lives sucked. They always quarrel about how the other was a selfish, apathetic jerk that was impossible to love anymore. They always criticize the way the other treats their sons. But most notably, the arguments always go absolutely nowhere. It was a wonder they were still married.

He wished he could walk on two legs, so that he could cover his ears and block out the argument.

"Oh, I know you don't like your sister," Mozzarella snarled. "You don't even like your own sons either! You wouldn't care if one died and the other went to jail!"

"Oh, psht, at least I don't shame our oldest for not being 'smart' enough, or for playing that accordion of his!" Hay snapped back. "Or say our youngest is destined for jail just because he runs around the house screaming!"

"I want my sons to grow up as strong, mature, and respectable stall--"

Cheese shut his bedroom door before hearing any more of the argument. He sighed and shook his head. It was times like this that he wished that he lived with his grandparents. His heart sank as he remembered why there was no chance of that now.

He heard a sharp gasp and an excited, "Cheesy!"

Naturally, he looked up at the bed on the opposite wall, and true to his excitable self, Tommy was bouncing on his bed and grinning at him. However, Cheese just snorted at him, and ambled to his own bed. He hopped in and curled up in his blankets.

Tommy launched himself from his bed onto Cheese's. Trying to shake Cheese, he rambled, "So I got home today and Dad said you and Mom were at the hospital to visit Gramma and Grampa because they were sick there and I wanted to go and give them medicine but Dad said no and told me to go to my room and said he was going to spank me but I don't know what I did. I mean, last time I broke Mom's favorite vase and she spanked me... it hurt..." Tommy rubbed his rump as he did so. Then he climbed onto Cheese. "So, when are we gonna see Gramma and Grampa again? I wanna make sure they get better."

Cheese squeezed his eyes shut, a tear leaking out. "They're not getting better."

Tomato's face fell. "Why?"

"They... they died."

Tomato blinked. "Died? But... medicine will help, right?"

Cheese moved and made Tommy tumble off the lump. "Ergh, no, you little dummy! Dead means they're gone forever! We're never gonna see them again!" He was glad that the blankets obscured his face, because tears were already soaking his face again. He gritted his teeth and hiccuped, and curled even further into his ball.

Tommy blinked, and hearing the sobs from the lump, he crawled beside it, and started to snuggle up against it.

Almost instantly he was pushed off the bed, and Cheese said, "Sleep in your own bed... I wanna be alone..."

With drooping ears and a sigh, Tommy stood up, and then hopped into his own bed. The younger Sandwich just looked at the lump somberly, wanting some way to make Cheese stop crying. After all, seeing him so sad was making him sad.

Meanwhile, Cheese was silently growling to himself about how it was not fair. Grandma and Grandpa shouldn't have died, Mom and Dad shouldn't be arguing again, and he was certain that he was going to hate hospitals for the rest of his life.

Yep, he still hated hospitals.

He had gotten out of there as soon as he could, after Comedy Gold was re-admitted into the hospital. Being there reminded him of the day his maternal grandparents died, and the salt in the wound that was the classic argument between Mom and Dad. To this day, he was still baffled as to why they were still married if their love had gone sour and they clearly disliked each other. Why did they even marry in the first place?

He sighed. It wasn't an appropriate time to think about his colthood. Right now, he ought to be getting ready to go and brace himself for the next Cheesy Sense, but at the moment, he was just tired.

He made his way back to the square, where ponies were still having fun with the activities, and proceeded to sit on a bench. It was the hour of sunset and the air was much cooler than earlier. As he sat, he just thought about what had transpired earlier that day.

Repeated nudges. "Potato casserole". A random clown. A dip in the chocolate fountain. And the mocking laughter of the ponies watching. Cheese himself could handle those just fine--he was used to stupid, and quite often embraced it. But of course Tomato couldn't even dare to be stupid, thus he saw those moments as embarrassing. And Cheese was finding himself embarrassed about his little brother for the first time in a long time.

He looked at the sky, and focused on the pink hues. Hearing the melodious laughter of his greatest inspiration, he murmured, "Oh, Pinkie... if you had been my partner, we would have won it easily. Not that it matters, since the whole thing was a sham..."

Cheese smiled and quietly nickered to himself. Yeah, he and Pinkie would have made great music together--they had done it before after all. Each collaboration with her had been fantastic, from Rainbow's Birthaversary, to the Fall Festival, and the time he decided to slip on down to Ponyville for her birthday. Just being with the sweet, huggable pink mare and looking into her pretty blue eyes made his heart soar. And the way their voices blended together in song just made him tingly in all the right ways.

He heard someone cough next to him, and there sat Silk Shimmer. Blinking, he said, "Oh, hi there."

Silk waved shyly. "Hey." She rubbed the back of her head. "So, uh, I'm kind of on an apology spree, and you're my next target."

Cheese thought that that was an awkward way of putting it. "What are you apologizing for?"

"Well... I apologized to Silver about being involved in nearly kidnapping his sister, to Tomato about his being put in a humiliating situation... and when Goldie wakes up, I'll have to apologize to her about the kidnapping thing. As for you... well... I'm sorry that we went through hoops to keep you from discovering our deceit."

Cheese stared at her for a moment, and then laughed. "Well, I can't stay mad about that, even if it was frustrating that they refused my help... come on, I was going to work for free! How can somepony refuse free work?"

"I don't need to explain why the Flim Flam Brothers did. When I first joined them, I didn't think that they'd go so low..."

Cheese sighed. "Yeah, some ponies do some pretty sketchy things just to earn bits. Sometimes I wonder if Tomato would end up becoming one of those ponies, letting what his cutie mark represents lead to greed and have control over his actions. I sure hope not. If there's anything I don't want to see, it's Tommy turning into a monster."

"I'm pretty sure anypony could use their special talent for evil if they wanted to," Silk murmured.

Cheese scoffed. "Not me. A party pony's duty is to make others happy--there's no way I could turn into a monster. Seriously, you should know we're not malicious--you did say you have a brother who's one. By the way, I'm curious about him..."

Silk giggled. "His name's Party Favor. He was a sweet colt, even if he was a bit strange, and he was always eager to please and determined to prove himself. You should see the way he works his magic with balloons, and he doesn't even use his horn! Granted, he never could use it because of mineral concentration or something, but he managed to redirect his magic to his hooves and earned his cutie mark that way."

"I like him already. I'd love to meet him!"

Silk's face took on a more somber expression. "Well, I hope you find him on your journey. He left a few years ago because nopony really took his talent seriously. Considering that we lived in Canterlot, and balloon modeling isn't exactly the most sophisticated talent..."

"...he felt like he didn't belong." Cheese sighed. "I know what that's like."

"And what stinks is that he hasn't contacted us since he left! Another reason I joined up with Flim and Flam was because I figured that traveling would give me a chance to see Party Favor again, just to see if he's okay. I hope he hasn't gotten into any trouble."

"I'll keep my eyes peeled. How's he look?"

"Well, he's blue..."

Cheese grinned at her. "A-dabba-dee, dabba-dah..."

Silk pouted at him. "Very funny."

Cheese laughed briefly, and before he knew it, he could feel the same old wobbles and twitches that made up his Cheesy Sense. His ear pointed west to a great degree, enough for him to lean too far from the bench. He managed to say, "Las Pegasus!" before he fell face first onto the pavement.

Silk blinked. "Are you okay?"

Cheese looked up at her. "I'm fine, please continue describing your brother."

Comedy Gold's complication was swiftly treated, and now she was lying in a hospital bed in a dull colored and sparsely decorated room. Silver Shill sat at her bedside, and they both had their attention on the doctor.

"Now, Miss Gold," the doctor said. "I hope you understand now why you shouldn't push yourself too hard when still recovering. There was a good chance you could have developed an hernia with your overexertion, and it's a good thing we stopped the hemorrhage. Unfortunately, you'll have to start the healing process over, and we'll have to remind you of how to take care of yourself during the next few months. Right now, just rest in here for the next couple of days, and then after discharge, we'll continue to see each other weekly."

Comedy Gold sighed and glanced at her brother. She blew some hair out of her face. "Okay."

Once the doctor left the room, she groaned. Of course, seeing her brother's disappointed look, she turned away, crossing her forelegs and biting her lip. With a nervous chuckle, she murmured, "So... you've got an excuse to continue being a mother hen..."

Silver Shill sighed. "Goldie, there was a very good reason why I kept telling you to take it easy."

"The doctor just said it."

"Exactly. He's said it before, too. But of course, you thought that you could heal quickly, huh? Just like the other injuries that mysterious magic seems to poof away at your whim. Seriously, what the hay is up with that?"

Goldie bunched up the blanket in her hooves. "It... the magic... doesn't really work when you keep pointing out the injury. Then again, does it work for surgical incisions? I dunno, it's weird, I'm sure your head would explode from all the insane details."

"Medical jargon gives me enough of a headache," Silver murmured. Then he turned to her with a glare. "All right, missy, explain just what you were doing that involved hitting somepony with a frying pan. The Flim Flams have a habit of lying, but I'm inclined to believe their claim of you being jealous."

Goldie huffed. "Well... like you said, they lie! I was trying to expose the lie about their circus acts, which are all fake, by taking that unicorn out of the equation and watching the whole thing fall apart!"

Silver raised an eyebrow. "You do realize that falling from the clouds would have killed Jeff, right?"

Goldie's face fell. "Oh... I never thought about that..."

Silver sighed and leaned in his hoof. "I just want to know... were you doing it so our neighbors wouldn't waste money on a couple of scam artists, or was there really some envy at being shown up twice in the same day involved? If the latter... were you planning on doing anything to Cheese?"

Goldie twiddled her hooves. "I was planning on challenging Cheese to a Goof Off."

"I'm sure he'd refuse because he wouldn't want you to strain yourself. But, you go and do it anyway, got caught by the Flim Flams, got framed for sabotaging their engine--"

"I don't remember that part."

"You were asleep. And then Cheese had to drag his brother into a musical competition to keep them from kidnapping you while a disguised Silk Shimmer was pretending to be you after being caught in sabotage. You're lucky I was able to see through the disguise and convince Silk to admit to the framing and quit working for the Flim Flams."

"What, Cheese didn't win?"

Another voice came from the door. "Because of me."

They turned to the door, where Tomato Sandwich stood. He strolled in, continuing, "It was a battle of duets--and thanks to nervousness and bad luck, I was nothing more than a hindrance to Cheese. He could have defeated them on his own if it wasn't for the fact that the rules of the battle said that each brother needed to have an equal amount of lines."

Goldie blinked. "So... are you a bad singer?"

"Oh, no no no," Silver said. "He's actually got a pretty swell singing voice." He smiled at Tomato. "Were you ever in choir?"

Tomato shook his head and turned to show them his cutie mark. "Nah, there's no music note on this flank, or anything related to it. As much as I like music... it's just not my calling. And a singing voice just wasn't enough to keep me from embarrassing the both of us. He hasn't talked to me since we left the hospital."

"You were taking a bath at my house."

"Okay, true. And your mom's nice, I wish my mom was that nice." He nearly winced at the memory of the phantom of his mother appearing during the battle. "Oh, and I hope you don't mind, but I helped your mother tweak your guys' budget. Hopefully those medical bills won't eat you alive."

Silver rubbed his temples. "Oh, dear... I need to get a job soon--I don't want us to stay in debt thanks to those accursed medical bills..."

Goldie sank. "Sorry for making that worse... and stressing you out... and indirectly leading to embarrassment for the Sandwiches..."

Silver sighed. "It's all right... just as long as you've learned your lesson about overexerting yourself and letting envy control your actions." He watched as Goldie nodded, and then turned to Tomato. "And are you sure you know what you were talking about with my mom?"

Tomato tapped his hoof. "Well, I once did my dad's taxes to get him to play with me. It didn't work. But, yeah, the tweaks won't harm you guys."

"Uh... how old are you?"

Tomato looked away. "I'm still in college." Again, his credibility was being challenged. Not that he can blame them, he was quite young. He rubbed his cheek, still a little sore about being told he had a baby face earlier.

Silver sighed. "With my track record, it's going to take me forever to get employed. No budget or whatever can help with that; it might just mean less luxuries like... uh... pizza or something like that."

Suddenly Tomato perked up. "You have a pizza place around here?"

"Well, not really... that pirate ship in the town square your brother set up was just the first thing that came to mind--that pizza was good! Last I saw it, ponies were loving it. Heheh, my mistake for mentioning it when it's only temporary."

Tomato blinked, and then there appeared a wide grin that was more suited for Cheese's face. "No... don't think of it as a mistake... think of it as an opportunity!"

Silver tilted his head. "Huh?"

Tomato grabbed him with his tail, and then said, "You need to get a business license! And write a business plan! And that budget needs tweaking... again." Before Silver could say anything, Tomato sped out of the room with the stockier stallion in tow.

Goldie blinked, and then slowly waved, muttering, "See you tomorrow, Silver..."

"So... you're saying there's a Magic Expo in Las Pegasus that you think I'm sensing?" Cheese asked.

Silk Shimmer nodded. "You'll see all sorts of magical ponies and treasures and spells and illusions... let me tell you, it's always a blast! My family used to go all the time."

Cheese hooted. "Maybe I'll see my friend Trixie there! She'll take any opportunity to show off."

Silk huffed. "She's going to have a problem up against Kazam."

"Well, I'm sure they'll be good sports about this whole magic thing. Now, where is Tomato...?"

Said pony sped past them and toward the pirate ship, with Silver Shill in tow. The very sight made Cheese jump, and he watched as Tomato stopped short of crashing into the boat, put Silver--who was covered in sticky notes for some reason--down, and then yammer on about something while shaking some papers he held. Cheese scratched his chin, wondering what he was up to that was making him so excited.

Silk bore a grin. "Ooookay... I had no idea he had that much energy. Most ponies in suits are rather lethargic."

"Tomato usually is... I haven't seen him this excited since he was a colt."

They approached the pair, where they finally caught what Tomato was talking about. Cheese was a little baffled as to why Tomato was talking about starting a business, especially since they were going to leave Halterside soon. They stopped short and listened to the rest of Tomato's monologue.

"...now, the only problem would have to be the cost of getting the supplies and foods and maintenance needed to keep this thing long enough for the profits to keep rolling in," Tomato said, tapping his chin. "Do you suppose the bank would help out a little guy like you? I sure hope they will--your family has a medical bill to pay, and keeping this thing afloat will make paying that a little faster."

That's when Silk Shimmer stepped forward. "I could help pay for it."

Both Tomato and Silver whirled around. Tomato jumped, and grinned nervously at Cheese. "Oh... Cheese... I was, uh, going to ask if we were going to leave the pirate ship here so that it could be used as a restaurant..."

Cheese looked at the papers Tomato held. "Shouldn't you have asked me before you went through all the crazy permits and form stuff? And good grief, are you planning on living here? We have a gig in Las Pegasus soon!"

"Oh, no, Silver here's going to run the thing--it's... my crazy idea for helping him pay Goldie's medical bills."

"Crazy is right, sheesh," Silver muttered. "I guess you two are related after all..."

Tomato looked at Silk. "Wait, did you say you were going to help pay for it?"

Silk nodded. "I come from a wealthy family. Besides, it's the least I could do to make up for all the strife that's happened today."

Silver blinked. "Really? Gee... that'd be a big help!"

Silk giggled. "I'll just have to consult my family--they'll most likely be at the Magic Expo. After that, if all works out well, I could come back and help you run the place. I'm a good cook myself... and I could entertain the customers with my magic. Just give me the estimate of the costs and I'll get to it."

Silver smiled, and handed her one of his sticky notes, presumably with the costs on it. "Well... then it'll be a pleasure doing business with you."

Cheese slid next to Tomato, and then said, "All right, bro, it's time to go."

Tomato sighed. "I could help more with this if I stayed longer... oh, well, gotta have family time."

Author's Note

I don't know what was worse... the medical research or the business research... why do I feel like I flubbed them and shot myself in the foot? Pbbt, I'm such a worrywart...

So... next stop, Magic Expo in Las Pegasus! That's going to be a fun segment. :yay:

6.1--A Magical Affair

The train ride to Las Pegasus had been awkwardly silent. It mostly consisted of Cheese gazing out the window, Tomato's nose in a book, and Silk Shimmer keeping her mouth shut because she could sense the tension between the brothers. She had borne witness to Tomato bashfully muttering an apology for his flubs during the music battle and for not asking permission to leave the pirate ship pizzeria there as a full-time restaurant. Cheese had only replied, "It's fine," in a gruff tone. It didn't take a genius to see that Tomato had sensed the tone, and didn't bother to talk to him for the duration of the ride.

It took a few nights, given that Halterside and Las Pegasus were on opposite sides of the country, but once they arrived at the train station atop the hill poking into the cloud-based Las Pegasus Strip, Cheese didn't even pause to even look at the welcome sign. As he ran off to the convention center, he hurriedly told Tomato and Silk to just go around, see the sights, be careful not to fall off the walkways, and get a hotel room. As the elder brother went off to do his job, the younger glared, and stuck his tongue out at him like a small foal. Of course, the tongue went back in his mouth once he noticed other ponies staring.

Silk patted his back. "Come on, let's get a hotel room--and then I can show you around. My family's been here enough that I know the layout of this place."

Tomato glumly nodded. Wiping his brow, he grumbled, "It's hotter here than in Halterside."

"Well, this is a desert."

Tomato looked down at the clouds surrounding the walkways and resorts, and then up at the higher clouds, which clearly had some colonies and luxurious hotels on them. "Uh... clouds?"

Silk waved a hoof. "They're construction clouds--completely useless for weather. Now... are you the gambling type?"

"No."

"Good, neither am I! Who says you have to gamble to have fun here?" Silk grabbed him by the sleeve and started dragging him out of the station and into the city. "Adventure awaits us! And remember, what happens in Las Pegasus stays in Las Pegasus!"

"That's implying naughty acts!" Tomato shouted. "I'm not planning on doing anything naughty!"

After finding a room in a cheap but comfy motel, Tomato certainly did have an adventure. He and Silk Shimmer trotted around the town, looking at interesting objects in the museums, a few chocolate-themed attractions, several floral displays, and acts from talented ponies, all either both inside or outside the buildings. Flashy billboards rose above them, boasting about shows for the various concert and event halls on both land and sky. Tomato counted the different shows being boasted--there was the Magic Expo Cheese was working on, several bands playing, a circus, Equestria's Got Talent, and some show about a werewolf and vampire war.

When on the ground distrinct, they stood across the street from one attraction where ponies would bet on how far a pegasus could fall from one of the cloud buildings before they had to spread their wings to prevent themselves from hitting the ground. Tomato had flinched when one was very close to the pavement, and remarked, "Okay, I'm kind of glad I'm not a pegasus--I'd fail at that for sure."

Once night fell, Silk had dragged him down the Las Pegasus Strip, where they looked at the neon lights, and the replicas of landmarks from other locations. They even watched a fake volcano erupt, a sparkling ball high above the Strip at one intersection, and the choreographed fountains in front of one resort. Tomato was especially fascinated with the pyramid, and wondered what it'd be like for a pony perched at the tip.

It was at the fountains that Silk joked, "I think we might be on a date."

A flustered Tomato replied, "Hey, I've had one-on-one nights out in Manehattan with my female friends before, and it wasn't ever romantic."

Silk smirked. "Do tell."

"For the one named Cirrus, it was winter and I took her to the ice rink in the park. Her brother broke a leg, so he couldn't go. The other, Flora... well, she was new in town and I was just showing her around and giving her bits of advice on how to live with it and not get lost. She says she has an aunt and uncle living there, but those two visit her family and never the other way around."

"Have you met them?"

"Manehattan's too big for me to know who they are, and Flora has guessed that that they don't really matter to me, so she doesn't talk about them much--she prefers speaking of her more immediate family members, anyway."

"So... any others, or is it just Flora and that other one?"

"Cirrus, and no, those are the only two female friends I have. I just..." Tomato scratched his chin and looked away. "Haven't been very good at making friends since I was a colt. I was popular when I was little, but I soon learned that if you're a crybaby and a selfish doofus and a nerd, your classmates turn against you. Doesn't matter the reason you cry, they'll just laugh."

Silk sighed. "My little brother was bullied for being unable to use magic. Things settled down once he earned his cutie mark, but when he grew up, his talent wasn't taken seriously." She rolled her eyes. "Sophistication of Canterlot..."

Tomato quirked an eyebrow. "He was the party pony, right?"

"Yep."

Tomato pursed his lips and nodded. From what he knew about party ponies and what he heard of Canterlot, party ponies would be struggling to fit in with the more sophisticated and less prone to tomfoolery high class of that city. He wondered if that brother had been disowned just for a ridiculous special talent. He knew his mother had disowned and shamed Cheese for his cutie mark.

After a moment of silence, he spotted Cheese from the corner of his eye. "Oh, look at that, Cheese is done. Let's go."

Cheese was just as worn out from preparing the convention center for the Magic Expo as they were from walking around Las Pegasus all day. They led him to the motel room they had chosen, and fell into their beds with aching hooves, legs feeling like rubber, and eyes hurting from the bright lights. They all fell asleep.

Morning at the Magic Expo, and it was already filled with ponies. The convention center was one of the few buildings of Las Pegasus' main district that were standing atop one of the nearby mountains instead of a floating platform. The trio were surprised at the multiple variations of drones that made up the many conversations being spoken. A lot of stands were selling merchandise for each magician that was performing in the Expo, and many excited foals were running around and laughing.

"Wow, lots of ponies like magic, huh?" Cheese remarked. "Everypony just had to come early!"

Tomato was still looking around in the lobby. "Can we just get to finding a member of Silk Shimmer's family so that we could get the money so she and Silver Shill can start up that pizzeria? I want to get that over with before we find a magic act to pay attention to."

Cheese rolled his eyes. "Gee, focused on the money, aren't you?"

Tomato huffed. "Hey, it's not for me!"

Silk Shimmer turned and glared at them. "It's too early for you two to be cranky, so shut up!" She turned to look at a sign with directions to various halls, with another sign advertising which magician was in which hall. "Besides, it should be easy to find them if they're here."

The three approached the signs, and starting scanning the names. It wasn't long before Cheese exclaimed, "Hey! Trixie's here!"

Tomato turned to him. "Who's Trixie?"

"She's a pal of mine who's a magician! She, uh, had a crummy reputation the last time I saw her..." Cheese rubbed the back of his head, holding a sheepish grin. He turned to the sign and smiled. "Looks like she's doing a great job in turning it around, if landing a gig here is anything to go by."

Tomato scanned the sign for Trixie's name before he found it. "...'The Great and Powerful Trixie'? Just how 'powerful' is she?"

"Dunno."

"And... how did you not know she was attending?"

Cheese crossed his forelegs and narrowed his eyes. "I was busy with other stuff--I had other ponies put the magicians in each hall, and she must have been hidden in the group of magicians as the whole deal went through..."

That was when Silk Shimmer exclaimed, "Aha! Kazam's here! And of course he's in the biggest hall..."

"Well, that's lucky," Tomato droned.

Silk bit at her hoof. "I don't know if Mom and Dad are with him... and it'd be a miracle if Party Favor was here just to watch. Hopefully I can convince them that I'm asking for money for a good cause."

Tomato patted her back. "I'll back you up if you need it."

Cheese sighed. "And... I'll just pop into that other hall to say 'hi' to Trixie while you do your business stuff."

Tomato scoffed. "Don't you technically conduct a business with party planning?"

"Psht, no, I don't work for profit. I'm blessed with not having to worry about finances."

Silk turned to him and quirked an eyebrow. "How...?"

Tomato shot a brief glare at Cheese, and then pulled Silk away, trotting down the lobby. "Don't ask, he says it'll make a non-party pony's head explode. Now, let's just find your brother so that we can convince him or your parents to lend some bits to start that restaurant."

As Tomato and Silk left, Cheese just watched with a sour look on his face, quickly stuck his tongue in their direction, and snorted. Then he turned around and walked down the lobby the opposite direction, grumbling, "Gee, no need to have such an attitude, you little ketchup squirt."

He shook his head, reminding himself to keep a smile on his face. He didn't want Trixie to ask questions.

"Watch in awe, as the Great and Powerful Trrrixie uses a lightning strike to turn this glass of water into a glass of orange juice!"

The handful of ponies in the hall just stared at the sky blue mare. There were eyebrows quirked, heads tilted, and there was somepony who coughed. Even when noticing that some of the ponies seemed a little bored, Trixie still held her head up high, and focused her attention on the glass of water on the stool. Her horn glowed in a lilac aura, and a tiny puff of a dark cloud formed.

The cloud swirled into a bigger and bigger mass, and it started to crackle. Trixie heard the murmuring of the audience, and she picked up the slight tones of interest. Smirking, she stopped the cloud's growth, and then silently commanded the lightning to strike.

KA-BOOM!

The thunder made the audience jump, and the strike brought upon purple steam from the water. Trixie gazed upon the crowd, gauging their reaction for once the steam cleared. And when the steam did clear... the ponies laughed.

Wide-eyed, Trixie snapped her head around to find not a glass of orange juice on the stool, but a lanky, brownish-gold pony wearing a yellow polo perched on it, smiling at her, waving, and exclaiming, "Howdy, Trixie!"

Trixie gaped at Cheese Sandwich for about five seconds, and then grinded her teeth. She opened her mouth to yell at him when she remembered her audience. She turned around, grinned, and announced, "Haha! That was part of the plan! Did you really think Trixie would do such a simple trick of turning one drink into another? No, I have fooled you all--I have made a pony appear instead!"

Each member of the audience blinked. And then, they broke into applause, with the sound of thunderous stomps filling the room. Trixie stood up and bowed, and boldly announced, "The Great and Powerful Trixie has more tricks under her cape! But for now..." She tossed her mane. "She needs to take a break."

The audience murmured, and with shrugs, they trotted off to elsewhere. Once the group had dissipated, Trixie turned to Cheese and snapped, "What do you think you're doing, Cheese Sandwich?!"

Cheese shrugged. "Thought I'd pop in to say 'hi'."

"I was in the middle of something!"

"...sorry."

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Just don't do it again, and you better hope that I don't make you the assistant that I saw in half." She turned around and went through the curtains of her stage.

Cheese followed her, where he found that she had removed her hat and cape, and was now powdering her face in front of a mirror. "So... I apologize for not noticing you yesterday--super busy with the set up stuff, and left the hall assignments to the other ponies. But hey, at least your reputation's getting better! Heard about how you nabbed that thief in Manehattan!"

Trixie set down the powder puff, glanced back at him, and smiled. "Well... helps to have some friends to have your back. But yes, it's been a long and frustrating process, but I am reclaiming my former glory." Her face then fell into a scowl. "I just wish they didn't give the biggest stage in the biggest hall to that Kazam pony and some other undeserving talents."

"Oh, him?" Cheese chuckled. "Funny thing, his sister and my brother are going to see him in order to see if her could help out with a restaurant in Halterside... it's a long story."

Trixie turned to him. "Wait... so that creep has a sister--no, no, you have a brother?"

Cheese nodded. "Yeah... Tomato's kind of cranky and gets on my nerves, but it's hard to truly despise him because... well... he's my little brother, and I can tell deep down there's still that bright-eyed and excitable colt within him! I just wish he didn't have to hide it with a big, serious businesspony persona that he thinks he needs to maintain on this road trip. He doesn't, because it's annoying and pointless."

Trixie raised an eyebrow. "I never thought I'd see the day where you of all ponies admit to being annoyed with someone."

Cheese shrugged. "I do get annoyed--I'm not just some smiling doofus that doesn't know any emotion besides fake happiness. Psht, come on, I have to experience pain in order to appreciate joy more fully, you know?"

Trixie was now brushing her mane. "Would be nice not to have to experience pain in the first place."

"Oh, well. I'm still trying to figure out whether Tommy's a blessing or a curse in my life, and whether he's destined for greatness, will fade away into obscurity, or will have a legacy in infamy."

"Puh, I know my sister's a curse."

"Really? How?"

"None of your business." Trixie once again donned the hat and cape, and strolled back outside. "Now, the Great and Powerful Trixie is going to make the show go on! She asks if you not interrupt her in the middle of a trick this time."

Cheese nodded, and then he paused mid nod as he realized something. "Say, Trixie?"

She stopped and glanced back at him. "What?"

He pulled out a glass of full of a thick, red-orange liquid and took a sip of it. "You didn't turn the water into orange juice. This is tomato soup."

Tomato and Silk Shimmer entered the large hall to find several stages set up, with several magicians performing their tricks. One pulled a rabbit out of his hat, another pulled out a stream of handkerchiefs out of his sleeve. One ate fire and breathed out a dragon, and another enchanted some cards and threw them up to create fireworks. A couple were teaching foals some magic tricks, and some were on a break and watching the others or chatting.

At the end of the hall, there was a great big stage, where some ponies were sweeping up ashes from the last act, which Tomato wasn't sure he wanted to know what happened. However, Silk galloped to that stage, and Tomato figured that she thought that her older brother would be the one on that stage. So he followed.

Once they reached it, Silk asked the sweeping pony, "Excuse me... do you know where Kazam is?"

The pony snorted and said, "His next show's not until seven. I'm sweeping this for the other big magicians performing on this stage."

That was when a royal blue unicorn with wavy, jet black hair waltzed out from behind the curtain, donning a maroon cape. "Oh, don't worry your pretty little heads, fans. I'm here to sign auto--" He stopped as he realized who he was talking to. His lips curled into a smile. "Well, hello there, sis. I haven't seen you in a while, Silkie; I was thinking you dropped off the planet like Party Favor did."

Silk sighed. "Yep, it's me, Kazam. I was just... going around, doing stuff."

Kazam looked at Tomato. "Like getting a boyfriend?"

Tomato gave him a funny look. "Sorry, pal, but I haven't known her long enough for any romantic feelings to develop."

"My apologies, Mr.... mind telling me your name?"

"Tomato Sandwich."

"Okay, Mr. Sandwich." He snickered. "Who names their kid Sandwich?"

"I go by Tomato, thank you very much."

Silk grinned nervously. "Can we go speak somewhere else?"

Kazam rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine... let's go to my trailer outside."

He led the pair to his trailer, and invited them inside. Tomato couldn't help but look around at the interior of the little place, even as he swatted at a fly. There were little bookshelves filled with books about magic, famous mages, and the supernatural, as well as a couple of novels. Mystical trinkets such as a crystal ball, some amulets, and other items were scattered in each and every corner and on Kazam's dresser, as well as a bowl of fruit. Cards and handkerchiefs and other standard magician things were on the floor as well. A dream-catcher was hung above a hammock, and right next to the door, there was a bird cage with a pineapple in it.

The pineapple croaked.

Alarmed, Tomato took a closer look at the fruit, and discovered it had four legs, webbed feet, and a face unmistakably resembling a frog's. As he gaped at the strange creature, it let out a ribbit and snagged the annoying fly with its long tongue. Grimacing, Tomato quickly shuffled away from the frog as it crunched on the fly.

He could feel his blood run cold from being inside Kazam's trailer. He kept looking at the pineapple frog, which still stared at him as it swallowed the fly. He couldn't help but wonder how the thing even existed, and a pineapple and a frog on a date popped into his head.

"Go away, disturbing image," he mumbled.

Kazam sat at his his dresser, and took an apple from the bowl. He tossed it toward Tomato, saying, "Have a fruit."

Tomato caught it with his tail, and munched on it. He recoiled as he found that the apple had the tiny, juicy pouches of an orange, dripped like an orange, and it even tasted like an orange. He blinked, swallowed his bite, and ended up glaring at the fruit in utter betrayal.

Kazam telekinetically lifted a comb and ran it through his mane. "So... any reason why this conversation needed to be private between the three of us?"

Silk twiddled her hooves. "Well... you see... I'm going to start a business with somepony on the East Coast, and I need some money so that it can get off the ground."

Kazam scoffed. "What, you're not starting it with To-MAH-to?"

Tomato was still glaring at the orange disguised as an apple. "Please don't pronounce it that way--I find it obnoxious."

Silk blew her bangs out of her face. "Well, technically, it was Tomato's idea to help the guy earn money to pay off his sister's medical bills. I offered to pay for it and help him with it because... well... I got involved in a scam with con artists that nearly kidnapped said sister and made things worse... yeah, I'm trying to make up for that."

Kazam snorted and put down the comb. He picked up a pear. "Silk, don't you know better than to get involved with con artists? Sheesh, next thing I know, I'd find that our brother ended up joining a cult or something."

Tomato stepped forward. "Look, Mr. Kazam, the ponies in that area love pizza, and I'm sure the pizzeria will be a success when it opens."

Kazam turned around and raised an eyebrow, munching on his pear. "It's a pizzeria?"

"Yeah, a pirate ship pizzeria! The folks there are loving the idea, and with some money and some cooks, I personally believe it can work. Our pal back east thinks it's a good idea, the mayor of the town thinks it's a good idea, and so... I smelled a great business opportunity."

"Aren't you a little young to even know anything about that?"

Tomato turned and showed them his cutie mark. "Nopony is too young to learn about it."

"'Cept babies," Silk said. "And tiny toddlers."

Kazam finished his pear, and then looked at his sister dubiously. "Silk, what would Mom and Dad think? You have a talent in magic and you'll waste yourself working in a pizzeria."

Silk groaned. "Kazam, please, I need to make it up to Silver and Goldie back east for nearly screwing up their lives! I'll get back to trying for magical fame later, right now, I'm just trying to help them."

"...you do realize that if I agree, you'll be indebted to me, right?"

Tomato stepped forward. "We could offer a service to you for the next few days, just to work off a little of the debt. Don't worry, we can take any of your suggestions, and Silk can definitely pay you back."

Kazam scratched his chin, and looked at a poster in the corner, depicting what seemed to be several illusions such as a fire dragon, a water hydra, a pony with wings of light, and many others. With a smirk, he turned to them and said, "Well... I suppose I could pay you quite a fine sum of money... if you're both willing to be my assistants for the rest of my shows for tonight and the next couple days..."

"Is it dangerous?" Tomato asked.

Kazam waved a hoof. "I'm a professional--I promise you'll be safe, even if some of my tricks will tingle and sting." He held out a hoof, and with a low, hypnotic voice and glowing violet eyes, he said, "There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of."

Tomato hesitated at the sound of the voice and the look of the eyes. He felt a tingle in his back and his heart pounding against his chest. He wasn't sure he wanted to go through with this, but he had to remember why he was doing it. He glanced at Silk, who didn't seem to notice her brother's strange look, and then with a gulp, he took the hoof and shook it.

"You have a deal."

Author's Note

And thus, I begin the Las Pegasus arc!

Also, I looked up attractions that are free. Because they're tight on cash as it is.

Anyway, in other news--behold! The Great and Powerful Trixie has appeared! Yes, I was planning on Trixie to appear in this--after all, what's a Magic Expo without everyone's favorite show-offy magician? And before you call me out on the switching between first- and third- person--I believe she has humbled enough to do first-person more often.

And finally... I give credit of the pineapple frog to my cousin (who's pretty darn obsessed with her own creation):

Source

6.2--Tricks of the Trade

"Hold up, hold up, hold up..." Cheese said, waving his hooves in front of his face. After a deep breath, he exclaimed, "You did what now?!"

Tomato stood steadfastly as he faced his brother. To the side, Silk Shimmer and Trixie watched from the latter's stage, after her show had finished. As much as she wanted to pretend to not care, she couldn't help but be startled at Cheese's tone. It was one thing for him to say that he could get annoyed; it was another thing entirely to witness it.

Tomato simply answered, "Yes, I'm going to be one of Kazam's assistants for the rest of the Expo."

Cheese laughed derisively. "Oh, no no no, see... Cheesy Sense is unpredictable. I have to be prepared for when it activates in the middle of a party. This thing is four days long, it could activate at any time during those four days, and if I ignore Cheesy Sense for too long, I get sick. Trust me, it's why I couldn't ignore the calls to Manehattan when we were still feuding."

"Well then, how do you expect me to shave off some of the debt, huh?" Tomato sneered.

"IT. IS. NOT. YOUR. DEBT!" Cheese pointed to Silk Shimmer. "It's hers! She's the one starting the business with Silver Shill, not you!"

"My extra hoof is shaving off more of the debt than Silk Shimmer alone. Hey, at least I'm trying to use my talent to help somepony! I actually find something to do with my special talent on this trip, and yet you criticize me for it?" Tomato threw his hooves up in the air. "Do you only like me if I'm being useful for your talent?"

Cheese snorted. "Don't play the guilt-tripping card on me! Let's not forget who's the older brother, and who's in charge."

"Aaaand you play the 'older brother' card," Tomato said, rolling his eyes. "You do realize I'm an adult, right? You know, making my own decisions and all?"

"Psht, college kids don't count."

"Excuse me?!"

Silk Shimmer jumped off the stage. "All right, you two, that's enough! Look, Tomato and I already made the deal, and we're not allowed to back out of it." She trotted toward Cheese. "It's only for a few days... you can survive that, right? Let's not forget the old saying of 'time flies when you're having fun!'"

Cheese groaned. With a glance toward Tomato, he asked, "Did you at least tell him about the risk of Cheesy Sense?"

Tomato nodded, and Cheese added, "Well, like you said, you're an adult." Barely, he thought. "Who am I to stop you? Just remember, we leave when this thing's over."

Tomato nodded once again. "Good to hear." He glanced at a clock on the wall. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Silk and I have to help Kazam prepare for his show at seven."

With that, he turned around and marched off, with Silk Shimmer following behind. Cheese watched them as they walked past other stages, stands, and ponies in the hall before reaching the door and walking out. When they were gone, Cheese backed up to the stage, sat down, and groaned.

"Please, Cheesy Sense, just stay off for a little while... I don't need any misery..."

Trixie was laying on the stage, filing her hoof. "I don't see why they have to work for that creep--not only is he loud and show-offy, but I'm pretty sure that he's secretly evil."

Cheese sighed. "I've talked with him before, and yeah, I agree he's creepy. But 'evil' is just pushing it. If he was, why would he agree to help his sister and a stranger? True, they still have to work for him for a bit to get their due, but still. Trixie, please don't let anger and resentment consume you."

Trixie's eyes widened, and she looked away. "That... already happened... in regards to a different pony..."

After the stage was once again set up for Kazam's act, Tomato sat backstage, awaiting his turn in assisting the magic tricks. From where he sat, he could see the large crowd that had gathered to watch. He couldn't help but whistle in astonishment, wondering how anypony could not break from the pressure coming from those expectant eyes. Tomato prayed that he himself would not screw this up like he did with the music battle in Halterside.

He sighed. He was certain that Cheese was still upset about that, and he could sense the bitterness that was tinging Cheese's voice and actions since the whole pirate ship pizzeria idea. Not even Tomato's pathetic attempts at an apology spurred Cheese to lighten up toward him, and given that Cheese was definitely nicer to everypony else, it hurt.

He leaned into his hoof. Figures that I have the dubious honor of being the one pony that manages to get a party pony to hold grudges against him. Every time I screw up...

He shook his head. He hated having to re-earn the love he desperately wanted--no, needed, just by being someone else's definition of perfect. Whether it'd be his mother, a friend, a teacher, or even Cheese, he could always feel somepony being let down because of him.

The lights went low, and Tomato stood up. He strolled to the nearest curtain and watched from there.

Bells chimed in an eerie melody as a ball of smoke swirled above the audience. The sound of wind blowing accompanied the chimes, and a haunting voice crooned along with the melody. That sent a chill down Tomato's spine, and he clutched the curtain tighter.

"Everypony has magic inside them..." Kazam's deep and chilling voice began. "Some use it for simple telekinesis... some use it to command the weather... and some use it to tend the earth..."

Tomato looked at his hooves. I've never done any of those things. What kind of magic do I wield then? The magic of sarcasm?

"And then there are those of us... who take it to the next level!" The smoke suddenly turned to cloth, and Kazam burst from his cape, releasing tiny bats of light which flew around the hall, screeching a cacophony of squeaks and chirps as they flew threw every body in the room. One of the bats flew through Tomato's heart, and he shuddered.

Kazam still levitated above the audience, his cape and black mane and tail blowing in magical wind. He bore a wicked grin as he announced, "Fillies and gentlecolts, the Mysterious Mystic Kazam is here to show you all new levels of magic!"

Tomato felt himself being lifted up telekinetically, and pulled from behind the curtain. He had his eyes squeezed shut for a few moments before cracking one open. He glanced around, and saw Silk Shimmer in same position he was in--being levitated around the hall by Kazam, given a ride that made it feel like flying. He looked down at the ponies below him, who were cheering, and then with a laugh, Tomato spread his front legs out like wings, embracing the rush of air blowing past him.

And before he knew it, he found himself on fire. While he was alarmed at first, the mere fact that the fire was all sorts of swirling colors and that he didn't feel it convinced him that it was just an illusion to enhance the act. He laughed once again, wondering if this was what it was like to be a comet.

However, the flames soon dissipated, and he and Silk were lowered back onto the stage. The crowd roared and stomped in applause, with shrill whistles ringing through the hall. Any fear that Tomato had was replaced with elation, and he had to resist the urge to leap off the stage and go crowd-surfing.

Kazam lowered himself onto the stage, and tossed his mane. "Ponies of Equestria, may I introduce my two assistants for tonight and the rest of the Expo!" He gestured to Silk Shimmer. "My lovely sister Silk Shimmer--" And then he gestured to Tomato. "--and her new friend, Tomato Sandwich!"

The applause, though not as loud as before, was still significant.

"I have many plans for my assistants, especially since no two shows of mine are exactly the same! You've got to admire them for their bravery for participating in acts that seem dangerous and frightening. But remember, ponies... there's absolutely nothing to be afraid of."

Tomato's head went numb upon hearing those simple words, and he felt himself in absolute bliss. This was a great idea, he thought.

The next three days flew by with just the magic and awe that Kazam had promised. Tomato could not remember a single time where he had any misgivings or fears, since Kazam always reassured him with the idea that there was absolutely nothing to be afraid of. And each trick--from the small standard tricks such as pulling the pineapple frog out of a hat (said hat being Silk Shimmer's), to the more grandiose acts such as making the entire audience glow neon colors and gradually switch between hues at will--made him gladder to be there.

He was still reeling from all the tricks that he was involved in. He still got a laugh from the glamour spells that disguised him and Silk Shimmer as each other, and then provided the illusion that they became the opposite gender. Silk was given temporary wings, and had squealed out of delight of being an alicorn, while Tomato had been riding a rainbow released from a small bag hanging from Kazam's neck.

Tomato even got into a lot of dangerous tricks, such as standing still while Kazam threw knives at him and made them phase through his body, being trapped in ice while Kazam breathed fire at it, and facing an aggressive dog and keeping it from attacking the audience. And all the while, there was no fear, only excitement.

However, this made him disappointed with his summer with Cheese so far. With Cheese, he only felt like the lesser brother that got in the way and messed up performances, or a useless lazy burden that irritated the older brother. It was even worse that when Tomato would tell him all about the tricks after each magic show, only for Cheese to either reply with little concern or too much concern.

The little concern manifested in just blase "wows" and the words of "glad you're having fun" and just looking at his flank in worry of his Cheesy Sense activating. The explanation could have been something as simple as Cheese being tired, but Tomato was sure that it was still the bitterness over the lost music battle in Halterside, especially with the news of Tomato miraculously not ruining somepony's show. Tomato was even mentally comparing him to their father.

Of course, the too much concern came when they were resting one night in their motel room, with Cheese playing checkers with Boneless 2 on the floor, and Tomato laying on his bed. His tone was not that of excitement, but of resignation to his party pony brother ironically not feeling very excited for him.

"...the knives phasing through my chest gave me quite a chill, but they hit the target behind me, so nopony was hurt."

Cheese idly nodded. "Uh-huh."

" And then the next act had us distract a feral dog while Kazam charged up a spell that would tame the beast. We had to keep it on the stage to keep it from attacking the audience, and Silk Shimmer kept it on with a magical leash she conjured."

"Your move, Boneless 2."

"The dog almost bit my head off. But luckily, Kazam had charged up the spell, and cast the spell of changing the large canine into a Chihuahua."

"Dang it, Boneless 2, why do you always win these things?"

"And then the crowd cheered, and never felt so alive! You should have seen it, Cheese... shame that you're too busy to even drop by and see my awesome assistance in action." Tomato rubbed his hoof on his chest and then examined it.

Cheese scoffed. "Awesome assistance? You're sounding like a Rainbow Dash knockoff with that language. I never thought you'd brag about fighting an illusion."

Tomato laughed. "Oh, no, it was very much real."

Cheese looked up with a grave look on his face. "What?"

"How do you think Silk got those scratches on her body and is taking a shower to remove dog drool? Why do you think I smell like dog drool as well? Yes, I distracted an actual, feral dog today, and I wasn't scared one bit."

Cheese blinked in disbelief, and then hopped to his hooves. "Tommy, how the hay are you not scared during those things?"

"Kazam knows what he's doing, and has told me time and time again that there's absolutely nothing to be afraid of," Tomato replied.

"Maybe... but still, not feeling fear? There's putting on a brave face, and then there's being faced with danger and not having a heart attack. I mean, that dog was going to bite your head off. Are you sure it's absolutely safe?"

Tomato rolled his eyes. "You're letting Trixie convince you that he's a evil creep, aren't you? He hasn't done anything heinous, you know."

"I know, I know, but... back when I was setting up the Expo, I've talked with him and he said he was going to do some experiments--and I was hoping he wasn't doing them mid-show. Are you sure you don't see anything wrong with any of this?" He stood up, reached forward and put a hoof on Tomato's forehead. "Are you okay? Is the heat getting to you?"

Tomato swiped it off. "What do you care? It's not like I had anything else to do that was worthwhile. I'd probably get sick of watching magic shows all weekend. Now, being in one... that's a different story."

Cheese pursed his lips. "I can't disagree with participating in a magic show being better than just watching one--I've helped Trixie in some of her shows. Still, the most dangerous thing about her is that she sometimes leaves scorch marks and she's accidentally given me a haircut once or twice. The way Kazam is described... I don't know, it just sounds like he's too close to actually killing you for me to be comfortable about it."

"Have you actually watched any of the shows?"

"Well... not completely, I've been kind of busy..."

"Then what right do you have to judge?"

"Uh, my brother nearly being decapitated? I'm having second thoughts about this gig of yours."

"You're just jealous because I'm involved in a more amazing show than you can ever put together."

"Okay, no, I'm concerned because apparently you're not! Okay, what gives? The Tomato I know would have been upset to have nearly been killed like that!"

"Well, maybe you're overreacting!"

Cheese sighed. "Am I? Fine, I'll watch one of these shows, see if I'm truly overreacting. If I get any indication that he's going to harm you in any way, you're not going to work for him anymore. I'm sorry, but shaving off Silk Shimmer's debt is not worth risking your life over."

Before the next evening show, Tomato and Silk Shimmer trotted backstage to find that Kazam was carrying a small cage, with something chirping and screeching inside. Setting it down on the table, he cooed, "Don't you worry, precious, your time will come..."

Silk pranced toward her brother, and asked, "What you got there?"

Kazam turned and smirked. "A bat."

Tomato walked forward, and took a look at the small mammal. He took a step back when it revealed its red-eyed, fanged goblin face to him and hissed. His eyes wide and his heart pounding, he asked, "Is that a vampire fruit bat?"

Kazam scoffed and laughed. "Of course not." When he saw Tomato relaxing, he added, "It's a straightforward vampire bat."

Tomato tensed up again. "You mean... the things that actually drink blood?"

Kazam nodded. "The difference between the two is that these things live in caves and fields while the others live in fruit trees. That... and this fella is smaller and they've got different noses."

"Okay... what's with the bat?"

"Glad you asked, Tomato." Kazam leaned on the table. "For tonight's show, I'm going to do a trick involving wings of light. I'll levitate you high above the stage as this bat flies around you with my good old fake fire trick ablazing. After it circles you several times, I'll cast an intangibility spell on it, and then it'll fly straight through your heart, and create an explosion that'll make you look like you have wings of light. Now, isn't that exciting?"

Silk Shimmer clapped. "Wow! I bet it'll look amazing."

Tomato chuckled nervously. "Yeah..."

Kazam narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. "Something wrong?"

Tomato rubbed the back of his head. "Well... you see... last night, my brother expressed some concerns after I told him about the magic tricks you do. He didn't like the way that some of them were described because they sounded dangerous, and I told him that it's not as dangerous as they seem, and then he decided to come to the show to judge for himself... I just... I guess I'm a little nervous."

"Haven't you mentioned before that your brother is Cheese Sandwich, who does crazy tricks of his own?"

"Yeah..."

Kazam chuckled and put a hoof on Tomato's shoulder. "A lot of magicians do tricks that seem dangerous--shame that a party pony is not grasping that. But... they run on insane logic anyway, so they're not worth taking seriously."

Silk frowned. "Um, hey, friendly reminder that our little brother is--"

Kazam ignored her. "Not to worry, Tomato. There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of."

Tomato's doubts were quickly washed away by those words, and he relaxed. With a deep breath and a smile, he glanced at the bat, who hissed at him. He chuckled and said, "Well, Cheese does have a screw loose..."

Cheese Sandwich was standing in the front of the audience, gazing at the stage like all others behind him, only there because he had a hunch that his brother was in trouble. Right next to him was Trixie, who was only there to get some dirt on one of her rivals. They were the only ones not applauding after one of Kazam's tricks, though Cheese found himself a little tempted to do so. Though neither had come to be entertained, Cheese couldn't help but be impressed with some of the colorful displays and nearly impossible tricks that they had seen so far. Trixie, on the other hoof, was pouting.

"What right does that pony have to be so powerful? It should be illegal for a magician to be that powerful!"

Cheese shook his head. "Don't change the law just because you're jealous."

"Jealous? I'm not jealous! I'm simply..." Trixie searched her mind for the right word. "...worried for the safety of the citizens of Equestria. Too much power makes a unicorn go mad--that's my theory on why Twilight Sparkle's now an alicorn princess. Had she remained a unicorn, she would have turned evil!"

Cheese raised an eyebrow. Pinkie had told him the real reason why Twilight had become a princess, and it was definitely not that. However, before he could tell Trixie, the voice of Kazam was rang out, and caught their attention.

"And now... for tonight's grand finale... I will show you a trick that I've never done in a show before--the Wings of Light! Done here with our favorite handsome stallion assistant, Tomato!"

Tomato walked out from behind the curtains and took a bow when the crowd cheered for him. When he rose from the bow, he ended up locking eyes with Cheese. The eye contact was that of mutual icy stares, unwavering for a few moments until Tomato realized he had to get into position and broke it.

Tomato walked to the middle of the stage, and Kazam said, "So... ready for the Wings of Light?"

Tomato nodded, and then Silk Shimmer wheeled out the cage with the bat. Kazam turned to the audience and announced, "This bat will be the template in which the Wings of Light will be modeled after! If you're asking why not a bird... I just like bats better."

The audience chuckled at his statement before all went quiet.

Beautiful voices sang in a haunting tune as the bat was released from its cage. Kazam cast a spell on the bat as it started to fly around, and was made to look like a little shooting star. The bat was dancing to the harmonic chants--now accompanied by drums--writing Kazam's name in cursive in midair.

Trixie huffed. "So he lit a bat on fire, what's the big deal?"

Cheese didn't listen. He was just focused on his brother, who seemed to hold no fear of what was going on, and in fact seemed to have glazed eyes. Cheese didn't know if that meant the trick was entirely safe, or that somehow, Kazam had removed Tomato's ability to be scared. Or maybe Tomato was just good at putting on a brave face.

As the music swelled, the bat's fire turned into that resembling a phoenix, and it flew across the room in an elegant dance. It twirled within the changing colors of the flames, and the crowd oohed and aahed at the very sight. It flew down close to the heads of the audience, and soared just above them to make them feel heat and see the still-not-burning bat.

Kazam smiled, and started to levitate Tomato up into the air. Cheese watched cautiously, waiting to leap up onto the stage should something go wrong. Considering the bat on fire, he was expecting Tomato to end up lighting on fire as well. As Tomato rose higher and higher, the more that Cheese got the sense that this was a terrible idea.

Tomato was now in a pose that left him wide open, and the bat had spun into an arrow, and was now speeding toward him like a bullet. Cheese's heart raced as the arrow drew closer and closer toward Tomato, and he started to sweat from more than just the heat of the fire. Grinding his teeth, he mentally begged, Please don't hurt him, please don't hurt him, please don't hurt him...

He yelled when the bat went straight through Tomato's heart, and the vermilion stallion clutched it like he had been shot and was now curled up in pain. Cheese felt his heart stop at the sight, and stared in disbelief. He could only hear his breathing, and he could only see his baby brother quaking... wavering... about to fall... and about to die at any moment. He could feel the wave of regrets coming toward him, and he was unable to move.

Those few agonizing moments were dashed when Tomato burst from his ball like a flower in bloom, and with him appeared the promised wings of light. The crowd cheered as Tomato burned brightly like a phoenix, and Cheese let out a sigh of relief. He glanced at Trixie, who was looking away and tossing her mane.

"It may be... just a tiny bit impressive..." Trixie grumbled.

Cheese chuckled. "Yeah, it was pretty cool." Cheese looked up at the stage, and frowned as Tomato was lowered, his hoof on his heart and teeth clenched. "Although I'm still worried about Tomato."

Trixie raised an eyebrow. "And here I thought you were content on ignoring him all week and deriding his talent."

Cheese waved a hoof, mentally pushing back his reservations about the whole Halterside fiasco. It's not like he was going to tell Trixie everything. "Nah, I was just busy and a little high-strung. I'm sure he understands."

As Tomato walked backstage, Kazam announced, "I would like to thank all you ponies for your support! Be sure to be here for my final show, where I'll give you a show and present a magic trick that'll blow you all away! In the meantime... farewell until tomorrow!"

He teleported off the stage with a creepy laugh.

Cheese had no idea where Kazam went.

After the show, he searched for the magician, in order to explain that he wasn't comfortable with his brother working for him. Seeing that bat go through Tomato's chest had shaken him to his core, and he just wanted Kazam to know that there was such a thing as going too far.

Silk Shimmer lead him to Kazam's trailer, where there was a notable lack of Kazam, only a pineapple frog croaking at him, a page torn from a book about the origins of werewolves, and some knick knacks that frightened him. Then he checked every hall and room in the convention center, where he still couldn't find him. He asked Trixie to help, but the sky blue mare was busy with a show of her own. It was a couple of hours before he gave up, and grabbed Tomato from a chair where he was sitting, feeling queasy.

As they walked to the motel that night, Cheese had tripped and nearly fell off the walkway, scraping his knee in the process. Cursing his dumb luck as he watched his leg start to bleed, he started to summon a bandage when he noticed Tomato staring at it. And not just staring--he was also leaning forward and sniffing it. Cheese pulled his leg away, and pulled the bandages out, wrapping his knee as he stared at Tomato.

"Tommy... that's creepy," he said.

Tomato looked away. "I, uh... don't know what came over me..." His stomach rumbled. "Great, your blood made me hungry."

Cheese grimaced. "I thought you were queasy. Oh, well... you can have a snack when we get back to the motel."

Tomato couldn't sleep.

In between rushing to the bathroom to vomit every so often, the itchy back and ears, a headache, heavy panting due to feeling too hot, compulsive hissing, and for some reason a toothache, he was having a miserable time. Every time he returned to bed, he would have that acidic burp arise, and the cycle started again. Even when he had nothing left in his stomach, he still retched in the toilet, with only bits of saliva dripping from his mouth.

He blamed the heat at first, so he kept on drinking water after each retch. He only ended up puking out the water. He wondered if overexposure to unicorn magic was the reason--but he didn't want to admit that maybe working for Kazam had been a bad idea. Then he started to worry that he had some sort of illness, and considered shaking Cheese awake to beg him to take him to the hospital.

Shaking and hugging the toilet, he was praying for some sort of release. The idea of death was better than this agony!

It didn't stop there. He could feel the itch on two spots of his back and on his ears upgrade to burning, and his heart was pounding erratically, leaving him clutching his chest and reminding him of the bat that phased through him. The toothache on two of his front teeth grew worse as well, and instead of screaming, out came a hiss.

Three of his legs and his tail held on to the toilet, while his free hoof was on his chest. His mane and tail exploded into their curls, and he could hear his heart pound in his ears. Tears were leaking out of his eyes, and he was begging for it all to stop.

Suddenly, there was a crack on two sides of his back as lumps formed there. The two lumps ripped through his shirt, and grew and grew, causing a throbbing backache. Two of his teeth burned as they grew much like the lumps on his back, which were still making those uncomfortable cracking and stretching sounds. He felt his ears change shape, his eyes burn, and all the while, he was still hissing.

He heard a knock at the door. Cheese then said, "Tomato? Everything all right in there? Why are you hissing?"

Tomato still clutched the toilet, breathing heavily, having finally reached the stopping point. The pain was fading away, his heart was returning to its normal beat, and every one of those sounds stopped. The stretched lumps were still on his back, and his two teeth still felt abnormally long. Shaking, he released the toilet, and then stood up on wobbly legs.

"I... I'm all right now," Tomato replied. Feeling those long--and apparently sharp--teeth with his tongue, he decided to check it out in the mirror. However, when he made it to the mirror, his face fell at the sight of himself.

Those teeth looked just as long and sharp as they felt. His fur was a noticeably darker and duller color from his usual red-orange luster, and his mane was a mess. His ears were larger, hairier, and more fanned out than usual, and his eyes had turned from their chartreuse color into a striking scarlet, while having dark circles under them. And finally, he found that those two lumps that had formed on his back had grown into large wings, resembling those of a bat's.

He blinked and started to pant once again. He ran his hooves through his mane, and felt his ears, teeth, and new wings. All the while, he could only muster out, "What... the... hay?"

"Tommy... what's going on?" Cheese said through the door.

Tomato turned around and faced the door. He figured that it'd be better to get it over with now than have Cheese find him later like this. "Cheese... um... whatever you do, don't freak out."

There was a moment of silence, and then Cheese started laughing. "Are you serious? Come on, Tommy, whatever you've got to show me, there's no way I'd--"

Tomato opened the door, and watched as Cheese's pupils shrunk to pinpricks and his jaw hung slack. And then, with the bluntest voice possible, Tomato said, "I think I might be a vampire."

Cheese stared for a moment, squeaked out, "Holy Swiss...", and then fainted.

Staring at Cheese's unconscious form, Tomato muttered, "Fainting's a first, but at least he didn't freak out."

Author's Note

Ah, the saga of Tommy working for Kazam and acting a little weird because of it. Just typical things.

Oh, yeah, and I'll admit, I imagine this music when the bat and Wings of Light thing is going on:

By the way, the ending of this chapter is why I was looking forward to this arc--because writing monsters is fun, mwahahaha! >D

6.4--Disaster at the Expo

Cheese's first plan was simple--do what Comedy Gold had done to Silk Shimmer back in Halterside. He hated to hit ponies, he really did, but perhaps banging a frying pan on her head would break the spell. And if it worked, the frying pan could work on Tomato as well. And after that, they'll take the train to Ponyville and have Twilight fix him.

So, with a tight grip on the frying pan, he snuck around her, climbed the trailer's rooftop, and leapt.

Silk Shimmer had turned just in time, took a hold of him with her telekinesis, took his pan, and threw him into the same dent in the wall as before. Then she casually bent the handle of the frying pan and threw it away.

Growling, Cheese went elsewhere to come up with a new plan.

The next plan was a pie in the face. As he ran around her to figure out how to unlock it, she had used her magic to wipe the pie off her face, turned around, and threw it in Cheese's face. And then she threw him into that same dent again, and a dazed Cheese went away to come up with another plan.

"Just let yourself go floppy, for now this is your chance
Pretend you have no bones and do the rubber chicken--"

ZAP!

CRASH!

"...ow..."

He successfully parachuted onto the trailer, and pulled out a saw to work a hole into the roof.

However, as he started, Silk Shimmer heard him, levitated him again, and threw him into that same dent in the wall. Tired of being thrown into a wall, Cheese growled at her and snapped, "Come on! Why do you always throw me into this spot?!"

He regretted speaking about it as he was tossed face first into a fresh spot on that wall.

Surely dressing up like Kazam would work.

Wearing a full body suit of the royal blue unicorn, he proudly marched up to Silk Shimmer, and said, "I have returned sister--and now I'll go into my trailer, and check how my new pet is doing." Cheese tried hard not to cringe at saying that disgusting phrase and kept on forcing Kazam's usual smirk.

Of course, she quickly pulled off the mask, revealing Cheese's poofy brown mane and his dimpled brownish-gold face. He groaned and asked, "Oh, come on! How did you see through that?!"

"I am unable to sense the powerful magic of my fantastic brother, clearly telling me that you are an imposter," Silk replied in a monotone.

Cheese blinked, and then went to a half-lidded expression. "I forgot the horn, didn't I?"

He was thrown into that wall once again.

He tried squeezing through a window--it failed, and ended with him on that wall. He tried distracting her with balloons--it failed as well, and he was on the wall again. He tried playing his accordion for her, in hopes that music would break the spell. And to his dismay, she had taken it, crushed it on the pavement, and then tossed him into the wall yet again. Every time he tried to get past her and break into the trailer, he ended up on the wall. The only thing he managed to succeed in was knocking off her hat and grabbing the anti-magic cone before he was thrown into the wall again.

He was just thankful that she didn't think to throw him off the mountain and send him tumbling to the ground. That would have hurt a lot.

Hours had passed, and every plan that he had done had failed, and it was frustrating. All the while, he couldn't help but worry about what experiment that Kazam was planning to do with Tomato. Was Tomato truly Kazam's pet now? Was he going to be sold to a circus and billed as a freak show? Or was he just a successful test of some sort of fusion spell that he was going to show off in his magic shows? Cheese didn't know about that last one--he was no expert on unicorn magic, being a simple earth pony and all. Still, he hated the thought of Tomato just being exploited like that.

As he drew up his next plan around the corner from the trailer, he snorted. He hated it when his party pony magic couldn't aid him--instead work against him because his pain was hilarious. It was especially aggravating now, when he seriously needed to rescue his baby brother from a nutcase.

He sighed. "Stupid Kazam hypnotizing Tommy... putting words in his mouth... calling me a fool for my special talent..." He erased a few stray lines and brushed the bits of eraser off. "And I never said his special talent was evil! I just said that ponies just get a little too nuts over bits so that they become greedy and selfish jerkwards. And how dare they imply I don't care? Come on, I do care, that's why I'm trying to rescue him! Why would I try if I didn't?" He shook his head, wondering where those came from.

He finished the drawing and looked at Boneless 2. "What do you think? You think lassoing her would work?"

Boneless 2 flopped to the side.

Cheese groaned and crumpled the piece of paper. "Ugh, you're right. At this point, I'm afraid the only way we can defeat Silk Shimmer is if we disable her horn, and that's a pretty tough job for an earth pony that can't even get close to her." He threw away the paper, and then grabbed the cone and looked at it. "We have this dumb thing but we can't put it on! I swear, this would be so much easier if I was a unicorn!"

He got Boneless 2 to sit up, and then the rubber chicken flopped forward.

Cheese blinked. "Wait... are you saying that I should get another unicorn to put it on her while I distract her? But... who am I going to..." His eyes widened as he hit a realization. He grinned and smacked his knee, laughing it up. "Of course! Why not Trixie? She'll help!"

The small group oohed and aahed as The Great and Powerful Trixie swept up the ashes (from a fire trick she did earlier) off the stage, and then brought them all together and made them glow and then explode, creating a bright, purple firework. The sky blue unicorn grinned as the ponies stomped in applause and cheered for her. Puffing her chest out and sticking her muzzle in the air, she took a moment to soak in the adoration.

"Trixie is flattered that you found her tricks amazing." She took off her wizard hat, and held it upside down with her magic. With a slight twist of her neck, a bouquet of flowers popped out of the hat, and she threw the flowers at her audience. "A reward for your correct answer."

Next thing she knew, Cheese Sandwich's head popped out of the hat as well, asking, "Hey, Trixie, I need your help!"

The sudden appearance made her scream, drop the hat, and stumble back, watching as the hat and Cheese dropped to the stage. Cheese's cheek and temple hit the floor, and he yelped in pain. Dazed, the stallion couldn't help but groan.

"I've already slammed into too many surfaces today..." he complained.

Trixie's face turned red as the audience laughed. "Cheese Sandwich! You better have a good explanation for this!"

Cheese shook his head, and crawled out of the hat. "Trixie, it's urgent, and I need you right now!" Looking at the audience, he announced, "Listen folks, Trixie's show is going to have to take a break! Go replenish your snacks or something!"

Trixie jumped. "What?!" She stared in disbelief as the murmuring crowd dissipated. Then she turned to him and snapped, "What do you think you're doing?! I was in the middle of a show! Who gave you the right to interrupt the Great and Powerful Trixie?!"

Cheese put a hoof on her shoulder. "Look, I didn't want your audience to panic, but one of the magicians is a complete nutcase! He turned my brother into a vampire bat-pony, and is planning some sort of crazy experiment with him! Tommy's locked in his trailer, while the magician's sister has been hypnotized to guard it, and she's impossible to get past! I have to get Tommy out soon--his condition is getting worse, he's starving, and there's no telling what kind of trouble he will cause in this expo as a crazy bloodthirsty monster! So, please, please help me!"

Trixie raised an eyebrow. "A vampire bat-pony."

Cheese nodded.

Trixie groaned and walked away. "I don't have time for this. What makes you think I'll be concerned for your cranky brother?"

Cheese bit his lip. "Well... will you help if I said that you were right about Kazam?"

Trixie stopped and glanced back at him. "What do you mean?"

"Kazam's the nutcase that turned Tomato into a vampire. I knew he was creepy, but... I learned today that what he did with my brother yesterday was meant to turn him into a vampire. I don't know what he's up to and it scares me, especially seeing my baby brother as a monster. So... please... please help me."

Trixie tapped her chin. "So... you want to stop Kazam?"

Cheese nodded.

"Very well then, Cheese Sandwich," Trixie said, turning around. "What would you have me do?"

Silk Shimmer stood in front of the trailer, the afternoon sun beating down on her. Her body was still like a statue, and her eyes were cloudy like an overcast sky. She stared forward with those glazed eyes, blocking the door of the trailer, protecting the treasure instead. Her master had ordered her to stay there, make sure that nuisance Cheese Sandwich didn't break into it and steal the master's prize. And so far, she had succeeded in her task, seeing through each of the party pony's tricks.

It was no surprise that Cheese returned, casually trotting up to her.

"Well, howdy, Silk Shimmer!" Cheese said, grinning. Swinging one hoof around her shoulders, he asked, "You know, the sun is hot--don't you want some water?"

"And leave my post?" Silk Shimmer said in her monotone. "Negatory--I have a duty and I will not abandon it."

Cheese gestured to the sun, which was lowering toward the western horizon, though it was not quite sunset yet. "Silk, you could get heat stroke. Believe me, it's not fun--I've gotten hot and sweaty plenty of times in my travels. Thankfully, I've been lucky enough to run into some nice rivers and springs and stuff like that. You know... water?"

"Your trickery will not work."

"What trickery? I'm genuinely concerned!" Cheese pulled on the collar of his shirt. "Whew... if I was in Princess Celestia's place, I'd find some way to turn the heat down."

"Basic science tells us that turning the sun's heat down will negatively impact all life on this planet."

"I've never really been that good at science," Cheese said. Then he sped off, and quickly returned with a fire hose. "Now... allow me to cool you down, my dear..."

With that, he started to spray Silk Shimmer, singing, "Just drink it! Just drink it! Don't want you to get too heated!"

As he hosed Silk, Cheese looked up at the top of Kazam's trailer, where Trixie had climbed up and held the anti-magic cone in her magic. He winked at her, and Trixie nodded back. She crouched down, levitating the cone toward Silk's horn.

However, the cone ended up being caught in the spray of the hose, and was launched elsewhere. Trixie blinked, and then scowled at Cheese, who grinned sheepishly as he turned off the hose. With a facehoof and a silent groan, she levitated the cone back to herself, and dried it off with her cape.

Cheese looked at Silk Shimmer, who was soaking wet and glaring at him. Using her magic, she snatched the hose from him and pointed it at him. Wide-eyed and blinking, he squeaked, "Don't hurt me."

"You are annoying--of course I am going to hurt you," Silk growled.

As she turned on the hose and blasted Cheese into the wall, Trixie saw her chance, and quickly levitated the cone to Silk's horn. By the time Silk had noticed, Trixie had sealed the cone on her horn, and the hose stopped spraying as it was dropped to the pavement.

Silk stared at her horn, and attempted to use her magic to remove the cone, but she was only met with no sparks and backed-up magic giving her a headache. Then she tried to remove it with her hooves, where she found that she was not very dexterous with them, since they kept slipping.

Meanwhile, on the roof of the trailer, Trixie stood up and announced, "Ha ha! You have fallen for our trick! Cheese Sandwich was right to seek the aid of The Great and Powerful Trixie!"

A dripping wet Cheese Sandwich ambled back to the trailer, rubbing his back. "Ugh... I've had enough of slamming into hard surfaces today..."

He shook the water off of himself, and then trotted to the trailer. He felt the door in front of him, and grabbed his tail. His heart was pounding, and he prayed that he'd get through to Tomato once inside. Taking a deep breath, he picked the lock with his tail, telling Trixie, "You mind finding a way to break her hypnosis while I'm in here?"

Trixie smirked. "Oh, I've got a few tricks under my cape..."

Cheese opened the door, and stepped inside, still feeling the pounding of his heart. Don't worry, baby bro... I'm here to save you. We'll turn you back to normal, and get that madpony arrested, and then the rest of this summer will go smoothly.

However, he froze at the shocking sight of nothing.

He blinked, wondering where Tomato was. He looked left and right, noting all the tarot and go fish cards scattered on the floor, the crystal ball, the dreamcatcher, all the books, the bowl of fruit, and the pineapple frog in a bird cage beside him. He turned to the pineapple frog, and asked, "Uh... do you know what happened to the vampire in here?"

The pineapple frog ribbited, and pointed to the dresser, where a note lay. Curious, Cheese trotted toward it, and picked up the note.

Dear Cheese Sandwich,

Nice try.

~Kazam

Cheese's eye twitched, and he screamed, "What the fudgesicle?!" He threw the note on the floor and started stomping on it. "Of all the lousy, no-good things I could have run into in this stupid trailer, I find that that stupid unicorn was one step ahead of me!"

Snorts were sharply exhaled as he grinded the note into the floor. After a few moments of panting, Cheese sighed and mumbled, "What do I do now?"

He heard a clang outside, and Silk Shimmer yelled, "Ow! What'd you do that for? I didn't do anything to you!"

"I know. But it's the only way I know how to stop hypnosis."

He walked to the door and looked out, seeing Silk Shimmer rubbing her head and glaring at a smug-looking Trixie, who held a bent frying pan--the same one Cheese used before--in her magic. They looked to the door to see Cheese standing there, looking glum.

Trixie sighed. "Don't tell me. The vampire's not there?"

Cheese shook his head. "Kazam was one step ahead of me. I don't know where he took Tomato!"

"Well, this was a waste of time."

Silk stood up, and winced. "Well... maybe you could find clues as to what he's planning to do. After all, nobody just turns somepony into a vampire for no good reason, right?"

"What good reason is there for that?" Trixie asked, her muzzle wrinkling in disgust. "How could a blood-sucking demon be any good for Equestrian society? As far as I know, it's to show off how powerful of a unicorn he is and oppress those around him--that is what crazy, power-hungry unicorns do, after all."

The pineapple frog leaned out of its cage and tugged at Cheese's shirt, ribbiting and pointing at the dresser once again. Cheese blinked and looked back, and asked, "What's over there?"

He trotted to the dresser, while Trixie and Silk entered the trailer. Looking at some of the things scattered on the top, he wondered just what he was supposed to be looking for. The only thing of note was a page about werewolves, but he opted to ignore it, since they had a vampire problem. However, Silk Shimmer took the page and started to read it. Her eyes widened as something clicked.

"Guys, guys! I think this werewolf thing gives me an idea of what he's doing!"

Cheese turned to her. "Really?"

Trixie raised an eyebrow. "That's a completely different kind of monster."

"But listen to this:

"'General Wayer Rune is a unicorn that had gained infamy by using dark magic to create the first werewolf. Equestria was involved in a savage war with the Minotaurs at that time, and he wanted a way to make his soldiers stronger. He utilized the fusion spell to fuse himself with a wolf, and when he found that he hadn't killed himself, he cast the spell on each pond his army came across and drank from, causing them to develop the 'Wayerwolf' curse.

'He modified the spell to hide the curse so that it only appeared every full moon. And while this spell did aid in the defeat of the Minotaurs, the trauma suffered by the soldiers mixed with the dark magic took its toll, driving them insane and reverting them to a corrupted version of a wolf's instinct, leading them to kill their families and other innocents. Anypony who survived these attacks but got bitten ended up with the curse as well, spreading it further.

'When Princess Celestia got word of the curse, she and the archmage at the time quickly developed a spell to break the werewolf curse. They used it en masse in every town, and got the Royal Guard to arrest Wayer for his unlawful experimentation. They got him to confess about the ponds, and Celestia evaporated every one they found, so that the werewolf may never be born again.'

Silk set the page down and looked at the other two grimly. "Guys, I think he might be testing to see if Tomato can spread the vampire curse."

Cheese jumped. "What?! You mean he's using my brother to create a curse that's like a virus? Why?"

"Because he's insane?" Trixie said.

Silk sighed. "Ugh... Party Favor was right when he said that something was not right in Kazam's head. I thought he was just jealous because Kazam's the magical prodigy and the favorite of our father, while Party was the outcast for not being able to even use his horn." She felt her own horn, still wrapped in the anti-magic cone, with an idea of how he felt. "But nope, apparently Party Favor complaining about Kazam trying to fuse him with something was a warning."

Trixie rolled her eyes. "I have a sister who's insane, I know what it's like."

She slammed her hoof on the dresser. "Kazam was a bully to me, too, so Party thought I'd believe him. But I didn't listen!"

"Guys... as much I'd like to hear about Silk's childhood, we still have to stop Kazam from using Tomato," Cheese said. "I don't want anypony to be a vampire! Thing is... how's Kazam going to go about doing that?"

Trixie pursed her lips. "You know... I believe he might use his audience in tonight's show as his test subjects."

Silk bit her lip. "And when was the last time Tomato ate?"

Cheese's eyes widened. "Oh." He slammed his face onto the dresser. "I'm so stupid."

Backstage, Kazam looked over the cage which held the bat-pony that was once Tomato Sandwich. What was once a normal stallion was now a raging and starving monster, with a hoof on his belly and hissing and screeching in complaint about his own hunger. Already, he had popped off one of the bars, and nearly snagged the janitor, who Kazam had paid to keep his mouth shut. The unicorn only watched as Tomato tried to hop and fly, only for the top to block his path and send him crashing back down onto the cage door.

Kazam shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Calm down, Tommy. There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of. Your dinner is coming soon."

Tomato turned to him, blinked, and then looked forward at the curtain, licking his lips. He hopped to the top of the cage, and used his tail to hang from one of the bars there. He wrapped himself in his wings, awaiting the moment where he could satisfy his hunger.

Tightening the tie on his cape, Kazam chuckled, and strode to the stage as the lights went down.

He gazed at the large audience before him, pleased at the number of unicorns wearing the anti-magic cone on their horns. He smirked, thinking of how less resistance there will be.

"Fillies and gentlecolts... I welcome you to my final show!" He declared, lighting up his horn and creating a ball of green lightning. The audience roared as the lightning ball was thrown upward and hit the ceiling, creating a neon shockwave from the ceiling to the walls and finally to the floor. The doors and windows lit up and crackled, and the members of the audience whooped and giggled as the electricity tingled them.

Kazam laughed along with them. "My, my, you're an excited bunch. Well... I hope you enjoy the biggest and most amazing trick that I have ever done!" He paused for the short applause. "I've been preparing this one for a long time, and believe me when I say it'll be the one that change lives!"

The audience applauded once again, and Kazam chuckled. "But... I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of a very special assistant..." He backed up, and opened the cage from his spot in the front of the stage. He grinned as his pet's eyes glowed. "So please give a special round of applause to Tomato Sandwich!"

The crowd roared and stomped at first, happy for the special assistant. However, once a bat-pony burst out of the curtains and hissed at them, they all gasped, and stared at Tomato in stunned silence. They looked at each other nervously, unsure of what was going to happen next.

Kazam laughed again, with a more sinister vibe. "Okay, Tommy... you may feast."

Ponies shrieked as Tomato leapt toward the audience.

A security guard heard the screams, and opted to bust down the door to see what was going on. Unfortunately, contact with the door zapped him, and he stumbled back in a daze. Shaking his head, he quickly realized that the door had been enchanted.

Hearing the screams of both fright and agony, as if there was a monster in the room, the guard called for backup.

At a different door, Cheese Sandwich had tried to open it as well, and was electrocuted by the enchantment that the door held. He stumbled back and was caught by Trixie and Silk Shimmer, who looked at the crackling door, and were cringing at the screams inside and the banging on the doors followed by desperate pleas for help.

"Those do not sound like screams of adoration," Trixie said. "At least they finally realized what a creep Kazam is."

Silk smacked her on the back of the head. "Trixie, there are ponies getting attacked by a crazy and brainwashed vampire! They're a little too busy trying to escape the monster in the room to be pointing hooves at the unicorn responsible."

They got Cheese to his hooves, and he slowly walked to the door again. Trixie turned to Silk. "Isn't the unicorn responsible your brother? Why didn't you control him?"

Silk huffed. "Well, excuse me for getting hypnotized by him! Besides, he wouldn't listen--he's older than I am, and he always plays that card."

Both mares jumped as the screams were joined by inequine screeching and hissing, and the cracking sound of multiple wings growing. With wide eyes, Silk said, "Well... we know that it can spread now."

Trixie nodded. "I can't decide if it's better or worse than dying."

A wave of screeches erupted, and the flapping of wings joined in with the cracking and the screams. Grimacing and looking at each other, Silk and Trixie backed away from the door, even as Cheese still stared at it, still trying to comprehend what was happening.

He tried to touch the door, but the zap made him recoil. Holding his hoof, he sat on his haunches and continued to stare, feeling alone with his thoughts. His brother was in there. His brother was the one drinking the blood of other ponies. His brother was the one biting ponies and turning them into vampires. And his brother had lost his mind, because he dared to trust the wrong pony.

He squeezed his eyes shut and hung his head. His brother had turned into a monster.

The three of them were startled by shattering glass, and Cheese didn't hesitate to bust down the door, which had its enchantment worn off. When they entered the hall--as well as several security guards through the other door--they found everything in the room destroyed, blood splattered on the floor and walls, and the windows broken and glass scattered around them. Under the large stage where Kazam had done his shows, a few stragglers were crawling out, shaking and wide-eyed from the horrors they had witnessed.

The stragglers galloped to the security guards, telling them what had happened, explaining the vampire surprise that Kazam had presented them with and the carnage that turned most of the audience into vampires as well. One stallion cried about his fiancee; a mother cried for her son. A few small foals sobbed about their grandmother, a mare about her sister, and a teenager about all his buddies, all having grown wings and fangs, being brainwashed by the crazy magician, and flying out of the building.

Cheese still looked up at the windows, slowly walking forward and letting the pink light of the sunset wash over him. As much as he wanted a thought about Pinkie to comfort him, he couldn't help but feel a heartache and a sense of failure over Tomato.

He clenched his teeth, and despite his best efforts, squeezing his eyes shut did not hold back his tears.

Author's Note

What? Another chapter so soon? What is this madness?

I'll tell you what happened--I was bored. Oh, yeah, and anxious to continue this thing--because I love it when kids' shows have their monster episode and play it seriously (when they play it in a comedic manner, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth).

I wonder if I'll have to bump up the rating to Teen after this. :rainbowderp:

And lastly... here's a pic of "TommyBat" that I drew recently:

6.5--What Happens in Las Pegasus Stays in Las Pegasus

Evening fell on the city of Las Pegasus, and the night life was beginning once again. Many a pony were heading to places for their classic night of hedonism, involving activities such as dancing, drinking, and gambling. They walked under the neon lights, passing the synchronized fountains, smaller scale figures of other places' landmarks, and numerous other ponies heading to their respective casinos and nightclubs. Some ponies had stopped to just look at the sights, whether they be the aforementioned figures or fountains, the fake volcano, or the sight of pegasi making daredevil divebombs into the Ground District below. Music was ringing through the town, and there couldn't be any more bliss on the ponies' faces.

A group of ponies were gazing at the sky beam of the pyramid building of one of the resorts. While they had been admiring the blue pillar of light, a figure suddenly appeared and hovered within the light, prompting feelings of curiosity from the onlookers. From what they could tell from afar, the pony had no wings, and there was a faint purple glow on the head.

"Citizens and visitors of Las Pegasus!" the figure cried, louder than a normal voice. "Direct your attention toward the Pyramid of Luxor Las Pegasus!"

Confused denizens and tourists did as he said, wondering what was going on.

"Greetings, my little ponies," the figure continued. "I am the Mysterious Mystic Kazam, and welcome to the Grand Finale of the Las Pegasus Magic Expo!"

The ponies all blinked, and then murmured amongst each other. Some questioned the Grand Finale thing, even though most of them weren't at the convention center, and wondered if he got permission to do so outside. Some tingled with excitement, knowing that it taking place outside meant that it was going to be big. Some scoffed and trotted away, having no time for magical nonsense. And others were a little wary, not entirely sure what to think of the unicorn in the light.

Kazam chuckled. "There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of, folks! I am only here to present you with my biggest and most impressive feat of all, and it's only fair that I share it with those on the Strip."

The civilians only looked at each other once again, shrugging and shaking their heads.

"And now..." Kazam raised a hoof in a gesture toward the moon. "Prepare yourself for Tommy... the first... ever... VAMPIRE!"

They weren't even given a chance to process what he said before another figure sprang up in front of the moon. Spreading its large, bat-like wings to its great wingspan, it threw its head up in a shriek. The shriek made the ponies jump and cover their ears, before looking up again at the strange creature hovering in the moonlight..

One mare blinked. "Is that a member of Luna's guard?"

An elderly stallion shook his head. "That's fake. Completely fake. Nothing but an illusion."

A younger stallion tilted his head. "Who names a vampire 'Tommy'?"

Hearing the hum of the crowd's murmurs, Kazam lowered his hoof and said, "Now, I assure you that my friend here is no illusion. He is in fact, a real vampire, one of my own creation. In fact, I recently tested his ability to transform other ponies into vampires, and the results are..."

He raised his hoof above his head, and sure enough, a large number of vampire bat-ponies shot up from every corner of the city, joining Tommy in the sky and creating a cloud over the Strip. The civilians gasped at the sight, and stepped back as they gaped at the sheer number of vampires that were glaring at them with glowing, red eyes.

Kazam's chuckled turned into full blown laughter. "How do you like them?! You ought to know that I have been perfecting this spell for years! Years where I was told that I couldn't do it! Years where my mother scolded me for using magic that was 'too dangerous'! Years where my father, who otherwise pushed me into growing my power over the years, had discouraged me from recreating the spell that our ancestor, Wayer Rune, had used to create the werewolf! My own brother even thought I was crazy!" Kazam threw back his head and laughed some more. "But I didn't listen!"

It was then he noticed the ponies backing away, still staring at the creatures in the sky. He sneered and said, "And if you still don't believe they're real... take a closer look."

A simple point of his hoof sent the vampires diving toward the Strip, hissing in a haunting melody. Seeing the monsters zooming toward them, the civilian ponies quickly turned and started to flee, screaming at the top of their lungs. They galloped down the walkway, hearts pounding and muscles aching as they attempted to escape the vampires that drew ever nearer. Some ponies were nearly shoved into the cloud lawn, where they would've plummeted to the street of the Ground District.

However, some ponies were tackled, and found themselves with fangs sinking into their necks. Those ponies, after the horror of having blood sucked out in a strange painful and ticklish experience, soon had wings sprout out their backs--if they didn't already have any to be transformed--and a pair of fangs grow in their mouth. Once the transformation was complete, the victims panicked and cried.

Police ponies arrived on the scene to find the horrifying sight of pony-bat hybrids attacking innocents. There was little hesitation to try to direct panicking ponies into the nearest buildings, while the unicorn officers kept the bats at bay with magic beams.

"Somepony, send a messenger to Canterlot!" one shouted. "This situation demands royal intervention!"

Kazam chuckled upon hearing the shrieks and fear and agony, and kept on watching as he grabbed the tail of one of the vampires. As he was carried up, he cast a spell on himself, and then once he made it to one of the cloud neighborhoods, he released his grip on the vampire and landed on the cloud. He laid down on it, made himself comfortable, and just watched the chaos below.

"I love a good show. I wish I had popcorn."

Back at the convention center, the patrons of the Magic Expo were alarmed at the arrival of the police officers who had proceeded to label the largest hall as a crime scene. A lot of them were not pleased to learn that they were to be kept in the other halls, and that they'd be late in getting home or to their hotel rooms that night. Some even scoffed at the rumor of 'vampire bat-ponies' being the reason the cops were here and not letting ponies out of the building. Some figured that it was a murder in that room, and that being kept inside was stupid.

Once Silk Shimmer and Trixie had relayed what they knew to the police, they trotted back to the hall where Trixie's stage was. They went in the room full of murmuring and complaining ponies, and swam through until they made it to the stage and climbed on. They went behind the curtains, where Cheese was just moping in the corner.

"We... directed them to Kazam's trailer," Silk Shimmer said with a sheepish grin. "They'll confiscate his stuff... maybe find something that could reverse the spell... and maybe give that pineapple frog to a better home?"

Cheese glanced up briefly before hanging his head again. "Great."

Trixie gave Silk a funny look. "Why did you need to mention that frog?"

Silk shrugged. "He's a nice frog, he deserves a better home than with Kazam."

"Eh, I certainly wouldn't want to live with that creep," Trixie grumbled. She looked at Silk again. "How did you stand living in the same house as him when you were a filly?"

Silk pursed her lips. "I often escaped to do magic shows with my friends. Sadly, Party Favor had to deal with him at home."

Cheese looked up and snorted. "No wonder he disappeared--I'd run off too if I had that nutcase for a brother! Seriously, Kazam's a terrible pony, and from what I can glean from your statements, a terrible brother!" His face fell once again, and he buried his face in his hooves. "It's not like I'm any better at this brother thing. I let Tomato make a deal with him... and now a vampire army's flying out there, most likely attacking innocent ponies, and Tommy's part of it! Ugh... I must be the worst party pony in history to drive my baby bro into the clutches of a madpony."

Silk stepped forward and put a hoof on his shoulder. "Cheese, it's not your fault. Tomato and I were just trying to help Silver Shill... and, well, we just had the crummy luck of dealing with a crazy and powerful unicorn." Silk shook her head. "I thought I could trust my own brother."

Cheese pushed her away. "No... you see, I... I..." He groaned and shouted, "I'm still upset over losing the music battle with the Flim Flam Brothers!"

Trixie blinked, and glanced between the two. "What are you going on about? Music battle? And Cheese Sandwich, upset?" Trixie scratched her head. "And here I thought he wouldn't care if he lost some sort of duel, with him so cheerful and all."

Cheese turned to her. "Yeah... if I end up losing on my own merits, usually I'm a good sport. But, that time it was a duet battle, and I chose Tomato to be my partner because I know that he's got a great voice. But the whole time I had to nudge him and remind him when it was his turn, he got startled by a random clown, and he jumped into a chocolate fountain! He outright humiliated himself to the point where he just gave up! And when that happened... I was ashamed to even consider him my brother. Since then... I admit it, I've been telling him half-truths about me being busy so that I could avoid him."

Silk blinked. "Uh... half-truths?"

Trixie crossed her forelegs. "He was at every one of my shows in between checking if everything was going smoothly."

Cheese sighed and looked at Silk. "If only I had gone with you and Tommy when you were going to make that deal with Kazam. Maybe I could have sensed something was up and convinced you guys to look elsewhere for those restaurant funds. Anything to prevent the vampire apocalypse! But, nope, I was too mad to care until it was too late. Ugh... I'm a horrible brother."

He buried his face in his hooves once again, the image of Tomato as a small colt running around and using his big brother's poofy mane as a trampoline came to his mind. He could hear the joyous laughter and endless energy that was once a staple of Tommy, as well as the admiration that he had for Cheese. Cheese wanted to smile at the old memory, of when seeing the little rascal being happy was just enough to make him happy, and of when he was a worthwhile big brother. But, he could not; how could he when let Tommy turn into a monster?

He sighed. Pinkie would be disappointed in him.

CLANG!

"Ow!" Cheese's ears rang as he clutched his throbbing head. He looked up and glared at Trixie, who held a frying pan in her magic and was giving him a raising eyebrow. Wincing from what he was sure to be a bump on his head, he asked, "What did you do that for?"

"You were getting too gloomy to be Cheese Sandwich, and it's freaking me out," Trixie replied. She set the frying pan on the dresser and then levitated the anti-magic cone--which she had removed from Silk Shimmer's horn earlier--and held it up for both of them to see. "Now... you see this thingy? Yeah, we're going to latch it onto Kazam's horn and stop the mass mind control going on."

Silk jumped. "What?! Are you crazy, Trixie?!"

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Perhaps. But I was enlisted to help catch a thief in Manehattan. Who says that the Great and Powerful Trixie cannot stop an army of vampires in Las Pegasus?"

"What if you get bitten before you even get to Kazam?" Silk groaned and used her magic to swipe the cone away from Trixie. "Not to mention it won't cure those ponies of vampirism."

Cheese tapped his chin, and then stood up. "Maybe not... but the princesses can. But frankly, it'll take a while before they're even informed, and Kazam would be spreading out the curse further during that time. So, I agree with Trixie, let's de-power Kazam and get those ponies to snap out of it. And get my brother back!"

Silk groaned and did a facehoof. "Guys, even if we did have a chance of winning... we're still in lockdown in this building. How do you propose we get out?"

"Spoons," Silk said in the flattest tone imaginable. "Leave it to a party pony to use spoons as a means of escape. I should have seen that coming."

The trio popped out of the ground just outside the convention center, and climbed out of the hole Cheese had dug with special "spoon-gloves". Cheese dropped the spoon-gloves, and he and the girls rushed into a nearby walkway attached to the mountain, snuck into an alley, and flattened themselves against a wall, scooting toward the street. One by one, they gazed out into the Strip, and their eyes widened at the sight.

A large number of vampire bat-ponies were flying around in the sky and among the buildings, the illumination of the neon lights giving them an eerie glow as they chased pegasi. There was also a good number flying lower near the streets, chasing innocent earth ponies and unicorns before tackling them and sinking their fangs in their necks. Some bitten ponies were already sprouting wings and fangs, and some who had finished their transformations took off into the sky. And echoing all around the town, there sounded Kazam's voice, saying the tired line of "There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of."

Trixie noticed Silk's eyes glazing over, and then smacked her. "Resist the hypnotic sentence!"

Silk rubbed her cheek, and watched some newly transformed earth ponies take off, and much to her surprise, soar like eagles. "So... how did those ponies who were unicorns and earth ponies learn how to fly so fast?"

"I don't know! I just want to make them stop before they suck my blood!"

Ignoring the girls, Cheese had pulled out a pair of binoculars and was looking down the Strip for Kazam. "Huh... I hear him, but I can't see him." He looked at Silk Shimmer. "Silk, Kazam's your brother; where would he most likely be in order to command all these vampires?"

Silk scoffed. "Obviously, he'd be in a high place, putting himself in a position where all can see him."

Trixie looked up and pointed at one of the clouds. "Check that purple light, it's pretty high."

Cheese looked up at said cloud, and spotted the little purple light glowing on it. Putting his binoculars back up, he saw the light illuminating the unmistakably smug face of Kazam. "Oh, there he is."

Right after he said that, though, he jumped and screamed at a fanged face suddenly popping up in his vision. Dropping the binoculars, he saw one of the vampires flying straight for them, fangs bared and a loud hiss coming from his mouth. Beside him, the unicorn mares screamed as well, and Trixie quickly drew out her frying pan from under her hat, and smacked the vampire away.

Blinking, Cheese said, "Okay, girls, you go and get to that cloud to seal the cone on Kazam's horn--I'm going to be a distraction!"

Trixie scowled at him. "Do you expect us to hitch a ride on one of the vampires?"

Silk groaned and pointed to a tall, needle-like tower touching one of the clouds with its antennae. "No, we just gotta use the Trottosphere and then I'll cast the cloud-walking spell... since that's a pegasus-only neighborhood."

"Oh."

Cheese glanced at the tower. "That thing makes me think of Seaddle... huh, should I get Cheesy Sense pointing to there, I should say 'hi' to Aunt Cocoa Butter."

Another vampire rammed into the ground beside them, and then drunkenly stood up and swayed toward them, licking its lips. Soon after, it was bumped away by a much less drunk vampire, who leapt toward them with a hiss. Trixie jumped, and set off a smoke bomb. She then proceeded to drag Cheese and Silk away--unfortunately in the wrong direction--as the vampire was confused.

They galloped down the walkway, only to run into more vampires.

Cheese backed up. "Okay, girls, just get to the Trottosphere--I'll stay here and stall them as long as I can."

The girls nodded, and Trixie set off another smoke bomb behind Cheese. Under their cover, the girls quickly fled north towards the tower, while Cheese stayed, facing the vampire army that hungrily gazed at him.

He took a deep breath, and pulled out his accordion. Thankful that he was often quick in fixing it, he played a few practice notes, looking up at the vampires every so often to make sure none of them were attacked. Then, when he was sure that the instrument was tuned right, he started to play an upbeat tune, and started to bounce around and dance as the vampires stared at him with bewildered looks.

The accordion music was magically loud enough for Kazam to hear it from his perch on the cloud, and he turned his attention to the brownish-gold pony dancing in the center of the Strip. Sneering, he muttered, "What does that idiot think he's doing?"

Smiling at the crowd, Cheese sang:

"Hey, creepy monsters, put your eyes on me,
I'm playing in the walkway for all to see
You wanna have some fun? Well, let me scratch that itch!
'Cause I'm the super party pony Cheese Sandwich!"

He looked around, noting that the number of vampires curiously looking at him was growing. While he was grinning and his spirits were getting higher, so was his heart rate, and he had to resist the urge to get out of there until he was certain that Silk and Trixie had enough time to get to the cloud district.

"Now that I have you all gathered here today
I have a fun idea that'll make you all want to stay
I promise you guys that it's not a load of hokey,"

Then he threw his front legs up and cheered,

"Who wants to do the Pony Pokey?!"

Kazam blinked, and put a hoof to his face. "You've got to be kidding me..." He stood up, and with his voice amplifying spell, announced, "There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of--this pony's an imbecile."

Cheese scowled. "Hey!"

Kazam continued, "He has no reason for you to just stop and stare--attack him! Let's see how he looks with fangs and a pair of wings!"

Cheese gulped, and then looked around as the vampires' eyes glazed over, and they hissed at him. Holding his accordion in a manner that both shielded him and sent the message that he was ready to hit somepony with it, he growled, "Whatever you do... do not make me do the Pony Pokey violently!"

As Silk and Trixie raced on the boulevard towards the Trottosphere tower, all manner of magic blasts and frying pan hits were the mares' primary defenses against the vampires that they came across. Trixie was smacking vampires away left and right, some of them straight in the face and all of them as hard as she could. Some of the vampires were jolted out of their trance, and had panicked about the bat-ponies flying around and the change in their own bodies--until the hypnosis was reactivated by Kazam saying, "There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of." Trixie still had to smack Silk every time she fell under the trance as well.

Some smacks led to some of the unicorn-vampires losing their anti-magic cones, which Silk didn't hesitate to catch with telekinesis in case they needed spares. Of course, now they had to dodge magic blasts and deactivate telekinesis. Trixie even got into a fight with one that tried to steal her frying pan--she ended it with a smoke bomb on the vampire's face.

After they resumed the gallop after her fight with that vampire, Trixie asked, "Silk Shimmer, how much does it cost to use that tower to climb to the higher cloud district, anyway?"

Silk's eyes widened. "Well... um..."

Trixie groaned. "Expensive. This entire town's expensive!"

"Hey, most of the activities I did earlier this week were cheap! It is possible to have fun while spending few bits here!"

"Well, it'd be cheaper just to use a hot air balloon... if the sky wasn't filled with vampires!" As she shouted that, Trixie smacked yet another vampire away.

"Geez, in times like this, I wish I was a pegasus!" Silk trapped a vampire foal in a bubble, and threw the bubble at some others diving toward them. She stared to see if the foal was okay, then continued to gallop with Trixie to their destination.

However, when they were almost to the tower, a mustached police officer that smelled strongly of garlic jumped in front of them. "Where do you mares think you're going? Get inside, it's too dangerous out here!"

Trixie groaned once again. "Look, we don't have time for this!"

Silk stepped forward, "Officer, we're on our way to stopping the stallion responsible for this mess."

The officer sneered. "Yeah, sure--and I suppose you're both going to become alicorn princesses if you do?"

Trixie tapped her chin and chuckled. "Becoming a princess does sound nice."

Silk glared at her, and then smacked her on the back of the head. "You're not helping!"

The officer stepped forward, and started to drive them away from being out in the open. "I don't care if you're under the tutelage of Princess Celestia herself--I'm not allowing any more ponies in this city to leave any buildings until the vampires have been taken care of! And speaking of Princess Celestia, we've got a messenger on the way--"

A scream was heard, and all three of them looked up to see a pegasus in the clutches of one vampire, having his blood being sucked out of him. The three watched as the pegasus' wings grew larger and more bat-like, and presumably, his ears and teeth were changing as well.

The officer cursed under his breath and murmured, "That was the messenger..."

Of course, another vampire came darting towards them from the side, but the officer just turned and glared at the thing. The vampire froze, and they locked eyes for a brief moment before the vampire took one sniff of him, and then darted away.

The officer sneered again. "You better fly away from Chief Garlic."

Trixie wrinkled her nose and muttered, "I'm strangely not surprised about that vampire's reaction."

Cheif Garlic turned back around, and then started herding Trixie and Silk into the nearest building. All the while, he was ignoring their protests and their pleas to get back out there to stop Kazam.

Meanwhile, Cheese was busy dealing with his portion of the vampire army, aiming to hit them on the head as much as he could in order to get them to snap out of it. He was thankful that the ponies were resilient, even though he didn't quite like letting ponies get hurt--especially during an interesting rendition of the Pony Pokey.

Cheese jumped into the middle of one of Las Pegasus' many bridges, in view of all the vampires. "You put your whole self in!"

Then he rolled out of the way of vampires diving toward him. "You put your whole self out!"

He winced as they slammed face first into the bridge. Noticing more jumping at him, he rolled forward and then onto another bridge and then danced on his hind legs. "You put your whole self in, not afraid to dance around!"

He jumped and ducked as vampires zipped left and right, trying to catch him. "You do the Pony Pokey, and you give a little shout!"

One vampire behind him hissed loudly after that line, and Cheese threw one end of his accordion toward it, which hit it on the forehead, sending it down through the clouds. "That's what it's all about!"

As the accordion sprung back into its normal shape, Cheese noticed another vampire flying toward him, and this time jumped over its head and onto its back. Sitting casually with his eyes closed, he played his instrument once again, and sang:

"Now, now, now, no need to be cranky
I just came here to have some fun
Those knocks on the head should have made you sane,
Now, I want to see the conga, everyone!"

Those vampires that had hit the bridges and walkways looked up, and several others poked their heads out of the clouds. Spurred by Cheese's music, they looked at each other, shrugged, and then formed a dancing line in the air. The one Cheese had hit with his accordion flew up and joined it, and some previously aggressive vampires stopped their attacks, and joined in the conga line. Some were hesitant, but joined in in case Cheese decided to unleash the Pony Pokey on them again if they didn't.

Cheese opened his eyes, and grinned at the sight of however many vampires there were dancing in a line in the air to his music. Some swayed and stirred their hooves, some bounced, and some clapped. They all kicked at a certain point, and resumed their normal dancing before another beat made them kick again. They repeated the actions as they followed the vampire Cheese sat on, who was getting into it as well.

Bouncing to the music himself, he muttered, "Just wait until Pinkie hears about this."

Meanwhile, still sitting on his cloud, Kazam's mouth was wide open, his eyes were wide, and his eyebrow was furrowed as he gazed at the flying conga line that Cheese somehow convinced the vampires to do with minimal effort. Pursing his lips and putting a hoof on his face, he grumbled, "This guy's even weirder than Party Favor ever was."

Then, he narrowed his eyes at the party pony and snarled. "No doubt he's a bigger threat than I anticipated; I need to get rid of him." His lips curled into a smile, and he stood up. "And what better way than a method that would hurt him most?"

Cheese was still humming the tune and playing the accordion, smiling at the vampire ponies who were enjoying themselves, acting more like civilized ponies--sort of--than wild animals. He was amazed that he had managed to get them to stop with the crazy attacks, and he was even hearing some of them singing and talking to each other. He hadn't heard Kazam say that stupid phrase, so he was feeling confident that Trixie and Silk got him, and that they won.

He sighed. "If only I had been allowed to play long enough to get Silk to snap out of it earlier--a good dose of music is great for combating mind control!" He looked away from the line, still feeling sheepish about the violence he had to employ in order to keep playing.

He shook his head, and started to scan the line for any sign of Tomato. If he could only spot the forelock curl, then he could relax. However, as he continued to scan the line, his heart sunk lower and lower as he saw no messy dark brown mane or tail, no grayish-reddish-brownish fur or wings, no white button shirt, and definitely no forelock.

Cheese bit his lip. "Tommy... where are you?"

Right after he said this, he was snatched off his seat by his shirt and carried into the sky by another vampire. It happened so fast that he couldn't grip his accordion properly, and as such it fell to the street and was broken upon impact.

Cheese blinked, and then felt his face heat up in anger. He turned and yelled, "Hey! I was taming the monsters with tha--aaaaaaaahhhhh!"

Much to his dismay, Cheese could recognize the face and the forelock of the pony that abducted him with his tail. And unlike the others, the accordion music didn't seem to faze him one bit--instead, the vampire gave him a bitter, spine-chilling hiss.

Cheese chuckled nervously. "Found you, baby bro."

Snarling, Tomato threw Cheese into his hooves, and then proceed to ram him backwards into a building. Cheese gritted his teeth he felt the pain right on his spine shoot throughout his body, and his head pounded in a manner that threatened to have it split open. The pained areas felt warm, and he briefly wondered if he was bleeding. He could hardly move after that impact, his stomach felt queasy and when he cracked open his eyes, there seemed to be three Tomatoes in front of him, as well as three Kazams latched onto the backs of the vampires.

Both threes merged into ones, and the royal blue unicorn was laughing at Cheese. Kazam turned to the air above the Strip, and called out, "There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of! I caught the nuisance!"

Cheese was helpless as he watched the orderly bat-ponies transform back into savage monsters, and dive back to the street in search of blood. Panting, he looked up and snapped, "Why are you doing this?! What reason is there for vampires to even exist?!"

Kazam leaned forward and patted Cheese's face. "As an earth pony, you wouldn't understand. Have you ever been bestowed with such power that you wanted to see what you can do? Have you ever wanted to push limits and test barriers in any way possible? Have you ever wanted to see if your power could match that of an alicorn's? Puh, of course not, you stupid mudhorse."

Cheese narrowed his eyes. "Oh? Well, I'd hate to break it to you, but I'm hardly a normal earth pony. In fact, you wouldn't even understand the magic I have--a special magic shared by few. Now, enough of this magic talk, I want you to stop this chaos and turn all these ponies back!"

Kazam pouted, and gave a little nod to Tomato, who pushed Cheese further into the wall. Then, Kazam said, "Why should I? I'm having a lot of fun!"

Cheese growled. "Fun? How is this fun? Without you hypnotizing them, those ponies are terrified to be vampires! The ponies who are still normal are terrified of them! And I'm still angry that you turned my brother into not only a monster, but your slave!"

Kazam scoffed. "Oh, brotherly love... what a ridiculous sentiment--especially when I haven't heard of you being very supportive of him and his talent. If you weren't such an awful brother, Tommy here wouldn't have agreed to work for me."

Cheese snorted. "I can hardly call myself the perfect big brother--but at least I can say that I'm better than you! Silk Shimmer and Party Favor would agree."

Cheese found himself being peeled off the wall, and then lifted up to Kazam's scowling face. Exhaling sharply through his nose, Kazam replied, "At least I can say that I'm not as annoying and preachy as you. I'm done with you, and you're dead." He looked down to Tomato and shouted, "To the Trottosphere!"

Cheese gulped as he found himself being flown to the tower. He still ached, and prayed that he'd recover before Kazam did whatever he was planning to do, and hoped that he'd quickly have access to hammerspace. If he didn't, he was done for.

But what could be funny in a situation like this?

Soon enough, Tomato and his passengers reached the tower, and then perched on top of the observation deck. Kazam hopped off and lifted Cheese with his magic, levitating him far enough that the party pony couldn't reach the edge and could only dangle above the walkways. Even worse, he was held above the clouds, meaning that his fall would go all the way to the ground district.

Kazam turned to Tomato. "What do you think? Is this high enough?"

Tomato tapped his chin and shook his head.

"You're right... hmm... why don't you take him up three times as high? Or perhaps more?"

Cheese gasped. "You're having my brother do the job instead of doing it yourself?!"

Kazam shrugged. "Hey, I'm going for whatever hurts the most--and what hurts more than someone you love betraying you?"

He gave a nod toward Tomato, and the vampire bat-pony leapt forward, grabbed Cheese, and flew up high into the sky. As they flew up higher and higher, the air became cooler and thinner. Cheese's heart pounded as the buildings, clouds, paths, and ponies below appeared smaller, and then when they passed the higher cloud district, the buildings there appeared smaller as he and Tomato ascended.

Breathing shaky breaths, Cheese bit his lip, and said, "Tommy... I'm sorry for implying that I don't care about you, and I'm sorry for holding the Halterside fiasco against you. I shouldn't have pulled you in when you clearly weren't ready, and... my pride didn't let me see that. I just wish I didn't have to end my life seeing you as this... thing, controlled by a madpony, and--"

He sighed. "And I hope the guilt doesn't kill you when you snap out of it--because it's not really your fault. I hope you know I love you, baby bro, no matter what."

Cheese squeezed his eyes shut. "Oh... I do wish that I could see Pinkie one more time."

Tomato stopped his ascent, and both of them were high above the city, staring at each other under the glow of the moonlight. The wind gently blew past them as their eyes were locked, gauging the looks in each others' eyes and trying to read them. For a moment, Cheese felt calm. But knowing the serene moment was only making the inevitable fall that much more terrifying, Cheese used it to try to find any trace of his little brother in that vampire's eyes, and prayed that his pleas had reached the pony inside.

If not, well...

"Last chance to snap you back to normal!" Cheese exclaimed. Then, shutting his eyes to avoid seeing the action, he threw the hardest punch he could. The hoof hit Tomato straight in the face, and he staggered back as he dropped Cheese and cradled his poor throbbing face.

Cheese could feel the air blow past him as he fell, but he only looked upwards as he yelled, "Sorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyy!!!"

Growling, Tomato rubbed his face, and then yelled, "Ow! Cheese! What did you do that--"

The color drained from his face as he saw Cheese plummeting to the ground below. He quickly realized that he was high above the city--much higher than the cloud district--and that Cheese was in danger. Because of him.

"No!" he cried.

Tomato swiftly dived toward Cheese in an attempt to catch him. Heart racing as he zoomed downward, mane tossing in the wind, and eyes squinting, burning, and leaking tears in the rush, he kept his focus on his older brother, who seemed frightened, and yet accepting of his fate. Tomato grit his teeth, though the fangs pricked his bottom lip.

Don't you dare look up at me like that! Tomato wasn't sure if he was crying or it was just the wind. You're not supposed to die! Not now!

Time seemed to slow down in his descent. All he could hear was his own heartbeat, and all he could see was Cheese, looking up at him with eyes gleaming with anxiousness. Tomato could only feel himself inching closer to him during the slow, agonizing seconds, even as he reached forward to try to grab him.

I'm not letting Equestria lose a party pony...

Cheese disappeared in the street of the higher cloud district, and Tomato just barreled through the mist. Still stretching out his hoof, he thought of the times that Cheese had made him laugh. The times that they played together as foals. The times that Cheese saved him from harm. The times that they exchanged letters. And finally, he thought of how in a house that they couldn't consider home, the love between them kept their days bright.

Tomato narrowed his eyes in determination. And I am not going to lose my big brother!

Below them, after a long argument with Chief Garlic, Trixie and Silk Shimmer busted out of the building, and ran out into the street to find a familiar orange-colored pony bursting out of the higher cloud district and plummeting down to his doom.

Silk gasped. "Oh, no! Trixie, we've gotta do something!"

"Do what?" Trixie replied. "Catch him?"

Silk bit her lip and galloped forward. "Maybe a bubble will--"

That was when she was tackled by another vampire, which made her skid on the paved walkway. After the vampire was promptly smacked away by Trixie with her frying pan, she helped Silk up, and cringed at the sight of her bleeding foreleg. She ripped one of Silk's coattails off, and wrapped the leg with it. They both looked up, seeing that Cheese fell even further.

Silk once again attempted to run, but her injured leg reduced her to a limp. So, she and Trixie could only watch Cheese fall.

A second figure burst out from the cloud at high speeds, and dove straight for Cheese. Before their eyes, they saw Cheese essentially splash into the clouds between the walkway, and the figure diving straight through. After holding their breath, their hearts sinking over what likely happened under them, their spirits were quickly lifted when that same figure blasted out of the Strip clouds, holding Cheese tightly. As the winged figure landed on the Trottosphere's platform, he still hugged a frazzled Cheese as tightly and tenderly as a scared child would with his mother.

Silk blinked. "Is that... Tomato?"

Trixie wrinkled her nose. "I thought he was too busy being a blood-sucking monster."

As the hug was released, Cheese and Tomato sat slumped on the ground, panting. Then they looked at each other, sat in an awkward silence, and then Cheese started to laugh. He pounced on his vampire brother, and gave him a tight hug and a noogie in return. And then he started twirling him around, still laughing and whooping in utter relief.

Silk smiled. "Aww... I think the power of brotherly love made Tomato snap out of it."

Trixie raised an eyebrow. "Or Cheese just hit him in one shape or form."

Silk rolled her eyes and started limping forward. "Come on, let's just check on them."

Suddenly, Kazam teleported in front of them, facing Cheese and Tomato and not taking notice of the girls. The both of them froze, looked at each other, and started to tiptoe, watching the scene before them.

Kazam glared at the brothers. "What is the meaning of this, Tomato? You weren't supposed to catch him; you were supposed to kill those that stood in our way, like a good monster!"

Tomato hissed. "I never agreed to be a monster! You forced this on me!"

"Come on, Tommy... you know this is better than just being a mudhorse. After all, there's absolutely nothing--"

Cheese jumped forward, and stuffed a sock in Kazam's mouth. "Uh-uh, you're not saying that again--not on my watch!"

Kazam's eyes were wide for a moment, and then with hot snorts and a piercing glare, his horn began to glow brighter than it had before. The bright illumination made the Sandwiches shout and hiss in pain and cover their eyes, and Silk reacted by summoning a clear, shaded shield in front of her and Trixie. The boys started to back away, unsure of what was going to happen next--while the girls inched ever closer.

Kazam spat out the sock and chuckled darkly. "So, that's the way it is, huh? Well, fine. I can handle getting rid of Tomato--I have a whole army after all, and I'm going to use it to overthrow Celestia, and show Equestria my power!"

As he was rearing up to blast them, he felt something wrap his horn and click. And then another was attached; and another. And then a fourth and fifth were attached to his horn. Right after, he was met with a sudden, sharp headache that sent him on his haunches and clutching his head. He glanced upward, and his face fell at the sight of all the vampires that had been flying around stopping, and looking around in confusion and fear.

Trixie suddenly hopped in front of him and shouted, "Haha! You have now been depowered, Kazam, by the Great and Powerful Trixie! Tremble before her might, and stare in awe at the amazingness that is Trixie! Never again shall you threaten Equestria!"

Rubbing his eyes, Tomato grumbled, "Cheese, I've been meaning to tell you that your friend's a loudmouth."

Cheese blinked to adjust from the light. "Hey, at least she stopped Kazam from killing us."

Kazam growled and slammed his hoof on the ground. "No! This is not how it was supposed to go! It should've been impossible to defeat me!"

A magical leash wrapped around his neck, and he was dragged away by his sister, though she still limped. With her nose in the air, Silk said, "Well, too bad, Kazam--you got defeated by those little souvenirs you had ponies give out at your show. How pathetic."

Kazam huffed. "All right, Little Miss Sassy, I demand that money I gave you back!"

"Too late, I already sent it to Halterside." She still limped on back to the building she and Trixie were in before, calling, "Oh, Chief Garlic..."

The Sandwiches got their normal vision back, and Tomato blinked and said, "I just realized that I haven't worn my glasses all day. This transformation gave me better eyesight!"

Cheese chuckled. "At least there's one good thing about this whole mess." After he finished laughing, he frowned. "Now, I'm sure the police are going to keep the vampires here in the city while somepony fetches Celestia. And from my experience, it'll take a week for the messenger to go there and back. And frankly, I'm not willing to stay here a week to wait for you to be cured, especially with the Summer Sun Celebration just around the corner."

"Well, I certainly don't want to live with bloodlust that much longer..." Tomato shuddered. "So, what are you going to do?"

"Simple: I'll smuggle you out of this city, take a train to Ponyville, and have Twilight fix you!"

Tomato sighed. "Well... how are you going to smuggle me out?"

Cheese grinned, and then lifted up something red-orange. "I have a collection of full body suits."

Author's Note

Whew! Finally got this monster done! Over 7.5 thousand words in this thing, and it's the longest chapter out of any of my multi-parters!

Anyway, these are (sort of) the buildings Kazam stood on in this:

He also sat in a cloud neighborhood, watching the chaos. Las Vegas does not have a neighborhood in the clouds. Nor does the Stratosphere touch the clouds and bring you high enough to walk on them, I just think clouds are placed lower in Equestria than they are formed in real life. I dunno, I'm just rambling. Ramble ramble ramble...

So... after Tommy's back to normal, where do you suppose the Sandwich Bros will head next? Place yer bets!

7.1--Train to Ponyville

Tomato counted himself and Cheese lucky to have caught a train that night, before the measures were put in place to keep the vampires in the city. It took a tight full body suit of himself--at least his normal form--concealing his batty wings to pass, but now they were on their way to Ponyville, where Twilight could fix him up quickly, and then they could relax until the Cheesy Sense called once again.

Still, it annoyed him how he had to sustain himself on his own blood to not go crazy from hunger during the ride. He had to stealthily bite his foreleg as to not attract attention--though he could see the worry often present on Cheese's face. He didn't know whether it was the sight of a vampire sucking its own blood or watching one's brother hurt himself on purpose that was making Cheese uneasy, but Tomato's argument was that he couldn't find blood elsewhere without disrupting the ride or turning another into a vampire. Besides, he was making sure to suck out only about a pint during each feeding time, even though it was oddly relaxing.

Still, it drove Cheese crazy enough to run off during a layover in search of some butcher shop--used for making dog food and food for other carnivorous species--to gather some blood, put it in a cup with a lid and straw, and then give it to Tomato, complaining about having thrown up at least three times during his errand.

Tomato had simply sipped through the straw, muttering, "Somepony's a bit of a pansy."

Cheese huffed, and then glanced around the train station. Seeing that nopony was around, he said, "Well, excuse me for being a pony who can't stand the smell of meat... or blood. Ugh, I don't even want to think about how those must taste. I don't know how those butcher ponies stand it! Besides, you're a vampire, it tastes good to you."

"Tastes kind of like corn." Tomato glanced at him. "You didn't have to do that, you know."

Cheese sighed. "Well, I don't want you starving or hurting yourself. The way you were biting yourself was making me uncomfortable, so... make that last."

During the trip, Cheese was busy fixing his accordion, while across from him, Tomato was laying on his belly and reading a book. The trip was quiet, since they wanted to minimize the risk of somepony spotting Tomato's fangs. Should that happen, they'd be in a big mess. Thus, they withheld from conversation and dealt with their respective items.

This was the third time Cheese's accordion was broken during this trip. Most ponies would have replaced it, but Cheese took pride in being able to fix his own instrument fairly quickly--and maybe cheat a little at it with party pony magic. The hassle of the last few days had kept him from fixing it sooner, but with only the murmur of the other ponies as background noise and no trouble in sight, it was nice to relax.

Well, not completely relax, as Cheese kept glancing at Tomato every so often, especially when the latter drank from that cup of blood from the layover. Every instance made Cheese feel queasy and even more eager to get him to Twilight. The train ride seemed to take forever, and he kept on rubbing his neck, imagining Tomato just suddenly pouncing on him and threatening to suck him dry. Chills running up his spine, he wondered what it'd be like to be a monster like that, and how much Tomato was actually fighting it.

It was probably better that he didn't know what it was like to transform. Or to consider other ponies or animals a meal. Or to lose your mind to an animal-like state in a fit of rage. Whatever the case, seeing Tomato like that was the most unnerving thing he ever encountered--and he had encountered a lot of unnerving things.

The train made a stop at a station, and let passengers board. Several ponies came in and boarded, taking all the remaining window seats, chatting amongst each other during the minutes that the train waited. During that time, a steel blue coated and white bearded unicorn stallion wearing a maroon hooded cloak walked on, and searched for a seat.

As Cheese tweaked and tuned his accordion, the old pony approached him and asked, "May I sit with you, boy?"

Cheese glanced up at him, scooted over, and said, "Sure."

The elder stallion nodded, and then sat beside him. The unicorn used his magic to take his hood off, revealing his glossy mane, and looked at Cheese with striking violet eyes. He looked at the accordion and asked, "So, are you a musician or is that just a hobby?"

"Oh, I'm a party pony--being a musician's a big part of that job."

The old pony nodded. "Ah, a party pony. I married a party pony--funniest and sweetest mare in history." He sighed. "She died long ago, though. Broke me heart and I nearly went mad with grief."

Cheese looked up at him. "I'm really sorry to hear that. Are you okay?"

"I'm okay now... I've learned to live with it." The old pony stroked his beard. "Say, what's your name, boy?"

"Cheese Sandwich. And you are?"

"Folks call me 'Rooney'."

"Nice to meet you, Rooney." Cheese held up his rubber chicken. "This is Boneless 2..." He set the chicken down and pointed to the pony across from them. "And the pony laying there is my brother, Tomato Sandwich."

Concealing his mouth with his book, Tomato glanced at them and said, "Hi."

"Nice little family you've got there." Rooney leaned back in his seat. "So... you boys hear of what happened in Las Pegasus?"

The brothers stared at him wide-eyed, and glanced at each other. Seeing this, Rooney laughed and continued, "My, oh, my, you two look like you were there and are escaping the vampires that were flying around and attacking ponies!"

Cheese rubbed the back of his head. "Wow... news travels fast."

"I'll say," Tomato muttered.

Rooney chuckled and stroked his beard again. "I'm amazed that the unicorn responsible was able to do it. I've heard rumors saying that he used the same spell that was used to create the werewolf. Wouldn't be surprised if Celestia snuffed out the vampire like she believes she snuffed out the werewolf centuries ago."

Tomato narrowed his eyes, still concealing his mouth. "What do you mean 'believes'?"

Rooney dusted off his cloak. "Oh, there are some who think that she didn't get all of the magical wolf pools, and that at least one is still out there, waiting for an ignorant pony to come along on a full moon and drink the water in it. But... I'm not one of those who believe that nonsense; reports from long ago say that Celestia was very thorough."

Cheese grimaced. "Okay, I don't like this conversation... we just escaped from some monsters, we don't want to hear of more!"

The train started to depart from the station, and Rooney laughed. "Okay, okay, I get it. How about I tell you stories of my wife and I? With me being a powerful mage and her being a party pony, we've had quite a few laughs over the years! We managed to be pretty embarrassing for our foals, I'll tell you that..."

After Rooney had left, expressing that he wanted to see the Sandwich brothers again, things were quiet again. And as night fell and he drank the last of the blood, Tomato had a few things on his mind.

Just one more night. By morning, they should reach Ponyville, and once that happened, Tomato would be back to normal and eating regular pony food such as hay burgers, desserts, fruits, vegetables, and countless other things that he was looking forward to. Except sauerkraut. He and Cheese agreed that sauerkraut was a blob that had crawled out of Tartarus to torture young foals with its stench and taste. Tomato never knew what his classmates talked about when they complained about broccoli or spinach--he always liked those foods for some reason.

Still, one more night until Tomato was a normal earth pony again. It was too bad that he couldn't sleep.

First off, his wings itched and hurt and felt weird on his back and he kept having urges to go out and fly. He could feel them wanting to spring out of the suit, breaking free from their prison. He imagined that every time they did that, lumps would just suddenly appear in his jacket, and he always looked around for ponies watching. He tried to keep from wincing from the skin that felt overstretched, the burns he was receiving from the suit, and the cramping of the wing joints. He could feel those just fine, even with the sensation of them feeling so alien.

Second, he was hungry and his cup was empty. How wonderful it was to try to sleep on a empty stomach, with hunger gnawing at it until it threatened to implode. He had to remind himself that there was only one more night of this, and then Twilight could reverse the spell. Well, he hoped.

Finally, his mind kept on flashing back to what happened in Las Pegasus, especially when he glanced at a sleeping Cheese. He still remembered how painful his transformation was. He still remembered the shock of learning that the transformation was intentional on Kazam's part. And he still remembered the moment where he had nearly killed Cheese by dropping him from a great height, only able to save him at the last second, despite not remembering what led up to that.

He still remembered how his heart raced, his blood pulsed, his eyes stung, and how the wind blew through his fur as he dived at full speed in order to catch Cheese. It still frightened him how Cheese was clearly accepting the demise that was coming, and that it was so close. Tomato questioned how he was even a good enough flyer to even catch him and stick the landing with both unharmed. His heart ached to think of that story ending differently.

And to think, all he was doing was trying to help somepony who had absolutely nothing to do with the events in Las Pegasus.

He covered his eyes. He bit ponies. He actually bit ponies, drank their blood, and transmitted the curse to them. Under the control of a madpony. Of all the crazy things that could happen, he never thought that he would end up being a part of a vampire army, attacking innocent ponies. Thank goodness Kazam was stopped, and now he was surely going to prison.

Still... how many ponies like him are there?

"Tomato."

His ears perked up at the sound of his name, and he turned to the seat across from him, assuming Cheese was starting a conversation. His face fell when he saw his mother sitting there, and he shot up to sitting on his haunches. "Mom?! What are you--"

Mozzarella put a hoof up to stop him. "Seeing what you and your brother are up to on this trip--which, by the way, you didn't ask my permission."

Tomato growled. "Mom, I'm an adult, I can make my own decisions. I wanted to spend more time with my big brother, and that's what I'm doing! Right, Cheese?" He gazed at the seat beside Mozzarella, which was vacant and without even a frizzy hair of Cheese Sandwich on it. "Cheese?"

Mozzarella shook her head. "As per usual, when left to your own devices, you make rather poor decisions. Why, have you forgotten how much of an infidel he turned into? How he rebelled against the rightful image of the strong, upstanding eldest son he's supposed to be? Do you even realize how he will corrupt you, make you stray away from your destiny?"

"Ugh, Mom... he is strong and upstanding--just in a different way! His parties are fun and family friendly! I've seen them firsthand, there's no need to make assumptions!"

"Nonsense! Just look what he did to you!"

Tomato looked down, and discovered to his horror that his full body suit was gone, and that the grayish-reddish-brown fur and bat wings were in full display. Looking back up, he cried, "Mom, he didn't do this! It was a crazy unicorn in Las Pegasus!"

Mozzarella shook her head. "But it wouldn't have happened if you had just stayed home, where you'd be safe and away from any bad influences that Cheese would have led you to. I would've made sure your impulses and flaws were kept under control, so that you couldn't be any source of pain and embarrassment--I already had that problem with one son, and I'm not letting it happen with the other."

Tomato snorted. "I'm not going back to Manehattan yet. Cheese and I have the rest of the summer ahead of us."

Suddenly, Mozzarella did something that Tomato had never seen her do before.

She laughed heartily.

Even though it was clearly in a mocking and condescending tone, she was still chortling. Tomato sat there, gaping at the mare he had known to be one of the biggest killjoys he knew. He leaned back against his seat, unsure of what to think of his usually uptight mother laughing like that. It took him a few moments to process the fear that was gripping his heart in that moment.

Finally, Mozzarella's laughs were reduced to a few giggles, and she said, "How could you spend the rest of the summer with him when he's dead?"

Tomato's heart stopped. "...what?"

Mozzarella examined her hoof. "It was in the newspaper. He was dropped from quite a few thousand feet in the air."

Tomato held his head. "But... but... I saved him! I distinctly remember grabbing him before he hit the ground, and hugging him, and he noogied me and... and... no... no..."

"I know it's tough to lose a sibling... I'll admit, I was actually quite sad when Honeydew left. But, alas, this world does not allow us time to grieve--especially when it comes to a death of a pony in a catastrophe. It's a real shame... you could have prevented this disaster by staying home." Mozzarella stirred a cup of tea she suddenly held and sighed. "Sometimes I wonder if it's even a good thing that you two reconciled."

Tomato felt as if a severe, electrical thunderstorm erupted within him, setting fire to tranquil forests and killing his remaining equinity. With a vengeful hiss, he leapt forward and tackled her to the floor, all the seats in the train disappearing and everything turning red. Pinning her down, he gazed at her to take in the horror that permeated her eyes, and then trailed down to her neck. He licked his lips, and chuckled darkly.

"I am going to suck you dry... just as you have with me!" He opened his mouth and leaned forward to take a bite out of that neck.

"Tomato!"

He felt a slap on his face and staggered back. His eyes snapping open, he saw a frazzled, wide-eyed Cheese gazing at him, laying on the floor and leaning on his elbow. He had a hoof to his neck, and was rubbing it as he was processing what had happened. Tomato blinked, and then looked up and down the aisle, where several horrified ponies stared at him. Realizing what had happened, he quickly stood up, and then helped Cheese up.

Cheese still rubbed his neck, and turned to the ponies. "Sorry about that, folks! He, uh... has a tendency to act out his dreams while he's still sleeping! No worries, he wouldn't hurt me!" Still seeing the ponies staring, he forced a grin, and then started playing the accordion in order to distract them.

As the ponies started to smile at Cheese, Tomato felt relief washing over him, and then quickly looked over himself. He was still wearing the body suit, so he still looked normal--though he still felt his cramping wings. With a sigh, he watched as Cheese entertained the other passengers.

When the ponies clapped and Cheese bowed, the party pony fell back on all fours and said, "Glad to lighten the mood! Now, this is my stop, and I've got things to do." He grabbed Tomato and shuffled out the train door. "Bye-bye!"

He dragged Tomato to the station platform, and turned to him with a frown. He rubbed his neck again, and said, "Geez... I was only waking you up to tell you that we're here."

Tomato stretched his legs, and then said, "Okay... sorry about that thing I just did... now let's hurry, my cup's empty."

As they headed to the train door, Cheese asked, "So... what were you dreaming that made you do that?"

Tomato pursed his lips, and looked away from him. "Er... nothing really. Just... batty instincts taking over, I suppose."

Cheese grimaced. "Let's hurry to the castle. I hope she's home."

Author's Note

And now, after my monster of a chapter last time, I give you a couple of breather chapters before we continue on to our next mishap (hopefully I pull it off--the idea I have is pretty funny). Fingers crossed that I build up to it properly.

Don't worry, Tomato will be fixed soon. I don't want to stretch the vampire plot longer than I need it to.

Oh, right, I should explain the butcher shop thing... yeah, I go with the ponies are vegetarian thing, but keep in mind that they own dogs (which should be fed meat), and that there are carnivorous sentient species in Equestria. So, yeah, my flimsy explanation for the butcher shop thing!
...
...
...

*brick'd*

7.2--Leisure Time

In the dining room of Twilight Sparkle's castle, there laid upon the table a whole buffet of various breakfast foods. Stacks of pancakes, waffles, tortillas, and crepes stood upon their plates, towering over the rest of the food. Plates of scones, hash browns, muffins, toast, eggs, strips of fried hay, and baby carrots were scattered among bowls of various cheeses, various fruits, chocolate chips, and small containers of cinnamon. Cans of whipped cream, bottles of syrup, ketchup, and honey, several gemstones for a certain someone, and the ever-welcome salt and pepper were placed in the mini-city of foods, much to the delight of the six mares and one dragon within the room.

Pinkie Pie bounced up and down. "This is great! I love how the food for our little Breakfast Bonanza turned out. It all looks so..." She licked her lips and drooled as she stared at the table. "...oh, so goooood..."

Upon seeing Pinkie's drool drip on the floor, Rarity recoiled. "Pinkie! Not on Twilight's floor!"

Twilight levitated a couple of napkins from the table and wiped both Pinkie's mouth and the floor. Shaking her head, she said, "Well, we better get to eating before she floods the room."

"And before I die of hunger!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. She flew to the table, grabbed an empty plate, and starting grabbing one of everything. Pinkie joined her once her mouth was all wiped, and the others walked to the table to prepare their meals.

As Applejack was putting cinnamon and fruits on her pancakes, she heard a knocking coming from the front door. "Now, who would be knockin' at this hour?"

"Probably the delivery of the new books for the library," Twilight said. "Spike, could you get the door, please?"

Spike, who had several gemstones in his mouth, started to munch on them as quickly as he could while running out of the dining room's door. The mares continued to fill their plates as he went to answer the front door, chatting away about the various happenings in their lives. Between Rarity having to make new outfits for Sapphire Shores' next concert, Applejack remarking about Apple Bloom testing some potions on some apples, Fluttershy looking forward to Discord's visit that day, and the news the other three had, the conversation was hardly boring.

When Spike returned, Twilight glanced back and then turned to him. "So, is everything in order?"

"Oh, uh, it wasn't the book delivery."

Twilight frowned. "Then who was it?"

Spike stepped aside, and much to the girls' surprise, Cheese Sandwich, dressed in his cowpony getup, walked in, followed by Tomato, who was rubbing at his back with an uncomfortable look on his face. Cheese tipped his hat, and said, "How do you do, little fillies?"

After a moment of wide-eyed staring, Pinkie grinned from ear to ear, jumped across the table and over the food, and tackled Cheese in a bear hug. As she squeezed him, she squealed, "Cheesy! You're back, you're back, you're back so soon!" Then she somersaulted off of the wheezing Cheese, and looked up at Tomato. "Hiya, Tommy! You having a fun summer so far?"

Tomato kept on shifting back and forth. "It's been interesting, that's for sure." He glanced at the table, and pursed his lips, murmuring about how he wished he craved that breakfast.

Pinkie helped Cheese up, and bounced in place. "Come on, guys! Have breakfast with us and tell us about the adventures you had so far."

Cheese grinned. "You know I'd love to, but there's something that needs to be done first." He turned to Twilight. "Twilight, we need your help."

Twilight blinked. "Why? What's the problem?"

Cheese chuckled nervously and twiddled his hooves. "Well... Tomato's got a little itty bitty problem..."

Rainbow leaned on the table and rolled her eyes. "Let me guess, he lost his wallet."

Tomato pouted at her. "No, this is worse. Much worse."

Cheese scooted toward his brother, and touched a spot just within the forelock. "Now... please don't freak out. Because now that we're here... with the problem... that's completely and utterly freaky so I'm really hoping you don't panic!"

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Now what could possibly be so freaky that you're so worried--"

Cheese then unzipped Tomato's "skin" and the full body suit that the younger Sandwich was apparently wearing fell to the floor. The girls gaped at what had been under the suit: a messy furred, fanged, bat-winged Tomato Sandwich with his fur grayer and darker then his normal red-orange sheen.

"Oh," Applejack finished.

"Whoa..." Rainbow said.

Tomato didn't hesitate to stretch his wings. "Oh, finally, I can stop the cramping in these things. Feels good to have them free."

Fluttershy blinked, and then leaned to Rarity. "Is that what I looked like... so to speak?"

Rarity nodded in reply, her face unchanging from her look of shock.

Pinkie gasped. "A vampire?! Tomato turned into a vampire?! Oh, my gosh, that is worse than losing his wallet!" She peeled off the serape off of Cheese and then hid in it. "Is he going steal all of the apples? Or is he the blood-sucking kind?"

Cheese sighed. "Pinkie, I asked you not to freak out."

"I was expecting somepony to faint," Tomato stated.

At that very statement, everypony looked at Rarity. After a few moments of their staring, Rarity got a little annoyed. "What?"

Twilight hopped off her seat, and approached Tomato. She took a look at his fangs, and then circled him. Once she stopped her circle, she felt one of his wings and asked, "How did this happen?"

Cheese rubbed the back of his head. "Long story short, there was a crazy magician in Las Pegasus that was trying to create a vampire army."

"How'd he create a vampire in the first place?"

"He fused me with a little vampire bat," Tomato answered.

Fluttershy gasped. "What?! How could he do that to such a poor innocent creature?" She flew over to Tomato, and examined him as well, holding a furrowed brow the whole time. "What did the bat ever do to be part of such a horrific experiment? Neither the bat or Tomato deserved to have this done to them!"

The others got out of their seats and cautiously approached. Shaking her head, Rarity said, "I don't see why anypony would want to create an actual vampire, let alone an army of them. I mean, it was already a nightmare dealing with the vampire fruit bats at Sweet Apple Acres! Twice!" She shuddered at the memory. "I'd hate to know what it's like to fuse with one of them!"

"You know, I think being a vampire would be kind of cool--without the blood-sucking thing, of course," Rainbow said. She gagged and added, "I think a fruit vampire would be better--less likely to kill anypony that way."

Spike looked at Twilight. "So are you going to unfuse Tomato and the bat?"

Twilight rubbed her chin. "Well, I'll have to look for an unfusing spell--"

She was interrupted by a burp from Spike, and the smoke that had erupted from the belch curled in front of Twilight and poofed into a letter, which unrolled itself in front of Twilight. Blinking, she quickly read it, and then said, "Oh... that's convenient."

"What is it, Twi?" Applejack asked.

"Celestia wants me to go with her and the other princesses to Las Pegasus to cure ponies of vampirism and bring the unicorn responsible to Canterlot to be tried," Twilight explained. "They were created the same way as the werewolf, so she wrote the spell to cure them right here."

Pinkie jumped out of her serape shelter. "All right! We don't have to worry about them stealing fruit! Or sucking blood!" She tapped her chin and grimaced. "Uh, which kind of vampire are they again? This conversation was kinda unclear about that."

Twilight grimaced. "The blood-sucking kind."

The other four backed up, with Rarity backing up the furthest. Pinkie blinked for a moment before her eyes widened, and she glanced at Tomato. "Please tell me you didn't bite anypony."

Tomato sighed. "I'm sorry to say that that would be lying."

Cheese grinned nervously. "The crazy pony hypnotized him..."

Blinking, Pinkie backed up, and then pushed Twilight forward, hissing, "Cure him! Cure him! Cure him!"

"All right! All right!" Twilight said, shooing Pinkie away with her wing. Taking a deep breath, she checked the spell again, lit up her horn, and told Tomato, "Okay, hold still."

Tomato nodded, and then stopped moving, his last movement being that of squeezing his eyes shut. He was hoping that it would work, and that turning back to normal would be less painful than turning into a monster in the first place.

Twilight levitated him, and wrapped her magic around his body. Once he was swaddled in the warm magic, he could feel it seeping into him, and he clenched his teeth as it grabbed something within him and yanked it out, giving him a nasty jolt of pain, which left as soon as it came. His heart racing, he breathed deeply through his teeth. He could feel the fangs receding, his ears shrinking, and the wings evaporating. His skin tingled, and he could feel his stomach in knots, but he could feel his heartbeat slowing down as he relaxed.

He was set down on the ground, and his legs wobbled before he collapsed. Opening his eyes, he looked at his foreleg, and sure enough, it was back to it's normal red-orange color. He lifted his head and turned to his back, and there was a lack of wings. He licked his teeth, and there were no fangs. Finally, he looked at the breakfast buffet, and he had his eyes set on the stack of pancakes.

He glanced to his side, and to his surprise, Fluttershy was now holding a trembling vampire bat, stroking it and saying, "It's okay, sweet little bat... you're back to your old self. Oh, it must have been awful being fused like that against your will..."

Twilight approached Tomato. "How are you feeling?"

Tomato looked up, and then shakily got to his hooves. Still wobbling, he looked at the table again, and replied, "Hungry."

After having their breakfast, Twilight left for Canterlot to meet up with the other princesses there, and then together they'd head to Las Pegasus to fix the mess that Kazam had made. The others left to do their respective duties that day, aside from Pinkie, who was walking around town with Cheese Sandwich. Tomato decided to stay in the castle to recover and read a book or two.

Cheese was thankful for this down time. After a good deal of tension regarding Tomato being a vampire, it was so nice to relax. No more worrying about the instincts taking over, no more having to stuff his brother into an uncomfortable disguise, and definitely no more trips to a butcher shop to get blood. Once was more than enough, and he was still queasy just thinking about it. Especially that butcher who delayed him by asking why he was collecting blood.

Now, it was just a beautiful summer day in Ponyville, and everything was all right. Right now, he could walk without worry and just talk to Pinkie Pie, telling her about the other party pony that he had met on the trip so far.

Pinkie grinned at him. "Comedy Gold? Ooh, what's she like?"

"Oh, she's feisty--and I mean feisty." Cheese laughed and shook his head. "She didn't like me. I kept getting the sense that she wanted to challenge me to a Goof Off, even though she had recently had surgery, and her brother's a little overprotective. And then next thing we know, two conponies come into town with a circus train, and she gets jealous of them also. She hit a member of their troupe with a frying pan, and then was almost kidnapped."

Pinkie gasped. "What happened next?"

"Tomato and I had a music battle with the conponies... and well, we... we lost." He nickered in annoyance. "At least that same member of the troupe exposed the kidnapping plan and quit. Goldie got to stay home as a result."

"Oh, phew! I was worried for a moment."

Cheese chuckled. "So was I, but things worked out." He frowned and sighed. "Still, if there's anything those conponies had that Tomato and I didn't... they were more in sync than we were." He signed and ran a hoof through his mane. "Tommy and I have a long way to go in this brotherly bonding thing."

Pinkie patted his back. "Don't worry, Cheese. As long as you two keep at it, you might have a bond like me and Maud have."

"Heheh, yeah... like you and Maud..." He kept looking at his cutie mark, scratching his head. "What's up with my Cheesy Sense? It hasn't gone off all week."

Pinkie still pranced happily, even as they started to cross one of the bridges near town hall. "Oh, I'm not worried. There probably just hasn't been a big enough party for you to sense since that Magic Expo. I'm sure you'll sense a party for the Summer Sun Celebration soon!"

"I hope that's the case. That, or maybe I'm just tired from that whole nightmare back in Las Pegasus. I hope I'm never in that kind of monstrous situation ever again." He shuddered, recalling multiple vampires lunging toward him, and how he had plummeted from thousands of feet in the air.

"Well, whenever you need a break, I'm always right here in Ponyville!" Pinkie stopped and pursed her lips. She leaned on the railing of the bridge. "Okay, more like, usually--me and my friends have adventures sometimes. But still, Ponyville likes you, and we're happy whenever you come and visit!"

Cheese chuckled and leaned on the railing as well, looking down at the stream. "Aw, really? Well, it's a good thing I like this town. Why wouldn't I? This is a special landmark for me, where I figured out who I was supposed to be. And, well..." He simply turned to her and smiled, a sparkle in his eyes.

Pinkie blinked, and though she wanted to say something, she found that her mouth suddenly could not form words. However, it could still smile back, as an answer to the sweet look Cheese was giving her. Though she felt all tingly inside, it was the good kind of tingly.

The two gazed into each others' eyes, with Cheese staring at Pinkie's shimmering sea of blue, and Pinkie staring into Cheese's gentle valley of green. They were both as calm as a summer's morning, and their hearts were feeling just as warm. Their hooves touched, and they inched closer and closer to each other. Soon enough, their noses end up touching, and for a moment, all was silent, and it was just the two of them.

And then they burst out laughing.

"Ha ha ha! What just happened?" Cheese asked, pulling at his collar.

"Dunno!" Pinkie replied, wiping her brow. "Were we hypnotized or something? I was feeling kind of funny, you know?"

Cheese chuckled and twiddled his hooves. "Yeah... funny... huh, I do wonder if that is what hypnosis feels like."

"Maybe?" Pinkie shrugged. Then she giggled and said, "Cheese, you didn't finish your sentence!"

Cheese flushed and murmured, "Oh, right, um... you're the pony that inspired me to make my life better... and I'm eternally grateful to you... eeyeah, that's what I meant to say." He looked down at his reflection in the water. "I don't know who I'd be without you."

Pinkie beamed. "I'm glad to have helped!"

Then, they heard, "Could you two be a little less sentimental? I'd like to knit in peace!"

Surprised, they looked around, searching for the source of the voice, until they spotted something unusual on the roof of one house. Laying there, was a serpentine creature with mismatched horns, arms, and legs, a single fang sticking out of its mouth, and a gray, misshapen horse face. True to his word, the creature was knitting a sweater out of thin air.

Pinkie waved to the creature. "Hiya, Discord! Whatcha knitting for?"

"I'll have you know that I'm giving Fluttershy a gift when we have tea later today," Discord replied, holding up the sweater that was emitting colorful, electrical sparks. "It's more special if it's handmade, you know."

Pinkie clapped. "That's great! I'm sure Fluttershy would love a sweater!" She looked at the black sweater, and then frowned. "But are you suuuuure you want to shock her? She doesn't like that, you know."

Discord blinked, and looked at the sweater. After staring a few moments, he growled. "Phooey, I can't give her a sweater made out of toxic magic! Time to start over." With that, he knit with the needles again, this time the sweater steadily unraveling and disappearing with the sound of a rewinding tape recorder. After the sweater was gone, he started again, this time knitting a sweater of spring green.

Cheese stared the whole time. "Holy Swiss... is that really Discord? The Spirit of Chaos?"

Discord laughed and replied. "Is that really Cheese Sandwich? The premier party planner in all of Equestria?"

"Yes to both!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Discord released the needles, which continued to knit the sweater, and jumped to the bridge. He splatted into a puddle on the pavement, and then rose out of the puddle in dramatic fashion, his arms crossed. Drumming his fingers and bending over, he said, "I've heard about those parties you've thrown, Mr. Sandwich."

Cheese grinned. "Yes-a-rooney, I've been striving to make them as big and fun as I can. You want me to throw a party for you?"

Discord jumped in the air and spun, laughing as he did so. "Don't be silly! What makes you think I'd want you throwing a party when I can make my own, and in my style?" He grabbed Cheese by the head, lifting him up and looking him up and down. He put a talon to his chin, and murmured, "I think I've seen this guy somewhere before..."

Cheese blinked, glanced at Pinkie, and then back to Discord. "Where?"

After tapping his chin, Discord slashed open a portal, which was playing polka music, and then looked in it. "Ah! That's the guy I was thinking of!" He carried Cheese over and showed him what was inside. "See? He's got the hair and the voice, so those got me confused for a little moment." He floated Pinkie up, and showed her as well.

"Oh, wow! He's rockin' that accordion!" Pinkie exclaimed. "And he does sound like you, Cheesy!"

Cheese scratched his chin as he examined the creature inside. Finally, after a few moments, he said, "...I like his shirt."

Discord closed the portal, put Pinkie down, and then said, "I've heard you're a musical pony, Cheese Sandwich... but just how musical can you be?"

He grabbed Cheese's tail, and then started to stretch Cheese, and then compress him, and then stretch him again. Cheese's barrel suddenly resembled the bellows of an accordion, and the music of one started playing as Discord continued to stretch and compress him. As the tune grew louder and louder, Discord laughed, and got into it more.

Pinkie scanned Cheese's face. "Hey, Cheese, how does it feel?"

Cheese was surprised at this turn of events, and he wasn't sure what to think of being used as an accordion. But soon he started devolving into giggles, exclaiming, "Ahahaha--that tickles!" And with a grin, he pulled out his own accordion and started playing along, still laughing.

Seeing Cheese starting to enjoy it, Pinkie grinned and started to dance along to the music. "Woo! Keep on playing, boys!"

After a couple of minutes of accordion fun, Discord got bored and put Cheese down. Crossing his arms, he remarked, "Well, I will admit, Cheese Sandwich is a fine instrument, even if a little rusty and out of tune. And as much fun as that was, I have a sweater to finish." He gestured to the sweater and knitting needles, which had already made a scarf spreading through the streets of Ponyville, much to the townsponies' chagrin.

Discord gathered up the sweater-scarf thing, and looked at them again. "Oh, and one more thing, Pinkie Pie--I've been meaning to tell you and your friends to look out for dream gremlins. Those little rascals tried to make me swap bodies with your sister last night. Pfft, but the joke was on them!"

And with that, he snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Cheese pouted. "How dare he say I'm out of tune."

Pinkie shrugged. "Eh, his opinion." She went silent for a moment, lost in thought, and then started to snicker. The snickers then erupted into giggles, and those giggles were accompanied by snorts. "But can you imagine him and Maud in each other's bodies?"

"How do you know he's talking about her, and not Marble or Limestone?"

"Maud's the one he met." And then she frowned. "Oh, darn it! How can you imagine that scene when you haven't met Maud?"

Cheese shrugged. "Show me a picture and I'll try?"

Author's Note

Rest easy now, Tommy's back to normal. And Fluttershy's adding that vampire bat (which I'll call Vladimir) to her animal sanctuary. I totally want to write Vlad biting Angel Bunny. :trollestia:

And now, enjoy some CheesePie fluff! :pinkiehappy: And a random Discord.
(To be honest, I just wanted to write the situation in this pic):

But, you know... filler, breather chapter, yadda yadda yadda...

8.1--Anticipation of the Summer Sun

Pinkie was right. There was nothing to worry about. After he and Tomato had left Ponyville on foot, Cheese was relieved when Cheesy Sense informed him of a Summer Sun party that was going to take place in Canterlot. As far as he could tell, it wasn't for the Princesses--he knew they'd have Pinkie and friends planning things for them (he was excited for the possibility of them bumping into each other again, and imagining how surprised and excited she'd be was great). So, he was left to wonder just which of the nobles he was going to plan for. Whoever it was, he or she was going to have the best all-night party before sunrise they ever had.

Of course, the sophistication and high-classness of Canterlot was quite daunting. As they drew ever closer, he couldn't help but think of all the complaints that could come from many of the snobs that lived in the city. He had planned a couple of parties there before, and every time there had been someone complaining about how foalish those parties he planned had been, even when he tried to imitate the high class style. Heck, he even had to urge himself to create a party that his mother would like, even though he knew that it was really difficult to please her with a party. He was certain it was impossible.

As he and Tomato drew closer to the city on the mountain, he recalled how their grandmother Cucumber Melon had been born and raised there. She had said she left because she thought it was boring, and none of the suitors there quite interested her as much as their Grandpa, who she met when she was lost on a business trip with her parents and then becoming pen pals with him. She admitted to eloping with him, settling in one of the smaller neighborhoods in the Manehattan area. It took a while to reconcile with her family over that.

That made him wonder if they were throwing a party for Great Uncle Lemon Lime. When they were colts, he had hardly visited them in Manehattan--and hadn't since his sister's death--and they had never visited him in Canterlot, so it'd be nice to see him again. If not, oh well.

Cheese glanced at Tomato, who looked at the waterfall beside the city, and then his eyes followed the river flowing under the drawbridge and tumbling into another waterfall. Tomato then looked out over the valley, whistled, and muttered something about the view. Then, he gazed at the city in front of them, wondering what was behind the walls. The roar of the falls were great as the brothers crossed the drawbridge and entered the gates of Canterlot.

As they stepped onto the cobblestone streets, the pair gazed up at the sparkling walls of alabaster, ivory, and polished marble on each building. Half of them basked in the afternoon sunlight, while the other half was shrouded in the shadow of the mountain the city was perched on. The gold and ivory spires of the castle towered above the rest, shining in glory like the ruler of the land that resided there. Looking forward, Cheese and Tomato kept on walking forward, passing with ponies endowed with fancy fabrics and jewelry, some idly chatting, and several of them giving the brothers funny looks as they passed.

Tomato noticed a couple of unicorns with their muzzles pointing high to the sky as they strutted through the street. Raising a eyebrow, he said, "You know, I'm surprised that they're not hitting a wall. How can they see where they're going?"

Cheese looked at those same ponies with turned up nose. Tapping his chin, he answered, "I have a theory... perhaps unicorns have a third eye in their horn, which they use to see whenever they're strutting around like that."

Tomato blinked, and then gave him a half-lidded expression. He pointed to an earth pony doing the same strut with a turned up nose, and replied, "Where's her third eye, then?"

"Oh, her? She's an earth pony, and we earth ponies got a connection with the earth. She obviously has some sort of seismic sense, talking to the rocks with her hooves, and they guide her so she doesn't crash into a building."

"All right, I suppose that 'seismic sense' can warn her of an impending landslide; this city is on a mountain after all. But what's the excuse for when a pegasus does the strut?"

Cheese opened his mouth to answer, then closed his mouth again as he put a hoof to his chin in thought. After a few awkward seconds, he answered, "Er... they have extra ears in their wings?"

His eyes still half-lidded, he pulled Cheese's hat over his face. "Now that one's just ridiculous." He looked around some more, seeing shops and restaurants lining the streets. "So... where's the party site? Is it the entire city or just somepony's house?"

Cheese pulled the hat off his head, pointed to an intersection, and said, "Cheesy Sense says to go left at that intersection."

After being guided through the streets by Cheesy Sense, Cheese and Tomato found themselves at the gates of a mansion. The front yard was a vast expanse of green, with a single large fountain stretching from one end to the other, looking like a square lake. The fountain had water jets leaping over a bridge and each other, dancing similarly to the fountains they saw in Las Pegasus. The path from the gate went straight, over the bridge and leading to the large, bluish white house with gold lining the bottom of the house, the roof, and the windowsills. The building itself had pillars on the front, each with the emblem of three crowns carved into them.

After staring at the mansion for a few minutes, Tomato remarked, "Fancy."

"And it's apparently where our little party animal lives," Cheese said. "Now... how do we get them to let us in?"

"Last time I was in a mansion, I was invited," Tomato mumbled.

Cheese perked up in surprise and turned to him. "Wait, you've been in a mansion before?"

Tomato sighed in irritation, and looked away. "Yeah, Rich Custard and Jasmine Flower hired me to tutor their daughter in math when I was a teenager. The house was nice, but it was so big, I wondered if they ever got lonely, even with all the servants catering to them."

Cheese snickered. "So you tutored Creme Brulee? Pfft, wow, must have been a dream come true, eh?"

Tomato snorted. "Yeah, a dream all right. Was one of those nightmares that started out nice, and then suddenly spiraled down to Tartarus."

Cheese frowned and tilted his head. "What happened?"

Tomato leaned against the gate and crossed his front legs. "I don't want to talk about it."

Suddenly, the gate opened, and Tomato stumbled onto the ground. He laid there for a moment, and looked up to see well-dressed, older unicorn stallion, blinking at them with tired eyes. Tomato quickly got up onto his hooves, and brushed himself off.

"Please state your business," the stallion droned.

Tomato looked at Cheese, who cleared his throat and stated, "Hello, my name is Cheese Sandwich; I'm a party planner. My Cheesy Sense told me that I was to throw a party here, presumably for the Summer Sun Celebration. Is your master home?"

The elderly pony blinked slowly, and then turned around. "This way, young colts."

Cheese and Tomato looked at each other, and then followed the pony, who they assumed was the butler. They walked forward down the path and over the bridge, feeling the mist of the water jets jumping above them. Though a longer trek than walking across a front yard should be, they soon found themselves at the open front door, where they walked into a large foyer with a grand staircase and a crystal chandelier, with many shades of blue. The butler ascended the stairs, leaving the two to wait.

Tomato whistled. "Fancy manors like this never cease to amaze me."

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "How many have you been in?"

"Mm... okay, this is only my second time..." Tomato turned and faced a bust which held a face so stern it was comical. Scooting away from it and scrunching his muzzle, he remarked, "I don't know why, but I'm expecting that bust to burst into song."

It wasn't long before the butler returned, followed by another unicorn stallion. This pony had a snow white coat, complimented by mane and eyes of blue. Upon his muzzle was a dainty and classy mustache, and he wore a monocle over one eye. His manner of dress was of a clean black suit jacket with coattails, a blue vest and white button shirt under it, and a purple bow tie. Finally, his cutie mark resembled the emblem on the pillars outside.

Tomato's eyes widened as he muttered, "Oh, my... we're in the home of Fancy Pants."

Fancy Pants strode down the stairs, giving them a friendly smile. "I dare say, am I really being paid a visit by a golden example of a party planner? Well, I'll consider it my lucky day!"

Cheese waved a hoof. "Oh... I strive to do my best at my special talent--especially when I get to see ponies having fun!"

Fancy Pants nodded as he stopped in front of them. "Don't we all want to do our best at our special talents? I'm happy that you have come by--my usual event planner's at a funeral in Vanhoover this week. So, Cheese Sandwich, who is your companion?"

Cheese pulled Tomato closer to his side and said, "This pony here is my younger brother, Tomato Sandwich."

Tomato waved shyly, and forced a grin. "Hello."

Fancy Pants held out a hoof. "Pleased to meet you, Tomato. Aren't you a strapping young stallion?"

Tomato reached forward and shook the hoof, glancing between it and Fancy Pants' face. He nodded, his mind blank as to just what he wanted to say. He never quite realized how intimidating talking to a member of the Canterlot elite was until this moment, even when said member was being quite polite to him. He couldn't recall ever being this nervous when he had talked to Rich Custard at any point.

"So," Cheese said. "What kind of party are you asking for? How fancy does it need it be? I know I have a reputation for the epic and crazy parties, but I am capable of slowing down..." Cheese slicked his mane down, making it look similar to Tomato's, forelock and all, with the exception of the end of the hair at the neck, which was still noticably curly. With his nose turned up, Cheese finished with, "...and going for a more sophisticated approach."

Fancy Pants nodded. "Why, yes, I would like one of those parties--though I wouldn't mind a few chuckles along the way."

Cheese grinned. "Well, I suppose I could pull something with my accor--" Cheese's nose twitched. "Accord... Accordi--AH-CHOO!"

Cheese's sneeze rang throughout the manor, while both Tomato and Fancy Pants flinched. Cheese's hair burst back into it's poofy state, and confetti flew from his person. Shaking his head and wiping his nose, he muttered, "Bless me."

"Would you like a tissue?" Fancy Pants asked, pulling a handkerchief from his front pocket and giving it to Cheese. He looked around at the confetti still raining down. "My, my, does this happen often whenever you sneeze?"

After he blew his nose, Cheese answered, "Hey, it could have been worse--confetti's the least harmful of what I've sneezed out. But don't worry, I've got enough self-control to just limit it to confetti."

Fancy Pants blinked. "I see. Shall we take this discussion of tomorrow's party to the visiting room?"

Cheese returned the handkerchief. "No problemo." He turned to Tomato. "Come along, bro! I'm sure you'll be a big help with this party."

Tomato rolled his eyes, and followed them to the visiting room.

Meanwhile, a band of princesses flew into Canterlot, after having done their duty of returning the ponies in Las Pegasus to normal. They had brought the unicorn responsible for the vampire disaster, and put him in the dungeon to await his trial. Once the criminal was behind bars, they returned to the castle to rest. Now, the four of them walked in the halls of the castle.

"I cannot wait until that disgusting cretin receives his trial," Luna spat. "I'd like to chop off his horn so he cannot perform a spell like that again."

Celestia sighed. "I'm just thankful that we prevented a repeat of the werewolf disaster from years before."

"I just don't understand why anypony would even want to make vampires real," Twilight said. "You said yourself that those ponies who became werewolves went mad, and given more time, the vampires in Las Pegasus would have gone mad too. And when I met them... they were aware of that and were afraid of it happening. Not to mention how dangerous it would be for those still not transformed."

Luna shook her head. "Some ponies cannot be reasoned with. And to think that Kazam was the son that Quasar Rune was bragging about."

Cadance grimaced. "I'd hate to be in Quasar's horseshoes--I can't imagine how painful it'd be to learn your son is responsible for unlawful magical experimentation, altering another's body without their consent, mind control, and I'm sure he was going to commit treason."

"So... what'd you do to Wayer Rune when it came to the werewolf thing?" Twilight asked.

"He was banished to Tartarus," Celestia replied.

Luna rolled her eyes. "Yes, because nothing ever escaped from there."

Celestia groaned. "Luna, we made sure he was locked tight in there, his magic was disabled, and he wouldn't get past the other monsters down there." She shook her head. "I hated seeing such a great general descend into madness like that."

Twilight giggled nervously. "Well... at least we returned in time to prepare for the Summer Sun Celebration! And certainly nothing can go wrong this time! I told Discord to behave, me and my friends checked the perimeters of Ponyville for any dangers that could pop out at any time, made sure Cerberus stayed at his post, we just put an insane criminal in the dungeon, everything's all cleaned up and my stove is--wait, did I leave the stove on? I think I left the stove on!"

Cadance put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Twilight, breathe."

Twilight blinked, put her hoof to her chest, and inhaled. She extended her hoof as she exhaled. "I'm sorry about that. It's just... the last couple of Summer Suns have been sorta... stressful."

Celestia nodded. "We know that. But as stressful as they were, I remember them fondly for good reason." She looked at Luna as she said this, smiling warmly at her. Her sister smiled back.

Twilight smiled and nodded. "You're right." Then she looked at Luna. "Still... Luna, are you making sure that dream demon is still in her prison? Because it'd be a terrible disaster if she--"

Luna lifted a hoof to stop her. "I'm going to make sure her prison is secure tonight. Then I'll sweep the Dreamscape for any other disturbances, like the usual nightmares, mystical forces threatening to possess a pony, or those annoying dream gremlins."

Twilight nodded. "Gotcha. You've got it covered."

Cadance sighed and turned down a different hallway. "Well, it's been nice seeing you again, but I've got to return to the Crystal Empire. We've got our own celebration to prepare for."

"Oh, okay! See you later, Cadance! Have a safe trip!" Once Cadance was out of sight, Twilight turned to the other two, and said, "Okay... well... I better get to my room and write my friends to tell them I'm staying the night and that they'll see me tomorrow when they come to Canterlot."

Celestia nodded. "Of course."

Twilight bowed, and then trotted away, leaving the sisters alone together.

Luna glanced at Celestia. "She certainly worries a lot. But I can hardly blame her after both those previous Summer Suns."

Celestia's mouth was the ghost of a smile. "Well, even if we can't predict and prevent every mishap, I have a feeling that a big scale disaster isn't going to happen this time. If there's any trouble, it'll be minor, and we can all rest easy as the holiday passes."

"I hope you're right." Luna looked outside the window, and then to a clock on the wall. "It's time for sunset, sister."

Celestia smiled. "Oh, so it is. Would you care to watch it with me? I'll be happy to watch the moonrise with you before I retire for tonight."

Luna smiled back. "That would be nice."

Cheese laid on one of the beds in the guest room, checking over the clipboard of what was needed for the party the next day. After going over the types of tablecloths needed, the arrangements of the decor, and the types of food to be served, he set down the clipboard and sighed. "I'm not a big fan of planning these fancy parties."

Tomato, lying on the other bed and reading a book, replied, "Then why do you do them?"

"Gotta do what the Cheesy Sense tells me," He hung upside-down from his bed, pulled a few colorful balls out of his shirt, and started to juggle them. "I suppose I oughta experience a wide variety of parties to be a full-fledged party pony."

Tomato slowly lowered his book, looking at him with wide eyes. "Please tell me you haven't gone into the area of drunken debauchery... because if I recall, that kind of goes against the definition of a party pony that you described."

Cheese shook his head, his eyes still on his juggling. "Cheesy Sense hardly ever leads me to that kind of stuff. Good thing, too, because too many drunk ponies scare me, they smell bad enough to make me sick, and they tend to get out of hoof. And when they do... well, here come the cops to stop the thing and arrest the rabblerousers! Heck, if I get arrested, it won't be good for me if my Cheesy Sense goes nuts and I can't leave. Pretty sure it'd end up killing me."

"So... fancy parties over overly rowdy ones?"

"Yep. There's a limit for my crazy. At least Fancy Pants said he wouldn't mind some surprises." Cheese caught the balls and looked up at Tomato. "Say, whatcha reading?"

"'101 Inventions and Products that Went Horribly Wrong'. Found it on that bookshelf in the corner."

Cheese looked at every corner until he found said bookshelf. "Oh, I didn't notice that." He turned to his brother and asked, "So which invention or product are you reading about? How'd it go wrong?"

"Oh, just a story about this magical dog collar that would force dogs to obey their owners. It went wrong because some ponies used them to get others to commit crimes for them and then act as a scapegoat. Those poor ponies must have been horrified because they didn't even have control of their bodies. Needless to say, the collar was recalled because of the rampant misuse and, well, animal abuse."

"Ooh, rampant misuse. That's not good. Neither is the animal abuse."

Tomato looked at previous pages. "There were also dolls that ate fillies' manes, a shirt that everypony was allergic to, and exploding soda."

Cheese laughed. "Exploding soda? Wow, wouldn't I like to put that in one of my parties! Heck, they'd make great fruit-flavored fireworks."

"Sorry, Cheese, but they were recalled."

Cheese whickered and muttered, "Dang it." Scratching his chin, he said, "I wonder if I could convince Aunt Cocoa and Uncle Acorn to recreate that. Being chemists, they ought to know a thing or two about a solution that could cause a reaction like that."

Tomato glanced at him. "I thought you didn't like Aunt Cocoa Butter because she was mean."

"Oh, I've visited Seaddle a few times and visited, and we're actually buddies now. Besides, that was when we were colts, misinterpreting her arguments with Mom and Dad whenever she visited."

"Did we misinterpret our cousins picking on us?"

"Eh... no. But they're nicer nowadays! Growing up does that--remember, Aunt Cocoa was a bully when she was a filly." He pursed his lips and scratched his chin. "I don't think Dad ever forgave her, though... did he?"

Tomato shut the book. "Nope. But, I suppose if we visit Seaddle, I'll have to see for myself." He put the book on the nightstand and yawned. "In the meantime... we better get some sleep, since tomorrow night we'll be staying up 'til dawn."

Tomato slid himself under the covers, removed his glasses, and put them on top of the book. Snuggling into his pillow, he muttered, "G'night."

Cheese put his clipboard on the nightstand beside his bed, and then turned off the lamp. Throwing his head onto his pillow, he replied, "See ya in the morning." He yawned. "I hope to feel like the sun tomorrow."

And then they drifted off to sleep.

There he was. Standing in a valley of pink clouds, under a pink sky, and with pink birds dancing around him.

Cheese looked around, wondering why everything was so pink. He listened to the lighthearted and airy music, thinking that it sounded pink. He took a whiff of the air, and thought that it smelled pink as well. He swiped a bit of the cloud to his side, and it felt pink. And then he ate it, noting that it tasted pink. He noticed a couple of strawberries floating by and some pink roses were raining down upon him. Looking at his person, he realized that his polo shirt was pink as well. There was a lot of pink.

"Cheeeeese!"

His ears perked up at the sound of that high voice. "Pinkie?"

"Cheese Sandwiiiicchhhh!"

He looked around and started galloping through the clouds. The pink mist flew into his face as his eyes dashed back and forth, searching for the sweet mare with the ringing voice. He could still hear her calling his name, but he couldn't see her. Seeing that she was unable to stand out in this landscape, he silently cursed everything for being so pink. So, he opted to look for those beautiful blue eyes of hers.

"Cheesy! Over here!"

He spun around, and there she was. He could barely see her, but her eyes stood out as two bright blue specks in a sea of pink. He stared in awe as the wind blew through her curly mane, and she smiled at him, her face blushing with a slightly darker pink. She lifted her hoof and beckoned him, giggles and snorts leaving her muzzle.

Cheese's heart leapt, and he gleefully started to gallop toward her. As he ran, all he could think about was that when he reached her, he was going to wrap her in an embrace and twirl her around, stare into her eyes, smell her sweet strawberry and cotton candy smell, and maybe... just maybe...

Maybe he might kiss her.

However, when he was almost to her, the clouds collapsed underneath him, and he found himself falling. He found himself facing upward, and one blink later, the pink all disappeared, and he saw the dark skies he had seen in Las Pegasus. He heard Kazam's laughter ringing and the screeching of many vampires in his ears. His heart pounded, and he found himself unable to scream for help. All four of his legs could not move, and he could only stare up at the sky, searching for someone to save him.

For some odd reason, a door had appeared on the street, opened wide open, and Cheese just fell through it, seeing stars and hearing impish laughter as he passed through it and a second door. He could have sworn he saw Princess Celestia flying out the second door.

Finally, he managed to turn his head, and there was a black alicorn waiting for him to be impaled on its horn.

His eyes snapped open as he awoke. It was still dark in the room, and he breathed heavily. He wiped sweat off his brow, which was mildly disrupted by his hoof bumping something on his forehead. He paid no mind to it, nor to the funny feeling in his back, instead turning onto his side and burying his face in his blanket.

"Stay calm, Cheese," he whispered. "It was only a nightmare..."

With it still being dark, he closed his eyes to put a comforting thought in his mind to help him go back to sleep.

Celestia woke up at dawn, her internal clock telling her that it was time for sunrise. With a yawn and a stretch, she smacked her lips to get rid of the bad taste in her mouth, and opened her eyes. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she immediately noticed that something wasn't right.

For one, this was not her room.

From what she could see, the room was nice, with some fancy wallpaper, dark curtains, nice furniture, and two comfortable beds. She was in one bed; she had no idea who was in the other. All she could tell was that it was a stallion by the voice, since he gently sang in his sleep, "In the middle of the night... I was walking in my sleep..."

She climbed out of the mysterious bed, noting that her hair felt strangely still. She started to feel it, wondering why it was all of a sudden so curly. As she felt her head, she was surprised to discover that her horn was missing. With a silent gasp, her hoof went straight for her back, and sure enough, her wings were missing as well. Instead, she felt the shirt she was wearing.

Mirror... where's a mirror?

She looked at the dresser across the room, and she could barely make out the figure in the mirror. She considered turning on the lamp, but decided against it, due to the other pony in the room. So, she stepped forward for a closer look.

What she saw in the light of the setting moon was that the mane and tail were as curly as they felt, her horn and wings were missing, she was wearing a polo shirt, and her colors were drastically different, looking more brownish than her normal colors. But, what really shocked her was the fact that she was now in the body of a stallion.

She staggered back, and looked out the window. The moon was setting, and somepony was going to have a fit when she didn't rise the sun. She double-checked the body she was in, and she nipped at one of the legs for a little pinch. When she felt the sting of the pinch, there was no doubt that this situation was real. She groaned.

"Luna, I thought you were making sure the dream gremlins didn't pull stunts like this."

And then she realized just what this situation meant, especially for today. "Oh no."

Author's Note

If you have trouble coming up with a name for your OC, look up lotion fragrances. There's a lot of options for names there! :rainbowlaugh: After all, that's where I got Lemon Lime (he was originally named Lemon Zest, but I found out one of the characters of Equestria Games is named that; anyway, will he appear, or will he not?).

So, yep, the next stop is Canterlot! Lots of Summer Sun parties being thrown, and a fair, and of course, Celestia making a show of rising the sun (and ever since the Season 4 premiere, being paired with Luna lowering the moon). Throw the Sandwiches in there, and we're looking for a good time.

Yes, I think Cheese can plan fancy parties. But, you know, he has preferences for the goofy parties where he can play and sing and do weird things and stuff... *scurries into a hole*

And lastly... Princesses. Just Princesses.
From this day forth, Cheese Sandwich is best princess. Because he just switched bodies with one. Curse those little dream gremlins.

8.2--Sunrise

The sky outside was a warm purple, bearing no sun and no moon. Princess Luna had found it odd that her sister had not come outside to raise the sun, and from her own internal clock, as well as every clock she passed on the way to Celestia's bedchamber, it was obvious that the sun was late. Already she had heard some ponies murmuring about the late sun, and wondering if Celestia was dead. Luna doubted it, as her elder sister had been in top health when she last saw her, and assassination was nearly impossible. The only ones who had come close were Mara, who was still imprisoned, and... herself.

She was awfully glad that the citizens of Equestria had forgiven her for the whole Nightmare Moon fiasco. And it took a while--and the near escape of a dream parasite she had created--for her to forgive herself. And not only could she sleep peacefully now, but perhaps she could help others who were having trouble forgiving themselves. Goodness knows she didn't want anypony eating themselves alive with their guilt.

She reached the door to Celestia's bedroom and knocked. "Celestia, come out! It's past time for sunrise."

She nearly jumped when she was answered with a loud snore. Blinking, she was both relieved that Celestia was still alive and confused over the snore. Last she had checked, Celestia never snored.

She knocked even harder. "Celestia, awaken! You need to raise the sun!"

After snore number two, Luna scowled at the door. In the following silence, her ears picked up the faint sounding of ponies screaming and the clops of their hooves as they ran around. She inwardly sighed, expecting to be blamed for attempting to usurp her sister again. So, she threw open the door and marched in.

She turned on the light, approached Celestia's bed, threw off the covers, and yelled, "Art thou going to raise the sun or do I have to do it for thee?!"

The sheer volume of Luna's voice startled Celestia awake, and the alicorn tumbled out of her bed, one of her hind legs getting tangled in her bedsheets in the process. Celestia hit her head on the floor, and yelped in pain. Rubbing her head, she yelled back, "Oh, geez, Tommy! Since when could you yell that loud?!"

Luna raised an eyebrow. "I do not know this 'Tommy' which you speak of."

Celestia's eyes snapped open, and her face fell. Blinking, she started to untangle the sheets with her hooves, still staring at Luna. "Um... hello, Princess Luna... what brings you to this room, your Highness? I mean, I wouldn't expect a princess to randomly appear in the guest room of the manor I'm staying in... ow, what's going on with my back?"

Luna stared at her back, sporting a curious expression. There was something off about the way she was behaving; the way she addressed her, the confusion over where she was, and certainly how she didn't just untangle the sheets with her magic. And there was the fact that she had called her "Tommy".

By the time Celestia had untangled the sheets and stood up, Twilight came running through the door, skidded to a stop, and then panted for a moment. Then, looking up with a forced smile, she asked, "Um, Celestia... please tell me you have a good reason for delaying the sunrise. Because last I checked... it was supposed to be up fifteen minutes ago, and ponies are beginning to panic." Her smile grew uncomfortably.

Celestia blinked and answered, "Wait, Twilight, what are you-- wait, did you just call me Celestia?" She laughed and leaned on the bed, which only made Luna even more suspicious. After a few moments of laughing, the white alicorn added, "Hahaha, that's a good one, but it's not April Foals' Day. Do I look like Princess Celestia to you? "

Twilight's face fell. "Um... yes? What else do you want me to call you?"

Upon hearing that, Celestia stopped her laughing, and actually took a look at her hooves. She stared at them a good, long moment, her jaw going slack and her eye twitching, and then she looked around at the room. She looked at the bed, and then the nightstand, and then the wardrobe. She kept looking around the room until she spotted the large mirror on the wall, and jumped toward it. Then, she stared at her own face, which held a look of shock as she felt it, and then her horn, and then popped out her wings to feel them as well.

Twilight grimaced at the sight, and then turned to Luna. "Uh... is she okay?"

Luna pursed her lips. "I do not know--her spirit is elsewhere, in another body."

Twilight's eyes nearly popped out of her sockets. "What does that mean?"

"It means that whoever this pony is that's inhabiting Celestia's body is about to scream."

The very scream that rang from Canterlot Castle startled Tomato awake, and he sat up quickly, wondering what the fuss was about. Even worse, it was followed by more screaming and complaining coming from the streets outside. He blinked, grabbed his glasses from the nightstand, and put them on. He spotted Cheese looking out the window, and proceeded to turn on the lamp.

Tomato stretched. "Geez... what's with all the screaming? The sun isn't even up yet."

Cheese turned to him. "They're screaming because the sun's late."

Tomato blinked and looked at the clock. "Oh, dear, you're right. I hope Princess Celestia is okay." He hopped out of his bed, and joined his brother at the window. Looking down, he could see ponies running around and crying about the end of the world. Shaking his head, he muttered, "Those ponies are being such babies, panicking at the drop of a hat. I really hope it's just an off day, and that the duty could easily be taken over by Luna. Can she even raise the sun?"

"Oh, she can," Cheese replied matter-of-factly. "It may have been over a millennium since she last did, but I know she can handle it. I just hope she figures out what's going on and resolves to fix it as quickly as she can."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Uh... mind telling me why you're saying that with such certainty? I'd assume it was just a logical leap from Celestia taking charge of both sun and moon while her sister was banished, but... how do you even know that Luna actually did it at some point? I mean, I never took you for the type to know that, Cheese--especially since you're more busy with planning parties and traveling Equestria."

Cheese turned to him, and then glanced at the door. "You might not believe me if I told you how I know."

Tomato scoffed. "Psht, what, are you Princess Celestia in disguise?"

"Yes."

Tomato blinked, and then gave him a half-lidded expression. "Give me a break... how would Celestia even fit in the full body suit of you? When you made me wear one, I was really uncomfortable! How would she even hide her horn?"

Cheese blinked. "Full body suit?" Then he shook his head. "Actually, dream gremlins stole away into our dreams last night, snatched us both, and swapped our bodies. So, you are talking to your... your... hmm, I don't know whether Cheese is your friend or your relative."

"Cut it out, Cheese, I'm not in the mood for games."

"I promise you, this is not a game. You're talking to Cheese's body, yes, but Princess Celestia's spirit is possessing it."

Tomato blinked. "You made it sound like she died and her ghost is now using your body as a puppet."

Cheese scratched his chin. "It does sound disturbing when you put it that way." He shook his head. "Still, how else would you explain the sun not being up on time? Cheese doesn't know how to raise it, and I don't know if Luna's figured out the body swap yet."

Tomato scowled at him. "Do you really take me for a fool? Come on, for what reason are you pulling this on me for? What did I do this time?"

Cheese put a hoof to his face and sighed. "What is it going to take to convince you? If he has any ability that I don--" His nose twitched. "Don... don't... haaa-choo!"

The sneeze brought forth some poppers flying from his person, and they all fell to the floor and started popping. Some landed at Tomato's feet, making jump and bolt right back to the bed. Some end up popping on the way behind him, and he ducked under the cover. Meanwhile, Cheese--or rather, the pony in Cheese's body--stood dumbfounded at the sight of over a hundred poppers seemingly coming out of nowhere and cracking everywhere in the room. One popper even shattered the lamp on the nightstand, and another broke the mirror above the dresser.

When the last popper was popped, Tomato crawled out from under the covers, and blinked. "Okay... I think your case has become more credible."

The other pony blinked. "Why?"

"Because Cheese normally has enough self-control to limit his sneezes to confetti, and he'd never go that far in a joke." Tomato slid out from under the blankets and stepped out on the floor. "But... I'm not so sure that Celestia would even allow this to happen either."

Cheese sighed. "If I was Luna, I could convince you by reciting a dream of yours." He looked around at the damage the poppers caused. "Hm, I'm familiar with this magic, but it was always the jesters who could do this, and not me or Luna."

"Uh..." Tomato backed up. "To be frank... I'm not entirely sure how it works either."

"That's all right. Would you care to inform me of your name, my little pony?"

Tomato blinked. "Tomato Sandwich." He looked outside, still purple and sunless, and he was getting the feeling that this pony in front of him was really speaking the truth. "And if you're Princess Celestia..." His eyes widened and he grimaced. He hurriedly bowed before the princess in Cheese's body. "...does that mean I'm in trouble for being so sassy to you, Your Highness?"

Celestia chuckled and shook her head. " There's no need for formalities while I'm like this. I don't hold it against you. A body swap is a difficult thing to believe, and this isn't the first time it's happened to me. I'm just worried about your... um, how are you affiliated with Cheese?"

"He's my brother."

"Thank you. Anyway, I'm worried about how your brother is handling this situation. He and I won't be able to switch back until we're both asleep. And if Twilight finds out about this... I wouldn't be surprised if she panicked, especially considering what day it is and the ceremony tomorrow morning."

"Well... I hope they keep him calm and under control and acting like you so nopony else panics," Tomato said, idly gazing at the spots where the poppers had popped. He cringed at how much they resembled spiders in the dark. "Meanwhile, I suppose you'll have to take Cheese's place in setting up Fancy Pants' party." He pointed to the nightstand. "I mean, the clipboard's just... on fire?!"

Sure enough, the clipboard was indeed ablaze, due to the shattered lamp. The flames crackled as they made their way to the rest of the nightstand and started burning the book Tomato laid there the night before. Tomato jumped, sped out of the room, and then returned with a vase. Then, he dumped the water of the vase onto the nightstand, extinguishing the flames and spilling flowers all over the floor.

Tomato threw the wet and slightly burned book onto his bed, and then stared at the ashes of the contents of the clipboard. Groaning, he turned to Celestia and asked, "Do you know how to plan a fancy party, Your Highness? Or at least can help me clean up this mess?"

That was when they noticed Fancy Pants entering the room, holding a lantern in his magic. The unicorn was looking around and seeing the scorch marks of the poppers, a look of surprise on his face as he ran a hoof through his mane. "Good heavens! What happened in here?"

Both Tomato and Celestia pursed their lips and glanced at each other.

Meanwhile, back at the castle, Cheese Sandwich was staring at the mare in the mirror. His throat was dry and sore from his screaming, and his cheek was numb from the multiple slaps he gave himself. He didn't know if that counted as assaulting a princess, but it was obviously for a good reason. After all, he wanted to believe that he was still dreaming.

Of all the things that went on this summer... why was he Princess Celestia?

"I hope you're done panicking," Luna deadpanned.

Twilight stepped forward cautiously. "So... if you're not Celestia, then who are you?"

Cheese grinned nervously. "Cheese Sandwich."

Twilight's eye twitched. "Cheese Sandwich?"

He nodded in response, Twilight's silence unnerving him. With a sheepish grin and a shy wave, he said, "I know, I know... this is awkward." He glanced at Luna. "Yes, Twilight and I know each other, I'm Pinkie Pie's friend. So, yep, awkward. Heck, I think it's awkward for Celestia too, and it'll be awkward for Tomato if he believes her--"

At that moment, Twilight exploded. Taking to the air, she cried, "Cheese Sandwich?! You mean it couldn't have been another unicorn that at least knows basic telekinesis? Or at least somepony who has an idea of how to run a country?!" She turned to Luna. "Heck, why couldn't she have been switched with you, Luna? At least you'd know what to do!"

Luna put a hoof on Twilight's head and gently pushed her back down to the floor. "The dream gremlins cannot touch me, for I am the guardian of ponies' dreams, and they don't dare approach me when I'm patrolling the Dreamscape. They must have struck while I was checking on Mara, and I don't know who else was swapped during that time."

Cheese blinked. "Um... who's Mara?"

"You don't wanna know," Twilight answered. Then she once again exploded, "But do you realize how big of a problem this is, Cheese?! Celestia has many duties to attend to today, like hearing the nobles' concerns, the annual Summer Sun dinner, checking over the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, making sure it all goes smoothly... oh, and that itty bitty little duty that I like to call raising the dang sun!" She sat on her haunches and cradled her head. "And if anypony finds out about the swap... d'oh, I don't even want to think about it!"

Cheese blinked, and then said, "Um... maybe... I could just pretend I'm sick? And Luna can take over?"

That was when a guard came to the room. "Your Highness, is there anything wrong? Your delay of the sunrise is concerning, and we heard you scream all the way from the courtyard."

Cheese stared for a moment, and then said, "Well... yes. You see Mr. Guard, I'm afraid that I'm coming down with the Weasel Flu." To emphasize the point, he coughed a couple of times in his hoof, much to the chagrin of both Luna and Twilight.

The guard stared at him for a moment, and then chuckled. "I see you're well enough to make jokes, Your Highness. Still, may I inquire about the sun?"

"Oh, uh... I was just going to do that! I slept in a little because I was having problems with nightmares and I think Luna might have been busy with other nightmares so... uh, yeah. Pardon my Weasel Flu comment, I just confused my excitement for that."

"Oh, I see." The guard cleared his throat and asked, "Well, I'll just get back on duty and inform the others that you're well."

"Okay, you may run along now," Cheese said, shooing him away with his hoof.

As the guard left, he turned to Twilight and Luna with a grin, which fell when he noticed them glaring at him. "What?"

"Weasel Flu," Twilight deadpanned.

Cheese bit his lip. "I panicked!"

Luna put a hoof to her face. "Let's just get the sun risen before anypony cries about the end of the world."

He followed Princess Luna and Princess Twilight down the hall, the mares discussing what was going on. All the while, he couldn't help but silently fuss about every part of the body he was stuck in and steal glances at its features. The horn jutting out of his forehead had a strange sensation on the skin around it, especially with every crease of his brow. The presence of feathered limbs on his back not only tempted him to feel them, but also to move them around in various ways just to get a feeling of them and figure out how to control them. The ever-undulating ethereal mane made him feel like a flagpole, and while he was used to being taller than other ponies, the fact that he now absolutely dwarfed the ponies they passed in the hall was awkward (as if the looks they were giving him as he played with the wings weren't awkward enough). Even though Luna came close, Cheese still felt like a mountain compared to other ponies' small hills.

Then there was just the knowledge of this body possessing powerful magic, enough to move not only the sun, but the moon at the same time during the thousand years that Luna had been banished. He now had the power of all three pony tribes, and he was clueless on how to use it. His experience lay mainly in the use of party pony magic, not in the use of a horn or wings. He didn't even know if Celestia could even use party pony magic.

Twilight "All right, you hear that, Cheese?"

Cheese shook himself out of his stupor. "Come again?"

"The plan for today is that Luna raises the sun this morning, and then I'll try to get you through today and tomorrow while she slips away to the Dreamscape and rounds up the dream gremlins that caused this mess. Since tonight we stay up all night for the celebration, the most certain time we can switch you and Celestia back is tomorrow night."

Cheese blinked. "Why?"

"Ponies can only access the Dreamscape in their sleep," Luna answered. "You two need to be asleep at the same time in order to be switched back to your own bodies."

Cheese pursed his lips. "If it helps... I was planning a party here in Canterlot." He snickered. "I wish I could see the look on Tommy's face when he realizes that he's talking to a princess. I'm sure it would be priceless!"

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Who is this 'Tommy' anyway?"

"His brother, Tomato," Twilight answered.

"I've run into quite a few Tomatoes while on patrol--which one are we talking about?"

"Sandwich."

"All right. We'll have to locate him and Celestia so that we may try to alter the plan so that they may be switched back sooner, preferably before tomorrow's sunrise. But for now, we'll have to focus on today's sunrise, and show everypony that their leader is well."

Cheese gulped. "So... am I going to be faking doing the raising sun thing?"

"Yes." They turned and started going up a spiral staircase. "I'll be doing the actual work, but you're going to be proving to them that Celestia is still healthy. And believe me, faking sickness is frowned upon by the nobility--it implies that you don't take running the country seriously."

"But I don't know how to run a country! I'm just a party planner!" The wings quickly spread further, and he bumped them on the walls. "Ouch! How do you control these things?"

"Don't worry, Cheese," Twilight said. "I'll be by your side to help you every step of the way. But, should we run into something that you can handle on your own, I'll leave you to it, and go to your body to see if Celestia's doing okay." She put her hoof on her chin. "So... where were you and Tomato planning that party?"

"Fancy Pants' house."

"Okay, right. I can find that."

They reached the top of the stairs, and found themselves on the top of a high tower. Twilight and Luna stopped and stood by the door, and Cheese strode up to the railing. He first looked at the bleak horizon, and then looked down.

Almost immediately, he once again saw a street from above, illuminated by the neon lights and beckoning to him in a sinister whisper. At first it was far, and it seemed kind of inviting and the perfect place to throw a party. However, as he stared at it, it started to draw closer. It inched toward him, with the faraway road getting slightly bigger every second. Then every half-second. And then every millisecond. Before he knew it, he was barreling toward the street in high speeds, and his ears were suddenly filled with inequine screeches and hisses and the whooshes of gusts of wind. His heart raced as the street grew ever nearer, and the winds blowing ever louder, and the inevitable collision was destined to be way too painful for him to handle. He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for impact.

"Hey, Princess Celestia's come out!"

Cheese snapped his eyes open, and he saw ponies on the street--which looked much different from five seconds ago--gazing up at them. Blinking, he turned to Twilight and Luna, and then back to the ponies.

"Uh..." he murmured in a soft whisper. Then with a louder voice, he hollered, "Greetings, my little ponies! I have finally arisen! Sorry for being so late, I got a little distracted!"

Twilight jumped and hissed, "Cheese, no! Don't say that!"

Cheese pouted at her, and then continued, "So, as I said, forgive me for the delay, now the sun... shall be risen!"

Cheese leaned on the railing, but a quick glance down told him that it was a bad idea, so he stepped back. Taking a deep breath, he pointed his horn to the horizon, and slowly raised his head.

Behind him, Luna took a deep breath also, and did the first sun-raising she did in over a millennium. Her magic probed around beyond the landscape, first feeling the rocky surface of the moon, and then jumping to another celestial body, this one being much warmer. She grabbed that one and discreetly lifted it, and soon enough, the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon.

Upon seeing the sun rise, the first thing that Cheese noticed was that the sky was turning pink, and his mind flashed to that of a certain sweet mare of the same color. With Twilight being here, he quickly realized that Pinkie would likely be coming to Canterlot to celebrate the Summer Sun with her friends. There was a chance that he would see her today! The thought of it had him grinning from ear to ear.

He had to keep still and contain his excitement to keep up the image of Princess Celestia. Unfortunately, his excitement needed an outlet, and what better outlet than a long, majestic horn?

Luna suddenly felt the sun yanked out of her grasp, and grunted in pain from the force of it. She looked up, and she watched in horror as the sun was launched upwards, high enough that it looked like one of the stars of the night.

Twilight shrieked and glared at Cheese. "What was that?!"

Cheese stared upward at the single star, looked back at the two glaring mares, and then turned around with a sheepish grin. "Oops... uh, let me get it down. I think I have an idea on how to use this magic."

Twilight put a hoof to her face. "Cheese, magic takes discipline and prac--"

Cheese ignored her, and focused on the little star. Once he felt a hold on it--and nearly jumped at the heat of the sun, he started to drag it back down. As he did so, it came down with a wobbly dance, doing figure eights in the sky, writing the name of Pinkie Pie in cursive, shaking erratically, and flaring at random as it drew closer. The crowd below was gasping and murmuring, and some screamed every time a flare erupted. The air was getting hotter as the star grew bigger and brighter.

Luna stomped and yelled, "Release the sun!"

Cheese quaked and sweated, a pounding headache gripping his brain. The magic was burning, and the growing heat of the sun didn't help, so when he couldn't take it anymore, he staggered back with a gasp, and the magic stopped. He stared at the ground, which for some reason was brighter than it should be. He looked up, and grimaced at the sight.

Luna and Twilight had their eyes squeezed shut, and their coats were growing damp with sweat. There was a noticeable ripple in the air, and while he felt just a little hot, everypony on both the balcony and the street were crying in agony. Trees were starting to wither, and the streets looked as if they were melting. He grinded his teeth, quickly realizing that he brought the sun a little too close.

Seeing that he was the least affected by it, he grumbled, "Brilliant, Cheese, just brilliant. Gotta push it back now."

He aimed his horn at the sun, and then started to push it back. He found it a little easier than pulling it, but it was still difficult to do. He just had to push to how big it usually seemed in the sky, and hopefully things would go back to normal. Though there was a dull ache in his head, he continued to steadily push it back.

Once he figured that it was at its normal distance, he released it. He sat down on his haunches, and looked around to survey the damage. Plenty of the plants were wilting, and many ponies were scrambling in search of water. He wiped his brow, thankful that he didn't cause too much damage.

The next thing he did was look at the landscape, and whistle in amazement. The valley stretched far and wide, bearing many shades of green from grass, trees, and other flora, though unfortunately there were signs of yellow and brown within it. Rivers cut through the landscape as its shimmering blue veins, pouring into multiple lakes and reservoirs. Towns speckled the landscape, with the first one in sight being Ponyville.

A livid Twilight stood up. "Cheese! You nearly burned up Equestria! I was afraid of evaporating on the spot!"

Cheese bore a sheepish grin once again. "Sorry..."

Luna stood up, looked at the sun, and tweaked it. "There. Now it's in the right spot. We're lucky that the magic in this land prevented any more damage from occurring. Still, any closer and we would have all perished." She marched closer to Cheese, glaring at him. "Now... why did you pull the sun out of my grasp?"

Cheese twiddled his hooves, strangely finding himself annoyed with Celestia's footwear. "It was an accident. I just got excited at the prospect of Pinkie Pie being here for the Summer Sun Celebration, and it somehow activated the horn. I'm really sorry for nearly causing a disaster."

Luna sighed. "Strong emotions always activate the magic of the inexperienced. Keep control of your emotions for the rest of the day, and I'll return when it's time for the sun to set. I've got some dream gremlins to hunt."

As Luna left, Cheese and Twilight looked at each other. The latter scowled at the former, who only rubbed his leg.

"Don't worry, Twilight, I can keep myself under control," Cheese murmured. "I kind of have to when trying to survive in the wild."

Twilight groaned and shook her head. "Now we've got to add a public apology for nearly killing everypony to the list. But, anyway, we've got a lot of things to do today, and let's make sure that they all go smoothly." She trotted to the door. "Now, to get the list so we can see what's first on the agenda."

Cheese sighed and followed her. "I hope Celestia's having a better time than I am."

Author's Note

Alternative titles for this chapter: "Princess Cheese Sandwich", "Dangit, Luna, You Had ONE Job", "Confusion On Names, Pronouns, and Possessives", "Ponies Complain that the Sun is Too Hot", "Twilight Has to Babysit Cheese in Celestia's Body and Hates It", "Tomato Feels Awkward Because He's Talking to a Princess In His Brother's Body", "Celestia nearly destroys a room, Cheese Sandwich nearly destroys Equestria", and "Where the Author Ignores Science Because She Doesn't Want to Kill Everypony".

Anyway, this chapter took so long because I was trying to figure out a few things, namely what the heck Celestia's supposed to do during the Summer Sun Celebration (aside from that sunrise ceremony). Not quite getting into the duties yet, since this chapter focuses on three Princesses and two Sandwiches finding out about the swap and getting the sun risen.

Also, after some debate on whether or not Cheese could use Party Pony magic as Celestia... I decided to go with the option of him not being able to. Instead, Celestia's stuck with the powers while she's in Cheese's body.

And yes, I know the sun being too close would have done more damage than happened in the chapter. *crawls into a hole*

8.3--It's Going to Be a Long Day

Meanwhile, at the manor of Fancy Pants, everypony--who had gone outside to see if the sun would rise that morning, had taken a dip in the yards-long water fountain after the near miss with the sun. The water level had been half the usual level before, but the plumbing of the fountain had quickly filled it back up. A lot of Fancy's servants were grumbling about how close the sun had been, forcing them to jump into the fountain just to cool off. Tomato and Celestia were among those who had taken a dip, and Celestia especially had dunked her entire self in, thanks to being in a body not as heat resistant as her normal body was.

Fancy Pants wiped his brow as he looked in the sky. "My, that was a close call, wasn't it?"

Tomato scowled at the sun. Gee, Cheese, way to nearly kill us all. With a sigh, he said, "Well, we Sandwiches are off to a good start--we burn the walls of your guest room with firecrackers, destroy a lamp and a mirror, and jump into your fountain..." He gazed at Celestia holding her breath underwater. "...and the Prin--er, my brother hasn't jumped out yet."

"I've had worse damage done to my guest rooms--those things can easily be replaced and the scorch marks painted over. Just be careful in the future." Fancy Pants simply looked down at his clothes, which of course were dripping wet. "And of course, all etiquette is put aside when our lives are in danger. No worries, I have plenty changes of clothes in the manor. We want to be dry before we start the day and set things up for the celebration, hm?"

Celestia came back up with a gasp, and panted and coughed as she wiped the water from her face. Fancy Pants turned and said, "Are you cool enough, Mr. Sandwich?"

Celestia nodded, and climbed out of the fountain to sit on the edge. She bunched the sopping wet mane with her hooves and started to squeeze the water out of it. Calmly, she replied, "No need to worry, Fancy Pants. I'm well enough to set up the party."

Fancy Pants nodded, and then turned around. "Well, let's get our clothes changed, gentlecolts. We have a busy day ahead of us!"

Tomato grinned uncomfortably wide, and waved nervously as the unicorn. When Fancy Pants was out of earshot, he turned to Celestia and asked, "Are you all right? I'm sorry that Cheese's body isn't accustomed to extreme heat like that--no normal pony is. Well... as normal as Cheese can be..."

"There's no need to apologize, Tomato," Celestia replied, hopping off the fountain's edge. She put some distance between her and Tomato and shook some water off herself. "Sometimes I forget how delicate my subjects are. They're not nearly as resistant to hazards such as this or lethal magic as Luna and I are."

"So... you two are invincible?"

Celestia walked to his side. "I wouldn't say that. We're still liable to harm and temptations like everypony else. It's just harder to take an alicorn down."

"I could believe that." Tomato noticed that one of his sleeves was sagging too low, and shook some water off it. "So... have you planned any special events or parties before? Or do you have event planners to do it for you? Because if you want to be a convincing Cheese Sandwich, you'd at least know what you're doing."

Celestia giggled. "Of course I've planned some events. Why, the last Grand Galloping Gala was a blast!"

Tomato blinked. "Uh... wasn't there a lot of slime or something? That's what I had read in the news."

"Oh, that was Discord's plus one, the Smooze." She smiled and nodded. "Inviting Discord made for a Gala that was a lot more interesting than normal. Best one in years, I wish all Galas had been that exciting instead of the boring ones of years before the first time I invited Twilight and her friends."

"Uh... do you ever worry about what the nobles would think?"

"More often than not, they're worried about what I think." Celestia sighed and shook her head, rolling her eyes. "Still, that doesn't prevent the silly complaints about this pony or that pony or that acre of land or the sun being too hot. Even on holidays they complain, even when I think the ceremony or celebration is nice and that they should just relax."

Tomato glanced at the owner of the manor. "Well, at least Fancy Pants seems to be taking every mishap in stride. But how long will that last?"

"He's a very patient stallion." Celestia then started to stride toward the manor. "Now, we better change out of these wet clothes now. And don't worry, if I'm doing something wrong, don't be afraid to tell me. And I'm sure you've picked up a few things from your brother in this party-planning trip you two are on."

Tomato chuckled nervously and glanced at the ground, as he started to trail behind her. "...right."

In the throne room, Twilight was sorting letters from the public and suggested laws from other officials, so that she could have an excuse to be in there to make sure Cheese didn't mess anything up. While the public apology went smoothly, she was still worried. After all, to her, plenty of them looked ready to start a rebellion after the whole sun fiasco.

Cheese was sitting on Celestia's throne, awaiting the session of hearing the nobles' concerns. He hated the thought of hearing ponies complain for two hours before the Summer Sun Dinner--which to him was just lunch with a fancy name. "Are you sure about this, Twilight? I mean, couldn't we just cancel this whole session and let Celestia handle it after she and I switch back? What about the holiday?"

Twilight looked up from the letters she was organizing. "Well, excuse me if I can't fast forward time so you can skip it. You just need to hang in there until the Summer Sun Dinner, and then we have to survive that. From there, we'll handle the preparations for the festival tonight, and be there in case any problems arise. Knowing you, you can handle the preparations just fine, so that's when I'll go out and find Celestia and Tomato."

"Okay..." Cheese flipped himself over and sat on the throne upside-down, bouncing his leg. "So, what do I say to these ponies, anyway?"

"Just let them know that their complaints have been heard, and you should be fine." She scowled at him. "And for goodness' sake, sit normally! Princess Celestia does not sit like that!"

Cheese stuck his tongue out at her, and flipped himself back right side up. His wings popped open, and he sighed. "How do you live with these things, anyway? They seem to have minds of their own!"

Twilight giggled and shook her head. "Tell me about it. You wouldn't believe how many times my wings popped open on me, or how many times I crashed when trying to fly. It took time, but I eventually got the hang of it. Sort of."

Cheese had one wing in his grasp and was examining it. "At least I have some idea of how Tomato felt when he had wings... granted those were bat wings." His eyes widened as something dawned on him. "Hey, wait, how did he even have enough knowledge of flight to--"

The clock chimed, beginning its toll of ten for the time of morning. He let go of the wing, and fidgeted on the throne, awaiting the first pony. He took a breath, trying to imagine what kind of complicated issue that he'd have to ignore so that Celestia could address it later.

The doors opened, and the first noble, a mare wearing exquisite jewelry and a dress that would make Rarity jealous, strutted in. She walked until a certain point, bowed, and then rose back up. She looked up, and awaited Celestia to speak.

Cheese glanced at Twilight in the corner, who was urging him to speak, and then he cleared his throat. "So... uh... what kind of concern do you have today, lovely citizen?"

He ignored Twilight facehoofing as the pony answered, "Your Royal Highness, it is of great concern to me and my acquaintances that your sun's temperature is too high. Could you perhaps turn the heat down so that we may not sweat so much?"

Cheese couldn't help but give her the most incredulous look.

Luna strolled through the Dreamscape, the starry path beneath her gleaming like crystals and the sky above her bearing the warped mist of multiple tones of blue and violet. The doors of the realm were sparse, as was expected when she entered in the daytime, and she was certain that those doors belonged to tiny foals that slumbered often. There was no need for her to check on them, since their dreams were hardly as developed as ponies who were older.

Her eyes swept the landscape back and forth, trying to find any sign of those tiny bipedal creatures that had caused the Celestia-Cheese Sandwich mess in the first place, and possibly even more body swaps. Her ears were open, and she listened for those ever mischievous giggles.

Haunting echos and chimes filled the realm, but not even a snort of tiny laughter was heard. She hated how empty it felt during the day--at least it was much less boring at night, where she could see what her subjects were dreaming, whether they be nightmares that she could soothe or just a bizarre dream that could give her a good laugh.

"Why they thought it was a good idea to target my sister I'll never understand," she muttered, shaking her head. "That'll only bring forth my wrath on them."

Those things always loved to inconvenience her. She figured it was because they wanted to see the waking world, but couldn't without possessing a body. And unfortunately, pony bodies only accept pony spirits, which were attached to their dream avatars, until the body was close to dying. The dream gremlins often expressed their displeasure at not being able to possess a pony's body until their spirit had been away for too long and the body was open to any other, especially those that were non-equine. They had tried to switch Discord with a pony a few nights prior, but found it impossible since the pony body rejected him and vice versa.

As she continued to search, she wondered what her sister was doing, and how Cheese was doing during Celestia's duties.

Then, her ears picked up distant, high-pitched chatter, and she leapt forward to fly toward the source. She flew for a time before she found them.

They were blue-headed and black-bodied creatures, with three digits upon their hands and no sign of a nose upon their face. The males had legs, while the females had a wispy body resembling a dress. They differed with their eye color and their kinds of hair. One had fire for hair, another had water, and the others among them were purple slime, clouds, glowing spiky blond hair, streamers, a bush, bubbles, a beehive, and one was bald.

They were playing poker with cards that bore images of Celestia and several other ponies. Figuring that those were the images of ponies that they had switched, she found it fit to interrupt their game and interrogate them about it.

She flew above them, and shouted, "Dream Gremlins!"

They looked up, and their blue faces turned white.

"Thou hast made the bodies exchange spirits! What did I say about committing that cowardly annoyance?! Do you want me to imprison thee? Surrender and tell me the names of the ponies you have switched, and none of thee shall be harmed!"

The dream gremlins stared at her blankly for a moment. And then, when they had processed what she had told them, they screamed and started running away, spreading out in different directions through the Dreamscape. She merely watched them as they did so, unimpressed with their escape method.

"So is that the game that thou wants to play?" Luna muttered. She smirked. "I love a good hunt."

"Rolling out the tables is easy enough," Celestia said as she did so, panting all the while. "Though I'm not used to this aching in my front legs..."

Beside her, Tomato was carrying another table with his tail. Both were clad in spare white button shirts and black bow ties that had been in the manor. "Sometimes I forget alicorns have earth pony in them. The unicorn and pegasus parts are so obvious that you forget the earth pony. Huh, so how does it feel to have the powers of all kinds of ponies?"

Celestia pursed her lips, her eyes on Tomato's tail. "Well, I wouldn't say all. My sister is the only pony with power over dreams, and I could never figure out jester magic--all I've learned over the years is that if you openly question it, there are consequences."

"What kind of consequences?"

"The kind that make a pony the butt of a joke."

Tomato grimaced. "Do I even want to know how you learned that?"

Celestia chuckled. "Well, there was this one time when Lun--ah... ah..." She covered her nose, and then sneezed, bubbles appearing from her person, and creating a bed that began to lift her up and slipping her table out of her grasp.

Her surprise was palpable as she stood up, amazed at the bubbles not popping under her--or rather Cheese's--weight. After a moment of her silence, she giggled, finding the sheer impossibility of her situation amusing. She poked a bubble and it popped. "Oh, my goodness... I didn't expect this!"

Tomato jumped and put down his table. He took a deep breath and yelled, "Hey! Can you please get down from there?"

Celestia groaned, and muttered, "Oh, all right." She prepared to jump off for her descent--but then quickly remembered that she didn't have her wings anymore. She grimaced and looked down, noting that she was being lifted higher and higher, and she wasn't sure how Cheese would even make this stop. At the moment, she could only think of popping the bubbles, one at a time, to make it stop. "Oh, dear..." She looked down and shouted, "I'm afraid I'm going to take a while to come down!"

Tomato groaned, put a hoof on his forehead, and dragged it down his face. Do I have to get you down myself, Your Highness? He jumped onto the table, and the first thing he tried to do was fly. He fell face first onto the grass. Spitting out blades and wiping dirt off of his face, he cursed himself for forgetting that he didn't have wings. How the heck did he even forget that detail?

He looked back up, and he could barely see Celestia laying down on the bubble bed, poking at it and making the bubbles pop one by one. He started looking around for a pegasus to help, only to see just unicorns and earth ponies in the yard.

Fancy Pants approached him. "I dare say, what is your brother doing?"

"Uh... enjoying the view?"

Fancy Pants sighed. "Dear, dear, doesn't he know that it's not time for fun and games right now?"

"Well..." Tomato watched as Celestia kept popping the bubbles for a slow descent. "At least he's trying to get down."

"I've noticed that he's a little slow today compared to his exuberance yesterday. Is he coming down with something?"

"Right now I'm just concerned with him coming down from the sky." Without even thinking about it, he pulled a straw out of his front pocket. "I think I'll help him along."

Fancy Pants blinked at the fact that Tomato had somehow fit a straw in his pocket without bending it. Still, he was silent as he watched Tomato trot to the path, grab some tiny pebbles, and then aim for the bubble cloud.

A pebble shot through the cloud, popping several bubbles and nearly making Celestia jump. Several other bubbles drifted away from the cloud, and she descended faster toward the ground. She blinked, and then smiled at her progress, and then popped some more bubbles to draw closer to earth. She even giggled as the bubbles popped to a little tune, and she started to pop them faster and send more on their way upward. As she drew closer to the ground, she stood upright and helped the bubbles go along.

Tomato put the straw back in his pocket, and then galloped to where the bubble cloud had finally reached the ground. All the bubbles popped upon touching the grass, and Celestia had plopped on her hooves, chuckling to herself.

"Hahaha, that was a ride!" she exclaimed.

Tomato sighed, glanced back at where Fancy Pants was standing, and said in nearly a whisper, "If you say so, Your Highness. I mean, I'm sure Cheese's body could handle a high altitude like that--I imagine him travelling with balloons sometimes. Though getting down must have been a problem..."

"Normally I just would have flown off, but a lack of wings prevented that solution."

Tomato closed his eyes and nodded. "Well, at least that crisis is--"

"Hah-CHOO!"

His eyes snapped open to find that Celestia had now accidentally summoned balloons, which were inexplicably tied to her barrel, and was being lifted up into the sky once again. Her face was full of surprise at this new development, and she could only blink as she stared at the balloons.

Tomato's eye twitched, and he pulled out the straw once again. "Why do you keep sneezing?"

Cheese was getting a headache from all these nobles and their complaints. He had always hated complaints, especially since that usually meant he was doing something wrong with a party of his or his magic was being messed up in one way or another. Most of the complaints and concerns he had heard thus far he wished he didn't have to listen to.

When hearing "inflation", his first thought was that of a balloon. Why that word was applied to money, he didn't know, and would have to ask Tomato about it later. He rolled his eyes at some complaining about panhandlers in the city, and suggested that they give those folks jobs. Another came to complain about taxes, and he tried to get the pony to make him understand with a metaphor about cheese, confusing that pony. Another came to demand an explanation for the sun incident, which he came up with the excuse of he was tired from staying up too late last night because he was worried about Luna coming down with the Weasel Flu.

One pony got into a yelling fit, and a panicked Cheese grabbed two random guards and Twilight Sparkle and juggled them. That left the pony even more confused and angry, and thus the guards had to escort him out. Twilight glared at Cheese after that and lectured him about it.

As far as Cheese was concerned, they were were all mumbling and screaming. He didn't quite get the messages they were conveying, and and he wanted Twilight to tell him what they were saying. He was just happy to tell them "sayonara" when each session was through.

After a long two hours, the final noble marched in. He was a cornflower blue unicorn stallion, with a mane of two-toned purple, and eyes matching the hair. He was clothed in a dark violet suit, wearing glasses, and had a neatly trimmed mustache and goatee upon his muzzle. He strode forward until he was several meters away from the throne and bowed.

"Ah, yes..." Cheese began, glancing at Twilight for help with this pony's name. He read the flashcard she held up and nodded. "So, Quasar Rune, what concern have you brought to this room today?"

Quasar stood up. "I've heard that you have my son Kazam in the dungeon, awaiting trial."

Cheese blinked, and his brow furrowed. "Yes, he is." He closed his eyes. "I am sorry that your son has to be in prison, but that's what we do to criminals."

"But this must be a mistake. My son has given up those experiments years ago; surely he must have been framed."

"We have plenty of eyewitnesses saying that he did indeed launch a vampire attack on the innocent ponies of Las Pegasus. Even his own sister testified that yes, he did it, and even hypnotized her to be his minion in the process. He's a magical prodigy, I don't doubt that he was able to do it."

Quasar cleared his throat. "Silk Shimmer has always been jealous of her brother--it's such a shame that she has to defame him so."

Cheese's eye twitched, and he glared at the unicorn. "Look... we're having the trial, you can try to get ponies to defend him there. But you don't have to put your daughter down to raise your eldest son up. Maybe she wouldn't be so jealous if you didn't compare them!"

A wide-eyed Twilight shook her head, and repeatedly drew a hoof across her neck to try to get Cheese to stop. Unfortunately, she was ignored, and a Cheese with boiling lava within him was at the helm.

Quasar stepped back. "Now, wait, Your Highness, let's be reasonable--"

"Says the pony not willing to accept that maybe his prized son stepped outside the boundaries of decency and lawfulness in order to attempt treason!" Cheese stepped off the throne and marched toward him, backing him toward the door. "You weren't in Las Pegasus! You don't know what it's like to watch somepony you love turn into a monster, fall under a spell, and try to kill you! And you have to hurt them in order to get them to stop! And then agonize over whether or not you could have prevented the disaster by just one little action that could have avoided the whole mess! Do you even realize how traumatizing it is just for that to happen, especially on a wider scale for hundreds of ponies who watched that happen to their loved ones before their very eyes?"

He snorted and turned away. "Maybe you should just face facts. Your eldest is not doing anything to please you; he's an infidel." He walked back to the throne, staring ahead at it. The carpet was singed with Celestia's hoofprints, but for now, he didn't care that he just ruined the carpeting. Cheese Sandwich was not going to stand for that arrogance.

Quasar Rune blinked, and backed toward the door. "You've made your point, Your Highness. I'll... see myself out."

Cheese didn't even look back; he only heard the reverberating thud of the shutting door. He took a deep breath, and kept marching until he reached the throne and sat in it. He leaned in his hoof and squeezed his eyes shout, breathing through his teeth.

Twilight galloped to the place in front of the throne. "Cheese, what was that?! Why did you lose your temper like that?"

Cheese snorted. "Does Celestia never lose her temper?"

"Well, kind of, I rarely ever see her angry enough to burn anything..." Twilight shook her head. "But... weren't you taking it a little too personally? Because you're supposed to be unbiased about situations like that."

Cheese sighed. "I'm sorry, Twilight. I guess I'm letting my own experience in Las Pegasus get to me. For him just to minimize it like that... that just set me off."

Twilight stared at him for a moment, and looked at the floor. "Love for your family tends to do that--believe me, I've had an episode like that when my brother was in danger. But outbursts like that tend to paint you in the wrong light."

Cheese looked at the white foreleg he was currently possessing and poked it. "Or in this case, paint Celestia in the wrong light."

The clock hit twelve, and the bells began its tolls. With a deep breath, Twilight murmured, "I have a feeling the Summer Sun Dinner is going to be awkward..."

Cheese clicked his tongue and trotted off the throne. "Well... maybe a few tricks would get these ponies back in the holiday spirit! And maybe get them to stop being wary about the Princess' behavior."

Twilight groaned. "I just want this nightmare to end..."

Down at the great dinner hall, the nobles were chatting away at the white-clothed and carefully set tables, over the the music of the small orchestra that was playing on the nearby stage. They all had a air of enthusiasm about them, since they were excited for the all night festival that was coming up and the all night parties they would attend. While technically the Summer Sun Dinner was a luncheon, the real dinner was the Summer Sun Feast, which was going to be part of the evening's festivities that marked the night before the celebration.

Among the nobles was Fancy Pants, who had left the Sandwiches and his servants to continue setting up his party. While there had been a couple of incidents involving Cheese Sandwich being lifted up by a bed of bubbles, the balloons right after, and Tomato Sandwich squeezing through a gate to catch a runaway table, things seemed to be going swimmingly. After all, a little wackiness didn't hurt.

Suddenly, the fanfare blared, and everypony stood up, to honor the Princess. After all, even if she was acting a little strangely today, she was still their ruler.

And then the doors burst open, and Celestia marched in, shouting, "Howdy, fellas!"

Everyone turned and stared at her, unaware of the facehoofing Twilight Sparkle beside their ruler. And for some reason, there was a distinct lack of Princess Luna--didn't Celestia want her sister by her side? Fancy Pants looked around, seeing the others force smiles and stand up straight. They all held this position until she sat down at her seat, and then fidgeted a little until she was comfortable. When Twilight sat down next to her, Celestia's wings popped open, and smacked the lavender alicorn in the face. The smaller princess then moved the wing away, a scowl on her face.

When everypony was seated, the food began to be served. As it was, Celestia had suddenly announced, "I hope nopony minds, but..." She produced three ping pong balls from under her collar. "I'm going to juggle for your entertainment."

Fancy Pants blinked, while everypony else held looks of confusion. Twilight herself grimaced, and then with a forced smile on her face, made a motion to hiss at the elder princess through her teeth. He could have sworn that he heard something along the lines of "I thought you were going to the bathroom."

Celestia flushed at that and hissed something back. With a snort, she started to juggle the balls, and said, "Please excuse my sister Luna--she has some unfinished duties to attend to."

The mare beside Fancy Pants, Fleur de Lis, muttered, "What kind of nightly duties did she neglect so that she had to miss the dinner?"

Fancy shrugged. "I haven't the faintest idea."

Celestia kept on juggling as the food was served, and only stopped when the plates were full and Twilight had nudged her and whispered something in her ear. Celestia had dropped the balls as her eyes widened, and she grimaced as her sights fell on the goblet in front of her. She glanced between the cup and Twilight, gulped, and then shakily lifted up the goblet with her magic.

She cleared her throat. "So... uh... how are you all doing? I hope you're all fine and dandy... having fun sticking your noses up in the air and using that third eye in your horns to guide you."

Fancy Pants looked at his horn. He didn't recall having a third eye in there. He looked around, seeing that everypony was just as confused as he was. He had heard that Celestia was acting odd; now he was seeing it for himself.

"So, I'm glad you all came so that we could eat this feast of fancy foods and stuff that will make us full. I hope we can digest it all before we eat again during the evening feast for Summer Sun--and then we digest that before the big after-sunrise breakfast! Yeah, digestion... a function that's good for the body. Unlike Weasel Flu and earbleeds."

There was a moment of silence, and a cough, and then some forced chuckles. Celestia sighed and continued, looking cautiously at the trembling goblet in her magic, "Anyway, for years, this was the celebration of when I defeated Nightmare Moon and prevented eternal night. However, a couple years ago, the celebration changed from that of Moonie's defeat, to the return of Celes--I mean, my sister, Princess Luna! Again, I apologize that she's not--"

Suddenly, the goblet was thrown, and there was a shriek. The beverage within had splashed all over one of the mares, soiling her white dress and sagging her hat. Her jaw was slack as she stared at Celestia, silently screaming, "Why?"

With a grimace, Celestia twiddled her hooves. "Um... that was... I... I-I..." She shut her mouth, and then without looking at her plate, she swiped some mashed potatoes off it with both hooves, and chucked them both in different directions. "Food fight!"

One part of the mashed potatoes splattered right on Prince Blueblood's face; the other splattering over Jet Set and Upper Crust. All three of the ponies gnashed their teeth and ended up throwing their plates in anger, hitting other ponies as well. Those other ponies threw some food and hit others, and soon enough, the battle of food had commenced. Food of all kinds flew around, soiling dresses and suit jackets and ties and hats and the coats of the little ponies. Previously refined mares and stallions were now engaged in an all-out food war, reasoning that if their dress was ruined, so was the others'.

Even the chamber orchestra was in on the action, alternating between playing an upbeat and exciting tune and swatting away the food with their instruments. Meanwhile, Celestia and Twilight were crawling away from the hall, with Twilight voicing complaints all the way.

Fleur De Lis ducked under the table, while Fancy Pants ended up with a face full of mashed potatoes. Taking a napkin and wiping off the spuds, he looked around at the chaos and murmured, "Well, this took an interesting turn."

"Get back here!"

Tomato couldn't believe that out of all the things that could happen, the table just had to magically slip through the gate after an accidental push. And now here he was, stuck chasing it through the streets of Canterlot. He didn't know why it didn't stop after so long; but he was certain that if it had a voice, it'd be laughing at him.

As it bounded and rolled along, ponies jumped out of the way of the table, and watched a red-orange stallion pursue it. That same stallion was already dampening his clothes with his sweat, and his lungs were burning from the sharp breaths he had to take while running. His heart was pounding, his legs were aching, and he felt like he was going to drop dead any second.

Still, he pushed on, hoping to catch that table.

However, he didn't quite notice it suddenly stop, and he crashed into it and stumbled back in a daze.

"Whewee! That table was faster than a hungry dog smellin' a mountain of meat in a butcher shop!" a drawling voice hollered. "It's a good thing my leg stopped it real quick."

"It looked like somepony was chasing it..." a quiet voice said.

A raspy voice groaned. "And it's him. What's he doing here?"

Somepony bounced over to Tomato and said in a high voice, "Hi, Tommy, how are you?"

Tomato turned to none other than Pinkie Pie, and muttered in a slurred voice, "What's the matter with the clothes I'm wearing?"

Pinkie blinked and said, "Uh, nothing. Nothing at all."

Rarity trotted up next to her and scratched her chin. "Did you get some new clothes? You're not wearing your usual brown jacket and green tie combo. Your new outfit is simple, yet it still has that Canterlot charm to it."

Tomato shook his head, and looked at his shirt. "Oh, I'm just borrowing this from Fancy Pants while my clothes dry."

Rarity blinked. "Wait... did Cheese's Cheesy Sense bring you two to Fancy Pants' home?"

Tomato nodded. "Yeah, we're currently setting up a fancy party for him in his yard for the Summer Sun Celebration. Right now, Fancy Pants is just at that Summer Sun Dinner at the castle, so it's just me, the servants, Celes--I mean Cheese." He pointed to the table. "That table escaped."

"Yeah, we can see that," Rainbow Dash said.

"I reckon we oughta help ya push this table back to the place, right?" Applejack asked.

Tomato smiled. "That'd be nice. Thank you."

Pinkie squealed and jumped. "Oh, I'm happy to get a chance to say 'hi' to Cheese again so soon! Lead the way!"

Rarity smiled and trotted to the front beside Tomato. "I know where Fancy Pants lives, just in case you cannot retrace your steps."

"Well, I suppose..." Tomato said, scratching his ear. "I don't have time to memorize the layout of this city anyway." He turned and raised an eyebrow. "What are you girls doing here, anyway?"

Rarity chuckled. "Oh, Tomato, we know Princess Celestia! Twilight was her student before her ascension."

Tomato blinked and then put a hoof to his face. "Oh. Duh."

Once they reached the manor, Tomato pulled the table back through the gate, and rolled it to an empty spot in the yard. He glanced up at Celestia, who was draping tablecloths over the tables, and then glanced back to the girls at the gate. While he was thankful for their help, he felt a little awkward over the simple fact of the body swap. He wasn't sure how he would explain that to them.

Especially Pinkie, who had hopped over the fence, and tackled Celestia in one go. She had her pinned down, grinning at the pony she thought was Cheese Sandwich. All the while, Tomato was mentally begging for Pinkie not to suddenly decide that now was a good time for a first kiss.

Thankfully, it didn't happen, and Pinkie just climbed off, and once Celestia sat up, the pink pony gave her a tight squeeze, squealing, "Oh, Cheesy, it's so great that we get to see each other again!" She broke the hug and bounced back. "Isn't the Summer Sun Celebration just the most fun thing? Ooh, maybe when you're done here, you can come find me and we'll all have lots of fun during the festival together!"

Celestia blinked at her, and then smiled. "That would be wonderful, Pinkie Pie. Hehe, it'd be nice to witness the actual ceremony for once."

Pinkie bounced for a few more seconds, and then gradually stopped as gears started turning in her brain and she got the sense that something wasn't right. She scratched her chin, tilted her head, and narrowed her eyes. As far as she could tell, there was something just a teensy bit off about Cheese's smile and the tone of his voice.

And when the pony in front of her suddenly sneezed, flags of all sports teams popped off of his person, and an air horn sounded. Pinkie blinked, and remarked, "I thought you didn't like sports."

"Cheese" glanced back and forth, and answered, "I don't?"

Pinkie shook her head. "No..."

"Hey, Pinkie!" Rainbow shouted. "You done catching up with Cheese yet?"

"Twilight wants us at the castle on time, darling!" Rarity hollered.

Pinkie stood up. "I'm coming!" She kept on staring as she backed up toward the gate, still searching for just what was wrong with her friend. She climbed back over the gate, still staring. She hopped back down on the other side with her other friends, still staring. And she walked away, still staring.

Tomato waltzed to Celestia's side and helped her up. "She knows Cheese. I wouldn't be surprised if she figured it out."

Celestia nodded. "Well, Pinkie Pie is a mare full of surprises."

Tomato blew on his forelock. "Gee, why isn't her name 'Surprise'? Is the name copyrighted or something?"

His ears heard the gate open, and he turned toward it to find Fancy Pants had returned. Much to everypony's surprise, he was splattered with mashed potatoes, gravy, hay, wine, and various other foods. After staring for a moment as the unicorn walked toward his house, Tomato put a hoof to his face and murmured, "Oh no..."

Celestia smiled and bit her lip. "Was there a food fight?"

"Looks like it... and I'm ninety-nine percent sure that Cheese started it."

Celestia started to laugh. "Aw... I wish I had been there..." She laughed some more.

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "You... really are finding the humor in this, aren't you?"

Luna galloped through the Dreamscape, chasing the little dream gremlin with the beehive for hair. She had already captured the others; now it was Hatu's turn. Getting all was mandatory; if one escapes, he or she would just free the others and start the body swap madness all over again. And she wanted to get Celestia back in her body as soon as possible without any worries.

As Luna tossed her head and made a magical lasso come from her horn, Hatu jumped and rolled out of the way. He summoned bees of all shades of pink out of his hair, blowing a trumpet and squeaking, "Charge!" He dashed off as the bees started to swarm toward her in a giant pink wave.

Luna simply put up a shield to deflect the bees away from her, and galloped through the swarm, not caring that the wave crashed down on top of her. She still chased the little dream gremlin, who had now summoned bees to be a flying carpet. She took flight toward him, and dashed toward him.

"Surrender, Hatu! I've caught thee many a night before!" she shouted. She swore that she was going to strangle that thing if she took too long in catching him. She always wanted to strangle the dream gremlins, but they were impossible to kill.

Hatu blew a raspberry. "Never!" He summoned more bees out of his hair, which took the form of seagulls.

Luna blasted the bee seagulls with lasers from her horn, making the dream constructs evaporate with wails of agony. She could not bring herself to care about dream bees, but those wails nearly spooked her out of the chase. However, she shook her head, and prepared another dream lasso.

She continued to follow as Hatu approached a mountain that had apparently been stolen out of somepony's dream and ascended it to the voices of a choir, shooting bees at Luna. She dodged the three blasts, only for said bees to turn around and chase her in turn. While she did groan, her heart was pounding out of imagining herself being stung. She hated bee stings, and the presence of a dream gremlin meant that they would hurt just like in the waking world. She wanted to catch Hatu before those bees got her.

As they flew over the peak and descended down the other side of the mountain, she finally unleashed her lasso. She watched as it looped around Hatu, and stopped him in his tracks. He was forced to watch his bee carpet crash into a tree and dissipate, and then was swung around to bat the bees away.

Once the bees were gone, he was put into a small shield, and Luna flew away from the mountain. They flew until Luna reached her own door, went inside, and then put him in the cage with his fellow dream gremlins. They were all silent as Luna glared at them.

"Now..." Luna said. "I know you've switched the bodies of my sister, Celestia, and Cheese Sandwich. But, I know you little demons have done more than that. You know how it goes: tell me who you have switched, or I'll put you in the deepest, darkest nightmare I can create." For emphasis, she summoned lightning and booming thunder.

The dream gremlins screeched and trembled at the sight, and then were too busy whimpering to talk. Luna waited patiently, knowing that it would take a little bit for them to calm down.

Finally, Hatu spoke. "I... I switched Creme Brulee and Flora Peace."

The bubble hair one said, "I'm the one who switched your sister and Cheese Sandwich."

Another confessed, "I switched Double Diamond and Diamond Tiara."

Another piped up, "Coco Pommel and Troubleshoes."

"Maud Pie and Muffins."

"Peanut Butter and Jelly."

"Cookies and Cream."

"Clear Skies and Open Skies."

"Cortland and Soarin."

"Wayer Rune and Pumpkin Cake."

Luna nodded at each and every one. Then she asked, "Is that all?"

Hatu muttered, "Well, there's only ten of us, so..."

"All right, good." Her eyes narrowed at them. "Now you best stay put like I expect you to."

She turned and flew off, repeating the names over and over in her mind. She pitied poor Pumpkin Cake in Wayer's body, since that pony was imprisoned in Tartarus, with barely any means to escape according to Celestia. He was the monster with the least chance of escaping that terrible prison.

As they watched Luna fly away and out her door, the one with flaming hair scoffed.

"If Mara was out of that dumb cocoon, we wouldn't even be running away from Luna!"

Author's Note

In which I finally get this chapter out!

Took a while because A, I had to figure out what Cheese had to do in Celestia's place, and B, figure out how Celestia would react to Cheese's powers randomly activating each time she sneezes. Blargh, I think I figured out the character that's tough for me to write. You'd think it'd be easier for her to drop the queenly mask while in Cheese's body, but apparently I can't help but write her as a subdued character. :ajsleepy:

Still, at least she's managing to find the humor on her side of the situation. Cheese on the other hand, is stuck with princessy stuff and he doesn't like it. Especially with naggy Twilight.

And dream gremlins have funny hair. It's true. :trollestia:

8.4--Royal Pain

Back in the castle, Twilight was pacing around Celestia's room, with nearly everything quaking inside of her. While her hooves remained steady, she felt as if her barrel was ready to implode. After all, Cheese Sandwich had already nearly torched the country with the sun, juggled ponies, confused nobles with cheese metaphors and lack of economic knowledge, burned the carpet in a fit of anger, and started a food fight. She hated how the news about that food fight was going to spread throughout Canterlot, with some implications about Princess Celestia. On the way to this room, she already heard some ponies murmuring about how odd Celestia had been acting.

Cheese had been kind enough to let her wash up first--even after an argument about how Celestia should be first--and now, after Twilight was all clean, he was in the private washroom, singing a little ditty as he scrubbed off the gravy and mashed potatoes.

"Oh, I fended off an army of monster geese!
With a stringless banjo painted polka dots!
Celestia's rubber duckie is looking at me funny!
As if I'm a puppy dog wearing socks!"

That song only served to make Twilight even more nervous. Why did it have to be Cheese Sandwich? Why couldn't the dream gremlins have left Celestia alone--or if not, switched her with somepony with more political knowledge and grace? Cheese was clearly more interested in Celestia's rubber duck (she has a rubber duck?) than in the goings on of the day. Aside from the festival that was being planned for tonight, of course. Even then, she had a hunch something else would go wrong.

"It's like he's not taking any of this seriously," Twilight groaned. "I swear, once he's back in his own body, I'm going to slap him."

There was a knock on the door, and Twilight sighed. "Who is it?"

She heard a few giggles from behind the door, and and a raspy voice forcing deepness bellowed, "It's the Royal Guard! Something has escaped from Tartarus and is turning everypony into plants!"

Twilight giggled and answered back, "Oh no! I better gather my friends so we can fight the evil plant monster!"

"There's a problem with that, Princess! All your friends are plants now! Rainbow Dash has become jungle vines, Rarity has become a white rose, Pinkie Pie is now a watermelon--"

A high voice squealed, "Ooh! I love watermelons!"

"--Fluttershy is a tree, and Applejack is a... cactus."

A low voice then drawled in an unimpressed tone, "...a cactus?"

Twilight giggled some more. "Oh, no! Whatever shall I do without my best friends to help me? I better open the door so that I can see this Royal Guard face to face!"

She hopped forward and sprung open the door, and was promptly caught in the middle of a group hug. A mixture of cooing, giggles, and excited mutterings filled the room as Twilight and her friends squeezed each other in their warm embrace. Twilight herself felt less of the pain of worry and steadily relaxed.

When the hug was broken, she backed up and asked, "But, really... plants?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Hey, it was the first thing I thought of."

Applejack stepped forward. "So, what are ya doing in Princess Celestia's room, anyhow?"

Rarity added, "I thought we agreed to meet in the courtyard. What's the reason for this... odd change in plans?"

Twilight gulped, and the feeling of nearly exploding with stress was returning. How was she supposed to explain the situation at hoof? She felt like she was stuck in some corny fiction novel using a cliche plot device for cheap laughs. She wanted to believe that it was just a bad dream, but sadly, the events of the day were just too real.

Fluttershy held a look of concern. "Is Celestia sick?"

Twilight took a deep breath and grumbled, "I wish. But this is far worse."

"Does it have anything to do with what happened with the sun this mornin'?" Applejack asked.

At that moment, Cheese had opened the door to the washroom and stepped out, with a smile on his face, a deep whiff, and a blissful moan. He acted as if he had received a cleansing after ages of not bathing--which wouldn't have surprised Twilight. Still, seeing him step out which such grace was quite surprising, given how the rest of the day had been. If it hadn't been for the sun incident and the food fight, she would have thought that was really Princess Celestia striding out of the washroom.

However, the moment Cheese opened his eyes and saw Twilight's friends there, he jumped and yelped. The wings popped open, and the white face turned pink with embarrassment. "Okay, girls, when did you get there?!"

The group collectively grimaced at the sight before switching into forced grins--with the exception of Pinkie, who narrowed her eyes and scratched her chin. Applejack rubbed the back of her head, and answered, "Er... five minutes ago?"

Cheese grinned back nervously. "Oh, good, good! You're here to do the, uh... thing."

Twilight groaned. "Yeah... the 'thing'."

Rarity frowned. "Is there anything wrong, Twilight?"

"Ugh... I've been having a bad day..."

Pinkie continued to stare at "Celestia", a pout on her face and scrutinizing eyes. Cheese found himself a little uncomfortable under that glare, especially when Pinkie came closer and scanned him up and down, paying close attention to the wings and how stiff they seemed. She stopped, and then started to bounce on her tail in order to ascend high enough take a look at Celestia's eyes. She bounced again, and again, and again, still holding that look of suspicion and tapping her chin.

Fluttershy took notice of Pinkie's behavior. "Um, Pinkie? What are you doing?"

Pinkie stopped her bouncing, and then ran a few laps around the alicorn. After skidding to a stop, she peered at him one more time, searched her memory, and then her eyes widened as something clicked. With a gasp, she exclaimed, "Cheese Sandwich?! Is that you?"

The others snapped around to her, and looked around the room to see Pinkie's party pony buddy. With the exception of Twilight, they all sighed when there was no sign of him. Rarity then said, "Pinkie, dear, I'm afraid that you might be seeing things."

"No, she's right, Cheese is in here," Twilight said. She pointed to Celestia's body, laughing nervously. "He and Celestia switched bodies!"

Applejack blinked and raised an eyebrow. "Say what?"

Pinkie pulled out an accordion, and gave it to Cheese. "Play a tune, Cheesy."

Cheese stared at the instrument in his hooves, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, it feels so good to hold an accordion again." And with that, he started playing one of his favorite songs, a song first created by none other than the mare in front of him. It always felt good to either sing or play it, especially after a stressful day. He looked up at the rest of the girls, who were wide-eyed at the sight of Celestia playing the accordion, and playing a song of Pinkie's so well. Cheese didn't know if Celestia had ever heard the song or knew how to play the accordion, but he was certain that the song had never been written down.

"Come on, everypony, smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine,
All I really need is a smile, smile, smile
From these happy friends of mine!"

It was weird singing in Celestia's voice. At least she had a lovely singing voice.

Once he finished, he smiled at them, who were all still gaping at him after that performance. The room was silent for a moment, before Cheese said, "You know, it's funny to think that Tomato's spending the day with the princess, whether he knows it or not."

Pinkie giggled. "I'd love to see the look on his face."

"Oh, my..." Applejack muttered.

Rarity's eye twitched. "It was Cheese Sandwich... Cheese Sandwich... being a princess..." She turned to Twilight, her teeth clenched. "Is this some kind of cruel joke?! He doesn't even have the appropriate poise and grace for royalty!"

"Wait, wait, wait," Rainbow said, her brow furrowed. "So when we stopped at Fancy Pants' place to say 'hi' to Cheese, it was actually Celestia there? That is insanely freaky."

"Does his brother even know?" Fluttershy asked.

"I don't know," Twilight answered. "But I don't doubt that he'd see Cheese's behavior being a little off."

"How did this even happen?" Applejack asked.

Twilight took a deep breath. "So, last night dream gremlins were running around the dreamscape and thought it'd be funny to switch ponies' bodies. Apparently, two of those ponies happened to be Princess Celestia and Cheese Sandwich! And I've been babysitting him all day while Luna rounds up those gremlins so they don't cause any more problems, and let me tell you, it is a pain watching him! Between nearly burning Equestria, starting a food fight, and either scaring or confusing nobles, he is not acting like a princess! And all the while I'm wondering why this even happened. What lesson could either Cheese or Celestia learn from this experience? Is this some kind of Princess and Pauper story? Or is it nothing but just a cruel joke?! And the worst part is, it's the Summer Sun Celebration!"

Twilight sat down, hung her head, and panted. "And the day's not even over..."

Cheese rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sorry for making this day stressful for you. I'm not used to having to act like royalty."

Twilight sighed. "At least overseeing the festival setup with the event planner will be easy for you while I go and find Celestia. But, just in case, my friends will help you with anything you need."

Cheese glanced at Pinkie and smiled. "That'd be great."

Twilight scratched her chin. "Now... where does Fancy Pants live?"

Rarity stepped forward. "Oh, no need to worry, Twilight, I know. I've visited his manor on several occasions to talk business with him." She eyed Cheese warily. "Anything to fix this mess before things get worse."

Twilight smiled. "Great!" She turned to the others. "Now, when Cheese needs help with anything, you do your best to provide it. He's kind of unable to do party pony... things while he's Celestia." As she and Rarity trotted out the room, Twilight paused and said, "Oh, yeah, almost forgot! Make sure he doesn't use Celestia's powers--he doesn't know how to control them." And with that, they left the others alone.

Applejack adjusted her hat and started walking out. "Well, we better get to the fairgrounds. That fair ain't gonna set itself up, yanno?"

Pinkie bounced out of the room alongside Applejack. "Well, come on! We can't let those ponies have all the fun! They need to save some for us!"

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy followed, and after he took a deep breath, Cheese was the last to leave the room.

After all the tables had been set up and decorated, nearly everypony went inside in order to start preparing the meals and hors d'oeuvres for the party. Tomato and Celestia had opted to stay outside and lay on their bellies in the grass, looking up at the sky and just relaxing and talking.

Celestia let the breeze caress her cheek. "It's nice to have a moment to relax and sit in the sun."

Without thinking, Tomato responded in a flat tone, "Do you absorb sunlight, Your Highness?"

Celestia put a hoof to her mouth and chuckled. "You don't know how many times ponies actually thought I did that--I've had to correct them and tell them that plants do that, and I'm not a plant."

Tomato sighed. "Yeah, I've had that joke applied to me a couple of times, and I've said it in regards to my friend Flora when she rolled in the grass when I took her to the park once."

"Did she take the joke well?"

Tomato rubbed one hoof with the other one and stared at it. "Well, with me being a wet blanket, she was surprised to hear me make a joke. She surprised me back by laughing and playing along with it, just meditating there and claiming she was doing photosynthesis. She took it better than another pony, who emphasized the importance of chlorophyll in that process and told me off in thinking that ponies did photosynthesis, when in fact it's plants that do that." He shook his head. "And ponies say I can't take a joke."

Celestia sighed. "I've known a lot of ponies like that. Many of the nobles tend to be stuffy sticks-in-the-mud that fail to find humor in a situation. Big events such as the Grand Galloping Gala have been boring for years because they're so uptight..."

"You seem quite relaxed and even humored at this whole body switch thing. I mean... I'd be pretty high strung if I was in a body with powers I had no idea how to use, while somepony else was piloting mine. How are you not angry that Cheese almost burned the country? Or worried that he's ruining your reputation?"

"I have a feeling Luna knows, and if Twilight knows, I'm sure they're doing everything in their power to keep things under control."

"Still... you're so calm... do you even get angry?"

"Managing my anger helps me make better decisions in my position." Celestia looked up at the sun, wincing at how bright it was to the eyes of Cheese. "I also don't want my little ponies to fear me. I'm here to protect and guide them, not to have them forcibly bow to me to avoid my wrath. My anger is reserved for the serious situations."

"And this doesn't count as serious?"

"If someone--pony or otherwise--behaves in a manner that intends harm to my subjects, that's when I get angry. Most are lucky not to have seen me reach the level of my fire form. And if we're all lucky, none of the members of this generation will have to see it."

Did she just say she can light on fire? I hope Cheese doesn't get mad for whatever reason. Tomato pursed his lips. "In any case... well, you're surprisingly easy to talk to. You're a nice princess, I like that." He lightly tugged at his forelock with one hoof and strummed it with the other. "Still, are you planning to at least talk to him about the sun thing after this whole mess is over?"

"Oh, I will. I'm also going to talk to Luna about how she let the dream gremlins even do this."

It was then that Twilight Sparkle and Rarity came to the gate, looked in, and spotted the two on the grass. Twilight took a deep breath, paused to remind herself of which name to yell, and then hollered, "Cheese Sandwich!"

That got the attention of both, and Tomato muttered, "Looks like Twilight found us."

"She wouldn't go out of her way to come here and ask for your brother if she didn't know about the switch." Celestia stood up. "Best start making the plans for the right time to switch back."

Celestia trotted to the gate, and met a half-relieved, half-still worried Twilight pacing nervously in place. She was forcing a smile, which caused an uncomfortable looking Rarity to scoot away a little. By the time the two reached the gate, Twilight started laughing.

"Are... you in there, Celestia?" she asked.

Celestia smiled and nodded. "Indeed you have found me, Twilight. What took you so long?"

Twilight's eye twitched. "Oh, nothing... except I was babysitting Cheese, and the first thing he does is nearly destroy Equestria."

"Eeyeah, we saw that one, and heard about the food fight," Tomato said, approaching the girls. "Sorry to butt in, but Celestia made sure I was in the know about this body swap thing."

"Oh, thank goodness," Rarity said. "I was wondering how we were going to break the news to you if you didn't already know."

"I had my moments of doubt." He blew on his forelock and looked at Twilight. "Anyway, Celestia told me how it happened, with those dream things pulling a prank. You have any schedule for naptime so that they could be switched back?"

Twilight shook her head. "Not yet. Still need word from Princess Luna. And well, my day was terrible, how was yours?"

"Interesting things happen when I sneeze," Celestia replied. She turned to Tomato. "Does he have allergies?"

Tomato clicked his tongue. "I assume not, since he travels around all the time."

Celestia coughed and then rubbed her throat. "Does he ever stop to rest?"

"We recently had a rest stop in Ponyville a few days ago."

"Hm." She turned back to Twilight. "Anyway, it was mainly setting up tables and decorating--though I did get a kick out of being lifted into the air by bubbles and then balloons."

"Had to get her down both times because there wasn't time to fetch a pegasus," Tomato grumbled.

"Well... at least one of us is having a good day," Twilight said with a forced tone. "So... do you mind finding the soonest you can leave Fancy Pants' party? I mean, you and Cheese really should be switched back before the ceremony tomorrow morning."

"Don't worry, Twilight, I'll see how early Tomato and I can leave."

Twilight sighed. "All right then, we'll be at the fairgrounds. Knowing Cheese, he wouldn't dare do anything that'll mess up a festival."

"I'd imagine that he'd be absolutely horrified if he did," Rarity said. "He and Pinkie are ponies who take parties seriously, after all."

That was when Fancy Pants walked on the scene. "I hope you don't mind me interrupting, but I see you're chatting with a friend of mine, boys."

Upon hearing the word "boys", Tomato glanced at Celestia and shifted his hooves uncomfortably, as he was suddenly reminded of another reason that the switch was so awkward.

"Fancy seeing you here at my gate, Rarity," Fancy Pants said. "And Princess Twilight? May I ask for the reason for this call?"

Twilight and Rarity glanced at each other. Rarity cleared her throat, and answered, "Oh, we, uh... were just in the neighborhood, looking around and seeing what ponies were doing to prepare for the festival tonight. That dinner party in your yard certainly looks grand. Of course, seeing that you have Cheese Sandwich here planning it, why wouldn't it be? I'm quite surprised that he can plan this kind of party."

Fancy Pants scratched his chin, looking at the tables. "It doesn't seem as grand as he promised it, but it's too early to judge. If you'd like, Rarity, you can join the party."

"Oh, I'd love to!" Rarity answered. "But... I'm afraid I have other engagements."

"Ah, I understand. Well, then, I wish you a happy Summer Sun." He started walking away, saying, "Come along, Sandwiches, I have another task for you boys to do."

Celestia glanced at Twilight and Rarity, and said, "Don't worry, this isn't the first time I had to clean up the mess somepony else made when I switched bodies with them. And frankly, I'm certain that this mess will be easier to clean up."

They parted ways, and Celestia and Tomato followed Fancy Pants. As they did so, Tomato asked, "Who did you switch with last time?"

"I can't remember his name, but he started a war."

Cheese felt his spirit soar at the sight of the carnival being set up. Stands and stalls were lined up around the fairground, each with a sign boasting their treat in bright letters, with a picture of said treat to boot. His stomach quietly rumbled upon seeing the pictures of popcorn, ice cream, snow cones (made with actual mountain snow!), funnel cakes, fruit and vegetable kebabs, and so much more. He especially resisted drooling over the nachos, as well as the cotton candy, as fluffy, sweet, and pink as one of his favorite ponies. Within the stands, ponies were busy tweaking and tuning up the machines that would help them make the food.

Those of Twilight's friends that were tasked with watching him were doing some work around the fairgrounds as well. Applejack was delivering some apples to a candy apple stand. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were placing decorations on some of the higher structures with some other pegasi. And Pinkie Pie was hopping from stand to stand, making five second inspections of each one before moving on to the next one, adding balloons and streamers along the way. Cheese found himself annoyed with the fact that he was only strolling around and looking pretty as the princess he currently was, but at least he could see everything was going swell so far.

His attention was diverted to the carnival games and rides, which were also under their check ups before the evening carnival began after the big feast. Whether it was the high striker, throwing ping pong balls into goldfish bowls, or the ferris wheel, Cheese felt giddy just thinking about the fun that ponies were going to have that night. He also spotted some well known musicians, such as Sapphire Shores and Starsong, singing a few practice notes, and a couple of magicians getting ready to entertain ponies for the night. They hadn't been at the Magic Expo, as far as he could tell, but he was sure that they were thankful they weren't after the whole vampire fiasco.

His muscles tensed upon thinking of what happened that night, and he breathed through his teeth. Some pegasi flew above him, and he flinched, looking up cautiously. He kept looking up at the flying beings, still tense as he checked each of their wings for feathers. His rapid breathing grew slower as he counted each wing, and he slowly exhaled, thankful that a repeat wasn't happening.

His gaze then fell to the big platform between two fancy buildings, bearing statues of the sun and the crescent moon, and he frowned. That was where the ceremony was going to take place, with the simultaneous sunrise and moonset tomorrow morning. He hoped that he and Celestia would be switched back before he'd have to raise the sun. He didn't want to endanger Equestria a second time, especially during a holiday. Neither did he want to burden Luna with both celestial bodies.

He took a deep breath. Don't worry, Cheese. If all goes well, you and Celestia will be able to slip away from our respective events, take a quick nap, and then badda-bing, badda-boom, we're back in our own bodies!

He caught a glance of the pony who planned the event, a mare named Lemon Hearts. Smiling, he approached the yellow coated, blue maned unicorn and told her, "This carnival is great! I bet you'd make other event planners jealous."

Lemon Hearts looked up and beamed. "Oh, thank you, Princess. I've been planning the Summer Sun events for months, and while the Dinner was... kind of messy..."

Cheese gave her a sheepish grin. "Sorry about that... I don't know what came over me."

Lemon Hearts chuckled nervously. "Oh, well, things happen, we all have our bad days..." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, everypony's making sure to have careful maintenance on every device, machine, and carnival ride on the fairgrounds. No ride is going to break down this year!"

Cheese nodded. "Don't I know the importance of maintenance. Believe me, I've had to make sure my party tank was in working order."

Lemon Hearts tilted her head and blinked. "Party tank?"

Cheese wanted to slap himself for saying that. Shoot! Celestia doesn't have a party tank! "Uh... I mean... I've had to, uh, maintain the country... and I've had other ponies maintain... things." After an awkward moment of silent staring between him and Lemon Hearts, he pointed in a random direction and shouted, "Look, a distraction!" When Lemon turned to see what he was pointing at, he sped off, his face heating up over his stupid remark.

He ran to the cotton candy stand, and sat against the side, taking deep breaths and wiping his forehead. He looked back at Lemon Hearts, and then around at the fairgrounds again. He smiled at it once more, but after a few moments, the smile faded into a frown as his heart sank. Here he was, on the Canterlot fairgrounds, surrounded by a wonderful carnival that he knew ponies were going to love--and he had done nothing to contribute. It may have been more acceptable in this case, as he was currently Princess Celestia and few ponies knew about the switch, but he hated the feeling of having not done anything.

He reached behind his back, trying to grab Boneless 2 so that he could confide in him. But, the pats he ended up giving himself on the back reminded him that he was without his magic--it was back with his body, along with the rubber chicken, under Celestia's control. And it was likely that she didn't know how to use it. At least she was less likely to use his magic on accident.

With a silent sigh, he looked at the grass, drawing with his hoof in little circles. With a furrowed brow, he scoffed at himself. He had none of his own magic to use; he had Celestia's magic, but using it was a recipe for disaster. And, frankly, he was a terrible princess.

That was when he noticed Pinkie Pie hop toward Lemon Hearts, squealing, "This carnival is going to be great! A lot of ponies are going to be having lots of fun here!" She tapped her chin and added, "Although... it could stand to have a pony making balloon animals."

Lemon Hearts sighed. "I used to have a neighbor who took balloon modeling to amazing levels that nopony else could match. I'm sure he would have loved to be a part of this fair."

"Where'd he move to?"

"Nopony knows--not even his family. He left because he didn't quite fit in with Canterlot society and nopony appreciated his talent."

Cheese crossed his front legs. I know how that feels. To not fit in, have no respect for your talent... He huffed and started to grind his teeth. If this guy they're talking about has any siblings, I bet they were liked better by their peers than he was.

Pinkie frowned. "Not feeling like anypony takes your talent seriously really stinks."

"I hope he's okay. I wonder how he'd feel about his brother committing that horrendous crime in Las Pegasus," Lemon Hearts continued. "I mean... you can only equate vampires with bad intentions, am I right?"

Cheese's heart nearly stopped at the sound of that, and in his mind appeared the image of Kazam, with his sadistic grin as he ordered the death sentence for Cheese. Curling up into a ball, he grinded his teeth and breathed rapidly, looking up at the sky for any signs of the vampires. His heart rate increased, and his mind started to plead with them to stop talking about that and move on to another subject.

"Yeah!" Pinkie exclaimed. "I have a friend who was there, and he saw the whole thing!"

Cheese nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Pinkie say that. Why'd you tell her that?!

Lemon Hearts' eyes widened. "Oh, dear, is he okay?"

Pinkie nodded. "He wasn't hurt, but he did tell me that it was a nightmare. I don't know many of the details, but it must have been really scary! All those vampires flying around him..."

That image came into Cheese's mind, and he clutched his head.

"...having to fend them off so they don't bite him and turn him into a vampire..."

He remembered hitting some of them with his accordion, and fulfilling his statement of doing the Pony Pokey violently. He still wished that he hadn't needed to do that.

"...watching other ponies turn into vampires..."

He remembered staring at that door in the convention center in disbelief, hearing the screams of terror and agony, combined with the cracks signifying the growth of wings and the hissing of unnatural hybrids. He tensed up even more upon thinking of the one who had been the head vampire.

"...and seeing that a crazy pony is controlling their minds and making ponies attack their friends and family!" Pinkie huffed. "That meanie-meaniepants thought it was fun! How is hurting ponies fun?"

Cheese snarled under his breath, "Yeah... how is it any fun, Kazam?" The sensation of falling coursed through his body, and he remembered the helplessness he had felt in those slow, agonizing moments, unable to find any humor that could have been exploited to save himself. He blocked out the rest of the conversation, Kazam entering his mind and taunting him.

His blood boiled at the thought of the smug arrogance that had been on display since Cheese had first met him. The creepy air that had sent chills down his spine when Kazam had been given his assigned stage. The mere fact that he had not only repeatedly put Tomato in danger, but turned him into a monster. It was a slap in the face to think that he was related to the sweet and helpful Silk Shimmer and their missing party pony brother Party Favor (who he supposed that Lemon Hearts was talking about).

He felt every part of the body he inhabited heat up. That stupid father of those three had the nerve to defend Kazam when all evidence pointed to him! How incredible it was that somepony actually tried to deny that their son was a criminal, and Quasar Rune definitely needed a rubber chicken to the face. Cheese would not have been surprised if Party Favor left because of his father and brother.

How he'd hate to have a brother like Kazam. How he'd hate to be related to a sadistic jerkwad that thought that putting ponies through a nightmare like that was fun. He grew hotter and hotter, feeling as if he was going to burst into flame any moment, because he had never met a pony more detestable than Kazam, and there was no way that there was anypony worse.

Especially since Kazam had nearly stole Cheese's brother.

That was when he heard Lemon Hearts scream, "The cotton candy stand's on fire!"

Realizing that that was where he was, he leapt to his hooves and leapt out of the area, only turning around to see that the stand was, in fact, on fire.

He backed away from the stand and bumped into another. Behind him he heard a fwoosh and that unmistakable crackling, and ponies gasped and started to make a fuss by making all sorts of screams and shouts. In reaction to this, he spun around to find that the candy apple stand had lit on fire too.

He jumped back, only for his wings to haphazardly flap and direct him to another stand, where he ended up crashing, and then quickly finding that stand on fire too. As he jumped out of the burning rubble and brushed himself off, he noticed ponies running away, shouting, "The princess has unleashed her wrath upon us!"

Cheese blinked, wondering what the hay they were talking about. As he made a motion to scratch his head, however, he felt something hot lick his hoof. He froze, and stood there wide-eyed, trying to process what was going on.

And then Pinkie galloped up to him and gasped, "Cheesy! You're on fire!"

Hearing alarms go off in his head, his stillness gave way to a burst of energy spurning him to gallop around the fairgrounds, screaming, "Heeeellllppppp! Put it out, put it out, put it out!"

The wings started haphazardly flapping again, lifting him off the ground in spurts and launching him in directions he didn't want to go. He ended up crashing into another stand, and another, and another and then just kept on running in his panic, his head and tail still on fire. The wings then pushed him into another, this time headfirst. In a daze, he brushed past a few more, lighting them on fire as well.

All the helper ponies, seeing who they thought was the princess bolting around like a flaming comet, started to panic as well, and the whole area erupted in a cacophony of screaming and shouting. Ponies who had been in the flaming stands and stalls crawled out, coughing and then shuffling away from the fairgrounds to avoid the panicking alicorn. Ponies who looked back to see where the princess was going to run next ended up crashing into some attractions, with the high striker falling down like a tree and breaking into pieces and goldfish bowls shattering all over the ground.

As Pinkie watched the scene in horror, Applejack marched up up to her and shouted, "Pinkie! Why the hay did you scare him like that? He's runnin' 'round the fairgrounds like a dog who roughed up a hornet's nest!"

Pinkie bit her lip. "I just thought he needed to know."

Applejack groaned, and looked up at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who had come down upon seeing what was going on. Rainbow asked, "Okay, can somepony tell me why he's on fire?"

"I think I heard Twilight mention that Celestia had a fire form," Fluttershy said. "Cheese must have accidentally accessed it!"

"What?!" Pinkie shouted. She hopped out of the group and shouted, "Cheese, turn the fire off!"

Cheese shouted back as he ran past, "How do I turn it off?!"

The girls winced as Cheese crashed into another thing. With a sigh, Applejack turned to Rainbow and said, "You think you can find a cloud to put out these fires?"

"On it!" With that, Rainbow zoomed away.

Applejack looked at the other two. "Now, let's calm him down before he wrecks anything else."

Pinkie jumped. "Ooh, I know, I know!" She spun around, galloped to a empty spot, and sang,

"Oh, Cheesy! Oh, Cheesy! My party pony friend!
I am super happy that you dropped by here today!"

As he ran, Cheese skidded to a stop, blinked, and at Pinkie's smile, he softly sang back,

"Oh Pinkie, oh Pinkie, my purest inspiration!
You are just oh so lovable that I wish I could stay!"

Pinkie giggled, and then they both sang,

"The super duper party ponies,
That is you and me
I am so glad that I know you
You're as fun as can be!"

The pair laughed, and as they did so, the flames on Celestia's mane and tail died down, going back to the blue, green, and light purple hues of her hair. Pinkie didn't fail to notice this, and she didn't hesitate in telling Cheese. Cheese patted his head, and breathed a sigh of relief, muttering, "Oh, thank Celestia... wait a minute, I'm Celestia..."

Fluttershy asked Pinkie, "How did you do that?"

Pinkie winked. "Cheese has to finish the song with me."

Applejack marched forward and said, "Glad that ya turned it off..." Then she gestured to the flaming stands, which Rainbow Dash and other pegasi were at work kicking at clouds to put out the flames. "Too bad you're too late, and already wrecked the fair."

Cheese's heart sank, and he looked around at the wreckage. Aside from the fire burning in several places, several of the machines that were to be used to make the carnival food were busted. Shattered glass from the goldfish bowl game scattered on one patch of grass, with the fish flopping around and gasping for breath. Every carnival game had something broken, and food being salvaged from the wreckage that had it's fire extinguished was all burned. Ponies were staring at him in horror, whether it was out of fear or anger. He could spot some coughing, and some sporting burns. But what really killed him was seeing Lemon Hearts, sitting on the ground and sobbing in her hooves.

He felt sick to his stomach. All that planning, gone to waste, because Cheese had no idea how to control Celestia's powers. He bit his lip, wanting to just disappear in that moment. He hated the cruel irony of a party pony ruining a party.

"What the hay did you even do to light on fire, anyway?!" Applejack yelled. "What part of not using Celestia's powers did you not understand?!"

"Applejack! Don't be so harsh!" Fluttershy hissed. "I'm sure it was an accident."

"Accident or no accident, he should know better than to run around while he's flamin' like a wildfire!"

Cheese backed away. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I-I don't know what came over me..."

"Is Celestia trying to kill us?" one pony asked.

Cheese looked up when he heard that. "What? No! She would never--I mean, I would never--"

"I thought she was protecting us, not wanting to destroy us!" another pony answered.

"Why would she ruin the carnival like this?" another asked.

"I'm willing to bet she's possessed."

"It's Nightmare Moon all over again, except with the sun!"

"Where are her advisers? For that matter, where is her sister?!"

"This is the worst Summer Sun ever!"

Cheese backed up some more, and then waved a hoof. "Calm down, ponies! Calm down! This is just a setback, I can fix--"

He stopped as he looked at his hoof--or rather, Celestia's hoof, wearing a golden slipper. He continued to stare at it for what seemed like hours, with the reminder sinking in that he was not in his own body. In his own body, with the powers that he was familiar with and had basically master, he really could fix this mess. But in Celestia's body, with powers that he had little control over? He couldn't think of anything that wouldn't make things worse. He couldn't fix it.

Pinkie turned to him. "...Cheesy?"

Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth. "Are you okay?"

Applejack's brow softened as her anger turned to concern. "Can you fix it?"

Cheese gritted his teeth, staring at the upset ponies before him. What was he supposed to do? He had just shattered Celestia's credibility, and no remedy was coming up in his mind. His heart pounding and his lungs only taking shallow breaths, he decided to do the one thing he could only do when presented with a problem he couldn't solve.

He turned and ran away.

One pony in the crowd groaned. "Great, now she's running away! Does she not want to be princess anymore?"

Pinkie gasped and tried to follow. "Wait! Where are you going?"

Cheese stopped for a moment, turned to her, and shouted in an unusually loud voice, "Leave me alone!"

The force of the voice blew Pinkie back, and she flew right into Applejack's forelegs. Breathing heavily as she recovered from the blast, she opened her eyes, and watched Cheese gallop away and slip out of sight. As she stood back up, she could only stare in the direction that he had ran, her heart heavy and her brain numb. All she could think about was how much Cheese needed a big hug.

Rainbow landed beside them and asked, "What was that? I never thought he'd actually take off like that!"

Applejack shook her head. "I reckon them princess stuff's too much for him."

Author's Note

Alternate title for this chapter--"The Chapter that the Author Took Too Dang Long To Write".

Still can't write Celestia worth a darn. :pinkiecrazy: I swear, I feel like I just fudged this entire thing.

On a side note, I liked the idea of Celestia having fire powers, so I added that in there. Made things worse, mwahaha...

8.5--Liven Things Up

When Twilight and Rarity had nearly reached the fairgrounds, a bunch of ponies had left that area, and then immediately swarmed Twilight, complaining about how Princess Celestia ruined the fair. Confused and unnerved, she and her companion assured the crowd that they'd look into it, and pressed further.

As they met the rest of their friends at the fairgrounds, they had staggered back at the very sight of the charred remains of the stalls and stands, the broken down rides, and the pieces of the carnival games. Twilight had stared in horror at the dreadful sight, while Rarity had fainted. All the while, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie explained what had happened with Cheese accidentally activating Celestia's fire form and destroying everything in his panic.

Twilight's eye twitched. "He did... what?!"

Applejack sighed. "Eeyup, Cheese did this all right. I ain't got a clue on how he went ablaze, but when he did, he was more panicked than a coop full of chickens bein' attacked by a hungry fox. By the time Pinkie calmed him down, everything was bust."

"When he saw what he had done, I could see how bad he felt about having destroyed the fair," Fluttershy stated, helping Rarity up and brushing grass off of her.

"I know!" Pinkie exclaimed. "The look on his face--okay, technically it's Celestia's face--but still, it killed me! It's bad enough that a fair is ruined; but if a party pony ruins it..." She rubbed her leg and looked down at the grass. "...they feel so horrible. They just made a lot of ponies unhappy, and messed up at their own talent. It makes me sad that he was upset enough to run away."

Rarity still grimaced at seeing the wreckage. "Egh... I'd feel the same way if I ruined a fashion show that somepony worked so hard at. Especially in a manner that causes ponies harm."

Twilight massaged a temple with her hoof. "Oh, boy, this is not going to help Celestia's reputation..." She took a deep breath. "Okay, where did he run off to?"

The other four bit their lips and looked amongst each other, which prompted a groan from Twilight. "Seriously? None of you tried to follow him?"

"I tried!" Pinkie answered. She frowned. "He used the Royal Canterlot Voice on me, yelling at me to leave him alone."

"We think that the stress of being a princess got to him," Fluttershy said.

Twilight sighed. "Most likely--I know I've had my bad days since I've been coronated. Still, we have to find him, preferably before Princess Luna retur--"

It was right then that Luna landed just outside their circle, making the members of the group jump. Blinking, Twilight exclaimed, "You're back!"

Luna brushed herself off. "Yes, gathering the dream gremlins was a thrilling experience. I haven't hunted for them in over a millennium, and I've forgotten how elusive they can be. But, they have been apprehended, and I can safely switch the affected ponies back to their own bodies. Now..." She looked around at the destruction surrounding her. "Could one of you explain what has happened here? Where is Cheese Sandwich?"

The group of mares backed up a little, and looked amongst each other. A couple of them bit their lips, another pair rubbed the backs of their heads, the last two twiddled their hooves, and they all avoided her gaze. Luna's brow was slowly furrowing as they kept up their stalling, and she tapped her hoof.

Another pony came onto the scene and gasped. "Princess Luna!" The pony bowed, and then continued, "Forgive me for my intrusion, but it should be known to you that Princess Celestia's gone mad!"

Luna turned to the pony. "Is that so?"

"Yes! She's been causing mayhem all day. She misplaced the sun, confused or frightened the nobility, started a food fight during the Summer Sun Dinner, and outright destroyed the fair! She's even in hiding now! This isn't like her!" He gulped and bit his lip. "What if she's becoming Nightmare Sun?"

Luna winced, but then composed herself and raised a hoof. "That is not going to happen. I'll find her and talk some sense into her. I'll find out what's been going with her. In the meantime, you should go home and rest."

"Oh, thank you, Your Highness! " The pony bowed again, and then turned around and trotted away, muttering, "At least Luna's still sane. If both of them went crazy, we'd be doomed!"

Luna sighed, and turned to Twilight and her friends. "Care to explain these mishaps?"

Twilight hung her head. "You saw what happened with the sun. Cheese has no political or economical knowledge, he was trying to cover for accidentally throwing wine on a noble, and the last one..." She bit her lip. "...he... he accidentally unleashed Celestia's fire form."

Luna looked around at the fairgrounds once again. "What was he angry about?"

"We don't know!" Pinkie exclaimed. "I was just talking to the event planner when all of a sudden Celestia's hair went 'FWOOSH' and started burning the cotton candy stand, and then Cheese got away from it and lit another stand on fire and another, and then I told him he was on fire and he panicked and ran around and... lit more things on fire..."

"We're guessin' that it's just stress from this whole princess thing," Applejack said.

"I see. Clearly he ran away in shame." Luna took to the air. "We must go out and find him if we want to switch him and Celestia back before tomorrow morning's ceremony. Twilight, have you found Celestia today?"

Twilight nodded. "Like Cheese said, she's at Fancy Pants' manor. She told me that she'd try to leave as soon as she could."

"Go back and tell Fancy Pants that as a princess, you request Cheese Sandwich's presence immediately. Does his brother know of the switch?"

"Yes."

"All right, recruit him in the search as well. Who knows where Cheese Sandwich has hidden."

Meanwhile, the party at Fancy Pants' manor had already begun, and the ponies of high society were wearing all manners of fancy silks and threads, and the mares were adorned in jewelry. At each table, groups of the ponies were exchanging words about their lives and work, including the "silly" words of a butler or the inanity of a peer's recent purchase.

Tomato sat at one table, dressed in a black tuxedo, while a similarly dressed Celestia sat next to him, leaning in her hoof in boredom. When the two had asked Fancy Pants to leave early, he had insisted that they at least stay for dinner. Figuring that there was no harm in staying a little bit longer, they had agreed to do so.

As Tomato ate, he tried to catch snippets from other tables about how to run a business, leaning in random directions whenever he ended up overhearing something useful. Unfortunately, they always turned into something about a hot tub or insulting those of a lower class, to which he dropped the eavesdropping on that pony. He spotted one heavyset guest at one table, leaning against it enough for Tomato to wonder if it would collapse under his weight. Hearing a few ponies talk about what happened in Las Pegasus made him feel tense, and he slipped into a seat further away from those ponies, itching his back and feeling his teeth with his tongue as he did so. Some ponies were too far away to hear, and some of the newer guests seemed a little apprehensive, but he didn't think it a big deal.

Celestia sighed. "You know, you're the most exciting thing here."

Tomato leaned a little too far in his seat and nearly fell. "If I'm more exciting than Cheese, something's wrong."

"Well, we both know what's wrong." Celestia poked at the hayballs glazed with gravy. "The party's going well, but I don't think it's quite as interesting as your brother would make it. On the fly party planning is not quite my strength, especially since I don't know how your brother's magic even works."

Tomato propped himself back up. "I'm fairly certain it has rules, but I can't really place them. It's just one step away from Discord for all I know."

Celestia tapped her chin. "Hm, nah, Discord doesn't operate by any rules of magic."

"Well, what's stopping him from causing mayhem, then?"

"Fluttershy."

Tomato blinked. "Uh... you mean Pinkie Pie's little pegasus friend that loves animals?"

"Yes."

"Uh... is there any romance involved?"

"No. Just friendship." Celestia smirked. "I am so glad that plan worked out."

"What about the Tirek thing? I heard Discord was with him."

"Oh. That. Tirek betrayed him, so he learned his lesson." Celestia shook her head. "It's not pleasant when someone you thought was your friend stabs you in the back. At least with Fluttershy as his friend, she wouldn't give up on him."

Tomato's ears drooped, and his head sank to the level of his plate. His tongue stretched out from his mouth, grabbed a couple of hayballs, and carried them into his mouth. He swallowed the hayballs along with the lump in his throat. With a sigh, he replied, "Yeah. It's one of the most painful feelings. Someone you loved... someone you trusted... and you have no idea what you did and how you could have prevented it..."

He shook his head and rose back up. "But it was obvious that Tirek was a jerk, Discord should've known better and stuck with Fluttershy."

Celestia sighed. "Chaos is tempting for him, Tomato; why else would his name be 'Discord'? I'm just thankful that he's capable of learning about the value of friendship. I'd have to keep him in stone if he wasn't."

Tomato leaned down and ate a few more hayballs. From the corner of his eye, he noticed a few ponies looking at him, and then started whispering to each other. He raised his head and turned it slightly, catching that they were pointing to their foreheads. Glancing up at his forelock curl, he bit his lip and slicked it down. It was only down for a few seconds before it sprang back up with a boing. With a groan, he tried it again, only for the same thing to result.

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

Tomato slicked his curl back down, but it only popped back up. "I swear, that curl has a mind of it's own! No matter how hard I try, it won't stay down. Seriously, I look ridiculous, and I can sense these ponies making their judgments about me because of it." He heard some chuckles from another table and tensed up. "Oh, dear, are they laughing at me?"

"Calm down, Tomato," Celestia said, watching him continue to slick down the forelock. "I personally like your mane; it's one of the more unique styles I've seen. Seems like it has an interesting story to tell."

Tomato had slicked it down a last time before it popped back up, and sighed. "Well... I guess if a princess says it's fine..."

That was when they heard the shout of, "Hey! I recognize those boys!"

They turned to one of the other tables in the yard, as did everyone else, and between Fancy Pants and an orange elderly mare, sat an elderly stallion, with a yellow coat and faded green hair. He was a cranky looking pony, with a wrinkly scowl on his face and eyes that could pierce one's soul. He wore a pair of bifocals over his brown eyes, and he wore a dark green suit jacket over a burgundy vest. He was pointing straight at Celestia and Tomato, and soon all eyes were on them.

Fancy glanced at the old stallion curiously. "Pardon me, Lemon Lime, but you know them?"

"Yep!" Lemon Lime exclaimed. "They're my sister's grandfoals!"

The orange mare beside him exclaimed, "And my brother's! Oh, we haven't seen little Cheesy and Tommy since they were small!"

Lemon Lime nudged the mare and said, "Good to see 'em all grown up, right, Macaroni? Maybe this party won't be so boring after all!"

Celestia blinked. "I had no idea you two were related to that couple."

Tomato slumped in his seat. "Great Aunt Macaroni and Great Uncle Lemon Lime. My family hasn't been in contact with them since Grandma and Grandpa died. Given that I was six... yeah, it was a long time ago. Wow, they've gotten older..."

Celestia scratched her chin. "I remember when everypony was fussing over the 'Sister Swap' fiasco involving those two and their siblings, with the whole factor of them both marrying 'filthy Manehattanite indigents' driving all of Canterlot's high society nuts. I had to step in and tell them outright that I didn't find it a big deal because they're all good ponies. It was actually really funny."

Tomato rolled his eyes and leaned in his hoof. "My mom doesn't find it funny; she wishes that Grandma would have stayed in Canterlot."

Lemon Lime whistled. "Hey! Cheesy! You're the party pony, right? How about you show everypony those big spectacular stunts that I've read about in the news? I've been wanting to see them myself!"

Celestia frowned. "Oh no..."

Tomato bit his lip. "Are there any tricks you can do, Your Highness?"

"Well, I can juggle, balance plates on poles, and ride a unicycle. Do you think that's good enough?"

"Come on!" Lemon Lime shouted. "Don't be shy, Cheesy! I thought you outgrew that!"

Tomato rubbed the back of his head and looked at Celestia. "Might as well give the juggling a try."

Celestia slipped out of her seat, and walked toward the main table. When she got there, she grabbed a few empty goblets, threw them up, and then began the dance of catches and throws that defined juggling. The goblets spun in the air with every throw and catch, with every pony in the yard watching in awe.

Tomato smiled and chuckled. "Well, I'd like to see her do that in her own body."

Suddenly, he felt something small, wet, and sticky hit the back of his head. With a grimace of disgust, he brushed it out of his mane and turned to see who threw it at him. He was surprised to see Twilight and Pinkie at the gate, the latter holding a straw, and both beckoning him with hurried and worried looks on their faces.

Having a hunch it had something to do with Cheese, he looked around at the other ponies, and once he saw that they were focused on Celestia and her juggling act, he slipped out of his seat and hurriedly shuffled backwards towards the gate.

Once there, he asked, "Back so soon?"

"Yeah, we've got a really big problem," Twilight said. "Cheese ran off."

"Wait, what?" Tomato scratched his head. "Why would he do that?"

"Oh, he lit on fire and destroyed the fair," Pinkie answered.

Tomato's heart nearly stopped at that, and his eye twitched. Feeling every muscle in his body tense up, he held his breath, trying to resist exploding. Through clenched teeth, he said, "Thank you for the straight answer, Pinkie. Now, why was he on fire?"

"We think that the stress of being a princess got to him and he accidentally accessed Celestia's fire form," Twilight replied. "And we all know what a pony's reaction to being on fire is."

"Figures. Why didn't I hear about this earlier?"

Twilight shrugged. "I guess it didn't spread as quickly as I thought it would."

Pinkie leaned against one of the metal bars of the gate. "He was really upset over having burned everything and making ponies unhappy. I wanted to hug him and tell him it was gonna be okay, but he wanted to be alone. Seeing him sad makes me sad..."

"Anyway, we need you and Celestia to leave this party immediately so you guys can help in the search," Twilight said.

"Okay, sure, I'll tell Celestia as soon as--"

"BAH!" Lemon Lime shouted. "Juggling's amateur, Cheesy! I've read about ya in the papers, and you're no amateur! Get on with the big stuff, boy!"

That made Celestia stumble a bit before regaining her balance. Forcing a grin, she asked, "Would you like me to balance plates?"

Tomato put a hoof to his face. "Well, our great uncle's hard to please."

Twilight quirked an eyebrow. "Great uncle?"

"Our Grandma Cucumber Melon was a unicorn from Canterlot. That's her brother."

Pinkie grinned. "Neat! My Granny Pie was a pegasus!"

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Twilight growled. "Stop the entertainment and get Celestia over here! Just say Princess Twilight asked for Cheese Sandwich and they'll let her go without complaint!"

Tomato staggered back from the glare Twilight was giving him, and muttered, "All right, all right..." So, he started to shuffle back to the tables, rehearsing the lines in his head.

All he needed to tell them was that Princess Twilight asked for Cheese Sandwich. Sounded so simple, right? They certainly wouldn't argue with a princess' request, and it should be easy.

As he drew closer, however, memories of the last fancy party he had attended came to his mind. Or, at least, what he imagined what happened from Bluejinx had relayed to him--he couldn't remember much after Creme Brulee had given him some "cherry punch" to drink.

His imagining of those events made him flush, and he felt a pit in his stomach. What if he managed to embarrass himself in the simple act that Twilight asked him to do? What if he was yelled at for interrupting Celestia's act? What if he was asked by Lemon Lime if he could do party pony things? What if Celestia sneezed and unleashed explosives on the guests? What if he had a remnant of the bat inside him and he suddenly turned back into a bat pony in front of everypony?

He wanted to smack himself for that last one. He wasn't going to turn back into a vampire anytime soon. He shuddered. Once was more than enough, and Twilight had fixed that problem--even though his back was kind of itchy and his teeth felt weird. Still, the worst that could happen was that Celestia somehow got a face full of pepper. He was quaking from the ways that possible humiliation could occur.

He passed several bored nobles, and slouched in an attempt to be unseen. He moved quickly, wanting to get it done and over with so that they could leave and start the search for Cheese. He gulped, hoping Celestia wouldn't be too mad to hear about what Cheese did.

He weaved through the tables until he made it to Fancy Pants. After taking a deep breath, he tapped Fancy Pants' shoulder.

The unicorn stallion turned to him. "Yes, Tomato?"

"Princess Twilight's at the gate, and she's requesting Cheese."

"Oh, is that so?"

Lemon Lime scoffed. "Eh, she can wait! I want to see what my great nephew's got!"

Macaroni clapped. "And how's our other great nephew? My, have you grown into a handsome stallion!"

Tomato pulled at his collar. "I appreciate the compliment, but Princess Twilight--"

"Tell her patience is a virtue, Cheesy-Boy hasn't even gotten to the big stuff yet! Why is he still juggling?"

Meanwhile, Twilight and Pinkie waited at the gate, with the former stomping her front hoof. "Oh... what's taking so long? What is he doing just talking to them?"

"You can't interrupt a good juggling," Pinkie answered. "Though it needs a unicycle..."

Tomato still argued with Lemon Lime, trying to tell him that one of the princesses needs Cheese, and they had to leave. Much to his frustration, he found the older pony to be incredibly stubborn, even with every excuse that Tomato could come up with.

"...and furthermore, I'm pretty sure the princesses have a good reason to request a party pony. Maybe the event planner there is out of commission, or maybe a certain fair is wrecked and they need somepony to fix it."

A still-juggling Celestia looked at him curiously. "Wait, what?"

Lemon Lime scoffed. "Princess Twilight has her own personal party pony--I thought everypony knew that! Why don't they just use her?"

Fancy Pants knocked on the table. "Lemon Lime, there is no reason for you to question a princess' orders. If they need Cheese Sandwich, then he should go. After all, his job is done here, so--"

That was when they heard a yell and a crash, and watched as two legs of one table broke under the weight of a heavy stallion, launching the food, dishes, and spices into the air. Everypony ducked as the food splattered on the other tables and the ground, the dished shattered in other spots, and the salt and pepper soared through the air. The salt spilled onto the grass near Celestia's feet, and the pepper landed straight on her head, scattering the small black and white specks all over her head and muzzle. She dropped the goblets, and her nostrils twitched.

Tomato's eyes widened. "Uh oh."

Celestia's eyes watered. "Ah... ah...."

Tomato grabbed the table and threw it onto its side. "Take cover, everypony!"

Everypony overturned the tables and hid behind them, peeking from the other side as Celestia let out a great, big, "CHOO!"

The sneeze was powerful enough to launch her high into the air, as if she were a rocket blasting off. A startled Twilight gasped, and then took to the air, shouting, "Don't worry, I've got you!"

Celestia's nose still tickled, and she sneezed once again. A parachute sprang from her back, and she stopped her quick ascent and traded it for a slow descent. She wiped her nose, and looked at the parachute curiously.

Twilight stopped and hovered, scratching her head. "Wait a minute, that defies the laws of physics!"

Celestia shrugged. And then her nose twitched again. "Ah-choo!"

Loads of confetti suddenly appeared, and they rained down in Fancy Pants' yard, landing and nesting in the grass and the manes of all the ponies. Pinkie jumped over the fence, and started trying to catch confetti from the air.

Another sneeze, and candy launched from Cheese's suit jacket and rained down on the ponies below as well. Pinkie was also catching candy, stuffing the little pieces of gum, mint, chocolate drops, and taffy into her mane.

From the shelter that Tomato shared with Fancy Pants, Lemon Lime, Macaroni, and a few others, he snagged a few pieces of taffy and was chewing on one as he watched Celestia sneezing in the air, and Twilight awkwardly dodging whatever party implement was popping out. The latter briefly panicked when a quesadilla was launched into her face.

"Ugh! So much cheese!" she cried.

Tomato muttered, "What does she have against cheese?"

Pinkie popped up beside him. "Oh, she just doesn't like how gooey it gets in a quesadilla or a sandwich or on nachos or as fondue--"

Tomato covered her mouth. "I get it."

Pinkie beamed, and then offered him a piece of taffy, to which Tomato replied, "I've got my own."

Another loud "Ah-Choo!" was heard, and party poppers fell from the sky and popped on the yard, making many of the guests jump at the noise and cower behind their tables, fearing for their lives.

Fancy Pants leaned to Tomato and asked, "How long is your brother going to keep sneezing?"

Tomato shrugged. "As... long as the pepper is on her--I mean, his nose?"

"Yeah, I'm guessing the same," Pinkie said.

Lemon Lime laughed. "Now this is what I'm talking about! He made this party more fun just by sneezing!"

Macaroni reached over and patted Tomato's head. "I wonder if his brother can do the same."

Tomato shook his head. "No, I'm the normal brother--the low magic kind of pony so to speak. I'm not doing anything weird anytime soon."

Fancy Pants merely raised an eyebrow at him.

They all flinched at the sound of another sneeze, and bubbles drifted down from the sky. The ponies then all peeked from behind from the table to see what else was happening. Celestia had reached the ground, and had galloped towards a table and snatched a napkin to blow in it. Twilight was beside her, telling her something. From what Tomato could tell from the furrow in Celestia's brow, he knew that she was being told about Cheese accidentally causing the fire at the fair and running away.

Tomato noticed the area getting darker, and looked up. The sun was setting, and he was amazed that it was already evening. Still, as he clutched the table and watched the sun, he couldn't help but wonder where Cheese had gone. Tomato was not familiar with Canterlot, so he had no idea where Cheese would hide--especially as a tall alicorn mare. And he was hoping that Cheese didn't somehow magically know how to fly.

Celestia sneezed again, this time in the napkin, and rockets zoomed from her person, which led Twilight to jump in fright and then duck. Everypony looked up, and watched as the fireworks exploded. Booms and crackles filled the air as the party guests watched in awe at the colorful display. Pinkie actively cheered and jumped around the yard, happily chanting about the "grand finale".

Lemon Lime laughed. "Yep, Mel would be proud of that grandson of hers."

"And Pizza Pockets would be, too!" Macaroni squealed.

Tomato smiled sadly. "Yeah... they would be..." If that was Cheese, anyway...

Fancy Pants cleared his throat, catching Tomato's attention. "Well... this party turned out to be a blast. You Sandwiches are free to go."

Tomato rubbed the back of his head, looking down at his tuxedo. "Can we have our clothes back?"

Author's Note

Drat! I wasn't able to keep the Canterlot arc to five chapters! This story here turned out to be more ambitious than I thought! I thought body swap stories were simple! :raritydespair:

...oh, well. Best leave it to progress more naturally. :ajsleepy:

Lemon Lime was originally Lemon Zest when I first started writing this arc, but I changed it once I found that Friendship Games already had a character named Lemon Zest. Dang it, Hasbro, did you look up lotion fragrances?

And thus... we should get to finding where Cheese went soon.

8.6--Shame and Regret

Teleporting with alicorn magic was quite the trip.

One second, Cheese had been running through an alleyway, full of shame from what he had done to the fair. A dull ache in his head, a tingle in the horn he currently possessed, and a flash of light later, he found himself outside of Canterlot, sitting on a ledge on the mountainside, near a small cave by one of the waterfalls, with a little waterfall of its own. After his initial shock from the sudden use of magic, the first thing he foolishly did was look over the ledge.

The spot he sat on was high. As he stared, that Las Pegasus street came to mind, and there was a tightness in his stomach as the sensation of falling came back to him. He could still feel everything--the rush of wind blowing through his fur, his heart threatening to burst out of his chest, his life rushing before his eyes, even as every other thought evaporated, the exceptions being his mental goodbyes to Pinkie and Tomato. His legs had gone numb, and all he could do was watch the clouds pass him and the ground come closer, the screeches of vampires and screams of ponies filling his ears. And he could just sense that insane unicorn mocking him.

It was terrifying to be helpless.

Snapping out of his trance, he quickly scooted back into the cave, shaking his head. He didn't want to believe that that had happened. Cheese Sandwich, helpless? After surviving in the wild for over a decade, fending off monsters and bandits and the like? With the ability to exploit any tight spot through humorous means to save himself? How could he have ended up helpless in those moments of falling? The thought was ludicrous--what happened in Las Pegasus must have been a dream.

Something flew by the door of the cave, and Cheese's heart stopped. He retreated into the cave further, covering his neck and breathing through his teeth. He squeezed his eyes shut. Don't worry, Cheese, no vampire's going to find you here...

He took his undulating tail in his forelegs and clutched it tightly, breathing heavily. He looked at the small stream that was flowing through the cave, seeing not his own face--but the face of Princess Celestia. His stomach was still tight as he stared at the reflection, and his heart sank as he was reminded of the whole fire disaster that he caused.

He sighed. "Isn't it great? I just damaged Princess Celestia's reputation." He hugged the tail even closer, wishing he was holding his rubber chicken instead. "Why couldn't I just get a grip?"

He imagined that he was going to be sentenced to the dungeon once he was back in his own body. Accident or not, he destroyed the fair, and made a fool of the highest authority in the land. He didn't doubt that the princesses would punish him for it. He just hoped he wouldn't be anywhere near Kazam's cell. He wasn't sure he could bear it.

He looked out the cave, watching the yellow sun turn a red-orange color as it dipped into the horizon, and the sky turned pink in the process. What he could see of the landscape was having the light slip away from them as the sun sank lower and lower. The cooler air was gently caressing his cheek, and he shivered. His head slumped against the cave wall, he just numbly watched the sunset, replays of what happened earlier on his mind.

Why did they have to bring Las Pegasus up? It would have been just fine if they had stuck to the balloon animal discussion--but no, they had to bring up Kazam, because apparently he's the brother of that balloon modeler that used to live in Canterlot. Even so, Cheese felt stupid for letting it get to him.

He looked at rocks scattered in the cave, swiped a few, and started tossing them into the stream. Each one made a splash with a plip or a plop, which was oddly soothing. Each one that he tossed in he wished were his troubles, things that he wanted to get rid of, if only to become a better party pony without having the burden of worry. It'd be easier if he was happy and confident all the time, like everypony thought a party pony should be.

The sky turned purple. He looked down on the dusty ledge, and sighed, a hoof coming forth to rub his eye. Those events drained him, and he didn't feel like moving from his spot. He just wanted to go to sleep.

Once Celestia and Tomato had left Fancy Pants' manor, clad in their original clothes (or in Celestia's case, Cheese's yellow shirt), the two joined along with Twilight and Pinkie, who explained how Cheese had ran off and that their other friends and the Royal Guard were now searching the entirety of Canterlot for him. With him not knowing how to fly, Twilight reasoned that he couldn't have gone far, and it shouldn't be hard to find a tall, white alicorn with undulating hair.

Tomato was unnerved by how grim Celestia was as they walked down one of the streets. He knew everyone had their limits, but it still worried him that her current mood was different from the warm and inviting one she had extended to him all day. Part of him wanted to reason that it was because her nose was red and sore from the pepper-induced sneezing fit, but he knew that wasn't it. At that moment, he wasn't sure he wanted Cheese to meet the princess.

"Of all the things that could have happened while he's in my body, he had to end up lighting on fire," Celestia groused. "The food fight is one thing, I find that funny. But destruction and bringing harm to my subjects is not something I'm pleased with."

Pinkie hopped back from looking in a dumpster, and heard this. She frowned. "But, Celestia, he didn't mean to! Cheesy would never ruin a party on purpose!"

Celestia sighed. "I know it was an accident, as was what happened this morning and any other time he may have used my magic. It doesn't make me less upset that my little ponies could have been hurt or even killed by his actions."

Tomato winced. "Then... why were you in good spirits the whole day? You weren't that mad when the whole sun thing happened, and that's worse than the fair."

"Because I had faith that Luna and Twilight would keep him in check, and I know that most possessors of jester magic are good ponies that never mean any harm. Those that did do harm were usually misguided by one thing or another." She sighed. "I still remember Jamboree Rune and how her desperation over her husband's use of dark magic made her go insane."

"Well, I don't think Cheese is going insane--well, even more insane and in the bad way--anytime soon," Twilight said. "Let's just find him and get you two switched back before things get any worse."

Celestia nodded. "This mess can only be fixed when we're in our own bodies. So tell me, what was it that made him angry enough to summon my fire form?"

Twilight grinned sheepishly. "Stress? I, uh, wasn't there, so I received secondhand accounts that told me how random it seemed."

"I was there!" Pinkie exclaimed. "He was sitting by the cotton candy stand when all of a sudden, FWOOSH! And then he ran around screaming."

"Well, once we find him, we'll have to ask what upset him." Celestia scratched her chin and turned to Tomato. "Tell me, Tomato, where is the most likely place he could hide?"

Tomato bit his lip. "Well... I know you're asking me by virtue of me being his brother... and well, he was a hide-and-seek champ when we were colts..." He shook his head. "But, Your Highness, I don't know Canterlot enough to make an accurate guess on where he'd hide! My best guess would be that he somehow slipped out of the city, like he did with Manehattan when he ran away years ago."

Celestia blinked. "Wait... ran away?"

Tomato looked at the stones that made up the street they walked down. "Yeah... you don't know this, but I'm a lousy brother. I took him for granted and thought he'd always be there, thought I could instantly solve his emotional issues by getting him to play with me and my friends, and I've broken something of his more than once."

"Wasn't the broken accordion the final straw?" Pinkie asked.

"Pinkie!" Tomato snapped. Noticing Celestia staring at him, he sighed. "Yeah... she's right, it was. As a result, he pretty much hated me until last fall." He gave a dirty look to Pinkie, which softened after a couple seconds and he shook his head. "Psht, I still don't quite understand why he forgave me. No one else did."

"Hm." Celestia nodded. She looked up at the rising moon. "I see. Accidentally alienating your sibling out of ignorance and pride? I think I see where you're coming from."

That was when Luna descended from the sky and landed in front of the group. "How is the search going?"

Twilight looked back at the others. "Well, we got Celestia out of the party that was occupying her. We're still looking for Cheese."

Luna looked to Celestia and Tomato, looking between them to figure out which body was that of Cheese Sandwich. "Celestia, are you in the body that reminds me of... those chips covered in cheese?"

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "You mean nachos?"

"Yes, those."

"Forgive me, Your Highness, but... why did you think of nachos specifically?"

"I saw a spilled plate of them at the fairgrounds, and they've been on my mind because I am hungry."

"Well, in any case, yes, I am Nacho Pony," Celestia said. She noticed Pinkie scrunching her face and giggling under her breath. After a quirked eyebrow toward her, she turned back to Luna and said coolly, "Luna, please explain why you let this swap happen."

Luna groaned. "Celly, they got you while I was checking on Mara. I can't be in two places at once!"

"Oh, you couldn't have created a clone to scare them into compliance?"

"The last time I created something in the Dreamscape it nearly ended in disaster!"

"Then maybe you should have dealt with the dream gremlins first before you checked up on Mara!"

Tomato nudged Twilight and asked, "Who's Mara?"

Twilight responded, "You don't want to know."

One of the Royal Guards happened to be passing by, heard Celestia and Luna arguing, and then trotted toward the group. Looking at Luna, he said, "Princess Luna, is this pony bothering you? Shall I throw him out of the city?"

Luna waved a hoof. "No, no, a pony disagreeing with me is not that big of a concern. Continue looking for Celestia."

"Yes, Your Highness." With that, the guard galloped away.

When the guard was out of sight, Luna sighed and said, "At this point, I doubt it matters how the switch could have been prevented."

"Right," Celestia said. "What matters is that we find Cheese Sandwich as soon as possible. Let's hope he doesn't use magic again." She turned to Tomato. "You said he'd slip out of the city, right?"

Tomato nodded.

"Okay, we're outside of Canterlot..." Twilight said. "Now what?"

The five stood by the river, after following Tomato's suggestion of where Cheese would run off to. Since it was already dark, there wasn't much anypony could see. The only lights were from the buildings, the horns of Twilight and Luna, and a flashlight that Pinkie had pulled out of her hair and was holding with her forelock.

Looking between the mountainside, the field beyond the river, and the valley below, Tomato bit his lip. "I have no idea."

Twilight groaned. "Oh, come on! You should know your brother and have a good idea of his hiding habits!"

Tomato rolled his eyes. "Excuse me for not knowing as much as a brother should, but that's what happens when you feud for more than a decade. Now, those hiding habits might have something to do with his magic--oh, wait, he doesn't have it right now!"

"Arguing is not going to get us anywhere," Celestia said, coming between them. Her eyes scanned the mountainside and spotted a few caves. "Perhaps he has concealed himself in one of those caves."

Luna took to the air. "I'll go check them. Hopefully he hasn't gotten lost in the tunnels and ended up in the old catacombs."

Twilight grimaced. "Oooh, I remember the catacombs." She started to fly as well. "Still, two ponies searching in there are better than one."

"We'll stay out here in case he's hiding elsewhere on the mountain," Celestia said. "Let's meet back here at midnight."

Luna and Twilight nodded, and then flew into the caves. Once the two alicorns had disappeared into the darkness, lights from their horns guiding them, Pinkie pulled out a couple more flashlights from her mane and gave them to Celestia and Tomato. The trio began their search around the walls of the city, among the waterfalls, and around the nearby field.

"All right," Tomato murmured as he walked along the wall, his tail holding the flashlight and shining it everywhere he could. "Where could an alicorn fit?"

"I dunno," Pinkie answered. "Maybe in a tree? Celestia, would you hide in a tree?"

"If I wasn't so big, I would," Celestia answered, her words a bit slurred from the small flashlight between her teeth.

"You know, Your Highness, you're a lot more playful than I expected," Tomato said. "I mean, I always imagined that while benevolent, you were kind of stuffy and serious. I mean, running the country is not an easy task, and as my mom says, when did a pony with a silly personality accomplish anything important? After all, a serious job requires a serious pony, am I right?"

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "I'm only serious when I need to be. I quite enjoy the times where I can cut loose and have fun." She pointed to Pinkie Pie. "And she's been a big part in saving Equestria several times, and she's connected with Laughter."

"Yep!" Pinkie chirped. "I like that Laughter is important. It's okay to find something to smile about and hope that things will get better."

Celestia chuckled, rolling the flashlight to speak easier. "And when I was in Las Pegasus, I heard that somepony had put the vampires under control with an accordion and a conga line, if only temporarily. Now that would have been a sight to see."

Tomato scratched his head and mumbled, "I don't remember that."

Pinkie leaned over, giving him a quizzical look. "But how can you not remember? Didn't you turn into a vampire?"

Tomato froze and glared at Pinkie. He hated that she had managed to hear that. "What happened in Las Pegasus is going to stay there!"

Celestia blinked. "Wait, what?"

Tomato covered his mouth, and continued his glower at Pinkie, who covered hers in turn and muttered, "Oops. I guess you didn't tell her."

Tomato groaned. Even if the subject had come up, I wouldn't have told her!

Celestia turned to Tomato. "You were there? And you were..." Her brow furrowed and her voice was soft, watching Tomato as he recoiled from the implied word, shaking his head in desperation. "You were the one named 'Tommy' that I heard about, weren't you?"

Tomato backed away, looked at the ground, and then replied, "Okay, fine, you caught me. Not only was I there, but I was one of the stupid vampires, all right? And I can't remember very much because I was hypnotized. There, happy?" He threw his flashlight onto the ground, turned his back, and stormed to the edge of the cliff. He sat right next to the waterfall and looked down into the valley.

The cool night breeze blew through his coat and mane, and the smell of freshwater filled his nostrils. Looking past his perch, he noted how high the drop was, and wondered how the mountain compared to the height that he had dropped Cheese from as a vampire. He felt a pit in his stomach as he remembered snapping out of his trance by way of a pain in his muzzle, only to find himself in the sky, and his brother plummeting from thousands of feet in the air. His heart ached upon thinking of how close Cheese came to hitting the ground.

He sighed, crossed his front legs, and shook his head while his hoof was on his forehead. "Why was I so gullible?"

Celestia nudged Pinkie and told her to keep looking for Cheese. In response, Pinkie saluted her and hopped away, calling out Cheese's name. Once Pinkie had left, the princess had made her way to Tomato and put the flashlight down.

She sat beside him. "I don't hold it against you. You were just as much a victim of that nightmare as everypony else that was transformed."

Tomato didn't look at her. "I could have prevented it, Your Highness. I made a deal with Kazam to help his sister pay off at least some of the debt by working for him. It was a horrible mistake, and for that, I was first pony to be transformed." He rubbed one of his temples. "I remember so little after Cheese, the sister, and I went to confront him about it. One second, I was in his trailer... the next, I was in the sky!"

"That sounds quite jarring."

"Not as jarring as finding out what I was doing during that trance." He still rubbed that temple. "With me being the first vampire... I'm sure you can figure out what Kazam did to transform all those other ponies." He licked his teeth, feeling the ghost of those fangs. "I can't believe I turned into a monster. Serves me right for being so stupid."

"Tomato, we all make mistakes." Celestia looked up at the moon. "But, from the mildly embarrassing to the unbearably painful, it's important not to destroy yourself over them, but to take steps in order to forgive yourself and move forward with your new knowledge."

Tomato leaned in his hooves. "I just wish it was easy."

That was when they heard a faint sneeze below them, and not long after, a plasma beam exploded from the ground behind them. Before they could even turn to see what damage had occurred, the part of the ledge they were sitting on broke off, and crumbled under them. The pair quickly found themselves tumbling down the mountainside, flanked by chunks of rock and a flashlight.

Pinkie, having heard the blast, quickly rushed onto the scene, and saw that the cliff had lost a huge chunk of lad near the waterfall. She gasped when she shined her flashlight down the cliff and saw them fall, and quickly pulled out long streamers from her mane to braid and tie together. "Don't worry! I'm coming!"

The cool mist from the falls was now ice cold as the wind blasted in their faces during their descent. The noise in their ears was great from both the blowing, the waterfall, and the rock slide that accompanied them. Their hearts raced as they kept on falling, and both of them felt slight tension in their backs, the ghosts of wings flapping in vain to stop the fall. But all they could do was grab each other's hooves, and hope there was a tree growing on the cliffside they could grab.

However, Tomato felt a mouth clamp on his tail, and his fall was quickly stopped. His front leg nearly popped off with the stop of Celestia's fall, and his shoulder already began to ache. Even so, his focus was on the pony who had grabbed him.

There it was, the body of Princess Celestia.

Cheese.

Cheese pulled them up, and dragged them into the cave. He let go of Tomato's tail, and started to spit into the stream beside him.

Tomato stood up and brushed himself off. Squinting his eyes to look at the alicorn in front of him, he tilted his head and asked, "Cheese? Are you in there?"

"Ugh..." he complained. "Why is the mane gel taste still lingering? I don't remember you bringing any! Did you borrow some and gel-ify your tail back in Fancy Pants' manor?"

"I'll take that as a yes."

Celestia stood up as well and shook herself off. "Falling is never fun, wings or not."

Cheese blinked. "Holy... is that really what my voice sounds like?" He crawled closer to Celestia and squinted his eyes, scanning his native body up and down. "Gosh darn it, I can't see what I look like to another in the dark."

Pinkie sprang down from the top of the cliff with her braided streamers, hung there upside down, and shined the flashlight into the cave. Waving at them, she called, "Good job finding him, guys! Now we just gotta get Luna and--"

The streamer rope snapped and she plopped onto the ledge. Looking up, she groaned. "Great, my streamers broke."

She stood back up, and then trotted in, providing light in the cave. "So, whatcha doing in here, Cheesy?"

"Yeah, we were told you didn't know how to fly," Tomato said. "Did you learn in the span of a few hours?"

Cheese looked away. "Nah, I still don't know how. I'm in this cave because I accidentally teleported here." Rubbing his leg, he looked straight at Celestia, bowed to her and groveled at her feet. "Your Highness... I am so, so sorry for wrecking everything." He grabbed his hair and pulled at it. "I don't know how to use your magic, these wings have minds of their own, and... and I'm not used to this princess gig--or even being a mare for that matter! I still can't believe that this switch even happened, I-I just keep wishing it's just a bad dream!"

He punched the wall, leaving a dent in it. He stared at it for a moment before adding, "I completely forgot about the earth pony strength."

Celestia laid on her belly and looked at him eye to eye. "I heard of what you have done today while you were being... well, me. If I'm going to be honest, I am unhappy with the results of your actions."

Cheese bit his lip. "I know..."

"However, Cheese Sandwich, I do understand that it was born out of inexperience of alicorn magic and the complicated nature of politics. And I am willing to try to understand if there are any other reasons that may have contributed to the disaster, especially when it came to you activating my fire form."

Cheese sighed. "I know it seemed sudden." He looked up at Pinkie Pie and twiddled his hooves. "Let's just say I overheard something that made me feel so tense and afraid and angry... ugh, I feel so silly for letting it get to me! And now... what a fool I've made of the ruler of Equestria."

Pinkie frowned, and then hopped forward to give him a hug. "I'm so sorry that you got scared! What was it that scared you?"

Cheese's gaze then fell on Tomato, and he stared for a good five seconds before he glanced away and shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it."

The gaze had been long enough that Tomato started to wonder if it had anything to do with him. With the memory of Las Pegasus fresh in his mind, he guessed that perhaps it had something to do with that. After all, Cheese had almost died there.

Celestia nodded. "All right, I understand. Just be aware that having someone nearby to listen when you're ready to talk about it will be a good way to help you cope." She looked at Tomato as she said this, though he pursed his lips, rubbed his sleeve, and looked away out of uneasiness.

"Uh... okay." Cheese twiddled his hooves again. "Am I going to the dungeon once we're back in our own bodies?"

"No... I expect you to fix the fair once you're back in your body. I'm certain that's the only way you can fix it."

Cheese blinked, and then hopped to his feet. "Yes! Anything to make up for that disaster! I don't want those ponies to be fair-less!" He turned to Pinkie. "Pinkie Pie, you must work with me so that we may make this fair epic!"

Pinkie grinned and bounced in place. "Okey-dokey-loki!"

Celestia chuckled. "And don't worry about my reputation--I've had blows to it before, and I can fix it again."

"There you are!"

The four of them turned to the entrance, where Twilight and Luna stood. Twilight continued, "We heard the explosion and rushed back to see what it was. And then we followed Pinkie's streamers here. So... what happened?"

"I sneezed." Cheese said, rubbing the back of his head. He then glanced at Celestia and added, "Speaking of sneezing, why is my nose red?"

Author's Note

You know, I was originally meaning for the stories in this thing to be self-contained, but with me being a continuity nut, they just ended up bleeding into each other. Heck, what happened in Halterside did technically lead to the whole Las Haygas incident, and the Sandwiches have not forgotten what happened in Las Haygas (even though Tomato's mostly blank on the event because hypnosis).

~~Though who's to say that Kazam wouldn't have find somepony else to be the first vampire?~~

Celestia's still hard for me to write. Ugh, can't wait until this segment is over and I can move on to the next one... :ajbemused:

8.7--Swap Meet

It was declared that Princess Celestia had been found, and that she and Princess Luna were going to discuss how to fix the mess that was made. The news had spread through Canterlot, and once Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy heard it, they stopped their respective searches, and decided to go and meet Spike at the Canterlot train station. Once they retrieved him, they went to explaining the entire situation to him as they walked back to the castle. After learning from the guards that Celestia and co. were going to her bed chamber to get cleaned up, that was were they were headed.

"So, let me get this straight..." Spike said as they walked down the one of the castle hallways. "Little demons in the Dreamscape pulled Celestia out of her dream door, and threw her into Cheese Sandwich's door, and vice versa, and because of that, they're now in each other's bodies?"

"Eeyup," Applejack said. "Crazy things have been happenin' all day because of it."

Fluttershy nodded. "We were lucky that the Sandwiches were in Canterlot so Luna could switch them back earlier."

Spike sighed. "The things I miss when I stay behind to help Ponyville prepare for the Summer Sun Celebration. Still, it explains why the sun was acting weird this morning."

"Well, I'm just glad Cheese was found before anything else went wrong," Rarity said. "He clearly wasn't meant for high society."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "I don't think any party pony is."

The group made it to Celestia's bedroom, and Applejack knocked on the door. Twilight answered the door, and looking down both ends of the hallway, she quickly ushered them inside. She shut the door behind them, and noticing Spike, she asked if he was in the know. They confirmed it, and they went back to business.

Inside the room, Pinkie was serving some hot chocolate to Celestia, who was on the floor trying to figure out Cheese's tail, and Cheese, who sat in the bed and was using his hooves to hold the mug, while Tomato was in the corner, curiously looking through scrolls from one of Celestia's shelves. Luna was waiting impatiently as Celestia was trying to figure out how to make a bed out of Cheese's tail, and was trying to both fluff it up and spread it out on the floor. She tried to lay down on it, only for her head to hit the floor.

"Are you sure you don't want the bed?" Cheese asked after taking a few gulps of hot chocolate. "I mean, we are technically both going to have a turn in this thing, and frankly, I'd rather you be comfortable, Your Highness."

Spike blinked. "That sounds weird coming from Celestia's mouth."

Celestia stood up and shook herself. She took her hot chocolate from the stool and took a sip. "No, no, it'd be easier for you to get comfortable on my bed than the floor. Seeing as you're not used to sleeping with wings, you should have the more comfortable place to sleep. Besides, could you instruct me on how to make your tail a bed?"

"It... kind of requires control of my magic."

"Oh. That's a problem, because I could only activate it by sneezing."

"I wonder why sneezing," Twilight grumbled.

"Because it's funny," Pinkie answered.

"That doesn't answer my question!"

Without taking his eyes off the scroll he was reading, Tomato suggested, "Maybe if we make her sneeze, a bean bag will pop out."

Cheese turned and glared at him. "No, I'm not willing to put my nostrils through more torture!"

Celestia sneezed once again, with confetti and bubbles jumping from behind her back. She shrugged. "Sorry, no bean bag."

Spike held his breath, a few chuckles seeping out of him. The others stared at him, and then turned back to the party pony and princess, still arguing about the sleeping arrangements and who gets the bed and who sleeps on the floor, until Cheese took one of the pillows on the bed and dropped it on the floor, telling her to at least take a pillow.

Luna was rubbing one of her temples and grumbling, "Please stop wasting time and just go to sleep already." She turned to Pinkie. "Why did you give them hot chocolate?"

"Because hot chocolate helps me go to sleep!" Pinkie answered. "It feels so nice when my belly is warm and it makes me sleepy. I also get lots of good dreams, like the one where Rarity was a marshmallow making gumdrop dresses." She grinned at Rarity, who was giving her an odd look. Then she turned back to Cheese and said, "I want you two to have good dreams. So drink it to your heart's content!"

Cheese smiled at her. "You're really sweet and thoughtful, Pinkie." He guzzled the rest of the chocolate down and sighed in delight. "Wow, that's some tasty chocolate! The heat didn't even bother me!"

Celestia took a sip of hers and then recoiled. Feeling her tongue, she sighed. "That might be my body's heat resistance coming in play." She set the hot chocolate aside and laid on the pillow. "Might as well try to sleep now."

Cheese put his mug aside, and laid on the bed, quietly singing, "Going to have sweet dreams... sweet dreams are made of cheese..."

Twilight looked at the rest of her friends, and asked, "Do you guys mind standing guard so nopony bothers us?"

Applejack smiled. "Of course, Twi." She turned, opened the door, and beckoned the others. "Come on, y'all, let's give them some quiet."

Twilight looked between Spike, Pinkie, and Tomato. "You three be on the lookout for any disturbances outside, okay?"

Pinkie saluted. "I'm on it." She hopped to the window, followed by Spike, and then was joined a few seconds later by Tomato.

As the four outside stood guard and the other three watched the streets from the window, Twilight shut off the lights. She watched as Celestia and Cheese fell into their slumbers, with Cheese grabbing a pillow and snuggling it, while Celestia lay still.

She glanced at Luna, who was beginning to hover and her horn was glowing a brilliant white. From the tip of the horn sprung magical threads, and they stretched forward toward the two, touching their foreheads. Cheese giggled a little and mumbled, "That tickles," before lolling back to sleep.

Everything was still as Luna went about her work. The moonlight provided enough light to see, but not enough for it to disturb the two sleeping ponies. The three at the window kept quiet, and while Twilight could hear muffled conversation through the door, at least it wasn't enough to disrupt the process. She smiled at how smoothly things were going.

I wonder what they're dreaming about, she thought.

Cheese Sandwich had found himself in Las Pegasus again, under the light of a lamppost on a cold, dark bridge. He could see the neon lights around him; however, they weren't very bright. It was quiet, and he could only hear his heartbeat as he awaited what was coming. Holding his accordion close, he felt as if that was the only thing he had to defend himself.

He felt a chill run down his spine as the floating paths finally came alive with the cacophony of screeches and hisses. Looking around, he was searching for the source of the noise, all the while trying to keep himself from quaking. Fear was gripping his heart, but he at least wanted some dignity.

The first vampire leapt out from his left with a hiss, and he jumped out of the way, soaring over the clouds onto another bridge. Another came from his right, and he stumbled forward. Another came from behind, and he ducked. He rolled out of the way of another coming from above him, and he was out in the dark. Looking around, he could still hear the screeches and hisses, coming from the red-eyed shadows staring at him.

The winged shadows swarmed him. Due to being surrounded, he had no choice but to fight back.

He slung his accordion onto his barrel. With a solid stance, his first action was to buck away those leaping at him from behind. He was grabbed by the front leg of one shadow, and he in turn tossed it into another shadow. He rolled out of the way of those coming above, which smacked head first into the walkway. He punched one coming in front, kicked one coming from the rear, and when some jumped onto him, he channeled his inner bucking bronco and had a brief rodeo with the bat-ponies until he finally bucked them off, sending them down beneath the cloud sea.

His heart pounded, and he wiped his forehead. Looking up, he felt his gut being twisted as he saw a little orangey speck dropping from thousands of feet in the air. Blinking, he stared at it for a good moment, wondering what it was. Everything was numb as he stared at it, trying to make out its shape. He narrowed his eyes, and a little glance upward had him spotting another speck--which was a reddish color--chasing the orange one.

He heard a hiss in front of him, and he quickly pulled off his accordion, and slung one end at his attacker. The instrument smacked the creature in the face, and the creature was knocked back into the light.

Breathing heavily, Cheese was surprised to see that it was pink. Curious, he strapped his accordion back on, and walked forward, hoping to get a closer look at the creature he just knocked out.

The moment he stopped, the bat-pony turned to him.

He staggered back as he recognized the face of Pinkie Pie, with her raspberry locks in a wild tangle and her eyes now a piercing red. She hissed at him, baring her long, sharp fangs, and once she got up and stretched her wings, she began to creep toward him.

"Pinkie... I'm so, so sorry!" he begged, backing up. "I-I didn't know it was you! I never would have done it if I knew!"

All the dim lights had suddenly brightened, and he found himself surrounded by familiar face--all with fangs and red eyes, some standing, some flying. Along with Pinkie were her friends and family; he spotted some friends he made on his travels, such as Trixie and Braeburn; he saw his brother's friends, both old and new; he saw his parents, showing more emotion than he had ever seen. Neighbors from his childhood, his old bullies, townsfolk from Ponyville, the ponies that he had run into on this vacation so far. The only pony that wasn't there was Tomato.

They were all licking their lips and creeping forward, even as Cheese held up his accordion in defense and cried, "No, stop! I don't want to hurt any of you! Just please, leave me alone!"

Twilight's smile fell into a confused frown as Cheese began to toss and turn. A few grunts came forth from his mouth as he clutched the pillow tightly, and he rolled from one side to the other, pawing at the bed. At first, Twilight was willing to shrug it off, figuring that's how he slept normally. However, when she noticed Tomato turn and look at his brother with concern, that gave her reason to worry.

The tossing grew more aggressive, and he started to punch the pillow, mumbles slipping out of gritted teeth over whatever he was trying to fight back against in his dream. The mumbles caught the attention of Pinkie and Spike, and they looked among each other, Tomato, and Twilight, grimacing at the sight. Twilight bit her lip, hoping it wouldn't get to a point where he had to wake up.

In a whisper, Spike asked, "What's going on over there?"

Twilight ran a hoof through her mane. "I think he might be having a nightmare."

"Oh, no!" Pinkie cried in a hushed voice, covering her mouth. "I thought the hot chocolate would give him good dreams."

Tomato crossed his front legs, his face still holding worry. "That must be some intense dream."

As hard as he tried to fight them off, he was now overpowered.

At least two vampires were holding each leg, and one had stolen his accordion. He pulled to the left, and pulled to the right, but he could not slip any of his limbs out of their grip. He felt his muscles strain a little as he tried to wriggle out of the monsters' grasp, and he sprung back to position, feeling weak and tired and all around helpless as they held him.

He flinched at the awful note one of the vampires played on his accordion. Glaring at the vampire--apparently Big McIntosh with a unicorn horn for some reason--he complained, "You played a flat when it was supposed to be a sharp!"

He looked forward, and saw that Pinkie was marching toward him, licking her lips and a hungry look in her eyes.

Cheese gulped. While he did kind of secretly hope that she wanted him, this wasn't what he had in mind. Why couldn't this be a dream where she was going to kiss him instead of bite his neck? At least the former option would be far more pleasant.

She was over him, and she had her fangs prepared. Cheese was staring up at her with pleading eyes, silently begging her not to bite--transform back into that huggable pink mare, fight off the other vampires, take him on a magical flight to Saddle Arabia--anything besides what she was about to do! With misty eyes, he watched as she opened her mouth wide...

Suddenly, there was a flash of bright light, and the next thing he knew, Pinkie was back to her normal self, blinking as she stared at him. She smiled and said, "Hi, Cheesy!"

Cheese stared at her for a moment, and then muttered with a shy smile, "...hi."

Luna came into his vision. "I suppose I should have visited your mind first, seeing as you were having a terrible nightmare."

Cheese chuckled nervously. "...yeah..."

All the vampires in the scene evaporated, and it was just the two of them on the path. Luna turned her head away from Cheese, and she summoned a door just across the nearest bridge. The door was burgundy, with the cutie mark of Princess Celestia emblazoned on it. In awe, Cheese walked forward, and felt it, staring at the gold insignia.

"Wow, nice door," he said.

He looked back at Luna, who was looking around at the area. Pursing her lips, she remarked, "Your dream was of vampires and Las Pegasus. Quite vivid, and a little too soon after a certain disaster erupted in that very city. It's almost as if you had been there."

Cheese felt a shudder run through his body, and he backed up against the door. Trying to turn the knob, he muttered, "Oh... it's nothing, really. I just read the news about it... I've been to Las Pegasus before... I have a vivid imagination... it's not like I saw any actual vampires or anything, I always thought they were a myth!"

"They were a myth... until Kazam decided to follow in the footsteps of his ancestor and make them real."

"Oh... Kazam? That's the crazy guy's name? That's a funny name, I'd name my son that if he turned out to be a unicorn... well, if I ever have a son..." He felt his hoof slipping as he continued to try to turn the knob.

Luna held a half-lidded look. "I can tell you're lying."

"Okay, so I wouldn't name my kid that--I'd name him after my grandfather. Your Highness, don't you have better things to do than just asking me about Las Pegasus?" As hard as he tried, the knob wouldn't turn, and he couldn't help but growl at it.

"Cheese Sandwich, the door won't open until you tell me the truth. Were you, or were you not in Las Pegasus? Did you witness the vampire invasion? The longer you hold these in, the more you'll be hurt, and the more vulnerable you will be."

Cheese snorted and stomped on the bridge. "Okay, fine! I was there, I saw the entire thing, heck, I even tried to stop it! It was too big for me to handle on my own, I almost died, and my brother was one of those that had been transformed!" His eyes grew misty. "And the worst part is... I could have prevented it..."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Prevented it?"

Cheese wiped his eyes. "It all started my brother made a deal with Kazam in order to procure money to help somebody start a business. I could have gone with him, and maybe I could have convinced him not to work for the creep and get the money elsewhere. But... I was angry with him. I was angry that we suffered a humiliating defeat in a music battle, so I was cold to him until it was too late."

"I see. I suppose your trauma is the reason you ignited Celestia's fire form."

Cheese sighed. "I feel so stupid... I'm a party pony, I don't have time to deal with stuff like that! I don't need anypony's pity. Besides, nopony takes the feelings of a clown seriously."

"You'd be surprised. A jester from long ago once had serious troubles, and destroyed herself because she denied she had a problem and tried to keep everything funny, even as she was breaking down from the obvious disaster that was occurring. She couldn't discuss it with her husband since... he was the source of the trouble, and she wouldn't discuss it with anypony else--even her own children. You don't have to announce it to a crowd, but at least discuss it with somepony close to you."

"What, talking to you isn't enough?"

"It needs to get out in the waking world."

Cheese had his hoof on the knob. "I guess... maybe... ugh, I don't know. I'd rather just forget it happened."

The door glowed, and he opened the door to reveal Princess Celestia, sitting across from the door and against another one--this one being a tan color and having Cheese's own cutie mark on it. Taking a deep breath, he walked out, followed by Princess Luna.

Celestia stood up. "What took you so long?"

Cheese looked away. "Uh..."

Luna stepped forward. "He was unable to get out until he addressed something important."

"Yeah..." Cheese walked around the princess and opened his door. He looked back and sheepishly grinned. "I'll just go back into my own body now. I kind of miss being an earth pony... and a stallion... and a party pony... you know, I miss being me."

Once he shut the door, the sisters looked at each other. With a grim look, Celestia asked, "You know what's bothering him?"

Luna nodded. "Yes, but it's not my place to tell. I'm just hoping he'll handle this before it consumes him."

Cheese woke up on the floor, his nose feeling sore. With a yawn, he rolled onto his belly, stood up, and stretched his body, feeling his joints crack from his neck to his legs. Smacking his lips, he looked around in the moonlit room, blinking the heaviness out of his eyes.

He heard Pinkie gasp and say, "Look, one of them's awake!"

Spike then replied, "What took them so long?"

He had to process where he was for a moment before he was wide awake and realizing that he had been on the bed. So, he looked at his foreleg, and sure enough, he could see that it was his regular brownish orange color, even in the moonlight.

He reached behind his back, and yanked Boneless 2 out of nowhere. Staring at the rubber chicken, he laughed and threw it into the air.

"Yes, yes, yes! I'm Cheese again!" he exclaimed.

Pinkie jumped on him and squeezed him tightly. "That's good! It must have felt really weird to not be in your own body, especially when you're in a princess' body! You suddenly having a horn and wings that you have no idea how to control, and you're all of a sudden ruling a country! Wow, I would not want to be in that position."

Cheese chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah... I kind of ruined stuff... I don't exactly have 'enchantelligence', you know."

Twilight gave him a funny look. "Enchantelligence?"

"What? We need a word for magic know-how!"

"At least you didn't start a war," Tomato said, coming to his side. "Celestia told me that happened the last time she was switched with somepony."

"Still, I wish I hadn't missed the whole Cheese-as-Celestia thing," Spike grumbled. "I always miss the interesting stuff..."

Celestia rose from her bed, and rubbed her eyes. She took one look at her hoof, and then smiled at Luna, who descended from the air. "Well, it's certainly nice to be back in my own body again." She leaned in her bed and quickly noticed a wet spot on one of the pillows. Wiping her mouth, she said, "Oh, my, does he drool in his sleep?"

Twilight turned on the lights. "Oh, I'm so glad that went well. I was getting worried that we wouldn't succeed because of Cheese's nightmare."

Cheese glared at her. "Who told you I had a nightmare?"

"It was kind of obvious with your tossing and turning and punching the pillow," Tomato said. "What were you dreaming about anyway?"

Cheese bit his lip, looking around at everypony. He envisioned them all with the fangs and wings and red eyes of the vampires, and he could hear them hissing. His heart skipped a beat, and after a moment of pause and seeing this, he shook his head, and answered, "Oh... just about some schmuck stealing my snorkel while summoning floating feathers to tickle me!" He narrowed his eyes. "And then he dropped me into sandwich cookie filling..."

He noticed Luna give him an incredulous look, one that was half confused over his choice in cover-up nightmare, and half irritated at him for not telling the truth. He resisted the temptation to blow a raspberry at her, since he didn't know what the consequences for doing that to a princess were. Besides, there was no way he was going there again.

He glanced at Tomato, holding an equally confused look. Cheese rubbed his throat and wiped his aching nose. "Well, yeah, looking back on the dream, it was kind of funny. Why do some nightmares end up being hilarious?"

Pinkie hopped up. "Dunno. I once had a nightmare about monster cake. Turned out to be pretty funny in hindsight!"

Tomato shook his head. "None of my nightmares were ever funny."

Celestia got off the bed and approached Cheese. "You remember my order to go fix the Summer Sun Fair, right?"

Cheese blinked. "Oh, right! I better get on it!" He dashed to the door. He stopped short of it and looked at the princess dolefully. "Oh... uh... what about your reputation? If there was a way I could fix it..."

"Don't worry, I can handle it. Just fix the fair."

Cheese nodded, and then looked at Pinkie. "I'm going to need a little help."

Pinkie smiled smugly. "You've asked the right pony."

Cheese grabbed the handle, but then paused again. Turning to the others, he smiled sheepishly and asked, "So... where does Lemon Hearts live? I want to make it up to her for ruining her hard work."

Twilight and Spike looked at each other, and then trotted to the door. The former said, "We can help with that."

Cheese coughed. "Great!" Then he turned to Tomato. "Aaaand, I can't leave my little bro out, now, huh? Not much brotherly bonding time while we were here! Don't worry, we'll think of something for you to do once we get there."

Tomato sighed, and then shrugged. "'Kay."

"Perfect!" Cheese coughed, and then wiped his nose again. He silently cursed the pepper incident Celestia had told him about, and then wore his big grin again. "Now, let's get everypony else and make this fair epic!"

Author's Note

Okay, can I just say how happy I am that this chapter turned out to be easier for me? After a string of groaners, I am relieved to have a chapter that was easy to handle.

And thus, Cheese and Celestia are back in their own bodies! Yeah, it feels a little anticlimatic... sorry...

Also, Spike. I am ashamed of myself for forgetting him... I literally shoved in a half-baked excuse for that (seeing as he'd be accompanying the Mane Six at the Summer Sun Celebration). :ajsleepy:

9.1--I Don't Feel So Gouda

After watching Celestia raise the sun after the Summer Sun Fair, partaking in the big Summer Sun breakfast after, and saying their goodbyes to Pinkie and her friends, Cheese and Tomato once again headed out to wherever the Cheesy Sense was taking them. Much to their surprise, Cheese had no idea just what town Cheesy Sense was taking them; all he knew is that is was somewhere in the northeast, away from any other town or city he knew of.

The brothers had been on the train for a while now, the locomotive chugging along all day and currently through the night. Both had opted for a nice long night of rest after what happened in Canterlot. But one of them was not having a good night.

Cheese sprung to sitting position in his train seat, another night terror of Las Pegasus having caught him in sleep yet again. Breathing heavily, his stinging throat caught another tickle, and was swept up in a coughing fit. Every heave of his lungs hurt his chest, and he could feel something icky in his throat, trying to claw its way out of him. Each cough drained the little energy he had, which he hadn't really recharged during his rest back in Canterlot after fixing the fair. He was lucky that Cheesy Sense was still working.

He wiped his sweaty brow, and looked around the train car. Most of the other ponies were still asleep in their seats, Tomato included, and those that were awake were staring at him. He waved them off, and they turned back to their windows. After that, he grit his teeth and punched the seat, cursing himself for yet another nightmare.

For the love of gorgonzola! Why won't the dang vampires leave me alone? He leaned forward and rubbed his temples. A few more coughs escaped from his mouth, and he wiped the spittle away from his lips. Licking his teeth, he wondered just what it would have been like if any of those vampires had bit him--before shaking his head and urging himself to think of better parties in the past instead of the one that went horribly awry.

"First party in Ponyville..." he murmured. He smiled at that memory. "...party at the music store, where I earned my cutie mark... opening of the hardware store... success in Hoofington... the Birthaversary... the uh... uh... town holiday in Trottingham? Yeah, and uh... Halterside? Wait, no, that was humiliating... and that lead to Las Pegasus!"

Feeling his heart pounding and his sweat start to dampen his coat, he opened the window and let the cool air hit his face. He calmed down for a few moments, not caring that he was shivering from how cold the night wind seemed. Even so, it was preferable to him sweating so much.

He sneezed, and wiped his nose, and the coughing came back once again, this time threatening to make him cough his lungs out. The stinging in his throat turned to burning, and some liquid was dripping out of his nose. Once he finished coughing, he noticed his runny nose and groaned, wiping it all away.

"Hey..." one of the other passengers said. "Hey, pal, you mind shutting that? We don't want to freeze these ponies in their sleep."

Cheese blinked, and looked around, discovering that everypony was shivering, especially Tomato. With a sigh, he shut the window. Not long after, the other pony walked up to him, and presented something in his hoof. In the dark, Cheese only saw a little black dot, and a closer look reveled that it was some sort of small, hard candy.

The other pony grinned. "Cough drop? You sounded awful."

Cheese blinked, and took the cough drop, muttering "Thanks," and popping it in his mouth.

"You might want to go back to sleep," the other pony suggested. "The way you're coughing, you're clearly coming down with something. Need some rest to get better faster, you know?" And with that, he went back to his seat, and continued looking at the stars outside.

Cheese blinked slowly, and a yawn came out of his mouth. He slowly shut his eyes, figuring maybe a few minutes wouldn't hurt.

He heard a vampiric screech, and saw a muzzle full of fangs lunging toward him. It jolted him awake with a gasp, and he slammed his face onto the window. He laid there, feeling the coolness against his cheek, hoping it would counteract the sweat, his tense muscles, and his throbbing heart. It felt so wrong to fear sleep, but the nightmares were too much. Breathing through his teeth, he could only mentally cry about how he wanted to be left alone, and how much he wanted to forget what happened in Las Pegasus.

He looked across the aisle where Tomato lay, and was surprised to see the colt that was once silent and unmoving starting to toss and turn, an expression of distress on his face and some words coming out of his mouth. Peeling his cheek off of the window and leaning forward, he tried to discern just what his little brother was saying.

"No, Mom... I didn't mean to..." Tomato murmured, rolling dangerously close to the edge of the seat. "...how many times do I have to say I'm sorry...?"

Cheese listened to his murmurs, up until Tomato hissed angrily and made Cheese jump to his hooves. Holding his breath and trying to will his heart to be still, a blink quickly turned Tomato from the normal stallion he was to the vampire bat he once had been. As he stared at the monster before him, he started to wonder when it was going to wake up and attack him. A hoof came up and covered his neck, hoping that it would at least provide some protection.

He didn't know how long he had been standing there, but he sneezed after the landscape outside had completely changed, and opening his eyes after that revealed Tomato back to normal, still fussing in his sleep. Blinking, Cheese sat down, and rubbed his forehead.

Stupid. He felt so stupid. No other dangerous encounter he had been in had left him this jumpy, especially after more than a week--why was this happening to him now? He took slow, deep inhales, telling himself that it's okay, that it was all over, and that the rest of this trip was going to go smoothly.

He looked at his brother one more time, and watched him still tossing and turning. He didn't quite know what the nightmare was about, but seeing Tomato so disturbed in his sleep was heartbreaking. He rubbed his chin, and figured that he could do something to quell the nightmare he was having.

He pulled out his accordion from under the seat. He shakily lifted it, though he felt a sudden drop a couple of times. He had no idea why it seemed heavier than usual, but with some grunting and forcing his tired muscles, he managed to get it to his level. Looking at the still stirring Tomato, he began to play a tune.

He played it as slowly and as soothing as he could. He looked at the moon and stars, seeking inspiration for the lullaby he played, and he thought of a wolf's mournful howl, and how haunting and beautiful they always were under the moonlight. He tried to imitate a wolf's howl with his instrument, taking extra care to make it beautiful instead of creepy. He suppressed a cough, and kept on playing the long and gentle notes.

He smiled as Tomato's ear twitched, and his stirring ceased. Tomato curled up in a ball, snuggling against the seat and grabbing his tail to hold like a teddy bear. Any other pony would have laughed at this foalish behavior, but Cheese was glad he was doing it, for it was a sign the nightmare had ceased. The small smile that was gracing his face was definite proof of that. For a moment, Cheese could have sworn that his brother had become that tiny colt again.

Cheese stopped playing and set it down on the floor, his front legs practically limp from his few minutes of music. He smiled to himself, knowing that if he didn't get any sleep, at least his brother will.

It was the crack of dawn when the pair had left the train--stopping early due to some construction--and by noon, they had traveled into a cold mountain pass. Tomato wondered how far north they were to encounter mountains cold enough to be still covered in plenty of snow. He personally was thankful that he was wearing layers--made out of his button shirt, suit jacket, and the thick poncho that made him sweat back south. He still felt a little chilly, his hooves felt like ice blocks, and the cold air was stinging his nose as he breathed, but he was all right.

He wasn't sure he could say the same for Cheese, though. There was an obvious and exaggerated sway in his step, and the bags under his eyes were so big Tomato could easily use them to carry some spare bits. As he lead them on the path through the mountains, he was shivering like crazy, even under his poncho. Coughing was a common event during their hike, and some sneezes were ejecting more than confetti from his person. Seeing his legs shake under his weight, he worried that Cheese was going to collapse any moment.

The worst part was that Cheese was singing.

"Well they can bite me, baby... I perform this way..." Cheese rasped, his hoarse voice making Tomato cringe and shuffle away. He coughed, and swayed as he sung, "...I might be wearing Swiss cheese... or maybe... maybe covered with bees..."

Tomato looked around, hoping to spot some buildings in this mountainous region. At least one with a welcoming, homemaking hermit like Sedimentary Rock would be nice, one that could put Cheese in a warm bed, give him hot soup, fluids, and medicine, and keep him still for a while so that he may recover from this illness. After all, who would want a party planner in Cheese's state?

He groaned. "Cheese, where are we even going?"

Cheese sneezed, a burst of confetti springing from his person. Snorting his snot back into his nostrils, he replied, "...somewhere... somewhere in Montana... maybe in Waterloo... uh..."

Tomato blinked. "Eh... are those even real places?"

"I've got friends in low places..." Cheese replied, a cheesy grin uncomfortably stretched across his face.

"I'm not sure I want to know what you mean by that." The longer Tomato stared at Cheese's face, the more he wished he was carrying tissues. He shook his head, took Cheese's hoof, and then started to lead him down the path. "In any case, we better find a town soon--maybe somepony would be kind enough to give you medicine and stuff and offer you a bed so you sleep this sickness off."

Cheese sneezed on Tomato's hoof, and the younger brother prompted reacted by giving a cry of disgust, yanking his foreleg away, and then rushing to a snowpile near the path to wash off the snot that had been sneezed there. As he continued to wipe his pastern and fetlock, he shot a glare at Cheese.

Cheese rolled his eyes. "I'm not sick." Right after he said this, he once again fell straight into a coughing fit, prompting a raise of the eyebrow from Tomato. Cheese looked up, and glared at him, grumbling, "That doesn't mean anything," and starting to walk again, a few more coughs sputtering out.

"Really now?" Tomato said, following him once his hoof was clean.

Ambling in a slow and awkward dance, and coughing, Cheese said, "And also... sleep is overrated..." He yawned. "I once walked for... fifty... hours... straight..."

Tomato blinked. "Cheese, I know you've normally got a lot of energy, but that's not healthy."

Cheese rubbed his eye and sneezed on the ground. "I was never wealthy..."

"That's not what I said." Tomato looked off into the distance, and lit up upon seeing a town, nestled in what seemed like a desert landscape beyond the mountains. He figured that it was the end of the pass. "Okay, good, there is a town out here. We just need to make it there and find you a place to rest until you're back in tip top shape." The wind blew and Tomato shivered, looking around at the snow around them. "We better move fast, this weather's not helping anything."

"Parties to plan..." Cheese said in a wistful mumble. He shivered and coughed again. "Not letting a silly cough stop me..."

"Well, boo hoo, the party can wait." Tomato leaned over to look at his brother's face, and jumped when Cheese snored. With a shake of the head, he grabbed Cheese's tail with his own and started to drag him along the path. "The universe can spare one party pony for a few days."

Cheese snored again, and murmured, "No... no... no..."

"Yes, yes, yes..." Tomato replied. He grunted as continued to tug him along, and glanced at the snowy hill descending on both sides of them. With a deep breath, he muttered, "No worries, Tommy, just stay on the path, and you'll be fine. Hopefully, we'll make it to town by nightfall."

It didn't help that Cheese was stirring, and was pulling his hat over his head. "Get away from me... get away from me, you monsters..."

Tomato pursed his lips when he heard about that. Monsters?

Suddenly, Cheese's eyes shot open and with a gasp, he cried, "They've got my tail!"

Before Tomato could react, Cheese whipped his tail in an attempt to fling him off the mountain. Tomato felt himself thrown to the right, and catching a glimpse of where the steep, snowy mountainside led. He felt himself thrown to the left, which he realized was steeper than the other side. He was whipped to the right again, and whipped to the left again, and back and forth. His tail was still tightly wrapped around Cheese's, clinging for dear life, and Tomato was stumped on why Cheese was doing it.

"Che-ee-ee-ee-eese!" he cried. "Stop! Stop! Stop trying to throw me off the mountain!"

During a whip to the right, Cheese sneezed, and he staggered toward the direction that he whipped the weight on his tail. Tomato felt his face hit the snow, and then he was yanked from his place as Cheese fell and started rolling down the mountain. The two were soon tangled up in another Sandwich ball, and they rolled and bounded down the snowy hill, gathering snow in their clothes, and fur.

The snow gathered more snow... and more snow... and more snow, until there wasn't a trace of pony left on the outside of the ball, and a giant snowball was rolling through the mountains, bouncing along at great speed, and heading for the village.

A white stallion, with a pale blue mane swept over his eyes and a purple scarf around his neck, trotted around town, looking among the buildings and asking many of his neighbors where a friend of his went. So far, none of the ponies he had approached had seen the friend, and the stallion thanked them anyway for their time. He zipped from building to building, pony to pony, back and forth between the sides of the newly-finished cobblestone road, but nothing turned up.

With a frustrated groan, he muttered, "Where could he be?"

He looked to his side, and there was the bakery. Scratching his chin, he wondered if the friend he was looking for was visiting another friend of theirs, and went inside the bakery.

The baker, a pink unicorn mare with curly purple hair tied at the end, was handing some cupcakes to a customer and waving goodbye to them. She turned to the stallion, and smiled.

"Hello, Double Diamond!" she said. "What can I get you?"

Double Diamond trotted toward her. "The location of Party Favor? Has he been here, Sugar Belle?"

Sugar Belle frowned. "I'm afraid not. Why are you looking for him?"

Double Diamond leaned against the wall. "Well, we were going to discuss on how to impress the winter sport committee, so that they know we're warm and welcoming--and well, not in the same way as..." he shuddered. "...before."

"We've gotten the favor of outsiders before when we found those precious metals in the mountains," Sugar Belle said, using her magic to sprinkle powdered sugar on some lemon squares. "What makes this any different?"

Double Diamond rubbed the back of his head. "Well, this committee is looking for a good place for a new ski resort to be built. I invited them to our town so that they could take a look at the mountains here. I thought that if they're rad in the summer, since they've got lots of snow and all, they'd be outrageous in the winter!" He paused for a moment to think, and then added, "...with avalanche control, of course."

"Amazing how the pegasi replenished the snow so quickly after that weird sun incident a few days ago." Sugar Belle giggled. "Anyway, sounds like you'd be happy to share those mountains with other skiers, huh?"

"Well... if all goes well." Double Diamond sighed. "If we do manage to convince them to build that ski resort, it could help our town grow, you know?"

"Well, they better finish the train station and railroad extensions before then." Sugar Belle idly sorted a few of her pastries on the shelves. "I'd like for more ponies to taste my goodies."

Double Diamond laughed. "Well, I better better keep looking for our lost balloon buddy. See ya later!" He waved to his friend and walked out of the bakery.

Once he was out of the bakery, his smile turned into a frown, and he groaned. "I swear, that pony knows how to hide..."

He looked up, and spotted a dark blue pegasus mare. "Hey, Night Glider!"

The mare stopped and turned to look down at him. "Yeah?"

"Have you seen Party Favor anywhere?"

"No, but..." She turned her head, her eyes looking at something from beyond the house at the end of the street. "I see a giant snowball coming toward the town."

"Wait, what?"

He galloped to the end of town while Night Glider flew above him. Going beyond the house, sure enough, he saw a giant snowball jumping out of the valley near the mountains, and fly straight for them.

Double Diamond's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. "...that's one big snowball." He shook his head, and said, "Quick, we need to warn the others!"

Night Glider saluted and shot back, yelling down the street, "Everypony! Snowball alert! Snowball alert!"

The cry confused the townsfolk, and they looked among each other wondering what she meant by a snowball. They noticed her pointing to the sky, and a quick look at the white dot in the air had them jumping in fright before running for cover. A curious Sugar Belle poked her head out as well, and was promptly horrified by the coming snowy doom.

That was when Double Diamond noticed a light blue unicorn stallion with a curly dark blue mane popped up on the roof of the house, watching the snowball hurtling towards them. He narrowed his eyes at it, his mind processing the giant mound of white that was coming ever closer.

"Oh, there you are, Party Favor," Double Diamond said. Blinking, he shouted, "What are you doing?!"

Party Favor ignored the white stallion, still glaring at the snowball. He crouched on the roof, watching and waiting as the snowball flew closer and closer...

Then, in the blink of an eye, he leapt up, yanked a balloon from out of nowhere, and after a few stretches of the thing, he took a deep breath before exhaling in it. The balloon was swiftly inflated from a limp noodle to a gigantic, rubbery orb, blown bigger than the stallion that was inflating it with just his breath. As he started to fall, the snowball had made it to him--or rather his balloon, which was pressed inward by the momentum of the snowball and was pushing Party Favor back as well. For a brief moment, the unicorn could have sworn he saw a face pop out of the snowball.

The snowball was sprung back, just as the balloon popped and sent Party Favor falling onto the street. Even in the midst of pain from his landing, Party Favor thought he heard the snowball scream as it was launched back.

All was silent as he sat up and rubbed his back. He wished that the street wouldn't be so hard and wasn't made of rocks imported from the nearest rock farm--but at least he could spring back. Still, he looked up, curious about what he saw in that snowball. Had he been hallucinating or...

He heard the townsfolk cheering, and stood up to see all of them applauding him. He was quite surprised that ponies had noticed that, but his heart swelled under the praise that he was being given. All because he managed to deflect a snowball with just a balloon. Brushing the dust off of himself, he beamed at them.

Sugar Belle rushed toward Party Favor and hugged him. "Oh, you scared me! I thought I was going to lose a dear friend!"

Night Glider landed beside him. "That was amazing, Party Favor! I never could have done that!"

After being released from Sugar Belle's hug, Party Favor rubbed the back of his head. "You do what you gotta do to protect your home."

Double Diamond trotted to his side. "That was close! Are you okay, buddy?"

Party Favor stretched, a few cracks coming from his back. "I'll be fine." He finished stretching, and looked outside of town. Tapping his chin, he said, "Call me crazy, but... I think there might have been somepony in that snowball."

Double Diamond blinked. "Huh?"

Night Glider rolled her eyes. "Why would a pony be trapped in a snowball?"

Party Favor brushed his hoof on the ground. "Uh... maybe they were traveling on the mountain pass, and the stumbled down the snowy mountainside... and ended up rolling?"

"Happened to me more than once," Double Diamond remarked. "But are you sure there's a pony?"

"Well... I saw a face, but I want to be sure."

Double Diamond patted him on the back. "All right, we'll check."

Tomato Sandwich groaned.

Here he was, in the middle of nowhere, lying in a pile of snow. He stared up at the blue sky, his vision blurry because of the fog in his glasses. His body felt stiff and ached all over, his stomach was queasy, each individual hair on his coat was now an icicle, his clothes were covered in snow, and his face was feeling numb. He was thankful that he could breathe again; not much air was in the snowball. He wiggled his ears, and the stiff numbness gave way to an icy soreness. He bent his elbows and his knees, which popped as they did so, and he hoisted himself up to sitting position. He took off his glasses, pulled a cloth from his pocket, and rubbed the fog out of his glasses.

Once his glasses were back on his muzzle, he used both hooves to massage his head. They didn't help much, since they were practically ice blocks, but he still attempted to rub away the pain and dizziness from the ride in the snowball.

"Hey! I was right! There was somepony in there!"

Tomato looked up at the source of the voice, and he couldn't tell which one of the four ponies approaching him said it. From what he could tell, the ponies were light blue, dark blue, pink, and white respectively, and the dark blue one was flying. Rubbing his eyes, he noticed horns on the light blue and pink ponies. Finally, when they came close enough, he saw that the pegasus and pink unicorn were mares, while the other two were stallions.

The four stopped just in front of him. The white one was the only one that came closer, asking him, "Are you all right, sir?"

Tomato tried to stretch his aching muscles. "I... I've felt worse." He shook his head rapidly. "Brrrr! That's cold."

"Yeah, that's how our mountains are," the pegasus said.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves," the white pony said. "I'm Double Diamond..." He gestured to the pegasus. "...that's Night Glider..." And then he gestured to the unicorns. "And that's Party Favor and Sugar Belle."

Tomato was still stretching. "Nice to meet you... I'm Tomato Sandwich."

"Tomato Sandwich, huh?" Night Glider said with a wry grin. "Nice lunch, but I'm more of a cheese sandwich kind of gal."

"Cheese... Cheese Sand--" Tomato's eyes widened. "Oh, no, Cheese!"

"Are you... lactose intolerant?" Sugar Belle asked.

"What?" Tomato shook his head and started to stand up. "No, no, no, I'm talking about my bro--"

He stopped when he felt a yanking on his tail, and he turned to see that it was still trapped in the snow. He stared at it, wondering if his tail was still holding Cheese's.

Double Diamond leaned forward. "Your... bro? You mean a buddy or your actual--"

"Yes, my actual brother!" Tomato snapped. Seeing them stagger back, he cleared his throat, and said, "Pardon me, but... do you mind digging him out? I'm kind of stuck and in no position to do it myself."

"Oh, that's not a problem," Sugar Belle said, trotting to behind him. She started to telekinetically lift snow from the pile. "This way we don't accidentally scrape him with our hooves."

"And we'll dig your tail out," Double Diamond said, walking behind Tomato and pulling snow away from the tail. Night Glider joined him, and Party Favor joined Sugar Belle with a shovel made out of balloons.

Staring at Party Favor, Tomato asked, "Uh... you're a unicorn. Why don't you use your magic?"

Party Favor paused, and then shot a glare at him. With a sigh, he continued his shoveling and answered, "I can't. My dumb horn doesn't work."

"Really?"

"Yeah... something to do with minerals in my horn blocking magic. Puh, they're impossible to remove, so... yeah, forever useless horn."

"I, uh, I'm sorry to hear that..." His eyes widened as something clicked in his mind. "Wait... do you happen to have a sister named Silk Shimmer?"

Party Favor continued to dig, but this time giving Tomato a look of surprise. "Huh? Wait, how do you know my sister?"

Before Tomato could answer, Sugar Belle lifted some more snow, and came across a patch of yellow. "Hey! I think I found him! He's yellow, right?"

Tomato glanced at the still bewildered Party Favor, and figured that he'd discuss the whole search for him later. He turned to Sugar Belle and answered, "Eh, close, he wears a yellow shirt."

Party Favor shoveled some more snow off, and there was Cheese's face. Cheese gasped for air, sat up, and then started another coughing fit, which ended with a loud sneeze that made everypony jump. After that was done, Cheese mumbled, "Yay, I'm sitting in the white stuff...", and then plopped once again onto his back, shivering from the cold.

Noticing the slightly horrified stares of the others, Tomato said, "Don't worry, I'm 99 percent sure he means sandwich cookie filling."

Night Glider yanked Tomato's tail out of the sufficiently loosened snow, staring at Cheese. "He doesn't look so good."

Tomato stood up and brushed snow off his clothes. "Yeah, he's sick. I was trying to drag him to the next town when we ended up tumbling down the mountain and into a snowball and... did you guys see that?"

"Yes," the other four answered flatly.

Double Diamond stepped forward and added, "It was going to hit our town."

"Oh..." Tomato said. "Sorry."

Night Glider looked at Cheese, grimacing at the combination of shivering, coughing, and a runny nose. "So... are we going to carry the sick one back to town or...?"

Author's Note

Next segment has begun! And the location is none other than... *drumroll*

Our Town! :yay:

Aaaaand, unfortunately, Cheese is indeed sick. And sleep-deprived. That's not a good combo, especially when it comes to traveling through a cold mountain range. Bad things happen when it comes to that combo...

On the plus side, it's fun doing a silly trope like characters stuck in a snowball. And Party Favor. Yay, we finally get to meet Party Favor and his pals! :pinkiehappy:

Also, diagrams are your friends! If you were wondering what a "pastern" is...

9.2--Welcome to Our Town

"Admit it, Cheese."

Laying in the bed next to the stool Tomato sat on, Cheese had his front legs crossed, his face bearing a red muzzle which sniffled now and again, wide bloodshot eyes with heavy bags under them, and a big, fat frown. Twirling the thermometer in his mouth, he growled, "No, Tomato, I'm not sick."

The four ponies that had found them had lead them to the house of the town doctor, who was currently tending Cheese. They were in a simple room with a bed, a nightstand with a box of tissues and some magazines, and some cabinets and drawers presumably filled with the medicine and tools needed for the treatments of patients.

The doctor, a unicorn mare, plucked the thermometer from Cheese's mouth and looked at it. "Oh, I don't know. This thermometer says you've got a fever."

Cheese groaned and pulled on the bags further down his face. "I don't remember doing anything to catch a cold..."

Tomato pursed his lips. "I don't know, Cheese, we've been to quite a few places on our trip. You obviously caught it from somewhere."

The doctor walked to a cupboard and opened it, scanning the shelves for the right medicine. "I don't think it matters where you've caught it. Right now, you need to work on fighting it out of your system." She lit up upon seeing a certain bottle. "Aha! This cough syrup here will help you."

Removing the bottle from the shelf and pulling a tablespoon out of a drawer, she poured the syrup in the spoon. She levitated the spoon to Cheese's mouth, grinning in a manner that made Tomato scoot his stool away, wondering if the cough syrup had poison in it. He looked at Cheese, who didn't seem to notice it, and wondered why a party pony didn't see how forced that smile was.

Smacking his stool, he said, "Um, ma'am?" He cringed when she turned to him, but continued, "Could you tone down that smile? It kind of paints you as some sort of psycho."

Cheese glared at him. "Tomato! That's rude!"

The doctor frowned and rubbed her face. "Darn it, not again..." Chuckling nervously, she muttered, "I'm sorry, force of habit..."

She shook her head, and then chirped, "Open wide!"

Cheese sighed, and opened his mouth, letting the spoon float into his mouth. He slurped the syrup off the spoon, cringing and grimacing at the bitter taste. He forced himself to swallow it, fighting his own gags. Once it had gone all the way down, he let his tongue hang out, a loud "BLLEEEEEEGGHHHH..." sounding from his sore throat.

"There we go! Now, just stay in bed and rest while this illness passes during the next couple days."

Cheese rubbed his eye and shook his head. "No... can't... I got a party to plan."

"Cheese, listen to the doctor," Tomato said. "Your health takes priority over this party... wherever it's supposed to be."

Pulling a tissue from the box on the nightstand, Cheese blew his nose and said, "Actually..." He yawned and rubbed his eye. "...this is where my Cheesy Sense was leading me."

Tomato blinked. "What?"

Cheese nodded, his eyes growing heavy. "Eeeeeeeyeeeah.... party's here... gonna plan it..."

"Um, they already have a party pony? And he's completely healthy from what I can tell?"

"Party must be big then..." He grinned and looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah... really big... really fun... a party thrown by one is good but not as great as two..." He started to get up and climb out of the bed. "Let's go, I gotta starting work with him."

Tomato pushed him back in the bed. "Oh no you don't! You're in no state to do any party planning! Heck, that was terrible grammar."

Cheese snarled. "Don't push me, you little dummy! I'm not that sick."

The doctor shook her head and clicked her tongue. "I'm going to be blunt--you look terrible. In fact, you've got a case of sleep deprivation as well, mister! That's not good for your cold."

Cheese snorted. "Who needs sleep? I don't need sleep! Nothing but a waste of time when you could be thinking of great ideas! Like being carried by a giant flying octopus! Or driving a rocket couch to the sun! Or forcing your tail to grow a mustache!"

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Are you planning on hiring Discord at any point in time?"

Cheese suddenly laughed like a maniac, making Tomato and the doctor jump and back away out of fear. He slammed his head on his pillow repeatedly as he guffawed, tears rolling out of his eyes. Tomato and the doctor looked at each other, and the doctor mouthed, "He needs some sleep."

Cheese's laughter died down to chuckles. "Hire Discord? Great idea! In fact, there he is now!" He pointed right in front of him, prompting Tomato and the doctor to look at the thing that stood beside the door. With a grin, Cheese shouted, "Hey, Discord! Want a job? I'll pay you in kazoos!"

Tomato turned back to him. "Cheese, that's a coat rack."

"And your blood is made of ketchup!"

Tomato's eye twitched. "Eh... ew?"

The doctor rolled her eyes. "He'd die if that was the case. Sheesh, the way Cheese said that makes me think of vampires."

She ducked as Cheese chucked his pillow at her, letting it slam against the door. Cheese was heaving, crazed bloodshot eyes glaring at her, ears pinned back, his mane bristling, and his neck sunken into his shirt to keep it from being out in the open. Hot snorts fought against the dam of snot in his nostrils, and while one front leg still held its post-throw position, the other was pawing furiously on the mattress.

All parties held their breath, tension cutting the air like a knife. Things were silent aside from Cheese's raspy breathing, and both the doctor and Tomato stared at him in concern. Tomato noted the correlation between the word "vampire" and Cheese's violent action, but he held his tongue, fearing another outburst. After all, Cheese tended to be scary when he was angry.

A coughing fit from Cheese ended the silence, and the doctor put the pillow back under Cheese's head as he laid down. With a sigh, she said, "You definitely need sleep... badly. A lack of sleep is not good for your immune system or cognitive abilities, so I recommend that you get a little shuteye before you do anything else."

"What 'bout th' party?" Cheese murmured.

"Oh, don't worry, Party Favor's capable of handling the festivities for the arrival of the ski committee in a couple of days. Besides, if you really think he needs help, your brother here could fill in for you."

Tomato's eyes went wide, and he snapped his head around to face her. "What?!"

Cheese sunk further in his bed. "M'kay."

Tomato snapped his head around to look at him, grinding his teeth and pawing at the floor. "Cheese, you know I can't fill in for you! Aren't you worried that I'd ruin everything? I mean, it's not like this Party Favor guy needs any help from a boring business student that's too young to be taken seriously, am I right?"

Cheese waved a hoof. "You'll be fine. Just listen to what he says... make sure things run smoothly... make it as fun as you can... and go ahead and drop the sea bass into the ocean... and lick the entirety of Salt Lick City... and then have a romantic subplot like I do and Triple Dent Gum will make you smile smile smile..."

Cheese's eyes closed, and a snore came from him. Without a word, the doctor led Tomato out, leaving the elder brother alone to rest.

Once Tomato was out of the doctor's hut, he sat down with a sigh.

"Well, this is just great," he grumbled. "Does he really expect me to take his place in this endeavor? We're the furthest thing from interchangeable!" He leaned in his hooves and groaned. "Of all the times he had to get sick, it had to be in the middle of nowhere."

Suddenly, he was yanked away to the side of the house by a cane made out of balloons. Thrown around the corner and then dragged into the alleyway, he found himself face to face with Party Favor. Tomato's first thought upon seeing him was about how blue the fella was--hair, eyes, and coat, all different shades, with mane and tail being significantly darker. His second thought was that Party Favor had facial features nearly identical to his brother Kazam, which was rather unnerving consider what happened with Kazam. And his third was that the unicorn looked like he was demanding some sort of explanation of some sort. But even with the latter two thoughts, Party Favor's softer expression indicated that he was harmless.

"Help, help," he deadpanned. "Save me from this fiend."

Party Favor released him from the balloon cane and popped it with his horn. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."

"You just murdered a balloon, you monster."

"Well, evil does kind of run in my family," Party Favor joked. "It was only a matter of time..."

"Yep. Okay, what do you want from me?"

Party Favor donned a serious expression once again. "So, you know my sister Silk Shimmer?"

"Yeah, I've met her. Cheese and I ran into her in Halterside, where she was working for a pair of con ponies. After a convoluted kidnapping plot and a fair bit of humiliation for me, she quit working for the con ponies and decided to work with the brother of the pony she nearly helped kidnap, so she could make it up to them. They started a pizzeria at my suggestion and Silk got some money from your guys' brother in order to fund it." Tomato rubbed his chin and looked up. "I wonder how they're doing. Anyway, she asked us to keep an eye out for you."

Party Favor blinked. "Oooh, I've been wondering what she was up to. And it's really nice that at least somepony misses me. I was thinking that everypony was glad that the embarrassment of the Rune family had left."

"What do you mean?"

Party Favor tapped his horn, and then turned to show him his cutie mark--a pink balloon animal surrounded by confetti. "Having a disabled horn and a silly special talent of balloon modeling makes one feel worthless and alone, because they're unable to fit in with other unicorns at Canterlot. I have thought that I'd be better off without my cutie mark, but making friends here that actually are impressed with my balloon skills has alleviated that feeling, you know?"

Tomato briefly glanced at the house where Cheese rested. "You kind of remind me of someone. Of course, I know that having good friends has helped me out of some troubles of my own. Still, don't you miss your sister?"

"Of course I do. She was nice to me, unlike our brother. She just tended to be a little busy." Party Favor leaned against the house and scratched his chin. "But... she was really gullible enough to work for con ponies? She's talented enough in magic to go on her own, why did she need to join up with swindlers?"

"I'm guessing desperation. I don't think she's the best at advertising."

Party Favor rubbed the back of his head. "Maybe... I don't know. I haven't seen her in a few years, and I haven't written because, well..." He grimaced at what he was thinking about, and started to rub his temples.

Tomato nodded. "Go on..."

"Eh... we're, uh, just in the middle of nowhere. Hard to get a letter out from here, especially since the railroad's not finished. And I don't want to bother any of the pegasi to deliver a letter. What if they get lost? Our only contact with the rest of the world is when Double Diamond or somepony else goes out to trade."

"I see." His eyes widened as he realized something. "And... you don't get much news here, do you?"

Party Favor shook his head. "Nope. So... is there any big news that we in this town have missed?"

Tomato bit his lip. He wasn't really sure that he wanted to inform Party Favor of the disaster in Las Pegasus that Kazam had caused. After all, who would want to hear about their brother having been responsible for launching an attack on a major city? He especially didn't want to mention the whole part about being turned into a vampire. Tomato licked his teeth as he recalled the event, and his back was starting to itch again.

"Eh... no," he finally said. "Did you have any recent exciting events yourselves?"

"Well, Double Diamond got randomly meaner recently and came up with this weird excuse of having switched bodies with a rich filly in another town." Party Favor waved a hoof. "He was only like that for a couple of days during Summer Sun, but still! What a ridiculous excuse!"

Then, a third voice shouted, "I heard that!"

The two turned to see Double Diamond there, tapping his hoof and his face bearing an annoyed look. "And it did happen, Party Favor--I was in a filly's body for two days straight thanks to some... uh... little dream creatures, and Princess Luna had to switch me and the filly back. Talk about a weird out-of-body experience."

Considering that Cheese had switched bodies with Celestia a few days prior, it was not much of a stretch for Tomato to believe that Double Diamond was telling the truth. He realized that the white stallion didn't have the luxury of switching back earlier due to not having quick contact with the princesses to schedule a naptime for him and the filly.

Party Favor rolled his eyes. "In any case, at least you apologized for the mean things the 'filly' said."

"Anyway..." Double Diamond said. "I'm going to give you the grand tour of our town. I know it's not much, but you should at least know where everything is during your stay here."

"Oh, oh, mind if I help?!" Party Favor exclaimed.

"That'd be awesome, buddy." He turned to Tomato. "So..."

Tomato shrugged. "Not like I have anything better to do."

They first lead him to the house at the end of the street. With a grand gesture of the hoof, Double Diamond started with, "This building here is our city hall, where the mayor and his council make decisions in what laws to implement and what to build so that we could bring more revenue to our town and make it grow."

"Who's the mayor?" Tomato asked.

Party Favor pointed to Double Diamond. "He's just a little modest about his position."

Double Diamond brushed a hoof on the ground. "I always thought I was a simple skier; I just ended up learning things from when I was assisting the last mayor, and I've got a council to help me. Funny how that happens, am I right?"

Tomato tilted his head. "Didn't expect that."

Going inside the city hall was interesting--for one, Tomato quickly noticed that the building was built like a house, with some tables put together in the middle like a meeting table in the living room, and the office in the top floor reminding Tomato more of a bedroom without the bed.

When inquired about it, Double Diamond said, "Our former mayor used to live in this building."

"So... do you live here?"

Double Diamond shook his head. "Nah, I've never been able to spend a night here. It just didn't feel right."

Tomato took a book from a nearby bookshelf with his tail, and started to flip through it with a hoof. "Just go here to govern?"

Party Favor was looking out the window. "That's what he pretty much does. But, he spends more time outside with the rest of us, interacting with us townsfolk and hearing what ideas we have for the town. And it's absolutely fine by me!"

Tomato's nose wrinkled at the book he was looking at. "Hey... why do you have a book that has nothing but big equal signs in it? I mean, what's the point of a book if there's nothing to read or write in it?"

He looked up to see that both stallions were staring at him with eyes as big as plates. Time seemed to stand still as all parties had their staring contest. Tomato didn't know just what to expect next from them, especially since they looked so confused and fearful.

And then they screamed.

Tomato flinched and covered his ears as they did so, annoyed that they were making a big deal over a book. There was absolutely nothing of value in it, what was so frightening about it?

Then, Double Diamond turned to Party Favor and shouted, "I thought we burned all the equality propaganda!"

Party Favor jumped. "Don't look at me, I don't go into this place very often!"

"Well, looks like the town's going to have another bonfire tonight!"

"That's the only one we found! It's not big enough for a bonfire!"

"There's a lot of dead plants outside of town that make good kindling!"

"How do you even know that?!"

"Because I'm the outdoor pony!"

Tomato blinked. Well... that just happened. He looked at the book again, and kept flipping through the pages, seeing the same equal sign over and over. He pursed his lips, trying to figure out the "equality propaganda" that he was holding.

Giving up, he looked up to see his tour guides still arguing, and so he shut the book, took it from his tail, and then walked over to them. He smacked them both atop the head in quick succession, which made both of them shut up. He then gave the book to Double Diamond.

"Just burn the useless thing, no need to argue about it."

After they left City Hall, they continued their tour around town. Double Diamond pointed out some houses on the main street, explained about the recent paving of said street which made walks across town less dusty, and waved to a few of the business owners.

Soon enough, with all three stallions getting hungry, Party Favor suggested they stop at Sugar Belle's bakery. And so they went there, joining a few others groups of ponies there and sitting down at an empty table. Double Diamond slid the menu to Tomato, explaining that he and Party Favor already knew what there was to be ordered.

As they sat at their table, Party Favor pulled a napkin from the dispenser on the table, spat on it, and shined his horn. Double Diamond and Tomato gave him curious looks as he did so. The latter thought of his friend Bluejinx doing the same thing, usually in anticipation of certain ponies. However, before they could ask what he was doing, he hid the napkin. Not long after, Sugar Belle arrived with a notepad in her magic, giving them a sweet smile.

"Hello, Party Favor, Double Diamand, and... uh..." She gave a sheepish smile toward the red-orange stallion. "I'm sorry, I forgot your name."

Tomato leaned on the table. "Tomato."

"Okay, right. What can I get you boys?"

Double Diamond leaned in his seat. "I'd like the chocolate cream pie."

"And I'd like some donuts, please," Party Favor said.

Tomato looked over the menu. "Umm... I'll just have a chocolate chocolate chip muffin. Oh, and could you bring some cheesecake, too? I'm going to take it to my brother."

Sugar Belle jotted down the orders. "All right, coming right up!" And with that, she turned and trotted back into the bakery.

Party Favor rubbed his hooves in anticipation. "You're really going to like the desserts she bakes. She has the most absolutely perfect frosting that you'll ever taste, her pies are always filled with the best tasting fruit, and her cakes and donuts and muffins are just... so... fluffy!"

"I'm going to have to taste my muffin to be sure you're telling the truth," Tomato said.

"Party Favor just feels the need to brag about Sugar Belle's desserts on her behalf," Double Diamond said. "I'm not going to lie, she's a pretty good baker."

"Because she has so much love for her talent!" Party Favor had stars in his eyes as he sung his praises. "She pours so much of her heart into baking, and it shows. And I'm sure her sweet personality influences how sweet her desserts are. I mean, she's really, really sweet and friendly and sees so much beauty in everything! I'm happy that she has been one of the first genuine friends I've made since my arrival here. I wish I knew her when I was a colt."

"Ah, yes, I remember when you, her, and Night Glider told me about how you were the Conspirancy Squad," Double Diamond said with a wry grin. "You guys were eager to jump into action with me when we discovered Starlight had lied to us."

Tomato blinked. "Uh... Starlight?"

Double Diamond's eyes widened. "Oh, uh... that's our former mayor. She nearly ran this place into the ground."

Tomato looked down the street, recalling how it was said that the cobblestone path was new. He also recalled the "equality propaganda" from earlier, and it was awfully strange that this town was in the middle of nowhere. He thought about a piece of news from the past year about some sort of equality cult, but he shoved that thought aside, trying to tell himself that it was just a coincidence.

Still, looking at the suddenly quiet Double Diamond, and Party Favor distracting himself with shining his horn and fluffing his mane, they did seem a little nervous.

"Okay!" Sugar Belle called, carrying a platter of the ordered dessert and setting it on the table. "Here you are, boys! Enjoy your food."

Party Favor grinned. "Okey-dokey, Sugar Belle." He snatched a donut and started to munch in it. He smiled and winked at her, indicating that it was good. Double Diamond nodded to say the same thing as he ate his pie.

Tomato took a bite out of his muffin and nodded. "Okay... you weren't lying. Sugar Belle is pretty good at her talent."

After delivering that slice of cheesecake to Cheese, Double Diamond and Party Favor lead Tomato outside of the main street, showing him some of the other houses that weren't built in either of the rows. Unlike the general uniformity of main street, the houses outside were more varied in their designs without sacrificing sturdiness. Some had little garden plots, some had little sculptures, and some were painted differently. One house in particular had balloons and streamers painted on the wall, which Party Favor had said that it was has house.

Double Diamond explained that the townsponies at first lived in eleven of the thirteen houses on the main street because they were unable to build more until relatively recently. When asked about the two that weren't used, he quickly answered, as if he memorized the answer that the house on the end of the street is city hall, where the mayor ran things. As for the other hut, that was their jail.

"So... eleven houses, huh?" Tomato said. "How many ponies where living here at that time?"

"About a hundred adults and around 25 foals," Double Diamond answered.

"So... that'd be..." Tomato clicked his tongue as he mentally did the math. "Nine adults to each house, with one house having an extra, and the foals would be with their families. Not to mention some of the houses have less room due to businesses like that bakery and the clothes shop. Wow, sounds cramped."

Party Favor rubbed his leg. "It was. I lived in the space above the bakery with Sugar Belle, Night Glider, and several others. As much as I like my friends, I do appreciate having some space to myself."

"A lot of ponies do," Double Diamond said. "Some left because they couldn't stand it here anymore, but most of us stayed here in order to build our community together. Slow going, but there's progress."

Tomato rubbed his chin. "But you're so isolated. How will you trade with other towns and cities?"

Double Diamond pointed to a long, thin platform about a few hundred yards away from the furthest house, held up by stones, and benches being built on top of it. "That's why the Equestrian government is adding an extension to the railroad. Kind of helps when a princess has visited the town."

"Huh, I suppose that'll help. So... anything else you'd like to show me?"

"Not really, no."

Party Favor was looking up at one barren mountain. "What about the cave?"

Double Diamond sighed. "Nah, there's nothing really important that he needs to know about in there." He turned to Tomato. "I hope you enjoy your stay here while your brother recovers. We don't have much, but we'll try our best to make sure your stay is worthwhile."

Tomato was looking up at that same mountain. "All right then. I think I can go around town on my own now."

Double Diamond nodded, and started to walk back to town. "I have a meeting--in the meantime, you think of ways to prepare for the arrival of the ski committee? Remember Party Favor, we're counting on you to impress them with a good welcome party, okay?"

Party Favor grinned nervously. "Hehe... okay."

Double Diamond smiled. "I know you can do it, buddy." And with that, he broke into a trot back to town.

Party Favor nervously waved until Double Diamond was out of sight, and then he groaned. Running a hoof through his mane, he murmured, "Oh, boy... how am I going to do this? What kind of theme am I supposed to be going for? Will my balloons be enough? Ugh..."

"You okay there?" Tomato asked.

"No!" Party Favor shouted. "No, no, I'm not okay! All the other visits we've ever gotten were in regards of other ponies helping us, making sure we're recovering from Starlight's run as our mayor, or making economic progress, or whatever else! I didn't have any pressure to impress anypony then! But now... now we have to prove our hospitality in order to impress this ski committee so that we could build a ski resort here to get ponies here so that our town could make more money!" He grabbed Tomato's jacket and pulled him closer. "And everypony's counting on me to show ponies just what our town is about! But... but... are my balloon skills enough? I don't know! I've only thrown parties for friends, not strangers!"

Tomato scrunched his nose. "Uh... if it helps, I think your town is pretty hospitable."

Party Favor dropped him, his eye twitching. "If I had the time and a better postage system, I'd send a letter to that friend of Princess Twilight's to help me."

Laying on the ground, Tomato give him a funny look. "Wait, you've met Pinkie Pie?"

"Oh, that's her name. I kind of forgot it... I thought it had been 'Pot Pie' for a while. But, yeah, I met her. She was impressed with my balloon modeling and Sugar Belle's treats. Say, you know her?"

Tomato got up and brushed himself off. "My brother only worships her. Believe me, you get Cheese talking about Pinkie, he'd be squealing for hours. Heck, she's the reason that he's a party pony."

Party Favor blinked. "Wait, your brother's a party pony?"

"Did I forget to mention that? Well, he is, and his Cheesy Sense did bring him here. I think your nervousness over this thing might be the reason he was called here. Maybe he would have taken a mentor role in regards to you... if it weren't for a certain problem he's having."

Party Favor's face fell. "Drat... the one who comes to help me with this burden--and he's sick in bed!"

Tomato scoffed. "And he expects me to fill in for him. Never mind that the one party I threw had a horrible ending and that my special talent couldn't be any further from it." He turned to show Party Favor his cutie mark.

Party Favor scratched his chin as he stared at the mark. "So... you're a business pony?"

"Technically, I'm still a student, but yeah. Horrible choice."

Party Favor shrugged. "Well, I don't see why you couldn't do funny business."

"Well, it's not my kind of business."

"Still... don't you think you could for another shot in funny business?"

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "You're desperate, aren't you?"

"Yes."

Tomato glared at him for a moment, and then sighed. "Very well, Party Favor. We might as well wing it together."

Party Favor smiled, and thrust a hoof out. "Party business partners?"

Tomato took the hoof and shook it. "Only for the duration of my stay."

Author's Note

If any of you thought that I'd do a Cheese Sandwich/Party Favor friendship in this segment--I'm sorry to say that won't be the case. Poor Cheese is too sick and sleep-deprived to make a new friend at the moment. Their friendship would've been so cute tho

Instead, we have Party and Tomato working together on a party. They're gonna wing it.

Tommy's making a deal with a Rune again--at least there's no risk of vampirism this time.

9.3--Not Quite Party Animals

This is a terrible idea. I am not a party pony.

Under the light of the lantern sitting upon the stool used for a nightstand and sitting up in the bed that Party Favor had made for him out of balloons--since he couldn't stay in the sick house with Cheese--Tomato looked over the list of what he'd seen Cheese do since they started their trip. He could see the pieces of a party, but just how was he supposed to put them together? As much as he wanted to help this town, Tomato literally had no idea what to do.

The goal sounded simple; they needed to showcase the town's hospitality to this committee, and hopefully it'd be enough for said committee to agree to establish a ski resort near the mountains. Tomato knew that the townsponies were hospitable, even if they were a little creepy with the smiles he had caught glimpses of throughout the day. When trying to brainstorm with Party Favor earlier that day, the unicorn had responded to a question about their usual welcome with a perfect emulation of that same grin and a forcefully cheerful, "Welcome!"

He shivered, whether from the memory or the cold night air of this area he didn't quite know. He shifted himself to make himself more comfortable, though he kept on cringing at the loud squeaking of the balloons, thinking that his sleeping host would hear it. He stopped his shifting, and went back to the clipboard. He ran through the list, hoping to somehow figure out how to put these puzzle pieces together.

"All right..." he whispered. "Cheese sings, he dances, he blasts that huge party tank of his... how does he even store that...?" He shook his head. "Components of a party include food... and games... and music... and banners and streamers..." He scratched his chin. "How much in the way of all that stuff does this town have?"

This town was smaller than Nickerlite, in both population and number of buildings, located far away from the nearest train station, let alone the nearest city, and was frankly the most unremarkable place he had ever been in. The only thing that amazed him was the proximity of this desert to snowy mountains that Double Diamond had deemed good for skiing. He hoped the snow was good enough for that ski committee.

He huffed. "Market your dang snow, pal. There's plenty of it even when it's almost July."

He set the clipboard under the stool, and then turned off the lantern. He leaned forward, continuing to rub his chin. "These guys should have a Plan B... but what else do they have around here? What could they possibly have that'll attract other ponies and raise capital?"

He laid down and looked at the ceiling, wondering just what strengths of the town that these ponies could display for the coming prospect. The mountains were one, even if Tomato didn't like his and Cheese's ride in the snowball when they were there. Surely the doctor was a plus, since skiing often results in injuries. Sugar Belle's bakery was great for the locals, and outsiders like him and Cheese found her goods delicious--well, at least he did, since earlier Cheese complained that he couldn't taste anything. That clothes shop was nice.

He sighed, unsure if there was anything else that was interesting that could catch the attention of curious outsiders. Maybe he could go around and see what kind of plans the business owners like Sugar Belle had for their businesses should the town get the approval of that committee. Or maybe find a need of the town that couldn't be provided by anypony else here and tell Double Diamond to ask somepony out of town to establish a business there. Or maybe--

He shook his head. He didn't live here, and he shouldn't be intruding in other ponies' business. Besides, it wasn't like he was any good at the very talent that his cutie mark represented. He could still remember the disaster that the last time he followed his mark lead to, and he kept licking his teeth and getting itches on two certain spots on his back as reminders. And for all he knew, he could have gone through all of that trouble for nothing, for Silver back in Halterside to fail and drown in his sister's medical bills.

Might as well just try to get party implements and arrange them into something cohesive... somehow. Perhaps it'd bring him back to his lively, smiling colthood days, before he had turned into this mess hiding under a suit jacket. Maybe for once on this trip, he'd feel like he did something worthwhile. Maybe he was overthinking it, how hard could it be?

He closed his eyes. Despite the slightly creepy air about them, these ponies were so nice. He didn't want them to fail.

The next morning, Party Favor took Tomato to Sugar Belle's bakery once again, this time for breakfast. Surrounded by a few others who had decided on eating out for breakfast as well, the two awaited Sugar Belle so that she make take her order. As Tomato leaned on the table, he noticed that once again, Party Favor was fluffing his mane and performing a spit shine on his horn again.

"Is there any particular reason why you do that?" Tomato asked.

Party Favor looked up, and then straightened in his seat. "Oh, uh... I'm just doing a couple more late get-ready-for-the-morning things, that's all. I like my mane nice and fluffy... and well, we unicorns like our horns nice and shiny!" He twiddled his hooves.

"I have a unicorn friend. He's done that on the first day of school each year, before job interviews, and before dates. Is it a nervous tic for unicorns?"

Party Favor rolled his eyes. "Not for all unicorns... just those without access to a good horn cleaner..."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "So, are you still nervous about the party that has to be done?"

Party Favor sank in his seat, briefly glanced at Sugar Belle waiting at another table, and after a pause, answered, "...yes."

Tomato pulled out the clipboard and slid it across the table to him. "Well, I've compiled a list of what I've basically seen Cheese unleash at his parties. Hopefully they'll be good guidelines in setting up this thing."

Party Favor took the clipboard and scanned it. "What, no balloons?"

"Balloons are implied. I've seen them in every size."

"Well, good." Party Favor made his chair lean back, and his front legs were spread wide open as he looked to the heavens. "What's a party without balloons and balloon animals? My life would be a downright tragedy without balloons!"

Tomato leaned on the table and rolled his eyes. "Is your life currently a comedy?"

Then, Sugar Belle came to their table, notepad in magic and cheerfully saying, "Hello, Party Favor and Mr. Tomato!"

Party Favor stumbled back and he crashed onto the ground with a yelp. Both Tomato and Sugar Belle jumped upon the crash, the latter dropping her notepad, and they winced at the sight of him dazed on the floor, his eyes rolling in different directions and his tongue lolling out.

"Oh, my goodness!" Sugar Belle levitated both Party Favor and the chair off the ground, and placed him back into a good sitting position. "Are you okay? That fall looked painful."

"Mama, Kazam popped my balloons again..." he slurred.

"You think he needs to see the doctor?" Tomato asked, itching his own back.

"He doesn't listen! You ground him a lot, but he doesn't listen..."

Sugar Belle cringed. "Party Favor...?"

Party Favor shook his head, and shouted, "I'm okay!" He rubbed his head and grinned sheepishly. "I'm okay, I have a tough skull."

Sugar Belle giggled. "Good. I'd hate seeing one of my favorite stallions with head trauma." She levitated the notepad back up, and asked, "So, what can I get you boys?"

Tomato looked at the menu on the table. "Uh, I'll just have a bagel with cream cheese."

Party Favor raised his hoof. "Blueberry muffin, please!"

Sugar Belle scribbled them down and beamed at them. "Would you boys like any coffee?"

"Nah, you know I'm a juice kind of pony," Party Favor said.

Tomato pursed his lips and looked away. "I don't mix well with coffee, so no, I'll just have juice."

Sugar Belle nodded. "No problem."

She went inside the bakery, and it wasn't long before she returned with the bagel, the muffin, and two glasses of juice. Setting them in front of the two stallions, she said, "Here you go! I hope it's good."

Party Favor beamed at her, his eyes shining as he stared at her. "I just know it's good, since you baked it."

Sugar Belle waved a hoof. "You flatter me a little too much, Party Favor. You know I'm not the only one in town who can bake."

Party Favor took a bite out of his muffin. "This has your name all over it."

Sugar Belle blushed. "Well, I did bake that."

Tomato bit into his bagel. Nodding as he chewed, he swallowed his bite and said, "You are quite the baker." He looked around at the ponies sitting at the other tables. "It looks like everypony in town is quite fond of your work. If anything, you should be proud of your talent."

Sugar Belle looked at her cutie mark. "Well, I do try to appreciate it more often."

Tomato took another bite of his bagel. "You know, if this whole ski resort plan does come into fruition, then a lot more ponies would appreciate your baking. The more they appreciate it, the more ponies they'd inform, and the more ponies they inform, the more customers you get and the more money you earn, and the more money you earn, the better you can make this town, your life, and your business!" He stuffed the rest of his bagel into his mouth and swallowed it whole. "Why, you could provide the treats for the welcome party. Show this committee firsthand that you're a good baker!"

Sugar Belle backed away from him, and warily glanced at Party Favor. Biting her lip, she replied, "While the thought of other ponies trying my goodies is... nice, part of me kind of doesn't want the ski resort thing to happen."

Tomato blinked. "Why not?"

Sugar Belle rubbed her leg. "Well... you see, I don't want to flaunt my talent. I'll bake for my friends in this town, but the thought of strangers silently judging my goods and just tasting the extra grains of sugar or that there was a little less flour than needed or the fact that I overcooked it by a minute... that scares me. I'm just keeping a brave face so I don't disappoint Double Diamond."

Party Favor looked up from his half-eaten muffin. "Those are so minor nopony would notice."

"My father always noticed," Sugar Belle growled. She sighed. "I also don't want to bring attention away from my friends and have them be jealous of me. I mean, I couldn't face Party Favor for days when he said he envied my baking abilities."

Party Favor sank in his seat, to the point where his muzzle was under the table. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "You could just teach him how to bake, Sugar Belle."

Sugar Belle put a hoof to her mouth. "I don't know. I mean... Double Diamond has tried to teach us how to ski, but none of us can get it and he's frustrated with how little progress we've made. We're just not good at it like he is. And if we're not as good as him, what if we end up envying him like Party Favor envied my baking? What if we can't be friends anymore because we're not equal in ability of what we teach each other?"

Tomato gave her a funny look. "Uh... how'd you come to that conclusion? I tutor a friend in math, and it took a while for her to wrap her head around it. It was frustrating, but it was a big reward when she finally got it. In turn, she's taught me a few relaxation techniques for when I get too stressed out for whatever reason. Obviously, I'm still better at math, and she's still better at being at peace, but, you know... we practice. And when we say we 'envy' each other... we just mean it as a joke."

Sugar Belle pursed her lips, and then looked at another table. "Well... I'll oblige and bake some treats for the welcome party for my friends' sake. If you'll excuse me, there are more customers and I must be waiting on them now."

She hurriedly shuffled away from the stallions' table. When she was out of earshot, Party Favor glared at him. "Thanks a lot, Tomato. You made her uncomfortable."

Tomato snorted. "How was I supposed to know she was sensitive about growing a business and sharing a talent? My brother never got anywhere when he didn't share his musical talent--if he wasn't sick, he'd show you guys just how amazing of a party planner he is now."

"Speaking of party planning, let's hurry and eat so that we could plan for tomorrow," Party Favor said.

Tomato took his glass of juice and sipped it. "Right."

Later, the two were looking down the main street, both trying to envision what the party was going to look like. Party Favor was explaining the layout of other parties that the town had before, but he wanted to give it a little more oomph. At the same time, Tomato kept referring back to the clipboard, trying to imagine what Cheese would do in this situation. While his mind kept referring to the accordion incident, he shook it out of his head, reasoning to himself that he was older now, and that he was capable of more careful planning.

He looked around at the areas that Party Favor pointed out. Sugar Belle's shop was where all the cakes and brownies and other goodies were going to be served, as well as some fruits and vegetables. Party Favor suggested that the tables arranged into one long table, to which Tomato replied, "You better ask your baker friend about that."

"Oh, I plan to," Party Favor replied. Scratching his chin, he asked, "So... where should I put the balloons?"

"Uh... just string as many of them to the buildings that you can."

Party Favor pulled out a balloon and stretched it. "How big should I inflate them?"

"Uh... as big as you can."

Party Favor nodded and began to inflate it. It was quickly the size of his head, and it was steadily growing bigger as he continued to exhale into it.

"Hey, that's looking good..." Tomato then frowned. "Wait, don't you need a helium tank?"

Party Favor paused in his exhaling and shook his head. "I've got magic breath, so they can float without helium. They're also very durable--I once built a balloon bridge and it lasted for a month! So, they'll survive the night."

"Oh, okay, I'll just see what else we could do as you work on the balloons." Tomato looked down at the clipboard as Party Favor resumed inflating the balloon. Clicking his tongue, Tomato muttered, "Okay, I suppose we need a banner... is there a good artist around here? I sure hope so, this banner needs to look good, and I can't draw worth a darn."

He went down to the next item on the list and groaned. "And who around here can sing and dance? I'm not going to, not just because I'm not meant for entertainment, but also because I don't even live here, so I can't represent this place. Can anypony play an instrument?"

He sighed as he looked at the next item of the list. "And do we really need games, to be honest? These guys are here for business, so while they'll eat and mingle, ultimately they're here to see what the snow's like and what the ponies here are like. I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it."

That was when Double Diamond approached them. "How's the planning go--WHOA! Party Favor, that's too big!"

Tomato looked up and jumped at the sight of the balloon inflated to an enormous size, nearly as big as a house. And it was growing ever bigger as Party Favor continued to blow, and much to their astonishment, it didn't seem like it was getting ready to pop.

"Yikes! Party Favor, stop!" he shouted.

Party Favor snatched the neck of the balloon and then gave Tomato an annoyed look. "You said to inflate it as big as I can."

"I thought you'd blow it up to the size of a watermelon, not the size of a hot air balloon!"

Party Favor continued to glare at him, even as the balloon was lifting him up. "Well, if I suppose that this balloon is not good enough for you, I'll just pop it." He readied his horn to prick the rubber, not caring about the drop he was going to take.

"Party Favor, wait!" Double Diamond hollered. "Don't pop it, you'll fall and hurt yourself!"

Party Favor stopped. "You know I can cushion myself with a balloon when I fall, Double Diamond!"

He then looked at the balloon, rubbing his chin. "Oh, wait, I forgot about the shockwave that popping this thing would bring... not to mention it'd be a waste of a good balloon." He sighed. "I'll just let the air out instead."

He let go of it and fell. He quickly inflated another balloon, using it to bounce on the ground and soften his landing. Once he was safe, he looked up along with the other two stallions, as well as others out on the streets watching the deflating balloon in the sky.

The balloon was zipping all around the sky as it expelled the air from it's hole, making a raspberry noise that was making nearby foals giggle. It flew to the north, then snapped it's direction to the east, then to the west, then back south. It shrunk as it continued it's speedy and noisy dance in the air, nearly hitting Night Glider as she was hauling a bucket of water.

"Whoa!" Night Glider yelped, spilling some water from her bucket. "Ugh, Party Favor, careful with your balloons, you'll end up hurting somepony!"

Party Favor simply shrugged sheepishly.

All of a sudden, the balloon swerved downward, and Party Favor and Double Diamond ducked. Tomato was in the motion of ducking when the balloon rammed into him, and with a yelp he found himself swiftly being pushed into the stone wall of one of the houses.

CRASH!

Party Favor, Double Diamond, and a landing Night Glider winced at the sight. Party Favor idly caught the now deflated balloon, which had jumped away after hitting Tomato, still staring at the dazed Sandwich on the wall. The vermilion stallion was clearly seeing stars, and it seemed like he was about to throw up. He peeled off the dent in the wall, and landed in the street, muttering, "The waitress is practicing politics..."

Night Glider sighed. "How are we going to tell Spilled Milk what happened to his house?"

"Okay, it's a good thing you weren't hurt too bad..." Party Favor grinned sheepishly. "Sorry..."

Tomato winced from the bump that had formed on the back of his head. Through gritted teeth, he said, "It's fine... accidents happen..."

Party Favor clapped, and then snatched the clipboard from Tomato's tail. "Okey-dokey! What to do for more plannaroonies?"

Tomato pouted at him. "Well, for one, a good party needs music. Can you sing?"

Party Favor scoffed. "Like a dying animal. I don't think anypony will be happy if I break their windows.' He rubbed the back of his head. "But that's no problem, Tomato, there's plenty of ponies here with music talents that'll be happy to play their instruments and sing!"

"Can you play an instrument?"

Party Favor tilted his head. "Does Cheese?"

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, he's pretty adept at the accordion."

Party Favor nodded, and then pulled out some balloons. With some quick motions of his hooves twisting the balloons, he soon had created a balloon replica of an accordion, and then started to play it. Tomato blinked at the fact that it was making the actual sound of the accordion, and it was sounding like an actual coherent tune.

"How are you even doing that?" he asked.

Party Favor laughed. "The only way I can play an instrument is if it's made out of balloons."

Tomato blinked, and then chuckled back. "So... can you try the piano?"

Party Favor nodded, and then took out some more balloons. He rearranged the balloon accordion and added those balloons into the mound. He was quick to mold the stack of balloons into the shape of a grand piano, and once he was done, he started to play a classical tune on it.

Tomato clapped. "Holy beefsteak, of all the balloon modelers I've seen, I've never seen them do that! Oh, try a violin!"

Party Favor stopped playing, rearranged the balloons again, and then played a lover's waltz on the resulting instrument.

Tomato chuckled. "Okay... how about a xylophone?"

Party Favor rearranged the balloons into said instrument, and then pinged at the thing with little balloon mallets.

"Okay, now try the oboe!"

The unicorn rearranged the mallets and a couple of the keys into a balloon oboe, and played another tune with unprecedented grace.

Tomato bit his lip as he suppressed laughter. "Okay, okay... how about the tuba?"

Party Favor sighed, and then rearranged the balloons into a tuba. He took a deep breath, and then blew into the tuba. The resulting noise was so loud, and the force so great, it sent Tomato and several others out and about flying, and bowling more ponies over. Tomato found himself colliding into a building again, this time on City Hall, and was seeing stars once again, with the outside of his head in pain and the inside feeling numb.

Double Diamond peeked out of the door, a confused look on his face. He looked at an embarrassed Party Favor, holding a tuba made of balloons, and then to the dazed Tomato on the wall.

Tomato laughed and sang, "I've been searching for something... taken out of my soul..."

Double Diamond gave a look of exasperation to Party Favor, who twiddled his hooves and muttered, "We were experimenting with music."

Later, when he and Tomato were sitting at a table for a break, Party Favor asked, "So... what else does your brother do when planning a party?"

Holding an ice pack to his head, Tomato looked at the clipboard, and said, "Well... uh... he jumped out of a cake and played the accordion at one party..."

Party Favor stuck his tongue out. "I don't want any frosting in my hair... or hair in the frosting... or whatever."

Tomato chuckled. "Sounds like an exchange I had with somepony who was tempted to dunk his head in a giant chocolate fountain."

Party Favor's eyes were as big as dinner plates. "Whoa... giant chocolate fountains? You mean those exist?"

"Well... Cheese summoned them from bizarreland, where all the party pony necessities come from. Not even Celestia knows how you guys do it. Say, could you summon anything that would make this party more interesting than what we've got?"

Party Favor reached behind his back, and pulled out uninflated balloons. "Is this enough?"

Tomato blinked. "That's it? That's all you've been pulling out since we started!"

"Yeah. They're the only things I can summon."

Tomato stared at the small rubber bags. "What are we supposed to do with them?"

Party Favor took a few, inflated them all at once, and then twisted them into the shape of a skiing pony. "Ta-da!"

Tomato blinked, and leaned in his hoof, his other hoof over his head in both holding the ice pack and shielding his head. "I suppose they'd make good decoration alongside everything else we've got... anything else?"

Party Favor sighed. "I can't pull out a chocolate fountain, if that's what you want. What, do you expect me to be some absurdly powerful unicorn mage or talented magician like the rest of my family? Because..." He tapped his horn, a disgruntled look on his face.

"I don't know, your sister said that your balloon sculptures were impressive--and from what I've seen, she's right. Still, we don't want to distract from the real reason that committee's coming. Just... make your balloon sculptures winter-themed." Tomato chuckled. "Funny that we're doing a winter-themed party in the summer, right?"

Party Favor idly drew circles on the table. "Yeah."

They had begun to decorate, enlisting several bored ponies to attach balloons to the houses and play catch with rolls of streamers that Party Favor had stashed in a trunk in his house. A couple of ponies were working on a banner, one doing the drawing calligraphy and the other painting over the sketches. Most of the other ponies that weren't helping to decorate were washing the dirt off their homes and businesses as to present a feel of cleanliness.

After checking up on Cheese--who was stubbornly refusing to go to sleep, even as he argued with the lamp, used Boneless 2 for a tissue, and was acting afraid of his own brother--Tomato went back outside to see the commotion that was going.

Ah, yes, that committee would approve of cleanliness, Tomato thought. He looked around, a smile refusing to come. But Cheese said that this party was meant to be big--this isn't big!

The party was looking nice so far--but it didn't seem to be shaping up to be a big celebration that would require two party ponies to create. Heck, there was only one party pony with a specialization in balloons and a stuffy little college student that didn't know what the heck he was doing in planning this thing, and the stuffy little college student was completely relying on what he saw his brother do before.

And so far, he hadn't quite figured out anything that would make a good Plan B for the town to attract outsiders--whether it be in tourism or changing residencies. In trying to plan and asking others to help with some work, he managed to glean some more info about what this town could offer and what it needed, even if some ponies seemed a little nervous and hesitant at first, as if he was doing an interrogation.

From what he had learned, there were some gems that some residents with mining talents had chiseled out of nearby caves--though they were admittedly kinds that were a bit cheap. There was a river that was quite a ways away in a small basin, where those with gardening and farming talents were growing food--though just enough for the town to eat, with just a little to spare. And there was talk of a few ponies planning to bring cows to the town--there were those with dairy cutie marks itching to use their talent.

And all the ponies agreed on one need: plumbing. They were tired of fetching water from the river.

As far as Tomato could tell, there was at least a little economic progress for them with Double Diamond and a few others going out of town to trade every so often--which should be easier once that train station was finished. But it was clear to him that Double Diamond and a few other ponies wanted to speed the growth along--though it seemed like some ponies didn't seem to be very excited about the prospect of a new business coming to town. Probably because tourists were obnoxious--Tomato himself had come across plenty in Manehattan.

Still, this was not a place that many ponies would want to go--it was just too out of the way. Tomato wanted to know just why this Starlight character built a town in the middle of nowhere. Who in the right mind would even want to live here in the first place?

He idly walked down the street, passing by some busy ponies. Some of them looked up and grinned at him, sending a chill down his spine. Why did they smile like that? Did they want to scare the committee?

He finally came across Party Favor putting the finishing touches on a snowflake-shaped balloon model and letting a fellow unicorn hang it from the eaves. Once that was done, Party Favor turned, and then blinked in surprise at finding Tomato standing there.

"Hey, there," Tomato said.

"Hi," Party Favor replied. "So... how's your brother doing?"

Tomato groaned. "Oh, he's awake, and doesn't want to go to sleep. He's still a pretty sick and tired stallion."

Party Favor snickered. "Sick and tired of what?"

"Of being in bed all day and not working on this party."

Party Favor nodded. "Somepony's antsy..."

"Probably because his brother stinks at this party planning thing." He gestured down the street. "Even if I call this 'nice', I could hardly call this up to standard; if it wasn't for your touches, I'd say it's kind of dull."

"We're not even done yet."

Tomato whickered. "I've seen plenty of parties being set up in this way, and even in the middle of setup they were more lively than this!"

Party Favor brushed a hoof on the ground. "Well, you aren't very creative..."

Tomato could have sworn he felt a curl pop from his mane. "Excuse me?"

Party Favor bit his lip, and then gulped. "It's pretty obvious that you're just treating this like some sort of checklist. Like, I get the whole music and food and stuff, but... it feels kind of soulless. I don't even think we got anypony appropriately excited for this."

Tomato snorted and stomped his hoof. "Great, good to know that I'm some soulless, uncreative mind that can't comprehend the fine art of setting up a celebration. Even if I had any type of nonsense magic at my beck and call, I'd be lousy at this."

"I'm sorry we don't have much," Party Favor said. "Maybe if we had some other implements in this town, you could have made better creative contributions to this--you know, make it as big as Cheese would have it or something."

Tomato huffed. "Not like you're any more creative--all your suggestions involve balloons."

Party Favor glared at him. "Hey! What's wrong with balloons?"

"I got plowed into a wall twice thanks to you and your balloons. Stands to say that I'm not in a good mood about them right now."

Party Favor looked away with a pout and growled, "Gee, I'm sorry that it's the only way I can access my own magic, and that I just want to appreciate it more. If I ever lost my special talent again I don't know what I'd do!"

Tomato blinked and turned to him. "Wait... 'again'?"

Party Favor's eyes widened, and he covered his mouth. Looking around, he avoided Tomato's gaze and answered, "That doesn't matter, you're overthinking it." Then, in a cool tone, he droned, "Maybe you should just refer to the clipboard, see what kind of creativity that sick brother of yours has come up with in parties past."

He turned to him, pulled out a balloon, and inflated it. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have more balloon snowflakes to make."

Party Favor trotted off with a balloon in one hoof, and Tomato, with a sigh, headed off to find somewhere to sit.

Sitting at a table by Sugar Belle's bakery, Tomato kept scanning the words he wrote down the night before, trying to find what else that needed to be done in order for this party to work. After all, this event felt too much like a standard party, with little effort put into it--Cheese would be disappointed in how it turned out, and Tomato assumed everypony else would as well. While Tomato was sure Party Favor had some suggestions of his own to make it better, he was also sure that it involved balloons--it's not like the party needed any more balloons.

He scratched his head. "Uh... maybe we could serve snow cones?"

A mild gust of wind blew and flapped the paper on the clipboard. He sighed and laid his chin on the table.

"This is hopeless. Filling in for a party pony for a two-party pony job? Yeah, not like I'm creative enough for the job. Sheesh, this is harder than I thought."

Suddenly, he heard a voice to his right. "Oh, come on, buddy, don't give up yet!"

Tomato sat up straight and looked to his right, where there was nopony there. He looked to his left, and there were other ponies talking as they went about their chores and party decorating. However, none of them were talking to him.

"Over here, on your shoulder!"

Tomato looked at his right shoulder, and sure enough, there was a little pony there. But not just anypony--it was a smaller version of himself, one that had his curly hair set free, was without glasses, and was wearing a green button shirt with red polka dots. The mini him had a big grin and bright eyes, looking awfully similar to Cheese.

Tomato pursed his lips. "Um... hi?"

Mini Tommy stretched. "You're seriously underestimating yourself, Big Me! After all, didn't you take charge of that fundraiser when you were a colt? You made it fun, successful, and you earned your cutie mark from it! You're more creative than you realize, this party should be a cinch!"

Tomato twiddled his hooves. "Look... I appreciate that you're trying to encourage me, but it should be clear that I was a poor fit for this job. I'm not a party pony, Little Me--I can't do this job as well as Cheese can."

Then, a feminine voice chipped in with, "Of course not. Did you forget what was on your flank?"

With wide eyes, he turned to his other shoulder, and froze at the sight of who it was. "Mom?!"

Mozzarella was sitting on his left shoulder, filing her hoof. "Let's not forget that the time you tried to throw your own little party at home, Cheese was angry enough with you to run away from home. You know that the only parties you can throw are the ones that would end up disappointing Cheese in one manner or another."

Tomato sank in his seat. "Please don't remind me--you've been doing that for years to remind me how much I needed to 'reform'. Don't you think that's a little hurtful?"

"What's a lesson without pain? Sometimes the harsh lessons were the ones you needed to learn the most... and you definitely needed some painful lessons to not become what that thing is on your other shoulder."

Mini Tommy glared at Mozzarella. "Quit trying to convince him that party ponies are a bad thing! So far, all the party ponies he's met are awesome! Cheese, Pinkie Pie, Party Favor... okay, Comedy Gold's a maybe, but she'd be awesome if she hadn't been sick."

Mozzarella scoffed. "I can think of plenty of ways that a party pony could go wrong--drunkenness, too much noise, only caring about fun, and goodness, gracious, what if a party pony forces others to be happy, regardless of their well-being?"

Mini Tommy scoffed. "Oh, please... if anything, we're the least likely to be evil. Unlike, say, a businesspony, who we all know are boring and tasteless, have no appreciation for pony emotion, and are so greedy, they'd do every kind of underhanded and immoral method just to get their hooves on some more moolah."

Tomato blinked. "Hey... I'm not evil!"

Mozzarella growled. "But you would have been if you kept on going down your path of carelessness. I was always afraid that you'd be in jail!"

Mini Tommy rolled his eyes. "Come on, Madre, let him cut loose for once. He's just holding back on his party pony powers because he's afraid of you!"

Tomato gave his littler self a funny look. "Excuse me... but how could a businesspony be a wielder of that kind of magic? Because, you know, I'm just about the furthest thing from a party pony--look at this half-baked disappointment!"

He gestured to the street, with it's standard party decoration, aside from the balloon sculptures Party Favor had created. Some ponies had turned to stare at the pony talking to his shoulders. They were all looking at him like he was some sort of nutjob, with some forcing that same creepy grin in nervousness, and a few others awkwardly shuffling away.

Tomato slowly put his hoof down, and hissed, "Besides, I'm pretty sure I have normal economy cultivation magic in me--not to mention that party pony magic is completely contradictory to it, because as Cheese said, 'party pony powers aren't meant to be used for profit'."

Mini Tommy examined his hoof. "What, you didn't notice that you don't behave normally?"

Tomato furrowed his brow. "Everypony knows I'm the normal Sandwich! Besides, I've already earned my cutie mark. I can't remove it and get a different talent, you know."

Mozzarella nodded. "Exactly. While you did earn your mark in the fundraiser, it was mainly because you took every step to ensure that your school had the money it needed to replace the chalkboards. Surely, you could do better to help these ponies with their predicament than help some weird balloon-obsessed unicorn throw a party."

Mini Tommy leaned forward. "How about this... he has to throw the party to convince this committee that this town is worth establishing a ski resort near it! After all, if it has good snow and fun-loving ponies who love visitors, who wouldn't want to come here?"

Mozzarella rolled her eyes. "What insane individual established a town way out here?"

Mini Tommy scoffed. "Does it matter? They're gone now!" He jumped up and pulled on Tomato's ear. "Come on, buddy, just try to unleash that magic within you for once! It'll make this party spectacular, and this town would be a shoo-in for a new ski resort!" He leaned on Tomato's neck. "Even if I'm not a fan of business... wouldn't you want a business established here so that this town could grow faster?"

Tomato leaned on the table. "I don't know... I mean, it'd be nice if the party could convince them that this town is welcoming... nopony around here has any enthusiasm for this entire thing... plus, it'd be nice to know just what that part of me can do."

Mozzarella held a worried look. "I'd like for you to help this town--but what would the consequences be if you let that part of you run wild?! I'm fairly certain that with your lack of self control, you'd do more harm than good!"

Tomato glared at her. "'Lack of self control'? You still don't have confidence that I can control my own impulses? Mom, I'm an adult!"

Mini Tommy shook his head and clicked his tongue. "You should have let him experiment, Mother. Right now, it comes out in harmless spurts."

Mozzarella glared. "Stick with the magic that you do know how to use! Trying to use that secret magic of yours will end in disaster!"

Tomato crossed his front legs. "Look, Mom, I can make my own decisions, and I'm ready to do anything to make sure this town grows! And if I have to use this weird magic within me... well, so be it. Let's see if I can use this nonsense magic that's apparently in me."

That was when Sugar Belle came to the table. "Uh... who are you talking to?"

Tomato blinked, and both the mini version of him and his mother were gone. With a beet red face, he turned to the pink unicorn, and said, "Uh... I was just talking to myself. Hehe, it's a way to make sure I understand my own thoughts."

Sugar Belle raised an eyebrow. "Okay... so, are you here to have something to eat?"

Tomato leaned in his hoof. "Nah, I'm not hungry."

Suddenly, a thought came to him. Putting a hoof to his mouth, he wondered if he could access that magic they've been talking about. So far, he didn't really do anything that could make anypony think he could throw an effective party, but there was one way that he could possibly get that creativity that Party Favor told him that he was lacking.

"On second thought... I'd like a cup of coffee."

Sugar Belle blinked. "I thought you said you didn't mix well with it."

"Well, if you're thinking that it brings on digestive problems or makes me jittery, well, you're wrong. I'm just trying to see if I can rein in the unusual consequence of my coffee ingestion. And maybe, perhaps, spur some creativity within me a little bit more." He forced a grin, hoping to send the message for her to not question it.

Sugar Belle stared at him, and nervously smiled back. She quickly went in to the bakery, calling, "Cuppa Joe! A customer asked for a mug."

It wasn't long before she returned, and she set down the mug of the hot, dark-colored liquid in front of Tomato. Still holding the nervous grin, she said, "Okay, here you go. I hope you like it."

Tomato slid the mug closer to him, and stared at his reflection in the liquid. This was either stupid and reckless or it was the kick start he needed to make this party better, make it one that Cheese would be proud of. He hoped that it could be made good enough to convince that committee that these ponies could provide a warm welcome and that the ski resort was worth establishing here. This party was too dreary--it needed a little more... 'oomph' as Cheese called it.

He picked up the mug. This would have to be the weirdest way to help that he had ever done.

"Bottoms up." He dumped the contents of the mug into his mouth and down his throat. He held his breath, his face heating up and his throat burning as he held on to the table, bearing the heat of the drink as it made its way down to his stomach.

After a few moments, he relaxed and exhaled. However, he wasn't relaxed for long, as he started feeling a rush within him. He could feel his heart racing, every muscle in his body itching to move, and and his brain overflowing with so many insane ideas. He looked around the square, wanting to go there, or there, or way over there. Blinking rapidly as this new sensation came over him, he involuntarily began to giggle, and then leapt onto the table with a whoop.

Sugar Belle zipped back into the bakery in fright when Tomato's mane and tail exploded into curls.

Author's Note

In which I just write a lame filler chapter of Tomato and Party Favor trying to "wing it." You know how groaners are... I hate writing them because ideas don't come to me as naturally, and they always come out sub-par in my eyes. Ugh. :ajbemused:

It would be like Tomato to jot down a list of what Cheese did before and try to imitate it--but, you know, he just doesn't have the talent (or experience) to actually pull it off. And as for Party Favor... well, he's the more creative one, but it all has to do with balloons, and it doesn't seem anypony wants balloon overload (especially after Tommy getting hurt twice because of them).

Yeah, it would be weird talking to mini versions of your alternate self and your mother sitting on your shoulders. I don't even know who's the angel and who's the devil in this case. Tommy's confused, especially when it comes to a certain thing they're talking about.

Also, and the coffee thing... that's actually been an idea for his character for a long time (since last summer--in fact, it was established in the blog). Take a wild guess on what he's going to end up doing.

This chapter feels so risky...

9.4--Overwhelming Mess

Sitting on the steps of city hall, Party Favor was still twisting balloons into snowflakes, putting a little extra effort to make them float. They were definitely better decorations when they floated, and maybe they could be more convincing. It would definitely show that the town was eager to welcome more ponies and that the ski resort was worth building here.

Giving them to Night Glider so that she could attach the balloons to the houses, Party Favor stared at the road ahead, where the ponies were preparing for the arrival of the winter sport committee tomorrow. They were washing houses, working on the banner, and putting up the streamers and balloons. There seemed to be some semblance of effort, but the slow way the other ponies were going about it--resembling the resentment of a foal told to do chores--told him that they were not enthusiastic about what was coming tomorrow.

He sighed and leaned in his hoof. If Tomato was right about one thing, it was that this entire thing was unremarkable. Party Favor had no idea just what a Cheese Sandwich standard of a party was like, but considering Tomato's descriptions, they were more than just the checklist they had been carrying around all day.

Party Favor pulled out a pair of balloons. Maybe if I went all out...

However, he found himself staring at the long, thin balloons he held, both the same color, parallel to each other, and somehow not feeling right when they were vertical. Blinking, he shifted his front legs, making the balloons horizontal in their parallel, and before him was an equal sign.

Exceptionalism is a lie.

He stared for a few moments before he shook his head. No, that was all over now; Starlight was gone. They were going to make their town better, and having that in his head was not going to help anything.

Still, he found his eyes drawn to the equal sign he made.

Be your best, by never being your best.

He bit his lip. As extensive and creative he can be with his special talent, Party Favor needed to remind himself that this welcome party was more about Double Diamond sharing his talent and the nearby mountains with others than it was about himself. Besides, it wasn't like that committee would take some guy with balloons seriously.

Accept your limitations, and happiness will follow.

Another thing Tomato was right about; Party Favor wasn't very creative himself. After all, all his magic was reliant on balloons!

You're no better than your friends.

Compared to Double Diamond and his skiing, Night Glider and her flight, and Sugar Belle and her baking, Party Favor was just a big joke. That wasn't even going into his magically talented family.

To excel is to fail.

A failure. That was what all he was. He had tried to excel at his balloon modeling talent, he tried to share it with others, and he tried to use it to show that he was worth something. He had been laughed off and criticized by Canterlot residents, both the elite and the regular residents alike. He was an embarrassment to the family, especially his father, who would rather pretend he didn't exist. And no matter what he did, there was the matter of the horn that nopony ever forgot about. If it only just worked, he could do so much more.

Maybe Starlight was right to take his cutie mark. And maybe she should have kept it.

With a growl, he popped both balloons on his horn in quick succession, and then buried his face in his hooves.

The next moment, Double Diamond had trotted up to him. What was at first a friendly smile turned into a frown as he saw the distress his friend was apparently in. "Hey, buddy, what's wrong? You look a little down."

Party Favor threw his hooves in the air with a loud groan. "This party doesn't feel right! It doesn't feel like there's any spirit or love put into it, more like a by the numbers job that you only work just to pay the bills! It doesn't seem like anypony in town is excited for anything, and there's just so much melancholy tinging the air, and I don't know what to do! All I can think of is, 'balloons, balloons, balloons', and well, remember the story of how I came to be here?"

Double Diamond grimaced. "I clearly remember when you told us about the whole 'family disappointment' thing..."

"Ugh, and the worst part is, my co-planner thinks it should be bigger, because apparently, his brother only goes to a town when it requires some big shindig that needs to be set up with the blast of a tank! And I'm like, 'Gee, sorry, Tomato, it's not my fault that he's sick, and you're not very creative and have to rely on some stupid checklist!'"

"Whoa, calm down!" Double Diamond said. "I had no idea you were so stressed out about this."

Party Favor glared at him. "This whole thing just has so much pressure. I can't think of any way to impress those guys and show them that we're welcoming." He gestured to the street before them. "This is not very welcoming. We were more welcoming when Starlight was in town."

Double Diamond rubbed his face. "My cheeks still hurt from that..." He sighed. "I see what you mean. I'm nervous about tomorrow too. I know the slopes are amazing, and that fellow skiers would love it... but considering that I've found that we've since gained a reputation for the whole 'cutie markless cult' thing, I'm worried that other ponies would be disinclined to come and visit. I'm surprised our current visitors haven't figured it out yet."

"They probably think we're just some other town out in the middle of nowhere," Party Favor mumbled.

"Well, whatever the case, it was nice for Tomato to try and help... even if it feels a little stale." Double Diamond coughed. "Anyway, I'm taking the risk with the committee because I love all of you guys, and I want our town to be better. Still, I didn't mean to put so much pressure on you."

Party Favor sighed. "I know we want to show these guys that we're more than what Starlight founded this town to be. But I feel too small for the job you gave me. I'm just a silly balloon pony."

"Ah, come on, P! Don't be so down on yourself!" Double Diamond patted Party Favor's back. "I know you're more than just a silly balloon pony. Who else could build working balloon-noculars or a functional balloon bridge that lasted for several weeks? If anypony deserves to be called a wizard, it would be you. I consider you Numero Uno for the welcome wagon for a reason."

Party Favor smiled and elbowed him. "Bah, you're just buttering me up!"

Double Diamond laughed and nudged back. "Hey, I have as much of a right to brag about you as you do for Sugar Belle."

Party Favor smiled, and then set his eyes on Sugar Belle, who was serving some sort of drink to Tomato sitting at one of the tables. He could never get enough of that sweet and cheery demeanor she held when she was providing service to somepony.

Suddenly, much to his confusion, Party Favor saw Tomato begin to spasm after downing his drink. The lanky earth pony then hopped onto the table, bursting into laughter and his mane suddenly popping from straight to curly in a millisecond. It was apparently enough to frighten Sugar Belle and compel her to zip back into the bakery.

Party Favor pointed in that direction. "Uh... Double Diamond, did you just see that?"

Double Diamond blinked. "Huh?" He turned to where Party Favor pointed, and furrowed his brow in bewilderment. "Since when did he have curly hair?"

Tomato was in his face in the blink of an eye, with an unnaturally large grin and and crazed eyes. "I've always had curly hair it's a trait I inherited from my mom I just keep it straight so I'd look serious because Mom says I need to look serious and I was in a mood for defying my brother so I agreed to go along with it and now I keep the straight hair look except this big forelock in front always sticks up and it's embarrassing when I'm in serious mode but I'm not in serious mode right now I'm in silly mode!"

Double Diamond blinked and leaned back. "Wha...?"

Tomato threw his jacket and glasses off, and then yanked off his tie. He tied it around his head, and squealed, "See? Silly!"

Party Favor caught the glasses, staring wide-eyed at the sight, and then chuckled nervously. "Uh... what's going on?"

Tomato roared, "I'm in silly mode! And I'm going to fix this party!"

With that, he sped down the street. The first thing he did was pounce on the banner, and the ponies that were working on it shouted in both dismay and fear, dodging the fall of the crazy pony among them. Crumpling the entire thing in one go, Tomato laughed maniacally, and held the resulting paper ball above him, not caring that it was dripping paint.

"Behold!" he exclaimed. "My origami snowball!"

"I have a bad feeling about this," Double Diamond muttered.

Tomato then threw the "snowball" at them, and Double Diamond didn't hesitate to yank Party Favor off his hooves and jumped out of the way. The ball of paper bounced off city hall, leaving splotches of paint of all colors on the door, windows, and walls of the building. The two stallions looked back, breathing heavily upon seeing the mess that had already been made.

Tomato zipped to the giant paper ball. "Ooooh! Looky at all the colors! Imma paint the entire town!"

He lifted up the poor excuse for origami, and then chucked it at another building. The paper ball bounced off that building, leaving a fresh coat of colorful paint, and flew to the next one, ricocheting off that one as well. It bounced from building to building like a pinball, slamming paint onto the buildings of main street while ponies that were out and about were scrambling around, trying to dodge it. Some were knocked over when the ball bounced off them, leaving them aching on the ground and covered in paint. Some ducked and had paint rained on them anyway. And most took refuge inside their homes.

The ball zoomed out of the main street and started bouncing off the surrounding houses, frightening some ponies that were just tending to their gardens or washing their windows. Tomato hopped on the roof of one house, and laughed as the giant paper ball pinballed around the town. "Yes, yes, YES!!! I love a good paint job!"

He started to pull the shingles off the roofs, stuffing them in his shirt and took the balloons as well, tying them around his barrel. He hopped from roof to roof, stealing the shingles until there none left on the buildings of Main Street. He had accumulated all the balloons, which had him airborne. Then, he threw the shingles like confetti, singing, "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!"

Double Diamond threw his hooves up in the air. "We just added those to the roofs a month ago!"

Both he and Party Favor dashed out onto the street, with the latter shouting, "Tomato, stop! You're ruining everything!"

Tomato laughed and retorted, "Fools! I'm trying to make this party big! Mom has told me that Sandwiches are meant for big things!" He then snarled and held five shingles like a bunch of throwing knives. He threw them at the two ponies below as he screamed, "Don't you want this dang party to be big?!"

Double Diamond once again pulled Party Favor out of the way, and he towed him into the bakery, where they met Sugar Belle and several others hiding under some tables and other things, shuddering from the madness outside.

"Sugar Belle! What happened?" Double Diamond inquired.

Still shivering, Sugar Belle answered, "He asked for a cup of coffee and I gave it to him."

Party Favor's eyes were wide. "Didn't he say he didn't mix well with coffee?"

"I never imagined that this happened with consuming coffee!"

Cuppa Joe, a pony sitting not too far from Sugar Belle, piped up with, "I've never seen a caffeine high of this magnitude!"

"Me neither!" another pony exclaimed.

"What kind of pony is that guy?!" said another.

A crash was heard outside, followed by Tomato's "Happy birthday to you!"

"Double Diamond, do you have any ideas on how to stop him?" Sugar Belle asked.

"I've never dealt with anything like this before!" Double Diamond said, biting his hoof. "The best idea I have is to wait it out and let him crash after the coffee has run it's course."

"Double Diamond, he'll destroy the town before then!" Party Favor shouted. Furrowing his brow, he stood up. "But there's one chance we have to stop him. Let's see what the one pony in town that would know how to handle this situation has to say."

Sugar Belle gasped. "You're going back out there? Party Favor, what if he hurts you?"

Party Favor bit his lip. "We gotta do something!"

Double Diamond nodded. "It's crazy, but anything's better than letting him wreck our town. I'll provide a distraction while you seek advice from Cheese Sandwich. And I'll see if I can find Night Glider so she can help."

Sugar Belle bit her lip as she looked at the floor, and then between her two stallion friends. Looking at Party Favor, she said, "I'll go out and help distract him. If anything, I allowed this to happen, and I should at least try to fix it."

The boys nodded and looked at each other. Double Diamond then said, "I hope it's worth it."

He couldn't sleep.

No matter how heavy Cheese's eyelids got, no matter how much he needed to sleep for the sake of his health, no matter how wonky everything was being, he couldn't close his eyes. They would always open the moment he saw sharp teeth lunging toward him or just before he'd splatter on a street. And the threat of those blood-sucking monsters coming back felt all too palpable to him, especially since he saw something flying outside, accompanied by the sounds of chaos.

Cheese had part of the blanket bunched up in his hooves, with the rest covering him from his hind hooves to his neck. He laid there frozen in the bed, staring at the window in anticipation of some monster busting in. He felt his body warming up to a level that was inducing perspiration, but throwing off the blanket meant he was vulnerable, especially his neck. His heart hurt from the anxiousness coiled around it like a snake, and though his body was of stone, he could feel it trying to shake.

He felt queasy as liquids swirled around in his stomach; unfortunately, his throat tickled, still stuffed with phlegm, and he worried that a cough would spur him to throw up. His nose tickled from the water snot that was leaking out, and he resisted the urge to sniffle, in case something heard him.

He rubbed his eye, which squeezed tears out of it, and clenched his teeth to keep from yawning. Tired. He was so tired. His eyes desperately wanted to close, but he was having none of it. He kept on forcing them open, keeping a vigilant watch on the window. There was no way he was going to have an unpleasant something get the jump on him this time. There was no way he'd allow himself to be killed or turn into a monster.

His heart stopped when the door flew open, and he heard the shout of, "Cheese Sandwich!"

His head snapped to the doorway, and he shot up to his haunches and gasped at the face he saw. He recognized the smirk on that royal blue face, the wavy dark hair, and the piercing violet eyes, all under the lavender glow of his horn. A deep chuckle was coming from the unicorn, and the fact that that very pony had somehow managed to break out of jail and find his way out here was both confusing and alarming.

Cheese yanked his pillow from behind him and placed it in front of himself to use as a shield. He coughed in the pillow and wiped his nose, and looked back up to make sure Kazam wasn't making any moves. Grinding his teeth and his eyes narrowed in a venomous glare, he snarled, "What do you want?"

After a few odd noises that sounded like a stammer but was most certainly a chuckle, Kazam replied, "It's your brother!"

Cheese's mouth was in a tight line as his eyes widened, and he cocked the pillow like a gun. "What about my brother?"

After a few more heaves, Kazam exclaimed, "He's gone bonkers! Quick, tell me how to--"

"How to what?!" Cheese exploded, hot, wet snorts blowing out of his nostrils. "How to reign in his bloodthirsty tendencies so that he doesn't turn on you?! No chance, pal, you deserve it for the disaster you caused back in Las Pegasus!"

He threw the pillow straight at Kazam's face, resulting in a yelp of pain. Then, Cheese stood up on shaky legs, wobbling as he continued to glare at the enemy that had come. His chest heaving, his muscles tensing, and a fire burning within him, he was ready to pounce on Kazam and rip that horn off of his forehead.

"I'm going to make sure you don't hurt anypony else, you son of a--"

The pillow was slammed into Cheese's face, and he was knocked back onto the bed. His head swaying and his eyes blinking slowly, he stared at the face of the one who hit him, whose coat faded from royal blue to light blue, the dark mane turning bluer and curlier, and the eyes turning from a sinister purple to a more innocent blue.

"I'm not Kazam," the pony said. "I'm Party Favor. And please don't refer to my mom as that word you were about to say... she's a really nice mare."

Cheese rubbed his eyes, and then yawned. With a sheepish smile, he said, "Oh... oops. I apologize for that... I mean, I don't usually like to swear without cheese euphemisms... oh, and I shouldn't hit ponies with pillows... and, uh... you are definitely nothing like that stupid big brother of yours..."

Party Favor tilted his head. "Did you have a bad experience with him?"

Cheese bit his lip, and then shook his head. "Speaking of brothers, what's mine doing?"

Night Glider had hauled a cloud from the mountains to the town and dumped snow in the street, so that Double Diamond and Sugar Belle could create projectiles to toss at the madpony in the air. She made some snowballs of her own, and took to the sky to chuck them at Tomato. In turn, Tomato threw the shingles stored in his shirt at all three of his attackers, irritated at them for resisting his efforts to "improve" the party.

"You can be sure when I'm done... this will be oodles of fun!" he sang as his shingles sliced through the air and barely missed the ponies below. "Ponies, I don't know why I go to extremes!"

Double Diamond and Sugar Belle kept jumping out of the way of the raining shingles, with the former grabbing snow in hooffuls as he rolled, and the latter using magic to shape snow into pies, cakes, and other goodies. Both gave strong tosses at Tomato, or at least at the balloons to knock him off balance. But though they succeeded in making him spin, that just unleashed a shower of shingles launching from a vermilion tornado.

When one ended up slicing off the end of the skirt of Night Glider's tail, and another nicking her ear, she yelled, "Yowch! Geez! A party's not worth killing ponies over!"

Tomato stopped his spinning when the balloon strings were twisted as far as they could go and he grabbed them. As he batted away the other two's snow projectiles with his tail, he cackled and hollered, "At least I'm not stale and soulless like before! You are going to have loads of Sandwich fun, and you're going to like it!"

Then, a hoarse voice shouted, "Tomato Matthew Sandwich, this is not Sandwich fun!"

Everypony turned to the source of the voice, which was just outside the door of the doctor's hut. There stood a Cheese, who had just started coughing, his weight being supported by Party Favor. After Cheese finished his coughing fit and rubbed his eye, he looked up at his brother with a tired and serious face.

Tomato waved and shouted, "Hiya Cheesy! Do you like my party I worked real hard on it and all I had to do was throw a giant origami snowball and paint everything and throw confetti, and weeeee this is so much fun!"

"You little dummy! Nopony else is having fun! You look like you're trying to kill them!" Cheese coughed a bit more, and his eyes narrowed into a fierce glare.

Tomato blinked and then scowled. "What are you giving me that look for? I'm only trying to help while you're sick!"

Cheese put a hoof to his face and groaned. Looking around, he snorted. "This is help? This looks like a mess!"

Tomato's eyes twitched, and then he roared. "Everything I do is a mess to you! Everything I do is a mess to everypony! For once, can't I have somepony not treat me like I'm nothing but my mistakes if I don't conform to their tunnel vision?!"

As he yelled that, he threw more shingles at his brother. As Cheese stared in confusion, Party Favor quickly yanked him out of the way, and dragged him into the alley. Making Cheese sit against the wall, Party Favor said in between heavy breaths , "Okay... I think... you've done enough yelling. What thingy do you do to stop his caffeine buzz?"

Cheese wiped his nose and swayed. "Uh... pull him out of the way of a carriage..."

"No, no, no, there's no carriage in this situation!"

"Remind him not to take candy from strangers."

"There's no candy involved either!"

"Purchase meat from the local butcher shop to lure the dogs away from the lamppost he's hanging onto."

"There's no dogs here, and I'm so glad there's no butcher shop around here--I can't stand the smell of meat."

Cheese yawned. "Me neither... oh, how about we jump into the sewers to rescue him from there?"

Party Favor grimaced. "I'm kinda glad we don't have sewers here because that's disgusting." He grabbed Cheese's face. "No, what solution do you have for his caffeine buzz?"

Cheese blinked. "Ooooh.... I dunno. I never seen him drink coffee before."

Party Favor jumped. "What?!"

Cheese giggled. "Funny story, we kinda had a feud for about a decade or so, and I was mostly avoiding my parents' house so..."

Party Favor groaned. "You mean all the prior times he did this... you weren't there?! ARGH! So you don't even know how to stop him?!"

He jumped at the sound of what sounded like bullets hitting the ground and all the buildings, and he winced at the sound of glass shattering and the desperate shouts of dismay from his friends. He caught Sugar Belle shouting, "He's spinning the other way!" Pulling at his mane, he felt torn between racing out there to help and staying in the alley where it's safe.

Cheese looked at Party Favor's horn with tired eyes. "Hey... why don't you pop his balloons?"

Party Favor blinked and then glanced up at his own horn. "Oh, okay! And I know a quick way of getting up there!" With that, he sped out of the alley, and out onto the street. Dancing in order to avoid getting hit by shingles, he looked up at Night Glider and shouted, "Hey! Night Glider, come here!"

Night Glider looked at him, and ducked as a shingle whizzed above her. She then quickly dashed over to him, and then he pulled her into the alley in order to keep her from getting hit as he told her the idea that Cheese gave him.

It wasn't long before Night Glider carried him into the sky, high enough to be over Tomato and the balloons that carried him. Once she positioned Party Favor above their target, she asked, "You ready?"

Party Favor nodded, and then she dropped him.

He landed among all the snowflake-shaped balloons, and marveled at how he managed to grab on to the rubbery fractals to keep him aloft. He looked down at the still spinning Tomato, still tossing his seemingly infinite supply of roof shingles. Gulping--and with a twinge of regret for the necessary destruction of perfectly good balloons--he swung his head around, letting his horn pop the balloons one by one.

Before he knew it, all the balloons had been popped, and he and Tomato were back on the ground. Unfortunately, the latter was still in tornado mode, and thus he zipped around the street, tossing the shingles that were all over the ground and making even more windows shatter. He crashed into Sugar Belle's tables, shattered a nearby fruit stand, and pulled cobblestones out of the street. The three other ponies on the ground ducked as both shingle and stone flew toward them.

Party Favor grimaced as he dodged the projectiles, and was hit in the face with Tomato's necktie. "Okay... maybe I didn't think that through."

Double Diamond glared at him as he ducked to avoid a rock. "You think?"

The two stallions and Sugar Belle were suddenly bowled over by the giant, crumpled ball of paper that had pinballed it's way back into the main street. The three laid there aching on the street, seeing stars and now covered in paint. Nearby, the vermilion tornado was cackling like a madpony, and the only pony who could stop him, sitting against the wall in a nearby alley, was far too sick and tired to even be able to try.

Night Glider went down to catch the paper ball, but it bounced off her and had her knocked to the ground on her bum and covered in orange paint. She watched as it bounced over the other three, ready to bounce out of town, only to be caught in a silver magic, much to her surprise. She blinked, and leaned to see a cloaked pony at the other end of the street, who had his focus on the paper ball.

Once the mysterious pony had set down the paper ball, he turned his attention to Tomato, still spinning around the street.

"Look out, stranger! That pony's gone mad and he's dangerous!" Night Glider called out.

The stranger made no indication of hearing her. He instead waited until the tornado came close, and then caught the crazy pony in his magic. Tomato was completely frozen in the magic, with only his eyes glancing around at the field he was caught in. Then, the pony walked forward, tapped Tomato's chest with his horn, and said, "Be still."

Tomato's crazed eyes went back to normal, and the pony dropped him. Laying on the ground and blinking, he looked up at the pony who had stopped him. He was still breathing heavily as he stared upward.

He heard the wobbly clip clops of hooves near him, and he turned to find a blurry Cheese ambling out of an alleyway. His first thought was wondering what the heck had happened, and his second was wondering why Cheese was out of bed.

Cheese looked at the pony who had stopped the madness. Tilting his head, he said, "Hey... aren't you that guy from the train?"

The unicorn flipped off his hood, revealing the steel blue coat and silver hair. "Allow me to remind you that I'm Rooney. Nice to see you boys again."

Cheese sniffled and grinned, swaying in place. "Name's Cheese Sandwich..."

Tomato sat up and squinted. "Oh, yeah... I remember you. Just in case you forgot, I'm Tomato Sandwich... his brother."

"Yes, yes, I remembered that part." Rooney looked down the street. "You didn't give any indication of being destructive when I first met you. You looked more of a bookworm than a vandal."

Tomato blinked. "V-vandal?"

He felt something tap his shoulder, and then turned around slowly. His glasses were levitated back on his muzzle by Sugar Belle, and his jaw dropped at the sight of all the broken windows, the torn up street, the roof shingles scattered everywhere, what was once the banner crumpled up into a big ball, and the paint splattered on every building. Everypony had marched out of the buildings, Party Favor and friends had stood back up, covered in paint, and all eyes were on him, with sharp glares and big frowns on their faces.

He stood up, and backed away. "I, uh... I... uh..."

Party Favor stepped forward. "Gee, I didn't think you hated the party that badly. You just had to destroy it, huh?"

Tomato's ears drooped. "I-I had no idea that--"

"You had no idea?" Sugar Belle interrupted. "You said you were going to see if you could rein it in! It doesn't look like you reined it in at all!"

"You almost killed us with roof shingles!" Night Glider shouted.

"It'll take forever to clean up this mess!" Double Diamond snapped. "I can't believe that your shortcut not only didn't make the welcome party better, it absolutely destroyed it!"

Tomato's breaths were shallow, and he looked at the street. "I... I'm sorry... I shouldn't have taken such drastic measures..."

Party Favor huffed and said in an icy tone, "It was a mistake to ask you for help. You managed to suck the fun out of this entire thing in more ways than one."

"But, but--"

"But what?!" one pony in the crowd yelled. "Why don't you just get out of town, you party pooper!"

Rooney raised an eyebrow. "I came here on a bad day."

The rest of the town started to shout at him, and Tomato backed up even further, finding that the faces of the townsfolk were tinted red by the sunset that had just begun. Even worse, they had begun to morph into different faces. For some odd reason, the all gained his forelock, all were having red curly hair, and they all were gaining the faces of a mare.

Much to his shock, they all now resembled the face of his mother, scolding him for taking a path that was outside the realm of his cutie mark. Breathing heavily, he heard all the familiar phrases.

"Tomato, what do I see on your flank? It doesn't resemble what you're doing at the moment."

"You're a pony of business and finance. You're supposed to be absolutely serious."

"Stop singing! Is your cutie mark a music note?"

"Do you see what happens when you don't align with your special talent? Disaster, that's what!"

"Honestly, if you ever become a failure, you'll look even more ridiculous than your brother!"

"Plan A failed, and I will not allow Plan B to follow the same path!"

"Why can't you act like all the other ponies that have the same talent as you? I don't want another freak of a son!"

Tomato looked to his brother for help, but Cheese just shook his head sadly, muttering, "I'm so disappointed in you..."

Tomato's heart raced as another familiar line from Mom came to his head.

"Tomato Matthew Sandwich, if you ever want to be taken seriously, you need to be the perfect, upright son... everything your rebellious brother is not... after all, a cutie mark is a symbol of your destiny. The most important thing to remember is...

DO NOT DEFY YOUR CUTIE MARK."

Hearing that last phrase standing out among the yelling, Tomato felt his eyes water, and he cradled his head. His head hurt trying to wrap around what his mother believed was the meaning of his cutie mark, and what it meant if he defied it. His teeth grinded and his mind went aflame at the horrifying prospect of his mother actually being right about him and doing stuff outside his cutie mark. He just wanted to disappear, right then, right now, for whether he defied it like here, or followed it like Las Pegasus, he was absolutely screwed.

He growled, and then blurted out, "I don't want my cutie mark anymore!"

All the townsponies stopped their yelling, and gasped in horror. Some were confused by his outburst, but most were aghast at what he had said. They all looked at each other nervously, and one by one they all began to awkwardly shuffle away, uncomfortable with the implications of his declaration. There was only the brothers, Rooney, Party Favor, Double Diamond, Sugar Belle, and Night Glider left, the latter four with faces full of shock as well.

Cheese coughed, but weakly lifted up a hoof to put on Tomato's shoulder. However, Tomato noticed and quickly swatted it away. "Don't touch me."

Cheese coughed some more, and then wiped his nose. "Tommy... I just want to know... why?"

Tomato snorted. "Does it matter? I'm going to leave anyway since that's what they want. Come find me when you're better."

"Huh?"

Tomato quickly turned and broke into a gallop, leaving dust in his wake. Before Cheese could even turn, Tomato had made it pretty far, and Cheese had attempted a chase before his legs gave out under him, and his face was in the road. And when he looked up, Tomato was gone.

Cheese blinked, and croaked, "Tommy..."

Double Diamond and Party Favor picked him up, the former saying, "You need to be back in bed. You're in no condition to chase him."

"But... but I can't sleep..."

"Until you know he's safe? Yeah, I get it." Double Diamond patted his back, though he leaned back when Cheese sneezed, and looked around in bewilderment at the sudden appearance of confetti.

Party Favor looked out to where Tomato had run off to. "Do you think we were being a little too harsh?"

"It felt reasonably angry to me," Night Glider said. "I don't know what his problem is."

"At least we know he feels guilty..." Sugar Belle stated. "Still, he should have known better than to drink something he knows would end up causing harm."

"We should go find him and make sure he's all right, so that Cheese here can rest easy," Double Diamond said.

Cheese yawned. "I don't want him hurt... what if weasels eat his face..."

Rooney stepped forward and engulfed Cheese in his silver magic. "You've had too much excitement for someone in your condition. I'll put Cheese to bed so that he may rest, and you retrieve his brother. Now... where's he supposed to be?"

The four pointed him to the doctor's place, and then went out to find Tomato.

Author's Note

Well, Tomato and caffeine don't mix, Cheese is still sick and not quite in the right state of mind, nopony likes Tomato's renovations, origami snowballs are a thing, and it seems like random old stallion Rooney has returned. What is he doing all the way out here? :applejackunsure:

9.5--Identity Crisis

The door to the sick house was opened, and Rooney walked in, carrying the still sick and tired Cheese Sandwich in his magic. The room was quiet, save for the hoofsteps and Cheese's snores, coughs, and mutterings. As he walked forward toward the bed, he felt some squirming from the slim stallion, and briefly wondered what he dreamed about. Judging by how much he tried to move, there was clearly a nightmare going on.

Rooney plopped him onto the bed, and Cheese's eyes snapped open. He shot up to sitting position in a cold sweat, and felt his body. He breathed a sigh of relief, and muttered, "Good, I'm not a pile of mush."

He looked forward, and blinked at the sight of the unicorn standing there. "Uh... how long have you been standing there?"

"I just put you in the bed," Rooney said.

"Oh..." Cheese rubbed the back of his head. Then, his eyes widened and he started to climb off the bed. "Wait, Tommy! He's still... I need to--"

Rooney stopped him with a gentle hoof on Cheese's chest. "Don't worry, the others are looking for him. He couldn't have gone far. Right now, you need to go back to sleep."

Cheese hugged himself and rubbed his eye. "I, uh..." He yawned, and his body automatically laid down, and he just stared at the wall. "They need to find him soon... I don't want him to get hurt."

"Just rest, and all will be well."

Cheese sneezed, and then pulled the covers over himself. "So... how long was I asleep?"

"Less than a minute."

Cheese shot up in bed, stared at him for a moment, and then threw his head upward in a scream. Throwing the pillow, he snapped, "I can't take it anymore! I can't even have a minute of sleep without a nightmare waking me up! I'm sick, and tired, and completely done with the stupid images in my head! At this rate, I'm never gonna recover and go back to being a super duper party pony! Heck, my parties are terrible when I'm tired and grumpy and being held back by some hang-up of mine!" He fell into a coughing fit after his rant, holding his chest as he did so.

Rooney raised an eyebrow. "That was sudden. What is this 'hang-up' that's holding you back and causing the nightmares?"

Cheese finished his coughing fit, and wiped his mouth. "It's silly... you don't want to hear it..."

"If it's causing you to have nightmares that prevent sleep, I'm fairly certain it's not silly at all."

Cheese laid down and curled up under the covers. "No... it's silly because I'm a party pony. I've gotta stay happy so that I can make others happy. I shouldn't have to bother anypony else with my problems, and frankly... who cares?"

Rooney stared at Cheese for a moment, scratching his beard in thought. Idly looking out the window, seeing the mess outside that Tomato had caused recently, he said, "Have you ever ruined a party because of emotional problems?"

Cheese scoffed. "Twice. One was when I was fighting with my brother because of issues in our past, and the other..." He bit his lip, and shuddered, remembering the incident with the fire back in Canterlot. "It was a recent one due to a thing... a bad thing I couldn't forget about... that made me upset... and it was an awful mess that I wasted all my energy fixing."

"I see. You let a terrible memory get to you in both cases. And it seems due to happen again thanks to the nightmares."

Cheese nodded, his eyes filled with tears. "I just want them to stop..."

Rooney continued to look out the window, watching the townsponies pick up the roof shingles. "Seeing ponies letting a terrible memory win and take over their life is a tragic occurrence. I've seen it all too often in my years. But perhaps I can help you before it's too late."

Cheese blinked. "Huh?"

Rooney looked at him with a smile. "I know a spell that can remove the bad memory from your mind."

Meanwhile, outside the town, the party of four was combing the chilly desert for Tomato. Night Glider searched for him from the skies, Double Diamond near the snowy mountains, Sugar Belle near the river and farmlands, and Party Favor at the old bridge that had recently been renewed. He had crossed it and walked to the camp of railroad workers that were there, asking them if they saw a lanky red stallion with a forelock curl and glasses. When they had denied it, he crossed back in disappointment.

Party Favor stood on a hill overlooking the town, Tomato's brown jacket slung over his neck in order to return it when he found him. He had made a pair of his classic "balloonoculars" and was scanning the landscape with them. He looked around for anything that might be a believable hiding place for Tomato. He peeked at every rock formation and boulder, every barren tree, and every sagebrush, wondering if he was hiding behind one of them.

Then he pointed his balloonoculars to the mountain where the cave was nestled.

Drawing them down from his face, Party Favor recalled the tour the day before and how it had ended. After he had mentioned the cave to Double Diamond, Tomato had looked at that mountain curiously, especially since that exchange most likely implied to him that they were hiding something. Well, Tomato was not wrong, because there was a little something they were not eager to mention.

Scratching his head, Party Favor wondered if Tomato went there to hide until a couple days had passed for Cheese to recover. He wasn't sure that he wanted to revisit that memory; however, it was more important to make sure that Tomato would be found, so that he wouldn't freeze or starve to death.

He put down the balloonoculars, and then started heading up to the cave.

Tomato leaned against the cold cave wall, his breaths visible before him even in the dimming light. His cheeks and ears were feeling numb, and his fur was standing up on end, fluffing up his coat to keep him warm. It wasn't a winter coat, but it was making do without his jacket, which he wished he still had. Why did he take it off again?

Tomato curled up in a ball as he tried to remember why he had done so. Did the caffeine buzz make him think that he was being restricted by the jacket? Or maybe that he looked too much like a stuffy killjoy, much like he often resorted to to avoid being a screw-up? Or maybe he was just being crazy, since he had tied his necktie around his head like a headband.

He wiped his eyes, his eyelids and lashes damp. He had been a fool. He knew full well that he and coffee did not mix, and that he didn't have even the slightest control over his wild side. What made him think he could control it this time?

He had discovered that little part of him when he decided to try the stuff as a young teenager; the result was several neighbors with heart attacks, broken windows, and a grounding from Mom, plus working for bitter neighbors to pay for damages. The second time got him in trouble with the school for terrorizing the other students; the third for disrupting traffic in the city. And remembering Bluejinx's description of that disastrous party at Rich Custard's home, he was guessing that another time came in conjunction with Creme Brulee's "cherry punch". He felt tense and sick to his stomach thinking about that last one.

He looked down at his cutie mark. Maybe his mother was right; he should have stuck with the cutie mark he got. Deviating from the path only caused trouble; if he tried anything else, he was bound to whip back into 'walking disaster' status. A serious talent such as his was for serious ponies only, and he had to shed his innate silliness in order for him to survive. "Killjoy" was safer than "screw-up" after all.

But his joy for his talent had since been killed.

He looked up at the cave wall adjacent to the one he leaned against, where a large panel towered over the stone pedestal in front of it. The panel looked to have been made of glass, since the remaining light from the sunset shining through the cave entrance reflected off the shards, both those still on the panel and those on the cave floor. The panel was divided up into over 112 segments, as if something was supposed to be stored there. And a stick that made him think of a slingshot lay not too far from the panel.

He had found it a peculiar sight, since he couldn't think of any reason why that would be there. He also wondered why Double Diamond was reluctant to say anything about it, what this skeleton in the closet was. Just another oddity that was in this area, just like that equal sign book that made Double Diamond and Party Favor panic. And the creepy, unnaturally big grins that popped up every so often. Furrowing his brow, he wondered why those were so.

"You found it."

Tomato turned to the cave's entrance, where Party Favor stood. The unicorn was staring at the panel, a look of unease on his face. There was a frozen stillness in the cold cave, save for the slow footsteps of the blue pony, his eyes fixed on the panel. Tomato stared curiously at the action, and he felt colder than he already was.

After a few moments, Party Favor sighed, and then ambled to the wall where Tomato sat against. Sitting next to him, Party Favor took the brown jacket slung over his shoulders and gave it to Tomato. Blinking, Tomato gingerly took it, and slipped it on.

Once he had buttoned up the jacket, Tomato remarked, "I thought you were mad at me."

"I was." Party Favor rubbed his eye, and then turned to Tomato. "But... then you said you didn't want your cutie mark anymore. It didn't really make sense."

Tomato crossed his front legs. "Let's just say that my joy in my so-called 'special talent' was killed a long time ago."

Party Favor looked at his own cutie mark. "I see. But what does it have to do with what happened back in town?"

Tomato drew circles with his hoof on the cave floor. "Mom doesn't like it when I perform actions outside of my cutie mark. She's so paranoid about me defying her like Cheese did, that she snaps at me whenever I show interest in something that's not related to business or finance or whatever. Even though she's not here... sometimes I still feel as if she's watching me, making sure I don't step out of line."

Party Favor's gaze went to the panel, and then down to the stick. "Not a fun feeling, is it?"

Tomato laughed derisively. "Oh, yeah, and whenever I do decide to act silly, cut loose and have a little fun, I'm practically the harbinger of the apocalypse! If I'm not falling in line with the cutie mark I earned, then I'm that walking disaster that'll drive away even the one I'm closest to."

"Was that the feud that Cheese mentioned?"

Tomato glared at him. "Well, good to know that you know that."

"I was asking him for advice on how to stop your buzz, and he didn't know how to stop you because of that!"

Tomato sighed. "Well, he's not wrong. He wasn't present for any of the previous caffeine rushes--frankly, I'm glad he wasn't, that would've made him hate me even more. I mean, Mom still doesn't have respect for me because of stuff like that!" He crossed his forelegs, and slumped against the wall. "I'm not sure if I'm even good at that talent my mark represents."

Party Favor blinked. "What do you mean?"

"The last time I followed my mark..." He looked at Party Favor's face, seeing Kazam in his place. He felt sick to his stomach at the idea of telling Party Favor what had happened in Las Pegasus. He turned away. "...it was the biggest disaster I was ever involved in. I'm not even sure if your sister and that pony she's working with are even doing well. I shouldn't have gotten into their business at all, since I'm the least helpful pony on the planet."

Tomato felt a chill from his cheek on the rough and rocky wall. "Killjoy or screw up, that's my entire identity. If there's a cutie mark removal spell, then I'd like it cast on me so I don't have to deal with my stupid mark anymore! It's only caused me nothing but trouble!"

Suddenly, Party Favor shouted, "NO! You can't do that, that's a terrible idea!"

"Oh, and what makes you such an expert?"

Party Favor looked up at the panel again, and sighed. "Tomato... have you heard of Starlight Glimmer?"

Tomato blinked and turned to him. "Starlight Glimmer? Well, I've read the news about a pony named that... and a cult she started... something about equality and--" His eyes widened as the puzzle pieces fell in place. He turned to the panel, and stared at it. "Your mayor was Starlight Glimmer?"

Party Favor nodded. "Yes... you're looking at the vault where she kept our cutie marks."

Tomato still stared at it, imagining marks of every kind in each of the squares. Various marks he had seen around the town; the various spaces left empty were filled by various marks he had seen throughout his trip. Somewhere around the middle, he imagined his own mark nestling there, and he wondered how it felt to have a cutie mark removed. Blinking, he slowly turned to Party Favor, looking down at the floor.

Party Favor squeezed his eyes shut. "It's an ordeal we want to forget."

Cheese squeezed the part of the blanket in his hooves. He had a headache just thinking about Rooney's proposal. "I don't know... removing a memory? Wouldn't that hurt?"

Rooney chuckled, turning to the nightstand by Cheese's bed and turning on the lamp. "I'm not going to lie, it might hurt for a little bit. But, sometimes one has to bear some pain in order to heal."

Cheese still stared at the blanket. "I'm not exactly a big fan of pain..."

"I'm afraid that I don't have anesthesia on hand." He trotted to the side of the room, and stopped short of the window, gazing at his reflection. "But, I promise if you cooperate, it will be over soon."

Cheese sank. "Still... I won't be Cheese if you take my memories. I don't want to forget who I am."

"Nonsense," Rooney said, levitating the pillow on the floor and sliding it under Cheese's head. "What's one memory? Ponies forget things all the time, just losing one little memory wouldn't hurt. Especially one that's causing as much distress to you as this... certain one causing you nightmares."

Cheese looked up at the ceiling and yawned. As much as he didn't like the implication that the process was painful, he liked those falling and vampire nightmares that kept him up even less. He didn't want any unnecessary fear gnawing away at him. He didn't want any parties being sub-par because he couldn't let go for whatever reason. He didn't want to associate his brother with a monster that should have remained a myth, or see the nice Party Favor fellow as his twisted warlock of a brother Kazam.

Ponies did forget things all the time...

Cheese's eyes were heavy as he asked, "Just one?"

As they stood in front of the vault in the cave, Party Favor told Tomato all about how the cutie markless cult was, how everypony in town had felt lost in some way or another, how Starlight talked them into joining, and the brainwashing that ensued if they weren't satisfied with their way of life. The town was all equal; same equal sign cutie mark, same hairstyles, same houses, same everything. He shuddered upon mentioning that their "jail" was a brainwashing hut that spouted propaganda for hours, while the ponies inside were not allowed to do much of anything, including sleep.

He particularly expressed how he had wanted to get rid of his cutie mark, due to it not being taken as seriously as the rest of his magically talented family. He expressed how his father was obviously displeased and unimpressed with it, how his brother mocked him for it, and how everypony they knew in Canterlot had turned up their noses at his unsophisticated method of art. His only method of using magic had been scorned, and he left in discouragement. And then he met Starlight Glimmer.

"I was a little nervous when she told me about the unmarking, and how I'd be happier without my mark," Party Favor explained. "Something in the back of my mind was telling me that those who had come before me, like Double Diamond and Sugar Belle, weren't really happy, but... I didn't listen. I'm ashamed to say I gave in, and I didn't quite realize how painful the process was. Once it was over, I was relieved for a time... until I realized that all the other unicorns could still use their magic."

"Ouch," Tomato replied.

"From then on, I didn't feel equal--I felt less than everypony else. When I raised my concerns with Starlight, she just tossed me in the hut. And at that moment, I had hit the horrible realization that without my talent, without my one connection to my inner magic, and without anypony to at least sympathize, I felt more alone than ever." Party Favor looked at one of his hooves. "I soon forgot what it was like to be... me."

Tomato blinked, and glanced to the vault, wondering where Party Favor's mark had been placed. He wondered if he had ever come up here, tempted to break that glass so that he could regain his talents once more. He wondered if he had stared at his reflection, seeing the pony he once was. And he wondered what it was like to be completely talentless, with not even a spark of magic to put him on equal ground with his peers.

Tomato looked down at a large shard of glass. He saw that alternate version of himself, wearing that green shirt with red polka dots, his mane a mess, and holding the same curious expression he was. With a sigh, he reminded himself that he was not that pony, and will never be that pony. Besides, who was Cheese Sandwich if Tomato Sandwich was a party pony?

"So... I'll still be me?" Cheese asked.

Rooney chuckled. "I fear that if I don't remove this one memory that's bothering you, you wouldn't be you anymore. I don't want that tragedy to happen to such a promising young stallion such as you."

Cheese clutched the pillow and glanced at him. "I suppose... but, are you sure it'll work?"

"Nothing to worry about," Rooney said, pacing around the room. "I can assure you that I can be trusted. I've been doing magic for years after all."

Cheese wiped his nose. "So... it's safe?"

Rooney smiled at him. "Absolutely. Now... if you may, I'd like to know what you'd like removed."

Cheese bit his lip, his muscles tensing and heart pounding. This was something new, something he had never done before. He was not familiar with magical procedures, especially one that he hadn't even heard about. Still, he was tired of the nightmares. He needed sleep, and so long as he remembered the entire vampire disaster and that creep who unleashed it, he couldn't get it. And since Rooney did say that losing one memory wouldn't hurt...

He gulped. "Please remove... my most recent trip to... Las Pegasus."

Party Favor brushed a few shards away. "I found out that Sugar Belle and Night Glider had their doubts about a year in, and I formed a kinship with them. We met in secret often, avoiding Starlight and Double Diamond--who was her lackey at the time--and tell each other about what talents we used to have and our histories, but we never really had any plans to change anything. After all, we were all 'equal', everypony else was happy, so why should we cause a scene and disrupt Starlight's utopia?"

"Utopia? Really? I don't call it a utopia if you're afraid of your leader."

"I know, I know..." Party Favor clicked his tongue and smiled. "Still, things looked up when Princess Twilight and her friends came to town and exposed Starlight. Turns out, Starlight still had her cutie mark! And, well..."

Tomato smirked. "I'm guessing you were all upset with her and demanded your cutie marks back."

Party Favor nodded. "Even Double Diamond turned against her. She left town after that, and we got our cutie marks back. I had never felt so relieved to have something that I thought was holding me back. I realized how much of a blessing it was, and I didn't ever want it to leave again."

"Yeah, after all that... it's nice to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I know I was relieved when me and Cheese ended our feud."

Party Favor and Tomato turned around, heading to the mouth of the cave. Party Favor then said, "Still, if there's anything good that came out of that ordeal, it's that I found friends who love me for who I am. Double Diamond's been a better brother to me than my own brother, Night Glider's fun to joke around with, and Sugar Belle..."

Noting the pause in Party Favor's speech, Tomato said, "Go on..."

He sighed happily. "I still remember when I first found out she had doubts. She was a little afraid of me at first, but when I assured her that I wouldn't bite or tattle on her for her doubts, she was happy to have me around at her bakery. It's funny, really, everyone in town claimed to be friends with everypony else, but... Sugar Belle was my first true friend. It was really nice to have somepony make me feel like I wasn't alone, and I'm glad to have been somepony that she looked forward to seeing. I mean, we exchanged some pretty great stories with each other. I still get a kick out of her story about her encounter with a lobster!"

"A lobster?"

"Yeah! It's funnier when she tells it, so you'll have to ask her." Party Favor hummed a little as they went outside into the dusk. "Of course, we did wonder about each other's talents, and I did wish to see what she was like with her cutie mark. She at least saw me with mine before I had it removed..." Party Favor blushed and giggled nervously. "She said I was cute. But, uh... she's cute too, we don't negate each other's cuteness!"

"Uh-huh," Tomato said, repressing a knowing smirk.

"And it's sweet to see her and Night Glider act like they're sisters. It... kind of made me miss my own sister." Party Favor sighed and shook his head. "I adore my friends... I just wish I didn't have to do something stupid in order to find them. Tomato, I know you've gone sour on your cutie mark, but removing it wouldn't be the answer. You can't exactly trade it away and get a different one, you know?"

Tomato looked up at the stars. "Yeah, I got as much from your story. Still... I don't know what to do. I mean, I ruined everything, and even if I tried to use the talent on my flank, I don't think anypony would trust me."

"Yeah, I'm sure the only ponies around here that don't know of the disaster are those railroad workers across the bridge."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Railroad workers?"

Party Favor nodded. "Apparently, they just laid tracks across the way. They built that faster than we thought they would."

"At least that's going smoothly." Tomato scratched his chin, a smile creeping onto his face. "I wonder if we can convince them to come and see the town they're building to...?"

Party Favor raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that? I mean, they'd be awfully busy."

"Can't hurt to drop by and say 'hi'."

Cheese had his ears open, his eyes closed, and his body laying straight. He found that he couldn't relax his body as much as he wanted to, and all he could do was hold his breath. There was a pit in his stomach, and a sense of dread permeating his heart. There was something in the back of his head telling him that this was a bad idea, and that he shouldn't have to do this. However, images of the vampires spiked the fears in his heart, and he kept telling himself that this was not a bad idea, and that this pony could be trusted. After all, he did offer his services in assuaging the needless fear.

Rooney took a deep breath, focusing on the skinny stallion on the bed. With an exhale, his horn was wrapped in its silver glow, and he levitated Cheese into the air. He closed his eyes, and summoned a string of magic into Cheese's ear.

Rooney searched through Cheese's mind, seeing if he could spot the familiar images of Las Pegasus. He combed for those memories that were more recent, seeing the adventures that the party pony had with his brother during the summer. He quirked an eyebrow at one set of memories where Cheese had apparently been Princess Celestia, and tried to suppress laughter at some of the odd things that Cheese had done. And a constant image that appeared was that of a bubbly pink pony, and the brightness of those memories indicated that he was quite fond of her.

Finally, he reached a collection of memories clearly about Las Pegasus. Seeing the images of vampires--including one that looked like Tomato--Rooney could see why Cheese wanted to forget it.

With the magic, he grabbed the set of memories associated with that event, up to the moment where Cheese sensed that Las Pegasus was the place to go. And thus, he began to draw it out.

As Cheese was suspended in the air, he could feel his mind tingling as Rooney probed through it. At first, it tickled, and he couldn't help but giggle. However, the moment he felt Rooney grab something and start to pull it away, a sharp jolt of pain ran through his head, prompting a loud grunt. Another tug brought about another jolt, and the tugging kept on repeating, as did the pain, and he tried to hold his breath only for a cough to sputter out and make the pain more acute.

Each tug felt like someone was stabbing his head, and scooping out a portion of his brain. He grinded his teeth, trying not to cry out with each yank. He couldn't help but grunt though, and he could feel beads of sweat running down his face, and tears started to seep out of his squeezed shut eyelids. His heart pounded, and his first instinct was to try to squirm out of the magic. However, he was locked in, and he could do nothing but growl and wheeze as part of his mind was being ripped away from him.

The final tug was one final stretch, as if his brain was desperately trying to cling on to the memory. Said memory was slowly fading to static, where the images were fading out, and they went from some monster to something unrecognizable. The pain was ringing through his body, and every part of him tingled as threads to the memory were snapping with the pull. He felt like he was going to explode, and the headache coming from that was pure agony, enough to make him finally scream.

One final snap, his mind went numb, and everything was dark.

Rooney dropped the unconscious Cheese on the bed, focusing at the freshly harvested memory held in the magic. He surrounded the image of vampires in Las Pegasus in an glassy, transparent orb, and then stored it in his cloak. He approached Cheese, and seeing that he was breathing, he slid the covers over him. He patted the party pony on the head.

"Sleep well, Cheese Sandwich."

Author's Note

Did you all expect Starlight Glimmer to appear? Hah! Nope! I wasn't planning on it! :rainbowwild:

Instead I went for something else... hoo boy, wasn't that a beautiful sequence? :pinkiecrazy:

9.6--Second Wind

By the time that Party Favor had gathered his friends to the town square and informed them that he had found Tomato, it was rather dark, with millions of stars in the sky and a waning half-moon overhead. The group was relieved that the lanky stallion had been found before he had run into trouble. However, there was a bit of a shock when Party Favor had to confess to telling Tomato all about the reign of Starlight Glimmer.

"Party Favor!" Double Diamond snapped. "Why did you have to blab about that shame?"

Night Glider had her front legs crossed. "Ugh, he's now probably thinking of us the same way every out-of-towner does."

Sugar Belle bit her lip and stepped back. "Why couldn't you have told him something else? I mean, I'm not sure I can stand being judged in that way! The judgement terrifies me!"

Party Favor rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sorry, but I felt that he needed to hear it. After all, when they hit the road, the Sandwiches might end up running into Starlight, and I don't doubt that she'd try to use her flattery on them like she did with us." He glanced at Tomato. "And we all heard what Tomato had said earlier."

"Psht, yeah, Cheese wouldn't fall for it, but I'm a good target," Tomato mumbled. He looked forward and scanned the four ponies with him. "I can see why you want to hide it by taking advantage of my not knowing where the heck I am. I remember when the news about Princess Twilight's visit to this town came out, my mom was scorning these ponies for giving up an essential part of their being..."

"Like what we've overheard some government officials say, or what Double Diamond and others have heard on their trading trips?" Night Glider scoffed.

Tomato grimaced and twiddled his hooves. "I suppose so... I'm not going to lie, I kind of was, too. After all, you can't trade away your talents, and you're a fool to believe you can do so without destroying yourself. Dang, no wonder you guys seem so glum, you've got a crummy reputation."

Double Diamond ran a hoof through his mane and sighed. "No doubt about it. When me and others go out to trade... we end up having to say where we're from. It's not fun to hear about how stupid we are. Or worse, how we'll all brainwash you into giving up your cutie mark. Never mind that ever since Starlight left, we've been trying to move away from her philosophy."

"If I may ask, are you trying to wipe the whole 'cutie markless cult' thing off your slate with the ski resort?" Tomato asked.

Double Diamond looked down at the road. "Yes, I will admit, that is one of the reasons. I just thought that if our town had an identity other than as 'the one that was a cult', then maybe, just maybe, we'd get a little more respect, and that we'd all just forget about that big mistake."

He then laughed in self derision and shook his head. "But I should have known that we weren't ready. Starlight still haunts us, months after we chased her out. After all, she still reminds me that my talent has overall unimportance, and that I did almost kill my little siblings while doing it."

"Yeah..." Sugar Belle stated. "I still feel like I shouldn't be my best, lest I fall to the same severe judgement that my father has always given me. Or that everyone envies me, and is waiting for a slip up so that they could have an excuse for not being my friend anymore. Or that my talent has no place in the world among thousands of others with the same talent. In any case... I can still hear her in the back of my mind."

Night Glider nodded. "Me too. She's still telling me that my cutie mark brings misery, lest it remind me of how I fall short compared to my sister."

Party Favor looked at Tomato. "We've all had our doubts about our special talents, and we did make the mistake of giving them up. And now, we're trying to move past that. It's such a shame that we're still holding back because of the simple memory of Starlight, and, well... an attitude of 'what's the point?'."

Tomato put a hoof to his chin. This wasn't the first time he had met ponies who felt that it was pointless to try to improve their quality of life. A couple of homeless ponies he had come across in Manehattan had given up because it was too hard, and were resigned to their beds of cardboard boxes. One had been an amazing metalworker, who had been generous enough to craft a special Hearth's Warming ornament just for Tomato, which had prompted the then-young colt to ask if he was going to make a living off of it.

He could have sworn that he had convinced that guy to try again, but that pony died.

Still, this town reminded him of that pony--full of potential, with good heads on their shoulders and skills that can prove valuable, but ultimately pessimistic because it doesn't seem like the world even wants them. Even Double Diamond, the pony who was putting the most effort into improving the town, was looking rather glum. Starlight was definitely taking a toll on them, and unless he could somehow convince them to be their very best, the town was going to remain slow.

He looked down at the cobblestone road, noting that it was proof that they are at least using resources they've got in order to earn a little more money to buy these rocks. Maybe some of these rocks were home grown. It was interesting to note that each rock had a different shape, and the road was almost like a puzzle. He took notice of a hole, and a rock nearby. He idly slid the rock into the hole, and pressed down on it.

The moment he felt the stone lock itself into place, something clicked in his mind. Blinking as he stared at that stone, he wondered if he had going about it all wrong. After all, trying to imitate Cheese's shenanigans went horribly wrong--maybe he should have gone for a different angle. What angle did he use when it came to that fundraiser that earned him his cutie mark?

He raised his head. "I think I just got an idea."

Night Glider grimaced. "Are you going to turn into the Tormato again?"

Tomato gave her a funny look. "No, I'm certain that nopony wants that! And... 'Tormato', really?"

"I confused 'tomato' and 'tornado' when I was little. I thought it fit."

Party Favor blinked at the taller stallion. "Well, what is your idea?"

Tomato looked at Party Favor back, thinking of what he had seen and heard about him do with just balloons. He imagined just what he could do with his special talent when it was at its fullest potential, and wondered if that was the 'oomph' they needed.

He cleared his throat. "All right, here's the plan..."

The next morning, the citizens woke up to the sounds of knocks on their doors, and were bewildered at the sight of some scruffy ponies, standing upon the doorsteps of them and their neighbors, asking for the roof shingles. Once the scruffy guys had been given the shingles, they were boosted up to the roofs by their friends, whether they be earth pony, pegasus, or unicorn. And sitting on the rooftops, the ponies started to hammer in the shingles back onto the rooftops.

The confused townsfolk marched outside, and watched as the scruffy ponies were working on their rooftops for no apparent reason. Then, they noticed that the road was fixed, the tables were back up, balloons were attached to the walls of the buildings, and that the crumpled up banner that had been in the middle of the street had been ripped to shreds, and was being put into rubber bags that looked like overstretched balloons by Night Glider.

Double Diamond then came out of Town Hall, followed by Tomato, and Party Favor. Looking down the street, their mayor called, "Good morning, everypony! I hope you've had a good night's rest!"

One stallion then shouted, "Double Diamond! What is the meaning of this? Who are these ponies on the roofs?"

Party Favor smiled sheepishly. "Oh, some railroad workers we borrowed from a new camp across the way. Turns out they came more quickly than we thought."

Double Diamond nodded. "We told their boss that we were kind of in a hurry and needed more pony power."

Tomato took a deep breath. "It took a little bit to convince that pony, but we ultimately told him that a little trip to the town they're building to and a party may end up boosting the morale of some of the more grumpy and pessimistic workers."

The ponies all blinked, and then glared at Tomato. Those gazes made Tomato flinch, and he cleared his throat. "Look, I know you're upset. What I did yesterday was stupid, and I admit, trying to take a shortcut in order to throw a party was very unwise. I'm not a party pony. I had the puzzle pieces, but I couldn't put in the same magic as a party pony can. Treating the task like a checklist turned out to be tedious, and I'm sorry that I made such a big mess. Now, I'm doing whatever I can to make it up to you."

"By doing what?" somepony asked. "As far as I can see, you're only getting other ponies to do the work for you."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "What, do you expect just me and Party Favor to plan this thing on our own? You saw the results of that yesterday."

"Oh, yeah, and now we'll have to clean up your mess."

"Considering that that winter sport committee is coming today and we don't have any fancy contraptions to help us set up a party in a flash, not to mention that when my brother's better he'll quickly be pulled by Cheesy Sense to some other town for a party, I frankly don't have time to do it myself! We're going to need as many helping hooves as we can get to make sure we have a good shot at this."

Another pony shouted, "A good shot? Ha! As if we want ponies coming here only to laugh at us and mock us for what happened with our last mayor. Double Diamond and some others have heard some not-so-nice things about us."

Tomato looked at an ashamed Double Diamond, and sighed. "Are you really that scared of outsiders? Scared of what they think of you for a horrible mistake that you've made? That you'd much rather keep to yourself so you don't get hurt by ponies who wouldn't understand? I see you're just comfortable with living way out here, in some sort of little utopia where nothing bad could happen, huh?" His ears drooped, and he muttered, "Sounds a little like my life."

He straightened up once again. "But, I'm afraid that you won't be able to grow if you keep on living like this, and once that train station's finished, ponies are going to be curious. Double Diamond recognizes that changes are coming, and you're going to have to adapt, whether this ski resort thing happens or not."

The townsfolk stepped back, and murmured amongst each other.

Tomato chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine. You took me and Cheese in without fear of judgement. Who's to say you couldn't do the same with others? After all, ponies do appreciate service with a smile."

Several ponies instinctively grinned wide grins to that statement, which made Tomato stagger back. Holding his chest, he said, "Okay, not that big, because honestly, smiles like that tend to freak ponies out." He stood up straight once again. "But, still, you can definitely foster good customer relations, like you did with strangers like me and my brother."

That was when Rooney stepped out of the crowd. "And me. I am most grateful that somepony offered me a room to stay in. Now I surely would hate to see you ponies fail in this endeavor, so I'll be happy to throw this party. My wife was a party pony, so I've got a few ideas."

Double Diamond stepped forward. "I see we have at least one pony going to help us. What about the rest of you? Are you up for it?"

The crowd stared at the group of stallions for a good long minute. Finally, one pony stepped forward. "Excuse me, but I don't think balloons are the only thing that makes a party. What about treats?"

That was when Sugar Belle popped out of the bakery, and hollered, "I'm taking care of it!"

Then Night Glider said, "And I'm making confetti that'll make a pony think of snow."

Double Diamond shrugged. "Party Favor's creating transport to the mountains for when the committee gets here. I gotta show them the snow, you know."

Party Favor bit his lip and nodded. " And I've been encouraged do as much as I can with my talent and my imagination in making this party great."

Tomato smirked at them, and turned to the crowd. "You know, we're missing something." He scratched his chin in mock contemplation. "I think it might be... uh... oh, I dunno, a little something called music. Do we have any musicians here?"

The crowd was silent, and the railroad workers were staring along with them.

"Come on, don't be shy... it's all right to brag! I like hearing about what talents you have."

None of the townsfolk raised their hooves, but some of the railroad workers weren't shy about raising their hooves. Tomato looked up, and pointed at one.

"I play the oboe," that worker said.

Party Favor smiled, took out some balloons, and twisted them into an oboe. "I've got one for you!"

The worker blinked. "But... it's made of balloons."

Party Favor winked and played a few notes on the balloon oboe. "It works, I promise."

The worker was still staring as Party Favor inflated some balloons to float toward him, and gave him the oboe. With a wrinkled nose and a raised eyebrow, the worker played a few notes as well, and then blinked. "Oh, wow, it does work!"

Rooney chuckled. "Well, I've never seen magic applied like that before. He didn't even use his horn."

Double Diamond snickered. "That's Party Favor for you. He doesn't need his horn to do magic."

Tomato laughed. "Ah, so are any of you up for giving this party a little jazz? Because Party Favor's got plenty of balloons to make this work."

The ponies murmured amongst each other, a good number of them grimacing and holding unsure looks. While they had thrown parties before, it was for personal celebrations, not for impressing anypony. The thought of being judged was terrifying, and there was little doubt in their minds that they'd fall short of the mark. Sure, that one pony could play the oboe, but what else could be done?

Double Diamond frowned. "Look, I get that you're nervous, and honestly, I'm nervous too. Considering what's happened with us in the past..."

Some members of the crowd backed up, their eyes wide with horror.

Double Diamond ran a hoof through his mane. "...I know. But I'm tired of living as if Starlight's still here, even if we have our cutie marks back. I long to share the mountains with other ponies, I long to see more ponies enjoy Sugar Belle's baking, and I long for more ponies to see how wonderful you all are. I'm proud to call you my friends, and all want to show it to the world! Heck, we can start by working with these railroad workers to fix the roofs and make this party great!"

Tomato crossed his front legs. "And if this ultimately works, all your businesses could benefit from new customers. The committee's still coming, no matter what, and we're going to give them a taste of what each of you has got, so we better make it a good one. So, let me ask again... who can play some music?"

The ponies stared for a moment, looked at each other, and some hooves tentatively went up.

Tomato clapped his hooves. "All right! Here's how it's going to work. We've got less than a day, so we've got to do this as quickly and efficiently as we can. We'll have the music team by town hall, the decorating team by the clothes shop, the baking team at the bakery, the roof fixing team on the roofs... and then there's me and Double Diamond, who'll make sure that everypony's doing their jobs, and we'll deal with boring business stuff once that committee arrives. Now, evaluate your talents and resources, come to us, and we'll help you form the teams! And from there, we must make creative use of what we've got!"

The teams were formed, and three of the teams appointed leaders to guide them in doing their tasks. Sugar Belle was in charge of the baking team, and Party Favor the decorating team, and a pony named Drumline was leading the music team. Meanwhile, the roofing team had some ponies draw lines where the shingles should be hammered in, and explain to them that they should start at the edge of the roof and make their way to the top. With that, all those working on the roofs had about three ponies to a house. Thankfully, it was only the houses on main street that had had their shingles torn off.

Tomato and Double Diamond went back and forth down the main street, seeing how things were going. Drumline was providing a beat with his drum, coaching them on how to make the music blend together. The two supervisors listened as the ponies were experimenting with different songs and music types. Most of them were pleasant, though one military-like piece that erupted had Double Diamond, Drumline, and several other residents cringing, much to the confusion of Tomato and the railroad workers.

Members of the decorating team were covering the shattered windows with pictures they had painted of some beautiful landscapes and some fun activities, and hung streamers from the doors. Some used the broken glass and some crystals from the mine to create snowflake ornaments to hang on the walls, and lined the walls of the houses with some other crystals. And some had arranged rocks and painted them to look like snowponies, which Tomato thought was cute. And Party Favor continued doing his thing, scoping out places that could use a balloon sculpture of a snowflake or a skier or another winter-themed thing, though he was wise not to put them near the glass ornaments.

And each visit to the bakery brought about a delightful mixture of delicious scents that made their mouths water. Each baker was working on something different in the kitchen, whether it be cupcakes, lemon squares, brownies, pies, or banana bread, among other things. Sugar Belle had to shoo them out before somepony decided to have a taste before the party was even finished.

And the roof reshingling was going smoothly, though there were a few odd places where a shingle didn't seem to fit right, and some places where the shingles were strangely arranged like railroad tracks. But, other than those, the roofs were on their way to looking good as new again.

And each group had ponies talking to each other. The townsfolk and railroad workers were asking each other questions, telling each other jokes and laughing, and the railroad workers were even eager to talk about their families at home. Rooney, working on the roofing team on a house at the end of the street, was happy telling Party Favor--who was creating a balloon gate near the house--about his wife and how much of a joy she had been in his life before she passed away.

Some pegasi had broken out of their groups, forming two new ones--one to fetch water for everypony, and the other to check on the snow in the mountains. So far, the snow was still good, and they assured Double Diamond that they wouldn't let it melt so that the committee could see just how the snow is.

Tomato had one other thing to check on. Opening the door to the doctor's hut, it was much to his relief to find Cheese sleeping soundly. Considering that it wasn't hard to guess that Cheese had been having nightmares keeping him up the past few days, a slumber of peace was very welcome, and Tomato hoped that he'd have more restful nights.

He smiled. "It's not the most spectacular party in the world, but it's turning out pretty good, nonetheless. I hope you like it when you wake up."

A few hours passed, and the decorating team had finished their decorations, deciding that the town sparkled enough to give it a winter feel. While the others had gone onto the roofs to help with the shingling, Party Favor created a large basket out of his balloons, and inflated one big one in order to replicate a hot air balloon ride. Knowing that it was getting close to the time that the committee should have gotten off the train at the temporary stopping point, he decided to fly Double Diamond and Tomato there to greet them. He recruited Night Glider to tow the balloon, and they were on their way.

Double Diamond carefully placed his skis in the storing place that Party Favor had created in the basket, and he leaned against the edge of the basket with a sigh. "Well, this is it. The moment of truth is coming. Remember the plan?"

Party Favor nodded. "Pick them up, good straight to the mountains, and literally drop you guys there. Then you guys will 'examine the snow' while we add the finishing touches to the party. Night Glider checks on you guys, gets us to pick you up, and then we show them the party."

"Good. I hope we impress them."

"Well, seeing as you were bragging about how ski-able the snow in the mountains are and how fun the terrain is, I'm sure we've got a pretty good shot," Tomato said.

Night Glider turned to those in the basket as she pulled the balloon. "Yeah, D, when you get me to do air drops, I can tell you're having a blast! Who's to say that this committee won't? Or any other skiers in Equestria?"

"Besides, the party is to show them our hospitality," Party Favor said. "And our second attempt is better than our first."

He had looked at Tomato as he said this, making the lanky stallion blush and glare at him. Tomato turned away and strummed at his forelock in an effort to shrug it off. With a sigh, he said, "I wish I could pay you guys, but with what I've got in my wallet, you'd all earn less than half a bit."

Double Diamond laughed. "Well, at least it was fun setting up that party. I think we made some new friends anyway."

"Well, I thought arranging a second opinion would be nice," Tomato muttered. Clearing his throat, he asked, "So, uh... where are all you guys from? I know Party Favor's from Canterlot."

"Yep... and, well, Sugar Belle's from Fillydelphia," Party Favor said.

"I'm from Cloudsdale!" Night Glider hollered.

"Paddock City," Double Diamond answered.

Tomato blinked and tilted his head. "Where's that?"

"About 30 miles east of Salt Lick City, resting among the mountains. It's a ski town."

"Oh, so you grew up near a ski resort?" Tomato watched as Double Diamond nodded, and continued, "My friend Flora's grandfather worked at a ski resort. Flora told me about a tradition of her extended family's that they'd spend Hearth's Warming at the resort. It'd be funny if that was the town they went to on their holiday trip."

Double Diamond shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not."

Night Glider shouted, "You know, you don't really expect a pony named Flora to be connected to a ski resort like that. She sounds like a spring pony!"

Party Favor nodded. "Yeah, with what "flora" means, I expect snow to be her worst enemy."

Tomato sighed, rolled his eyes, and shook his head. "Hey, I never said she skied. She is a spring pony; though I wouldn't call it her worst enemy, you're pretty close in guessing her dislike of snow. She has explicitly told me that she hates winter."

"What?" Double Diamond said. With a playful scoff and a shake of the head, he said, "She's crazy. She'll never understand how sweet it is to shred through powder."

"Her sister would," Tomato said bluntly. Wrinkling his nose, he muttered, "Which sister was it again?"

"Here we are!" Night Glider announced. "Ski committee ahoy!"

The three stallions stepped across the squeaky balloon basket, and looked down. Sure enough, walking along the railroad tracks was a group of about six ponies. The largest one was carrying their luggage and equipment in the back of the group, and the smallest one in front was holding a map. They were all a variety of colors that reminded a pony of winter.

"That's a small committee," Tomato remarked.

"They told me that they were sending a small group," Double Diamond replied. Then he looked up at Night Glider and said, "All right, Night, bring us down!"

Night Glider nodded, and said, "Hang on, everypony!"

As the dark-coated pegasus began her descent, towing the balloon down with her, Tomato asked Double Diamond, "How'd you manage to get that committee, anyway?"

Double Diamond didn't take his eyes off the group as he answered, "Friend of my parents."

The balloon landed in front of the group, who stopped and staggered back at the sight of the balloon. Night Glider and Party Favor held the balloon, while Double Diamond and Tomato strode forward to meet the group. Tomato scanned the six ponies before them. There was a short, mint green unicorn stallion holding the map in his magic; a light blue earth pony mare with a mane of two tones of dark blue, tied at the end with a beaded band like Sugar Belle's mane was; a set of white-coated twins with evergreen hair, only differentiated by their gender and eye color; a tall, brown mare with curly white and tan hair; and finally, a muscled stallion that towered over everypony, bearing a silver coat and a white mane. Tomato felt rather small when looking at that last one, and tried to focus on one of the shorter ones.

The short unicorn stepped forward. "What's the big idea trying to kill us with...?" He leaned to the side to look at the balloon made out of balloons, from which Party Favor and Night Glider waved to him. Raising an eyebrow, he asked, "Eh... why is that hot air balloon made out of party balloons?"

The blue mare wrinkled her nose. "It looks like something one of my neighbors back home would make."

Double Diamond chuckled. "That's the handiwork of our very own Party Favor. He's a wizard when it comes to balloons." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, I am Double Diamond, this stallion here beside me is Tomato Sandwich, and our pegasus friend is Night Glider."

The unicorn took Double Diamond's hoof. "The name's Peppermint Chill, from Salt Lick City; I see you're the Double Diamond that Timber Dodger was talking about. Says you're the oldest son of Powder Snow, am I right?"

Double Diamond nodded. "That's right."

"Well, I wouldn't expect to find somepony like you all the way out here. Or that slick fellow beside you. Or Mr. Balloon Builder right there. Or that pegasus that looks like she could be a Wonderbolt."

Night Glider groaned. "Don't remind me."

Peppermint laughed. "Anyway, let me introduce you to my companions." He gestured to the blue mare. "That's Winter Mist from Halterside."

Tomato perked up when he heard "Halterside." He was tempted to ask her about Silver Shill and Silk Shimmer and how the pirate ship pizzeria was doing, but thinking about how he might receive a disappointing answer, he stayed quiet.

Peppermint continued, "The twins are Evergreen and Crystal from Seaddle, the brown one's Cocoa Latte from Whinneapolis, and the big fella's Big Freeze from Vanhoover. We're all here because we like skiing! And you say that you've got a good place for a resort?"

Double Diamond cracked a smile. "Psht, yeah, I've been shredding in the nearby mountains for a while now, and I thought that it'd make for a good place for winter fun."

Crystal, the female twin with blue eyes, said, "So... you're saying that it's got some good snow?"

Evergreen, the male twin with light green eyes, asked, "And you say they're skiiable in the summer as well?"

"That's what I've found."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "Not to mention I got caught in a giant snowball a few days ago. I'd say there's plenty of snow up there."

Winter Mist raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like the snow's a little wet. Is it like that all year, or just in summertime?"

"Oh, it's much closer to powder in the winter," Double Diamond said.

Tomato cleared his throat. "As much as I'd like to listen to all the geeking out over snow, why don't we have you ponies see for yourself?"

When they dropped Double Diamond and the committee off at the mountains, Party Favor, Night Glider, and Tomato returned to the outskirts of town. Night Glider then took the balloon, telling him that she'll be keeping track of the skiers until they were done, and flew back to the mountains, leaving just Party Favor and Tomato. The former looked at the mountains, then to the town, and then back at the landscape. He took a deep breath.

"Nervous?" Tomato asked.

Party Favor nodded.

"Don't worry, they found the balloon impressive, I'm sure they'll like whatever else you can conjure up."

Party Favor sighed. "I don't know... back in Canterlot, I was just a laughingstock no matter what. I mean, who ever got far with balloon modeling anyway?"

Tomato scratched his chin. "Well... if there's anything I know about party ponies, they pretty much do the impossible. I mean, the way you put the whole problem with your talent, it sounds impossible. But, you've been doing some amazing things with that talent of yours. The balloon, the musical instruments, and many other things that I've been told about. On your own, you could end up attracting curious ponies who want to see your feats for yourself! You're kind of like that homeless metalworker I met when I was a colt."

"Are you sure? I mean, isn't that pony homeless for a reason? My dad was never impressed, always focused on my prodigy of a brother. Psht, said brother said my talent was useless, anyway."

However, that was when they heard, "They don't know what they're talking about!"

The two stallions turned, and there stood Sugar Belle. As they stared at her, she continued, "Excuse me, Tomato, but my team is mostly done with the treats, the roofs are all finished, and the music team is taking a break before we start the party. So... are we going to start soon?"

"As soon as Double Diamond's done showing the ski committee what the snow is like."

"All right." She turned to Party Favor. "It worries me to see you put yourself down like that. You're amazing, Party Favor, they just don't see it beyond first glance."

Party Favor turned away and sat down. "I know all you guys like it... but you're my friends and you know me. It's not like anyone outside of town will care besides Tomato, and the ski ponies... and maybe my sister. I'll just look silly and embarrass myself."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure Cheese would be impressed."

Sugar Belle nodded. "And don't forget the railroad workers that we're making friends with. And what about when Princess Twilight came to town? Wasn't her pink friend impressed with what you do?"

Party Favor turned to her and smiled. "She was also impressed with your baking. I heard her singing about it."

Sugar Belle blushed. "Oh, she was just happy that I didn't bake those awful muffins again." She stuck her tongue out in disgust.

"Oh, we all were happy that you could bake other things besides the muffins! In fact, if I recall... you were the happiest."

"Yeah, we were all so happy to get our cutie marks back..." Her smile fell into a frown. "So... what happened?"

Party Favor sighed. "I guess the high wore off... I know I remembered why I gave up my cutie mark, and combined with guilt over doing it, and memories of Starlight... maybe we just didn't think we were deserving of any contact with those outside our village. I mean... even if we had a post office, I'm not sure I want to contact my family. It'd give my Dad and brother all the more reason to scorn me, and my Mom and sister would be ashamed."

Sugar Belle walked to next to him and sat down. "And my father would take it as another excuse to berate me and wonder why I wasn't more like my mother. I know, it's scary. But we've come this far, and we can't give up now."

Party Favor looked ahead, envisioning the biggest extent of his talent before him. "What if it's all for nothing?"

Tomato shifted on his hooves. "Well, as a friend of mine kept telling me throughout our teen years, you've got to get back up and try again, no matter what. And see if you can find a different angle."

Sugar Belle put a hoof on Party Favor's cheek. "You always say good things about my baking; and I'm going to tell you again that few ponies can even dream of matching your talent with balloons." She stood up. "I believe you can pull off the greatest thing ever, and Double Diamond, Night Glider, and everypony else in town would agree with me."

Party Favor smiled at her. "How am I so lucky to have you as a friend?"

Sugar Belle giggled. "I don't know. I'm just as lucky to know you." She turned to Tomato. "So, uh, what are we supposed to do while we wait?"

Tomato tapped his chin and smirked. "Crash course on budgeting! I have a hunch that you guys might need a little brushing up on a few things."

"Oh, goody," Sugar Belle said dryly.

"Come on, let's go!" Tomato said, speeding back to town.

Sugar Belle jumped, and broke into a gallop, yelling, "Slow down!"

Party Favor giggled as Sugar Belle desperately tried to keep up with the lanky Tomato, and then turned to the landscape once again. He stared at it, narrowing his eyes as he scouted all the rocks, the plants, and just about everything else that dotted the land. As he did this, in the back of his mind, he could hear the voice of Starlight Glimmer.

"Be your best, by never being your best."

Party Favor shook his head, bidding the voice to be quiet, and pulled out a balloon in defiance of Starlight. He stretched it in and out, muttering to himself, "That doesn't make much sense, now that I think of it."

He inflated the balloon.

Author's Note

Behold, I have finally finished Super Groaner #2! Didn't take as long as the last one, but still, I was insanely frustrated with this chapter! I'm pretty sure I nearly cried at one point. Insane overthinking and anxiety over what I ended up having Tomato do did that to me. I think I might have a little problem with that.

Also, I meant for this to be one chapter, and the final part, but I realized it would take two chapters. Ah, well, we'll see what Party Favor has made in the next chapter.

Also, Paddock City = Park City.

10--July

After being released by the doctor of the town, Cheese had spent the last night at Party Favor's house, and was amused at the balloon mattresses that the blue unicorn had made for him and Tomato. Being favorably impressed with that pony, he made a note of working with him on a party some day. He was disappointed that his chance to do so was halted by a cold, but maybe someday the collaboration could be done.

So it was that the next morning, after some stretches to pop bones back into place and relax his stiff muscles, a nice and simple breakfast courtesy of Sugar Belle, and some food for the road provided by some of the townsfolk, he and his brother were ready to go. So now they were on the outskirts of town, being bid farewell by the mayor and his three closest friends.

Double Diamond provided them with a couple of scarves. "I know it's the middle of the summer, but, you know, it gets cold up here."

Tomato stared at his new scarf. "The Sandwich snowball proved that."

Cheese was already wrapping his scarf around his neck. "Oh, Tommy, just be grateful. Unless you want your turn in catching a cold."

Tomato followed suit in putting the scarf on. "At least my cold won't impede the party planning." He turned to Double Diamond. "But thanks anyway."

"Do you have enough to eat?" Sugar Belle asked.

Cheese waved a hoof. "Don't worry, we've got plenty!" He winked at her. "I'm storing them in a secret compartment."

Sugar Belle glanced at Party Favor, and then back to Cheese. "I can believe that."

Night Glider hovered over them. "Be careful of some of the crazy nasties out there. Some of the villagers are here because Starlight rescued them from some rogue griffon, or got a bear lost in the caves, or whipped the outlaw Roanie's gang away with a stick. And I think Double Diamond had an encounter with a yeti once."

Double Diamond frowned. "It broke my leg and stole my alfalfa jerky."

Night Glider chuckled. "Also, keep an eye out for Starlight. Who knows if she's still willing to peel off cutie marks for an equal society?"

Tomato covered his cutie mark with his tail. "I'll keep that in mind."

Then, Party Favor stepped forward. "Thanks for your help, Tomato. It was actually a lot of fun working with you--aside from the whole coffee thing."

Tomato smiled and rolled his eyes. "Well, you're better to work with than your brother. I was foolish for trusting him." Then, noticing the glum look on Party Favor's face, he added, "I'm sorry he turned out the way he did. I know you weren't exactly close, but it still hurts, doesn't it?"

Party Favor sighed. "Seems like we both trusted the wrong pony in times where we were desperate, and ended up turning into something we're not." He kicked at the dust. "I do wish Kazam didn't worship that crazy ancestor of ours. Dad told us the story of Wayer Rune to warn us about the dangers of dark magic, but Kaz just wanted to emulate him. I wonder if Dad hadn't told us that story, Kazam wouldn't have gotten an interest, and he and I would have gotten along better."

"I wonder about what could have been in my own life," Tomato said.

Party Favor chuckled. "Well, I hope Kaz realizes how much pain he has caused, both for you guys, my family, and everypony in Las Pegasus. I hope he's not too far gone that he has to be sent to Tartarus or something. The thought of that happening makes me feel sick."

"Well... you've got some good friends behind you to help you get through it."

Double Diamond stepped forward and patted Party Favor's back. "That's right."

Sugar Belle was on Party Favor's other side, taking his hoof. "We're here to make sure you're not alone."

Night Glider tousled his mane. "After all, you made sure me and Sugar Belle didn't feel alone in the so-called 'true friendship' of Starlight's reign."

Party Favor beamed at them. "I'm so lucky to have you guys. You know... I can't wait until that ski resort is built and opened. Out-of-towners will see just how great our town is, just for all of us, and the friendships we have. Feels like a miracle, doesn't it?"

Tomato smiled and nodded, but the smile was replaced by an irritated scowl when Cheese leaned on his head and said, "Yeah, this does seem like a town of miracles, doesn't it? After all, you got Tommy to throw a good party!"

"Cheese, get off!" Tomato snapped.

Cheese backed away with snickers. "Hey, you're making progress, and I'm proud."

Tomato shook his head and sighed. Then, he held out his hoof to Party Favor. "Well, it was a pleasure doing business with you, good sir."

Party Favor stared at the hoof for a moment, then glanced up at Tomato's face before staring at the hoof again. As his friends backed up, he stepped forward slowly, lifting up his own hoof to make a motion of touching it so that they could shake.

However, when he grabbed Tomato's hoof, Party Favor suddenly decided to pull him into a hug. Surprised by the sudden squeeze, Tomato blinked, unsure how to feel about a pony he had only known for a few days giving him a hug. However, upon feeling warmth, he smiled at him, and wriggled a front leg free in order to pat his back with an affectionate firmness.

Once the hug broke, they all waved goodbye to each other, and the Sandwiches were off.

When out of earshot of the townsponies, Cheese leaned to Tomato and asked, "So... what did this Kazam guy do?"

Tomato blinked, his mouth agape in exasperation. "Cheese! You were with me!"

Out in the middle of nowhere, the two brothers were walking through the desert, cold dust being kicked around by their hoofsteps. Though the sun was shining over them, the air around them felt like a gentle autumn breeze. Tomato was still surprised at how cool the desert was, especially compared to the Las Pegasus area.

On thinking of Las Pegasus again, his concerns were not about whether some other insane pony would try to imitate Kazam, or that he still felt like a vampire at times, though they were unnerving thoughts. Instead, his thoughts were directed toward the annoyingly extreme denial that Cheese was going through.

It was understandable that Cheese didn't want to talk about it; Tomato hadn't wanted to talk about it either, though he ended up having to revisit the memory in telling Princess Celestia and Party Favor about it. But upon mentioning Las Pegasus, Kazam, or anything else related to the incident short of saying anything about vampires, Tomato expected any reaction aside from the one he was getting. He expected Cheese to be prickly about it, to tell him to shut his trap, or to start looking around cautiously, making sure to conceal his own neck. Instead, Cheese didn't seem to remember it at all.

He kept glancing at Cheese, taking care not to stare at him as they walked. Thinking back to the time that Pinkie forgot that surprise party for her, Tomato wondered if Cheese was employing that same magic. However, there was something in the back of his mind telling him that wasn't how party pony magic worked. The Las Pegasus incident was of a larger scale than that party, and for whose sake besides his own would Cheese forget that incident, anyway?

Tomato shook his head. Maybe he was just overthinking it. It was most likely some weird way of coping, and Tomato recalled the last time he bothered Cheese when he was dealing with some sort of issue he had. Being a little colt at the time could be touted as an excuse, but he wasn't sure he was any better at it as an adult. Bothering Cheese about it was most likely going to backfire on him again.

Perhaps he should focus on another question that was on his mind.

"Cheese?" he asked.

Cheese glanced at him. "Yeah?"

"Where the hay are we going?"

Cheese chuckled. "Oh... you'll see."

Tomato groaned. Cheese had gotten a Cheesy Sense about an hour earlier, and instead of immediately announcing the destination, he had thought it'd be funny to keep Tomato in the dark up until they got there. In Tommy's opinion, it wasn't very funny.

"Can you give me a hint?"

Cheese scratched his chin. "It's not in this desert."

Tomato glared at him. "Oh, ha ha. Give me a hint of what it is, not what it's not."

Cheese whickered. "Very well. It has grass and an interesting history."

"Oh, give me a break! Something better, please? Nothing about the history of its grass or anything! Something like, say... the direction we're going?"

"West."

"What's the estimate of when we're going to get there?"

Cheese clicked his tongue as he processed the day and how long it'd take to get to the destination. "I'm going to say around the, uh, 25th."

Tomato blinked. His tone was noticeably sharp when he asked, "Are you saying we're going to be out here for nearly a month?"

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "What? No! We're only going to be out here a few days! Sheesh, it'd be a serious waste of time to be out here until about late July. There are a few more summer celebrations we've got to get to, you know. What made you think I was talking about July 25th?"

Tomato's brow furrowed in confusion. "It's July 1st."

Cheese stopped in his tracks. Turning to Tomato, he blinked and scratched his head. "Really? Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Don't you remember Party Favor changing his calendar?"

Cheese stared at him for a moment before putting a hoof to his head and turning to stare at the ground. Tomato examined the look on Cheese's face, the wide eyes and furrowed brow apparent as the elder brother was trying to process this information.

They stood there for what seemed like an eternity as Cheese thought about the apparent mix-up with the dates. Tomato could clearly see the slight twitch of Cheese's eyes and the beads of sweat starting to form on his forehead. It was odd that Cheese was thinking so hard about it, almost as odd as him suddenly forgetting about Pegasus.

Tomato cringed at the thought. He was overthinking it again--there was absolutely no way that Cheese really did forget about it.

Cheese yelped from a sudden pain in his head, and then massaged his temples to try to soothe the pain. Breathing heavily, he yanked out an ice pack and put it on his head, grumbling about stupid headaches.

"You okay?" Tomato asked.

With a sigh, Cheese mumbled, "Ugh... maybe you're right. I mean, there's no way Summer Sun could have been celebrated early. I guess we've been traveling longer than I thought." He started to walk again. "My new guess... we'll get there by the 3rd or 4th."

Tomato sighed and followed. He looked to his right, the mountain range still in view. "How long are we going to be seeing these mountains, anyway?"

"Quite a while."

"Great."

The two sat by the campfire that night, with Cheese roasting some spare carrots for dinner and Tomato having his nose in a book. Still in the desert and the mountains still in view, the two were curled up in their ponchos and scarves in an effort to stave off the cold air of the desert night.

One of the carrots lit on fire, and Cheese yanked it out of the campfire and sang, "Happy Birthday to me!", before blowing it out.

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Your birthday isn't until October."

Cheese rolled his eyes, and took the burned carrot off his stick. "Tommy, I sing that for a joke. Carrots or marshmallows on fire make me think of birthday candles." He took a bite out of the carrot. "But it's sweet that you remember my birthday! I had forgotten it."

Tomato stared at him incredulously. "You seem to be forgetting everything."

"Psht, no, not everything. It's just when you're a party pony, you spend so much time thinking of ways to make parties for others, you end up forgetting a few personal stuff along the way. I mean, why does my own birthday matter? It's just another day after all. I have a general idea of how old I am anyway."

Tomato cringed, noting that Cheese was sounding a lot like their mother with that statement. "Did you forget my birthday?"

"March 5th. I sent you a present a few months ago!"

"Okay, right, forgot about the smiley face tie."

Cheese leaned back on the rock behind him. "Why would I forget my own brother's birthday?" He tilted his head. "Are you still upset that I didn't throw you any birthday parties for the past several years?"

"No."

"Ah. If it makes you feel better, I had a tradition of tying a green balloon to my tail and parading around wherever I was whenever your birthday rolled around." Cheese threw Tomato a carrot, which the younger brother caught with his tail. "Even when I was angry with you, it didn't feel right not to have my March 5th green balloon day."

"You even remembered my favorite color! And yet you forget your own birthday?"

Cheese shrugged. "Thanks for reminding me that it's in October."

"October 23rd to be precise." Tomato took a bite of his carrot. "Be sure to tell Pinkie Pie that, she'd love to give you a birthday party."

Cheese looked at the fire. "Heh, she definitely would. I can't help but wonder what kind of party she'd throw for me if she had the chance. She'd conjure up something amazing faster than I can blink. You've got to admire her immense dedication and willingness to go the extra mile. "

"I wonder if she'd give you a kiss for your birthday present," Tomato muttered.

Cheese bit his lip and blushed. "I doubt that'll happen. The party would be enough of a present anyway..." He grabbed a stick and pushed around the firewood. "But, really, I don't need a birthday party. I survived over a decade without having any, not to mention I throw so many parties that it would just seem like a normal day to me."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "You want to bet?"

Cheese shook his head. "Nah. I'm good. Besides, who knows where I'll be by then. How would you guys throw me a party?"

Tomato finished his carrot and went back to his book. "Hey, I just thought it'd be nice to celebrate your birthday in a way other than a sad, googly-eyed cupcake. That was my tradition when your birthday rolled around."

Cheese snickered. "Awww, that's cute."

Tomato snorted. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, just let me get back to reading this book. I'm at the execution of an assassination plot, and the assassin is using a reverse-breath spell to suffocate the chancellor in her sleep."

"Well, that's not nice."

"The chancellor was a greedy idiot who abused the powers of the Fountain of Youth and stayed in office under many different names. She over-regulated the market and kept raising taxes, and thus, nopony could prosper under her. Caused a lot of desperate ponies to commit many a crime."

"...what book are you reading this time?"

"The Waters of Forever."

Cheese blinked. "Where do you keep getting these books?"

"Bought it from some poor soul back in the town who wanted to get rid of it."

Cheese pursed his lips. "Well... you better finish up your assassination plot chapter or whatever you want to call it." He turned around to face the horizon, gazing upon the land under the starry night. "I'm planning for us to leave at dawn, and I don't want to stay up too late."

The night was cold and unforgiving. The ground was hard and rocky, with a layer of frost being added to the solid soil. The moon was high, shining its light on the ground as each grain sparkled like the stars above. It seemed like winter instead of summer, and Cheese and Tomato were doing what they could to stay warm.

Sleeping separately was not an option if the Sandwiches wanted to stay warm. Both were curled up, back to back, and held together by their ponchos, with Tomato holding his tail like a teddy bear, and Cheese using his own tail as a bed while he hugged Boneless 2 in his sleep. Both ponies and the chicken had their heads sticking out of the poncho, using their hats and scarfs as pillows.

They were in a silent slumber, their minds elsewhere in their dreams. Cheese's dream came in spite of the dull ache in his head.

He was at a party, being surrounded by all sorts of goodies and treats, confetti, and laughing and smiling ponies. Seeing both adult and foal running around with food in their mouth, setting off water balloon tripwires and bouncing on rides made entirely out of party balloons, it gave him a great warmth in his heart. Seeing all these ponies happy and smiling was all he needed to see; nopony deserved to be as unhappy and lonely as he was when he was a colt. And if anything held him back from spreading joy, the silent commission he had received when he first laid eyes on Pinkie Pie, then it was a problem that needed a remedy.

He turned around, and was suddenly face to face with Pinkie Pie. With rosy cheeks and a bright smile, she took his hoof, and then lead him elsewhere. He felt a buzz through his body when she did so, and he felt lighter than air as he followed her.

They were soon facing a tower of a cake, which left Cheese in awe. Being frosted with yellow and green, adorned with blue flowers and candles, and having chocolate frosting on the edges, the most surprising thing about the cake was that it had his name on it. Surrounding it were Pinkie's friends, Tomato and his friends, and several other party ponies he had met on the road, including Comedy Gold and Party Favor. All were smiling, and presenting the cake to him.

Blinking, he realized that he was attending his own birthday party. He turned to Pinkie.

Pinkie fluttered her eyelashes and said, "Make a wish, Cheesy."

Cheese grinned at her, turned to the cake, and took a deep breath. His exhale came out as a great gust of wind, killing each and every one of the flames that graced the candles. Soon, all that was left of the flames were wisps of smoke, and everypony clapped.

Cheese had a big, corny smile on his face, realizing just how much he missed having a birthday party thrown for him. It hadn't been that way since he was a little colt of eight, the last time he celebrated his birthday with his grandparents. He looked at his brother, who had the brightest and most genuine smile that had been ever directed at him.

However, when he turned back to Pinkie, he was surprised to see that it wasn't her there. Instead, it was a different mare, with a lavender coat, golden eyes, and curly hair being the colors of raspberry and light yellow. There were bags under her bloodshot eyes, her muscles were flabby and weak, and she was dressed in an old and raggedly jester's outfit. Finally, Cheese found himself staring at the curled forelock that was similar to his own, only it was dipping to between her eyes. She looked up at him, her dim eyes giving him a silent plea.

Cheese felt a little uncomfortable under her gaze. "Uh... hi? Can I help you?"

The mare didn't stop staring. "You made a mistake."

Cheese gave her a funny look. "Huh?"

The mare slowly shook her head. "You made a mistake."

Cheese pursed his lips. "What mistake did I make, ma'am?"

"You made a mistake."

"Yes, you said that, but... what did I do?"

When she didn't answer, Cheese shook her. "Come on! I want to know what I did wrong so I can set it right! Tell me!" He turned outward and asked, "Hey, you guys mind giving me a--"

He stopped when he saw that everything had vanished, and that he was now in darkness. He let go of the mysterious mare, and looked around, trying to find any trace of his birthday party. There was no Pinkie, there was no Tomato. There was no cake and no games. There was not even the grass under his hooves. Everything was just gone.

He turned back to the mare, who was fading herself. As she gave him a dull stare, she said, "A party pony shouldn't live with pain."

"No, wait!" Cheese jumped forward to grab her, but she had already vanished. Breathing heavily, he yelled into the void, "Can't somepony tell me what's going on?!"

A spotlight shone on him, and he looked up to find a luminous full moon above him. It was joined by five stars twinkling around it, revolving around the moon in an elaborate dance. Cheese could not take his eyes off the celestial bodies, the stars putting him in a trance as they seemingly sang a song to him. They sung about he needed to be free of pain before it consumed him, before it affected his party-throwing abilities, before it turned him into a monster.

As he stared at the moon, he thought of Princess Luna, and how she had visited his dream back in Canterlot. What was it that she said to him? Surely she knew why these stars were singing to him, and what the heck they were talking about. He was fine, wasn't he?

He found himself unable to look away, or even to blink. He kept on staring at that moon, wondering what that pain was that he needed to be free of. How could he remedy this problem if he didn't know what it was? After all, if he was unable to throw a party because of this problem, then who was Cheese Sandwich?

He felt helpless as he floated in the void, still staring at the moon and stars as they still sang to him.

They kept on being vague.

Cheese was startled awake by something yanking Boneless 2 out of his front legs. Blinking his heavy eyes until he could see, he sat up and rubbed his eyes. When he finished that, he blinked a few more times, and saw a giant white beast running away from their camp. He stared at it in confusion, up until he noticed a rubber chicken in the monster's jaws.

Cheese pulled himself out of the neckhole of the poncho, and then rolled to his feet. Then, he snapped, "Hey! That's my chicken!"

With that, he sped off in hot pursuit, leaving the awakening Tomato in the double-poncho sleeping bag.

Tomato sat up, the ponchos drooping on his shoulders as he started to blink the heaviness out of his eyes. Smacking his lips and feeling his currently messy curls on his head, he wondered what was going on that made Cheese yell at... someone who had Boneless 2. Whoever it was, it certainly wasn't Tommy himself, and he was thankful for that.

He opened his eyes, noticed the blur afar, and then patted the ground in search of his glasses. It took a few minutes for him to realize that whoever took Boneless 2 also took his glasses.

And so, Tommy was an unhappy and stranded stallion, and he had to wait until Cheese returned.

Cheese managed to retrieve Boneless 2 and Tomato's glasses from what he called a "yeti", which he stated that it was apparently more agreeable than Bighoof was. He traded a couple of wheels of cheese for the rubber chicken and glasses, and then they parted ways peacefully. Tomato was glad that there was little fuss, though he joked that if they were in a novel, he would have disappointed the readers with a lack of a fight scene.

The next couple of days were rather dull for the brothers. While they did eventually get out of the desert, they still had a ways to go to wherever it was they were going. They walked through fields and crossed rivers, the Crystal Mountains still in sight as they continued their trek west.

Tomato took guesses at where they were going. He guessed Whinnyapolis, which was proven wrong when they passed by it. He guessed Seaddle, but noticed that they were taking a curve a little too northward. He then guessed Vanhoover.

Then, they came across the railroad, and Cheese started to follow it northward. It was then that Tomato guessed that it was the Crystal Empire. He could be wrong and that it was just one of the smaller towns along the railroad, but the Crystal Empire was a possibility. That, or Yakyakistan.

He really hoped it wasn't Yakyakistan.

As they followed the railroad into a frosty canyon--as if that desert they were in before wasn't chilly enough--Cheese surprised him with a question.

"So... that book you're reading... what's it about?"

Tomato snapped his head around, raising an eyebrow. "Eh? I thought you didn't care what I read?"

"I'm bored."

"You? Bored? Wow, next thing you know, you'll fall asleep in the middle of a party."

Cheese gave him a half-lidded look. "Well, I just want to know what you find so entertaining in those novels."

Tomato rolled his eyes with a smile. "Well, The Waters of Forever is a series of stories of those who find the Fountain of Youth, and end up abusing its capabilities. There was that corrupt chancellor that I told you about, who was in power for years and went through many names until her assassination. Then, the assassin who killed her found the fountain, and became a serial killer to any politician he deemed corrupt, whether they were or not, up until he tried it on Celestia." Tomato chuckled. "That didn't end well. And then there was that pirate who carried around a bottle of it so that he could keep plundering for centuries, a little filly who never wanted to grow up but ended up going mad when she outlived her friends and family, and apparently a crazy one of the Wayer Rune guy, in an alternate timeline where he escaped and avoided going to Tartarus, and continued to terrorize us with the werewolf spell."

Cheese sighed. "Why does that werewolf guy keep coming up?"

"I don't know. Good thing the book's fiction. We all know that the Fountain of Youth doesn't exist, and that Rune guy is in Tartarus. I feel sorry for Silk Shimmer and Party Favor to have that nutjob as an ancestor though. Imagine if we were descended from an infamous, insane warlock."

Cheese snickered. "Hey, we found Bighoof. We might find the Fountain of Youth."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "As long as we don't meet Wayer Rune, that's fine by me."

As they stepped out of the frosty canyon, they flinched at a sudden bright light. Blinking to adjust, they soon beheld a valley of green, with a gleaming city of crystal in the center. The city was arranged in a circle, with its streets in a snowflake pattern. Numerous houses and towers of glittering pink, blue, and violet lined the streets, and the city's centerpiece was a castle directly on town square, dwarfing all the other buildings.

Tomato blinked. "Is that...?"

Cheese nodded. "Yep, here's our destination. Welcome to the Crystal Empire."

Author's Note

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

:yay: :yay: :yay: :yay: :yay: :yay: :yay: :yay: :yay: :yay:

And what better way for me to kick off the new year than by ending this story's hiatus and giving you a new chapter of Cheese and Tomato's adventure? :pinkiehappy:

And I give you this breather chapter, just giving you some things during their trip to their next destination.

And what do you know? It's the Crystal Empire!

The question is... what's going on there? :trixieshiftright:

11.1--The Shining Vocals Competition

The two entered the city, hearing the click clack of their hooves upon the shining street. Tomato could see his own reflection looking down, and wiped his face of any dirt and grime that had come upon his face during the past few days. Then, he looked around at the houses, resembling finely cut gemstones sparkling under the sun. They were a little duller up close, though that was probably a necessity in order not to blind anypony with more brilliance than was necessary.

Then, he took quick glances at each local. He was amazed at how the ponies shimmered, their crystalline coats giving each pony an aura of strange but happily wondrous magic. Their manes were all either poofed up, straightened into sleek, shining waterfalls of color, or done up in braids, buns, ringlets, or elaborate curls. Plenty that he saw had combined those traits into rather dashing hairstyles.

Then, he looked up at the crystal castle. He eyes scanned the rather tall tower from the plaza to the spires, noting the blue and white sheen that was reminding him of diamonds. It wasn't light before he reached the top, and the tallest and brightest spire resembled the sun a little too much for his liking, so he quickly looked away, trying to blink away the flash blindness.

Cheese glanced at him with a smile. "Super shiny, isn't it?"

Tomato rubbed his eye. "Almost made my eyesight worse than it already was. Times like this make me glad there's an anti-reflective coating on my lenses."

"We must praise the pony who came up with that." Cheese chuckled, and then looked around. "All right... my Cheesy Sense points me to..." He licked his hoof, thrust it in the air to feel the wind, and then pointed one of the other streets across the plaza. "The stadium."

As they started to walk to that street, Tomato asked, "Why did you have to do the licking the hoof thing?"

"Oh, it's just for fun."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "I wonder why we're even going to the stadium. Last I checked, you hated sports."

They soon arrived at the Crystal Stadium. After a bit of discussion with those at the entrance, they went into the field, finding that a stage had been built in the hexagon field. Looking around, they could see several ponies scattered in different places, either cleaning the seats surrounding the field, shining the crystal walls and decor, or working on lights and effects.

"Doesn't look like there are any sports going on here," Tomato said. "Looks like they're preparing for a concert."

Cheese pursed his lips as he looked around. "They seem to be doing just fine. I wonder why I was--"

He was interrupted by a mare shouting, "Well, well, well!"

Cheese jumped and turned to said mare--cream-coated, blue-maned, and dressed up in a wild and dazzling outfit--prancing toward him with a delighted expression on her face. "Look at what my eyes are beholding! The Super Duper Party Pony himself has come and graced us with his presence!"

Cheese tipped his hat. "Pleasure to see you again, Sapphire Shores."

Tomato blinked. "Sapphire Shores? Cheese, how many celebrities do you know?"

Sapphire Shores was followed by a purple pegasus with a three-toned pink mane. The pegasus grinned and said, "So it is Cheese! Have you come here for the Shining Vocals Competition?"

"And howdy to you, Starsong," Cheese said. He looked at the stage and chuckled. "So, the Shining Vocals are in the Crystal Empire this year? First it's the Equestria Games, and now the Shining Vocals are taking advantage of this great city of old that just returned over a year ago."

Sapphire Shores nodded. "That's right, and this city here hasn't been any less glamorous since the last few times I've been here, though they're still a little behind on the times." She winked as she added, "Gotta get these ponies used to modern music."

As the other two laughed, Tomato muttered, "What's with Equestria having beings or cities from a thousand years ago suddenly appear?"

Starsong looked at Tomato. "Cheese, who's your friend?"

Cheese glanced at Tomato. "Oh! This is my little brother, Tomato Sandwich. We're on a summer road trip together to have a bit of brotherly bonding time."

"Oh! A brother!" Sapphire exclaimed. "I had no idea you had a brother. And I dare say, he's as cute as a button."

Tomato felt his face heat up, and he pulled at his collar. "Uh, look, I don't really appreciate being called 'cute'."

"How 'bout just handsome, then?" Sapphire said with a smile.

After a still blushing Tomato backed up, Starsong looked between him and Cheese before finally resting on the elder brother. "Is he always this shy?"

Cheese shook his head. "Nah, he's just not used to being surrounded by celebrities. Though I will admit, he was a lot more social when he was a colt. And hyper! Pfft, you should have seen him zipping around from place to place, and I always had to catch him before he ended up killing himself."

Tomato nickered in annoyance. "Hey, save my biography for later and get back to business."

Cheese glanced at him with narrowed eyes for a moment, then rolled them and shook his head. He faced the girls again. "Excuse me for getting off topic. So, my Cheesy Sense led me here, apparently to make this show look a little more dazzling and showy and whatnot. Or maybe just planning the afterparty, I don't know."

"I wouldn't put it past you to make this show a lot more sen-sa-tional," Sapphire stated.

"Or maybe he could fill the place of the last judge," Starsong suggested.

Cheese blinked. "Wait... you mean the guys behind this whole shebang didn't choose a third judge for this competition?"

Tomato sighed. "Well, that's rather incompetent."

Starsong shook her head. "Oh, no, no, they did originally have three celebrities selected to judge the ponies competing: me, Sapphire, and Countess Coloratura."

Cheese grinned. "Oh, the Countess? You know, I was meaning to show her a parody I wrote of one of her songs..." He pulled a couple of papers out of his hat. "It's hilarious, she'll love it. Unless that annoying manager of hers gets in the way... again..."

"Well, she ain't hearing it," Sapphire said bluntly. "Family emergency came up, and she cancelled all of her appearances for the next couple of weeks."

Starsong sighed. "Family is important, so I understand why she felt she had to cancel some stuff. But it happened so close to the competition that the crew is in a bit of a pickle in picking a replacement judge."

"Oh, well..." Cheese stuffed the papers back into his hat, his eyes downcast. "I do wish that family member with the emergency well... whatever that emergency is." He looked up and smiled. "But, if you want me to be the replacement judge, sure, why not?"

Starsong gasped. "You'll do it?"

After Cheese's nod, Sapphire whooped. "Well, hallelujah! With a party pony as a judge, the Shining Vocals are bound to be fan-tastic this year!" She and Starsong turned around and beckoned them. "Well, c'mon now, Cheese; we've got to find the producer of this gig and tell him about ya."

Cheese followed with a grin. "Better be warned, I'll sneak in a few of my own touches in the decoration, effects, and my own role as a judge. And, well, we're definitely going to have a nice afterparty." He winked at the girls. Then, he turned his head to his brother behind him. "Come, Tommy, I don't want you standing around confused like that."

Tomato rolled his eyes and followed.

The producer was thrilled that a replacement judge had been found on short notice. After being given a brief overview of his temporary job, Cheese went across town with Sapphire, Starsong, and the host of the show, the middle-aged Windswept Goldenmane, to the train station to greet the contestants from all over Equestria. Behind them, keeping a fair distance from them in order to keep himself from being confused for a judge, Tomato was overhearing the conversation.

Windswept explained that various auditions had been occurring in eight cities, and that a mare and colt from each city were coming to the Crystal Empire to compete with their voices during the next few days. Whoever showed the best combination of style and versatility in both music genre and music range would go on to the next round, and they could keep doing this until a winner was decided.

"Now, remember, listening to a good song should give you the chills and thrills, making you feel," Windswept said, with a big grin and puffed out chest. "I personally compare my feelings with a song with a good romp on a beautiful day or a lovely, starry night. The energy, the rush, the feeling that you are defying gravity and out of this world, and just how it takes your breath away. Why, if I didn't feel that, I'd rate it a bad song."

Sapphire raised an eyebrow. "What about that catchy song about spoonfeeding snapping turtles? Doesn't make me feel, but dang! It gets stuck in your head! And ponies like it, critics like it, heck, everypony thinks it's a good song!"

Starsong giggled and sang, "You gotta make the spoon fly around like a birdie, and pop it into the little beaked mouth."

Sapphire screamed on hearing it, while Cheese laughed. Tomato groaned, for that blasted song was now stuck in his head, and he was unfortunately singing it to himself. "One cold morning in the Great Hoof River... I met a little beaked turtle hissing at me..."

Windswept sighed and shook his head. "I'll never understand why that song got so popular. It's like... a drunken jester being hailed as a wise king."

"Aw, what's wrong with a silly little ditty?" Cheese asked.

Windswept scoffed. "If a song is not serious and dramatic, with emotions pouring out of every fiber of a ponies being through the lyrics, then why shouldn't it get the praise it deserves? Why should I care about a song about a crocodile and a rock?"

"Thing about entertainment, you can't just force ponies to think," Cheese said. "Sometimes they just want to hear a fun little ditty instead of a guilt-tripping ballad about whatever issue the singer has. Can't expect every song to be powerful and life-changing."

Windswept stuck his snow white muzzle into the air and pranced just ahead of Cheese. "Hmph. Just because the other members of the crew like you doesn't mean I'll take your style seriously. You can't trust a party pony to be serious after all."

Cheese snorted, and his eyes went downcast. With a sigh, he grumbled, "Well, sorry if I just want ponies to be happy."

Starsong patted Cheese's back. "There, there, I'm sure he's just cranky from the whole setup and the Countess Coloratura debacle. Let's not forget, we're hearing a whole bunch of voices from all over Equestria singing all sorts of songs. I can't wait to hear them!"

"Ooooh, this year's competition is promising to be big!" Sapphire exclaimed. "In the gleaming Crystal Empire, with fireworks, lights, and a performance from the Wonderbolts to start things off! I hear they're getting a couple of retired Wonderbolts to perform alongside the current members."

Cheese perked up. "Which retired Wonderbolts?"

"From what I hear, it's Blazing Silver and Raincloud. Rumor has it that those lovebirds agreed to perform because their son and daughter made the auditions in Cloudsdale, and all of the family wanted to each have a chance in the limelight."

Tomato perked up. Something about those names seemed familiar to him.

They made it to the Crystal Empire Train Station, just as a train pulled in. As the host and judges went forward, Tomato just leaned on the side of the station, still bobbing his head. "The little turtle gave me a funny look, as the mashed potatoes bubbled in the pot..."

He looked at the platform where the others stood. He watched Cheese look back at him, checking to see if he was still there and safe. Tomato waved at him, and smiled as Cheese waved back and then turned back to the train. Licking his teeth once more, Tomato felt a little weird being the tagalong, and wondered what Mr. Goldenmane thought of Cheese bringing his brother along. Considering what he had just heard him say about Cheese, Tomato guessed that it wasn't very nice.

For some reason, as he glowered at Windswept, one of his teeth felt sharp again.

The train stopped, and soon the doors opened and ponies filed out. Tomato counted the contestants, and while at first he was confused that there were more than sixteen ponies, a closer look revealed that some of the ponies were older, and he figured that some of the ponies had their parents come along to watch.

Windswept walked forward, tossed his golden mane, and cleared his throat. "Good tidings, contestants. Welcome to the Crystal Empire!"

The ponies in the group all whooped, hollered, and stomped in jubilation. Waving a hoof to quiet them down, Windswept continued, "Now, now, let's not get carried away--save your voices for the competition. We have a lovely group of ponies here for this week, and it's clear to me that you all must have some beautiful voices to be able to come here." He stepped to the side and gestured to the three judges. "Now, meet our judges, I'm sure you all heard of them: the stellar Starsong, the sassy Sapphire Shores, and the uh... chipper Cheese Sandwich."

"Howdy, ponies!" Cheese chirped.

"Look at all of you," Sapphire said. "You darlings look ready to take on the world!"

Starsong beamed. "And we look forward to hearing all of your voices."

Windswept laughed. "Oh, yes, I hear that this year's contestants are promising. Question is... who will win?"

There was silence as the contestants looked at each other. Some were looking around curiously, some narrowed their eyes and glanced around at their competitors, a couple of them glared at each other, and then there were those were were sweating and rubbing their legs.

Windswept then said, "Come along, we must show you to your hotel, so that you may get settled in. Then you are free to explore the city."

The contestants and judges went ahead and followed Windswept off the platform and past the train station. As they were passing Tomato, Cheese patted him in the silent message of it being time to go. However, before Tomato could even start to move, he was yanked away from the wall by two pairs of hooves, and squeezed tightly in a sudden embrace.

"Oh, my gosh!" a male voice cried. "I can't believe Tomato's here!"

A female voice laughed. "Well, his brother is one of the judges, Nimbus!"

Cheese stopped and let the other contestants pass him, then spun around to find Tomato caught between two gray pegasi hovering in the air. Cheese recognized the pair as twins, the stallion having primarily blue hair with yellow streaks, and the mare having the other way around. His mane was long and shaggy, hers was cropped short. His face was blemish free, while she had freckles. His cutie mark was a yellow comedy mask, hers was a blue drama mask. And finally, Cheese remembered that the stallion was Nimbus, and the mare was Cirrus, and that they were Tomato's friends from school.

Cheese laughed. "Awww, Tommy, they're so happy to see you!"

Tomato gave him a half-lidded stare. "I've noticed." Looking between the twins, he asked, "Now do you two mind putting me down?"

They dropped him. Tomato's tail wasn't fast enough to catch him before he had a hard landing on his rump. He glared at the twins as they stifled giggles and descended from their place in the sky.

"Whoops!" Cirrus said. "Looks like we forgot that he doesn't use his tail as a cushion."

"Shame, his mane was so bouncy the last time we saw it in its natural form," Nimbus said.

Cirrus scratched her chin as she looked at Tomato's mane. "Speaking of which, why isn't it all curly? I don't recall there any hair gel in the wild."

Tomato stood up, and brushed off his rump. "Let's just say sheer force of will keeps it down."

POMF!

Purely to jinx him, his mane was suddenly poofed into curls. His eye twitching as the other three laughed, Tomato grumbled, "Most of the time."

As he smoothed down his mane, the twins were suddenly joined by an older stallion and mare carrying luggage. The stallion had the same color coat as the twins, with a mane of hot colors and eyes of blue; the mare, on the other hoof, was blue, with a dark blue mane, freckles, and orange eyes that matched the twins'. Once Tomato looked up, he was quick to realize that those were the twins' parents, Blazing Silver and Raincloud.

Cirrus and Nimbus turned to them, with Cirrus saying, "Oh, Mom, Dad, this is one of the friends we made in Manehattan!"

"Really?" Blazing Silver said, marching toward him. Giving Tomato a funny look, he said, "Well, I know he's not Bluejinx. He's not blue."

Tomato blinked. "Eh... no."

Raincloud hovered to her husband and lightly smacked his shoulder. "Of course not! This guy has a tomato for a cutie mark, so he's obviously Tomato Salad."

Cheese and the twins laughed again, and Tomato sighed. "Close... it's Sandwich."

"Oh, Tomato Sandwich! Sorry, I confused you for the drama king that drives Cirrus nuts with the super melodramatic lines he writes." Raincloud snickered as Cirrus huffed and looked away. "My bad, you're the businesslike bookworm that doesn't like to sing."

Tomato gave Cirrus a dirty look. "I see she complains about that at home."

Nimbus shrugged. "I tried to tell her to give it a rest, but she doesn't listen."

Blazing Silver rolled his eyes and chuckled. He thrust out a hoof. "In any case, glad to meet you."

Tomato shook it. "I can see where they get their sense of humor from."

Cheese popped up by Tomato's side. "You know, these meetings are fun and great and all, but Cirrus and Nimbus kind of need to be with the rest of the group. They have a role call."

Cirrus and Nimbus' eyes widened, and they didn't hesitate to grabbed their luggage from their father's back. Cirrus gave her dad a quick peck on the cheek. "We'll meet up at the park and explore the Crystal Empire later, okay?"

Blazing Silver patted her head. "It's all right, sweetheart, your mom and I have to catch up with the other Wonderbolts, okay?"

Nimbus gave both his parents a quick hug, and said, "Okay, Cirrus, let's go!", before speeding off without another word.

Cirrus jumped upon seeing Nimbus' hasty departure, and the pegasus guard that was unfortunately in his path. "Nimbus, wait! Look out for the--"

Nimbus crashed into the guard, the two pegasi rolling into a ball of gray, orange, and blue. They tumbled across the street, with some Crystal Ponies sidestepping to avoid them or pulling their children out of the way. They stopped when they bumped into somepony's house, and the two pegasus stallions landed in an ungraceful heap in the front yard. Both were dazed from their trip, and Nimbus somehow wearing the guard's armor.

Cirrus winced. "...guard."

The Sandwiches and Blazing Silver grimaced, while Raincloud sped through the air to the yard. She picked up Nimbus, hugged him, and gently felt his forehead. "Oh, no! Are you okay, my little ball of sunshine?"

Nimbus groaned. "...yeah, Mom, I'm fine." He looked at the guard. "Are you okay, Mr...?"

The guard sat up, groaning and rubbing his head. "Flash Sentry."

He opened his eyes, straight at the armored Nimbus. Looking down at his own body, and then looking up at him once again, Flash sighed and gave him an annoyed glare. "Would you please give me back my armor?"

Author's Note

And here, I try my hand at writing Sapphire Shores, give you my interpretation of G4 Starsong, and finally show somepony who was originally part of another OC's backstory... :trixieshiftright:

So, now Cheese is a judge for a singing competition. May you be an awesome judge, Cheesaroo.

Since Bluejinx had a role in an earlier segment, it was high time for the Pega-sibs to appear in the story. And thus, not only do we see these goofballs again, we also meet their parents, Blazing Silver and Raincloud.

Question is if we're going to meet Cadance and Shining Armor. We'll see. :pinkiesmile:

11.2--First Round

That night had the contestants attend a welcome party that Cheese helped the Crystal Ponies and the crew of the Shining Vocals set up at the Crystal Empire's community center. They and their friends, family, and singing coaches were all mingling with each other, dancing to the music, and getting autographs from the judges. Cirrus and Nimbus were unfortunate that their parents had to practice for the opening show the next day, but they at least had friends to accompany them instead. And another one of the contestants just happened to be Windswept Goldenmane's nephew, who was rather flustered when his uncle kept pushing him towards groups of mares, telling him not to be so shy.

The Sandwiches hung with Cirrus and Nimbus by the snack table, which had numerous cookies, be they savory chocolate chip, made of creamy peanut butter, or good old cinnamon-y ginger snaps. They stood at the end of the table with bowls of fruit punch, each different flavors. The two sets of siblings held cups to drink their respective flavors of fruit punch. Tomato was savoring his drink, Nimbus was lapping his up like a dog, Cheese was scanning the cookie selection, and Cirrus was scanning the party itself.

She leaned back on the table nodding her head. "This is one swell party, Cheese. Not too big so that it doesn't overshadow the competition, but fun enough that everypony's comfortable with being here."

Cheese munched on a cookie that he had snatched from the snack table. "Thanks! Though to be honest, this is just a little warm up after being unable to plan parties last week. I hope to get back to bigger parties after the competition."

Nimbus looked up from his punch. "Why?"

Cheese finished his cookie. "Oh, I wasn't able to do any party planning last week because I was sick." He let out a few raspy coughs. "Still have some phlegm in my throat. Hopefully, my singing voice will be in complete tiptop shape by the next party."

Cirrus snickered. "You, sick? Did Tomato have to channel his inner party pony in order to fill in for you?"

Tomato leaned with his elbow on the table. "I filled in for him, all right." He sipped his punch. "But I had a lot of help from that town's local party pony. Basically, he provided the creativity, and I provided the organization."

"It actually worked, by the way," Cheese stated.

Cirrus waved a hoof. "Bah, that's cheating if he had a party pony to help him... who is this dude, anyway? I heard 'he', so it can't be your pink girlfriend."

Cheese screamed, and then glared at Tomato. "Tomato, you poisoned her mind!"

Tomato raised an eyebrow, said, "I have no idea what you're talking about", and resumed drinking his punch.

Nimbus leaned forward. "So, what else have you guys been doing?"

Tomato kept sipping his own punch, the events of the last month popping into mind. The fruit bats in that orchard in Ponyville, which he cringed in shame about his not doing anything. The bandits in Nickerlite, which Cirrus and Nimbus probably knew about, since Bluejinx was most likely writing them; he'd have to ask how Blue was doing. The duet battle in Halterside, to which he both cringed in embarrassment at the result of the battle and smiled fondly upon remembering the pirate ship pizzeria. The thought of Las Pegasus prompted Tomato to glance at Cheese, wondering how long he was going to keep up the charade of completely forgetting it had happened. And thinking back on Canterlot was actually pretty funny... minus the fire and nearly falling off a cliff.

Cheese grinned at the twins. "Well, aside from the place we just came from, the other four places we've been to have had some crazy stuff going on!"

Five, Cheese, five, Tomato thought. One part of him was growing more fed up with Cheese's omission of Las Pegasus, while another part of him tried to justify it as Cheese just trying to cope. And then there was something in the back of his mind telling him that something was wrong.

Of course, before Cheese could tell the twins about their adventures so far, he was interrupted by Windswept Goldenmane pushing his pegasus nephew right into Cirrus, with the two being cheek to cheek, and the nephew blushing furiously. Her eyebrow twitching, she pushed the other pony out of her face, and then glared at Windswept. "Hey, what's the big idea? Haven't you ever heard of personal space?"

Nimbus marched right next to her. "Yeah, you just made both of them invade each others'!"

Windswept pulled his nephew back and started patting him on the head. "Oh, I was just teaching my dear nephew Angel how to talk to girls!"

Cirrus smirked. "Angel?"

A soft, golden-eyed glower came from the nephew. "It's short for Herald Angel... and I, uh, would prefer it if you called me Herald... please."

Cirrus chuckled. "'Kay, Herald. Frankly, you don't seem like a harbinger or news bringer of any kind."

Tomato glanced at Cirrus. "Bluejinx was pretty shy as a colt, but he ended up with a talent in journalism."

Nimbus scanned Herald from top to bottom, noting his messily wavy, silvery blue mane, his snow white coat, and his finely feathered wings. Glancing between him and Windswept, he asked Herald, "Hey, how come you're a pegasus when your uncle's an earth pony?"

"My sister married a pegasus!" Windswept boldly announced. "And Herald here is her youngest out of her four foals."

"Uh, that's great to know!" Cheese said with a grin. "But, hehe, you kind of interrupted our conversation. I was just about to tell them about the adventures that--"

Windswept waved a hoof. "Oh, pish posh, it was probably unimportant, coming from the mouth of a clown." Ignoring Cheese's glare and that the party pony was about to give him a retort, he continued, "Anyway, my nephew here traveled down from Salt Lick City all the way to Las Pegasus, and managed to win the stallions' audition there at the beginning of June!"

Ah, so before the whole vampire disaster, Tomato thought. He suppressed a shudder from thinking about it, thinking that should he do that, the twins would start asking questions. And that was the last thing he wanted.

Windswept was tousling the blushing Herald's mane. "Trust me on this, he has an absolute golden voice, and I just know he was meant to be a star!"

"I'm pretty sure all the contestants here have golden voices, Windswept," Cheese stated, his eye twitching.

Tomato nodded and pointed to the twins. "These two are no slouches in the singing department--believe me, I've heard them."

Cirrus pointed back at Tomato. "He's no slouch in singing either. You think we can squeeze him into the competition?"

Tomato's face turned redder than it already was. "Cirrus! Why did you have to bring that up?!"

Windswept took a long look at Tomato, his eyes resting especially on Tomato's cutie mark. With a half-lidded expression, he said, "No, there's no room. We've already got sixteen contestants, we do not need number seventeen."

Cheese glanced at the twins and shrugged. "He's right, we already have enough contestants. Maybe next time we can force Tommy to audition."

Tomato jumped. "Cheese!"

Cheese snickered. "I'm kidding! I remember the last time I forced you to sing..." He frowned, turned away, and snorted. "Yep, it's a good thing he can't be in this competition. His vocals are great, but dang is his performance awful..."

Tomato groaned, swiping some more punch from the bowl, and putting the cup to his lips. "Gee, thanks for that compelling argument."

Windswept raised an eyebrow and muttered, "Huh. I guess awful performances run in the family."

Cheese's eyes went wide, and his hair bristled as he whipped around to face Windswept. "Excuse me?!"

Herald tapped Windswept's withers. "Uncle Windy, I don't think he's that bad. In fact, he was great during the Frontier Festival Parade last year." He looked at Cheese and gave him a shy grin. "You think you'd be coming again this year?"

Cheese just shrugged at him. "If my Cheesy Sense says so..."

Windswept rolled his eyes. "Puh, Cheesy Sense, such a ridiculous concept made by a delusional mind."

Cheese glowered at him once again. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, look. Cheesy Sense is a real feeling, a real signal, and is really accurate about where and when a party is going to be. Don't dismiss me as delusional just because you haven't witnessed it."

"You're lucky I'm only keeping you around because we can't get another celebrity to be a judge while the Shining Vocals are about to begin. I will ask you to act like an adult, instead of falling into your habit of childish antics. After all, you're a judge, and how can anypony take you seriously when you turn this competition into a circus? You could turn into a werewolf, and nopony would even be scared because you'd somehow twist it into a clown."

Tomato glanced at Windswept and raised an eyebrow. "A werewolf clown sounds terrifying to me."

Windswept looked at Tomato. "Leave your sass out of this. I'm trying to make sure the Shining Vocals don't become a joke."

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "Do you expect me to be the grumpy judge or something?"

"You don't have to be, but I expect to take your position as a judge seriously." He looked up at Nimbus, who was now hovering over the table and stuffing cookies in his mouth, and then at Cirrus, who was giggling at her brother's stuffed cheeks. "For starters, you're being rather friendly with these two pegasi."

"Yeah?" Cirrus said. She pointed to Tomato. "He's Tomato's brother, Tomato's our friend, and so, we're friendly with him. Nimbus especially enjoys Cheese's sense of humor."

Nimbus nodded with a muffled, "Mm-hm."

Windswept was not very impressed. "Well, Cheese Sandwich, make sure you don't let your bias for these two cloud your judgement. I hope it's not too much to ask of your simple brain to be objective."

Cheese gave him a dirty look. "Don't you worry, Mr. Goldenmane." He crossed his heart, followed by other motions. "I Pinkie Promise that I'll judge each and every contestant with the utmost fairness and without bias." The last word was emphasized by Cheese's hoof touching his closed eyelid.

Herald tilted his head. "Pinkie Promise?"

"It's a promise that you don't want to break," Cheese replied.

Windswept rolled his eyes. "Great, more nonsense." Windswept looked up at Nimbus happily munching on his cookies and sneered. "Without Cheese's bias, I know that buffoon's not going to go far."

He glanced at another group of mares, and grabbed his nephew's tail. "Come along, Angel! Let's try this again, and see if you can actually succeed at being as foxy and smooth as your amazing uncle Windswept!"

As he was dragged away, Herald complained, "Please stop bragging about me, I'm not here for romance!"

Once Windswept and Herald were out of earshot, Cheese snorted. "Gee, never realized this guy didn't like me that much. For what, choosing to be funny? Gee, sorry if I don't want to be some sort of dramatic opera singer or something like that. I've had enough drama in my life that I'd like to forget."

Tomato glanced away, sipping his punch once again. "You and me both."

Cirrus patted Cheese's back. "Baw, he's obviously got a worse sense of humor than a brick. Take it from me, overly dramatic and emotional doesn't always mean it's good, and sometimes the upbeat songs do hide some rather serious messages that I'm sure he'd miss. It's a good thing he's not a judge."

Cheese chuckled. "Psht, yeah, he'd obviously declare his nephew the winner!"

Cirrus laughed. "Can you imagine how hypocritical that'd be? Anyway, it's great you like me and Nimbus, but don't be soft on us just because we're friendly with you. I'd rather lose on my own merits than win just because I happened to know one of the judges."

"Hey, I Pinkie Promised. That's a serious promise, and Pinkie would kill me if I broke it."

Cirrus raised an eyebrow. "She's not even here."

Tomato turned to them. "I'm willing to bet that she would sense it."

Cirrus sighed. "Why bother trying to make sense of ponies like her and Cheese?"

Nimbus landed next to them, looking at Windswept talking to the other group, with a nervous Herald beside him. After staring at them for a few moments, he shook his head sadly. "I kind of feel sorry for Herald there. He doesn't seem to be very excited to be here."

"It's obvious he's a pushover," Tomato said.

Cirrus looked at the clock across the room, and then glanced at Nimbus. "You think Mom and Dad are done with practice?"

Nimbus scratched his chin. "I think we still have time to hear what our Sandwich buds did over the summer."

Cheese laughed. "Well, let's hope we don't have any more interruptions!" He cleared his throat. "So, our first stop turned out to be, of all places, Ponyville..."

The next night, the Crystal Stadium was filled to the brim. The thousands of seats had many a character on them, with some sitting still like statues, others bouncing in their cushions, and all chattering with friends and family. Some scattered popcorn in their endeavor to munch on the butteriest kernel, while others opted to wait until the show actually started. Some of the audience sparkled like their native city, sitting beside ponies with less of a sheen to their coats. Some folks were bright-eyed little foals, fussing over having to sit still and wondering when the heck the show was going to start; and there were those not much less bright-eyed, though they had accumulated a number of wrinkles throughout the years. And of course, sitting on the large balcony was the Crystal Empress herself, Princess Cadance, with her husband Shining Armor sitting next to her. No matter who was there or how different they were, they were all there for the same reason: to see potential new stars provide them with vocal melodies.

Cheese Sandwich sat at the panel with Sapphire Shores and Starsong, looking up at the stage and imagining what was to come. The first image that came to mind was that of Cirrus and Nimbus performing a duet. He quickly shook that out of his head, realizing that these songs were supposed to be solos. It was odd to think of one twin without the other. He didn't quite know what to expect from them or any of the other contestants, though, especially that nephew of Windswept's.

He laid back in his chair, leaning it far enough to look at the audience behind him upside down. One of the ponies sitting up in the front row was Tomato, leaning on the railing and whistling in anticipation. Cheese felt bad that he was alone in the audience, but from the looks of it, Tommy was handling it well.

The drone of multiple conversations was halted when the lights dimmed, and the spotlight was on Windswept Goldenmane as he walked onstage. The white stallion cleared his throat, and went to the microphone. "Good evening, Crystal Empire!"

The audience's roar boomed in Cheese's ears, and he was unable to control his flinch. His ears ringing and his head aching already, he was perplexed on how much louder the applause was than it usually was in these kinds of events. The Equestria Games hadn't been this loud when he attended.

Windswept laughed. "Thank you all for coming! Looks like you've all been waiting a while for a spectacular show, and thus, we shall start off spectacularly with a grand appearance by Equestria's very own Wonderbolts!"

The audience screamed once again, and the fireworks went off in the night sky. The fireworks were followed by the Wonderbolts swooping into the stadium, starting an elaborate midair dance, with the pegasi doing loops and flying through each others' loops, creating a chain out of the circles they made.

Cheese leaned on the table, smiling as he watched them fly in other patterns after the chain of loops was done. He had seen Wonderbolt shows before, but with Tomato behind him in the stands, he couldn't help but flash back to their colthood days back in Manehattan. The memory of seeing the aerial team flying over the bay, both colts being curious about those ponies in the sky doing fancy tricks, and Cheese wishing that he had wings in order to fly like they could and escape his troubles. He could still hear little Tommy asking questions about the Wonderbolts, and wondering aloud what it was like to have wings.

He looked back at Tomato, wondering if he still tried to imagine what it was like to have wings and fly. Cheese himself still wondered what that was like, and on occasion still wished he was a pegasus--if only to throw a party in Cloudsdale.

The Wonderbolts all dipped into the middle of the stadium, all of them leaving trails of colored mist as they all swerved upward and spun in wide corkscrews, the mist creating a colorful tube. In the middle of the tube, two Wonderbolts were spinning in a dance of their own. Twirling as they were hoof in hoof, the pair sprung out of the end of the tube, flew into a strategically placed cloud, and then separated in an explosion of color, the mist from the cloud wafting down onto the cheering crowd.

Cheese's ears still rang along with the audience's applause, and they all watched at the Wonderbolts all flew away from the stadium, sans the pair that made the cloud explode.

Back onstage, Windswept clapped. "What a fantastic performance by the Wonderbolts! And it's good to see old, retired favorites Blazing Silver and Raincloud return for a spell to make this show spectacular!"

The pair, being said retired Wonderbolts, waved to the crowd and bowed. Then, they flew off, going where the other Wonderbolts went.

"Now, as much as we like the Wonderbolts, we all know that the real reason we're all here is to see all these budding stars ready to bring to you their talent!" Windswept gestured to the judges. "This year, the contestants will be judged by the Pony of Pop, Sapphire Shores..."

Sapphire did a great clap, pumped her hoof, and hollered, "Ow!" in response to the cheering crowd.

"...the Queen of Love Ballads, Starsong..."

Starsong blew kisses to the audience and waved at them.

"...and the, uh, Super Duper Party Pony, Cheese Sandwich!"

Cheese pulled a noisemaker out of his mane and blew it, the silly toot somehow not being drowned out by the applause.

Windswept wrinkled his nose at Cheese's response to the applause. The grin swiftly returned to his face for the rest of the audience. "We've got a glorious lineup of singers tonight, and we're going to see which of these ponies blooms, and which ones end up being nipped in the bud. Only half of these sixteen will make it to the next round. So... are you ready?!"

The crowd cheered yet again, and for a third time, Cheese found his head pounding. Rubbing his head, he wondered if there was some sort of adjustment to the stadium that was affecting the acoustics in the building. After all, it'd take a lot for a crowd to give Cheese Sandwich a headache.

"Now, let's bring out the first contestant!" With that, Windswept trotted off the stage, and all watched as Herald Angel was the first to walk onstage, his steps slow and steady and his head raised high. Cheese took one look at his wide eyes, his teeth biting his bottom lip, and the slight quiver of his wings, which told him of a feeling that the party pony had known all too well.

Sapphire Shores leaned forward. "Tell us your name, child."

Herald shifted on his hooves. "Herald Angel."

"Well, you certainly look like an angel. Your folks named you well. So, what will you be singing for us tonight?"

"'Maybe.'"

Starsong tilted her head and twirled her hoof to ask him to continue. "Maybe...?"

Herald sighed. "It's the name of the song."

A few chuckles were heard from the audience. The lights went low, and turned blue, and the spotlight was on him. The music began, and Herald took a few breaths before he started singing:

"There I was, waiting for a chance
Hoping that you'll understand the things I wanna say..."

The melody rang through the arena, his tenor voice wafting through every ear of every pony in that building. All the members of that audience were silent as he sang his angelic song, carrying the tune with much grace and wonder. Some mares held their chests, silent sighs being breathed out of their mouths. Windswept was a clearly proud uncle, his bottom lip being bitten in his goofy smile.

However, Cheese was quick to notice that Herald had his eyes squeezed shut, due to a fear of looking at the audience and probably choking at the sight of how large the audience was. He also caught points where the voice wavered, and some notes that he flubbed, and lyrics he just mumbled. And he was as still as a statue, with only his mouth moving. Cheese glanced at the other two, who had clearly noticed this as well, seeing as they were scratching their chins.

Cheese turned back to the clearly nervous pegasus, and listened to the words, despite the static that was starting up between his ears. Upon thinking of Pinkie, and that Choosing Stone she had once told him about, he wondered if he'd be in that same situation as was happening in the song, and his heart was sinking.

Herald finished the song off with, "But I know to whom you should belong..."

The audience clapped and stomped once he finished, and Herald was heaving in a sigh of relief. Opening his eyes, he blinked at the sight and sound of the applause, and with a little smile, he bowed gracefully. He then turned to the judges.

Sapphire was leaning on the table. "Well, well, well! Ain't that a heavenly voice? Looks like the voice matches your name as well!" She sat back in her seat. "I've got to be honest, I felt like crying tears of joy when hearing that, but I didn't, since it would ruin my makeup."

The audience laughed, and she continued, "Now, child, friendly reminder to loosen up a bit, you were lookin' like a statue."

Starsong nodded. "Indeed. Your voice may be beautiful, but the fact that you were standing so still and having your eyes closed like that made you look stiff and unappealing to watch. Not to mention that you don't look particularly happy to be here, which audiences might catch."

Cheese was leaning in his chair. "Body language is important, you know. There are thousands of messages you could convey just by what you do. Words only make up half the story--it's easy to miss the entire message if you only focus on one thing and neglect the others... kind of like building something. If you forget something, the end product is not going to be what you intended."

Herald brushed a hoof on the ground. "I appreciate your honesty. I'll keep that in mind for the next time I perform."

"Yes, you do that, child," Sapphire said, nodding. "Anyway, I give you seven out of ten points."

"Six out of ten," Starsong said.

Cheese smiled. "Eight out of ten."

Windswept was on the stage, hugging Herald next to his body. "Well, wasn't that a lovely performance? Let's give this handsome pegasus another round of applause!"

Herald bowed again as the audience clapped, and then walked offstage.

Windswept smoothed his mane as the applause died down. "Now, on to our next contestant..."

The buck-toothed, mole-ridden stallion in overalls grinned stupidly at the judges. "Hi... I'm Pants."

Starsong grinned uncomfortably. "Hello... Pants. What will you be singing for us?"

"Music of the Night."

Sapphire spread her front legs. "Well, let's hear it!"

Everypony's jaws dropped when Pants crooned with a deep, operatic voice that rang through the stadium. As lovely as it sounded however, Cheese found his head aching. Rubbing it and squinting one eye, he heard a buzz in his head that rose and fell in intensity with the melody. He groaned, grumbling under his breath that it was ruining his enjoyment of the song.

"Ooooooooh, we're halfway there!
Whooooooaaa-oh! Livin' on a prayer!"

Cheese's headache did not ease up, and the static in his head made many of the words garbled to him. Even worse, everypony was clapping along to the song, and each clap was like thunder to him. Each boom was hitting his head like a hammer, and he could feel himself quivering.

He looked up at the pony onstage, wondering when the song was going to end. And even then, they wouldn't be halfway day with the show--only about a quarter of the way done! He wasn't sure how long it'd be until his head exploded.

Still, glancing at the other two judges, and then to Windswept just standing offstage, he held as still as he could. After all, he didn't want to disappoint them and the entire audience by calling it quits on this judging thing not even halfway through the show.

He can take it. Would he be a super duper party pony if he couldn't?

Next up on stage was a black unicorn, his mane a bright red and his eyes piercing yellow. Wearing too many piercings, too many spikes, and spiked green saddle with wings on it, the unicorn had a snarl upon his face. "I, Baron von Bloody McLudicrous VIII, will sing to thee a song that is most precious to my memory. Thou shalt behold the glory of my music!"

Cheese leaned in his hoof. "Well, get to singing, buddy! Show us your stuff!"

Cheese regretted saying that, as bright flashing lights had blinded him in an instant. The sound of crashing metal, the scream of guitars, and the Baron's loud, gravelly roars sent a shock through his body. Without thinking, he ducked under the table, unfortunately hitting his head on the way down. Clutching his throbbing head, which was already suffering a headache from all the noise thus far and wasn't being helped by the bonk on the head, Cheese curled up in a ball.

He covered his ears in an attempt to block out the Baron's performance, his coat already getting moist and his stomach churning. His eyes felt like they were on fire, and his heart pounded like a drum. He could have sworn the earth was shaking, and the ringing between his ears was nothing but shrill static threatening to tear up his brain.

He breathed through his teeth, feeling acid bubble up to his throat. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that this wasn't normal, that something was wrong with him, but he denied it. Everypony's performances were just unusually intense, and he swore that it was going to kill him.

Finally, the performance had finished, and Cheese had safely uncovered his ears. Panting, he wiped the sweat off his brow, and then shakily went back to his seat. Safely on his stool, he leaned forward to look at the Baron. He put a lot of energy in both trying to keep his shaky elbows steady and to keep himself from giving the Baron a scowl as Sapphire and Starsong gave their opinions.

Then it was his turn.

"It could use a little less... razzle dazzle," he said, still panting and barely hiding the venom in his voice. "And you were mumbling... and screaming... and I didn't know what you were singing..." He rubbed his forehead. "Four out of ten."

Once the Baron was offstage, the other two judges looked at Cheese in concern. Putting a hoof on his shoulder, Starsong asked, "Are you okay? You don't look well."

Cheese turned away. "I'm fine. Just bring in the next contestant."

Tomato watched the show intently, the next three contestants having their songs caress the eardrums of everypony in the audience. That one mare he thought had a swell voice, with her singing a slow, acoustic version of one of Sapphire Shores' songs. He had chuckled when Sapphire squealed in glee to find a fan of hers as a contestant--granted, Starsong had to remind the filly not just to sing songs the judges had written and performed. After all, they could be suspected as a method to butter up the judges.

He was much less thrilled upon the next mare, only because she was singing one of his least favorite songs. A grand old ballad about love lost, crying about how that colt had just abandoned her and that her life was absolutely ruined without him. And it was all done in the whiniest, most pretentious tone possible, as if the fact that it was a breakup song--which he heard all the dang time--wasn't enough. At least the mare's vocals were nice.

Finally, another stallion came onstage. Tomato was delighted to hear one of his favorite songs, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep himself from singing along under his breath.

"I'm sure you're aware of," he sang softly. "We both had our share of believing too long..."

"That's a nice voice you got there."

Tomato squeaked, and then turned to find the twins' parents standing next to him. Raincloud was smiling at him, while Blazing Silver was snickering. Tomato's ears drooped, and he covered his mouth, wondering how loud he had been and looking around to see if anypony else had heard him.

Blazing Silver leaned toward him. "Mind if we sit with ya?"

Tomato shook his head, and the two sat down. Raincloud nudged him and asked, "So, have either of the twins gone onstage yet?"

Shaking his head once again, Tomato answered, "Nope. You haven't missed them."

"Well, good. I'm sure my babies would not be happy if their parents got stuck in the changing room and missed one of them performing. They've already dealt with enough heartache regarding our perceptions of their talents when they were young."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

Blazing Silver sighed. "When they were young, we had expected them to be Wonderbolts. I've tried training them in the art of flying, making sure they had top speed and agility, performing all sorts of tricks and doing feats with the wings they had been born with. They were agile, no doubt, but Nimbus had always been a bit slow in flying, Cirrus always crashed and got stuck in clouds, and both found training rather tedious and preferred to pull pranks on me."

Tomato put a hoof to his chin. "Oh, yeah, I remember them telling me about how they auditioned for a play on a whim, got the lead parts, and then when they got a standing ovation for their acting, their cutie marks appeared."

Raincloud nodded. "We tried to hide our disappointment over what they got, but they caught on rather quickly. Cirrus spent more and more time with friends, and some of them weren't exactly model citizens."

Blazing Silver forced a cough, muttering, "Troublemakers and drunks."

Raincloud raised an eyebrow at her husband, and continued, "Meanwhile, Nimbus didn't exactly have friends--"

"Wait, what?" Tomato asked. "Nimbus is a funny guy, why wouldn't he have had friends?"

"He was a laughingstock at school for being a..." Raincloud tapped her hooves together. "'Doofus'. He was more of a flying joke than a pony to his classmates."

"Oh." Tomato sank in his seat. "Flying joke... sounds like they tended to laugh at him instead of with him."

Raincloud nodded. "He tried running away from home once. He had hopped down to the ground from Cloudsdale, and apparently got so fascinated by the flora and fauna, that even when he was caught and brought home, he kept returning to the ground."

Blazing Silver leaned in his hoof, watching the stallion on the stage finish his song. "It took both the twins getting hurt from their activities to get us to realize that we were basically emotionally neglecting them--just because of our wounded pride!"

Tomato winced. "Do I dare ask how they got hurt?"

"Cirrus got sick from a... thing that her so-called friends were giving her, and they abandoned her when she passed out and nearly fell from the sky." Blazing Silver sighed. "And Nimbus got caught in a forest fire, and returned home coughing and burned. It hurts to have two kids in the hospital, knowing that you could have done something to prevent those awful situations."

Raincloud stared at the stage with her husband, envisioning their twins dancing on it. "We kept assuming they were at their rehearsals for whatever plays we thought they joined. They were too ashamed to go at it again, because they were 'supposed to be Wonderbolts, and they failed their parents'. Since their release from the hospital, we made an effort to support their talents, and we haven't had any big problems like that again."

Tomato nodded. "Well, it's good to know a bit more of their history. Especially the reason why I shouldn't call Nimbus a baby when he cries over a theater curtain lighting on fire."

Raincloud narrowed her eyes. "You did what?"

Tomato bit his lip. "Err..." He looked on the stage, and spotted a familiar gray pegasus mare. "Hey, look! Cirrus is on!"

Cheese suspected that Cirrus had chosen this song just to annoy some ponies in the audience. While he wasn't sure that it was a good strategy for the competition, he did find it funny that some ponies had groaned when she had started singing the well-known show tune.

"Let it go! Let it go!" Cirrus belted out. Her wings started to lift her off the stage. "And I'll rise like the break of dawn..."

He would enjoy the performance more if there wasn't this static accompanying her words. While it wasn't as bad as it was when Baron von Bloody McLudicrous VIII was rocking out, everything was sounding more like a tornado of bees than actual songs, as if his headache wasn't bad enough.

He considered quitting the judge's panel again, but pushed the thought aside. It was just one headache, and sixteen contestants were not helping that. While he questioned the decision to have the sixteen contestants go out on the same night, he just had to look at Sapphire and Starsong, who didn't seem terribly affected by it. He leaned forward and rubbed his temples.

One headache is not worth quitting this gig, he thought. If I quit, where are they going to find another judge on short notice?

"The cold never bothered me anyway." Cirrus finished her song with a wink.

The applause rang through the stadium, and left a strange, contorted echo in Cheese's head. Still, he kept up appearances and clapped as well, seeing as the other judges enjoyed Cirrus' performance.

"Fabulous, darling!" Sapphire hollered as the applause died down. "Now, I didn't expect a little pegasus like you to have such a booming, powerful voice, but you blew me away like a hurricane! And that's to say nothing of your sensational moves."

Starsong nodded. "You definitely have smooth transitions from one chord to the next, aside from those couple of times where your voice cracked. But, you know, sometimes we just can't control the voice cracks. Good job."

Cheese stared for a moment at Cirrus, his mind going blank and his head feeling like a balloon. Swaying back and forth, there was a strange sensation of not really feeling anything besides floating. The only thing he felt was that same old ring between the ears.

"Uh... Cheese?"

Cheese shook his head, biting his lip to keep from yelping out of pain. Forcing a grin, he said to Cirrus, "Oh, right... you sound like you could be on Bridleway. And that's not just because you chose a show tune that everypony knows and loves..."

Cirrus grinned. "Well, I try my best. Singing has always been a passion of mine, and I do hope to combine it with my talent." She turned to show them her drama cutie mark. "Bridleway sounds like a pretty good option for me."

"Well of course! Have a nine out of ten."

Starsong leaned in her hoof. "Nine out of ten."

"Well, I hope to see you in Bridleway in the future. Ten out of ten!" Sapphire cheered, clapping and starting up another round of applause. "Let's give Cirrus here another hoof!"

During the applause, a voice from the audience rang, "That's my baby girl! Isn't she beautiful?!"

Cirrus blushed. "Mom..."

Tomato crossed his forelegs, breathing a sigh of relief upon the arrival of the final act. It wasn't that any of them were bad; no, most of them were rather enjoyable and fun to watch or lifting his spirits with how powerful they were. There were only a couple he didn't like: the breakup song and the mess that Baron von... Something had sung. The latter had been loud and flashy enough to send Cheese running for cover. He had heard a few ponies chuckle at Cheese's dash to under the table.

Beside him, Blazing Silver and Raincloud whooped when Nimbus came onstage. Tomato just leaned back in his seat, crossing his hind legs and putting hoofs behind his head. He saw what Cirrus was like in her solo, now it was time for Nimbus.

After a bit of banter between him and the judges, the music started, and Nimbus' dancing was not far behind. And then, he started to sing.

"They told him, 'Don't you ever come around here.
Don't wanna see your face. You better disappear'..."

It seemed natural that Nimbus was dancing to accompany that song he was singing. And from the corner of his eye, Blazing Silver and Raincloud were dancing along to it. Tomato himself wasn't in the mood for dancing, especially after the previous fifteen performances--seriously, who arranged this thing?--but he was glad to be sitting by a pair of supportive parents. And after their story, he was happier to be by parents who had managed to get over their initial disappointment in their kids' talents and were fully embracing them.

It was more than he could say about his own parents, especially when looking at Cheese, who had been the model of what Tomato shouldn't be for years. Being mad at him during his adolescence wasn't much help either, of course.

However, the longer he stared at Cheese, the more he noticed something was off. Knowing that Cheese liked the song Nimbus was singing, it was weird that Cheese seemed to be more massaging his own head than bobbing it along with the music.

He furrowed his brow, and then concluded that the show had definitely been going on too long if Cheese was having a headache. Tomato prayed that Nimbus didn't notice and take offense. Then again, Nimbus was usually not very good at noticing these things.

Before he knew it, the song had ended, and the applause echoed through the stadium once more. Tomato's eyes were on the stage, where a grinning Nimbus was bowing. The judges were clapping as well, and Tomato couldn't help but clap for his friend. Of course, his mane bristled a little upon Blazing Silver and Raincloud's fanatic cheering, with the phrases of "That's my boy!" and "My babies are amazing! I have the most amazing set of twins ever!"

Nimbus seemed to hear this, looked around, and spotted them. He waved, saying, "Hi, Mom and Dad!"

Just offstage, Windswept was rolling his eyes.

The applause died down, and Sapphire Shores cleared her throat. "Well, well! Looks like you have a lot of energy when it comes to singing this song! I was tempted to jump out of my seat and dance along with you! You get a nine out of ten from me!"

Starsong chuckled. "You certainly gave a lively performance. Though I'm going to say, your dancing was a bit stilted, and at times, you seemed to make the song too funny, such as fight with yourself during the bridge, or the... air guitar. Again, good performance, but try to take it more seriously in the future. Seven out of ten."

Cheese was still rubbing his head. "Well, you sang one of my favorite songs..." Cheese looked around at the audience, imagining all of them staring at him. Exhaling, he continued, "I personally enjoyed the funny bits. Can't say no to a good air guitar! Eight out of ten!"

Nimbus bowed again to the applause, and then flew backstage. Windswept Goldenmane took his place.

"And that's all the performances we have tonight folks! Now, if the judges will tally up the points, we'll see who got into the next round."

The ponies were at the edge of their seats, leaning forward at the judges and seeing who was going to bloom. The three discussed amongst each other, not caring for the stares of the crowd and going for the ones they deemed best. It was about a minute before they all straightened up, ready to tell them about the decision.

"All right..." Starsong said, with a paper in her hooves. "We have decided the ponies that will be going into the next round. Come onstage when we call your name."

Tomato looked at the parents biting their hooves beside him, and he leaned on the railing, as if he could hear the results better.

"Pants."

The crowd cheered, and the stallion in overalls bounced onstage with a "hyuck, hyuck, hyuck", and grinned at the judges.

"Dancing Queen."

A mare strutted onstage to cheers and whistles, and blew kisses at the crowd as she took her place beside Pants.

"Cirrus."

Blazing Silver and Raincloud leapt out of their seats and screamed as Cirrus slid to her place beside Dancing Queen, winking at the audience.

"Daybreak Glisten." A unicorn took her place on the stage, a smile gracing her lips. "Nimbus." Said pegasus cartwheeled onto the stage, and pumped his hoof. Tomato flinched as Blaze and Rain cheered again.

Starsong continued, "Guitar Lick, Backstreet, and... Herald Angel."

The three last ponies, all stallions came out to cheering crowds, Herald slouching as he came out. The ponies all stood in a row, all looking up at the crowd before them. They all beamed at the adoration they were being given, though the last one in the row still looked a little nervous.

"Congratulations on making it to the next round! You all earned it!"

Windswept Goldenmane joined the row on the stage, laughing triumphantly. "We sure have some talent here folks! And tomorrow night, we're seeing which four of these eight ponies makes it to the next round. Thank you for coming, and good night!"

Tomato smiled, and clapped for the ponies. However, he looked at Cheese at the judges' panel, and frowned at the sight of him massaging his head. He couldn't see Cheese's face, but he assumed that he was trying to smile, trying to hide the pained contortions of his face.

Once again, the thought of something not being right was nagging at the back of his mind.

Author's Note

Remember that journal of mine where I ended up mentioning that I ended up creating a character named Herald Angel after watching some Peanuts cartoons? No? Well, here he is anyway. He's a shy pony.

And the Shining Vocals begins! Watch as I have ponies sing songs from our universe because I'm too lazy to come up with some songs of my own! :pinkiecrazy:

It's hard enough coming up with one song for a chapter... :fluttershbad:

Here's the song that Herald Angel sang:

Pants:

Unnamed Contestant:

I have no idea what Baron von Bloody McLudicrous was singing.

Unnamed Contestant that Tomato was singing along with:

Cirrus:

:trollestia: I couldn't resist the oppurtunity.

Nimbus:

So, yeah, I'm such a cheapskate. XP
Oh, yeah, and poor Cheese, suffering like that... I wonder what's wrong with him... :trixieshiftright:

11.3--Simple Joys

"A diner isn't quite how you'd expect a morning in the Crystal Empire," Tomato mumbled.

The table was hard and smooth under his front hooves, looking and feeling like a polished diamond of blue. The sweet scents of pancakes, waffles, Crystal Berry syrup, and other fruits and syrups wafted above the tables, though the more cheesy smell of omelets managed to sneak into his nostrils. The drone of conversation from other tables, sizzle of the grills, and clanking of dishes rang through the air, with a backdrop of jazzy fluglehorn music. The walls also shimmered with that crystalline gleam that was prevalent all over town, with not a scratch among them.

Tomato's mouth had been watering the moment that he, Cheese, the twins, and the twins' parents had entered in. He supposed the diner was a relatively new thing like the stadium--why wouldn't it be, having just reappeared over a year ago--but with those crystal touches in order to blend into the theme of the city.

Sitting between his brother and Cirrus, and the other half of their group across from them, Tomato was alternating between lapping up the whipped cream of his crepe and crunching down on the crystal berries and strawberries folded within the thin, chewy pancake. Cheese munched on a breakfast sandwich of cheese and eggs, the twins were racing to see who could scarf down all their syrupy waffles first, Blazing Silver fought tears as he took bites of his onion and pepper omelet, and Raincloud was making work of unraveling her cinnamon roll and wrapping it on her chocolate chip muffin.

"What, did you want a fancy restaurant or something?" Raincloud replied.

Tomato wiped whipped cream off his muzzle. "Oh, no, no, it was just a simple comment." He licked the cream off his hoof. "At the very least, the only thing unique about the menu here is that there are Crystal Berries. The taste makes me think of frozen raspberries and grapes combined."

Nimbus took a break from his waffles to down some of the Crystal Berry Juice. "Huh, you're right... it also has this interesting tangy fizz that makes me feel like I'm actually eating crystals..." He grinned in a goofy manner. "I wonder if it'll make us turn crystally!"

Cirrus laughed. "Nah, they just massage your throat and make it feel better from whatever ailment that struck it... at least I think that's what the menu said. Eh, considering the competition, it's a good drink to have."

Cheese took a swig of his juice and belted out a hearty laugh. "I certainly feel it! The phlegm is dissolving!" He reached under the table and pulled out his accordion. "Think I oughta test it out?"

"Not now, I don't want you stepping in my food," Tomato replied.

Cheese huffed and put his accordion away. "Killjoy."

Nimbus stuffed the last of his waffles in his face, and pumped his hoof in victory, while his sister glared and stuck her tongue out at him. Feeling a swell of pride, Nimbus leaned back and bobbed his head to the music. "This kind of reminds me of that space opera play we were in once..." He looked at Cirrus. "You know, the one where you were the princess and I was the guy who got a faceful of magical mini cannon magic and died?"

Cirrus leaned back and rolled her eyes, happy that Nimbus wasn't the type to rub his victory in. "Well, yeah. I remember the itchy wig I had to wear and the fact I had to kiss the guy with the chili pepper breath."

Blazing Silver wiped his eyes. "Don't say pepper!" He took to the air and flew out of his seat. "I need to stuff my face in a cloud!"

As her husband crashed through the door outside, Raincloud sighed as she looked at Blaze's empty water glass. "I knew he shouldn't have ordered the habanero peppers. Why didn't he just stick with bell peppers...?"

Cirrus got out of her seat. "Well, I'm gonna make sure Dad's alright." With that, she trotted out the door, and the sound of wings flapping outside followed.

Nimbus eyed Cirrus' waffles with a wicked grin. "Should I...?"

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding? She'll kill you!"

"I'm a big guy with more muscle mass than she does--naturally, I eat more."

"It's still not nice."

"But the waffles are getting soaked!"

Raincloud turned to her son. "Nimbus..."

Nimbus sighed. "All right, I won't touch them." He took a swig of his drink. "But don't blame me when parasprites start invading, get mutated by the soggy waffles, and cause the apocalypse by puking out radioactive explosives."

Tomato put a hoof to his face. "Geez, Nimbus, that's overkill."

Raincloud shook her head. "You've always had an imagination, and it hasn't seemed to wither away."

Nimbus raised an eyebrow. "I dare the next high-level unicorn to yank it out of my mind." He looked up at the ceiling and shook his hoof at it. "You'd have to pry it from my cold, dead body!"

Tomato took a sip of his milk. "I doubt they could find it there, it keeps running away from you."

Cheese burst out laughing, Nimbus rolled his eyes and grinned, and Raincloud held a perplexed look on her face. Scratching her head, she narrowed her eyes and asked, "Wait, are you saying he's stupid? He's already had enough of that in his life!"

Tomato sighed, blowing bubbles in his milk. "I can't tell a joke to save my life..."

Nimbus turned to her. "Oh, no, Mom, he's just saying that my mind wanders a lot, that's all. I'm not going to argue with that."

Raincloud blinked. "Oh."

Cheese shook his head and leaned in his hoof. "And thus, the joke dies. I'm going to have to plan its funeral. I hate planning funerals."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you'd make it irreverent," Tomato stated.

"Nah, I'd have you sing. You seem like you'd carry a solemn tune and make everypony cry for the joke."

Tomato gave him a stony look, and in one swift motion, picked up his plate and smacked it right into Cheese's face. Nimbus and Raincloud gasped and put their hooves to their mouths, trying to keep from snickering as the plate slid down the elder brother's face, revealing a stunned look barely concealed by whipped cream and berry juice.

Tomato barely blinked. "Oops, looks like I'm finished with my crepe."

He completely expected Cheese to lick the whipped cream off his face in one go; however, he was surprised when Cheese winced in pain when the tongue shot out and whipped back into his mouth. Rubbing his head, he opted to wipe the cream off with his foreleg instead. Still cringing from the headache, he wasn't looking where he flung the whipped cream, and it splattered all over Nimbus' face.

Raincloud couldn't hold it in, and she burst out laughing.

Tomato noticed that instead of relishing in the laughter, Cheese continued flinching as if his head was being pounded on by a hammer. Raising an eyebrow, he said, "I didn't hit you that hard... are you okay?"

Cheese took a deep breath. "I'm fine... my head's just still ringing from last night's round."

"Sixteen rounds in one night was too many," Tomato huffed. "Even then... you getting a headache from stuff like that is peculiar."

"Well, Baron von Bloody McLudicrous VIII's act was way too flashy, even by my standards." Cheese exhaled. "In any case, it'll go away soon. It's not like my head's going to explode or anything."

Raincloud was busy wiping Nimbus' face. "Not to mention there's just eight contestants this afternoon, and you'll have four tonight."

"And tomorrow being the final showdown!" Cheese pumped his hoof, and then clutching his head once again.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Cheese snorted. "I told you, I'm fine." He scooted himself past Tomato and out of the bench. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some things to do to prepare for the afternoon round. Sorry I won't be able to join you guys at the petting zoo."

Nimbus shrugged. "Better than me going alone thanks to Cirrus' stupid allergies."

The other three waved Cheese goodbye, with the orange stallion grinning and waving back. However, Tomato knew a fake grin when he saw it, and Cheese's had definitely been forced, with some resistance to the wincing. Pursing his lips, he wondered how much he was downplaying the headache.

As Cheese left, Cirrus and Blazing Silver came in. They were just about to sit down as they spotted Nimbus and his creamy face.

"Okay... what happened to him?" Cirrus asked.

It was just Nimbus and Tomato who went to the petting zoo later that morning. Cirrus was off doing some vocal exercises, while Blazing Silver and Raincloud strolled around the Crystal Empire.

Their first stop was with a new litter of puppies from the zookeeper's dog. Tomato simply sat down as the pups swarmed him, using his tail to throw a stick or a ball to play fetch, and cradling whatever pup crawled onto him. Nimbus was scratching the puppies behind the ears, playing tug-o-war with them, and rolling around laughing as he was hit with a barrage of little tongues. Pathetic howls, tiny growls, and simple whines was the music that surrounded them, and while the sharp teeth weren't appreciated, Tomato was more or less content with the little canines, even as Nimbus was more active in the play than he was.

Nimbus laid on his back, flapping the floppy ears of one that stood on his chest. Looking up at Tomato, he said, "I didn't take you for a dog kind of pony. You seemed to be more of the Godpony type that'd stroke a cat."

Tomato was stroking a puppy as it slept in his forelegs. "You should've seen me as a colt--I was pretty much obsessed with dogs. I kept asking Mom for a dog, I'd approach strangers and ask to pet their dogs, I dreamt that Cheese turned into a dog... and I once ended up annoying so many stray dogs that they all joined forces and chased me up a lamppost." He rolled his eyes as he chuckled. "Cheese had to save me, as usual. He didn't like the fact that he had to purchase meat at the local butcher shop and lure the dogs away with it."

"I'd hate that too. Why do butcher shops exist?"

"Dogs and cats are carnivores. Also, there is the occasional griffon."

"Oh, right." Nimbus grimaced. "I'd still hate to work in a butcher shop, surrounded by the horrible stench of flesh and fat and blood..." He shuddered. "Poor Cheese having to go in that in order to save you! Imagine him as a meat-themed superhero!"

Tomato gagged. "That's disgusting! The last time he went in a butcher shop, he threw up about three times. There's no way he'd be a meat-themed superhero anytime soon."

Nimbus let the puppy hop off of him before rolling over. "That's just bizarre. He'd be swarmed by dogs!" He plucked at the grass. "So... what is it about dogs that makes you prefer them over cats?"

"I've had fewer bad encounters with dogs than cats; my neighbor often babysat me and her cats tended to scratch me, suffocate me, or otherwise make me as miserable as possible." He looked down and smiled at the puppy. "But, if I were to give a concrete reason for liking dogs... I've seen so many having such devotion and love for their owners, not judge them for what they do and how they feel, and they're always willing to forgive. I like that their souls just seem so pure."

Nimbus was using his tail to play tug-o-war with a group of puppies. "You forgot to mention they're adorable!"

"Yes, that too. I still do wish I had a dog when I was a teenager. Heck, I wish I had any kind of pet, because Bluejinx couldn't be there all the time. I was kinda lonely." Tomato looked down at the puppy, who had just woken up, and released it so it could play with its siblings.

Nimbus tilted his head. "Did you have any other friends?"

Tomato shook his head. "After a fallout I had with a group of former friends over the accordion incident, I had trouble making any more. Any friend I made, I couldn't keep for more than a month or two. Longest 'new' friendship before college was a co-worker at a bookstore I once held a job at... it was about four or five months, up until the bookstore went out of business and she moved away." Tomato stood up. "Anyway, point is, I forgot how to maintain friendships."

Nimbus yanked his tail from the puppies, who soon turned to a group of foals arriving to play. "Why couldn't you keep friends?"

The pair had walked away from the yard with the puppies, and went out to explore the other pens. Tomato wrinkled his nose as they passed a pen full of cows. "Because I was a grouch that couldn't 'get over' my fallout with my brother, a big nerd, accused of deceiving others into thinking I was some rich kid... no, seriously, I ended up befriending some groveling gold-diggers that ditched me once they found out my family's not all that wealthy. Yep, I was even unpopular enough to have rumors spread about me throughout the neighborhood..."

Nimbus grimaced. "Ouch. I know what that's like, having ponies whisper behind your back. Being a dude in theater tends to come with some implications that aren't necessarily true." He groaned and rolled his eyes. "I took up boxing so that those jerks would shut up."

"Huh, maybe I should have gone for martial arts."

Nimbus smiled, waving to a llama before turning back to Tomato. "But, you know, I prefer the ground over Cloudsdale. It's warmer and more colorful down here, and there's a lot of cool plants and animals!"

Nimbus gestured grandly to the rest of the petting zoo before them, letting Tomato gaze upon the pens with ewes, bunnies, ducklings, fawns and many other different types of animals. With a wink, he said, "This is just a small fraction of what the ground has to offer. You see why I kept coming back to the ground as a colt?"

"I've lived on the ground my whole life," Tomato deadpanned.

"Eh, it's probably the reverse with you, wondering what it's like to live in the sky." Nimbus hovered and clapped. "But, seriously, I want to learn more about the world down here, it's so fascinating! I've already gotten plenty of plant info from Flora."

"Of course you did. And if you want animal info, I recommend Pinkie Pie's friend Fluttershy."

Nimbus scratched his chin. "Fluttershy? Let's see, uh... was she the pegasus that ran that petting zoo at that Fall Festival and made friends with Flora?"

"Yep. She's nice, and an animal expert. Clearly her special talent has something to do with them."

Nimbus grinned again. "Wow, she's got a neat talent! I've made friends with some critters... but, you know, I can't really speak animal. I do wonder what it's like." He shrugged and landed on the ground, and he and Tomato started to walk again. He looked around at the pens, trying to decide which one to go to. "It's not that I have anything against ponies--oh, no, my talent is more along the lines of acting and making others laugh, and I enjoy that."

"Yeah, you brought about a few chuckles with your antics last night," Tomato replied.

Nimbus sighed. "I just wish I wasn't treated like a joke most of the time. Cirrus has always been more popular, just for being a convincing queen of drama, having meaningful performances, and having an insanely powerful showstopper of a voice. No doubt in my mind she's going to win."

"Mmm, I don't know, I'm betting on that Pants guy."

They jumped at the sound of screeching, and paused in their walking as they found themselves at the entrance of an artificial cave. They looked up at the sign, which advertised "Fluffy Crystal Bats" that were "absolutely huggable". Right by the door, there stood a grinning zookeeper, beckoning them and gesturing to the entrance.

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Okay, since when are bats part of a petting zoo?"

Nimbus beamed. "They must be nice bats."

Tomato's ears twitched as he heard multiple conversations in the cave, unsure if they could fit with all the ponies that were inside there apparently snuggling the bats. He caught snippets of "honey, have you seen Nosey?", "I don't know why ponies say we're blind, I can see just fine!", and "you promised us ponies! I don't see any ponies yet!" That last one was especially weird.

He glanced at Nimbus, who was grinning. The pegasus turned to him and said, "I definitely want to see those bats."

Tomato pursed his lips. "I don't know, it sounds like there's already too many ponies in there."

Nimbus blinked, and then cocked an ear to listen. "All I hear are chirping bats."

"There's nopony in there; I just finished cleaning up after the bats and refilling their food," the zookeeper by the entrance said. "Unless you understand bat, you won't hear any conversations."

Nimbus rubbed his hooves. "Sweet, we get first dibs on snuggling the bats!" He grabbed Tomato by the tie, and dragged him into the artificial cave. "Let's fly into the bat cave and greet our winged friends!"

Tomato didn't fight back; he was too dumbfounded at the conclusion he ended up getting.

The afternoon round of the Shining Vocals was soon to begin, and once their vocal exercises were done, Nimbus had reunited with his twin sister in the tunnels of the Crystal Stadium. Standing in a bunch with the other contestants--sans Herald Angel, who was talking with his uncle down the hall--the twins talked about their mornings. Cirrus told Nimbus about a bird that had flew into the room and caused a bit of trouble for her and the vocal coach, while Nimbus was telling her about his morning at the petting zoo with Tomato.

"So, wait, there were actually bats there?" Cirrus asked, a wry grin on her face. "I don't take those for petting zoo animals!"

"But they're fluffy, adorable, and super nice!" Nimbus clapped. "And they sparkle! I never thought I'd see a sparkling bat!"

"So, none of them bit either of you and turned you into a vampire?"

"Well, one got annoyed with Tomato, bit him, and then he literally hissed at it." His brow furrowed in confusion upon recalling it. "And then he bantered with it for a bit, and next thing I know, they all end up worshiping him."

Cirrus raised an eyebrow. "Weird..."

"Yeah. Makes me wonder if Tomato's a vampire."

Cirrus laughed. "Ha, as if! Cheese didn't mention them having gone to Las Pegasus at any point during their trip. Seeing as some wacko turned the myth into reality there, you'd think that they'd tell us that story if they had been there. I mean... can you imagine them fighting vampires? That'd actually be pretty awesome."

Nimbus scratched his chin. "I don't know, that sounds like it'd be terrifying."

"Well, either way, I don't think they were there. They probably would have at least mentioned it if they did."

Then, from down the tunnel, Herald shouted, "What?! How could you--"

Cirrus and Nimbus turned to see Windswept putting a hoof on Herald's mouth. The middle-aged stallion looked up at the twins and the others that looked, and then grinned at them, saying, "Oh, no worries, we're just having a discussion about his schooling, and how he should be transferred to a different college." He glared at Herald, saying, "After all, I only want what's best for my favorite nephew."

The others seemed to accept this and turned away, though Cirrus and Nimbus lingered a little bit longer, gazing at the puppy dog eyes of Herald before turning away as well. They glanced at each other, grimacing over the apparent one-sided discussion in the corner.

"Well, something tells me he's going to give in to his uncle's suggestions, the pushover," Cirrus muttered. "I don't see what's so bad about transferring schools."

Nimbus glanced back. "He's shy, remember? Last I checked, it's a pretty big deal when you're shy."

As soon as Windswept had walked away from Herald and went onto the stage to start the show, Nimbus smiled. "You know, I think I'm gonna try to cheer him up. Who knows, maybe he'll be transferred to our school and make friends with us, Tomato, Bluejinx, and Flora!"

Cirrus blinked. "Nimbus, I don't think--"

"Give it up for the first contestant of today, Cirrus!"

She groaned. "Fine, cheer up the professional kicked puppy over there, I've got to sing." With that, she took flight and glided to the stage.

Nimbus hopped glided down the other way, going deeper into the tunnel to join Herald. He landed silently, so he didn't startle the other pegasus, but the quiet moment was ruined when Nimbus exclaimed, "Hi there!"

Herald jumped high enough to hit his head on the ceiling. Rubbing his head, he plopped back down onto the floor, and glared at Nimbus. "Can you not be so loud? It kinda echos in here. Geez, and I thought one of my friend's brothers was bad..."

"Oopsie," Nimbus said with a sheepish grin. He looked over Herald's head. "Do you have a bump?"

"I'm hoping I don't have a concussion," Herald groaned. He looked at Nimbus curiously. "What do you want, anyway?"

"I noticed you were a little down about the school thing."

Herald sighed and looked away. "I don't want to talk about it."

"It's okay, you don't have to." Nimbus spread out his wings. "I just want you to meet Dr. Feather..."

Herald turned back to him, and blinked when Nimbus waved his right wing. With the gray pegasus turning up his nose, 'Dr. Feather' said in a posh accent, "I see we have a handsome young lad on our hooves. I have heard your angelic singing last night, and it's sure to have made many a mare swoon."

Herald tilted his head, his mouth twitching.

Nimbus waved his left wing. "And this here is Mr. Plume!" He contorted his face, and 'Mr. Plume' croaked in high, crotchety voice, "Ahahahahaha! This young boy has naught but bones for sleeves! It shall be easy to snap his neck!"

Herald stifled laughter and covered his face with his hooves and wings.

Nimbus grinned. Looks like Cirrus isn't the only one I can cheer up with this act. He continued his little puppet show with his wings, causing Dr. Feather and Mr. Plume to argue about the threat, and then end up fighting, with Herald still laughing at the ridiculous little show.

Cirrus trotted back into the tunnel, stopped at the sight of the puppet show, and smiled.

Author's Note

This was originally supposed to be longer, but then I thought these three parts would serve better as their own chapter. A bit of a breather, I know, but I've discovered that it's absolutely fun to write Nimbus. He's such a goof and yet such a sweetheart.

Got other tidbits such as Cheese's headache and the traces of bat still in Tomato. And that diner scene made me hungry when I wrote it. And other stuff, I'm not gonna pick them out for you.

Anyway, next chapter should be the other half of the original longer chapter I envisioned. Here's hoping I sort out my thoughts and keep it from being an incoherent mess.

11.4--Behind the Curtain

Once his grand song was finished, Pants bowed to the judges after receiving his score. With a goofy grin, he merrily hopped off the stage as the applause rang through the stadium, with some extra loud whoops and cheers coming from a certain section of the seats obviously containing his large and boisterous family.

Cheese sighed in relief and rubbed his head. Just one more song to go, and then the afternoon show was done. He could go back to the park where he and Tomato stayed their nights and take a nap, maybe wearing an ice pack to kill this headache before it killed him. The show only had been half as long, yet Cheese felt like a limp noodle with a throbbing ringing between his ears and a stomach twisted in nausea. The flashing lights and the singing were no help at all, and he wasn't sure if he was being fair, since for all he knew, his perception of the performances was warped. The question of why this was happening was nagging at the back of his mind.

"Yo, Cheese, you all right?"

He glanced at the other two judges, who looked at him in concern. Sitting up straight and idly brushing off his shirt, he said, "Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine." Play it cool, Cheese. If they think you're sick, they might ask you to stop. And if you stop, where are they going to find a replacement? "Why do you ask?"

"Well, for starters, ya lookin' a little pale," Sapphire Shores said.

Cheese blinked. "You know, I have fur. How can anypony tell if I'm pale?" He put a hoof to his chin. "For that matter, how can anypony see another pony blushing?"

"There's also the fact that you've been rubbing your head a lot," Starsong added.

Cheese found himself rubbing his head again, and then smacked the offending hoof. "Uh, you must be imagining things. You're talking to a party pony, I'm used to stuff like this!" He forced a large grin, hoping they'd drop it. I should be used to it... what's going on with me?

Sapphire and Starsong raised their eyebrows and glanced at each other. Then, Starsong turned back to him and said, "Perhaps we should talk with the producer and find a replacement for you. You really shouldn't be a judge while you're not feeling well."

Cheese's hair bristled. "Oh, and who are you going to get? Prince Shining Armor?"

Sapphire smiled. "He's a mighty fine stallion--Princess Cadance is one lucky mare. Wouldn't it be just divine if he was on our panel?"

Cheese snorted. "Then why didn't you go to him before I came on the scene? He'd be a fine judge!"

Starsong grimaced. "It's... rather hard to approach royalty."

Cheese groaned and dragged a hoof down his face, his mind flashing back to when he had been Celestia for a day. How awkward and embarrassing that was, especially after getting angry for no reason and ending up setting the fair on fire. Crossing his front legs, he spat, "Well, good luck trying to find another celebrity to fill this seat again before the next round tonight."

Starsong scooted away from Cheese, and whispered to Sapphire, "Wow, he turned grouchy rather fast."

"Headaches do that to ponies, darling," Sapphire said. "Even to the nice ones."

"I wonder if Windswept had found something to--"

Then, from the stage, someone muttered, "...excuse me?"

All three of the judges looked up to see Herald Angel standing there, shifting uncomfortably. "Are you three done arguing?"

After Herald had finished his singing, Tomato, Blazing Silver, and Raincloud watched as the judges announced those going into the next round. All lined up in a row, the contestants of Daybreak Glisten, Cirrus, Nimbus, and Herald Angel were on stage, being rained on with the applause. Blazing and Raincloud were especially loud, enough for Tomato's ears to be ringing.

As Windswept was saying his parting words, Tomato sighed, "Well, I'm disappointed that Pants didn't make it to the next round. I liked his rendition of 'Palomino.'"

Raincloud sat back in her seat. "I'm surprised the stiff one made it through. Nice voice, but not interesting to look at. He's not even taking advantage of his wings!"

Blazing put a hoof to his chin. "Call me crazy, but maybe he only got through because the host is his uncle."

"Oh, pfft, we all know the judges have the final say in who goes through and who doesn't."

"There is such thing as bribery, or blackmail. You and I have seen it before, honey."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "Cheese can't be bribed; he doesn't really care for money. And what could Windswept possibly blackmail him with? I highly doubt his reputation would be harmed if anypony knew of our feud. Heck, I'm sure it'd hurt me more than it'd hurt him."

Windswept had said his final words and expressed excitement at the next round. Then and there, the show was over, and everyone was getting up to go. As she hovered and picked up her things, Raincloud looked at the field, and then pointed to the judges in the process of leaving. "Speaking of Cheese... he seems to be walking kind of funny."

Tomato blinked, and turned to where Raincloud pointed. Sure enough, Cheese was walking rather shakily and with a sway in his step. While he could usually brush off odd behavior, Cheese's walk was less of a quirk and more of a pained stagger. Tomato watched as just before Cheese went into the portal, he stopped to lean on the wall to catch his breath and clutch his head. After a few moments, he straightened up, and disappeared into the tunnel.

Tomato's brow furrowed. "Okay, that's weird... and not his usual kind of weird."

"Is he sick?" Blazing asked.

"He just recovered from a cold! What did he catch this time?"

"Maybe he's just disoriented from the show," Raincloud suggested.

Tomato scratched his head. "That doesn't happen... like, at all. Geez, how bad is that headache if it's affecting his walking pattern?"

"If he's got a persistent headache, then he shouldn't be judging."

Tomato slipped a pass (given to him when Cheese convinced Windswept to do so) out of his pocket and clipped it onto his tie. "Well, I'm going to go meet him and maybe see what's going on with him. If I'm lucky, I might convince him not to continue on with this gig... but I doubt it, he's pretty stubborn."

Blazing tightened the saddlebag on his barrel. "All right, you do that. Meanwhile, we'll go mini golfing with the twins."

As Tomato trotted down the halls outside the arena, going to meet his brother near the entrance to the tunnels serving as the backstage, he kept thinking about what he should say to Cheese. With him walking around in a daze like that--especially with no Baron von Whatever to temporarily blind or deafen even the most hardy in the audience--there was a nagging thought in Tomato's head that something was wrong with him. After all, the last time he swayed like that was when they were in the mountains just before the snowball, and that was because he had a cold and was sleep-deprived.

Tomato put a hoof to his chin. Is he having trouble sleeping again? He wondered if it was the headaches keeping Cheese up, or the sleep deprivation giving him a headache. Or a certain other event that Cheese was still in denial about. Either way, the competition was hardly any help, and Tomato wished that Cheesy Sense had led them to something smaller, like some kid's birthday party, or an old couple's anniversary.

He glanced at a Cirrus and Nimbus passing him by, and just waved at them before continuing on. Several other ponies passed by, talking animatedly and expressing excitement for the next round later that night. While he was looking forward to seeing the twins going to sing more, there was still concern for Cheese.

He went in deeper and deeper, wondering how long Cheese had been waiting for him. He looked at the various doors, trying to remember which one was the one that led to what served the dressing rooms for Windswept, the judges, and the contestants. Or maybe at least where a technician was.

He found the door, and started to walk past one of the dressing rooms when he heard Windswept shout, "What do you mean 'he should just be the runner-up'?! My nephew is meant to shoot for the stars, not mere second place!"

Tomato blinked, and silently shuffled over to the barely cracked open door. There, he heard Starsong say, "We're just saying that if he wins, ponies will suspect that this show is rigged in his favor, considering you've made it no secret that you're his uncle."

"Don't forget, I was runner-up when I competed in this thing, and look at me now!" Sapphire Shores said. "He could still be the star you want him to be."

Windswept snorted. "Oh, and who do you suppose would be the glorious pony that would beat him? The pathetic and useless comedy act? Little Miss Unsightly-Freckles-And-Awful-Haircut? That unicorn who sings the same boring lullaby over and over?"

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had thought that Blazing Silver had been kidding, but apparently he was psychic. Tomato wondered whether or not Herald knew about this, but it didn't change the fact that the competition was being rigged for him. Upon the mention of the other three contestants that had made it alongside Herald Angel, Tomato felt his blood boil over the insults that were describing Cirrus and Nimbus.

Another thought came to mind: why were Sapphire Shores and Starsong even going along with this? Did Cheese know as well?

"Hey!" Sapphire snapped. "Don't sell 'em short; that 'comedy act' sang a moving rendition of 'Empty Chairs and Empty Tables'."

"And the so-called 'ugly one' has a powerful voice and graceful moves! Those two show far more creativity and talent than your precious nephew," Starsong snarled. "The poor boy doesn't even look like he wants to be there."

Tomato smiled. At least those two were defending the twins.

Windswept slammed a hoof on the ground, loud enough to make Tomato jump. "I am doing him a favor! I am making sure that everypony recognizes the talent that he possesses and that he'd be able to show the world what he's capable of! He wasn't going anywhere staying in the Salt Lick Valley... why should he stay in that boring place when he could be a star?"

"Maybe he just appreciates the simple things more than you do. After all, you broke a girl's heart just because you found her 'too simple'."

Too simple? Tomato rolled his eyes at that concept. After that crush on Creme Brulee that ended in humiliation, he would prefer a mare that's more simple, somepony more along the lines of, say, Flora Peace. He stared off into space at what he had just thought, and then shook his head, reasoning to himself that it probably wasn't going to be Flora herself. What would she think if he thought that of her?

Windswept snorted. "Rock farmer mares are so unbearably boring, and so is every little simple town girl that I've dated, reminding me of the overall nothing that was my life in Nickerlite. You were a lucky one to have been married to me for over a year before I divorced you for being too complicated, Starsong."

Tomato wrinkled his nose. The more this guy talked, the less he liked him. He wanted to stop the eavesdropping and just go find Cheese, but he couldn't bring himself to pull away, wondering where this was going to go.

"You know that's a lie, Windswept--I filed for divorce because you're an unfaithful scumbag!"

Tomato cringed when Windswept started to laugh. It was a nasally, haughty laugh that Tomato imagined required an upturned nose and an obnoxious show of teeth. He was tempted to peek through the crack to try to see if that was the case, but given that he might accidentally nose the door open, it wasn't worth risking.

Windswept finished his laughing. "Oh, Starsong, you jest... given that my brother is head of Manehattan's biggest tabloid, you know I could easily twist our little story to how you cheated on me, just like I have a little story in the works about Sapphire Shores' big ocean charity screw-up. And you know how common ponies love to read the dirt on celebrities."

There was a pause, during which Tomato looked forward, his nostrils raw in breathing the dusty air, expecting Cheese to come marching toward him and catching him in the act of eavesdropping. He wasn't sure if it'd be a blessing or a curse, depending on the subtlety or whether or not Cheese would make him apologize.

Finally, Windswept spoke again. "It's a shame I don't have any dirt on Cheese Sandwich. I was prepared for Countess Coloratura, but, you know, she cancelled for that grandmother of hers. But, nevertheless, I suppose that two out of three is enough, given that obnoxious moron is kept out of the loop. I highly doubt he's smart enough to figure out what's going on."

Tomato narrowed his eyes, feeling himself heat up once again. You'd be surprised, you shallow son of a--

His nostrils twitched from the tickle of dust, and before he could even put a hoof to his nose...

"AH-CHOO!"

His sneeze blew the door open, prompting Sapphire and Starsong to jump back, while a confused Windswept had been nailed on the forehead with the edge of the door. The three looked up at Tomato, who had eyes as wide as dinner plates, which were quickly replaced with a sheepish smile.

"Bless you," Starsong muttered.

Windswept glared at him. "What are you doing back here?"

Tomato bit his lip. "Oh, uh, I was just looking for my brother. You guys seen him?"

"Sorry, child, you missed him," Sapphire said. "He left straight away, grumbling about a headache and how he was gonna take a nap."

Tomato blinked, and then scowled. "Are you kidding me? Did he forget that I was here? He was supposed to wait for me!"

Windswept held a narrowed eye look, backing up to one of the dressers and sat on the stool, leaning on it. His hoof under the table, he asked, "How long were you looking for him back here?"

Tomato glanced away. "Few minutes. Hadn't bumped into him, so I thought of asking somepony around here."

"You know, you could have knocked, Mr. To-Mah-To. Sneezing the door open like you did could be considered rude." Windswept drew his hoof from under the dresser, and tapped both hooves together. He winced from the bump on his head, pointed to it, and added, "Especially since you marred my perfect face with it!"

Tomato backed up. "Well, I apologize for that." No, I don't, I find it oddly satisfying. "A bump on the head is painful, and not a pretty sight." But honestly, I think you look better with it. "Please forgive me, I didn't mean any harm." But I am going to tell Cheese about you rigging this thing for your nephew, you douche.

He flashed a grin at Sapphire and Starsong, who grinned and waved back. Still backing up. he continued, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to our camping spot. I'll read a book as Cheese takes his nap... and then when he wakes up, I'll hit him with it for forgetting to wait for me."

He backed right into two big, buff stallions, with both of them snorting hot breaths onto his shoulders. Before he could even turn to face them, one had grabbed him by the tail, and hoisted him up, prompting a quick and pained whinny from him. After a moment of shock, Tomato started trying to buck the offending pony's foreleg, swing to either punch or bite one of them, and even flapped his front legs around, trying to will his nonexistent wings to flap.

Windswept chuckled. "Thank you, dear bodyguards, for grabbing this troublemaker."

Starsong glared at the smirking Windswept. "Let him go, Windswept! He didn't do anything!"

Windswept chuckled and strode forward. "Oh, really? Funny how he just so happened to be in front of the door when he sneezed."

Sapphire grabbed him by the neckerchief. "Coincidences happen. He just wanted his brother!"

"Oh, come now, stop fooling yourself, he was obviously eavesdropping!" Windswept pulled his neckerchief away, and then trotted to the upside-down Tomato. Tapping him on the muzzle, he cooed, "And he thought he could get away with it by using his brother as an excuse."

Tomato snarled, and then screeched right into Windswept's face. The white stallion backed up with a gasp, his usually perfectly styled mane frazzled and his eyes wide as dinner plates. His chest seemed to be visibly heaving and twitching, as if his heart was trying to burst out and his lungs were overworking.

As the two mares laughed at Windswept's fright, the white stallion grit his teeth. He spun around and snapped, "QUIET!"

When the two stopped laughing, he turned back to Tomato. "It seems to me that this immature colt is just as insane as his brother!"

Soon enough, Tomato found himself tied to a chair. He had been carried to a small, empty closet that was located in one of the higher floors of the stadium, the key of which his captors had somehow snagged from the janitor. He was in the middle of the room, facing Windswept Goldenmane with a glower. Behind him, the bodyguards stood.

"This is a rather extreme reaction to someone eavesdropping," Tomato deadpanned.

"Don't be silly," Windswept replied, rubbing his pastern on his chest. "Considering some of the other options, this is quite mild."

"I'm tied to a chair."

"Well, I can't have a kid running around and blabbing about my secrets now, can we?"

"For goodness' sake, what's with everypony calling me a kid?"

"Considering my age, your age is still awfully young." Windswept tilted his head. "And yet... you waltz around in that outfit, hoping ponies would take you seriously as an adult. I have to say, that's adorable, especially since your jacket's sleeves are too long."

Tomato flushed. "They're not too long!"

"Uh-huh..." Windswept stamped on the floor. "You're clearly around my nephew's age. You know, the age ripe for adventure and chasing dreams, completely fulfilling the destiny that has been graced upon their flanks." He narrowed his eyes. "I'm personally trying to foster the growth of a budding star."

Tomato wrinkled his nose. "You mean rigging the competition in his favor?"

Windswept laughed. "Oh, come on, you know it's fair that the most talented of ponies most win. I'm simply trying to ensure that."

"With blackmail?"

Windswept raised an eyebrow. "Puh, Starsong shouldn't have divorced me in the first place, and Sapphire Shores' little charity activity ended up with some porpoises meeting their doom. They're lucky I'm being merciful and not killing their careers just like that. And they know better than to risk it."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "Gee, you're such a saint."

Windswept straightened up and paced back and forth. "Anyway, surely you understand that I'm trying to help Herald reach his fullest potential as a musician. The boy clearly doesn't know what he wants, so I'm making sure that he stays on the path dictated by his cutie mark. If I didn't, what kind of irresponsible uncle will I be?"

Tomato shifted uncomfortably, those words sounding all too familiar. In fact, mentally replacing Windswept's voice with his mother's, 'uncle' with 'mother', and Herald's name with his own made him sick to his stomach. No wonder that pegasus was so timid.

"Now... we can't have you letting your brother know about this, buddy..." Windswept's eyes narrowed. "Or anypony for that matter."

Tomato snorted. "Oh, please, Cheese has a knack for figuring out what's going on."

Windswept flashed him a disturbing grin. "Well, it's a good thing that he's been too distracted with headaches!"

Before Tomato could protest once again, Windswept stamped his hoof, and Tomato was gagged with a sock and a cloth tied around his mouth. Tomato threw up in his mouth at the foul taste and stench of the sock, only for the vomit to sear his throat going back down. The ropes binding him were tightened, making his chest hurt, and only shallow breaths could enter his nostrils. His tail--the only part of him that was free--convulsed in response to what he felt.

Windswept laughed. "And thus, we have secured the tattletale! Let us go, boys... there's no way he can escape, and nopony will think to find him in here during the show."

The door was closed, and Tomato was in the dark.

As Cirrus, Nimbus, and their parents headed to the Crystal Park's mini golf course, they had strolled by Cheese snoozing under a tree. The twins attempted to fly over to him, wake him up, and prod him to join them, but their parents stopped them, explaining that he probably wasn't feeling the best.

As they walked away from the tree, Nimbus sighed. "Bummer, I'm sure he'd make mini-golf lots of fun."

"Adding Tomato to the mix would have made it hilarious..." Cirrus grumbled.

"Speaking of Tomato, where is he? Didn't Mom and Dad say he was meeting Cheese earlier?"

"Knowing him, he's probably at the library reading some book."

Blazing Silver turned to them. "As much as I can tell you want him to join, I'm not going to wait for you guys to find the library and drag him over here. I don't want to kill too much time before you guys compete in the next round tonight!"

Cirrus sighed and rolled her eyes. "Right."

Nimbus' gaze fell on a bench, and he pointed to the pony sitting on it. "Why not invite our new friend?"

Cirrus turned to that same bench, and scoffed at the sight of Herald Angel feeding the birds. "Really? Come on, bro, haven't you already bothered him enough today? Not to mention if his uncle sees him with us, we might get disqualified or something."

Raincloud turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "What, you can't be friendly to a rival? Your father was my rival once!"

Blazing Silver snickered. "Getting disqualified for inviting a rival to an outing is a bit of a stretch, Cirrus."

Nimbus glared at her. "Besides, it can't hurt to have him join in our family fun! Look at him... he's lonely." He started to hover, and then flew toward him, saying back to his family. "I'll be right back!"

Cirrus rolled her eyes again as Nimbus started talking Herald. "Can't we just have family time without some random guy with us?"

Blazing gave her a half-lidded look. "Sweetheart, you just suggested waking Cheese Sandwich up and having him join us five minutes ago."

Raincloud nudged her. "Perhaps you think Herald's cute?"

Cirrus groaned. "Yeah, sure, he's cute, but he's such a timid little wimp."

At the bench, Nimbus leapt into the air, and hollered at his family, "He's joining us!"

Author's Note

I am heavily annoyed with myself with wasting my free time on the computer with Facebook Games and tumblr, instead of the more productive activities of writing and drawing. STUPID TUMBLR WITH ITS ADDICTIVE UTTER NONSENSE ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!! :flutterrage:

Plus, this chapter feels weak to me. :ajsleepy:

Anyway, stuff happens. I imagine 'Palomino' to the tune of 'Oklahoma', and apparently Nimbus likes Les Miserables. Nimbus, no, you're the comedy stallion, quit singing songs from a musical that literally has the word 'miserable' in it.

Oh, yeah, have a picture of the Herald guy:

11.5--When Weirdness Gets Messy

That evening, backstage was brimming with excitement. The technicians were grinning to each other, sending the silent signal about how amazing the light show that they were going to put on was going to be. In each dressing room, he makeup artists were warbling about how great the contestants were going to look, while said contestants bore their sprucing up, lights shining in their eyes at the thought of everyone loving their voices. Windswept was looking over one artist as he was fixing Herald's messy mane, instructing the beautician on how to coif the hair to be like his, while his nephew was resigned to having no voice in the matter.

In one other dressing room, Starsong just watched as Sapphire Shores paced back and forth, huffing and snorting like a bull seeing red. Most folks passing by the room assumed that she was upset because Cheese Sandwich was running late, as they had barely any time before the show started. But Starsong knew better, with her being just as unhappy about what had transpired earlier, though she was much less obvious about it.

"I cannot believe we just stood there and let Windswept and his cronies kidnap an innocent pony whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time!" Sapphire rubbed one of her temples, noting that her face was hot. "I woulda knocked those big stallions down easily!"

Starsong leaned on the dresser. "And give him an excuse to go out and ruin your career? Yeah, a reputation of violence against both sea life and ponies would do you loads of good."

"I told you, what happened with the porpoises was an accident, and it still makes me sick just thinking about it." Sapphire grinded her teeth. "But we can't just let him get away with this!"

Starsong groaned. "How? Not only does he have his network to keep us in line, what proof do we even have of his blackmail? If there is any proof, we don't have enough time to gather it or fetch Tomato. Heck, we don't even know where Tomato was taken to. For all we know he could be dead."

"Cheese won't be happy hearing that." Sapphire sighed. She looked up at her pegasus companion curiously. "Why'd you marry Windswept in the first place? Ain't he, like, ten years older than you?"

Starsong glared at her. "I was a young and foolish pony then, not realizing how shallow he was."

"And still is?"

Starsong leaned in her hoof and nodded. "Yeah."

They jumped when the door was kicked open, and a panting, sweaty Cheese Sandwich came through the doorway, his eyes wild and his mane in a tangled mess. He was visibly shaking as he chewed his hoof, and his tail swatted through the air behind him.

"Whoa! You okay there, Cheese?" Sapphire asked.

Cheese threw his head up in a groaning roar and paced back and forth. "No! I had a stupid memory lapse earlier, making me forget I even had a brother and not even wait for Tommy! And now, I've looked all over the city, with not a trace of him to be found! Not at the library, not at the park, not looking at the Crystal Heart... nowhere! I even had to ask some guards around town to keep an eye out for him!" He paused as the gears turned in his head, and he turned to the ladies. "Do you two know where he could have gone?"

Sapphire and Starsong glanced at each other, with the latter answering, "...afraid not."

Cheese's ears drooped, his head lowered, and even his mane was sagging. "Ugh... why can't I leave him alone without something happening?" He knitted his brow and scowled. "Just like when we were colts... some things never change..."

The two mares looked at him, back to each other, then back at him, and then finally stopped at each other. If there was anypony that could expose Windswept's rigging with no damage to his career, it was Cheese. He had gotten away from plenty of antics and mishaps unscathed, and as far as they knew, there was no spot on his record that Windswept could expose. Plus, learning what happened with Tomato might spur him to action--all they needed to do was tell him, and then just lie to Windswept about how Cheese figured out what happened on his own, being smarter than he gave him credit for.

Sapphire stepped forward and patted Cheese's shoulder. "Not to worry, child, I'm sure he's not too far away. In fact--"

Windswept came striding in, declaring, "I saw him earlier today, getting some snacks in the concession area! Had himself a nice carrot dog."

Both Sapphire and Starsong pursed their lips, their twitching eyebrows barely concealing their annoyance at the white stallion interrupting them. Couldn't he just have fussed over his nephew's hair a little while longer?

Cheese didn't notice them doing so, and asked Windswept, "Did he have a load of ketchup on it?"

Windswept's eye twitched as he answered, "Why, yes! I don't understand why, though, since he seems like the kind of pony to not want to soil his clothing. Not to mention... ketchup on a carrot dog? Surely he realizes it's a travesty! Doesn't he realize that mustard is the best option?"

"Tomato has loved ketchup and hated mustard since he was a tiny colt." Cheese put a hoof on his chin. "I think he once punched a classmate for mocking his choice of condiments."

"Couldn't he at least have gotten relish? Anything besides that crime against carrot dogs!"

"He hates relish too--he says it's too pickle-y. Besides, no ketchup on carrot dogs is a stupid 'rule'. Let him eat what he wants."

Windswept rolled his eyes. "I'll keep that in mind when I see a pony eating meat. Now, judges, it's time for you to go out there; the show's about to begin!"

Cheese, smiling out of the relief of thinking his brother is safe, trotted out of the dressing room. Once he was out of earshot, Windswept turned to the other girls with a glare. "Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do. Besides, should he find out, that brother of his should be good leverage. It's not like the twerp's able to escape his little prison."

He laughed, and then strode out of the room, the two mares glaring at him. Once he was out of earshot, Starsong sighed.

"Well, so much for our plan."

Sapphire nudged her. "Oh, don't count it out yet. Cheese is way too wily for the likes of Windswept. I trust he'd come up with something."

"We still could use a Plan B. Like, say, if we managed to get Windswept's nephew turned against him."

"Child's too much of a softie, darling. I don't think he'd stomach confessing."

For what seemed like an eternity, Tomato had sat in darkness, his only light seeping from under the door and barely through the keyhole. The back of the chair made his own back ache, from his withers against the top edge to his croup against the bottom. He couldn't move to make himself more comfortable, lest the ropes binding him restrict his breath even more. The nauseating bitter sting of that rotten sock was still on his tongue, and wasn't going to leave anytime soon with the gag on his muzzle. His sweat at least provided him some relief from the heat, but a dryness in his throat made him crave water.

His hind legs were tied together by the cannons, and the most he could move them was by bending his joints and moving them back and forth in a slow bucking motion, or shuffling them to make the rope revolve little by little. Practically the only major part of his body that wasn't bound was his tail, presumably because Windswept and his goons had assumed that he'd be like most other ponies in that department, with only manipulation of the dock, while the skirt was largely useless without fine magic concentration. They believed that a swaying tail wouldn't do much to help him.

However, Tomato's tail did indeed have a fine magic concentration, which gave it incredible dexterity when he took advantage of its prehensile nature. His liberal use of his tail veered into uncanny territory compared to others who channeled magic for temporary caudal prehension. Occasional spots of that were normal for other ponies, and usually the more liberal users of it were party ponies like Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich, which ponies easily could shrug off. But when Tomato Sandwich did it, suddenly he was the most interesting sight in Manehattan, which annoyed him to no end.

Still, he was thankful that he had a tool to help his attempt to escape. His tail had been picking and prodding at the ropes for what he was sure was hours, though he was frustrated that the dark prevented him from seeing any weak spots. He could hardly reach the tie of the gag, and he couldn't whip his tail around to pick at the ropes there. Still, it was more than a pony without that kind of magic concentration or a docked tail could do, but much less than what a unicorn could do (given that their magic wasn't blocked).

Pick and prod he did, though his efforts had slowed when a line from Windswept replayed in his head: The boy clearly doesn't know what he wants, so I'm making sure he stays on the path dictated by his cutie mark.

He hated how familiar that sounded to him, giving him a taste more bitter than the sock in his mouth. Even though Herald Angel was much different from him in terms of personality and he didn't quite know his history, Tomato was seeing himself in the pegasus, and felt some sort of pity for him. After he, he should be the one dictating what he does with his own talent, instead of someone else pushing him too hard, to the point where he'd rather give up his cutie mark than bear the pressure.

Tomato felt himself sag on thinking that. Was he overthinking it? Perhaps. But it didn't prevent him from wondering if he should confront his mother over what had been going on during his adolescence. Words had been hollow, issues ignored, all blame was on him, and he still wasn't quite sure what love was and what made it conditional or unconditional.

He shook his head; it was a terrible idea. Knowing her, she'd brush it off as a lingering teenage mindset that he should have grown out of. Still, it poked at his mind and heart, even as he tried to brush it away. Almost against his will, the thought was entertained, and he wanted to find a loophole out of it. Perhaps if that Herald guy stood up to his uncle, he'd consider standing up to Mom.

His ears twitched when he heard muffled music from outside, and the disgustingly haughty voice of Windswept Goldenmane ringing throughout. His mind going back to his current situation, a seething nicker escaped from Tomato's muzzle, especially since he hadn't made any progress in loosening the ropes. He knew he had be more creative in his escape attempt; if there was anything he was certain of, it's that nopony was coming to rescue him.

Staring at the door, he let the gears turn in his head until he realized that he could barely see his hind legs in front of him. He swished his tail back and forth, wondering if he could do more with it than just grab and hold stuff. As he pondered about it, a crazy idea popped to his mind.

He wriggled those legs a little, doing so until he felt they were even. He threw his body back as far as he could, tipping the chair over and letting his tail catch him. Then, his tail sprung from the floor, and he tipped forward, catching himself with those back hooves. He used his tail to balance himself, and looked at the bits of light from the door's cracks. He took a deep breath, he shuffled forward, whipping his tail to different spots on the floor in order to keep his balance.

Once he made it to the door, he shuffled to the wall beside it, and leaned on it. Glancing back, he lifted his tail and smacked the end of the skirt on the door a few times before managing to shove it into the keyhole. He twisted and turned it, feeling around in the lock until it audibly clicked. Then, he used the chair to push the door open, making light flood into the room. Pulling his tail free, he shuffled out of the room and into the hallway.

Why didn't I think of that before? he wondered, shuffling toward a set of stairs heading down. However, once he reached the stairs, he quickly realized that he didn't have a way to shuffle down while still tied to a chair. It would be too easy to make a wrong step and tumble down.

Oh boy... need to find an elevator. He turned around, hoping to shuffle around until he found an elevator or somepony to help.

However, as he smacked down his tail for balance, he missed the floor and instead hit a step, making him lose his balance. Tipping backwards, he was helpless as his muffled cries for help went unheard, and he started to roll and bounce down the stairs.

After a fair amount of bruises and lacerations from his tumble, he was thankful when he had been caught by a pair of strong hooves. However, he went pale upon turning and seeing the familiar faces of Windswept's bodyguards, snarling at him with great menace. Looking around the floor, he found that there were more than two. They may have been grunting to each other in their own language, but he had a good idea what the message being spread around was.

What the hay are these bozos doing out and about in this hall? he wondered. And how many bodyguards does Windswept even need?

He was turned around to face the rest of the goons, who were all trotting forward in order to discuss what to do with him. In the midst of their unintelligible conversation, he spotted a curious janitor who had been busy mopping the halls. Seeing the wet floor and looking around at those surrounding him until he spotted an opening, he started to think of a way to escape.

Well, one crazy idea worked, let's try another.

Glaring up at the gang, Tomato whipped his tail on a certain tender spot on his captor, and then moved the tail onto the chest and launched himself forward, much to the surprise of the large stallions. Landing on the wet floor on his hind hooves, he used his tail and the chair's legs to keep himself from falling, and then slid himself down the hall, steering himself with his tail. As he sped through, a muffled laugh managed to ring through the halls.

The janitor blinked as he watched the gang of stallions try to pursue the fellow tied up in a chair, slipping on the floor multiple times in their chase. Staring at the scene, he muttered, "My wife is right... maybe I should kick that habit of drinking too much grape juice..."

After Daybreak Glisten and Cirrus had their turns, it was Nimbus' turn to sing. As he entertained the crowd with a popular little ditty, Cirrus stood backstage with the other two contestants, bobbing her head to the beat. Herald Angel softly clapped in tune, while Daybreak was filing one hoof and bobbing her mane with the other. Glancing at Daybreak, Cirrus leaned over to her and asked, "So, I hear you're from Canterlot."

Daybreak turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, and...?"

"Well, I just want to know if it's as fancy as everypony says it is."

Daybreak blew on her bangs. "I'd tell you... but given that you always look like you've been mauled by a bear, I think flowery description might end up making you puke from the oversaturation of sophistication. After all, isn't your kind allergic to what Canterlot stands for?"

Cirrus knitted her brows. "I just asked a simple question, there's no need to insult my looks. Besides, I'm an actress, I can handle sophistication."

"Really? I thought you'd know a thing or two about presentation!" Daybreak giggled. "After all, the messy haircut and the freckles aren't exactly pinnacles of beauty. Your voice can only carry you so far." The unicorn turned up her nose and walked away. "Now leave me in peace, plebeian."

Cirrus blinked before her face fell into a scowl and huffed. "Well, sor-ry for just being curious." She flicked at her bangs, then rubbed her cheek. "Not to mention I don't exactly pull off the 'natural beauty' like Flora does."

Herald glanced at her. "You don't look that bad to me... I, uh, actually think freckles are kind of cute..."

Cirrus rolled her eyes, and smacked him lightly on the shoulder. "At the very least, you're a nice pony." Her eyes shifted upward to take a good look at Herald's mane, and she snickered. "Geez, that looked better shaggy. Ever let your uncle know that the pompadour is a little much?"

Herald took one glance upward at the ridiculous combination of puffed up and slicked back on his head, and then cast his eyes downward. With a defeated sigh, he grumbled, "He insisted that I emulate his style in order to be successful."

They heard the roar of applause as well as the judges' scores on Nimbus' performance. The next thing they knew, Nimbus had hopped backstage, grinning in glee. "Woo! I nailed that song and got almost a perfect score!"

"What docked you a point?" Cirrus asked.

Nimbus crossed his forelegs and rolled his eyes. "One of them didn't like that I rolled an 'r' at one point." He smiled, and then shuffled behind Herald. Pushing him forward, he said, "Now it's your turn! Remember the dance moves I showed you!"

When pushed out of reach by the others, Herald sighed and muttered, "Let's get this over with..."

When the white pegasus was out of the portal and walking to the stage onfield, Cirrus shook her head. "Why is he always so depressed? Everypony else was excited to be here, but this guy... ugh, he seems to be having constant stage fright both on and off stage."

Nimbus scratched his chin. "If he didn't what this, why would he even be here?"

Cirrus watched Windswept talk to the audience while he was onstage. "Pleasing Uncle Ego?"

"Oh, yeah, makes sense."

That's when they heard a crash behind them, coming from the hallway leading to the concession hall. They turned around, as did Daybreak further backstage, to look at the very doorway which it rang from, and held their breath as the crash was followed by a thumping which was clearly passing the dressing rooms and toward them. The thumps grew steadily louder and louder, echoing from the hall, to the backstage, and to the portal leading to the arena. They glanced at each other as the thumping suddenly turned louder, as if somepony was tumbling down the stairs.

Suddenly, Tomato burst from the entrance, bound to a chair and gagged, and landed on his face, barely missing a shrieking Daybreak. Cirrus and Nimbus had jumped at his appearance, but then quickly flew to him and picked up the chair so that it was upright again.

"Okay... this is weird." Cirrus dug her hoof in the knot of the ropes and started loosening it. "Might as well untie you; you don't look very comfortable!"

Nimbus had untied the gag, and Tomato immediately spat out a dirty sock and coughed. Sticking his tongue out, he moaned, "Ugh, where has that sock been? I seriously need some mouthwash!"

Once Cirrus had freed him from his restraints, Tomato hopped out of the chair and took a deep breath. "Finally, I can breathe again!" He stretched his legs and body in all manner of poses and angles. "Gee, being tied up for hours gives you a such a crick in the everywhere."

Cirrus hovered and crossed her front legs. "You mind telling us what's been going on and where you were?"

Nimbus raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Why didn't you let us know you were tied up somewhere?"

Tomato turned to glare at him, Cirrus facehoofed, and Nimbus covered his mouth. Daybreak in the corner giggled, and Nimbus' face flushed red. He looked up at Tomato, uncovered his mouth, and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, didn't think before saying that..."

Tomato sighed and opened his mouth to answer.

"There he is!"

Tomato went pale and snapped his head around at the doorway. "Yikes! I thought I lost you!"

Cirrus and Nimbus turned to see who he was talking to. Seeing a bunch of big, beefy stallions all glaring at Tomato and adopting poses that looked like they were about to pounce on him like a cat, the twins looked at each other, and then flew in, landing between them and their friend. Nimbus stood up and took a boxing stance and Cirrus pawed at the floor, both snorting hotly.

Cirrus glanced back at Tomato. "How'd you get in this mess?"

Tomato bit his lip. "It's a long story."

Cheese looked up at the stage, his head pounding once again. There had only been three performances so far, and yet the headache had returned with vigor. Windswept's speech was garbled in his ears, with that constant ring permeating the air. As much as he liked Cirrus and Nimbus, both their performances hadn't been exactly friendly to him. He felt as if Pinkie was hunting him down, since he was sure he broke the Pinkie Promise for being fair; he was exaggerating his opinion of each performance just a teensy bit, at least trying to make up for how everything seemed so loud and bright to him for whatever reason.

He sat up as straightly as he could to assure the other two judges that nothing was wrong, though in between acts they had been trying to tell him something. They had tried to whisper it to him, though all he heard was swishing from their mouths. And whenever Windswept looked at them, they suddenly clammed up. Observing this behavior, he wondered if they had accidentally stumbled upon some sort of embarrassing secret and found it funny enough to try to tell him. If only they would speak loud enough for him to decipher the words.

Herald Angel was on the stage, his silvery-blue hair in a pompadour. Cheese held his breath, knowing that it was impolite to laugh at a clearly embarrassed pony, especially one that was clearly very shy and sensitive, much like Cheese had been in youth.

Cheese's mind wandered as he stared at the pegasus, wondering how much he was bullied back home, how long at had taken him to find his special talent, and if he was under pressure to perform well. The look in Herald's eyes told him the answer to that final question, and thinking back to the party a few days ago, there was no doubt that his dear uncle had been doing that. He furrowed his brow and cast his eyes down, wondering if Windswept was meaner to his nephew behind closed doors.

He looked up when the crowd cheered. His head felt like it was floating away like a balloon, and his first thought was that he wanted somepony to catch it. Maybe Tomato could leap from wherever he was in the stands and catch it... but what if he got carried away?

The music had began, and Herald opened his mouth to sing.

Then a large pony was suddenly tossed across the stage behind him, followed by an angry Nimbus zooming after said pony, shouting, "Don't you dare touch my sister's flank like that again!"

The gust from Nimbus' flight blew a confused Herald's pompadour back into its shaggy, curly state, and he and the judges all watched dumbfounded as more large ponies galloped out of the portal, chasing technicians, the female contestants, and, much to Cheese's extra bewilderment, Tomato. That last one dove under the judges' panel, and Cheese didn't hesitate to stick his head under as well.

"Hey there, baby bro," Cheese said to a panting Tomato. "I thought you were hanging out in the stands with the twins' parents."

Tomato glared at him. "Oh, so you weren't worried when you didn't see me all afternoon?"

"I was at first, but then Windswept told me he saw you buying a carrot dog with extra ketchup just before the show. He thinks you committed a crime against carrot dogs by choosing ketchup over mustard."

"My eating habits are none of his business! Besides, mustard's disgusting." Tomato narrowed his eyes. "But not more disgusting than the fact that he's been lying and cheating this whole time!"

Cheese blinked. "What are you talking about?"

Starsong popped her head under the table as well. "That's what we were trying to tell you when Windswept wasn't looking!"

Sapphire followed. "Yeah! He been blackmailing us into pulling his nephew through each round, up until he won."

"What?! Are you serious?"

The table was flipped over by a big red stallion with bad teeth, who laughed upon spotting Tomato. "I have ya now, ya snitch!"

Seeing the large hoof raised, Cheese quickly yanked Tomato out of the way of the smack that left an imprint on the ground. Seeing the big fella about to strike again, he and the other two judges scattered to different parts of the stadium. With Tomato clinging onto him, Cheese strained to hear what he was telling him among the cacophony arising from the gladiator battle.

"...looking for... overheard things about... and porpoises... tied me to a chair... rotten sock... makes a good key..."

He felt his skull practically crack open from the barrage of echos coming from all around him. Gritting his teeth, he asked, "So... porpoises tied you to a chair and you used a rotten sock to escape?"

"What? No, no, no, I said that these guys did and I used my tail to escape!"

"So, wait, wait, so--"

Cheese smacked into a wall, bumping Tomato off his back in the process. As he stumbled and swayed, the static in his head screeched, as if a million voices were screaming in terror over a swarm of killer bees descending on them. Those bees were stinging his brain over and over, as if they were trying to force him to remember something, lest he endure their torture. All that came to mind was a silver moon surrounded by five stars and the voice of a kindly old stallion promising that he'd be all right.

He sputtered, "Just... just one memory...?"

Tomato watched as he collapsed. He stared in shock as Cheese had been taken down by a wall, which normally would be an inconvenience for him. However, snapping back to reality, Tomato hopped to his side, and started to shake him, looking back and grimacing at the approaching goons.

"Uh, Cheese, wake up! We're still in a melee! Cheese? Cheese!" Tomato pried one of Cheese's eyes open and waved his hoof in front of it. "Come on, of all the times to pass out, it had to be now?!"

He felt breathing on his shoulder, and spun around to see their big, red, buck-toothed friend towering over him. His heart racing and his throat swallowing a lump, he looked back at Cheese, then back at the thug. He sat down, steadying himself with his tail and waiting for the attack.

The other pony reared up, and Tomato sprang upward, his first instinct that of grabbing the pony's neck, and then chomping down on it. A roaring whinny came from the bigger pony, whose stomp down barely missed Cheese. From then on, the large stallion was trying to shake off Tomato and his surprisingly strong set of teeth.

Meanwhile, Herald Angel sat under the stage, watching the madness that surrounded him. He wondered why all his uncle's bodyguards were attacking the other ponies, and he hoped that it wasn't yet another method to have him be the winner. It was bad enough that Windswept was blackmailing the judges--as well as Herald himself, by turning him into a dropout and making sure no other school would accept him--but having those guys attack ponies was a little much for someone who wanted to be secretive.

He watched each move of the smaller ponies that he could keep up with. Cirrus danced around one of the thugs and threw mud at his face, before turning around to buck him. Nimbus was hovering around another, dodging each of the bucks and stomps before nailing him with a right hook. The twins' parents had joined in out of a furious protective nature of their children, snagging clouds from the sky and using them to distract some of the bodyguards from swarming the kids. Tomato Sandwich had chomped down on one's neck like a vampire, clinging on despite all shakes and crashes made to get him off. And surprisingly, Sapphire Shores seemed to know martial arts, taking one down with a flurry of punches, bucks, and throwing off the other's attacks.

Starsong flew to the stage, carrying the unconscious Cheese Sandwich. Looking under to where Herald hid, she said, "I'm starting to get the idea that you're the safe zone."

Herald nodded. "Yeah... my uncle doesn't want any blemishes on me, and they remember that bit of instruction."

As Starsong sat next to him, Herald looked over Cheese. "What happened?"

"I don't know. I think it might have something to do with the headaches he was having all week; you don't usually see Cheese Sandwich fainting so soon in something like this. I'd carry him to a doctor, but I'm not sure I can handle his weight that long. I'm not exactly the strongest pegasus."

"Waiting for the Crystal Guards to come in?"

"Yep."

They jumped as some parts of the stage behind them collapsed, and winced as one pony skidded on his face in front of them. After that pony got up and galloped back into the fray, Herald sighed. "I never meant for it to go this far. I just thought that if I didn't question any of my uncle's decisions and let him 'improve my life', there wouldn't be any harm done."

"I hope you realize that blackmail, rigging contests, and kidnapping are criminal charges."

"Wait, when did he kidnap someone?"

The pony that Tomato Sandwich was sinking his teeth into galloped by, screaming about how it hurt. Starsong pointed to Tomato, and said, "Tomato there found out, and he was taken somewhere; we don't know where. He managed to escape, and that's why all those bodyguards are here... why does Windswept need so many...?"

"Okay, I see." Herald dug a small hole with his hoof. "But aren't you just as involved in this as I am?"

"Well, since Cheese didn't know and has a clean slate, we thought he'd be able to expose this scandal with the least damage." She looked at the stallion in her front legs. "We've got little chance of that now. And once the guards come, somepony has to tell the truth."

Herald blinked and looked away. He laid down, looking out at the gladiator battle happening outside. Contestants, technicians, and even some members of the audience were in the fray against Windswept's minions, but there was no Windswept himself to be found. Herald's eyes were especially rested on Nimbus, who had extended a hoof of friendship toward him. He felt sick to his stomach for robbing a potential victory from him, Cirrus, and every other contestant, all being more deserving of it than he was. All because he couldn't argue with his uncle.

Finally, Princess Cadance and Shining Armor had landed in the middle of the field, with the them both roaring, "STOP!"

Everypony froze as princess and prince consort glared at them all, with their Crystal Guard marching in through the portal. As all ponies were surrounded by the guards, Candance strode forward, giving everypony a look of disapproval.

"I hope you all realize that this is not what anypony came for," she started. "We all wanted a singing competition, and you turned it into a battle to the death. Look at what your violent behavior has done!"

They all cast their eyes roundabout, and winced at what they saw. The field had been torn up, with patches of sod ripped from the dirt, exposing dark soil to the air. Dents on the walls ranged from round to pony shaped, some places having spots of blood on them. Half the stage had collapsed, though thankfully those that had been under there weren't hurt. Feathers, fur, ripped pieces of cloth, and some blood had been scattered around, and most of the ponies in that field wore disheveled manes, tails, and fur, with bruises and lacerations scattered about. Those who wore clothes had them soiled and torn, and there was plenty of dirt to go around on each pony.

Then, Shining Armor came forward. "Whoever started this brawl, show yourself!"

The red, buck-toothed giant peeled Tomato off his neck, and pranced forward, plopping him in front of the rulers. The big fella slid back into the crowd, rubbing his neck. Meanwhile, Tomato looked up at Cadance and Shining Armor, biting his lip.

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. "I hope you have a good explanation for causing such an uproar."

Tomato twiddled his hooves. "Well, you see--"

"No, wait!"

Herald flew to the circle where Tomato sat, and looked at Shining Armor straight in the eye. "Prince Shining Armor, don't blame him for what I could have prevented."

Shining Armor blinked, allowing Cadance to ask, "What do you mean?"

"This mess started because my uncle Windswept was rigging the competition in order to have me win." He gestured to a surprised Tomato. "This pony had found out about the rigging and had been locked away in order to keep the secret. His escape was what triggered this mess."

Shining Armor bore a serious look. "A noble thing for you to step forward, but is there any proof?"

Herald glanced at Sapphire and Starsong. "Uncle Windy has files in his dressing room containing information to blackmail the judges."

Cirrus and Nimbus flew forward, the former saying, "Not to mention Tomato shuffled backstage gagged and tied to a chair."

Daybreak Glisten raised her hoof. "I saw that!"

The technicians followed suit. "So did we!"

Windswept's bodyguards pursed their lips and looked away.

Shining Armor still stared at Herald. "Me and some guards are going to go investigate that room and see if your claims about blackmail are correct." He looked at Tomato. "As for you... you and your friends are going to clean up this mess, seeing as you were involved in this melee. Do I make myself clear?"

Tomato nodded, and then Shining Armor marched out of the arena with Herald and a few of the guards, leaving the rest with Princess Cadance to watch over. Looking at the other three contestants, she said, "I hope you realize that your involvement in this has you three and Herald automatically disqualified."

Nimbus blinked. "Does that mean that technically, Pants won?"

Cirrus gave him a funny look. "Why Pants?"

"He was obviously the best one out of all of us."

Starsong flew over the rest of the ponies, carrying Cheese, and then landed in front of Cadance. "Excuse me, Your Highness, but this pony's hurt and needs medical care." She looked at Tomato, who stood there in wide-eyed shock, hovering his hoof over his brother in an tentative manner, debating with himself whether or not it was okay to touch him. "So, may he be removed and taken to a doctor?"

Cadance walked forward and opened one of Cheese's eyes to take a good look. "Hmm... that unnatural glimmer looks like he may have sustained some magical damage somehow. I can cast a healing spell on him to undo as much as I can."

Tomato blinked. Magical damage? The last magical mishap that he knew Cheese got into was the body swap with Celestia, and considering that had something to do with the mind, the headaches made sense. But given that it happened a couple weeks before, it seemed odd that any side effects would happen during this week.

Cadance's horn emitted a blue aura, and a magical beam shot out onto Cheese's forehead, giving his mind a gentle massage. She stopped once Cheese took a deep breath, and relaxed, though he still slept. Even though Cheese was content, she still ordered some guards to take Cheese to the doctor to give him a full examination.

She turned to Tomato. "Don't worry, we're going to make sure he's all right."

Tomato nodded. "Okay."

She turned to everypony else. "Now... are we going to clean up this mess or what?"

Author's Note

Well, once again, this took an irritating long time to finish (why must I waste my precious free time in playing stupid games that only make me angry or checking for nonexistent messages?).

But, nevertheless, I got this out, and... for those of you who were expecting Tommy to go vampire again, no, I wasn't planning that. If anything, a relapse into vampire mode would be better for a bigger emergency. Instead, I just took the weird route for his escape. :derpytongue2:

Hey, look, I actually got Shining Armor and Cadance to have lines in this fic. They're... okay to write from what little I've done with them. They weren't as big of a pain to write as Celestia was (*sobs forever from the nightmare of writing her*).

This segment is almost wrapped up... then we'll find out where we're going next...

11.6--Ease of Pain

As Windswept was packing his things in his dressing room, thanking the heavens for allowing him to escape the melee, there was a knock upon his door. Rolling his eyes, he grumbled about how he didn't want to be bothered and went to the door to open it. Once he opened the door, his face somehow managed to become paler than usual. His nephew stood there, backed by Shining Armor and the Crystal Guard.

"Sir, we have received a tip that that the Shining Vocals competition has been rigged," Shining Armor said. "We believe that there may be evidence in your dressing room."

Windswept shot a brief glare at Herald--who flinched at that--and then turned back to Shining Armor. "There must be some sort of mistake. I assure you that somepony's just trying to slander me."

Shining Armor smiled. "If that's the case, then you shouldn't have to worry about anypony finding anything that could point to a crime like, say, blackmail."

The guards marched in and started to rummage through Windswept's decor. They went to the dresser, tilting the mirror to look behind it, opening the drawers to see its contents, and even checking a couple of tiny boxes on top, pushing them away once they realized that the only things in them was styling gel in one, and a powder puff in the other. They looked through Windswept's suitcase, finding only extra neckerchiefs so far. They opened up the wardrobe, and nosed around in Windswept's outfits. All the while, Windswept stared in disbelief.

He narrowed his eyes at Herald. "What is the meaning of this? What kind of joke are you pulling?"

Herald brushed his hoof on the floor and took a deep breath. "Uncle Windy, your cheating on my behalf made it so nopony won."

Windswept scoffed and looked at Shining Armor. "Oh, the boy's crazy. Even if I was rigging the competition, we all know that the disaster was caused by that lunatic brother of Cheese Sandwich! I think he secretly might be more insane than the one who makes a career out of insanity!"

The wardrobe had been scooted from against the wall, and the lone non-crystal pony guard had crawled behind the wardrobe. After about a minute, his head popped out of there, his face pale and his hoof shakily holding up a folder marked 'Sapphire Shores'. "Hey, does this file of mangled porpoises count?"

Another guard had been flipping through notes on a notepad, and stopped at a certain page. "And these notes are detailing how to effectively lie about how his divorce with Starsong went down."

The last guard pulled a sticky note from the bottom of a drawer. "And here's a note with the name of Countess Coloratura's favorite charity."

Shining Armor nodded with a thoughtful pout. "I see. I wonder why he has those?"

Windswept started to sweat. "Oh, no, no, no, surely you must consider the possibility of some scumbag planting this false evidence!" He glared at Herald once again, and pointed to him. "After all, the youth can't be trusted! How do you know he's not lying?!"

Herald backed up a little when accused, but took a deep breath and marched forward. "So after all you've said about 'helping me' and 'improving my life', you're willing to turn on me to save your own skin?"

Windswept looked at the guards comparing the mouthwriting on the evidence with some of his other notes, biting his lip. He drew Herald close and put a hoof on the pegasus' mouth. "Don't listen to the boy! He's obviously been dealing with bad influences back home! I mean... I hear he's friends with a hippie that lies about being a hippie!"

Herald pulled himself out of Windswept's grip. "First off, she never claimed she was a hippie. Second, the only bad influence in my life is you."

Windswept blinked, and then laughed. "Oh, you can't be serious, child! How am I a bad influence?"

"Ignoring the evidence against you that they've found, you forced me into this contest, claiming that I'd be nothing without your help in 'raising me to stardom'. You either ignored or ridiculed my desires for my future in favor of your vision, threatened to force my school to boot me out if I don't comply, and you even dragged others into your selfish scheme!"

Windswept's ears folded back and his hoof stamped the ground. "Selfish?! How can helping my nephew become a renowned celebrity be selfish in any way?"

Herald's glare intensified. "You were doing it to prop up your own ego and live your bygone youth again through me. After all, I recall you didn't care much for me before I got my cutie mark. In fact, you don't care much for anyone but yourself."

Windswept's blue eyes suddenly resembled dark thunderclouds, and he lifted a hoof high in the air, which Herald flinched and backed up at the sight of. With a snort, Windswept began, "How dare you--"

His descending hoof was stopped by Shining Armor's magic. The unicorn prince shook his head, and said, "All right, I've seen enough. The files we have here, the reports of a bound and gagged pony sliding through the hall and said pony claiming to have been kidnapped on your orders... and of course, that exchange I just saw; looks like we've seen your true colors, Mr. Goldenmane." He glanced at the rest of the guards. "Take him in, boys."

The guards saluted, and marched forward to grab Windswept. Herald and Shining Armor watched as the middle-aged stallion was dragged away, kicking and shouting, "You cannot do this to me! Do you not know who I am? I am the host of the Shining Vocals, without me the competition has no face!"

As soon as they were out of the room, Herald sighed and glanced up at Shining Armor. "I'm sorry for the hassle... maybe you should take me in too."

Shining Armor smiled and patted his shoulder. "Nah, you're okay; in the end, you did what was right. Right now, it's late, and you should go back to your hotel room and get some shuteye."

It was the next morning, where after a bit of hassle with prescription medicine, information on his doctor, and covering the cost (which Cadance offered to cover), Cheese had been released from the hospital, with a warning to be careful. After all, he didn't want to cause more damage with a physical injury, or come in contact with spells more potent on those with mind problems like his.

As he and Tomato walked out of the hospital, Cheese glared at the little bottle that contained his medicine. "How dare the doctor say that my brain chemicals are out of whack." He stuffed the bottle into his mane, and the two started walking to the park, where they were going to go on a picnic with the twins and their parents. "I mean, sure, I had a headache, but it's not like I smashed my head against concrete."

Tomato looked at him in concern. "Technically, you did smack headfirst into a wall last night."

"I don't remember that."

"Head trauma does make you unable to remember the impact and the moments leading up to it."

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "Oh, are you a medical expert?"

"No. I just remember it from doing a report in school." Tomato scowled and gazed at his reflection in the shiny street. "I hated that report... I got a B and Mom fussed about it for weeks." He sighed and shook his head. "The doctor said that if it hadn't been for Cadance's healing spell, your damage could have been much worse. Instead of being careful with parties, you'd have to give them up altogether."

Cheese gasped. "No! If I'm not a party pony, then, then, I-I-I don't know who I'd be! I mean, uh... what kind of identity would I have? What would be my special talent? A hobo?"

Tomato gave him an odd look. "Uh... just a regular musician? Or perhaps an architect? Engineer? Rock Farmer?" A smug smile crept onto his face. "Businesspony?"

Cheese playfully pushed him away, nearly bumping him into a Crystal Pony. "Okay, now you're just being silly with that last one."

Tomato sheepishly grinned at the annoyed pedestrian, and continued on with Cheese. "I was being silly with the 'rock farmer' thing. But... I have noticed a few businesslike behaviors whenever you're in a negotiation for the what, why, and how of the party that's going to be thrown. Heck, I think the only difference is that you're not working for money--just smiles."

Cheese smiled and shook his head. "You're just reading too much into things." He hopped onto a crystal bench and walked on it with just his two front hooves. "I could easily come up with insane logic on why you'd actually make a pretty good party pony."

"Cheese, I only threw that party back in that town with tons of help, organization, and a unicorn with an endless supply of balloons. I don't think that counts."

Cheese chuckled as he hopped off the bench. "Hey, I've had help in setting up parties. I can't cook, remember? Being a party pony is not about just yanking things out of thin air, you know. It's doing all in your power to make sure ponies are happy and having fun in your activities. This job is one of my greatest joys in life... I'd do anything to make sure that I can still do my job with no worries."

"In that case, remember to take your medicine."

Cheese groaned. "I hate taking pills."

They made to the park, where the pegasus family had been busy spreading out the blanket and sorting the food. Cirrus turned and spotted the Sandwiches, to whom she smiled and waved. Nimbus soon noticed them as well, and then waved both front legs faster than he flapped his wings. Cheese and Tomato waved back, and then trotted to the blanket before sitting down.

The twins and their parents sat down with them. Presenting the food, Cirrus said, "We're having a sandwich buffet! Surely you guys named Sandwich would appreciate having a sandwich!" She snickered. "Or do you consider it cannibalism?"

Cheese took a couple slices of bread and started stacking cheese on it. "Whenever I eat a tomato, I always joke to myself that I'm eating my brother."

Tomato turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "And now you're eating yourself."

Everypony else sat down and started to choose what to put in their sandwiches. As Nimbus spread some mayonnaise on his bread, he asked, "So, Cheese, how's your head?"

Cheese wrinkled his nose and rubbed his head. "Doctor says I have to have meds to keep my brain chemicals in check or something like that. She says that some kind of magic disrupted my brain's function and was making it go haywire in trying to fix itself, resulting in headaches and sensory overload. Whatever it was, I'm sure we won't have any more problems with it."

Raincloud finished making her BLT (beet, lettuce, tomato) sandwich. "Don't jinx yourself. I said the same thing after I recovered from colic, and I ended up with it again within a year."

Cirrus shuddered. "Don't remind us! You'll make us lose our appetites."

Tomato set down his sandwich. "Too late."

Blazing Silver munched on his hay sandwich. "You pansy."

Nimbus was about to take a bite out of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but then he spotted a familiar white pegasus sitting on a park bench not too far from them. Seeing him lonely once again, Nimbus hovered and said, "Excuse me for a moment."

Blinking, Cirrus turned to that bench to take a look. She turned back to her brother with a scowl. "Really, Nimbus? Again? Why do you keep pushing and pulling that guy into our lives?"

"Simple. He's lonely."

"Let someone else handle him for once!" Cirrus rubbed her temples. "Do you really want ponies to think that you swing that way when you don't? Because it's already a problem for you with those theater stallion stereotypes."

"Leave him be, Cirrus," Raincloud said. "For all we know, he might actually be trying to set you up."

"I'm not interested," Cirrus protested.

"And that's not what I'm doing at all," Nimbus said, blinking. "Can't a guy just make a new friend? Besides, Cirrus, you know I'm good at making friends with 'professional kicked puppies'. We made friends with Tomato, after all."

Tomato perked up and shot a glare at Nimbus. "Hey! I'm not a--"

Nimbus flew off before Tomato could finish the sentence. Cheese chuckled, and remarked, "You know, if he had the right magic, he'd make a great party pony."

Tomato sighed. "That'd make five I've met."

Cheese nodded proudly. However, his face was suddenly in an O shape as a ripple went through his body, accordion music rang from his cutie mark, and his tail pointed south. Blinking, he added, "Well, Nimbus may not be a party pony, but you're still going to met a fifth party pony!"

Blazing Silver blinked. "What just happened?"

Tomato waved a hoof in dismissal. "It's his Cheesy Sense, it tells him where to go." He turned to Cheese. "And what do you mean 'I'm going to meet a fifth'?"

Cheese grinned. "Well, Pinkie may have been my inspiration, but I have learned plenty of stunts and tricks from one of the greatest party ponies of all: Ponyacci! We're going to his hometown next!" He rubbed his head. "Maybe a smaller party would be good for my head..."

"Ah, Ponyacci, that's ni--" Tomato's eyes widened to extreme proportions. "Wait a minute, do you mean that clown?!"

Cheese bit his lip and nodded.

Teeth chattering and body shuddering, Tomato buried his face in the blanket, a muffled scream coming from the cloth. Cirrus snickered at Tomato's reaction, while her parents just stared at him in bewilderment before looking up at Cheese for an explanation.

Cheese sighed. "He's afraid of clowns..." He glared at Tomato. "And for goodness' sake, he retired from the circus! He's not going to be in costume when you meet him!"

Tomato peeked at him, and mumbled, "He better not be."

Nimbus returned with Herald, grinning from ear to ear. "He's waiting for the next train to Salt Lick City, which won't come for another forty-five minutes, so he's going to eat with us until it's time for him to go." Nimbus flew back to his original spot, while Herald just sat on the edge of the blanket. "Also, his uncle got arrested last night for blackmail, rigging the competition, and holding Tomato hostage."

Herald nodded. "It's... kinda scary telling him off too. But, well, I feel like a great weight's been lifted off my shoulders..." He looked at Tomato and frowned. "Uh... is he okay?"

Tomato buried his face once again, the promise he made to himself the day before popping into his mind. While his fears over meeting Ponyacci had been somewhat assuaged, an even greater fear was nagging at him. The fear of having his arguments turned against him, used to shift blame onto him, and being brushed off as a pony who never truly grew from teenage moodiness, having only imaginary problems with those who had raised him. After all, as he had been told all his life, they were only doing what was best for him.

Just how was he supposed to stand up to his mother?

Author's Note

And now, I have officially wrapped up this arc. For an arc that took place in the Crystal Empire, it didn't feel much like a Crystal Empire story as much as the other arcs felt they were in their settings...

And now, off to meet Ponyacci! Couldn't leave this old sweetie out!

12.1--Golden Years

It was late one night, with Cheese and Tomato taking a respite for the night while on their way to Mane-tua. Surrounded by a cool grassland sparse with trees, not too far from the mountains, and with only the chirps of crickets breaking the silence, the soft patch they had found convinced Cheese that it would make a good bed. Having felt the cool, silky blades that their hooves sank into like cotton, Tomato agreed that it would.

Not too far from the grass bed was a patch of dirt, where they had set up the fire and had their dinner of beans. While Cheese had already fallen asleep in the patch after taking his medicine, Tomato was using the last light of the fire to continue reading The Waters of Forever.

He held his breath at the story he read, being that of a murder mystery. He could guess that the murderer was some serial killer that used the Fountain of Youth in order to satisfy his or her bloodlust for centuries. He had a silent sigh of relief that the Fountain did not exist, as he was sure he didn't want to encounter some monster from long ago. But, still, he thought himself a glutton for punishment, as reading a creepy story might not allow him to sleep.

"As Detective Eagle Eye dipped his hoof in the blood dripping from the mouth of the hybrid corpse, Lilac Breeze felt a bit of acid rising in her throat. She forced it back, not wanting to distract her partner. However, seeing him bring the bloody hoof up to his nose and sniff it as a hound would made the temptation to set the contents of her stomach free somehow more appealing. She was thankful he didn't lick it, and had only grunted.

"'Eeyup, just as I thought,' Eagle Eye said. 'This blood smells of dark magic.'

"Lilac blinked. 'Dark magic?'"

Tomato leaned back from his book and raised his eyebrow. "Dark magic has a smell? What does it even smell like?"

Still, curious about this development, he continued to read, wanting to know Eagle Eye's answer.

"Eagle Eye nodded. 'And by the look of things... this poor pony's a victim of blood brewing.'

"Lilac's eyes feel upon the poor body, a mangled mish-mash of pony, cat, and dog, with bat wings haphazardly sewn onto its back with magic. What had once been her dear neighbor, and a childhood friend, his life cut short. She had to know what this mysterious 'blood brewing' was, so she dared ask the question.

"Eagle Eye grunted once again. 'It's when a warlock casts lotsa spells on one pony without deactivating any of them, for the sole purpose of creating a new, single spell for future casting. Casting the same combination of spells multiple times would get tedious, after all.' He snorted and spat into the gutter. 'The warlock lets them spells marinate for a bit before drawing blood and extracting the combined magic from it.'

"Lilac tilted her head. 'So... why's it so bad?'

Eagle Eye nudged the head of the corpse. 'Too much magical nonsense in the same body can at best, drain a pony's magic for a while, and at worst, make them explode. Your friend here was near to exploding.'

Tomato wrinkled his nose. "Not pleasant in any sense of the word. Good thing this 'blood brewing' stuff is absolute nonsense." He read on, squinting his eyes and gleaning the information on the blood brewing. Eagle Eye explained how it was a dark magic user's cheap shortcut in creating spells, and that many ponies had been crippled magic-wise or even killed because of it. One grand example was how one pony combined a fusion spell with a wolf, a contagion spell, a super strength spell, and a couple of others in order to create the werewolf.

"The werewolf thing again?" Tomato grumbled, closing the book. "Why does that of all things keep coming up?"

He stood up, taking a kettle of water to pour out the fire before heading off to bed. Laying down on the soft patch of grass and taking one of the ponchos for a blanket, a certain thought popped into mind once again. He had been shoving it off to the side with his book, distracting himself with tales of the Fountain of Youth. But, he knew that the thought was telling him about the inevitable action he needed to take, one that Tomato was not looking forward to.

Confronting Mom.

Oh, how he trembled at the mere idea of it. It was one thing for him to quip with sarcastic remarks under his breath now and again, making sure he kept his sanity whenever his mother ranted on what subject he chose for an essay, how much time he chose to spend at the library, or even scolding him for letting his tail bounce a hackey sack--whether it be about the hackey sack or the tail. Coming away from their conflicts with a good snark by his side made him at least have a taste of victory.

But, when it came to distrust stemming from the mismatch of Tomato and coffee, Mom did have a point. She also had a point for his attitude driving away potential allies. And lest he forget the loud, hyperactive clumsiness that had defined him as a colt. She had the duty of taming a force of nature, as she put it.

Still, whenever he had complained about bullies, he was always dismissed as the one who started it. A simple B had her lecturing him for hours until he did make-up work. He felt his cheek upon thinking of the whole Creme Brulee debacle, as not only was he humiliated, but Mom was humiliated by proxy, thinking that she was the only mare in the world with two freaks for children.

He rolled on the grass, turning to his snoozing brother. All that couldn't compare to the turmoil that the mere mention of Cheese Sandwich brought to the house. It was always the pattern of how Cheese needed a real job; how he shouldn't be wasting away on hedonistic nonsense; and, naturally, how if it wasn't for Tomato being so foolish, Cheese would have turned out as a respectable stallion instead of a clown. And Tomato just had to keep driving him away with his sour attitude, and was hanging tightly onto unhealthy bitterness over nothing.

Admittedly, Mom had been right on the bitterness thing--it was kind of hard not to be bitter when feeling abandoned and hated by a beloved brother, for reasons he had trouble wrapping his head around for a long time. Bringing Cheese up just to remind him how he ruined him only made that worse; by adulthood, he was sick of hooves constantly pointed at him, and he, in turn, pointed his own at Cheese. It wasn't right, but it happened.

As he rolled on his back and looked up at the stars, Tomato's tail threw itself into his forelegs. With all that against him, just what was he going to say? What kind of argument was he going to use? His heart pounding, he remembered all the ways that had been used to turn around his complaints in order for him to hold the blame. He stared at the moon, fearing that Mom would even make Nightmare Moon his fault somehow.

He squeezed his tail and sighed. He wouldn't go back to Manehattan until the end of August, and it was just a week into July. He had nearly two months to think over what he wanted to say to her. It still didn't make it any less terrifying.

He still stared at the moon, shifting himself and making Cheese's back his pillow. His heart pounding, he listened as a faraway wolf howled, joined by other wolves to sing their haunting song.

Cheese joined in, mumbling in his sleep, "Wooooo... let's party, Boneless..."

Tomato relaxed, and he couldn't help but chuckle.

The next few days were rather quiet, aside from Cheese telling stories about past parties, as well as grumbling about the headaches and his medicine. As far as Tomato knew, things were mostly normal, and it seemed like the rest of their trip was going to be straightforward. As long as Cheese didn't lose that medicine of his and kept his mind on track, then nothing else could go wrong.

They were weaving their way through poplar-dotted hills one morning. The cool and crisp air had Tomato doubting it was July, as it felt more like late October, minus red leaves and Nightmare Night decor. When Tomato had mentioned it, Cheese had laughed, and started talking about some of the scarier parties he had through, and mentioned one where he had to fight off a chimera. He grimaced, his tone solemn as he mentioned that quite a few ponies had been hurt in that attack.

When Cheese mentioned another party that had ended with several ponies in the hospital, calling it the worst day of his career, Tomato was tempted to correct it and tell him that it was actually Pegasus that was the worst. But he held his tongue, fearing that he might incur Cheese's anger, whether by triggering a bad memory that would shake him out of denial, or minimizing the disaster Cheese had mentioned.

Still, his brother's absolute denial of it made him uneasy. Tomato wondered if it wasn't just a front and Cheese truly did forget about it. He shook his head, reasoning that there was no way that Cheese could forget about it--perhaps putting it out of mind and pretending it didn't happen served Cheese well somehow. Maybe it was some kind of party pony benefit to be unaffected by trauma, much like a foal's cartoon comic character. Perhaps that's why he pushed family troubles out of his mind in years past.

It still didn't explain why Cheese hadn't done it earlier. The last he knew of Cheese still reacting to it was when he had a cold back in that town, throwing a pillow at the doctor for making a vampire joke. After that, he just stopped. It didn't make any sense, even for Cheese.

He sighed. If Cheese really did forget it just like that, then Tomato was alone in his memories of the experience. If one side of the situation was erased, why bother having the other side? Why couldn't he forget and trot across the country in blissful ignorance too?

Cheese stopped atop a knoll, and smiled at the sight of a white wall, presenting itself with an open gates and colorful flags. He jumped, whooping and clapping his hind hooves together. "Avast! The town is in sight!"

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Since when were you a pirate?"

Cheese landed. "Since never. They just have fun lingo." He bumped Tomato on the shoulder. "Give it a try."

Tomato blinked, and said in a flat tone, "Argh."

Cheese whickered and softly bopped him on the head. "You're going to have to try harder than that, matey!"

"I don't have much knowledge of pirate lingo."

Cheese closed one eye and grinned, getting close to Tomato's face. "Well, come along, lad!" He cartwheeled down the hill. "We best smartly go into port and pursue merriment! Yo ho ho!"

Tomato scoffed as he walked down the hill. "Belay that, ye scallywag."

Mane-tua couldn't be considered a big town. Its size was in the same vein as Nickerlite or the town where Cheese was sick in bed, though the colors were brighter than either of those places, especially since there seemed to be some decorating going on. The marketplace had nearly the whole town out and about, and those that weren't out on the street were shouting to others from the windows. Lively chatter filled the air, with the brothers catching snippets of conversations about a fishing trip gone hilariously wrong, somepony's daughter begging him to shave his mustache, and a killer blanket. Foals ran around laughing, engrossed in what seemed to be a a game of tag where a foal had to snatch a flag from one of his playmates.

Clear at the end of the street, there was a large space cleared out, with a schoolhouse being on one end of that field, and a circus tent on the other. In between those two structures, a few ponies were practicing tricks such as juggling, balancing on a ball, and walking on front legs--sometimes all three combined. One who had been doing all three, the objects he juggled on his hind hooves being pies, had slipped, resulting in him tumbling to the ground, and pies in the faces of his companions. Instead of anger, it just brought laughter.

Tomato looked around, sidestepping to let a couple of foals pass through. "This is a nice town."

Cheese took a deep whiff of the air, his muscles at ease as pleasant memories rushed to mind. "It sure is."

With Tomato beside him looking around, Cheese just blissfully walked down the street, drinking in each detail of the town and seeing the image of a bushy haired, bespectacled colt following a familiar path. Peeking through each window, being approached by local foals curious about this stranger, being pulled into some wondrous playtime not unlike that party in Ponyville, and finally, one of the colts bringing him home once it was revealed that he didn't have anywhere to go. And to little Cheese's surprise, that colt's grandfather was none other than the great Ponyacci.

Phantoms of the years that followed unfolded before Cheese. There was everything he learned by working with and observing some of the tradesponies, such as the music store owner, the hardware store owner, and the repairpony. He had been amazed when discovering that he wasn't stupid (though he hated having to sit through tutoring sessions with Ponyacci's wife), but was quite a fast learner, like his Grandpa Pizza Pockets once said regarding accordion lessons. Looking at the clowns in training wiping pie off their faces, he remembered his own training by Ponyacci, told how he needed to hone his natural gift for bringing joy.

And in throwing his first party, a birthday party for Ponyacci's grandson, his cutie mark had appeared. After that, he tried striking out on his own, seeing how his independent parties would go. It went much better than expected for a pony at the young age of thirteen.

There was a comfort in being called by Cheesy Sense to this little town that he considered a home--more home than Manehattan ever was to him. Only Ponyville made him happier, if only for Pinkie Pie. With a smile on his face, he wondered just what the occasion was that required a big party.

In walking through the marketplace, Cheese nearly bumped into a elderly chartreuse mare buying some fruit, and stumbled back at just touching her. "Oh, pardon me! I, uh, got a little distracted, ma'am."

Tomato stopped beside him. "Happens when La La Land takes control of your mind."

The mare turned to the boys. "Oh, don't you worry, I wasn't hurt." The mare brightened at the sight of Cheese. "Well, if it isn't Cheese Sandwich!"

The attention of the entire town snapped to the orange stallion. There was a brief pause, where Cheese tipped his hat and said, "Hello, everypony", before everypony broke into smiles and cheers. Some of the ponies surrounded him, excitedly chattering and asking what he had been up to and how life was. A couple of ponies appeared beside Tomato, nudged him, and pointed at Cheese with grins and waggling eyebrows, which Tomato merely responded with an uncomfortable furrow of his brow and a shrug.

Cheese grinned. "Aw, now I feel silly for not recognizing you immediately, Mrs. Ponyacci."

The older mare waved a hoof. "Oh, there's no need for formalities, Cheese. You're allowed to call me 'Juneflower'."

Cheese rolled his eyes. "Or just 'June'."

Tomato creeped away from the pair of ponies that he had been sandwiched between. "That's a pretty name."

June tilted her head and asked Cheese, "Who's your friend?"

Cheese pulled Tomato to his side. "Guys, this fella here's my brother, Tomato Sandwich!"

The crowd blinked and looked amongst each other, muttering about how they didn't know that Cheese had a brother. They looked at the vermilion stallion curiously, making Tomato shy away and stay huddled to Cheese, trying to shoo them away from him with a glare and a wave of the hoof. Some looked between the brothers, and nodded, mumbling about seeing the family resemblance.

The only one who wasn't surprised was June, who simply smiled and nodded. "Ah, yes, I remember you mentioning him the last time you were here." A little pout formed on her face. "It seems that he's just as thin as you--I was expecting somepony more plump based on the name. Goodness gracious, do you boys ever eat?"

Tomato's face was redder than normal, while Cheese rubbed the back of his head, mumbling, "It's not my fault it runs in the family..."

June shook her head. "Well, I best get you two to Ponyacci himself." She shooed away the crowd and started walking to the field at the end of the street, with the two Sandwiches following suit. "He and I were talking the other night about inviting you to our golden anniversary party, Cheese. I was going to send you an invitation, but Ponyacci said I didn't need to. He knew you were going to sense it and most likely set it up."

Cheese lit up. "Oh, your anniversary! Hitting the big five-o?"

June nodded. "Seems just like yesterday we were young and in love. Hehe, now we're old and in love."

It wasn't long before they made it to the tent, where inside, a, elderly, light orange stallion with a pale blue mane was correcting a pink-maned, orange filly on her juggling technique. He didn't seem to notice the others coming in, as part of his lecture was wiping egg yolk off of the poor filly.

Before either June or Cheese said a word, another pony--dressed like a clown for some reason--laughed as he skipped out of the corner and toward the tent door, carrying a fresh load of banana cream pies and unfortunately veering a little too close to Tomato.

The resulting scream made everypony jump, and the pies went flying. From Tomato clinging high on the tentpole, to the filly that had just been cleaned up, and from the old stallion on one side to the ponies at the tent door, there was not a single pie that hadn't hit a face.

The elderly stallion peeled the pie off his face. "...what was that?"

Cheese removed the pie from his face, glaring up at Tomato. "Seriously?"

Tomato's pie dropped to the floor, and he clung onto the tent pole more tightly. "That face looked like he was going to eat me!"

The clown removed the pie from his face and glared at Tomato as well. "Dude, it's just makeup, calm down. We clowns are ponies too, you baby!"

Tomato huffed, and still held on to the pole. Below him, the old stallion was looking up, and sadly shook his head. Walking toward the clown, he said, "Chuckles, that's not how you reason with a pony with coulrophobia. In fact, being hostile will only make it worse."

Chuckles nickered in annoyance. "Not my fault he has such a silly fear, Ponyacci."

"It's just as real as a fear of heights. Now, go clean yourself up."

Chuckles snorted, and trotted out of the tent grumbling. Shaking his head, Ponyacci's countenance brightened as he wiped the pie off his wife's face. Reaching for her ear to fix her hearing aid and pulling bits of crust out of her white, pale yellow, and pale pink mane, he said, "Are you all right, June?"

June nodded and waved a hoof. "Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine... you know I'm still aiming to hit 100, and no silly pie's going to stop me."

Ponyacci laughed as he finished adjusting the earpiece to fit in his wife's ear, and turned to Cheese. "Hey! Looks like an old student of mine came around to pay us a visit!" He leaned forward to give the younger stallion a hug.

Cheese returned the hug. "Sensed you guys having a golden anniversary!" He broke the hug. "I'm happy to have been led here!"

"Knew you would sense it," Ponyacci said. He grinned at his wife in an "I told you so" manner. Then, he looked up at Tomato. "Now... mind telling me who your jumpy friend is? I'd like to convince him that a clown like me don't bite. Hopefully Sparkleworks can coax him down."

The filly, having eaten her pie quickly, was at the base of the tent pole. Her big, blue eyes over freckled cheeks were looking up at the stallion clinging up there. "Don't worry, mister! Grandpa's a nice pony! He'll show you that clowns aren't scary!"

Tomato replied with a shake of the head.

Cheese sighed. "Tommy, you can come down now! Chuckles is gone, and Ponyacci's not in costume!"

Tomato pursed his lips, and then started to slowly slide down the pole. His tail loosened and tightened its grip on the pole in intervals, keeping Tomato from suddenly sliding down to the bottom for a rough landing. After about a minute, Tomato reached the bottom, and stood straight up to dust his jacket and look more adult than scared child.

Cheese was by him in an instant, followed by the couple. "Ponyacci, I'd like you to meet my little brother, Tomato Sandwich. I've been taking him on a summer road trip around Equestria. It's been a lot of fun so far."

Ponyacci narrowed his eyes and scanned the younger Sandwich. Then, with a smile, he held out his hoof. "Nice to finally meet a member of his family. I was hoping I would before I died."

Tomato looked at the hoof, and tentatively took it. "Cheese... well, he holds you in high regard. Don't die too soon, I guess."

Ponyacci beamed, and then clapped Tomato on the back. "Good to hear! I've worked hard for years at my talent of spreading joy, and even though I'm retired, well, teaching future generations of clowns is a way to spread joy, no?"

Tomato squeaked, "Yay?"

Sparkleworks climbed on Cheese and asked, "Hey, Mr. Cheese, why's your brother scared of clowns?"

Tomato backed up, and grumbled, "It's not anypony's busi--"

"Our grandparents took us to the circus when Tomato was a toddler, and a clown was overdoing his act right in front of him," Cheese answered. "It made Tomato think it was going to eat him, and scared him to tears. Doesn't help that when he learned to read, he stumbled across some horror stories... and they were about clowns." Cheese shook his head. "Poor pony's been scarred for life."

Tomato glared at him. "I hate you..."

Cheese smiled at him smugly. "Love you too, baby bro." He looked at Ponyacci again. "You can try to help him overcome the fear if you want. But right now, does the lucky couple have any specific requests on how their golden party should be?"

June chuckled. "Oh, you know Ponyacci--he'll just say to make it big and fun for everyone. Just as long as you put in a couple of slow dances, I personally don't care what you do."

Ponyacci chuckled. "I'd like to set the party up myself, but I'm not as young as I used to be... I'll try to do some tricks for the foals though." He looked at his granddaughter as he said this, smiling as she giggled. He then rubbed his head. "Oh, I almost forgot! You're going to have a fellow party pony collaborating with you on this."

Cheese blinked. "Really?"

"Mm-hm. I hope you don't mind."

Cheese laughed. "Absolutely not! I've done collaborations before! So, who's my partner?"

The familiar sound of a party cannon going off was heard, even though it was just somepony bursting through the door of the tent. Cheese leaned over to take a look at who was going to be his partner, but he and the other pony both gasped at the sight of each other. The stallion stared at the pink, curly-maned mare that stood there, his heart racing at the very sight of the one that had started him on his party pony path.

"Oh, my gosh! Cheesy?!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

A moment of silence passed between them, before Tomato broke it by saying, "Of course it's Pinkie Pie."

Author's Note

The idea of Mane-tua being the home of Ponyacci is credited to Scoots2.

Anyway, I thought it'd be nice to have somepony celebrating a marriage anniversary sometime in this fic. And I thought to myself, "Why not Ponyacci?" After all, I was planning party pony appearances, and needed an excuse for this character from the comics.

Named his wife Juneflower... because it made a pretty name. :pinkiesmile:
Also, revamped G3 pony Sparkleworks is one of his younger grandchildren.

12.2--Double The Fun

Before Cheese knew it, he found himself in the warm front legs of Pinkie Pie, being twirled around like he was on a merry-go-round. His laugh rang along with hers, uninterrupted by no one else. In fact, he could barely tell that there was anypony else around; just he and Pinkie. Feeling her grip, he marveled at the strength that he didn't know she had, especially since they were spinning right out of the tent and into the sunshine.

He was set back on his hooves, his head feeling like it was floating away like a balloon. A big, dopey smile was spread on his face, and all he could do was look at the happy, pink face highlighted by sunbeams, his eyes especially drawn to her gleaming eyes of azure.

It took him a minute to realize that she was talking.

"...and, anyway, Ponyacci invited me here because I inspired him to start this clowning school, and that I'd help plan the golden anniversary party." Pinkie tossed confetti as she said this. "And since you're here, it's going to be double the fun!"

Cheese laughed. "You bet it is! I learned the basics of party magic from Ponyacci himself in this town, so it's only fair that I'd have a part in this celebration."

Pinkie gasped. "You mean you were his apprentice?" She narrowed her eyes and leaned in close. "I am so jealous."

She was close enough that Cheese could give her a quick kiss, but seeing as that was impolite--not to mention that he certainly didn't feel that way about her, not at all--he brushed the thought aside. Instead, he just gave her a cheeky grin, giving the indication that he knew she wasn't serious about her jealousy. Or was she serious? Either way, it was minor, much like he hoped his headaches would be.

Speaking of headaches, he felt a mild soreness coming on. Medicine time was soon, much to his chagrin.

Ponyacci, Juneflower, Sparkleworks, and Tomato all came out of the tent. Sparkleworks had bounded out and jumped in between the two party ponies. "Ooooh! Looks like Grandma and Grandpa aren't the only lovebirds around here!"

Cheese backed up. "Oh, uh, no, no, it's not like that, Sparkleworks."

The filly plopped down on the grass. "You sure?"

Pinkie patted Sparkleworks' head. "Yeah, we're just simple friendly friends doing friend stuff, like collaborating on another party."

Cheese chuckled. "That's always fun."

Ponyacci approached them with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. "Well! Cheese told me that you two were friends, but seeing it for myself is much more satisfying that just hearing about it."

Pinkie hopped to the old clown, grinning from ear to ear. "Well, Cheesy and I have thrown quite a few parties together ever since we've officially met. Not to mention that he likes to visit from time to time, and I get to tell him all about my adventures with my friends!" She gasped and twirled around to face Cheese once more. "Speaking of adventures, what have you and Tomato been up to since we last met?"

Cheese sat on his haunches and stretched his front legs, feeling the sun on his face. "Oh, there was a welcome party for some ski committee in some town in the middle of nowhere, and a singing competition in the Crystal Empire. I'll give you all the details later."

Tomato looked at his brother with a raised eyebrow. "And how are you going to give her all the details about that first one when you were sick with a cold and lying in bed for a couple days?"

Cheese pouted at him. "Ah, shush you, I got secondhand accounts."

Juneflower frowned, and then trotted to just in front of Cheese, putting a hoof on his forehead. "You look a little pale. How long ago was your illness?"

Cheese gently removed the older mare's hoof. "It was a couple of weeks ago. Don't worry, I'm fine now. I still resent that cold for taking away precious party planning time, though."

Pinkie yanked a notepad out of her mane. "Speaking of planning... why don't we get started?" She looked at the happy couple with a smirk. "So... what do our lovebirds want for their golden party? I know Ponyacci likes circus acts and party tricks, but how about his wife?"

June waved a hoof. "I knew what I was getting into when I married him. Feel free to have a dance party in the celebration, so long as there's some slow dances involved."

Sparkleworks jumped. "Is there gonna be a ball pit? Bouncy castle?" Her eyes glistened. "Fireworks?! If there's fireworks, can I set them off?!"

June looked at her granddaughter in concern. "No, sweetheart, that's too dangerous."

"Aw, come on!"

Pinkie was busy jotting down the items listed so far. Rubbing her chin, she rolled the pencil to the side of her mouth and glanced at Cheese. "Do you have any ideas?"

Cheese shrugged. "I'll think of something."

Ponyacci nodded. "I knew I could count on you two to throw me and my honey a big bash. All it needs to be is fun for everypony, and I'll be happy. In the meantime..." He looked at Tomato. "I think I'll help this fella with his fear of clowns."

Tomato gave him a funny look. "That's... nice of you, but is it absolutely necess--"

Right on cue, one of the clown trainees, wearing a big, red clown nose, hopped right in front of Tomato with a maniacal laugh. She honked a horn in his face, and then guffawed when Tomato shrieked and hid behind an unimpressed Cheese. Her laughing only got louder when Tomato picked up a stick and thrust it forward like a sword, trying to shoo the clown away.

Pinkie grimaced at the sight. "That is sad..."

Ponyacci tapped the clown on the shoulder, and said, "Seems awfully convenient that you know exactly who the pony with the fear of clowns is, Giggles. Did you take what happened with your brother personally?"

Giggles scoffed. "Well, nopony wounds my brother's pride like that! Besides, this guy clearly doesn't have a sense of humor."

Tomato managed to swat her hoof with the stick. "It wasn't funny!"

Cheese pulled the stick away from him and threw it elsewhere. "No more sticks for you."

Ponyacci sighed. "There's a difference between a harmless joke and outright bullying somepony. Do you really think this pony would respect clowns after something like that? Honestly, it's a basic lesson not to jump the gun when you see somepony scared of you!"

Giggles crossed her forelegs. "I thought it only applied to foals."

"Believe me, I've dealt with plenty of adult ponies with coulrophobia." Ponyacci waved his hoof in a manner to shoo her away. "Now, tell the others that Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie Pie are here, and they're going to need some help with the anniversary party. And I don't want you scaring ponies on purpose again--we're meant to spread joy, not fear. Understand?"

Giggles sighed. "Understood." As she turned around to walk away, she glanced at Tomato and said, "Sorry. At the very least, you're cute."

While she left and joined the others at the other side of the field, Tomato pursed his lips, still clinging into his brother. "I don't know what to make of that compliment."

Sparkleworks popped up in his vision, as she too was hanging on Cheese. "No worries, she won't do anything that Grandpa doesn't approve of." Her head turned to Ponyacci. "Can I help with the clown phobia busting? Maybe a little kid clown will calm his nerves!"

Ponyacci chuckled. "Might as well try it. A filly can't harm him, after all."

Pinkie clapped her hooves. "This is great! We all have something to do! With me and Cheese and the clown trainees arranging the party, and Ponyacci and June and Sparkleworks helping Tomato conquer his fear of clowns, I have a feeling that this is going to be a fun-tastic day for all of us!"

Cheese pumped a hoof. "Yeah!"

Tomato slumped forward. "Yay."

Left to their own devices, Pinkie and Cheese immediately went to work.

They first went to Ponyacci's house in order to look through scrapbooks of the old couple's life together, provided graciously by Juneflower, while Ponyacci was outside in the backyard, priming Tomato for his lessons in handling his phobia. Munching on cookies, the party ponies turned through pages of the dating years of the clown and his makeup artist, laughing at the photos of the goofy antics Ponyacci did in order to impress June. There was the messy result of failed pie juggling, the clown getting tangled in the trapeze, and an apparent rodeo with a Manticore, among many others.

Pinkie turned the page, and grinned at one picture. "Ooooh, he looks good in a suit."

"Uh-oh, looks like there's some serious dating going on there..." Cheese looked at a picture on the next page and snickered. "But what's a date without a water squirting flower?"

Juneflower came into the room with a record, trotting toward the phonograph. "Ah, so you came across that date. Hm, yes, I've learned that it's a bad idea to suppress a party pony's natural urges for fun. One little thing could trigger a party overload of disastrous proportions." She put the record on the phonograph and started to play an old, slow tune. "But... he could slow down to give me a nice waltz."

Pinkie swayed to the steady rhythm of the brass instruments, a content smile on her face. Stuffing the rest of her cookie into her mouth and swallowing it whole, she said, "Wow, I had no idea that Ponyacci could slow dance! I could never get the steps right. I'm more into fast-paced dancing with a bunch of swinging and tossing and spinning and stuff like that."

Cheese turned to her with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. "Well, I'm up for that kind of dancing..."

"June wants slow dancing, remember?"

"Oh, right." Cheese put a hoof to his mouth. "Perhaps we could have both oldies and... newies... to keep things interesting."

"Oh, I like that idea!" Pinkie turned to June. "Do you mind?"

June shook her head. "Not at all. Ponyacci would be happy to include all sorts of styles."

"Okay, a mix of both it is!" After she had pulled out her notepad, wrote that down, and stored it again, Pinkie resumed swaying to the music. This time, she was humming along with with the relaxing tune, her face glowing with a sweet peace.

Cheese wanted to sit there and just watch her sway, but the trumpets in the music piece were permeated with that ghastly ringing in his ears, and everything in between his eardrums felt as if they were being clawed at by some animal. It sent waves through his body, and he had to fight the urge to cradle his head. Holding his breath, he silently cursed the signal of having to take his medicine.

By Parmesan, he hated that medicine.

He hopped off the couch. "Excuse me, ladies, but the bathroom awaits."

As soon as they affirmed being okay with it, he made his way to the bathroom, locking the door behind him. The moment he looked in the mirror, he let out a moan and leaned on it with one hoof, the other pressed against his forehead. Breathing through his teeth, he could feel every pulse of the blood vessels in his head.

Aw, Stilton, why do I keep having these stupid headaches? He looked up and slightly cringed at his reflection. June was right; he was looking a little pale. His eyes fell upon his forelock, which appeared to be sagging slightly. It wasn't too much, but it didn't have that perk that the family forelock was known for--neither Mom nor Tomato could keep theirs down for long, after all.

He reached in his mane and pulled out the pill bottle. Swiping a glass resting on the sink and filling it with water, he braced himself for the pill. He dumped one on his hoof, tossed it in the air, and let it plunge down his throat. One second later, he dumped the contents of the glass into his mouth. He smacked his lips, cringing at the strange taste.

"Mane-tua water is usually good..." He looked at the glass. "Why does it taste weird now?"

The color drained from his face when he spotted the word "dentures" on the glass.

"Eeee-hew-hew-hew-hew!"

After getting the information they needed for the party, Cheese and Pinkie called upon Ponyacci's students and told them the game plan, as well as glean for some extra ideas. All gathered together in the tent, they all sat, brainstormed, and provided quick demonstrations for what they planned to do in the party.

They all opted to make a very special performance for their teacher and his wife, which the two party ponies approved of. Among other ideas involved the students' secondary talents, with one planning to create an ice sculpture of the couple in their younger years, another going to paint the town square in watercolor, another arranging the dinner tables for the big dinner that night, and another being the DJ for the dance floor. One unicorn clown had an interesting idea of his own.

"So you're planning to convert that old barn near the wall into magic hall of mirrors?" Cheese asked him. He leaned forward with a curious pout. "Tell me what kind of magic you're going for, Lucky."

Lucky bounced up and down excitedly. "Oh, I'm planning to have the mirrors show different versions of whoever looks into them, with the entrance tunnel showing the lovely couple in all stages of life from foalhood to the golden years. That first hall will be a good way for them to reminisce together, and maybe goof around with their younger selves."

"Ooooh! Sounds like fun!" Pinkie said, mirroring Lucky's enthusiasm with her own. "Will we get to go through the hall once Ponyacci and Juneflower are done?"

Lucky nodded. "And after the tunnel, there will be a room of mirrors showing ponies miscellaneous versions of themselves, like, as in seeing themselves with a different talent and cutie mark, or as a different race, or as the opposite sex, or as a different kind of creature."

Cheese laughed. "Now I'm imagining myself as a pegasus. I remember as a colt that I wanted to sprout wings and fly."

"I don't know about sprouting wings..." When everypony had turned to Pinkie, they saw that she had balloons tied to her barrel, and she was busy doing a backstroke in the air around the tent. "But some good old-fashioned balloons are perfect for flight!" She rolled right side up, and added, "Oh! And so are umbrellas and kites if the wind is just right!"

"I agree with you on kites," Cheese looked up wistfully and shook his head. "Tomato nearly got carried away when I tried to teach him how to fly one. I was like, 'Dang it, Tommy, that's not how you're supposed to do it!' He crashed into a tree and lost a tooth."

"Wow, what a burden," Chuckles grumbled.

Cheese glared at him. "He was five years old."

Pinkie crossed her forelegs and shook her head, clicking her tongue as she did so. "Don't you know that five-year-olds are not that heavy? So calling him a 'burden' is flimsy at best when he took flight by way of kite!"

"Not to mention he was a pipsqueak," Cheese mumbled.

Lucky raised his hoof. "So... do I have permission to do the hall of mirrors?"

Cheese looked up at the unicorn. "Hm? Oh, right! I'll help you with it right away! And do I have any volunteers to help us?"

And so it was that the entire group went to work. Cheese and Lucky had quickly spruced up the barn, fixing up the old walls and refinishing the wood, adding a tunnel to it, and finally, borrowing mirrors from the townsfolk and strategically placing them within the tunnel and the barn. Once that was all done, Lucky cast his spell, and confirmed that it worked by going through the hall of mirrors himself. Cheese double checked, and came out of the tunnel laughing and clamoring about how in one mirror, he was apparently a Wonderbolt.

Pinkie joined the bakers in town, churning out delicious treats for the party, including a colorful cake emblazoned with a "50" and a figurine of a younger Ponyacci in costume carrying a younger Juneflower as he balanced on a ball. Everypony got in on the decorating, lining the buildings with streamers and banners, and setting up posters and prints of the elderly couple and their family. The field was cleared of the party implements and prank toys in order to make room for an arrangement of tables, which encircled a colorful dance floor and had a turntable off to the side. The arrangement was crowned with a table covered with a golden tablecloth, marking the place where the couple were to sit.

As the townsfolk greeted Ponyacci and June's children and grandchildren, most of them having left Mane-tua to pursue their own courses, Cheese and Pinkie sat atop the wall, with Cheese pointing out the ponies and places he knew in the little town. He pointed out the places where he learned to juggle, and where he learned how to build and repair, and where he received his new accordion after the "accordion incident" back in Manehatten and continued refining that talent. He even told her about the day he earned his cutie mark, and pointed out who had been the birthday boy when he arrived in town. They hollered and waved at him before they continued to talk.

"Now, out of their six children, only Pickle Barrel and Autumn Skye stayed," Cheese said, munching on a sandwich. "Kumquat, Figaro, Banana Cream, and Viola all left so they could go out and develop their talents, see the world, maybe fall in love... you know, all that jazz." He took another bite, and pointed to one of the houses. "That's where Pickle Barrel lives, and I played with his son Zucchini there from time to time."

Pinkie giggled. "Zucchini's a funny word. It sounds like the name of a zoo where all the animals have keys for knees. Or a bikini's evil cousin... or is it the good cousin? I don't know, but I can say it all day. Zucchini, zucchini, zucchini, zucchini, zucchini!"

"It's technically a cucumber's evil cousin, Pinkie," Cheese corrected. He leaned back, and sighed happily. "You know, I'm not sure what direction my life would have taken had I not come to that party in Ponyville you threw. I mean, after seeing you, I decided to seek out a professional to train me in the art of parties and party magic." He devoured the rest of his sandwich, and turned to the sunset. "Not that you're bad in any way--oh, no, you're really good! I just thought an adult would be... well..."

Pinkie put a hoof on his shoulder and nodded. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not mad. I'm glad that you found Ponyacci."

Cheese chuckled. "My Grandpa Pizza Pockets was a huge fan of him, so that was the first option I took. I had to... force myself to be brave and approach him when I met him... and it worked out. Sure, he had to go out with the circus and perform across Equestria, but I was patient... though I had to undergo tutoring for regular academics under June... blegh..."

Pinkie poked his head several times. "Well, we can't have a dumb party pony, can we?"

"No, we cannot." Cheese leaned in his knee as he watched the sunset and sighed. "I'm not going to lie, Pinkie... sometimes when I look at Ponyacci and June, I see Grandpa Pizza Pockets and Grandma Cucumber Melon. Heck, the similar colors don't help! And when I do see it... I'm reminded of how much I miss them, and I wish that they could have lived long enough see who I've become. Grandpa would have loved to see me rockin' the accordion."

Pinkie sighed along with him. "I know how that feels. I miss Granny Pie and Nana Pinkie and wish they could have seen the first party I've thrown. I also wish Nana lived to see Aunt Seddie finally come home, and have a happy reunion and see me and my sisters meet her and have fun in a "Auntie-Seddie-Has-Returned-After-30-Years" Party!"

Cheese laughed. "You like your aunt?"

Pinkie beamed. "You betcha! She's so, so, so nice and funny!"

"Good. You're welcome."

Pinkie tilted her head and processed it for a moment until her eyes widened. "Oh, right! It was you and Tommy who found her!" She narrowed her eyes in a mock glare. "Let me say thank you first!"

Cheese laughed some more. "Well, feel free to let me know if you run into my aunt Honeydew--she's been gone a while herself. Weird how we both have had missing aunts?"

"Psht, yeah, weird!" Then Pinkie winked. "Don't worry, I'll look for Honeydew."

"Heh, thanks." Cheese ran a hoof through his mane. "Anyway, I think you get the idea that I felt more at home in this town and Ponyville than I did in Manehattan. I always had the sense that I didn't belong there, and that I was just a freak of nature and a disappointment. It was better for me that I left it behind and set my past free." He blew on his forelock. "My only regret is that I hurt my brother."

Pinkie patted his back. "You're making up for it. Every time I've seen him, he's gotten happier. He doesn't always show it, but I can tell."

She whipped her foreleg in front of her, checking a watch that had appeared there conveniently. Nodding, she jumped off the wall and exclaimed, "Come on, Cheese! We better start the party officially!"

Cheese smiled and saluted her before jumping down himself. "Righty-ho!"

Author's Note

In which Cheese and Pinkie are that good old party planning team that we have loved to write about. Ain't it a joy to have them interact?

Also, I should warn you that the next chapter is going to be a jump back in time from the end of this one; it's going to be the saga of Ponyacci and Tomato, with essentially one objective:

Except Ponyacci's going to be nicer about it.

12.3--Clowning Around

When Cheese and Pinkie started their party planning in Ponyacci's house, Ponyacci himself was in the backyard with Tomato. He was no stranger to coulrophobia, having met many foals and grown ponies who zipped out at the sight of him. He often had to take steps in order to reassure those fearful ponies that he meant no harm, that clowns were ponies just like the rest of them--they were just wearing makeup and silly outfits. Tomato Sandwich was no different, and by golly, he was going to do his best in helping him get a better handle on his fear.

Still, he couldn't help but sense that there was something a little off with this pony.

Sitting the younger stallion upon a stump, the retired clown began the session by walking around him for a good scan of him while his granddaughter retrieved some implements to try to help with the psuedo-therapy. The few times Ponyacci came in close to take a look at Tomato's eyes or his cutie mark, Tomato was thankful that the elder pony wasn't wearing greasepaint. Still, it was awkwardly silent as the examination was made, enough for Tomato to feel like Ponyacci was getting ready to eat him.

Finally, when Ponyacci had twanged his forelock, Tomato growled and questioned, "Okay, what the hay is the point of this? You're not exactly a doctor, you know!"

Ponyacci backed up and scratched his chin. "Settle down, boy. I'm trying to get a sense of your magic and how it holds you together. If I have an idea of what it's like, it may provide me with some direction with helping you with your fear."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Really now?"

"Yep. It usually ties in to who a pony is at their core. At least that's what a friend of mine told me years ago." He looked up at the clouds wistfully. "Heh, I wish he were here now; he knew a lot about magic theory and whatnot, and could probably explain more about emotion and character in relation to magic than I can."

That was when Sparkleworks arrived with a box of various knick knacks, costumes, prank toys, and art supplies. "Okay, Grandpa! I got all the stuff you asked for!"

Ponyacci laughed as the box was placed at his hooves, and he gave her a little noogie. "Good job, kiddo! Now we can start!"

Tomato grinned nervously. "Eh..."

A huge scowl was on Tomato's face as he looked at the little coloring book before him. "You've got to be kidding me."

Sparkleworks placed a bucket of crayons on the stump with the coloring book, a couple of drawing pencils, and her own little sketchbook. "What's wrong with art? It helps me calm down when there's a storm." She leaned forward and whispered, "I really, really, reaalllly hate lightning."

Tomato gestured to the pencils and Sparkleworks' sketchbook. "Well, I'm not an artist--" Then he gestured to the coloring book. "And I'm not five years old. And even if I was I wouldn't be sitting still for long."

"I'm not five either. I'm nine."

Ponyacci paused in his setup of something involving a bouncy ball, a mirror, a rubber chicken, and several other items. Waltzing over to the young stallion and little filly, he said, "Now, who said that coloring books are only for foals? There's literally no rule against it. Growing up doesn't mean getting rid of childish things, you know."

Tomato crossed his front legs and pouted. "I'm not very good at art either."

Ponyacci raised what barely resembled an eyebrow. "You don't have to be Sculpte Tangelo to use a coloring book." He reached forward and opened the book. "Besides, I hear that a simple picture is the first step in overcoming a fear."

Tomato merely glanced at the black and white picture, and a quick glimpse of a clown was all it took for him to jump backward in an arch that nearly matched the height of the house. When landing on his rump, he quickly scooted back even further until he had his back to a tree, loud pants whistling through his teeth.

Ponyacci shook his head. "Come, come, now, a little picture can't hurt you."

Tomato blinked and shakily stood up. Bringing a image of his friend Flora to mind, he imagined her telling him to inhale through his nose, then exhale slowly through his mouth. After he had done so, he walked back to the stump, and sat down, forcing himself to look at the black and white picture of a smiling clown juggling bowling pins as he balanced on a ball.

Ponyacci winked. "And you can color him any way you like."

Sparkleworks started to bounce. "Oh, oh, make him a vampire!"

Tomato looked up with a sharp glare and barked, "No!"

Sparkleworks staggered back, and scowled at him back. "Sheesh, no need to be rude."

Ponyacci bopped him on the head. "You don't have to go with that suggestion, but I don't appreciate you talking to my granddaughter like that." He turned around and went back to his props. "Now, where did I put that doll...?"

Tomato sighed, and turned to Sparkleworks, his tail rising up to scratch a couple of particular spots on his back. "Sorry about that... vampires are just a touchy subject, and combining them with clowns isn't going to help."

"Why?" Sparkleworks asked. "Did Cheese turn into a vampire and try to eat you?"

Tomato shook his head, turning slightly to let his tail grab an orange crayon and start coloring. "Nah, we just got involved in some crazy nonsense a while back. It shook us pretty badly."

Sparkleworks blinked. "Even Cheese? It's hard to shake him! He's faced lions and tigers and bears! And chimeras and manticores and dinosaurs!"

Tomato nodded. "Even Cheese. Let's just say I'm afraid to bring it up with him because... well... he's less fond of the memory than I am. He'd rather pretend it never happened, and it's best not to press him about it. He's scary when he's angry."

Sparkleworks took a pencil between her teeth and started drawing in her sketchbook. "I guess so," she said, her words a little slurred by the pencil. "You don' havta draw a vampire if you don't wanna. You can make the clown a bunny inshtead."

Tomato finished coloring the clown's coat, and moved onto the mane with a brown crayon. "Sorry, I already started."

Sparkleworks narrowed her eyes, watching as Tomato's tail making the strokes and scribbles with the crayon. Her pencil fell out of her mouth after she stared for a good ten seconds. "Hey... I wish my tail could do that!"

Tomato blinked, and then glanced at his tail. "Oh? I was just using my tail to color so I could talk. No big deal."

The filly watched as the tail put down the brown and moved on to yellow to color the clown's clothes. "But I've never seen a pony use a crayon with their tail! Everypony I know that's not a unicorn uses their mouth! How do you do that?"

Tomato paused in his coloring, and then lifted the crayon up to his face. Blinking, he thought of all the other times he had seen somepony use their tail for a quick task such as carrying an item for a short trip by way of balance or a quick grab that lasted, at most, ten seconds. In all those other cases, constant fine motor skills were out of the question. And here he was, having held a firm grasp on a small crayon for at least five minutes, enough to quickly color a clown.

He put his hooves to his mouth, and his tail dropped, flopping onto the ground like a wet rag. It was like a runaway wagon hit him, carrying every instance that somepony had said or implied that he was a freak, and every instance that he denied he was, that his liberal use of his tail was absolutely normal, just like every other businesspony like he. Normal, just like Mom wanted him to be.

"Uh, are you going to answer my question?" Sparkleworks asked.

Tomato blinked and shook his head. "I, uh... don't know." He looked at the picture he colored, noting how much better the clown looked when colored like Cheese. "I don't know."

They heard Ponyacci clap and bellow, "All right! Now we get to the fun part!" He grinned as the two other ponies turned to him. "Who's ready to laugh?"

The next thing Tomato knew, he was sitting atop Ponyacci's head as the old stallion was precariously perched on a fully inflated beach ball. They traveled the yard, with Ponyacci rolling around an obstacle that he had set up as the younger two had colored, hopping over bars and through hoops, ducking under tree branches (though Tomato accidentally hit his head at a couple points), and snatching whatever Sparkleworks threw at him to juggle. Tomato held on tightly to his ride's ears, holding his breath as he watched rubber chickens, bouncy balls, bowling pins, pies, cookies, and a Ponyacci doll arch one after another in front of him. He willed himself not to look down, lest he accidentally cause them both to come crashing down.

"I understand if this is new for you," Ponyacci said, wincing from the hooves clinging on to his ears.

"Oh, no, no, Cheese has done this with me before." Tomato had to will his tail not to wrap around Ponyacci's neck for extra sturdiness. Choking an old stallion was not something he was keen on. "Still, aren't you straining your neck like this?"

"Nope!" Ponyacci chirped. "I've trained a long time to have strong neck muscles, and I've carried plenty of foals this way in shows."

"I'm not a foal! I am emerging into adulthood!"

"I've carried plenty of adults, too, such as my wife. You're frankly one of the easier ones to carry."

Tomato wanted to bring up Ponyacci's age and how that was the reason he retired, but it didn't seem to bother the elderly pony, so he opted for another complaint. "So... how is this supposed to help me with my fear of clowns?"

"I'm giving you a closer look at what kind of tricks we do. After all, it's not very easy to do what I do--you have to be funny, acrobatic, hardy, have good balance, and be adept at multitasking." Ponyacci rolled the ball over a seesaw as he did this, and tossed one of the cookies he juggled to Sparkleworks. He smiled proudly when she caught it with her mouth. "Believe me, I've had my share of falls. Cheese has failed in learning some tricks as well--poor kid was hard on himself and tried to avoid practice so he didn't embarrass himself. However, what defines a successful pony is their ability to get back up and take another shot."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "I've heard that motivational speech in school plenty of times--just with different wording. As if anypony back in Manehattan lets me live anything I do down. I make one mistake, and everything goes wrong!"

Ponyacci furrowed his brow. "Your brother had similar complaints long ago. I hope he strained out that perfectionism streak he had when I first started training him."

All of a sudden, Sparkleworks shouted, "Hey! You ready to juggle the kitchen knives?!"

Both stallions' eyes went wide. Dropping all his juggling implements, Ponyacci waved both front legs and cried, "Sparkles, no, I did not give you permission to--"

Before he could finish the sentence, Sparkleworks threw all the knifes she held with the greatest strength ever seen in a filly. In a panic, Ponyacci ducked, though he nearly jumped when one of the knives popped the beach ball. The rest of the knives all flew over the elder stallion; the younger stallion, however, was seized by the knives when they pierced his jacket. They carried him through the air until they pinned him to a tree by the sleeves and the sides, with a couple extra flying in to pin him by the forelock and his tail off to the side.

Once the knives stopped flying, Ponyacci got up, brushed himself off, and then marched toward his granddaughter. "Sparkleworks... what did I say about handling knives?"

Sparkleworks' ears drooped and she rubbed her leg. "They stay in Gramma's kitchen, I should learn to use them properly from her or my parents first..." She mutter under her breath and looked away.

Ponyacci tapped his hoof. "And?"

Sparkleworks sighed. "I'm too young to throw them or juggle them."

"That's right. Now, don't give me knifes to juggle unless I ask for them, and you most certainly shouldn't throw them." He gestured to Tomato still pinned to the tree. "They didn't exactly help with what we're trying to do with Tomato over there. Heck, if we killed him, Cheese would be upset."

Tomato nickered with a bit of irritation. "Ah, lovely, my nose itches..."

One of Ponyacci's students, a unicorn named Lucky merrily trotted into the yard. "Hey, teacher, is it okay if I borrow a--" He opened his eyes, and looked straight at the obstacle course, then drawing his eyes to the knives that scattered the yard and were embedded in the tree. Blinking at the sight of Tomato pinned to the tree, Lucky backed up a bit. "...mirror?"

Ponyacci pointed to the mirror he had set up on his obstacle course. "I was gonna use it for a trick, but my beach ball popped, so you can take it for whatever you're planning."

Lucky hopped, trotted to the mirror and levitated it. "Thank you so much!" As he trotted away, he rambled, "Oh, you're going to love what I'm planning to do for the party, Mr. Ponyacci! I thought it'd be a neat way for you and June to take a trip down memory lane."

He paused to look at Tomato once again, and said, "You are lucky that knife right under you just barely missed," before trotting off.

Beads of sweat forming on his brow, Tomato pursed his lips and turned to Ponyacci. "Free me."

"Okay..." Tomato said in a strained voice. "We basically just switched roles!"

Ponyacci looked down at him and shrugged. "Because... well, you were right to be worried earlier--my neck aches now..."

After the scare with the knives, the trio decided to relax with a little kite-flying. However, Sparkleworks got it stuck in a tree, which Ponyacci opted to solve by stacking several of the items in the yard, having Tomato climb up on top of it and balance on his tail, and then climbing onto Tomato's shoulders himself to try to reach the kite. Tomato didn't know what was more surprising--the fact that he was barely managing to bear the old stallion's weight, or that his tail was bearing both their weights.

Ponyacci reached forward as far as he could, barely touching the kite. "Hang in there, boy! I've almost got it."

"You couldn't have gotten a ladder?" Tomato huffed as he looked down.

"The neighbor borrowed the ladder to patch the town wall yesterday, and he still hasn't given it back!"

On the ground, Sparkleworks shouted, "Tomato, you should go a little bit forward so Grandpa can reach!"

Tomato bit his lip, the bite getting harder when a wheeze came out. "I'm not so sure hopping on my tail would work!"

"No, lean forward!"

"What? Um, I don't think tails work that way!"

"You've got legs to help keep your balance!"

Tomato snorted and grumbled, "Why didn't I just stand on my two hind legs instead of wasting my time balancing on my tail?" He allowed his tail to tilt him forward, and kept himself from falling off the stack of party implements with his legs. His muscles aching, he wheezed as Ponyacci reached forward to grab the kite. "Okay, please, hurry and remove it before I die!"

Ponyacci had the kite in grasp, and was tugging it away as much as he could. "Darn branch won't let go of it..."

Tomato opened his eyes, and much to his displeasure, he saw that doll of Ponyacci in clown getup, tucked in the stack of implements holding him and the elder stallion up, and it was staring right at him. In addition to his panting, there a drum pounding loudly in his chest, the fur on his brow grew moist, and his muscles grew tense, and shook in order to release said tension.

"Whoa-ho-ho-ho!" Ponyacci exclaimed as he felt one of those shudders. Glancing down, he asked, "What's going on down there?"

"Th-th-the clown..." That pasty, grinning face seemed to be laughing wickedly at him. "It's staring into my soul!"

Ponyacci leaned a little, and spotted the doll. "Oh, dear. I'd ask Sparkleworks to remove it, but removing it might cause our stack to tumble. Please hang in there for a little bit longer!"

Tomato's lungs and heart hurt between holding Ponyacci up and being forced to stare at that creepy grin for who knows how long. Even squeezing his eyes shut hurt, and he couldn't look away from the doll. He couldn't pinpoint if his trembling was that of strain or fear--perhaps both. He felt his entire body screaming, and he was certain that just one little thing could make this entire thing crash down.

Finally, Ponyacci managed to pluck the kite off the branch. "Got it! Now we can--"

A boom suddenly sounded, and startled Tomato enough for him to buck the elder stallion upwards, while he himself ending up jumping off the stack. Sparkleworks quickly darted out of the way of Tomato, who landed on his rump with a bounce and a prickly, aching numbness. Of course, upon looking up, Tomato thought that his sore posterior would be nothing compared to what Ponyacci's fall would cause.

Seeing the retired clown fall brought up a surge of panic, and without thinking, he yanked his own tail, allowing it to burst into its poofy curls, and he hopped just to where Ponyacci was about to hit the ground. His raised tail cushioned the fall, and Ponyacci bounced off onto the grass with little fanfare and a couple of grunts. When seeing the old stallion unhurt, Tomato breathed a sigh of relief.

Sparkleworks gasped, and then jumped onto her grandfather. "Grandpa! That scared me, I thought you were gonna get hurt!"

Ponyacci carefully moved each of his legs before squeezing his granddaughter. "Saw my life flash before my eyes twice today." He twitched an ear, listening for some shouts to try to discern what happened to cause that boom.

"You blew up my lettuce!" he heard one of the vendors in the marketplace say.

"Oopsie..." Pinkie said.

"Huh, I thought those were cabbages," Cheese mumbled.

Ponyacci sighed. "Sounds like Cheese and Pinkie had a little mishap." He looked at Sparkleworks and smiled, pulling the kite from behind his back. "At least I got the kite!"

Sparkleworks leaped in the air. "Hooray!"

Tomato stood a little ways away, brushing his hoof on the ground. "Mr. Ponyacci... I'm sorry for bucking you off like that."

Ponyacci stood up. "No need to apologize... neither of us could have predicted that explosion, though frankly, we already were set up for disaster... that was my mistake. It could have been worse, and I'm glad you thought quickly. You have more in common with your brother than I thought."

Sparkleworks stared at Tomato's tail. "How'd you make your tail all poofy?"

Tomato flushed, and glanced at his currently frizzy tail. He licked his hoof, grabbed his tail, and slid the tail through his grasp. "My hair's naturally curly, and I have it straight because curly looks ridiculous with this outfit. Look, it doesn't matter, it was just a sense of urgency that prompted me to do that, okay?"

"Why don't you get a different outfit then? A more fun one?" Sparkleworks asked.

Tomato turned around to show her his cutie mark. "Gotta dress the part of my mark."

"Your mark? What does it mean?"

"Business stuff. Mom says it's a serious talent, so I've got to be an absolutely serious pony in order to be taken seriously."

Ponyacci scratched his chin. "Well... I wouldn't say you're absolutely serious. After all, I'm of the belief that everypony has a little party pony in them, even the most serious and the grumpiest of ponies. Though in your case, it might not be just a little..."

Tomato felt his mane bristle. "Well, I'm not a party pony! I've already earned my mark, any party I've thrown by myself ends with broken items and tears, and it's stupid to believe the idea of a party pony being afraid of clowns! I'm the normal Sandwich, because if I'm not, what chance do I have at surviving anywhere without mockery and scorn and inciting Mom's wrath when I don't act like how a businesspony should act? I don't want to be a freak, it always leads to me being an unforgivable screw-up!"

Tomato plopped on the ground and slumped forward, heavy pants coming out of his mouth. He groaned and wiped sweat from his brow, kicking himself for letting his mouth run off like that. "I'm sorry... that has nothing to do with what we're doing. Anything else you want to try in order to make clowns more equine than monster in my eyes?"

Ponyacci stepped forward and patted his back. "Don't worry, I think I get what's going on. Sure, Cheese said your fear started because of an overeager clown and horror fiction when you were small... but, perhaps it grew worse because you might be afraid of your silly side."

Tomato sighed. "Well, you really expect somepony with my talent to be silly? My mom is hard on me every time I move outside the realm of my talent; it really killed my joy in my cutie mark for a long time."

"Well, your mother needs to lighten up. I don't think that she quite understands that there's a time for seriousness, and a time for silliness."

"Or that a pony can be serious about being silly!" Sparkleworks chirped.

Tomato snorted. "It all sounds ridiculous to me. Talking back to Mom is so hard--no, it's terrifying! No wonder Cheese ran off. At least he escaped and found you; in fact... you're a lot like Grandpa Pizza Pockets."

Ponyacci chuckled. "Well, your general discontentment isn't something I can cure; but I'll keep trying to help with the step of handling that fear of clowns you've got." He helped Tomato up to his hooves and lead him to the house. "Perhaps watching my wife put some makeup on Sparkleworks will make clowns less monstrous for you. Sparks does have a little show to put on for us at the party."

Sparkleworks bounced and clapped as she followed them. "I can't wait to show you! I've been practicing at home a lot, and Mom and Dad say I'm great, and..."

Tomato couldn't help but smile at the little filly. At least she'd make a cute clown.

12.4--A Celebration of a Half-Century

That evening, everypony was gathered in the shared yard between the foal's schoolhouse and Ponyacci's clown school, sitting in the circle of tables that Cheese, Pinkie, and the clown students had set up. Many of the townsponies talked among themselves and admired the colorful banners and streamers that adorned the town. At the long table that was serving as the crown jewel of the circle, Ponyacci and June's children and grandchildren were patiently waiting for their beloved patriarch and matriarch to arrive. They watched the end of the exit tunnel for Lucky's house of mirrors nestled in the town wall's corner, ready to give a signal to their friends should they be spotted.

Some ponies looked at the rectangular tables outside of the circle, their lips dripping with saliva. Whether they be sweet like ice cream and cake, salty like popcorn and fries, tender like hayburgers and carrot dogs, or even verdant sides like salads, there was plenty of food covering the wide range of tastes of the guests. Only one table didn't serve food, instead serving as a turntable for a DJ, for within the circle was what looked like a dance floor, for those that wanted to get down and stretch their dancing muscles. And beyond the food tables, several confetti cannons surrounded the area, ready to fire the signal that the party was to begin.

Cheese, Pinkie, and Tomato sat at the table closest to the main family one. Pinkie was busy drawing and coloring on the tablecloth, much like the foals at other tables were. Tomato was reading a book, and Cheese was tuning his accordion in preparation for the moment the party truly started. All the while, he chatted about old times with some of Ponyacci's family members, and even told some stories to Pinkie, who nearly choked on her crayon due to how silly they were. Cheese also told the family stories about his and Tomato's summer trip, with Tomato looking up and adding a few tidbits here and there.

In looking up, the younger brother's eyes were drawn to little Sparkleworks, all spruced up in getup which was greasepaint that was simply a whiteout of her face with some added blush, a couple of polka-dotted bows holding her mane in pigtails, and a matching hat and collar. Despite the tenseness in his muscles and a somewhat higher pulse from looking at the makeup, he kept still, having seen the application of the makeup spur the harmless transformation from pony to clown in person. Said pony being a filly had him willing himself to relax, and even eagerly awaited what her act for the party was going to be.

After doodling a picture of her and her friends, Pinkie set down the crayon and leaned over to Tomato to peek at his book. "Whatcha reading?"

Tomato glanced at her. "The Waters of Forever."

Pinkie rubbed her chin. "Is it about the Fountain of Youth? Because Rainbow Dash recently got a new Daring Do book where Daring came across the Fountain on an adventure and had to help its guardians protect it from this pegasus dude who was trying to make the fountain into a rain cloud, and make it rain on Canterlot on Summer Sun to turn everypony--even the princesses!--into babies so that he could take over Equestria. Rainbow was gushing about it a lot lately."

Cheese snickered. "Imagine if that had actually happened back when we were in Canterlot. It might have put out that fire that I... started..." Pursing his lips, he flushed and turned his focus to his accordion, mumbling under his breath.

Pinkie leaned back to Cheese and patted his head. "Don't worry, Celestia forgave you for that. She's even thinking about inviting you to the Gala because you're lots of fun." She leaned to the other side to tell Tomato, "And you too. She likes you."

"Hm, I guess I'm luckier than I thought." Tomato turned the page, and shook his head at what he read. "But anyway, that guy in that Daring Do book is ambitious, I'll give him that."

"Yep, yep!" Pinkie leaned her stool back, waving her front legs. "But can you imagine the princesses as babies? I bet they'd be the cutsiest-wutsiest baby alicorns we've ever seen! Of course, they might be the only baby alicorns we ever see..." She steadied her stool and crossed her legs, her eyes glancing upward. "But, wait, Twilight was born a unicorn! She earned her wings! So, if she gets hit with Fountain of Youth water, will she keep her wings or lose them?"

"That's food for thought," Tomato murmured, resuming his reading. "But I haven't come across any chapters where anypony turned into a baby. Ponies just take frequent sips of the fountain's water to sustain their youth, that's all. I think you'd have to practically drown in it to turn into a baby."

Cheese grimaced, and finished up his tuning of the instrument. "I'd take the rain cloud, thank you."

Pinkie shuddered. "Ooooh, drowning. My sister Limestone almost drowned once, and had to be revived by the town doctor giving her a breath spell!" She put a hoof to her chest and shook her head. "Poor Limey's afraid of water now..." Her voice went down to a raspy whisper. "But she's in huge denial and gets mad when you mention it!"

Tomato glanced at Cheese, and then looked back at Pinkie. "I'd be angry too if I had been caught in a situation where I couldn't breathe."

Cheese glanced at them as he played a few practice notes on his accordion. "It's a good thing I kept you from falling in the bay when we were colts."

He looked up, and then saw two pony shadows in the tunnel, as well as Ponyacci's family members giving them the 'okay' signal. Hopping up on the table and preparing to play, he leaned to Pinkie and whispered, "Here they come. Ready the party cannons."

Pinkie saluted, and then rushed to the side of the tunnel, where a button wired to each of the cannons lay. She hovered her hoof over the button, biting her lip and trembling with excitement. Everypony else noticed the party ponies in their preparations, so they crouched down in order to bring more of a surprise. Tomato set his book down, and followed suit, watching Sparkleworks dash away in order to retrieve some implements for her act.

Ponyacci and Juneflower came out of the tunnel laughing, the former saying, "I don't know what was funnier, seeing me as an accountant or seeing you as an actual flower."

Pinkie slammed her hoof on the button, and the confetti cannons boomed. Confetti flew high into the sky before it exploded into paper fireworks and rained on everypony who popped from under the tables and hollered, "Happy Golden Anniversary!"

Juneflower put a hoof to her mouth, choking on her own joyous laughter, while Ponyacci looked around with a proud smile on her face. They were soon swarmed with hugs from their adult children and each of the grandchildren, ranging from just over Cheese's age to a little colt that was smaller than Sparkleworks. It was a great big group hug, and there were big smiles all around as everypony else applauded--especially Cheese "clapping" with the bellows of his accordion, with a huge grin on his face.

The hug broke, and June looked around, asking, "Wait a minute, somepony's missing."

"Oh, you're right!" Ponyacci said. "Where did Sparkleworks go?"

Right after he said that, the filly came rolling in on a unicycle, juggling six cupcakes to the accordion music Cheese played and the clapping beat provided by everypony else--and apparently Pinkie had procured a trumpet and was on the table with Cheese. Tomato was a little confused at how in sync they were, since he had not seen any choreography done at all for this act while they were there, but it was best not to question it. He might end up killing the magic, after all. So, he clapped along as well.

As she juggled to the music, Sparkleworks sang:

"You've hit a milestone, the big Five-O
And during those years your love could only grow
From each other to your children, and to your neighbors and Cheese,
We all just wanna say...

"Congratulations on your marriage reaching fifty!"

She leapt off her unicycle, throwing the cupcakes, and landed right in her grandparents' front legs, and finished off with a "Hey!"

Sparkleworks' mother and her siblings caught the cupcakes, and held them up in a toast. Her grandparents responded with laughter, while everypony else just clapped, except Pinkie, who held up her trumpet and shot confetti out of it.

Ponyacci tousled his granddaughter's mane. "Seems like the lessons Old Gramps gave you stuck well, good job."

Sparkleworks giggled as she was given to her parents, and she waved at the Sandwiches and Pinkie at the table. All three of them waved back, with Tomato especially giving her a warm smile.

June nuzzled Ponyacci. "My, my, fifty years. It's been that long? Wow, it went by so quickly, even those weeks that felt so long when you were on a tour. I can scarcely believe that we've actually made it that far--and with so much support too!"

Ponyacci nodded, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'm happy that this party is going to be fun for everyone."

The party was in full swing, with everypony finding something that they enjoyed. Whether it was scarfing down a plate of food, going out on the dance floor, exploring the house of magic mirrors, or just sitting and talking with friends. Some of the foals were eagerly showing their parents their drawings on the tablecloths (Pinkie had to reassure them that she meant for them to be drawn on). Other foals were being amused by the antics of Ponyacci's students. And some were just running around in a chase.

An old song was being played, and some couples, including the star couple, were engaged in a slow dance. Meanwhile, Pinkie, Cheese, and Tomato were sitting at their table, eating some food they had gotten. Pinkie's in particular was stacked up with sweets, and the brothers were nabbing a few pieces of candy or cake to add to their nachos, pizza, and salad.

Pinkie flung some pieces of cake into her mouth, practically swallowing them whole. She licked her lips and rubbed her belly. "Mm-hm! This is some of the moistest and fluffiest cake that I've ever had! I wish my friends were here to have some!"

"Why aren't they?" Tomato asked.

"Oh, they were busy." She sighed and grabbed a cupcake with her tongue, whipping it into her mouth. "It's a shame they missed helping set up a party for the Great Ponyacci." She leaned to the side to see Ponyacci and his wife in a slow dance, and smiled at their content and loving bliss. "But at least he's happy with the party."

Cheese put his hoof on hers. "I'm happy that he's happy too. Though he hasn't put on the clown costume yet... I suspect that he's planning on doing that sometime tonight."

"Oh! I hope he does!"

Tomato grimaced and sunk in his seat. "Joy."

Cheese frowned. "Hey, I thought you were over that fear of yours. You weren't scared of Sparkleworks in her getup at all!"

Tomato crossed his front legs. "That's because A, she's a kid, and B, I watched the application of her makeup, so she wasn't as otherworldly as other clowns to me. What, did you think I could get over it in a day? I doubt you got over your shyness in a day."

Cheese opened his mouth to retort, but he closed it again with a thick frown and a growl. "Can't argue with that."

"Like Fluttershy says as she's trying to get over stage fright, 'baby steps'," Pinkie said proudly.

Cheese shrugged. "Hey, if Tommy pulls this baby steps thing, who am I to complain? As long as he keeps at it like I did with overcoming my shyness, he might get there eventually." He leaned over and patted Tomato on the head. "No worries, if he does pull out the clown outfit, I'll protect you, baby bro."

Tomato narrowed his eyes. "Don't patronize me."

The slow dance ended, and all the older couples went back to their seats. In its place, the DJ played an upbeat tune, one that a bunch of the younger folks recognized. Hearing just the first few notes had them spreading out on the dance floor, whether alone or in pairs, and they all started to hop and tap to the beat, and sang along with the song.

Pinkie was among one of those who recognized the song, and immediately grabbed Cheese by the shirt. "Cheese! Cheese! We have to dance to this song!" She jumped out of her seat and dragged Cheese to the dance floor.

Cheese blinked, and pointed to the food at their table. "Dance? Eh, wait, wait, what about the food? I mean, uh, not that I don't like this song, but we gotta finish... oh, never mind." He and Pinkie were at the center of the floor, and he took one last nervous glance at Tomato--who had been confused for a moment before snickering--before looking straight at Pinkie's face.

Pinkie stepped from side to side, bouncing along to the beat. "Ready?"

Cheese gulped and nodded, and started to mirror her movements. "Eh, uh, yeah."

They repeated those side steps for the first verse, with Cheese mumbling to himself "One, two, one, two..." until the song swelled and Pinkie grabbed him by the foreleg, yanking him off his hooves. She swung him around a bit before he regained his footing, and he swung her in return.

While he was swinging her, she slipped out of her grasp, turning into a little pink tornado on the dance floor. Some ponies jumped back from the little dust devil, and Cheese grinned sheepishly at those who glared at him. When she was close enough, he had to use his tail to grab her tail, and pull her back to him. He stood up on his hind legs to catch her, and blushed when her cheek pressed against his chest. Looking down at her, he discovered as she looked up at him that her face was pinker than usual.

After a moment of staring, they smiled at each other, giggling nervously. They grabbed each other's forelegs as their hind legs hopped and shimmied in rhythm, following each other in their dance. Their giggles grew into stronger laughter, and Pinkie squealed when Cheese threw her outward, their only link being their hooves, and then pulled her back in. When he caught her, he held her and twirled around in the same manner she did with him earlier that day.

His twirling stopped, and he set her down to have her twirl beneath his hoof before dipping her. He threw her back onto all fours before he returned to the same position. She turned to him with a big grin matching his, and their hooves rapidly pattered on the ground, before they leapt into the air, high-hoofed, and landed to dance some more.

Off to the side, Tomato was watching the entire thing, munching on a slice of pizza. Out of all the couples that were on the dance floor, they were clearly the most energetic. He even noted some of the couples who had stopped and were staring at them.

Ponyacci came over to him, watching the two younger party ponies in their dance. "Whew, I haven't been able to dance like that for years. Boy, do I hate being old." He looked at Tomato and tilted his head toward the dancers. "Tell me, do they have a thing for each other? Because I see their eyes a-twinkling when they gaze at each other."

Tomato leaned in his hoof, and looked at their eyes. Indeed, there was a light in them that he didn't usually see, even in party ponies. "Well, I'm certain that Cheese is in love... too bad he's also in denial."

Ponyacci rubbed his chin. "Not surprised. He has a habit of doing that."

Back on the dance floor, Cheese and Pinkie were circling each other, as a brief respite from their energetic dance. They gazed into each other's eyes, forgetting about everypony else. Cheese wasn't sure what Pinkie was seeing in his, but he knew what he saw in hers. There was light, there was life, and there was joy. There was a clear summer day promising lots of fun, boasting a cloudless sky for kite-flying and a cool pond promising a refreshing swim. He caught her strawberry and bubble gum scent in his nostrils, and all he could feel now was just bliss.

Of course, that moment couldn't last forever. They threw themselves at each other once again, this time to the beat of stomps and claps coming from bystanders. Hopping and shuffling on their hind hooves, they bounced around the circle, laughing as they did so. They stepped out of their closed position every four beats, waving their released hooves to other ponies. They did this for some time during the bridge of the song, and stopped when the final chorus started.

Then, Cheese swung her around for a few spins, followed by Pinkie swinging him around for a few. She threw him up, and he landed behind her, and once she turned around, he reached between his hind legs, grabbed her, and then pulled her from behind him that way. He lifted her up, spun her around, singing along with the song and laughing.

Then, after a few more steps between both of them, pushing each other's front legs back and forth, and one final dip, Cheese then threw her into the air, and the song finished as he caught her. They held that position for a few moments, sweating and panting heavily as they gazed at each other once more.

The crowd cheered, and they snapped out of their trance. Getting up to four hooves again, they bowed, and then returned to their table.

Pinkie hopped. "That was fun! We should totally do that again!"

Cheese had a hoof to his chest, still panting. "Give me a few more songs... I need to catch my breath..."

They went back to their seats beside Tomato, who was busy eating a pizza. When they looked up to find Ponyacci there, Pinkie beamed and waved at him. "Hi, Ponyacci! Are you having fun in your anniversary party?"

Ponyacci chuckled. "Of course, Pinkie Pie. It's fun dancing with my sweetheart... and watching you dance with yours."

Pinkie blinked in confusion. "We're not sweethearts."

Cheese blushed furiously, and ducked under the table. "Of course not! Don't be silly! We're simply platonically platonic friends that are just friendly in the friend way! Has Tomato's gotten to you too? Because he's confused!"

Tomato rolled his eyes and continued to munch on his pizza, a smug smile forming on his mouth.

Ponyacci looked under the table. "Well, surely denying it wouldn't require hiding under the table. Well, whether or not you do have a thing for each other, that was a wonderful dance you two had. Everypony was clapping along for you."

Cheese sank his chin on the cool blades of grass deep enough to hide his mouth. "Thanks..."

Pinkie put her head under the table as well. "Yeah, I especially liked the part where you threw me up in the air and I felt like I was flying! I never realized you were that strong and could throw me up that high! It made a great finale!"

Cheese started to rub his temple, the dreaded ringing between his ears surfacing once again and starting to claw at his brain. "Y-yeah... it just came to me as we were dancing, and it's wonderful when improvising works out like that."

Tomato's head poked through the tablecloth. "Okay, get out from under there."

Cheese's head was throbbing, and he knew once again that it was time for medicine again. Gosh darn that medicine! How he wished he didn't need to take it.

Cheese climbed back into his chair, only for a booming beat, muffled voices, and static to pound at his eardrums and echo to his brain. He froze, feeling a shudder run right through him with each beat, and his heart pounded as if it was trying to break through his rib cage. Feeling his stomach acid bubble, he took swallow breaths, trying to ignore the pulsing pain afflicting his head.

"You okay, Cheese?" Ponyacci asked.

Cheese cracked open his eye, and found the other three staring at him. Blinking, he stumbled out of his seat, he mumbled, "Oh, I'm fine... just need a glass of water..." He ambled to the drink table, adding, "Aaaand, maybe some peace and quiet for a little bit..."

Pinkie blinked. "What's he talking about? Is he sick or something?"

Tomato watched Cheese as he poured some water in a glass, and then headed for the tunnel leading into the house of mirrors. "Oh, right, he's been getting a headaches lately, and he needs a bit of space to take his medicine and--"

Pinkie furrowed her brow in concern. "Medicine?" She turned to the house of mirrors. "That doesn't sound right."

Ponyacci scratched his head. "What happened to him?"

Tomato shrugged.

Author's Note

Confession time, I came up with Cheese and Pinkie's dance based on this song:

12.5--Mirrors

Cheese downed his pill and water as he stood in the entrance tunnel of the hall of mirrors. As he stored the glass in his mane, he couldn't help but stare at the party, hearing the swell of swing music. He watched the dancers step, spin, and swing to the upbeat, jazzy tune, and could hear their whoops and laughter. He smiled fondly despite the ring in his ears. He wondered when the next swing music was; hopefully it was long enough so that he could rest up from that last dance and jump in headache free, but soon enough so that the party was still alive and kicking.

He rubbed his head, wincing from the high-pitched knife stabbing his brain. He turned to go deeper into the tunnel; if there was anything he needed at that moment, it was silence.

He didn't mind going through this hall again. In fact, he recalled what Lucky had said about the mirrors that bore images of what a pony would look like as a different animal: the species you see changes with each look. Cheese had already saw himself as a chicken, a weasel, and several other animals, but it couldn't hurt to see what animal was next.

A hippo. Definitely a hippo.

But, since he was in the entrance tunnel, he took his time looking through the mirrors to see himself at various ages.

It wasn't long before he paused at the mirror showing him as a baby. He turned and stared at the tiny colt, holding the purest gaze of anypony he had ever seen. He touched the mirror, with the baby's tiny hoof doing the same. He grinned, the baby copied it. He pulled a funny face, and the baby did the same. Then, he held still once again, with blinks matching his younger reflection's. Two thoughts were at war with each other; one that processed an estimate of the baby's age and defined it as a separate entity from Cheese himself, and the other who saw the coat color, hair color, and eye color and told him that it was definitely him.

Either way, it was amazing to think that at one point in his life, he had been that tiny baby, with that curious and innocent light in his eyes.

He moved on to the next mirror, holding the image of his toddler self, older by just a couple years. He could see that his eyes were still mostly innocent, though there was clearly a streak of mischief within them. There was also some pride, some of which he guessed was because of his newly-appointed position of big brother. Even so, that was still a little foal, and Cheese was again amazed that he had once been that young.

The next mirror showed him as a kindergartner, with his mane having grown bigger and bushier from toddlerhood, his muzzle bearing a pair of large glasses, and his mouth in a forced smile that was all too familiar to him.

Cheese's own mouth tightened as memories of his first day of kindergarten came to mind. The echoes of "Poofhead", "Four Eyes", and "Weirdo", made him step back, though he felt the phantom of a push in the process. He moved on to what he figured was him as an eight-year-old, which brought about memories of "accidents" that resulted in various bruises and ruined homework, him covered in mud or garbage depending on the day, or being locked out on a rainy day because he was too darn quiet for the teacher to notice. He shuffled on to early adolescence, and he remembered the boiling jealousy he had of Tomato somehow managing to thrive in school both academically and socially, while Cheese himself still suffered. And the worst part was that Mom somehow didn't think it was all that bad, and simply blamed him for his misery.

He moved on to his teenage years, and relaxed as he looked at his other self's confusion as his sudden growth spurt. He chuckled at the mustache he had grown at that time, the unbuttoned Haywaiian shirt over his undershirt, and the glasses he still wore. He looked stupid; but, that was part of his charm as a teenage party pony.

He passed his current age, then to his middle-aged self--who apparently regrew the mustache and taken to wearing a nice jacket--and then finally to his elderly self. He silently bemoaned that old pony Cheese had let the glasses return and had less hair. Was he going to go bald? He sure didn't want to follow in Grampa Beans' footsteps when it came to that. But, other than that, he was glad that his elderly self was clearly content with life, possibly having had a good run like Ponyacci did. And he was also wearing a Haywaiian shirt.

The end of the tunnel lead to the main room, which sported mirrors on every wall. Having been originally a barn, it also held a loft where hay bales were usually stored; naturally, its current use was that of holding more mirrors for ponies to look through.

Cheese instantly pinpointed the closest animal mirror, which he didn't hesitate to bound toward. Passing by other mirrors that showed him bearing various different cutie marks that could have happened--hoofprints, a Swiss cheese wrench, and a sandwich suitcase to name a few--he stopped short of crashing into the mirror, and took a look at what animal appeared this time.

He saw a wolf. Its fur was browner, its height was shorter, and its build was bulkier than his, but it still held the signature Sandwich forelock, albeit messier than usual, and generally looked like him. Though disappointed that it wasn't a hippo, he stared at it and bore his teeth in order to take a look at the canines.

"Hey, Cheesy!"

He lunged forward upon hearing that high voice, and ended up smacking his forehead on the mirror, hearing a crack in front of him. Cradling his head, he looked forward to find that the mirror had been broken. The spell had dissipated as well, leaving him to look at a cracked image of himself.

Pinkie Pie was suddenly beside him, her face in a sheepish little smile. "Oops! I didn't mean to scare you into doing that..."

There went his head, floating away with the dullest of aches in the front of his brain. "No, no... no need to apologize... I, uh, gotta catch my head before it goes into space..." He raised his front legs and attempted to catch his head, not quite realizing that it was still attached to his neck.

Pinkie poked him. "We're inside, silly." She leaned forward to the mirror. "What were you looking at anyway?"

Cheese stared forward, and what he had seen just a minute ago slipped out of memory. His head was aching too much for him to even recall it. Instead, he just blankly stared at the broken mirror, each shard distorting the picture of the party pony. Somehow, Pinkie was looking in a corner that kept her completely intact.

Pinkie waved a hoof in front of him. "Yoohoo! Are you there? Or are you spacing out because you're guilty that you broke somepony's mirror? Or is the horror dawning on you that you could have seven years of bad luck, and that every party you throw would end up terrible for one reason or another, whether big or small, and nopony was having fun because bad luck spirits were haunting you, and will not let you be a super duper party pony because they decided to punish you for an accident, and--"

Cheese put a hoof on her mouth. "Please stop. Can I just have a remedy for the bad luck?"

Pinkie opened her mouth to answer when Ponyacci walked in and said, "Try throwing salt over your shoulder. For extra measure, take my mirror there and bury it under some tree during the next full moon."

The two younger party ponies looked at the mirror, and then back to the elder pony. Cheese said, "Oh, it was your mirror? That was oddly lucky. Still... my bad."

"I can get a new one." Ponyacci chuckled before he put on a grave face. "Cheese, you mind telling us about those headaches of yours? Your brother told us that they were bad enough that you needed medicine. Are you all right?"

Cheese felt a chill down his spine, and pointed to a different mirror. "Hey, look, in that mirror, I'm a mare!"

PInkie perked up and turned to where Cheese had pointed. "Ooh, you're right! You make a pretty mare." She zoomed to the mirror, and nodded at her reflection. "So that's what I look like as a stallion..."

Cheese nudged Ponyacci. "You should see what you look like as the opposite gender."

Ponyacci furrowed his brow. "I already saw that... and I know what you're up to; you're trying to avoid the question."

Cheese ignored him, and zipped to another mirror. "Check this out! This is..." He looked at an image of himself wearing a dirty poncho, those big glasses, and having that hoofprints cutie mark. "...the nerdiest hobo I've ever seen."

Pinkie jumped on top of him. "Oh! Am I a nerdy hobo?! Oh, no... my hair's just straight and I'm not so pink."

Cheese stepped over to the next mirror. "Aaaand, here I am, I kinda look like some engineer for a war." He pouted and tilted his head. "Pinkie, why are you dressed up like some member of the EUP?"

Pinkie stared at the hardened version of herself and shrugged. "Dunno. Though I wonder if she'd like parties..."

Cheese stepped to the next mirror, and then blew a raspberry at it. "Geez, business Cheese looks pretty sour. Makes me think of a certain brother of mine..."

"Aaaaand there's the straight hair again." Pinkie's elbow was on Cheese's head, and she leaned in her hoof. "Do you think Tomato in that universe is a party pony? What would all my friends be? Is Rainbow Dash a tortoise in that universe?"

Ponyacci was soon beside them. "That's the mirror where I'm an accountant."

Pinkie looked at Ponyacci's reflection and giggled. "You look good in a suit."

"Why thank you."

Pinkie beamed at him, and then hopped off Cheese. She bounced off to another mirror, wondering aloud, "I wonder what else we can see..."

Cheese smiled at her and turned to Ponyacci, but then quickly looked away when the retired clown had his serious face on. Pursing his lips, he said, "Ponyacci... I know you're concerned... and want to know what's going on with me... but how can I tell you when I don't even know? These headaches just started back... back in... uh..." He scratched his head until the date came to him. "The end of June! Yeah, that's it."

A look of worry emerged on Ponyacci's face. "They've been going on for that long? That's going way past the point of funny."

Cheese walked past several mirrors, silently noting whatever showed up in the reflection. Unicorn. Pegasus. Changeling. Dragon. Some strange, two-legged, furless creature with a mane, hands, a flat face with a pointy lump in the middle (a nose?), and clothes. There was even a plant version of him. "All I know is that my 'brain chemistry is imbalanced' and that I feel like... something's..." He stopped, looked up at the next mirror, and started staring at what was standing before him. "...missing..."

Ponyacci tilted his head. "Cheese?"

Pinkie jumped off the loft that she had apparently climbed up at some point, and landed beside Cheese. She reached into his tail, and pulled out Boneless 2. "If you think your rubber chicken is missing, don't worry, he was in your tail the whole time."

When Cheese didn't respond, Pinkie turned to the mirror. Her eyes widened, and she dropped Boneless 2 at the sight of Cheese as a vampire, with the long, sharp fangs, the red eyes, the large ears, and the leathery wings. She looked back and forth between the reflection and the real pony, biting her lip. Under normal circumstances, she'd find vampire Cheese neat; but at that moment, it was an uncomfortable reminder of what could have happened to him. Just the thought of a vampire sinking its teeth into Cheese's neck...

She jumped onto Cheese's head and covered his eyes. "Stop looking!"

"Whoa!" Cheese stumbled back and blindly ambled around the room. "Pinkie, what are you doing?"

"Saving you from seeing what could have been!" She clung tighter to his head. "You could have turned into a vampire back in Las Pegasus, remember?!"

"What are you talking about? Vampires don't exist!" Cheese asked.

"Of course they do! Tomato turned into one!"

Ponyacci stood there, scratching his head. Each of the mirrors held a more amusing version of what was transpiring before him, but he got the feeling that Pinkie didn't mean for this to be funny. "Eh, pardon me, but I'm out of the loop. Mind filling me in?"

Pinkie looked up at him. "Oh, Cheese and Tomato were in Las Pegasus when this crazy unicorn turned Tomato and other ponies into vampires and sicced them on the city. I don't really have all the details; Cheese has the details, though."

Cheese managed to peel her hooves off his eyes. "Pinkie... I don't have the details of a event I never witnessed. I didn't even go to Las Pegasus at any point this summer."

Pinkie blinked. "Huh? Don't be silly, Cheesy, I saw Tomato as a vampire, since you took him to Ponyville to have Twilight cure him, and told us what happened, and then Twilight went on a curing spree with the other Princesses." She jumped off Cheese's head. "How could you forget?"

Cheese scratched his head. "But... I'm usually good at remembering things like that... especially if vampires were involved!" A low nicker come from him. "Tomato said we went to Pegasus and there was an incident there. I just thought he had a vivid dream..."

He turned back to the vampire mirror, trying to imagine Tomato in his place instead. He then squeezed his eyes shut, a slight tremble going through his body. "But, if you say it happened and Tomato says something happened there... maybe I can force myself to remem--YOWCH!"

He fell onto his rump, and clutched his head. It was like a knife had been embedded into his brain. "Okay... maybe not."

Ponyacci rubbed his chin. "Call me crazy, but... what if that missing memory is the reason you're having these headaches?"

Cheese groaned. "What makes you say that?"

Ponyacci looked at the mirror he stood beside, which had him as a unicorn. "I had a friend once who was into psychology and how it affects magic and whatnot. He told me about this class he was taking on 'memory magic', and demonstrated a spell that popped all my memories out of my head and had them circling around me in these little balls stuck in a web. Of course, they were all still attached to me by the ears, and he told me that plucking any of the memories off would not only make me forget them, but was extremely painful to the point where it lingers."

Pinkie gasped. "So he's having headaches and can't remember Pegasus because... somepony stole that memory? What do you think they're planning on using that memory for? To blackmail him? To live the memory as their own? To add it to their stolen memory collection?"

Cheese stood up. "Or maybe there's some kind of conspiracy where they're trying to make me literally lose my mind! But they only managed to get one of my memories so far..."

"Well, whatever the thief's doing with it, you better go get that memory back," Ponyacci said. "My friend also said that it'd leave you more vulnerable to magical hoodoo... not to mention you're not going to be able to focus very well with those headaches."

Don't I know that, Cheese thought, thinking of what happened back in the Crystal Empire. He nickered and rubbed his head. "But I don't know who did it."

Pinkie slid to his side. "Don't worry! Me and my friends will help solve this mystery! If there's anypony that can figure out what happened to you, it's Twilight!"

Ponyacci bumped him on the shoulder. "And let's not forget; Tomato may be some help in solving this."

Cheese's brow furrowed. "I don't know... if it did happen... wouldn't he prefer me to not remember him being a vampire?" He rubbed his neck and looked at the vampire mirror again. "Especially if it turned out that he had nearly bitten me or something like that. I don't want him to worry that I'll see him as a monster."

Ponyacci winked at him. "I think he trusts you to not think that way. In any case, we can't let some thief get away with a crime like stealing memories, right? Telling him might have you boys figuring things out more quickly."

"I guess..."

"You want me to tell him?" Pinkie asked.

"No, no, I can do it myself." Cheese turned and trotted to the exit tunnel. "But first I should go find him. Of course, maybe I should wait until after the party, when we've winded down... or maybe not directly after the party, since I don't want to sour the mood..."

Cheese felt the muscles in his flank spasm suddenly, and it lifted him up for a few seconds before putting him down. After a pause, he said, "I guess I could tell him on the way to the next party... ugh, he's not going to like that we're returning to Manehattan so soon..."

Pinkie and Ponyacci exchanged concerned looks. The former smiled and said, "Don't worry... Cheese Sandwich always has a way of bouncing back from things like this. There's no way any of us will let the memory thief get away!"

The latter sighed. "Perhaps. I'm just wondering if a memory like that is something that he'd want back."

Pinkie looked at the exit dolefully. "He's my friend... I just want him to be okay."

"Speaking of the mirror..." The old stallion backed up to the cracked mirror and grabbed it. "Mind helping me carry this out?"

Just as Cheese had walked out of it, Tomato had decided that he wanted to see the hall of mirrors, with the two barely missing each other. Cheese decided not to follow him and spoil his fun, and opted to try out a slow dance with Pinkie instead, as the party had been winding down and slow dancing was becoming more common. He wondered what Tommy would see in there, and hoped he didn't mind that there was one mirror missing.

Meanwhile, Tomato had just entered the tunnel, and looked around with awe. Seeing as it was getting dark, the tunnel had lanterns hanging in it to provide light. He looked down the hall, seeing a row of mirrors on each wall that had eternal reflections in each one. Stepping forward, he looked in the first mirror.

His first thought when seeing himself as a baby was that he was reliving his childhood. He smiled at the small, curly-haired foal that stared back at him. It was strange to think that he had been that baby that was standing there.

He jumped when Sparkleworks popped up--her face clear of makeup and showing her freckles--and said, "Wow, you were a cute baby!"

Tomato blinked. "Um... yeah."

Sparkleworks jumped to the mirror across from it. "So was I!" She cartwheeled to the next mirror. "And I was a cute toddler too."

Tomato chuckled, and went on to the next mirror to see his toddler self. "As was I." And then he continued onward to his kindergartner self. "And here's me in kindergarten, one of the brightest and happiest colts you've ever met..." He rolled his eyes, "I was so blind to how lousy our life really was..." He walked to his eight-year-old self, now wearing glasses but still smiling brightly. "...but as long as big brother was around, I didn't really care."

He stopped upon seeing himself as a preteen, the smile having disappeared. It had been replaced with a confused furrow of his brow, tearful eyes, and a scowl. He crouched down, and touched the mirror, the hoof 'touching' the one of his preteen self.

Sparkleworks was beside him, her own reflection only slightly older than she actually was. "Why are you so angry there?"

Tomato pulled his hoof away. "It's kind of hard to be happy when your brother runs away, you have to 'be strong' or your parents would kill you, and your so-called friends are very insensitive about your feelings on the matter and ditch you when you don't do what they want." He stood straight up and walked to his teenage self, clad in a sweater vest, who was still unhappy. "And also, Cheese and I were having a feud."

Sparkleworks had took to admiring her teenage self in the mirror. "Why?"

Tomato rubbed his leg. "It's complicated... but basically he was shy, bullied, and lonely, and jealous that I wasn't. I felt shut out by him for years, without really knowing why, and I didn't dare reveal how miserable and lonely I was as a teenager because really, I didn't think he'd care. I had to scare him off to keep myself from hurting."

He moved on to the next mirror, showing his current age. "And here I am now. Bye-bye, happy little colt." He noticed Sparkleworks looking at her adult reflection. "By the way, it looks like you're going to grow into a lovely mare."

"Aww, thank you!" Sparkleworks brushed her hoof on the ground. "And I'm happy that you and Cheese aren't fighting anymore. It's so weird to think of Cheese being mad! He's usually really nice whenever he comes over to visit, and even though you're kind of grumpy... you're a pretty nice stallion, too."

"Um, uh... thanks." Tomato sighed. "Still, I wish I had a do-over for my childhood; I'd like for it to be happier."

He moved on to the next mirror, and whistled at his middle-aged self. "Dang, I aged well." Then he moved on to the final mirror in the hall, and wrinkled his nose at his elderly self. "Okay, maybe not that well. Sheesh, I look like one of those cranky 'get-off-my-lawn' kind of ponies, tacky sweater vest, bowtie, and all. At least I'm not bald."

Sparkleworks was staring at her elderly self. "I might need to rethink my life."

They walked into the main chamber, and started passing all sorts of images. Tomato was nearly taken aback by the image of himself as a mare; Sparkleworks laughed at her colt self. Tomato casually imagined himself casting a spell when seeing himself as a unicorn, and his back itched upon seeing himself as a pegasus. Sparkleworks jokingly called them princesses when they came to the alicorn mirror. And she facehoofed when they came to a mirror that showed them as clowns, only for Tomato to run away in fright at the sight of his clown self.

They stared at one mirror that showed them as furless, two legged creatures with hands, with Tomato remarking, "They have to compensate for furlessness by wearing clothes?"

Several mirrors showed them as various animals, such as dogs, cats, rodents, and reptiles. They paused at the dragon mirror and Sparkleworks pretended to breathe fire on Tomato--which somehow ended up as her dragon self actually blasting fire in the Tommy dragon's face. When Tomato found one mirror that showed him as a vampire, he hastily sped past it, not wanting to go back to that experience.

Tomato paused at one particular mirror, even as Sparkleworks continued to explore the chamber. He knew that pony he saw there, wearing that same old tacky green shirt with the red polka dots. His eyes were bright, his smile was sweet, and his mane, while not nearly coming close to Cheese's wild style, had a fairly curly mane that would have other ponies labeling him as 'quirky.' It was Tomato's natural hairstyle, which was fitting for somepony that he realized that he might have become.

He and his reflection touched hooves, and he wondered how differently this pony's life went from his own. Did Cheese ever run away in this universe? For that matter, was Cheese the businesspony in this universe? Did this pony have better and more supportive friends? He obviously knew who Bluejinx was, but did he know Flora, Cirrus, and Nimbus? Did this pony have the friendship and possible romance with Pinkie Pie? He grimaced, as he couldn't believe he just thought that.

He cast his eyes down. Who was his mother in that universe?

If she was the same, then poor other Cheese, he wasn't as lucky as his counterpart. If she was nicer, oh, how Tomato envied those in that universe. It only served to remind him of how much he dreaded having to go back to Manehattan to confront her. And while a little kid clown like Sparkleworks was bearable, provided she didn't jump him, he still couldn't watch an adult one without fleeing in terror or having a breakdown. If he couldn't completely conquer his fear of clowns, how was he supposed to confront his own mother about how she was absolutely no help for his burden--heck, even adding to it--while he was growing up?

He took a deep breath. "No worries..." he whispered. "I still have until the end of August to decide on how I'm going to face her. It's not like the next party is in Manehattan."

When he came out of there, Cheese told him the bad news.

"We're going where?!"

Author's Note

Aaaand that's it for the Mane-tua segment! It's meant to be a quick breather before getting a bit heavier in the next segment--in Manehattan of all places. What gives, summer's not even halfway over, and we're returning to Manehattan already?

Well, the Cheesy Sense decides where to go, and Cheese can't stop it.

Thus, let's see what the next (mis)adventure brings to our lovely brothers!

13.1--Feelin' a Little Younger

Their departure the next morning was marked by the entire town of Mane-tua seeing them off. The folks all had a chance to have their hoofbumps, pats on the back, and hugs for Cheese, depending on how close they were to him. They stuck with little hoofshakes and timid waves for Tomato, as few ponies had interacted with him, though he gladly hoofbumped Sparkleworks and wished her luck in clowning. And Ponyacci gave them both big hugs, reminding Tomato to work on overcoming the fear, and Cheese to tell Tomato about the you-know-what so that they could fix that problem. Also, bury that mirror on the next full moon.

Pinkie Pie had accompanied them for a short time through the poplar hills, since they were going the same direction until she needed to diverge to Ponyville. All that time, she and Cheese had talked things party. Pinkie rambled on about the stress of impressing the Prince of Yakyakistan, while Cheese told her about one party where he ended up in burnout because of similar stress with extremely picky ponies. When they mentioned to Tomato that they'd go to extreme lengths to make sure their parties were perfect and that everypony was having fun (they are serious business, after all), he was both impressed and worried.

They had come to a clearing where the fork in the road was. There, they started their goodbyes. Pinkie gave a quick squeeze to Tomato, while he merely patted her back in return. With Cheese, on the other hoof, there was a close embrace that radiated with warmth, with their cheeks pressed against each other's and their noses taking a whiff of their scents. The hug was long enough that Tomato got bored, shuffled a good distance away, and started reading. He briefly wondered how Boneless 2 was staying on his saddle when Cheese was in that position, but it was best not to question it.

After a while, the silence was broken by Cheese whispering, "You smell like strawberries."

Pinkie giggled. "Well, you smell like nachos."

"And now I'm hungry."

"Me too!"

His heart raced, and he worried that she could feel it. Still, Cheese didn't want to let go of her; but, he had a party to throw, and she had to get home. So, he tentatively released her, his legs feeling weak from the rush he had felt just a few moments ago.

Gazing up at him, Pinkie tapped his chest and said, "You better get that memory back if you want your headaches to stop. You can't enjoy parties if your head hurts!" She leaned to the side for a quick glance at Tomato, balancing in a sitting postion on his tail at the side of the road. "Did you tell him yet?"

"No... but I'll get to it! I'm just trying to figure out how to break it to him."

"Okey-dokey-lokey!" She turned around and started bouncing away. "I'll make sure to tell Twilight about it so that she'll find a way to track it and that you'll be all better from those headaches and that your brotherly bonding time is back to being lots of fun for you two! Let me know if you learn anything else!"

Cheese waved and said, "Okay! We'll see you later!"

Pinkie was far down the path already. "Don't be a stranger! Keep being one of my bestest friends! Love you lots!"

Cheese blinked, slowly lowering his hoof. Did she just say...? Does that mean...? As he processed what he just heard, he felt his cheeks warming up, and his heart was leaping much like that sweet pink mare down that road was.

Tomato shut his book, went back on all fours, and walked up to Cheese. "Well, well, well... can you really deny that she actually said that she 'loves you lots'?"

Cheese chuckled nervously. "Oh... she just means, uh, that she, uh, loves me like a friend! I'm sure she says that to all her friends! Ehehe... yeah, that's it..." He glanced at Boneless 2 on his back, who laid there with his face to the sky. "Yeah, Boneless 2 thinks so, too."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Right..."

Cheese pursed his lips, and then shook his head. "Anyway..." He adjusted Boneless 2's saddle, and then started to walk down the other road of the fork, heading once more into tree-dotted hills. "Our next party awaits, baby bro!"

Tomato followed, his eyebrow twitching. "When is he going to stop calling me that?"

For the next couple of days, they traveled beyond Foal Mountain, weaving through the forest during the day and the night, and through rain and shine. They took a brief rest stop at Hollow Shades, nearly oversleeping because it was dark there. It was a good thing that Cheesy Sense kept insisting that they go to Manehattan.

It still didn't mean that they were any happier about their destination. Tomato was actively dreading the possibility of running into their mother, having explained to Cheese about his promise to himself back in the Crystal Empire should that Herald Angel guy stand up to his uncle. Even when Cheese explained that Manehattan's size meant that the chances of bumping into her was slim, Tomato still worried. After all, the chances of running into Bighoof had been slim, and switching bodies with the ruler of the country had been slim. Those still happened.

Cheese noted that Tomato had stopped himself at one point, and distinctly avoided mentioning anything about the slimmest chance that had happened thus far: the vampires. Cheese thought about getting his confession about his lost memory over with, and hopefully finding out the details he was missing from him. On the other hoof, he didn't want to compound Tomato's worries with that problem, so he kept his mouth shut.

It didn't stop him from joking that they might be throwing a party for Creme Brulee. Tomato shot that down with the tidbits of Creme Brulee's birthday being in June, and that she was sent to relatives out west to learn the meaning of hard work or something. To that last statement, Tomato had grumbled, "Good riddance."

They had one last mountain range to pass before they crossed the fields leading to Manehattan. Not willing to climb one or waste time going around it like they did at the beginning of the summer, Cheese found a shortcut: a deep cavern with it's wide mouth open at the base of one of the mountains. Assuring Tomato that his Cheesy Sense said it was a good tunnel that they could slip through safely and get to their destination, they went in. Cheese donned a miner's helmet, and put one on both Tomato and Boneless 2 as well.

The cave was silent, aside from the echoing hoofsteps and the drips of water from the stalactites. The air was like ice, making the stallions' ears and cheeks numb and their nostrils raw. They walked through the path between the stalagmites, glancing up at the stalactites as if they were about to fall on them any moment. At the moment, the only light they could see was the lights from their helmets.

"Are you sure this was a good idea?" Tomato asked, seemingly to the rows of stalagmites they walked between.

"Don't worry, Cheesy Sense has gotten me out of worse," Cheese whispered, hoping to avoid echos.

When his light landed on a skeleton among the rocks, Tomato flinched and drew closer to his brother. "Well, I hope this 'shortcut' is worth it. I don't want to end up like that guy."

Cheese looked around, and discovered another skeleton, this one having a stalagmite right through its rib cage. With a grimace, he said, "Or that guy." He looked up at the ceiling, and saw a hole right above the skeleton. "Glad we didn't take that entrance."

They passed those dead ponies, and a few more that seemed to be the victims of a cave in, a stalactite through the skull, and possibly starvation respectively. They grew more uncomfortable as they went deeper into the cave, stepping between columns, ducking under some 'drapes', and weaving around spiky hills of stalagmites.

At one point, Cheese said, "You know, we should pass the time by singing a song." He looked around, rubbing his chin. "About... this super secret tunnel?"

Tomato glared at him. "You start singing about this graveyard and I'll slap you silly."

Finally, they found some light, orange due to what was most likely the sunset, and out of relief, they both ended up cheering a little too loudly. The cave rattled with the echos, Tomato's ears hurt, Cheese's head hurt, and some bat residents that were presumably living at that mouth had started to complain. The brothers swayed, both of their ears ringing from their self-inflicted ear and head aches.

Tomato was the first to come out of their daze, if only to grumble, "Geez, those bats are pottymouths."

Right after, Cheese slurred, "My head is a balloon again... will you catch it before it pops on the ceiling daggers?"

Tomato sighed, and dragged Cheese forward. "Come on, let's get out of here before we cause a cave-in--we already came too close."

They dodged more of the cave formations as quickly as they could, eager to be free of the cold cavern. They were happy to get back out into the sunshine, and escape the wintry underground. Back to seeing flora, fauna, and actual living, breathing ponies with flesh and blood. Tomato nearly tripped on one stalagmite, and Cheese bumped into a column, but they still moved forward. They were so close to freedom, and they weren't going to lose it.

Once they reached the light, however, they discovered that they had not exited the cave. Instead, all they found was a large opening high above them--far too high for them to climb. They could see clouds speckled in the purple and orange sunset sky, the branches of trees, and some boulders forming a cone around the hole. Just a few steps from where the Sandwiches stood, there was a crystal clear spring, glittering with the magic that a nice drink would surely bring. In fact, due to the fresh smell and the air still feeling rather chilly, Cheese figured that this was a nice, cool spring that would definitely be a nice refreshment before they continued onward.

Tomato was looking up at the hole. "Well, we found the exit... how do you propose we get out?"

Cheese scratched his chin. "Well... on the one hoof, I could tie balloons to the both of us, and we can drift up until we get out. Problem with that is getting enough balloons to lift us both, steering so we make it through that hole, making sure the balloons don't pop, getting you down once we're out... but, I think it's our best option for getting out of here."

"How many balloons do you have?"

Cheese rummaged behind his back, pouting in a strange manner as he did so. When he finished, he sighed. "Sadly, only enough to carry one of us. I'm afraid we might have to spend the night here, and walk out the other side of the cave tomorrow."

Tomato fell to his rump, not caring about the rough surface, and threw his hooves up. "Great! More spelunking in this cold cave! Just what I wanted to do this whole summer."

Cheese groaned. "Look, Tomato, I don't want to be stuck all night in the cave either, but this is the best place to set up camp in here, since we have a ceiling light and a bit more warmth. So I don't want to hear any more of your whining."

Tomato glanced back at the chirping bats, and then spun around to them with an offended look. "No, he's not my father. He's, in fact, just three years older than I am." He listened to their chirping some more, and then leaned back. "Ew, no! He's my brother, now stop laughing!"

Cheese's eyes were at half-lids. "Are you seriously talking to the bats?"

Tomato snorted. "The little winged rats are making fun of us."

Cheese sighed and looked at Boneless Two on his back. "I think being underground too long has made Tommy a little cuckoo."

Tomato stood up. "Says the pony talking to a rubber chicken."

Cheese gasped, grabbed Boneless 2, and covered his nonexistent ears. "Are you implying that Boneless 2 does not have thoughts and feelings? That's discrimination against poultry!"

Tomato leapt in the air, roaring, "He's made of rubber!"

Cheese sighed. "Sheesh, between thinking that the bats are talking and your super crankiness, I think you might need to go to bed." He looked at the spring and pointed to it. "You know, take a nice drink of water, wind down, and I'll sing a little lullaby just for you, baby bro."

Tomato had landed, and stomped his hoof. "And another thing: stop calling me 'baby bro'!"

"What?" Cheese blinked and put a hoof on his chest. "Why should give up my cute little nickname for you?"

Tomato made a noise that sounded like a mix between a growl and a nicker. Tapping his hoof in counting motions, he snarled, "I'm not cute, I'm not little, and I went through freakin' puberty. Do you hear my voice? It's not anything like a little colt's voice anymore! It's demeaning when you use it in front of other ponies as you oh-so-casually tell them that you think of me as a foal."

Cheese furrowed his brow. "Okay, you're taking that phrase way too seriously. Looking out for you is not the same as treating you like a foal."

"It sure feels like you're on the bandwagon of 'Tommy's just a foal, he doesn't know what he wants, and he surely shouldn't be left alone at all, lest we have disaster happen!'" Tomato snorted and flicked his tail. "Just like what Mom thinks. But hey, at least you're a different flavor."

Knitted brows and tight lips were on Cheese's face, and he swore he felt the veins in his forehead pop. With a snort, he grabbed Tomato, lifted him up over his head, and stated, "Yep, taking it too seriously--sounds like overdue teenage angst mixed with needing some sleep. Let's get you ready for bed with a little bath time."

Tomato's eyes were wide. "Wait a minute, what are you--"

Cheese chucked him into the spring, bringing about a big SPLASH.

The resulting waves barely missed his hooves, and he caught the glasses that had been left behind in midair, reminding himself that he didn't want to lose those. He sighed in relief, glad that he got Tomato to shut up. He gazed at his underwater brother, who was holding his breath and just starting to move his limbs as the initial shock wore off. He seemed to shrink, but Cheese simply thought he was just sinking, and that he'd soon swim up for air.

Cheese exhaled, and started to rummage for a towel behind his back. "Sheesh, you couldn't have just stuck to complaining about the cave." He pulled one out and quickly cracked it like a whip. "When I call you 'baby bro', it's just affectionate, calling back to the old days of when we were best brother buddies. You're crazy if you think I'm doing it to be condescending to you."

He opened the towel wide. "Now, get out of the spring. I think you're clean enough."

A few moments passed, and Tomato hadn't climbed out. Cheese tapped his hind hoof. "I'm waiting..."

He heard none of the sloshing and splashing of the water, which Cheese found odd for him to not be doing. Setting the towel aside, he approached the spring. He's pulling that classic stunt--be eerily quiet to make me think he's drowning and lure me to the edge, and then he'll jump me and pull me into the spring. Odd for him to be goofy like that, but this should be fun.

However, when he looked in, his heart just about stopped. The pool was absolutely clear and there was no place for Tomato to hide in there--so where was he? In fact, the only things of his he saw were his clothes--jacket, shirt, and tie--which for some reason had been discarded and were sinking to the bottom of the pool.

"AAHHH! What did I do?!" Cheese jumped forward to dive in. "Don't worry, I'm coming!"

However, he was caught in midair by magic, and he found himself just hovering over the spring. Blinking, he tried to reach for the clothes, but he was too far from the surface of the water to even dip his hoof in. His heart raced as the clothes slowly sank deeper and deeper, and his gut twisted at the thought of his brother's sudden disappearance--and it was all his fault.

A feminine voice cried out, "What do you think you're doing? It's unwise to take a dip in there!"

He looked up, seeing on the other side of the spring a middle-aged unicorn mare, having a lilac coat, a multi-toned blue mane in a bun, and magenta eyes that glared at him. Her cutie mark was concealed by a dark purple cloak, but Cheese had a gut feeling that it was magic-related. She had caught him in an aura that matched her eyes, and was bringing him back to land.

The surprise wore off, and he started to squirm, protesting, "Miss, my brother's in the pool! Or at least his clothes are--I don't know what happened to him and I need to get those!"

The unicorn took a brief look in the spring, and muttered, "Oh, dear." Setting Cheese back on land, she turned to levitating the clothes out. She lifted the clothes, shook the water off, and then gingerly set them down beside her. She began to unbutton the jacket with her magic. When Cheese tried to touch it, she slapped his hoof, scolding, "Nuh-uh, don't touch the water, lest you experience age regression."

Cheese blinked. "What?"

She completely unbuttoned the jacket, and partially unbuttoned the shirt. Then, before Cheese's eyes, she pulled out a tiny newborn foal, eyes squeezed shut and body curled up in fetal position. Cheese's jaw slowly went slack as he processed the red-orange coat and the dark brown hair, and the reality of who that little colt was made his mind just stop. It couldn't be... it shouldn't be...

Did Tomato really just turn into a baby?

The mare squeezed the foal, and the little one coughed up water before letting out a cry. Or rather, a scream, since Cheese flinched when the baby let out that great noise that made his ears ring and head feeling like it was being ripped open. His mind going back to when he was three and new at the big brother thing, there was no doubt that that cry matched Tomato's from when Cheese had carried him by the tail.

His mind getting back into gear again, Cheese asked, "Miss, what's going on? Why's my brother a baby?"

The mare bounced little Tomato, and then pulled out a pacifier from her cloak to pop into the baby's mouth. "Did you not read the sign?"

"What sign?"

She leaned over to the side, and snorted at one particular spot on the other side of the pool, where a little hole signifying the placement of a post rested. "Darn sign always falls into the water. Had it been up, you would have known to not mess around in the Fountain of Youth."

Cheese blinked. "Fountain of..."

He could not believe it; that very thing that Tomato had been reading about actually existed! Did that mean all the stories in that book were true? How many ponies have found this thing and were actually a gazillion years old--or have otherwise dissolved into nothingness by way of regressing too far? Was this lady actually really old? He wondered if the answers were in the book that Tomato had been reading for the past couple weeks or--

Remembering Bighoof, Cheese wondered how he didn't see this one coming.

"The Waters of Forever?" the mare said. "As real as the fountain is, those stories are nothing but fiction."

The unicorn, Destiny Star, had taken Cheese and baby Tomato back to her chamber, which was a simple room with simple necessities as an area to prepare and store food, a little well for water, and a bed, as well as some leisure items like bean bags, a bookshelf with books, and other things. There were a couple other rooms off to the side--one serving as the bathroom, and the other being a "baby vault" for anyone unlucky enough to have fallen in, but were lucky enough to have been rescued before disappearing. There she laid out a spare bed and brought out her cradle for them to spend the night. After putting Tomato in the cradle, she let Cheese use her little well to have some water to down his medicine, and they later sat on the bean bags, sipping at some hot cocoa.

"Okay, I got that," Cheese said, letting himself sink in the bean bag. "Where'd it come from, anyway?"

"Oh, somepony I knew cast an age regression spell on this spring; and when you cast a spell on water, anypony who drinks or bathes in it end up having the effects of the spell on them." Destiny brushed a lock of hair from her face. "I don't know the spell to fix it, and nopony who does has come around, but I'm sure that one day that specific purification spell shall be cast, and I shall be free from guarding it."

"Well, I wouldn't want to be stuck living in this cave forever. Do you know the way out?"

Destiny gave him a half-lidded look. "Where do you think I got this stuff?"

Cheese glanced away. "Oh... right."

"Anyway, I can't leave this place for very long, as the effects wear off from a few days to a week, depending on the actual age of the pony." Destiny looked to the cradle, where baby Tomato was sleeping soundly. "Your brother will be back to normal soon."

Cheese tilted his head. "How long have you been here?"

"Oh... over a thousand years."

Cheese blinked, and then smiled. "Hey, you don't look a day over 50."

Destiny waved a hoof. "Aw, shucks. Anyway, I'll be here until the fountain's either purified or dried up, and then I can finally die and join my mother, brothers, sisters, husband, and many of my descendants."

"What about your father?"

Destiny turned grim. "Oh... him. He, uh, was sent elsewhere."

Sensing Destiny's discomfort, Cheese decided not to press her. So, he instead asked, "You think he'd be back to normal by the time we reach Manehattan? Because I've got to get there in a couple of days, because parties usually have a set date and I'd like to get there on time... and it'd be really awkward to have ponies think that Tomato's my son instead of my brother." His eyes widened and he clutched his head. "What if they ask who the mother is?"

"If you're lucky, his age-up would come early, or come after the party." Destiny shrugged. "But you never know. Perhaps it's best that you miss the--"

Cheese jumped to his hooves. "Miss the party?! I can't miss a party that Cheesy Sense specifically directed me to! It tells me when a party needs my touch, and I'm not risking a failure of a party for anything! The Sense is not kind to me if I miss a party."

Destiny blinked. "A Sense? Well, if you have a Sense... well, it's something that should be heeded, no questions asked."

Cheese smiled. "I'm glad you understand."

Destiny nodded and set her mug down. She turned to stare at Tomato. "In that case, I implore that you be careful in regards to your brother and any sporadic age-ups that may occur with him. Most ponies who suffer from this kind of age regression only have memories up to the age they resemble, such as right now when he has no memory at all, or if he ages up to say, five, as he'll only have memories up to that time period. He'll have trouble recognizing you, and it'd cause an uproar if he ages up in public."

Well, looks like I'm putting off that confession of my memory problem until he's back to being grown up, Cheese thought. He shrugged. "At least for the next few days, I won't have to deal with him being mad at me for tossing him in the Fountain of Youth. Besides... we're going to Manehattan! Weird things happen there all the time; I doubt anypony would really notice."

Author's Note

And thus, a new segment begins! And already we're getting into weird stuff.

You know, most of the weird stuff done in this story so far--and those that will be written--simply happened because "I had to." Because that means I thought it'd be fun. And that's essentially the reason for doing this Fountain of Youth thing.

How many magical ponds does Equestria have anyway...?

13.2--City Park

The next day, Destiny had led Cheese--carrying around his now-literal "baby bro" in a makeshift sling--out of the cave, and repeated her warning about being careful with Tomato's sudden age-ups. He waved her goodbye, and thanked her for the baby supplies he'd need for the next couple of days. He dreaded the thought of having to change Tomato's diaper; the last time he did that, he was three and clumsy, and the mess he made was bad enough for the smell to linger for weeks. He shuddered at the thought, but soldiered on, assuring himself that was just for a couple days, and Tomato would be all grown up again.

Walking through an open field sparse with trees, he looked down at Tomato, who had gone from tiny newborn to wide-eyed cherub the night before, and said, "You know, when you're back to normal, I'm fully expecting you to slap me for that stunt I pulled back there."

The tiny foal blinked his bright green eyes and tilted his head.

Cheese had spent the night in a hammock that he made out of his tarp, tying it to a branch just high enough to avoid any animals that would consider Tomato a snack. After feeding him with that bottle of formula given to him by Destiny, rocking him, burping him, changing his diaper--goodness gracious, he hated that smell!--and getting puked on, Cheese finally managed to get Tomato to sleep.

Before drifting off himself, Cheese had jokingly asked Boneless 2, "On a scale of one to ten, how good of a parent do you think I am?"

Boneless 2 simply laid there, and Cheese figured that he already fell asleep.

Patting the dark curls of the foal curled up on his chest, he somberly answered somewhat to Tomato, "Better than ours, I guess."

So they slept through the night, with Tomato surprisingly staying quiet throughout the entire night. As Cheese learned when he woke up, it may have been in part to Tomato having an age-up sometime in the middle of the night.

He was still a cherub, but instead of a little one that was more or less content with riding in the sling, he was bigger and bouncier. He was bouncing and crawling all over Cheese, pulling at his face, and chewing on his tail. Bouncing on Cheese's chest was how Tomato got his older brother to wake up, knocking the wind out of him, but the stallion quickly regained his breath when Tomato nearly fell out of the hammock.

Pulling the giggling baby back in after that heart attack, Cheese held him up, and said, "Wow, it looks like you're about a year or two already! They weren't kidding when they say 'they grow up so fast'."

Tomato responded by blowing bubbles with his little raspberries.

Cheese brought him to his side and rubbed his chin. "Okay... I think the rate of aging might be one age-up per day, but I'm not sure, you need to do another one for me to be absolutely sure." He stretched his front legs, not caring that the foal was pulling at his shirt and chewing on it. "I do think that that rate could keep us in the down-low about your actual condition, baby bro, so we'll be able to breeze through our next party with little trouble."

Tomato released the shirt, and started squeaking Boneless 2, laughing with each squeak. One squeeze shot out confetti from the rubber chicken's mouth, which startled the foal. Not a moment passed before he squealed in delight and continued to laugh.

Cheese smiled. "I forgot how happy of a baby you were, especially with how your, uh, stallion self tends to be pretty grumpy." Cheese sighed and shook his head. "There's a serious disconnect there, no doubt about it."

His smile faded once his nostrils caught a foul smell, and he groaned at the prospect of having to change Tomato again.

Manehattan was in sight. From where he walked, he could pinpoint each and every skyscraper that the city bore. There was the giant horse head of the Trade Plaza; and there were the single spires of the Crystaller Building and the Equire State Building, standing out among the many other towers that dwarfed the ponies on the streets. From Uptown to Midtown, and from Midtown to Downtown, the metropolis stretched out across the island.

Cheese kept on trotting forward, his babbling toddler brother on his back with his rubber chicken. "Back to the place of our colthood. Funny that you're literally reliving it, Tommy." He heard the squeaks of Boneless 2. "Why, yes, Boneless 2, I've got a lot of stories to tell about the crazy adventures that Tommy and I would have in that city. I've told you some, remember?"

Before he knew it, he had made it to the bridge, walking alongside the railroad leading into the city. "Tomato tended to fall off this bridge... no, he pretty much almost fell off everything in this city--bridge, building, ferry, you name it. Slippery little colt always managed to get past the railings... heheh, but I was also quick enough to catch him."

Pursing his lips, he looked at his back to make sure Tomato was still there. Thankfully, he was, though he was tossing Boneless 2 in the air repeatedly, whooping with each toss. One toss had the chicken going halfway through an arc over the railing before Cheese's tail launched out to snatch him, and put him back on the saddle with Tomato.

Cheese turned to Tomato, his brow furrowed sternly. "Tommy, please stop throwing him, I don't want to lose him."

Tomato gave him a dirty look, and then proceeded to slap him with the chicken.

"Ouch!" Cheese rubbed his cheek. Huffing out an airy snort, he gently, but firmly scolded, "No, Tommy, that's not nice."

Tomato huffed and crossed his little front legs, turning away and pouting.

With a sigh, Cheese continued, "That hurt both me and Boneless 2, Tommy. Would you like it if somepony slapped you with a chicken, or used you to hit somepony else? Yeah, I'm fairly certain that second one would hurt a lot."

Tomato still pouted, refusing to even look at his older brother. Cheese shook his head, as toddlers were wont to pout. Luckily, it wasn't too bad, and he figured that Tomato would forget about it by the time they made it to the party site. Instead, he continued to Boneless 2, "Remember last Hearth's Warming when we snatched Tommy, and took him to that Hearth's Warming party and went caroling? You know, how I showed you the neighborhood where I spent the first eleven years of my life?"

Those eleven years came to mind, and he frowned upon hearing the malicious laughter of bullies, whether it'd just be simple name-calling (sure, why not, it's not like any of them cared to remember his actual name), chasing him whenever he so much looked at them awkwardly, or stealing his glasses to make fun of his eyesight. The meaner ones had used the school's doors as a weapon against him, resulting in nasty bruises and even black eyes; the nicer foals were just simple bystanders, with the mentality that somepony else would take care of it.

And then there were his parents. Another two entries to the list of unhelpful adults: one who was always too busy with his work to give either of his sons the time of day; the other discouraging him from using any "freakish" abilities, telling him that showing weakness would make things worse, and not letting him live down the marks short of the acceptable grade of A. Constant stress put a great strain on his brainpower, and there was no need to remind himself of how he fell into the trap of jealousy of Tomato and his less stressful life.

He glanced back at Tomato, who was in awe at the skyscrapers they approached. What he'd give to be that innocent again.

He sighed. "Yep... where Mane-tua helped me bloom, Manehattan was helping to shut me down."

They crossed into Midtown, walking down the street to where Cheesy Sense was leading the stallion. He wove into Manehattan's large and colorful herd, all trotting at a brisk pace in order to make it to whatever appointments they had. The beats of every individual drum synced perfectly for a blend of various walk cycles and directions, and he made sure to blend his own beat with all the others. Their hooves all danced around garbage that everypony was too busy to pick up, and followed the paths dictated by tall buildings of brick and concrete and the streets sandwiched between.

At one corner, Cheese turned to cross the street, carefully watching the carriages zoom by. As Cheese faced the parallel corner, Tomato was facing another adjacent corner, staring at the ponies waiting to cross. The toddler was especially drawn not to any of the more bright and colorful coated ponies, but the one unicorn leaning against the building, concealing his mane with a cloak and his face with a newspaper that he levitated.

The paper slid down to reveal purple eyes, and Tomato giggled, and shouted, "Peek-a-boo!"

The ponies beside Cheese gave Tomato a funny look. Cheese looked back at him as well. "Hey, who ya talking to, baby bro?"

Tomato faced him, pointed across the street, and shouted, "Unicorn! He play Peek-a-boo!"

Cheese looked at the crowd at the adjacent corner. "Which one?"

Tomato flapped his other front leg. "Paper!"

Cheese narrowed his eyes, took a closer look, and shook his head. "None of them are carrying papers. I guess the one you saw left."

Tomato blinked and turned to face that corner again. Sure enough, the cloaked unicorn with the newspaper was gone. There were, however, some ponies looking away as if they had been staring at Cheese's cowpony outfit from afar, but were embarrassed to have been caught.

Cheese chuckled. "Some ponies may stare at your undeniable cuteness, but most folks would find it strange to play peek-a-boo with a stranger's baby from across the street." He rubbed his chin. "Now that I think of it... I'm surprised you haven't fussed over being carried around by me; I don't think you recognize me as your brother... or do you on some subconscious level?"

Cheese perked up when the police officer in the road blew his whistle, and crossed the road. "Come on, I'm sensing that this party is being set up in the park."

They had ventured deep into the park before finding the location of the party. There, Cheese found a stage, with a great canopy that rose above it. In the grass before it, with much under the shade of trees, there were a couple of ponies spreading out some picnic blankets, who kept looking back at the stage and mumbled something about decorating it later. Finally, there was a cream-coated, blue-maned mare rolling in a rack of outfits and talking with a hot pink mare with a mane of lighter pink, white, and lavender.

"I'm so excited for the official Summer Theater Days kickoff party, Flower Garland," the cream one squeed. "I'm grateful that you came to help with the future plays after the Midsummer Theater Revival was a success."

The hot pink mare waved a hoof. "It's nothing, Coco--I've forgotten how much I loved participating in those plays before Charity Kindheart left." She looked up at the ponies spreading the blankets, and frowned. "Though... you don't seem to be good at fetching help."

Coco sighed. "I know. It's difficult to get ponies that are available, since somepony always has work to do or an appointment to get to... even I had some costumes to sew for the next show! Sometimes I just wish that city life would slow down."

Cheese leaned against a tree. Well, lucky for you, Cheese Sandwich is here to help! Now, shall I use introduction A, M, or Y?

Flower Garland looked down. "Hey, where did that foal come from?"

Cheese's eyes widened as he noticed that Tomato was running around the confused mares and pulling grass to throw as confetti, Boneless 2 in his mouth barely concealing the squealing laughter. He jumped on their backs, snatched Coco's floral hair clip--with Coco giving the weak protest of "No, please don't take that."--and clipped it on his forelock. Then, he jumped through the rack, slipping between outfits in a little game that no adult knew the rules to.

Cheese checked his back to make sure it wasn't an illusion, and he groaned. Well, so much for deciding on a good entrance, he thought, and he galloped forward in order to catch the toddler.

Snatching Tomato mid-run, he skidded to a stop before hitting the stage. He turned to the mares, and squeezed the squirming colt close to his body. "Excuse me, this little guy's with me. I took my eyes off of him for a second and he just bolted off!" He pulled the clip off Tomato's forelock and returned it to Coco. "Hahaha, kids, am I right?"

Tomato flapped his front legs and kicked his hind legs wildly. "Put me down!"

Flower and Coco blinked, scanning the poncho and hat that he wore. After a moment, as the latter muttered her thanks and fastened her clip back in her mane, the former said, "Well, at least you caught your son before he got into too much trouble, cowboy."

Tomato dropped Boneless 2 and bit Cheese's foreleg. The pain from the little sharp incisors radiated through Cheese's body, but he kept a grin on his face. "Oh, no no no, he's not my son; he's my brother."

"Really?" Flower scanned Cheese up and down, noting his height and taking a guess at his age. "That's... a big age gap."

"Uh... accidents happen?"

Flower raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't tell him that if I were you."

Cheese managed to pry the colt's mouth off his leg. "Oh, no worries, he won't remember it years down the road. For now, he's just a little rascal that likes to have his fun." Then, he said to Tomato in a baby voice, "Isn't that right, buddy?"

Coco was staring at Tomato, a smile on her face and a hoof hovering just in front of it. "I'm sorry, I know it's impolite to stare, but.." She leaned forward to examine the little foal more, and then squished her hooves on her cheeks. "He's just so cute!" She looked up at Cheese. "What's his name?"

Cheese held him out proudly. "Tomato, of course! Tommy for short. Wanna hold him?"

"Oh, yes! As long as he doesn't take my hair clip again." Coco took Tomato and scratched his chin.

Tomato giggled. "You pretty, lady..."

"Aw, you little gentleman," Coco giggled. She looked up at the other two. "To be honest, his color's a bit more orange than what you'd see in a regular old tomato--I knew a Tomato in school and he was red as can be. But I suppose you could justify it with orange varieties of that vegetable--I've actually seen orange tomatoes."

Flower gave her a funny look. "Tomato's a fruit."

Coco blushed and scrunched her nose. Bending down to pick up Boneless 2 to give to Tomato, she murmured, "Oh, right, that's something we learn in grade school..."

Cheese cleared his throat. "Anyway... I couldn't help but overhear you girls needing a bit of help for your shindig you and your pals are setting up here."

One pony spreading out a blanket called, "I'm only here because I was promised free food."

Coco glanced at that pony for a moment before facing Cheese again. "Oh, you see, I planned a Midsummer Theater Revival for this park earlier this month, and with the help of a couple of friends and the Method Mares, it was a success in promoting community togetherness. I've been planning events for the rest of the summer in order to keep the togetherness strong--it takes effort to maintain, you know."

Cheese nodded in approval. "Ah, a planner, are you? I like you already, Miss..."

"Oh, Coco Pommel." She freed a hoof from holding Tomato (who was busy trying to untie Coco's purple sailor collar) in order to shake Cheese's outstretched hoof. "I'm technically a Bridleway designer, but I did enjoy planning these events. Are you planning on lending a hoof for our kickoff picnic party, sir?"

"That I am."

Before Coco could say another word, Flower butted in with, "Oh? And just what can you do, cowboy?"

Cheese smirked. "What can I do?" He leapt onto the stage, spun around, and tossed his cowpony getup off of him in one fell swoop. Holding his accordion and pumping out an upbeat tune as he did a mini can can dance, he hollered, "I'll tell you that Cheese Sandwich can and will make this a kickoff party for your neighborhood to remember!"

Tomato, who had climbed on top of Coco's head, was clapping and squealing, while the mares stared up in awe.

Cheese started to sing his signature song and danced a energetic dance, telling them all about how his parties were all off the hook and that he never planned them by the book. Listing the many activities he had done in the previous parties, he hopped, danced, and cartwheeled around that space in the park. Slipping behind one tree made his apparel change into lederhosen, spinning past another had it change into a Starswirl costume, and passing behind any other trees, lampposts, or anything else had him changing outfits until he popped up onto the stage's canopy, back in his yellow shirt.

He continued singing, hopping down in front of the two, having somehow acquired a few balls to juggle with his tail. After singing about some of the delicious food that his parties have boasted, he threw those little balls up in the air, and they all burst into confetti and streamers raining down on the ponies in that area.

Finally, he grabbed little Tomato, flipped back onto the stage, and sang,

"The Super Duper Party Pony, that pony is meeeeee...."

He lifted the giggling and whooping Tomato up with pride.

"My parties are for young and old, and for bright smiles like Tommy's!"

"Hey!" Tomato chirped.

As Flower looked up at him with a wide-eyed stare, Coco, the other helpers, and a couple of passersby had applauded him, whether by way of stomps or Coco's humble little clap. Several other passersby simply stared at the scene with confused pouts and raised eyebrows, and awkwardly shuffled away to pretend they didn't see that. And there were a couple that openly scoffed at the party pony's nonsense.

Cheese set Tomato down on the stage floor, and he took a bow, with the toddler attempting to imitate him.

"That was wonderful!" Coco lauded, still clapping.

Cheese climbed down from the stage, yanked a vacuum from behind his back, and started to clean up the confetti. "Thank you, little filly."

Flower pointed to the vacuum. "Mind explaining that?"

Cheese blinked and looked at the tube. "Oh, this? Well, I've got to clean up the confetti before I get in trouble with passerby officials. Last time I was here to throw a party, I got in trouble for littering, and they threatened to revoke my party permit." He huffed with a snort from his nose. "Bunch of killjoys."

"Party permit?" Coco asked.

Cheese pulled out a polka-dotted wallet. "It's the only reason I even have a wallet... aside from spare change I find during my travels. Anyway, I have permits to throw big parties for just about every park in every city in Equestria." He opened it up, and a long stream of laminated permits rolled down to the ground, and kept unraveling to a ridiculous length. It was long enough that Tomato hopped down from the stage, and started chasing what was still rolling.

"Roll-y!" he cheered.

Coco smiled at Tomato again and giggled. "He just keeps getting cuter."

Cheese scanned the list of permits until he spotted Manehattan. "Okay, good, this one didn't expire! I could go all out if I wanted to."

Coco looked up. "Oh, well, could you please keep the focus on the theater?" She pointed to the stage. "I don't want everypony to be too distracted from the main point of the first event of the Summer Theater Days."

Cheese saluted. "No problemo. Where do you want me to start?"

Once the stage was spruced up and decorated with soft colors, spotlights, and streamers, as well as picnic blankets spread out on the lawn and having balloons tied to them, the group decided to take a lunch break, with Cheese providing some leftover food items that he had saved from Ponyacci's anniversary. Tomato especially enjoyed the cake, and his face was messy as can be.

Coco graciously provided the little colt with a napkin. "You might want to clean up before the party starts. We want you to be a presentable little gentleman, don't we?"

Flower Garland turned to her. "The party's not until sunset."

Tomato took the napkin and threw it over his shoulder, and continued to stuff his face with cake. Cheese grabbed the napkin, and started wiping him himself, much to the squirming Tomato's chagrin.

"See, you don't just tell a toddler to wipe themselves--you have to fight them in order to clean them," Cheese said, grabbing as much frosting as he could off of Tomato's cheeks. "Seen plenty of mothers do this at plenty of parties. And, well, we've all been the toddler, and..." He shot a glare at his rubber chicken. "Boneless 2, as well as his brother the first Boneless, has been fussy when I've had to clean him after a party."

Coco, Flower, and the other two ponies exchanged odd looks.

"Stop!" Tomato snapped, trying to swat away Cheese.

Cheese shook his head. "Nope."

Soon enough, Tommy's face was all clean, despite his tiny scowl. Cheese crumpled up the frosting-lathered napkin, and then tossed it into a faraway garbage bin. Once it had dived straight into the bin, he threw his hooves up and hollered, "Score!"

Flower leaned in her hoof. "So, where you from?"

Cheese turned to her. "Oh... well, technically, I was born here in the Neigh Yoke Area. I hail from the neighborhood of--"

He was interrupted by a hiccup from Tomato, and he noticed a few of the other ponies staring at the toddler. Cheese turned to his brother, who was not only clutching his stomach as if he had a tummy ache, but glowing like a lantern as well. As the toddler emanated his aura, he was steadily but visibly growing bigger, with every feature getting a little less chubby and a little more fine. As a testament to the sudden growth spurt, the diaper had clearly gotten tighter, and was threatening to rip.

Cheese's face was still, but every corner of his mind was screaming, Not here! Not now! Don't age up in front of these ponies! He glanced at them to gauge their reaction, which was that of wide eyes and increasingly slackening jaws.

Tomato stopped glowing, and he looked up with wide eyes. With a gasp, he shouted, "Who are you?!"

Cheese waved his hooves. "Now, now, Tommy, let me explain--"

"How did you know my name?! I never met you before!" Tomato looked around with panic, and hopped to his hooves. "Cheesy, help! These strangers stole me and put me in a diaper!"

"Tomato, wait, I am Cheese!"

Tomato glared at him. "No, you're not! You're old!"

Cheese put a hoof to his chest. "Well, I never! I'll have you know that I'm a fresh and young twenty--oof!"

Tomato had hopped on his head and sent it crashing to the ground, before hopping over the rest of him and quickly waddling away. Raising his head again, Cheese turned, and shouted, "Tomato, wait, you don't understand! I am your big brother! Th-there's a reason why I'm older than usual!"

Coco tilted her head. "Older than usual...?"

Tomato had shuffled a good distance away before he decided he had enough of the diaper and tore it off. Free from the restrictive garment, Tomato bolted toward the park's exit at full speed. Even when Cheese had appeared there in order to block his way, he just slipped through the stallion's long legs, and made it across the street just before a carriage hit him.

Cheese attempted to follow, only for his muzzle to be grazed by a speeding taxi. By the time the taxi passed, Tomato had disappeared.

Cheese stared at the street for a good long moment, plopping down onto his haunches, and beginning a series of nervous chuckles that broke into a fit of kooky giggles. He kept up the giggle fit as he stared at the streets ahead, with Tomato being concealed by buildings of all shapes and sizes, and ponies of all shapes and sizes, and horse-drawn carriages of all shapes and sizes, and--

He threw himself back in mad laughter, barely even noticing Coco cautiously approaching him.

"Um... Cheese?" she asked. "What just happened?"

Cheese laughed some more, clutching his face in anguish. "Oh, no, he's gonna die. Ahahaha, he's gonna die..." He rolled back over and looked up at Coco with desperation. "Tommy's gonna die because he was a reckless, hyperactive nut at the age of five! Eight-year-old me was always there to rescue him from danger, and right now Cheesy can't, because Cheesy's right here, as a full grown pony in the prime of his life, while Tommy's the wrong age right now because he's supposed to be just three... years... younger than me!"

A couple of ponies walking by stared at Cheese wallowing in his madness, and walked faster in order to escape him before he did anything.

Coco flinched at Cheese's raised voice. "Please calm down! Can you explain what you're going on about? I'm kinda lost..."

Cheese sighed and stood up. "Ever heard of the Fountain of Youth?"

Author's Note

Here I am, attempting to write Manehattan, instead of just inside the Sandwich home, or at their school, or at their grandparents' restaurant... yeah, I'm totally going to have a fun and easy time writing this (not).

In other news, canon pony of the week is Coco Pommel.

Also, have another FIM-ified G3 pony, Flower Garland.

13.4--Growing Up Too Fast

Cheese was going too slow of a pace for his liking. Having to keep his use of his magic to a minimum out of courtesy for Coco and fear of scaring ponies into calling the authorities, he dreaded having to walk around a large city at a normal pace. Especially when it'd be far more efficient with his lamppost jumping in order to find his lost brother. Heck, he'd personally like to get a yo-yo and use it to swing around town in hopes of finding the kid.

Running had already gotten him yelled at, as well as having him leave behind Coco at several points. She was clearly not much of an athlete, nor could she swim through a crowd as effectively as he. The only reason he had let her tag along was because an extra pair of eyes would definitely help with looking down two directions at the same time; still, he didn't appreciate having to be hindered in his search.

Thoughts flew through his mind as he and Coco strode down the street, his heartbeat punctuating every image of every time that Tomato got into trouble as a colt, so many being close calls. He saw the possible results of himself arriving just one second too late, his stomach lurching at the thought of a dead colt. For all he knew, this could be the very scene on some other street.

Could Cheesy Sense alert him if Tommy was dead? He wasn't sure he wanted to find out.

As they approached the next corner, he suddenly found a newspaper shoved in his face, to the point where it nearly suffocated him. Beside him, Coco squeaked and backed up, trying to keep from gagging at the sight of wrinkled, wild-eyed, and frizzy-maned pony that smelled of sewage and was covered in dirt. He held the paper so that it was molded to Cheese's face, much to the party pony's displeasure.

"The end is upon us!" the raggedy pony sputtered. "I knew the demons of Tartarus would descend upon Equestria, and they've already begun their campaign!"

Coco rubbed her foreleg, pursing her lips. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."

As Cheese peeled the newspaper off his face, the raggedy pony continued, "The vampires in Las Pegasus, of course! The demons have chosen that city to feast upon first, for their sinful lifestyle makes for delicious meals!" He leaned close enough to Coco that she could smell his rancid breath. "But that's just the appetizer... the main course would be either those in Canterlot or us in Manehattan!" He sprung back to the corner and rubbed his chin. "Question is if they want to attack the political center or the city with the most ponies..."

Coco tilted her head. "Uh, Mister, those weren't demons, it was an experiment made by a crazy pony."

The pony gave her a stink eye. "Oh? How do you know that he's not a demon?"

"Oh, I'm sure it was just an isolated incident that happened only... once..."

"Are you sure? Because it could be demons! Or worse... a government conspiracy!"

As Coco argued with the dirty pony, Cheese looked at the newspaper, with his heart sinking as the headline jumped out at him:

Myth No More! Powerful Warlock Attacks Las Pegasus With Vampire Army!

The picture below the headline was that of the Pegasus Strip, clearly at what was nighttime and taken from indoors. What looked like the unholy combination of pony and bat was descending on the cloudy streets, each of them either tackling or scooping up fleeing civilians, foals included. Each pony had their blood-stained fangs bared, with some ready to sink into another's neck. Their red eyes glowed under the neon lights, and the shadows of even more of those monsters hovered over the pavement.

So it really did happen. A aching tingle erupted in Cheese's neck, and he rubbed it in an attempt to soothe it. That was the event that he had forgotten? When he had imagined it upon Pinkie telling him, it wasn't nearly as disturbing of an image as this. He attempted to search for himself in the picture, but to no avail... he did see the Great and Powerful Trixie in the background, fighting some off with a frying pan. He hoped she didn't get bitten.

Then he remembered that he may have almost got bitten. In a scene like that, with palpable fear and even the sight of blood, there was no way the situation was in any way funny, even with him involved. This was clearly the stuff of nightmares! Rubbing his head as it began to ache, he wondered if he even wanted his memory of the event back. Whoever had stolen it, they can keep it.

He gave the newspaper back to the conspiracy theorist, and started crossing the street without looking both ways.

Coco, however, only looked in one direction of the street before shouting, "Cheese, wait! There's a--"

A driver trying to skid to a halt rammed into him, and Cheese Sandwich was sent flying.

Coco winced at the sight. "...carriage."

He inadvertently curled up in a ball as he soared through the neighborhood. He bumped into one building, and then another. And another. And another. In fact, he was bumping into a lot of buildings in the manner of a pinball, hitting the walls of buildings with distinct pinging noises, much to the confusion of pedestrians. He narrowly missed a lot of ponies, each looking as if they nearly had a heart attack. He was also bouncing off various carriages and buggies, cracking a lot of windows, and bending several street lamps as he ricocheted around the block.

"Oh, dear!" Coco looked both ways before running across the street, chasing Cheese in his large pinball game.

"...and that's when he zoomed in on his wagon! And he picked me up and we rided down the street away from the evil candy pony!" Tomato rambled, dancing the motions on the sidewalk in front of Penny and Noble. Two legs could be considered clumsy for a colt his age, but little Tommy was surprisingly graceful in his reenactment, flowing through the zooming motions, bouncing off the walls of nearby buildings, standing up, and pointing with ease. He barely dodged pedestrians, who gave him looks of either confusion or annoyance.

A starry-eyed Noble leaned on his mother's back. "Wow... your big brother sounds so awesome! He's like a real superhero!"

Tomato bounced alongside the gray mare, still looking up at the gray colt. "Of course he's awesome! Did I mention his acker-dee-dum?" He stood up and pumped his hooves as if he were squeezing something large between them. "He plays it lots, and we dance and sing and make funny faces..."

"Sounds like a lot of fun," Penny replied.

Noble pouted. "I wish I had a big brother."

"I'm afraid that's not possible, sweetheart." Penny gave a small smile toward him. "However, your father and I have been discussing giving you a little brother or sister..."

Noble gasped. "You mean I can be the big brother?"

"If you're willing to be as amazing as Cheese."

Noble clapped and grinned at Tomato. "Oh boy! Did you hear that? I can be a big brother! Can Cheese give me big brother lessons?"

"If we find out where Tommy lives, I'll consider arranging a playdate."

Tomato grinned and bounced. "Cheese will love giving you big brother lessons! It'll be lots of fun with him teaching you acker-dee-dum and cowspies and tiny parties and funny faces... and singing! Singing's lotsa fun and we're really good at it, wanna hear? I have a song in my head I wanna sing."

"Go ahead and sing," Penny said.

Tomato let his angelic little voice rang, "Somewhere there's a mountain... it must be far away..." Tomato put a hoof to his chin. "Uh... something something some-thing... darn, I forgot the words."

"That's a beautiful song, I've never heard it before," Penny said, tapping a hoof in applause alongside Noble's clapping.

"Yeah, I overheard Flora singing it once. She's got a lovely voice." Right after the words escaped his mouth, Tomato's expression took on a perplexed form. "Wait... who's Flora?"

Before either Penny or Noble could reply, they were interrupted by the loud pinging, similar to that of a pinball machine. They looked across the street, where ponies who had been strolling in a humdrum manner before suddenly jumped and ducked. A couple seconds passed as a large wad of orange, yellow, and brown struck the building right behind where the ponies had stood, and bounced off to directly across the street, prompting even more ponies, including Penny to duck as well. Screams sounded as the ball of fur rebounded left and right, with one pony even getting slammed into a wall at one point, another getting knocked into the nearest building, and a carrot dog vendor having his umbrella knocked off his cart.

As other ponies rushed away from the street, one off-white mare arrived, gauging the gamboge ball as it ricocheted on the street. Her eyes fell on the trio, and she gasped. She looked up at the furball to yell something, but she thought better of it when it bent a street lamp. Biting her lip, she looked between the furball and the group, specifically Tomato, before she screamed, stared straight at the street signs on the corner for a few moments, and repeated the street name to herself as she followed the furball around the other corner.

"Huh, it's almost like my sister is in town. And is it just me, or did that mare look familiar?" Penny looked around at the shaking, wide-eyed ponies, all the while maintaining her own composure. "Never mind that, let's get you to the police station as fast as we can, Tomato."

Tomato was wide-eyed himself. "That was so weird! Is that what Mama means when she says I bounce off the walls?"

He eyed the carrot dog cart, with the grumbling vendor trying to fix his umbrella. "Oooh! I love carrot dogs!"

Before Penny could stop him, he zipped to the cart, and bounced in place in front of it with a big grin. He still grinned as the mustard-coated stallion looked down at him, his whiskered chin in a curious pout.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"Hi, I'm Tommy and I'd like to have a carrot dog please!"

The umbrella clicked, and the stallion released it, only for it to fall again. With a sigh, his marigold eyes looked at him. "Tommy, huh? I knew a Tommy when I was a colt..." His eyes widened as he continued to stare at the colt. "And uh... oddly enough, you look a lot like him..."

Tomato tilted his head. "Does that mean I get a discount, Squirt?"

The stallion blinked. "You even know my colthood nickname. That's just creepy."

Tomato gasped. "I guessed your nickname?! Oh, oh, is it short for Mustard Squirt Bottle?"

Squirt backed away. "My full name, too? What the hay, kid?!"

Tomato whooped and jumped. "Yay! I get a hundred percent discount! It's free! It's free! It's freeeeee..."

Squirt plopped down on the sidewalk, threw his white paper hat on the ground, and threw his hooves up. "I never said anything about a discount! Heck, you're too young to know about discounts!" He glared at the dancing colt in front of him. "If your name is Tomato Sandwich, you're not getting a discount."

Tomato stopped his dance, growled, and stomped as hard as he could on the sidewalk. "Augh! No fair! I never told you my name! How did you know?"

Squirt stared at him with wide eyes, and ran his hoof through his brown and green mane. "Please tell me this is a dream."

Penny caught up, and glared at Tomato. "Look, we shouldn't dilly dally with the carrot dog vendor. I'm sorry if you're hungry, but it's best that we get to the police station so that your family can find you. And, well, they'll feed you."

Tomato turned to her and pouted. "But I'm hungry right now!"

"Well, maybe if you're lucky, one of the officers will give you a donut."

Tomato's pout intensified into a scowl. "I'm in no mood for a donut."

"I'd like a donut," Noble said, licking his lips.

Penny rubbed a temple. "Do you want your grandparents to find you or not? And I'm sure Cheese is worried about you as well."

Tomato growled at her, but that growl morphed into a groan, and he started to clutch his stomach. Penny, Noble, and Squirt watched as the colt began to glow, and he steadily grew larger. His pig-nosed snout sharpened into a fine muzzle befitting of a young stallion, and he shed some of his baby fat. Once the glowing had stopped, Tomato unrolled out of his ball, now resembling a colt that was just under ten.

Squirt stared at the colt for a moment, and rubbed his head. "I need to stop taking trips to the bar."

Tomato looked up and blinked. Squinting his eyes, he asked aloud, "Am I in the city? What am I doing here?" He felt his face. "Where are my glasses?" He pulled at his cheeks, stuck his hoof in his mane, and then in his tail. "I don't even have my spares! Oh, no, Mom's gonna kill me..."

He stood up, walked to the corner, and then shimmied up the street sign. Squinting at the sign, he gasped, and muttered, "This is the street the police station's on!" He slid back down and turned to the blurry gray blob that was behind him, pointing to the crosswalk he stood next to. "Uh... you pony... can you tell me if this is the right way to the police station? I have something important I need to do."

"Yes, that's the right way..." Penny answered, with an uncertain lilt to her voice. "We were headed there anyway, Tomato."

Tomato's eyes widened. "How do you know my name?"

"You... you told me."

Tomato backed up. "But... I don't know anypony with that voice, or has that mane and coat color combo... or... or... I don't know you!"

"Did you forget me?" Noble said. A whine came from his throat. "We just became friends!"

Tomato backed up into the street, his fearful eyes gleaming like he had just been stabbed. "Don't be silly! I don't have any friends, everypony hates me now!"

"Tomato, get out of the street!" Penny yelled.

A carriage barely missed Tomato's nose, and made him stumble back. His heart pounding, he barely had any time to process what just happened when he heard another carriage coming his way. The driver of said carriage saw him, and attempted to swerve out of the way, just missing Penny, Noble, and Squirt, and sending the carrot dog stand flying, much to the vendor's distressed cries.

The stand hit a taxi carriage, with the driver galloping away from the wreck without realizing that he wasn't even pulling it anymore. Another driver skidded to a halt when seeing the wreck; unfortunately, those behind him and those crossing on that very intersection weren't fast enough at stopping, and the result was a cacophony of skids, crashes, and howls of pain accompanied one big splintery pile of wood and ponies.

Tomato rolled out of the street, panting from his near death experience. Standing up shakily, he attempted to walk to the station by himself, but Penny and Noble zoomed across the street and stopped him.

"Okay, I hope you have a good explanation for your sudden growth spurt and why you didn't listen when I told you to get out of the street," Penny growled.

Tomato pushed her away and tried to run. "Stop following me!"

There was a clang as he bumped into a stop sign and cried out in pain. With a growl, he yelled, "I'd be able to find my way around if I just had my stupid glasses!"

Noble leaned over his mother's shoulder and pulled at her front pocket. "Can your reading glasses help him, Mama?"

"I don't know," Penny replied. "They might not be the right kind." With a sigh, she said, "Look, I assure you that Noble and I are friendly, and we'll read the signs for you in order to help."

Tomato glared at the gray blur before him. "How do I know you're not gonna kidnap me?"

"We just want to return you to your grandparents and brother--that's what you told us your problem is. Do you remember that conversation?"

Tomato blinked, his lashes getting damp as he fought the lump in his throat. "That can't be right... Gramma and Grampa are dead, and... and my brother..."

He took a deep breath and yelled, "That's why I need to get to the police station! I wanna know if they found him yet!"

Penny blinked. "Wait, I thought you were lost, not your brother."

"I might as well be lost without my glasses..." Tomato glanced up, taking a closer look to get a clearer picture of the mare's face. "I... guess you're friendly? You're obviously a mother, so I guess you're not that bad. You'll read the signs to help me get to the station, right?"

"On my honor."

"Me too!" Noble chirped.

Tomato sighed. "Okay. Let's go."

When they finally made it to the police station, Tomato did not hesitate to jump onto the information desk and demand answers on the whereabouts of his brother. The officer at the desk told him to settle down, and asked that Tomato be more calm and clear with his request. The officer in question was older and had been part of the force for fifteen years, but had quite the amazing memory. So when he heard the name and description of a young Cheese Sandwich, he realized why this exact scene, down to the worried colt in question, was so familiar.

What confused him was how that same colt apparently never grew up--by now, this little red (he didn't care what his fellow officer said, that kid was red to him) colt should be a young adult, or at least a teenager. He had never quite got the Sandwich brother's age.

And when he calmly explained that that case had been closed years ago, and that Cheese Sandwich was now an adult...

Tomato's eyes widened, and out came the great scream of "WHAT?!"

Coco didn't know how she could keep up with Cheese, but she managed to follow the ricocheting stallion around the city, going around in circles, and weaving around blocks. She pushed her way through crowds, who often yelled at her for that and only received a hasty apology from her. Even worse was that she saw Tomato at some point, but she couldn't pause for long to confirm, lest she lose Cheese. She wouldn't be able to explain the weird age situation to him without his brother, after all! So, she made sure to memorize the street that she last saw him.

She followed him until he bounced across a bridge to one of the smaller neighborhoods. She considered it a miracle that he didn't fly off the bridge and plummet into the water, only hitting the support beams, buggies of all shapes and sizes, and a train that happened to be rolling in. She paused to take a breath once she saw that he was slowing down and going straight, reasoning that she could catch up to him later.

Her legs were ready to collapse under her any moment, and her lungs were sore as she panted. "Oh... I always... hated... gym class!"

It was deep in the neighborhood that Cheese finally unrolled out of his ball. The soreness that permeated his body, especially the pain that gripped his brain, squeezed a groan out of him. The blue sky above him was spinning, as if he was lying on a merry-go-round. Clangs of rusty bells were in his ears, echoing their thunderous noises to draw more pain from his headache. His stomach churned and bubbled within, threatening to overflow had he been allowed to continue in the Manehattan pinball game. And once again, he felt as if he was floating away again.

"Hey!"

Cheese winced from the echoes of that shout, and looked up at an annoyed taxi driver.

"You're right in the middle of the road!"

Celestia, that echo hurt! That was a painful reminder of why he needed that memory back. At least Cheese was able to understand him, and forced his aching body to roll on the hard pavement all the way to the gutter. Now nestled between the road and the sidewalk, tiny pebbles piercing his skin, he watched the taxi driver trot away in a huff. Now that he wasn't in anypony's way... maybe it was a good time for a nap. So, he closed his eyes.

Then, he heard a vibrating, feminine voice say, "Of all the things I expected today, finding my eldest son in the gutter was not one of them."

Cheese snapped his eyes open, and looked up to find a familiar mare of golden yellow. Her mane was a reddish-orange color, her ponytail a bush behind her neck and a distinctive curled forelock above her head. Her eyes were the sharpest brown out of anypony in Equestria, managing to stand out among her thick lashes. She wore a purple pearl necklace crowned by an aquamarine gemstone--a piece of jewelry far too fine for someone of her low social class.

Cheese stared at her for a moment before croaking, "...hi, Mom."

His mother, Mozzarella, still glared at him. "Get up."

Cheese groaned, and he rolled onto his stomach. He boosted himself up with his front legs, despite the soreness making them shake and nearly making him stumble back to the ground. Once he balanced himself, he turned to her, rubbing his head. "Watch the tone; I've been having a bad day."

Mozzarella raised an eyebrow. "A bad day? And here I was thinking that a 'party pony' could not have one of those."

He sighed and was about to ask what she was doing in this neighborhood, but a quick look around at the modest homes and some of the residents walking about convinced him otherwise. Some ponies were walking about without a care in the world--some of them resembling classmates of his from when he he was a colt. He hated the fact that all of those former classmates that he saw were those bullies that were always on the forefront of his mind when remembering school.

There was the ever-spoiled Skippy Bit, always bribing other foals and even teachers to look the other way when he did something wrong; the bad-tempered Yorker, who had broken Cheese's glasses at least three times--and got him in trouble with his mother for that. A mare reminded him of the notorious River Belle, who took pride in literal mudslinging and water dumping with best pegasus friend Zippy. From around the corner came Wally, ever full of greed and stealing any spare bits Cheese had on hoof. And there came Skeeter Pumpkineater, who definitely looked like a pumpkin and used size to his advantage. And then Balcony Flowerbox trotted by, and he exchanged glares of mutual disgust with her before she left.

Tense in his already aching muscles and the echos of both past and present ringing in his ears, he started wondering when these ponies would notice him and start laughing about all the torment they put him through. He was already feeling the pangs of anger just looking at his mother, for all her bossy, harsh, insensitive nature--he did not need those jerks making things worse.

"You know... seeing you reminds me..." Mozzarella said, examining her own hoof. As she set the hoof down, she asked, "Where's your brother?"

Shoot. How was he going to explain to her the Fountain of Youth thing and the fact that Tomato's lost in Manehattan? Heck, it'd be worse if she asked about what happened in Las Pegasus--Pinkie had said that Tomato turned into a vampire. He was thankful that she most likely didn't know about both her sons' involvement in that--if she did, she'd ask about details that Cheese didn't have at the moment.

Mozzarella forced his head closer to hers so that they were eye to eye. "I asked you a question."

He hated the eye-to-eye tactic. "Oh, he's... at the library! Yeah, Manehattan Public Library! I asked him to research a... a..." His brain screamed as he tried to think. "...aaaabout the recorded history of... theater! Yeah, there's a theater party in Central Park that I'm helping somepony throw for various friends she has in Manehattan. I just got hit by a carriage, sending me bouncing around the city, and I ended... up... here." Cheese pursed his lips and rubbed his leg. "In my home neighborhood." He forced himself to grin at her. "Funny, isn't it?"

Mozzarella's lips were tight before she answered, "Yes, hilarious. Ha ha. You know what else is funny?" She released him and stomped a hoof. "How he blatantly lied to me about what he was doing at the beginning of his summer vacation!"

Figures Tomato didn't tell her. Not that Cheese could blame him, but he did set up at least one of them facing their mother's wrath. He didn't want to think about what Tommy would face come the end of summer.

Mozzarella continued, "He told me that he was just seeing a friend off at the train station. You know, the hippie, since Bluejinx and those actor twins had already left by then. But I smelled something fishy when night fell and he still hadn't returned home. I asked a worker at the station, and they confirmed that he met you there, and went with you on some adventure. At the very least, he didn't go with the tramp and elope with her; on the other hoof, who knows what kind of debauchery he'd commit when with you!"

Cheese smacked his forehead, and slid his hoof down his face. "Mom, I've told you a million times that I don't do those kinds of parties! I strive to make them for ponies of all ages! And furthermore, if you knew some of the things he's done during the trip, you would be proud!" His voice lowered into a darker tone. "Then again... it's hard to make you proud, isn't it?"

Mozzarella snorted. "It's hard to be proud when ponies comment on how much of freaks both my sons are, and shift blame on me for any trouble they cause." She grumbled under her breath, "As if I hadn't received enough blame for my sister's crocodile tears back in fillyhood."

She shook her head. "Why couldn't you just succeed in a normal job like a normal pony? Why can't you just let your brother be and let him be the normal one? I do not appreciate this vacation you two are taking without my permission."

Cheese held a vicious glower toward her, with tight lips, clenched teeth, and wrinkles on his nose and brow. "Oh, yeah, freak! As if you were ever a good motivator! How about words of encouragement instead of scaring me? How about some comfort after all these jerks--" He made a sweeping gesture toward his now grown classmates. "--pummeled me, covered me in filth, locked me out of the school, or unleashed whatever other torment on me just for being that shy, weird geek? Or how about just letting me be a kid back then?" He poked her chest, making her step back. "And last time I checked, I don't need your permission to bond with my brother."

Skeeter Pumpkineater protested from his spot across the street, "Hey, wait, I don't remember doing anything to a pony like you!"

Cheese turned to him, still holding his glare, whipped out a pair of his old glasses, and set them on his muzzle. Skeeter staggered back as Cheese jumped toward him and snarled, "Remember 'Four-Eyes'?"

Skeeter blinked, and his eyes widened in realization. "Wait, you're...?"

Cheese ignored him, and glanced at Wally at the corner, who was clad in a suit and tie. He zoomed right into his face, watching him sweat. "How about 'Poofhead'?"

A trembling River Belle on the opposite corner squeaked when Cheese popped up in front of her. "How's it feel to be the 'Squeaker' now?"

He rolled to Skippy Bit, and pointed at his flank. "Hey, look, I'm not a blank flank anymore!"

Skippy Bit stuttered, "W-w-we already knew you weren't a blank flank anymore! I-I-It's so obvious that you'd earn your cutie mark by now! Why are you so angry... uh... Curly?"

Cheese growled. "The name is Cheese Sandwich. And quite frankly, I don't want to be here!"

"Cheese Alfred Sandwich!" Mozzarella yelled. "Leave bystanders out of our discussion!"

Cheese snorted, and walked back to his mother. "Yeah, sure, have me at your beck and call for now, but don't you dare suggest that it was all in my head, that I just imagined their cruelty and was overreacting to everything. At least Tommy realized he was insensitive about the situation as a colt, unlike the rest of you..."

He swept his eyes around the block, taking note of the ponies that stared, especially the former bullies. "None of you seem to think that you did anything wrong."

There was a pause as everyone was staring. The tension was palpable, especially with an angry party pony just a few yards away. Soon, one by one, they left, not wanting to deal with the fallout that was sure to erupt. Fear and confusion were especially evident on the former bullies' faces, and some softly murmured about how the Sandwiches seem to have scary tempers.

Once all had left, Mozzarella replied, "Making assumptions on everyone's character now? That's not a good way to argue."

"Well, I'm not assuming anything about your character, am I?" Cheese huffed.

"You assumed a lot about your brother whenever you visited to try to 'cheer him up'. And it was always the same thing every time. He has a bad day like we all do, you show up, do your silly circus acts, and when he refuses to crack a smile, you change face to your mean side and wonder why he's so unhappy when his life is 'perfect'. Even if I have a part in Tomato's change... don't you realize that you're a big influence on his attitude as well?"

Cheese paused, and sighed. "Look... I realized how I was hurting him last fall... can't you realize your part in hurting him?"

Mozzarella shook her head. "If I'm going to be honest... if he emulates that freak nature of yours, how is the business world supposed to take him seriously? The city has no patience for ponies of that nature, so I best nip it in the bud before he embarrasses himself. Then again, he's already done that, and his blatant disobedience is not helping matters."

Cheese snorted. "Of course... why am I not surprised? Well, I intend to spend the whole summer with him, no matter what you say, and we're only halfway done. Maybe it'll give him a chance to release some of that 'freakiness' that he's pent up for years."

Mozzarella narrowed her eyes. "Of course you won't listen. But maybe you'll listen when I say that he better still be in one piece by summer's end. You know how he tends to get into trouble."

Cheese turned his back on her. "Don't worry about it. I want him in one piece too."

"I intend to have a word with him the next time I see him... he could get it over with while you're still here, or put it off until the end of the summer. It's his choice."

"Puh," Cheese spat as he started walking through the neighborhood and headed back to the bridge. He thought about just ignoring his mother and forget about bringing Tomato home, and instead keep his baby bro by his side not just for the rest of the summer, but for the rest of his life. After all, what could be better than two best brother buddies having adventures throughout Equestria together? Isn't that what Tommy always wanted, to grow closer with him and have that same bond like they were little? Cheese was sure it'd be a blast!

Then again, Tomato would not be happy about being a college dropout, or having minimal contact with his friends, who wouldn't be able to know where to send letters. While Tommy probably could manage finances behind the scenes on their travels, who's to say that he wouldn't want to establish his own business in an actual building... and in an actual city? What if Tommy wanted to settle down with a nice mare and raise a family? The thought of him as a father boggled Cheese's mind, and he hoped that he didn't end up like their own father.

The modest homes gave way to larger buildings, boasting businesses of all kinds. One such building was an old red one, with a large sign above large windows, and a spring green door facing the corner. He paused in his tracks, the imagined smell of pizza wafting through his nose, and the taste filling his mouth. Good memories had been made in that building, and he wanted to see if Tomato went in there to see his dear grandparents. It hurt to think of the disappointment Tomato would face when learning that they're gone.

Cheese smiled sadly. "Gee, I wonder how Tommy's going to react when he finds out he's actually..."

Cheese didn't dare finish the sentence with his brother's true age. Tomato still had some growing up to do, no doubt about it. Still, it didn't stop Cheese's heart from sinking over the fact that his baby brother was becoming an adult. And it hurt to think that he had missed most of Tomato's adolescence, feud or not.

He ran his hoof through his mane, groaning from yet another headache, and looked back at the neighborhood several blocks back. A pang of guilt hit him in the chest, and he thought about going back there to apologize to those ponies for letting his anger about colthood get to him and derail the discussion. However, he trudge on forward, deciding that their fear wasn't the right reason for any regret. Nor was the fact that he's now the Super Duper Party Pony that was worth respecting.

He hated to admit it, but he despised being in this city. Even with the good memories like playing with Tommy and visiting their grandparents, layers were being peeled away to reveal his own bitterness about the rest. He shouldn't let the dark days of his colthood taint his visits here, but unlike most other times in most other cities, he couldn't exactly 'forgive and forget'.

He passed many more various buildings, be they apartments or businesses, along several blocks, and soon found himself nearing the bridge. He thought of something he had told Pinkie before: "I vowed that day to change my life, the past I did set free."

He sure tried.

He ended up bumping into Coco, much to his surprise. He had been certain that he had accidentally left her behind on that corner, and he had no idea how she tracked him down. However, seeing as her face was just fading from redness and her legs were simply carrying her at a safe, almost-non-painful pace, he could tell that he ended up putting her through a bit of torment.

"Sorry about getting us sidetracked like that... you look don't look so good!" he said.

Coco waved a hoof. "No trouble... no trouble... but I have good news."

"Yeah?"

"I caught sight of Tomato earlier as you were bouncing off the buildings, and I memorized the street name!" She smiled brightly at him. "He was with a mare and what I think is her son, and they were clearly heading toward the police station."

Cheese blinked as he took in the news, and his face slowly broke into a large grin. Then, he whooped and jumped high in the air, hovering as he yelled, "He's not dead! It's a miracle, my baby bro is not dead!" He landed back on his hooves, and scratched his chin. "We might have to figure out a way to not scare him and get in trouble with the police, but by golly, we have a lead!"

He bolted off into the city, shouting, "Come on, let's go!"

Coco turned and cried, "No, wait! Leeeeeegs..."

As she flopped down on the sidewalk, moaning in agony, Cheese zipped back, and said, "Oh, right. Sorry..."

After an argument with that police officer about time, what year it was, and Cheese's apparent state as an adult stallion, Tomato had stormed out of the station, claiming to be heading home. However, Penny had remembered his myopia, and wondered why he didn't just ask for an escort home so that he didn't have to worry about bumping into trouble. So, she caught up with him, and asked him that very question.

Tomato refused to answer, even as Penny pressed him. The wreck earlier should have proved to him that it was dangerous for him to walk alone in the city without his glasses, and yet he was intending to do just that. She tried to guess what it was that was bothering him. Was it anger at the police sparking off pride? Was he just disoriented by somehow ending up in the future? Or was he upset about having missed his big brother growing up?

They stood at a corner, she read the street name, and continued on, crossing the street to the next block. Then they turned another corner and went straight forward in silence, passing several blocks until they came to a view of the river. By then, Noble had fallen asleep, and Penny had to keep him balanced on her back.

Tomato went forward to the railing, and leaned on it in order to stare off into space. It wasn't as if he could pinpoint anything with his blurry view of anything further than his muzzle. "Look... you don't have to follow me. I can find my way home."

Penny raised an eyebrow. "Something tells me that you're lying, and you don't intend on going home."

Tomato snorted. "What does it matter to you? I'm a kid stuck in the future, and I don't know if I'll be able to go back. If I do go back and get to grow up... I guess I'd like to find older me right now, just to see what I'm like. And maybe find Cheese too, and ask him when he came back, and if he forgives me."

Penny recalled the argument, which involved matters of time, the date, and a flurry of confusing information about Cheese Sandwich's age, as well as that of Tomato Sandwich. Those two names stuck out to her, those being the names of the stallions that had helped her two youngest siblings, Silver Shill and Comedy Gold, with a couple of big problems they had. She wasn't sure if it was just a coincidence, Silver was encouraged to open a restaurant by a little kid, or Tomato ended up getting hit with an age spell. If she recalled correctly, time travel was too difficult a spell to maintain for long by any unicorn, as a friend once told her.

Noble stirred on her back and let out a sleepy sigh, and she in turn tenderly stroked his mane.

Tomato had glanced back to see that action, and sighed. "Even then... I don't really like going home. For a long time, I had lots of fun with my friends, and got to see lots of new things in this city. It's always amazing to find something new in a city you lived in for so long. It's like... finding out a family member's secret."

Tomato brushed his hoof back and forth on the top of the railing. "But going home... it's just so cold and lonely. Dad's always working on stuff he brought home from his job; Mom only asks me about homework or snaps at me when I do something bad... she doesn't even have a sense of humor!"

He hugged the railing. "And then... my big brother. He used to play with me when I was little, but for some reason, he now pushes me away, locks himself in our room, and just turns his back on me. I tried to help him beat his shyness and show my friends how amazing he really is, but that just made everypony mad... and I don't like mad, it scares me. 'Specially when Cheese exploded at me for breaking his accordion, and ran away after that. I didn't even get to say 'I'm sorry'."

Penny walked to his side. "So... are you saying you have a dreary family life?"

"I guess you could say that." Even with his vision, Tomato could see that the sun was beginning its descent to the western horizon, though said horizon was blocked by many towers. "Can't cry about it; I'm a big colt, after all. Last time I cried, everypony laughed at me and made fun of me for missing Cheese." Tomato sniffed and wiped his eye. "I can't help being sad; I lost my best friend."

Penny reached forward and patted his back. "I know what it's like to lose someone you love, and try to be strong for everypony else. I went through the same thing when my father died." She looked back at her sleeping son. "I named my firstborn 'Noble Metal' in his honor."

She turned back to Tomato. "It's normal to feel sad when those things happen, and it takes a long time to heal... even then, you don't feel like you'll be the same. I'm sorry you haven't had much in the way of support--that's what a grieving soul needs."

Tomato put a hoof to his chin. "Well... I still have my friend Bluejinx. He's still my friend, and stays in class with me during recess, and helps me with my homework... I'm usually good at school, but I can't really think straight and I get headaches." He smiled. "At least this trip to the future says that Cheese is okay, and he grows up..." He frowned again. "I just really hope he's still not mad at me."

Penny smiled at him. "I don't think he will be. I hear Cheese Sandwich is a nice fellow, and you're too wonderful of a pony for him to hate."

Tomato had turned and smiled back, enjoying this lady's presence. Normally, it was wise to heed the advice of not talking to strangers; but he was grateful that he was lucky enough to come across a nice stranger. It struck him as odd that she already knew his name, but she really did have an interest in bringing him to the police station, or even home. It'd be nice to meet her and Noble again after this.

Much to his surprise, he suddenly found himself glowing. Before he could remark on it, a sharp pain erupted in his abdomen. He clutched his belly, and rocked in an attempt to soothe himself. Groaning, he just felt first aches of his slowly extending bones, his stretching skin and muscles, and all his organs working overdrive to support the growth before everything went black.

Penny watched as the glowing Tomato grew bigger once again. An extra shine on his flank ended up waking Noble up, and the small colt rubbed his eyes and blinked as a young adolescent Tomato emerged from his aura, with a cutie mark to boot. And for some reason, he was scowling.

Tomato looked up at Penny and squinted, feeling his face for his glasses. After a moment, he backed up, giving her a wary glare. "Who are you?"

Penny sighed, wondering if he was going to forget her every time that happened. "My name is Platinum Pen, and the colt on my back is Noble Metal. I promise we're friendly, and I'm here to help you."

Noble blinked. "Whoa... Tommy grew up to a big kid!"

Tomato looked at his legs, which had grown longer, and growled in a cracking voice, "I'm not a kid! I'm an official teenager now! See the growth spurt I'm having right now, or are you hearing my deepening voice?"

Penny was not impressed. "Don't talk to my son like that. Now... I've heard about you and your brother. How is he?"

Tomato's glare sharpened. "You mean that arrogant, self-righteous jerk? He can go to Tartarus for all I care!"

Penny blinked. "Huh?"

"What happened?" Noble asked.

Tomato snorted and turned around. "It's none of your business."

As Tomato broke into his canter and crossed the street, Penny attempted to follow, only for a buggy to pass by. The buggy passed, but Tomato had disappeared. Crossing the street and rushing to the next corner, she looked left and right to see if he had turned anywhere, but he was not in sight.

Noble climbed up onto her head and looked around. "I don't see him, Mama!"

"Me neither. Judging by his squinting, he still needs glasses, and he's now at that age where he thinks he knows everything, including how to survive without them... or worse." Penny kept looking around, biting her lip as she waited for the indication that it was okay to cross. "I don't know if anypony else will help him before it's too late."

Cheese and Coco had caught a taxi to take them to the very street the latter had described, and their hearts were beating in anticipation as they approached ever closer to the location. Cheese's leg bounced impatiently when the taxi stopped, every second that could be used to find Tomato, explain things, and get back to the party being wasted in watching a little old mare crossing the street. It was no help that his head was pounding, but there was no way he was pausing to take his medicine until Tommy was safe.

A sensation bit his flank and made him shudder, causing Coco to lean back and ask, "What was that?"

Cheese rubbed his flank. "Dang, Cheesy Sense doesn't usually act up unless I'm done with a party. And... it's telling me that... Tomato earned his cutie mark?" He blinked, and his eyes widened as he realized what that meant. "Oh, boy, what age is he now? In any case, I better find him and give him his glasses!"

The taxi moved once again. Coco said, "Don't worry, we're almost there... and, uh, do you need some itching ointment?"

Cheese was now scratching his flanks like crazy, alternating between his hooves and tail to relieve his itch. He turned to her with a pained grin. "Oh, no worries, Cheesy Sense is just telling me I have to resolve an old conflict with him... ugh, again."

13.5--A Bridge Too Far

After cantering about several blocks and turning several corners, relying on nearby objects and buildings and distant colors to keep himself off the street and avoid pedestrians, Tomato was certain that he had lost that strange mare. The how and why of his waking up on that walk facing one of the rivers (he unfortunately couldn't tell which due to not having his glasses) was terribly uncertain, but it was rather suspicious. How the heck did that lady even know he had a brother? Had she been stalking him?

In any case, he was now on a corner somewhere in the middle of the city, as he could tell by the dull reds, dull yellows, browns, and grays of the nearby buildings, with billboards and shop signs having incomprehensible pictures and garbled messages. He could also make out the vague shapes of carriages, both moving and static, and the various colors of the ponies walking the sidewalks across the street.

Right beside him was a long, thin, silver pole, with green rectangles hanging near the top. Shimmying up the pole, Tomato read the signs in order to find out which street he was on. After reading so, he then jumped across the street, landing in the midst of ponies who jumped back and squealed in fright.

One angry stallion shouted at him, "Hey! Watch where you're landing, weirdo!"

Another snapped, "Yeah, you coulda hurt someone!"

A snooty sounding mare echoed, "There are children here, young colt! An adolescent such as yourself would do well not to set such a bad example for them!"

Tomato snorted. "This city is full of worse examples than me; get over it."

He stormed away from that group of ponies, and went down to the next corner. He climbed up the next sign, and read it to determine which direction he was headed. From the name of the previous street and the name of this one, he concluded that he was going north, and that he had several blocks to go before he reached the street leading to the bridge home.

He could just hear his mother now, exploding on him about his whereabouts and asking why she didn't know where he was going, and going on about how that was the reason he needed a babysitter. How was he going to explain the truth without sounding like a straight-faced liar?

Whatever the answer, she was just going to put him on lockdown, stick him in his room and tell him to be quiet. No calling on Bluejinx for a couple of weeks, not even for study time. No singing a tune in order to keep himself from getting bored, lest Mom come in and remind him that he's not destined to be on Bridleway. Most of his toys and Cheese's things had been thrown out, so his room was pretty darn boring--aside from various books that Bluejinx had given him for the last few Hearth's Warmings and birthdays. And since he lost his glasses, he couldn't read without shoving his face in the book and squinting.

Of course, the book thing was the least of his problems should he admit to having lost his glasses to Mom. Cheese had been punished for losing or even breaking his glasses, and Tomato dreaded being subjected to all of Mom's speeches on how irresponsible of a colt he was for letting it happen, and that was why he should have been supervised. No visual distractions could save him from that torture, but it was his best chance of getting new glasses.

He could sing a little tune to pass the time while walking down the street, but even his bad eyesight and his decent hearing could alert him to the presence of the many ponies around him. He kept his mouth shut, so that he didn't attract any more attention. He had already been scolded for his stunt back there, pulling something that his frivolous older brother wouldn't shy away from. Annoying ponies with a song would most likely bring about ponies telling him he's not living in a musical, so he should shut his trap. It wasn't his special talent anyway, so he didn't want to highlight that disparity between his voice and his cutie mark.

His hoof stepped on something cylindrical, and he slipped and stumbled forward. Regaining his balance, he looked at the green object on the ground, and picked it up for a closer look.

"What litterbug leaves a bottle lying around?" he mumbled.

It was a miracle that the thing hadn't been shattered. He held it against his eyes, and to his surprise, he could actually see clearly through the thing. His vision now had a green tint and was somewhat warped due to the bottle's shape, but everything was now crystal clear. It was weird that this bottle was as good as his glasses, but he didn't mind. He was just happy that he could read the signs without climbing them.

Taking in the street that he recognized as a street in Midtown, he took note of each building, each alley, each cart and buggy, and even those holes in the wall that some ponies went into for a quick respite from crazy city life. He turned around to see what little shop he was in front of.

He was in front of a bar.

Though he wondered what those drinks inside tasted like, he didn't dare think of the fury his mother would unleash if she caught him drunk. Heck, if she saw him carrying around that bottle, he'd get in trouble for more than just losing his glasses. And yet, he couldn't leave just yet, if only for the curiosity of the fact that he could see his father in there.

Now, most ponies would go in there to drown their sorrows, and Tomato wouldn't be surprised if Dad did just that. But it was a peculiar sight to see him not drinking, but sitting in a chair, looking up at framed photos above the bar's piano, and... talking to them? It certainly seemed like Dad had his sanity henpecked to death.

Turning his bottle around to use as a telescope had Tomato seeing that the picture that Dad was talking to was actually one that looked like a younger version of his Grandpa Beans--Dad's dad. Since Grandpa Beans was dead, it wasn't much of a stretch to assume that Dad must miss him terribly.

Tomato himself was bummed out that he didn't remember Beans, having only been a baby at the time of his death. He could have sworn that somepony told him that Beans was planning on teaching him how to play the piano. Maybe if Tomato could play that instrument, perhaps he wouldn't feel so empty at home; or better yet, it might have been his special talent instead of the money thing! Surely a life where ponies appreciated musical talent was better than gold-diggers faking a friendship until they saw his house, or bullies wanting to nip an "oppressor" in the bud. He probably wouldn't be nearly be as stuck-up as Cheese about it.

Tomato had to resist the urge to smash the bottle when thinking of his brother. Cheese was probably living it up somewhere with some stupid party, doing dirty deeds with shallow ponies, abusing that endless freedom that he snagged for himself. That idiot couldn't take anything seriously anymore, and thought that he could do no wrong. Just another reason for Tomato to withhold any apology about the accordion incident or whatever else that offended Cheese--which was everything about Tomato himself.

After taking one last look at his deceased grandfather's picture and his father slumped over that chair with baggy eyes and hair that was starting to gray, Tomato left the area before Dad would turn around and notice him. With the bottle held over his eyes, he started making his way back home. He dreaded having to face Mom, and hoped she wouldn't withhold dinner from him over the glasses.

He received odd looks from ponies as he strode down the sidewalk, peering through his bottle as he kept track of landmarks and read the street signs. As much as he'd prefer to disappear, his need for clear sight came first.

At one corner, a stranger outright told him, "I sure hope you haven't been drinking out of that."

Tomato turned to the stranger, who was a unicorn in a cloak. "Nah, I just found it on the ground. It's my makeshift glasses."

"I see. Lost your glasses, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to head home. Mom's gonna kill me for losing them, and ground me like she always does when I misbehave."

"Hm. Where do you live?"

Tomato quirked an eyebrow at him, lowering the glass a little to see the accurate shade of blue of the unicorn's coat. "What's it matter to you? We're probably never going to see each other again." After a pause, he muttered, "I have to cross a bridge... not saying which."

"Ah, you have to cross a bridge?" The unicorn chuckled. "Be careful not to fall off."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

They crossed the road, and Tomato and the unicorn split ways at the next corner, with the latter mentioning something about going to the park. Not like Tomato cared; it was just a simple stranger, nothing more. However, a gut feeling and a tingling in his spine told him that he should still hurry away from that corner, just in case this pony was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

At the police station, the officer at the desk was shuffling papers when the front doors swung open, and a frantic Cheese Sandwich leaped in, landing on the desk. Papers flew from the startled officer, and there was a brief silence as Coco daintily pranced in, biting her lip out of a combination of embarrassment and dread. She was right to feel that way, as the officer's face turned red.

"What's the big idea?! This ain't no circus!" the officer barked, his voice apparently strong enough to knock Cheese off the desk. He leaned over with a good look at the stallion, and sighed. "And I see that the Manehattan Police Department's favorite troublemaker has come to town. What's the shindig this time and are you keeping it in that area?"

Cheese hopped back to his hooves and gestured to Coco. "I was helping this little lady with a theater party in the park. Don't worry, she wants it kind of small, so there won't be much ruckus."

"Ah, so you finally got a girlfriend. She's a pretty thing."

Cheese bore a half-lidded expression as he replied in his flattest tone, "No."

The officer leaned on the desk, the tips of his two front hooves together. "Well, whatever you're doing here, it better be important."

He took a deep breath, his tail scratching his flank. "I'm here to ask if a little reddish-orangish colt with curly, dark hair, and bright green eyes like mine--" He pulled at his eyelids in order to have the officer take a good look at his eye color. "--has stopped by here at any point in time."

The officer scratched his chin. "Was it that kid that jumped on my desk frantically asking for the return of his brother about an hour ago? He was begging us for information on the whereabouts of a Cheese Sandwich... not unlike he did more than a decade ago, when that said pony was an eleven-year-old runaway. Weird how that very kid didn't seem to age one bit ever since that case was closed, while you, Cheese, have grown up."

Cheese blinked. Clearly Tomato had already aged up to eight by the time he got here, presumably to a point in time after Cheese had run away from home. He knew Tomato had been upset about it, but the details never really quite manifested in his mind.

He then cast his eyes down, that very image appearing in his mind. He could hear the very questions coming from young Tomato's mouth, with a desperate choke on his voice as he tried to hold back tears. He could feel the worry as the colt paced back and forth in his room, asking every question under the sun about his beloved brother's whereabouts, wondering whether if he was dead or alive and if he'd be willing to come home. He could heard the anguished apologies screamed to a void, in the vain hope that Cheese would somehow hear them. And then there was the hammer of guilt unleashed upon him, by parents and fellow students telling him that his feelings on the situation didn't matter, and that he was solely responsible for his own loss.

Thoughts like that always brought a bout of nausea to Cheese's stomach and an itch to his cutie mark. He had thought that nopony would miss him if he left, that everypony, including his family, was better off without the shy, geeky failure tainting the neighborhood with his presence. Unfortunately, it had been the biggest and ugliest crack on Tomato's broken spirit, only growing bigger and uglier with the feud.

Coco put a hoof on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Cheese sighed, and brushed the hoof away. "I'm fine, the past is in the past, and he's forgiven me for that strife." He looked up at the officer. "I'm actually amazed that you remember that case, officer."

The officer shrugged. "Eh, I was working on it way back when, and my mind's like a steel trap. Anyway, if you're wondering where the kid is, he left in a huff, grumbling about going home or something. I assume he knows his way back."

Cheese blinked, and groaned. Do you seriously not remember the fact that he's supposed to wear glasses? How is he supposed to head home without them?

He sure hoped that Tomato didn't get into some kind of accident thanks to nearsightedness.

"Oh, I hope that Flower Garland won't be angry that we were gone for hours," Coco mumbled.

Cheese and Coco were back to square one, and Cheese's head pounded as they walked through the city. With each pound came the echo of the million conversations present on each block, be they between food vendors and their customers, excited tourists, ponies just heading home from work, and a ton of other situations that he didn't really care about. And yet he could hear the details clear as day, which grew worse as they passed through the dense junction of Times Square.

"...so I hear those ponies in the Money District..."

"...I hear some pony in the Broncs got literally tickled to death..."

"Come on! You promised we'd go to Carneighie Hall!"

"The end of the world is upon us!"

"...do you know where the hardware store is?"

It was as if the entire population of Manehattan was screaming in a cave, their shout reverberating in Cheese's ears. The echos hammered away at his skull, and each pound made his legs feel weaker. He still forced himself upright, in order to show his companion that he was still going strong, that he was not tired, and that once this was all over, he could still plan the party.

The echos considerably lessened once they left the junction, but he could still hear strange noises in his ears, and Coco's voice was warped as she said, "This is awful! At this rate, we might never find him!"

Cheese glared at her. "Don't say that! We'll find him, I've always managed to find him before."

Cheese's flanks still itched, and as far as he knew, Tomato could still be found. That didn't stop him from worrying about what would happen if the itch suddenly stopped. It could either mean that Tomato was back to normal, confused and embarrassed about being in the middle of the city without his clothes, or that he was dead from some danger he couldn't discern before it was too late. He held his breath, keeping himself as composed as possible, though his head still ached from just about everything.

When they came across a gray, dark-blue haired mare carrying a little colt on her back, Coco jumped when both Cheese and the mare said at the same time, "Have you seen a red-orange colt with dark curly hair, bright green eyes, and a cutie mark resembling a tomato in the shape of a moneybag?"

Both parties blinked, with the mare having her mouth in an O, while Cheese's jaw was slack. Coco had her hoof to her mouth as she glanced between both of the ponies, wondering who was going to break the silence. She hoped it'd be quick, since several ponies were swinging around them, shooting glares in their direction. Some even shouted at them to "Move it!", to which the colt on the gray mare's back responded with a raspberry.

Finally, Cheese idly took out his wallet and unveiled the line of photos of Tomato.

Upon seeing them, the gray mare relaxed with a stony face. "Well, it seems we're searching for the same pony."

Cheese furrowed his brow. "Yeah..." He leaned forward with a dirty look. "Okay, lady, please explain why you're looking for my brother!"

The mare just blinked impassively and answered, "You must be Cheese Sandwich. Nice to meet you, I'm Platinum Pen."

The little colt on her back waved. "I'm Noble Metal!"

Coco giggled. "Aww, you're a handsome young stallion."

Noble puffed up his chest and flexed his little foal muscles. "Thank ya very much, beautiful."

"Anyway..." Platinum Pen continued. "I found him down near the Money District earlier this afternoon, and I took him to the police station so that his grandparents and brother would locate him there. Plans suddenly changed when he suddenly grew from Noble's age to around eight to ten years old, and his mission was then begging the police to find his runaway brother."

"Uh, yeah, we went there," Cheese said. "The officer there told us."

Platinum Pen nodded. "He attempted to walk home by himself."

"But he's blind, so he can't read the signs," Noble added.

"Nearsighted, actually," Cheese corrected.

"I figured that out when he climbed up the street signs to read them." Platinum Pen stuffed her loose, green tie back into her purple jacket. "Anyway, I followed him to make sure he didn't get hurt, we stopped to look over the East River for a little bit and talked, and then he turned into a young teenager. He ran off again, and I'm worried that he's going to get in trouble."

Cheese stomped. "He climbed the street signs to read them? Dang, he probably knows where he's going!" Then, Cheese blinked, and he smiled. "Yeah, he knows where he's going! And at uh, thirteen or something, he'd probably be going home!" He leapt into the air. "Woohoo! Thank you, Penny, we have another lead!"

Coco smiled at Penny. "I understand if you were freaked out at his age-ups--I know I was when he aged from toddler to preschooler."

"What is going on with him, anyway?" Penny asked.

"Yeah, he keeps growing bigger so fast!" Noble complained. "I thought growing was supposed to be slow."

Cheese landed back on earth. "Oh, right, I threw him in the Fountain of Youth the other day and it's wearing off. Now, come on! Let's go back to..." He groaned. "...the bridge to my home neighborhood. Joy. Let's hope we catch him before he finds the house."

The four began their journey to that particular bridge, crossing the wide roads and trotting down the blocks. They passed by various buildings ranging from the towering skyscrapers to the shorter apartment buildings and to empty lots that nopony know quite what to do with. Passing concrete, glass, and brick, they hurried as much as they could without disrupting anypony else's pace or leaving any member of the group behind.

It was during this time that Penny said, "I'm curious... Tomato talked about how much he adored you and missed you for most of the time I was with him."

Cheese gave her a sad smile. "Yeah, you could say that we were best friends when we were young. I hate to say that a bit of depression, shyness, and jealousy on my part ended up getting in the way of that. When it seems like your brother has the world, you end up feeling inferior."

"Oh, ouch," Coco muttered. "Kind of makes me glad I'm an only child."

Noble rolled his eyes. "That won't happen with me and my brother."

Penny glanced back at her son. "Should I give you a brother, I hope the worst between you two is just normal sibling squabbles like how Aunt Pearl and Aunt Goldie do it."

She turned back to Cheese. "I wonder how much of your troubles Tomato even understood. By the time he was a teenager, he seemed awfully angry with you for running away and apparently abandoning him to a fickle, insensitive crowd. He called you an arrogant jerk when I asked him about you."

Cheese cringed, one particular moment in the past cropping up to mind. "Actually... there's a specific event that solidified his grudge."

"What was it?" Coco asked.

Cheese sighed. "So... I returned home at the age of thirteen, and found out that he had recently earned his cutie mark..."

It had been a while since he had seen this front door. Scratch that, it had been a while since he had seen this neighborhood. The modest homes on this street were a large contrast to the sprawling city across the bridge that most ponies thought of when talking about Manehattan and its surrounding areas. He had even been asked if he lived in an apartment by some ponies back in Mane-tua.

He didn't know if any of the old neighbors recognized him, but who would with his cowpony getup? Heck, he wouldn't be surprised if nopony remembered him. It was just as well; he was here because Cheesy Sense told him of something that required him to celebrate, and he sure as heck wasn't going to ignore it. After all, he was going to milk his calling in life until that was no trace of that shy geek left.

He just wondered why he was led to his own house. Unless his family moved, that'd be the last place he'd expect to throw a party. Looking at his rubber chicken, Boneless, for reassurance, he felt in his heart that it was time to see them again.

Taking a deep breath, he knocked.

A young voice he hadn't heard in over two years piped up, "I'll get it!" It was as peppy as ever, though it had grown slightly deeper as a result of having aged a bit. It was almost as if Cheese hadn't left, and that Tomato was still having his fantastic social life. Cheese wouldn't be surprised if the only reason he was here was to throw a party for whatever reason. Given Tommy's age and the fact that it wasn't his birthday, he guessed it involved a newly-earned cutie mark.

The door opened, and he was facing green eyes that matched his own under a forelock that matched his own (aside from the color). Cheese watched as the little red-orange colt stared at him for a moment, his mouth agape as he processed what was in front of him. Tomato was probably thinking that he was dreaming, and was probably going to nip himself any moment.

Cheese waved. "Hey, baby bro."

The mouth curled up into a smile, and at the speed of light, Tomato tackled him off the porch and squeezed him tightly. Cheese's glasses had flown off in the process, and his head hit the street with a bang, but he was not hesitant to return the hug. It comforted him to know that his brother clearly missed him.

"Cheesy, Cheesy, Cheesy, where were you, I was worried sick about you, I thought that you might've be dead, I'm so happy you're alive!" Tomato squealed. He hopped off his brother, picked up his glasses and gave them to him, and said with a scowl, "You've got lots of explaining to do, you big dummy! Don't you know that there are lots of big mean monsters out there that'll try to kill you? I don't wanna be an only child, it's boring and lonely! Uh... no offense to Bluejinx."

"Calm down, calm down," Cheese said, adjusting his glasses. "Let me get up, you're making me crush Boneless."

Tomato blinked. "Boneless?"

Cheese got up and showed him the rubber chicken. "New friend, got him at a party."

"Oh. Hi, Boneless! I'm Tommy, Cheese's brother."

Cheese giggled and tousled Tomato's mane. "Let's catch up inside, okay? I wanna get out of this sun."

Tomato nodded, and dragged him inside by the poncho. He practically threw him in the living room, which Cheese noticed hadn't changed much from its old arrangement. The most difference he could see was that some of Mom's knickknacks on the mantle had been rearranged. Speaking of Mom, there she was, coming from the bedrooms upstairs, her mane a mess from what was presumably a nap.

"Tomato, who was at the--" She stopped upon seeing Cheese standing there, refusing to look her in the eyes. "Oh, my..."

Tomato was bouncing around the living room, hopping from the couch near the door to the other couch near the hall and back. "Isn't this great, Mom? Cheese is back! He's back and unhurt and maybe kinda dirty and smells like a campfire, but he's back!"

Wow. Tomato may have been angry a second ago, but he was just incapable of holding a grudge for long. The most one ever lasted was about an hour, after Cheese had to spill the beans about Santa Hooves.

"I'm certainly surprised," Mom said. Her brow creased. "I hope he has a good explanation about his activities the past two years. Seriously, there's a million ways that a young colt could be killed both in and out of the city, and we all thought that you might have died!"

Cheese waved his hooves. "No worries, Mom, I met a lot of helpful ponies out there. I was kinda working some odd jobs here and there, learning new stuff from awesome ponies... and, well...." He lifted the poncho in order to provide a full view of the mark on his flank, which was a split cheese sandwich that resembled an accordion. "I got a little busy with my special talent."

Mozzarella blinked. "Your cutie mark? Is that your real, honest-to-goodness cutie mark?"

Tomato hopped off the couch and landed next to Cheese to take a closer look at the mark. "Holy beefsteak! I was wondering if your mark would match your name, and I was right! It's amazing! It's like an accordion! It's definitely you!" Tomato turned to show him his flank. "Did you notice mine? I earned it last week! It's weird, I didn't expect it, but I've always been good at math, so doing stuff with bits was logically the next step."

Seemed like Cheese guessed right on the reason for celebration. He took a few seconds to stare at the mark his little brother had.

Tomato's cutie mark was a tomato shaped like a moneybag. That was something Cheese did not expect either, even less so than his own talent. It bothered him a little that it reminded him of a couple of his bullies--the rich snob that bribed others and the allowance stealer--but Tommy had a way of doing things in a fun manner, so it probably wasn't that bad. He hoped.

Tomato was quick to hop on Cheese's back, with Boneless bouncing off, flipping in the air, and landing in Tomato's mane. Studying the mark more closely, he asked, "So... what does yours stand for?"

Cheese smiled. "Party planning."

Tomato's eyes nearly popped out at that revelation. "Party planning? How'd you figure that out?"

Hoo boy, was Tommy in for a surprise that it all started with a girl, especially after Cheese expressing for years that he didn't like girls very much. Hoping that Tomato wouldn't take the whole inspiration thing as a crush, he began, "Well, I--"

However, before he could continue, Mozzarella had broken out of her stupor. "Cheese, you can't be serious."

As Tomato glared at her for interrupting, Cheese simply stated to her, "I am serious, Mom."

Mozzarella put a hoof to her forehead. "Oh no... this is a disaster!"

Great, she was about to go into dramatics. Gosh, Cheese hated that. Keeping a hopeful smile on his face and shooing Tomato off his back, he calmly said, "Relax, Mom, I'm using my talent to make others happy!" So far, so good. That's how Ponyacci had put it when Cheese first earned the mark.

Mozzarella glared at him. "All you've earned is a frivolous waste of life!"

Cheese flinched, but continued his calm and optimistic statements. "It's not a waste... just let me show you by throwing Tommy's--"

He stumbled back and landed on his rump when his mother slammed a hoof on the floor. "NO! Of all the disappointments you have brought, this is the most disappointing! All I asked is that you earn a decent mark... and you earn a sandwich!" She had her face in a hoof again. "Oh, where did I go wrong? What did I do to deserve this shame? Honestly, if you just had a more sensible talent like your brother's--"

Hearing that, Cheese snarled like a wolf. There was that old button, being slammed in that reminder of how great his brother's life was, and how much it was rubbed in his face that he'd never be as good at socializing, academics, or even earning an acceptable talent as Tommy was. Why did he expect any different? It was obviously going to be the same as before! Feeling his mane bristle and his blood boiling, he wasn't going to stand there and let himself be stepped all over again in favor of his stupid brother.

Tomato had sensed the tension and backed away, knowing that the fallout was not going to be pretty. Not even noticing Boneless falling off his head, Tomato stammered, "I think I'm going to... uh..."

And then Cheese said it, in that vicious wolf snarl. "What... is so special... about that accordion smasher?"

Tomato froze, his heart sinking at hearing that old shame. He opened his mouth to say something, but it couldn't come out.

Then, Cheese roared, pointing to Tomato. "Tell me! What he'd do to earn his mark?! Did he swindle some lunch money from another foal? Is he a pickpocket? Or did he rob a bank?"

Tomato held a look of shock and hurt as he heard what Cheese was saying. "What? I would never--"

Cheese ignored his protest, and snapped, "I have had it with him! All he was ever good for was screwing up my life and breaking my stuff! And yet you scold me just for my cutie mark?! Let me just say that I'm glad we don't have the same special talent!"

Behind him, Tomato was sitting on his haunches, nearly mirroring that near defeat Cheese had a minute earlier. Looking at his own cutie mark with teary eyes, all he could think about was how much Cheese did not like it. He covered it with his tail, trying to keep any sobs of his to a minimum.

Then he heard Cheese say, "After all, the little ketchup squirt deserves a lame talent, since he can't even throw a party."

That was all it took for white-hot lightning to crash in Tomato's rainstorm.

Before Cheese knew it, he was decked on the cheek, and had to keep a roaring and flailing Tomato at bay with his hind hoof. It wasn't long before he started to trade blows with him, with both of their glasses and Cheese's hat flying off, fur and hair being ripped off, and bruises and bite marks appearing on both their bodies. It seemed to Cheese that Tomato had developed a violent streak from his stupid, troublemaking friends, and that he was just as much as a spoiled brat as they were.

After their mother pulled them apart and snapped at them for fighting, both colts retrieved their glasses. After shooting nasty glares at each other, Tomato picked Boneless up and threw the chicken at Cheese's face. Hearing the pained yelp, Tomato snorted in satisfaction and stormed up to his room.

Cheese huffed. "Yeah, sure, go cry up in your room, you baby! This pony has better things to do than throw a party for some whiny brat who doesn't deserve it!" He slammed the hat back on his head. "Let's go, Boneless. Cheesy Sense gave me a false alarm."

As he opened the door, Mozzarella said, "And where do you think you're going?"

Cheese growled. "Away from here!"

"You just came home!"

"Home? This isn't my home." Cheese turned to face her. "And mark my words, Mother... I will not be that shy geek that goes by a thousand insulting nicknames anymore! I will be the Super Duper Party Pony, and everypony in Equestria will know the name of Cheese Sandwich! No matter what you say, you cannot change my special talent. Stick with your 'perfect son'; I don't want anything to do with him, anyway."

With that, he turned around, and slammed the door on his way out.

As he strode down the street, Cheese wiped his stinging eye. "Stupid cutie mark party's not worth throwing anyway. That annoying ketchup squirt has everything; what does he need me for?"

Cheese grimaced. "Not my proudest moment."

"That's an understatment--an insult to the cutie mark is one of the worst insults you could give to a pony," Penny stated.

Cheese sighed. "I can't believe I let my anger control me like that. Just because I was hurt didn't give me the right to hurt Tomato like that, whether or not he did have that so-called 'perfect life' that I always thought he had. For years afterward, I was baffled about why he was so grumpy, and my efforts at entertaining him didn't work. It didn't take until last fall for me to figure it out."

"Why'd you visit if you thought he didn't need you?" Coco asked.

The stallion pointed to his flank, which had turned red because of his tail constantly scratching it. "Cheesy Sense always dragged me to the house at random times. I didn't like it one bit, but I had to obey it, try the 'cheering Tommy up' thing, fail at it, then get back to my job. At least the itching lets me know how close he is, and how miserable he's fee--YOWCH!"

Cheese jumped from the sudden pain, and clutched his rump. "For the love of Provolone, that hurts! I don't know if he's close, or feeling extreme anguish, or both..." Cheese looked up, and saw the supports and the road of the very bridge a couple blocks ahead. And right at the end of it, just before the bridge got off land, he could spot a red-orange glow on one pony, followed by the pony growing larger. "Hey, there he is!"

Coco gasped. "He's okay!"

Penny breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness we found him."

Cheese watched as Tomato looked around, feeling his face, followed by his body. The now-older-teenager jumped in fright, and tried to cover himself, as well as try to kick off broken glass that had accumulated on his hooves. Cheese chuckled at the sight. "Oh, no, he's at that point in time where he's supposed to wear clothes... poor guy, that must be embarrassing to be in the nude."

Tomato noticed a paper bag tumbling by, grabbed it, and ripped holes in it to make a makeshift shirt. Putting it on, he felt the railing of the bridge, and started to feel his way across. He paused a moment to force a squinty glare toward some obnoxious loudmouths in a nearby lot chanting at him, and continued in a solemn resignation.

Cheese didn't need Cheesy Sense to lead him to Tommy now, but it was near literally pushing him forward anyway, like it was urging him to hurry. What made it worse was that his flank was burning with an intensity that Cheese wasn't used to. It was strong enough that it didn't allow him to pause for any ponies and buggies that were coming from all directions. Pedestrians gave shouts, and drivers of buggies cursed at him, ignoring Cheese's haste apologies to them.

Coco grimaced at the carriages barely missing him and swerving to almost hit ponies on the corner. She called out, "Cheese! What are you doing?! Don't you remember that you have to look both ways?!"

Cheese looked back and answered, "Sorry! But Cheesy Sense is telling me to hurry and get Tommy!"

Penny raised an eyebrow. "I wonder if all party ponies have those weird Senses. I know my sister Goldie has one."

Coco turned to her. "Really?"

After being forced in a diagonal line a couple blocks down and across the street, Cheese bumped into the beginning of the bridge's railing once he was across the street. Even though Cheesy Sense was trying to pull him further, he clung on, hoping to take a second to catch his breath from his close calls. He glanced back at Penny and Coco, who were waiting for it to be okay to cross, and he figured that they could catch up. Where he was going wasn't exactly a mystery.

He jumped when a brick banged on the bars below him, and he glared at the gang down in the lot, tossing a bunch of bricks his way, and shouting, "Hey! You nacho! Take a dive off the bridge and we'll score you!"

Cheese shouted back at them, "Nah! I've got more important things to do!"

As he galloped onto the bridge, one of the gang members complained, "Bah, you're no fun!"

At a point where the bridge arched well above the water, Cheese slowed down, and paused when he saw that Tomato was sitting on top of the railing, gazing down at the water (or at least the dark blue and a couple of blobby masses chugging along below). Cheese started to rummage behind his back, feeling Tomato's clothes stored in that void. He touched something hard and smooth, and then pulled out Tomato's glasses. Wiping off any smudges with his shirt, Cheese pondered about what he was going to say to him.

He looked up, and when he could have sworn that he saw Tomato's leg slip, he felt a rush of fear that made him jump forward and grab Tomato's tail. That brought about a wobble and a shout of fright from Tomato, who quickly balanced himself by grabbing onto the rail. He stared at the river for a brief moment before turning to the pony who pulled his tail.

Cheese's heart stopped. "Uh... hey, baby bro."

Tomato processed the voice before scowling at him. "Of all the ponies to come by, it had to be you. Let me guess... you have a new and wild trick, and if you could make your wet blanket of a brother smile and laugh with it, then it'd definitely be a success with strangers."

Cheese blinked. "Oh, no no! I just... uh..." Cheese looked down at the spectacles in his hoof. "I found your glasses, and I thought I should return them to you."

Tomato's glare didn't even budge. "Thanks, but no thanks--I don't need them."

"What are you..." Cheese glanced down at the river, and then to those gang members back on the lot onshore. Biting his lip, Cheese asked, "Tommy? What's going on?"

"None of your business! Just get back to your parties and leave me alone... it's your specialty, after all."

Cheese leaned on the rail beside Tomato. "It is my business--my brother's not happy, and I want to know why."

"Oh, gee, I don't know," Tomato said mockingly through gritted teeth. "For starters, I just woke up naked, in the freaking city, and I have to wear a stupid paper bag for modesty! I stepped on some glass--" He held up a hoof to show Cheese the bits and pieces of glass embedded in the wall, white line, and frog of it. "--and as you can tell, I'm having a little bit of trouble seeing." He looked down. "I can tell that's water, though."

He looked up at Cheese, squinting in his glower. "Gonna throw a party? Juggle? Make the rubber chicken dance? Or do you have some other unfunny distraction you have up your sleeve? Let me tell you now, I'm in no mood for any of your games, they just make things worse!"

Cheese held his breath, swallowing his angry rebuttal before it flew out. With a sigh, he asked, "Do you mind telling me how?"

Tomato pursed his lips, breathing heavily and staring off into space. "It's nothing. Nothing but me overreacting to stupidity..."

"I don't mind. If it's important to you, it's important to me."

Tomato snorted and snapped his head around to face Cheese. "Yeah, right! As if I'd forget the moment where you implied that I was a bad pony just because of what cutie mark I earned! I was so excited to tell you the story once you were done with yours, but then you turn around and stab me in the heart with your tirade about how I made you miserable, and how my cutie mark is a curse while yours is some super special blessing! I get that you're mad about the accordion incident, but I don't know what else I did to make you unhappy! And even if I did..." Tomato turned away. "...it's too late to apologize."

Cheese was on the ground after that yell, blinking. With a heavy exhale, Cheese climbed back up. "Yeah... I get it, what I said that day was out of line. I... I'm sorry."

Tomato was heaving and breathing through his teeth. "My mark might as well be a curse... if I enjoy anything outside of that realm, Mom scolds me for it, as if she thinks I could change a cutie mark... I try to make friends, but I either scare them off by being angry or find out they're some gold-digger that made a wrong assumption on what my mark means... some ex-friends think that if they bully me, I wouldn't get a big head about my talent... and I've lost two jobs! The bookstore that felt so much like an actual home for me went out of business... and the second job was tutoring Creme Brulee, and she utterly sabotaged and humiliated me, all to tell me that I should 'know my place'! With what she did, how can I climb the Manehattan business ladder like Mom wants me to?"

Tomato wiped his eyes. "And Bluejinx... he doesn't show it, but I know he's frustrated with me. He's stretched thin with school and his internship as it is... he'd be better off without me. You were better off, weren't you?"

Cheese pursed his lips, leaning on the railing and gazing up at the sky above. "I thought I was... but, really, I'm not. But, more importantly, you didn't need me to entertain you... you needed me to be a friend. I apologize for being so busy with my talent and all that entails, and I apologize especially for not being something you could look forward to, instead being just another smear on your already miserable life." Cheese stared straight ahead, seeing the Mare Harmony statue in the distance. "You know what? I'm thinking of changing that."

Tomato blinked. "Huh?"

Well, technically, I already did change that, but you can't remember it at the moment. "Cheesy Sense kind of picks up your emotional turmoil, and the closer I am and the worse you feel, the itchier my flank gets." He sheepishly rubbed at his cutie mark with his tail. "I get I've been doing it all wrong, but I promise that I'll be something for you to look forward to, even on your darkest days. I'll be all ears on what you've got to say, and then we can goof around together like old times. And in the meantime, when I can't be there... I suggest sticking with Bluejinx, he's an amazingly sturdy friend--he's been more of a brother to you than I was, to be honest."

He smiled at the sunset, saying in a near whisper, "And... who knows? Perhaps you could succeed in getting actual, heartfelt friends... friends that'll make you feel at peace, like when you smell flowers, or like you're soaring through the clouds, singing songs fit for Bridleway!"

Tomato sighed. "I doubt it."

Cheese looked at him warmly. "Well... whatever happens in the future, I promise that I'll try to be the best brother you can ask for." Cheese looked at the glasses in his hoof, and then placed them on Tomato's muzzle. "Not just promise... I Pinkie Promise."

Tomato saw his vision clear up right before his eyes, and there was the warm, genuine smile that hadn't been on Cheese's face for years. Odd that Cheese didn't have his own glasses and apparently shaved the mustache off, but that loving smile was unmistakable. He wondered if he was dreaming--didn't Cheese hate him? And when Cheese offered up a hoof for him to take, Tomato wondered if it was just an illusion, that some unicorn was pulling a cruel prank on him. So, he slowly reached forward, and gingerly touched it, confirming that it was indeed real. He had no idea what a Pinkie Promise was, but it was probably serious if Cheese had to emphasize it.

Cheese pulled him off the railing, and set him on the sidewalk. One by one, he took Tomato's hooves and squeezed them, popping out the shards of glass--or rather, launching them into the river quite a ways away. It stung, and Tomato was sure that it wasn't how glass was supposed to be removed from a hoof, but it was so ridiculous that he couldn't help but giggle.

Finally, once Cheese was done with that, he said, "Okay, let's put some real clothes on you," pulled out some clothes, and swapped them with the paper bag in the blink of an eye.

Confused at being dressed in a business suit instead of his blue sweater vest, Tomato said, "These look like Dad's clothes. Aside from the green tie, that's new... huh, I do like it, it's my favorite color." He lifted a hoof and watched the brown sleeve slip right over it, and then pulled at the white button shirt's collar. "It's too big."

"You'll grow into it," Cheese said with a wink. Patting Tomato's back, he said, "Come on, I'm throwing a party in the park, and you're invited."

Tomato frowned. "What if Mom--"

"She doesn't need to know."

When they were nearly off the bridge, they bumped into Penny, Noble, and Coco. Smiling at them, Cheese remarked, "All right, Coco, we can get back to the park and I can set the party up in a jiffy." He looked between the two mares and the little colt. "And thanks for all your help."

"I'm just happy your brother's safe and sound," Coco said.

"How are you feeling, Tomato?" Penny asked.

Tomato rubbed his leg. "Good, I guess?"

Noble frowned, and hopped off Penny's back. Trotting to the teenager, Noble hugged Tomato's leg with a tenderness only a small child could give and looked up at him. "You look kinda sad. You want a hug?"

Tomato blinked. "Uh... thanks."

Noble jumped back and hid behind his mother when Tomato groaned in pain and began to glow again. All members of the small party stepped back, and watched the final age up as the teenager grew to fit the baggy clothes he wore, and had any last remaining baby fat fade away. Now a tall, young stallion, the glowing stopped, and Tomato gasped for breath and panted before looking at Cheese.

Cheese grinned. "Woohoo! You're back to normal!"

All of a sudden, Tomato decked him, sending the older brother sprawling and dizzy on the sidewalk, and then snapped, "You are terrible at ending arguments! Don't throw me into pools of water like that ever again!"

The other three winced at the action, with Coco covering her mouth, Penny slightly grimacing, and Noble covering his eyes. Tomato licked his hoof, and slicked his tail straight, followed by his mane. After the curled forelock popped back up, Tomato looked at the bridge and the block that they stood at, furrowing his brow and holding a curious pout. He scratched his head.

"When did we get here?"

Author's Note

Comic version of the flashback can be found here, with some dialogue in the first panel tweaked for this chapter. It's the most painful comic I've ever drawn--my youngest sister can't handle it.

And thus, Tommy's now back to normal.

13.6--Forgive and Forget

Cheese explained the entire Fountain of Youth and running around the city situation to Tomato as they and Coco walked back to the park. Tomato's face went red and only turned redder as Cheese mentioned changing his diaper and giving him a bottle, joking about how he was literally his "baby bro". And the older brother mentioned some of the mishaps that he got into with Coco watching, while wondering what mishaps Tomato got into.

Much to his disappointment, Tomato couldn't recall the past couple days at all. Penny and Noble weren't there to fill the details, having gone back home. However, at Coco's invitation, they did promise to come to the party later with Penny's husband, and there they would give details. Until then, Tomato was stuck with his limited secondhand knowledge of the incident.

"I swear, that part of my brain that stores memories is always somehow shut off whenever some magical nonsense happens to me," Tomato grumbled. "Will life please stop scrambling my mind like that?"

Cheese winced at that comment, his head beginning to throb yet again as he was reminded of what he was missing, and what he needed to tell Tomato. But, as they arrived to the park and got scolded by Flower Garland about being gone for so long, Cheese had a job to do that was unfortunately last minute. The confession about the memory thing could come later.

He hopped from tree to tree to string lights and wrapped tinsel on stage supports for a final touch, then went down and talked to the actors and musicians for the stage show that Flower Garland had entertained to make sure they had practiced. As Coco made sure their outfits were nice and comfortable, Cheese plopped down on a blanket, watching as the guests for the theater party arrived. Among them were Penny, Noble, and a brown, red-headed stallion that he assumed was Penny's husband.

Coco expressed wanting to wait a little bit for everypony to get settled before starting the show. The ponies all sat on picnic blankets, based on families or groups of friends, and pulled out their dinners as they talked and awaited the stage show. One blanket in front of the stage had the Sandwiches, Coco, and Penny's family sitting together, having a dinner of sandwiches, carrot dogs, and chips, as well as some hot chocolate that Coco had carried in a thermos.

"Pardon this poor excuse of a dinner," Penny's husband, Coppersmith, said, hoofing over some of the food. "But I was informed of this thing just recently and hastily put together sandwiches and bought some carrot dogs on the way here."

Cheese waved a hoof, munching on his namesake. "No problem, really--I love a good sandwich."

Coco nibbled on a daisy sandwich. "I'm happy that you brought my favorite. Hope you enjoy the cocoa, as well."

Tomato crunched on a carrot dog. "A Sandwich eating a sandwich and Coco giving out cocoa. Okay."

Penny looked at Tomato. "It looks like you got that carrot dog you wanted earlier."

Tomato looked at his food, and looked back up at Penny. "How old was I?"

Crunching on some chips, Noble piped up, "As old as me!"

Tomato pursed his lips and looked away. "Did I throw a tantrum?"

Penny dabbed her mouth with a napkin after a bite of her sandwich. "I believe you were about to when you suddenly aged up to around eight or nine. Before that, I was treated to an amusing sequence of you freaking out the carrot dog vendor by knowing his name and looking like somepony he knew in youth. Though, I wonder if you really did know somepony named 'Mustard Squirt Bottle' when you were little."

Tomato blinked, and then scowled. "Yep... I knew him. Was once a friend, but the moment I expressed grief over..." Tomato tilted his head toward Cheese, who looked away in shame. "...him running away, Squirt made fun of me for being a crybaby and was angry that I wasn't any fun anymore."

"What, he didn't have basic empathy?" Coppersmith asked, taking a swig of some hot chocolate.

Tomato snorted. "Why should he and his lackeys have empathy for their little wind-up toy?"

Cheese turned back, his brow furrowed. "Hey, wait, how did you manage to somewhat recognize Squirt when you couldn't recognize me? Did that spell seriously just pick and choose what adult memories of yours leaked out?"

Tomato scratched his head. "Apparently so... I wonder what else leaked out."

"Well, you sang a song about a mountain, mentioned a Flora, and then wondered who she was," Penny stated, sipping at her cocoa.

Cheese spread his front legs out. "Oh, and Flora popped up too? Geez! You didn't even meet her until college!"

"And I apparently remembered her homesick song, too. Odd." Tomato finished his carrot dog, and then started drinking his cup of hot chocolate. He nodded and turned to Coco. "This is some good cocoa."

Coco smiled shyly and glanced away. "Oh, I just got it from a friend I made when I visited my cousin one winter when I was a filly. He gave it and a little homemade seashell necklace to me for Hearth's Warming. It was really sweet, and I like sharing the recipe with friends."

Penny glanced at her. "Does said cousin live in Halterside?"

Coco looked up at her with wide eyes. "Why, yes! How'd you know that?"

Penny nodded. "I thought you looked familiar. How else did you get my father's old cocoa recipe?"

"Your father's old... oh, my!" Coco covered her mouth. "You're the older sister of that colt... Silver... Silver Something..." She blushed. "I'm terribly sorry, I can't remember the other half of his name, but I know he was the nervous colt running that hot chocolate stand."

"Silver Shill," Penny reminded.

"Oh, thank you! I have to ask, how is he doing?"

"Oh..." Penny was glancing at a wide-eyed Tomato, and gave him a little smirk and a wink in his direction. "Let's just say somepony helped him out when he was down on his luck and needing some money. He and a new friend opened a pizzeria in town at said somepony's encouraging."

"That's wonderful! Oh, I ought to write him a letter sometime."

The Sandwiches glanced at each other, and Cheese muttered, "Small world."

Coco looked around at the audience sitting, eating, and talking at their picnic blankets. Seeing as they were all settled in, she stood up. "I think it's about time to start the show."

It was a play set long ago in Manehattan, starting with its story from its humble beginnings to its incredible growth over decades. Ponies from far and wide, from Equestria or from other places abroad, would come to the city to partake in what it had to offer. Often, the foreign ponies couldn't afford to go much further, so they settled for simple livings in the city. But, despite any challenges that came their way, even the smallest contribution or new idea made the harbor one of Equestria's biggest cities today. With the good and the bad, the rich and the poor, for both genders, and all three tribes, there was something in this city for everypony.

Cheese doubted it. Even if he didn't have his personal reasons--which provided a huge chunk of why he disliked the city--he was still plenty annoyed with the rather grumpy attitude prevalent in the city. And quite frankly, it was too much for even a party pony of his magnitude could handle; not to mention the cops didn't like him. Just stick with the smaller areas and keep things relatively small, and he should be okay.

The main story began, and he recognized it as the great, corny, beauty-and-beast-esque love story.

"Lo, what opportunities are had within this great city!" the actress on the stage portraying an immigrant cried. "For anypony can pursue their special talent in any way they choose!"

Cheese was surprised when Tomato walked off after that line. Curious, he decided to follow him, letting the others on the blanket know that he'll be right back. So, he followed him back to some point beyond the party area, and they sat on a bench one after the other. They sat in silence for a moment, staring ahead at the pond a hop, skip, and a jump away, letting the cool evening air seep through their fur.

After Cheese got comfortable, he asked, "You all right?"

Tomato had his front legs crossed. "Putting my life into perspective with those lines... I'd have to say, they sure feel like lies."

The conversation on the bridge came back to Cheese, and it was clear what he was talking about. Mom didn't give Tomato much room to decide just how he was going to make his talent work, putting him in the realm of what probably was safe. As for the opportunities, well, with Rich Custard's connection to the financial world of Manehattan, he probably wasn't going to put in a good word about Tommy after...

"Um, Tommy?" Cheese asked. "Just what did Creme Brulee do to ruin you?"

Tomato hunched forward and growled. "You know what happened back in that town with Party Favor and his gang?"

Cheese rubbed the back of his head. "I thought that party and the business deal was a success."

"No... before that."

Cheese scratched his chin. "Let's see..." He winced from a sharp pain in his head, and then took a breath as it subsided as he reached the event the afternoon before the party. "Well... there was that coffee thing where you went berserk and made a huge mess and nearly killed ponies..." Cheese's eyes widened as it clicked.

Tomato nickered. "I let that little secret slip to her when I was her math tutor. As both a way to stick it to her father and keep me in my social class, she played a charade of being interested in both the subject, and... uh..." Tomato blushed at the thought of those days, fanning himself and thumping his chest as if to stop his heart from racing. "...me, in sort of kind of an almost intimate way..."

Cheese blinked. "Uh... did you two..."

"No."

"Okay, good. Because I don't like her, and the thought of my brother--"

"I get it, and your mind is safe. But, you know, it was a charade to get me to fall into her trap. So, when Custard invited me to a fancy party to have me meet some coworkers, partners, rivals, I thought of declining because I swore off parties." Tomato glanced at Cheese, who was looking a little sheepish. "But, I accepted because I thought you wouldn't like that kind of party, and it was one that Mom didn't mind me going to in order to learn more for my talent. I was allowed to bring a guest, and who else but Bluejinx?

"So, Creme and I had one last tutoring session before the party."

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "Am I sure you're not lying to me about--"

"Cheese, we never even kissed on the mouth. Got nuzzled and kissed on various other places."

"Ugh, just thinking about the mere idea of that makes me want to puke."

Tomato sighed. "Anyway, once I was done tutoring her, she brought in some so-called 'cherry punch'. She let me drink several glasses... and... uh, I don't remember much, because, well, turns out she was getting me drunk. And at some point, she must have given me some coffee, because Bluejinx described me as a tornado of incoherence, lewdness, and a one-pony food fight at that party. And then she had the gall to act like some helpless victim to her father!"

Tomato slumped back. "Got fired, got in major trouble with Mom, and Creme spread the story around the neighborhood, so some lovely ex-friends of mine had more ammo to pick on me with. But most importantly, I'm worried that one of the attendants of that party would recognize me as the 'Crazy Sandwich Kid' when I graduate and try to get a job here. Already had enough trouble getting into college."

It was silent for a moment before Tomato looked at Cheese, and coughed. "Sorry, I talked too much--I just wanted my reasons for not liking that line to be short and sweet, and you'd figure it out. I'm just kind of bitter about how my adolescence has been, and I'm not sure I can be at peace with it like you are with your colthood... huh, guess I just haven't had time to really heal from it."

Cheese pursed his lips, and looked up at the skyline under the purple sky. He thought about how he snapped at his childhood bullies earlier, letting some pent up anger out. He thought back to the Fall Festival, where he ruined everyone's day because he was having trouble controlling his temper around Tomato. He thought to all the times that he forced himself to try to entertain his family, only to snap when he failed. That was in stark contrast to failing at entertaining strangers, when he'd just be sad about it.

He always thought it best to avoid personal problems--all it did was make him lose his temper and remind him of how bitter he really was.

Still, he thought he should give his brother a boost in spirits. "Call me crazy... but, what if your destiny is in some other city?"

Tomato looked up at him and blinked. "...Cheese, you can't be serious. I've lived here my whole life."

"You said so yourself, you're going to have some major problems climbing up ladders after what Creme Brulee did. Besides, it's not like Manehattan will miss you, there's plenty of ponies with your talent here. I think you might be needed somewhere else, somewhere where you can work your magic like in Halterside or that former cult." Cheese put a hoof on his chin. "I wonder if Flora's town needs you..."

"Neighton? Because, remember, I don't know which one it is."

Cheese groaned. "How do you not know? Isn't she one of your closest friends?"

Tomato twiddled his hooves. "Funny story... when she first told me, I thought she was talking about the one just a few miles from here. Then she mentioned mountains, which that Neighton doesn't have, and I whipped out a map to find out that there's more than one." He flushed and pulled his head into his shirt. "I was too embarrassed to ask her to specify."

Cheese facehoofed. "You're so stupid. Didn't she send you a letter?"

"They somehow keep getting lost. Flora's pretty mad about it."

Cheese groaned. "Well, I hope we find out soon." With a sigh, he leaned back on the bench and looked up at the sky. "But, getting back on track, I think that once you finish your studies, it's high time for you to leave Manehattan for good. I'm sure there's a town out there that'll welcome somepony like you with open hooves. Wouldn't it be fun to scope out possible new homes for you?"

Tomato's head popped out of the shirt, and he grabbed his knees. "Maybe... I do want to move away from Mom as far away as possible... but, I don't know, what could possibly be out there for me?"

"I found something for me..." Cheese pulled out some balls and juggled them to emphasize his point. "There's bound to be something for you."

Tomato smiled at him and chuckled. "Well, as long as there's no family of Creme Brulee in whatever town we go to next. Or worse, we end up in the actual town that she's staying in! Ugh, wouldn't that be a nightmare?"

Cheese held a smug look. "I want to see Creme and Flora fight."

"Flora would win, hooves down." Tomato hopped off the bench, and looked at the play a ways away. "Well... I guess I should get back there and watch the good part of that corniness. Because, really, the part where the Kraken attacked Manehattan was the only part I've ever liked of that story. You coming?"

Cheese waved a hoof. "Go on ahead, I'm going to find the bathroom."

Tomato blinked, shrugged, and then trotted back to the party area.

Cheese waved goodbye for a good minute until Tomato was out of sight, and then buried his face in his hooves, shaking his head. Tomato had too much emotional baggage as it was; Cheese couldn't burden him with his own problem of the missing memory. Heck, even if it didn't come up during the conversation, there was still a confrontation with Mom that Tomato had to do.

You know what, no, I'm not going to have Tommy confront her just yet, he thought. He needs more time to think of what he needs to say.

Still, the bigger issue in Cheese's mind with the deal with his own lost memory. That newspaper article about the Las Pegasus incident had been disturbing enough as it was; he wasn't sure if he wanted to remember what it was actually like in the midst of the invasion. On the other hoof, he didn't want to deal with those frequent headaches for the rest of his life. Like Ponyacci said, it might ruin his focus, or leave him more vulnerable to any spells that came his way.

But how would Tomato feel when he learned about it? The last thing Cheese wanted was to distress his brother more.

He was stumped. It was either get it back and remember a bad night, or have it remain lost forever and suffer from weird and unpleasant migraines. He wished there was a third option.

"My, my, fancy seeing you here."

Cheese turned to the source of the voice, which was a familiar cloaked unicorn.

"Mr. Rooney?" he asked.

"...sadly, what happened in Las Pegasus would probably boost sales of vampire romance novels," Penny said in disgust, cradling her sleeping son. "I swear, I'm going to go crazy if I catch Pearl reading one of those again."

Coppersmith rolled his eyes. "Teenage fillies are weird."

Coco looked up at the duet between the Kraken and the Fair Maiden of Manehattan. "Well, I suppose this relationship is more romantic than vampire novels..." She blushed as she added, "Even if the books are a guilty pleasure of mine..."

Tomato arrived on the scene, and sat in between them. "Sorry about that. Emotional hangup, Cheese talked me through it. He's going to the bathroom, so he'll be around soon." He looked up at the stage and tilted his head. "I don't remember the part of the book where the Kraken and the Maiden sang."

Coco leaned forward in anticipation. "Oh, here's the part where true love breaks the monstrous spell!"

Tomato looked up with a half-lidded expression, watching the clumsy actors stumble into a clumsy kiss. I suppose with sibling love, the spell is broken with a punch to the face.

As he watched the scene before him, he could feel a sudden chill running up and down his spine. It was rather surprising and confusing, as the play was in no way scary, especially with the ridiculous story that tempted him to laugh. Still, he couldn't help but feel that something wrong was about to happen, like somepony was going to make an awful bargain.

He rubbed his back, wondering if it was just ghost wings again.

"This is the third time you've popped up where me and Tommy were," Cheese said, rubbing his neck. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were following us." With a grin, he added, "Can't resist the idea of a summer full of Cheese parties, huh?"

Rooney lifted up a hoof. "Oh, no, it's just mere coincidence."

Cheese poked him on the chest. "But Cheese parties are too fun to resist."

"You were recovering from an illness the last time I saw you, so you didn't throw that party."

Cheese frowned. "Oh... right." He grimaced when a sharp pang attacked his head, grumbling that he had already taken his medicine, and his next dose wasn't for a few more hours.

Catching Cheese rub his head, Rooney asked, "Headache?"

Cheese sighed. "Yes."

"Hm, it makes me wonder..." He reached under his cloak, and pulled out a transparent orb with a green glow. "I found this memory in the desert where we last saw each other. Would it happen to be yours?"

Cheese blinked, and ambled forward to take a closer look. He could see what looked like the city of Las Pegasus, then a Magic Expo, then Trixie. The image of a smug royal blue unicorn with a black mane cropped up, and then the image of a door. Cheese backed up when the door opened to reveal Tomato as a vampire. He pushed the memory away in refusal to see more.

"Yep, that's mine." He looked up at the elder pony. "I guess that's why you followed me. Geez, how did I lose it in the first place?"

Rooney gazed at the dark-haired unicorn in the orb. "Not much of a stretch to assume that he might have friends out here that'll take revenge on his behalf. Plus, it seems like you were important in this event--imagine if the witnesses at the trial had their memories tampered with."

Stamping a hoof in the ground, Cheese growled, "Of course! Why wouldn't a jerk like that nutjob want to rig his trial in such a slimy way? Thanks to him, I've been dealing with stupid headaches for the past few weeks! And now... I feel kind of bad for having friends getting involved in the search for that memory."

"No worries... they'll be happy to learn you've retrieved the memory, and your trip can go on as normal. Now, open your mind so that I may fasten it back to your mind, and we'll both be on our merry way."

Cheese grinned and nodded, and perked his ears up in an effort to seem more "open-minded". It was funny to think of that term in an almost literal sense, and he couldn't wait to tell Pinkie about it later.

Silver magic erupted from Rooney's horn, and a string of it shot out and went into Cheese's ear. Cheese jumped at the action, and giggled, mentioning that it tickled. Rooney's magic then took hold of something inside Cheese's head, and he carefully drew out a green string from Cheese's ear. As it was brought out, five orbs formed above his head, the end of the string reattaching to his other ear in order to form a loop.

Cheese scanned the pictures of the luminescent orbs above him. One boasted his cutie mark, which must hold memories of good parties that he had thrown before. Another had Pinkie Pie's cutie mark, which he figured that the memories were of the times he had with the sweet pink mare, both good and bad. The third, to his surprise, had Tomato's cutie mark, which meant that that orb held those times with his brother, whether they were feuding or getting along. The orb with the shuffling flash cards made his head tilt, until Rooney stated that those would be facts and figures that he would know.

The final orb contained his colthood glasses, shining as the laughter of bullies sounded from it. He stepped back from that, his muscles tensing and his heart aching at what that obviously meant.

Rooney held the Haygas memory in his hoof. "Now... which group would this memory go? Would it be in the identity?" He pointed to the one with Cheese's cutie mark. "Or perhaps the family?" Rooney pointed to Tomato's mark. "The romantic interests?" He pointed to Pinkie's mark.

Cheese blushed at that. "Uh, she's just a friend!"

"Yeah, sure..." Rooney muttered. He shook his head at the flash card. "Obviously, it wouldn't go into the facts and figures..." He walked toward the orb containing the glasses. "Would it be in fears, insecurities, and general negativity? The way I felt this lost memory, there was a lot of fear... anger... sadness... I suppose it'd belong in there."

Cheese was silent as Rooney's horn touched that orb, and an entire web of memories sprang out. Cheese felt a buzzing in his ears as that happened, and his heart pounded at the sight of so many memories that were contained in just that one orb. From the more recent worry of Tomato sitting on that bridge railing, to his first day of kindergarten long ago. Still, despite the memories in question, he had to admit that the web of orbs and green magical streams swirling above him in a bright green glow was pretty cool. He even touched an orb gingerly, though he stepped back and shuddered when he saw a needle.

Rooney looked around, muttering about where to sort it, but was distracted by, of all things, Cheese's first day of school.

Cheese's heart nearly stopped. "Uh, no need to gaze at that!" Cheese tensed up as Rooney gazed into another, depicting a pretty bad day of bullying. "Or that one!" And there was another, which was the day Cheese was grounded for getting into a fight. "Oh no, not that one!"

He was about ready to pounce when the unicorn gazed at the accordion incident. "Hey! Get back to business! I can't be away from the party too long or somepony might get worried!"

Rooney shook his head. "You poor fellow. Nopony deserves a rough childhood like you had."

Cheese pursed his lips, and he felt a pit form in his stomach. "Look, I don't need your pity. Just... give me that memory back."

Rooney ignored him, gingerly touching the first orb that he had gazed into. "I see here that you’ve always been an outcast. The torment began when you first started school..."

Cheese grimaced. "Uh, I know, can we focus?"

Rooney didn't seem to hear the question. "When you met all those bullies, and your mother ignored your pleas, you soon realized that your entire world was cruel."

At that last word, green smoke suddenly burst from the orbs, wrapping Cheese within the billows. His heart raced as he nearly choked on the fumes, and he could hear the taunting chants of his former classmates. He rubbed his eyes, and when he opened them, he could see the shadows of foals in the smoke, with the entire area bathed in green light. But they were nothing compared to his mother towering over him.

Cheese looked at himself, and found in horror that he was shorter. Feeling glasses on his muzzle, he realized he was a colt again.

His mother cupped his chin, as she seemed to sing, "Now, I’m sure your classmates will listen to reason."

Cheese turned away, only to have her turn his head back and add, "They won’t talk down to a colt so smart and strong."

He could hear his classmates sing, "No..."

"Defy their childish games, after all, I’ve made it plain..." Mozzarella's eyes narrowed into a glare. "You make one mistake, then everything goes wrong!"

She slid back into the smoke, and the foals marched out, singing their taunting chants and their laughs, grinning maliciously as they approached the fearful colt. Cheese held his head, shaking it and trying to will it away. After all, this must be a dream, right?

One foal jumped forward and poked his frizzy mane. "Hello there, Poofhead!"

Another foal came and pushed him. "Hey, what’s up, Four-Eyes?"

A third came from behind and yanked his tail, then poked at his flank. "Tell us why your flank’s still blank!"

The group of foals surrounded him, laughing and pointing, especially when Cheese squeaked in fright. "You can’t talk, Squeaker? You’re getting meeker!" They laughed some more, watching as Cheese laid down and tried to bury his face in the dirt. One large colt slammed Cheese's face into the ground, and all the foals taunted, "Is there a colt that’s more lame?"

Cheese had his face down for a few moments as they chant, praying that they would go away. When they stopped, he looked up once again, only to find that his mother had returned, holding a couple of papers in her hoof. There was clearly a disappointed glare on her.

"I got your grades and Tomato’s. Oh, Cheese Sandwich, now I must know--" Mozzarella launched forward and snatched Cheese's ear, bringing out a yelp of pain as she dragged him forward. "--why you’ve got such painful low scores on your test!"

"Ow, ow, ow, ow..." Cheese whimpered.

Mozzarella continued, "While his grades are high again! I wish you could keep up with him, because I expect better from my oldest!"

With that, she slipped back into the smoke, and his classmates marched back out, chanting out their taunting laugh. Cheese attempted to curl up in a ball, hoping that portraying himself as an armadillo would make the bullies go away. However, before he could do so, his glasses were snatched off his muzzle. He wasn't sure who did it, but he had a feeling it was Skeeter Pumpkineater.

He ran around the circle, trying to catch his glasses as he felt them whizzing over his fluffy mane. He stumbled on outstretched hooves that he couldn't see, and everything was too green for him to make out a vague shape with his blurry vision.

"I’ve got his glasses!" one colt shouted.

"I’ve got his glasses!" a filly chirped.

One other colt laughed. "Look at that, he’s about to cry!"

Cheese stopped to catch his breath in front of one foal, only to recognize the vague shape of his glasses. Trying to look the colt in the eye, he held his hoof out, in a silent demand for them back.

The colt scoffed. "Oh, now you want them?"

There was a snap and a shatter, and Cheese's heart sank at how much in trouble he was going to be in.

"Oops, they’re broken!" The colt threw the pieces of the glasses at Cheese's face as the others laughed. "Here’s a present, it’s called a black eye!"

Cheese felt a hoof collide with his eye, and he stumbled back as the stinging bruise began to swell. Hearing more of that horrible, taunting laughter, he finally curled up in his ball, his eyes watering as he imagined what his mother was going to say. She'd probably accuse him of getting in a fight, despite his general timid nature. That's how it always happened when he came home like this.

Suddenly, he was lifted up magically, and was once again face to face with Rooney under the green light. Wiping his eye, he awaited what the old stallion had to say, hoping that it'd at least be comforting.

"What I’m suggesting’s very simple," Rooney said with a smile. "For painful memories I have a cure."

He magically aged Cheese back to normal, gathered up the smoke in the glasses orb, and then levitated the little ball into Cheese's hooves. Cheese stared at it, still trembling from the blast from the past he didn't want. Oh, how he had forgotten how awful it was.

Rooney continued, "I can make you forget the things that you were forced to endure."

Around them on the landscape, with all bathed in a green glow, amusement park rides, carnival games, the assortment of all kinds of food and delicacies on various tables, and so much more began to pop up around him. He could see ponies laughing and dancing and eating, he could smell all the sweet and cheesy aromas that made his mouth water, he could just hear the laughter, the squeals, and the happy conversation. Most of all, he could feel a boost in his magic from all the high spirits, and he smiled in contentment.

"Because those foals and your wretched mother," Rooney spat. "Their treatment you did not deserve!" He had his hooves on Cheese's shoulders, gesturing to the giant party before them. "I promise to set you free, and happiness I will ensure!"

He questioned why he need to be set free if he already was free, but he didn't care. He just wanted to bask in all the joy and laughter surrounding him. This is an event that Pinkie Pie would definitely be proud of.

However, the patrons sang to him, "Forget them, Cheesy! It’s really easy! A party pony shouldn’t live with pain!"

Suddenly, the orb that Cheese held flashed and sent out a magical shockwave. The wave peeled away the party to reveal ruin, from a great roaring fire on the rides and games to the splintered wood and debris trapping innocent ponies under. Many of the patrons seem to be injured or even dead, and those that were neither of those things were sobbing. His heart aching at the sight, he stepped forward to try to help, only for everypony's heads to snap around and glare at him.

"Or all this laughter turns to disaster!" they shouted, being engulfed by the dark green smoke of the fires.

Cheese reached forward, whispering, "No... no..."

Then, marching out of the smoke, an angry Pinkie Pie and Tomato Sandwich snarled at him, "And the failure of your campaign!"

As the smoke cleared, the two started chanting at him to release his memories and the pain, as that was the only way for him to forgive and forget. When their respective groups of friends marched out of the smoke with the same chant, Cheese backed up, his heart pounding and his gut twisted as their chanting grew louder.

He looked down at the orb, and then up at Pinkie.

I have told Pinkie that I set my past free…

He looked around him, seeing more and more ponies step out of the smoke with that same chant. There was Mom and Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa. There were all his old classmates, and all of Tomato's ex-friends, though he still saw the latter as little colts. There was his neighbor Balcony Flowerbox and her family, and then Creme Brulee and her family, His teachers, his neighbors... everypony he knew from colthood was there, and he felt sick just looking at them.

But all along I was lying, I see…

Ponies from parties past marched out, chanting along with the others. Too his horror, Ponyacci, Juneflower, and their family were there, chanting at him the best course of action. Even they couldn't see the harm in this memory removal, seeing as burning confetti from the fire was descending down on him because of the awful memories.

He clutched his head, which had began to throb like his brain was trying to break out of his skull.

If they keep on haunting me, I might just lose it!

Ponies from the parties that summer had now joined in the chant. Good, like Pinkie's family, or bad, like Roanie's gang, they were all there. Even the Princesses had joined in the chant, telling him that it was of utmost importance. His head screamed in pain from all the chanting, and his quivering legs could barely hold him up.

Releasing the orb and letting it float back to Rooney, he sang,

"I just want these memories to leave me be!"

He crumbled into a heap, the chants now echoing wildly in his head. It was as if the entire city of Manehattan was screaming at him along with the crowd that was already with him. He looked up at Tomato and Pinkie, who were practically yelling at him. He wanted to apologize for ruining the party with his hangup, as that was unprofessional and he wouldn't let it happen again.

He turned his attention to Rooney, who was flanked by Silk Shimmer, Party Favor, and that crazy unicorn warlock. He was the only one not chanting, as he was too focused on projecting a magical knife to cut the thread. His heart pounded along with his head, awaiting the moment when this would all stop. If all those awful memories weren't there to give him any hangups, then he could focus more on the parties he'd throw for others.

However, his last thought was, "Déjà vu."

SNAP!

There was loud and painful static in Cheese's mind, followed by darkness. Laying unconscious on the path, he was left there by Rooney, who stored the freshly harvested orb in his cloak, and teleported away once he saw a group of ponies loping toward that spot.

The only thing that those ponies saw was a puff of smoke.

Author's Note

Well, that just about wraps up the main Manehattan story. We have the party, got to meet Penny's husband, Coppersmith, and Penny's status as Silver Shill's oldest sister is acknowledged.

Also, I was initially planning for the full Creme Brulee story to come out later, but it ended up spilling out here. Oopsie. Well, at least it kind of fits with how Tommy's feeling in that middle scene.

Oh, yeah, and the final scene in this thing was inspired by this:

I keep listening to that end chant over and over, it's just so epic!

14.1--A Word With Mom

"Mistake... mistake..."

"Their treatment you did not deserve..."

"Release the pain..."

"You made a mistake..."

"Party pony shouldn't live with pain..."

"Or all this laughter turns to disaster..."

"Hush, Cheese... the monsters are only in your head..."

"Please, Cheese Sandwich, you don't know what you are doing..."

Those voices echoed inside the head of Cheese Sandwich, stirring him from his slumber. He lifted his head from a half-wet pillow, his eyelids weighed down by tiredness. Rubbing his head, which seemed to ache by the array of voices bouncing around in his head as if it were hollow, he shoved his front legs onto a spongy surface below him, boosting himself up with wobbly limbs. He smacked his lips, and when he paused to wipe his mouth, the remaining leg supporting him gave way, and he crashed face first into wet fabric cushioned by feathers. With a groan, both legs launched him back up, and he balanced himself into sitting position, his eyes finally creaking open.

He was in a cozy apartment, sitting upon a purple couch and sitting across from a seamstress' workspace, with a mannequin, hat rack, sewing machine, and plenty of fabric stuffed in shelves off to the side. On his left was a window-door leading to a balcony, holding a view of many of the neighboring buildings. His eyes dashed from the curtains slumping from a bent rod to the chicken-shaped lamp, from the cushioned stool to the bookshelf, and from the cello behind the couch to the pillow on the couch that had its bottom half soaked in drool. He cringed at that last item, murmuring, "Oops."

He looked forward at the workspace once again. Where am I and what am I doing here?

He jumped off the couch to stretch, pausing in the middle of stretching a hind leg when he heard the voices of his brother and Coco Pommel chatting in another room. Blinking, it clicked with him that he must be in Coco's apartment.

He unfortunately stretched too long, and a muscle in his leg burned in protest. Biting his lip to bear the muscle's rebellion against him, he was forced to limp with a stiff leg until the wave of pain had passed. He was thankful that it didn't last long, and he was walking normally before half a minute even passed.

He strode into a small and homey kitchen, where he found Tomato and Coco having a pancake breakfast--or rather, have already finished their pancake breakfast, while a stack of them apparently sat at an empty seat, presumably for him. They had been having a conversation about how Tomato had been sleeping upside down from his tail on the curtain rod, which had the red-orange stallion stammering for a good explanation. The conversation stopped when they turned to look at him.

He smiled at them and said, "Morning."

Coco smiled at him. "Oh, good, you're awake! I hope you like pancakes."

Cheese paused when hearing her voice echo, and felt pinches in his temples and back of the head that radiated to the rest of his brain. He quickly recovered from his pause and hopped into the chair. "Are you kidding? I'm up for a nice breakfast like that!"

Tomato furrowed his brow and drummed his hooves on the table. "What happened last night? We found you unconscious just outside of the party zone, and we had to carry you here." He glanced away and grumbled, "And go back to clean up the mess..."

Cheese had already stuffed his face with some pancakes. Blinking with wide eyes, he took a moment to interpret Tomato's speech beyond the echoes, and shrugged before he swallowed. "To be honest... I don't remember much after talking with you on that bench. I was just alone with my thoughts, and next thing I know, I'm drooling on Coco's couch."

Coco frowned. "What?"

Cheese grinned sheepishly at her. "Sorry." He turned back to Tomato. "Maybe it was a hit-and-run?"

Tomato rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't be surprised if some creep randomly did that. Sadistic weirdos in this city strike whenever they can. But, knowing you, you recover relatively quickly from blows like that."

Cheese pouted. "Still rude."

Cheese swallowed another pancake whole, which had Coco staring with wide eyes, opening her mouth to say something, and then changing her mind. A moment passed before she said something else that was on her mind. "Anyway, I'm glad you're okay. I'd also like to thank you for helping with the party--it was wonderful."

"No problem!" Cheese chuckled. "Sounds like my work here is done, and me and Tomato can move on to the next one."

"Where are you planning to go?"

Cheese looked down at his cutie mark. "Well, Cheesy Sense hasn't said anything yet, but we'll see." He looked up at the calendar on the wall, which had all the days up to mid-July crossed out. "I have a couple ideas from experience, though."

He threw the rest of the pancakes into his mouth. He savored the sweet taste of the syrup-soaked cake, and heard the reverberating squelch of the food--along with that blasted echoing ring that was giving him yet another headache--as he chewed. He swallowed the resulting lump, which would have been difficult to swallow had he not been a party pony. While he would have to take his medicine to stop the headache, he was perfectly content with his breakfast, simply thinking, Delicious!

He heard Tomato and Coco repeat it, clear as day and without that annoying echo, though neither of their mouths moved. As he pondered how that happened, he suddenly heard the voice of his father repeat, "Delicious", which was followed by his mother saying the same. It was clear and echo-free yet again, and it was as if he felt their breath on his neck.

He blinked, spun around, and to his surprise, nopony was there--just the door to Coco's studio.

"Uh..." Coco muttered. "Is there anything wrong?"

Cheese scratched his head. "Thought I heard my parents right behind me."

Tomato drew in the leftover syrup on his plate with his fork, a look of glum worry on his face. "Well, I doubt they know we're here, so we're safe from them."

Cheese wanted to know why sounds were back to echoing, but another thought crossed his mind. "Oh, yeah... that reminds me! Mom wants to have a word with you."

Tomato's face fell and he dropped the fork. "What?"

"Yeah, I bumped into her yesterday. I can't remember much of our conversation, other than the fact that she doesn't like that you didn't tell her about our vacation." Cheese crossed his arms and gave him a disappointed pout couple with a raised eyebrow.

Tomato twiddled his hooves. "Well... you know what she's like! She would have killed me for even considering it!"

Cheese shook his head. "Now, now, I don't want to hear any excuses. If she's upset, I'm sure she'll be reasonable about it like any other mother would be." He grabbed Tomato's tail with his own, hopped off his seat, and started to drag him to the door.

However, Tomato was clinging on a little too tightly to the chair, which did not help considering it wasn't bolted to the floor. Dragging the seat with him, Tomato complained, "No, wait! I haven't had time to compose a script in my head for what I want to say to her! I haven't organized my thoughts in a way to avoid the pitfalls and win the argument! You of all ponies should know how delicate this situation is--you were in a similar position, remember?!"

Cheese rolled his eyes as he walked out of the kitchen, turning to the front door. "I recall no such event. Now, stop whining, and stop stealing Miss Pommel's chair!" He glanced at the mare and said, "Thanks for your help yesterday, and for letting us stay here, and for the pancakes!"

Coco just stared at the brothers as they left her apartment, cringing at the argument happening before her. She continued to stare, up until Cheese threw the chair back into the apartment. He had shut the door before he even noticed that the chair had shattered upon impact on the floor. Now alone in the kitchen, she turned her attention to the broken chair and sighed.

"I was thinking of replacing that old thing, anyway."

Her thin lips curled into a smile. The echoes of that snap rang around the street, making a haunting tune in the otherwise dark and empty setting. The thick tension that had blanketed them before had all but disappeared, blowing away with Silver Rose's last breath.

Walker dropped his former fiancee's body, which crumpled into a heap. Her position had not been so elegant as she had been in life. Her sapphire eyes were wide open, and her lips were parted just enough for a trickle of blood to roll out. Her neck was bent in an unusual direction, one that wouldn't be possible hadn't Walker done what he did. And her hoof was on her chest, as if she had been clutching her broken heart.

Ebony Sage trotted to her puppet, and stroked his cheek. "You did an excellent job, Walker. Had she lived, she would have reversed your cleansing and gave that trauma back to you. It's a good thing I made you forget your love for her."

She pulled the orb out of her cloak, gazing at all the memories she had plucked out of Walker's mind. She chuckled at the contrast between the scene of Silver Rose in the orb, and the still body which lay before them. She stroked the orb, and looked at the soulless eyes of the stallion beside her, gazing at her in inquiry of what he was to do next.

"Be thankful to me, Walker... because you're free," she lied.

Mozzarella finished reading the draft of Temptress, a tragic romance written by some aspiring author from the West Side. Ever since she had started this at-home editing gig several years ago, she had seen quite a few pieces of manure that had passed under her line of vision. Not to mention that some of the authors she met were often brattier than her own sons. It often made her unsure if this was a break from mothering, or mothering was a break from this.

Not very many knew she did this, thinking she was just a simple stay-at-home mother and apparent empty-nester. Even Hay and Tomato never really cared what she was doing when she was not checking up on them, and due to being out on his own (and also not caring), there wasn't really any way Cheese knew. She had originally had the room she was sitting in--having been a nursery for baby Tomato once upon a time--rearranged to be Hay Burger's at-home office, but muscle memory always had him at the kitchen table. She couldn't let this room go to waste, so she decided to use it for editing.

Her nose wrinkled as she daintily pushed the heavily-marked draft away. She couldn't help but notice that there was something off about that tone, but she couldn't place what it was that was upending the story. She dreaded the thought of having to reread it, but if she wanted to spot the major flaw with the tale, then it had to be done. A second read-through would be good for this story.

So, she flipped on back to the first page, and read from the beginning. Nearly gagging at the sickeningly sweet love talk in the first chapter, she grumbled, "Why do I get the sense that this would be something that Honeydew would've written? If she dared to pick up a pencil and work on her fairy tale, that is..."

She was interrupted by a knock on the front door. With a sigh, she supposed that stepping away from it would allow her to have a clearer head. So, sweeping out of the room, she trotted down to the front door, pausing when she noticed her husband in the kitchen doing some puzzles in the newspaper. She wanted to smack herself for forgetting that it was his day off.

She snorted. "Oh, sure, you're too busy playing Sudoku to answer the door. It's not like there's a dragon visiting us."

She turned back to the door, and opened it. Next thing she knew, she was being suffocated in a bear hug.

"Hi, Mom!" Cheese Sandwich exclaimed.

Her mind went blank for a moment, processing what her oldest son had just said, his tone of voice, and the fact that he was unashamedly giving her a bear hug. In fact, it was unusually affectionate, with both her and Cheese being cheek to cheek, and with a tender gleam in his eyes not too far from a small foal's. If it weren't for his unmistakable cheesy smell, she could have easily deemed this an impostor.

Usually, whenever he visited because his "Cheesy Sense" told him to, he was usually full of cold, deadpan sass toward her and Hay, and an overblown circus act of obnoxiousness toward Tomato. And usually, it'd transform into anger by the end of his visits.

It was even just yesterday that she and Cheese last met, and that was a huge contrast with what she was experiencing right then!

And then she saw her younger son, right beside Cheese. Tomato was clearly as confused at this behavior as Mozzarella was, while also giving his brother a glare and mouthing, "Traitor," to him. Of course, once he made eye contact with his mother, Tomato's eyes widened, and he slunk behind the door frame.

Once Cheese released her, he grinned and said, "Oh-ho-ho! Do I have a bunch of stories for you guys to hear! Tommy and I have been having the craziest summer together, with some fun stuff and some terrifying stuff, and frankly, some boring moments that's to be expected with long stretches of walking in the middle of nowhere."

Mozzarella held an impassive demeanor. "Feel free to tell your father all about it, he's in the kitchen." She looked straight at Tomato, who shrank when hit with her gaze. "In the meantime, Tomato and I need to have a little chat."

Cheese blinked and pursed his lips. "Oh, right, that's what I brought him here for. You know, for the whole thing about him being in trouble for not telling you about our brotherly vacation and... ooh..." Cheese rubbed his head and sighed. "Excuse me, city was extra loud and echo-y today." He walked to the kitchen, muttering, "Haven't taken my meds this morning... better take 'em now..."

Mozzarella raised an eyebrow. "Meds?"

"He's been suffering from headaches for some reason," Tomato stated.

"All those parties finally got to him, huh?" Mozzarella shook her head. "I knew it was a horrible career plan, and that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the mountains of problems coming from being a... ugh, party pony. I sure hope his gaudy lifestyle hasn't rubbed off on you."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "I haven't developed any tasteless traits, Mom, because Cheese doesn't have any."

Mozzarella narrowed her eyes and tilted her head toward the stairs. "Let's have this discussion in another room."

After taking his medicine, Cheese plopped in the chair right next to his father. He fidgeted in the seat for a moment, and leaned on the table, watching the older stallion write numbers in a nine-by-nine box in the newspaper. Odd, as Cheese remembered it usually being accounting stuff, but he supposed that it didn't hurt for him to take a break every so often.

With a grin, Cheese said, "Hello, Daddy-o."

Hay Burger glanced at Cheese, and greeted him with a grunt.

"How's life treating you?"

Hay snorted. "Eh..."

Cheese poked him on the shoulder. "Would you like to hear about what me and Tomato did this summer?"

"Hm."

Was that a yes or a no? Cheese drummed his hooves on the table, unsure how to approach this. He must have known how to interpret his father's various grunts and mutters before, but he must have somehow forgotten them. Then again, Cheese wasn't exactly sure of how much personality this guy had, seeing as he could not remember much of anything Hay did in Cheese's childhood. Sure, there wasn't really any bad, but there wasn't really any good either. He was just... there.

His ears perked up upon hearing a knock at the door, and he rushed to the front door to answer it. Unfortunately, he opened the door to reveal nothing, so he trotted back in the kitchen in disappointment. With a sigh, he said, "I guess that must've been a ding dong ditch."

Hay didn't look up from his paper. "I didn't hear anything."

Before he could complain about the echoing voice, Cheese heard his grandmother say, "Please let us in, Cheese."

"Yeah!" his grandfather chirped. "We really need to catch up!"

Cheese backed up into the living room, looked around the room, and opened the front door again. Puzzled, he went back into the kitchen once again, asking, "Hey, did you hear Grandpa Pizza Pockets and Grandma Cucumber Melon? I could have sworn I heard them right behind me."

Hay glanced up. "Afraid not. They died when you were nearly nine, remember?"

Cheese blinked, his heart sinking as he recalled that they weren't anywhere in his childhood after he was eight. They were so prominent beforehand, and all of a sudden, they were just gone. He bit his lip and squeezed his eyes, searching his memory for when they had died, or what they died from, or their funeral. Surely they didn't just disappear off the face of the earth like Aunt Honeydew!

He cried out when a sharp pain hit his brain, and that forced a few tears out of his eyes. Wiping his eyes, he took a deep breath, and he slumped in a chair, crossing his front legs. His heart ached to think that he couldn't even remember what the funeral was like.

"You okay?" Hay asked.

Cheese sighed. It was just as well that he remembered the good times rather that his exact memory of that tragedy. "I'll be fine... I... I'll just tell you about me and Tomato's vacation." He cleared his throat. "So, we met at the train station to see Tomato's friend Flora off..."

Tomato was frozen. In the dark workroom, which he was seldom allowed to visit, he felt as if that was the best course of action. After all, everything in that room screamed "Do Not Touch", from that desk with papers on it, to the shelves of his mother's various knickknacks. Everything was staring at him like he was that small, hyperactive colt he once was. If he touched anything, he was sure his mother would pounce at him.

He had expected to have the discussion in his room, but something told him that Mom was placing him in a less familiar setting in order to make a heavier statement without a bed to cushion him. He wasn't even sure what Mom did in here, and frankly, he was always hesitant to ask, so he had to make himself not care. His eyes curiously glanced at what looked like a manuscript on the desk.

His mother stood in front of him, that familiar glare boring into him. He felt like throwing up thanks to the tightness of his stomach.

"I hope you know that I'm not very happy with you, Tomato Sandwich."

"When are you happy?" Tomato scoffed. Of course, once that was out of his mouth, he shoved his hooves onto his mouth, silently chiding himself for letting that slip out. He glanced away, not wanting to see Mom's reaction to his sass.

"Look at me, Tomato."

Tomato pursed his lips, biting them as hard as he could from the inside.

"Look!" Mozzarella's sharper tone rang out.

Tomato flinched, and he gazed into her brown eyes. He could see that familiar bolt of lightning within them, and he had to resist the urge to duck and curl up in a ball so that it didn't strike him. It wouldn't have helped, but he sure didn't want to be a lightning rod.

"Now... I would like to hear what specific disobedience you committed from your own mouth."

Tomato sighed. "I didn't inform you about the road trip with Cheese."

"Precisely. I don't appreciate you lying to me."

"Well, technically, I didn't lie about seeing my friend off. We did make it to the train station after her hastily catching a cab."

His mother narrowed her eyes and started to circle him. "It was a lie of omission. You may have been watching and saying goodbye to your hippie friend as she went back home to... wherever..."

"Neighton," Tomato corrected. He may not know which Neighton and didn't like that many ponies uncreatively came up with the same name for their towns, but it clearly did not matter to her. "And she's not a hippie, she's too conservative."

Mozzarella rolled her eyes. "Ugh, whatever. In any case, you immediately go out afterwards on a useless party spree with your disappointment of a brother! What were you thinking? That's not where you belong!"

"No, I know it's not--Cheese and I just wanted some time to bond! What's wrong with me having a little fun at his parties?" Tomato turned his head to follow her. "In case you've forgotten, we're trying to make up for the stupid feud we've been having for the past decade."

Mozzarella scoffed. "Surely there must be a different way to bond than doing that nonsense all summer. Do you really expect him to give you proper nutrition, or give you intellectually stimulating activities to offset those parties? How about when he has his back turned, and you frolic off to do something foolish as you're wont to do without supervision? Has he already taught you to throw your morals to the wayside, and you pulled stunts like what happened at Rich Custard's party?"

"Mom, I've told you," Tomato said, turning his head further, enough that he wheezed. "His parties are not that raunchy! He told me himself that he doesn't like those kinds of parties! And good grief, what will it take for you to understand that I'm an adult that can be trusted with important decisions?"

His mother paused, and pointed to his neck, which had been twisted in his head rotation. "For one, stop it with the nonsense magic."

Tomato felt his neck, cringed, and then turned his head back around with his hooves to undo it. Of all the times for that to pop up, it had to be this discussion with Mom. Now he just wanted Celestia to burst in from above, scoop him up, and take him far away from this house.

Mozzarella rubbed a temple. "It's one thing for Cheese to display it... but at least it makes sense for him and his talent, much as I hate it. But you? It's a severe mismatch, an aspect that will drive ponies away from you when you try to do any sort of business with them. Ponies are not fond of freaks."

Tomato snorted. "Oh, I'm a freak? Well, news flash: there's plenty of freaks in town, Mom. What's one more?"

Mozzarella shook her head. "You know how ponies treat freaks with those kinds of powers as something to be mocked, as a walking joke exploited for the novelty of others, and as smiling automatons that don't know how to take anything seriously. And in the financial world of Manehattan, they'd give you the boot as soon as you started acting like a cartoon character, since that'll tell them you're not taking your job seriously. It's why you have to be a serious, normal pony, Tomato."

"Is that why I was not allowed to be a kid after I got my cutie mark? Are you just afraid that I'll end up turning everything upside-down and scare everypony? I don't know if you noticed, but I've already had trouble making new friends for reasons not related to any 'freakish nature' of mine!"

His mother was not moved. "There's a lack of respectable ponies your age in this neighborhood that'll keep you in check--we're lucky that Bluejinx is a good egg. To be frank, when it came to that party full of the influential business leaders of Manehattan at Rich Custard's mansion, that magic played a huge part in turning that into a disaster and scaring them. It'd be nice if you stayed on track as the well-behaved, serious individual so that maybe, just maybe, you could have them reconsider their opinion of you. Cheese is not helping you."

Tomato grinded his teeth. "Well... well... perhaps you should check out one of Cheese's parties! He'll show you that he doesn't do any debauchery!"

Mozzarella raised an eyebrow. "No thanks. Wild parties aren't my thing. Point is, I don't appreciate you having lied to me, and this trip of yours is dangerous in more ways than one. Aside from him bringing out the worst parts of your personality, Cheese is also subjecting you to the dangers of the wilds of Equestria! Remember when he ran away, and you worried about monsters eating him?"

"Excuse me, but summer's half over and I'm not dead," Tomato growled, some of the more dangerous encounters of the past month running through his mind. "Heck, take a look at me, I barely have a scratch! He's good at warding off anything dangerous from me!"

"Oh? Please, tell me about these dangers you survived, and shouldn't have been involved in in the first place."

Tomato opened his mouth, but froze when he realized that telling her about Bighoof, Roanie's gang, and especially the vampire incident wouldn't end well. How would she react when she learned that he had turned into a vampire and nearly killed Cheese? So, he closed his mouth, scowling at her for winning that round.

Mozzarella leaned over to the desk and adjusted a few picture frames, bearing the portraits of her parents, a family photo from when she was a filly, and pictures of her two sons as foals. Picking up the one of Cheese, she gazed into it, and said, "And one last issue I have is that your brother seems off."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "Off? Yeah, sure, you think that about him all the time."

Mozzarella set the picture down. "No, he's clearly not well in the head, even for him. There's no way he'd go from bitter to totally sweet to me in just one day--he's a stubborn boy. Something tells me that he's unstable and might fall into something terrible. If you keep this road trip up, he might end up hurting you! So you best end this road trip before disaster strikes."

With his blood boiling, Tomato growled and let out a inequine shriek. For the first time, he witnessed his normally immovable mother jump, along with wide eyes and a hoof on her chest. The mare watched as Tomato's eyes flashed red, his teeth briefly seemed like fangs, and he crept forward like a predator.

While he didn't pounce, Tomato hissed, "He is plenty stable! I've been happier and healthier on this road trip than I have been in my entire life! So don't go telling me that my brother, the one pony who loves me the most and wants me to be happy, is too dangerous!"

He stood straight up, regaining a more equine stance. "Besides, my summer's not finished yet. Cheese and I started it together, and we intend to finish it together." He turned around, and started walking toward the door. "Hope you have fun finishing that book."

Mozzarella took a deep breath. "So, you're closing with a emotional remark like that? Huh, usually 'love is blind' applies to romance--I had no idea that it could apply to sibling love too. Or perhaps you're just in denial."

Denial. Tomato paused briefly on hearing that word, he could feel himself droop as he thought about how in the past few weeks, Cheese had been in such severe denial of the Las Pegasus incident that he pretended to have forgotten about it. At least, that was what Tomato was telling himself--it's not like Cheese actually had any way to wipe that memory from his mind, right? There weren't any powerful unicorns available who'd agree to do it, right? And if there was a way, surely Cheese wasn't stupid enough to take that option!

"I must congratulate you two on making up, though," Mozzarella said, looking at her hoof. "My sister never contacted us, so I assume she's still wallowing in her victim complex, taking advantage of someone else's charity while spending precious time playing in the dirt instead of anything constructive. Poor girl, I wanted her to reach her fullest potential, but it's just as well."

Tomato grunted and walked out, shutting the door behind him. Mozzarella didn't bother to follow, knowing that Cheese would pull Tomato out of there to finish the trip, despite her protests. As usual, Tomato had to learn his lessons the hard way--hopefully he came back in one piece. So instead, she glanced at her old family photo, gazing at her filly self and her sister, managing smiles for the camera.

"She'd be saddened over our parents having passed, though," she muttered.

Tomato ambled down the stairs, and once at the bottom, was grabbed by Cheese.

"Hey, you're back!" Cheese said, grinning.

"Yep," Tomato said, his voice as low as his spirits. "You seem pretty happy... a little too happy..."

"Well, recounting our crazy summer to Dad lifts the spirits, don't you think?" Cheese turned to the kitchen door, waving to Hay Burger at the table. The older stallion responded with an awkward glance and an awkward wave back before going back to his paper.

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Well, at least he's not much for speaking his mind."

Cheese chuckled. "Anyway, Cheesy Sense has just spoken. Next stop is the Salt Lick Valley."

"Great. I hear that's nice and far away from this house," Tomato grumbled. "When do we leave?"

Author's Note

While it's not part of the main Manehattan story, I had to write one last chapter in the city before moving on to the Salt Lick Valley. Because, really, Cheese doesn't remember the emotional baggage he has involving his parents, and thinks stopping by to say 'Hi' is a good idea! :pinkiecrazy:

Also, Mozzarella's thing there was a result of me asking myself, "What the heck does she do in her spare time?" And then that happened. :applejackunsure:

Anyway, this and about one or two other chapters are serving as the interim between the Manehattan and Salt Lick stories. Because I don't think we've had one of those since... I think between Our Town and Crystal Empire.

14.2--Bring Me to the Valley

And so it was that Cheese and Tomato said their goodbyes to Manehattan for the second time that summer, and boarded the train to Salt Lick City. With that city located far west in a valley nestled within one stretch of the Unicorn Range, walking wasn't much of an option. The trip was going to take a few days, so they might as well relax during the ride.

The drone of the train's wheels on the track below was the only music for the passengers. There were slight shifts of the car, noticeable but not jarring enough to distract from whatever activity the ponies were doing. Some slept, some played card games, and some, like Tomato, had their nose in a book. Cheese sat across from him, and was busy inspecting his accordion, making sure that it was in tip top shape for the next party. Boneless Two was right next to him.

Tomato tried to focus on the book he had swiped from his bookshelf back home, The Hound of the Baskerfillies, but his thoughts kept turning back to his argument with his mother. He had trouble understanding the observations of the main characters thanks to a thought of what he could have said or should have said to Mom, such as how she made him feel like he wasn't allowed to have problems. The setup of the story was but a blur to him as he agonized over something he said in defense of Cheese's job and morals, worried that he did indeed sound like a whiny teenager rather than a truly aggrieved adult.

And then there was the moment he inadvertently channeled that one thing he would rather be rid of--the remnants of the vampire, magically embedded in him forever it seemed. While he hadn't done much aside from visibly scaring his mother, he was not proud that he was briefly as demonic as the title canine in his book supposedly was. He briefly glanced at Cheese, thankful that he hadn't seen the relapse.

Still, his stomach was in knots. The only reason he was still on this trip was because Mom knew that Cheese wouldn't listen; her only demand was that Tomato stay in one piece. Really, Tomato didn't really know if he won that battle. If anything, he felt like he lost.

He shut his book, and gazed outside at the corn field the train was cutting through. The stalks could hardly be considered full-grown, their height rounding up to just above the knees of a full grown stallion. Still, they had a clear future ahead of them, with the destiny of plucked ears during the next fall harvest, and delicious cobs gone bare thanks to hungry ponies. They were going to serve their purpose, and serve it well, producing something that all of Equestria could enjoy.

He wished he could say the same for his own future. Could his college resume help him re-earn respect with those Manehattan business leaders like his mother believed it could? Or was there someplace else out there that needed him? Whatever the case, the road ahead was foggy, and there was no way to turn back time and undo any mistakes he had made. Time could only go forward, and he had to decide his destination quickly.

Speaking of destinations, he figured that it'd be prudent to ask about the train's destination. "Hey, Cheese?"

Cheese looked up from his accordion. "Yeah?"

They hadn't done much today, yet Cheese looked a little tired. Tomato continued, "So, mind telling me a little about where we're going?"

Cheese took a moment to process the question and come up with an explanation. "I've been in that valley a few times before. The ponies there are generally nice, though some might be self-righteous. They are far more tied to family values than friendship values--not that they don't appreciate friendship, they just put more focus on family. They are also proud of their pioneer heritage, honoring the strength and courage of their ancestors who settled in that desert and made it bloom. They have a big valley-wide celebration about it that they call the Frontier Festival. In fact, I'm certain that's what we'll be helping with."

Tomato crossed his front legs. "Family values, huh? Well, I wonder if they have a handbook on handling bad family members."

Cheese stared at him, gently setting the accordion down right in Boneless Two's lap. Leaning forward, he asked, "What do you mean?"

Tomato turned and rested his head on the window, stretching his hind legs across his bench. "Don't play dumb, you know what I'm talking about." He paused for a moment, gathering even more thoughts pulled from youth, and sighed. "But, you know, I guess that hypothetical handbook would have been useful when dealing with the problems between us."

Cheese blinked, confusion written all over his face. He spent half a minute contemplating that, swaying along with some bumps of the train car, before saying, "Heh, yeah, I would have liked to know how to deal with those moments you drove me crazy. I mean, imagine this..." He threw his front legs up in the air. "'Oh Brother! An Official Guide for Dealing with Your Crazy Siblings!'"

Some of the passengers glanced at them, before turning back to any conversation or book they were occupied with.

Tomato snorted, and held his chuckles in a closed mouth. "You're ridiculous."

"I made a career out of it!" Cheese said with a huge grin. Rubbing his hooves together, he continued, "When your little brother touches something of yours, respond with a tickle attack! That'll keep him out of your mane, because he's ticklish and absolutely despises being tickled."

"Oh, ha ha." Tomato sat straight back up. "Here's one: When your big brother steals some Nightmare Night candy from you, return the favor and steal all of his taffy."

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "And get stuck to the ceiling."

Several of the other passengers overheard that and chuckled, while Tomato blushed. "Bah, don't remind me of that!"

Cheese laughed, rubbing his head. "Okay, okay... when your little brother starts to run into the street, yank him out of there as fast as you can before he's hit by a speeding carriage."

Tomato huffed. "When your big brother beats you at hide-and-seek, beat him at tag!"

"When your little brother falls and scrapes himself on the sidewalk, carry him home, and ignore all his cries and howls of pain as you scrub the dirt from the wound." Cheese snickered as Tomato rubbed his front leg, cringing from the memory of that pain coming back to him. "And then slather a whole lot of ointment on it, wrap it up, and let him limp around with an awkward stiff leg for a while."

Tomato held a smug smile. " And when your big brother hits his head, take that same ointment and dump it all over his mane, and ask him if he's feeling better."

Cheese felt his mane and shook his head. "Okay... uh... when your little brother's being bullied by just about everyone..." His smiling face fell into a frown, and he turned to Tomato.

Tomato's heart sank, and as much as he wanted to tell Cheese that he didn't have to blame himself, he couldn't find the words. So, he just watched as Cheese threw out his next piece of "brotherly advice".

Cheese looked out the window. "When he feels like the world is against him... be there for him. Be that support that nopony else will give, make sure he's not alone. Just because he's a moody teenager doesn't mean that he's being overdramatic. Maybe he lost his friends... got humiliated by a crush... lost his job... or did something he regrets. Let yourself be a shining star in his darkness."

He turned to Tomato, stretched his front legs forward, and had pulled him into a crushing bear hug. "I'm sorry, I was a jerk that was too caught up in my special talent to pay you any mind. I mean, you were going through so much, and my pride took offense at you being miserable for 'no reason' when all along I thought our parents were giving the best life they could to you. After all, I thought that if I was brave enough to go out on my own at eleven, surely your life would turn out equally as awesome! No wonder you were so mad at me!"

Cheese's front legs had constricted around Tomato's chest, which especially made his struggling lungs hurt. "You're... crushing... me..."

Cheese dropped him. "Sorry."

Tomato took a deep breath, his lungs inflating in relief. "Look, we've forgiven each other for that whole mess, and we're fixing it." He climbed back onto his bench. "Besides, I might as well add a 'handbook rule' about making sure to apologize for any wrongs as soon as you can. Otherwise, you might get thrown into a nasty, mutual grudge."

Cheese tilted his head, an uncertain expression creeping up on his face as he flicked his ear. "Mutual?" He narrowed his eyes in concentration, his eyes twitched as he searched his memory. "But, when did--yowch!"

Tomato jumped at Cheese's sudden exclamation of pain, which brought some attention from the other passengers. Cheese himself had clutched his head, swayed until he tipped forward, and then fell onto the floor. The resounding thud echoed through the car, and ponies stared at him. Some murmured in concern, wondering what was wrong.

Alarmed, Tomato hopped down to Cheese's level, and helped his panting older brother up. Cheese leaned on the bench, still holding his pounding head and groaning. Looking up at everypony, he sputtered, "Wh... why are you all echoing?"

Tomato grimaced. "Need to take your meds again?"

Cheese turned to him and winced as he thought about what Tomato said, as if he was trying to translate from one language to another. Once he appeared to understand the question, he snorted as he summoned his canteen from behind his back and his prescription bottle from his mane. "I hate my stupid meds and these stupid headaches and the stupid brain chemicals being stupid..."

"I'd hate it, too." Tomato took Boneless Two and the accordion off the bench and set them on the floor. "You also look kind of tired."

Cheese had finished taking his pill and was now dampening a handkerchief with his canteen. "I feel kinda tired too... head was kinda dull today, so I thought I didn't need to take the meds..." He squeezed out excess water back in the canteen before throwing the rag onto his face, climbing onto the bench, and laying down. "I was wrong."

"So... now what?"

"I'll just sleep now. Good night."

As he screwed the lid back on the canteen, Tomato looked outside, noting that it wasn't even sunset. "Well, at least we won't get there until tomorrow." He grabbed Cheese's poncho from under the seat and draped it over his brother, and put Boneless Two on the seat, prompting Cheese to grab the rubber chicken and hold it close.

As he sat back on his seat, he picked up his book again. As he opened it, he took one last glance at Cheese, wondering about what just happened. Between that unnecessary spiel of guilt and the sudden migraine attack, Tomato was certain that Mom was right about one thing.

Something just seemed off about Cheese.

The jolt of the train stopping threw Cheese off his seat. He was at first caught by a warm, thin, squishy cushion--though it had bony spots that weren't so cushy--which were accompanied by an echo-y "Oof!" Then he tumbled onto the floor. His head slamming on the hard surface, he felt as if a gong had been slammed inside his skull, and he curled up, clutching at it. Peeling the now-dry handkerchief off his face, Cheese rolled onto his belly, and looked up, his stinging eyes blinking away sleepiness.

His eyes widened when he saw Ponyacci stand before him, spruced up in his greasepaint and dressed in his full clown attire. He blinked, and then smiled before launching himself to his feet. "Ponyacci? What are you doing here?"

"Just thought I'd come and say 'Hi' to one of my best students!" Ponyacci replied.

Cheese chuckled. He scanned Ponyacci's outfit and frowned. "Uh, not to be rude, but I don't think the clown costume is the best idea... you might scare Tommy."

Then, Tommy's warped voice asked, "Who might scare me?"

Cheese quickly turned to Tomato, who was sitting on his bench and looking up at him with a furrowed brow, holding his stomach. Cheese raised an eyebrow at him, and pointed to the clown he was sure was there. "Ponyacci, of course! He's right here! I'm surprised that you haven't freaked out..." He turned to face Ponyacci, only to discover he was gone. "...yet. Okay, where'd he go?"

Tomato shrugged. "Maybe he's still home in Mane-tua? He was never on this train."

Cheese pawed at the air in front of him. "I could have sworn he was right here. He looked and sounded so real..."

Tomato crossed his front legs. "What I'm wondering is why the train stopped."

The conductor came into the car at that moment, and everypony turned to him. Clearing his throat, he announced, "Thank you for your attention, passengers. We have just received word that there was a rock slide in Dun Canyon, and Salt Lick's rock team is on their way to dispose of the rocks. We might be here in Hocksville for a while, perhaps overnight. We apologize for the inconvenience."

The entire car groaned, with some complaining that they were in a hurry, some sighing about how to explain this to extended family, and some grumbling under their breath. Even Tomato nickered in annoyance and grumbled, "Well, isn't that just peachy. Stupid rocks."

Cheese didn't complain, though he didn't like the ringing and the echoes accompanying the complaining. Instead, he picked up the poncho that fell to the floor with the stop and stuck a hoof in its inside pocket. He pulled out a map and looked through it, clicking his tongue and muttering, "Hocksville... Hocksville... Aha! There you are!"

Tomato looked at him and tilted his head. "What are you doing?"

"Just checking to see if its possible to walk the rest of the way," Cheese said. He looked out the window, beholding the green mountains within walking distance of the town they were currently in. "According to the map, the next train station is beyond the mountains, and well, you know that problem with that, so I don't think sticking with the train can help us right now. If we head southwest and go through the mountains, we may have a steady course for Salt Lick City."

Tomato looked at the mountains. "Will we get there in time?"

Cheese noogied him. "Don't you worry your little head, we've got a couple of days before the Frontier Festival starts. Besides, I'm in the mood for camping." He frowned and scratched his chin. "Say, we actually got to this point a day earlier than we thought. We're really making good time!"

Tomato gave him a half-lidded look. "No, we aren't. You were asleep for a full twenty-four hours."

The duo left Hocksville on that warm July afternoon, and started to wander through the mountain range. Cheese opted not to take any underground shortcuts through the range after what happened last time, and instead figured climbing around the mountains was a better idea. Tomato disagreed, as his panting from his fight against gravity attested to.

They climbed over rocks, weaved around a few different varieties of trees, and skipped through some dry grass and shrubbery. Cheese idly plucked some of the dry plants, remarking that it would be great for a campfire. He even added a joke about how it was drier than Tomato's sarcasm. Between bushes, grass, and some stray sticks, he was ready to start a fire once it was time to stop hiking and settle for the night.

They were still in the mountains when night fell, and the high pitch of crickets rang through the air. The low light of the sunset made the forest colored in hues of dark blue, which was soon to give way to a grayscale. Cheese realized that it'd soon be too dark for them to know which way was which, so he found a nice, clear patch of ground and laid out the tarp. Once camp was set up, the brothers shared a dinner of beans over their campfire.

"And so, the cop gave me a warning about using confetti cannons on Bridleway," Cheese said, scooping his last bit of beans into his mouth. "I had no idea that it would disrupt traffic and cause a pileup! And that's the story of why Manehattan cops don't like me."

"Wow, you criminal," Tomato said dryly.

Cheese shrugged. "It's fine, it's fine..." He leaned in in his hoof and sighed. "I tend to be pretty careless..."

Tomato scoffed. "I've met ponies far more careless. You're fine."

Cheese wasn't sure he was fine. He had no idea how Tomato could be so forgiving after years where Cheese was a jerk to him for no good reason. He felt horribly sick thinking about how arrogant and careless he was in his younger years, and figured that any party clients would immediately hate him for treating his innocent brother the way he did. At least nopony would ever know, as long as he keeps up his atonement to his brother. Yeah, that was the reason for this road trip.

Tomato looked up, and groaned. "Well, it looks like the weather department here decided that it was going to rain tonight."

Cheese followed suit, and sure enough, there were pegasi towing clouds above them and stuffing them into spots in the sky. "Aw, bummer. I made a bad call in trying to climb over to the valley. We should have waited back in Hocksville."

As the pegasi shouted to each other about how they're finishing up, Cheese heard giggling. It didn't come from any of the pegasi above them, nor did it come from Tomato. It was a distinctly feminine giggle, high with the innocent joy of a little filly's laugh, yet he could easily imagine it coming out of a cheerful mare. A cheerful mare with a coat of pink and a mane that made one think of cotton candy.

Confused as to why a party pony pal of his was here, he looked around the forest, twitching his ears to try to discern which tree she was hiding behind. Figuring that Tomato wasn't going to move--and Boneless Two could watch him just in case there was trouble--he stepped out into the woods, looking among the different shades of blue in order to at least find a light purple.

Sticks and pine needles crunched under his hooves, and the smell of pine and dust was heavy in the air. He heard the hoot of an owl, the chirps and flaps of feasting bats, and a lone wolf in the distance. But those paled in comparison to the ringing laughter that echoed through the forest. It was like a chorus of bells on Hearth's Warming Day, though he felt much less warm and much more cold when hearing this laugh. He worried for the mare, and he went deeper into the woods to find her.

Was she following them? If so, a pony he regarded as a friend that showed him a few tricks just became creepy. He hoped that this wasn't some sadistic game of hide-and-seek where it turned out that she was going to murder him and bake him into cupcakes, or some kind of cruel joke in order to scare him. He wondered if he should reconsider his choice in friends.

Was this revenge for the time he showed her up at her friend's birthaversary? Dang, he was a jerk there, too!

He grew more and more unnerved as he went deeper. The forest seemed to grow darker, and he felt like something was watching him. It even seemed like the pegasi above him were fleeing the place because of the possibility of some equicidal maniac living here.

He heard the wolf howl again, and the rumble of thunder above him. Then, it was dead silent. He stood still in a circle of trees, the silence screaming at him as he looked between the blacks, grays, and blues of the plant life. His legs were frozen stiff, and the pounding of his heart was loud enough that he feared that some creature--or even the source of the eerily cheerful giggling--would hear it. He couldn't relax, as the moment he did so, something was sure to jump at him.

Suddenly, a flash of white light illuminated the forest for a split second, and a tremendous crash boomed through the air. It startled him to the point of staggering, but his moment of light told him that nothing was hunting him, not even Pinkie Pie. But there was no sigh of relief, for an orange light had erupted behind him.

Remembering that his brother was still back there, Cheese smacked himself for leaving him. Certain that nothing was going to chase him, he turned around to return to the campsite, hoping to grab him and pull him away from the fire.

However, it wasn't long before they crashed into each other.

Stumbling onto warm ground, they looked up at each other.

Cheese muttered, "Nice hair."

A frizzy-maned Tomato immediately scowled. "Oh, very funny. Now, where the hay did you go?! I nearly got struck by lightning, and I had to hightail it out of our campsite when a fire started!" He pulled Boneless Two from behind his back. "I barely saved your rubber chicken again, because you seem to keep forgetting about him!"

Cheese stood up and helped Tomato up. He took Boneless Two and stuffed the chicken in his shirt. "Sorry, I just heard laughter, and I was investigating it when I heard the thunder."

"Well, I didn't hear any laughter! It was probably just your imagination running wild."

The smell of smoke and the sound of crackling interrupted them, and the air grew hot as the fire grew closer and closer. Tomato looked behind himself, and the fire was eating the trees behind him, a tower of black smoke billowing above it. Without skipping a beat, he immediately bolted behind his brother.

"That fire's spreading fast. You weren't kidding when you said this place was dry!"

Cheese nodded. "Yeah, we better get out of here."

As they turned and ran, Tomato looked up at the clouds. "I expected you to rain, not start a fire!"

14.3--Taking the Heat

The pair of weathermares that had been assigned to the Whicker River area had packed the last cloud into the sky over the mountains. As a yearly tradition and a safety precaution, the Salt Lick Weather Department would schedule a pre-festival rain. As Salt Lickers were prone to setting off fireworks for the Frontier Festival, they had to make sure that each step was taken to prevent any fires from happening. It wasn't one hundred percent effective, but they did their best in lowering the chances of fire incidents.

Still, on occasion, pony error did cause some mix-ups with the clouds. When Cloudsdale had sent the usual weather package to Salt Lick City, somepony had mistakenly packaged some dry thunder clouds--used for providing electricity to pegasus cloud homes--with the rain clouds used for the late July storm. Unfortunately, a couple of newer, unexperienced employees had received those clouds, stuffing them into the skies with little clue of why these clouds were different.

They realized their mistake when lightning struck the back of the mountain and started a forest fire. The mix-up became painfully clear when no rain fell to extinguish the fire, and they had to call for backup. Said backup was divided into two teams--one for the removal of the dry thunder clouds, and the other to shove rain clouds into their place.

Still, as quickly as they were acting, fire tended to spread fast, and it was too fast for a couple of stallions in that forest.

The forest was illuminated in an orange glow, with bright flames climbing and hopping through the trees. Said trees appeared to be nothing more than giant black sticks among the brilliant fire. Their branches were licked by the flames, growing weaker as they bore the searing whips. The soil was being rained upon with ash, and a cacophony of crackles and whooshes banged against the eardrums of the stallions that dashed as fast as they could to a way out from that chaos.

Tomato couldn't tell if he was sweating or if his skin was melting. The smoke had a grip on his throat, and he could feel that grip tightening, even as he coughed. His glasses clung onto his muzzle, branding him in the process. He could see his jacket blackening from its contact with the oven they were in, and he worried that it would burst into flame before they found a way out.

So far, they managed to find a path that allowed at least some degree of separation from the flames, but it didn't stop the heat from hitting them and the smoke from pouring into their lungs. Tomato could hear Cheese coughing, and the edges of Cheese's yellow polo had been singed from the degrees of yellow to orange, from orange to brown, and from brown to black.

They kept their heads low, in order to lower their smoke intake, but still galloped through the trail in hopes of finding where it began--after all, this hiking trail had to begin somewhere at the base of the mountain, most likely near civilization. And maybe that civilization may have noticed the fire and started working to stop it.

Still, the infernal tunnel of orange and black threatened to have its way with them. Already, a branch had nearly fallen onto Tomato, but Cheese had yanked him out of the way, and a bomb of sparks and cinders exploded where the younger brother had once stood. Later on, a tree fell between the brothers, and Tomato had to hop over it with Cheese's coaxing. He cursed himself for landing flat in the dirt after his jump, but Cheese reassured him that it killed any fire that got on him.

They had to keep moving. The smell of burning wood was joined by a more sickening stench, with Cheese gagging and saying, "Tommy, I don't think some of the woodland critters made it."

"That's really sad, but I don't want to join them!" Tomato replied before throwing his head down in a cough.

Cheese waved away any sparks in the air. "Don't worry, I'll make sure that we get out of this mess!"

"You sure?"

"Of course! I've been in plenty of--"

Suddenly, Cheese stopped, and perked his head up as he looked around. Tomato skidded to a stop, watched him imitate an alert deer for a moment, and shouted, "What are you doing? Why did you stop?"

Cheese was silent for a moment, twitching his ears to scan the area for any unusual sounds. So far, all that could be heard were the crackles and pops of the burning forest, along with some rolling thunder that made Tomato look up and wonder when it was going to rain. Tomato jumped when he heard the crash of a branch tumbling from its perch, and the distressed cries of birds flying away made him wish he could sprout wings again and join them.

Then, Cheese gasped. "Do you hear that?"

Tomato's scoff came out as a cough. "The crackling? The crash of falling branches? Hopefully the first sign of rain?"

Cheese stomped. "No! The screaming!"

Tomato blinked. "The what now?"

"Somepony's in this fire, too! We've got to help them!"

Before Tomato could protest, Cheese galloped off the trail and into the fire. With a gasp--followed by some coughing--Tomato followed, shouting, "Cheese, come back! I don't hear anypony!"

Tomato must be going deaf, Cheese thought. He rummaged through his secret compartment--accessing it through multiple angles through his mane, his tail, behind his back, and in his shirt--hoping to find that gag flower he kept somewhere in there. It wasn't funny how he could easily pull it out for a classic water-squirting gag, but how it got lost with the other junk when serious emergencies such as this happened. Party pony magic was a fickle mistress, sometimes working against him in a serious situation.

Sticking his hoof through his shirt, he touched Boneless Two. "Oh, no, you're not coming out yet. You're not burning rubber on my watch!"

He heard the scream again, still as far away as ever. The mare who owned that voice must be going hoarse, with all her screaming and all this smoke. That made Cheese's search for the gag flower as urgent as ever, as hopefully squirting some water around would make this fire easier to navigate. He cursed himself for forgetting about it earlier when the fire had first started. He seemed to be a little forgetful lately.

A flame whipped his foreleg, and he cried out. Clenching his teeth to bear the searing pain, he continued to gallop on forward, hoping to spot a sign of that distressed pony he had heard. As dangerous as this may be, he wasn't going to let anypony die as long as he was in the same area.

He paused in his dash, coughing and dancing on his tiptoes. He looked around, hoping to spot some shape of a pony. "Hey! Where are you, stranger? I'm here to help!"

However, all he could see were the flames and the black trunks of the blazing trees. All around him were loud hues of orange, yellow, and red, with streaks of blue clinging onto any dry vegetation they touched. The forest floor was a hot stove that he couldn't stand still on. His throat burned as he wheezed, and he could feel his own sweat sizzle off his brow.

"Come on!" Cheese coughed, and hopped onto a rock. "Is there anypony out there?" He hopped to another rock. "Somepony?" He threw down his head into a cough, and then called in a hoarse voice, "Hello?"

He jumped onto another rock, and sat down, taking a moment to hack and cough out any smoke and black spittle. Rubbing his throat, he wondered if he had been too late to save the pony. Or maybe, just maybe, Tomato was right in not hearing the scream, and Cheese was just hearing things? He simultaneously hoped and dreaded that it was the latter, as the weight of letting someone die wouldn't be on his shoulders, but he still dived headfirst into danger from the safest path. Not to mention he ditched his brother like that.

His head perked up when he heard the scream, and he spun around to find a black pony shape just meters away.

Cheese stood up, relieved that he found the pony. "Don't worry! Someone's here!"

He cantered toward the pony, his hoof busy trying to find the gag flower, or maybe a squirt gun, or water balloons. Any kind of water to try to fend off the fire would do, and it frustrated him that his magic was not cooperating. Oh, how he loved how when he thought he had the hang of it, it decides to screw him over somehow. Did other party ponies have this problem?

He got close to the pony, who was black and gray like ashes, and reached forward to touch her shoulder. "Don't worry, ma'am, I'll help you out! I've been in forest fires before, and I have a knack for--YEEOWCH!"

Cheese yanked his front leg back, and clenched his teeth as he looked at the burn he had received. Much to his horror, instead of the amusing, cartoonish kind of burn that just looked like he had been rolling around in soot (like he usually got), his foreleg bore a ugly red patch where his fur had been seared away. Looking up, he discovered that the pony he had come to the rescue of had turned into a burning bush, its crackle creating a tune of mocking laughter. In fact, he even saw a malicious face in the fire.

He backed away from the bush, the crackling turning into actual laughter. He jumped at the sound of some more wood crashing down, and turned to find some sparks forming into bats and getting into his mane. Brushing them out in panic, he ran off down the way he came, hoping to retrace his steps.

His canter was slow due to his leg feeling like it was on fire (it wasn't, thankfully), and it only grew slower when he coughed. He heard more screams ranging from foal to adult, and switching between male and female. His incident with that bush told him that those must be fake, but they sounded so real that he was sorely tempted to follow them and rescue those imaginary ponies.

All the while, he could hear the echoing crackles transforming into malicious laughter. The flames were all pointing their fingers at him, and chanting about how stupid he was for trying to rescue somepony who didn't exist from the fire. He tried to block them out, but a lump in his throat formed when one flame shouted to him, "Look at this jerk! Always ditching his little brother!"

Cheese had vowed long ago that if his baby brother got hurt or even killed, he would never forgive himself; there was no way that that vow was void now that they were adults. Knowing how accident-prone Tomato was, his first order of business was to find him.

As he galloped off, one flame shouted, "Hey! Where ya going?"

He skidded to a halt when another flame flared up and hollered, "Off on one of your fruitless missions? You know what just happened!"

Cheese shook his head. "That pony wasn't real! My brother is!"

He loped off to another direction, and ducked a falling branch as it cackled, "I betcha he's dead! I betcha he's dead!"

He hopped onto a rock, and perched on it as he looked around for any sign of Tommy. So far, there was no sign of any of his distinct features, whether it be the family forelock or the brown jacket he wore. He grumbled about how both Tomato's and his own coat colors could hide them in the fire, and hopped from the rock he stood to another, calling out his brother's name.

The entire time he leapt from rock to rock, calling out for Tomato, he was pestered by the flaming demons that bullied him. When he stumbled, they chanted for their friend to eat him, which had him bolting up and continuing on his path. When he tried to summon one of his party implements, they questioned how clowning around would help him in this situation. When he coughed, they laughed about how weak he was, and Cheese forced his aching and stinging legs to push forward and escape those bullies.

"Aw, look at him! He really does care!" the flames laughed. "And here we thought he only cared about his silly parties!"

"Shut up," Cheese growled.

"What? I'm only telling the truth! After all, his grandparents wouldn't like that he refused to remember their departure!"

As Cheese galloped toward one patch of trees, he was stopped by the flames forming the image of his grandparents, glaring at him in disappointment. He paused to stare at him, only to have a knife in his heart when they snarled, "How dare you forget our funeral! You never said goodbye, you ungrateful child!"

Cheese backed up, his heart aching at the sight of his beloved grandparents. He had never seen them so disappointed. "I'm sorry, guys... I'm sorry! I-I must have hit my head!"

"That's no excuse!" Grandma Cucumber Melon said. "I'd expect you to be more grateful to your grandfather for teaching you how to play the accordion. But, I suppose with you being so prideful, you thought you were above gratitude, weren't you?"

Grandpa Pizza Pockets snorted. "Phooey! He's just as bad as your snobby parents, Mel. I bet that's where he got that attitude."

"No, I'm grateful!" Cheese felt a lump in his throat. "I'm really grateful! I use that talent all the time, guys! You're the reason I'm a party pony!"

Then, he noticed Ponyacci beside them. "Oh, then I guess I'm not important?"

Cheese jumped. "Ponyacci?! What are you doing here?"

The retired clown leaned on a tree, nonchalantly juggling. "Nothing much, just checking up on my favorite protege. Didn't realize that you seem to forget just about every other trick that you learned from me."

Cheese shook his head. "No! You three are all important to my development! Please, don't be mad, I'm trying to give you guys the credit you deserve!" He was in his tiptoe dance again, though it was slower than the last time he did it. "I wouldn't forget the ponies who led me to become who I am!"

On the other side of them, there popped a mysterious mare. Though he didn't have any idea on who this mare was, Cheese could have sworn he had seen her in a dream before. The purple coat, the curly mane alternating between raspberry and blonde, and the limp forelock were all features he recalled. She was as old and tired as he remembered, and her golden eyes were in a sharp glare.

She whispered, "Aren't you forgetting somepony?"

Cheese blinked. "What do you mean? I don't think I've ever met you."

She was in his face in an instant. "No, not me! I'm talking about someone else."

"Uh, who?"

"The one who rekindled your Joy when you were in darkness? The pony who lit up your world when you needed it most? The pony who showed you that after all your misery, it was okay to be happy once more? The one who inspired you to seek out the tutelage of experienced party pony adults? The filly that awakened your dormant magic with her own?"

"Uh, I've met plenty of fillies? I don't really know what you're talking about."

The mare backed up, a grim look on her face. "You have repeated your mistake, Cheese Sandwich. You best fix it before you fall like I did."

As she faded away into the flames, Cheese cried out, "Wait! What did I do wrong? Please, let me know what it is so I can be able to fix it!"

The flames roared and towered over him, and he had no choice but to bolt off in the other direction. This time, however, the angry scoldings from his deceased grandparents and his aging teacher were in his mind. They were all insults about how he was ungrateful, too proud, veering too far into obnoxiousness, and how he had no right to crush other party ponies under his own hoof. He was supposed to be a spreader of joy, but instead he was a massive jerk. The evidence was how he treated his brother.

What reason did he have to abandon Tomato like he did? Sure, the kid had been annoying, but they had one of the closest sibling relationships around. Why was he a stuck-up entertainer instead of a friend when Tomato was moody? Maybe he could have learned earlier about how Tomato's life went downhill. Why was he boosting himself up and shoving Tomato down? Older sibling self-righteousness is not a good explanation.

He could see the events of his jerkishness forming in the flames, and tried to gallop faster to avoid them. Unfortunately, he stumbled onto his burned leg and landed in the ashy ground. Coughing in the dirt, his leg screaming in agony, and the rest of his body feeling weak, he wasn't sure if he was going to make it out of here alive. He supposed that that's where his stupid pride led him.

However, he was grabbed by the collar and yanked up to his legs. Even though they wobbled, he was standing, and turned to face Tomato, who was glaring at him. However, it was less of disappointment and more of worry, which lessened a bit as relief clearly hit Tomato.

"Don't ditch me in the middle of a forest fire, you big dummy!" he snapped. "We don't have time to fulfill any savior complex of yours! You're lucky I'm still in one piece!"

Cheese reached forward and patted Tomato's back. "I'm sorry, Tomato, I shouldn't have done that. You were right, there wasn't anypony out there; I was just hearing--"

He was interrupted by Tomato coughing in his sleeve, which sounded uncomfortably hoarse. After Tomato finished, Cheese muttered, "--things."

Tomato coughed a couple more times. "You think it's the smoke?"

Cheese coughed in reply. "Yep."

Tomato looked at Cheese's cutie mark, and then punched it. "Hey! Cheesy Sense! Get us out of here!"

"OW! Tomato!" Cheese barked. "Cheesy Sense leads me to parties in progress, not out of trouble!"

"Isn't the party-in-progress located in the valley and not the mountains? Because I don't think a forest fire was the party you're looking for!"

Cheese opened his mouth to respond, then shut it, pursing his lips. "Fair point." He flicked his tail and stretched his flank, looking around the inferno. "Now... come on, Cheesy Sense, guide me to the party site so we can get to planning the thing! Don't want to disappoint those ponies now, do we?"

He felt a pinch in his flank, and he could sense where he needed to go. He galloped forward, shouting, "This way, Tommy!"

Tomato followed, and together the two barreled through the burning forest. Hot tendrils slapped at the Sandwiches' legs, and sparks peppered them in such a way that singed their fur. Tomato's sleeves kept on catching fire, but Cheese was quick enough to slam him in a patch of dust before they spread--though half the sleeves had been consumed--before picking him back up and continuing their run.

A tree tumbled down right in front of them, ashes exploding from underneath to powder their faces. Coughing, the brothers opted to go around the tree, as the wall of fire was too high. Once they got around it, another tree slammed in front of them, and they jumped back to keep the resulting fireball from hitting them.

Cheese's tail caught fire from the first tree, and in a panic, he zoomed off to find another patch of dirt. Tomato dashed after, stepping around the second tree before breaking into his gallop. He hoped that it wasn't too far away from the path that Cheesy Sense was leading them on, and he could feel himself slowing down and weakening, the smoke choking him more and more as he sprinted.

Tomato was coughing out smoke by the time he caught up with Cheese in a grassy part of the mountain, which was notably darker than the forest. He looked up, and he could catch the blue and gray clouds above them, though it was being joined by black smoke. Tomato attempted a sigh of relief, only for hoarse coughs to come out.

With everything stinging, fresh air hurt to breathe, and he made it to where Cheese stood before collapsing in the dirt. To his confusion, his body lay flat, but his head dipped down into an abyss. Opening his eyes, he could barely make out a river in the canyon below.

Cheese picked him up. "Okay, we've escaped the fire for now." His ears perked up, and he looked back at the fire again. With a growl, he grumbled, "No, Cheese, no! You're just hearing things... the smoke's affecting you, that's all..."

Tomato nonchalantly looked at Cheese's leg and winced at the red spot. "That's a pretty nasty burn."

Cheese set him down. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't worry about it." He looked back at the fire again, a visible orange glow growing brighter on Cheese's face. "Uh oh, our fiery friend's catching up."

Tomato turned his head to look back, and watched a wall of fire rapidly approaching them. Glowing brighter as it came closer, with layers of smoke towering above them, the two backed up a little bit, only to be stopped by the cliff.

Cheese looked down to the river. "Well... I can see one quick way out of this."

Tomato glanced back and quickly realized what he was talking about. "You can't be serious."

"No, I mean it. Trying to get out any other way would put us in worse shape."

"And jumping down there would kill us! That river doesn't look very deep!"

"Trust me, Tomato, we'll survive."

Tomato snorted. "Survive?! Excuse me, but I have a better chance of surviving a drop from Bronclyn Bridge into the East River than I have surviving a drop from this mountain into... whatever that river there is called!"

Cheese sighed. "Well, if you think we're gonna die, then I suggest the way that is more likely to have our bodies recovered and identified. That way, we could have a proper funeral." He gestured to the canyon with a smile. "Wanna hold hooves on the way down?"

Tomato glanced at the canyon, and then back to the bright flames and black smoke closing in on them. With a resigned nicker, he took his brother's hoof, glanced at his shorter sleeves, and grumbled, "If we survive this, you owe me a new jacket."

He looked down. In his mind's eye did clouds under the white light of the moon appear, the river replaced with a tiny street among neon lights and a desert climate. He felt his teeth and his back tingle, the latter to the point where he felt giant, leathery wings sprouting from his back, and even flapping. Worst of all, there was Cheese, plummeting down quickly toward his doom, to a fate surrounded by inequine screeches. Cheese's wide eyes looked up at him with hurt and fear, and yet, all he could yell was "Sorry!"

Then, he heard, "Ready?"

Tomato blinked, and he once again felt Cheese's hoof in his own. Thankful that he was not in the vampire mess again, but still mad that they were in a completely different mess with this crazy way out, he nodded and muttered, "Ready."

They took their leap of faith, just as it finally started to rain.

Author's Note

Yeah, dry lightning is a thing, I checked. The real question is who the schmuck who put some in that weather package is. Now the Salt Lick weatherponies are scrambling to fix a mess in the mountains.

I'm fairly certain that few folks could survive in a forest fire as long as the Sandwiches did. I guess magical ponies could survive fires longer than humans can, and that a party pony like Cheese could survive longer than a normal pony.

Anyhoozles, let's see where that river takes them.

15.1--The Flowerwood Inn

In the valley, a town spread across a large hill was just beginning to go to bed for the night. Lights went out house by house, shutting off quickly before any other distraction came. Teenagers having cookouts extinguished their fires and trotted back in their homes so their parents wouldn't get on their case--not to mention that it had begun to rain. The nearby military base was slowing down as well, with its officers preparing to head home.

Yards away from the base of the large hill, the Whicker River winded through the deeper part of the valley, carrying much of its clear water through the shades of yellow and green that were prevalent among the valley's vegetation. However, some ashes and charred branches were being carried downstream, destined to be carried to the lake that locals called Salty Lake.

The few ponies who were out and about noticed an unusual sight that evening. A downpour was heavily concentrated on the mountain across the river, soaking it to drown a wildfire even as the rest of the valley was sprinkled with a light drizzle. Those ponies outside were watching the efforts of the weather team to kill the fire until all that was left of it was steam. Sweet relief spread throughout the neighborhood before they made their way inside, escaping the rain that had just begun.

Had any of the houses been closer to the river, somepony would have noticed a brownish gold hoof bursting from the waters of the Whicker River to grab the bank. Out climbed Cheese Sandwich, coughing and groaning as he pulled himself forward with one foreleg, and tugged his brother out of the river with the other. He dragged them both to a tree, situating himself and Tomato under the branches for shelter, and leaning his brother against the trunk. After pressing on Tomato's chest, Cheese was relieved when his little brother coughed out some water, and took a moment to breathe.

Cheese panted as he sat on his haunches, tilting his head and banging it in order to dump water out of his ear. Looking back at the steaming mountain, he thanked the heavens that he and Tomato were still alive. Tired and wet, but very much alive.

Still, he could still feel fire gnawing at his foreleg. He looked down, and grimaced upon finding that he still had that nasty burn, even though his party magic should have healed it when nopony was calling attention to it. He didn't know how long he had been in that river, but it should have been plenty of time for the burn to fade away. He supposed that it was one of those that took longer to heal than normal, and he figured that it'd be better overnight. But, for now, he had to soothe that burning pain away.

He reached behind his back for his first aid kit. To his surprise, he pulled out the gag flower he was looking for earlier.

He scowled at it. "Where were you when I needed to fight off the fire?"

The flower squirted him in response. With a fresh cold spot of wetness on his face, he sighed and stored it away.

His first aid kit came out, and he quickly got to work on drying the leg--Cheese bit his tongue to keep himself from screaming along with the burn--then slathering it with ointment, and then bandaging it up as firmly and gently as he could. Now that his foreleg was mummified, he put his things away before Tomato was fully awake and taking note of his surroundings.

Tomato smacked his lips, and looked at his legs in confusion. He groaned, "Are we in heaven? I don't think I belong here."

Cheese shook his head. "No, we're still alive. Take a gander at that mountain--we escaped from there."

Tomato stood up and took a few steps forward, seeing the mountain unleashing its last bits of black smoke, replacing it with white steam. "Geez, it looks like a volcano. I'm amazed that we actually survived any of it! A-and that I still have my glasses!" He looked down at his attire, and then turned to Cheese with a dry pout. "Get me a new jacket."

Cheese looked at the now half-length sleeves of Tomato's jacket and grinned. "I don't know, I think you look better this way."

"Ha, ha." Tomato rubbed his legs. "Is it just me, or are my burns gone?" He quickly turned his attention to Cheese's bandaged leg. "And yet, you still have one!"

"Don't worry about it," Cheese said sternly. "There's a good reason for it, and it works best if we leave it be."

"Uh, doesn't that usually make things worse?"

"Not for ponies like me, bro. Remember Comedy Gold and how her brother kept fussing over her? She had problems healing because of that." Cheese held up his leg for closer scrutiny. "Don't know why this is taking a while, but I'll give it until morning to work its magic."

Tomato pointed to his own legs. "And why did--"

"Sometimes being close to party ponies can do that." Cheese chuckled and added, "Unless you're already one under that grumpy businesspony skin and did it yourself."

"No, no, I think I get it." Tomato glanced at the mountain again, and then looked upward as the rain pattered on the leaves above them. A cold drop splashed on his nose. "So much for camping tonight. So, where do we sleep now?"

"What, you don't like this tree?"

"I don't want to sleep in the rain. We're wet enough as it is."

"Hm, good point." Cheese leaned over to look on their right, spotting the town scattered all over the large hill and the EUP base that sat at the bottom of the hill. "Good news is, we made it to civilization."

Tomato looked at the town, frowning at how dark it was. However, upon seeing the last light sitting on the neighboring mountain, coming from a house that seemed a bit large, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Suppose we could ask those ponies for refuge? Or at least directions to an inn or motel or something?"

Cheese directed his attention to that house. "Sure. They don't bite."

Honeysuckle had closed her workbook for the night, and had settled on the couch across the room from her desk, awaiting her husband's arrival home. For now, the pink front room--or as other ponies would call it, the lobby--was quiet. The guests beyond the door straight across the front door were quiet, and there wasn't much noise from the kids upstairs either. But, soon after March Redwood was home, that stairway on the other side of the wall the couch sat against would have their little herd rampaging down to greet him.

Her hooves holding a book, she was engrossed in the romance she read, set among the blustery winter winds that the two-wheeled pullcart company was struggling to march through. She read on how the sting of frostbite, the pangs of starvation, and the weakness of the muscles were nothing compared to the fires of the pioneer ponies who pushed forward to their new home. But, the book asked, will Charlie Chipper and Rose Gray survive the storm?

The door opened and her well-built and sturdy husband came walking in dressed in a dirty military jacket. Honeysuckle closed the book, deciding that she'll find out what happened in her story tomorrow. She set it aside, and jumped to the green stallion in order to give him a well-deserved greeting kiss.

When the deed was done, March looked at the entrance to the stairway. "How long do we have until they come down?"

"Few minutes, depending on how distracting their activities are," Honeysuckle answered. "Whisper a quick summary to me."

March sighed. "One of the cadets was being stupid. Decided to try to impress me and went full-on glory hound mode, and it was just embarrassing. I made him run several laps and clean the barracks to keep him humble."

Honeysuckle snickered. "Let me guess... he found out about your 'beautiful daughter'?"

The stallion's eye twitched and he ran a hoof through his red mane. "Every time... every time somepony learns about her, the day gets stupid real quick. At least the idiots get weeded out." March tousled Honey's short, brown mane and shook his head. "Why'd she have to inherit your looks?"

Honey shrugged. "Luck of the draw?"

He cupped her chin. "Well, in any case, I'm happy to be home with my yellow belle."

There was a knock at the door, and March groaned. "Who's out here this late?"

Honey walked around him to the door. "I don't know. Maybe Scatter Sunshine is finally returning my water can to me, or Golden Plate left his tools here again. Or maybe it's a stranger looking for a place to stay." She grabbed the handle. "And the winner is..."

She opened the door, and found two tall, wet stallions shivering in the doorway. With a pleasant smile, she said, "Well, hello there, boys! Welcome to the Flowerwood Inn. Is there anything I can help you with?"

The stallion that was a lighter orangish brown asked, "Well... you have any spare rooms? My brother doesn't want to sleep in the rain."

March retreated onto the couch and leaned back on it. "Well, as somepony who has slept in the rain, I don't blame him. It's a good call to seek shelter here; my wife's good at making ponies feel at home." He stretched and yawned, following it up by stroking his goatee. "So, please, get to the whole checking in thing..."

Honey pulled the dripping boys in, and then rushed to her desk to get her workbook. Cracking it open, Honeysuckle clicked her tongue as she checked it. "Okay, Mr..."

The orangish brown one said, "Cheese Sandwich."

"Okay, Mr. Sandwich..." She briefly giggled at the name, muttering something about how one of her kids had a friend with a similar name. "So we have Room 2 available, and--"

She heard a bang upstairs, and the chatter of several voices, ranging from teenage to small foal. Looking up, Honeysuckle cringed and said, "Oh, darn them and their timing!" She turned to March. "Keep the kiddos busy while I do business, okay?"

March cracked his neck and stood up. "They're coming down for me, anyway."

Honey dragged the two young stallions to her desk, even as they glanced upward at the hoofsteps banging and pattering above them. They could hear the path that each pony up there was taking, even if they couldn't tell exactly how many of them there were. Even as she repeatedly told them to ignore them, Cheese and his companion continued looking up and glancing backward, where March stood in anticipation of the little army that was soon to come down.

A yellow filly with bouncy, light brown pigtails came sliding down the stair railing with a whoop, followed by a brownish yellow-green colt who clung to it with much caution. A tiny yellow colt rushed down so fast that he ran into the wall, getting up just as fast to run to his papa's back and climb up to the head. Then, some banging began at the top of the stairs, making the pictures on the wall rattle. It continued on even as a yellow stallion with unkempt white hair had leapt a great distance from wherever the stairs began, stuck a pie on the wall, and leapt out of the stairway with the siblings that were getting off the railing, taking time to hug their admittedly confused father.

"Bananas, what are you up to?" March growled.

The parents and the two guests watched as not too long after, a teenage filly riding a wagon down the stairs and shouting, "No, no, no, no, no--" crashed face first into the pie, splattering banana cream on her face and the bottom of the stairway. That brought forth laughter from Bananas, as well as Cheese.

Honey shook her head. "Bananas, you know you have to clean that up."

Bananas grinned at his mother. "It was so worth it!"

The olive-colored teen, her face covered in the pie filling, glared at her laughing brother. "Oh, you think that's funny? Here, have some pie!" She wiped the cream off her face and threw it at her brother's face. Her revenge was quickly frustrated when he opened his mouth to swallow it whole, and she prepared to throw the wagon at him before being stopped by her father's glare.

As the filly growled at Bananas, dragging the wagon out of the stairway, another brother that was clearly between their ages led their dainty littlest sister down the stairs and around the pie filling. Glancing at their messy sister, the dark green and dark haired teenage colt said, "Well, Olive, I see he had his payback. That's what happens when you use his trumpet to unclog the toilet."

The blonde, spring green littlest sister wrinkled her nose, and she and the littlest brother crooned in a chorus of, "Ewww."

Olive opened the front door and threw the wagon outside. "I couldn't find the plunger, Ash Tree!"

Ash Tree scoffed. "Really? I saw Amber with it earlier."

"Wait, what?!" Olive slammed the front door and glared at the yellow sister clinging to their father.

The buck-toothed yellow filly sheepishly grinned. "Sorry, was fighting off rabbits from Alfalfa's garden with it. I couldn't find the rake, so I had to use something else. I also couldn't find the shovel, or the hoe, or that spare lead pipe from when we had a problem with flooding, or even the bat! I couldn't just let those critters get away with eating our fruits and vegetables!"

The yellow-green colt, Alfalfa, huffed. "Stupid rabbits, always nibbling at my plants."

March sighed. "Well, I commend you for defending your brother's garden, Amber. Still, wasn't there a stick you could have used?"

Amber pointed to Ash Tree. "He was carving stuff out of them."

Ash Tree raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so this entire thing is my fault? Why not Mom's, as she was letting the neighbors borrow the aforementioned tools at the time?"

Honey looked up, as did the two guests. "Excuse me, but pipe down! I'm trying to work with this Mr. Sandwich and his... uh..."

The red-orange one said, "I'm his brother."

"Yes, brother, thank you."

The small colt on March's head turned and shouted, "Are you Peanut Butter and Jewwy?"

Cheese replied, "No, Peanut Butter's our cousin. We're Cheese and Tomato."

"Hm, Tomato?" Honey muttered. "I wonder if..." She shook her head, and looked back up at her family. "Now kids, don't go pointing hooves over the unfortunate circumstances that led to the trumpet plunger and this pie mess! Bananas, Olive, there are apologies to be made, and I expect you two to get on it!"

Both the named kids sighed and glanced at each other.

Olive crossed her front legs. "Sorry for stealing your trumpet and using it as a plunger."

Bananas hopped onto the couch and said, "Sorry for making you dive into a pie."

March chuckled and stood up. "So, that's what's been happening here today. The same old chaos as always; at least my wife has it covered." He looked up at his youngest son, who still clung to March's red mane. "Get out of there, Kernel, I can't hug you when you're up there!"

Kernel nodded with a chipper, "Okay, Daddy," before sliding down his father's back.

March looked down at his youngest daughter, who was still holding Ash Tree's hoof. Crouching down, he asked, "And how was your day, Willow?"

Willow just stared with wide, brown eyes, with a slight furrow in her brow. "Dad, you're not dead."

"What? Why do you say that?"

"You said your back was killing you." Willow pouted and turned away. "I was worried."

March let go of Amber and Alfalfa and had his front legs wide open for Willow. "Ah, don't worry, I'm not dying anytime soon. I was just using an expression for saying I had a backache."

Willow huffed. "Don't use 'spressions!"

"Fine, fine..." March noticed Kernel hopping into the hug zone. "Come on, join your little brother."

Willow nodded, and walked into the hug zone as she looked at the floor. As March hugged his two youngest, and was promptly dogpiled by the other five, the Sandwiches watched from their spot at the front desk. With a whistle, Tomato said, "Wow, seven kids. You'd think that'd require three or four mothers."

Cheese pulled out the bag of bits he had been given by the ABC gum collector back in Manehattan and gave it to Honey. "Our house doesn't even have enough room for that big of a family. Imagine Mom herding the seven of us into one or two cramped bedrooms."

As Honey finished up the transaction, she said, "Actually, there's eight of them, boys. I don't know what our oldest is doing right now, but I'm sure she'll get to finishing up--"

Tomato's ears perked up as a familiar voice called from upstairs, "I'm coming!"

"--right now." Honey giggled and shut her workbook. Giving them the key to their room, she added, "You want to meet her too? After seeing the rest of us in action, it'd be unfair to leave Flora out."

Tomato jumped and spun around. "Flora?!"

Honey blinked. "Uh, are you okay?"

Cheese snickered. "If your daughter's the Flora he's thinking of, then Tomato's just fine."

Honey scratched her head, narrowing her eyes. "Wait a minute..."

Before Honey could say anything more, the eldest daughter emerged from the stairway. Tomato's jaw dropped further at the sight of the spring green coat, strawberry blonde mane with a purple bandanna tied in, and the soft, blue eyes. Pink beads hung around her neck, and on her flank was a flower matching the colors of her accessories. There was no doubt in his mind that that was his dear friend Flora Peace.

She didn't even seem to notice the Sandwiches at first, instead opting to hug her father after the others broke out of the group hug. "Hi, Daddy! Sorry I took so long, but I had to scrub some spilled lotion out of the carpet before it set."

"Hey, better late than never for my big girl," March replied, patting her back. "Shame you had to miss the whole pie fiasco."

Flora broke the hug and looked at the oldest of her younger siblings, who sat upside down on the couch. "Oh, yeah, Bananas was planning a prank because he was mad about his trumpet..."

"Sticking pie on the wall with some gum while she does her usual wagon stunt was genius," Bananas said, relishing in Olive's scowl.

Honey raised an eyebrow. "And you still have to clean it up, young stallion. I don't appreciate cream on my carpet and gum on my walls."

The entire family had turned to the mother as she spoke. When Flora spotted the Sandwiches standing there in the lobby, she gasped. "Oh, my gosh! Tomato, you and Cheese are here, in my home?!"

"Eh... surprise?" Tomato said, grinning sheepishly. He was punctuated by Cheese blowing a noisemaker behind him.

Flora hopped over the shorter of her siblings and threw herself in a hug with him. While Tomato blinked in surprise at first, and looked at Flroa's family as they stared in astonishment, he gladly returned the hug. After a sour discussion with his mother and being caught in a forest fire, hugging her was just the relief that he welcomed. He didn't care that Cheese likely had a gleeful smirk on him, he was happy to see a good friend again.

Honey smiled and looked at the rest of the family, walking over to join them on the other side of the room. "Ah, I was wondering if that stallion was Flora's friend Tomato Sandwich. Didn't want to jump to conclusions until she came down."

When they broke the hug, Flora asked, "Uh, why are you wetter than my dad?"

Cheese answered the question for Tomato. "Oh, we were in the river."

"Uh, why?"

"It was the fastest way to escape the forest fire in the mountains."

Flora's eyes widened. "Wait, what?!" She turned to her father. "Did you know about any forest fire, Dad? None of us did, or the news would've spread all through the inn."

March nodded. "I saw some weatherponies goofing up with some lightning. They just put it out."

Flora blew some hair out of their face. "Gotta love pony error." She turned back to Tomato and grinned. "I'm so, so, so happy you're here! Are you two here to help with the Frontier Festival in the valley?"

Both brothers nodded, with Cheese saying, "That we are, little filly."

Suddenly, Bananas exclaimed, "Ha! Ash Tree, you owe me five bits!"

Flora cleared her throat. "Okay, anyway, anyway..." She turned to her family and presented Tomato like he was a science fair project. "Guys, this is Tomato Sandwich, one of my friends from college, and his older brother, super duper party pony Cheese Sandwich." She turned to the Sandwiches. "Cheese, Tomato, these are my parents and all seven of my younger siblings."

Tomato raised a curious eyebrow. "Well, I suppose a proper greeting is sufficient after that comedy sketch we got."

Flora leaned against the wall to let her family have their official meeting with her friend and his brother. March and Honey were the first to come forward. The former held out a hoof to Tomato. "Name's March Redwood, and the innkeeper's my wife, Honeysuckle. Nice to meet one of Flora's Manehattan friends; she talks about you guys a lot. "

Tomato shook March's hoof, followed by Honeysuckle's. "Oh, she does? Well, I hear about you folks a lot too."

Once March and Honey moved off to the side, Bananas bounced on the couch and then dive bombed to their place, splatting on the floor. Popping back up, he proclaimed, "I am Bananas! Second-born of the family and the town of Neighton's local party pony." He cartwheeled over to Cheese and grinned. "Heh, I always thought that me and Aunt Daffidazey were the only ponies of our kind--then Flora mentioned you and some other one named... uh... Pie? I know there was Pie in the name... is it Peachy Pie? Pepper Pie? Pumpkin Pie? Party Pie? Uh... Nacho Pie?"

"I think you mean Pinkie Pie," Cheese corrected. With a grin, he added, "There are also a couple of other party ponies out there--did you know Ponyacci was one?" He smirked on hearing Bananas' gasp, and swung his front leg over the yellow colt's withers. "And you may not have heard of them, but there's also party ponies like Comedy Gold and Party Favor."

Bananas had both hooves covering his mouth and stars in his green eyes. "More party ponies? I want to meet them; I want to meet them all. It's wonderful knowing I'm not alone in the world!"

The awkwardly lanky teenager with long, dark brown hair named Ash Tree was next to approach Tomato. There was a dull grumpiness about him that seemed to fit his dark hues, down to his brown eyes. "Call me Ash Tree. I do art."

The red-headed Olive jumped on Ash Tree, a wild look in her yellow eyes, and hollered, "And I'm Olive! The most daring and dangerous filly in this side of Equestria! That wagon I rode down the stairway only scratches the surface of all my epic radical nature!"

Flora scoffed. "She's a radical nuisance, all right."

Olive turned to her and snorted. "Ah, who asked you?"

"The same pony that gave you permission to jump on me," Ash Tree growled. "His name is Nopony."

"Well, you two seem to be balls of sunshine," Tomato remarked dryly.

After Olive had climbed off Ash Tree, Amber was pushing a quiet Alfalfa to the forefront, and poking him. "Okay, bro, just tell him your name and maybe show him your cutie mark, and then you're done!"

Alfalfa swatted Amber's hoof away, and then looked up at Tomato with fearful yellow eyes. With his face frozen like that, he turned to show the stallion the alfalfa leaves that made up his cutie mark, mumbled his name, and then backed up to give his sister the spotlight. The filly gleefully leaped forward and did a little tippy-toe dance as she bore a wide grin that felt a little off, thanks to her overbite.

"So... my name is Amber Waves! I am eight years, nine months, two weeks, and two days old! I'm turning nine in October, and I'm planning to have an awesome Nightmare Night themed party for my birthday. I haven't earned my cutie mark yet, but I hope it's soon." She started to bounce around him, her green eyes gleaming. "Anyway, I'm so happy to meet one of those Manehattan friends that Flora likes to talk about, and hot dog, am I glad that you're even more handsome in person than you are in that photo Flora has of you and her other friends in her room!" She hopped onto Tomato's back, and leaned on his head. "So tell me, do you, that unicorn, and that pegasus fight over the beautiful beauty that is my big sister? Because seriously, you'd have to be crazy not to fall in--"

Flora grabbed Amber and covered her mouth. "Amber, no! We talked about this, I'm not interested in dating any of them." She grinned at Tomato. "Excuse this sister, she's a chatterbox."

"I noticed," Tomato said.

Amber peeled Flora's hoof off her mouth and sang, "Somepony's in denial... somepony's in denial..."

Flora huffed. "No, I'm not."

"Aw, come on, all your friends agreed that the tall and sharp-dressed one was the cutest!"

Tomato's face flushed, and it only intensified when it became clear that Cheese, as well as Flora's other siblings, had overheard that and started laughing. Shooting a glare at him, Tomato snapped, "Hey! It doesn't mean anything if her friends think I'm cute."

Cheese ignored him and called to Amber, "Hey, welcome to the club, kid! I'm glad you agree that those crazy ponies would be perfect for each other and are just too pigheaded to see the obvious."

Tomato scowled. "Cheese, stop it! Unless you want me to bring up your whole deal with Pinkie?"

Cheese rolled his eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Amber slipped out of Flora's grasp and galloped to Cheese, giving him a high hoof as they both cheered. Tomato and Flora looked at the sight and then at each other with a sense of embarrassment and frustration. With a sigh in defeat, Tomato turned to the final two siblings that had come to greet him.

Willow just stared at him, while Kernel was bouncing in place. With an uncertain pout, Tomato said, "Uh, hi?"

The moment their eyes met, Willow turned away as if Tomato was going to melt her eyes with heat vision. On the other hoof, Kernel squealed and chirped, "Hi!" as he jumped forward to grab his leg and pull at the half-burnt sleeve there.

Tomato glanced at Flora. "I think your youngest brother likes me and your youngest sister doesn't."

Flora walked around to Willow in order to pat her on the head and fix her pink bow. "Nah, Willow's just skittish about eye contact. She'll stare at you until you look directly at her; it tends to make her really uncomfortable, especially when she's meeting somepony new. So, don't worry, she hasn't formed enough of an opinion of you to like you or not."

Tomato pursed his lips. "Um, okay."

Kernel had climbed his way to Tomato's head, and was busy twanging the forelock for his amusement. Raising an eyebrow, Tomato asked, "Hey, shouldn't you have told me your name before you started playing with my mane?"

"I'm Kernel Gwin!" Kernel grabbed Tomato's forelock. "I wike your hair woopy, mister."

"Uh, careful, Kernel, don't pull--"

Kernel yanked the forelock, and the sudden eruption of Tomato's natural curls launched the tot into the air, which got March dashing to catch him. Kernel landed right in his father's hooves, his normally cowlicked white and light green mane a mess. Blinking his big, blue eyes in shock of what had just happened, it was a moment before he laughed and clapped.

Tomato bit his lip. "--it."

Honeysuckle blinked. "Well, I've never seen hair do that."

Cheese waved a hoof. "Crazy hair is a family thing. I'm just surprised it's dry enough to do that."

Cradling his youngest, March said, "Well, that's everyone. We've all had our fun, but it's late, and we should all get to bed."

Kernel groaned. "Daddy! I wanna pway with the funny hair some more!"

Honey took him out of March's hooves. "Oh, no, young stallion. It's way past your bedtime, and you need lots of sleep to keep being a little sunbeam." She pointed to Willow, who was rubbing her eyes and starting to head upstairs. "Your sister's got the right idea."

Kernel kept pointing at Tomato and whined, "But the funny hair! I wanna pway with the funny hair!"

Honey headed to the stairway, and then started going up. "The funny hair will still be here tomorrow. For now, bed." Honey paused and turned to Bananas, sternly ordering, "And you still have to clean up the pie! It better be gone by the time I wake up tomorrow."

The last thing they heard from Kernel was the beginnings of a tantrum, and Bananas headed up as well, grumbling, "Gotta get the cleaning supplies or Mom's gonna bite my head off tomorrow."

March yawned and started ascending too. "Had a long day today... I'm heading to bed too."

The others left one by one, muttering about how Flora's friend had to arrive late at night. Olive punched them on the shoulders, Ash Tree just rolled his eyes, and Alfalfa just hurried up the stairs. On reaching the stairwell, they stepped around the pie filling, looking at the pie tin stuck to the wall. It was amazing how the gum was holding so well--but, then again, Bananas had his ways. Amber waved backed at the Sandwiches, chirping, "See you tomorrow!", while Willow paused to stare at them before scurrying upstairs.

Finally, it was just Flora left with the Sandwiches. She turned to them and said, "So... want me to help you settle in?"

While the room was one of the two that was next to the lobby door, Flora still led them there and gave a mock tour of the room. It was only a simple bedroom, with two beds baring old-fashioned quilts of soft blues, whites, and pinks, a couple of nightstands that held simple lamps, and a small bathroom which contained the essential toilet, sink, and shower.

Cheese went into the shower first, citing his reason as wanting to give Tomato and Flora some "alone time". And so, they were having it, whether they liked it or not, and Flora spent some time making the beds and making sure Boneless Two was comfortable while she was in there.

Tomato sat on a stool the entire time, not wanting to dirty either of the beds with his filth from the forest fire and trip down the river. "You know, hearing about your family and actually meeting them are two entirely different things. Though, I'm still undecided over if they're more insane or less insane than what you told me."

"Eh, I got so used to it that I can't really tell either." Flora sat on the bed. "I couldn't imagine life without them until I started school in Manehattan. It's so weird not dealing with the noise that comes with seven siblings. How did you stand it?"

Tomato twiddled his hooves. "Truth be told, I think I might have been mentally unstable as a teenager, and I don't think being alone as often as I was wasn't helping anything. If you want a different perspective from a sane pony with a small family, talk to Bluejinx."

"I have asked him what it's like to be an only foal," Flora said. "Speaking of him, he wrote me about how you and Cheese were in Nickerlite and about how you guys fought Roanie's gang. I heard they're vicious, so I'm glad you guys escaped with your lives, and even got those crooks arrested; poor Bluejinx for getting injured, though."

Tomato looked down at the beige carpet. "I still feel bad for letting him get hurt like that. Say, did he mention if he's getting better? I've been all over the place, so he wouldn't know where to send me letters."

"Well, last I've heard, he's back to walking all over Nickerlite."

"Okay, good." Tomato stretched his forelegs and yawned. "And have the twins told you about--"

"The whole Shining Vocals fiasco? Yeah, they have, especially the part where you ended up tied to a chair and starting a brawl. I was surprised that they bumped into you, but I was even more surprised when they bumped into an old classmate of mine."

"Old classmate?"

"Yeah, Herald Angel?"

"Oh, the guy who had his uncle cheating for him."

Flora snorted. "I feel sorry for Herald being used like that, he was always so sweet. I never liked seeing Windswept Goldenmane on any ads and posters at all, nor did I like his music; it always made me want to punch him. I knew there was something fishy about his big, arrogant, fake smile..."

"Psht, he couldn't stand being a has-been. Be thankful he's behind bars." Tomato leaned back, his tail supporting the weight of him and the stool. "And now, I can check you off the list of friends that I bumped into on this crazy road trip."

"Seems just like yesterday we had our goodbye at that station," Flora said, laying back on the bed. "And now, over halfway through the summer we meet again--this time on my turf! It's not all that flashy, but, we in this valley don't need 'flashy' to be happy. I wish a cousin of mine would get that."

Her hooves on her chest, she asked, "So, make any new friends, Tomato?"

"Oh, yeah, I've made a few over the summer so far. Would you like to hear about them? I think we have until whenever Cheese comes out and tells me it's my turn for a shower."

Flora rolled over on the bed until she was on her belly, facing Tomato with her face in her hooves. "Go on."

Author's Note

We've been waiting for this moment for a long time.

We have finally seen Flora again, and we've met the Flower-Wood family!

As you know, writing a lot of characters in one scene is tough. The scene in the inn's lobby has twelve characters in it, and each of them has to have at least a couple lines and a presence in the scene, and I had to give some indication of each of their overall personalities. Ooh, boy. :twilightoops:

Anyway, I'm happy to finally have a chance to write this family. :pinkiehappy:

15.2--High on the Mountaintop

The next morning, the Flower-Wood family had set the tables in the inn's spacious dining room and prepared their breakfast buffet for the guests. Eggs prepared in various ways, hash browns fried to golden perfection, a variety of fruits and vegetables thanks to Alfalfa, stacks of pancakes and waffles, and a selection of beverages let off an aroma to make ponies' mouths water. Once in the dining room, the guests were quick to sense the scent in their nostrils, and snatched food from the long table in the middle of the room to carry back to the other tables draped in light green tablecloths.

With several other families and couples enjoying the food at the other tables, the Flower-Woods sat down at their table in order to relax and have their own breakfast. Honeysuckle sat at the end of the table, with Kernel directly on her right, and Amber Waves on her left. On Kernel's side, Olive and Willow filled two of the remaining three seats. Amber's side had Alfalfa, Bananas, and Flora occupying the seats on her left. At the end sat Ash Tree, quietly eating his breakfast. The only member who wasn't attending was March, who had already went off to work.

Under the hums and drones of the other ponies' conversations, the family was having their own, mainly directed at the oldest daughter concerning a friend of hers that was visiting. It was much less pleasant for her than one would expect about something involving a dear friend.

"You know, Flora, you're going to have to tell him sometime," Honeysuckle said, glancing between her uncomfortable oldest poking at her hash browns and her youngest's messy pancake consumption.

Flora starting pulling off potato shreds one by one from the hash browns. "I know, I know... I just want to tell Tomato in a more peaceful setting, before we meet up with Aunt Sego Lily and everypony else to prepare Neighton's floats for the parade. Like, say, in a picnic on the mountain I'm planning for lunch today."

Amber held her hooves over her heart and sighed dreamily. "Oh, how romantic!"

Willow bumped her green and red apple slices together, making kissy faces. "Like Princess Cadance and Shining Armor."

"No, it's not romantic, I just want to show him the valley--not to mention, it's my turn to get a picnic in my neck of the woods. Plus, it'll let him process the news, let off some steam, and prepare for the inevitable moment. I don't want him to freak out once they bump into each other."

Olive had been loudly chewing her waffles, spitting out chunks and syrupy drool to the disgust of her siblings, as she said, "Sheeing him freachk outh wood-bee hirariousth!"

Flora glared at her. "No, he'd be angry with me for not telling him sooner."

Ash Tree leaned in his hoof, poking at his orange. "Doesn't he already know we have an aunt and uncle in Manehattan?"

"Yes, but he hasn't bothered to ask me who they are. I just tell him I'm going to visit them and he's like, 'okay, have fun'." Flora paused to scoop up some of the potato shreds with her tongue. "He has asked me why I was lost when I have relatives there."

Amber was keeping the contents of her breakfast burrito from spilling out. "Well, have you told him that they always visited us and we hardly ever have time to visit them and so you're unfamiliar with the city? Or that your train came in a day early so you had to wander to the school all by yourself? And that you kept having trouble catching a cab for when you went to their house to explain the mess? Sheesh, it's a good thing you decided to go for the dorm if you keep having cab troubles."

"I still go to their place every so often to pamper them after a hard week. At least they pay me." Flora sighed and threw a hash brown into her mouth. "It was nice of Tomato to show me around the city when they were too busy to do so. Still, when I found out that they lived in the same neighborhood and that there was a fair bit of tension involved... well, I guess I figured that he wasn't interested in my extended family anyway, so I can be as vague as I want and he wouldn't care."

"And what do you know?" Alfalfa said dryly. "Your secret-keeping is going to bite you in the cutie mark."

"Hey, it's not like I expected this to happen! Do you expect me to meet his cousins in any time of my life?"

Bananas had been chewing on a mouthful of waffles for some time before swallowing the rather large lump whole. "Hey, you were excited about the possibility of him coming over earlier this summer. And only now, when we have a celebration that involves us and our extended family, do you worry about something that you've been hiding from him for a while?" He shook his head. "Should've been a straight shooter in the first place, sis."

Flora slammed her hooves on the table. "Oh, be quiet! Since when were you some wise sage that knew everything about my friendships?! Tomato's been on a bad emotional lockdown ever since I've met him, and he sure doesn't like to open up! I probably know a bit more about his backstory than he'd like. I'm just thankful one of his biggest problems was taken care of, and I'm just hoping that this one won't go horribly wrong like the last one almost did!"

Honeysuckle shook her hoof. "Flora, what did I say about your temper? Calm down before you flip the table!"

Kernel's eyes widened, and he held the remainder of his pancake close to him in order to protect it. Willow followed suit with her apple slices and hard-boiled eggs, and the rest just stared at Flora with worry. The exception was Olive, who just had her front legs crossed and an eyebrow raised.

Flora panted, and sat back down, picking up another hash brown. "Sorry... I've been holding it in for a while. Sometimes I forget that I can be a bit fiery."

Ash Tree snorted. "A bit?"

Flora still stared at her hash brown, ignoring the snide remark. "Well, best to stop worrying about it and get it over with." She gave a side glance to Olive. "And no, I'm not giving you the pleasure of seeing him freak out on finding out who our cousin is."

Olive pouted. "Aw, come on! Seeing stuffy ponies like that lose their cool is the best!"

"Yeah, we're having a private picnic for a reason."

Amber leaned toward Flora. "Are you sure it's not romantic?"

Before Flora could answer, they heard the door swing open. Turning to the entrance of the dining room, they watched as a grumbling Tomato Sandwich, clad in only his white button shirt with sleeves burned up to his knee, walked in. He strode across the room and wove through the tables to reach the buffet table. From there, he took a plate and started to choose his breakfast items.

Bananas leaned back in his chair. "You'd think his brother would be with him."

Tomato was quick to select his food, and then was at the table with the Flower-Wood family in an instant. Sitting across from Flora, who was fiddling with the pink beads of her necklace, and by Willow, who took to staring at the stallion's forelock, Tomato threw a waffle into his mouth and chewed, leaning his head in his hoof.

Bananas swung forward and leaned on the table. "Hey, where's your bro? I've been wanting to talk party stuff with him."

Tomato swallowed. "Still asleep. I've been trying to wake him for hours, but I only succeeded in having his rubber chicken vomit confetti on me. You'd expect it to be the other way around."

Bananas blinked. Then, a large, mischievous smile crept up on his face, growing until it was ear to ear. Sliding down under the table, he said, "Well, well, I guess I'll have to sing him the merry sunshine song. That's always fun to sing."

The yellow stallion disappeared under the table, and Ash Tree lifted the tablecloth to check if he was still under there. With a sigh, he dropped the cloth and muttered, "How does he do that?"

"Eh, as long as Cheese is awake to get to the actual preparation for the celebration, I don't care what Bananas does," Tomato said.

Honeysuckle nodded. "Well, I hope he succeeds. We're meeting my oldest sister and her family this afternoon to work on floats and wagons for the Frontier Festival Parade in Salt Lick City. With another party pony involved, I think this year's festival will be extra fun!"

She glanced at the seat beside her, and discovered that Kernel had ditched the table. "Ugh, where did that rascal go now?" She stood up and walked away from the table, beginning with looking around the buffet table. "Gotta find that boy and clean the syrup off of him..."

Tomato watched Honeysuckle in her search before turning back to his food and chomping on some apple slices.

With a big smile, Amber leaned toward him and asked, "So, on a scale of one to ten, how much would you like to go on a romantic mountaintop picnic with Flora before we get to the parade preparation thing?"

The remaining siblings snickered as Flora facehoofed. "Amber, it's not romantic!"

Tomato looked up with a jerk, blinking. "Wait, picnic?"

One moment, Cheese Sandwich was being chased.

He didn't know what was chasing him through this jungle, all he knew is that it was covered in shadows and snarling at him. The echoing laughter of foals accompanied the monster, as if they were mocking him in an endless cycle. He felt the heat rising in him as he ran, and he could feel his brow dampening. His legs were in a limbo between aching and numbness, even when he had a moment of having his foreleg sink in some thick mud, causing him to pause until he yanked it out and kept on going, feeling the monster snap at his tail.

The next moment, as he was swinging on a vine over a ravine, he suddenly heard, "Good morning, Merry Sunshine! How did you come so soon?"

He slipped off the vine and plummeted into the ravine, only to slam face first into a carpet.

His head throbbing and ears ringing, his shaky front legs boosted him up to a more comfortable position. Smacking his lips to get rid of the bad taste in his mouth, he opened his eyes to find that he was still in the room that he and Tomato stayed in the night before. Rubbing his head, he idly grabbed Boneless Two beside him, and turned to his bed. The fact that Bananas was directly under it and had lifted the entire thing with his two front hooves gave him an idea on how he fell out of the bed.

Bananas bobbed his head and chanted, "You chased away the stars and you scared away the moon!"

Cheese rolled over until he was sitting on his rump, and then stretched. "Gee, you made Celestia sound like a jerk."

Bananas stepped to the side, slipping the bed back on the floor. Now back on all fours, Bananas said, "I didn't make it up. I think it must be some kind of nursery rhyme that my dad sang to me while bouncing my bed to wake me up. You'll have to contend with the author of the rhyme."

Cheese rolled back over, and stood up, hearing his legs practically creak. He threw his rubber chicken on the bed, the resulting squeak echoing in his head. Despite the gnawing at his brain, he was unable to stop swinging it as he walked to the nightstand and grabbed his medicine bottle. In gazing at it, he realized for the first time that the labeling was smudged.

"What's that?" Bananas asked.

"Headache medicine," Cheese mumbled. "River ruined the label."

"Oh, okay. Geez, looks like the mints a cousin of mine likes to carry around. Speaking of which, once you're done with that, then we can get to preparing for the parade tomorrow!" Bananas said, hopping on the bed and leaning back. "We're meeting up with friends and family today to work on our floats, and I've got a few ideas to make it fun, like candy cannons on one of the floats or putting apricot trees on another, sticking popcorn balls on the branches like they grew them."

Cheese had gone into the bathroom and was already dumping a pill into his hoof, listening to Bananas just a room away. "So... you'll make it look like there's popcorn popping on the apricot tree? Cool."

"Hey, are you always this groggy in the mornings?"

It never really occurred to Cheese that this was unusual until now. Before, he was always the first one up and scaring Tomato awake, ready to seize the day and make every day a party, whether it be a big celebration or a mini party just between him and his brother. But for some reason, now he was just feeling more and more tired. After taking his medicine and downing a glass of water, Cheese pulled down at his eyelid in some attempt to see what was wrong.

In doing so, he noticed the bandage still around his foreleg, having been changed the night before after a careful shower. Thinking that his burn should be healed by now, he unwrapped it, finally answering Bananas with, "Oh, uh, I just had an eventful night last night, and I was worn out from the running and the fire and the--aaahh!"

Cheese nearly staggered back at seeing that his burn had not healed. It was still a harsh red color, rimmed by fur that was singed brown. Out in the open, it still stung more than ever, making Cheese imagine it still on fire, with a vivid flame that cackled at him with the utmost mockery.

Bananas popped his head in. "Hey, what was that--" His eyes landed on the burn and he cringed. "Oooh..."

Cheese rubbed his forehead, his mind blank. "But... but... my injuries never lasted this long... heck, my burns have never been this red..." He spun around to face Bananas and shouted, "Why do I have an unfunny injury?!"

Bananas shrugged with a sheepish grin. "I don't know. I'm not a doctor... you want to check with a real doctor?"

Cheese backed up and shook his head. "Oh, no, no." He looked at his burn and grimaced. "I've got plenty of burn ointment--gotta carry a first aid kit around in my travels in case an unfunny injury like this one comes along!" He pulled said first aid kit out from behind his back and dropped it on the floor, the impact forcing the lid open. Rummaging through the kit, he grumbled, "But it's rare for me and I don't like it when it happens."

"Uh, you need help with that? I could go get Flora, as she has changed my bandages in the days after my accident and has been gentle since."

Cheese pulled out the ointment. "Accident, huh? What happened to you?"

Bananas' eyes widened, and he sped out of the room, shouting, "Oh, uh, it's a long story! I'll just go get her, as I'm not as gentle with delicate burns as she is! Here's hoping I catch her before she goes taking your brother on a hike!"

Cheese blinked. "Uh... I'm sorry?"

Once finished with breakfast and changing Cheese's bandages, Flora was grateful that her mother and sister Amber had prepared their lunch for them while she had done so. With the picnic basket all set, she was ready to lead Tomato up the nearest hiking trail. While the front of the inn provided a fair view of the town of Neighton and the neighboring EUP base, Flora wanted to climb higher up the mountain in order to give him a good look at the valley she called home.

Tomato simply went along with it, offering to carry the basket with his tail. He didn't want to disappoint his friend, though he was frankly annoyed by her siblings and Cheese giggling over them. Letting them know they'll meet them in the town square later that afternoon, they started their hike up.

The dusty trail began with a loop into the neighboring canyon, providing them with their first view of the very river that Tomato and his brother fell into the night before. Feeling the canyon breeze give them a cool break from the hot sun beating down on them, the lanky stallion described the great plunge that he and Cheese had taken in order to escape the fire. He even pointed out a cliff and drew a line to explain just how high the jump was.

"I thought we were screwed either way, so Cheese convinced me to take the route that would have a chance of our bodies being recovered and identified more easily," Tomato rambled. "And because the universe likes to spite us, it rained right after we jumped."

"And you two survived that?" Flora shook her head. "There's no way."

"You seem to be forgetting Cheese's near invincibility..." Tomato rubbed the back of his head. "Admittedly, I forgot about that too."

"More like fickle invincibility, given that burn of his," Flora corrected.

Tomato's mind flashed back to Cheese's fall in Las Pegasus. Given how high in the sky that Tomato had climbed and how unfunny the situation had been, there had been little chance of him surviving that. "Well, thanks for coming up with a good way to put it."

Tomato's foreleg swung to the side, and hit a flat and fleshy pad that bore tiny spikes. The sudden stabbing in his pastern had him leaping into the air with a pained whinny. Once he landed, dropping the basket with a thud, he cradled the stinging foreleg and glared at the offending plant--a prickly pear cactus.

"Why the hay are cacti here?" he grumbled.

"Because we're technically in a desert." Flora took Tomato's hoof and examined it. "At least it didn't draw blood. You should be okay."

"Okay..." Tomato turned to the basket. "But what about our lunch?"

The trail looped and zigzagged up the grassy mountain, in order to make it just a mite bit easier to fight gravity. Even so, gravity still fought Flora and Tomato as they trod up the path, kicking reddish-brown sand down behind them. While the sun was still warm on their backs, the air was steadily growing chillier as they ascended.

The final steps of the path were rocky, and Flora hopped on each one with ease. Tomato saw no need to jump, as his long legs could climb over them easily. Besides, he was carrying the basket, and he didn't want to cause any more damage to their food. Despite their aching legs and their sore feet, they ambled onward, seeing the peak just yards away.

Flora leapt onto a boulder and turned to look at the neighboring mountain. She grimaced at the charred backside of the landmark. "Yeowch. Looks like that fire did a lot of damage before the weather team was able to put it out."

Tomato glanced at the mountain and saw black on it. "Cheese and I were almost part of that damage, but I already told you plenty."

"Yeah, I think you told me the whole story." Flora spun around to talk down to him. "By the way, you're doing pretty good for somepony who hasn't grown up in the mountains."

Tomato caught up to the boulder and leaned on it, mild pants breezing in and out of him. "This vacation I'm on is essentially a trial by fire. Compared to some of the nonsense I've been through so far, this is easy."

Flora giggled. "Well, good for you, tough guy. Anyway, we're almost there."

She leapt off the rock, accidentally kicking the boulder into rolling down the mountain. A startled Tomato jumped back, and watched as the boulder rolled and bounced down the mountain, until it landed in a grove of conifers. Upon the thunderous crash, dozens of birds zoomed upward in order to escape the monster making that booming noise.

Flora paused and flinched at the sound. "Oops."

Tomato clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Flora, I thought you'd be more careful with boulders."

"Well, let's be thankful it didn't start rolling while I was still on it, or that it didn't roll toward you." Flora bounded up a few more steps, and then she stopped on the peak. "Now, are you coming or what?"

Tomato trotted up on the rocks, nearly slipping on some pebbles on the way up. Holding the basket steady, he climbed forward until he pushed himself up on the last step. Finally stepping on grass, he exhaled and wiped his brow, striding forward to the middle of the patch to put the basket down. Then, he looked forward at the valley.

The valley stretched far to the north and far to the south, and stretched forward to the west until it reached a great lake. The lake shone like a mirror under the light of the sun, bordered with sands of white and holding a large island with many different specks--birds or pegasi, he didn't know--flying around it. The grass of the valley ranged in hues of yellow and green, speckled with the occasional deep green tree or grove that hung around the valley's many irrigation ditches and the nearby river. Several towns occupied the valley, and he could see various farms and orchards hanging around the less populated parts. To the south, Tomato could barely make out a city.

Tomato whistled as his eyes continued to sweep the landscape. So this is what Flora talked about when she mentioned the view from the mountains! He could scarcely believe how much he was seeing in one fell swoop. "Wow, what a view."

Flora smiled at him. "Yep, this valley here is where I grew up. From Bridle City to Provero, I've got friends and family spread out across this valley. The only family of mine that doesn't live here are my Aunt Jasmine, Aunt Violet, and their families. They visit us on occasions like this festival, or Hearth's Warming, or Grandma's birthday."

Tomato nodded. "I see. Most of them are just a quick train ride away, and you apparently visit your cousins more than I visit mine... which is pretty much never. Dad's sister lives in Seaddle, and Mom's sister... psht, who knows where she went? I don't even know if I have any cousins from her."

Flora cocked her head. "Wait, she never told anypony where she was going?"

Tomato shook his head. "Thanks to Mom scaring her off, Aunt Honeydew has never contacted her family after leaving. Just another lovely feature of the Sandwich family drama--you get your kids running away, down to the age of eleven!"

Flora grimaced. "Eleven?"

Tomato sighed and started to pluck at the grass. "That's how old Cheese was when he left. It absolutely crushed me, especially since I suddenly had so much weight on my shoulders. I had to be strong for my parents as they worried over their lost son, I felt pressure to be happy for all the foals at school that expected me to be the class clown, I felt alone as nopony dared to cry with me when I was struggling to keep it together, and I carried all the blame for my missing brother, because if I had just been a good colt that behaved and obeyed exactly how Mom wanted, then maybe he could have stayed!"

Tomato turned to stare at the town below them. "My family's a mess, Flora. No matter what I do, I feel like I do nothing but break it even further. Me, the lovable class clown... the straight-A student... the faithful brother on a mission to defeat big bro's shyness... and of course, the perfect son. No matter what persona I take, I'll screw it up and get ponies to hate me somehow. I always do."

Flora reached forward and put on hoof on Tomato's shoulder. "Tomato, that's a lot of grief that you've been dealing with. Even as an eight-year-old, you've had too much of it for it to be healthy. Tell me, was it always like that for you, or did you have moments where you were free from it?"

Tomato took a deep breath. "Well... there were a few times where I didn't feel crummy. The fundraiser where I earned my cutie mark just came naturally to me, and I'll admit, I took a lot of joy out of it that I haven't felt since. Shame that life had to suck the joy out of my mark in several different ways."

"Hey, try not to lapse into the negative when talking about the good times. Let's count those blessings."

Tomato groaned. "Uh... tutoring, being a math tutor. I mostly felt frustrated with ponies not getting it, but I have almost made friends with some ponies like that... and made an actual friend in you way back in our early college days." He smiled and winked at her, eliciting a giggle from her. "There's also my study times with Bluejinx. It was unfortunate that he was busy with newspaper stuff, but I was happy when we got to hang out. I'm not gonna lie, I like his mom more than my own."

"I can see why. I remember the time she came over and gave us cookies." Flora licked her lips and rubbed her belly. "Yeah, those were some good cookies."

Tomato chuckled. "I also had a job working at a bookstore. It was a little one, with only three of us working at it. My boss, Madame Bookshelf, was a nice old mare, and I couldn't help but compare her to my grandmother. My co-worker, Summer Wind, was a bit annoying with how much she pestered me, but she had a strange curious charm to her and a love of books that rivaled mine. She made me wonder if that was what it was like to have a sister."

"I can guarantee that sisters can be annoying," Flora said, rolling her eyes. "And also bratty cousins."

Tomato blinked, wondering where that cousins line came from. "Anyway, that bookstore felt more like home than my own house did. I just wish it could've lasted forever, or that I at least got to know where Summer moved to." He tapped his chin. "I've also had a crush on somepony, but that was a mistake, you do not want to hear how that ended."

Tomato looked up at the blue sky with a sigh. "And... that's all I can think of. The negatives outweighed the positives for quite a while, though I had to keep my mouth shut about it. Mom doesn't like it when I'm ungrateful, and Cheese seemed to think life was perfect for Mom's 'perfect son', so he didn't understand why I was so unhappy, especially with him. My life just plain sucked until..."

He let that last word trail off, not sure if he wanted to finish that sentence. He needed to think of something that had less of a punch to it, as he didn't want to give her the wrong idea about how he viewed their relationship. After all, he could easily cite the day he met Flora as the day his life started to get brighter. While it wouldn't be truly noticeable until his relationship with Cheese had started getting fixed, there had still been the little things like how she always brought a sense of peace with her everywhere she went.

"Until...?" Flora asked.

Tomato turned to her and cleared his throat. He could have sworn that he could see the light in her eyes, and that her mane was woven out of sunshine. Awed by that glow she was emitting, he briefly wondered if Cheese saw Pinkie Pie like this before reminding himself that the party ponies' relationship was completely different from his and Flora's friendship. This was obviously a trick of the light in his case.

Finally, he came up with something. "...until I started college. I mean, I was expecting it to be just empty... and pointless... much like my life thus far. But, really, I've found more meaning in my life since meeting you, Cirrus, and Nimbus. I know I was just some emotionally repressed jerk at the start and wondered why you stuck with me, but, you know, I've been getting better since then..."

Flora smiled. "Especially with a certain big leap involving a certain brother of yours..."

"Yep. I've admittedly been having a lot of fun this summer." Tomato sighed. "I just wish Mom could see that Cheese is not doing any harm."

"I'll be frank. Your family's clearly dysfunctional, and at her age, it'll be difficult to convince her that she's been doing things all wrong." Flora crossed her front legs. "Meeting your parents had me spotting a power imbalance between them, and between Cheese's runaway status, the difference between the happy colt picture and first meeting you, and the fact that you reset every school year... yeah, staying with them is not good for you."

"Thanks for stating the obvious." Tomato leaned in his hooves. "Cheese thinks I should move not just out of their house, but out of Manehattan altogether. I always imagined myself just changing neighborhoods, but out of the city? Where else do I go?"

"Try this valley, we have room," Flora said with a wry grin. She pointed to the city in the south, nestled on the mountain in the distance. "Aside from Neighton, there's Salt Lick City, and further south there's Provero." She switched to pointing north. "Up there we've got Bridle City and Oxdun." She pointed toward the lake. "Or maybe a bit more west, closer to Salty Lake, like Hayfield. Or maybe--"

"Tempting, but I'm not sure if it's the right place for me."

Flora sighed. "Darn, I want to be able to visit you more easily in the future. College won't last forever, you know." She took a deep breath and smile. "But, wherever you go, I hope you'll be happy, living out your life and your special talent to the fullest! Let's just hope we write each other better than we have been so far."

Tomato wanted to jump off the mountain at the mention of that. He wouldn't ever forgive himself for not asking her just which Neighton she lived in, and would be forever miffed at uncreative town namers. At least he knew now.

Flora turned to look at the burnt mountain. "Anyway, let's think of you as that mountain. You've been scorched by a terrible fire."

"That's true even if I wasn't the mountain," Tomato deadpanned.

She ignored him. "Fires of emotional abuse from many fronts, enough for it to burn away the life in you. Stray plants here and there still remain, but everything else is charred to the point that it's nearly unrecognizable. You're still standing, but you still lost a lot. With a charred and barren landscape, it appears that you'd never be back to your former glory.

"However... gosh, I wish that I could fly you there for a visual reference, but fires often end up making plants release their seeds, bringing forth the new generation of mountain flora. With the right weather, the mountain will once again be blooming with new life." She turned and smiled at Tomato. "Just like with the right ponies in your life, you'll bloom into somepony better."

Tomato rubbed his leg. "You really think so?"

"Tomato, you said so yourself that your life started getting better when you met your silly college friends. And you bloomed even better when your relationship with your brother had been restored. Trust me, you're blooming right now."

Tomato felt his cheeks heat up, and Flora was glowing once again. He let out an "Uh..." before he felt his stomach gnawing at itself, begging for nourishment. It even expressed it's hunger with a loud rumble. "Oh, hey! A little friend of mine is telling me that now's the time for lunch!"

After eating their lunch and descending down the mountain, Flora led Tomato to Neighton’s town square. With red brick roads and brick and stucco buildings, the large plaza had dozens upon dozens of ponies gathered there, all busy building wagons, two-wheeled carts, and parade floats. Many of them were simultaneously engrossed in hearty conversation, laughing at whatever joke or story their contemporaries told. A lot of foals—seeming more of them than adult ponies—were running around, playing games with each other, or helping parents and big siblings with their respective projects.

“So… where are we supposed to meet your family?” Tomato asked.

Flora was standing on tiptoes, shielding her eyes from the sun as she scanned the square. “I think my mom said that we’re working with our aunt and cousins near town hall.” She pointed to a tan building that was taller than the rest, shaped like a carousel and bearing a little bell tower on top. “Now, let’s start swimming through this crowd and hope nopony stops us for conversation.”

The two started weaving through the crowd, and it wasn’t long before some of the ponies turned and saw Flora and her friend. Smiling, they took a moment to greet her.

“Hello, Flora!” an old stallion, clearly a farmer, said.

Flora waved back. “Hey, Mr. Bountiful.”

Mr. Bountiful’s wife chirped, “Flora! Is that a new friend of yours?”

“Well, not new, Valley Bloom, he’s one of my Manehattan friends.”

Valley clapped. “Splendid! He sure looks like a nice young stallion.”

“Uh, thanks?” Tomato muttered.

The pair kept on pressing forward through the crowd, bumping into just about every pony that Flora knew in town and was promptly greeted by them. While Flora didn’t mind this, as these ponies were prone to greet her when they spotted her, she could tell that Tomato was a little uncomfortable with all this attention.

“Hi Flora!” Another mare said.

Flora waved. “Hey, Swelling Joy!”

“Flora! What’s up?” a stallion around her age greeted, holding up a hoof.

Flora high-hoofed him. “Just finding my family, Iron Rod. That’s all.”

“Flora! I hear one of your Manehattan friends is here!”

“Indeed he is, All-Is-Well!”

“Hiya, Flora! Is that your boyfriend from Manehattan?”

“He’s not my boyfriend, Little Stream.”

“Forgive Streamy for being forward like that… still, your friend looks like a swell fellow.”

“It’s all right, Sweetwater. And yes, Tomato is a swell guy.”

It seemed to take forever before they made to town hall, with just about everypony greeting Flora and asking a little about Tomato on their way. Flora had to hurry along for Tomato’s sake, as it seemed like he was about ready to explode from all that attention they received, however brief from anypony they passed.

When standing in front of the hall, they spotted Ash Tree on the lawn on the side of the building, busy carving some tent stakes into what almost looked like chess pieces. Wiping her brow, Flora said, “Well, we made it. Now, time to—”

A yellow unicorn pranced right up to Flora. “Oh, hi, Flora! I was wondering where you were!”

Tomato threw his hooves up. “Oh, for goodness’ sake!”

Flora turned and pointed at him. “Hey, don’t make a scene. Just go to my family, and let them know I’ll catch up in a bit. Okay?”

Tomato exhaled and muttered, “Okay… I just need a little room to breathe…” He turned to that lawn and trotted over to the family, mumbling questions about what they were doing and if Cheese was preparing some weird surprises with Bananas.

The unicorn blinked. “Uh, what did I do?”

Flora turned to her. “Sorry about that, Kindly Light. Getting greeted by neighbor after neighbor freaked him out. They don’t exactly do that in Manehattan.”

Kindly lit up. “Oh! He’s the grumpy, tall friend from that photo you showed me! I have to say, he’s cuter in real life than he is in the photo! Uh… what was his name again?”

“Tomato Sandwich.”

Kindly clapped. “That’s a yummy name! I’m happy that I could finally meet one of your friends from that school! What does he think of your family? Did he only meet your siblings, or did he get to meet your cousins too? And, uh, what about that cousin from Manehattan? Do they know each other?”

"Don't be silly, Manehattan's too big for everypony to know everypony. It's not like--" Flora’s eyes widened, and she clutched her head. “Wait a minute, they're from the same neighborhood! Aw, fetch! I forgot to tell him about—”

Two simultaneous screams, one from Tomato and the other from a mare, came from the side of the building, followed by, “What are you doing here?!” The screams were loud enough for ponies to pause and look uncomfortably at the place where the screams came from.

Kindly winced. “So… I take it they don’t like each other?”

Flora groaned. "It's biting me in the butt now." She trotted toward the area where her family was working on their things. "Biting me so hard..."

She made it to the side of the building, where her mother, aunt, siblings, and cousins were standing, staring confusedly at the scene before them. On one side, Tomato was hiding behind Cheese, blinking for prolonged periods of time in order to try to wake up from what he wanted to be just a nightmare. On the other, a figure hid under a covered wagon, glaring at the stallion standing there.

Cheese looked up, and spotted Flora standing there. "Oh, hey, Flora! Say, uh, was there any point in your friendship where you mentioned just who your aunt and uncle were to Tommy?"

Flora bit her lip and shook her head.

"Oh, okay. How about mentioning Tommy to said aunt and uncle and finding about a little grudge they have against him?"

She smiled sheepishly and nodded.

"You know, I'm surprised you still like him after learning about their point of view of a humiliating disaster involving him."

Flora snorted. "Hey! I've known that my cousin has been a habitual liar for years, so I just went and formed my own opinion of Tomato!"

The pony under the wagon snarled, "What?! Flora, you can't seriously be friends with this guy!"

Tomato popped out from behind Cheese. "And you can't seriously be cousins with Creme Brulee of all ponies!"

Flora trotted to the wagon, reached under it, and pulled out her petite, creamy-yellow cousin, whose light brown locks were in messed up curls rather than her usual waves, and whose orange eyes bore a viciousness held by many a shallow mare. Her makeup was unfortunately messed up, though her lavender finery remained intact. Flora remained stoic as she said, "I seriously can be both, guys."

Creme slapped Flora's hoof away. "I can't believe you! Keeping this a secret from me even after what my parents said?"

Tomato rubbed his temples. "You know, you could have mentioned this earlier!"

Honeysuckle glared at Flora. "I thought you were going to tell him during the picnic."

"Eh... I forgot..." Flora said, rubbing her leg and blushing. "And what about--"

Bananas popped out of the wagon. "Creme doesn't listen, remember? Heck, not even Cheese being here alerted her."

Creme threw her hooves up. "I forgot that the creep had a brother!"

Both Sandwiches glowered at her, and the rest of the siblings and cousins murmured about this twist in events. Some muttered about how this was making things uncomfortable, others grumbled about how Creme was going to start drama again. Olive snickered to a cousin about how much fun this mess was going to be, only to be hit on the shoulder by Flora.

Even Honeysuckle grumbled, "Oh, Flora, we could have avoided this if you had just proved to Custard and Jasmine that Tomato was a good kid like you said you would."

Then, Flora's aunt, a white, bespectacled mare with yellow and tan hair and green eyes, stepped in and said, "All right, all right, it seems we've got a bit of a jumble here. I'd expect better from Honeysuckle's eldest than keeping a friendship behind Jasmine's back, even after her mother advised her to come clean. And it seems Creme hasn't learned her lesson in listening to news."

"Hey, it's not my fault I don't hear anything interesting around here, Aunt Sego Lily," Creme complained.

Sego Lily raised an eyebrow. "Stop shifting the blame, you have the responsibility to listen for any news, lest it be something important. Anyway, it seems this Mr. Tomato Sandwich is part of a controversy."

Tomato slumped over his brother's back. "Story of my life."

"Well, we'll all see for ourselves if he's worthwhile like Flora says, or if he's scum like Creme says. In the meantime, let's keep those two away from each other and keep any conflict to a minimum. I don't want anypony getting hurt, and I want my town's floats and wagons done and unscathed by the parade tomorrow. Do I make myself clear?"

Everypony nodded. "Yes, Mayor."

Honeysuckle stepped beside her sister. "Now, let's get back to work! We should be finished and shipping these things off to Salt Lick City tonight!"

As everypony scrambled to get back to what they were doing--whether it be fixing wheels, sewing the wagon cover, or decorating the parade float, Creme Brulee just smiled and patted Flora's cheek. "I have to say, I'm impressed with how well you kept up your little charade. Not such a little goody two-shoes now, are you?"

Flora pursed her lips. "Hey, at least I have no intention of ruining ponies when they rub me the wrong way."

"Hm, true, but I think you still hurt your little friend." Creme Brulee gestured to a scowling Tomato. "I have to say, it might have stung him just a little bit. Now, I better run along and stay away from him like Aunt Sego Lily asked."

As Creme pranced off, Tomato ambled toward Flora. Waiting until the yellow mare was out of earshot, he finally said, "Okay, what were you hoping to accomplish from that lie? Because, as you may have noticed, we don't exactly have the best history with each other."

Flora sat and twiddled her hooves. "Well... when I told my aunt and uncle about my helpful new friend that's been showing me around, they weren't very happy. They told me the story about that party where you went crazy and said that you're a ticking time bomb. After all, Creme told them you attacked her. Now, knowing her and her liar attitude, I was doubtful of the story, and decided to see if you really could go randomly crazy. So far, you haven't done anything like that, so I suppose that if it was real, you got it under control."

Tomato's glare didn't soften. "It was coffee. Coffee makes me go berserk. I let it slip to her, and she took advantage of it."

Cheese popped up next to him. "Can confirm. Saw a coffee incident with my own two eyes in one town. Unfortunately, I was too sick to stop him at the time."

Tomato nodded. "Now, Flora... why did keep that detail a secret from me?"

Flora looked into his eyes for a moment, and sighed as she looked at the ground. "I guess I was afraid of upsetting you and losing your friendship by revealing my relation to her. It wasn't my place to bring up that sensitive issue with you."

"Yeah, and here I thought you weren't afraid of me, and that your so-called honesty with me was a breath of fresh air after so much of my life was filled with liars and backstabbers! Maybe I would be shocked and upset at first, but I would have recognized that you and her are not the same, that just because you're related doesn't mean you both are manipulative liars--but wow, you both can sure set up a good lie!"

"I'm sorry, Tomato. I shouldn't have let myself get carried away."

Cheese sighed. "Welcome to the club."

Tomato snorted. "Right now, I need a bit of space." He walked off, going into a field beyond the town square. "I'll go find something to count."

Flora and Cheese watched as he disappeared into the tall, yellow grass. Once he was gone, Flora let out a sigh and smacked her forehead. "Oh, fetching fetcher, I'm so stupid."

Cheese patted her back. "Hey, no worries. If I know my brother, he's not prone to holding grudges unless he's been seriously insulted--like, say, if there was an insult against his cutie mark. He's pouted after I've pushed him into our blocks, or took his cookie, or even lied to him about the tooth fairy, but all was good after about a half-hour."

"Are you sure keeping a secret about being related to somepony who contributed to his abuse isn't a serious insult?" Flora said in a low voice.

Cheese rubbed the back of his head. "Well... if he's still upset, I'll talk to him, see if I'll get him to have his own talk with you." He grinned as he elbowed her. "I won't let him throw a good friendship away just because you messed up."

Flora smiled weakly. "Well... thanks."

Author's Note

That moment when you hesitate to write a chapter because of a certain twist. I got that idea a while ago, because I just wanted to bug Tomato with his favorite mare and his least favorite being related.

While Flora does have a bunch of cousins, we're not focusing on them. Just her, her siblings, her parents, and the awful cousin, Creme Brulee! And maybe the occasional pop-up of Aunt Sego Lily, mayor of Neighton. Here's hoping I write any and all scenes with the Flower-Woods as good as I can.

15.3--Today While the Sun Shines

When Tomato did not return to the town square after a half hour, Cheese went out to find him. It didn't take long for him to do so, as Tomato was just lying among the tall, yellow grass of one of Neighton's fields under the hot sun, leaning over on the bank of the nearest irrigation ditch. He was dipping a hoof in the cool water, idly splashing at any water striders he spotted. He occasionally looked up at the railroad that ran through the middle of town, wondering when a train was going to pass by.

Cheese sat down next to him. "Hey, bro."

Tomato glanced at him. "Hey."

"You cool now?"

Tomato snorted. "Are you serving as a middlepony or something? Because Flora can just talk to me herself."

Cheese blinked, and then waved a hoof. "Oh, nah, I'm just here to get you because everypony was getting worried."

"Oh, is that it?" Tomato shook his hoof dry. "I guess I must have lost track of time."

Cheese's smile fell into a frown. "I am curious if you are still mad at her for... you know..."

Tomato started to pluck at the yellow strands surrounding him. "Well, finding out that one of your best friends is related to one of your worst enemies and that she's been keeping that secret since we've met can be a bit upsetting." He snapped the weed he held in half, and did so a couple more times with the halves until they were small pieces. "Does she think I'll judge her for being related to Creme Brulee?"

Cheese scratched his chin. "Given what you've told me about what Creme did, call me crazy, but a fresh wound like that might have warped your perception of Flora. Remember how you didn't exactly like my friend Pinkie Pie because, well, I was a massive arrogant jerkwad to you for no good reason other than maybe older sibling teasing going a little too far and you thought that she'd be the same way? And it turned out that she's pretty cool, even if she's a bit annoying."

Tomato gave him a funny look. "Did you of all ponies just call Pinkie Pie annoying?"

Cheese blinked. "Um, yeah?"

Tomato threw the bits and pieces of grass into the water and watched them flow downstream. "Never thought I'd see the day where you actually say that. Here I was thinking that you worshiped her." He turned and knocked on Cheese's head, hearing an echo. "Are you okay? Between your burnt foreleg and that, I'm starting to think something's going on."

"I'm fine, Tomato. Pinkie's fun, really, I just find that sometimes she talks too much, especially in that high-pitched voice of hers, and kind of has no idea what personal space is. But, you know, I don't want to rag on a fellow party pony for too long."

Tomato shook his head. "It's probably just those headaches you've been getting since the Crystal Empire; that's the only reason you'd ever complain about her. Still, I don't think Pinkie's ever dealt a blow on your trust like I just got." He broke another golden strand into pieces and threw them into the water. "I thought my friendship with Flora was safe. Puh, gotta love how life keeps messing with me like it does."

"Yeah. What did you do to tick the universe off?" Cheese merely had to glance over to see Tomato's disapproving glare, and he covered his mouth and muttered, "Sorry."

Tomato sighed and plucked another tall, yellow blade. "I might forgive Flora, as I get where she's coming from, but I'm not sure if I trust her as much anymore. Plus, once Creme inevitably tells her parents about this whole thing, our friendship is over." He crumpled the grass up and tossed it into the stream. "To think she was the first friend that I was actually completely comfortable with in years. I'm so stupid."

Cheese patted his back. "Aw, you're not stupid, bro! There just wasn't any way that you could have seen this coming. I'd be surprised if a friend of mine turned out to be cousins with somepony that I didn't like." He stood up, and then helped Tomato up. They turned and started walking through the field back to the town square. "Besides, if you show everypony that you're a great stallion, I think we'll be okay. Maybe when they arrive and receive glowing reviews from these ponies, Mr. Custard and his wife will believe you've gone straight... even though you've never really been a delinquent in the first place."

Tomato cast his eyes down. "I don't know... I've been described by Mr. Custard as a 'ticking time bomb' that no sane manager or executive wants in their business. Don't you think you're a little too optimistic?"

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "Tell the truth about the coffee thing. Maybe we'll put you in a cage and show them just how you were set off."

"Somehow, I'm convinced that I'll break out of the cage and make things worse."

"Um... we'll figure something out. Right now, you need to talk with Flora."

The eight Flower-Wood siblings were situated upon and around a parade float. Bananas was just finishing a white brick wall that was centered on the platform, spanning the length of the float. As he attached flagpoles to the wall, Ash Tree was painting a pioneer mural on both sides, wearing his mane in a ponytail. Olive had been fixing a two-wheeled cart, Alfalfa and Flora had been planting flowers along the edges of the float, and the youngest three had been bringing candy to the candy cannons that Bananas had planted on the corners of the platform. They took to nibbling some pieces and loading others into the compartment, though Amber had to keep Willow and Kernel from eating more than they should, much to their dismay.

The moment that Flora noticed Cheese bringing Tomato back to the square, she instantly recognized the stiffness of his frame and the coolness of his expression. It was eerily similar to the expression he had worn when she first met him, which she had mentally marked as his "I have given up on sentiment, so I'm focusing on just surviving" face. And when she realized that he was coming her way, she was tempted to hide behind the parade float she was working on. She didn't, but her stomach still churned with the guilt of keeping that secret from him.

Her siblings watched cautiously as Flora hopped off the float, and she and Tomato were face to face. Ash Tree had paused in his painting of the mural, while Bananas was perched atop the wall, legs bent in preparation to jump in case things went wrong. All seven of them were still, awaiting what their eldest sister and her friend had to say to each other.

Flora sighed. "I know I've said this before, but it's worth saying again... I'm sorry for not informing you that I'm the cousin of one of your tormentors sooner. I wanted to wait until you were safe and comfortable with me, since..."

Tomato exhaled slowly. "...since I most likely would have thought you sympathized with her and were planning revenge on her behalf. Yeah, I think I get it. I would have been set off early in our friendship. Still, it would have been nice to know sooner so that I didn't get an unpleasant surprise. Not to mention... Custard and Jasmine don't really like me, so when they find out that their niece has disobeyed them, we're going to have problems."

Flora huffed. "I'm sure we can dismantle Creme's lie like their former employees dismantled the other lies."

Amber raised her hoof. "And like we dismantled the lies she told to a bunch of our neighbors."

Cheese hopped up on the float and sat, scooting back when Alfalfa gave him a glare for sitting on a flower. "What kind of lies?"

Ash Tree turned back to his palette, mixing a couple of colors. "Oh, just the old 'taking advantage of somepony's kindness' kind."

Cheese tried to fix the flower, only for Alfalfa to throw it away and start replanting another in its place. "Oh."

Tomato rubbed the back of his head. "Well, the only way to prove anything to give me coffee to replicate the disaster... but, let's be honest, we don't want that, not at all." He gestured to the ponies working on multiple floats and wagons in the square to emphasize his point.

Flora blinked. "Not very many ponies in this valley drink coffee anyway, so you'd be a bit hard-pressed to borrow some."

Tomato pursed his lips. "Huh. I am curious, though... after what your aunt and uncle have told you, why did you trust me, anyway? Given that you're a family girl, I'd think that you'd listen to your own family over somepony you've only known for a short time."

"Because they're gullible," Ash Tree remarked dryly.

Olive and Bananas snickered, with the former shouting, "Makes you wonder how they survive in Manehattan of all places!"

Flora shot glares at them. "Oh, be quiet, you guys!" She turned back to Tomato. "I just wanted to see who you are for myself, Tomato. Helps that you had somepony that could give me a second opinion. I hold a lot of respect for that unicorn."

Cheese nodded. "I do, too."

Tomato's face had barely emoted the entire time. "Seems awfully risky, don't you think?"

Flora just smiled at him. "Believe me when I say that you're worth the risk."

The large group heard a scoff from one of the trees that lined the plaza, and turned to see an amused Creme Brulee leaning against it, filing one of her hooves. "Seriously, Flora? Can't you just admit that maybe you hold a savior complex and have to rescue that 'poor, sad soul'? Because, really, who else would dare approach a pony that is otherwise a porcupine?"

The Sandwiches' faces fell into glares, while the Flower-Wood siblings just gave her tired looks. Bananas leaned from his perch and asked, "Aren't you supposed to be watching Morning Glory's baby?"

Tomato held a curious pout. "Whose baby?"

"Our oldest cousin's," Alfalfa stated.

"Let's just say that Flora's friend Kindly Light has quite the cuteness proximity," Creme said, brushing the hoof shavings off her leg. "By the way, I was here to see if an epic fallout would occur, since Tomato Sandwich is legendary back in my old neighborhood for his epic fallouts. Like the incidents with the gold-diggers who misinterpreted his cutie mark, or the mutual triggerfest. Of course, the best one is still the one where he was crying over his precious big brother leaving."

Tomato's face grew red as his eyes narrowed and lips tightened, while Cheese just glanced at him, and then looked away shamefully. Flora did not have to ask about that one, having been at Ponyville's Fall Festival where she learned that Tomato even had a brother in the first place. At least his not talking about it hadn't ever threatened a wedge in their friendship, though the resulting disaster that day could've driven a wedge between Cheese and his friend Pinkie Pie.

Flora looked at the rest of the group and said, "Uh, find something for Tomato to do, and Cheese can get back to doing what he was doing before. I'm going to have a word with Creme, okay?"

Tomato snorted and looked away. "Fine."

Olive grinned a large, maniacal, gap-toothed grin and grabbed Tomato. "Come on, you crazy fruit!" She threw him into the two-wheeled cart's box, and then jumped into the space where she could push the handle with her chest. "We're gonna test out this cart and make sure those big wheels stay on."

Tomato blinked, gripping the sides of the box. "I literally did not ask for thiiiiiissss!!!"

Olive galloped away with the cart in tow, laughing maniacally through her teeth and nearly running over some of the neighbors. Said neighbors jumped back and pulled their foals out of the way, shouting at her to be careful. Tomato hung on for dear life, hollering apologies toward the startled townsponies.

Cheese jumped. "Hey! You're going too fast!"

Flora facehoofed. "Olive! You're going to hurt somepony!"

Olive didn't seem to listen, and Cheese and Flora looked at each other. Cheese grinned and said, "I'll just make my rounds with all the floats... and make sure that nopony's hurt... and my brother doesn't die."

Amber jumped onto Cheese's back. "Mind if I come with you? I have a way of stopping Olive. Plus, I have a story to tell you about a shepherd who drove away robbers by cutting their front legs off!"

Cheese blinked. "Uh, okay."

After Cheese and Amber left, Flora hopped on the float, careful not to step on Alfalfa's plants, and then hopped off the other side to approach Creme. "Look, just because I hid something from him doesn't automatically mean our friendship is over. We're going to work this out."

Creme pulled a small container from a saddlebag at the base of the tree's trunk, and dropped a couple of mints from it into her mouth. "Yeah, sure. Make friends with the crazy weirdo that had a crush on me in the schoolyard. It's not like he'd suddenly explode insanity at any given time, and could ruin a certain parade..."

"Creme, he told me that it's coffee that makes him do that."

Creme's face fell and went slightly pale before she regained her composure and said, "Oh, really? Wow, who has that extreme a reaction from caffeine? It's a very good thing that you guys are the least likely ponies to ever offer him--"

"Creme."

The yellow mare groaned. "Fine, you got me. But you know that telling my parents could result in them being angry that you ignored their warnings about him being a ticking time bomb. I mean, even without the whole coffee thing, he's obviously repressing the crazy that was so abundant when he was a colt. Something tells me that he might be on medication."

Flora tilted her head. "What's your problem with him, anyway?"

Creme rolled his eyes. "He was annoying and his crush creeped me out."

"'Annoying' was my justification for treating Bananas like crud when we were younger." Flora gestured to said brother, who was juggling candy to entertain Willow and Kernel. "And quite frankly, humiliating Tomato like you did is a petty overreaction."

Creme groaned. "Here we go again, preaching at me with your self-righteousness."

Flora's eye twitched, and she could feel heat rising up within her. "Look, I don't care one iota for any social status of yours or how annoying he was, I just care about your attitude. All I want is for you to drop the pettiness and be honest, true--"

Olive zoomed by at that moment, shouting, "Chased by an elephant!"

While the other siblings laughed, and Cheese and Amber still gave chase, Flora glared at Olive for a moment before continuing, "...benevolent..."

"Yeah, I get it," Creme huffed. "My life was perfect before, so I don't need you telling me how to live it. Once my time's up, I can leave this boring valley and back to my exciting life in the city. Seriously, what good would your little lessons do in the real world, anyway?"

"For one, I have actual friends instead of those either only liking me for my wealth or fearing me."

Creme was grinding her teeth to the point that one of her mints shattered. "You don't know anything about me!"

"I know that your parents sent you here for an attitude change. You take a lot of patience, but we're all doing our best." Flora took her by the hoof and dragged her out into the open. "Now, I shall return you to your babysitting duty, because I know you can be good with--"

An out of control two-wheeled cart with Olive, Tomato, Cheese, and Amber screaming their heads off zoomed past them and crashed into the tree. The cart's wheels popped off the axle, breaking some spokes in the process, and the four ponies were all in a dizzy heap, seeing stars circle around all their heads.

Flora gasped, and rushed toward them, leaving behind Creme. "Oh, my gosh! Are you guys okay?!"

Being passed by several others, both the siblings and some neighbors, Creme just stood there and watched the scene of the ponies checking them for injuries. On seeing Flora checking Tomato's eyes and joking that while there didn't seem to be a concussion, his eyes were as pretty as a meadow, Creme felt heat rising up in her face, and she crunched her second mint to pieces. Even if Tomato wasn't exactly finding Flora's joke funny, the idea of that attention-stealing, lower-class freak being friends with Creme's cousin was not something she could stand.

Then she heard Aunt Sego Lily calling, "Creme Brulee! What did we say about hoisting your duties onto another?!"

After they had recovered from the runaway two-wheeler, Tomato and Amber were helping Olive fix it under the shade of a large tree, though they mainly just followed Olive's directions. After gathering some spare wood from one of the many friendly neighbors, they started to work on replacing some of the wheels' spokes.

Olive fit one into the wooden rim. "Haha! Perfect fit! How are you doing?"

Tomato's face turned redder and redder as he tried to force the spoke in. "Little help here!"

Amber was closer to fitting hers in, but it wasn't nearly as straight as Olive's was. "Aw, come on! How come you make it look so easy, Olive?"

Olive reached across and wiggled Amber's spoke until it was straight. "Dude, learned people make hard stuff look easy. I had to learn this kind of fixing thing because Dad was sick of me breaking everything in my stunts and ordered me to fix things myself. Had to go around and learn the trade so I didn't have to face the drill sergeant voice again."

Amber giggled. "But you did face it again! Only it wasn't from Dad, it was from Flora getting mad because you broke her bed in imitating your favorite sports star or you pulled her out of bed for late-night sledding. You know how much she hates snow! And also Bananas when you spilled his fish tank, or when he found out what you did with his trumpet the other day."

Olive rolled her eyes. "I know, I'm infuriating. But, hey, at least I'm now in second place compared to Queen Whiny of the Manehattan Model Empire."

Tomato fell on his face when he finally managed to get the spoke in. Looking up, he said, "I still can't believe the whole relation between you guys and her."

Amber stared at him. "If you need a genealogical record for proof, there's a big Family History Library in Salt Lick City you can go check. They've got lots and lots of info on the ancestry of nearly everypony in Equestria! We're kind of big on that here. It's pretty cool to learn about our ancestors and what kind of adventures they had, like how our great grandparents fought off chimeras, manticores, and timberwolves while they traveled to the valley in the wagon company led by Bridle Yearling."

Olive grinned, fetching some wood glue to secure the spokes. "My personal favorite is when our great grandpa Sparrowwood found Cerberus and had to lead him back to the gates of Tartarus by playing fetch with him. It's a good thing Sparrowwood had an animal talent."

"And at least no super bad baddie escaped that time. Unlike last year, with the evil, red, half-horse half-whatever dude."

Tomato shivered. "Don't remind me. I still feel the magic being sucked out of me..."

Amber grimaced. "Yeah..." She brightened once again. "Anyway, I like Grandma Flower Power's story of how she followed that guy all the way here because she had a crush on him." She giggled. "She ended up stuck here and had to work a while to go home, only to stay because she met Grandpa Blue Raspberry and fell in love with him."

Tomato picked up another spoke. "Funny. You seem to have a lot of stories to tell."

Olive leaned forward. "Don't you?"

Tomato wrinkled his nose. "Eh... some of my ancestors immigrated from Istallia." He fit one end of the spoke in the wheel and started pushing the other end in. "My grandma came from Canterlot, my other one came from some country town called Buckskin... my grandfathers were both born and raised in Manehattan. That's pretty much all I know."

"Okay, cool." Olive finished with the wood glue. "Say, you still seem a bit mad about the whole deal with our cousin."

Tomato managed to shove the last spoke in. "Well, she dealt a blow to my career before it even started, and I'm not optimistic about recovering from it." He lifted the wheel up to let the girls dab it with the wood glue. "I only work hard in college to keep Mom off my back, and maybe try to transform a smaller business into a big one to spite everyone. Psht, as if that's going to happen; small businesses die in Manehattan."

Amber bumped Tomato on the shoulder. "Aw, don't worry! Mom says that when the opportunity to improve your life arises, you snatch it! Of course, she warns us that anything that promises instant happiness is a lie, and somepony could hurt you really bad."

"Don't I know that. I guess I shouldn't trust ponies making me happy, lest they tear my heart out."

"Well, I don't usually advocate my bossy sister..." Olive rolled her eyes. "But, Flora really does want you to be happy because she cares about you. If she worked her butt off to make sure Bananas was happy again after he was involved in a train accident, then she'd make sure you're happy after you've been yet another victim of our cousin."

Tomato sighed. "It'd be nice if you guys weren't related to Creme at all."

"Well, we're working on her, though she's a stubborn brat." Olive took the wheel from Tomato, and put on the axle of the tipped cart. She spun the wheel and laughed. "Sweet! At this rate, we can finish fixing this thing in less than an hour, and I can get Ash Tree to give it a wicked paint job!"

Then, from over yonder back at the Flower-Wood parade float, past many of the neighbors working on their own wagons and floats, Ash shouted, "No, I am not painting flames on that thing!"

That brought some laughter from the neighbors and Amber, and a pout from Olive.

Meanwhile, Cheese took to inspecting Bananas' candy cannons on the parade float. He scratched his chin as he opened up the bit of partillery and examined the mechanisms within. Bananas stood besides him, watching him nervously as he did so.

"Well, well, I have to say, this doohickey will definitely bring a lot of smiles to the kids," Cheese said. He reached into the cannon and turned a little knob. "However, I'm going to suggest that you calibrate it to a level which doesn't hurt a small foal should candy hit them. These things can be powerful."

Bananas wiped his brow. "Whew, glad it's not screwed up enough to light the candy on fire."

Cheese grimaced. "Ooh, I've had that happen before."

Still painting his mural on the float, Ash Tree leaned over. "Dare I ask the context?"

Cheese finished tuning the cannon and patted it. "My magic goes haywire when I'm angry or scared or in some other kind of distress." He trotted to the next corner to check on the next cannon. "Test that thing out, will you?"

Bananas saluted, and loaded a piece of candy into the cannon. Pointing it upward, Bananas pulled a balloon from behind his back, citing to himself that if the balloon popped, the cannon was too strong. He released the balloon, letting it drift upward for several seconds before firing the cannon.

Not only did the balloon pop, but the little gumball rocketed upward before gravity took hold and caused the gum to plummet down. Much to Bananas' dismay, a giggling Kernel ran right under it, chasing one of his toddler friends, and was nailed right in the forehead. Bananas cringed as a stunned Kernel started to bawl, a bump already starting to form on the little colt's head.

Cheese watched the scene in confusion and dismay, while Ash Tree yelled, "Bananas! That was way too strong, and freakin' gravity is a thing!"

Bananas leapt from his perch and wrapped his tiny brother in a hug, kissing the forehead. "I'm so sorry, baby brother! I should've tested it a different and safer way!"

Cheese hopped to the cannon and re-checked the mechanics. "No, I should have reminded you of basic safety rules. How the hay did I forget that?" He stared at the knob and sighed, cranking it again. "I can't believe I misread eight as three..."

Bananas bounced his still tearful youngest brother, singing,

"If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay...
Quickly turn it upside-down and smile that frown away!"

Kernel looked up and sniffled.

Bananas continued, "No one likes a frowny face, change it for a smile...
Make the world a better place by smiling all the while!"

Kernel blinked, and then giggled.

Bananas smiled. "Yeah, your favorite song makes everything better, doesn't it?" He pulled out a small ice pack, placed it on Kernel's head, and hugged the little toddler tighter. "I'll be more careful next time. Now, go find Mom."

He put Kernel down and let him go on his way. Then, leaping up to his back hooves, he yanked out a megaphone from behind his back and yelled, "Okay, everypony, stand back! We're testing candy cannons here!"

Everypony in the square jumped and covered their ears, rubbing them after that announcement. Cheese's ears were especially ringing, and he could have sworn that he heard the entire valley echo after that. As Bananas came trotting back, Cheese slurred, "Can... cannon should be at proper level... also th-this one has exceth gunpowder and may light candy on fiyah..."

Bananas tilted his head. "Why do you sound drunk?"

Cheese rubbed his head. "I think I need muh meds..."

Elsewhere in the square, sitting in somepony's green lawn, Flora was with her mother and several other mares in sewing a quilt for the float in Salt Lick City that'll boast the blankets of the valley and mountain towns. Creme Brulee sat close by, brushing the hair of a cooing baby filly and telling her that she was going to be so pretty.

Between the earth ponies weaving their needles in and out with their mouths, the pegasi using their wings, and the unicorns using their magic, they seemed to be making good time in patching together the thick blanket. Being a unicorn, Flora's friend Kindly Light had the freedom to talk where Flora didn't. And talk she did.

"Okay, but could you imagine how much easier it would've been for the pioneers to have sewing machines?" Kindly asked, shooting her needle upward, only to be held by the thread strung through its eye. "They would've wasted less time in fixing their wagon covers after a storm or a manticore attack!"

"Where would they have even put the machine?" another mare asked. "On a rock?"

Kindly giggled. "Better than the sand! You know what they say: The wise pony built his house upon the rock, while the foolish pony built his upon the sand."

Flora glanced at her. "Depends on what kind of rock."

"Preferably a nice, flat one with a solid grounding," Honeysuckle said with a chuckle. "Just about anything could fall apart without a firm foundation, whether it be literal like the house on the rock, or metaphorical, like a marriage or a friendship."

Flora paused in her sewing and looked back in the square, looking at Tomato carrying a toolbox to give to his brother fixing one of the candy cannons. Tomato looked her way, and they locked eyes for a moment, but while Flora smiled and waved, Tomato blinked with little emotion, and just gave her a impassive wave back. Then, they turned back to their respective chores, with Flora sighing.

Honeysuckle looked at her daughter. "Are you all right?"

Flora stitched a hole together. "Even though he said he gets why I did what I did... he's still upset and I don't know if he's forgiven me. I can't believe I let myself be so stupid in this situation. I just hope I don't make anything worse."

Creme rolled her eyes and started braiding the baby's mane. "Now's a good time to give up that pointless friendship."

"Creme, don't. You'll only make Flora angry," Sego Lily scolded. She tied a knot in her part of the quilt and gave Flora a soft expression. "I'm sure he's still processing what he just learned."

Flora groaned. "I bet he's thinking that maybe we're not all that different. Maybe he's thinking that Creme's attitude runs in the family."

Creme looked up from doing the baby's hair. "Hey!"

Honeysuckle shook her head. "I don't see why he would--he and his brother are pretty different, and you and your siblings are all different. And surely he's different from his cousins... if he has any."

Flora pushed her needle up through the fabric. "He's mentioned he has cousins, though not specifically by name."

"Well, anyway, my point stands. I'm sure he knows that you're sincerely sorry about keeping him in the dark. Like Sego Lily said, he just needs a little more time to process it completely and accept the fact."

"I hope so. The last thing I want to do is have our friendship die."

Kindly scratched her chin. "I wonder if his cousins are named 'Sandwich', too."

Creme scoffed. "Oh, please, the only Sandwich I've heard of outside of that family is that basketball star your sister seems to have a fangirl crush on, Peanut Butter Sandwich. And frankly, I doubt that the freaks are even that closely related to a handsome athlete like him."

Flora groaned. "Would it kill you not insult anyone for a day?"

Creme held up the baby, who babbled. "I don't insult Rosie. Or Willow. Or Kernel."

"Well, good. Please graduate to being polite to us older folk as well."

Suddenly, Cheese Sandwich stumbled out of the crowded square and fell facefirst onto the lawn. The group of mares watched the party pony dragging himself across the grass, groaning about a headache and how everything was echoing in the process. A couple of the girls squeaked when he crawled between them and under the quilt, mumbling, "Don't mind me... just going to manage a headache..."

One of the mares peeked under the blanket to ask, "Uh, how is crawling under--okay, where'd he go?"

The rest of the group all peeked under the quilt, blinking at the lack of Cheese on the cool grass. The mares on the other side murmured about how none of them felt him crawling out the other side, and they wondered how he managed to disappear. Scratching their heads, they set the quilt down and started to work on it again.

However, Cheese suddenly sprung up from the exact same spot he disappeared from, making all the girls scream and sending the quilt flying. Stretching, Cheese said, "Ah, I'm feeling a whole lot better now." He looked around at the stunned girls, and asked, "What?"

Everypony's attention turned to the quilt flying in the sky, being blown about by the winds from the mountain canyons. The pegasus girls had already taken flight, though each time they tried to grab the quilt, the wind blew it further away, much to their frustration.

"Whoops!" Cheese shouted. "Guess I'll hold off fixing the candy cannon and help you girls get that."

Flora and Kindly got up to their hooves and joined him and the pegasi in the chase. The two earth ponies and unicorn weaved through the crowd, alternating between looking up and looking ahead to dodge ponies. Flora had to duck under a ladder while Cheese jumped over it and Kindly hit it head on. Cheese was hit by Bananas testing out the candy cannon again, though he caught the gumball with an outstretched tongue. Kindly was stalled for a bit by some frolicking five-year-olds, and Flora bumped into Tomato.

The two stared at each other before Flora looped around him, hastily saying, "Excuse me, sorry, there's a runaway quilt and I gotta get it, talk to you later, okay?"

Tomato blinked, and looked up at the now-descending quilt. Not too far away, he heard a train whistle, and was startled by the whinny of terror from Bananas and his subsequent hiding under a covered wagon, much to some neighbors' concern.

In the field beyond town hall, the quilt had almost been reached by the pegasi when a train zoomed by and caught the quilt on its cowcatcher. The three groundbound ponies, who had been galloping through the tall, yellow grass, gasped, with Kindly Light pulling her pink-and-white mane.

"My mom started that quilt! How am I going to tell her that it got hijacked by a train?!" Kindly wailed.

Flora took Kindly's hoof. "It's okay, it's okay. Breathe slowly... breathe slowly... I'm sure we can figure this out." She turned to where Cheese had stood and said, "Well, thanks for the effort, but--hey, where'd he go?"

Kindly pointed further down the railroad. "Oh, he's over there."

Flora turned to find Cheese in the middle of the tracks, facing the train head on like he was a cowpony in a showdown. His eyes were narrowed as he gazed at the train with a white-hot intensity, and sweat trickled down his brow. He didn't show any fear on facing the vehicle barreling toward him, but Flora's heart pounded on seeing an all-too-familiar scene with another party pony and a train.

"Cheese! What the hay are you doing?! Get off the tracks!" Flora shouted.

He didn't listen, instead jumping right onto the cow catcher. He hung on as he untangled the quilt from the frame, not caring how fast the train was going. He was not going to let those mares' hard work on this quilt go to waste, even if what he was doing was completely insane.

Luckily, the engineer had notice Cheese and had the train screeching to a halt. It stopped over a soggy wetland created by a nearby irrigation ditch overflowing, which Cheese and the blanket tumbled into when thrown from the cowcatcher. One splash later, a panting Cheese peeked from the little pond, the quilt draped over his head.

The engineer shouted, "Good golly! Don't you know that trains kill ponies? You're unbelievably lucky that you don't even have a scratch!"

Cheese waved a hoof. "Don't worry! I've been through worse."

"Well, don't do it again!" The engineer tugged at the whistle, and started up the train again.

As Cheese picked himself up, grumbling about how he had to change his bandages again, Flora marched right into the marsh, dragged Cheese out, and then threw him onto the ground. Tapping her hoof, she shouted, "Why did you do that?!"

Cheese held up the quilt in defiance. "Somepony had to get this."

"It's not worth risking your life over!"

Kindly was by Flora's side, levitating the quilt to the pegasi. "Flora, it's okay, he's just fine. Don't forget, party ponies are really hardy!"

"Well, how am I supposed to know that his fickle invincibility wasn't going to fail him? Look at his foreleg, they usually heal from burns really quickly, but it's still burnt, and needs to be changed so he doesn't get infected!" She turned to Cheese with a sharp glare. "I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I let another party pony get seriously injured by a train, especially the brother of one of my best friends. I almost lost my own brother to a train accident, and I had trouble forgiving myself for my careless, bratty personality then that led to it!"

Cheese held his hooves up. "Whoa, whoa! Take it easy! I'm sorry for scaring you, Flora; I didn't realize how much it reminded you of something bad." Cheese rubbed his leg. "Not to mention how upset with Tommy would be if I did get hurt. I'm a cocky, insensitive jerk, aren't I?"

Flora panted for a few seconds more before sighing and rubbing her temples. "I just... ugh, I'm a little stressed out right now. I'm going to find a quiet space to meditate. Kindly, would you change Cheese's bandage?"

Kindly nodded. "Absolutely."

So, they left Flora there, and she trotted to the nearest rock in front of the little marsh to sit on.

Later that afternoon, when the majority of the wagons had been painted and were now drying, the majority of the Neighton residents and their guests had gone out into the field behind town hall in order to learn a pioneer dance. The single unfinished float was moved in order for those who wanted to sit out to sit on, and for it to be finished up like the rest.

Ash Tree was busy putting the finishing touches on his mural, Alfalfa was stringing popcorn balls on the potted apricot trees, and a couple other ponies were attaching the Salt Lick Valley flag--an active beehive on a blue field--onto the flagpoles that stood on the wall. Some little foals and elderly ponies were even gluing tissue paper on the sides of the float or painting the cannons.

Creme Brulee didn't think that skipping and prancing around in a field constituted as real dancing. There was no fancy footwork or breakdances, no tossing or dipping of partners, and definitely no swaying of the hips to make the colts whinny in delight. There were just silly do si dos and skipping down a tunnel of stomping ponies. All to the tune of an old-fashioned instrument that Olive had carved herself and played for the rest of the townsfolk along with a few others.

Flora had returned from a random meditation session to join the rest, and Creme and the others were stuck listening to the outdated fiddle music. Creme tried to distract herself by complying with Willow's request for a makeover, but it bothered her that those ponies were having more fun than should be possible for a dusty old dance.

Even party ponies like Bananas and Cheese Sandwich, who were supposed to be masters of fun, found it enjoyable. Tomato Sandwich looked a bit awkward, but that was Tomato Sandwich--he definitely didn't seem like the type to be skipping around in a meadow. Why was he there?

To the group's surprise, a certain big, green stallion came seemingly out of nowhere, and lifted Alfalfa up to help him reach the higher branches of the apricot tree. Ash Tree looked over at the scene, and said, "Hey, Pop. I'm surprised you're early."

"Hey, you know I don't always just come home late at night," March said, setting a giggling Alfalfa down. "Now, I hear there's a Frontier Festival Rodeo in Oxdun, and I'm hoping to convince your Mom to take you guys."

Creme gagged. "Pass."

"Aw, you're no fun!"

"Oh, please, I'm more fun than you guys."

Ash Tree dabbed some green on the mountains in his mural. "No, you're not. You whine too much."

"Lay off on the insults, Ash Tree, she's not a cadet." March crouched down to his niece, and glanced at what she was doing to Willow. "At least you've found something that you enjoy doing. Heck, I know Willow here likes to feel pretty like a princess." He smiled sweetly at his youngest daughter. "Isn't that right, sweetheart?"

Willow beamed. "Yes!"

Creme smiled. "Well... I do think she'd make a nice model someday."

Alfalfa sat next to his father and shook his head. "I don't think so. Willow would have a meltdown if she gets crowded by paparazzi, and then the tabloids would end up ruining her reputation with how much of a 'drama queen' she is."

"We'll get her a bodyguard then."

"He or she better be nice to her," March spat. "Willow already has enough trouble making friends as it is."

He looked up at Ash's mural. "Your murals get better and better every year, son."

Ash looked at his father and smiled. "Thanks."

"And it seems like the Cheese fellow might have been helping Bananas quite a bit around here. I was passing all these parade floats and wagons, and they all look strong, sturdy, and are absolutely fantastic! Oh, ho ho, I'm happy that my troops will be marching in the same parade as these."

He looked over at the townsponies as the final stroke of the bow rang out. To his surprise, the dance had ended with two ponies in the middle, standing on two legs together, holding hooves, and staring into each other's eyes. The mare and stallion seemed a bit embarrassed that it had ended like that, but could not stop staring, even as they slowly drew away from each other. Flora Peace shuffled back to the siblings that attended with her, while Tomato Sandwich hid behind his brother in a feeble attempt for protection. All the siblings there were smug and snickered at the sight.

Alfalfa snickered as well, while Willow and Kernel giggled. Ash Tree, on the other hoof, seemed to be a little glum at the sight, while Creme was scowling as she snapped her little makeup kit shut.

March looked at them. "What are you all looking at?"

Willow turned and tugged at her father's jacket. "They're so in love!"

"What? Nah, there's no way. Flora's too young for a relationship, she's not allowed to date until she's sixteen!"

Alfalfa raised an eyebrow. "She's way past sixteen now."

"Don't be silly, her sweet sixteen was just last month."

Willow pouted. "Da-ad!"

"Denial, guys," Ash Tree said. "Dad's clearly in denial of his oldest daughter being all grown up." He leaned in his hoof. "But, I'm wary about saying they have a thing for each other. Tomato's kind of upset that Flora kept our relation to her--" He pointed at Creme Brulee. "--a secret. Apparently Creme induced a crazy state in him at that party we've heard the story about."

"Oh, he was that guy?" March said, pursing his lips. "Flora mentioned that Tomato was from the same neighborhood as Creme, but I didn't think that incident was ever involved." He turned to Creme. "Sheesh, Creme, and I thought that one wasn't your fault."

"Well, he still did technically cause destruction, and nopony could prove it was me, anyway. You're an officer, arrest him!"

March raised an eyebrow. "Okay, one, the military does not work that way, and two, even if I was a police officer, that's not how law enforcement works. Besides, I'd like to hear his side of the story. He's a nice enough fellow from how Flora has described him the past couple of years, and I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt."

Creme threw her front legs up. "What is with you ponies?! You're far too nice to this guy!"

"We're giving him a chance because we trust Flora." March hopped off the float and started walking toward the party. "Now... I'm going to see if those crazy kids want to go to the rodeo."

Creme growled and crossed her front legs. The way things were going, that freak was destined to be her cousin-in-law!

She definitely had to do something. And that something was to expose Tomato's dangerously crazy side.

Author's Note

Fun Fact! Today is Pioneer Day--the Utah holiday that the Frontier Festival is based on.

The two-wheeled carts (like the one Olive took a joyride on) are based on handcarts.

I just don't call them 'handcarts' here because ponies don't have hands.

I hate that this one was a groaner, because I could have written another chapter before today. But, alas, I am human, and we're prone to distraction and getting tired (and being whisked away to other places like jobs, classes, and whatever adventure your family is planning). Plus, I had to find at least one thing for each pony to do, and when you've got about 14 to work with, well...

15.4--Come, Come, Ye Equines

Cheese Sandwich arose early that morning, his head pounding yet again. His heavy eyes sweeping around the dark room, he forced himself to stumble out of bed, the resulting thud causing his medicine to fall off the nightstand and into his mane. After a muffled groan from his muzzle buried in carpet, he pulled the bottle out, dumped a pill into his hoof, and stood up shakily to put the bottle back on the nightstand. He rolled across the bed to the other side in order to reach the bathroom.

He took his medicine and downed some water before blinking away the heaviness in his eyes. He looked at himself in the mirror and cringed. He was paler, there were bags under his eyes, and his forelock was noticeably limper, though still curled. Cheese tried to twang the forelock, and instead of the bounce of a spring, it sounded like a weak guitar string ready to break.

He rubbed his temples. He had been too worn out from working on the wagons and parade floats to join the Flower-Woods and Tomato at the rodeo, instead opting to retire early. And instead of being up and at 'em in the blink of an eye this morning, he was too groggy for his liking. He dreaded the setup of the Frontier Festival parade and carnival in Salt Lick City.

He leaned on the sink, staring down into the drain and whispering, "Ugh, I wish I had an extra day to rest. I don't even want to set up a toddler's birthday party today."

He pushed himself away from the sink and turned his back on the mirror. "No, Cheese, don't say that. Come on, you're a party pony, you can't seriously be this tired! You've got a lot to do and fun, uh... things to set up. They are counting on you to be the premier party planner of all Equestria that you always claim to be! Just smile, Cheesy... there's nothing wrong at all."

There was a pit in his stomach, especially as he heard laughter behind him. His heart stopping, he turned toward the mirror, his neck loudly creaking all the while. Once he was fully turned around, he found his own reflection maliciously laughing at him, pointing to him with a power that felt like a punch to his chest.

The reflection held a wicked grin. "Oh, Cheese... you're such a joke! Why are you even a party pony, anyway?"

Cheese glanced from side to side before nervously grinning. "Because... I have a gift?"

The reflection howled, his laughter ringing throughout the bathroom. The echos shook the room, with Cheese swaying to the wall and grabbing the towel rack, bumping his foreleg's burn in the process. Gritting his teeth, he looked up, as the reflection still beheld him with a cruel mockery that permeated his reverberating laughter.

Cheese clutched the rack more tightly. "Hey, quiet! You'll wake my brother up!"

The reflection didn't listen, and continued. He was joined by the deep bellow of the bathtub, the screeching hisses of the shower head, and the gurgles of the toilet, all the sounds twisted to sound like laughter. The sink erupted into laughter, as did the tiles, the glass, and even the shower curtain. As far as he knew, everything in that bathroom was throwing mocking laughter toward him, even the towel rack that he hugged tightly.

His heart pounding, he looked at the door in desperation. The echoing laughter was threatening to crack his skull open, and if he stayed longer, he was sure the demonic entities were going to attack him and possibly even kill him. Drowning in the toilet was not a way he wanted to go, nor was suffocating in a curtain. But, the towel rack was already wet with Cheese's sweat, and he could already feel them marching toward him to fulfill a sinister ritual. As soon as the toilet took the first step, he lunged for the door.

Sweat droplets flew as Cheese swiftly threw open the door, slipped out, and slammed it behind him. Before he knew it, he was pushing against the door, hoping to block the demon bathroom implements from breaking out and hurting both him and Tomato. He panted, and shakily released the door as his headache faded away.

He heard the shuffling of blankets and a drowsy, "...Cheese?"

Cheese glanced at the bed beside his, where a heavy-eyed Tomato looked up at him, showing as much concern as he could muster. Cheese wiped his brow, and gently patted his brother's head, saying to him, "I'm heading to Salt Lick City to get the festival started. I'll meet you there later, okay?"

The patting made Tomato's head flop back onto his pillow. "'Kay."

Cheese checked his secret compartments to make sure he had all he needed, grabbed Boneless 2 from his bed, and then walked toward the door. "Oh, and stay out of the bathroom, there are demons in there."

"Yeah, yeah, sure..."

Cheese smiled at him and slipped through the door. As he headed toward the inn's entrance, what had just happened in the bathroom came rolling back to him. Whether or not he just imagined the whole thing, it felt awfully real. And as much as he didn't want to admit it, the bathroom did bring up an interesting point.

Upon hitting the cool air of a mountain summer morning, he asked himself, "Just why am I a party pony?"

Not too long after, he heard the door open behind him, and turned to find Flora and Bananas walking out of the inn. What Cheese found peculiar was that Bananas didn't have a skip in his step--he instead looked as if he was about to be sacrificed to a dragon, given the nervous frown. Flora toted a saddlebag, patting her brother on the back.

Flora glanced at him. "Hi, Cheese. Heading down to Salt Lick?"

Cheese nodded.

Flora looked at him curiously. "Hey, are you all right? You're looking a little pale."

Cheese bit his lip. "I... uh, I had a nightmare last night."

"Looks like it might have been a bad one if you're looking so blue."

Cheese laughed. "Don't be silly, I'm orange! But in all seriousness, I'm perfectly happy right now and ready to start the festival with you guys--especially Bananas, I can tell he's a gem!" Looking at Bananas, he asked, "Say, uh, what's going on with him?"

Bananas let out an anguished laugh. "Oh, nothing! I'm just awaiting the inevitable train wreck that we're about to get into! The question is if we're gonna derail, crash into another train, or maybe even explode!" Bananas imitated an explosion with his mouth as he threw his front legs open. "Twice! Or maybe even thrice!"

Flora blew some hair out of her face. "Hey, remember, we've survived plenty of train rides before. I've got your lucky pillow, your lucky sleep mask, and your lucky jawbreakers." She looked at Cheese. "He had a bad accident with a train when he was little."

Cheese blinked. "Well, explains why you exploded at me after my stunt yesterday. Again, I'm sorry about that."

"It's fine. You're lucky Bananas didn't see you do it--he would have been worse."

Bananas scowled. "What'd he do?"

"Trust me, you do not want to know."

Bananas huffed. His eyes then widened and he gasped. "Wait! Did we feed my minions?"

Cheese tilted his head. "Minions?"

Flora sighed. "His fish. And I'm sure Ash can take care of it if you forgot, Bananas. Those things get excited on seeing somepony when they're hungry, so he'd know." She took her brother's hoof. "Now, let's get to the station. We don't want to miss the train."

Bananas trembled as they started down the mountain, with Flora holding his hoof tenderly. Cheese walked beside them, putting on a chipper face in order to prevent any more uncomfortable questions. He was going to make sure that this festival went well, and that no mishap would befall him, Tomato, or any member of the Flower-Wood family today.

However, he felt as if he forgot something.

Tomato glared at the pillowy fried bread that he held in his hooves. "There is no way that this is a scone."

Everypony else at the table he sat at munched on other pieces of the bread, which resembled elephant's ears. Save for March, Flora, and Bananas--all having gone out to prepare for the parade in Salt Lick City like Cheese did--the rest of the Flower-Woods were enjoying a nice breakfast of "pioneer scones", which didn't resemble any scone that Tomato had ever seen, which were biscuit-muffin things that sometimes had fruit in them. It was as if somepony just dropped a blob of dough into a pan of hot oil; granted, that's exactly how Honeysuckle made them, but he was still bothered by the misname.

But, it was nothing compared to how bothered he was that Creme Brulee was eating with them. At the very least, her dainty breakfast of the "scone" topped with raspberry syrup would have her leaving quick, and if she was still hungry, the mints she had would do. He still wished that there was some way for Flora's family to become unrelated to Creme--it was just too uncomfortable to think of his favorite mare and his least favorite as cousins.

Honeysuckle, who sat across from him, said, "Hey, we have to call it something, and it's a little too much work to convince the entire valley to stop calling it that and instead go with... I don't know, frybread or something. Now, go on, try it."

Tomato sank his teeth into it with a mild crunch. It was a little sweet and fluffy under that fried shell, just enough for Tomato to nod in approval before stuffing the rest of his scone in his mouth and grabbing some more to eat.

Amber Waves poked him. "Whoa, there! Save some for the rest of us!"

Olive nodded. "Especially Mom, she powers on those things."

Honeysuckle was busy squirting some honey on hers, grinning. "It's true."

Ash Tree raised an eyebrow. "We're going to have to have an intervention for your scone addiction."

Alfalafa shook his hoof in a "no-no" gesture while his two youngest siblings giggled. Willow and Kernel's giggles were followed by the giggles of the other siblings as Honeysuckle gave Ash a mock offended look and was trying to fan him away with a scone. Tomato just watched the scene, just stuffing more of the fried bread in his mouth.

Creme rolled her eyes and finished off her scone. "Well, I suppose I should go around and make the beds like you asked, Aunt Honeysuckle." She stood up, popped a mint in her mouth, and walked away with her muzzle in the air.

Honeysuckle tilted her head. "Odd, she didn't do much complaining."

Alfalfa shrugged. "I think she gets that it's fruitless at this point."

Tomato gnawed at his scone. "As long as she's not talking very much, I don't care."

Making the beds after the guests had checked out or just went out for the day wasn't all too hard a task for Creme. She had thought it impossible when she first started off working between her Neighton aunts, but over the years, she had done it often enough that she could get it done in a half-hour, and she could finish before it was time to go.

She still hated having to do these chores, though. She was a high class model, one of the many examples of beauty that had been shown in billboards around Manehattan! She felt sick on thinking about any of her rivals having taken her place in Times Square's ads. When she got back to her rightful place, she'll get to having the witches expunged.

But, for now, she had to deal with the nuisance named Tomato.

As she spread out the blankets over the mattresses in the room that said pony and his brother used, she thought about how it should work. While he most likely was still subject to hyperactive insanity upon drinking coffee, there was no way he was about to let her do it again--nor would Cheese, Flora or the others. Getting him drunk would be a problem, as most ponies living in the valley did not include that in their celebrations. And no matter what, should Tomato go berserk as planned, it would be obvious to everypony just where he got the coffee.

When smoothing down the blanket on the second bed, she noticed the pill bottle on the nightstand. Blinking, she looked in curiosity at the label, which was all smudged to the point of illegibility for some reason. Creme's first thought on seeing the orange, transparent bottle full of little white pills was that of wondering whose they were and what they were for. Her second is that they looked like her mints.

She figured that perhaps they were Tomato's, and that it was probably medication to control the crazy in him.

And with that, she concocted a wicked plan.

Grabbing the bottle, she rushed into the bathroom, and dumped the contents into the toilet. The clinks and the splashes were satisfying to hear, as she imagined the epic freak out that the plebeian undeserving of a rich mark would have when his medication did not work. Flushing those pills away, she put the toilet lid down to sit on, and pulled out her mints to refill the bottle with.

Creme made sure that it was back to the level it was before, and then waltzed back out of the bathroom to put it back on the nightstand. She did one last smoothing of both beds before she left, and on her way out the door, she looked back at the pill bottle, and chuckled.

"Can't wait for Salt Lick City to see the true you, Tomato."

Tomato came into the room later, going into the bathroom for a final wash-up before they left. The cool water on his face that dripped off his freshly shaved chin, the sweet taste of his bubblegum toothpaste, and the hair gel that helped the comb straighten his curls made him feel fresh and new for the day. Putting his glasses back on, he was pleasantly surprised to see himself in such a perfect, clean form. Even his forelock, which usually added unwanted goofiness to his appearance, was looking pretty good. He still didn't have a jacket--and didn't know when he'd get a new one--but the white button shirt was good enough.

After grinning at himself in the mirror, he looked around, hoping to spot the "demons" in the bathroom that Cheese warned him about earlier. After rubbing his chin as he looked in the bathtub, sink, and toilet, he concluded that he must have dreamed Cheese's odd warning.

He walked out of the bathroom, and a glance to the side had him spotting Cheese's medicine on the nightstand.

Tomato sighed. "You'd think he'd remember something as important as that." He crawled over the bed and grabbed the bottle, stuffing it into his pocket before he crawled back off, smoothed out the bed, and then walked out of the room.

Boarding the train with the seven remaining Flower-Woods, Creme Brulee, and the other cousins from their aunt Sego Lily, Tomato spent most of the ride reading a book. Around him, the rest of them, who were all dressed in pioneer garb, such as bonnets and shawls for the girls, and hats and light button shirts for the boys, chatted within the family. He heard snippets of some old pioneer tales from their ancestors, like one mare who had received hay from a mysterious stranger and was unable to find his cave later on, or one about a mare making a bountiful meal out of two hard sea biscuits to feed her children. He also heard Honeysuckle argue with Sego Lily over who was going to win the big Dutch Over cook-off (whatever that was) this year.

A couple of times Amber poked her head out from behind the seat and asked him a couple of questions about what it was like growing up in Manehattan, to which he graciously answered, since he had a different perspective than their wealthy cousin. Kernel had swooped into Tomato's seat just to pull his forelock and watch his hair explode--once, twice, three times, and more, with Tomato fixing it every time. Olive had popped up to ask him how he was able to read in a moving vehicle, as when she did it, she felt like puking. Ash Tree was busy fixing his shaggy hair, and Alfalfa and Willow looked at every town they passed by on the way to Salt Lick City. They were starry-eyed at the sight of an amusement park, and made up conversations for strangers boarding the train at each stop.

Finally, Tomato looked out the window, seeing a city come into view. Nestled in the surrounding green mountains and bathed in the glow of the morning sun, the buildings of Salt Lick City were noticeably higher than any other in the valley, though humble compared to Manehattan's skyscrapers. He could make out homes scattered around both the basin and the mountains overlooking the city, with trees of many hues of green springing out of every crevice that allowed them room, which appeared to be plenty. At the center of his vision, he could see a peculiar building which resembled a white castle, which stuck out among the more modern buildings of the city.

He pointed to said building, with Kernel, who sat on his knee, copying him. "Hey, what's that castle thing there?"

The rest of the group turned to him, and Amber climbed back up on the back of the seat. Looking out to see what he was talking about, she answered, "Oh! That's the Salt Spires. Our pioneer ancestors built it a long time ago, taking exactly forty years to finish it! It's been bringing our valley lots of blessings since it was finished."

Tomato nodded. "Ah, I see."

"It was built from granite mined from quarries in one of the canyons."

"Nice to know that it actually isn't made of salt."

"It's also a popular place to get married in this valley." Right after Amber had said this, her mother had giggled.

"Really? Nice place for a wedding."

"Yep! The gardens surrounding it are beautiful!"

Tomato took note of a dreamy-eyed Alfalfa. "Beautiful gardens, gotcha."

"And across the street, the Tabernicker Choir sings some pretty sweet songs!"

Willow started to sway, starting to hum a lighthearted, airy tune.

Tomato shut his book and leaned on it. "I think I've heard of them. Were they ever a flash mob on the East Coast?"

Amber rubbed her chin. "I think so?"

Olive popped up beside her. "In any case, we're almost there. Hopefully my cart is still in good condition for the parade--I earned my cutie mark with that thing, and you bet your cutie mark that I want it in tiptop shape for when I chuck candy at the parade watchers! If it isn't, so help me, I'm stealing Bananas' party trunk!"

Ash Tree glanced her way. "Yeah, sure, if you want to get pranked again."

Creme Brulee was busy filing a hoof. "Now, now, I'm sure that Bananas wouldn't ruin anything during a parade. And let's hope that Mr. Party Pooper over there doesn't spoil our fun with any aspect of his wild and strange personality." She finished her sentence off with a sardonic chuckle.

Tomato narrowed his eyes and snorted. Oh, how that condescending tone was getting under his skin.

The warm air greeted them as they stepped off the train, reminding all of what month it was. They filed out of the train and into the station, and then swooped out in order to hurry and meet the rest of the family--both immediate and extended-- near the Salt Spires where the parade would begin. After waiting through a fair bit of traffic and swimming through some crowds, they made it to the square.

As the Flower-Woods happily met up with their older siblings and a bunch of their cousins, Tomato took a moment to check out his surroundings. He could see March Redwood and another officer all dressed up in their fanciest military attire, giving a talk to their troops down the street. All around him were covered wagons, two-wheeled carts, and parade floats of all shapes and sizes. Among the floats, he counted the Flower-Woods' float with Ash Tree's mural, Alfalfa's flowers, and Bananas' candy cannons; a giant beehive with flags that said things like "bee kind"; statues of rock farmers working in a granite quarry; a large model of the mountains, complete with mini-skiers; a model of the large, salty lake nearby; and for some reason, seagulls, among other things. Bands were preparing to play, some foals and even some older ponies were fixing up some derby carts, and some of the more athletic ponies were stretching.

Tomato's eyes rose from ground level up to the sky, where he took a closer look at the Salt Spires. It lived up to the "spires" part of its name, as the building bore several gothic spires that pointed to the heavens. The sun made it shimmer, like it was magical. From what he had seen through the gates, the building was surrounded by lush, green trees, colorful flowers, and fountains, as well as statues of pioneers and presumably the founders of the valley like Bridle Yearling and some other ponies.

He had to give those pioneers credit for building such a gorgeous square.

Flora appeared out of the crowd, her head and neck adorned in a bonnet and shawl, and her mane done in braided pigtails. She trotted up next to him, and looked up at the Spires as well. "I see you like our Salt Spires."

Tomato quickly glanced at her and nodded. "Yeah. Nice touch to this city."

Flora laughed awkwardly. "Yep... Salt Lick City was my definition of a 'big city' before I went to Manehattan." Flora pointed to the tallest building, which was just down the street. "That building used to be the most terrifying thing I'd ever see. I always thought it would fall on me."

"Tall buildings rarely bothered me."

"Hm, yeah, of course."

A moment of relative silence passed between them, with the chattering crowds of both paraders and watchers droning around them. While everypony else was focused on their respective parade vehicles, Tomato and Flora were busy scoping a way around their sudden, mutual mental block. There were things nagging at the back of their heads, but did they really want to say them?

Flora sighed. "Things have been weird between us since yesterday."

Tomato didn't move. "Yep."

"Feels kind of like we're strangers now."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "I... guess?"

"Are you still mad at me for the secret-keeping thing involving a certain cousin of mine?"

Tomato blinked. "What? No, no, I can't really stay truly mad at you since I get why you did and you're my friend and..." He pursed his lips, and blew upward on his forelock. "It's just... it feels really weird to think of you and her as... related... I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it."

"Yeah, I get it." Flora brushed some hair out of her face and stuffed it back into her bonnet. "I'd be pretty shocked too if it turned out you were related to a pony that I disliked."

"'Dislike' is putting it too kindly," Tomato deadpanned.

Flora sighed and rolled her eyes. "In any case, I'll be keeping an eye on her. Last I saw her she was busy prettying up Willow. We'll be towing that little filly in the two-wheeler and have her be the 'Pioneer Princess of the Parade'."

Tomato scoffed. "Wow, she's actually nice to little foals? Maybe I should take a dip into the Fountain of Youth again."

"Hey, at least there's a line she doesn't cross."

"She'll probably cross several different ones."

All of a sudden, said mare burst out of the group, pointed at them, and shouted, "See?! What did I tell you?!"

Tomato idly blinked. "Speak of the devil."

Flora facehoofed and groaned. "Here it comes..."

Shuffling out of the group of Flora's many cousins, Tomato could recognize the upright figure of Rich Custard, a stallion of a creamy yellow coat, light orange mane, and green eyes, with a finely trimmed mustache and wearing the colors of maroon and green. He was followed by his wife, Jasmine Flower, a pale blue mare with a dark brown mane partly done up in a bun, and her neck was draped with a shining cape of purple silk with a gold trim and brooch bearing a pink gem. Despite the impassive look he held, he could feel his guts twisting with dread.

Upon seeing him, the couple gasped. Looking at his smug daughter, Custard said, "So it is true! The madstallion is here to ruin the parade!"

Tomato wrinkled his nose. "Nah, too tired."

Jasmine glared at Flora, who looked up shamefully. "Flora, how could you? I thought we specifically warned you not to talk to this fellow! He's far too dangerous for any member of our family to face."

Flora cleared her throat. "I apologize for my disobedience, Aunt Jasmine. Still, in the semesters I've known Tomato, I've discovered that he's been nothing but completely benign towards me. Grumpy, relatively impassive, kind of immature..."

"Oh, thanks a lot," Tomato huffed.

"...but, he's not dangerous. In fact, he's been mainly polite and patient in being my math tutor, respects my boundaries, and has been recently getting happier and more inclined to jump into fun. If anything, I've hurt him more than he has hurt me. I've scared him when I'm angry, so he knows better than to cross any lines when I'm involved."

Tomato blinked, feeling his face grow warm and his heart dance. "Wow, uh... thanks a lot."

Custard raised an eyebrow. "Flora, you were just lucky. We don't know what triggered him that night--"

"Coffee."

"Pardon?"

"That's the thing that makes him go bonkers. He told me recently, and now I know why he sat out with me when the others went out for the stuff. Believe me, he's not the kind of guy who'd intentionally wreck somepony's elses party or possessions or anything. At his core, he's really a sweet pony."

Creme scoffed. "Oh, please! This fairy tale valley has affected your brain too much--where I'm from, ponies are only nice to you if they want something. What makes him any different from any other stallion who sees a beautiful mare like you?"

Tomato felt his blood boil and his eyebrow twitch. Would it kill her to understand doing something nice for the sake of seeing somepony's day shine brighter? Or just have a warm fuzzy feeling in their heart? He gave up on expecting rewards a long time ago, but even without Flora's friendship, helping her would have at least given him a little bit of light in his dreary life.

Custard patted his daughter's head. "For all her lies, the party incident couldn't have been Creme's fault. How do you know that he's not lying about it? After all, I don't recall caffeine working in such an outlandish, cartoon way!"

That was when Cheese Sandwich popped up in between the Cream family and Tomato and Flora. "Hey, guys! I couldn't help but overhear your conversation, and it hurts me so to hear such awful things being said about Tommy."

Custard and Jasmine stared at him curiously, the latter saying, "Um... who are you?"

Cheese grinned and thrust a hoof forward to shake theirs one by one. "I'm Tomato's older brother, Cheese Sandwich! You two look lovely today!"

"I didn't know he had a brother," Custard murmured.

"Well, he does, and I'm disappointed in him for not mentioning me to you when he worked for you." He shot a quick glare at Tomato before turning back to them with puppy-dog eyes. "It breaks my heart when I hear defamation about my baby brother, even though I get the reason why. He unfortunately has some magic that he's been having trouble controlling for some time now, and it tends to explode from time to time."

"Uh... magic?"

Cheese smiled. "Yep! I heard about the fundraiser he did as a kid and how he earned his cutie mark... that magic was providing him with so much energy and drive to help him do that heavy workload! He hasn't had a good outlet since, but... let's just say I'm helping him get a handle on his strange magic, and as such, he won't ruin the parade, harm your niece, or destroy any more towns!"

Both Custard and Jasmine raised an eyebrow.

Cheese pouted and pulled out his wallet to show off his list of party permits. "Just trust me on this, I'm a professional party pony--and, mind you, his older brother. I can handle him when he goes nuts."

Bananas popped up beside him. "And I'll help!"

Cheese nodded and crossed his chest. "Yep. Cross my heart."

Tomato slipped beside him and added, "And hope to fly, stick a cupcake in his eye."

Cheese yelped when Tomato ended up poking his eye. "What was that?!"

Tomato shuffled back awkwardly. "A Pinkie Promise... you know, the unbreakable kind that Pinkie Pie does?"

Cheese shot him a puzzled look, and then turned back to Custard and Jasmine. "Yeah, let's go with that. Ow..."

Custard sighed and rubbed his temple. "Well, I suppose if a pony like him can tame Tomato's darker side, then perhaps we've got little to worry about." He turned to Tomato with narrowed eyes. "However, it shouldn't have to come to where your brother or our nephew has to come to the rescue. This is your second chance with us, and as such, we expect this parade to go smoothly, without you causing any trouble. Understand?"

Tomato nodded, and the couple walked off, with Creme staring in slack-jawed disbelief. After a few moments, she growled.

Flora slid to beside her. "Hey, you know there's nothing to fear. Tomato's not likely to go nuts, and even if he does, Cheese and Bananas would stop him." Seeing Creme's unchanging face, she patted her back. "Come on, let's find your favorite cousin... Princess Willow is awaiting her chariot horses!"

Creme glanced at the Sandwiches, and huffed. "We'll see about 'no trouble'. Might as well find the little darling."

"Hey, I know where she is!" Bananas exclaimed. He started bouncing off in one direction. "Follow me, girls!"

As Creme and Bananas walked away, Flora turned to the Sandwiches. "What are you guys doing for the parade?"

Cheese rubbed his head. "Oh, I'll do a unicycle and my accordion... say, Tommy, wanna ride my shoulders?"

Tomato lifted a hoof. "Pass, I'll just ride the float behind you. By the way, thanks for coming to my rescue."

"No problem..." Cheese held his head. "Ugh, ow, my head..."

Tomato pulled out the pill bottle from his pocket. "You forgot this."

Cheese grabbed it. "Thanks."

Tomato nodded. "Now..." He walked toward Flora and asked, "Mind leading me to a bathroom? I'd kind of like to go before the parade starts."

Flora giggled. "After I check on Willow."

"Fair enough."

As Tomato and Flora left, Cheese watched them with a sweet smile. If there was a friendship that he didn't want to see die, but rather bloom into something else, it was that one. After all, he could tell that Flora made Tomato happy unlike any other, including Cheese himself. The entire thought of them just being happy together made him feel warm inside.

He took a pill, and pouted curiously. "Why does it taste so minty all of a sudden?"

Author's Note

PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR TAKING FOREVER ON THIS ONE. Between my job, working on Birthday Bios, preparing for my brother's wedding, vacations in Southern Utah to see Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks a couple weekends ago, going to an amusement park last Thursday, going up to Idaho and splash around in Bear Lake last Friday, a family reunion on Saturday, the majority of my immediate family getting food poisoning all at once and having to recover over Sunday and Monday, and maybe a teensy bit of writer's block, I struggled to write this one. But, now, it's out!

Ah, yes, the Salt Spires are in fact based on the Salt Lake Temple. Being in different universes means that they obviously have different purposes (real life LDS temple purpose here).

Anyway, we'll see what Creme's little action leads us. It's certainly not going to be Tommy going crazy...

15.5--Sugar Apocalypse

And so it was that the parade began. Starting off at the Salt Spires and its gardens, the procession moved forward, with the Salt Lick Police Force making sure that everything was going smoothly. It rolled under Salt Lick's Phoenix Gate--an arch bearing a bronze statue of a phoenix on top--and went east for a block before turning south. Rounding the corner had them being greeted by many of the valley's residents, sitting and standing on both sides of the wide, clean street. Dwarfed by buildings of smooth stones colored light gray and white, the spectators cheered at the site of the first cart.

The cart was small, bearing the Equestrian Flag (light blue with stars that surrounded Princesses Celestia and Luna as they encircled the sun and moon) and the Salt Lick Valley flag (dark blue with the symbol of bees buzzing around a beehive). A little old mare dressed in a plain shawl and bonnet rode in it, smiling a wrinkled smile and waving to the younger generations. Her escort towing the cart, dressed in a broad hat and button shirt, smiled as well, and tossed some saltwater taffy toward the many foals along the road.

After several more carts that bore homemade flags hailing from each town from both the valley and the mountains, the troops hailing from the Neighton EUP Base came marching in. With March Redwood and another officer barking out a chant to keep them in line, the young soldiers' hoofsteps all stomped in time, providing one of the beats for the band playing behind them. Said band had their instrument strapped onto their bodies, and they played out a triumphant tune out of the many brass and percussion instruments attached to the band mates.

After a giant beehive float, along came the covered wagons. Lead by a single stallion in a brown coat, who apparently minded the heat little, the procession of wagons had various ponies popping out to wave at and toss candy to the spectators. Many of the foals in the parade were trotting by the wagons, with fillies' pigtails bouncing and colts throwing their hats around in little games. As they went down the street, they were all singing about how pioneer foals sang as they trotted.

A couple more floats passed by. The first was a model of Salty Lake, driven by the salt harvesters of the towns closest to the lake. A teal mare holding a rake stood at the front, holding a determined scowl, while her husband and teenage son sat behind her and waved to spectators. The second was a model of the snowy mountain resort of Paddock City, towed by a massive, bearded stallion that would certainly fit in a mountain climate--his cutie mark was even a mountain range! His significantly smaller wife and three kids bore ski gear, sitting on the mountain models to toss candy.

The two-wheeled carts were next, and many mares and stallions were pulling small foals in them, whether it be parents towing their children or older brothers and sisters towing their younger siblings. One such cart was being pulled by Flora Peace and Creme Brulee, with Willow in the box waving to the spectators. The little filly bore a bonnet and shawl like the rest of her kin, but hers were decorated in faux jewels and colors that made her look like royalty. Her brother Kernel sat beside her, holding a toy crossbow in order to pretend that he was her honorable bodyguard.

He aimed upward and fired "shots" at the sky. "Away, changeling! Away, vampire! You don't hurt the princess!"

Flora glanced back at them and smiled. "Or any of her subjects."

Some of the other mares, both those pulling carts and those watching the parade, were watching Kernel in his little guard duty and giggled. Some of them even cooed, "Awww..." over his devotion to his sister, as well as the sister herself for being so pretty and patient.

Creme cringed. "Well, he seems to be having fun indulging in violent fantasies."

Flora turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "He's a little boy with an imagination, not to mention he admires Dad a lot. Besides, I think it's sweet that he's more into protecting his sister than killing things. He's just shooing away the vampires and changelings." She turned to her youngest brother. "Right, Kernel?"

Kernel blinked. "I'm shooting garlic at them."

"That's right! That stuff scares vampires... I don't know about changelings, though. Anyway, we don't want Salt Lick City to be invaded, do we?"

"Nope!"

Willow raised her hoof. "If we do get invaded, I know you can beat them up, Flora."

Flora shuddered. "Well, maybe I could if it came to that. But, I don't want to be put in a situation where some army of creatures invades the Salt Lick Valley, or Manehattan during the school year, and I'd have to fight them. Canterlot already had that with Changelings, and there was the recent vampire thing in Las Pegasus. Can't imagine the nightmares those were, though I think Dad can."

Creme looked forward, scanning the tidy blocks straight ahead and the thousands of ponies that lined the streets. "In any case, that's not the nightmare you're going to live soon."

Before Flora could reply, a little soapbox cart zipped through the two-wheeled carts, bringing on surprised shouts from the other cart-pullers. When the cart used the Paddock City float as a ramp, prompting the family to jump forward onto lower parts of the float, Flora could catch the form of a red-headed, olive-coated teenager inside the cart. As the filly had rang out her maniacal laughter, Flora's face turned red.

"Olive! You're supposed to stay in your segment of the parade!" she screamed.

She could tell that Olive blatantly ignored her, though the family on the mountain float didn't. That older son with his black mane covering half his blue-gray face was giving her a sharp glare, while his brother, sister, and mother just stared at her in concern.

Bananas rushed by on a unicycle. "Don't worry, guys, I'm gonna catch her!"

With that family--and now certainly many others-- still staring at her, Flora just wanted to melt into a puddle.

Further back in the parade, groups of Filly Guides and Colt Scouts were marching along, carrying the flags for both programs. Alfalfa marched among the scouts, bearing the merit badges on his sash with pride. Though he was quiet as usual, the rest of the scouts around him sang the Salt Lick anthem along with the Filly Guides.

Behind the scouts and guides, Cheese Sandwich was riding around on a unicycle, letting Boneless Two ride in his mane and playing along with the foals' song, though he was annoyed that his partner in crime had to go fetch his younger sister, who got a little too excited to be in her soapbox cart and decided to show off in other parts of the parade. Behind him, the Flower-Wood family's float carried Honeysuckle, Ash Tree, Amber Waves, and Tomato Sandwich. In addition to the pioneer mural running through the center of the float, the flowers lining the edges, and the candy cannons sitting on the corners, the float also bore stacks of books. Three of the four ponies on the float waved some of the books and shouted at ponies to read, as it'll take them to a brand new world.

"One fine way to appreciate the pioneers is reading all about their struggles!" Honeysuckle shouted, holding up a copy of a book called Two Wheels. "A good historical novel is a window into the past!"

Ash Tree held up an art book. "You can learn from these things. This thing helped me improve my artwork."

Amber juggled several books with a grin. "Do you like adventure novels like Daring Do? Or how about a mystery novel like Shadow Spade? Or maybe a romance novel like The Mage and the Jester? Whatever your genre, there's a book out there for you!"

Tomato was sitting on top of the mural, reading a book of his own. Having picked a book at random from the stacks, he simply took to sitting against the flagpole, and looking up every so often to see the city and the crowds. He'd jump at the sound of the candy cannons shooting the various candies at the crowd, or at a formation of pegasi zooming above him, but for the most part, the noise didn't bother him much. Every so often, he'd wave to some ponies, point at his book, and grin and nod.

Cheese, on the other hoof, was bearing a huge grin to cover up a massive headache. The boom of the candy cannons behind him made it feel like that somepony stabbed his head with a screwdriver, and the cheering spectators sounded like a swarm of bees. He didn't know if anypony could hear the goof ups in his song, but he couldn't help but hear them and cursed his increasingly jelly-like limbs. Even worse, his vision seemed to warp between being blurry, clear, and multiplying the ponies around him.

Still, the show must go on, and he was not about to disappoint these ponies. Besides, he had felt worse, and a headache was nothing compared to that time he had food poisoning. Of course, the memory of that one time was now bringing on nausea.

Bananas unicycled back to position, holding Olive and her soapbox cart over his head. "...and lastly, Olive, this parade is not about you. Sheesh, you almost mowed down the Filly Guides and left skid marks on a few floats! Would it kill you to have a little self control?"

Olive had her front legs crossed. "Would it kill you not to choke me with the cane gag?"

Bananas set her down gently. "Now, I don't want you speeding off again. Pull that stunt one more time and you can kiss that cart goodbye and be stuck playing the violin like every other year!"

Olive huffed, and then spurred her little cart forward. Now that that crisis was over, Bananas wiped his entire face with one sweep of the hoof; that very action had led to a quick transformation into clown makeup, right down to a colorful collar. Seeing the spectators gape at the sudden change in face, he stood on the unicycle, pulling out pies from behind his back in order to juggle them. He grinned at the laughing crowd, who had already started to clap.

He turned to Cheese. "Hey, you should get the clown look going too! I think you'd look great with greasepaint on."

Cheese winced, glanced back at Tomato still sitting on the float, and said, "No thanks... Tomato's allergic to mint."

Bananas laughed. "What? That answer doesn't make sense, but it does explain the bubblegum toothpaste."

Cheese paused in his accordion playing to slap himself. "Sorry, I meant Tomato's afraid of clowns. He's working on it, but I don't want to surprise him like that when I'm not sure if he's ready for me wearing the greasepaint."

"Ah, that's okay." Bananas wiped off the makeup. "We can still throw pies at each other just for laughs!" And with that, he launched one of the pies he juggled straight onto Cheese's face, hard enough to knock him off the unicycle and onto the street. The spectators laughed when several items burst out of his mane, including Boneless Two, his wallet, and the pill bottle.

Bananas laughed as well. "Oops! We better pick those up before the parade float runs them over." He pulled out a fishing rod with a suction cup as its hook from behind his back, and unreeled it to pick up the pill bottle first.

Cheese crawled around for a bit before he found his other things. He stuffed his wallet into his tail and nestled his rubber chicken back in his mane. "Okay, pal, you got me." His tongue shot out and licked the entirety of his face clean before looking up at Bananas with a mischievous grin. "I am going to have to--"

Cheese interrupted himself with a quick gasp. His eyes widened and the color drained from his face. In staring ahead, Cheese scrambled to his hooves, and started to back away from Bananas, looking like that he was about to hyperventilate any moment. He paid no heed to the parade float behind them drawing ever closer, nor to the chatter of ponies around them. He just seemed to be staring at something around Bananas, if not the yellow stallion himself.

Bananas instinctively wiped his face, thinking that Cheese was staring at something that was there. However, he noticed Cheese's eyes moving away from him, and going slowly upward, up until the gold-brown stallion was staring straight up at the sky, trembling at the sheer horror of... a bird? A leaf? Was it mere anticipation of another pegasus air show? Whatever it was, it had some of the spectators curious, as they looked up as well, trying to find what Cheese was looking at.

"Whatcha looking at?" Bananas asked, looking up as well.

Suddenly, Cheese grabbed him, yanked him off his unicycle, and shook him violently. "What kind of stupid question is that? Can't you see the little dragons snarling at us?!"

Bananas blinked. "Wait, what?"

Cheese squeezed him tighter. "I don't know why they teamed up with changelings and apparently vampire batponies, but I think they might be here to devour the ponies of this city." Cheese's face came a little too close for comfort for Bananas. "Come on, we've gotta stop them!"

Bananas flapped his front legs. "What are you talking about? I don't see anything!"

Cheese narrowed his eyes and threw him down on the ground. "Don't play games with me! We're surrounded by all these monsters, and you're pretending that they don't exist? I wouldn't be surprised if you were a changeling who replaced Bananas!"

The spot where Bananas now sat was uncomfortably pebbly, but it was nothing compared to trying to comprehend Cheese's statements and feeling a twist in his gut telling him that something was wrong. As much as he wanted to tell himself that Cheese was just playing a game, the other party pony just seemed a little too serious about what he thought was going on. In fact, he seemed outright ready to kill somepony. With that thought in mind, Bananas hugged his fishing rod for comfort.

The parade float caught up and stopped. The four ponies that were on the float crawled forward to see what was going on. Amber Waves shouted, "Hey! What are you two doing? The Filly Guides and Colt Scouts are way ahead of you now!"

Ash Tree added, "Not to mention Olive might try something again."

Tomato looked between them, and noticed the positions that both of the party ponies were in. "Um, Cheese? Did he say something to offend you, because you're looking a little... intense."

Cheese glanced at him, and then yanked the candy cannon off the nearest corner of the float. "Well, when the city is being invaded by monsters, you can't help but feel intense!"

Tomato blinked. "Wait, what?"

Cheese hopped to the next corner of the float and yanked off the candy cannon there, and then to the next one, and then on to the final one. He strapped two of them on his front legs, one on his tail, and the other on his head, with Boneless 2 holding it. He opened one of the float's hatches to pull out the extra candy ammo, taped it to his back, and then attached tubes to the mix. When he was done, he was wearing what was essentially a candy cannon suit that was ready for action. He turned up the dials on all four of the cannons for maximum firepower.

Honeysuckle furrowed her brow. "What the hay do you think you're doing? We were using those!"

Cheese growled. "I swear, you ponies are all blind! You'll thank me for this!"

He aimed a cannon at the sky and blasted it, causing everypony in the area to jump and duck. Uneasy spectators started to back away from the street, slinking into alleyways or into the nearest park or building to escape what they felt was soon going to be a disaster.

Cheese stomped a hoof. "Ah, Stilton, I missed!"

Tomato uncovered his ears. "Cheese, what the heck are you doing?! You're going to hurt somepony!"

Somepony in the distance cried, "There's taffy in my mane!"

Ash Tree pouted curiously. "Or make them all messy."

Cheese stepped away from the float and ordered, "You guys get somewhere safe, I don't want any of you burned or bruised or bitten! I'll scare off our vicious, flying invaders! And Bananas, you better have something to fight these things off, like that fishing rod you've got!"

Bananas grimaced. "But Cheese, I don't see--"

Cheese didn't listen, and he sped off despite any protests from his fellow party pony, his brother, or any of the other three. They all watched as he galloped away, beginning to shoot the candy cannons in random directions, frightening the spectators ahead into filing into the nearest buildings or just escaping that street, and scattering the Filly Guide and Colt Scout formation. In the latter case, Olive in her cart took notice and drove around to grab foals and drop them off at safe places before going back to the family float with Alfalfa.

Olive let Alfalfa climb out, and asked Tomato, "Hey, what's going on with Cheese Sandwich? Why's he now some sort of candy cannon commando?"

Tomato shrugged. "I don't know! He was just goofing around with Bananas and then after a pie to the face, Cheese started seeing monsters and is now trying to fight them off." Tomato glared at Bananas. "Okay, what's in those pies?"

Bananas' ears drooped, and his fishing rod released the pill bottle, spilling the contents on the street. "Whipped cream, banana slices, banana pudding... uh, pie crust? The usual ingredients for banana cream pie. Why, does he have a weird trigger food for extreme hyperactivity like you do with coffee? Because I didn't know!"

Tomato looked at the pills on the ground and sighed. "No, not really." He jumped off the float and crouched down to clean them up. "And even if he forgot to take these pills here, the worst that'll happen is that an extreme headache would make him extremely sensitive. Back in the Crystal Empire, he got knocked out by something he normally would've shrugged off. I don't know what's wrong with him."

Alfalfa and Amber Waves joined Tomato in the cleanup, while Ash Tree and Olive watched, and Honeysuckle went back to explain what was going on to the floats behind her. Bananas held the pill bottle as the group brushed each pill off and slid it in, even though Tomato had remarked that since they were dirty, they'd have to get new medication at a nearby hospital.

In picking some up, Amber curiously smelled them, and then blinked. "Hey... why do these smell so minty?"

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Minty?" He lifted one up to his nose to check, and not only did it in fact smell minty, but it also irritated his nostrils to the point he was making faces trying to control the twitching of his muzzle. "Yep, minty alright. Mint allergy acting up a bit."

Bananas took one of the pills, and popped it in his mouth.

Alfalfa cringed. "Bananas! You'll get sick taking somepony else's medicine!"

"I don't know, the mintiness is suspicious," Ash Tree said.

"Well, yeah it is!" Bananas exclaimed. "I've taken medication before, and it always tasted bland, never minty! In fact, this tastes just like..."

Bananas eyes widened as something clicked. Standing up with a knitted brow and tight lips, he stuffed the bottle into his mane, stormed forward, and crawled under the parade float. When Ash Tree peeked under there, he discovered that his older brother had once again disappeared.

"How the hay do you do that?" Ash grumbled.

"Hi, ponies!" Kernel hollered, waving at spectators who gladly waved back. He pointed to Willow. "Lookit my princess sister! She's pretty!"

Willow blushed and just waved a hoof, while their eldest sister giggled in front of them. Creme tried to keep herself from smiling, as she felt a little embarrassed for finding the munchkins cute. By all means, she shouldn't find any of them cute, since small foals were generally loud, gross, and hyper, but she was surprised at how much she could stand them. She would have shrugged it off with Kernel being a little sunbeam while Willow was quiet, if it wasn't for seeing several other foals running around, happily eating any candy that came their way, and waving at everypony. She swore that those little ponies would make her lose her dignity.

Flora watched those same foals, admiring their endless energy and enthusiasm. "Every time I hear Kernel or Willow speak, or when I see those strangers' kids, it makes me wonder what my own future foals would be like."

Creme raised an eyebrow. "Of course. I wouldn't be surprised if you have names planned."

"Well, uh..." Flora rubbed the back of her head. "Technically, I do. Things like Marigold or Nature Walk for a girl, and Snapdragon or Forest March for a boy. Of course, if my future husband has any good ideas, I'll consider them."

Suddenly, some taffy splatted into the cart between Kernel and Willow, causing both the little foals and their draft horses to jump. While Willow scooted away in caution, Kernel simply peeled it off the wood and stuffed it into his mouth. "Mmm... watermelon!"

Flora furrowed her brow. "What the...?"

Taffy then splatted onto the street, followed by splats by other candies such as bubblegum, chocolate, and gummy candy that oozed sticky juice. Alongside the soft candy rained the lollipops, jawbreakers, and peppermint candies that shattered upon impact of the gray bricks of the street. The splattering and shattering sweets not only rained upon the road, but also onto buildings, lampposts, the parade floats, and the carts and wagons. The raining candy could not be unnoticed, and both spectators and participants shouted and started to take cover.

A lemon drop hit Flora's forehead. "Ouch! What is going on?!"

Creme dove under the cart, with Kernel and Willow following. "A sugar apocalypse, that's what!"

Flora squeezed under with the three, and was thankful that Kernel and Willow were still small so that she could fit. She could hear the sporadic patters of the candy rain filling up the box above her, and she watched as the street was continuously littered with small candy shards and globs of taffy, gum, and chocolate splattered on the buildings. It was a peculiar sight, and she wondered what the heck is causing it.

She got her answer when Cheese Sandwich landed atop the mountain of the float in front of them, with Bananas' candy cannons strapped to his forelegs, head, and tail. He lifted a foreleg and fired in the air, sending pieces of candy flying ahead to rain on the parade. Heaving and rubbing his head, Cheese shouted, "Hey! Stop taunting me, you fangfaces! Leave this city alone!"

Flora furrowed her brow. "Cheese?"

Creme blinked. "What is he doing?"

Seeing that the candy rain had ceased for the time being, Kernel partially crawled from under the cart, snagged some candy pieces and popped them into his mouth, looking up at Cheese with a smile. "Hi Cheese! Whatcha doing?"

Cheese spun around to face them. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good! You weren't captured by changelings, or eaten by dragons, or bitten by vampires and turned into them! I hear Las Pegasus had a problem with that last one and it wasn't pretty."

Flora popped her head out from under the cart. "Uh, no, we haven't. We didn't see any of those things."

Cheese facehoofed. "You've gotta be kidding me! Can't you see them flying around the city? I'm the only one doing anything to scare them off, and I'm having problems doing it on my own!" His ear twitched, and he shot a glare at a cloud. "Be quiet! Don't you dare bring the legitimacy of my party pony-ness into question!"

He fired both cannons on his forelegs, and candy went flying down the street. Flora could hear shouts of pain and dismay from the ponies ahead, and the cracks and splats she heard indicated the increasing mess that was being made. Looking up at Cheese--who was cradling his still-burnt foreleg after the blast caused some friction--she wondered if he had eaten something bad the night before, was under hypnosis, or was coming down with something that was causing him to see things. Whatever it was, it made her feel an awful pit in her stomach.

Cheese cocked a cannon, and said in a low voice. "Take cover, little fillies. It's too dangerous out here."

Kernel stomped a hoof. "I'm a colt!"

Flora dragged herself out from under the cart. "Cheese, wait--"

She didn't get to say much before Cheese bolted off, shooting more candy at his imaginary attackers. After staring at the scene that he continued to cause with trying to fight off monsters that weren't there, she stomped a hoof and yelled, "At least wait until I'm done talking before you take off like that!"

Creme crawled out after Flora. "So, uh... why's he going crazy?"

Suddenly, a voice behind her growled, "I don't know, Creme. You tell me."

Creme spun around to face Bananas, who sat in the cart full of candy, tipping the two-wheeled vehicle forward. Front legs crossed, Bananas had a scowl that pulled at every corner of his face, and his glare cowed Creme into backing up. When Flora turned to see Bananas' face, she nearly flinched at it as well, and wondered what happened to get her brother so angry.

Creme bit her lip. "Erm..."

Bananas pulled out a pill bottle from his mane. "So, tell me what Cheese ever did to you."

"Wait... what?" Creme looked at the bottle, with its smudged, illegible label wrapping around transparent orange plastic. "Wait a minute, are those Cheese Sandwich's pills?"

Bananas opened the bottle. "They were. But for some reason, it smells like mint in there."

Flora's eyes widened for a moment as the implications hit her, and then narrowed into a glare as her blood began to boil. When Creme backed up into her, she didn't hesitate to sharply inquire, "What did you do?!"

Creme looked between them, and then down to Willow and Kernel, who appeared confused as to what was going on. Caught between the piercing glares of both the oldest two Flower-Woods and the innocent gleams of the youngest two Flower-Woods, she wavered and said, "Well, when I was making the beds this morning, I may have accidentally knocked over that med bottle into the toilet and lost the pills inside, so I panicked and put my lookalike mints in it. I mean, that's why the label's all smudged and stuff."

Bananas snorted. "No, that's not why the label's smudged--Cheese told me that it was the river that did it. But, I wouldn't be surprised if you thought they were Tomato's thanks to that."

"Well, truth be told, I did think that when I saw it. After all, how else could he control his hyperactivity to the point of becoming dull?"

With a red face, Flora exploded, "Knowing you, you probably did it on purpose just to screw Tomato over!"

Willow and Kernel jumped and hid behind Bananas, who softened up in order to comfort them by handing them some of the candy they sat in. He flinched at the sheer volume of Flora's voice, and he could see Creme cower under the cousin that looked as if she was about to breathe fire. He sure didn't need to yell if Flora was going to cover the entire spectrum of anger anyway, to the point that other ponies were staring and flinching at the sight.

"Well... so? It's not like he's important to Equestria or something."

Flora grabbed Creme by the purple necklace. "Maybe, maybe not, but he's one of my best friends, so he's important to me! But there are other reasons why what you did was stupid! First off, Creme, tampering with medication is illegal. Second, even if the meds were Tomato's, you wouldn't have gotten the hyperactive nutcase because he'd be too busy dealing with an allergic reaction, because he's allergic to mint!"

Creme's eyes widened. "Wait, he's allergic? He mentioned the coffee thing and not that?"

Flora pulled her close enough for the yellow mare to see the fire in her eyes. "Listen, I don't care one iota for how much you found Tomato annoying as a foal, or were creeped out by his crush, or your stupid social class difference that makes you think you're better than him. As a matter of fact, he is better than you for the simple fact that he is far more capable of selflessness than you will ever be! At least he wouldn't put other ponies, including innocent foals, in danger just because he wanted to ruin the life of somepony he didn't like! The world doesn't revolve around you, so stop being such a stupid, selfish brat!"

After seeing some police officers gallop by, Flora threw her on the ground. She didn't soften at the anguish that was creeping up on Creme's face, even as the yellow mare looked at Kernel and Willow, who seemed to understand enough to be disappointed in her. Bananas still sat there, shaking his head. In looking around at some of the other foals situated around them, Creme simply laid down and curled up into a ball.

Flora breathed heavily. "Not going to fight it? Good, because I don't have the patience to contend with you right now."

The next second had Olive driving up and stopping her soapbox cart among the two-wheeled carts, carrying passengers like her remaining siblings, her mother, Creme's parents, and Tomato. All tumbled off of the cart, and Olive threw her head up to take a deep breath once free from the pile of ponies. Her eyes swept the group and she asked, "Okay, which one of you farted? I'd like to know what you ate last night."

Honeysuckle got to her hooves, and then caught Flora in a hug. "Oh, thank goodness, you're all right! I was worried that Cheese would've seen you as a monster and shot at you!"

Flora smiled, and was released in a moment. "I'm fine, and so are the others."

Kernel and Willow jumped out of the cart, crying out for their Mommy, who didn't hesitate to catch them and give them nuzzles and kisses. "Oh, my little babies! I'm sorry you had to see a funny pony in a state of distress, but I'm so happy that you're not hurt."

Tomato trotted up to Flora and noticed Creme on the ground, who was having her parents attend to her. "Well... she seems a bit traumatized by what just happened."

"Nah, I just yelled at her because she replaced Cheese's meds with mints."

Tomato blinked, and then scowled. "What did he ever do to--"

"She thought they were yours. She was hoping you'd pull a Coffee-geddon to make the city hate you."

"But I'd only have an allergic reaction."

"Yeah, I told her that."

Tomato sighed. "So... any ideas on how to stop Cheese?"

Flora scratched her chin. "Well, we need to draw him away from the crowd and to a safe space where I can try to talk him down. Maybe I can figure out why he's hallucinating, or maybe convince him to go to the hospital to see what's wrong. And hopefully we can talk to the law enforcement I saw earlier and make sure they don't arrest him."

Honeysuckle looked up. "And maybe talk to my husband too--March doesn't take very kindly to sudden violence."

Bananas jumped out of the two-wheeled cart and by his sister. "Can I help? I feel bad for making him hit his head and start the mess."

"And maybe I can help talk some sense into him," Tomato said.

Ash Tree, Alfalfa, and Amber Waves looked at each other and the ponies around them, the oldest of the three saying, "We'll just stay here and tell everyone what's going on, and get some ponies to safety. I don't think we'd be much help in calming Cheese down."

Flora nodded. "All right. I think everypony's got a thing to do, so let's roll. Olive, you're our ride."

Olive grinned. "Sweet!"

As Flora, Bananas, and Tomato climbed onto Olive's cart, Honeysuckle shouted, "Be careful! I don't want any of you getting hurt."

Bananas waved. "Don't worry, Mom! I'm sure a party pony could handle another party pony!"

Olive saluted at the group left behind, and drove off ahead toward the front of the parade with her passengers in tow. Their mother and siblings watched them speed off, while Aunt Jasmine and Uncle Custard got their daughter up to sitting position.

Jasmine stroked Creme's hair. "There, there, we'll go to a safe place until this disaster is over."

"I dare say, both Sandwiches are crazy!" Rich Custard complained. "Whoever told me that Cheese Sandwich was a stellar example of a party pony was lying to me! I'm willing to bet that he scared you because you dared to speak out against his brother."

Creme shook her head. "No, it's not that at all."

Author's Note

Before any of you ask about the Las Pegasus mention...
Yeah, wasn't that a fun mistake. :ajbemused:

Anyhoozles, we now have Cheese having... issues. And in party pony fashion taking it to absurd levels.

15.6--Where is My Solace?

The streets he traveled down were bathed in a blood red light, masking the normal whites and light grays that made up the streets and buildings of Salt Lick City. Jumping from float to float and cart to cart, Cheese passed by various apartment complexes, restaurants, and even a library, his eyes continually scanning the air for the foes he faced. He saw plenty of the dark, shadowy monsters that flew above the streets, though he couldn't make out any details. The body shapes were the only things telling him if a particular one was a changeling, a vampire, or a small dragon.

The cacophony of the monsters' laughter and the shrieks and shouts of the civilians pounded against his brain, and several times, he paused to swipe above his head, thinking that a dragon was biting his head. The most he did was knock Boneless Two off his head and whack the cannon on his head. Though his head still cried out in utter agony, he still continued forward, not planning to sit while the invaders were disrupting the parade.

He blasted each of his four cannons at every creature he spotted, hoping that he could drive them away with lightning speed jawbreakers and other candies. He unfortunately kept missing, shattering hard candies on the street and splattering soft candies on the buildings. He wanted to stop and lick the candies off, but there wasn't enough time to do that with the creatures flying around. He murmured to himself that it'd be easier to scare them off with his party tank--but like how the burn on his foreleg couldn't heal quickly, his tank had suddenly become impossible for him to summon for some reason.

As he continued to fire the candy cannons at the monsters, he couldn't help but wonder why all three of those things were attacking Salt Lick City. Was it full of enough love to attract changelings? What about the vampires? He had read that the guy who created the curse in Las Pegasus was in jail, and all those affected had been cured. Who cast that spell this time? He wasn't even sure why dragons were singling this city out to raze instead of Equestria's capital.

Heaving himself to a high perch on one of the taller buildings, Cheese looked back at the parade behind him, and his eyes were drawn to the Salt Spires. He had heard that it was this valley's magical landmark, though it be one of carved granite. There were hardly even any gems on it, save for a lone one at the top of the tallest spire, which gleamed in the sunlight. He wondered if perhaps that's what they were after.

"Sir! Climb down and drop your weapons!"

Cheese looked down to see police officers at the base of the building, glaring up at him, including a mare with a megaphone. A number of them were unicorns with their horns ready, and several pegasi on the force were ready to take off should he try anything drastic. Pouting curiously, he wondered why they were going after him instead of trying to fight off the changelings and get the citizens to safety. Even the military segment of the parade, including Flora's father March Redwood, was ready to fight him should he try something.

"Hey, guys, listen!" Cheese cried. "There's a changeling-vampire-dragon army attacking the city, and I'm trying to stop them! But I can't do it alone, so please, help me fight them off!"

One soldier put a hoof on his chin. "Changeling vampire dragons? That sounds awesome!"

March turned to glare at said soldier, while several other soldiers and some of the police officers facehoofed.

The officer in front holding the megaphone, presumably the chief, didn't budge. "Sir, we do not see any of the things you've mentioned. Climb down and drop your weapons!"

March looked up at the confused party pony. "Cheese Sandwich, listen to the officer! You're causing a panic with your willy-nilly candy shooting!"

Cheese panted, looking at the reactions of the ponies below. Even though the civilians were indeed fleeing to the nearest building or alley or just onto another street, all officers weren't focused on the monsters that Cheese could see flying around; they just stared at him, expecting him to do as he was told. Even some civilians who had stopped panicking had stopped to stare at him, as if the creatures flying around didn't even exist.

He rubbed his head, a strange idea popping up in his aching head. "Do they exist?"

Suddenly, he heard laughter above him, and he jolted his head up. The flying, shadowy creatures hovered above him, circling the building that he leaned from. Their laughs were shrill, wheezy, or gravelly, depending on which of the creatures they came from, but they were all sounds that clawed at his ears, and by extension, his brain. Their cycling dance was starting to make him dizzy, and his stomach turned at every revolution that each creature made.

"Oh, of course we exist, Cheesy..." a changeling hissed.

A vampire laughed. "Yeah! Those morons just can't tell the difference between us and pegasi!"

A dragon slowly spun in the air as he passed. "Why, we are just as real as you are."

Cheese had his back on the wall. "Look, I don't know who you are, and how that changeling knows my name, but there's nothing here for you, so shoo!"

The creatures laughed once again. Another vampire passed by and said, "Oh, Cheese Sandwich... you mustn't deny what is real! After all, vampires weren't real until you read those news about the pony who created them and sicced them on Las Pegasus!"

A changeling chortled as it hovered by. "Say, remember when somepony told him that he was there? That he had fought vampires and might have nearly gotten bitten? Ahaha, it's pathetic that he can't remember something like that, especially the part where his brother became a vampire!"

Cheese squeezed his eyes shut. "No, I don't want to imagine what I forgot! I put that in the back of my mind for a reason!"

A dragon danced past him again. "Oh, you poor fool. Always running away from your problems."

Cheese scowled. "I'm not running from them! I'll just... deal with them later, because right now, there's a parade going on, and you're kind of ruining it for everypony."

The creatures laughed again, and Cheese covered his ears, curling up against the wall. It felt like somepony was taking a sledgehammer to his head, his heart was beating fast enough that he thought it was going to explode, and the heat rose in his body enough for sweat to leak. Despite how hard his hooves pressed on his ears, no matter how much any other sound was drowned out, the creatures' taunts still rang through.

The sound of the megaphone echoed with the yell of, "Sir! Get down here now!"

Suddenly, Cheese felt the sensation of fangs breaking through his skull and sinking into his brain.

He screamed, trying to swat the culprit off. "Get it off! Get it off! Something's trying to eat my brain!"

In his panic, Cheese made a wrong step and slipped off the building. Gasps were heard from the remaining civilians as he fell, and the unicorn officers had already begun casting a cushion spell to catch him.

However, a stray blast from one of the candy cannons forced him back up into the sky, and he soared in an arc over several of Salt Lick's taller buildings. Dumbfounded ponies watched his trip back up before he plummeted back down in another part of town, further back than the end of the parade. Several murmured in concern over what just occurred, gazing at the very spot in the sky that Cheese had flown in just moments before. A couple of the police pegasi flew up to check where he landed.

Suddenly, ponies parted out of the street, making way for a little soapbox cart carrying four skidding into the block, which caught the attention of both police and military officers. The sudden stop caused the three passengers--with March recognizing them as Flora, Bananas, and Flora's friend, to tumble off, while the driver, Olive, just looked up at the sky and sighed.

"Well, he's gone," Olive deadpanned.

March walked over to the cart. "What are you kids doing?"

Flora got up to her hooves and brushed herself off. "We were trying to catch up to Cheese so that we could try to talk him down."

March raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? See, the police here were already trying that, and he didn't listen. He was talking nonsense about monsters attacking the city, when really, he was the one doing that. I think the police are getting ready to use force."

"Dad, Cheese is having hallucinations and is frightened right now. They might scare him even more!"

Bananas popped up beside his sister. "I know what it's like to see things, and believe me when I say it feels all too real. Scaring him will only make things worse!"

Tomato ambled to next to Flora. "Especially since he's mentioned Changelings, and well, we know what that implies. And he's pretty good at fighting back if need be."

March sighed. "Flora, I know you're concerned, but given that those things he's seeing are making up act up to the point of destruction, the cops are just going to have to take him down before he does more damage."

The pegasi cops floated down to their chief and announced, "Chief Laurel, he's launched himself at Spires Garden."

Chief Laurel, who had been watching the exchange between March and the younger ponies, nodded. "Let's hope we get there before he damages the Salt Spires. Let's go!"

All the groundbound cops galloped away, with their pegasi cohorts flying along with them. Civilians made way for them, and watched as they made their way back to the Salt Spires to stop Cheese's rampage. Meanwhile, Flora blinked, and stamped the ground in frustration.

March furrowed his brow at her. "Flora, calm down. They're just doing their job."

Flora growled and stomped back to the cart, dragging Bananas and Tomato back onto it with her. Glaring back at her father, she pointed to her cutie mark and retorted, "Well, I'm ready to do my job." She nudged her sister's head with her back hoof. "Let's go, Olive."

"Flora!"

March's yell was left unheard as the kids sped off in hopes of beating the cops to Spires Garden. Pebbles and dust flew in every direction, and ponies jumped out of the way of a young teenager's cart. March's teeth were gritted as he watched the dust fly, and he turned to his soldiers to tell them to check on the civilians. Then, he started off on a chase, though he lagged behind compared to the cart.

"I swear, that girl is so stubborn," he grumbled.

Olive nearly crashed into the south gate when the group arrived, barely missing the tall foundation of the Bridle Yearling statue, and her three passengers were thrown face first into the bars. After staggering around in an almost drunk dance to the echoing clang, the trio recovered from their brief head trauma and looked inside the gardens, looking to see if they could spot Cheese. Not a single hair on his golden brown coat was spotted, so they had to go in.

"You know, it's a good thing we beat the cops, or else they'd be covering all the gates," Olive remarked as she hopped out of her cart.

Before they entered, Tomato asked, "Flora, wait... do you have a backup plan in case your little talk with him fails?"

Flora looked at him. "Well... another option is to show him that you're safe and sound, or have Bananas pull an accordion out of nowhere so that Cheese has something to distract himself from the hallucinations."

Olive raised an eyebrow. "Hey, what do I do?"

"Stay on the sidelines because you're not delicate," Flora said in the bluntest tone possible. "But, honestly, anything could happen. At least he'll only cover me in taffy or something instead of kill me."

Bananas grinned. "Don't worry, we've got your back, sis."

Olive scoffed. "I'm not allowed to have her back."

The group went through the gate and started a quiet search. Tomato idly let his eyes wander around the garden they walked through. The walkways and various white buildings of the garden were cleaner and brighter than the rest of Salt Lick City, enough for them to shimmer under the sun. Islands of red brick held rows of lush grass that looked soft and cool enough to lay in, trees bearing leaves of a healthy green, and a rainbow of flowers with colors that popped. Several fountains dotted the gardens, whether they were large pools of still water, clear rivers cradled by white stone steps, or geysers bursting forth from smaller pools. Among the gardens were statues of ponies who had founded the Salt Lick Valley, families playing together, and for some reason, seagulls. Above it all the Salt Spires towered, bearing a warm and welcome glisten.

Tomato took note of other ponies wandering the grounds and taking photos of the various features of the garden. He wondered whether or not these ponies even attended the parade. If not, perhaps it was best that they didn't see that mess.

It wasn't long before they found Cheese bursting out of the shallow round pool directly in front of the Spires. Almost instinctively, the four hid behind trees and watched him as he coughed and sputtered, climbing out of the pool. After hearing him moan and clutch his head, Tomato clutched the tree, his stomach dropping and his heart aching at the sight of his usually lively brother like this. He wondered what was going on with him, and what happened to start all the headaches at the end of June.

They gasped when Cheese looked up at the Salt Spires, staggered back, and then aimed a candy cannon at it. Flora wasted no time in dashing out, sliding in front of him, and spreading her front legs out in a protective stance. "Wait!"

All held their breath after Flora's exclamation. For a moment, all was quiet; even the patrons had gone silent, curious about what was going on. All that moved were manes blowing in the wind, and the only sounds came from the fountains. Tomato could even see Flora's chest heaving as she faced Cheese, who stared back with wide and baggy eyes. He begged in the back of his mind for neither one to hurt the other.

Cheese gave her a stern look. "Please move out of the way. I don't want to hit you."

"I'm sorry for my sudden entrance." Flora relaxed and went down on all fours. "Cheese... what's going on?"

Cheese's front leg still pointed upward, though it trembled. "There's a giant dragon about to take a huge bite of the Salt Spires, and his cronies are egging him on. I can't let them destroy something so special to the ponies that live here!"

Flora glanced back. "Is it scaring you?"

"Well, yeah! Anypony would be afraid of an invasion of whatever creature decides their city was a good place to attack! Right now, I'm confused as to why nopony's even doing anything!"

"Cheese, that's because they don't see them."

"But... how can you miss a big honking dragon? I mean, do you know how big dragons get? The one I'm seeing has its tail wrapped it and its mouth is as big as that big spire right there! And yet... you don't see it?"

Flora shook her head.

Cheese lowered the cannon slightly. "Do you... see the smaller dragons? The changelings? The vampires?"

"No, I don't see them. Cheese, you're having a hallucination."

Cheese's leg lowered fully, joining the others in holding his body up. Clutching his head, Cheese switched between scanning the ground and the sky, laughing nervously. He started to pace around in a circle. "Oh, no... it can't really be true, can it? I mean, surely I'm not that kind of crazy instead of the trademark party pony crazy which is fun for everyone! Sure the idea may have come to me earlier, but I got laughed at by the little monsters, but I shouldn't listen to them because they're not real, right? Right?"

He plopped down on his rump, and glanced at the nearest pony with a camera. "Mister, do you have a picture of the Salt Spires I can look at?"

The stranger blinked. "Uh... sure?" He pulled out a photo and presented it to Cheese. "I just took it. How's it look?"

Cheese stared at it for a moment before sighing and looking up at the stranger. "It's beautiful. No dragons at all. Thank you for your time."

"Oh, thanks! And uh, you're welcome?" The stranger grinned, waved, and then awkwardly shuffled away.

Cheese growled and cradled his head. "Ugh! Why do they feel so real?! Why do they keep laughing at me and saying awful things to me? Somepony, make it stop!"

Flora sat down next to him and patted his back. "Would you tell me what they're saying?"

Cheese looked up at her with half-tired eyes. "They keep on telling me that I'm pathetic, that I run away from my problems or throw them by the wayside to not deal with them. They also remind me of how horrible of a brother I was to Tommy for a long time, and how some of my parties have landed ponies in the hospital!" He grabbed his head again. "They're laughing at me because I don't deserve the title of super duper party pony! Is there any way I can make them stop?"

Flora scratched her chin. "Hm... I can see why that's distressing. Being told you're not good enough does hurt. But you know what? We can shoo your monsters away by doing something you really enjoy."

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Take off the candy cannons and cover your ears." Once Cheese complied, Flora turned to the tree where the others hung around. With a whistle, she shouted, "Bananas! You have an accordion on you?!"

Bananas rolled out of their spot and presented one in his hooves. "I picked yours up from the street, Cheese. Now, you wanna play it?"

Cheese uncovered his ears and took his beloved instrument. He stared at it with uncertainty, feeling the instrument to make absolutely sure that it was real. His hoof ran over the bumps on the billows back and forth. He looked up to find that Flora and Bananas had been joined by Olive and Tomato, and several other ponies had stopped to see if he would start to play. The moment he stood up, it was clear that he was not going to disappoint anyone.

So he played. A happy, upbeat tune was crooning out of that accordion; it made many of the patrons exploring the gardens stop, and listen to the music. Some bobbed their heads to the beat, some tapped their hooves, and some hummed along, but they all smiled to the cheerful music. It almost felt like that even the Salt Spires were smiling, and magic was felt through the air in that very square.

Cheese ended the song, and the ponies there tapped on the path in applause. One pony even said, "Say, someday you should do a concert with the Tabernicker Choir across the street!"

When the crowd dispersed to continue their little tours, Cheese sighed and rubbed his head. "Well, I'm seeing less things, but my head still hurts..."

Tomato frowned. "You need to see a doctor again?"

Cheese stored his accordion behind his back and picked up the candy cannons. "I really don't want to, but..."

Flora nodded. "Yep. Let's get to it." She beckoned the group and they followed her to the gate. "Olive can get us to the hospital easily."

Olive gave her sister a funny look. "I don't know where it is."

Flora groaned. "Are you kidding me?"

"Hey, we don't live in this city! I have no reason to memorize--"

Olive stopped when they reached the gate, finding the police force there, looking straight at them with serious expressions. The rest of the group froze and looked amongst each other, grimacing. Bananas even remarked, "Huh, forgot about the police."

Chief Laurel stood in front and looked straight at Cheese. "You, Mr. Candy Cannon. Drop your weapons and come with us."

Cheese looked down at the devices he held, cursing himself for not storing them. Setting them down, he stood erect and walked forward, ready to accept whatever fate awaited him. A few officers came in and led him out the gate, with another gathering the candy cannons.

Tomato sped to the gate. "Chief, please understand, he's been having hallucinations. He wouldn't have acted the way he did had he been--"

Chief Laurel just had to turn to him to shut him up. "Calm down. It's fairly obvious that he was, so we're going to escort him to the hospital to get him some treatment and some rest. Hopefully, you can find out what's going on and manage the symptoms."

Cheese rubbed his leg. "Well, I was kinda planning on helping clean up after..."

"Hm, if the doctor deems you well enough. In the meantime, the other pony involved in causing this mess is going to assist the volunteers in the cleanup."

Olive and Bananas looked at each other, and Tomato tilted his head. "Huh? Other pony?"

She stepped aside to present Creme Brulee, looking rather depressed, which only brought out another "Huh?!" from Tomato.

"She confessed to having swapped Cheese Sandwich's medication with mint candies," Chief Laurel said. "After cleanup and her time in jail, her record's not going to look pretty."

Olive's jaw was slack, while Bananas blinked, glanced at the currently stone-faced Flora, and said solemnly, "Wow... I guess Flora finally got through her thick head. Just wish it didn't take this mess."

As Cheese went with the officers, Tomato and Creme faced each other through the gate. Pursing his lips, Tomato asked, "Creme, I wonder... why did you tell the truth? I always thought you were nothing but some amoral liar who only cared for her pleasure."

Creme glared at him. "You're flattering. Flora just had to remind me that my actions were possibly putting little kids in danger. Those ponies are least deserving of any harm that comes to them."

Tomato shook his head. "Should have thought of that before you replaced the meds."

Creme Brulee was taken away, and March Redwood filled her place. Tomato moved to let Flora take his place, and she simply bore a stoic look at her clearly displeased father. March snorted and said, "Flora, I told you not to meddle in police affairs, and yet you blatantly disobeyed me. Flora, there was a chance that you could have gotten hurt."

Flora looked at the ground. "I know."

"Look, I get that you like to help ponies, and you managed to calm Cheese down, no doubt, but what if it had been somepony who didn't care? What if it hadn't been somepony who's mark was that of making ponies smile? If you pull this with somepony with no morals, you will get hurt. So put more thought into your actions before you do them, understand?"

"Yes, Dad." Flora turned around and started to walk away. "If you don't mind, I'd like to be alone."

March nodded and looked up at the other two. "Come, kids. Let's get back to your mother and siblings. I don't want her to worry." He raised his voice toward Flora with the shout of, "We'll be back at the parade route, okay?"

Bananas and Olive followed their father away from the place, and the entire Salt Lick police force left as well. Tomato Sandwich was left alone, opting to stay behind due to him being curious about Flora's state of mind. Didn't she successfully calm Cheese down? What was her issue?

So, he discreetly followed her instead.

Author's Note

Well, I think I managed to get through the hard part of this arc. Heh... why is late summer always the time when I'm dealing with difficult parts in the story (last summer, it was Canterlot and freakin' politics)? It's one of those times where I feel like any research I do just doesn't cut it. Oh, well, I've just got to deal with it.

In other news, I never thought I'd try to find out if it was okay to play the accordion in Temple Square. So far, I've found out that there have been concerts involving accordions in various buildings in that area.

And Cheese is off to the hospital... again. At least he wasn't knocked out this time.

15.7--A Firm Foundation

Sitting in Spires Garden was a favorite pastime of Flora Peace--if anything, it was the one place that she felt matched her name best. There was always a peace that came with just simple meditation and pondering when surrounded by fragrant flowers and shady trees. Birds sang and bees buzzed, and there was little chatter from passersby touring around the square. Sitting on the edge of a fountain basin, she just had to close her eyes and imagine herself by a waterfall, feeling and smelling the cool mist. Even with the chaos that had happened earlier, she appeared calm as a summer's morning.

It didn't mean that she was happy, however. Guilt was a strong emotion, one that eats away at one's core the longer it's held in. Flora felt like there was something she should have done to prevent Cheese's rampage down the parade. Something to prevent the mess of candy that was scattered along the street and buildings of the parade route, the cannons having possibly hurt civilians. Something to have kept her own cousin out of trouble.

"Flora?"

She opened her eyes, finding Tomato standing between two of the garden islands just meters away. His brow was creased with concern, but his mouth pouted in a sense of confusion. He stood there silently, as if he was awaiting an answer that he asked a parent. Flora always found it strange that for all his resemblance to a mature adult, there was a whimsical, childlike air about him, especially evident in his eyes.

"I thought you were going back with the others," she said.

Tomato slowly ambled forward. "I just want to know what you're upset about."

"What, a girl can't want to be alone without being upset?"

"You make it fairly obvious." Tomato sat down next to her. "You know... I'd expect somebody be happy that they stopped a pony from shooting the city's main landmark." Tomato gestured to the Salt Spires nearby. "I don't think anypony would have liked seeing chocolate or taffy staining it."

"Oh, no, I... am a bit happy that I talked him down and that he's seeing a doctor." She glanced at him. "He was just fine when I last saw you two. What exactly happened between then and now?"

Tomato fiddled with his white shirt. "I really don't know. Weird things have been going on for about a month, from the headaches to forgetting things to getting kind of irritable to most recently hallucinations. I want to know what's going on, but I'm not sure I want to really anger him with mentioning the point where it started to go downhill."

"Well, after his doctor's visit, he's going to have to come clean to someone. They'll probably recommend a therapist."

Tomato paused for a moment to let it sink in and think about it, but then shook his head. "Well, fair enough. But right now, I'm concerned with how you're being kind of glum. Does it have anything to do with your cousin?"

Flora scoffed. "Which one?"

"You know the one."

Flora took a deep breath and covered her stinging eyes. "I failed her! I failed to introduce a change in her attitude before it was too late! Every summer since I've started college, I've been trying to be patient with her, trying to make sure my family let her feel welcome here, trying to teach her about honesty and kindness and having fun without all the style that Manehattan provides!"

Tomato winced. Flora assumed that he was disappointed that she had failed to turn her own cousin's attitude around--especially since said cousin was a major source of anguish for him. She wished she could have gotten Creme to at least apologize to Tomato.

She threw her front legs up. "And I kept my family from mentioning you to her because that could have led to trouble like we just witnessed, and maybe I should have dragged her along with me and Cheese and Bananas this morning so that she couldn't mess with the medicine that Cheese forgot!" She snorted. "I don't get what her problem with you is. All I know is that she looks down on you for coming from a lower-income family."

Tomato's mouth was in an O shape. He slowly closed it and nodded, rubbing the back of his head. "Well... I think she might have had a bit of a one-sided rivalry with me over who gets the attention of the schoolyard. Can't have a little 'plebeian' like me making more friends than her, miraculously with no candy or toys to bribe them with. Doesn't help my crush must have been horribly annoying for her. I wonder if she doesn't get enough attention at home."

She slouched forward and leaned in her hooves. "I wouldn't be surprised. When I went to Manehattan for the first time, I discovered just how busy Uncle Custard and Aunt Jasmine are. They're really nice ponies, no doubt, but their jobs are demanding."

"I always did found their mansion kind of big and lonely, even with the servants. Still doesn't excuse how awful of a pony she is, but I do wonder if it could have been prevented."

Flora sighed. "Yeah. And now my family failed cleaning up the mess. Maybe if I had just settled for a college here in the valley instead of going across the country, then I could have done more."

Tomato leaned forward. "Why didn't you, then?"

Flora straightened up a little and twiddled her hooves. "Well... have you ever had the impression that you needed to do a certain thing or go to a certain place? When browsing through my options, I had a strong feeling that I was needed in Manehattan. Me and the rest of my family thought it was to comfort my aunt and uncle about their discovery about their daughter, plus, I was feeling a little adventurous, so I followed through with that impression. And you know... I don't regret it, because I met you."

Tomato blinked, his eyes wide with awe. Flora could barely catch a hint of blush across the stallion's face, and she smiled as he cleared his throat and said, "Oh? Well, I'm glad you came to my city, because, well, I've had problems making and keeping friends during my adolescence. Longest friendship sans Bluejinx was a filly named Summer Wind, and she moved away a few months after I met her..."

Tomato paused to take a deep breath. "It was horrible being so lonely and feeling like the world's against me. Nopony, not even my own brother, even wanted to hear my cries for help, because anypony with my cutie mark obviously has a good life. Bluejinx was my only anchor, and I'm not sure how long he would have held out before he gave up on me. I think you might have saved us both by coming along."

"Oh, you're giving me too much credit, Tommy," Flora giggled.

"No, Flora, I don't think I can go over the praises I have for you in just one day! I just... I just... I, uh..." Tomato looked away and twiddled his hooves. After a slow exhale, he said, "I'm really grateful to you for giving me a chance and being my friend. I guess accepting you, and later the twins, made it so it'd be easier for me to forgive my brother for his wrongs. Apologizing for mine was still a bit of a struggle, though."

Flora's mouth twitched into a brief smile before she frowned again. "Still, I feel awful for not doing right with my cousin."

Tomato patted her back. "I know it's awful, Flora. Still, one failure doesn't mean you're a bad pony. Really, it all came down to her own choice to accept or reject what you and your family were trying to teach her. If anything, I think you're all good ponies to care about her enough to try, and there's really no way that I can't admire that."

Flora stayed silent, but she looked up at him. Somehow, an opening between the leaves of the trees allowed a sunbeam to shine right over his smiling face, making him look like some sort of angel right then and there. Just the sweet innocence of his expression was making her heart leap. Thinking back to when she first met him and the early days of their friendship, it was remarkable that the warm, loving look was coming from the same stallion that had once bore either a cool, detached expression or a scowl most of the time.

"So..." Tomato said. "Are you ready to go back now?"

Flora shook her head. "I'd, uh, like a bit more time to think of what to say to my aunt and uncle."

Tomato stood up, and held out a hoof for her to take. "Very well. While you think about it, if it's not too much to ask, I'd like for you to show me some things you've got around here."

Flora took the hoof, slid off the edge of the fountain basin, and stood up. "Well, I do have a couple ideas on where to go."

"Holy moley..."

Tomato looked up at sleek, polished mini-cupboards with bins of scrolls and shelves of glowing orbs and crystals that towered yards above him all the way to the ceiling. Several columns had been grouped together, with family trees drawn beside them. Each seemed to be organized by family name, generation, and alphabetical order. The various names had filled up much of the building, and there were apparently enough names to require both an upstairs and a downstairs. In the midst of it all, a bunch of ponies were working on adding more, keeping the organization intact.

"Okay, you weren't kidding about the genealogical library here. You'd expect something like this to be in Canterlot." Tomato said, still looking around. "You guys seem to care a lot about ponies long dead."

Flora shrugged. "Well, Canterlot did designate this as the official Equestria Family History archive. Everypony has a story, even dead peasants from way back when."

"Okay, but don't you think that storing memory orbs of dead ponies is a little creepy?"

Flora blinked. "How did you know those things store memories?"

"Exhibit at Canterlot's Summer Sun Fair," Tomato answered.

"Oh, yeah, I think Canterlot has some of those things to study. We even had a guy show up in my psychology class and give us a presentation on them. I have to say, it's neat."

"I thought so, too."

"Anyway..." Flora started to walk toward the front desk. "Let's check out some of your family's stories, I bet they've got some good ones."

Tomato followed, and just stood back as Flora greeted the mare there, who was apparently named Family Tree. It would have been something to chuckle at had it not been for a million other ponies bearing names similar to their talents and jobs. From what he knew, former friends Carpet Burn and Mustard Squirt Bottle were just a couple of examples, being a carpet pony and a hot dog vendor respectively.

"All right dear," Family Tree said to him, catching his attention. "Can I help you?"

Tomato shuffled on his feet. "Uh... question. Did you get permission to keep these?"

Family Tree nodded. "Yes, we did, all from the families and even the deceased themselves before they went on to the next life. Our goal is to preserve the memory of ponies long passed, so that their descendants can know their stories. Many ponies do yearn for their heritage..." She scowled and looked away. "Even though some don't know it and fail to see the beauty in Equestrian history..."

"Okay, I think I get it." Tomato looked around the shelves, noting the many colors that lined the shelves. "So... any chance my ancestors are here? I mean, I know I'm from Manehattan, but you do have files on those outside of the Salt Lick Valley, right?"

Family Tree smiled. "Oh, absolutely! We want all to experience the joys of genealogy! What's your name?"

"Uh, Tomato Sandwich?"

"Ah, yes, of course! Sounds like you might be descended from the Bread and Fruit families. What about any names of living relatives?"

"Well, my brother's name is Cheese Sandwich, my father is Hay Burger, and my mother is Mozzarella."

"Hm, it's likely that you're also from the Cheese family. All right, those three families are upstairs in the A-I categories. If you'd like, you may look for other possible family names on this floor in the J-R categories, or downstairs in the S-Z categories." Family Tree opened a drawer and hoofed him a brochure. "Here's a little guide to handling memories, and if you need any help, me and my follow librarians can help you out. Have fun browsing, and remember to put things back where they belong."

"Memories of the dead are safe to handle, but shattering them means they're lost forever. It's the memories of the living you must look out for; save for a few select ponies, the memories will zap anypony who tries to handle them. However, a shattered living memory simply returns home to its owner, provided they're within a certain radius."

Handle with care Tomato did, looking through the memories of his forefathers. There were places he did not recognize, with the scrolls thankfully providing the information the memories were missing. He looked on through the beads, which when tapped suddenly grew to the size of baseballs. The first time it happened, Tomato nearly dropped the orb in fright, but caught it, which left Flora giggling. After nudging her in a "Stop that" way, he went on to see the past through his ancestors' eyes.

He saw through the eyes of a metalworker, working on Mare Harmony in Hoofson Bay. He watched a donkey that another ancestor was partnered with as he invented bean burritos and hay tacos. He watched another found a town called Buckskin, and then saw his Grandma Panini grow up in a large and loving family, before going to school to become a teacher. He watched her eventual husband, Beans, hang out with his older brother, only for the news of his brother's death to shatter him, and for his parents' already strained relationship turn to physical abuse.

When that particular memory played piano music as Grampa Beans once did, Tomato tapped it frantically, looking around at the librarians and other patrons staring at them. "Flora, does the brochure have instructions for turning the sound off?"

He went on to Gramma Cucumber Melon and Grampa Pizza Pockets. Before going through them, he paused, feeling what was left of them. He had no idea if they had been removed before or after death, or whether permission was given by them or Mom, but some part of him was glad that there was some part of them preserved. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't think of anything.

Flora looked at him. "Hey... are you all right?"

Tomato sighed. "I'm fine... I just miss them."

Flora leaned into a gentle half-hug. "It's okay to miss them. I miss my grandpa, too."

He laughed when Flora freaked over Grandma Mel having been a member of the Canterlot elite before being disowned for her elopement with his Grandpa Pizza, and they watched their odd love story unfold, with Flora cooing "awww" all the while. Tomato just wondered how Creme would have reacted to that, only to figure she'd bring up the disowning thing. When Mel's brother showed up, mentioned having seen his Great Uncle Lemon Lime earlier that summer, and how he was entertained by that 'sneeze show'.

After scanning records of his family tree, Flora showed Tomato some stories from her family tree, first starting with the Flower side of the family. After ending her stories by showing the orb of her great-grandparents' memories of when her Grandma Flower Power came to the Valley by following a guy she had a crush on (who was not her grandfather), they went downstairs to check out the Wood family tree.

While looking for it, Tomato had bumped into a cabinet, accidentally knocking off a large scroll on top and a memory orb just below it.

"Ah, whoops!" He said, picking up the scroll and catching the orb with his tail. He looked up at the top of the rather tall shelf. "Aw, geez, we need to get one of the pegasus workers to put this Mister..."

He shouldn't have been surprised when the scroll was marked 'Wayer Rune.' With his eyebrow twitching, he grumbled, "You like to follow me, don't you, Wayer?"

Flora trotted back to him from her place and looked at the scroll. "Oh, yeah, the Werewolf Guy. He's been mentioned in each of my psychology textbooks." She noticed the orb and took it in her hooves. "And I think this was his wife?"

Tomato noticed the pegasus worker popping up beside him, and passed the scroll to the pony to return to the top. "Why is he there, I wonder?"

"Because he's a pioneer of memory magic." Flora watched as the pegasus flew up. "His discoveries set the groundwork for the study and use of magic to deal with trauma and mental illness, as well as memory removal in order for ponies to have something left behind from a deceased loved one, since there were no cameras then. While it's not always the best--I mean, it's been refined over the years to create less painful and more efficient spells--it does at least give us in these latter days more reliable archives. It's just mainly used on dead ponies."

Tomato chuckled. "If he hadn't done the werewolf nonsense, I think he'd be better remembered for the memory thing."

Flora frowned, watching the stallion in the orb go from a curious young wizard that the goofy mare would tease, into a raving madhorse threatening to tear out somepony's mind. "Well, the textbook also mentioned him as a warning."

"What do you mean?"

"Well... long story short, removing soldiers' memories of war unfortunately scrambled their minds and left them without any sort of peace." The pegasus came back down, and Flora gave the memory to her. "Add that to the infamous Wolf Plague, and you just have a cycle of bloodshed and memory removal until those poor veterans were more canine than equine." She shuddered just thinking about it. "If his wife's memory is anything to go by... he may have been a good pony before the war. It saddens me to know that he went off the deep end and just turned pure evil."

They both watched as the orb was perched back onto its shelf. Tomato idly licked his teeth, and he felt those two familiar itches on his back. "I hear the guy who caused the Las Pegasus incident is his descendant. What a lunatic." It sickened him to think of Silk Shimmer and Party Favor, two of the nicest ponies he had ever met, as also being descended from Wayer Rune. "At least history's not completely repeating itself--the princesses cured that curse without it going too far out of the city."

Flora nodded. "Yeah. I wouldn't want to witness any curses like vampires or werewolves or whatever other hybrid, so I'm glad things like that don't linger for long. Still, it must have been horrifying to encounter, as a witness or a victim. I hope the Las Pegasus citizens are doing okay."

Tomato's tongue ran over his teeth, and he idly scratched his back, hoping that the fangs and wings didn't sprout back out right in front of her. He still wanted it to have been nothing but a bad dream, but with everypony in every city having mentioned it, there was really no denying it. Still, his main concern was if Cheese was doing okay.

Tomato smiled at her, not willing to press the matter further. "All right, let's get back to finding the Wood Family Tree."

After browsing some of Flora's family records, they trotted to the neighboring Pioneer Museum. There, they looked at old wagons and two-wheeled carts, old outfits that were similar to the bonnet and shawl Flora currently wore, and chunks of granite from when the Salt Spires were being built. Paintings of scenes of pioneers trudging through mud, pulling carts through snow, and even burying loved ones along the way hung on the walls .

"Why did they do this, anyway? What was wrong with their old home?" Tomato asked.

"They were outcasts," Flora said. "They just couldn't fit in with the societies of each city they were from, and they ended up gathering together, happy to find misfits just like them. After trying to settle in several other places, Bridle Yearling finally led them here to the valley, made them spread out, and he and the other leaders encouraged them to use their talents to make this desert bloom."

"Ah, that makes sense." Tomato thought about how Cheese left Manehattan partly because he was essentially an outcast, and how he himself was now scoping out other places to move to after feeling like he just doesn't belong in that city anymore. "Well, I'm glad that the exodus was success--YIPE!"

In turning to look at another exhibit, Tomato jumped at the sight of two plaster molds of dead looking faces. Clutching at his heart, he backed away from the molds as if they were about to leap toward him. Flora patted his back in reassurance.

"Oh, those are just death masks. The good old earth pony way of preserving a loved one's face after they have passed; after all, we can't exactly pull memories out of their ears to keep as a token."

"Doesn't make it any less creepy," Tomato remarked.

They walked out of the pioneer museum and trotted all around the square, with Flora explaining what the buildings and monuments they passed were. Tomato finally got what the seagull statue was for--those birds saved pioneer's crops from parasprites. The hall across the street, which was a silvery white with a waterfall falling over it, was where the Tabernicker Choir performed. A large, white building--decorated with ornate carvings, and looked like a U from the front and back (sans a sliver of building in the middle) was Hotel Salt Lick. By it were the historical homes of Bridle Yearling.

They took a trip up to the balcony of one of the taller buildings--which Tomato didn't think was that high--and Flora pointed out more things, like another view of Big Salty and the Salt Lick Desert (which Flora described as one giant salt lick), the local university, large silos marking the welfare square, various hiking trails on the mountains, and the heritage park marking the place where Bridle Yearling first saw the valley, complete with a large memorial statue of many of the ponies involved. From their perch, they even saw that the cleanup of the parade route had made great progress.

After they had left that building, they headed back to the parade route, deciding that they had dilly-dallied long enough. However, it started to rain when they were taking a shortcut through the plaza near Spires Garden. Though Tomato wished he had his jacket, Flora was happy to jump forward and start dancing on the red path, throwing off the bonnet and letting the drizzle dampen her hair, though it couldn't dampen her spirit.

Tomato joined her and took a deep whiff of the damp air. "Well, I sure hope this rain helps with the tougher stains on the buildings."

"Oh, it's a pre-firework rain," Flora replied. "With how dry this place gets, we want to lessen the chances of fire." She pulled him forward and half-twirled him. "Come on, Mr. Sandwich, dance with me!"

"Aw, geez, you like the rain, don't you?" Tomato looked up at the gray sky, feeling the droplets patter onto his face. It was a few moments before he looked back at her bright, smiling face. "Well... I haven't danced in the rain since I was small..."

He took her hoof, and the pair bowed toward each other. Tomato felt a bit nervous about dancing in the rain on a Salt Lick City street, especially since dancing was kind of unfamiliar to him. He had been dragged into yesterday's dance by Cheese, and while he was awkward, he found being involved in it was better than sitting on the sidelines with Creme Brulee. He just hope that he remembered some of the moves that he had ended up doing with the Neighton residents.

Few ponies were around to notice them go up to their hind hooves and shuffle into a humble waltz. Much of it was Tomato awkwardly shuffling into the steps, counting to three over and over in a rhythm. Still, Flora led him smoothly, whispering to him to watch his step. Their only music was the pitter-patter of rain, which bothered Tomato more than it should have. Still, holding her hooves and seeing the light in her eyes return was well worth it.

But, as he couldn’t stand the silence, he sang,

“I number my steps, under this rain
I didn’t think I would do this today
But now here we are, in Salt Lick City
Letting you lead me each step of the way.”

He got the guts to carry her in a quick half-twirl, and flinched when she ended up landing in a puddle with a splash. Pulling her out, he scanned her for any signs of annoyance over that, but her giggle told him that she enjoyed his move there. Almost against his will, he continued.

“I know you are in the midst of doubt
About the extent of your special talent
But I have much reason to give you my trust
Because to me, you are heaven-sent.”

They drifted apart, with only held hooves attaching them. They only let go briefly in a quick do-si-do, quickly having the other hoof grab their friend's at the end of it. Flora quickly twirled under his, and they drifted apart again, mirthful chuckles coming out of both their mouths. Hair stuck to their necks, and Tomato's now free curls cascaded down into waves thanks to the rain. They came together and came apart over and over, rounding themselves in a circle all the while.

"Your compassion and mirth is why I like you
When I am around you, I am at peace
I'm forever grateful that you are my friend
Because without you, would I have been reminded
Of my love for my brother Cheese?"

The two circled each other, giving eye contact of the warmest kind. Slowly their hooves plodded around on the street, carrying them automatically as they were in their trance. Even under the gray clouds pouring down their shower, their little circle felt so warm and loving, almost as if they had reached the highest point of heaven in that moment. Between Flora's eyes reminding Tomato of a clear summer sky and Tomato's reminding Flora of a lush green meadow, they couldn't help but be happy in their daze.

Tomato sighed, breaking the silence with,
"I know you suffer with regrets
Between me, Bananas, and Creme Brulee"

He took note of her downcast face, and then lifted it up by the chin.
"But we all make mistakes, we all have our sorrows
I trust you're forgiven, and that you'll be okay."

The rain faded into a drizzle, and a team of pegasi were already breaking the clouds. The very area they broke first allowed sunlight to shine on Flora's face of all places. It was strange how she was practically glowing in his vision, and he had to wipe water droplets off his glasses to see it better. He was no stranger to seeing Flora in a peaceful glow, but this time, there seemed to be a new sparkle to it, even for him to feel the tingle of magic within him.

His heart skipped a beat, and he wondered again if this was how Cheese saw Pinkie.

"All right," Flora said, breaking him out of his trance. "I think I'm ready to face my aunt and uncle about... you know..."

Tomato stared for a moment before nodding. "Yeah..."

They continued on their way, with Flora saying, "If my family's not at the parade route, they're likely at the fair in Livery Park. They're probably wondering why we took so long."

"Most likely. I wonder if the doctor released Cheese yet."

As they left the plaza and crossed the street under the Phoenix Gate, Tomato looked up at it and asked, "So, why's that there?"

Author's Note

Welp, I think this arc now just matched the Canterlot arc in number of chapters. I'm pretty sure the next one is the wrap-up chapter of the Salt Lick Valley arc, and then we can move on to the next.

I hate that I took so long to write this chapter. Why am I so lazy...?

Still, I really enjoy writing the Tomato and Flora relationship. :twilightsmile: It's just the sweetest thing.

Also, the dancing in the rain scene was inspired by these:

I have absolutely no regrets about that second one. I like the freakin' song.

16.1--Sorrel Canyon

"Ha ha! Behold, Sorrel Canyon!"

After walking for miles within a few days, Cheese paused to present a large gap between green mountains with light brown cliffs. The sheer height of those cliffs were intimidating, and yet provided a safe fortress to protect the ecosystem within the canyon. The trees and bushes were the deepest and healthiest shades of green that Tomato had ever seen, and the river flowing through it bore the purest shade of blue. He could hear healthy chirps and whistles from birds within, and the caw of an eagle echoed out for miles. Finally, the sunset shone its golden beams through the walls, giving it a warm glow.

Cheese grinned at his brother. "I've taken the riverside trail through this plenty of times over the years. It's my favorite route to Seaddle, Tall Tail, Vanhoover... heck, even to the town on the other side--Sorrelsteed." He turned to the rubber chicken on his back. "You remember the last time we were here? That's the last time I eat that flower."

"Is it as beautiful in there as it is from ou... out..." Tomato's nose twitched, and he threw his head back before it shot back forward with a great, "AH-CHOO!"

Cheese jumped back, covering Boneless Two's face. "Hey! Watch where you're sneezing!"

Tomato sniffed. "Excuse me if I can't control nose tickles!" He looked forward at the canyon, his ears twitching. "On the bright side, I just found out that there are 9,573 trees and 857 different species of creature in there."

Cheese blinked. "Okay. How'd you know that?"

"The canyon walls make for an informative echo."

"Echo? What, are you turning into a bat or--"

"No!" Tomato shouted, another echo ringing loud enough for Cheese to clutch his head over a fresh headache. Snorting like the horse he was, he growled in a slightly hissing voice, "I am not. Just because I was forced to be fused with a bat once doesn't mean I'm turning into one."

He straightened up and walked toward the trees. "Even if there is a remnant of bat in me, I doubt it's enough to turn me back into a vampire!"

"Okay, okay, sorry..." Rubbing his head, Cheese looked at Tomato sadly, and sighed. "Tommy... what was it like? I can't remember if you told me."

Tomato stopped, and cast his eyes down, kicking a pebble off the path. He put a hoof over his chest, his heart aching from the memory. "The transformation was... painful. Enough that I thought I was going to die. The pain went away once my fangs and wings had grown, but I craved blood, I craved the sensation of sinking my teeth into somepony's neck, and... admittedly, I craved to fly. And when I got hungry, or angry, I could feel something else taking over and using me as its puppet, taking away any sense of control I had; it made me an animal."

Cheese grimaced, holding his own chest. Almost instinctively, he also sunk his neck into his shirt, half-expecting Tomato to turn around and reveal that he had fangs all along. In trying to search his memory for his end of the ordeal, Cheese only met another pang of his headache.

Tomato turned his head toward him. "I hope that you never have to endure that kind of transformation. It's something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy."

Cheese strode forward, and patted Tomato's back. "Don't worry, I wouldn't let some creep fuse me with a bat. Still, I kind of wish I could understand what you went through better... and remember what I went through that night." Cheese rubbed his head, groaning in frustration.

Tomato glanced away from him. "Can't tell you about that much myself; I was hypnotized half the time."

"By the creep or the animal inside you?"

"Uh, both?"

"Well... okay." Cheese looked up at the fading light, and then forward at the grove ahead. He gazed at the wooden gateway, its poles wrapped up in vines. With the classic signs telling visitors not to feed the animals and to watch out for falling rocks, the forest seemed warm and welcoming under the glow of the sunset. He could already feel the breeze blowing through his fur, inviting him to a relaxing nature walk.

However, he spotted a pony under the gate. Narrowing his eyes and leaning forward, he discovered that it was that same lavender mare, her bushy blonde-and-raspberry mane blowing in the breeze. She was standing upright, her front legs spread out, and her head was slowing shaking "no". For some odd reason, she didn't want them to take this path.

Tomato touched his shoulder. "Uh, Cheese?"

One blink later, the mare was gone. "Oh, right." He nodded to his chicken and walked on. "Come on, let's get going. I don't want to waste too much time standing around and talking when there's a party we need to get to."

Tomato followed him. "Will we make it to town before nightfall?"

"Of course!"

Hahaha, nope! I was wrong!

The golden light of the sun had now been replaced with the silver beams of the full moon. The moonlight was the only thing that kept the forest from being dark as the brothers walked through it, though that didn't stop them from freezing every time the wind blew or an owl hooted. Even the squeak of Boneless Two made them pause. The silence was thick enough for both to have a hard time walking, and neither of them dared to break it, lest they attract some sort of predator.

Cheese even made sure to keep holding Tomato's tail with his own so he didn't lose him--even if it was awkward. Good thing too, because a couple of times he ended up dragging him due to him nodding off. He didn't know how late it was if Tomato was getting sleepy, and quite frankly, Cheese would have nodded off as well if it wasn't for laughter breaking the silence.

It upped Cheese's feeling of being watched; not only that, it felt like that whatever watched and laughed was pointing hooves, paws, or fingers at them. A pair of puny ponies walking down a dark canyon must have been a pathetic sight worth mocking to those creatures, and Cheese hoped that they weren't licking their lips right now. Looking around didn't help to see what was hiding in the dark trees, but he still looked, up until an odd thought hit him.

He whispered, "Tomato, do you hear that?"

Tomato moaned and glanced at him. "Hear what?"

"The laughing. I feel like something's watching us."

The younger brother yawned. "Well, whatever's watching us, I don't hear it. Why would a stalker want to be heard, anyway?"

That was a good point. It confirmed that it was just another hallucination. With a sigh of relief, Cheese said, "Okay, thanks."

Right then, he stepped on a twig. The resulting snap made both of them jump, and look around for anything that might have heard that. After spinning around in circles and both hearing a growl, they quickly resumed trotting down the path, this time at a brisk pace. No time to check if it was really a predator or just one of their stomachs, but they weren't willing to risk anything at the moment.

"Heh, it's getting kind of late, you know?" Cheese said, forcing a grin. "I mean, we should go and find shelter!"

"Preferably where nothing can reach us," Tomato growled.

The wind blew, ruffling the leaves above and blowing off some loose twigs. Almost in response to the chilly wind ruffling their feathers, many birds awoke and started to twitter. Shivers went down the stallions' spines as the twitters were replaced with the loud screeches of angry owls. The way that the screeches filled the air, it was like they were screaming bloody murder to those that dared to interrupt their hunt. The final screech, which sounded like a dying pony screaming for his life, prompted to break the ponies' trot into a canter.

Cheese laughed nervously. "You know, owls are supposed to be quiet, so something must be up to get them so noisy."

Tomato's ears twitched, his eyes wide open even as the lids were clearly strained. "Are you sure those are owls? They're sounding like ponies now."

Cheese blinked, and listened more carefully to the sounds around him. Sure enough, the screams sounded less like owls, and more like other ponies. It was as if there was a carnage going on in that forest, as whinnies of agony permeated the air around them. The wind blew more, and the brothers' hoofbeats provided a uneven beat to the sickening cacophony of wails and moans. Husky male voices and shrill female voices pierced their racing hearts, all warping into unearthly howls not unlike a pack of wolves. Cheese wanted to say that it was another hallucination, but he knew that Tomato heard it too.

Their canter broke into a gallop. Both wanted to escape whatever madness was going on around them, lest the perpetrators of the massacre catch them as well. Growls and barks had now replaced the screams, telling them that wolves had finished off the last of the unlucky campers, and most likely had their scent. At least Cheese thought that they were wolves; the howling was a big tip off about that.

He caught glimpses of that mare again, who somehow teleported from spot to spot. She repeated over and over a loud whisper of "Run!" Well, he and Tomato didn't have to ask why, if the faded screams and the snarls were anything to go by.

He looked up at the bright full moon above them, punctuated by a loud, haunting howl ringing above them.

Then, when he had shifted his eyes back on the path, a shadowed figure suddenly jumped in front of them.

Cheese and Tomato skidded to a stop, grabbing each other and staring in horror at the dark figure. Boneless Two fell off Cheese's back from the sudden stop, at the mercy of the elements now that both stallions forgot him for the moment. Every ounce of their composure was out the window when they screamed at the beast in front of them, thinking that it was a wolf ready to make them dinner.

Then, the figure's single horn lit up, revealing a blue face, violet eyes, and a silver beard.

Their screams quieted down, and Cheese blinked. "Rooney? What are you doing out here?"

If Rooney was surprised to see them, he was masking it very well. "This is a favorite camping spot of mine. Perhaps I should be asking you what you're doing out here in the middle of the night."

Cheese released his stunned brother, and stood up shakily. "Well, we thought we'd make it to Sorrelsteed by nightfall, but..."

Rooney nodded. "I see." He turned around and took a hidden path in the brush. "Come, boys. I have shelter."

The brothers looked at each other for a moment before following. However, Cheese caught a glimpse of the mare again, seeing her face in more detail. Her face was wrinkled from her extreme expression, being that of wide eyes and teeth bared in a grimace. She continued to shout, "Run!" to them, beckoning them to come with her. Cheese paused for a moment, watching as she looked up at the moon in fear.

Then, she faded under its light.

As they followed the older stallion through the bushes, Cheese told him about what they had just heard and how they were trying to escape the pack that had killed other campers in the canyon. Rooney didn't seem phased by the descriptions of the sounds of the carnage they had supposedly heard, content to just let the brothers vent--or just Cheese, since Tomato was silent from both his fears and a clear sleepiness in his eyes. In fact, the younger brother seemed ready to stumble at any moment.

When Tomato finally tripped over what looked like a cow skull, Cheese picked him up and carried him on his back the rest of the way, trusting Boneless Two to watch him. "I don't know how long we've been galloping, but it's clearly enough to have worn Tommy out... then again, he was already tired."

Rooney nodded. "Well, you're lucky that you weren't hearing an actual pack of wolves attacking a group of campers. Had he tripped earlier if that was the case, he would have been dead before you even realized that he was gone."

"Wait, what?" Cheese blinked. "But... it was loud and clear, both me and Tomato were hearing it!"

Tomato raised a hoof before it flopped back down. "Can confirm."

Rooney chuckled. "True, you did hear something like that--I heard it too. It's just that the magic of the moon summons the shadows of the past in this canyon, and you were just hearing the ghosts of ponies that had passed years ago. I assure you that you weren't in any danger."

Cheese stopped for a moment to let it sink in. "Oh... so it was just ghosts. Well, that's a whole lot better... I guess. Still, the moon thing does explain why I never heard any of that when I was here before--I guess I wasn't here on a full moon."

Tomato groaned and poked his head up for a moment to say, "Ghosts? Great, we're in a haunted canyon."

Rooney beckoned them with his head. "It's only haunted on a full moon, lad, and the ghosts won't hurt you. They're too busy replaying their little wolf incident over and over to even notice any of the animals, much less anypony happening to walk through during the night. Still, there are predators here..." He moved some tall grass aside. "And my shack is the safest place to be at night."

Cheese stepped out into the clearing, and beheld what was under the spotlight of the moon. A large, paw-shaped pool sparkled under the moonlight, almost as if it was magical, and it was crystal clear enough to show the smooth stone cradling the water. Just beyond the rim, a large, hollowed out tree stood, shielded by a half circle of rocks surrounding the area. Finally, next to the tree and under a stone roof from some of the rocks, a cauldron hung over firewood, with nearby shelves of ingredients for preparing any kind of brew.

Cheese whistled. "This is a nice campsite. I always slept in a tree whenever I was here."

Rooney nodded. "Well, make yourselves at home. I think putting your brother to bed should be your first concern now."

Cheese nodded, and then turned to his back. "You okay with spending the night here?"

Tomato's eyes were wide as he looked back at the dark forest. "After what we heard, I'm not sure if I can sleep."

Cheese sighed, and walked around the pool to the tree. "Don't worry, nothing's going to get us. I'm sure that Rooney is a powerful unicorn capable of forming a big shield." He paused to take a look at Rooney's cutie mark, which turned out to be a full moon surrounded by five stars. "I, uh... think that's a cutie mark in magic?"

He shook his head and carried Tomato into the tree, setting him down on a little mattress that laid inside. Giving him Boneless Two to comfort him and pulling off his poncho to give him a blanket, he said, "And hey, your big bro's not going to let anything get you, okay?"

Tomato stared at him for a moment before turning away. "M'kay."

Cheese patted his head, and then shuffled out of the tree. He had a couple of things to do before he went to bed himself.

Remembering what Ponyacci had told him about how to solve bad luck with a broken mirror, he trotted over the the nearest living tree, taking note of the moon. Confirming that the moon was shining as brightly on it as it was on the pool, he hauled the mirror out from behind his back. After panting for a bit and rubbing his muscles after that, he started to dig.

Rooney sat next to him, tilting his head. "What are you doing?"

"I broke a mirror, and I gotta bury it under a tree under a full moon to stave off bad luck."

The blue unicorn gave him a half-lidded look before he just hauled a huge chunk of dirt from around the tree's roots, and hovered it above the fresh hole while tilting his head toward it. Blinking, Cheese numbly slid the mirror into the hole, and Rooney dropped the dirt into the hole.

After it was patted down, Cheese stood up. "Okay... now it's time to take my medicine."

Cheese ambled over to the pool, sitting at the edge and staring at the glimmering water. As he pulled out his pill bottle from his mane, he asked, "Is the water safe to drink? I mean, this is kind of like a summer home for you, so you must know."

Rooney chuckled. "Well, I also have a little campsite in the Macintosh Hills. If we end up there at the same time, you're free to visit."

He looked at the pool with a smile. "And yes, the water's safe to drink--I have quenched my thirst plenty of times here, and I never got sick. In fact, the magical sparkle means that anyone who drinks it under the full moon will have good health and a strong body."

Cheese took a cup and scooped some of the water. "Sounds good to me."

He took a moment to admire the water under the moonlight. Never had he seen water so pure that it literally shimmered, and while he had an encounter with magical water before--Tomato's stint as a small colt back in Manehattan came to mind--he was glad that someone told him that this pool's effects were benevolent.

Still, his hesitation came from that mare's voice behind him, whispering to him not to drink it. Staring longer at the water, thoughts ran through his mind about whether or not it really was safe. Was it a different spell from what Rooney told him? Was the sparkle from some microscopic poisonous organism? Or was the sparkle just aesthetic and it was normal water?

A sharp pain running through his head spurred him to make his choice. He swallowed a pill, and then slowly downed the water. The water tasted sweet, and his breath felt fruity. He could feel the tingling in his throat, followed by the sensation in his gut. He could feel magic swell within him, to the point where he could feel a mild electricity dancing on his skin.

With a blissful sigh, he said, "Yeah... that is some good water! I'm going to take another quick swig before bed."

Rooney chuckled. "You do that."

He put away his pill bottle, and then dipped his head to drink some more. His mouth had initially gone down with the intention to just suck up water like any other pony; by the time he finished, his mouth had switched over to lapping up the water like a dog.

Cheese raised his head and licked his lips. Plopping down on his haunches, he simply took a moment to yawn.

Rooney sat down next to him. "Now, was that refreshing, young stallion?"

"Oh, yeah..." Cheese said. He ears perked up at the sound of the screaming starting up again. "I'm glad you told us that those were just ghosts. Because if, say, my brother tripped, I probably would have been in too much of a panic to notice." He leaned into his hooves. "I'd have left him to literal wolves. Leaving him with more, uh... figurative wolves was bad enough."

"Figurative wolves?"

"Kids were mean to him. I mean pretty cruel once they got the idea that he was a weak, little crybaby, or was a jerk who deserved punishment, or a threat to everyone just because of what cutie mark he had. Heck, I think I was a jerk to him because of that last one--you kind of get the idea that businessponies are all greedy jerks that take advantage of the little guys. I was arrogant because I thought my talent cleared me of any flaws like that and I was inherently better than him because of it. I guess pride works both ways."

"So... you're having regrets?"

"Yeah, I have my regrets. I try not to think about them too much."

"I see. Sometimes with my regrets, I wish I could forget them."

Cheese glanced at him with wide eyes, and scooted away. "Yeah, sure, sometimes I do wish I could forget them... but, after recent events, I really don't want to forget anything else." He put a hoof on his head. "I hope you know how to locate lost memories, because some creep stole one of mine to keep me from giving a testimony should I go to a certain trial."

Rooney scratched his chin. "Perhaps I could go into one of my old spellbooks and see what I can find."

"Sweet, we have another pony on the search!" Cheese exclaimed. He stood up and yawned. "Now... I think it's time for me to go to bed."

"Very well... just let me wish you a good night."

Cheese chuckled and said, "Okay, good night."

Rooney's lips curled into a small smile, and his horn glowed. "Fiducia Compelus."

Cheese frowned. "Wait, wha--"

His pupils shrunk to pinpricks, and he stood still, a magical aura swirling around him. Whatever thoughts that had been running through his head had vanished, and while his body was still awake, Cheese Sandwich himself had been forced to sleep.

Rooney took a minute to go to the tree to see if Tomato was awake. Thankfully, the young stallion's fatigue had overpowered his fear, so Rooney didn't have to do much with him. So, he returned to Cheese, and performed a magical stomp in order to trigger the spell. Cheese blinked, still bearing the unnatural stare.

"Now, Cheese..." he said in a grandfatherly tone. "I usually don't like having to resort to this, but I don't think you could be persuaded otherwise. I hope allow me to take the burden of your regrets off your shoulders--you don't want to look at your brother and remember the hurt you've caused him, do you?"

"You raise a very good point," Cheese droned.

"Yes, yes, of course. Now, before we begin, please give me your medicine.

Cheese obeyed, and put the pill bottle in Rooney's hoof. With a smile, the unicorn said, "I'm going to try to brew something for you in the morning to take care of your pesky headaches. We don't want Tomato to worry about you--poor lad's gone through enough stress as it is."

"Yes, thank you for thinking of that," Cheese said, his monotone giving a chilling edge to his voice.

Rooney smiled. "You're welcome. Now, we shall make more room for a new and better you."

Author's Note

You know what's a good thing to write in October? Spooky stuff! :pinkiecrazy:

It's nice to finally be getting to a part of the story I wanted to get to since I started this thing; no, scratch that, it's nice to finally be getting to an idea that I've been wanting to write since I was still working on the early chapters of The Rock Farmer's Daughters. Here's hoping I can do it justice.

16.2--Welcome to a New Day

All eerie hoots and howls had been replaced with jovial twitters and chirps. The breeze rustled the green canopy of the forest, and the air smelled sweet with the scent of lilac. All water in the canyon gleamed under the rising sun, with the river calling out to the canyon's residents to come and drink. In one particular hollow, sunlight spilled into the barren tree where the Sandwiches slept, providing the peace and warmth that daybreak brings.

The room warmed enough for Tomato's tail to whip the poncho off his body, and the young stallion sat up with a good long stretch and a yawn. He rubbed his eyes awake, taking a look around at inside of the hollow tree he and his still-asleep brother occupied. While the simple bedding and the rock nightstand holding Rooney's memorabilia were nice enough, the walls and floor made him shrink a little bit.

Claw and bite marks marred them, scattered around every foot of the tree's inside. They were all nearly the same size, made by a creature that was roughly the size of a pony--perhaps larger--and could likely snap Tomato's neck with a swipe of the paw or the crunch of a jaw. Curiously, the scratches were smooth and sparse on Tomato's side, but were all gathered more heavily on Cheese's side, peeled and splintered like something had tried to attack him, but somehow didn't even come close to drawing blood. Then again, the marks were probably old.

Cheese was curled up into a ball, his bed being a circular nest around him for some reason. Still, no matter how long Tomato stared, it wasn't long before Cheese poked his muzzle up, loudly sniffing the air. Unrolling from his ball, Cheese stretched, scratched his ear with his hind leg, and yawned in quick succession before somersaulting to standing position. "Morning, Tommy. Do you smell that?"

Tomato took a sniff. "Smells like oatmeal."

"Oatmeal flavored with daisy petals, alfalfa leaves, and honey! I think our host's making us a nice breakfast and--" He wobbled and fell back to his haunches, clutching his head. "Ow... stood up too fast and now the head rush hurts..."

Tomato stood up and adjusted his crooked glasses, noting that he hadn't taken them off before falling asleep. "Sounds like it's medicine time."

Cheese rummaged through his mane. "Yeah... I don't want my head to feel like a drum all day and make me see stuff again... imagine if I saw somepony as something to eat, wouldn't that be something? They better hope I hallucinate them as sauerkraut..." After a few moments of rummaging, he looked up with wide eyes, and pulled at his mane when he couldn't find the pill bottle in there. "Where's my medicine?" He jumped up, and grabbed Tomato by the jacket. "Where's my medicine?!"

Tomato grimaced at the wince of pain on Cheese's face. "I don't know! I was out like a light since you laid me on the bed last night."

Cheese threw him down and started to pace back and forth, growling. "Well, this is just perfect! I get new medicine and already it's gone before we even have breakfast. Now the next party's going to be ruined because I'll be thinking that a dragon's chewing on my head!"

Tomato dusted off his jacket. "Calm down, calm down... maybe we could see if Rooney had seen anything."

Cheese blinked. "Oh, good idea. And maybe he'll share some of that oatmeal with us!"

"You seem a little too fixated on food right now."

"I'm hungry!"

Cheese followed his nose outside, his brother right behind him. They were led right to the cauldron under the stone canopy, where Rooney was stirring up the aforementioned oatmeal in the large, black pot. Tomato took a whiff of the hot cereal's aroma wafting around him, which was enough for his mouth to water and for hunger to gnaw at his stomach. Seeing the older stallion look up and tilt his head toward a long, flat rock behind him, he and Cheese went ahead and sat at the little stone table. Once there, Tomato watched as Cheese sunk his head and massaged it in hopes of shooing his headache away.

Rooney levitated a couple of bowls toward them. "Good morning, boys. Have a good night's rest?"

Tomato stared at his breakfast before dipping a tongue in to taste test. "Oh, yeah, I slept like a rock."

Cheese's head rubbing got to the point of stretching his face. "Me too... but I have a killer headache!"

"Oh, yeah, did you happen to see if anyone stole away into the hut and stole Cheese's medicine? He kind of needs that."

Rooney raised an eyebrow, and then chuckled. "Oh, that's right, I was studying it last night in order to brew an elixir to take care of that."

Cheese's head perked up. "You did what now?"

The unicorn turned to him. "You may not remember it, but you gave me permission to do so." He levitated the pill bottle from one of the nearby shelves and stuck it in Cheese's mane, with it sticking out like a shark fin in the ocean. He held a pout on his face, wondering how Cheese managed to store it there. "You may keep the bottle just in case I ended up mixing the wrong thing, but..."

He turned to the shelf once again and grabbed a vial of pink liquid, floating it over to Cheese. "I assure you, I know what I'm doing and you'll be well."

Tomato was in the middle of chewing the oat porridge, savoring the honey and plant additives that sweetened it. He paused to give Rooney a funny look, and eyed the vial with the bubbling liquid inside. For some reason, it looked like some sort of poison to him, even if it really wasn't and was just a simple potion. He couldn't help but feel like he was in the Kazam situation all over again--except with his brother as the unwitting victim.

Cheese, however, took the vial and smelled it carefully. "Whew, smells kind of like cotton candy... but I don't smell anything particularly dangerous in it."

Rooney chuckled. "Well, drink up--and drink it all, it won't work unless you drink every last drop."

Tomato watched as Cheese guzzled the entire thing in one fell swoop. Once again, he dreaded the possibility that that elixir was just a farce, or some kind of poison that would get Cheese physically sick or put him under a spell. That led him to wonder if that was the case and it was intentional, why didn't Rooney offer him any? Surely he wouldn't want any witnesses, right?

Cheese finished the elixir, licking his lips like a dog and letting out a hiccup. He rubbed his head, shoving the pill bottle deeper into his mane in the process, and remarked, "Oh, wow, it even tastes like cotton candy. And even better, my headache's gone already!"

Rooney nodded. "See? A fair combination of certain chemicals, potions, herbs, and magic can bring instant relief to any chronic pain."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Okay, what's the catch?"

The unicorn turned to him. "Oh, there's no catch. I'm simply helping because I like you boys, and a party pony not feeling well just breaks my heart. After all, my wife was one, and it saddened me whenever she was ill." He patted Tomato's head. "Now, eat your oatmeal, you two; you'll need as much strength as possible to make it to your destination on time."

Tomato looked at his oatmeal, now wondering if that was poisoned. If so, he was going to die because he was stupid enough to have already eaten some. The thought of it made his stomach churn.

Cheese blinked, leaned across the table to smell Tomato's bowl, and then sat back down with a soft glare at him. "Come on, Tomato, this guy helped us before, so he's not going to hurt us. Besides, I don't smell anything suspicious in it. It's just oats, daisy petals, alfalfa leaves, honey, a pinch of salt, water, and some cream!" He frowned. "Wait, where'd you get the cream, Rooney?"

"In town," Rooney said. "There's a nice dairy farm there."

Cheese smiled. "Nice." He turned to his bowl with greedy eyes. "Now..."

Tomato flinched when Cheese practically jumped into his bowl of oatmeal and gobbled it up. The older Sandwich looked a lot like a dog the way he was eating breakfast. The younger Sandwich didn't know if they were in that much of a hurry, but he might as well follow his brother's lead.

Tomato wasn't even halfway done when Cheese finished and asked, "So... are you going to finish that?"

Tomato made sure that his mane and tail were as slick and smooth as ever, as well as shaved his muzzle once again, while Cheese filled up his canteen with the water from the spring, since it was sweet even without the magical properties it gained under the full moon's light. After brushing their teeth and taking a drink, they trotted off, saying their goodbyes to Rooney.

The unicorn had been jotting something down in a journal as they left, a warm chuckle coming out of his throat. "Such nice boys."

Dipping his quill into his inkwell, he went back to writing, "The subject has taken the Alpha Elixir. It has successfully concealed the pain and should be adapting to his mind and the magic in his body soon. Though, I feel as if the vampire was onto me for a moment..."

Now that the pair were trotting through the canyon during the day, its beauty was more evident. Many shades of green hung from the branches above them, whether they be deciduous or coniferous. The scent of lilac filled the air, carried by the wind blowing past the ponies. In the nearby river, critters had come out for a morning drink. A couple of deer clothed in leaves and flowers looked up, and nodded at them in a warm greeting. One fawn even chirped a "Hello!" to them, to which they waved back.

They passed a treeless stretch in the canyon, bearing all sorts of flowers that held sparkling pollen. Bees and butterflies hopped from flower to flower, partaking of some of the sweet nectar it had to offer. Some animals wandered into the field, collecting some of the magical pollen and scurrying away, as if it was stealing some sort of treasure.

Several river crossings made for a splashy good time, at least on Cheese's end. Tomato was ready to grab a fish and slap Cheese with it every time he splashed him. On the other hoof, the younger brother had to admit to himself that the water was nice under the heat of the late July sun. The last crossing even had him splashing Cheese back, up until a river troll came along and threatened to eat them.

Tomato had staggered back when instead of pulling a trick like a joy buzzer or a pie to the face, Cheese outright bit the troll. When the troll ran off to nurse the resulting wound, Tomato was still staring in shock, while Cheese brushed it off and told him to forget about it.

It was nearly noon when they emerged from the canyon and headed to the town of Sorrelsteed. Now dry after their time in the river, they were ready to go out and find some lunch, and stuck with the path they still walked. The path winded between two farms, with one being the dairy farm that Rooney had mentioned, with cows lumbering around and talking with each other and some pony employees in picnics, and the other being a sheep farm, with the sheep sitting in circles with the shepherds and their dogs, apparently playing card games.

"...and now, I kind of regret not waking you up last night to drink some of that water!" Cheese cartwheeled, laughing as he did so. "I haven't felt this great since the beginning of the summer! I swear, it seems like the world was against us the entire trip so far."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "Oh, please, we've had plenty of ponies on our side. For example, a certain pink party pony friend of yours."

Cheese pouted to think for a moment, and immediately Pinkie Pie came to mind. Oh, sure, it seemed like she was trying to be his friend all right--he had a bunch of memories ending up in Ponyville somehow, and her being there to greet him. There was spotting her being entertainment for others when they were small, being a little impressed with her tricks. There was the birthaversary, where they worked together to throw her friend a birthday party. Sure, she sulked that day, but what did he care, she was too much like a whiny foal anyway. There was also that Fall Festival, where she stuck her muzzle into his and Tomato's family time that day and ruined everything. He wasn't even sure why he visited Ponyville in his down time; there wasn't really anything special about it aside from Princess Twilight. So... why was it--and that pink mare--so prevalent in recent memory?

"Yeah... I guess that Pinkie is an ally," he said coolly.

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "What? Okay, remember the three... four times this summer when we met up with her? You were pretty happy to see her all those times. You know, throwing Ponyville's appreciation party for her, going out on a walk with her while I recovered from the... Las Pegasus incident, fixing the Summer Sun fair, and of course, Ponyacci's anniversary, where you two were dancing. And now, all you say it that you 'guess she is an ally'? Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine." Cheese snorted on thinking of those times. What did she do to deserve an appreciation party anyway? And if it hadn't been for her yammering, the Summer Sun Fair wouldn't have been destroyed in the first place! And he should have done Ponyacci's anniversary by himself--he was the great clown's apprentice, not her! As far as he was concerned, she was nothing special.

"Do you have a headache? Because maybe that elixir stuff isn't working after all and you still need to take your medicine?" Tomato pouted in inquiry, though Cheese could tell there was an air of smugness around it.

"I said I'm fine," Cheese growled. He knocked on his head. "The noggin's not hurting, and hasn't hurt since this morning. Seriously, put more faith in magic, bro--maybe there's an elixir out there to wipe away your sour, whiny attitude."

"What? Hey!"

Cheese shrugged. "Or maybe you're just hungry, and a little cranky because the pangs are unbearable." He walked to the fence of the dairy farm and looked around the field. "Now, let's see if any of these cows or ponies know of a good place to... Great Gorgonzola! Is that who I think it is?"

When Tomato leaned on the fence beside him, Cheese pointed to one picnic blanket, with a couple of cows, their calves, and a cream-coated mare sitting atop it. The mare had her dark brown mane tied up in a bun, most likely for work, and her blue eyes were focused on her coleslaw. Her apron was covering her thin body just fine, and while she appeared taller than average for a mare, she didn't quite reach the cows' height.

Tomato narrowed his eyes and scratched his head. "Well, uh, she seems vaguely familiar... where did we see her before?"

Cheese stuck the tip of his hoof in his mouth and whistled. "Hey! Ice Cream!"

The mare, Ice Cream, perked up, and saw the two stallions at the face. With a gasp, she stood up and galloped over to them, skidding to a stop and then leaping up to her hind hooves with her front legs up in the air. "Cousin!"

Cheese pointed back at her. "Cousin!"

Tomato blinked. "Cousin? Ooooh, Ice Cream Sandwich!"

After a hoofbump between Cheese and Ice Cream, the mare asked, "What brings you to Sorrelsteed? There's no big parties being planned around here that I've heard about."

Cheese waved a hoof. "Nah, I'm just passing through, Creamy. I didn't even know you moved out."

Creamy stood proudly. "Well, there was a job opening here that came with boarding, and since it aligns with my talent, I decided that I should take it." She showed off her cutie mark, which was three scoops of ice cream stacked atop each other, in descending order of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. "Plus, in a way, I am kinda sorta an independent adult now."

"Good for you," Tomato said.

Creamy turned to him with a puzzled expression, and glanced at Cheese. "Cheese, who's your friend?"

Tomato gave her a half-lidded look. "You don't recognize me?"

Creamy scratched her chin. "Maybe? You kind of look like Cheese's brother, but I'm not so sure... his hair is curly."

Cheese nudged him, knowing that her seeing the curls would confirm his identity. He didn't have to do it twice, for Tomato sighed and yanked his forelock, and his mane popped into its natural curls once again. Almost immediately after, Creamy gasped.

"So it is Tommy!" She squealed and clapped her hooves. "I'm so happy to see you two getting along again! You ended your big fight?"

Cheese raised an eyebrow and said, "I assure you, there's no quarrel between us. We're having a summer vacation together, aren't we?"

"Nice. I bet your and your little brother have been catching up a lot." She scanned Tomato up and down, her hoof to her chin. "Well, you're not so little anymore, Tommy; in fact, you're tall. Wow, is Peanut Butter going to throw a fit when he discovers that you grew taller than him. I know he did when he found out Cheese beat him in the height department years ago, and even when I did."

Tomato stifled laughter. "Are you saying he's short?"

Creamy nodded. "Well, yeah, he is. Sports magazines mentioned it all the time when he first started playing in the big leagues."

"Wait, he's a professional sports star?"

"Yeah, basketball."

Tomato turned and scowled at Cheese. "Why didn't you tell me that?"

Cheese shrugged. "I assumed you knew, considering he's appeared on magazines and newspapers."

"Well, I don't read the sports section!"

"Okay, you two, no need to fight over this. I'm still just surprised that that's Tommy... he's just so different now..." Creamy gestured to her cow friends on the picnic blanket. "Come, have lunch with us! I'd like to catch up with you two, and my friends would definitely like to hear any stories you've got."

In less than a half hour, all the coleslaw and biscuits, the daisy and lettuce sandwiches (and much to the brothers' horror, Creamy's sauerkraut sandwich), and the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies had been devoured. It felt odd for Tomato to be talking with cows, but they were friendly beings, and had their own funny stories to tell. He especially laughed at the story of the protesters that accused the pony farmers of stealing the cows' milk, especially since they knew nothing of dairy farming. After some chuckle-worthy stories, the cows got up, off to prepare for resuming work.

Cheese was a little too busy gobbling up his food to really talk. Even if it did taste a little bland for some reason, he still stuffed it in his mouth and chewed as fast as he could. That prompted an odd look from Creamy, who stated, "Whoa, slow down, Cheese! I'm the one who's on break and has to resume work soon."

Cheese swallowed that bite and retorted, "You should eat faster. You never know when some crook will steal your food."

After having his fill, Cheese laid back on the blanket, and watched the two calves--having also finished their lunch--frolic around the field in a game of tag. He had to smile at how cute the little ones were. The little mooing laughter, the kicking up of dandelion fluff, their tails like a whip, the jiggling of the already thick flesh of their bodies... that last one Cheese was especially focused on, and he couldn't help but admire the healthy weight that was thick enough to sink teeth into.

"So, where are you guys headed?" Creamy asked.

Cheese snapped out of his trance, and sat up. "Oh, we're on our way to Seaddle. Don't worry, we'll make time to visit your folks."

"Oh! Your next party's in Seaddle, huh? I wonder if it's that charity concert that Mom and Dad volunteered to help set up at the park."

Tomato perked up at the sound of that. "Charity concert?"

Creamy nodded. "Yep! From what I hear, artists like Countess Coloratura, The Piano Ponies, and Snapdragon Apple will be there! Plus, there are opportunities for Seaddle youngsters to show off their musical talents. My parents say that it's going to be a lot of fun--and with Cheese Sandwich there, it'd definitely be double!"

Cheese puffed up his chest. "I do have a way of making things epic."

Creamy nodded happily. "They invited me, since they know I'm a fan of the Countess and the Piano Ponies... not so much Snapdragon Apple." She crossed her forelegs and rolled her eyes. "I hear he's got the ever-macho 'swag'... and I really don't like 'swag'." She stuck her tongue out in disgust and looked at Tomato. "And scarily enough, Tommy, you look a lot like him--except you look classy, and that's honestly a whole lot better."

"Oh, please, just because he's the same colors as me doesn't mean we look exactly alike," Tomato said. "I hear he's got a schtick of changing his eye color every time he appears. Nopony knows what his real eye color is, but I bet it's something embarrassing."

Creamy sighed. "But, regardless of that guy, I'm excited to see the other artists."

Cheese grinned. "Maybe I'll finally show the Countess the parody of one of her songs I wrote." He crossed his front legs and rolled his eyes. "If her stupid manager doesn't get in the way again..."

Tomato put a hoof to his mouth. "What are your parents doing for the concert anyway, Ice Cream?"

"Oh, they're working on the fireworks," Creamy said. "Mixing up certain elements to make certain colors, you know?"

"Oh, right..." Cheese grinned and rubbed his hooves together. "Say, you know what would be cool? Fruit-flavored fireworks!"

Creamy tilted her head. "What?"

Cheese nodded. "Yeah! One time, Tomato read a book about failed inventions and recalled products. It was the story about exploding soda that gave me the idea. And, well, since both your parents have talents in chemistry, I thought they could make it."

"Uh... as cool as that sounds, is that even possible? My parents are great chemists, no doubt, but I don't think even they could do it."

Cheese smiled and patted Creamy's head. "Oh, don't you worry, my cousin, I have a lot of faith in them."

Author's Note

When not under the full moon and doing that creepy ghost thing, Sorrel Canyon is one of the most beautiful places in Equestria. :pinkiesmile:

As another note, we at last get to meet the extended family of the Sandwiches. And first on the roster is Ice Cream Sandwich, the sweet dairy farmer cousin that makes friends with cows over other ponies. We'll get to her parents when we get to Seaddle in the next chapter--but not her brother, Peanut Butter, who's not going to appear until after Seaddle (he lives elsewhere).

Cheese's thoughts about Pinkie here should be a BIG red flag.

17.1--Friendly Faces

Out of courtesy for their cousin, Cheese and Tomato took the train for their last stretch of the journey to Seaddle. It was a nice ride, with simple conversation between the three--mostly Tomato and Creamy, due to Cheese finding that sticking his head out of the window was more fascinating than talking. His mane tossing and his ears and tongue flapping in the wind, Cheese appeared to be having a blast with such a simple activity. Unfortunately, some folks behind him scowled at some of the drool that splattered on their windows.

Tomato had attempted to hold a conversation and read his book at the same time. The former ended up winning more than anything, as Creamy was very curious about his life since she had last seen him as a little kid. He wasn't even sure what was going on in the book's scene anymore, so he set the book down and got fully into the conversation.

"So, let me get this straight..." Creamy said. "You turned into this serious grouch of a nerd because your mother told you it was the right way to perform your special talent?"

Tomato crossed his front legs and huffed. "You say 'nerd' like it's a bad thing. Besides, it's not the only reason." He pointed to his brother. "I went along with it because I was mad at him for insulting my cutie mark, and I wanted to spite him. Too bad that I lost any joy I had in my talent, and it took a couple of incidents this summer to regain at least some of it. I even wasn't allowed to have any hobbies outside of it."

Creamy shook her head. "Oh, that's crazy! I have hobbies outside of dairy farming--like playing ball with my brother or one of the calves, or singing my heart out in karaoke."

Tomato scoffed and turned to rest his cheek on the seat. "I used to love singing. But, I'm always told it doesn't match my cutie mark, that I shouldn't be doing it so liberally as if some agent somewhere would hear me and take me away to shallow fame and fortune, and my life is not a musical, so if I don't want anypony to stare at me and think I'm crazy, I need to keep my mouth shut. I set myself up for embarrassment every time I sing for a crowd."

"So, you just sing in the shower?"

Tomato smirked. "Heh, of course. Or if I'm so hopped up on some strong emotion that I forget I'm in public."

The speaker above Tomato started to play a song, and the young stallion immediately perked up upon hearing the first few notes. "Oh, sweet! I love this song!" He patted on the seat to the beat and sang, "If you said goodbye to me tonight..."

Creamy giggled. "Like... fanboyism?"

His singing didn't go unnoticed by the other passengers of the train. Several of them glanced his way, a couple raising eyebrows but deciding not to cause a fuss because his singing didn't ruin any enjoyment of the song. Some even patted their seats along, and a few of them even hummed. One group of large ponies in particular stared at him, taking note at how happy he seemed to be singing at that moment, as well as his various features, from his colors to his body shape.

The large ponies turned to their smallest member, who had the majority of their body covered in a trench coat, hat, and scarf, despite the summer heat. After their direction was turned to Tomato, they scratched their chin, only for a cough to come out after a few moments. Still, Tomato seemed awfully interesting to that particular pony.

Tomato didn't even notice, getting as hopped up on strong emotion as he said he did. "...I haven't been there for the longest time!"

When they hopped off the train that evening, the first thing that Tomato did was look at the contents of his wallet. Through the various parties, the food and activities at fairs, and the train rides for some of the farther party sites, he worried that he was starting to get a little low on bits. As much as Cheese reassured him that their trip didn't need that much thanks to party pony magic, the fact was that there were still things that they had to pay for. Cheese only had change that he found on the ground in his own wallet--which was mostly used for party permits and pictures anyway.

Thankfully, they didn't have to pay for lodging or camp in the park this time around, because sleeping over at their aunt and uncle's house will do. Plus, after the last few days in the wilderness, it would be nice to have a shower.

He took a bit to take in his new surroundings as Creamy led him and Cheese to her parents' house. Past the neighborhood he walked in, he could see Seaddle's buildings tower over the bay they overlooked, with the city's iconic Space Needle sticking out like a sore hoof among them. The air smelled of a combination of wet pine needles and seaweed, and every tree that he passed was so green that it was scary. Passing a park had him spotting plenty of conifers within it, and he felt chilly just looking at it.

"Some of the parks in this city look like that, Tomato," Creamy said. "As does much of the surrounding area. Still, there are some waterside parks with a view of either the bay or the lake, and there are a few parks that are landlocked that don't look like a spooky forest."

"You know which park this charity concert's going to be?" Tomato asked.

"Nah, I can't remember. I'll have to ask Mom."

They stopped in front of one house, and Creamy proudly presented it with a smile. "And here we are! The humble abode of the Nut--"

She was interrupted by an explosion from inside the house, causing a flash in the windows and the chimney to erupt smoke like a volcano. The neighbors stuck their heads out their windows, grumbling about what the Nuts did this time. Though there was a mix of curiosity and exasperation, there was very little panic. In fact, most of the panic came from the dogs barking and howling, with only a few ponies out on a trot suddenly leaping into a gallop.

Creamy sighed. "--Family."

Cheese looked around wildly. "I know, Mr. Beagle! That was a big boom! Yeah, it was jarring to hear, Señor Chihuahua! Yes, Miss Collie, I'll have to admit that it's my aunt and uncle's fault..." His ear twitched and he pursed his lips. "Apparently, again. Calm down, Sir Retriever, I'm sure they're okay! And don't worry, Madame Poodle, you're safe!"

Tomato gave him an odd look. "Are you talking to the dogs?"

Cheese waved a hoof. "Hey, I'm trying to reassure them that everything's all right."

Two figures in lab coats burst out of the door, coughing and leaping into the yard as they cried, "Fresh air!" Though the couple's manes were spiky for the time being and they were covered in soot and had their fur and manes singed, the stallion's light orange and the mare's tan coats still stuck out to the brothers as that couple rolled around in the grass. Their tails--light brown and dark brown respectively--were singed as well, but not as badly as the front, and there were minor burns that made Cheese gingerly touch his bandaged foreleg.

As the couple finally got their breath and wiped their eyewear, they looked up to find Creamy at their gate, staring at them. Standing up and brushing themselves off, the stallion grinned sheepishly, wiping his glasses some more to reveal eyes that matched hers. "Oh, you came early, Creamy! We weren't expecting you to come until the day of the concert, when we'd have the fireworks all ready for the show! Sorry you had to see that... my tail knocked over one of the more volatile compounds in the lab."

The mare removed her goggles and wiped her freckled face. "How many times have I told you to be careful, Acorn? That could have nearly killed us, and well, it would not sit well for Peanut Butter if his parents died less than two weeks before his wedding!"

Acorn rubbed the back of his head. "I know, I know, I can be a total klutz when I'm jamming to Moonwalk, Cocoa."

The older mare looked at Cheese and smiled. "And you brought your cousin, too!" She jumped forward and nudged him. "Let me guess, you're here to help bring in some more pizzazz to the August Kickoff Charity Concert, am I right?"

"Apparently, I am! My Cheesy Sense did lead me here."

"Nice! Because, let me tell you, Seaddle's charity folk are horribly uncreative. Glad your presence will attract more ponies to the concert."

She turned to Tomato, and her face sunk into a confused frown. She stared at him for a good, long moment, as if she was trying to process what she was seeing. Tomato smiled uncomfortably, and gave her a small, shy wave.

The moment had passed when she finally said, "...Hay Burger?"

Tomato backed up. "Uh, no. I'm actually Tomato... you know, his younger son?"

Cocoa blinked. "Tomato? Really? Oh, my goodness, you're all grown up! You were just a little munchkin when I last saw you, and now, you look so much like your father!" She looked up at the twilight sky. "Well, at least in this light. Let us fan out the smoke and bring you inside so I can get a better look at you."

Acorn sighed. "I hate pulling out the giant fan."

One usage of a giant fan, a few showers, and a cleanup of the lab later, Cocoa Butter and Acorn Compound had gathered their daughter and nephews into the living room, which held furniture that boasted all shades of light brown, from beige to tan, with only the bookshelves lining the back wall being the exception, as they were white. They sat and drank hot chocolate together as they started to catch up. Even though the house still smelled like a fusion of a campfire and a chemical lab, the couple assured the younger ponies that it was safe.

Inevitably, Cocoa asked, "So, it looks like you boys are getting along now. Got over your grudge, huh?"

Cheese lapped up some of his chocolate before answering, "Well, I'm certainly glad that Tommy stopped being a little butt."

Tomato nudged him. "Oh, please, you were just as much of a butt."

"Psht, not as much as you. You can be a bit overdramatic, you know."

"Excuse me?"

"Whoa, boys," Acorn said. "Take it easy, I think we get the idea. Still, I'm curious about how you two made up enough to have a trip together."

Cheese leaned back into the couch he and Tomato sat in. "Well, we spent the day together at a lovely Fall Festival... that, I, of course, set up with some assistance some the townsfolk. We did a lot of fun activities together, just like we would have when we were small--reminded me about how much I missed the good old days, and I implored Tommy to shed his bitterness and jealousy of me to rebuild our bond--and he miraculously agreed! It unfortunately turned into a disaster when an acquaintance of mine decided to meddle. And for some reason, Tomato made me bake an apology cake for her!"

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Okay, what? First off, I will admit I was jealous of your freedom and bitter about my life, but you were just as jealous and bitter about how I was apparently the "favorite" of everypony while you were either ignored or a punching bag. Second, we were fighting the entire time; the disaster was just as much our fault as it was Pinkie's. And third... the cake was your idea, genius, and I couldn't bake it because my foreleg was broken. At least I managed to coach you into making it good."

Cheese scoffed. "Didn't know you had an imagination, bro, because that's not how I remember it going down."

Tomato gave him an odd look. "Okay, did losing that memory alter all your other memories somehow? Because with how wonky your brain has been lately, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. I think you still might need to take your med--"

"I don't need the medicine! The elixir stopped the headaches, it can stop every other symptom!" Cheese barked, throwing his mug on the floor and shattering it. It was loud enough for Tomato to shrink and shudder, spilling his hot chocolate all over the couch.

The sudden downturn of the conversation made the other three dead silent, their eyes wide from the shock of seeing Cheese in such a state of anger. It had looked like he was about to eat his brother then and there, with both the hair on his mane and tail, and fur that poked out from under his shirt bristling.

Cheese breathed heavily through bared teeth until he noticed the other ponies staring at him, and then licked his top lip. "Excuse me, I... I don't know what came over me." He climbed off the couch and yawned. He swept up the pieces of the mug with a brush and dustpan pulled from his mane. "I'll just be, uh... getting some wet rags..." With a sheepish grin, he scurried away.

Creamy raised an eyebrow. "Uh... what was that memory thing you were talking about?"

Tomato sighed. "We had an incident earlier this summer where we were involved in a horrible event. Cheese is a key witness, and thus the perpetrator likely had a friend of his steal Cheese's memory of it so he can't tesify, and he's been acting off ever since. His magic's even weakened somewhat, and he had headaches until some guy gave him an elixir that stopped them."

"That... sounds absolutely crazy," Cocoa said. "Then again, we're a family of weirdness magnets."

"I was worried he inherited his mother's temper," Acorn said.

Cocoa snorted, her magenta eyes briefly flashing red. "Wouldn't be surprised in the slightest. Mozzarella does have my baby bro under her hoof." She looked up at Tomato. "But, still, you have a memory thief to track down? What does a memory even look like outside your head?"

Tomato opened his mouth to answer, but was briefly interrupted by a couple of wet rags flying out of the kitchen and landing on his head. He scowled as Cheese hollered, "Okay, here's two wet rags, now I'm going to look around the house!"

"Hey! Clean the couch yourself!" Cocoa shouted.

Tomato took the rags off his head and started scrubbing the chocolate stains. "It's fine, I'll take care of it. Anyway, from what I learned during an exhibit at Canterlot, it's like a crystal ball that glows with the same color of the owner's eyes and replays the memory within it."

Acorn leaned forward. "Fascinating!"

"Yeah, it is fascinating, hon," Cocoa said. "But I don't think there's anything we can do to help. We're chemists, not wizards. The only magic we ever delve into is fiddling with the magical elements in the realm of alchemy and I don't think there's anything we can make to help find it."

Tomato scrubbed harder. "I'm aware that chemistry might not help, but you could keep an eye out for it."

Acorn scratched his chin. "Perhaps... still, maybe you could find an expert magic user who can track the memory by way of reading Cheese's magic signature. After all, no two magic signatures are the same, and it's likely that the memory still contains some of his magic."

Tomato turned to him. "Really? How do you even know that?"

Acorn laughed. "A childhood friend of mine works at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and we still keep in touch. He tells me about things all the time, from the funny mishaps with young unicorns to a recent tragedy involving a colleague's son." He paused for a moment before he added, "Want me to contact him?"

"Thank you, but we've got Princess Twilight on the case. If she hasn't figured that out yet, I'll be sure to tell her."

Acorn, Cocoa, and Creamy all blinked, and the last one asked, "Wait, how do you know Princess Twilight?"

Suddenly, from the other room, Cheese shouted from the basement, "Ow! My nose!"

Upon hearing that, everypony immediately got up and rushed downstairs to see what had happened. They entered the lab--which took up the entirety of the basement, with white counters and cupboards being home to a variety of chemicals and tools--to find Cheese sitting on the floor, his eyes watering as he cradled his now-red nose and whined like a puppy. He rocked back and forth in some feeble attempt to stave off the pain, and only stopped to look up at his aunt and uncle.

Creamy put a hoof to her mouth. "Oh, my word..."

Cocoa scowled. "Cheese, what are you doing in here?"

Cheese's voice sounded like he was plugging his nose. "I was just looking around."

"Cheese, this place is off-limits to visitors for a reason. Were you just smelling stuff willy-nilly like a hound?" Cocoa put a hoof to her face. "Because smelling strange chemicals in a lab is not to be done without caution! Now, what did you smell?"

Cheese, still looking much like a defeated dog, pointed to a beaker of clear liquid on the counter. "That."

Tomato rubbed one of his temples. "Cheese... you should know better! Aren't you the guy with the better survival instinct?"

"Sorry, I just... now have this random urge to investigate with my sense of smell!" Cheese rubbed his head, and then gingerly touched his nose in curiosity. "My nose has a mind of its own now."

Tomato and Creamy looked at each other, the latter saying, "That's weird, even for him," as the former nodded.

Acorn walked around Cheese to the counter, picked up the beaker to examine it, and placed it with several other matching beakers. "You're lucky that little solution can only numb your olfactory system, though that inflammation does look like it hurts."

"It numbed my what now?" Cheese asked.

Acorn sighed. "Your sense of smell. Be thankful you didn't get to smell anything that could damage it or even your brain."

Cocoa patted his back. "Yeah... you're not going to be able to smell for a few days."

Cheese sighed as he stood up. "And I hear a weakened sense of smell affects taste..." He hung his head. "Awww, I won't get the full experience of tasting fruit-flavored fireworks..."

Cocoa gave him an odd look. "What?"

Cheese perked up as he turned to his aunt. "Oh, yeah, I was going to ask you to make that! Can you imagine watching fireworks in the night sky, and opening your mouth to eat the remnants after it explodes? And the best part, it doesn't taste like gunpowder..." He started pacing back and forth, his grin growing wider and wider with each step. "It tastes like apple! Or grape! Or cherry! Or like any fruit flavor you can think of! Wouldn't that be amazing!"

Cocoa blinked. "Amazing, yes..." Her lids went halfway down her eyes. "But I highly doubt it's possible."

Creamy blew upwards at her bangs. "Told you, Cheese."

Cheese's ears drooped. "Aw, Auntia Cocoa, you doubt yourself too much. You have access to a bazillion chemicals and elements both natural and magical! I'm sure you can concoct something amazing with some combination of those and present them at the concert!"

Cocoa rubbed a temple. "Even if it was possible, it'd take months to find a good formula for it to work. I'm not sure Acorn and I could whip something up in a couple of days, especially with the demands of the folks setting up the concert for the actual fireworks, writing lesson plans for fall semester, preparing for my son's wedding..." She grabbed Cheese by the shirt and dragged him to her face. "Do you know how stressful preparing for a wedding is?! Especially if you have to pack to go to Applewood after the concert! Do you really think I'd have time for preparing fruit-flavored fireworks?!"

Acorn, who leaned on the nearby counter, shrugged and said, "I dunno, I'm up for a challenge."

Cocoa turned to glare at him as she dropped her nephew. "Acorn Benjamin Compound! You can't be serious!"

"Hey, preparing the real firework powders are easy for me," Acorn continued, waving a hoof. "Now making a variety that can explode while remaining safe and delicious? Oh, ho ho, I haven't had something this challenging since that fertility formula back when we were trying to conceive! At least any failed attempts won't temporarily turn me into a mare."

Tomato made a weird face at the sound of that. "Wait, how did--"

Cocoa held up a hoof to stop him. "It's a long story that you don't really want to know." She turned to her husband once again. "Honey, you know Cheese's idea is a crazy one that's not likely to happen anytime soon!"

Acorn leaned forward and waggled his eyebrows. "Aw, darling, I thought you loved crazy. You married me, didn't you?" He slid onto the counter and posed in a manner that made the younger adults in the room cringe. He ignored it as he cupped his wife's chin. "Come on, I know you can't resist the allure of the mad scientist. Shall we do our chemistry together, my sweet sugarcube?"

Creamy backed up and gagged. "Dad! Stop being seductive in front of my cousins!"

Tomato covered his eyes. "I didn't need to see that."

Cheese turned away with a grimace. "Uh, Aunt Cocoa? Please make him stop."

Cocoa pouted. "Acorn, you know it can't be possible. You'd have a better chance of getting my brother to stop hating me over my teasing when we were young. There is absolutely no way that--"

"We're making fruit-flavored fireworks!" Cocoa said with a forced smile.

Standing in one of Seaddle's waterside parks, Acorn Compound and Cocoa Butter faced the head of Seaddle's charity organization, Golden Glee. As ponies behind her were busy fixing up the stage, the cute middle-aged yellow mare, bearing a beauty mark on her face and her multi-toned orange mane up in a bun, pouted curiously. The big grins of the couple were a little unnerving, but she decided to humor them anyway.

"Oh... fruit-flavored fireworks?" Golden Glee said. "What a unique idea! Tell me, where did this come from?"

Cocoa forced a laugh. "Oh, none other than our lovably insane nephew, Cheese Sandwich!"

Cheese appeared upside-down next to Golden. "Oh, psht, I just got the idea from my brother telling me about exploding soda." He pointed to Tomato, who sat against a tree as he read a book. "Ain't he adorable?"

Golden pouted. "Why, yes, he appears to be a little bookworm! Makes me wonder if he'd make good friends with my nephew."

"Depends on if your nephew can stand Tomato being a grumpy party pooper."

Golden laughed. "Oh, I'm sure they could discuss books with little trouble. Though my nephew can get a little long-winded about how good his favorites are and how awful his least favorites are. He gets his motormouth tendencies from my sister."

"Ahem!" Cocoa said.

"Oh, right, the fireworks. Well, if you manage to make them by the time of the concert, feel free to add them to the show! I'm sure both the audience and the performers will love it." Golden Glee looked up at Cheese again. "Just as much as they'd love you being the host!"

Cheese pointed to his nose. "Even if my voice sounds honky?"

"Oh, you're known for being funny! I'm sure they won't mind if you sound funny." Golden Glee trotted off. "Now, I better go check on some other technical stuff. We don't want any fires happening or anything during the show!"

Acorn and Cocoa waved goodbye to Golden Glee. Then, Cocoa's face fell into a frown as she snarled, "I hope you two are happy."

Acorn and Cheese just laughed in response, and high-hoofed each other. Acorn wiped a tear from his eye, bumping his large glasses in the process. "Sorry, hon, but I just can't resist roping you into a challenge. Besides, we're a team; I don't think I'd like doing it by myself."

Cocoa sighed. "Well, I doubt we'd have our 'eureka' before the concert. It'd probably take several years, to be honest, considering our jobs at the university."

"Ah, I don't care how long it takes, as long as I'm doing it with you," Acorn said, giving her a smile and a kiss.

Cheese gagged. "Okay, you two, get a room. Please. Don't repeat that scene from last night."

"All right, all right." Acorn slung a front leg over his wife and walked away. "We're going to get started on those fireworks now, so we'll see you later! Make sure our daughter has something to do!"

"Gotcha!"

When they were gone, Cheese climbed back up the rope he was hanging from, and continued to work on the spotlights with the technicians. While up there, he attached confetti cannons, and candy cannons similar to the ones Bananas used to the catwalk, and made sure that they were at safe settings. He made a note to load them with candy, and adjust some of the lights before deciding that the technicians got them covered.

With a nod, he jumped back down onto the stage, unfortunately stumbling on the landing. Landing on his burn made him yelp in pain, and he laid there for a moment while the searing sensation lingered. With a growl, he punched the stage, cursing that wound. When he was able to stand up again, he started nipping at the bandages, hoping to reach the burn so he could lick it better.

"Cheese Sandwich?"

Cheese turned to face a pale blue mare, with a long, pink mane with a purple streak tied up in a large ponytail sticking out from the top, thickly applied eyeliner, a dark veil over her face, and a bedazzled purple jacket with matching accessories. Though she was all spruced up in glitz and glam, there was a genuine, kind smile on her face, which served as a friendly greeting. Beside her, a white, pink-haired stallion in a suit stood, with a less-than-friendly raise of the eyebrow.

Cheese spun around. "Aaaaaand it's the Countess! Heheh, looks like you're here a bit early, huh?"

"Well, all the performers promised are here. The Piano Ponies and even... ugh, Snapdragon Apple have also arrived, and we're all excited to perform." She suddenly stamped Cheese's cheek with a heart. "Hoofsies!"

Cheese laughed. "Dang it, you got me. Now I need to hit you with a rubber chicken."

The stallion stood between them. "I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to bruise the Countess' face with fake poultry! She has an image, you know, and she must maintain it flawlessly for the show!"

Cheese gave him a half-lidded look. "Hello, Svengallop."

Svengallop adjusted his tie. "Hello to you too, Cheese Sandwich. Just remember who'll be sued if Countess Coloratura's image is defiled."

"Lighten up, Svengallop," Coloratura said. "He's just playing."

"Yeah, I wouldn't hurt her," he said. He smiled and added, "By the way, let me get a couple of someones for you to meet."

He sped off to the tree where Tomato sat, and grabbed him without warning. Before Tomato could protest, he carried him back to the stage, and set him in front of pop star and manager. With a proud smile, he said, "I introduce to you, Tomato Sandwich!"

Svengallop scoffed. "Is he your new manager or something? He's awfully young for that."

Tomato wrinkled his nose. "I'm his brother."

"Oh! I had no idea Cheese Sandwich had a brother," Coloratura said, giving Tomato a "hoofsie" in the process. "I can definitely see the family resemblance. So, Tomato how does it feel to have Cheese as a brother?"

Tomato rubbed his cheek. "Well, sometimes he's fun, sometimes he's annoying, and sometimes I annoy him."

Cheese nudged Tomato. "Say, Tommy, where's Creamy?"

"Getting supplies for homemade ice cream."

"Dang it, I wanted to see her fangirl." Cheese turned to Coloratura. "Creamy's our cousin. She works in the dairy industry, and I think she wants to make ice cream for the concert goers."

"Homemade ice cream?" Coloratura smiled blissfully. "I had that often when I was a little filly. Me and my friends would make it at Camp Friendship and it was always so good!"

Svengallop forced a smile, and seemed like he was holding back a gag. "Sounds delightful."

Coloratura spotted Cheese's bandaged foreleg and frowned. "Oh, my! What happened to you?"

Cheese took a look at his leg, and then quickly tried to hide it. "Well... we kind of got caught in a forest fire when camping in Unicorn Range."

Svengallop raised an eyebrow. "I certainly hope it wasn't poor handling of a campfire that started it."

"Hey, we didn't start the fire!" Tomato said. "It was the weatherponies that did it, and Cheese nearly killed us by hearing things and running off to fulfill his savior complex. That's how he got that nasty thing too."

Cheese chuckled nervously and pushed him away. "Okay, bro, you can go back to your book... I'll holler when I need you to do something, okay?"

"Fine by me," Tomato said as he trotted off. "Her perfume was killing me, anyway."

Cheese sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Excuse him, he can be pretty grumpy. I don't know why he has to be so sour all the time--it drove me absolutely crazy when we were teenagers, and I'm trying to get him to lighten up with a road trip."

"Oh, my brother and I drove each other crazy, so I understand." Coloratura nodded. "By the way, thank you for filling in for me at the Shining Vocals, even if that did turn out to be a disaster. I never thought Windswept Goldenmane would stoop so low as to blackmail the judges."

Svengallop stamped his hoof impatiently. "Come on, Countess... you have a meeting with fans to get to..."

Cheese shrugged. "He technically didn't have enough time to get dirt on me like he did with the other two, though I suspect he would have used my brother to blackmail me. Seriously, he kidnapped him because he found out the underhoofed tactics!" Cheese glanced at his brother getting resettled under the tree, turning to face the bay. "Well, Tommy won't get nabbed again under my watch, lest the kidnapper bring out my bad side."

Coloratura nodded. "Good to hear. Anyway, I've got to meet with fans. It was nice talking to you." She turned to leave and started to walk off with her manager, who was giving him a dirty look.

Cheese waved bye before he remembered something and started to chase them. "Hey, wait! I wrote a parody of one of your songs!"

As Tomato got comfortable and reopened his book, he muttered, "Well, he seems to have many famous acquaintances. Oh, bother, I'm going to be listening to a bunch of corny pop songs, aren't I?"

He sighed. "Maybe the talent show portion won't be so bad. With Cheese as the host, nothing could go wrong."

He spotted the paragraph he was on before, and started to read. With the smell of wet pine filling his nostrils and relaxing him, he prepared himself to get lost in the narrative, despite his imaginings of how the concert would go down. Maybe for once, this little shindig could actually go smoothly.

The next thing he knew, he was suddenly grabbed and thrown into a sack. In spite of all his kicking and punching of the bag's sides, he was helpless as the ponies who nabbed him were carrying him to who-knows-where.

"Come on! Who's kidnapping me this time?!"

Author's Note

And here we are in the next part, where we get to meet Aunt Cocoa Butter and Uncle Acorn Compound!

Hilariously, as I was writing the part where Tomato sings along with this song:

That very song came on the radio I was listening to at the time. :rainbowlaugh:

And lastly, the canon character of the week is Countess Coloratura. Yeah, after her not appearing earlier in the Shining Vocals, I had to throw her in here. Also, friendly reminder that this story takes place pre-CMC cutie marks, so she's in her "Gaga Outfit" and still has Svengallop around.

No, Tommy, stop getting into trouble without even trying.

17.2--Voices of Unreason

After what seemed like an eternity of sweating inside a musty bag, Tomato was finally rolled out onto a soft carpet. Once he was free, he gasped for a breath of fresh air, only for his exhale to come out as a hiss at the very next pony he saw. Said pony jumped when he did that, as well as his minions. Seeing their fright brought at least a smidgen of satisfaction from Tomato. He didn't even care that it almost seemed like he was looking in a mirror, save for clothing; whoever decided to kidnap him this time was not getting off scot-free.

"Whoa, dude!" his apparent twin said, keeping his sunglasses perched on his face. "Chill, there's no need to get all hissy."

"Oh, there is a need for it!" Tomato said, hopping to his hooves and looking around. He took in the shag carpeting that was all shades of white and yellow, the mirror and bean bag chairs, and the dressers in the small dressing room he occupied. He looked straight back at his doppelganger, who were a black shirt, green jacket, and had a wavy mane. "Mind telling me what this is all about?"

The doppelganger silently shooed away his bodyguards, who quickly left the room. Once the two were alone, he slung a front leg over Tomato's shoulder. "Okay, so, hi, name's Snapdragon Apple, handsome stallion heartthrob of the music industry, feel free to call me 'Snap'. How ya doin'?" He grinned and offered a hoof for him to shake.

Tomato swatted the hoof away. "Name's Tomato Sandwich, business student that frankly has no business being in here. Seriously, why'd you kidnap me?"

Snap shook his head. "Yeesh, grouchy. Anyway, it's kind of hard to go out when you're mobbed by preteen and adolescent fillies. I wanted to meet my lookalike, and I didn't want to attract any attention when I did."

"You could have ended up attracting police attention, you know."

Snap broke away and started to pace around Tomato. "I have to say... getting a closer look at you makes our twin-ness even freakier than it was when I saw you yesterday on that train. Same coat color, same hair color, same build, same face shape... like, wow, how is that even possible when we don't even have the same parents?" His mouth sunk into a horrified frown. "Unless we were separated at birth."

"Oh, please, I'm entirely certain that I'm not adopted. My brother could give you a couple of key details about the day I was born."

"Okay, I gotcha. Now, why don't you relax? Those bean bags are made for sitting, ya know!"

Tomato fell back and plopped on a bean bag, crossing his front legs. "I was relaxed until you kidnapped me."

Snap stopped and leaned on one of his shorter dressers. "You're not going to let that go, are you? Don't worry, I'll give you back when we're done getting to know each other." He examined his hoof. "So, I heard you singing on the train. Awesome voice, nearly as awesome as mine."

Tomato's head sunk into his shirt. "Uh, thanks."

"So, were you planning on being part of the amateur acts in this charity concert?"

Tomato scoffed and laughed. "Ha! As if. I don't really like singing in public, not to mention..." He leaned in the bean bag just enough to show Snap his cutie mark. "...this isn't exactly a mark denoting a talent in showbiz."

Snap scratched his chin, briefly glanced at his own mark--a microphone with its top part replaced by an apple and surrounded by stars--and asked, "If you don't like singing in public, why were you singing on that train? That's kind of public, you know."

Tomato grimaced and blushed. "Er... sometimes strong emotions make it come out. I was caught up in fanboy glee because I hadn't heard that song for the longest time." He shook his head. "Regardless, I'm not all that fond of it when I remember I'm surrounded by other ponies."

"Awww, sounds like you might be the type to serenade a lover," Snap snickered. "So, not part of the show, huh?"

Tomato shrugged. "Eh, my brother will be because he's Cheese Sandwich. I'm content sitting on the sidelines."

Snap blinked. "Wow, you must be the luckiest pony on the planet to have such an amazing brother... but enough beating around the bush, you're going to forget about sitting on the sidelines this time, Tomster."

"Tomster? That's new." It took a moment for him to process the rest of that sentence. "Wait, what are you suggesting, Snapdragon?"

Snap slid over to him. "Ever wonder what it's like to be a famous pop star like moi? Well, I'm giving you a chance to live that life for a couple of days and indulge in the sweet, sweet perks that the high life brings to a pony. Trust me, you'll love it."

Tomato leapt out of the beanbag and onto a dresser. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you suggesting we switch places? Are you out of your mind?!"

Snap held up a hoof. "I know, I know, our cutie marks will give it away--but, I assure you, I have special stamps that'll disguise those marks with another, and nopony will suspect a thing! Plus, I've got this really cool crystal technology that--"

"Okay, no, no." Tomato took a sharp inhale through his nostrils and pushed the bridge of his glasses hard between his eyes. "You said that you'll release me when we got to know each other."

"Well... yeah." Snap shrugged casually. "What better way to get to know each other than by walking in each other's horseshoes?"

Tomato grit his teeth and twitched his eyebrow. "Why the hay are you even doing this? You're outright avoiding participating in the concert! Do you have something against charities?"

Snap waved his hooves and replied panickedly, "No, no, it's not that at all! It's just... I kind of blew my voice out the other day."

Tomato blinked. "Really?"

Snap bit his lip and nodded sheepishly. "Family get-together. Sang karaoke. Unfortunately landed on a heavy metal song with lots of screaming." He shook his head just a tiny bit. "Not my genre."

He started to pace around the room. "The doctor told me that my voice wouldn't be back to normal for a few days, and I lied to my manager about how my voice was this morning! I'm lucky enough that my speaking voice sounds normal, but my singing still sounds gravelly and squeaky when it's supposed to be rich and smooth! I'd demonstrate, but singing would only prolong my ailment... and now, I'm stuck with the possibility of canceling this gig and letting my fans in Seaddle down!" He jumped forward and grabbed Tomato by the shirt. "You've got to help me!"

Tomato pushed him away. "No. Take it like an adult and let the concert organizers know that you can't do it. I'm not about to switch identities, even temporarily, to help somepony I barely even know. Especially if it's likely to land me in trouble if anypony finds out I'm not actually you!"

Snap twirled one of his jacket's drawstrings. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Not even if I pay you?"

Tomato pursed his lips and looked away. "Well, no..."

"Really? I could pay you a handsome sum of bits if you help me."

Tomato twiddled his hooves. On the one hoof, he always told himself that he wouldn't accept bribes for looking the other way for an immoral action or even doing one. After all, money may be his talent, but he wasn't the personification of greed. And whether or not this particular situation was immoral, it was still going to put him in a situation where he'd be uncomfortable, and probably tarnish this pony's name.

On the other, he would never know when he and Cheese would be in a situation where they owed somepony or some organization bits. What if Cheese had another incident landing him in the hospital? What if one of them wound up in jail and needed to be bailed out? And surely it could be used to take care of the already existing hospital bill in Salt Lick City--he didn't want Flora's family to handle that on their own. As much as Cheese loved to rough it, there were still possible incidents that would require some bits on hoof to help them out.

And if it didn't come to that... well, it'd be a lot of help with his tuition, and it'd be easier to move out of Manehattan once he finished school.

Still, he couldn't help but feel like that this would end in disaster. The battle with the Flim Flam Brothers back in Halterside came to mind, and he cringed at how that ended in humiliation for not only him, but Cheese as well. Tomato wasn't sure if he wanted to ruin a singer's career with his inhibitions--even if he was miffed about the whole kidnapping thing.

But when it came down to situations that Cheese's party pony powers couldn't cover, better safe than sorry. Besides, it wasn't like anypony would know it was Tomato Sandwich on that stage, and maybe he could get himself sufficiently excited enough to not care that he was being watched.

Then again... he didn't even know any of Snapdragon's songs!

Snap tapped his hoof. "So..."

Tomato gulped. Why was this decision harder than it needed to be?

"Aw, come on, Svengallop!" Cheese complained. "I'm sure that she'll enjoy the parody. She has expressed that a song parody by Cheese Sandwich is a badge of honor, and well, I couldn't leave a friendly acquaintance of mine hanging."

At the picnic table they sat at, Svengallop slurped at his barley smoothie, casually looking away from Cheese. He kept an eye on Coloratura, who was signing autographs of stallion, mare, and foal alike at the pavilion, giving them uplifting words and her trademark "hoofsies" in the process. She was flanked by a couple of bodyguards, who were eyeing each fan suspiciously.

Svengallop smacked his lips after his swig. "Oh, sure, defiling the Countess' image with your mockery is something to be proud of."

Cheese groaned. "Come on, nopony else complained when I poked fun at them... okay, one guy did, but there was a misunderstanding involved and we worked that out. I don't really see what the problem is--Coloratura's a tough mare, she can handle a little teasing."

Svengallop sucked up the last of his smoothie. "Yes... a little teasing..." He stood up and trotted to the nearest trash can, which was a ways away enough for Cheese to follow him. "But, the outright mockery of everything that I put into to make sure she has a fantastic image, the possibility of said parody being more well-known than the original, the Countess being treated like a joke instead of a serious, hard-working musician..."

Once he reached the bin, he turned all the way around to glare at Cheese and drop the cup straight in. "Clearly, you don't know how to take anything seriously. So, no, that little parody of yours shall not see the light of day."

Cheese growled. "Well, maybe you just take things too seriously."

Svengallop laughed and pulled at Cheese's cheek. "You're just too cute and naive. Ponies outgrow cute novelties like you. Now, since you're helping with the organization of this charity concert, I hope you'll ask for me where I can try some of Seaddle's delicious seaweed--"

Cheese grabbed him by the maroon tie, and yanked at it to choke him. Now that the only sounds that came out of Svengallop's mouth were those of strained half coughs and squeaky groans, Cheese pulled him to his face. Muzzle to muzzle with the annoyance, Cheese mocked in his low voice, "Oh... so you dismiss me simply because I'm a cute novelty. Oh, ho ho, that's adorable."

Cheese then slammed him to a tree and pinned him. The glasses had flown off Svengallop's face, making the terror in his eyes all the more apparent. He snarled, "Listen here, you little pig! I have been traveling around Equestria to throw parties for ponies for over a decade! I was a literal cute kid when I started, and let me tell you that I haven't been outgrown! Parties are an art, and I've evolved in a way no other party pony has in order to please everyone I ever meet! So, don't tell me that I don't know anything about entertainment! Besides, the other musicians I've covered are still well-known with their songs, so stop being such a stuck-up and paranoid meatbag!"

Cheese dropped him at the base of the tree. "Now, go ask about that seaweed stuff yourself. I'm not your servant."

He turned around and stomped away, leaving Svengallop to scramble to his hooves and scurry away. Cheese grumbled about how annoying that manager still was. How a nice mare like Coloratura had that little nuisance as a manager was beyond him, and he was almost sorry that Svengallop wasn't an actual pig, because he definitely would have made for a nice pork chop.

He idly looked to a pony playing with his dog, and was about to continue on his way, but the shout of "Go get it!" had him stop in his tracks, and involuntarily wag his tail. The moment the frisbree sailed over his head, Cheese didn't hesitate to chase it, his scowl having transformed into a grin.

He looked up at the frisbee, slicing through the air. His hooves carried him in his pursuit of the disc, leaving the competing dog in the dust. Closer and closer he galloped, nearing the toy, and he geared his legs for a great leap to catch it.

Unfortunately, he crashed into his brother, who had been taking a walk around the park.

Now with both in a heap, Cheese watched in dismay as the dog bolted past them and claimed the frisbee for his prize. The pony's shout of "Good boy!" threw salt in the wound. He got up, dusted himself off, and glared at Tomato.

"Sheesh, watch where you're going, Tomato!" he scolded.

Tomato blinked and scrambled to his hooves. "I was watching where I was going! I wasn't the one chasing a frisbee."

Cheese rolled his eyes. "You could have had the common courtesy of stepping aside and letting me catch it."

"Err..." Tomato shook his head. "Okay. Okay, it's Cheese Sandwich, don't question it."

Cheese tilted his head. "Eeyeah... but you're Tomato Sandwich, you can't help but question everything I do. It gets a little annoying, so I appreciate you actually learning not to do that." He leaned forward and sniffed him, only to snort and rub his nose. "Goshdarn my nose..."

"Uh, your nose?"

Cheese idly squished it, wincing from the sting. "Don't play dumb, you know I'm the example for how not to smell chemicals."

"Oh! I, uh--" Tomato stood stiffly, in a more unnatural manner than usual. "Oh, I was just wondering why you tried to smell me?"

Cheese shrugged. "Dunno. I guess everything just smells nicer here for my nose to act like this."

Tomato said flatly, "I smelled pee in one neighborhood."

At that moment, Creamy came on the scene, trying to carry a large table with both her head and her tail. She swayed and stumbled side to side in her walk, nervously trying to keep the table balanced. Swaying to one side had her nearly drop the table before she managed to right herself, only to tip to the other and have to right herself again. Her forward movements were mostly in zigzag, and passersby would give her space and gasp with each of her tips.

Cheese sped to his cousin's side and grabbed the table. "Whoa, there, missy! What are you doing trying to carry this by yourself?"

Creamy huffed and puffed. "Oh... just... I carry heavy stuff... at work... all the time..." She took a deep breath. "I thought I could handle this big table by myself!"

"Well, it's kind of hard to keep balance when you're just one skinny pony." He smiled and slid to her side to ease her burden. "Two skinny ponies could be enough." He looked up at Tomato. "But let's make it three just to be safe. Come on over, Tommy!"

He pouted curiously when he noticed that Tomato was staring at Creamy with wide eyes and a slack jaw. Thinking that odd, Cheese glanced at Creamy to see what was so different about her that Tomato was so shocked about. He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, and he didn't get why their cousin carrying a table was so shocking. He thought of one other option, but the familial relation obviously ruled that one out.

Cheese cleared his throat. "Hey! Are you going to help our cousin or not?"

Tomato's ears perked up in surprise. "Oh! Uh, sure! Imma help our cousinly cousin carry the table."

He sheepishly slunk toward them and took his place on the other side of Creamy, biting his lip nervously. The three set off to where the stage was, with Creamy telling them that she was going to give out homemade ice cream to the patrons not too far from the concert. She rambled on about her ice cream making skills in the bubbliest of manners, leaving Cheese nodding and Tomato entranced with her cheer.

As they passed by the pavilion that the Countess was meeting her fans, Creamy gasped. "The Countess! In the flesh!"

Cheese chuckled. "Yep, that's her all right. Once we're done with the table, I'll have you meet her."

As Creamy squealed, Cheese looked back at the Countess and her many, many fans. After scanning that crowd, he ended up in eye contact with Svengallop. The bored manager had turned paler than normal upon seeing Cheese, and scooted behind a bodyguard for safety. Cheese narrowed his eyes, and a snarl rumbled from his throat.

"Bruh, what's with the growling?" Tomato said.

Cheese snorted. "Nothing. Let's just carry the table."

Tomato forced a big smile. "Okay, yeah, sure! Just carrying the table with my cousinly cousin and brotherly brother! Nothing all too wrong and creepy about such a simple task..." He started to pant. "Dang this table's heavy..."

Creamy rolled her eyes. "It's not that heavy. Just use your tail."

The other pony's eye twitched. "Tail?"

Unbeknownst to Cheese and Ice Cream Sandwich, Tomato was not with them.

Instead, he was still in Snapdragon Apple's trailer, sitting in a fluffy chair and staring at himself in the mirror. The image he saw was not normally his, but was instead borrowed for a short time, he hoped. A green hoodie instead of his brown suit jacket, a black tee instead of his white button shirt, sunglasses instead of his eyeglasses, and wavy locks instead of a mane slicked straight. The only thing that remained of Tomato was the Sandwich forelock, which he had tried in vain to hide, only for it to pop back up like it always did. Now he just had to come up for an excuse for it being there instead of it parted in the middle.

"I cannot believe I agreed to this," he grumbled. "Of all the insane incidents I've been involved in this summer, this one I had the most power to stop! My stupid forelock's going to give me away because it won't cooperate."

He slumped in the chair, letting his tail make the seat rotate. Each mishap from the summer came to mind, from the bats in Ponyville to Cheese the Candy Cannon Commando in Salt Lick City, and he was reminded that the summer wasn't over. In fact, looking over to the calendar, he could see that it was almost August.

"I wonder what'll happen after this," he mumbled. "Whatever happens, I probably could make up my own parody with them..."

As he continued to slowly turn in the chair, he sang, "We didn't start the fire... it was always burnin' since the world was turnin'..."

He fell out of his seat when a grinning, bespectacled, gold-furred stallion in a suit burst into the room, shouting, "Am I hearing you practicing for the charity concert? Oh, I'm hearing you practice all right! Granted, it's advisable to practice with your own songs and keep a glass of water handy, but still!"

He laughed heartily, prompting Tomato to grab the chair and use it for a fort. But, the older stallion grabbed him and squeezed him. "I'm so happy you recovered from the karaoke incident... then again, you always have a way of bouncing back from the tough things!"

Tomato could barely choke out, "Uh... gee, thanks."

He was placed face-to-face with what was clearly Snap's manager, and stole a glance at the name tag on the suit jacket, which was Dandelion Burst. Given the guy's coat, fluffy white mane, brown eyes behind large lenses, and lanky figure, Tomato thought that the name fit. Heck, even personality-wise, it seemed to fit.

"My son, do you know how happy your mother would be that you're participating in a concert for charity?" Dandelion Burst asked.

Tomato blinked. Snap's manager is his father too? Why didn't he mention this? Nevertheless, he replied, "Oh... I'm sure that she'll be very happy that I'm doing this." My actual mom wouldn't like me doing this, nor would Snap's mom appreciate the deception.

Dandelion Burst sniffled and wiped his eye. "Yes... she would've loved it." He stood up and said, "Now, we're going to go out and meet your fans, so I'm here to make sure that you're in tip top shape for the meet and greet! Okay, what contacts are you using today?"

Tomato lowered the sunglasses, showing off his green eyes.

"Ooh, green! Nice. Now, to see what we can do about that forelock..."

As Dandelion reached forward, Tomato pushed the hoof aside and said, "I'm, uh, trying a new look! Yeah, the, uh, Cheese Sandwich forelock has always fascinated me, and I thought that I could see how it looks on me!"

Dandelion sighed and shook his head. "I think it looks ridiculous... but, if you say so..." He perked up. "Oh, that reminds me! Cheese Sandwich is going to be there, and you'll finally get the chance to meet him!"

Tomato forced a grin. "Really? Awesome."

Hearty nodded, and then recoiled in disgust at the smile. "My stars! Your teeth!"

Tomato blinked. "What about them?"

"You can't go out with your teeth looking like that!" He came in close and whispered, "Have you been using a toothbrush?"

Tomato licked his teeth, noting how smooth they felt and how little plaque there was on them. He didn't think that they were that bad, and he at least brushed as often as he could on this trip. "Uh... yes? And I floss too."

Dandelion gasped. "Oh, no no no! You can't be reduced to a simple toothbrush, son!" He rushed over to the wardrobe and opened it, starting to rummage through it. "You know you're supposed to use the Whitening Gun every day!"

Tomato's heart stopped. "Uh... Whitening Gun?"

Not a second later, Dandelion heaved a large, hoofheld cannon thing that had the image of a smiling tooth plastered on the side. Tomato was shocked in how that was used for cleaning Snap's teeth, and wondered how that didn't knock any teeth out. His jaws hurt just looking at it.

Cocking it, Dandelion smiled and said, "That was a close call, wasn't it?" He aimed straight for Tomato's face. "Now, say 'cheese'..."

Tomato grinned nervously, hoping his brother would hear him when he said, "Cheese..."

Author's Note

I am so sorry for taking so long with this one! Got busy with Halloween, and then I got sick. And I mean terribly sick. Heck, I still kind of feel like garbage. I'm just lucky enough that I managed to get the energy to do the Birthday Bios and write this thing. November's not being kind to me... :fluttershysad:

Anyway, I admit, I had a bit of trouble trying to decide what the Seaddle plot should be--I just figured it out relatively recently, and hopefully I'll be able to pull off this switch (at least it's not an actual body swap like Cheese and Celestia was--just a Prince and Pauper sort of thing).

Also... I was so excited to do that ending joke, but again, couldn't jump into it sooner for the above reasons. :pinkiesad2:

17.3--Restless in Seaddle

After Creamy had permission from Golden Glee to serve her homemade ice cream at the concert, she and Tomato didn't have anything to do. So, Cheese waved goodbye while they went back to Acorn and Cocoa's house to see if there was any progress on the fireworks. Now, Cheese himself still had to make sure that the setup went smoothly, and that there were no surprises, like a sudden schedule change for Seaddle's weather, or any machinery malfunctions. So, he went off to see any reports on the former.

He turned and started to run. However, he didn't go very far before bumping into another pony and knocking them down. As the other pony fell, Cheese tripped over them, and fell flat on his face. After a few moments of both lying still, Cheese groaned and stamped on the ground with a front hoof.

"What's with ponies getting in my way today?!" He got up and brushed himself off, and looked at the other pony doing the same. "Oh, hey, you must be Snapdragon Apple."

Snapdragon Apple--or so Cheese thought--looked up, and shrieked at the sight of him. "Oh, my goodness, Cheese!" He paused for a moment before adding, "Sandwich!" Forcing a smile, Snapdragon hollered, "Wow! Is that really the Super Duper Party Pony before my eyes?! Wowza!" He pumped a hoof into the air and started shaking Cheese's hoof. "I'm a huge fan and am honored to be in your presence!"

Cheese chuckled. "Aw, shucks! I never realized that you were such a fan!" He flinched at the sight of Snap's bright teeth. "Okay, ow... your teeth hurt."

Snap laughed in a manner that sounded like he was half-crying. "I know..."

Suddenly, Snap's manager popped up beside the young singer. "Ah, Cheese Sandwich! I see you've met the young talent I supervise and have raised since he was but a small foal." He reached forward and shook Cheese's hoof. "Name's Dandelion Burst, his manager and father, call me Dandy. Snap here is a big fan of you."

"Oh, he let me know that." He curiously pouted upon seeing the curled forelock above Snap's forehead. "You must be a pretty big fan if you're styling your forelock to look like mine."

Snap looked up at the forelock. "Hehehe... yeah." He patted it gently. "Took plenty of, uh... styling gel, and hairspray, and mousse... but I managed to get it to stay!"

Dandy sighed, pushing his glasses up his muzzle. "I hope nopony laughs..."

Snap glanced at Dandy in a mild glare, and then asked Cheese, "Seriously, bro, what is your secret for keeping that thing up and springy?"

Cheese twanged it, noting that it wasn't as springy as normal today. "Oh, it runs in the family. Really, the actual question of the hair is if there's a way to slick it down and have it stay down--just ask my brother, his forelock just springs back up whenever he fixes his mane." He narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. "Speaking of my brother, it's scary how much you look like him."

Snap leaned back, looking a little nervous. "Oh... really? That's... like, weird... dude."

Cheese attempted to sniff him, only for a painful snort to come out. He yanked his head back and rubbed his aching nose. "Augh, I wish my dang nose could heal faster. I wanted to see how you smelled different from Tomato."

Dandy held Snap and patted his chest, much to the young pop star's discomfort. "Oh, Snap probably bears more of an apple smell while your brother smells like... a tomato, I suppose. I mean, my son is an Apple on his mother's side, descended from the founder of Applewood."

"Hey, I have a cousin who lives in Applewood!"

"Oh, really?" Dandy squeezed Snap even tighter with just one hoof. "Well, if that cousin is Peanut Butter Sandwich, then we'd have met two famous Sandwiches that are known for being energetic and entertaining, albeit in different fields."

Cheese laughed. "Yep, that's my cousin all right. Me and my brother are actually staying with Peanut's parents and sister while preparing for the concert tomorrow." His face sunk into a frown. "Speaking of which, I have a weather report I need to check; I want to make sure there aren't any sudden schedule changes for the weather tomorrow."

"Yeah... wouldn't want to be caught by surprise by rain you could have read up on." Snap's ears drooped. "Then again... what Seaddle resident would be surprised by rain?"

Dandy nudged him. "And as for us... I think the Countess is almost done meeting her fans, and we should prepare for our turn." He hurried Snap along and waved at Cheese. "It was very nice meeting you, Mr. Sandwich! Hope to see you at the concert!"

Cheese waved back. "I'm hosting it, so you'll definitely see me!"

He turned and continued on his way. Though he was sure he should be out of earshot, he could have sworn that he heard Hearty say, "By the way, Snap, why do you sound off today? I could have sworn you were slipping into a slight Neigh Yoke-ish accent..."

So far, so good, Snap thought.

Sure, Cheese Sandwich and Ice Cream Sandwich had given him funny looks for some of his flubs, but it was surprising that they just shrugged it off like that. From what he had seen of Tomato, he was likely a straitlaced party pooper that probably tried to act older than he was, so to have them just roll their eyes and move on when he said something stupid was weird. He wondered if Tomato's weird side was more of a common thing than he thought.

Now, that pretty little mare that he had walked with was another story. Never had he seen a more natural slenderness for a mare, and her fur looked so smooth and silky. Her mane reminded him of sweet chocolate, and she had beautiful eyes like the ocean. How a mare that looked so simple yet lovely at the same time, he did not know. It was weird to think of her as being related to Cheese Sandwich of all ponies!

And the pony he was impersonating at the moment. He hated having to hold in some of his best flirting lines when talking with her.

"...I remember when Peanut Butter helped me make a boat for the Milk Carton Derby when I was ten." She scrunched her nose in embarrassment. "For some reason, I thought it was a good idea to put my cow plushie on the boat. It sank in the middle of the lake, and Mirelle was gone forever."

Snap noted that the scenery had changed from tall buildings and weird pirate-looking ponies among normal citizens, to houses and just ponies walking their dogs or briskly trotting. Without thinking, he replied, "Sounds like an udder disaster."

Creamy hit him on the shoulder harder than he expected. "Ugh, Tomato, I hate udder jokes! They're nothing but cheap dairy humor that's just about as pleasant as spoiled milk."

Snap rubbed his shoulder. "Ow... geez, you hit hard."

Creamy blew on her bangs. "Well, I have Peanut Butter for a brother. He was pretty rough when we were kids and I had to learn to fight back." She turned at one particular house. "Well, here we are. I wonder how the fireworks are coming along."

Her question was answered when something launched from the backyard in an arc and hit the neighbor's tree. It lit on fire almost immediately, emitting smoke that smelled like strawberries for some reason. As the strawberry-flavored fire started to eat the leaves of that tree, someone in the Nut Backyard shouted, "Get the fire extinguishers!"

Snap remarked, "That is the best smelling fire I've ever, uh... smelled."

Creamy groaned. "Great, I think Mr. Downpour is going to sue them."

The pair galloped around the house to the backyard, where Cocoa Butter had just tossed a fire extinguisher to an apricot-colored pegasus. Then, Cocoa herself took advantage of the trampoline in order to help the pegasus spray the tree, as Acorn Compound and a young, faded periwinkle mare just a little younger than Creamy cleaned up some equipment where the yard's little paved court was. The court was covered in scorch marks, with the biggest one being where what looked like a firework launcher was.

Acorn looked up at the two who just entered the yard. "Oh, hey, Creamy! Tomato! Did you run out of things to do at the park?"

"Oh, there were already plenty of ponies organizing stuff, and I already got my homemade ice cream table set up for tomorrow, and Cheese could already cover many of the organizing tasks with the charity folks on his own, so..." Creamy shook her head and laughed, before shouting, "Now what the hay are you doing setting things on fire?! And who are these ponies with you guys?!"

"Oh!" Acorn gestured to the mare beside him. "This is Sugarcoat, and the pegasus is Indigo Zap. They're from the engineering department to help with with some of the more technical aspects of setting off fireworks."

Sugarcoat barely moved, and with a straightforward tone said, "Your parents are crazy to think that fruit-flavored fireworks could even work."

Cocoa shouted during a bounce, "Hey! I argued against this!" She ascended to spray the tree before falling onto the trampoline again. "But I can't talk my husband out of doing a challenge!" Another bounce and a spray later, she added, "The only challenge he's given up on is trying to talk sense into my sister-in-law!" A ascent and descent followed, with Cocoa turning to Snap and saying, "No offense, Tomato."

Snap was curious about Tomato's mother, but asking questions could cause suspicion. "None taken?"

"And Cheese was calling you sensitive," Creamy remarked.

Snap laughed and waved her off. "Ah, no, no, I've got a thick skin like a crocodile. You can't tear this pony down!"

Sugarcoat raised an eyebrow. "Exaggerated bravado does not help your case."

"Aw, who asked you?"

Cocoa and Indigo had managed to put out the fire, and the latter descended onto the lawn. Looking at the damage on the tree, she shook her head and said, "Yeah, your neighbors definitely going to sue you. We'll tweak the rocket launcher to minimize the chances of anything else lighting on fire, but it's not a guarantee." She smiled. "Still, it's pretty cool how the fire smelled like fruit!"

Acorn shot a hoof into the air. "Yessiree! We got the smell down, but we still need it to have the taste, and have it be safe to the touch." He smiled at his wife. "Back to the lab, m'lady?"

Cocoa hopped off the trampoline and sighed. "Yeah, sure..."

"Sweet!"

Indigo hopped to Sugarcoat's side, poking at the rocket launcher. "And we'll be fixing this thing."

"And questioning the validity of your permit," Sugarcoat said.

After the older couple went back inside to create another compound and the two young mares pulled their toolbox closer to their workspace, Snap and Creamy just stood there, glancing at each other in a "now what do we do" manner. So far, they've seen how the fruit fireworks were doing... and that was it. Were they expected to play a card game or something?

As she and her partner replaced some rusty bolts and screws, Indigo glanced back at them before going for a full-on turn. "What's up?"

Snap looked up. "Clouds. But you could be flying with them and looking like an angel all the while." He grinned and winked at her.

Indigo raised an eyebrow. "Oooookay. So, I'm guessing you're one of the nephews that the Nuts mentioned were visiting."

"Well, duh! Tomato Sandwich, at your service! I'm the most boring pony here!"

Indigo laughed and dropped the bolts she held. "Is your whole family crazy? If you're the boring one, I'd like to see what your brother's like!" She turned back and picked up the shiny bolts to fix the launcher. "So, what you guys been doing all day?"

Snap rubbed the back of his hoof on his jacket. "Well, we were just cruisin' around town, seeing the sights, and hanging out in the park. Was checkin' out a lot of babes that were out and about, and smelling the fresh air by the water. I will admit, I'm not all that used to the weird oceany pine needle smell, but I guess coastal cities have different smells to their oceans."

Creamy gave him a weird look. "I could have sworn you were reading a book."

Indigo smirked. "So, where you from?"

Snap answered with a mighty, "Aaaaaaaaaaaa--" and ended up holding it for some time as he realized that Tomato wasn't from Applewood, Snap was. The "Aaaaaaaaaaa..." droned out of his mouth as he tried to remember where Tomato came from. Now, he was sure it was a big city, but for some reason, he couldn't place the name. He had to figure it out quick, as his throat was both tickled and hurt, likely to end in a hoarse cough.

The three girls stared as he continued to drone, to the point that Sugarcoat snarked to Indigo, "I think he's afraid of you."

"Oh, shut it," Indigo replied.

Creamy sighed. "Tomato, how hard is it to answer 'Manehattan'?"

Snap ended his drone with a harsh cough, one that seemed like it was going to be followed by phlegm. Luckily, nothing came out but a little spit, and he rose up with a grin to Creamy and said, "Yes! Thank you, cousin. I was just having an epic brain fart there, you know?"

"Riiiight. Anyway, let's just let them work, and, uh... find something else to do?"

"Oh, I don't mind having some company," Indigo said. "I need a little more variety in my conversation than Sugarcoat's bluntness."

"I speak the cold, hard truth," Sugarcoat said. "I have no interest in coddling ponies with sweet lies."

Indigo rolled her eyes. "Besides, you should really stick around for the firework tests. I don't know what kind of crazy formulas that Mr. and Mrs. Nut are coming up with and what chemicals they're using, but I'm excited to see if they actually can make fruit-flavored fireworks! I'm so psyched to be a part of a possible groundbreaking invention!"

"You're too optimistic, Indigo." Sugarcoat didn't even react to the annoyed pout that Indigo gave her.

Creamy shrugged. "Well, I'll go get a card game for me and Tomato to play."

Snap sighed. This is going to be a long day, isn't it?

Meanwhile, Tomato was already tired of the switch.

He would have already gone blind from the camera flashes had he not been wearing sunglasses. Here he was, hanging out at some pavilion in a Seaddle park, seeing face after face after face of strangers. He got roped into some group pictures with a bunch of girls, and often one-on-one with any given preteen. Much of the time, he sat at a table and stamped his hoofprint on pictures of his lookalike, some stuffed animals and T-shirts, and for some odd reason, a fish trophy. It weirded him out to think of his hoofprint being essentially tattooed to some random fish on a wall. The only way it could have been weirder was if it sang.

Speaking of singing, he had been requested, time and time again, to sing one of Snap's songs. Tomato was not at all familiar with any of them, and he hadn't had time to practice since he was roped into the swap. So, the best he could do was request that the fan sing along with him, insisting that they're a true fan if they knew the words.

And all he had to do was let go of his hatred of the stupid teen heartthrob pop songs...

"...and if you dance just right, you'll see how much I come alive!"

"Ooooooh, you'll see that I'm the trustiest stallion to ever trust!"

"Trottin' down a city street, hearing its rhythm and its beat..."

Finally, after a couple hours of that, Tomato finally went back to the trailer to catch his breath from meeting all those fans. He had no idea how any celebrity could do it--he could have sworn that a couple of the young mares there wanted to jump him then and there, and would have if it wasn't for security.

He was ready to go and sink into that bean bag and rest, perhaps fall asleep and nap before Dandy came in with whatever the next gig might be. Maybe he could play some of Snap's songs on the phonograph in order to become more familiar with them by the time of the concert tomorrow. In any case, he was going to relish in--

"Hello, Snapdragon."

Tomato jumped at the sudden greeting, and beheld a purple pegasus mare with black and pink hair neatly tied up in a blue bow. She wore the reddest lipstick that he had ever seen, and had icy blue eyes that screamed murder. She sat upon the little dresser casually, with one leg crossed over the other and her two front hooves touching together. Tomato was frozen as he stared at her, and he couldn't help but wonder who this was and how she got in here.

"Uh... hi?" he responded.

The mare hopped off the dresser and strode toward him. "My dear sweet Snap... don't tell me you have forgotten me."

"I... uh..."

She pinned him to the wall, licking her lips. "You still owe me the ravishing that I so desire." She took off his sunglasses, taking a good look at his green eyes. "Do tell me if that is your real eye color; I do not wish to stare into contacts instead of your true eyes as we draw close."

"Okay, you're creeping me out. I'm really not in the mood," Tomato growled.

She breathed on his neck, making him shiver. "Nonsense. I know you, Snapdragon... you wouldn't say 'no' to an offer like mine."

His thoughts screaming, he pushed her away, and tried to walk away. "Well, you're wrong, because I'm saying 'No' right now."

Those icy eyes fell on him again, and she grabbed him and slammed him on the wall again, putting all her strength into it. "Do not resist... a boy like you shouldn't be acting that way... just let me be your vampire..." She lowered her head in order to bite his neck.

Tomato grimaced, unable to move. No, no, no, no, no! I don't want this! I don't want this! I don't need any more vampire nonsense!

Luckily, Dandy popped open the door right at that moment, trilling, "Who wants to go out for lunch?" He opened his eyes and gasped at the sight of the mare. He pulled the rest of himself into the trailer with a fierce scowl. "Midnight Bell! How many times have I told you to stop stalking us and breaking into our trailer?! My son isn't interested!"

Midnight released Tomato, and backed away. "Mr. Dandelion, please--"

"No! I've heard every excuse from you! It doesn't matter your status, gender, or whatever--'No' means 'No'! Now get out!"

Midnight visibly blanched at Dandy's voice, and jumped out of the nearest window, shouting, "I'll be back for you, my love!"

Tomato lowered the front half of his body until he was on all fours again, and he panted, holding his chest in some attempt to get his heart to calm down. Relief at that mare's departure washed over him, though he dreaded the possibility of her coming back. But, to his surprise, he was caught in a surprise hug from Dandy.

"Oh, I don't know how she keeps doing this and hasn't been caught yet," the older stallion said. "You only flirt with her once, and she's convinced you're meant to be. Goodness' sake, you'd think she'd realize you like to flirt with just about every mare you meet."

Tomato just looked at the wall with a flat, "Yeah." He better not be flirting with anyone while posing as me.

Dandy broke the hug. "Don't worry, we'll make sure that she won't get you in the restaurant."

"Oh, thank you," Tomato mumbled. "I definitely don't want to see her again."

"All right, here we go... fireworks test numero dos!" Acorn hollered.

Sugarcoat and Indigo backed up from the launcher, and the little ball of magical chemical compounds flew up. The green explosion mimicked that of a regular gunpowder firework, only having glowing, fruit-smelling "sparks" small enough to fit in one's mouth. Most of them descended to the ground, evaporating into a mist. Acorn tried to catch one of the orbs in his mouth, but the one he aimed for was ultimately caught by the neighbor's dog on the other side of the fence.

"Ah, butterhooves!" he said. "Well, we can at least say that nothing caught on fire, so we're on the right track."

"Wow, it only took two tests?" Creamy said, still playing her card game with Snap. "That's a new record!"

"Well, in the area of natural beauty, it'd be tough to break your record," Snap said with a grin and a waggling eyebrow.

Creamy gave him a weird look. "Wha...?"

Snap laughed nervously and facehoofed, remembering why that line was so wrong. "I'm so sorry, forget I said that."

Cocoa looked up at the sky and rubbed her chin. "Well, the first test could just be luck. Let's see if the second test will--"

They heard a scream from the neighbor's yard, and all six of the ponies in the Nut Yard jumped and turned the direction of the scream. The chemist couple winced when they heard the neighbor yell, "Why is my dog green?!"

Cocoa then said, "...or we should rewrite the formula again."

"All right, time for test number five!" Acorn announced.

Up the new chemical firecracker went, exploding a brilliant red color. Acorn had his mouth wide open to catch one of the sparks, dancing back and forth as the one he aimed for wobbled in its descent. It even spurred him to go across the yard and back, much to the amusement of the others there.

"He looks ridiculous," Sugarcoat said.

Indigo snickered. "If he wasn't so concerned about our safety, I'd volunteer to do it for him. Flying would make it easier to catch."

Acorn managed to catch the spark. He savored it for a moment, letting the taste of the experiment melt in his mouth. However, a few seconds of bliss passed, and suddenly transformed into a pained expression. His face started to turn red, steam came out of his ears, and his cheeks inflated like a balloon. Tears seeped out of his eyes as he tried to hold it in, but he still attempted to fake a smile for everyone in the yard.

Cocoa grimaced. "Uh, Acorn, are you okay?"

He opened his mouth to talk, but a literal flame burst out with his exhale, and he screamed, "OH MY GOODNESS IT BURNS! IT BURNS IT BURNS LIKE THAT GHOST PEPPER IN THE MURDER BURGER!" He ran around the yard, still screaming out the fire with teary eyes and trying to avoid just about everything he came across. "BAD COMPOUND! BAD COMPOUND! NOT SAFE TO EAT!"

"We can cross that formula out..." Cocoa turned to the card players. "Creamy! Tomato! Go get the special seltzer we've got in the fridge!"

"Test number sixteen!"

The firework exploded, and rained down in the yard. Acorn's taste test of one of the sparks not tasting very good. But on the bright side, where the sparks landed in the grass ended up growing flowers, much to the delight of Cocoa and Creamy. Snap whistled in amazement, and Sugarcoat and Indigo nodded in approval.

"Well, not what we were looking for, but we'll keep that formula," Acorn said.

"Test number twenty-five!"

After an explosion of yellow, the sparks landed in many places, Acorn's tongue and the manes of all the girls in the yard. Somehow, they missed Snap, but after the results of this test, it was for the best. After all, Acorn's tongue had turned yellow, as did the mares' manes. After the manes had all spiked up and glowed after changing color, Snap couldn't help but laugh at how they looked.

Wiping a tear from his eye, Snap said, "Wow! Hahaha, you all look powerful!"

Cocoa glared at him. "I do have a mean punch. You're lucky that you're my nephew."

Acorn waved his hooves nervously, his glowing tongue lolling out. "Now, now! Lemme justh fix thisth..."

"Test number thirty-three!"

Snap and Creamy had gotten bored of their card game, and tiredly watched as the new firework was launched. Glancing at each other, Creamy muttered, "Could you even call it a firework if they're trying to make it non-flammable?"

"Some of the tests were hot enough to light things on fire," Snap replied. "But, not nearly as hot as you, Creams."

Creamy scooted away from him. "Okay, seriously, Tomato, what the heck was that?"

Snap grimaced. "Me forgetting that you're my cousin."

"Ugh, I didn't think we'd have that effect of all things from not seeing each other since we were little." Creamy gagged at the thought and scooted further away. "Please keep your mouth shut if you're going to say stuff like that... plus, I don't like being hot. I like being cool."

"Heh, right... since you're 'Ice Cream'," Snap muttered.

Cheese Sandwich walked into the yard at that moment, humming contently from what was likely a good day. However, the explosion made him jump, and along with the dogs he started barking, "Hey! Hey! That was a loud noise! That really hurt my ears! Hey!" He galloped around the yard, and looked around angrily. "Can you please turn down the volume of your fireworks?! Some of us have sensitive ears, you know!"

"Whoa, Cheese, calm down!" Cocoa said, approaching him. "Don't worry, we're making sure these are safe enough to eat, don't worry."

Cheese growled. "Can you make sure they're not loud and boomy?"

"Sorry, but we can't exactly do that." Cocoa looked up at the blue sparks descending. "Hopefully this one turns out all right."

Cheese looked up, and caught a spark with his tongue. Nodding, he replied, "Mmm, blue raspberry. Seems like you're doing pretty good to me." He turned to Sugarcoat and Indigo Zap. "Oh, hi! Name's Cheese Sandwich, I'm Cocoa's nephew... and you already met my brother and cousin."

Indigo grinned. "Tomato says he's the boring one. If he's funny, I bet you're hilarious."

Cheese sat on his haunches, and scratched his ear with his hind leg. "Well, I guess that's a way to put it--what kind of comedian would I be if I wasn't any level of funny?"

Sugarcoat blinked numbly. "You'd be blue."

Cheese blinked. "Blue? What do you mean by bl--" He looked down at his person, and jumped at the sight of his fur being blue. "Holy Swiss! Why did I change colors?!"

Acorn sighed. "I think we ended up repeating the same thing we did to the neighbor's dog." He walked over and patted Cheese on the head. "Don't worry, we'll fix it, and then we will go inside to have supper--it is that time of day, after all."

Snap blinked. "Already? Wow, time flies when you're watching ponies change colors and set things on fire."

Cheese stood up. "Sounds nice. I'm hungry, and I don't want to be Blue Cheese for long."

"Oh, I'm so glad you guys made it to dinner!"

Tomato should have expected that he'd be dining at the city's famous Space Needle. After being led to their table, his eyes wandered away from the charity folk and the other musicians present to stare out the window, where he took in the view. He overlooked the city skyline, and gazed forward beyond those to look at the mountains in the distance. Whether they were bunched up together or just standing alone, it was a lovely range. He turned his head slightly to look at the bay, where a few boats chugged through the blue water to and from various piers. Some he quite clearly recognized as ferries, which made him wonder just where they were coming from and going to. Looking west, the setting sun made the water shimmer.

He soon turned his attention back to the others, which included Countess Coloratura (what a mouthful, she needed a nickname), the Piano Ponies, a few locals that clearly had a grunge look about them, and Seaddle's charity workers, who strangely all looked like pirates to him. He tried not to snicker at the irony of charity folk that looked like pirates.

"Oh, we didn't want to miss it, Miss Glee," Dandy said. "It's nice to just relax and eat after dealing with Snap's fans."

Golden Glee beamed. "And it's nice to relax after planning charity events all month with the crew. I know it seems kind of silly to eat here in light of that, but I assure you, we use our own money from our day jobs to make this reservation."

It better be the case or you'll face my wrath, Tomato thought.

Dandy nodded. "Well, I assume that it was well worth it to save for a lovely view of the city, especially in a rotating restaurant such as this that gives us plenty of angles to see all the neighborhoods, downtown, the bay, the mountains..."

Tomato blinked, and turned to the window to find that he was now viewing the city at a different angle, this time having a better view of the bay and what looked like a carnival at one of the piers. With a big smile, he turned to the Countess, pointing out the window like an amazed foal. However, the Countess just rolled her eyes at him, and turned away in case he was going to say something.

"In any case," the Countess' manager, Svengallop, said. "I'm surprised that Mr. Sandwich refused to join us." He twiddled his hooves nervously, looking a little paler than normal. "Maybe it's better that he isn't here to wreck everything."

Coloratura sighed. "Svengallop, you know Cheese is a nice guy who wouldn't hurt a fly. He just wanted to dine with his family, that's all."

Tomato huffed. Of course there was another assuming Cheese was stupid based on his career. So, he said, "Hey! I met him earlier today, and he's friendly! So, I don't see what your problem is."

Svengallop glanced between his charge and Tomato. "Oh, really? Sure, he fakes being nice, but he can be rather vicious if you dare to disagree with him. I could have sworn I saw his eyes flash red when we had an argument earlier today!"

Tomato was taken aback by Svengallop's reasoning. There was a point in Cheese losing his temper that Tomato couldn't argue against--he himself had been subjected to Cheese snapping into an uncontrollable wrath. Still, the way Svengallop said it implied that it was a disagreement over a minor thing, which Cheese wouldn't be 'vicious' about. He wasn't even sure that his lost memory could give him a personality change that drastic, even if he was getting a little temperamental.

Coloratura patted her manager's back. "Oh, I'm sure he just didn't get enough sleep last night. Even the nicest ponies are cranky when sleep-deprived." She rubbed her chin. "And... are you sure you got enough sleep last night? You do seem uptight."

Svengallop waved a hoof. "Now, now, Countess, I know what I saw..." The waiter passed out menus, and Svengallop started to scan his menu. "Hopefully some of the fried alfalfa with the buttered seaweed wrap will calm me down... it feels like this restaurant is spinning faster."

Tomato took his menu, and perused the option. His stomach growling, he sure hoped that the food was well worth the bits. He especially was eyeing the description of Reinier Soup, a vegetable stock containing Seaddle-grown seaweed and hayballs, with a side of bread. Sounded interesting to try, and he didn't know if it was going to be just okay, or a wild ride akin to how the restaurant was starting to rotate faster.

Why was it rotating faster?

Sure enough, it was. Normally, it wasn't noticable unless you kept staring out the window; however, he could feel the floor move under him, and everypony else looked around in confusion, wondering why it was starting to feel more like a merry-go-round. Some of the tables and chairs moved around and tipped over in response to the giant turntable speeding up.

"Uhhh... is that normal?" Tomato asked.

Dandy looked up from his menu and watched the world outside the window spin. "Huh, I didn't think they had a higher speed setting."

Before they knew it, the entire restaurant had become a whirlwind within the needle. Ponies, tables, chairs, and food flew everywhere with the sudden acceleration, and many of the patrons soared right to the windows and walls, whether they splat on it face first or cracked the back of their heads on the hard surface. Some slid down the walls, only to end up back on the turntable and thrown to another part of the restaurant. For Tomato, all that had to happen when he slid down was for his tail to touch the floor, and he was tossed once again.

At some point, he ended up on a window next to the Countess, and they had to balance themselves on the windowsill. He ducked when a plate of hay loaves flew toward him, and they ended up splatting on the window like much of the other food. Still, other food that had been flying around the restaurant had splattered all over their clothing.

Tomato turned to the Countess. "Well, I didn't expect an amusement park ride, did you?"

Coloratura rubbed her temple. "Is the turntable malfunctioning? Because a lot of ponies are having their meal ruined by it!"

Tomato leaned in his hoof. "I wonder how many of these ponies are going to demand a refund?"

Svengallop soared by, crying, "My hair!"

Both Tomato and Coloratura winced at some ponies practically pinballing all over the place, and watched as an employee stood at the door and announced that the mechanics were working on the turntable and that all should remain calm. After the employee left, they glanced at each other. Holding her long tail, Coloratura said, "I'm surprised you're not taking the opportunity to hit on me with some stupid pickup line. You made a big deal out of my shapeliness the last time we met."

Tomato blinked, flushing out of a sense of embarrassment. "Uh... your mane is so pink? It's a beautiful feminine color!"

Coloratura shot a deadpan look his way. "Not exactly A+ material there."

Tomato shrugged. "Hard to flirt when--" A bowl of tomato soup flew into his face, splattering all over his clothes and the window in a mess that looked almost bloody. Pulling the bowl off his face, he finished, "--that keeps happening."

Coloratura blinked, and then giggled. "Okay, I do like that slapstick, Mr. Apple."

Tomato was tempted to correct her, but remembered that he was not being Tomato at the moment, he was being Snapdragon Apple. "Well, I have a knack for attracting that kind of humor. Sometimes it can be a total pain in the... everywhere."

Suddenly, two pegasi hovered in front of them, one of them saying, "Don't worry, Snapdragon... I will tend your wounds."

At the sight of Midnight Bell and her stallion companion that looked nearly identical (with red in his hair instead of pink and wearing a blue hat instead of a bow), Tomato and Coloratura ended up clinging to each other and screaming. They looked at each other with a silent scream of "Wait, is that other one your crazy fan?!" and then slowly turned back to the two pegasi, expecting jealousy from them for the frightened hug.

The pegasus stallion said in a icy monotone, "I told you that rigging the turntable to accelerate would distract everypony as we seize our loves, dear cousin."

Coloratura glared at the stallion. "Look, Dusk Knight, I've told you over and over that I'm not interested!"

"I told Midnight Bell the same thing," Tomato said, visibly blanching at the memory of what happened earlier that day.

"Neither of you understand yourselves," the two cousins said in unison, somehow not getting hit with flying food, utensils, and any of the tables or chairs. "Neither of you understand the meaning of true love. We can set you free..."

"I feel like I'm in a bad manga," Tomato muttered.

A loaf of Prench Bread hit the window, and Coloratura grabbed it. Swinging it like a sword, she snarled, "I don't need any cryptic attempts at seduction, I just came here to eat and socialize with the organizers of the charity concert! Goodness, don't either of you know the concept of personal space?"

Tomato looked at the soup bowl in his hooves, and then looked up at Midnight, who crooned, "Do not resist... we could live a wondrous life, forsaking this stepford society and flying through the night as the vampires we were truly meant to be!"

Tomato groaned. "Trust me on this; the vampire life is not all that great." And then, he threw the soup at her face, and the pegasus was knocked to the floor.

Coloratura gasped. "Uh, Snapdragon... there are ponies here who saw that..."

Tomato turned to her. "What does it matter..." His eyes widened as he realized what that meant and looked around at the shocked ponies sitting on the windowsills and staring at them. "...ooooooh... right, I don't think they have the context..."

At last, the turntable stopped, and security came in, announcing that it was safe to stand on the floor now. As everypony climbed off the windowsills, Dusk helped Midnight up, and they fled the restaurant before anypony else could say anything. Coloratura and Tomato stood on the floor, wiping some of the food off their person.

"Hey, I have a question," Coloratura said.

"What?" Tomato said flatly, still thinking about the possible tabloid headline.

"How would you know what being a vampire's like?"

Tomato bit his lip and gulped. "Uh... I read accounts of the victims in Las Pegasus?"

Coloratura gave him a half-lidded look. "I didn't take you for the reading type."

Tomato just grunted, and just walked toward the overturned table where their party had gathered. Thankfully, everypony was okay, and Dandy, pausing from his search for his glasses, was sure to ask him if he was all right, as ever. He wanted to tell him about the appearance of Midnight Bell and her equally crazy cousin, hoping that maybe they'd take steps to prevent them from ruining the concert like they did with the restaurant.

But, Svengallop complained too loudly about his ruined mane and suit.

Author's Note

Hey, guess what happens when you mix a groaner with near-constant illness for the last couple months of 2016? That's right, you get a unannounced hiatus that you didn't want but had to because you felt too much like crap to undertake storytelling for a time. At least I'm feeling okay enough to write the rest of this, and I'm hoping to get back to a regular schedule.

Also, here's to the first chapter of 2017. Things got a little weirder than intended here, but maybe weird is a good thing. I got scolded for the fruit-flavored fireworks idea by my sister, but I'm ignoring her. XP

I don't know why creepy fangirl Midnight Bell and her cousin is a thing. It just happened. :fluttershyouch:

From what I researched about the real Space Needle's rotating restaurant, it doesn't really go faster than an approximately 45-minute rotation--any faster would not be a fine dining experience. But, sometimes you have to stretch things for storytelling, so, making it a wild merry-go-round made for an interesting scene...

Regardless, I'm just happy to have finally finished another chapter of this thing after so long.

17.4--Behind the Lenses

That night in the trailer, under the soft light of a nearby lamp, Tomato was cradled in a sturdy, but soft, hammock. The pillows beneath his head made him imagine that he was on a cloud, and the sheet that lay on him felt like a shield protecting him from the dangers of the night. A little stuffed dragon sat at his back hooves, staring at him with beady eyes that somehow looked sad. On his ears sat a set of headphones, playing albums of Snap's music. Apart from a few good lines here and there, the repetitive and cheap poppy beats were boring Tomato nearly to sleep. Despite hearing the songs several times, he was having trouble remembering any distinct song. He wasn't even going to excuse it with fatigue.

"Reason number eight that this switch was a terrible idea," he whispered to himself.

He was going to flop. He was going to flop badly. He was going to ruin a young pop star's reputation by failing to remember any of his songs; and even if he did remember, something else was sure to go wrong. Question was if it was going to be a conga of humiliation like what happened in Halterside, an all-out brawl like what happened with the Shining Vocals, or it'd be something involving that creepy Midnight Bell. Was he going to be found out? How was he going to explain to Cheese what he was doing and why he was doing it?

Tomato sighed, thinking of the hefty sum of bits that had made him cave in to the scheme. Surely Cheese wouldn't assume that he had fallen to the vice of greed; no, he'd understand that Tomato was just concerned about the possibility of having to pay actual bits for whatever came their way next. As much as either Sandwich wished the opposite, party pony magic had its limits; pulling money straight out of nowhere likely violated whatever rules were behind the magic.

But, it's just as likely that Cheese would be mad over the scheme, especially if it ruined the concert. He was mad when Tomato screwed up and made them lose to the Flim Flam brothers earlier that summer.

He glanced at a calendar on the adjacent wall. When they did the duet battle, it was nearly mid-June; tomorrow was the beginning of August. There was only a month left before returning to Manehattan for another semester, and boy, was he going to have plenty of wild stories to tell his cohorts.

The trailer door opened, and Tomato bolted upright and stiffened, the headphones falling onto the pillows. Midnight Bell was his first assumption, which sent a chill down his spine. However, he relaxed when it was just Dandy walking in, and trying to shove some of the paparazzi out, yelling, "For goodness' sake! He's a little under the weather after our ride in the Space Needle, so leave!"

Dandy slammed the door and pinned himself to it for a few moments to discourage the ponies outside. Hearing them leave, he peeled himself off the door and locked it. He approached Tomato, brushing himself off as he walked. "Sheesh, some ponies have no respect for personal boundaries, do they?"

Tomato sighed. "No, they don't."

He pulled a stool from under the dresser and sat beside the hammock. Patting Tomato's head, he asked, "Here's hoping you sleep off the stomachache and feel better in the morning. If it's bad enough that you can't sleep, let me know."

Tomato laid his head back down, just barely missing the headphones. He felt bad for lying about having a stomachache in order to buy himself time to study the songs. "Okay."

Dandy glanced to the other side of the hammock, and his smile became a frown on seeing the little toy dragon. Reaching over to grab it, he said, "Are you not going to sleep with Charlie tonight? I'm surprised, you always want to keep your mother's last gift to you close when you sleep."

Tomato stared at the little green toy. He had assumed that Snap would have wanted to distance himself from such a childish item and basically tossed it aside; now that he knew the reason why it was even there, he felt as if he disrespected the memory of someone's deceased relative. Taking it, he looked at the sad beads for eyes and stroked the yellow spines. "I'm sorry, Charlie."

Dandy sighed and looked out the dark window. "I do wish that she was here in the flesh, cheering you on alongside me, helping me keep you out of the crazy mischief you get into sometimes, and fill in for me where I fall short. I wish she hadn't fallen so ill after you were born... she was so excited to raise you, to teach you about your Apple heritage and about the ancestor who founded Applewood, and to see who you'd grow into. Oh, if only you could have seen how happy she was when she first saw you."

Tomato laid Charlie in the crook of his front leg and stared at the ceiling. He knew that Dandy was talking about Snap's mother, but his own mother came to mind, unfortunately being the opposite of what Snap's mother likely had been. And thanks to that Memory Magic device in the Summer Sun Fair, he knew that his mother and father weren't all that happy the day he was born.

"There are days where I really miss her," Dandy said. "I often wonder what she'd do in whatever situation we end up in."

Scold Snap for even thinking of this hare-brained scheme? Tomato thought. Most mothers would have done that.

"Heh, I remember the time I wrote a poem about how I missed her? How you found it and ended up making a song out of it? I kind of wish that song had been released instead of just being part of that old demo CD."

Tomato hated having to be vague and force sincerity about a mare he didn't know, but he felt he had to reply somehow. "Yeah... you know, when I think about it, I can't help but think that she would have loved it." He paused for a moment, his curiosity piqued. "Say, do we still have that demo? I kind of want to listen to it."

"Oh! Yes!" Dandy sped to a hall where a bunk was, and Tomato listened as the sound of a drawer opened. The older stallion came running back, and gave him a little case. "Wanting to relive the memories of when we first started, eh? It's disappointing that only a few of these were mastered into official releases, I really liked these things. But, they didn't quite fit the image we were going for, so..."

Tomato opened it, and started fiddling with the headphones to replace the disc he had been listening to. "Thanks."

Dandy yawned. "Well... time for me to hit the hay. Oh, how I hate getting older..." He trotted to the wardrobe, grabbed the one empty contacts case in it, and set it on the dresser close to the hammock. "Remember to take those contacts out before you go to sleep, okay? Remember to be careful of the light."

Tomato wanted to ask "What contacts?" but then remembered that Snap had a lot of those, often changing his eye color. He wondered what Snap's natural eyes were like, but it wasn't a detail that he wasn't going to concern himself with. He did not know what Dandy meant by being careful of the light, but he replied anyway, "Okay. Good night."

Dandy trotted off to his bunk. "Good night."

Tomato put the headphones back on, and started the music. He had fully expected to be jolted out of his lax state by loud, manufactured beats beginning a song. Instead, the soft notes of a keyboard graced his ears, bringing to his mind a lone pony on the piano. While there were soft poppy beats in the background, he still had this image in his mind as Snap's voice began the first verse, singing a story about a lost loved one.

"It's hard to determine what hurts more
A cold touch or none at all..."

Sinking lower into the pillows and cuddling Charlie the Toy Dragon, he couldn't help but feel like the lyrics were telling the story of his life. Granted, the actual song was about Dandy's grief over his wife's death, but it still reminded him of emotions all too familiar with him. Though that depressing period of his life was over, the song put into words just how much it had hurt.

And dare he say it, he was actually liking this one. True, Tomato now had a better relationship with Cheese and wasn't likely to lose him again anytime soon, but it was still speaking to him. He was enjoying one of Snapdragon Apple's songs, and it was only a demo. If there was any song that he wouldn't mind singing, it would be this one.

It only brought up the question in his mind of why it wasn't officially released.

It was a interesting night for Snap. In the one of the sparsely decorated guest room's two beds, he had spent much of his time awake and thinking about his day. He wondered how Tomato was doing in his place, and hoped he was having more fun than he was. Which he thought was odd, because how could anyone not have fun with Cheese Sandwich?

He remembered that party that Cheese threw years ago back in Applewood, and Snap had been in the front row to see the party pony in his full glory. How he drank in the spotlight, how his singing and dancing wowed the crowd, and his endless creativity were what made Cheese admirable to him. Seeing that pony so happy, without a care in the world or a tear to cry, had made Snap decide to become a musical star.

Snap was not much for polka, so after some experimenting, he found a niche he was comfortable in. He liked a genre where he could sing all the shallow songs about partying, popularity, and mares he liked and nopony cared. After all, he wanted to be seen as an unbreakable spirit and a fun guy to be around, unlike the little pipsqueak teased for his bad eye, or that young adolescent told point blank that "No one wants to hear a song where you cry for your dead mommy." He had no room in emotional nonsense in his career.

It took a lot not to squeal in fancolt joy when discovering that he switched places with Cheese's brother of all ponies. But, he soon discovered that it was no picnic. As a matter of fact, he hated to admit it, but something about him was just... scary.

~~~~~

"Tomato..." Cheese said, staring straight at Snap's plate. "Are you seriously eating sauerkraut of all things?"

Snap paused in his eating for a moment, looking around at the rest of the family and their guests, before replying, "Uh... what does it matter?"

Narrowing his eyes and snarling, "Traitor!", Cheese grabbed the table and flipped it over. The sauerkraut and various other vegetables splattered and scattered all over the floor, and on the ponies opposite of Cheese--Acorn, Cocoa, and Ice Cream, and much of it was crushed by the table. All the other ponies sat there and stared in horror, all the painstakingly prepared food wasted in one fell swoop, especially Cocoa Butter.

Cocoa's face turned red as she wiped mashed potatoes off her face. "You better clean that up, mister. All of it."

Cheese huffed. "Can't lick it all up--the rest of the food is likely contaminated by the mutated pickled cabbage."

"I. Said. All of it!"

"You can't make me."

~~~~~

"I can't believe she sent me to the guest room like that!" Cheese said, sitting on the bed with his front legs crossed. "The hay is she thinking, grounding me like I'm some little kid?"

Snap had been curiously playing with Boneless Two, making the rubber chicken dance like he'd do with Charlie when he was bored. It made him wonder how Tomato would react to the little toy dragon, and he hoped that he wouldn't be judged for keeping something so childish at his age. But, if Cheese Sandwich carried around a rubber chicken, it validated his own possession of a toy.

"Well, she's not my mother!" Cheese growled.

A sudden bang made Snap jump, and he looked to the bed where Cheese sat, seeing the party pony having a hoof through the wall. Cheese held his scowl and breathed heavily for a few seconds more, and then he looked to the wall in astonishment and a twinge of horror. Snap scooted a little away, as if he expected Cheese to strike him next.

Cheese only said, "Wow, I'm stronger than I thought."

~~~~~

Even when he slept, it was disturbing; Snap just had to turn his head to the other bed, and Cheese would be growling and gnawing either his pillow or Boneless 2. It actually kind of hurt to see the rubber chicken used as a chew toy. He wondered how Tomato put up with it.

The trickiest thing for Snap that night was taking off the contacts with nopony noticing that "Tomato's" eyes had changed. Taking them off in the guest room hadn't been an option, since Cheese would notice. He had finally taken them out around midnight in the bathroom so that he had light to do the job correctly. He had to squeeze his left eye shut after the lenses were out before any pain began, and was about to navigate his way back to the room, only to find that Creamy had been waiting for a turn for the bathroom.

She didn't notice the different eye color in the low light, thankfully, but Snap's mouth slipped once again when he told her, "I have to say, Ice Cream would make the best midnight snack."

To which she replied angrily, "Stop it!"

After a few hours of sleep, Snap then had to wake up early to put the lenses back in. Sudden light hurt his eyes, and he had to keep forcing his good eye open to stick the lenses in. As for the other eye, it had felt like it was bleeding by the time he was done. After making sure that the forelock stayed up, he went back to bed with teary eyes, wondering how long he could sleep with the lenses in. As it turned out, not very long.

So, by morning, when everyone was heading to the waterside park for the final touches to the stage and the setup of various food stands, Snap was drowsily towing a wagon alongside Cheese Sandwich. The wagon was full of the fruit-flavored fireworks that Acorn and Cocoa had managed to create the night before. The two chemists were busy carrying the specialized launchers that Sugarcoat and Indigo Zap had designed and built for them; their daughter had her own cooler wagon, towing the supplies and ingredients for her homemade ice cream stand.

He kept looking at the items he hauled. On the one hoof, he thought it funny that the hoof-sized capsules looked like colorful crystal balls; on the other, why was everyone talking so loud? The most annoying was Cheese's snorts as he attempted to smell everything, only to grumble about how his nose still didn't work and that it kind of hurt.

At one point, when they just about to turn into the park, Snap said, "Geez, what are you, some kind of dog? There's, like, nothing to smell!"

Cheese almost bit him for that, which had caused Snap to jump back. He heard the capsules rattle, but looking back, he couldn't tell if any had fallen out, and he wasn't going to stop to search the street for any stray capsules. As far as he could tell, nopony else in front of them noticed if he had lost any, though Cocoa gave them a stink eye for arguing, while Acorn and Creamy just sighed. Besides, what was one capsule, anyway?

Cheese growled, "You're not the boss of me; I'm the older brother, remember?"

Turning back to the glaring Cheese, Snap wondered if the party pony's temper was always this short, and he was just really good at hiding it from strangers. In hindsight, Snap should have asked Tomato what foods he did or didn't like, since it would have prevented a scene at the dinner table over sauerkraut of all things.

"You didn't have to try to bite me!" Snap looked at the foreleg that was nearly chomped on. "I'm not that tasty."

With a snort, Cheese shook his head and muttered, "Classic Tomato, always complaining."

Good to know that he was doing a good job impersonating Tomato.

Cocoa Butter growled. "You know, it'd be nice if you two stopped fighting like small foals! We're in a public park, going to get a charity event ready, and last I checked, Cheese is supposed to be a professional party pony--it doesn't speak well of him to be quibbling over something stupid with his brother when he's got a job to do."

Acorn looked down the path they trotted, rubbing his head. "Yeah... if you two would just be quiet until we make it to the stage and meet Golden Glee, that'd be nice."

Both stallions huffed, and remained silent for several more minutes as they trotted to the concert area. Not much noise was between them, as all instead listened to the waves splashing against the park's rocky shore, and the snippets of conversation from passersby. Some strangers stared at the wagon full of glowing orbs, looking concerned at the mysterious items that lay within it and hastening their pace. Snap was amused at the caution they exhibited, as if the glowing orbs were bombs. Well, they explode, that much was true, but as least their explosion was delicious.

Then he realized that that was a bizarre sentence to even think.

After a morning of engagements around the city and a lunch date--as well as trying to listen to Snap's songs in between--the afternoon had Tomato, Dandy, and a couple of bodyguards heading off to the park for rehearsals before the concert. The carriage ride through the Seaddle streets was relatively peaceful, showing the greens, browns, and grays of the buildings and parks.

While Dandy talked and talked, Tomato tuned him out. He tried to bring the official songs to his mind, so that he may be able to sing them when the concert started. However, no matter how many times he listened to them, attempted to memorize the words, and even forced himself to sing along under his breath, his mind always went back to that demo instead.

He had only listened to that demo twice, and yet, the songs in that had stuck.

Tomato tried to tell himself that it wasn't a big deal--maybe actually rehearsing with them will make them stick. He didn't care for the songs, the genre they were, and the messages they sent, but who was he to complain? He was posing as the artist who sang them, and refusing to sing for those reasons was most likely going to blow his cover.

Aw, who am I kidding? he thought. The fact that I can't even remember any of the lyrics is going to blow my cover!

After watching buildings and ponies and sidewalks rush by, the carriage stopped in front of the park, and Dandy and the bodyguards hopped out first. As Tomato climbed out, he thought to himself about how his time posing as Snap could have been better spent. He could have been there to see how his aunt and uncle were doing with the fruit-flavored fireworks, or maybe helping Cheese out with the concert setup somehow. Heck, even attempting to search for Cheese's missing memory, though difficult that may be, would have been better than--

His hoof stepped on something round, and he slipped, landing chin first onto the sidewalk. He nearly bit his own tongue off, and the numbing, throbbing pain shot through his body. Seeing stars, he briefly mumbled about how he wasn't fat enough to be named "Tomato" before coming to his senses. He barely noticed Dandy rushing to his side, asking him if he was all right.

"I'm all right... I'm all right," he murmured, his tongue aching.

"Here, let me help you up," Dandy said, taking his front leg.

Tomato turned his head as he rubbed it, in order to glance back to see what he slipped on. Much to his surprise, a glowing green orb was there, resting in the gutter. Most ponies would have probably assumed it was a bomb of some sort; Tomato's first thought on seeing a glowing green orb was a flashback to that Memory Magic exhibit, and how that must be Cheese's missing memory! After all, it was green, and a memory orb's glow did match the owner's eye color...

As he was hoisted up, his tail swiftly grabbed the orb and stuffed it in his jacket with no one noticing. After confirming that he didn't feel any funny after that, they continued on into the park, not wanting to miss the chance to rehearse.

Tomato felt the orb in his inside pocket bump against his barrel, and he hoped that he'd have an opportunity to examine it later. Meanwhile, he had some songs he had to practice singing, as much as he didn't want to. Even worse, he had a strong feeling that his relatives would be around due to their involvement in the concert. He prayed that nobody would notice anything that's off with either "Snap" or "Tomato" and get suspicious.

Especially not Cheese.

Rehearsals went fine--at least, for a performance-adverse stallion like Tomato--especially since the other big acts had gone before him. Tomato just had to sneak off to the back, listen to the album once more, and even read the lyric sheet from the case. He spent much of the time pacing around on the grass, trying to sing along as quietly as he could. By the time that Dandy found him and informed him that it was his turn to rehearse, Tomato at least had the lyrics memorized, and practicing them onstage made them stick more.

He saw Snap, dressed in full "Tommy" attire, nod in mild approval, suggesting that his performance was good enough. He saw his family members, shrugging to each other in a "Yeah, I guess he's okay" gesture--though for whatever reason, Cocoa was looking a bit emotional. He noticed the Countess' manager snicker at him, the other performers murmur to each other, and Dandy look concerned over what Tomato guessed was a lack of energy compared to normal (since he had never seen Snap perform, he wouldn't know for sure). However, he couldn't quite find Cheese to gauge his reaction.

Tomato wanted to stick soap in his mouth after he finished. The lyrics would fly over kids' heads, thankfully, but he understood enough that he was not looking forward to singing them again. He just had to remind himself that after the concert, he didn't have to sing them again.

Of course, his heart nearly stopped when taking his exit through the stage's back door, he bumped into Cheese once again. The party pony had been leaning against the wall, front legs crossed and a wad of gum being chewed in his mouth. He noticed how frozen Tommy was, and said, "Why do you look like you're scared of me?"

Tomato gulped. "Uhh..."

"Well, quit it, I'm not going to bite," Cheese said, his tone slightly sharper than usual. He fell forward to stand on all fours. "So, I couldn't help but notice that you sounded a little unsure of yourself there. Your tone was kind of stiff, your dancing was kind of awkward, and you seemed to be giving off a vibe of 'I really don't want to be here'. Are you feeling all right?"

Tomato paused for a moment, and then forced himself to puff up his chest. "Never better! I am the pinnacle of health!" To prove his point, he did a cartwheel in front of him, only to pause again to think, Holy beefsteak, I still know how to do a cartwheel?

Then, rubbing the back of his head, he added, "Well... I just barely recovered from a sore throat, so, uh... being cautious?"

Cheese blinked, and narrowed his eyes. He walked forward, enough to make Tomato back up a little, and attempted to sniff him. He snorted and shot his head up, rubbing his nose. "Okay, if you say so. It's just that you reminded me of my brother up there--not just in looks, mind you, especially since you're still intent on wearing the forelock--but also the fact that he has great vocals, but is kind of awkward in the performance department. He gets some pretty bad stage fright."

Tomato was thankful that the sunglasses hid his eyes. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, we once had a duet battle back east against a couple of con artists, and he bungled up our part so badly we lost." Cheese shook his head, scowling as the memory came back to him. "I had never been so humiliated in my life, and he never apologized for making a fool of us. If any musical performance he gets involved in ends up with things like painful rhymes, ridiculous phobias, and chocolate baths, then I'm happy that he shies away from the spotlight and keeps his mouth shut when it's time to sing."

That speech left Tomato with his metaphorical jaw hanging. Did Cheese always say nasty crud about him behind his back, or was it another side effect of the whole memory ordeal? He hoped it was the latter--he wouldn't be surprised if the missing Las Pegasus memory left Cheese still bitter about the Halterside incident. He was tempted to grab the orb in his pocket and show him and tell him that they could fix it now. He only didn't do so upon remembering that he didn't know how to return the memory to Cheese's mind; that was something to ask Twilight Sparkle should they meet her again. Besides, blowing his cover was going to lead to trouble.

But whatever scrap of confidence that Tomato had received from the rehearsal was now shattered. Missing memory or not, just hearing Cheese pin all the blame on him for that loss made him feel like his innards had turned to mush. He knew that his performance had just been awful, and no amount of singing talent could save it, nor any apologies remembered. His cutie mark was not performance-based anyway; he could hear his mother telling him, "I told you so."

Cheese patted his back. "But, you know, you're not him. From what I hear, you're usually pretty confident and have fun on the stage. Your voice is fine, though I can't help but think it sounds different, and kind of familiar somehow..." The party pony scratched his chin before shrugging. "But, hey, it's okay to be rusty after an illness. Just have fun up there, and you'll be fine, okay?"

Cheese noticed an airborne frisbee out of the corner of his eye, and started to canter away. "I've got things to do, and I'm sure you do too! See ya and the other artists at the concert tonight! I'm hosting the shindig!"

Tomato waved shyly before letting the hoof flop down. He pulled the orb out of his pocket and stared at it. He frowned at the apparent lack of images, and wondered briefly if he picked up something else entirely. He pushed that thought aside, reasoning that the memories must not always have an image, and there was nothing else that the thing he held could be.

He sighed and stored it away. He was not going to have fun, and he was not going to be fine. He was going to end up ruining a young star's career, because like Cheese said, he just doesn't do well in the spotlight.

When Dandy came, Tomato barely noticed himself following him to the next thing on the agenda.

The evening fell, and the charity concert was finally under way. Ponies from every corner of Seaddle came to the waterside park, enjoying the lush, green trees and the wet pine needle smell. After making their donations, the patrons all had their fill from snacks from the nearby food stands, including Creamy's ice cream, and goofed around with some charity workers who had dressed like pirates for the occasion. They all eagerly awaited for the concert to officially begin, ready for music to fill the air. From fans of the bigger names to supporters of the local acts, cheers were abundant when a gift box rolled onto a stage, and Cheese Sandwich popped out in a burst of confetti.

"Good evening, citizens of Seaddle!" He hollered as he landed. The ponies cheered and stomped in applause once again, pleasing the party pony. "Welcome to the big Seaddle Charity Concert! I'm your host for tonight, Cheese Sandwich, and boy, oh, boy, what a way to kick off the month of August! How many of you have had a good summer so far?"

The crowd all cheered in response, to which Cheese nodded in approval.

"That's good to hear! I've been having a crazy summer myself, with the added bonus of giving my little brother the summer vacation of a lifetime! And yes, I do in fact have a brother..." He reached forward and grabbed a certain red-orange pony sitting in front by the back of his suit jacket. "Here he is, my younger brother, Tomato Sandwich. He may be a serious and studious college kid, but deep down I know he's still that excitable, fun-loving colt I know and love."

Some "Awww's" were heard in the crowd, and 'Tomato' flashed a grin, pointed, and clicked his tongue at the crowd, all with a cheeky wink. Several mares giggled at the sight of him, and one even hollered, "He's so handsome!" to which 'Tomato' replied with a "Thanks, beautiful!"

Cheese raised an eyebrow at the cheekiness, but the show had to go on, so he put the younger stallion down. "Anyway..."

Snap, in full Tomato attire, looked up with a big smile, hiding how much he wanted to shudder. Onstage, Cheese was as cheerful as could be when giving credit to Golden Glee for organizing the event; it was a serious disconnect from what Snap saw the night before.

The first act was a local grunge band, and Snap was content to just stand and watch. However, he overheard Acorn Compound say, "Now, do you think you can keep your composure when Snapdragon Apple comes around? Good grief, his songs weren't even that emotional."

Cocoa Butter huffed. "Well, sorry. It's just... his singing voice just reminded me of my dad."

Wait, my singing voice reminds you of--Snap stopped the thought there, reminding himself that Tomato had been singing.

"And when I think of my dad, I think of how proud he and Mom would be of their grandkids. Peanut Butter is a favorite of basketball fans, Ice Cream's happy in her field, Cheese is a renowned party planner, and Tomato... well, Mozzarella hasn't eaten him alive, so maybe he'll be one of Equestria's greatest businessponies." Cocoa smiled proudly, which was followed by a sad sigh. "And then I think of how disappointed he'd be in me for not trying harder to have a good relationship with my brother."

Acorn pulled her close. "Hey, sweetheart, we tried our best to talk sense into them--but they're just too stubborn. Cheese has told us before that he's practically disowned for being a party pony. And, well, Tomato doesn't seem to want to talk about his home life."

Cocoa pointed to Snap. "He's right there."

"Oh!" Acorn turned to Snap. "Sorry about that, kiddo! Hope you're doing all right."

"Uh, I'm fine," Snap answered, wondering how Tomato would have responded to that--or to anything these guys did for that matter, they were nuts. Now looking up at Cheese after the band had finished their song, he thought, Explains his temper. Still doesn't make it less scary.

He took a deep breath. Sooner or later, it was going to be Tomato's turn in the limelight.

Meanwhile, off to the side with the other acts, Tomato Sandwich was awaiting his turn on stage. Having found the classiest outfit in Snap's wardrobe--a sparkling silver vest, black button shirt, and fedora that matched the vest--he sure looked ready, though he didn't feel it. He looked over himself over and over, checking the cutie mark sticker so it wouldn't fall off, straightening his sunglasses, and making sure his throat wasn't raspy. He had ponies stare at his forelock, and his tail swished back and forth as the others went one by one.

Tomato was sorely tempted to scold everyone behind Countess Coloratura's performance. The lights, the pyrotechnics, the overuse of the smoke machines... he could very clearly picture someone in the audience having a seizure or an asthma attack. He wasn't prone to either, but he regretted taking off the sunglasses to see how the lights were, and he was coughing from the smoke that spilled over to his side. At least his coughing covered up the laughter at the Countess' backup dancers--he had no idea why, but he found them funny.

Still, during Cheese Sandwich's intermediate performance, he (and surprisingly enough, Dandy) was irritated that the nearby Svengallop was bragging about Coloratura's performance, while the Countess herself just sat by and brushed her mane.

"What can I say? I made sure that the lights were calibrated to their most colorful and dazzling, that the pyrotechnics had fantastic timing with the music swells, and that the smoke added just the right amount of mystery to her--as if her veil didn't do it enough." Svengallop smiled proudly, holding the edges of his suit jacket. "Yeah, I'm certain that the crowd was wowed by the spectacle."

"They were struck dumb for a moment, I'll give you that," Dandy said, rubbing his eyes. "Although, you've got to love our host's rendition of one of her songs."

Svengallop grimaced as Cheese belted out, "...I perform this way-hey!"

Tomato caught some giggles from the Countess, and said, "Hey, Sven, your young star likes it. Lighten up, at least she has a sense of humor."

"Ugh, I can't believe he got past me and showed her his ridiculous lyrics. How was she not offended that he was mocking her?"

Coloratura glanced at Svengallop. "Well, I can take a joke. You said so yourself, nopony gets far with thin skin. He doesn't mean any harm."

Svengallop looked away and shuddered slightly. "Yeah, sure... doesn't mean any harm..."

Once Cheese finished the song, he pointed upward and finished the song with some colorful fireworks. As the explosions boomed above him, he stuck his tongue out and let a green spark fall on his tongue. With a satisfied "Mmmmm" he grinned and announced, "Hey, everypony, open your mouths! These fireworks are fruit-flavored..."

The audience stared at him in confusion, and murmured amongst themselves about the impossibility of that statement. Still, on seeing a few others in the front--Tomato know who they were--catch a couple of sparks, several other ponies decided it was safe and tried it for themselves. Tongues hung out and caught the sparks like snowflakes, and uncertain frowns turned upward into delighted smiles. Tomato got some of the musicians in on it by catching a spark, and all were amazed at the fruity flavor the sparks emitted.

Cheese grinned. "How do you like that? They were created by my awesome aunt and uncle right there in the front. Give them a hoof, everyone!"

A spotlight shone on Acorn and Cocoa, and they waved to the cheering audience.

Cheese licked his lips. "I just had a burst of green apple flavor... and you know what? Let's get an Apple onto the stage! He's not exactly country folk like all the other Apples I've met... if you ask me, he looks more like my brother! But he's got a voice and a face that many mares swoon for, and he's always up to make you dance. Now, let's give it up for Snapdragon Apple!"

Tomato's heart stopped, realizing that it was his turn. Dandy rubbed his shoulders and said, "Finally! I could tell that you were getting antsy." He gently nudged him forward. "Now, go, my son! Go and sing!"

Svengallop scoffed. "Yeah, sure, and channel your inner boy band."

As Tomato climbed up onstage, Cheese patted his back and said, "The stage is all yours." With that, he cartwheeled away, and Tomato watched as Cheese grabbed Snap, and overheard something about getting ice cream from their cousin. Odd time to do that, but it was Cheese, he'd manage to return to the stage soon enough.

However, all eyes were on him. Dandy's proud smile, squealing fangirls, and a plethora of curious looks were directed toward him as they expected his performance to top the Countess' or even Cheese Sandwich's. Faces of all colors of the rainbow, all staring... all judging... all formulating their reactions to whatever they saw on stage. Never had he seen ponies look like predators, and the only thing that could make it worse was if any of them were eating meat. His stomach churned as he stared back at them.

He waved to them shyly, and said, "Well, well... uh... beautiful weather we're having!" Was he sweating? He was sure he was sweating, because it was a clear day. "Nice way to start August... from what I hear, this city gets a lot of rain!"

By the ice cream stand just outside of the audience, Snap was watching Tomato's speech with a furrowed brow. With a hoof to his face, he said, "What the hay is he doing? This isn't stand-up comedy!"

Creamy, who was busy scooping up chocolate ice cream from a metal bin for both her cousins, replied, "I have to thank him for the weather report... good to know that it's not raining."

Cheese leaned against a tree, staring in confusion. "From what I know, this is not normal..."

"Of course it's not normal!" Snap yelled. "Seriously, he should just thank them for having him, and get on with the song!"

Creamy raised an eyebrow at him. "Uh... why do you even care, Tomato?"

Snap blinked and covered his mouth, glancing at the narrow eyes that Cheese was giving him. With a nervous chuckle, he replied, "E-excuse me... I'm just really, really annoyed that this guy..." He bit his lip while his eyebrow twitched. "This guy is wasting our time with a stupid weather report instead of singing."

Creamy sighed, giving him a bowl. "Well, okay... though it kind of looks like stage fright."

Snap took a bite of ice cream. Did I forget to inform him that Snapdragon Apple doesn't do stage fright?

Great, I'm sounding like a utter moron. Tomato thought it best that he just move on, especially since he could see Snap getting frustrated with him way out there in the back. "But enough about that! You got me here to sing, and I'm gonna sing! Hit it, DJ!"

The intro of the first song came on, and Tomato gripped the microphone tightly. He told himself that there was no pressure at all. He was going to sing, he was going to have fun, he was going to make that crowd jump and dance and--

Wait... what were the words again?

The music was past the point where the lyrics had started, and Tomato didn't know where he could pick up without it being awkward. Even then, all he could come up in his head with that was in tune to the beat was "Pink and orange ponies come to see the chicken dance, and soon enough the fowl will be bathing in cash." could see ponies murmuring in confusion, or several young mares looking a little disappointed that he didn't sing. Oh, crap, they were judging him now!

He didn't know if the music truly turned off or not, but now all he could hear was his own heartbeat. It felt like that something was caught in his throat, and not even a spoken word could crawl out. Was he sweating? Goodness knows that his fur can't be glistening like his outfit! How many of these strangers were there? The many pairs of eyes he saw were staring into his soul, and possible at the forelock that was notoriously stupid on a businesspony, and wouldn't be any less stupid on Snapdragon Apple.

And then, scanning the crowd, he saw his mother's face. What was she doing here?

"Tomato," she said, parting the crowd as she walked forward. "What are you doing? I've told you time and time again not to participate in activities that don't align with your cutie mark! And yet, here you are, posing as some pop star as if you can duplicate any performance of his!"

Tomato still couldn't speak, though explaining himself would be impossible anyway.

Mozzarella climbed up onto the stage and circled him, eyeing him with her trademark glare. "Do you ever think about the consequences of your actions? Why is it that whenever we manage to make you respectable, you always bungle it up with some destructive mischief? Just look at you in that gaudy outfit; are you trying to copy your brother? Everyone knows that you weren't meant for the world of entertainment!"

Tomato winced at the declaration, and he looked at himself, wondering what the heck he was doing. Why the hay did he agree to this? Why the hay did he let himself be swayed like that? Why the hay was he involved in something that he clearly had no business in?

"Question is..." Mozzarella said. "Who besides me are you going to anger this time?"

Tomato gulped. "E-e... everypony?"

That's when he heard laughter from the audience. Turning to look to see who it was, he nearly jumped when he found that the Flim Flam brothers were there, pointing straight at him. He had no idea that they were here too; what were they doing at a charity event?

"Well, well! If it isn't Cheese Sandwich's baby brother!" Flim laughed. "He's attempting to be a star!"

Flam chortled. "But after his humiliating defeat in Halterside, trying would be a terrible idea!"

As the Flim Flams continued their mocking laughter, Tomato backed up and dropped the microphone, which screeched out its high tone. The memory of his overall clumsiness, the fright from that random clown, and the sensation of being covered in chocolate came back to him, and he could hear that crowd there laughing at him once again.

He looked to another part of the audience, where Windswept Goldenmane appeared and said, "Honestly, as if you could survive in front of an audience."

Then Creme Brulee shouted, "You're a freak! You can't hide your freakishness from the world once their eyes are on you!"

And then Kazam appeared. "And who knows? Maybe you'll relapse into vampirism right in front of this audience!"

The faces of the audience were all replaced with all those he had ever remembered meeting, from those who mocked him to even those he befriended. Former childhood friends pointed at him, mocking the "boring business nerd" trying to sing and expecting him to break down crying. Those bandits that were at Nickerlite laughing to see that pony in such gaudy getup. Trixie laughed, bragging about how she would do far better than some scared college kid. Those ponies in that one town, including Party Favor and his little group, all laughed at the pony who had helped them. Ponyacci appeared, mentioning that he looked like a clown. Pinkie Pie and friends, all finding it hilarious to see somepony so out of his zone. And even his own friends laughed, fully expecting him to screw up.

The only one in the audience who wasn't laughing was Cheese, who just glared at him like a disappointed parent.

The laughter rang... and rang... and rang in his ears. His heart pounded, his coat had gone damp, and he heaved and heaved. He wanted to escape, and go back to Manehattan where he could disappear in a crowd and just about nopony cared who he was. He didn't want to face Snap over choking like this, he didn't want to face Dandy to confess about the deception, and he didn't want to face Cheese for messing things up.

Finally, when he just couldn't take it anymore, he screamed into the air as loudly as he could, and then bolted off the stage, running off to wherever else in the park.

The ponies once again murmured in confusion and disappointment, the musicians and managers looked at each other in concern (save for Svengallop, who was snickering), and Dandy just climbed onto the stage, and shouted, "Snap! Wait! What's wrong?!"

Still leaning against the tree, Cheese Sandwich stared at the scene that had unfolded before him. The music played, Snapdragon choked, and after a few minutes of standing there speechless, he screamed and ran off. However strange that was, as Snap was not known for severe stage fright, he heard so-called Tomato yell, "I can't believe it! I can't believe he choked! What's the matter with him?"

"You seem awfully concerned about this," Creamy said.

Cheese turned, and noticed "Tomato" looking nervous again. As the gears in his head turned, he started to wonder what was really going on. After all, Snap clearly had faced bigger crowds and didn't buckle down--so why would he just suddenly choke in some park in Seaddle? In fact, this stage fright reminded him of the incident in Halterside, where Tomato humiliated them both with his awkward performance.

"Yeah... awfully concerned..." Cheese said in a low voice, approaching his so-called brother. As the pony there started to back up, Cheese grabbed him by the jacket, and threw him into the tree. The strength of it was such that tears and something else entirely flew out of the vermilion stallion's eyes. With angry snorts, Cheese growled, "All right... you better be Tomato and not who I'm starting to think you are..."

The pony opened his eyes, and Cheese noted the light gold of one eye and the ugly, red-streaked pink of the other. The pony tried to answer, "What are you talking about, of course I'm--OW!" He covered his pink eye and groaned, and his other eye widened in realization of what just happened, and looked down on the ground to find that his green-eyed lenses had fallen out.

Seeing the eyes, Cheese turned his attention to the cutie mark. Feeling it until he found a loose flap, he ripped the sticker off, and sure enough, there was the apple microphone that made up Snapdragon Apple's cutie mark. His eyebrow twitching, Cheese shouted, "I can't believe it! You were Snapdragon Apple this entire time?!"

Creamy's eyes widened. "Holy smokes, no wonder he kept trying to flirt with me."

Snap covered Cheese's mouth with his free hoof. "Okay, okay, you caught me! Just don't shout it so loud."

Cheese dropped him and scratched his chin. "If you're here, then that must've been Tomato up there, choking!" He turned to glare at Snap. "Didn't he tell you that he doesn't like attention from strangers? Or that he suffers from terrible stage fright? Why did he even agree to this?!"

"Well, I offered him money."

Cheese stood straight up, processing that last sentence. After several moments of awkward silence, Cheese held an icy glare once again, growling like a hungry wolf. Turning around, he started to prowl toward the stage, ignoring Snap's pleas of, "Wait, I can explain!"

Cheese made it to the stage where Dandy was ordering bodyguards to go find him, and pulled at the ear of the older stallion to whisper in it. After wide eyes and a slack jaw from the yellow pony, Snap knew that he was going to be in trouble with his father.

Then, Cheese said to the audience with a smile, "Sorry about that, ponies! We'll have the Piano Ponies play instead while I go and fetch our elusive Snapdragon--don't worry, I'm pretty good at catching runaways. I can't just leave you with a drought of music, so, let's get those ponies onstage!" And with that, Cheese hopped off the stage in pursuit of his brother.

As the Piano Ponies hauled their instruments onto the stage, Snap turned to Creamy and said, "So, uh, now that you know who I am, is my flirting a lot less awkward? Because, really, you do look like a delectable dessert." He waggled his eyebrow as he did so.

Creamy raised an eyebrow. "With you looking like my cousin, it's always going to be awkward."

Author's Note

The CD thing was one of those times where I questioned Equestria's technological advancement, since it's all over the place and confusing. I keep thinking of it as 20's or 30's, but then you have modern pop. :ajbemused:

An interesting game to play while reading this would be, "If Cheese was his completely normal self, how would he really react to this situation?"

Anyway, now we're getting close to wrapping this thing up. Don't know if it'll be one or two chapters more, but I'm hoping to get the next one out faster. But, now Cheese knows, Creamy knows, and Dandy knows. And now we know what Snap's real eye colors are (yep, two eye colors, despite my hatred of OCs that have that because people just can't choose one color).

17.5--Trouble Swings In

It had all been a blur after he bolted off the stage. Tomato didn't know how long he had been running, where he had been running to, or if anypony else even existed in his path. All he knew was that he had seen many familiar faces, many of which he had thought were friendly, and that they had laughed at him. He had feared that he was dabbling in an area he didn't belong in, and he just proved it back there. An absurd thought it was, some snooty little budding businesspony thinking he could perform like an experienced entertainer!

He jumped into a thicket of pine trees, standing at the edge of the water. His leap ended with him clinging to a tree, panting to the point where his lungs ached. He kept this up for a few minutes, regaining every sense of himself until his lungs relaxed to his normal breathing rate, and his legs became noodles, sending him down on his rump. The evening air cooled his hot skin, the pine needle smell cleared his mind of chaos, and the splash of water on the shore was the only noise he welcomed in what was otherwise silence.

His removed himself from the tree, and crawled to the part of the thicket opening up to the bay. Sitting atop a little beach of rocks, he slammed his forehead into his hooves and shook his head. In one instant, he had made Snapdragon Apple look like a fool in front of an audience, all because he choked; no, he had a panic attack! All because Tomato Sandwich couldn't handle an audience.

He slid his hooves down his face, pulling at his bottom eyelids. He never had a problem with getting a lot of attention when he was a small foal; he relished the attention of his classmates and teachers, which was often a big contrast to the increasing dreariness of home. He was a fun colt, the go-to guy for a good time, and the smiling face willing to brighten up a classmate's day. So, what happened?

That was a stupid question; Tomato knew exactly what happened. Noticing sap on the outfit he wore, he was reminded of that day. He could still hear the taunting laughter, the mockery of the tears that had burst forth after being held back for so long, the jokes about how "sappy" he was after his failed attempt to climb a tree, the nickname of "crybaby" echoing around him, and the underlying spite toward him, as they had the gall to feel betrayed that he was no fun anymore, and dared to put his missing brother in priority over his classmates. Biting one of his so-called friends even backfired on him; he was punished when his mother caught word from the other colt's mother, and didn't even listen to his side of the story.

He didn't know why simple sympathy had escaped them, and why they thought he was some toy meant to entertain and nothing else. Even so, he was made to believe that he had it coming. He didn't want any more crowds, lest any positive attention suddenly turn negative on him again. It was another reason to listen to Mom when she demanded he focus on the mark on his flank, and suppress anything else. If even so much as a song rolled out, suppress it harder. He wasn't Cheese, anyway.

Speaking of Cheese, Tomato perked up when he heard him calling his name. At first, the thought of it was peculiar; why would he be looking for him if Snap was still in his Tommy disguise and was hanging around Cheese when Tomato himself had run off? It wasn't even ten seconds when the realization sank in: Cheese found out about the switch.

"Tomato Matthew Sandwich!" Cheese yelled.

Tomato winced at the sound of his full name. No doubt in his mind that he was in trouble. He hoped that Cheese would not sniff him out, so that the pathetic stallion in the thicket could wallow in his self-pity some more. It was something Tomato good at, and for a few moments of staring at the water, he was ready to mock himself for it.

As he noticed a strange reflection in the water and looked up to find himself face-to-face with Midnight Bell, he realized that he wasn't going to have that time anyway. He yelped in his reborn panic, but before he could jump away and escape, the pegasus grabbed him, and gazed at him with her cold eyes.

"Don't worry, my love," Midnight cooed. "I shall rescue you from the judging crowd."

Of all the stupid situations he got himself into and the stupid reasons for doing it...

Cheese knew that Tomato could not have gotten far. Despite his speed and his state of panic, Tomato wouldn't venture onto city streets he didn't know; plus, he most likely wanted to go somewhere quiet to calm down. So, Cheese stayed in the park, looking everywhere he could. From scouting from the treetops to looking under rocks, and from checking park outhouses to poking his head into bushes, Cheese was scouring every inch of the park, with his nose automatically trying to sniff, but failing to pick up any scent.

"How dare he pull this switch just for money, the little greedy twerp," Cheese growled throughout his activities. "Go ahead and make some quick bits during a fudgin' charity concert! Surely, entertainment is the easiest job ever!" He snorted, and continued his prowl around the park. "I swear, when I find him, I'm going to scare him straight. Tell him that if he does something like this again, I'm going to tear his throat out so he can't give me any more pathetic excuses! Maybe break one of his legs so that he can't run off and do something as stupid as this. I won't stand for him tarnishing the concert that I worked my butt off to make fantastic, and ruining my record!"

Raising his head after smelling under a rock, he rubbed his nose and grumbled, "What does he even smell like anyway?"

Cheese pushed aside a branch to look in one thicket, and on seeing nopony there, he withdrew himself from it. However, in doing so, the branch slipped, and smacked his bandaged foreleg. Cheese yelped like a puppy, scrambling backward until he plopped onto his rump, and then cradled the burning limb. Breathing heavily, he looked at the foreleg for a moment, and, in thinking that his tongue could provide the tender loving care his leg needed, he attempted to pull the bandages off with his teeth.

His ears twitched as he heard the muffled shouts and grunts of a mare above him. Curious, he glanced upward, seeing a purple pegasus flying meters above him, certainly too far above him for any muffled noise to reasonably be noticeable by normal ears; Cheese didn't know his ears were that good until then. He wore a dark-colored bag that was cradled on his back instead of hanging off of his sides, and for some reason, it seemed like it was moving, like somebody was kicking and punching to break free.

The pegasus passed with no indication that he saw Cheese, and seemed to by landing somewhere over the hill. While the party pony had a task of finding his brother, he couldn't help but be curious about the pegasus he just saw. If anything, that looked like a kidnapping in progress. So, Cheese decided that maybe he should look over there, telling himself that maybe he could find Tommy seeing that in action too. So, he crept up the hill, hoping to get a good look at what was going up.

Peeking over the hill, he discovered the pegasus had a friend--or twin sister, or nearly identical female cousin, if the coloring was anything to go by--and that the friend was barely phased in holding a struggling Tomato, who had his mouth tied in a gag, and was clearly uncomfortable with the caressing she was giving him. As the stallion member of the duo landed, he removed the "backpack", untied the rope sealing the opening, and opened it up briefly so that his companion could stuff Tommy in. The head of Countess Coloratura popped out to spit out a sock and gasp for breath, only to be shoved back in with Tomato and the bag.

Cheese rubbed circles on his forehead. "Of course he's getting kidnapped by a crazy fan. Why can't he stay out of trouble?"

He lurched forward, rolled down the hill, and then popped right back up in front of the pegasi just as they finished tying up the bag with a long rope. Their eyes widened momentarily in surprise, but then the faces turned back to stone. Tapping a hoof, Cheese said calmly, "You know, we need those ponies for the concert back there."

From inside the bag, a muffled noise that vaguely sounded like "Cheese?" was heard.

"Oh, thank Celestia, somepony saw at least one of them!" Coloratura cheered.

The two pegasi hovered in front of the bag, with the stallion saying, "Do not stop us, Cheese Sandwich; our cause is noble and just. We seek only to liberate them from the soulless music industry suppressing their true selves."

Cheese gave them a funny look. "Um..."

Coloratura groaned. "Forgive me for not getting that idea when you barged into the bathroom to gag me and stuff me in a bag."

The pegasus mare then said, "We, Dusk Knight and Midnight Bell, have sworn ourselves to freeing lost souls from the clutches of Equestria's many oppressive systems. We separate the wheat from the chaff, rescuing the good souls who are being brainwashed by the government, the corporations, and the popular culture. These two are such souls trapped in gaudy imagery."

Then, in unison, with puffed out chests and eyes closed, the pegasi said, "We shall help them shed their shackles, and the Night will set them free!"

When they opened their eyes, however, Cheese had disappeared. They only needed to whirl around to find that he already had lifted their bag of pop ponies onto one of his shoulders, preparing to roll it onto his back. For a brief moment, he looked like he had been caught with his hoof in the cookie jar.

After a few moments of staring at each other awkwardly, Cheese simply said to them, "You're crazy."

A double "mm-hm" sounded from the bag.

They leapt forward and managed to snag the rope sealing the bag, and attempted to fly away with their prize. The bag momentarily slipped out of the grasp of his lone hoof, but Cheese grabbed the bag itself with his teeth. He dug his hooves into the ground, preventing them from going too far or carrying him aloft as well. His hooves dragged forward a bit as the two pegasi fought back, but he still clung onto the ground as hard as he could.

He could feel each yank forward, nearly jolting him out of his tracks, but, mustering strength that he didn't know he had, he pulled back a few steps. He nearly smirked at the desperate flapping of the two would-be kidnappers' wings, though pausing allowed him to be pulled forward again. Growls rumbled from his throat as he held on, and he felt his muzzle wrinkle more than he thought was possible as he felt each tug back. He directed a glare at the pegasi, ready to tear them asunder for compounding the possibility of the concert being ruined.

"Playing tug-of-war like a dog is fine and all," Coloratura said. "But, you might want to consider the re--"

All of a sudden, the patch of the bag's canvas that Cheese bit on was swiftly ripped away, and the bag was flung into the air, jetting past Midnight and Dusk. It soared in an arc back the direction of the concert, with Coloratura wailing, "--cooooooooooiiiiiiiiiillllllll!"

Cheese stared up at the sky, the patch of fabric still in his mouth. Dang it.

Then he noticed Midnight and Dusk preparing to fly after them, and in one swift move, Cheese yanked out a jack-in-the-box, cranked it, and then launched himself into the air. He grabbed them by the tails, and snapped, "Oh, no you don't!"

When Cheese didn't return after the Piano Ponies' performance, somepony had to fill in as a temporary host. Golden Glee had taken it up, announcing an "Audience Talent" segment, for those in the audience who wanted to show off their stuff. After her announcement, she whispered to Dandy, who was off to the side of the stage forcing away a scowl with a smile, that she hoped that Cheese returned with Snap soon.

But, knowing that it wasn't his son that Cheese had chased after, he simply shot a subtle glare at the real Snap, still in Tomato attire, who was clearly avoiding eye contact with him as he combed the grass for his lenses. Creamy had her eye on him, making sure he didn't try to slip away.

When none of the confused audience volunteered, threatening the Audience Talent segment to be cut short, Creamy volunteered, and dragged Snap onto the stage. On learning that his voice wasn't up to par, took to singing "Ninety-Nine Buckets of Oats" while they both danced the Macarena to a piano tune in the background. All that did was make every pony in the audience look at them and each other with odd looks. Even Dandy was perplexed, scratching at his white curls.

"Take one down, pass it around, eighty-four buckets of oats on the wall!" Creamy sang, shaking her hips and finishing the verse with a clap.

Snap grimaced, his left eye squeezed shut and his face red from embarrassment. "Your voice is beautiful, but why you'd choose the buckets of oats song?"

"Because it's long and buys time for Cheese to get Tomato," Creamy whispered through the gritted teeth of a forced smile.

"Okay, so why'd you drag me into this if I can't sing and am blind in one eye at the moment?"

"I'm keeping an eye on you."

Snap smirked and waggled his eyebrows. "Because I'm handsome?"

"No, because I'm not about to let you sneak away so you don't have to face the music when Cheese comes back... as it is right now, some random pony being pulled aside by your father would look weird to the audience." She looked at her parents in the audience, who feigned supportive smiles, despite clearly finding the act utter nonsense. "Dang it, I missed a verse."

"You could at least let me go to clean my lenses!"

Meanwhile, off to the side of the stage that the other performers were sitting, all were just staring in the same manner as the audience. Svengallop rubbed his temples, groaning from the sheer tedium that was the performance. "When will the Countess return from her bathroom break? We need some real music up there!"

Suddenly, a mysterious bag dived toward the stage, only falling short of impact--though it still would've hit Creamy and Snap had they not dodged--thanks to the rope snagging the catwalk above. The heads of Countess Coloratura and who everypony else thought was Snapdragon Apple (but was really Tomato Sandwich) popped out of a hole in the bottom, with the mare gasping for breath and the stallion having a gag wrapped over his muzzle. The two upside-down ponies stared at the audience, grinning as if to say that there was a good explanation for the state they were in.

After staring for a moment, Snap started to snicker, and stood up to face a glaring Tomato. "Okay, what's with this nonsense?" He continued laughing as he untied the gag. "I hope you're not hurt or anything, because you look like you were just held hostage or something."

Tomato spat a sock out right on Snap's face. "Blegh... at least that sock tasted better than the last one."

Creamy gave him a funny look. "Last one?"

Coloratura looked at him uncomfortably. "Do I even want to know the context of that one?"

"No, you do not, Countess." Tomato turned back to Snap, looked him straight in the gold eye, and hissed, "This is your fault."

Coloratura gave him a funny look. "Huh? What did Cheese Sandwich's brother do to cause all this?"

Snap had peeled the sock off his face, and threw it elsewhere after cringing at how it felt. "Well, uh... you see, uh..."

Dandy trotted to the bag, covered the microphone, and gave Snap a hard look. "Miss Countess, if you've noticed that Mr. Sandwich's brother and my son look uncannily similar, then perhaps you can assume that if they switched places and concealed their cutie marks, nopony would notice."

Coloratura's eyes widened. "They didn't."

"They did," Creamy deadpanned.

Both Tomato and Snap looked away sheepishly, while Coloratura muttered, "No wonder he was more tolerable this time..."

"I'm surprised that it took Cheese this long to notice," Creamy said. "Speaking of Cheese, where is he?"

Then a screaming Cheese came soaring through the air in an arc, breaking through one of the stage walls. The pony at the piano galloped away in fright as Cheese landed on the piano with a loud bang. Looking up at the stage's ceiling, he slurred, "...no lemons for me... I'm on a grapefruit diet..."

He shook his head and lifted it to look at the stunned audience. He glanced at Golden Glee, who tossed the microphone to him, and then as he caught it, he smiled and said, "Aaaaaand I'm back! I got our wayward little pop stallion back, and, uh..." His ears twitched and he took a brief moment to glare at the hole. "I'm going to the stage roof to get him and the Countess down. In the meantime, these ponies will engage you in a singalong of Equestria's best songs!"

Dandy jumped. "Wait, what?!" Cheese zipped past him and gave him the microphone. "Oh, come on! Golden Glee just gave that back to you!"

He looked at the audience, and chuckled. "So, uh... how's about we sing that song about spoonfeeding snapping turtles?"

Cheese flipped onto the roof, and Midnight and Dusk were already trying to haul their favorite pop stars up. With a whistle, he got their attention and said, "You know, ponies appreciate having a choice, and you're not being fair in not giving Coloratura and Tom--I mean, Snapdragon, theirs. So, step aside, let me untie that and lower them down, and then leave them alone, unless you want me to get the police on your case."

"They are brainwashed, and we will save them from the brainwashing," the two pegasi said in unison. They dropped the rope--leading to an "Oof!" below--and turned to him, gazing upon him with their icy eyes. "We see that you are also a prisoner, and that you also hide something underneath."

Cheese snorted. "You're making some big assumptions there, guys. I've known I'd be a super duper party pony since I was a toddler, and I'm the greatest party pony at that!"

Dusk Knight blinked his dull blink. "Are you sure?"

Cheese gave a curt nod. "Trained by Ponyacci himself."

Midnight raised an eyebrow. "You hide something under that bravado."

Cheese felt not only his mane bristle, but the fur on the back of his neck as well. "What could I possibly be hiding?"

The two pegasi hovered, and started to circle him, those blue eyes gazing at him with their cold intensity. "You clearly are a pony in denial, Cheese Sandwich. You are hiding something... the question is what it is. Sadness?"

Cheese felt a chill, and he assured himself that his fur was standing on end because of the breeze. "I am not sad."

The saddest memory he could muster was how his grandparents just disappeared from his life. Obviously, they died, but it was strange that he can't remember the moment he heard the news, or even the funeral. He felt a sharp twinge in his brain on thinking about it, which hurt enough for him to grimace.

"Then is it fear?" Midnight and Dusk cooed.

What fear? He had to be pretty fearless as a colt to save his stupid brother from killing himself, or surviving on the road on his own for years since he was a young adolescent. Did they mean fear of other ponies? If so, Cheese couldn't recall any sort of stage fright or shyness on his part, only thinking of the times when he made everypony around him smile. Strange, pre-apprenticeship only yielded memories of making Tommy happy and nopony else...

Another twinge, and he grimaced again.

"Perhaps you suffer from traumatic foalhood memories."

"My foalhood was just fine. Sure, Mom was a little strict, but she did let me become Ponyacci's apprentice..." His mind tried to go back to the day she granted her permission, but there wasn't anything specific in his recollection of the past. It was a bit odd, but it was logical to think that since he once lived in Manehattan with his family, and later lived in Mane-tua for a few years to hone his natural talents, he had permission. It wasn't like he ran away or anything; his life hadn't been miserable enough to warrant that.

Another twinge, this time with a grunt.

"Regret?"

No, no, there was nothing that he regretted; he had been a good colt, he had been a good big brother, and whatever misery Tomato had was his own dang fault and the crybaby should grow up. He had a perfect party record; or at least it would be perfect, if it wasn't for some meddling pink mare at that Fall Festival. Why did she even need to barge into Sandwich Brother time like that?

Another pained grunt came out of him as a particularly sharp twinge with a pulsing after-ache hit him.

"Anger?"

That word in particular echoed within him. He emitted a low growl, and mane, tail, and even the fur on his back--especially under his shirt--bristled. No doubt that he was angry with Tomato for pulling that swapping stunt with Snap. Yet again, Tomato was causing problems during a gig, and Cheese's blood boiled on how that whiny twerp kept on being a burden to him all summer.

"Surely there must be something you're hiding," Dusk Knight said.

Midnight Bell nodded, and her tail smacked Cheese's bandaged foreleg, making the stallion yelp. "There is no way that anypony could be as happy as you pretend you are."

Burning pain radiated from the foreleg up to his shoulder, and Cheese's brows furrowed deeply into a glare as he growled, "I am happy."

"...and thus, we're now a happy turtle family," the audience finished singing. Behind them, some of the local musicians had been strumming guitars in order to provide a steady rhythm for the audience to sing to. It was a much better distraction than the one from earlier, and Creamy and Snap were thankful that they were done with their song and dance from earlier. Since Cheese didn't return, Golden Glee spurred the guitarists to play another fun song, this one being a popular dance number that everyone knew the words to.

However, there was still the fact that Tomato and Coloratura were still stuck in the bag upside-down.

"What's taking him so long?" Creamy asked, jumping to look at the tied end of the bag. Even being a taller mare, Creamy saw that neither she nor Dandy couldn't reach it until Cheese lowered the bag. Thuds on the roof made her stop and stare at different spots of the ceiling at any given time. "Is he dancing up there to the song?"

Tomato sighed. "He's probably fighting those two crazy fans that tried to kidnap us."

Snap grimaced. "Midnight Bell?"

"And her cousin, Dusk Knight," Coloratura added.

Snap shivered. "I only, like, told her that she was great at applying lipstick and that she had striking eyes. I didn't think she'd take it that seriously and stalk me everywhere! I swear, she always manages to suddenly appear wherever I'm at! I'm surprised she didn't smell that you were an impostor and track me to your aunt and uncle's house."

Dandy had his eyes on the audience, scanning it for any faces that were looking up at the thumping stage roof, trying to keep himself from looking up as well. "One of us should go and get the police. I hope Cheese can stall them long enough."

Snap grimaced. "They better hope that they don't come face to face with Cheese Sandwich's dark side."

"Oh, I see you met his mischievous smart aleck self, or his disappointed big brother self," Tomato deadpanned.

Coloratura and Tomato's bag ascended yet again, only to drop suddenly and jolt their heads in the process. Tomato glared up at the stage roof, and shouted, somehow to the tune of the song, "Hey! Just throw a pie at them and continue helping us down!"

Everything paused for a brief moment, and then nearly everypony in the area burst into laughter. They all clapped at the coincidence of Tomato's demand and the music, and then continued to sing with brighter dispositions.

Tomato snorted and grumbled, "A humorous solution should have been the first thing that came to his mind."

Snap gazed up uncomfortably. "Say, uh, what category would you put flipping a table over sauerkraut, or punching a hole in the wall because he got grounded by his aunt? Because, uh, to be honest, he's got a scary temper."

Tomato blinked. "Huh...? He's... not usually violent unless he's extremely angry, or when somepony's threatening innocent ponies... or me. Yeah, he's scary when he's mad, but he usually just resorts to scolding."

One loud thud interrupted the guitarists, and everypony looked up at the roof when they heard something that vaguely reminded them of a vicious dog. A smack later came a whine, and the hoofsteps on the roof continued. There was even a pegasus trying to take to the air, only to be pulled down by something.

Dandy tugged at Snap's sleeve. "Perhaps we should go get the police... now."

As Dandy left, Snap started off in a slow trot in following him, but broke into a gallop once Dandy paused to glare at him. As they left, Tomato could hear the father of the duo start, "Now, can you please explain why you two switched places without knowing anything about each other?!"

Tomato shook his head, and was partially relieved by nopony else noticing the beginning of the father-son argument--though worried that bat-hearing had been kicking in. Still, looking up at the ceiling, he was more worried about the increasing pounding on the roof. "What is he doing up there?"

Creamy pursed her lips. "I'll go to the back of the audience to get a better view." With that, she hopped off the side of the stage and galloped around the audience, all the way back to that tree near her ice cream stand.

Her checking it out was all fine and dandy, but Tomato's face hurt from being inverted for so long. Well, he was tired of being upside-down, he wanted to see why Cheese hadn't stopped the fight in any odd way, and he sure as heck wasn't going to wait for anypony--Cheese, Creamy, or Snap and Dandy. If he could escape that closet in the Crystal Empire, then he could escape this. So, with a determined huff and a solid furrow of his brow, Tomato began thrusting his body inside the bag, causing it to slightly swing back and forth.

Coloratura jumped when she felt his body move like so, and shouted, "Whoa! What are you doing?"

Tomato continued to fidget, increasing the distance of the swings. "I'm going up. Help me out, please."

"Uh... okay?"

Coloratura rocked along with him, putting all her strength into making the bag they were in swing higher and higher. With the two working in unison, the swinging could hardly be unnoticed by the audience. They "oohed" and "ahhed" at the pendulum before them, clapping at the sheer effort that the two ponies were exerting. With all of the audience having stopped singing, the guitarists in the background all strummed a tune to go along with the tireless swinging that nearly hit the wall behind them and flew over the audience, back and forth, over and over.

Creamy had made it to the back when she noticed. "Hey! What are you doing?!"

Tomato wasn't sure he could answer his cousin's shout, but he kept on going. He felt like he was being squeezed as he kept up the swinging, and he wished that he had wings to spur him forward. Heck, he felt the presence of the bat wings, and felt like he was flapping them for extra thrust. Even when nearly hitting his head on the wall, or hearing the bag rip a little, he did not stop.

Finally, one last push launched him and the Countess into the air, and the bag was flung onto the roof. They landed with a loud thud, and the two laid there dazed for a moment until Tomato retracted his head, and let the Countess crawl out of the hole. He followed, and the two sat up, catching their breath and letting the blood in their head ease back into flowing through the rest of their bodies. When feeling the spotlight on them and hearing the audience cheer, they turned to the ponies below and waved.

"Wow, what a rush," Coloratura said. She looked at him curiously. "Say... why is your hair suddenly curly?"

Tomato blinked, and patted his own hair, confirming that his mane had burst into its curls during the ride. "Oh... it's natural." He took note of Coloratura's messy state as well, his eyes drawn to a lock of blue poking from out of her pale pink mane. "Though I'm questioning if pink is even your natural hair color."

Coloratura glanced to where the lock was, and brushed it aside. "Svengallop told me I needed to 'pop' in order to make my mark in the entertainment industry. When chasing your dreams, you've got to make sacrifices."

Tomato pursed his lips. "I hope you didn't sacrifice anything too important."

The roof below them shuddered as something was slammed onto it not too far from where they sat. Looking up, Coloratura gasped and Tomato gaped at the sight of Cheese having pinned down Dusk and Midnight. It was one thing for Cheese to fight them off, but the way he held them down and snarled seemed like an animal ready to go for the kill. From the back, his bristled mane, tail, and fur even gave them that image. The pegasi themselves had wide eyes, showing the slightest hint of fear in them.

"What is he doing?" Coloratura asked, looking like she wanted to jump off the roof.

Tomato just stared at Cheese, his mouth unable to let an answer out. The scene before him looked so wrong in so many ways; the bristled fur, the snarling, and even the sheer fact that it was Cheese of all ponies doing this, with no sense of it being a joke. Tomato was no stranger to an angry Cheese, and from his experience, getting ready to bite a face off was not an angry Cheese thing. Every thought that ran through his mind were just reruns of things said before--not of this event, but of an event before.

"Most transformations like this make a pony act like an animal!"

No, no, that was ridiculous, there was no way Cheese could be...

"Please... please don't hurt me!"

"Ha ha haha-ha! And, what? Skip out on lunch?"

Then again, the way that Cheese was pinning them down made Tomato wonder if this was what he saw back in Las Pegasus, when finding him pinning down the pony that bumped him. The thought of Cheese doing it, even to would-be kidnappers, made him sick.

"Oh, dear Celestia, it's getting worse... you need to be changed back before it gets out of hand."

"He pinned me down and I couldn't move and he nearly bit my neck and sucked my blood!"

"He already threatened to suck somepony dry just for nearly knocking him off the walkway."

"You were supposed to kill those that stood in our way, like a good monster!"

"I don't want to see anything like this again. You scared me."

Tomato didn't want to see anything that like that incident again either, but here he was, seeing himself in Cheese's place. With a burst of fearful energy, Tomato screamed and galloped forward, ignoring Coloratura's question of "What are you doing?!" Pulling out the glowing green orb from his mane, not even questioning how he had stored it this time, he leapt onto Cheese and grabbed hold, startling the elder brother off the two pegasi.

"Ack! Tomato, what the hay are you doing?!" Cheese snarled, scrambling around the roof.

Tomato held on with one front leg, and kept looking at the orb he held with the other, snapping, "Come on, you stupid memory! Show us the Las Pegasus incident!"

"What does that have anything to do with right now?!"

"Maybe if you remember it, you'll know what!" Tomato tried to stuff the orb in Cheese's ear. "These things go in the ear, right?"

Coloratura watched the two as they squabbled, with Cheese stumbling just about everywhere on that roof, and Tomato clinging on like his life depended on it. She didn't know why he was even trying to shove a glowing ball in Cheese's ear. She stepped forward, wondering what she could do to help, and stopped at the pegasi that were apparently embedded in the roof.

Dusk Knight looked at her. "In case you're wondering, our wings are broken."

Coloratura grimaced. "Ooh..."

Midnight sighed. "That look in his eyes... he'd make a good werewolf."

Coloratura raised an eyebrow. "Um..."

She looked up to see that Cheese was teetering over the edge, with Tomato too focused on the orb to notice. She gasped and hollered, "Guys, be careful! The edge is right there!"

Tomato perked up. "Wait, wha--"

It was too late, and both of them plummeted down to the ground with their quick screams, ending in a loud thud. Tomato had accidentally tossed the orb up when they went over, and it had dropped by the time that Coloratura had made it to the edge to see them.

Back on the ground, Cheese laid on top of his brother for a moment, their bodies making an X formation from Coloratura's point of view. As he sat up, the orb came crashing down on his head, shattering and releasing a green mist. Cheese smacked his lips, and started to sniff. "Ah... so now I can smell."

Tomato groaned and sat up as well, rubbing his head. "Ugh... I never want to take that trip again..." He looked around at the glass pieces and gasped. "Oh, no! The memory!" He picked up a couple of pieces and tried to fit them together. "What does shattering it do? Is it gone forever? Did it return? I don't know, they never covered this in the exhibit!"

He turned to Cheese. "Do you remember Las Pegasus?"

Cheese glared at him. "No... because that was not my lost memory, that was a fruit-flavored firework. And you would have known that if you had been at Aunt Cocoa's house with the others, instead of prancing around with a fake cutie mark--" Cheese ripped off the sticker on Tomato's flank, with Tomato wincing from the sting. "--and living it up as you pretend to be a pop star!"

Tomato rubbed the sore spot. "Good to know..."

Cheese snorted. "I have one question for you... what were you thinking?!"

Before Tomato had even a chance to answer, they heard the Countess above them ask, "Hey... how do I get down?"

Author's Note

Hey, look, Midnight Bell and Dusk Knight are back. They're still a thing that just happened, but they're a thing that led to more shenanigans, which is always welcome. :trollestia:

Working title was "They Came in Like a Wrecking Ball", but I'm pretty sure I would have been murdered for the reference. Plus, I don't like you-know-who, so I figured I'd scrap it. Stupid song still gets stuck in my head...

Well, I guess the next chapter is the final one of the Seaddle arc. :pinkiesmile:

17.6--Sing Your Heart Out

As soon as the police arrived and took Midnight Bell and Dusk Knight away (and got the Countess down from the stage roof), the group of those who were in the know about Tomato and Snap's switch were gathered behind the stage away from everyone else. The show went on, with another grunge act keeping the audience captivated while the group took a breather from the kidnapping attempt--as well as shoving the two lookalike stallions into the trap room below the stage and making them swap back into their own outfits. Cheese and Dandy leaned beside the door on opposite sides, while Creamy helped the Countess fix her wig and outfit, though there wasn't much she could do about smeared makeup.

After a few minutes, the two stallions came back out in their own garb, with Snap pulling at his own shirt and grumbling, "Why the hay is there tree sap on this vest? Well, at least I'm not putting too much effort in trying to keep the stupid forelock up anymore."

Dandy and Cheese turned to face their respective charges, and said charges winced at the glares resting on them. With both sighing at the same time, they said in unison, "We know, we know... our switch could have ruined the show."

Cheese nodded. "Correct. After all, Tomato, a good singer you may be, but a performer you are not. Even if you hadn't broken down from extreme stage fright, I don't doubt that you'd trip all over yourself like you did in Halterside! The only reason Snap could pose as you for so long is because Acorn, Cocoa, and Creamy don't really know you. I'm surprised Dandy didn't suspect anything when you were posing as Snap."

Dandy shook his head. "Ponies always said I was a bit of an airhead... Snap, why must you get yourself into these situations? You could have just told me that your throat wasn't completely healed!"

Snap rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't want to disappoint my fans by canceling my appearance... I mean, me, blowing my voice out? After building up the image of being Mr. Invincible, with eyes that change color, for so long?" He lowered his sunglasses to show off his one gold eye, squeezing the other eye shut. After readjusting his sunglasses, he sighed, "But, I guess I did end up disappointing them after all."

"Ah, Tomato disappointed them for you," Cheese growled. "The sheer fact that he only agreed to this insane plot out of greed absolutely disgusts me! I should have known that he'd have a mind for profit. Thanks for taking advantage of the pitfalls of his special talent, Snap!"

A couple of curls popped out of Tomato's mane. "Listen, Cheese, the only reason my talent has ever been acting up is because I was trying to help ponies! I wanted to help Silver Shill pay his sister's medical bills, I wanted to help shave off Silk Shimmer's debt, and I wanted to help that town convince that ski committee that it was a good area for ski business! I know that this time what I did was stupid, but the only reason I even wanted to get that money was just in case of any emergencies like, say, your freakin' mind going haywire again!"

Cheese snorted. "Emergencies? Puh, it's not like bits can do what party pony magic can do."

"For goodness' sake, stop thinking that you're invincible!" Tomato grabbed Cheese's foreleg and pointed to the bandages wrapping it. "This is proof that you're not! Nopony is!"

Snap jumped in between them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, time out! You two are getting a little bit too tense, and I think it's scaring the ladies over there."

Creamy paused in cleaning off Coloratura's makeup and turned to raise an eyebrow. "Are you sure you're not just covering for your own apprehension? You seemed pretty scared of Cheese last night."

"After what happened on the roof, I can see why," Coloratura mumbled. She looked up and said, "I'm surprised you didn't think of lip-syncing first. That's usually anyone's first thought when they blow out their voice."

Tomato gave her a funny look. "I'm disturbed that you say that so casually."

Then, Svengallop came suddenly galloping to the area. "Me oh my, Countess! You scared me half to death with that stunt! I was expecting you to go flying into a tree and getting sap and leaves and pine needles all over your clothes!" He pushed Creamy aside, much to the mare's annoyance, and examined the outfit himself. "Oh, dear, your makeup's gone, you've got roof dust on you and you don't glimmer as much!"

"Sven, calm down, I'm not horribly injured," Coloratura said. "The most I have is a few bruises."

He ignored her and leaned to the side to look past her at Dandy. "You're Snapdragon's manager! Can you explain why your kid is crazy?!"

Dandy shook his head. "I don't know where he gets his outlandish ideas. Sure, his mother did have crazy ideas, but not to this extent..."

Cheese rolled his eyes. "Heh, ponies would say that crazy runs in my family, too."

Svengallop cringed and backed up. "I had no idea it could be genetic. Please don't reproduce."

Dandy sighed. "But, to be fair, most of the crazy stuff that happened was due to certain fans trying to kidnap our charges. We're lucky that they finally got caught, even if they unfortunately had to have their wings broken to catch them..."

Cheese huffed. "That was just a side effect of trying to pin them down."

Tomato grimaced, thinking of how Cheese looked when he finally saw him on the roof. He had a feeling that there was more to it than that, but he didn't dare bring it up now--somepony might get the wrong idea! So, he tried to will away the thought with a poor excuse of Cheese probably not having enough sleep the night before.

Svengallop scooted behind Coloratura, eyeing Cheese suspiciously for a moment before continuing with an upturned nose, "Well, this whole thing started because a certain young stallion artist got stage fright. I have to admit, it's pitiful to see that the colt is truly putting on some bravado, leading everyone into thinking that he's some sort of hotshot on the music scene before he inevitably chokes. Maybe it's just as well that an Apple doesn't belong in the spotlight unless it's some dirty rodeo."

Coloratura nudged him. "Hey, I was friends with an Apple."

With a redder-than-normal face, Snap leapt forward and yelled, "Oh, so you think that I don't have what it takes?! That I can't handle the spotlight? That that one panic attack I had wasn't just because of built-up stress from the past week? Well, screw you, I'll show you that Snapdragon Apple means business! I'm getting back on that stage, and blowing that audience away! I guarantee that I sure as Tartarus don't need any fancy lights and fireworks to get that applause!"

Dandy gasped. "Snapdragon!"

Coloratura stared at him wide-eyed, then groaned as she put a hoof to her face. Her manager on the other hoof snickered. Fixing his tie, Svengallop said, "Well... best of luck to you. Here's hoping you don't choke again." He turned and walked away. "Come along, Countess, you need to reapply your makeup."

Coloratura nodded, and then followed, giving Snap a look of both pity and annoyance.

As the Countess left, Creamy shouted, "Aww, don't reapply the makeup! Your face is prettier without it!" She paused for a moment, and then added, "Feel free to drop by my ice cream stand! I'm really good at making homemade ice cream!"

After panting for about a minute, Snap turned to the other ponies behind him, who were all gaping at him. "What?"

"Snap... please tell me your voice is better."

Snap's eyes widened and his frown deepened as he realized what he had done. "Oh... uh... voice check!" He cleared his throat, and out came an unnaturally gravelly, "TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAAAAARRR...."

All four of the others covered their ears, with Tomato shouting, "Good grief, you sound like a dying animal!"

Snap stopped, and he pulled at his mane. "Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap... if I get up there and sing like that, I'll embarrass myself with my croaking... but if I don't, the tabloids are going to run some stupid story about how I backed out of a concert on finding out that it was a charity event, and that Svengallop guy will blab all about how I'm just some poser!" He looked at Tomato. "Maybe we should switch back!"

"Oh, for the love of--" Tomato stomped on the grass. "I'll get stage fright again! Imagine that in the news!"

Snap pulled down on his eyelids. "Oh... what am I going to do?"

Creamy rubbed her leg. "Well... we could try that lip-syncing thing the Countess mentioned."

All four stallions snapped their heads toward her, gaping at the scandalous nature of that suggestion. Cheese was the first to speak, with the exclamation of, "Whoa, whoa, whoa... Creamy, I thought you'd be against that kind of deception!"

Dandy was next with, "You're suggesting trading one scandalous action for another?!"

Snap hollered, "I had that idea, but decided against it because it'd be easy to get caught and ruined!"

Tomato rubbed one of his temples. "Wow, Creamy... just wow."

Creamy looked away. "Well, okay... I just figured that those tabloids you mentioned were unreasonable and would give a worse punishment to Snap than Dandy would, and that Svengallop guy seems to be the type to slander a rival pop artist..."

Cheese snorted. "I hate that guy."

Dandy sighed. "Well, even if I did like the idea, I only brought instrumental records to play for Snap's performance. It's going to be hard to let the show go on without stumbling or outright having to make a last minute cancellation. I'm sure we could use the good old health excuse..."

Snap piped in with, "Okay, well, Tomato's still got a good voice."

Tomato's eyebrow twitched. "I'm not going up there again!"

Snap grinned. "I didn't say you had to."

Minutes later, Tomato was hanging out in the trap room underneath the stage. He had a headset on, magically linked to stereos above him once he turned it on. Surrounded by various stage implements, and even sitting on an extra stereo, all Tomato could do was look up and listen to Cheese as he reclaimed the host title and forced a cheerful attitude as he performed an intermediate comedic song. He could clearly hear the underlying growl of his big brother's voice, knowing that while he accepted that the show must go on, he wasn't all too thrilled with it. Tomato even sensed that Cheese fully expected him to mess up. Again.

Snap slipped through the door before prancing toward him. "So, have you decided what song you want to sing yet?"

Tomato sighed. "Nope. They all blended together in my head, and I just hear one big mindless dance number."

Snap groaned, sitting on a nearby stool. "You can't be serious! You listened to those songs on loop and you can't remember any of them? Come on!"

Tomato snorted. "Well, I hate to break it to you, but I'm not exactly fond of your kind of music. Believe it or not, I actually found the songs on the demo more memorable than any of your 'hits'."

"Wait, really? I always thought they were too sappy for a guy like me to sing."

Tomato shrugged. "I didn't think they were that sappy. I don't know, maybe I just like songs that have more of a message to them than 'I'm the coolest pony around' or 'I'm so dateable' or 'I can party enough to rival Cheese Sandwich'. Question is, what makes them so 'sappy'?"

Snap sighed. "I'm sure you heard about my mom." He lowered his sunglasses, bringing his gold eye and his pink eye into sight. "And see my left eye? That thing's pretty sensitive; I had to wear an eye patch over that when I was a colt. Basically, my classmates locked on to those two things and picked on me for them. The patch got stolen a lot, I got called a pirate, was told to go crying to my mommy... doesn't help that I was a crybaby. I got my mark for writing and singing a song, and they still thought it funny that I was essentially still crying for mommy with my song. I decided that if I was going to make it in this business, I had to stop being such a sappy little crybaby. So... any song that made me look weak was out and I just had to be bold and confident in whatever I sang."

"Ah. I think I get where you're coming from. Still, I don't think it'd hurt to mix it up a little."

"What?! Whoa, whoa, whoa, do you realize how risky mixing things up is? I'll lose so much if I change my style!"

Tomato snorted. "I didn't say you had to change genres, I just said you can sing your 'sappy' songs with the 'not-sappy' ones. Besides, the ladies do have a thing for emotional songs..."

"Oh..." Snap rubbed his chin, and looked up when he heard Cheese finishing his song and the crowd cheering. "That so? Maybe... I guess it's worth a shot. Dad always has a habit of accidentally putting the instrumental demo with the official records, so I suppose we could get the DJ to play that. Now do you know what you want to sing?"

"Uh... the Rising song? It reminded me of one of my favorite songs."

"Okay, okay." Snap stood up and galloped over to the door. "As long as you remember the lyrics, the show will be great! After all, you've got fantastic pipes!" With that, he slipped out, the door echoing as it closed shut.

Tomato took a deep breath. He didn't really want to sing. He already messed up in the middle of the show once, and he was sure that he was going to choke again. The audience may not be able to see him, but they'd be able to hear him and whatever flubs and pauses he'd make. Holding his tail like a teddy bear, he wished that he could just skip forward to a better day, when he wasn't about to let everyone down.

"Hey... you seem a little down, buddy!"

Tomato's ears perked up, and he looked around for the source of the mysterious voice. When his eyes landed on a mirror just a stone's throw away, his skeleton nearly leapt out of his body at the sight of that other Tomato--the bright-eyed and curly-maned goofball wearing that green shirt with the red polka dots. The other Tomato waved at him, wearing a face not unlike Cheese's normal demeanor.

Tomato groaned. "This again? Sheesh, I need to see a therapist about this." He sighed and faced his reflection "What do you want now?"

Other Tommy beamed. "I'm here because you need my help."

Tomato waved his hooves in front of himself. "Oh, no no no no no. The last time I accepted your help, I nearly destroyed a small town."

Other Tommy pouted. "I never advised you to drink coffee; just draw from the magic deep inside of you."

Tomato scoffed. "Well, sorry if I had no other way to access it. In fact, I usually only access it on accident, and without fail, I've always ended up in trouble and being considered a freak." He leaned in his hooves. "When Cheese Sandwich does it, he's amazing and whimsical and fun; when Tomato Sandwich does it, he's either terrifying or embarrassing."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Other Tommy said. "But you have accessed it on purpose! How else did you get yourself out of that closet in the Crystal Empire? Or launch yourself and a passenger onto a roof with no outside help? I personally think you're getting the hang of it."

"Oh, are you sure?" Tomato sneered. "Then tell me how the magic is supposed to help me here."

A laugh came from Other Tommy's mouth. "Simple; just sing. Let your spirits be high and your emotions be free, and the tune will carry you. Think about what the song means to you, how it relates to your life, and how ponies would be happy to hear you. Music is quite magical, especially for those with special talents in that field... or those with good ol' jester magic. Trust me, you've done it before, even if you didn't quite realize it. Remember singing to Flora?"

Flashing back to the dance in Spires Garden, Tomato suddenly wondered just why he had been singing to her. What had he been thinking; no, what had he been feeling? Still, whatever that had been, Tomato knew that his own singing erupted when he was overcome with emotion. His mother had told him "No singing", because that wasn't his special talent, was it?

No, it wasn't... but that didn't mean he couldn't do it just because it was fun.

Above him, he heard Snap saying, "Thank you, thank you for being patient! I was just all wound up from the stress of fame, and it unfortunately blew up here earlier. Well, no worries, I'm all better now, and I'm finally going to sing for you!"

The crowd cheered, and Tomato somehow cracked a smile. If a professional singer had faith in him, then surely it was worth a shot.

Other Tommy smiled, and started to fade back to a regular reflection. "Good luck."

Tomato listened as Snap continued, "Tonight, I'm going to give you guys a special treat. I'm going to sing something that you haven't ever heard before! It's something I've written from the bottom of my heart, and I hope you like it."

The music started to play, and Tomato took the cue to turn on his headset. He took a deep breath, recalled his listen to the song the night before, and smiled, just seeing the words pop up right in the front of his mind. From there, the melody rolled on out.

The stage lights had dimmed down to a softer setting, and ponies sat and stood in their places, looking up to hear what new song Snapdragon Apple was going to sing for them. The artists themselves sat by, whispering to each other about what this one was going to be about. Svengallop was ready to witness the trainwreck with a smile, while the Countess just looked at Snap with pity.

Now Cheese had fully expected Tomato to choke again, and beside him, he could hear Dandy's teeth chattering through a closed mouth. Even without all eyes on him, Tomato would have been cowed by the fact that ponies would still be hearing his voice. This plan, no matter what excuses were made for it, was stupid, and both Cheese and Dandy braced themselves for its failure and for the crowd to start booing.

And then, the voice rang to match Snap's lips.

"It's easy to see a small pony
And say that they won't ever amount to much,"

Both had blinked, and Cheese leaned forward cautiously, wondering how long they could keep it up.

"It's easy to dismiss their strong points
Easier to see the places where they need a crutch,"

So far, so good, Cheese had to admit. He still awaited the moment where they'd trip up.

"It's easy for that pony to sit down
Easy for them to cry and wallow in their weakness
Easy to give up on their dreams
Easy to believe every nasty thing said about them

But there is no way I'm taking the easy way
I'm not gonna let the doubters win
Taking to the sky like the pegasi
I'll break through the clouds as my ascent begins..."

Then, with a power comparable to a sonic boom, Tomato's voice belted out:

"I am rising!
Like Celestia's sun,
Here to bring my warmth across the land

I am rising!
Like Luna's moon,
Glowing in the night sky, a sight so grand

If you're in need of another star
Then keep watching the horizon
Because... I am rising!"

A premature cheer erupted from the audience, ringing throughout the park. Cheese nearly jumped at the crowd's reaction, and scanned the various faces in there. Some gaped in surprise at the vocals, some cried, and many others stomped and clapped. On stage, Snap grinned and hollered, "Thank you, thank you! You're all amazing!"

Dandy whistled. "Do impressive vocals run in your family too?"

"Yeah..." Cheese pursed his lips. There was one part of him that wanted to shout, Yeah, that's my baby brother's voice! You hear him? He sounds so happy! That part of him also wanted to dash off to where Tomato was hiding, and give him a hug of congratulations. That part of him really wanted to be happy that his brother was doing so well, in spite of how close they were to scandal.

And for some reason, he felt like the lyrics were speaking to him somehow, as if he had a childhood like that. Odd, he was sure that he had a pretty happy one with little trouble. His head ached just trying to figure it out.

But there was another part of him that wanted Tomato to just shut up and embarrass both himself and Snap. This one incident could very well label the young pop star as a fraud, and Cheese was not going to swallow the stupid "emergencies" excuse Tomato had come up with for agreeing to the switch in the first place; he was certain that it was greed. That same part of him also worried that if given the chance, Tomato could actually upstage him. If anything, they were idiots that deserved to be punished.

Tomato was amazed by the crowd cheering, and he had to keep himself from releasing any gleeful laughter. It was incredible that despite not knowing who was really singing, the audience loved Tomato's voice. He hoped that they didn't complain about any difference, but maybe Snap could come up with an excuse. It was a one time thing, hopefully brushed off with "recovering from a sore throat".

He had to start the next verse.

"It's hard to think of the many times
Both the sneers and the pity born out of their doubt in you

It's hard to admit your own mistakes
It's hard to get back up when you've been pushed down
And they keep treating you like you never grew!

But there's no way I'll have your pity today
I'm here to fight, I'm here to struggle
I am learning to love to see what I'm made of
You'll see me burst out of the rubble!"

The chorus rang out, and he wondered how Snap looked up there. Hopefully he was looking great, despite the sap that Tomato got on those clothes. He probably hated having to mouth the lyrics, but it was just as well. Besides, Tomato was having a blast down here, singing with an intense happiness that he hadn't sang with since he was small.

"A fighting spirit has been born
With the power and grace of an alicorn
It's time for me to defy the scorn
Because...

I. AM. RISING!"

As Tomato sang the chorus again, he truly felt that he was rising. He felt like he could literally fly around the room, letting the tune truly carry him. He was no stranger to being caught up in euphoria when singing a show tune from Bridleway or a classic rock tune by his favorite artist, but there was just something about this time that was just... liberating. He didn't feel as if the ghost of his mother was standing there, watching and judging him. He didn't feel like anypony was going to laugh at him for whatever reason. In fact, he felt the presence of his friends, both his school friends and those he had made all summer, and they were all cheering for him. He felt like a little colt again, feeling fun and free as a little foal could be.

"I'm rising! Hey! I'm rising! Whoo! Rising, rising, rising high..."

At last, the song ended. The audience roared in their applause, the noise comparable to a stampeding herd. Snap took a bow of thanks, while Cheese, mustering up the least fake smile he had, slid onto the stage and announced, "And what a song that was! Golly, that's not what we usually hear from you, Snap. What brought this on?"

Snap chuckled. "Oh, this song's a few years old... it just got updated very recently considering at the time I wrote it, there wasn't any Princess Luna around." He had a momentary look of irritation before continuing, "But, a friend suggested that I try something more meaningful for once."

"Mixing it up is quite risky--you never know what songs are going to appeal to the masses," Cheese said. "But, from what I can tell, these Seaddle folk like it, am I right?"

The crowd cheered again, and Snap blew kisses toward them as he trotted off the stage. "Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! Have a good night, everypony!"

Once the concert was over, the ponies behind the scenes had started to pack up. From Acorn and Cocoa collecting the rest of their fruit-flavored fireworks, to Creamy packing up her ice cream supplies, and to Cheese storing some of his extra lights, treats, and party and stage implements, the stage and park were being stripped bare. The artists and musicians put away their instruments, and some were partaking in idle chitchat. After Golden Glee expressed happiness over the amount of bits they earned to help the local homeless shelters, Cheese simple nodded happily, and went back to his gathered family members.

He paused when hearing Svengallop complain to the Countess, "Ah, who cares about how he sang? He's no spectacle like the Countess. He was visually uninteresting up there if you ask me! All he had was that sparkly vest and hat."

"Svengallop, you know these charity concerts aren't about us," Coloratura retorted.

"But image is still everything! What if somepony had caught you eating homemade ice cream?!"

"Hey, that ice cream was good, and I'm sure a lot of fillies would trying making some because of me." Coloratura sighed, and then paused to look at Cheese and his family. She briefly smiled and winked at them, while Svengallop tried to urge her along, staring fearfully at Cheese. Then they trotted away, still having their little debate. Cheese took a moment to ponder what that was for, and wondered if she knew what had been really going on during Snap's performance and was going to keep that secret.

Creamy squealed. "I had the Countess eat my ice cream! And she says it was good!"

Cocoa Butter laughed. "A dream come true, huh, sweetie? I'm just happy we made actual fruit-flavored fireworks and set them off without a hitch. Heh, pays to have a crazy husband that just won't give up."

Acorn grinned. "Say, we should have them at Peanut Butter's wedding next week! I'm sure he and his bride would enjoy them."

"Well, I know Jelly Jubilee would like them--she's kind of goofy like that." She turned to Cheese. "Hey! You and Tomato going to the wedding?"

Cheese looked at his cutie mark. "Uh... we'll try."

"Okay, now where is he?"

Acorn pointed over to the stage. "Conversing with his twin."

Cocoa turned and saw Tomato talking and hoofbumping with Snapdragon Apple, before the latter was seemingly dragged off (by the ear, no less) by Dandy. As Tomato came trotting back, Cocoa mumbled, "That is still really weird to me. Almost as weird as the Snapdragon guy's singing making me think of my dad..."

As soon as Tomato made it back to them, the family went off back to the house. While their aunt, uncle and cousin were in front, talking about how they imagined the upcoming wedding to be like, the Sandwich Brothers hung back, both being eeriely quiet. Both had things on their mind, mostly relating what had happened during the concert. Tomato glanced at Cheese briefly, and grinned.

Cheese responded with a glare and scoffed. "I should have just revealed the stupid plot and gotten you both in trouble."

Tomato's heart sank. "Why didn't you?"

"Would you want to have somepony associate a charity concert with a lip syncing scandal? And I sure don't want my brother to be in the news for something as idiotic as that. They wouldn't have listened to the claim that it was only a 'one-time' thing."

Tomato pursed his lips and turned away. "I suppose so. I'm sorry."

Cheese snorted. "Just stay out of entertainment."

Author's Note

Aaaaand that's a wrap for the Seaddle arc. Next up... well, take a wild guess what they're going to do next. :raritywink:

Writing songs is always tricky...

18.1--Peanut Butter and Jelly

Cheese had been planning to leave soon. He had been concerned about his Cheesy Sense acting up now that the concert was all cleaned up, but his aunt and uncle insisted that he and Tomato stick around and at least help them pack. Sure, why not, Cheese had thought, helping them pack suitcases of wedding decor, a tuxedo and two dresses, and the fruit-flavored fireworks. As much as it'd be nice to attend cousin Peanut Butter's wedding, Cheese wasn't sure if his Cheesy Sense would agree with it, and expected to be sent to the other side of the country. Whatever party it was, he had to plan it--and keep Tomato from meddling.

It was funny how Tomato had complained about being a burden earlier that summer and how much Cheese denied it, having had been sure that his baby brother could do something worthwhile in a party. Well, after the role swap fiasco with Snapdragon Apple, Cheese had to concede with that mindset. Tomato and parties just don't mix.

Even so, he had a month left of Tomato's summer vacation, and was waiting for Cheesy Sense to tell him where to go.

When they went to sleep that night, he waited for the familiar twinge, watching that half-moon in the sky. His tongue lolled out in a pant, for the hot summer night was not being gentle, and he found that he was cooler when he did that. He could feel magic tingling in his veins as he stared, his eyes drinking in the moonlight like it was a long-awaited glass of water and drawing enchanted sustenance from it. As he leaned on the windowsill, he wondered how the magic would feel during a full moon.

In the bed beside him, Tomato had been looking up at the ceiling, deep in his own thoughts. Cheese had not cared what those thoughts were, but was about to learn anyway when Tomato asked, "Hey, Cheese?"

Cheese sighed, not wanting to pause his panting. "What?"

"I keep thinking about Dusk and Midnight... how you fought them and, well..."

Cheese growled. "For the last time, it was an accident! Why are you so bothered about it, anyway?"

"Because you're not." Tomato rolled over onto his stomach. "Cheese... do you think you might be, uh..."

"Might be what?"

Tomato gulped. "Are you turning into a vampire?"

Cheese gave him a weird look. "Um, what? Where'd you get that crazy idea?"

"Well, the way you were acting last night, looking all animalistic and such, and how you're getting kind of grumpy... it just reminded me of how I was acting when I lost my temper as a vampire. And if the guy who stole your memory is a friend of Kazam, maybe he or she picked it up from him and cast the spell on something you were going to eat... or drink... or maybe directly on you as we slept?"

Cheese shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Nice theory, but I doubt it. Wouldn't I be craving blood if that was the case? And tell me, how long did it take you to transform?" Cheese hung his hooves from his mouth to imitate fangs. "Do you see fangs here? Or wings?"

Tomato sighed and buried his lower jaw in his pillow. "Few hours. Still... don't you suspect that the Rooney guy last week did something? Because I doubt that elixir was just for curing your headaches."

"Oh, psht, why would they do more than steal a memory of something that... frankly, I'm not sure I want to remember! From what I hear from you, it wasn't any fun whatsoever. Whatever you think Rooney's doing, it doesn't add up, and if they wanted to kill me, they would have done so by now. Don't blame random hermits for me being mad; I'm mad because you could have ruined the concert, and yet you're rewarded for it with a big bag of bits that I'm sure you'll be happy to spend on any 'emergencies'."

Cheese turned back to the window and stared at the moon once again. "Go back to sleep; I'm still waiting for Cheesy Sense to give us our next destination."

Tomato groaned and rolled over to his side. He glanced back and said, "We still have your medicine in case--"

"Good night."

He waited for Cheesy Sense as a breakfast of omelets was set on the table in front of him, and he gobbled quite a few in one fell swoop. He waited as he and Tomato spent some time tuning his accordion and reading respectively, waiting for the time to take their aunt, uncle, and cousin to the train station. He waited as they went off to the train station, expecting to wave goodbye to the three of them and wish them a good time at Peanut's wedding. And he waited as he and Tommy somehow ended up on that train.

It was a couple of days on the train before they made it to Applewood, and Cheese had convinced himself that maybe he was supposed to be there, and Cheesy Sense was just far more subtle than usual. It was weird, but at least he was going somewhere.

The five ponies stepped out of the train station into the sunshine, still stretching from the long ride. Gulls squawked above the palm trees lining the streets and erupting from the mini-garden islands bearing a fair amount of green. Several buildings poked into view of an otherwise clear sky, though there was no doubt in anypony's mind that larger buildings were not far off.

"Okay," Acorn said, pulling out the map, and scrambling in its unfolding. "To get to Peanut's place, we oughta take a carriage to, uh... okay, which beach was it... his house has a nice view of the ocean, and his place has a nice court for him to play on and a pool and a pretty big trampoline, aaaaannnd I'm holding the map upside down." He turned it right-side up. "At least the ocean helped me see that I was looking at San Pinto..."

Tomato looked back and forth, and up at the trees. "Not gonna lie, the greenery is lovely." He pulled at his shirt collar and grumbled, "But it's kind of hot here..."

Cheese idly rubbed his foreleg, glancing away and trying to pant as quietly as possibly. Even though he wasn't wearing his poncho, he still felt as if he was wearing a thick coat, and he wondered if it was possible for sweat glands to dry up like his apparently did. "It would be wise for you to take off your jacket while we're here. I'm tempted to take off my shirt."

"Please don't--I know most ponies don't wear clothes, but I think passersby will look at you weird if you do that." Tomato took off his jacket and tied it around his barrel. He wiped sweat off his brow. "But, you're right, this isn't jacket weather. Say, I'm thirsty, you mind sharing your--"

Cheese dumped the contents of his canteen onto himself, and panted like a dog even louder, and simply glanced at Tomato with a cocked eyebrow. There was a few moments of silence between them, made even more awkward by passersby staring at the wet Cheese.

Tomato groaned. "Never mind."

Thankfully, on his other side, Creamy was gracious enough to pull a water bottle from her saddlebag, uncap it, and stick it straight onto Tomato's mouth. "Geez, Cheese, the way you were doing that almost seemed spiteful."

Cheese just blankly stared at Tomato just sucking all the water from the bottle in one gulp. "He's like a little water bottle vampire."

"To be fair, everypony turns into one in the heat." Creamy pulled another water bottle out and drank from that one. "I hate hot weather."

Cocoa was just staring at the younger three during their exchange. "If you guys are done taking in your first look at Applewood, we'll go to the nearest carriage stop and take one to Peanut's place. He'll be happy to see us." She looked at Tomato, who still held the bottle in his mouth. "Especially you, he hasn't seen you for years."

The carriage ride provided the group with a scenic route through Applewood. If Tomato wasn't distracted by the variety of palm trees that kept lining various streets, he was looking up at the skyline or down at the streets that quite honestly needed some cleaning up, idly comparing it to Manehattan, or gazing at the icons of the city such as the studios that experimented with the relatively new and evolving form of entertainment known as movies. When there was a break between skyscrapers in certain spots, there was a view of the famous Applewood sign on the nearby mountain. If the driver pointed out movie stars, Tomato was lost, given that he had only visited a movie theater once and didn't like the movie.

When counting much of the greenery, he looked up at the sign when it was in view and scoffed, "You know, for a place called Applewood, I sure don't see very many apple trees."

"Hm, no, it's just named after a guy; I've personally seen more citrus," Acorn said.

Just before they completely eased into the residential areas, Tomato saw a group of delinquent teenagers hanging out in an empty lot, painting sloppy anti-harmony slogans on the walls. He briefly wondered what their deal was, and wished that gangs--from big city thugs to desert bandits--weren't a thing. From what he could tell, the oldest was about his age, and they briefly locked eyes until Tomato looked away and started counting the houses that looked 'deserty', from stuccoed walls to red-tiled roofs.

At last, they made it to the last street just before the beach. As they turned the corner, Tomato watched beach goers as they played on the sand and in the water. Ponies in skates and on scooters zoomed by on a nearby path, alongside brisk trotters and those just walking for leisure. He could see plenty of ponies standing by and taking pictures, likely being tourists. The ocean stretched out beyond the horizon, the blue waves shimmering under the sun.

With homes now obscuring the ocean view, Tomato took a gander at them. Some were larger homes from the ones they had earlier, and some he guessed were apartment buildings (and with a view of the ocean like that, real estate most definitely put higher value on those spots). The buildings were a variety of muted colors--not too bright as to look gaudy, but not too samey either. Plenty even stuck to the stucco theme he kept on seeing throughout the ride.

The carriage stopped at one house. Surrounded by walls with hanging gardens, it was a three-story house alternating between cream and teal. Semicircle windows provided a view of the street, and with a little bit of leaning, Tomato could just barely make out balconies in the back that took advantage of the ocean view. Putting the little house in which he grew up in his mind's eye, he squeezed it into the yard within the walls, and it was only a little more than halfway tall.

Cocoa and Acorn paid the driver, and they and the three younger ponies all grabbed the bags and carried them to the gate. Cocoa said to the Sandwiches, "Here we are, boys! Tomato, this is Peanut's home, and he's going to be so happy that you and Cheese are attending his special day!"

He blinked; this was where Peanut Butter lived? He imagined that spiky-haired twelve-year-old of various browns that liked to terrorize Cheese whenever they visited, and Cheese would only fight back should Peanut turn his attention to little Tommy. He knew that Cheese said he mellowed out, but he couldn't help but be a little bitter that Peanut got a bigger home than he needed--even if the one resident was soon to become two, and a foal or two would likely be added for years to come.

At the gate, Acorn pulled at a string hanging out of the wall. They heard a bell ring inside the house, followed by galloping. They saw the door open, and there he was. With a coat like his namesake, messy grayish-blonde mane, and a freckled, brown-eyed face, Peanut Butter Sandwich was now out in the open. He wore a green button shirt in the same vein as Tomato's white one, his tail was longer than Tomato would expect an athlete's to be, and powerful muscles were spurring him forward when he saw his parents and sister, his face in a wide, cheerful grin.

Peanut swung open the gate, and shouted, "Mom, Dad, Creamy! Give your favorite Nut a hug!"

Cocoa laughed and squeezed her boy. "Hey, buddy! I see you've been working out!"

Creamy jumped on him. "It's good to see you again, bro!"

Acorn hugged all three of them. "Ha ha! I see the athlete life is treating you well."

Peanut chuckled. "I swear, you're all as crazy affectionate as ever..."

Tomato inwardly sighed. He couldn't ever recall their family having a group hug like that; the fact that he was watching his father's sister going at it first was salt in the wound for his own family dynamic. The best things that he could remember from either one of his parents were pats on the head and being given lip service about how proud they (mostly Mom; Dad usually just grunted) are of him for not screwing up or not following his brother's path.

The group hug broke, and father nudged son with a click of his tongue. "So, I hear you found a nice mare to settle down with. And here I was thinking that every girl you ever met was just a friend, like that Lightning Dust you played ball with as a teenager, or otherwise less important than sports. But, when we got the invitation, well, we were excited to meet the lucky lady."

"Yeah, I always thought you'd be a good catch," Cocoa said. "So, where is she?"

"Doing business that really shouldn't be interrupted; she'll be out soon." Peanut looked beyond his immediate family, and grinned at the sight of Cheese. "Cheese! You're here too?" He leapt forward as if he had been sitting on a spring, and landed right in front of both brothers, his stature being a full head shorter than both. "Ha! I was worried that with your Cheese Sense... thing, that you wouldn't be able to come."

Cheese smirked. "Well, it was more subtle than it usually is... almost like it wasn't even there, but I got the hint that maybe I should be here for my cousin's wedding. Congrats, by the way."

The two hoofbumped as Peanut said, "Heh, thanks." Then, Peanut turned his attention to Tomato, this time with a cock of the head and a curious pout. "Hold on... the colors are familiar, and the forelock matches yours, Cheese, but I'm not entirely sure... I mean, there's no way that the ketchup squirt grew up to be so... so... uh, stiff."

Tomato's eyebrow twitched, and he opened his mouth to say something--only to be interrupted by Cheese just yanking on his forelock, leading to Tomato's natural curls bursting out, and then taking off his glasses. With a grand gesture, Cheese said, "Ta-da! You recognize my brother now?"

Tomato glared at Cheese. "I can speak for myself, Cheese."

"Yeah, sure, sure..." Cheese waved a hoof dismissively. "But, come on, giving him a visual is more fun."

Peanut stared for a few moments, scanning Tomato up and down, and even leaning to the side to look at Tomato's cutie mark. Looking up at Tomato's face, he snorted and said, "You've got to be kidding me; you're taller than me, too? Dang it!"

Tomato couldn't help but snicker at how his oldest cousin, older than him by eight years, was apparently the shortest member of the family. Did Creamy ever mention if she was taller than him? He thought she might have, and to see it right in front of him made the snickers evolve into giggles. Looking at Peanut's annoyed scowl, Tomato said, "Sorry, sorry... it's not my fault I got struck by the tall genes because both my parents are on the lanky side."

Peanut's scowl relaxed into a milder glare, and right before Tomato's eyes, Peanut stood up on his hind legs before leaning back to use his own tail as a chair. He crossed his hind legs and smirked. "Well... at least I have my balancing act to even things out. The tail's how I survive amongst the giants."

After staring for a moment, and then glancing back at his own tail, Tomato immediately copied Peanut's action, flashing a smirk of his own.

Peanut blinked. "Are you kidding me?!"

Cheese shook his head. "Tommy, you little show-off."

Before Peanut could go further, however, he noticed passersby staring and whispering, squealing at the sight of Peanut Butter, and possibly even Cheese as well. There even seemed to be the first smatterings of a paparazzi peeking from behind trees, bushes, and corners. With a groan, Peanut hopped back to all fours and grabbed both his cousins. Pulling them and the rest of his family through the gate with his tail, he said, "Okay, let's go inside before they become a 'flash mob'."

Peanut Butter had sat them down at his couch and gotten them glasses of juice, setting them on the coffee table in front of them. In the floors above, his guests could hear some ruckus going on, which Peanut explained was his fiancee getting guests like her parents and a few others settled in. He reassured them that he'll open guest rooms for his family members as well, though he raised an eyebrow when Cheese said, "Meh, Tommy and I will sleep on the roof."

Sitting down in a circle chair across from them, he put both hooves behind his head and laid back. "Sorry about those ponies out there; ever since I've gotten into the basketball scene, ponies around here have been hopped up on my crazy playing style. I mean, who else is a shorty that performs maneuvers across the court and with the ball using his tail? Most ponies can only use short bursts of magic every once in a while to grab things with their tail; and then there's me, who does it all the freakin' time."

"Ahem," Cheese coughed.

"Cheese, you're weird, you don't count."

While Cheese put a hoof on his chest in an offended manner, Tomato grabbed his glass with his tail and sipped it. "There's me."

Peanut leaned to the side to take a good look at Tomato's cutie mark. "Okay, you have no excuse... you're, like, a banker or something, what the hay? Is Cheese's crazy contagious?"

Tomato shrugged and kept on sipping.

Peanut blinked and shook his head. "Anyway, there's always somepony somewhere trying to snap a casual photo of me, be it souvenir or trying to sabotage or blackmail me. But, well, they don't usually snap a photo of the real me."

"Wait, you have a doppelganger too?" Tomato asked, ignoring the glare and huff of Cheese.

"What do you mean 'too'--no, wait, I think I've got it. You look like Snapdragon Apple." Peanut laughed and smacked his knee. "Oh, sweet Celestia, if it weren't for your forelock cluing me in, I'd have been confused! Gee, if you two switched places and managed to fix each other's hair and cutie marks, I'd be none the wiser."

Cheese fake laughed and shot a dirty look toward Tomato. "Yeah, wouldn't that be something."

Peanut let his chuckles die down. "Anyway, I probably do have one, maybe two, somewhere around here. I mean, last week, according to gossip magazines, I was hanging out at both Santa Manzana pier and Whinnyland at the same time, when really, I was just having a picnic with my sweet Jelly. Heh, these doppelgangers happen so often that every celebrity and athlete here joke about them being changelings."

Creamy raised an eyebrow. "Okay, weird..."

"Hey, it's not like there are actual changelings hanging around the city." Peanut's hind hoof kicked the table to launch his glass in the air, and he caught it with his tail. "There are only so many colors for ponies to be; there's bound to be repetition."

"Well, if we were to be technical, there are millions of unique combinations of genes making up every individual in Equestria." Acorn took his glasses off and wiped them with his shirt. "Between you and Miss Jelly alone, your genetic composition combined could create a near infinite number of unique individuals."

Peanut, who had been taking a swig of his juice, blocked his mouth from doing a spit take, and swallowed. "Okay, one, we're not discussing foals yet, and two, I doubt we're able to have a family that big. I think just having two or three of them will suffice for me and Jelly."

Creamy had a big goofy smile on her face. "I'm just amused that you actually found a pony named 'Jelly'--I remember that joke from when we were kids."

"Ha! Have you found Cookies yet?"

"No, not yet. Maybe someday, I guess." She looked up at the ceiling. "Say, when is she coming down? I've been dying to meet my new sister-in-law-to-be."

Then, a feminine singsong voice called from upstairs, “Hey, Peanut! We’re almost done with all the unpacking! What are you doing down there?”

Peanut called up, “Oh, oops! I got a little caught up in catching up with my folks!”

“Wait, your folks?! Why didn’t you call me down sooner?! I want to meet them!”

As hoofsteps started to descend down the spiral staircase not too far from where Peanut sat, Creamy gave her brother a dirty look and asked, “Okay, why didn’t you bring her down with you? I had assumed that she was in the bathroom.”

Peanut rubbed the back of his head. “She’s kind of, uh… scatterbrained. If I interrupt her when she’s doing anything, she’ll either forget about it or lose motivation to finish it.”

Briskly trotting down the stairs, Peanut’s fiancée casually presented herself to her future in-laws. A freckled face mare of soft pink, with her purple and hot pink mane tied up with a green bow, Jelly held a blissful aura that rivalled the warmth of sunshine. It wasn’t too hard to notice the skip in her step and the fruity scent wafting from her, and her hot pink eyes were large to take in any sight she came across. Naturally, she beamed when she first laid eyes on Peanut Butter’s family.

“Hi, there!” she chirped.

Peanut stood up and walked toward her. Slinging a leg over her shoulders, he said, “Mom, Dad, Creamy, cousins… meet Jelly Jubilee. I met her working in a local strawberry farm off season.”

Jelly nodded and clapped. “I’m so happy to finally meet you guys in person! After all, it’d be a crime if I didn’t get to know Peanut’s family—I mean, you are going to be my family, too.”

Both Cocoa and Acorn stood up and approached her. Acorn shook her hoof and said, “It’s really nice to meet you, Miss Jubilee. We’ve got a lot of letters from Peanut that have paragraphs about you.”

Cocoa flinched when Jelly hugged her, but she patted her back and said, “Yep. From what we’ve heard, you’re a wonderful girl full of life and not about to waste it on some of the more… shallow things that a major city like this offers. I’m glad that out of any pony that could manage to get Peanut to break away from a one-track mindset of ‘sports, sports, and only study because of sports’, it was somepony like you.”

Jelly broke the hug. “Aw, thank you! Though, I will admit, I love the beach, and I very much enjoy playing sports every so often.” She turned her attention to Creamy standing up, and then pulled her into a hug. “Hi, Peanut’s sister! I’ve always wanted to meet you, and now, we’re going to be sisters!”

Creamy grinned. “Sweet, I’ve always wanted a sister!”

“So did I! I only have brothers,” Jelly huffed. “So, Ice Cream’s your name? Do you make ice cream?”

“Sure as sugar I do!”

“Yay! Maybe sometime we can make strawberry ice cream as sisterly bonding!”

“Sounds like a plan.” Ice Cream hoofbumped her sister-in-law-to-be.

Tomato leaned in his hoof, watching the exchange from where he still sat. “Is it just me, or is Jelly the combined forces of Pinkie and Flora’s happy sides? Do I dare ask if her upset side is the combination of their upset sides? Because the thought of that is scary.”

Cheese rolled his eyes. “It’s just you.”

Jelly had then turned her attention to the brothers, tilting her head curiously. “So, Peanut… these guys are your cousins, right? Or did I mishear you again?”

Peanut was by her side in a flash. “Oh, no, you heard me right, Jelly. Allow me to introduce super duper party pony Cheese Sandwich and uh… young banker Tomato Sandwich.”

“Correction, I’m a business student,” Tomato said.

Jelly gasped. “Peanut, I thought you were kidding when you said Cheese Sandwich was your cousin!”

Cheese laughed. “Nope! I’m the real deal!” He pulled out a noisemaker and blew it, then took her hoof to shake. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, little filly. You surely completed Peanut Butter’s sandwich.”

Jelly snorted and laughed. “Hehehe, everypony was right, you are funny! And I guess you’re right! Peanut Butter and Jelly… hee, and Peanut’s told me about the ‘Cookies n’ Cream’ joke with his sister… so, I guess you ought to find somepony named Macaroni.”

Tomato then said, “I hate to burst your bubble, Jelly, but the slot of ‘Cheese’s love interest’ belongs to a Pinkie Pie.”

Cheese glared at him and bonked him on the head. “No, it doesn’t.”

Tomato rolled his eyes and snorted. Looking at the slightly disappointed Jelly, he said, “He’s just in denial. But, hey, I’m positive that you and Pinkie would get along.”

Cheese growled. “I’m not in denial. Seriously, where’d you get the crazy idea of me and Pinkie being a thing? She’s just a fellow party pony that I put up with from time to time.”

Tomato shot him a half-lidded look. “You lit up every time we bumped into her this summer.”

Cheese scoffed. “How do you know I wasn’t just being polite?”

“Who lights up when they’re just being polite?”

“Okay, okay, I think we get the idea,” Peanut said. He smiled at Jelly. “Classic sibling squabbling, am I right?”

Jelly sighed. “They remind me of Huckleberry and Mulberry in their squabbles. Are they twins?”

“Nah, three years apart. But, hey, their relationship used to be worse. I wasn’t really a witness, but I got a vibe that they were fighting every time I met Cheese for the past several years. He’d be all cheerful and stuff, and then if one made the mistake of mentioning his brother, he’d turn cold. It shocked me, really, because they were best friends as colts, and Cheese would tear into me if I hurt a hair on Tommy’s head.”

Cheese perked up and bristled. “When was this fighting? Are you talking about when Tomato was a moody teenager that decided that I was embarrassing and my parties were lame? Ugh, I hate teenage hormones.”

Tomato felt the twang of a popped curl. “Cheese, you know there were more than just hormones involved.”

Cheese rolled his eyes. “I see that you haven’t completely recovered from teenage angst yet.”

Jelly furrowed her brow. “I thought you were supposed to be nice.”

Cheese looked up at her, and rubbed his head, wincing a little bit. “Sorry about that. Tomato just gets on my nerves sometimes, like all little brothers do.”

Tomato huffed and grumbled, “A missing memory is screwing you up more than it should, sheesh.”

Suddenly, another mare came down, with a daintier gait than Jelly had done earlier. Pale blue with a fluffy, sky blue mane, the first thought that the Sandwich Brothers had was that of dentist, thanks to her mint green scrub shirt and her tooth cutie mark.

With a little smile resembling a waitress, she said, “Okay, everyone’s all unpacked…” She looked at Peanut Butter’s family, and then to their luggage at the front door. She groaned under her smile. “Except for the newcomers… related to the groom… oh, Sweet Celestia, do I have to carry all that?”

An off-white, red-headed mare followed right after, answering in a drawl, “Now, now, Miss Pearly, don’t be frettin’ about it. There’s more than just you here supporting sweet Jelly’s special day in the overmorrow.” The older mare looked up at the sound of racing. “I think them little friends of Peanut’s are up to it.”

A golden-maned, turquoise pegasus came gliding down the stairs, followed by a tan earth pony with a mane of three-toned brown, tied up in a red headband. The pegasus landed, and with a smirk said, “Well, well, I guess Lightning Dust has beaten you again.”

The tan pony blew a raspberry. “If it wasn’t for your wings, I could have won easily.”

Pearly groaned. “Oh, yay, the athlete brigade has arrived. I wonder how much they broke?”

Cheese and Tomato looked at each other, and then to the engaged couple in a silent question of who these ponies were. Acorn, Cocoa, and Creamy only looked confused in regards to Pearly and the redhead, though the other two they were hardly surprised with. So, in order to answer the question, Peanut said to the friends, “Hey, you guys, you mind introducing yourselves to my family?”

The older redhead smiled. “I was just about to do that! I’m Jelly’s Auntie Cherry Jubilee. She’s the daughter of my dear sister Strawberry, and I’m happier than a frog in a big bayou that she found such a handsome colt.” She looked at Cheese. “Well, I’ll be! Ain’t that Cheese Sandwich?”

“Yes, Cherry… he’s my cousin,” Peanut said.

“Cousin? Well, now that you say it, I do see the family resemblance.”

Cheese made a motion to tip his hat, only to remember that he wasn’t wearing it. So he just plopped a boater on his head, and tipped that. “How you doing, ma’am?”

“Oh, sweet as a freshly baked cherry pie. I haven’t seen you in Dodge Junction in a long time! When you comin’ back to throw a party?”

Cheese shrugged. “Whenever the Cheesy Sense says I should go.” He pointed to Tomato beside him. "By the way, this is my brother, Tomato."

"My, my, ain't he a handsome feller," Cherry said. "Bet he makes the fillies swoon."

Tomato's face turned redder than normal in response to that.

Pearly cleared her throat. “Anyway… hello, Peanut Butter’s family, my name is Pearly Whites, and you can call me ‘Pearl’. I’m a longtime friend of Jelly, from way back when we were teenagers in a faraway little town called Halterside.” She looked at Cheese and Tomato, who perked up on hearing the name of the town. She waved at the two and said, “Hi, I’m Comedy Gold’s other sister, I heard about your visit.”

She turned back to the rest of the group. “How Jelly and I both got here is a long story. I’m also her current roommate and maid of honor.”

The turquoise pegasus hopped onto the couch right in front of her and perched there. “Most of you already know me, but I’ll bite for those two.” She pointed at Cheese and Tomato. “Name’s Lightning Dust. Peanut Butter was a coach and tutor for me for a bunch of sports back in the day, and he’s like the cool big brother that I’ve never had. Though he's into basketball and I'm a flyer, we're still buddies. Without him pushing his limits to become a great athlete, would I have truly been inspired to push mine?”

The tan pony rolled his eyes. “Too bad you got kicked out of the Wonderbolt Academy.”

Lightning conked him on the head. “Shut up! You know nothing!”

Rubbing his head, the stallion glared at her. However, instead of hitting back, he just boosted himself up to the same perch as Lightning, took a deep breath, and hollered, “I’m Victory Screech! Also known as Vic! Peanut was also a big sports mentor to me back in school and he was also like a cool big brother to me!” He crossed his front legs. “Cooler than my actual big bros. As for me, I'm more of a hoofball guy. And at least I got into my sport without getting into trouble.”

The rest of the ponies in the living room were frozen with shock, trying to recover from the ringing in their ears before even moving. Both Cheese’s and Tomato’s ears were even visibly pulsing from the stress that Vic’s loud voice had given them. It took several moments for Tomato to say, “…ow?!”

Vic smiled. “So, we all know each other’s names now?”

Jelly took a deep breath and exhaled. “Well, I gotta go get Mom, Dad, and my brothers and introduce them, too.”

After getting the Nuts’ luggage into a guest room and sleeping bags set up on the roof for the Sandwich brothers, all parties took to conversation that evening. The main families sat on the chairs and couches, while the rest of them sat on pillows on the floor, save Pearl, who sat next to her best friend. Bouncing around from subject to subject was fun, especially as Cheese and Tomato recounted their summer adventures so far. At some point, the fruit-flavored fireworks had been mentioned.

Peanut laughed. “What? You can’t be serious! How can you make an exploding rocket fruit flavored?”

Acorn grinned. “Oh, we simply recreated a chemical reaction that made a soda brand explode on store shelves, and then concentrated it into orbs that’ll burst when exposed to great air pressure. Add some fruit flavoring, and viola! We had a couple of engineers help us out with how to launch them, and we tested various compounds… with, uh, various results.”

“One of them turned me blue,” Cheese said.

Cocoa leaned back. “Anyway, since they were a hit at the charity concert, we thought having them at the wedding and the reception would be pretty fun.”

“Uh, is it dangerous?” Pearl asked.

“Don’t worry! They’re non-flammable and completely safe to eat.”

Jelly clapped. “Well, I like the sound of them! Let’s put it in and let all the guests taste the tasty sparks.”

Her brothers cheered at the idea, her parents scratched their chins in thought, and Cherry Jubilee just shrugged and said, “Well, sure, if ya say its safe… putting that on the list of things to put in the setup tomorrow.” She looked up at Cheese. “Oh, right, I forgot to mention I was asked by my sister to do some planning for this hoedown. Strawberry can’t keep her head straight.”

Cheese looked at Jelly’s mother, who shrugged sheepishly. He sighed and said, “Okay, I guess working together could—”

“Hold on!” Pearl exclaimed. “Not only was I promised to be the maid of honor for my best friend’s wedding, I was also told that I’d help plan it.” She gave Jelly puppy-dog eyes and leaned against her. “Somepony needs to pay attention to the little details…”

Jelly looked uncomfortable. “Uh…”

On Jelly's other side, Peanut gently pushed Pearl away, much to the mare's annoyance. "You're being creepy again..."

Cheese interrupted, “Okay, Pearl, what do you know about party planning? You’re clearly a dentist.”

Pearl shrugged playfully. “Oh, I’m sure that if I just ask myself, ‘What would Comedy Gold do here?’, that I can at least be sufficient for this wedding. Plus, I know my best friend, so I’ll give you my valuable input.”

Jelly relaxed. “Well, when you put it that way, I guess a third planner wouldn’t hurt…”

“Hey, wait a minute!” Vic exclaimed. “This planning thing’s too heavily in favor of the bride! What about someone on the groom’s team throwing out some ideas?!”

Peanut looked at him funny. “Uh, Vic, that’s nice and all, but—”

Cheese growled. “I’m the groom’s cousin!”

Lightning then retorted, “So? How often do you visit him? What do you know about him besides sports?”

Cheese opened his mouth, and then closed it again. “You two want in? Fine.”

Tomato then asked, “Okay, okay… what are the immediate families doing then?”

Parents of both bride and groom looked at each other, as did Creamy and Jelly’s brothers. Then, turning back to him and leaning in her hoof, Cocoa said, “Oh, we’re going out and about the town for us to get to know each other better; we’re kind of overdue on that front. I’ve done my share of collecting items and planning things for the wedding, and I’m sure that with a professional party planner, and two ponies on each side to help arrange this thing, it will all go swimmingly.”

Acorn nodded. “So, we’ve got plans for everyone… except Tomato. Say, Tommy, what are you doing?”

Tomato shrugged. “I guess I’m helping set up the—”

Cheese’s mane and some of his fur bristled, and he shouted, “No! No, no, no! You are not allowed to touch this party! If the insanity we’ve been dealing with all summer is anything to go by, you’re a bad luck charm in the party department!”

Tomato flinched, and then glared at him. “Geez, you don’t need to be so rude about it.”

Peanut kicked Cheese’s head. “Yeah, that was uncalled for. You don’t just call a pony a bad luck charm, brother or not. Sheesh, maybe you haven’t completely recovered from that fight.”

Cheese rubbed his head and snorted. “Well, I propose that he goes with you guys. I’m not letting him go off on his own because he has a tendency to get into trouble. Besides, cousins can catch up on the years they’ve spent on literally opposite sides of the country.”

Peanut sighed. “All right. He’s family, too, so I guess it won’t hurt.”

Sitting up on the roof that night, Cheese found himself gazing at the moon again. Though the magic had waned from the last time he seen it, it still entranced him with a silent siren song. He tingled from how much it still managed to shine, even at lower than a quarter of its power, and make the nighttime ocean shimmer. The sea air didn’t smell the best, but it managed to keep him from being too hot.

Tomato had been reading a book for some time, balancing a flashlight in the crook of his forelock for light. Though he tried to ignore his brother’s presence, he still looked up at Cheese and his mesmerized state every so often. As pretty as the moon was, Cheese hadn’t been that interested in it before. It was weird, even for him.

He snorted and tried to shove his nose back in a book where it belonged. He couldn’t be a bad luck charm if he just kept on reading his books. It was a good thing that Cheese was specific about the area the bad luck only affected, as he sure as heck wouldn’t want to end up jinxing his cousin.

He shut the book. His breath tasted funny, and his teeth had finally grown a layer of plaque after the whole Whitening Gun incident. Maybe he could let off some steam by brushing his teeth as aggressively as possible.

As he made his way to the door, and trotted down the stairs, he wondered what had gotten into Cheese. As much as he wanted to believe that it was just one memory stolen and screwing Cheese up, Tomato couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something else involved. They ruled out vampire given the details of Tomato’s own transformation, but what else could there be?

Meanwhile, throughout the city of Applewood, canines howled.

Author's Note

Now, I've tried my best to research L.A. like I did with the other cities... forgive me for getting some details wrong. Also, don't blame me for the Applewood thing, blame the show staff for not using Pegasus for an Angeles pun, as I still believe it would have made better sense than Vegas. I'll forever be miffed about that... :twilightangry2:

And now, we have met Peanut Butter Sandwich! In contrast to our tall dorks, Peanut's a short athlete.

Also, canon ponies of this episode are Cherry Jubilee and Lightning Dust. Along with Cheese, Silver Shill's sister Pearly Whites, and Quibble Pants' brother Victory Screech, they'll be doing some wedding planning. This should be fun. :trollestia:

BTW, while Lightning and Vic are friends with Peanut, they're a few years younger than him.

18.2--Too Many Cooks

The next day, Peanut Butter showed them the plaza that he and Jelly wanted to have their wedding in. With a color scheme of reds, browns, and whites--to the point that somepony joked that Tomato blended in--it was a surprisingly humble circle of shops that nopony would guess a star athlete would want to get married in. Shop owners in the plaza were sweeping the red-bricked street, scrubbing dirt off the stucco buildings, and sprucing up their shops with flowers. They glanced at the arriving group and said their greetings, but most continued their chores, while one little old pink mare trotted up to them.

"Oooh, hola, Peanut Butter! Jelly!" she trilled, kissing over both cheeks of both ponies. Patting Peanut's foreleg, she gestured to the rest of her friends and said, "I see your families have arrived for the wedding? Me and my friends have already started tidying up the plaza, and we'll be happy to help in setting up both the wedding and the reception."

Jelly beamed. "Aw, you're too kind, Rosita!"

Peanut chuckled. "Well, I suppose that our five planners will appreciate the helping hoofs."

"Oh?" Rosita leaned left and right to gauge the number of ponies in the group, counting both sets of parents, the siblings, the cousins, the aunt, and the three friends. "Which five do you speak of?"

Peanut gestured to certain ponies, a couple of them wearing saddlebags--with the tan stallion laughing at the pegasus mare swatting away a seagull that had perched on her head--and another pony pulling a wagon. "Cheese Sandwich, Lightning Dust, and Victory Screech. Cheese is my cousin, and the other two are friends and pupils of mine."

Jelly did the same, her planners carrying bags as well. "My friend Pearly Whites and my aunt Cherry Jubilee are with them."

Rosita narrowed her eyes at Pearl in a mock glare. "Oh, I remember you, Pearly. My teeth are fine, thank you."

Pearl waved a hoof. "Don't worry, I'm off the clock!"

"Yeah, she and those other four are going to hang around here and plan stuff, while Jelly and I get our families to get to know each other," Peanut Butter said, gesturing to the two families. "You've met my parents and sister, and the red guy is Cheese's brother Tomato."

Cocoa waved at her. "Hey, Rosita, how's your flower shop?"

"Lovely as usual, though it gets lonely," Rosita answered. She looked at Tomato and giggled. "He looks like my grandson."

Peanut Butter glanced at a surprised Tomato, nodded, and said, "Yeah, I've noticed."

Rosita turned to Jelly and family. "And you?"

Jelly blinked. "Oh! Meet my papa Marmalade, mama Strawberry Delight, and my brothers Grapefruit, Apricot, Mulberry, and Huckleberry. Let me tell you, it was a hassle getting them here, since during a stopover, somepony--" She glared at the twins. "--lost their glasses in an art museum and nearly uprooted every exhibit trying to find them."

One of said twins piped up, "And when we found Huck's glasses, we nearly got in trouble for 'stealing an art piece'."

Huck, the bespectacled twin, huffed. "Apparently, a pair of glasses on the floor makes for 'deep', modern art appreciated by weirdo critics."

Rosita blinked and scratched her head. "Ponies these days... searching for meanings in the strangest of things... I do not understand what that would mean other than 'somepony has lost their glasses'."

Cherry Jubilee shrugged. "I don't get it either, darlin'. Glasses on the ground don't need no fancy meanin'."

Cheese thought for a moment. "Uh... some poor soul is blind and cannot see?"

"Well, thank you, Captain Obvious," Lightning Dust deadpanned. "That was the deepest observation I've ever heard."

Vic just stood there puzzled. "Sounds like my oldest sister in a drama mood."

Cheese rolled his eyes, and said, "Well, as nice it is to stand around and chat, we better get started on setting up the whole shindig. Don't want to burn daylight for too long." He turned to Peanut Butter and Jelly. "Now, you two and your families have fun today! Me and the crew will have this thing set up by the time you come back."

Peanut saluted him. "Will do, Cheese. Make sure that Lightning and Vic don't kill each other. They've been squabbling since I've met them. And please respect Rosita and the other shopkeepers in the plaza; I've kept this wedding location under wraps not just for my and Jelly's privacy, but for their privacy as well. Rosita's a gracious host, and is basically everyone's abuelita."

Rosita nodded proudly. "Si, I enjoy the company of the young ponies. You best behave yourselves!"

Cheese nodded. "Don't worry, I'll make sure everyone behaves. Swear on Camembert."

Peanut smiled. "Great. See ya later."

As the couple and their families left, leaving the five ponies with Rosita to plan, Cheese hollered, "Oh, and remember to keep Tomato out of trouble!"

Peanut didn't respond, but Tomato made it clear that he heard when he looked back and scowled at him. Cheese refused to acknowledge it, instead going straight to business. He spun around on a front hoof and faced the other four planners, plus Rosita. He scratched his chin. "All right, now to see where to start. What have you each got in your bags?"

Cherry Jubilee opened up her saddlebag first, and started to pull out fake fruits; most of them were cherries, but there were plenty of grapes, strawberries, apples, pears, and others. "I got them fancy fruit centerpieces on the way here, since little Jelly has always loved fruit." Tangled wires of lights was pulled out, and she glared at it. "I also got fancy Hearth's Warming lights..." Setting aside the lights and fruit, she also pulled out posters and banners and started to unroll them. "And I had a friend of mine paint portraits of the two families."

Cheese nodded. "So far, so good."

Pearl's bag was more a suitcase, which she snapped open and turned into view to show him the neatly organized compartments of her decor. "As for me, I have packed some clean tablecloths and curtains, pearls and beads and seashells for decoration, some of my older sister's finest silverware and white china--mind you, I had permission to borrow it--synthetic flowers, scented candles, lace, air freshener, a long carpet so that Jelly doesn't dirty her dress--"

"That's why me and my friends are sweeping!" Rosita interjected.

"Well, you've definitely got a lot of stuff for us to work with," Cheese said, rubbing the back of his head. He turned to Lightning Dust. "What about you, what have you brought?"

With half-lidded eyes, she opened her saddlebag, and dumped some jerseys and trophies on the ground. "Peanut said it was okay to use them as decoration."

Pearl scoffed. "Well, the jerseys are not good decoration if they're dirty!"

Lightning sneered at her, and then watched as a few feathers fell out of the bag. "Oh, yeah, and we could use some of my molted feathers as decoration."

Pearl cringed. "That's like using dandruff for fake snow during Hearth's Warming!"

"No, it isn't! For goodness' sake, I had to think fast for this situation! Besides, I was also thinking of doing some stunts for the wedding and showing everyone my stuff." She smirked and fluttered her wings. "Maybe if I had a cool contrail so that I could write the names of the bride and groom while I'm in the air, this wedding could be epic."

Vic snickered. "Well, just as long as you don't endanger any lives this time."

Lightning Dust made the motion of rolling up an imaginary sleeve when Cherry stepped between the two athletes and said, "Aw right, y'all, no need to fight like two bears over a giant trout. I'd like to see what little ol' Vic's got for us."

Vic picked up his bag, and then unceremoniously dumped a ton of empty plastic peanut butter and glass jelly jars onto the brick pavement. It was a miracle that none of the glass jars shattered on impact with the ground.

Cherry stepped back in alarm. "What in tarnation?!"

As Lightning started to snicker, a confused Pearl asked, "Eh... why do you have so many jars?"

Vic looked at the scattered jars rolling around him. "Grew up in a big family. We used these things to hold our savings." He took note of one half-empty jar of peanut butter and picked it up. "Oh, oops! I think I grabbed this one when I was hurrying to catch the train!" He looked at Pearl, and held it up for her to see. "Hey, you want some?!"

Pearl gagged. "No, thanks... I'm not fond of peanut butter... it sticks to the roof of my mouth and it drives me nuts!"

Cheese raised a hoof. "I'd like some!"

Vic laughed and tossed the jar to Cheese. "So, what have you got?"

"Lots of stuff!" Cheese stuck his muzzle in the jar and started licking the gooey peanut butter. His tail swung the wagon around, showing the others the fruit-flavored fireworks. "I gotta foot-favored fiyah-works! Dere as yummy as dis peenot buttah!"

He didn't notice the others looking at him oddly as he slurped up the peanut butter. He pinned the jar onto the ground and laid his head down beside it, all the while keeping his keister raised up high for the world to see. His tail wagged as he continued, "I ah-so got mah a-curl-dion, lotsa stweamahs, confett-eh, pints, gag impah-mints, rubbah tickens... all kindsa 'tuff!"

"Don't talk while you're eating!" Pearl scolded, reaching for the jar. "Get your muzzle out of there, it's not the proper way to eat peanut butter!"

The fur on his back bristling, Cheese growled and snapped at Pearl's hoof. The pale blue mare briefly shrieked and stumbled back, her eyes wide and blinking as she stared back at Cheese; a peanut butter covered muzzle had never looked so fierce. She quickly examined her hoof, despite the jaws missing their mark.

The others stared for a moment, and backed away from the irritated Cheese. Lightning broke the silence by asking, "So... what is the 'proper' way to eat peanut butter?"

"On bread," Pearl squeaked. "Or a graham cracker."

Vic pursed his lips. "I was planning to have some peanut butter myself, but now there's too many Cheese germs in the jar."

"He's enjoyin' that peanut butter like a dog enjoys a bone; let's let him be and start settin' up tables," Cherry said. She turned to Rosita. "Do y'all have any tables on you?"

Rosita smiled and nodded.

Nothing of note happened while Cheese had finished off the peanut butter, with the tables being set up nicely. He couldn't help but be happy with the arrangement of the round tables, the head table where the two main families would sit, and the buffet table. Pearl's tablecloths were lovely with their alternating fruit and flora patterns, and Cherry Jubilee was in the process of untangling her lights so that she could have Lightning Dust hang them around the square.

Cheese dumped art supplies at one unclothed table, with the intention of maybe getting some banners and flags by the local foals done, and perhaps encourage Lightning Dust and Victory Screech to contribute a bit more to the decorating. Lightning blew it off, saying that she was over kids' stuff, but Vic wholeheartedly threw himself into the art alongside the foals.

Now, Rosita's fresh flowers were something that he could work in, both as decor and cuisine. As a matter of fact, he also agreed to let the shopkeepers cook up some delicious dishes to serve at the wedding. After all, they mentioned that both bride and groom had visited their little plaza and tried their dishes, loving them.

Cheese tried cacti that Rosita and crew referred to as nopales for a little snack--it was good, but gee, was it slimy! Still he figured that some cactus and flower salads and soups wouldn't hurt--especially since they were stripped of their spines--as well as vegetable empanadas, hay taquitos, and rice and beans. A baker even offered to make wedding cookies and tres leches cake, which Cheese saw no problem with. He had an odd feeling that there was something missing, but as far as he could tell, the food was fine.

So far, so good, he had thought.

They hit a roadblock soon enough.

"Oh, no, no, no," Pearl argued, setting her basket of shells on the table, and holding the jar of pearls up to Cheese's face. "These are not easy to find! I've been painstakingly collecting these and the shells back home in Halterside for hours upon hours! It helps to have my crazy sister around to dig up shells, but let me tell you, it's hard, especially the dirty work of cracking open oysters. I don't want my efforts to be wasted."

Cheese sighed. "I'm sorry, but I'm not entirely sure where to put them. Just because they're 'clean' doesn't mean they fit the theme." He looked around the area, scratching his chin. Smelling the scent of delicious cuisine, cooked by the restaurant owner for some customers in another plaza, was fogging up his mind, so he wasn't sure what he wanted to do. "I might have to think it over a bit to see how we can work them in..."

Vic popped up in his vision, holding up a cardboard basketball hoop, with a net made out of streamers. "Eh? I made this out of the art supplies that you pulled out. You think Peanut Butter would like it?"

Cheese didn't doubt that he would. Now, to decide where exactly it should go... if only those beans didn't smell so good...

"Yoo-hoo!" Cherry called. She and some of the shopkeepers were trying to straighten the family portraits at the head table, only for them to dip one way or the other--or even outright fall to the pavement. "We're having a little trouble keepin' 'em straight, mind helpin' us a mite?"

"Uh, yeah, I'll be right--"

A tangled up Lightning Dust fell into vision, looking a little like a Hearth's Warming tree. "Evil seagulls are evil."

Cheese grimaced and shouted to Cherry, "Uh, you'll have to wait a bit longer! Lightning needs a bit of help."

Lightning snorted, and attempted to wriggle out of the wires on her own. "I don't need any help; in fact, I'm sure you're just out to make me look bad. I've been in tighter spots than this, and escaped them all my own; so, don't bother, Miss Dust has got this."

Cheese snorted in return. "Very well. I'll just help Cherry Jubilee then."

He was by Cherry Jubilee in a flash, and very quickly fixed the nails so that the paintings didn't fall off, followed by straightening them. The older mare smiled and said, "Well, aren't you a mighty fine gentlecolt? Why haven't you found yourself a nice gal?"

Cheese rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I move around so often that I don't really have time for any steady dating. Heck, I don't even do one night stands."

"Well, if you ever change your mind 'bout it, I know a gal that'll be perfect for you." Cherry winked at him.

Cheese had to admit that Cherry was quite the looker, but he wasn't really into older mares. "Uh..."

"Oh, I'm not talking 'bout me, if that's what you're thinkin'; I'm talkin' about a Miss Pinkie Pie!"

"Oh..." Cheese's eyelids lowered, and he replied coolly, "I've met her. We're, uh... we're, uh... rivals."

"Aw, I shoulda known that a party pony would know a party pony!" Cherry fluffed up the bump in her mane and flipped bangs out of her eyes. "Rivals, huh? Well, color me more surprised than a bird flyin' in fireworks, I'd think that they wouldn't think of no rivalry before friendship."

"Rivalries happen with every talent, Miss Jubilee." Cheese felt a knot in his stomach, now that spiciness was reaching his nostrils. What time was it? Was it lunchtime already? Was anypony else too busy drooling over scrumptious smells to focus properly? That was frustrating, given that little progress in decor had been made.

A crash sounded behind them, and they spun around to find that Lightning Dust had freed herself from the Hearth's Warming lights, but at the cost of a few of the tables, and an uneven loop of lights drooping onto the pavement. She was lucky that no centerpieces had been decided for the tables yet, but she was soon to meet the wrath of the shopkeepers who provided the tables. Cheese and Cherry were quick to gallop to the scene and help her out of the pile.

"You all right, darlin'?" Cherry asked.

Lightning stretched and popped her wings, and flapped them to ensure that they weren't broken. Looking at the tables, then at the lights, and finally at the sky, she shouted, "What is with those stupid Applewood seagulls?! They seriously want to pick a fight."

"Yeah, sure, blame the seagulls!" Vic called from his table, making origami sports balls of all kinds.

Pearl was soon at the site of the crash as well. "Oh, no! We have twenty-four less seats for the guests! We need to get more tables or else we'll be forced to spread picnic blankets onto this brick road! Do you know how uncomfortable it is to sit on brick?"

Lightning raised an eyebrow. "Gee, I wouldn't know how uncomfortable that is."

"Okay, okay, let's not start a fight." Cheese took a deep breath and exhaled. "Let's just clean up this mess, get some new tables from any wood shops around here, and we can get back to business."

Pearl piped up. "Oh, I know where to find one! It's near my office." She trotted off to the plaza's exit, chirping, "Miss Lightning, Mr. Vic, come along with me, I need a bit of muscle to carry all four replacement tables."

The two mentioned ponies groaned, but they complied, with Lighting hovering after her, and Vic peeling away from his table to let the kids work on their little tissue paper flags. As the three left, Vic gave a sharp nudge to Lightning, and Lightning kicked back.

"Well, while we pick up them table pieces, we could figure out where our decorations go?" Cherry asked, pointing to the unused items--the fake fruit, the fake flowers, the beads, the jerseys and trophies, and the jars--that sat in the corner, gathering dust that blew their way.

Cheese rubbed his temples, trying to keep from shuddering from sheer irritation. His gears were having some trouble turning.

The mess had been cleaned up and the tables replaced, but now Cheese had new ideas being thrown at him relentlessly.

The list in his head grew longer and longer, and he spent more time reviewing things than actually doing things. Not only shall one arch be erected for bride, groom, and officiant to perform the ceremony under, but also another to serve as a gateway into the plaza. Perhaps the lights should blink, making for a more visually interesting light show. How many sports-related things could serve as decoration anyway? He needed to install a defense system to keep the paparazzi or any other troublemakers away--maybe use the fruit-flavored fireworks for that! Maybe serving peanut butter squares and jelly donuts would be fitting for the couple. Do we throw rice or feathers in celebration of the newlyweds? More cherry-related decor, arrange the seashells into flowers, make a piñata, let Lightning practice tricks above them--if the vicious seagulls would just stop pecking and biting at her--stick glow-in-the-dark stars on the walls, get a mariachi band, serve watermelons, wave Peanut's jerseys like flags, and what the hay are they supposed to do with the peanut butter and jelly jars?

It didn't help that it felt like he was babysitting a bunch of rowdy children. He was no stranger to looking after kids, but the ponies he was dealing with were all adults! The sanest one no doubt was Cherry Jubilee, but she had a few out there ideas of her own and wanted them included in the setup. Not to mention the questions that Cheese had to answer and the weird things that came out of his mouth.

"Cherry, you should have a bit more variety in fruits for this, not just cherries."

"Pearl--cough!--I don't think--ack!--the air freshener is--cough, cough!--necessary!"

"I don't know if killing seagulls is illegal, Lightning."

"No, Vic, origami is not a part of this culture."

"Yikes! Careful with the beach ball! Rosita's flowers are part of the decor!"

"Pearl... it's okay. We don't need to see our reflection in the bricks."

"Vic, Lightning, stop throwing your stupid wads of paper at each other!"

"Yes, I do intend on playing my accordion. I do know a few romantic tunes."

They managed to get some flowers woven in both arches that Cheese had built. The fake ones were woven into the entrance, while real ones were in the arch where the ceremony was going to take place. Rosita, a couple of her elderly friends, and a few of the foals wove zinnias within the wooden frame, while Pearl's synthetic flowers and vines were intertwined with the other one.

He was happy that the arches were at least done and flowers were adorning windowsills, but he still looked in the corner, with unused implements still waiting for a purpose, and then at the still centerpiece-less tables, the lights still drooping to the ground, and just how barren and empty the place looked aside from sports-themed art projects haphazardly taped to the walls. At least he got Pearl to hold off setting the tables until tomorrow, knowing that chances were that they could be broken overnight.

Cheese sat down, and vigorously scratched his ear. It felt like that they had been at it for hours, and yet he hadn't come up with a way for it all to mesh perfectly. All those ideas, all these implements, and those four ponies who didn't seem to have a grasp on finer party planning details and yet trying to have some control over it... he felt like he was carrying saddlebags of rocks and that his imagination had been ripped out. Ceasing his scratching session, he looked over the area again, and groaned, knowing that he should be faster than this.

He simply watched as Lightning Dust fell into the plaza, flight practice interrupted by seagulls yet again. She swatted and they pecked, she angrily whinnied and they squawked, and all were flapping. Cherry, Pearl, and Vic all came galloping to rear up and strike at the birds, or buck them, or swat them along with her. Cheese only watched for a few moments before standing up, walking over to the melee, and then barking like a dog to scare the birds away.

The seagulls flew off at the sound of a dog, leaving the plaza with a mess of their feathers and Lightning's. Blinking, the pegasus picked them up, and muttered, "All right, more feathers. At least some good came out of my fights with those winged rats."

"I have to ask, what did you do to tick them off?" Vic inquired, spitting out some feathers of his own. "Did you send a tornado after them, too?"

Lightning pinned her ears back and flicked her tail. "No, but thanks for the idea."

"Aw, ew! I think one of them pooped on me!" Pearl cried.

"Naw, you're fine, it's me they took a crap on," Cherry grumbled. She looked up at Cheese. "I never thought barkin' was an option."

"My oldest brother does that a lot..." Vic mumbled.

Cheese rolled his eyes. "It's a pretty obvious solution. Most birds scatter when barked at."

Pearl brushed off her shirt. "Does anypony need to take a bath? I think I need to take a bath." She looked around at the tables. "Also, question, where is the wedding cake supposed to go? Shouldn't it have its own table?"

Cheese's eyes widened, and he mumbled, "I, uh..." He pursed his lips, and then said, "Well, now that I think of it, I don't believe they've gotten the wedding cake yet! I checked Peanut's fridge this morning, there wasn't one, and I think he might have commissioned a baker for it." He cleared his throat and stood erect. "It's probably done by now, so I guess someone will have to fetch it and stick it in that fridge for tomorrow."

"Oh, I can go after--"

Cheese stopped Pearl right there. "I'm going to save you the trouble and just go get it right away."

He had turned around and started walking away when Cherry asked, "And just what do you expect us to do?"

Cheese slouched, feeling both mane and fur bristle. Forcing his most pleasant voice, he said, "Just go along and take your baths, we don't want anypony asking why you smell like bird poop. If I'm not back by the time you're done, be sure to clean stuff, guard stuff, make sure it's all organized... stuff like that." He continued on his way, adding, "Also, Cherry Jubilee's in charge."

The other four looked at each other. Then Vic asked, "So, wait, why was he in charge in the first place?"

"He's the professional party planner, hon," Cherry answered.

A quick trip back to Peanut's place to check which baker he needed to go to, and Cheese was well on his way to fetching cake.

For now, he could feel his body relaxing on getting away from that plaza. Good grief, he had co-planners before, but it was typically one, and another party pony! Usually, non-party ponies he was working with were those who he was directing, to set up the plans inspired by the ideas or interests of the guest of honor. Having so many ideas shoved shoved onto him by too many co-planners was exhausting! It was nice to finally have some time alone to think. Well, maybe he could talk to Bone--

He forgot Boneless 2 at the house. Dang it.

He snorted. "Who needs him, anyway? That chicken's been refusing to talk to me for the past week."

So, he briskly trotted alone on that Applewood street, passing homes and small businesses and talkative ponies along the way. Looking at the palms, he wondered if he could use any of them as a catapult to travel to another part of the city. He decided that he probably could, but he didn't want to overshoot his mark. After all, this was a quick errand, probably taking the amount of time it'd take for the others to finish their baths. The sun beating down on him, his tongue rolled out into another round of panting. Immediately, he could feel the heat go down.

Merging into a more graffitied part of town, he bumped into a mare and backed up. "Whoa, hey there."

The other pony hissed and waggled a serpentine tongue at him. Cheese jumped, and after processing the rudeness as a threat, he growled back at her. The two ponies glared and snarled at each other, with other ponies noticed and backing away awkwardly. Nopony quite knew who looked more inequine, but they didn't want to stick around for the fight, save for a few curious teenagers. Seeing the mare not backing down, Cheese was preparing to bite her and thrash her if necessary.

However, before any blows were traded, the strange mare bolted past him in a hurry. Blinking, Cheese looked back at her for a moment, and then huffed. "And I thought Manehattan ponies were cranky. That was weird..."

He shook his head. "Never mind that, I got to get cake." He continued forward toward the destined bakery and repeated, "Gotta get cake... gotta get cake... gotta get cake..."

"Meow."

Cheese paused, perked up, and then looked across the street. Right there, in plain sight, was a gray tabby cat, licking its paw and grooming its head. Though a messy stray, it somehow looked so majestic and so pure, like some sort of silver deity.

He stared at the cat for a good ten seconds before shaking his head and reminding himself, "I gotta get cake!" He started his walk once again. "I gotta get cake... I gotta get cake... I gotta get... cake... I gotta... get... CAT!"

He bolted across the street, shouting "Kitty! I want to be your friend!"

The shout caught the cat's attention, and it shrieked at the sight of a tall, golden-brown horse galloping at full speed toward it. Taking off in the other direction, the cat ran like Tartarus in order to escape its pursuer. It ignored Cheese's barks of friendship offers, while Cheese didn't notice puzzled onlookers watching him chase a cat.

Author's Note

You know something? I hate my slow pace. But, nevertheless, I got a thing done. Rejoice. :ajbemused:

Anyway, in case you're wondering, yeah, it turns out that cactus (or specifically nopal, aka prickly pear) is a thing you can eat. My cousin tried it when she was in California; she says it was slimy. She was also giving me a few ideas for what to write in this part, though I still have a general story to stick to.

The funny thing about this chapter was that it was a groaner because the too many ponies with too many ideas thing was wearing me out, slowing me down, and putting my imagination on halt... like what happened with Cheese. Thankfully, I picked up the pace once he was out of there and starting his weird misadventure through Applewood.

Starting with a cat. Meow. :trollestia:

18.3--Taking It Around Town

With the sun beating down on him and his hooves sinking in the hot sand, Tomato spent much of the walk down the beach just tailing the two families. The lab coats and aprons of one family and the flannel from the other had been removed in favor of light shirts and sunscreen for the trip, with Tomato himself borrowing a light green Haywaiian shirt for a more casual appearance (though he had questioned why his white button shirt wasn't casual enough). As he walked behind the two chatting families, he looked around.

Around them, there were a whole variety of ponies kicking up sand in either playing volleyball or playing fetch with their dogs, lying on towels to soak up sunlight, crafting castles out of sand, or playing in the waves. The streets nearby housed cages full of basketball and tennis courts, and a ten-minute walk away was a pier that held a small aquarium.

He seemed to slow his pace, and ended up bumping into a couple of young mares. "Oof!" He stumbled back in embarrassment. "Uh, excuse me."

The girls turned with a pout, only to gasp, break into smiles, and scream, "O, M, Goodness! It's Snap!"

"Eh?! But I, eh, uh, duh--" Tomato stopped his brief panic when he remembered the reason they called him that. He pursed his lips and turned to show them his cutie mark. "Sorry, wrong stallion."

The mares visibly sunk. One said, "Aww... but you look like him..."

The other smirked and purred, "Yeah, he does..." She turned to her friend. "You know, the glasses are, like, so cute!"

The first one squealed. "They are! They so bring out his eyes! Look at them, so green! They totally match his shirt!"

Tomato flushed and backed up some more. "Uh, thanks? I've, uh, never been randomly complimented by strangers before... especially in this manner!"

Both mares giggled, and one whispered to the other, "If he wore black, he'd totes be the definition of tall, dark, and handsome..."

Tomato was thankful when Peanut Butter had noticed him missing from the group, looked around, and called out, "Hey! Tomato, stop flirting with strange mares! We've got a whole day of sunshine ahead of us!"

He backed up some more, and said, "Oh, would you look at that? My cousin's calling me! See ya!"

As Tomato sped off, the two girls giggled, with one whispering, "He's so shy! So cute!"

He caught up to the group at one volleyball net, and watched as they inflated a beach ball, and divided into two teams in a family vs. family duel. Tomato sat on the sidelines, ready to watch the battle. As he settled onto the sand, he wondered how Flora's family would have been divided in this game, how Bluejinx could play without popping the ball, or how Cirrus and Nimbus would play compared to non-pegasi.

"Hey!" Aunt Cocoa came trotting up to him, prompting him to look up. "Aren't you gonna play?"

Tomato blinked. "I, uh... I'm just a cousin... kind of a third wheel in this get-together..."

Cocoa raised an eyebrow. "Just a cousin?" She hoisted him up by the collar and started dragging him onto the 'court'. "Buddy, you're the son of my brother, so even if he's being an apathetic douchenozzle, you're still part of the family. Come on, we can't get to know you if you're not involved."

Tomato was about to protest that he didn't know how to play, but Cocoa seemed to read his mind and explained the basic rules of not letting it touch the sand or go out of bounds, and just bump it over with whatever body part he's got--no catching it or touching the net. With that said and done, he just hung out in the back on the side of the net where his aunt, uncle, and cousins were, and faced Jelly Jubilee's family.

First serve, Tomato watched as Peanut Butter launched the ball over the net with a whack of his tail, only for Jelly to spring into action and spike it; one look at Peanut's proud smirk and waggling eyebrows told Tomato that he was finding that attractive. Second serve had the other family bucking the ball around on their side before it was bumped over the net, followed by Creamy managed to bump it back, and then by one of Jelly's brothers, and then by Acorn before another point was made. Third serve had heartier bounces over the net over the course of a few minutes, before Cocoa leapt into the air, threw a fierce punch, and then gained a point with an explosion of sand. There was shock, and then there was laughter.

Back and forth the beach ball went, and somehow, Tomato hadn't had the chance to strike the ball, and he hoped it would stay that way. Still, it was nice just watching them laugh with every ridiculous move made--from sand explosions to hitting a seagull to somehow getting tangled in the net. In seeing both families so happy, he pondered the question of how a game like this with his own parents would go, in a world where they had been more lighthearted. The thought of his own parents, smiling and laughing along with him and Cheese, bouncing a beach ball between each other, was bizarre.

"Tomato, heads up!"

Tomato just barely looked up when the ball hit him squarely in the face, with enough force to send him stumbling back and sprawling onto the sand. As he lay there, he had been busy reeling in over what just happened, only for cheers and laughter to erupt. As he sat up, he heard, "Wow! His face just got us a point!"

By the time he was fully sitting and brushing sand off his tail, he noticed a couple reporter-like ponies and photographers accosting Peanut Butter with, "Holy smokes, what a strike! Was it on purpose that you set up a game just to plow Snapdragon Apple's face with a beach ball?"

Peanut growled and facehoofed. "What? No! What kind of logic are you on? I was just having fun with my family; that's my cousin there!"

"Oh, so Snap's your cousin?"

"No... Tomato just happens to look a lot like him." Peanut narrowed his eyes and flicked his tail. "Now, get lost."

Cheese had no idea what possessed him to chase after a cat, but by golly, making a new friend seemed like a good idea to him. It didn't matter where they were going, he was going to catch that cat! It didn't matter to him that when speeding through an intersection, two fancy carriages had to screech to a halt to avoid crashing into him. The drivers of said carriages glared at him, while the young stars popped their heads out of the windows and shouted in unison, "Hey! That is not cool!"

Down the Trot of Fame the cat went, and Cheese followed in its wake. Barreling down the aisle of golden horseshoes, he was just bowling ponies over left and right, and they soon were seeing stars. One young rebel about to vandalize one horseshoe had his paint kicked in his face, and his friend was kicked into a lamppost. There were shrieks as some were launched upward, grunts and yelps of pain as some were left sprawling on the street or into a tree, and ponies jumping out of the way when they realized what was happening, some into a nearby fountain.

At last, after Celestia-knows-how-long of running into who-knows-where, Cheese managed to pounce on that cat. It wasn't without the cat screeching and yowling, but it was otherwise unharmed. His prize squirming in his hooves and clawing at his forelegs, he couldn't help but laugh and twirl around on a hind hoof.

"Woohoo! I caught my new friend!" Cheese stopped spinning, took a few sniffs to get its scent, and looked face to face with the cat. "Hey, how are you today?"

The cat glared at him for a moment before hissing and resuming its struggle.

Cheese wrinkled his nose. "Hey, don't be like that. I get enough hissing from my brother." He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Nevertheless, you're my new friend! After a certain rubber chicken I won't name refused to talk to me, I need someone to talk to while I..."

He started to look around, realizing that he had wandered into a movie studio and right onto a set. "...get the, uh... cake."

It didn't take long for him to notice that he was in line of sight of one of those fancy movie cameras, though the crew behind it were obviously focusing on three actors. One was wearing a saddle on fire, galloping around and belting out screams in an obvious show, another was chasing him, whipping his back with a blanket, and and the last was busy whacking a fire hydrant with a wrench, glancing every so often at the other two. Cheese didn't know how many whacks had already been made, but a few clangs later, a geyser exploded from the ground, sending the actor stumbling back and launching the hydrant in the air.

The hydrant came down right next to a straight-faced Cheese. Feeling that burn of his acting up from watching that blazing saddle, he decided that it was best to back away from the movie set and try his best to not interrupt that out-of-context slapstick scene.

He bumped into a unicorn security guard, who promptly grabbed him with his magic. "You think I didn't see you just running in?"

Out onto the street Cheese went, landing face first on the pavement. Miraculously, he still held onto the squirming cat.

"Tours are closed!" the guard shouted, before shutting the gate behind him and marching back to his post.

Cheese peeled himself off the street, and rolled to the sidewalk. Sitting up and scratching himself with a hind hoof, he murmured, "Sheesh, no need to be so rude. You're lucky that I didn't bite you, pal."

He stood up and shook the dust off himself. Looking up at the city around him, he whistled and said, "Dang, I really missed the mark! I go out to fetch a cake and end up all the way over here." He looked at the palm trees, and then to his kitty friend. "What do you think, Whiskers? Shall we catapult across town with one of these things? Don't worry, I have a way to avoid hitting--"

"Meow."

Cheese's ears perked up, and he turned to see another cat grooming herself on the other side of the street. A pretty little calico she was, and would make the perfect companion for Whiskers. Another urge to chase buzzed within him, and without thinking, he bolted forward, Whiskers screeching in terror as he did so.

The calico did not hesitate to run for it on seeing that crazy horse.

After fun in the sand and the surf and some lunch, the two families hit the court to scratch Peanut's basketball itch.

Basketball was a bizarre sport. While Peanut Butter had explained that it was originally invented by pegasi, Tomato was still confused over how other ponies had apparently adapted to it. Pegasi could dribble with their hooves, only allowed to hover near the ground, while most earth ponies dribbled the ball with precise hits from their muzzle, and unicorns with brief magic spurts. A more powerful bump or even a buck was used to shoot the hoops, and in rare cases, slam dunks could be made. With that in mind, it was a little disconcerting that Peanut Butter had asked him to shoot a few hoops.

Tomato shifted uncomfortably. "We just played volleyball. Are you sure?"

"Of course! I know dribbling is hard with your muzzle, so I'll let you know that there's no rule against the tail." Peanut waved his tail for emphasis, then pointed to Creamy, who talked with Jelly. "It's how I taught my sister to play with me."

Tomato looked at his own, and pursed his lips. "Well, I guess I could try."

Peanut punched him on the front leg. "Haha! That's the spirit!"

"Ow."

While the older adults sat on the sidelines and watched, eating remaining snacks from the beach, the younger ones played. Four-on-four, with Jelly's brothers on one team and Jelly with Peanut's relatives on the other, the eight 'kids' of the group played, scurrying back and forth and bumping the ball wheresoever they could.

Tomato tried dribbling with his muzzle, and got a chin ache for his troubles. He tried dribbling with his tail, which was significantly easier, but he forgot to run, and thus, had it stolen from right under him by one of the twins. When the ball was passed so that Tomato could shoot for a point, he panicked and got hit on the nose, which led to the ball bouncing out of bounds.

He felt silly, especially compared to Peanut, who essentially glided back and forth and side to side across the court. There he was, Tomato's older and shorter cousin, effortlessly switching dribbles between muzzle and tail. There he goes, zooming right under Jelly's brothers' noses--literally--to knock the ball from under them and claim it for his own. And Tomato couldn't recall the last time he had done a springing move with his tail, like how Peanut did to make a slam dunk.

Hearing praises like "It was like you were flying!", "Darn, I didn't even notice you before you took that ball!", and "That tail of yours is like an extra limb!", Tomato couldn't help but be impressed at Peanut. He also couldn't help but feel a little ashamed for holding him back, just like what happened in Halterside with Cheese.

However, Tomato did finally score his team a point when the ball hit his head in a flubbed pass mid-court, and it bounced far enough for a three-pointer. He was on the ground with a headache, but he still pumped a hoof and said, "Yes! I did something right... sort of."

Jelly called for a time-out, and then helped him up. "Are you okay? It looks like a bump is forming."

"Eugh... I've had worse."

"Hmm..." She turned to her fiance. "Why don't you guys keep playing, I'm going to give him a little checkup."

Peanut Butter exhaled. "If you say so... we'll rearrange with some three-on-three until Tom's all better. I hope he's not banged up too bad, because we've still got a whole day ahead of us, and I want us all to have fun."

Jelly nodded, and then took Tomato to a bench. Opening a cooler and pulling out an ice pack, she set it on his head and asked, "Doesn't seem like you play any sports all that often, huh?"

Tomato held the ice pack in place. "Nah... haven't done so since I was a little colt. I don't know how Peanut does it."

"Aw, don't fret about it! We're all good and bad at different things!" She gestured to her brothers. "We're all fruit farmers at heart, but Grapefruit's a builder, Apricot's musical, Mulberry's an artist, Huckleberry likes science, and I enjoy sports!"

Tomato chuckled. "I can see why you and Peanut are attracted to each other."

Jelly blushed and looked at the short stallion just owning everyone on the court. "Well, when we were getting to know each other, I helped him practice during the off-season. We got talking about our families and hobbies and stuff... and he's such a handsome gentlecolt!"

Tomato leaned back. "That wasn't what I thought when we were kids. Every time his family visited, his parents would argue with mine, and he'd terrorize us. Cheese and I hated him and Aunt Cocoa, because anything with them involved ended in misery... though we did like Creamy and wanted to rescue her. Uncle Acorn was just there. We were happy when they moved away... but..."

Years later, and Tomato finally got to see them in a casual setting. It was only now that he truly realized that his aunt and uncle weren't bad ponies at all, fighting with his parents for no reason. Looking at Acorn and Cocoa, being not just cordial, but really friendly toward Jelly's parents, he wondered if the arguing was born out of concern for his own parents' dysfunctional relationship.

Still, Peanut had been a jerk as a kid, and he was glad that he grew out of it.

"But what?" Jelly asked.

Tomato sighed. "Nothing. I had to grow up a bit to get that adults have problems too."

They both noticed flashing cameras, followed by a crowd dispersing when a scowling Peanut Butter bucked at the fence. Jelly groaned, and grumbled, "Like paparazzi. Where are the Peanut Butter clones when you need them?"

Neither Cheese nor the calico were paying attention to what was behind the tall fence. The calico swiftly climbed over, while Cheese rapidly dug a hole right under it, holding Whiskers by the scruff on the neck, and slipped through the resulting tunnel. The chase resumed--only to stop when the calico slipped into a large pond, and Cheese outright jumped into it.

His head bursting out of the pond, he quickly realized it wasn't water.

He lifted a purple, goopy hoof and sniffed it, pulling away. "Aw, gross! What the heck is in this pond?!" He noticed a few viewing areas around the fences, where ponies stared at him in horror and started to take pictures. He groaned, and then looked down at his scowling cat, similarly drenched in the goo. "Okay... my bad... this is the Ooze Hole, not a pond."

He noticed the calico screaming as it tried to swim out. Cheese marched forth to sniff the cat, grab it, pull it out, and then pull himself out of the Ooze Hole. He heard the crowd gasp and murmur, and he completely ignored them as he tried--and failed--to shake the goo off.

With a sigh of defeat, he slipped back under the hole in the fence, popping up onto the other side with a layer of soil caking his first gooey layer. With both cats in mouth, dug at the dirt pile he left earlier to refill the hole. Grumbling about how that dumb thing was within city limits, he finished off the dirt pile, and patted it into the refilled hole before leaving.

As he walked away from the site, dripping with dirty goo, he told the two cats, "Okay, Whiskers and Dotty, let's go get cleaned--"

"Meow."

Cheese looked across the street once more, and there sat a skinny, messy-furred black cat. "...right after we get that one."

Next stop for the two families was the aquarium on the nearby pier, which wasn't quite grandiose, but it was at least informative about the sea and its life, especially those that the building housed. Tomato was mildly amused by it, his mind hearkening to a time when Bluejinx mentioned his uncle was a marine biologist in Baltimare, but otherwise, he didn't think much of fish.

Once again, Tomato ended up somewhat isolating himself from the two families, the feeling of not really belonging in this outing creeping up on him again. He took to staring at some starfish, while glancing at the others either making faces at the fish or learning from the staff. The moment he was joined by Jelly's twin brothers singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" at that pool, he slipped away to look at another tank with fish in it, though his attention was focused on the pair of eels, one yellow and one brown, slithering through the water.

Jelly's father, Marmalade, was suddenly right next to him. With a shudder, he said, "Those things look evil."

Tomato shrugged. "Well they do seem like they'd be henchfish to some water-based villain."

"That they do. I wonder what seaponies think of eels."

"Who knows? Certainly not me, I haven't had much interest in the ocean ever."

Marmalade nodded, his lips in a tight line. With a scratch of his whisker-covered chin, he asked, "Say, I was wondering... since you and your brother are here, are your parents coming? I heard Cocoa Butter mention her brother earlier, and I found it a little odd that he doesn't seem to be around."

Tomato pursed his lips, still staring at the pair of eels. Thanks to their colors, he easily imagined the faces of his parents on them, from the curly red mane and distinct forelock of his mother, and the drooping jet black mane of his father. He glanced around at the others. Cocoa and Acorn were getting excited over the importance of pH level in different water environments, while their daughter just stood there giggling and basking in their enthusiasm; Peanut Butter and Jelly made kissy faces while imitating fish; and Jelly's mother and brothers were all softly singing songs about stars near the starfish pool.

He turned back to the eels, still seeing his mother's classic sneer and his father's grand look of absolute apathy. He could have sworn he'd seen his mother smile once, but he couldn't quite remember what it looked like. The best he could recall was that Cheese got his dimples from her.

He sighed. "Nah, they're not coming. They're too busy."

After a fair amount of fish imitation and goofily chanting "glub glub" with his fiancee, Peanut Butter started to walk out, saying, "Okay, I'm going out to see what the cafe has got, I'll be right back."

As he opened the door, flashing suddenly erupted, followed by a barrage of questions and statements such as:

"I didn't know you were interested in marine life!"

"Ooh, I hope you're not afraid of the water once learning about the scary fish and monsters in the ocean!"

"Does this trip make you crave seafood? How about your bride-to-be, does she like seafood?"

"A little off-topic, but did a Kraken ever attack Manehattan when you were little? Because you said you were born there."

"Hey, look, it's the Snap clone! Hi, Snap clone!"

Peanut Butter blew a heavy snort, turned around, and gave the crowd a little warning kick, complete with a whip of the tail. "This is private family time! Go away!"

Luckily, the staff was on his side, shooing the crowd away and scolding them for scaring the fish. They, along with both families, shoved the annoying group out, with Cocoa Butter even punching one that had apparently touched the wrong place.

Once the doors were shut, they sat against the wall to catch their breath. As they did so, Tomato complained, "As a Manehattan native, I can honestly say that we haven't had a Kraken attack in years. I think the thing died before I was even born."

Jelly also grumbled, "No, I don't like seafood."

Several wet cats tied to the poles of a pier, with bits and pieces of hardened purple ooze from Applewood's Ooze Hole still clinging to their fur. Beaten by waves and sprayed with mist, they were glaring at the pony jumping around in the surf, still washing off the sticky slime off his fur. It took longer than it should have, given that he had been catching any wayward frisbees that came his way, but it appeared that he was nearly finished.

Of course, then Cheese saw another cat, clinging for dear life on a piece of driftwood. Once he started to doggy-paddle toward the driftwood, the cats groaned in exasperation. Yet another feline was going to be added to the group, and they all looked at the giant hamster ball that the stallion had acquired on the way to the beach.

"Are you positive he's not going to let us go?" one cat asked.

Whiskers licked at his paw. "Trust me on this, he's been acting far worse than a dog in regards to chasing us. He actually caught and collected each one of us, for one thing."

"Well, he smells like a dog," another cat grumbled.

Dotty grimaced. "Is he planning to eat us? I don't like the idea of being dinner."

Another cat laughed. "Don't be silly, dude! He's a pony, they don't eat meat!"

Cheese waded back to the pole, holding the shivering kitty by the scruff of her neck. "Look who I saved, guys!" He dropped the cat into his hoof and lifted her up for the others to see. "I don't know how this little lady ended up out there, but rest assured, she's safe with us."

The rescued kitty shyly mewed, while the others just nodded in acknowledgement. Cheese chuckled, took a good whiff of the cat, and said, "I call thee 'Chelsea'."

He untied them from the pole, and then waddled to the hamster ball on the beach, with the group of felines bunched up in his front legs, squirming in a vain attempt to break free. They were dropped into the ball, and once it was sealed, Cheese started rolling the hamster ball across the beach, murmuring, "Okay, okay... I've dilly-dallied long enough, it's time to get the stupid cake."

A pony walking his dog paused for the passing Cheese, and stared at the ball. "Dude... isn't that, like, animal cruelty?"

Cheese stopped and leaned on the ball. "What are you talking about? These cats were alone, so I figured it'd be nice to start a pack so that none of them would be lonely."

The cats rolled their eyes.

"Uh... I'm pretty sure a 'pack' is a group of dogs." The other pony rubbed his chin. "I think my grandma said that a group of cats is a, uh... clowder, or somethin'."

"Yeah, yeah, sure..." Cheese bent down to start sniffing the dog. "It's really nice to meet you."

"Uh, why are you smelling my dog? I mean, like, I'm really happy that you like my dog, but, that's really weird, dude. You can just pet her--I don't mind that, and that's much less creepy. Hey... hey... hey! Don't sniff there, you weirdo!"

The pony pulled his dog away, and kicked sand in Cheese's face before walking off in a huff.

Cheese wiped the sand off his face, and spat some out. He growled at the pony, tempted to chase him down for that, but then his rational thought process came back to him with the memory of the cake... and the wedding... and the other planners that were waiting for him--or worse, ruining the party planning with a mish-mash of poorly thought out ideas!

He continued rolling the hamster ball across the beach, grumbling, "Aw, geez, how long was I gone for? Well, I better get back to busi--"

A wagon made for carrying food passed by, and one of the most glorious smells wafted right toward Cheese's nose. He stood there for a brief moment, stomach growling and his mouth starting to water, and slowly turned his head, sniffing once again. He hopped on top of the hamster ball, and started rolling it with all four hooves. The cats tumbled and rolled in the ball, complaining about the rolling, while he followed the wagon in a trance.

In a nearby mountain valley, Peanut and Jelly had arranged a little tour of the fruit farm that they met at, and often worked together at during the basketball off-season. Melon patches were the closest to the homestead, showing off their watermelons, honeydews, and cantaloupes. Behind them were half-grown pumpkins, set to be ripe by Nightmare Night. Rows of trees were explained to be citrus fruits, though it seemed only the grapefruits and lemons were visible, with other citrus fruits being out of season. Other trees were bearing fruit like apples and peaches. Fences covered in vines divided the separate types of trees, themselves bearing either strawberries or grapes. Among them all, many ponies were working among the plants, saying friendly greetings to the bride and groom.

The sun was hovering just over the western waters when the two families had a little fruit party with the owner and some of the workers. Doing as much as he could to socialize, Tomato got tired of correcting ponies who thought that he was a brother of either bride or groom, who thought that he was Snap once again, or just got excited over his name being Tomato. After telling stories to some who were curious about Manehattan, he decided to trot to the fence, and just sit there to catch his breath.

Facing outward, that point of the mountain looking over the city and having a view of the sea, Tomato idly munched on an apple, still slightly sour but still nice and fresh. He still heard laughing behind him, not even needing to look at the rich friendships and family ties being nourished. Looking back on the summer so far, the various families he had met had come to mind.

Limestone and Marble Pie showed impressive teamwork in fighting off bandits Diamond Dogs, and their parents didn't hesitate to jump into the fray when things got tough. Bluejinx's father must have been pretty good for Blue to miss him terribly. Silver Shill knew his sister enough to not be fooled by the Flim Flams' deception. Silk Shimmer was hoping to find her brother Party Favor, and was most likely happy to hear the news that he's okay; meanwhile, as horrid as Kazam was, Party Favor was still sad over hearing of his arrest.

Judging from stories he heard and his interaction with Princess Celestia, he didn't doubt that she was overjoyed over her sister's return from banishment. Cirrus and Nimbus had parents who made up for their disappointment hurting their children by choosing to be supportive of their talents. Ponyacci and Juneflower were surrounded by happy children and grandchildren celebrating their anniversary. Platinum Pen must have had a soft spot for him because of her son, and because Tomato helped her brother.

Flora's large family had been celebrating a beloved holiday together, and even though they failed, they tried to steer cousin Creme Brulee from a destructive nature. Even if Dandy had been overbearing and kind of airheaded, at least it was clear that he loved his son Snapdragon Apple. And finally, his own aunt and uncle clearly raised two well-adjusted foals, both having chased and lived their dreams, and one was set to begin the cycle anew with his beloved the next day.

And then there were his own parents. They did the bare minimum of providing for physical and education needs, no doubt about that, but imagining them in any of those positions was nearly impossible. Not even a month ago, his mother had beat him down with how always wrong he was, how she knew better about who he should be and how he should listen to her. His father had barely acknowledged him, just the same tired stallion that he had seen at that table for years.

No comfort, no kindness, no laughter... just the same dull, lonely routine, day after day, with harsh, overbearing words, bullies, and unfortunate circumstances peppered in to kill his joy.

Every muscle in his body was tight as he thought these thoughts, and all tension was released when he threw his apple core, farther than he'd ever done before. What he'd have given to have a family like his friends, old and new, his cousins, and even the strangers he'd see in the Manehattan parks.

Aunt Cocoa Butter walked up beside him, leaning on the fence beside him. "You've been looking kind of glum all day. Are you okay?"

Tomato rested his chin on the wood and sighed. "I'm sorry if I'm being a killjoy. I'm just... frustrated about my family."

Cocoa looked offended. "What? What did we do?"

"Ugh, no, Aunt Cocoa, I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about my parents! What's their problem that they couldn't let me and Cheese just be goofy, happy kids? Grandma and Grandpa let me and Cheese be kids when they were alive, and your kids are perfectly happy with their lives! I don't get why... why..."

Cocoa tilted her head. "Why what?"

Tomato's ears drooped down, the rest of his body seeming to deflate. "... why Mom only seems to love me for my special talent. Why Dad doesn't even give a crap. An admittedly cool memory spell even revealed that maybe, just maybe, I was an accident. Cheese always implied that I was the favorite, but if I am, I sure don't enjoy any privileges from it."

Cocoa nodded and pursed her lips. She let a moment pass for Tomato to calm down, and then said, "...my brother wasn't always so apathetic. If anything, he was just really shy. So much, that it annoyed me and I picked on him for it." She grimaced, and a more somber look followed. "Looking back... I may have started his habit of outright shutting down whenever he gets stressed out. Marrying your mother just sealed his fate, as she was always kind of bossy."

Tomato huffed. "What's her excuse?"

Cocoa shrugged. "Maybe if you ever meet that sister of hers, you could find out. The most I can say was that... well, your father and your other aunt were friends. They were both shy weirdos, and played a lot of games together and did homework together, up until they were teenagers. And then, for whatever reason, they had a fallout, and she skipped town. I didn't care at the time, I really did not like Honeydew, but your father was heartbroken."

"And, what, did my mom have a crush on him, and was so jealous of her sister that she sabotaged her?"

Cocoa shrugged yet again. "Who knows. All I know is that he started out scared of her, but slowly got friendlier and more used to her as time went on. I guess she wasn't really a bad pony back then if super shy Hay Burger got used to her and actually started to like her. They were even a pretty good academic team in college, so they just thought marriage would work out, but..."

"Yeah, here I am now," Tomato grumbled.

Cocoa patted his head. "I'm sorry it turned out that way. Maybe her sister running off hit your mother hard, maybe he and she just can't handle marriage with each other, maybe both of their parents dying twisted the knife... I don't know, maybe it was just life beating on them too hard, and they couldn't handle it."

She ran a hoof through her mane, and wiped an eye. "Honestly, it's unfair that it had to be taken out on you and Cheese. I could tell that you were both sweet kids, especially since you two got scared of me when I argued with your parents... I'm sorry about that. Maybe if I hadn't been such a big bully to Hay, he wouldn't have contributed to his mess. Would he stand up to his wife, or would he even have married her at all? I don't know, but... the could-have-beens still bother me to this day. I feel like I failed my brother."

Another silent moment passed, and Cocoa glanced at him. "Oh, uh, sorry for the tangent, I just thought you needed some idea of why your family's so dysfunctional. It can't reverse anything that happened, and they're still guilty of making you and Cheese such messes." She swept her eyes up and down Tomato's face and sighed. "You look so much like Hay... I just wish he looked as bright as you do."

"Your sentiment is familiar to me..." Tomato raised his head. "Welcome to the 'I alienated my sibling' club."

Cocoa chuckled. "Well, at least you made up with yours. I think you two would make a great team."

Tomato nodded, though he could feel a chill down his spine. Yeah, true, but... he's lost a memory, and I can't shake the feeling that something else is going on with him. I hope I don't lose him again.

Cocoa nudged him. "So, can you spit? Because a watermelon seed spitting contest sounds fun after getting things off our chest, hm?"

Tomato laughed. "Okay, you're on."

Cheese still followed the scent of the wagon, even when it was out of sight. The trail led to the mountains, past even the neighborhoods that climbed the slopes. Through shrub and grass he went, with birds flying over him, snakes slithering through the grass, and crickets leaping away. On his back, the cats still complained in their giant hamster ball.

Cheese felt parched, his tongue lolling out in an attempt to cool down. His stomach still groaned and ached for yearning of food, thus spurring his nose to pull him through the brush. There was something in that cart that smelled good, and he was going to find out what.

He came across a few buildings, where the wagon was parked. Cheese perked up, his tail wagging... which stopped briefly when an apple core suddenly fell from the sky, and clunked him on the head. It was a brief sting, enough to glare at the core for a few seconds, but at least he didn't have a bump. Still, he looked up to see just where it came from, only for the lack of trees to confuse him more.

A strong smell made him forget about the apple core, and he walked forward. Careful sniffs of this strange scent made him realize that it was strangely familiar, but he couldn't quite place why. It was no alfalfa, or hay burger, or pizza. It didn't smell like any sort of food a pony like him would eat. But it was a savory smell that made his mouth water, one that the back of his mind told him was a foul stench, but his nose was singing in delight. What could it be, what was in the wagon, the buildings, the--

He turned to the wagon, and gasped. Right there, in big, bold letters, read, "APPLEWOOD PET FOOD INDUSTRY."

It finally hit him that he was smelling meat of all things. A stench that normally made him vomit each type he passed one of those meat-cutting shacks, such as the one he stood before. A product that all of ponykind shunned from their diets, and an industry that nopony liked to think about. Unfortunately, pets like cats and dogs were carnivores, and they needed to be fed somehow.

He could one recall one time that he intentionally went into a butcher shop (he was sure there was another time, but trying to think of it just gave him a headache), and that was when as a colt, executing a crazy idea to save his little brother from a pack of dogs. He knew that he had thrown up from the stench, and had done so every time he was unfortunate to pass buy one. Curiously, he still stepped forward instead of turning back, and instead of repulsive, the smell was alluring.

A stocky mare trotted out, and halted from surprise of seeing someone up here. "Hey, what's a pony like you doing up here?"

Cheese felt like melting. How was he supposed to explain that he was liking the smell of the meat. "Uh... I was just, uh, hiking. Yeah, hiking, and I had the misfortune of, uh, stumbling here."

The mare looked at him funny. "Can you explain the ball of cats?"

He turned his head to look at the cats. For the first time that day, he wondered, Why was I collecting cats again?

"If you're catsitting them for your grandma, I sure hope you didn't run out of food for them." The mare scratched her chin. "Good heavens, those cats look so hungry! Are you avoiding the store so that whoever you're catsitting for doesn't see you?"

Cheese whined like a dog in shame.

"If you have money on you, I could give you some meat and water for your cats." She lowered her eyelids halfway. "Just don't hike with them like that again, they might get overheated."

Cheese started to rummage through his mane for some spare bits. "Uh... okay."

The cats were quietly eating their meal inside their hamster ball as Cheese left the butcher shop in the hills. It was hard to break away from such a wonderful smell, but he knew he had made too many detours that day. So much precious party-planning time wasted, and he had a sense that he was going to be spending all night sorting whatever mess the others had made. Or maybe, by some miracle, they actually managed to make something good out of all their junk.

Well, if anything was for certain, he couldn't go to the bakery while hauling a ball of cats and some extra meat for the felines to "take home". The latter especially would earn him horrified stares, even if he explained that the meat was for the cats, and he was going to give them to a good home.

His stomach growled yet again, and he groaned. He may have taken care of the cats' hunger, but not his own.

Normally, by now, the grass or shrubbery would look appetizing, or he'd pull a leftover cake or nachos out of his secret compartment. However, this time, his eyes were on the meat that he carried.

He knew it was taboo, he knew that ponies were vegetarian--save for a few lunatics that were rightfully shunned--and he knew that giving in would probably make him some kind of monster. He kept turning his nose up and away from it, like a good pony should. Anypony with any sort of decency would know that meat is for carnivores, not for civilized ponies. The meat was for the cats, not him.

Besides, he reasoned to himself, it probably didn't taste that good anyway. It wasn't like crunchy oats, or a juicy apple. Nor was it like a sweet cake, or a savory hay burger. It wasn't like cheesy pizza or chewy bubblegum. Nor was it like delectable bread and butter, or some nice, sunny-side up...

He paused. What the heck were eggs? Don't those come from a chicken? And the cheesy pizza... isn't cheese made from milk? Which comes from cows? He already ate animal products, so what was the big deal about eating meat?

He shook his head. "No... no, no. Eggs and milk don't require killing an animal to get them. That meat stuff does. And though I'm sure cats have no qualms killing mice, I would not dare take the life of another. So, no, stupid illogical thoughts, I'm not falling for it."

He kept on going forward, aiming to get back into Applewood as soon as possible. As soon as he could get back, he could have a nice, reasonable vegetarian lunch... and he'd have no worries about the siren call of meat. He just had to stay strong, bear the hunger pangs, show that crazy temptation who's boss. He just needed to think about good meals, like pizza, or veggie empanadas, or maybe even his namesake! He chuckled at the thought of Cheese Sandwich eating a cheese sandwich.

His eyes fell on the meat again, and he involuntarily licked his lips. He started to imagine just how juicy it must be, and how it would feel to sink his teeth in it. He could feel that sensation of ripping it to shreds, his teeth cutting into it like a knife, and his tongue launching it down his throat, like how he had seen an Cragodile swallow a hapless deer that one time.

Slapping himself, he chanted, "It's cat food... it's cat food... it's cat food..."

It was cat food all right, and he was a pony. What was going on with him? Why did that stuff suddenly look appealing to him? Was he turning into a cat? Before it was nausea inducing, but now it was hunger inducing! He could feel drool pouring out of his mouth in a waterfall, his lips smacking and teeth clicking for a chance to bite, and his heart and thoughts racing. His normal pony thoughts were fighting against some strange new instinct, arguing over whether he should satisfying his hunger or not. His body quaked, and his pace steadily slowed down as he tried to ignore the cuts of meat calling to him.

One loud, painful hunger pang later, he had enough.

He cast the hamster ball of cats to the side, causing the curious felines to see what was going on with their captor. Their eyes widened and they backed up into a bush, watching as the ravenous pony tore open the bag, and started wolfing down its contents. Stuck where they were, they could only stand petrified at Cheese looking more like a dog than a horse.

Dotty the calico then asked to one certain other cat, "...what was that you said about ponies not eating meat?"

Author's Note

Whew! This was was more of a doozy than I thought it would be! Of course, given a previous adventure in exploring Manehattan, I should have expected that exploring Applewood would be a tough task as well. Ah, well, at least I could say I tried my best with Google at my disposal.

So, we join Cheese on a silly adventure (which... quite frankly, turns just so wrong at the end--I was disturbed while writing that part, brrr!), and Tomato having a more emotional story this time around. Given that Tommy's with relatives, the subject of his parents had to come up sometime.

Even I find it weird that Cheese is trying to justify chasing cats with "rescuing them and giving them friendship". Yeah, sure, you can keep telling yourself and the audience that, but in the end, you're still questioning it yourself.

18.4--I Don't Give an Edam Anymore

"...and that's the story of the fish in my locker." Peanut Butter wheezed out his last few chortles, rubbing his cheek. "I can still feel that thing slapping my face to this day!"

The rest of the group laughed along with him as they walked down the street, back to the plaza where the wedding party was being set up. Tomato, even as he couldn't help but chuckle, had to banish any thought of feeling bad for Peanut being the target of pranks thanks to his team's pecking order. His laughter grew stronger when thinking of Peanut's rise through ranks and popularity, which was a way of saying "in your face" to his teammates--which paled in comparison to Cheese's rise as a party pony and his own subtle "in your face" to life. And both had done it through turning a mockery into a extension of their special talent.

Tomato looked at his own cutie mark. He couldn't say the same for himself; his special talent and the odd magic within him were incompatible.

"Oh, wow," Jelly said, her speech peppered with giggles. "If initiation on my volleyball team way back when had been like that, the new fillies would have held grudges for weeks." She looked up at the orange sky curiously. "I wonder if the fish held a grudge."

"Question is how it was still alive," Creamy said.

"Beats me, but I still have it as a pet. It's the biggest fish in my aquarium." Peanut shrugged and scratched his head. "I don't know if it holds a grudge."

"I don't know anything about animals, but I've heard fish are too dumb to remember for very long," Cocoa said.

"Okay, so it doesn't hold a grudge."

Acorn exhaled heavily. "Hey, Peanut... you know any shortcuts? My hooves are aching and my lungs are tired."

Peanut grimaced, and paused the walk to roll up his sleeve. "I'm a bit wary about shortcuts, because the last time I did so, I accidentally disrespected a gang member, and..." The sleeve was rolled completely up to show a large scar on his shoulder. "I got crossbowed for my troubles."

Jelly's entire family gasped, while Peanut's was just wide-eyed and silent. The young athlete was rolling his sleeve back down, mumbling, "They tried the dumb excuse of thinking I was a changeling from some rival gang, but we all know that's bogus."

However, Cocoa darted forward to roll the sleeve back up and take a closer look at the scar. Her brow furrowed, she asked, "Peanut, why didn't you tell us about this?"

"I didn't want you to worry, Mom."

Creamy raised an eyebrow. "Or you were concerned that she would've created chemical bombs out of vengeance."

"That too." He looked at his mother about to protest and said, "That would have made things worse."

Cocoa huffed, while Acorn just shook his head, his eyes on nearby graffiti. "The things that ponies do to belong somewhere, no matter what. Honestly, it saddens me that many teenagers have adopted those cheap 'Anti-Harmony' messages and think their marks are meaningless." He then huffed in the same manner as his wife. "But that doesn't stop me from being tired; how long until we get there?"

Tomato shifted uncomfortably and started walking again, this time at a more hasty pace. "I don't know, but I'm not going to listen to any preachy filibusters about ponies I don't respect."

"Hey, get back here!" Peanut tapped his hoof and then resumed trotting, with the others following his lead. "Not much longer, actually, we're almost there." He pointed forward at the lanky stallion ahead of them. "See? Tom's already staring at the plaza."

Marmalade looked at Acorn curiously. "Were you about to preach about ways to keep youth from joining gangs?"

Acorn blew a raspberry. "No, I was just lamenting that those paths even exist."

As they neared the plaza, Tomato turned to them, biting down on his lip in an awkward grimace. "Oh, boy... I'm not sure you want to see the plaza."

Jelly tilted her head. "What are you talking about? I'm sure that our pals did a great job!" She nudged her fiance and pointed to the arch at the plaza entrance, decorated with white, pink, and gold flowers. "Look at that! Pearl got the color of flowers I asked for and they're beautiful!"

Peanut nodded. "So she did."

"If they did a lovely job here, then surely the rest of the plaza looks just as beautiful," Jelly's mother said, ignoring Tomato's slow shaking of his head.

Rosita the little old mare hopped out from the plaza, eyes as big as plates. "Eh... you're back already? No, go away, we're not ready yet!" She pushed Tomato weakly and zipped back in. It was a few seconds before she poked her head around the corner to ask the confused ponies, "Oh, yes, I just remembered; did you see Cheese Sandwich at all this afternoon? He seems to have wandered off."

Tomato's tail cracked like a whip, and ears were pinned back as he snapped, "Is that why the plaza looks like you guys murdered a piñata full of fruits and sports?!"

The rest of the group stepped back at Tomato's shout, and all looked at each other for confirmation of what exactly Tomato just said. Turning to him, all four of Jelly's brothers all summed up everyone's thoughts with, "They did what now?"

Creamy stepped in front of the two families and started to turn into the plaza. "Okay, let's see what the colorful description is for--oh."

She and Tomato were joined by the others, looking past a flushing Rosita holding a hoof to her forehead with pursed lips. Beyond the elderly brunette lay mountains of random decor haphazardly piled and scattered all over the tables, with stringed lights drooping onto them. Seashells, fake fruits, seagull feathers, and half-ripped tissue paper flags all lay on each table, each topped with their own unique ball from whatever sport and scented candles in the peanut butter and jelly jars. Little beads and pearls rolled off the tables and fell to the ground like teardrops, and flower petals wafted down with just a breeze.

Pieces of tissue paper, construction paper, and crushed origami art scattered the brick pavement, as did extra sports equipment--like a tetherball pole of all things!--and trophies. Other papers and sports jerseys were hastily nailed to the walls, while a poorly done paint job slithered around them in an attempt to create flowers like the perfectly weaved zinnias on the arch at the far end of the plaza. And in the middle of it all, Cherry Jubilee, Pearly Whites, Lightning Dust, and Victory Screech were arguing incoherently, manes and tails all tousled up and bodies covered in paint.

Around them, a hippie pony skipped around, doing some sort of wailing chant to an elaborate dance, lighting the only carefully hung scented candles in the plaza. Off to the side, the shop keepers gazed at the mess with half-lidded eyes and shakes of their heads, conversing with each other in another language.

After looking in the messy plaza for what seemed like hours, the large group entered. Peanut and Jelly stepped forward, and interrupted the fight with a simulataneous "Ahem."

The four ponies tensed up, and turned slowly to the glowering couple standing there. Looking around at the mess at the plaza, and the equally unamused shopkeepers, they all started chuckling and forcing smiles, as if they had been caught with their hooves in the cookie jar. The shopkeepers leaned forward to catch some juicy drama, while the hippie paused to give Tomato an impromptu hoof reading before being quickly shooed away by him.

Peanut rubbed a temple. "We leave you guys alone for several hours, and it looks like you threw all of this together in five minutes. What gives?"

Jelly's eyes darted to different areas of the plaza, finding a new unappealing detail in each spot. "Yeah, I thought that Aunt Cherry's knowledge of business stuff and Pearl's tendency to want things clean and perfect would make it a lot more tidy than... this."

Cherry Jubilee rubbed the back of her head. "I'm awful sorry, darling, I tried to keep things runnin' smoothly like my cherry farm, but I don't have a lick of art smarts like I do business smarts."

Pearl pointed at Vic and Lightning. "And these two kept messing things up every time I managed to straighten things up! Mr. Victory kept adding more and more new things to the pile that clearly don't fit, and Miss Lightning doesn't put much care in any organization! As a matter of fact, she doesn't seem to care at all!"

Lightning scowled at her. "Oh, so I don't care about a friend and coach of mine when the most important day of his life is coming up? Well, excuse me for wanting to support him any way I can!"

"It's clear to me that you're only forcing this sort of support to feel important in some way! At least I'm trying to make my friend happy!"

"Gee, thanks for telling me off, paragon of virtue! Besides, at least I'm not stupidly throwing in more stuff like Vic."

Vic's face was red. "Oh, that's a cheap shot coming from you Miss Decorating-With-Seagull-Feathers! I put more effort in my origami basketballs than you did with anything this entire time! Whatever happened to 110 percent, huh? Are you afraid of killing us with art like how you almost killed several ponies at that academy?"

Lightning's face was in Vic's, just as red with steam blowing out both ears and nostrils. "Are you asking for a death sentence?"

"I dare you to try it--keep in mind I'm a hoofball linebacker."

Peanut was in between them in a flash and pushing them apart. "Cut it out, you knuckleheads! I swear, you two still fight like you did when you were freakin' eight! I can't believe I still have to act like your big brother."

"Not really," Vic said. "You don't act anything like Bark, or Drum, or Quibble--"

"You know what I mean, doofus," Peanut growled. Back on all fours, he then asked, "You didn't break anything of the shopkeepers, did you?
And where'd that hippie come from? But most importantly, where the hay is Cheese?"

Pearl drew circles on the ground. "Oh, don't worry, the shopkeepers' things are just fine, the hippie's just here because she's trying to expel 'evil, dark magic' that she said was peppering Applewood, and as for Cheese..." She groaned. "He's been out getting the cake... for hours!"

Cherry nodded, a sharp glint in her eye. "I dunno what he's doin', roamin' round town like a gypsy. Lightnin' got that cake mighty quick, and she said it ain't a long walk for an earth pony from what she saw, so I'd like to hear his excuse."

And just like that, the floral arch at the entrance suddenly tipped over, landing on the brick pavement with a bang. A flinch from everyone, the hippie pony included, later, they turned to see Cheese Sandwich there, staring at the fallen arch. Upon his back was a giant hamster ball full of cats, and his shirt and the bandages on his foreleg were ugly shades of purple and brown.

"Oh, speak of the devil," Cherry huffed.

Tomato looked up and down his person and the what he carried, wondering just adventure he had been having. One sniff, and Tomato was reeling back, his curiosity piqued as to what mishaps led him smelling so horribly and carrying a bunch of cats. Cheese didn't even seem to noticed being stared at, instead tiredly somewhere in la la land.

Cheese stepped over the arch, looked up, and shrieked. "Yikes! I, duh, eh, hffffff..." Steam could be seen blowing out of his ears. "What in flaming Tartarus is this?! I go out on an errand, and you play with paint, steal all manner of sports equipment from wherever--especially that tetherball from a local park!--and leave mountains of useless junk all over the place! Do any of you even have a sense of what makes a party?"

"Hey, at least we tried to make the most of this party planning... thing." Vic's pointed hoof was so sharp he could stab Cheese if he wanted to. "You ditched us to spend the whole day adopting some cats!"

Cheese looked at the cats on his back, and then hoofed those off to Rosita. "Uh... take care of those kitties, will you?"

Rosita blinked, and took the hamster ball. "Oh, uh... of course! It will help with my loneliness..." She was helped by a couple of her neighbors, and they all carried the cats somewhere away from the erupting argument.

Jelly looked at the ball of cats wistfully. "I want a cat..."

Pearl was behind Cherry, saying, "Keep those away from me, I'm allergic and they look like strays!" She poked her head into view. "But, nevertheless, we do not appreciate you leaving us to do all the work, when you're the professional! My sister made party planning look easy, but wow, was I wrong to think that!"

Lightning hovered, her front legs crossed. "Not to mention that when I went out to look for you, I got the dumb cake anyway!"

"We waited an hour for you before doin' it ourselves!" Cherry snapped. "If there's anything that puts too much salt on my melon, it's a worker that don't do his goshdarn job!"

"Oh, so you're blaming me for this mess?" Cheese growled.

Peanut appeared at Cheese side and punched him on the shoulder. "Considering that you're the party pony of the group and the leader of the planning, you just going off on some adventure for several hours doesn't help your case. Yeah, they made a mess, but maybe you could have controlled things to at least make it look better than this!" He stepped back and held a hoof to his nose. "And why do you smell so bad?"

"Well, I'm sorry that they're complete morons with no artistic talent!"

Everyone gasped at the sheer venom that laced that sentence. Cherry had a hoof on her chest, Pearl a hoof over her mouth, Vic had his jaw slack, and Lightning looked ready to kill Cheese. But looking at their eyes, it was evident that they were hurt by that statement. The rest just stared in shock, most notably Tomato, his mind trying to process the utter nastiness of his brother's tone. There was frustration, and then there was... whatever the heck that was.

Cheese backed up out of the plaza, and then said, "But, I guess to make up for my absence, I'll just have to fix this entire thing myself. And I have a doohickey that can help me out so that I don't take forever and make you have to push the wedding back." With that, he jumped to the side as the others just stared at him.

After a few moments, Lightning scoffed, "Is he running away again? I'll go and catch him."

Cheese then leapt back into view. "Okay, let's try this again." And he leapt back out, this time to the other side, only to jump back in. "Again!" He hopped out and in view yet again, and shouted a frustrated, "Again!" before repeating his previous actions. Once in view yet again, he yelled at the sky, and then dashed off. He passed into view several times, indicating that he was running around the block over and over, before skidding to a stop and snapping gibberish to himself as he walked back into the plaza.

"Okay... what was that?" Jelly asked.

Cheese looked up and snorted. "I was trying to get my party tank--that's good for fixing big messes like this. But, for whatever reason, I can't get it! I don't have any headaches or am seeing things like back in Salt Lick City when I last tried to summon it..." He threw his hooves up in the air and yelled to the sky, "So what's going on?!"

Jelly just shrugged. "I, uh... don't really understand."

"Heh, of course you wouldn't." He sighed. "I guess I'll just have to clean up this mess the old-fashioned way... ugh... this is going to take all night."

Peanut blinked. "Wait, what? Uh, Cheese, it's not exactly safe around here at night."

Cheese rolled his eyes. "So? I sleep in a lot of dangerous environments, so I'll be fine. Just go home, and let the party pony do his thing."

Everyone looked at each other uncomfortably, and one by one, they each started to leave. They whispered to each other, with Tomato picking up thoughts wondering what the deal was with Cheese's attitude, grumbling about him ditching a job he supposedly loved, and Pearl mumbling about how her siblings even said that he was a really nice guy when she had the opposite experience. The hippie paused to put a herb necklace on Cheese, telling him that it'll help him fight off darkness before leaving. Tomato did not immediately leave with the others, instead approaching Cheese.

Cheese pulled off the herb necklace. "No, I don't need your help."

Tomato looked around. "I don't know, I think you'll need plenty of assistance. But since you're so adamant in keeping me out of this, I'll be hoping that those nice shopkeepers would be enough help for you." He pointed to some carrying some cleaning supplies in. "Look at that, they're already helping out!"

Cheese noticed his forelock drooping lower than normal, and blew it back up. "Yeah, sure, that's nice."

Tomato rubbed his leg, and looked at the miscolored bandages. "So, um... I guess you have a reasonable and probably hilarious story behind you being gone so long... what happened to your bandages... why you had all those cats..." Tomato looked up and wrinkled his nose. "And why you smell so awful."

Cheese stood silently, looking at the ground for a good, long minute. With a snort, he answered, "Well, I gotta get started. The story can come later."

Tomato sighed, looking away with a thought of "why bother" in his head. As he turned around to go and catch up with the others, he noticed Cheese walk with a slight limp. "You probably should change your bandages before you get infected."

"Eh... I guess."

And then Tomato finally parted.

After changing his bandages with the help of Rosita, Cheese went to work.

Tiny paper triangles, runaway beads, and orphaned flower petals were all swept up, and Cheese re-erected the floral gateway as the sun was setting, giving way to an indigo sky. He pulled the jerseys out of the wall, and painted over them to rid them of the childish art that defaced them, certain that the shopkeepers would be grateful.

As the walls dried under a starry night, he heaved the piles of decor off the tables and far away from the wet walls, in order to sift the wheat from the chaff, deciding which ones fit the intended color theme. Peanut's gold trophies for games past he decided fit the color theme, and arranged them on shelves near the main table and the altar. What also fit the them were the pink and white seashells that Pearl brought, and thus he arranged into flower shapes at each table, putting pearls and beads at the center. Scented candles were put in the peanut butter and jelly jars, and carefully stacked fake fruits into little pyramids.

The paint dried, and he attached flowers made from the seagull feathers Lightning Dust collected to the walls, as well as the origami basketballs that Vic had made. He fixed the strings of lights, and hopped back and forth between roofs to straighten them out and provide a starry, romantic ceiling for them. Then, he added a final touch to said lights by adding the little tissue paper flags that weren't ripped in any way.

Pushing things a little for more room and more symmetry, Cheese finally managed to create a clean and beautiful wedding venue and reception area. With fruit and floral patterns, hints of sporting natures placed here and there, and colors of pink, gold, and white, he was thankful that it looked far more presentable than it did before. He wondered if that if he wasn't a party pony if he'd be an interior designer, or an architect, or whatever.

He did not know how late at night or early in the morning it was, but he wasn't quite finished. He had to either return or throw out the stuff that didn't make the cut. And the first thing he had to put back in its rightful place was the tetherball pole.

Meanwhile, the early evening had everyone relaxing at home or in Peanut's place. While some played card games inside, four others were just sitting on the edge of the roof, staring out at the ocean, and chatting amongst each other with sodas in hoof.

"...that still doesn't answer the question of why Cheese has been acting like a jerk lately," Peanut deadpanned.

Tomato sighed. Peanut Butter now knew the story of the feud and the reconciliation, but he unfortunately couldn't explain what exactly was wrong with Cheese. The possibility of vampirism was off the list and Tomato didn't know enough about magic to make any good guesses on any spell Cheese could be under--let alone if it was dark magic or not. The best he could tell Peanut was that somepony stole one of the party pony's memories and that it was making his mind all screwy. And even then, Tomato didn't even know where to look from there.

"I know, it seems silly that one forgotten memory can cause so much trouble," Tomato rambled. "But it did, and it's somehow cranking up what meanness he had in him to overblown levels! The only thing I can do is wait for another meetup with Princess Twilight and see what ideas she has."

Vic, who had been sitting nearby, choked on his drink. "Wait, you know Princess Twilight Sparkle?"

Tomato waved a hoof. "Eh, we're acquainted through Cheese's friend Pinkie Pie." He rubbed his temples. "Speaking of Pinkie Pie, how's she going to react to how Cheese is acting?"

Lightning Dust took a gulp of her soda. "I don't know. I hardly know of this mare you speak of."

Vic's hoof ran along the rim of his soda can. "Would he still have been mad if it wasn't for this so-called spell?"

Peanut sighed. "Well, he probably would have been a little miffed over seeing that mess, but he's usually less harsh and more forgiving."

Vic looked at Lightning and asked, "Like how she wishes the Wonderbolts were?"

Lightning punched him on the shoulder. "Will you quit bringing that up?! I don't want to be reminded of how all my years of practicing, pushing my limits, adapting tricks I learned from you guys to flight, and earning medals in local and national junior flight competitions were all wasted! The fact that you made it in your sport just rubs salt in the wound, stupid."

Tomato pursed his lips. "Eh, what'd she do?"

"Took risks and pushed limits to the point where she was reckless and nearly killed ponies," Peanut said, resting his chin in his hoof. "She's kind of been careless since I first met her and Vic in a little sports mentor program years ago, and I hope the Wonderbolt incident taught her a lesson."

Lightning simply huffed, and walked back inside, grumbling, "I'm gonna see if you've got any more cherry pie..."

Vic stood up and followed her. "I'm gonna go brush my teeth."

Tomato watched the two leave and asked, "Uh, how'd you meet them again?"

"Junior Sports Mentor program," Peanut answered. "They were eager little foals assigned to a barely teenage me, who was supposed to be a coach of various sports and stuff for them, and to this day, I still consider them friends and honorary little siblings, and we keep in touch... even if Lightning does tend to be aloof these days."

"Ah, okay." Tomato twiddled his hooves. "I'm sorry for my parents driving yours away. I can tell your mom's still frustrated about that."

Peanut shrugged. "It's alright. I was always scared of your mom. I was wondering if Cheese inherited her temper."

"Eh, I guess. I've seen him at his worst, and I'm the one pony he's had the most trouble forgiving. I mean, can you blame him? I was too angry and too chicken to apologize for, you know, my pile of sins, and gave him the wrong idea about all my feelings on the matter."

"Huh, with the way he's acting, I wonder if the evil unicorn stole his memory of your apology."

Tomato pursed his lips. If the evil unicorn was sabotaging Cheese for Kazam, then what use does the apology memory have for him? What memory besides the Las Pegasus incident--and maybe the encounters--would be any use for a trial? And the most curious question of all was why they didn't steal any memory of Tomato's involving that incident? Whatever plan was being set in motion by some evil unicorn conspiracy didn't make any sense. No, Cheese's anger over the Snap-Tomato swap was just being overblown by whacked-up brain chemistry, he hoped.

Thank you, paparazzi, for reminding me of that over and over again today, he thought.

Tomato stood up and stretched. "Well, I guess I should go inside and maybe get ready for bed... I hope Cheese comes back soon."

"All right, I'll just sit and think here for a bit."

Tomato walked back inside, Peanut hearing the his hooves trip-trapping down the stairs. Looking at the thin crescent moon, and the stars making the ocean shimmer, he just breathed in the sea air. His gut twisting in knots, he wondered what married life would be like after tomorrow. Just spending the rest of his life with a sweet, fun, and beautiful mare that he considered his best friend was something both exciting and terrifying at the same time. Knowing of many celebrities in this very town that had many failed romances, he hoped his own wouldn't fall apart in a blaze of glory that tabloids would eat up.

And then he was brained with a frying pan.

Any sane pony would have returned the tetherball pole as the first thing on the list, but Cheese Sandwich was tired and cranky, and thus, his thought process wasn't as straight as it usually was. When asked by any passersby, he simply said that he found it, and would like to know where to return it. He was thankful to be directed to the nearest park, and seeing the shoddy maintenance of the playground, it was easy to see how it was abducted so easily and why nopony alerted the police.

As Cheese entered the park and past some thuggish-looking ponies, the pole accidentally bonked one of them on the head.

He was fitting the pole into its head when he noticed those same ponies marching up behind him. Turning to the group and ignoring the furrowed brows and clenched teeth of young mares and stallions, he simply said, "I'll have this fixed up in a few seconds, and then you can play a round of tetherball."

"Oh, you think you're so funny?" The leader revealed the nasty bump that the pole caused. "Because you have an awful sense of humor."

Cheese narrowed his eyes. "You'd be wise not to call my sense of humor into question."

"Oooohhh...." the gang cooed mockingly behind their leader. While he was not laughing, the others had a brief bout of laughter behind him, nudging each other and pointing at Cheese for his pathetic excuse for a tough guy act. They stopped when the leader threw his hoof up, and they went straight back to glaring.

One of them sneered, "But let's be real, tough guy, we don't appreciate the disrespect you're giving us."

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "I don't see anything to respect."

The leader walked forward, and pushed Cheese into the pole with a loud bang. "I'd hate to beat on a blind pony, but I guess I'll just have to beat him until maybe, just maybe, your sight comes back." He started popping his joints. "Should be easy to snap a twig."

Cheese's head throbbing, he leaned to the side to look at the lead thug's cutie mark. "Shame you crossed out your cutie mark. Those flowers are beautiful."

He was hoisted up by the collar of his shirt, held up against the pole, and the leader reared up to aim for his face. "It's just a picture on my flank! You just keep proving yourself in need of a valuable lesson!"

Cheese snarled. He came here to fix a tetherball pole, and a bunch of bullies dare to accost him like they owned the place. How dare they demand he respect them when they didn't earn it; and how dare they think that they needed to teach him a lesson. A thought almost not his own growled that no, he needs to show them who's boss. Muscles tensing in anger, he was ready to expend a newfound energy.

The punch was thrown, but Cheese quickly intercepted it. The thug muttered "Huh?" at the sight of Cheese's toothpick of a limb holding completely still under the strength of the thug's thick hoof and the momentum that had been behind it. As his hoof shuddered in effort, the thug could barely process what had happened when Cheese started twisting the foreleg. At first, it was agonizingly slow, with skin and muscles burning as they were stretched further and further beyond their limits.

Then, in a flash, there was a snap of bone, and howling in pain, the thug dropped the still glaring Cheese. Backing up, he and the others gaped in horror at the now limp leg, with even the slightest movement causing agonizing jolts to erupt.

They turned to Cheese, who was bending down in a preparing-to-leap stance, with mane and fur bristled and eyes dark. "I've been having a bad day, and I'm in no mood for your stupid tough guy act. I hope that was enough of a warning for you."

The other gang members looked between Cheese, and the dangling limb of their leader. However, instead of running off like Cheese implied they should do, they decided that justice must be served, and started stomping and snorting like the horses they were. Some even pulled out small weapons, or picked up rocks and sticks for improvised weapons.

Cheese let out a low growl. If that was what they wanted, so be it. He needed to blow off some steam anyway.

There was only one spectator to the ensuing fight, which was less humorous and more bloody than a fight involving a party pony should be. Under the shadows of his cloak, the lone pony smiled on seeing Cheese Sandwich's newfound ferocity.

Author's Note

Let's play another round of "How Would Cheese Sandwich React in His Normal State of Mind?"! :pinkiecrazy:

Joking aside, I came across this epic music (which is from that new season of Samurai Jack and from what I hear, is based on a piece of music from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly):

And I can't stop listening to the dang thing! I listened to it on loop while writing this thing, and surprisingly, it kind of fits with what's currently going on with Cheese.

18.5--Failed the Smell Test

As the golden sunlight spilled onto Applewood the next morning, Tomato and the four co-planners walking up the boulevard to check on the wedding and reception area. The planners had little fear of it being trashed, knowing that Cheese would protect it, but they had dread over Cheese insulting them for their ideas yet again. Said dread was masked with grumpy grumblings, which they didn’t hide from Tomato.

“I’m just saying that I have an appreciation for beauty,” Pearly Whites said. “The organization could and should have been more orderly, but I do hope that he considers some of our ideas and doesn’t just throw streamers everywhere.”

“You’re being too nice, Pearl, it was a complete mess,” Lightning Dust responded, crossing her front legs in her hover. “Still, he didn’t need to call us ‘idiots’. What’s his deal?”

“Yeah, I think there were some good ideas in there,” Victory Screech said. “I mean, there were things that I thought Peanut and Jelly would like.”

“I don’t get why he ain’t got manners no more,” Cherry Jubilee snipped. “The last time he threw a party in Dodge Junction he was a perfect gentlecolt! Now it seems he don’t give a darn about nopony.”

Lightning turned to Tomato. “You’re his brother. Did you do something?”

Tomato repressed a hiss, but his mane still bristled audibly when he heard that. “What? No! I mean… not anything that would change his attitude like that, but just annoying him wouldn’t do that!” He did not appreciate the blame being shifted onto him; Cheese was responsible for his own attitude. Okay, sure, the whole swap with Snap could have gone horribly wrong, Cheese did have a point about that, but surely he’d normally find it kind of funny. Tomato was sure that it was something that Rooney guy did; either that, or there was a changeling in their midst.

Still, he felt his heart starting to sink when the question of what he didn’t do struck his mind.

Vic scooted back to be beside him. “Aw, I wouldn’t worry about what she says. Take it from a guy with nine brothers and sisters, just because somepony’s being a grumpypants doesn’t mean it’s your fault.”

Tomato snorted. In my family, everything’s my fault.

They turned into the plaza, and then stepped forward into the carefully arranged reception area of pinks, golds, and whites. They were all made up of things that the four co-planners had brought or obtained--Cherry’s fake fruits and lights; Pearl’s tablecloths, scented candles, and her seashells, beads, and pearls arranged into floral patterns; Vic’s peanut butter and jelly jars, tissue flags, and paper basketballs; and Lightning’s seagull feathers, also arranged into flowers, and the trophies she borrowed from Peanut. Everything was all clean and arranged so that ponies were close enough for chatter, but also enough room to move around. There was even a clear space so that there could be a dance party or something.

The only part of the plaza that was markedly not clean was one table in the center, where Cheese Sandwich was lying among scattered décor, using a notepad as his pillow as he snoozed.

Pearl gasped. “Oh, my goodness! It’s beautiful!” She looked at one table and squealed. “Not to mention perfectly arranged in such a beautiful manner!" After her moment of drinking it in, she glanced at Cheese and muttered coolly, "I suppose it’s thoughtful of him to find some way to incorporate some of our ideas.”

Cheese’s ears perked up, and he smacked his lips. Boosting himself up, he murmured, “You’re welcome.”

“So... how did you make our mess into an actual wedding party?” Vic asked.

Cheese scratched his ear with his hind leg. “Cleaning up garbage… separating the wheat and the chaff… and a good dose of—” He leaned forward too far and fell off the table and landed face first on the ground. “Creativity.”

Tomato hopped forward and helped him get back right-side up. “I didn’t doubt that you could clean it up, but I don’t think that going at it all night is all that healthy.”

Cheese rubbed one eye and finally opened both of them. “I had to make up for lost time somehow. I don’t want to postpone our cousin’s wedding.”

Lightning was overhead, helping Pearl fix the table Cheese had been laying on. “Aww, I guess you still have a heart after all.”

“Does this mean we’re not idiots?” Vic said coolly, busy looking at the feather flower and paper basketballs on the wall.

Cheese growled. “I’m not in the mood.”

Tomato was about to reply when his nostrils caught a whiff of something on Cheese. One-half of it was that of ocean water; the other half was disturbingly familiar, making him recall a certain event earlier that summer. It was something almost tantalizing and delicious to some dark part of his brain, enough for him to make a quick run over his teeth with his tongue and feel his back for anything strange. And yet, his pony instincts recoiled at the stench, even if no one else noticed it.

“Cheese…” he whispered. “Why do you smell like blood?”

Cheese turned to him with a face of stone. “I guess I must have stumbled and cut myself when returning some stuff to the park.” He rolled up his sleeve to reveal some makeshift bandages on his shoulder, with blood soaking through. “This thing is from a stick I guess I fell on.” He brushed some shaggier fur aside to show some cuts on his skin. “And stuff like this from random stuff scratching me, and maybe a couple of bruises…” He rubbed his head. “Might've hit my head on something. But I’m fine, okay?”

Cheese was a fast healer, though Tomato knew that it'd be faster if he didn't fuss over the party pony's wounds. Only one exception had happened so far, he thought as he glanced at the tattered bandages on Cheese's foreleg, which gave him windows to raw pink skin that while not fully healthy, was still better than before.

He pursed his lips. "And uh... the ocean smell?"

"Didn't know who the beach ball belonged to, so I just threw it on the beach," Cheese answered. "It went too far, and I had to save it from the waves."

“Okay… if you say so.” Tomato had a gut feeling that there was more to the story than that, but Cheese was too groggy to be sure. “Now I’ve got another question: why are you growing your winter coat in the summer?”

“Mmm… beats me.”

The next thing they knew, bride and groom came into the plaza. Jelly gasped at the sight of the plaza, and zipped around to look at the décor. “Oh, my goodness! This entire plaza is like… like… a cake!” She took a whiff of the sweet air. “A lovely vanilla and strawberry cake, with peaches and candy flowers and buttercream frosting all trimmed up with gold.” She galloped back to her fiancé and nuzzled him. “Don’t you think it’s beautiful, sweetie?”

Peanut just stood there, looking around. “Uh… yeah! It’s really, uh, pink. Like you, my luuuu… love! Yeah, love.”

Jelly nodded as she held Peanut, and looked to a proud-looking Cheese. “I guess your cousin really knows his party stuff.”

“My cousin?” Peanut looked to the now confused Cheese. “Oh! My cousin, the super duper party pony! That cousin! Hey, cousinly cousin!”

Cheese and Tomato looked at each other, with the latter mumbling, “Okay, that’s weird.”

Jelly turned to her aunt. “Auntie Cherry, I know the first attempt last night wasn’t exactly… uh… organized. But you and the others had great ideas, and Cheese was kind enough to make them part of this and make them work. Still, you being here for the wedding, helping or not, means everything to me.”

“Oh, I know, I know, darlin’,” Cherry said, pulling her into a hug. “I just wanted to help out for my favorite niece’s special day.”

Pearl was by their side in an instant. “Same here. I don’t want to miss my best friend’s wedding!”

Jelly broke the hug with Cherry and hugged Pearl. “Of course! And if you ever find a special somepony, invite me to the wedding! Maybe I could help plan yours.”

Meanwhile, Vic and Lightning were by Peanut, trying to get him to loosen up. Vic was saying, “It looks like your wedding jitters finally hit you, huh? Hey, it’s okay, buddy, Lightning and I are your cheerleaders in this!”

“Uh, yeah, sure…” Lightning said. “I still don’t know if I’ll do any tricks for you.”

Cheese trotted up to them, and shoved his notepad in her face. “You do flight stuff during the reception, I got you a steam machine to write their names with, and when you’re done, the fruit fireworks will go off.” He turned to Peanut. “Hey, where are your folks?”

“Getting ready,” Peanut said.

Cheese took a deep breath through his nostrils, only to pause in alarm. Taking a few more sniffs, he narrowed his eyes. “Huh… well, you might want to get some cologne, cuz, because you smell funny. Really funny.”

Tomato took a couple sniffs of his own. "He needs a shower... and so do you, Cheese."

Cheese rubbed his chin, and muttered, "You know what? I think I might just take one." Cheese started to trot off, patting Tomato on the head and giving him parting instructions of, "Be a good boy and get me a tuxedo. Remember, I'm an inch taller than you."

"Okay, sure, but the wedding's at noon!" As Cheese started to canter out of earshot, Tomato rolled his eyes. "What a flip-flop. He doesn't trust me to help with the wedding but he trusts me to get him a tuxedo without ruining it?"

Vic scratched his chin. "I don't know, you look like the kind of guy that's always dressed sharply."

Peanut shrugged. "I guess your dressage speaks to him about how you treat threads, dude."

Tomato and Vic just stared at him oddly, briefly glancing at in other in hopes the other stallion got it, while Lightning Dust furrowed her brow in confusion and said, "What."

Cheese did go back to the house, but he had no intention of taking a shower. He helped Acorn, Cocoa, and Creamy out with their attire and found a tray and wheeled ball rack to carry the cake on, and then saw them off. He assured them that he'll catch up and that he just had a couple more things to take care of.

While there, he took some time to sniff the premises, picking up the scents of several different ponies. He recognized Tomato's scent, and the scent of that obvious poser back at the plaza, but it was clearly Peanut's scent that was the most prevalent in that house. It was a bit difficult to track where exactly Peanut went when all the rooms bore his scent for obvious reasons, but he found that the freshest scent was on the roof.

He took a moment to yawn before making his next move. His nose sticking up in the air, he hopped onto the neighbor's roof, galloped across it and hopped onto the next. And then the next roof, and the next one. Cheese wasn't counting how many houses he was hopping on, his focus on the direction that his nose was taking him.

After another jump, he landed wrong, and he sent red shingles flying as he slipped and fell into a backyard pool. The mare who had been sunbathing at the edge nearly jumped out of her chair at the splash, and stared as Cheese swam back up to the surface.

She looked up at the sky. "Oh my gosh, did you just fall out of the sky?"

Cheese spat out some water. "Nah, I was just roof-hopping and then I slipped. Say, what time is it?"

"Uh... ten-thirty or something."

Well, it was good to know that he had an hour and a half to find Peanut Butter and drag him to the wedding. He hoped that he could pick up the scent again really soon, because he just didn't have the time to search all of Applewood. With that in mind, he started to climb out of the pool.

"Wait..." the poolowner said. "You're Cheese Sandwich! Like, there's no mistaking that cutie mark! Eeeeee!" Her squeal sent Cheese back into the pool. She was too busy bouncing and clapping to notice Cheese's glare. "This is amazing! Cheese Sandwich fell into my pool! I'm, like, a big fan of your parties!"

Cheese forced a crooked smile. "Yay... glad to meet a fan..."

She twirled some of her mane in her hoof. "I know this sounds awkward but... can I have your autograph?"

Tomato went into the house, carrying two wrapped suits ready for a wedding day. "Hey, Cheese... I did what you asked. Now let's get ready."

Tomato moved both ears, waiting for an answer. After a few moments, he pouted and said in a slightly higher octave, "Oh, big brother of mine, this tux is clean and dry and waiting for a stallion to wear it. Don't make my errand go to waste!"

Still no answer. With a loudly tapping hoof, Tomato took to shouting, "If you don't come down here and put the stupid suit on this instant, I'm going to make Boneless 2 wear it! I hear he's a really sophisticated chicken!"

The shouting left an echo, and the echo bounced everywhere before reverberating back to Tomato's ears. Gaining a mental picture of the entire layout of the house--guess those leftover bat powers weren't useless after all--he groaned at the realization that Cheese was not in the house.

"For goodness' sake..." Tomato grumbled, glancing at a nearby clock. "This is not the time for him to go out adventuring!"

He snorted. "Eh, knowing him, he'll be back in a jiffy. I better get ready myself."

At last, the miracle of miracles happened when Cheese finally picked up Peanut's scent once again. It had taken a little longer and been a little farther than he would have liked, but it was something he'd like to celebrate. Of course, when he looked up to get a good look at his surroundings, he was surprised to find that he was all the way at the Santa Manzana Pier. Looking up at the entrance of the active and lively amusement park full of elated ponies rising before him, he wondered why the heck kidnappers would take their hostages to this pier of all places.

But, the nose didn't lie, the scent trail was picking up here, and stronger than back at Peanut's house.

Into the park he went, weaving around park-goers as his nostrils scanned the boards, though sloppily as he started some ponies by bumping into them or brushing past them. His head swung left and right picking up every smell in the vicinity, which with some being treats like popcorn and cotton candy, was very tempted to be distracted by. He even paused a couple of times to snatch some popcorn or a forsaken carrot dog from the ground, bringing about disgusted looks from adults and loud "eeeew's" from foals.

Then he noticed the scent grow its strongest, and then fade a little as he moved forward. Pausing, he backed up toward the spot, and took an extra strong whiff of the boards there. And then, he placed his ear there, where he heard angry muffled cries, that had been drowned out by the park's noise to those who weren't specifically listening for it. Quite frankly, who would need to?

Nevertheless, Cheese smiled. Bingo.

Sticking his hooves through a crack in the boards, Cheese started to heave and huff and puff. Muscles burning and bulging, and his entire upper body aching, he pulled and pulled, hoping to reach the pony he knew was there. If he didn't break the boards by noon, he was going to blame the long night and that dream about that gang that was too stupid to live. If he did, then hallelujah, his improvised breakfast from the ground had given him a needed boost.

A mare stopped in her tracks to stare at him. "Uh, what are you doing?"

When Cheese didn't answer, she leaned forward and tapped his shoulder. "Excuse me..."

That time, Cheese growled and snapped at her like a dog. Squealing in fright, the mare galloped away and called, "Guard! Guard! There's a guy trying to steal boards and he almost bit me!"

Uh oh. Now Cheese really had to hurry, or else he could get dragged off to jail, Peanut couldn't be saved in time for the wedding, and Jelly would end up marrying some crazy doppelganger instead of the actual stallion she loves. Thus he started to yank on the boards harder, using as much strength as he could muster. He bristled on noticing various patrons pausing and murmuring about his efforts, and tried to ignore them, even as a couple, in an attempt to get him to stop, threw an empty soda cup, a half-eaten bag of popcorn, and the remnants of a caramel apple at him. No matter to him, he still was performing his face-reddening and vein-popping task.

Just as the first mare returned with a security guard, the boards snapped, and he nearly threw the section of pier and its gooped-up passenger in his final pull. He heaved the splinter segment over his head and laughed, crying, "Haha! I've found the Peanut Butter!"

The crowd erupted into confused murmurs as Cheese set the broken boards--held together by some strange green goop--down, allowing Peanut to sit upright. Bound by the goop and wet from whatever the surf did under the pier, Peanut was attempting to either thank Cheese for finding him or complaining about his kidnappers. Of course, seeing as the goop was covering his cousin's mouth, Cheese did him a favor by ripping it straight off his lips.

Peanut gave him a pained smile. "Ow!"

Cheese stuck his tongue out at the green gunk on his hoof and shook it off into the hole. "Okay, what the feta is that stuff and why would anypony use it?"

Peanut spat a few times and groaned. "Ugh, try tasting it. I had that stuff in my mouth all night!"

Cheese sniffed the goop still binding Peanut and started to pull it apart. "Who did this?"

He was about to answer, but then noticed the crowd around them, especially the security guard marching toward them. "Er... let's wait a bit for the crowd to leave and stop taking pictures." He shot a glare at several ponies with cameras. He glanced at Cheese and to the guard now standing right there. "Besides, I think you might be in trouble."

The guard tapped his hoof. "I came here on the assumption that you were stealing surfboards, but I come across an act of vandalism instead."

Peanut looked at a nearby clock, showing less than a half-hour to noon, and sighed. "We've got no time for this, I gotta get to Jelly before things get worse." He looked up at the guard. "Hit me with the fine, officer, I'll pay for the damages. Right now, I've got a little emergency of my own."

"You need to tinkle?"

"No! ...okay, yes, but that's not what I'm talking about."

Cheese looked around, and lowered his head, whispering, "So, what is the emergency, then?"

Peanut glanced around to see if anypony was listening, and then answered, "Changelings."

Yet again, Tomato looked at the little clock tower of the plaza. It was just a little past noon, and here he was sitting at the front table of the wedding party. Along with Aunt Cocoa, Uncle Acorn, and Creamy, he was a member of the groom's family table, all spruced up in a black tuxedo. Not the first time he had been in one this summer--the party at Fancy Pants' manor came to mind--but he wasn't one to complain about a nice suit. He had received quite a few compliments over how dashing he looked from some mares, as well as a couple of stallions.

Now, if only Cheese--who by sheer description of his special talent should have been on time--was around. A frustrated Tomato had simply shoved a way-too-small Boneless 2 in Cheese's tux. Funny looks came his way, but he didn't care, he was bringing attention to the fact that Cheese Sandwich--planner of the party and cousin of the groom--wasn't there.

Creamy tapped on Tomato's shoulder. "Hey... don't you think that the fact you put a rubber chicken in a tuxedo is a little weird?"

"I am not letting the tux go to waste," Tomato grumbled. At least the rubber chicken looked pretty sophisticated.

It certainly got the attention of four certain other ponies, who responded in silent, but bitter expressions of, "Really?" Nevertheless, the wedding had to go on.

Pearly Whites had rolled out the white carpet, and the groom, the best stallion, the maids of honor, and the officiant had taken their places. Thanks to a lack of accordion due to a lack of Cheese, some of the shopkeepers scrambled into a mariachi band to play "Here Comes the Bride". And right along with the song, Jelly Jubilee, all dressed up in a white dress of subtle berry, cherry, and strawberry patterns, with blossoms pinned to her chest and hairband, walked down the aisle to meet her groom.

Peanut's side of the family watched both the bride going down the aisle, and her family getting weepy over her. And from looking around, Tomato could see that of quite a few ponies--from Rosita to Cherry Jubilee, and from some of Peanut's basketball teammates to some of the fellow farm workers. He felt a little awkward over being surrounded by great emotions on all sides, while he was just there because of blood relation.

Bride and groom now stood face to face, and the officiant had begun his speech.

"We are all gathered here today under this beautiful sunshine to celebrate the union of two families. Fruits and nuts are foods often eaten together, and in this case, I'm marrying this couple known as Peanut Butter and Jelly. I'd say that they'd make a good sandwich, hm?"

Some of the guests chuckled along with the officiant, and he continued, "How grateful we are for Celestia's sun to be up to its peak today, to bless this happy couple with its warmth. It's fitting that these two had met working at the same farm, where plants grow to bear the things we ponies eat. The plants that grow either fruit or nuts thrive on sunshine, much like this couple will thrive in the warmth of joy. However, said plants also require water, and in many places it comes in the form of rain. Rain can represent sorrow, and this couple needs to be strong to walk through times of sorrow, and bloom into better ponies and a better team.

"In joy or sorrow, in sickness or health, and in calm or storm, marriage is about taking life on together, and any foals that may come in the future would be blessed to have such strong parents. Now, allow me to step back and let bride and groom have their words."

Then, a shout from the aisle rang, "Yeah, I'd like to have my word first; get away from my bride, you fake!"

All turned to the end of the aisle, where Peanut Butter, with clothes sagging, mane drooping and fur clumping in briny dampness, stood with nostrils flaring and a pawing at the ground. Right behind him was Cheese Sandwich, who looked too half-asleep to be angry properly, instead panting like a dog. At the sight of those two, many of the guests started to murmur, wondering what the heck was going on.

Jelly blinked. "Wait... there can't be two of you, can there?" She switched between pointing at either Peanut, brow furrowing in concern.

The Peanut at the altar sneered. "Oh, please, you've got to be one of those crazy look-alikes, dude. I mean, how many ponies would like to cash in on looking exactly like a famous pony?" He pointed to Tomato. "Like, if that guy right there just decided to be Snapdragon Apple for a day."

Tomato sank in his seat, hoping that Cheese wasn't glaring at him.

The Peanut in the aisle raised an eyebrow. "What's the Snap clone's name?"

The altar Peanut's eyes widened. "Oh... easy, his name's, uh... what was it, he mentioned it... oh, right, Tomato! Yeah, duh, of course! It's his cutie mark! Because, like, he's some sort of fancy-dressed tomato grower pony or something, right?"

Peanut nodded. "Yeah, his name's Tomato... but you still flubbed one thing."

"What did I flub, faker?"

Tomato popped out of his seat and shouted, "I'm a business student!"

There was a gasp and a long pause, as ponies looked between the two Peanuts, their gears turning over who the fake in this was. The altar Peanut bit his lip, glancing around the plaza and avoiding eye contact of a scowling Jelly, and then said, "He... is in the ketchup business?"

"He said student, stupid!" Jelly snapped, pawing at the ground. "Who the hay are you, and why did you replace my husband-to-be?"

Maid of honor Pearly Whites held her back. "Careful, Jelly! We don't know what he'll do!"

The fake Peanut hissed, and then leapt up into the air with a flash of green light as he morphed back into a changeling. Gasps and screams came from the guests, most of whom either scrambled to the back of the plaza or hid under tables. Four other guests, however, transformed into changelings as well, and promptly blocked the exit, hissing at anypony who came close.

Both Jelly and Pearl's jaws dropped, and then they clung to each other and screamed. Peanut galloped over to them to make sure they were okay, and then cautiously watched the changelings, trying to anticipate their next move. Both bride and groom's families froze in their seats, looking at each other with an uneasy uncertainty, and a couple of friends, like Vic, Lightning, and Cherry, stood by, ready to defend.

One of the door blockers looked up at the original. "Nice going, Maxilla! Way to totally blow our cover!"

"Well, sor-ry, dude!" Maxilla replied. "How was I supposed to know that punk was gonna mess with me, Abbie?"

"Uuuuuugh!" the one beside Abbie groaned. "I swear, I'm like, totally surrounded by idiots."

"Aww, don't be so down, Ocelli," another one said. "After all, if the Peanut guy didn't break loose, things woulda gone totally smooth..."

Ocelli gave that changeling an odd look. "How are you always so chill, Tenna?"

Cheese backed away from the changelings as they conversed with each other, and stood next to Tomato, adopting a guard stance. "Sorry I'm late, but I smelled a rat and I had to find the real Peanut."

Tomato rubbed his temples and sank in his seat again. "Good for you. I suppose our summer wouldn't have been complete without a random changeling encounter."

"That makes me wonder just how weird your summer has been," Creamy said.

Acorn stared at the changelings at the exit. "And here I thought Peanut was kidding about the changelings."

"He probably was, but turned out to be right. Okay, any ideas on how to get rid of them?" Cocoa Butter asked.

"Yeah, after hearing them talk, I want them gone," Tomato deadpanned.

"Well, we got somepony to inform the police, so..." Cheese paused for a yawn. "...we just gotta keep 'em here..."

Meanwhile, Tenna took a look at Cheese talking with his brother and narrowed her eyes. "You know, it's like, his fault that we were exposed, cuz. I don't know how he did it, but like, I thought we hid Peanut pretty good. What do you think, Mandi?"

Mandi licked her lips. "Thing about Cheese Sandwich... he's one of the most awesome-mazing party ponies in the history of Equestria! I hear that party ponies are a totally rare kind of pony, and they have lots of love for, like, everypony in the country! I bet he's so tasty... let's suck him dry for revenge!"

Abbie giggled. "Sweetness!"

Before anypony knew it, the changelings sprang forward with manical hissing laughter and grabbed Cheese. With the other three hissing at anypony stepping forward to help, Ocelli shouted to Maxilla, "Come on, Maxie! Let's have some lunch!"

Cheese blinked and growled, "Now wait just a--WHOA!"

Changing forms to pegasi, up they carried him, with Vic barely missing a tackle, and the rest of the guests watching as they took him higher and higher. Tomato, in a state of panic, hopped onto the table and tried to pursue them, only for a face first landing on the ground. The other family members at the table winced, and Creamy said, "Tomato, you don't have wings!"

Gosh darn it, I keep feeling those stupid wings! Tomato peeled his face off the pavement. Chin throbbing, he massaged his jaw, and took a look at Lightning Dust at the other table. "Hey! You've got wings! Go up there and help him!"

Lightning shook her head. "Nah."

Tomato felt his face heat up. "Why not?!"

"Why should I bother to save a guy that called me an idiot just for not knowing how to throw a party right? Seriously, everypony's delusional to believe that he's some super nice party planner--he's a prideful control freak! I say he gets what's coming to him."

"Whoa, Lightning, whoa!" Vic said, hopping to his feet. "I know he insulted us yesterday, but I don't think he deserves changeling torture!"

Peanut, Jelly, and Pearl came closer to the circle, with the latter saying, "Look, he was rude, not a monster. I was just content in not speaking directly to him, because I'm not going to make a fuss on my best friend's wedding day, but leaving him to changelings is too far!"

"Yeah, we ain't no heartless outlaws practicin' eye for an eye," Cherry said.

Peanut pointed to the sky. "That goes beyond 'eye for an eye'!" He looked at Lightning. "Besides, this kind of disregard for anyone that gets in your way or insults you is why you got kicked out of the Wonderbolt Academy. It's childish and unprofessional behavior that'll only backfire on you in the end. Rude as he was, he at least tried to make things right... though if he keeps that attitude up, I'm gonna have to hit him again. Now, can you at least do me a favor and keep my cousin from getting hurt?"

Lightning growled, and grumbled, "Fine. But only for my honorary big brother."

She hovered to the food table, took a few veggie empanadas, and asked Rosita, who was hiding under the table, "Hope you don't mind, but I'm gonna need a few of these things."

"Uh... okay?" Rosita answered, climbing out from under there.

As Lighting zoomed upward, leaving her dress behind, Vic then said, "Okay, guys, let's huddle up and form a game plan! We want to be ready for if she drags the changelings back."

"Oh, joy, this'll be fun," Pearl deadpanned.

"Oh, oh! I got an idea!" Rosita exclaimed, trotting to the circle with the others.

"Okay, good," Peanut said. "We need all we've got to keep this changeling gang down..."

Trying to look as not suspicious as five pegasus mares carrying an earth pony stallion could be, the little changeling gang tried to make their escape through the sky, hoping to come away from their failed plot with at least something to gain.

"Wow, I'm totally surprised that we got away with that so easily!" Abbie chirped.

Ocelli scoffed. "Still doesn't change the fact that the plan was totally ruined! Getting, like, real love over lame fangirl love would have been great for once! Hmph, at least we'll get to eat the thingy of uh, loving neighbors and strangers and whoever, I guess."

"Hey, I'm weirded out by how this Cheese dude is not trying to escape," Maxilla said.

"He's... uh... wiggling," Mandi said.

Indeed he was, the poor tired stallion. Had he been well-rested, Cheese would have put up a better fight, but as it was, a combination of yesterday's adventure, the all-night party planning, and his search and rescue of Peanut Butter had finally caught up to him, and his struggle was nothing but stupid little leg wiggles. He might have mumbled, "Imma tear you apart..." but it didn't seem he was going to make good on his threat.

Tenna chuckled. "He sounds like he's all beat and stuff. Hope he's not too hurt when he's drained of the love stuff."

Mandi rubbed her tummy. "Ugh... I'm, like, dying of hunger over here! Can I have the first helping?"

Ocelli rolled her eyes. "We're always dying of hunger! But, if you want, you can like, inhale some love... just save some for us, m'kay?"

"I swear, turning into lunch was not what I wanted to do today," Cheese groaned.

Mandi squealed, and opened up her mouth to inhale the love essence, thinking that she'd be tasting the joy of seeing fellow ponies so happy, even if she didn't know just how ponies actually felt it. However, the essence she got instead was akin to trying to chew thick smoke, and despite her efforts to try to feed on it, she was forced to cough it out. With a groan, she descended a little, looking a little green.

"Hey, wait, what just happened?" Maxilla asked.

Mandi looked up. "His magic love stuff's all gross and whatnot! I can barely taste the sweet stuff without choking on all that grossness with it!"

Ocelli scratched her chin, inhaled a bit, and then coughed what little essence she absorbed out. She shivered. "Ooooh... this love's tainted."

Tenna sighed. "Guess we picked the wrong pony to snatch."

Maxilla huffed. "Well, this day was a complete bust. Let's just drop him in the ocean."

A flash of gold and turquoise zoomed over them, and they were rained on with pieces of veggie empanada. While questioning the randomness of that occurrence, they quickly noticed a pegasus mare, the same colors of the flash from before, leading a flock of angry seagulls with the mocking words of, "Yeah, yeah, I hear you, you little rats! Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine! Well, lunch is over there!"

She zoomed past again, and the changelings were left at the mercy of hungry seagulls. The flapping and the pecking were persistent, and no matter how the five changelings hissed and swatted at the birds, the gulls would not stop. In the midst of their own complaints about how they didn't have a swarm of their own kind right then, they brushed off as many of the pieces of food onto Cheese as they could and dropped him in hopes of getting the birds off them. At the very least, some of the gulls left to fetch Cheese, while others still fought with the changelings.

Lightning came back to catch Cheese. When the stallion just stared tiredly at her, she merely said, "You're welcome."

She touched down in the plaza and gave him to Creamy and Tomato. "Okay, there, guys, I got him."

The two took him, and Creamy nodded. "Okey-dokey, I guess we'll just go and find him a place to sleep now."

Tomato blew on his forelock. "Yeah, he didn't get much rest the last couple days. I think he had, uh, about an hour last night? I don't know, but he's clearly pooped."

Cheese huffed. "No, I'm not! I would have escaped on my own... eventually..."

"Yeah, sure..." Lightning grumbled, rolling her eyes. She looked up to see gulls following her, and looked at the veggie bits still covering her and Cheese. Sighing and grabbing another empanada, she said, "Okay, guys, now I gotta get rid of seagulls."

As she flew up and Creamy and Tomato left the seemingly empty plaza to put Cheese in a bed, the changelings came down, landing in the plaza with heavy breaths and growling faces.

"Okay... I think killing a lot of the stupid birds got our point across," Maxilla snarled.

Tenna shook her head. "Did we have to resort to animal cruelty?"

"Oh, shut up!" Abbie snapped.

And then Abbie was tackled by Vic, who shouted, "Don't let them get away!"

"Aah! Let me go!" Abbie whined, struggling to break free of the stallion pinning her down.

The little changeling gang wasn't entirely sure what was going on now. First, Abbie was tackled; and then, before they knew it, Ocelli was jumped by Jelly and Pearl with a tablecloth. Maxilla was blasted into the wall by Cocoa and Acorn with their fruit firework launcher, and the two trying to escape were slammed dunked back into the ground by Peanut and lassoed by Cherry Jubilee respectively.

Before the ponies could declare victory, Abbie kicked Vic off her, Ocelli ripped the tablecloth to shreds, Maxilla recovered from the blast, and Mandi and Tenna broke free of their captors. Once again, they attempted an escape, only to find Rosita on the roof, her graying mane blowing in the wind, and a line of cats standing on both sides of her.

"¡Atacad, mis gatitos!" Rosita laughed maniacally, with her army of cats leaping from the rooftops. "¡No les muestren piedad!"

Cats joined the fray, and while the changelings were distracted by the claws slashing at their exoskeleton, the other ponies came at them with the same attacks, though they waited until a changeling was cat-free. A tackle, a tablecloth, a firework, a slam dunk, and a lasso were used yet again, only this time, Cherry Jubilee bolted forward, and tied them up really tight. Once she stepped back, everyone involved breathed a sigh of relief, and those who had hidden around the plaza popped up out of their hiding places and cheered.

Jelly clapped and said to her aunt, "Wow! I didn't realize you were so good with rope, Auntie Cherry."

Cherry beamed. "Well, I was Calamity Mane once."

Peanut grabbed his bride and twirled her around. "Woo! What a wild ride! Aren't I glad that's over."

Jelly giggled. "Well, I guess we have a teensy bit of an idea of how the Royal Wedding went last year."

A scowling Maxilla snarled. "Oh, please, there's only five of us!"

Abbie scoffed. "This is so not fair! We didn't do anything as big as the Royal Wedding thing!"

"No..." Pearl began. "But you did kidnap and replace the groom."

"And stuck me somewhere where I could have gotten sick or injured," Peanut added.

"And tried to kidnap Cheese when he found him and exposed you," Acorn said.

"And who's to say that you wouldn't have tried again with some other celebrity in town?" Cocoa snarled.

Vic shook his head. "Bold move, but I guess we can't all win these crazy battles, huh?" Vic turned to Peanut and asked, "Say, uh, how did Cheese find you? The rest of us were none the wiser, besides the fact that, uh, 'you' acted a little weird."

As Peanut shrugged, Pearl just looked around at the knocked over tables and spilled decor. "Oh, dear, what a mess! Does this mean...?"

"Aw, don't worry, darlin'," Cherry said, patting her on the back. "We know what it rightly looks like. We can sweep this place up like a dust devil and get the weddin' back up 'fore the sun goes down."

Lightning Dust flew in and landed. "Sorry, had to take care of seagull business. Anyway, spotted the police, they're almost here."

Peanut rubbed the back of his head. "Thanks... I'm still surprised they believed me about the changeling thing."

Author's Note

Friendly reminder that this story takes place circa Season 5.

Was this dumb? Yes. Why did I write it dumb? Because I can and because after a rather disturbing moment last chapter, I figured that we might have a little stupid fun to lighten things up a little. That, and I don't think very many people are reading the story at this point, so I might as well just cut loose with nonsense. And I took too long to write this so I was like, "Screw it".

Given "To Where and Back Again" we can see that Equestria's been a little complacent about the changeling thing. And thus, in my crazy headcanon, Applewood changeling gangs are a thing. They usually impersonate celebrities and feed off fangirl/fanboy love, though at times they do get sick of that and scheme to get other kinds of love.

Cheese needs some sleep.

And lastly, when I was blabbing about this chapter to my cousin when we were going to a Renaissance Fair (it was fun :pinkiesmile: ), she made this joke about the changeling trying to snack on Cheese:

At least something came out of this. *sigh*

18.6--Cool Reception

The plaza was cleaned up after the changelings were hauled off, and every tablecloth, every piece of decoration, and every flower was put back in place. Everyone even took time to go home and wash their suits and dresses so that they’d look their best for the redone ceremony. It was late afternoon when the wedding finally resumed, and once again, everyone watched Jelly Jubilee walk down the aisle. This time, the actual Peanut Butter, all tidied up in his suit, was waiting for her at the altar.

Cheese had his rest for a few hours, and now he was awake and playing "Here Comes the Bride" on his accordion with the band. He was still a mite bit drowsy, and his notes sounded a little rusty, but he at least had enough energy and alertness to help with the proceedings. And this time, he had his tux on, while Boneless 2 received a little bowtie of his own.

So, bride and groom were face to face, and the officiant repeated his speech from earlier. Cheese thought it interesting that he was using allegories of sandwiches, nuts, and fruits to explain how ponies thrive in times of "sunshine" and times of "rain". What a silly statement, he thought, because his whole life as he remembered it was sunshine--there were only annoying inconveniences that didn't have that big of an impact. But, really, why would there be anything big and crippling for him? As a party pony, unfunny lasting consequences weren't a thing.

He looked at his foreleg and wrinkled his nose. That burn was an exception, and he still didn't know why.

Finally, Peanut and Jelly had their words to say.

First, Peanut took a paper out of his pocket and unfolded it. "I have to say, I'd be lying if I said I didn't think of sports as my one true love before meeting you. Sure, I did attract lots of ladies with how I played and how I talked with them and just how confident I was, but that was merely a side note compared to my love of playing sports--especially basketball. I thought that getting into the big leagues was everything I ever wanted. And then, it turned out... I had no idea what to do when the off season rolled around. I just took that farm job because it seemed like an easy job and the physical demands would keep me in shape.

"Meeting you has really expanded my world and had me finding new things to love. Not only are you fun to go one-on-one with, but you also showed me that there's a lot to learn from the little things, and to have fun with things that I didn't think were possible. You're kind of like my sister Creamy in that way, appreciating the simple things and the so-called 'boring' ponies, even if I don't quite understand it. I admit to being a cocky jerk in the past and maybe even still the present, but I'm always up for learning new things from you. I love you, and I'm ready to spend the rest of my life with you."

Jelly sniffed, her goofy smile reaching from ear to ear. She pulled out her own paper.

"So, uh..." she began. "I never really thought myself as all that smart. I can be a dopey airhead and forgetful, but I do try my best to be friendly and kind to others wherever I may be, be it here in Applewood, in Halterside, in Alfalfaston, in Dodge Junction... anywhere, really. Even when college plans fell through and I got stranded here, I found a new family at the fruit farm, and I was happy to welcome you into it. I never realized that I'd find you so charming and confident, full of energy to match my own, and have enough of a sense of humor to just roll with some of my dumber moments.

"Getting to know you was a great adventure, and I'm always happy to cheer you on in every game that I can attend. I'm eager to get to know you better, to be part of your family, to have you be a part of mine, and to start our own in the future. It's my greatest wish for us to stick together even in the worst of storms, and I have a feeling that we can do it; we're both pretty tough ponies, after all." She took a moment to giggle, and finished, "This is just my, uh, fancy way of saying, 'I love you', Peanut Butter Sandwich."

Peanut smirked and muttered, "Now that I think of it, I should have mentioned that you're funny, too."

The officiant cleared his throat. "Thank you for your words, they are much appreciated. Everyone here is gathered to see you united in marriage, and supporting you in this endeavor. This is a great and serious commitment and responsibility, one such that demands great sacrifice on both parts and unwavering loyalty to each other. Do not take it lightly. Now, do you accept these things for years to come?"

They both nodded, saying "Yes," one after the other.

"All right, then let's put on the horseshoes."

A little colt off to the side slid a pillow with customized wedding horseshoes between the two, and they stomped right onto them. A little extra hammering from the officiant sealed them on, and then he said, "I now pronounce you husband and wife!"

With that, Peanut and Jelly threw themselves together for a kiss to seal the deal, and everyone cheered. Fitted with a steam machine that Cheese gave her, Lightning Dust flew up to write her congratulations to the newlyweds, her cursive in the sky being absolute perfection, and her face beaming with pride for an old friend and mentor. Pearl was crying tears of joy off to the side, Cherry just dabbed her eyes with a tissue, and Vic was twirling a napkin and hooting, much to some other ponies' annoyance. The families of the two were clearly the happiest, and started the bubble blowing and rice throwing with gusto.

And then there were camera flashes.

Peanut looked up in annoyance at the photographers on the rooftops, squealing about how they got some exclusive shots of the wedding. Throwing his hooves up in the air, he complained, "Seriously? Who told them we were getting married here?"

Lightning descended right next to him. "Sheesh, I could have sworn I flew low enough that nopony but us would see my message."

Cheese shouted from his spot, "I think they might have followed us earlier when we were rushing over here to stop... the you-know-what."

Peanut and Jelly groaned, and the latter said, "I hope they don't somehow follow us to our honeymoon."

Rosita scurried up next to them. "Excuse me, but may I help?"

Peanut rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, sure."

Rosita smiled sweetly with a nod, and then flashed a devilish grin as she cried, "Mis gatitos! Ahuyentad a los intrusos!"

As the paparazzi paused to try to figure out what the hay the little old mare just said, they were suddenly jumped by cats. It seemed like they came out of nowhere, like little clawed ninjas, so none of the ponies knew just what direction to defend themselves from. Some well-placed scratches, angry cat hisses and screeches, and even some sharp kitty bites were enough to send the nosy onlookers scrambling off the roofs in panic.

Cheese recognized Whiskers, Dotty, Chelsea, and the many other cats, obeying Rosita's command without hesitation. He couldn't help but be impressed on how fast Rosita essentially trained them to be attack 'dogs'.

As the photographers ran off screaming, with some bemoaning, "I'm allergic to cats!", the wedding attendees could not help but laugh at the show. As they clapped, Rosita turned and bowed, thanking them, and beckoning her cats down for their own little curtsy. Then, she turned to the bride, picked up the littlest kitten, a little orange one, and put it in her hooves. With a smile, she whispered, "Here's my wedding present to you."

"Aww..." Jelly cooed, cuddling the mewling kitty. "Thank you, I always wanted a cat! Usually there's always someone I live with who's allergic, like my brother, or my roommate."

Jelly's eldest brother sneezed loudly, followed by Pearl's petite sneeze and a scratching at her throat. Jelly sighed, and gestured to them in a "See what I mean" manner.

Peanut petted the cat. "Don't worry, I'm not allergic. We can keep... uh..."

Jelly beamed. "I'm gonna call her Pumpkin."

The reception that evening, under the twinkling light cords and little paper flags, was a nice little affair. The band played every romantic tune that they know, along with some more upbeat tunes that several guests danced to. Vic was answering questions about how he made the little paper basketballs on the wall, and Acorn and Cocoa were preparing to launch the fruit-flavored fireworks. Many of the shopkeepers were happy to serve the guests their little dishes. From their veggie empanadas, cactus soups and salads, and tres leches cake, to wedding cookies, peanut butter squares, jelly rolls, and Creamy's own homemade strawberry ice cream, there was so much to eat.

Cheese and Tomato sat together at a table, watching the reception proceed as planned. Tomato stuffed his face with empanadas while Cheese lapped some cactus soup, both grateful for some peace after yet another incident.

Swallowing his most recent bite, Tomato said, "You know, walking around the food table, I keep hearing about this thing is 'Pearl's idea' or how that thing is 'Vic's idea' or how Cherry brought this or Lightning did this, and I know you arranged it into something cohesive and beautiful... still, I'm surprised that you didn't put in any touches of your own."

Cheese, with a cactus not fully slurped into his mouth, raised an eyebrow, and then yanked a random rope that had been hidden under the table. Tomato didn't know where the rope came from, but, as the sudden drop of a piñata of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the corner and some happily cheering foals told him, that didn't matter--it was what the rope did that mattered.

"Oh, okay, the pinata's definitely your thing," Tomato said. "You know... even if you can't summon your tank, I'm surprised that you didn't completely overturn everything and come up with a completely different wedding."

Cheese nodded and slurped the rest of his cactus. "Well, I don't really know the bride and groom as much as I should, so even though the others were trash planners, I do admit, they probably had better ideas of what Peanut and Jelly would like. It's part of being a party pony to consider the ideas of those who know the one the party's for."

"Does this mean you're going to apologize for leaving them with no warning or direction and chewing them out when they made a mess?"

Cheese growled. "Oh, their things make up most of the party, so I don't need to."

"What? Okay, what is your deal?"

Cheese lapped up the last of his soup and wiped his mouth. "Maybe I'm just a little frustrated that most of the parties this summer haven't been smooth sailing like my record usually is." He smacked the table. "Seriously, ever since I started taking you on this trip, my record of hassle-free shindigs, big or small, has been seriously marred by whatever crazy mishap of the week. That can't be a coincidence."

"Huh?! Why... you..." Tomato's face turned redder than normal, and he blew out a hot snort. "I'm not a bad luck charm! Besides, you said so yourself, you don't have a squeaky clean record of perfect parties. There was that one party you bemoaned where you sent several ponies to the hospital thanks to a party bomb malfunction, there were a couple of times that you got arrested, and there was that Birthaversary you mentioned, where you might have failed to think your plan to impress Pinkie Pie through? I wasn't at any of those events!"

Cheese leaned back in his chair and rolled his eyes. "Why are you making stuff up to make me look bad?"

"I'm not making them up, you talked about them to me in between parties this summer... except that last one, you told me that right after the Fall Festival."

Cheese's eyes widened. "Oh... I forgot about the Fall Festival... hmph, of course, you were there too, but hey, I don't think that one's your fault."

Tomato blinked. "Uh, what? Oh no..."

"Well, of course! It was, uh..." Cheese scratched his head, trying to organize the thoughts in his head. "It was just an attempt at brotherly bonding that went horribly wrong. I mean, wow, all that hard work to show you the true greatness of my parties and get you out of your grumpy shell... ugh, sabotage, I tell you! I had to concoct this road trip to try it again!"

Tomato pursed his lips uncomfortably. "Again, that's not how the story went... you're missing some key details. Cheese, I wonder if it's just one memory that was stolen."

Cheese scoffed, his eyes narrowed. "Why would that scumbag sorcerer need me to forget more than just the Las Pegasus incident? And why would they leave you be when you were just as involved in the disaster as I was? Clearly, you're just making up the Las Pegasus incident, so that you can paint yourself as more of a victim as you already think you are, you spoiled brat!"

"What? But that doctor said that your magic--"

"Doctors can be wrong, Tomato!"

A whistle came from the arch, and a few policeponies were standing just outside of the plaza. Everypony paused to look at them, paralyzed over the fear of what was wrong and if there was a criminal among them. Even the newlyweds looked at each other, silently trying to figure out how to handle this new situation. In light of this, Cheese stood up, and announced, "Don't worry, I've got this!"

He then lowered himself to Tomato's level and snarled, "And this conversation is over."

He walked across the plaza, ponies parting for him to let him through. All were deathly silent, feeling a frigid air coming from him, and looking to each other for some form of comfort. Even some of Rosita's cats, roaming as they pleased, backed away from him with hisses.

Out of the plaza and facing the officers, Cheese leaned on the floral arch. "What's up? Is it about the changelings?"

"No, some other detectives are looking into that," the policemare replied. "We're here to ask if anyone in that plaza has spotted any large dogs."

Cheese tilted his head. "Large dogs? Why?"

"This morning, some ponies came across several severely injured gang members in the nearby park," her male partner said. "The hospital staff says that the injuries were consistent with a dog attack. We couldn't ask the gang members thanks to them being unconscious, so we're checking with the neighborhood to see if anyone knows where it went. We want to catch the animals as soon as possible."

Cheese blinked. "Well... I was up late last night setting up the party behind me... but..." He searched his mind for any dogs he may have spotted the night before. Maybe he could have brushed by one at some point when returning that beach ball to the beach, or that bat to the local baseball field, or that tetherball pole at the nearest...

The park. He could have sworn that the dream of the park was just that, a dream. But, it had such been a vivid dream, almost like real life, and the injuries he had received from gang members in the dream matched closely with the wounds from what he had been sure were just tumbles and scrapes of a tired stallion. Getting stabbed in the shoulder with a stick, getting bucked at, scraped from pushes onto nearby pavement... but, if he had really been attacked by a gang, then surely he couldn't have fought them like a dog would, right? After all, he had been alone, and there must have been a pack of them to take down a gang!

Still, he could feel a deep pit in his gut, and his mind's voice asked him, "What is wrong with you, Cheese?"

He pursed his lips, and argued back in his mind, "Nothing's wrong with me, I just had a crazy coincidental dream."

"Coincidence? Or could it be that your 'dream' excuse is just denial?"

"How do I know that there isn't really a pack of dogs? How do I know that they're not just changelings causing trouble?"

"But, Cheese, you know that you were the one who attacked those gang members last night."

"So what if I was? Those idiots attacked me first, they had it coming!"

"So you admit it. Still, they were kids. Kids that could have been shown a better path.

"They're stupid kids! I gave them a warning, they ignored it, and they got what they deserved."

"Had it ever occurred to you that you could have killed them?"

The images of the night before came rushing back to him. The gang members fought like the ponies they were; with bucking, rearing up and stomping, shoving him and stabbing at him whenever they could, and even some hard bites of their own. Pegasi and unicorns even used their flight and magic respectively to attack.

But his attacks had been anything but pony. He could still taste that blood that was drawn, and he could still feel the crunch of bone between his teeth. Anything he bit, he thrashed around like a whip, and anyone who jumped him was guaranteed a wound on the chest. He felt his muscles ache at the throwing that he should not have been able to do, his lungs and throat stinging at the breaths taken to feed his speed. And images of each of the teens' throats came into view, knowing exactly what would happen if he sank his teeth into that.

His guts twisted and his heart pounded upon wondering if the police could read his mind. Could they see him sweat? No, no, he wasn't even sweating, though he could feel himself starting to pant. Could they smell any blood on him? Tomato did! But, then again, he had a bath recently. But, no matter what, maybe they'd find some clue that it really was him. But, surely they wouldn't believe that a lanky pony like him could take on a bunch of aggressive teenagers on his own--while fighting in a more doglike manner. He didn't know.

"Answer the question!" the policestallion barked. "Did you see any large dogs or not?"

His barrel still tight, he answered, "No, I didn't."

"Okay, that's all we needed. Unless you own a large dog."

Cheese yawned and shook his head. "Nah."

"How about any of your friends in the plaza?" the policemare asked. "Have they seen anything?"

Cheese sighed, and yelled in the plaza, "Hey! The cops want to know if you've seen any big dogs around here!"

All in the plaza blinked, looked at each other in confusion, and called out, "No!"

However, Peanut Butter added, "Maybe they're changelings disguised as dogs!"

Both cops nodded, with the mare saying, "All right. You ponies let us know if you see anything. In the meantime, be careful--whoever those dogs--or maybe even changelings--are, they won't show mercy. Have a good night, and congratulations to the bride and groom."

As the two cops trotted off, Cheese attempted a sigh of relief. It was a weak one, for he now felt this strange heaviness on him, wondering what would have happened if anypony had saw that fight. Would they have taken his side, for the gang members did attack him first, or would they have sympathized with the teenagers, being brutally torn apart? He couldn't even remember what they even looked like after he was done with them, but perhaps that was for the best.

He walked back to his table and took his seat, remaining silent as Peanut and Jelly also sat down for a bite to eat. Tomato glanced at him for a moment before turning his attention back to the newlyweds, with a small, but noticeable sneer.

Peanut was eating his cactus salad, just piece by piece. "I know, I was quick to jump to changelings, but... when the earlier cops came, they implied that the five we faced were not the only ones in Applewood. With how they shapeshift, the big celebrity running joke is now an actual hidden evil in the city. Who knows how many of them invade weddings like mine and Jelly's, or turn into gang members to start turf wars, or who knows what else around here?"

Jelly put her hoof on his. "Calm down, sweetie! I know you're still shaken up, but I don't think panicking's going to help anything. Let's just relax and enjoy the reception, and maybe we can figure out what to do during the honeymoon. Okay?"

Peanut sighed. "Okay. By the way, Cheese, what was the 'big dog' thing about?"

Cheese lowered his head, to the point that he laid on his jaw. "The police say a pack of big dogs attacked a gang last night."

Peanut and Jelly winced and looked at each other. The latter muttered, "Oooh, boy... I sure hope that Rosita's grandson Vervain isn't one of them."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Vervain? Hey, wait, I thought her grandson was Snapdragon Apple!"

"Oh, yeah, Snap is her grandson," Peanut explained. "But Rosita does have more than one grandfoal. Vervain's a gang member, thinking that cutie marks are just pictures and that messages of Harmony are lies. It's kind of scary that ponies end up adopting things like that--they're pretty much never happy."

Cheese sighed. "Well... the police didn't specify, so he could be safe." Still, he clearly remembered that the lead thug did have a flower cutie mark. Maybe that was Vervain?

"Well," Peanut said, looking back. "I think Mom and Dad are ready to launch those fruit fireworks. Can't wait to see if they're really worth all that hype they gave them."

Jelly clapped. "Oooh, boy! I'm so excited!"

Tomato chuckled. "Trust me, they're great."

"Um, uh... yeah, of course they are!" Cheese stood up, and trotted to the front. "I gotta go announce it to the guests."

The thoughts of the gang still bothered him, even as he tried to push it aside and focus on his task. Even as he announced the fireworks, watched them launched, and watched the guests enjoy eating the sparks, he looked at Rosita, and thought of that one thug, wondering how his grandmother would react to his injuries. He should have remained nameless so that there was no reason to think of him, but now he couldn't even forget that cutie mark.

He silently growled, and attempted to shake off his heaviness with the thoughts of, They attacked me first, they had it coming. They attacked me first, they had it coming. They attacked me first...

Author's Note

Aaaaaand that's a wrap for the Applewood arc!

Needed to see the actual wedding between the actual ponies take place. :raritywink: Here's hoping that Peanut Butter and Jelly have a good honeymoon after that little changeling nonsense, and a good marriage overall. :pinkiesmile:

But, for now, let's see where the Sandwiches go next.

19.2--Say Uncle

The rain had stopped, and the sky had cleared for the bit of moonlight from a crescent, freshly sprung from a new moon. A trip-trap across the bridge, a downhill hike through the forest, and the unfortunate collapse of a bleeding party pony later, Cheese and Tomato got to see just what Fallow was talking about. Lying on Fallow's back, his own back facing up to keep as much blood in his body, Cheese had to stretch his neck to the side as far as possible without sliding over to the side to see what it was.

Curiously to the brothers, it was a series of pools, sparkling underneath the starry sky. The pools overlooked a little town just down the hill, which by all means should be described as sleepy--save for the apparent sounds of a zoo that seemed to come from it.

Fallow stopped at the edge of the nearest pool. "Okey-dokes, we're here." He knelt down and turned to Cheese. "Now just go and take a dip in that there spring. I promise you that the water has healing magic."

"Healing magic?" Cheese asked.

"Eh, after the Fountain of Youth and that super health-and-strength pool back in Sorrel Canyon, this isn't much of a stretch," Tomato said.

As Cheese climbed into the spring, Fallow turned to Tomato and said, "Get out! You found that rumored spring in Sorrel Canyon? No way, I was born and grew up in Sorrelsteed, and I've been looking for that thing for ages! And you're telling me that it just gives a pony health and strength?"

"Good health and a strong body," Cheese corrected, settling into the water. "Took a swig before bed when we were there, and well, I've definitely felt stronger recently."

"Not enough to defeat that bear," Tomato deadpanned.

Cheese huffed and grumbled, "Needed a pack for that."

Tomato scratched his head. Did he mean he needed a saddlebag to beat the bear with or...?

Fallow stroked his beard. "Well, I always thought the Mysterious Spring was some leftover from a battle waged there. Eh, I suppose the 'good health and strong body' thing is useful for a war, even though I'm frankly not a fan of war."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "Who is?"

"You'd be surprised."

He looked down at Cheese, who had his submerged back and his foreleg glowing. "Heheh, see what I mean?"

Cheese stared in awe at his foreleg, watching the raw burn fade into a healthier pink and grow his gamboge fur back. "Wow, you weren't kidding, I'm feeling much better already!"

Fallow nodded. "I've used this place plenty of times to heal injured animals or help a hiker who had an unfortunate incident like you. That's even how I met my wife! Of course, I've found that the pool only deals fully with physical wounds and ailments--it could settle some effects of magical ailments for a little bit, but the spell would cause the them to come back in full force soon enough. I've had to hire unicorns to weed out horrible spells that careless young unicorns cast on the animals--or worse, put the suffering animals down."

The glowing stopped, and Fallow pulled Cheese out of the pool. "It doesn't fix clothes either, but that back of yours is looking pretty good."

Cheese rubbed his back, smiling in relief. "Well, thanks anyway. I'm sure I have a spare shirt... but I can't find it..."

Tomato produced a yellow polo and gave it to him. "You dropped it during the bear attack."

Cheese blinked, and then shrugged, swapping the ripped shirt and the intact one faster than a wink, before hoofing off the wet, blood-stained jacket back to Tomato. Looking at Fallow, he asked, "Okay, so, do you know a place where we can stay for the night?"

Fallow scratched his chin. "Well, I managed to build a little cabin not too far from here; you could use that. The key's at my house, so we'll go and get it." He beckoned for them to follow him, and entered into another part of the forest. "I'd build more for campers, but my park here doesn't really get enough visitors to warrant that--it's usually just the residents of Aura Springs coming in for a day hike."

"Oh, so that's what that town's called?" Tomato said. "Huh, you'd think a town with magical healing pools and a big, beautiful nature park would be more famous."

Fallow shrugged. "Well... sometimes that happens. Suppose I should count my blessings, there are less idiots to disrespect the wildlife." He jumped at the sound of an elk call--which almost sounded like laughing--coming from town and sighed. "But then there are some ponies around here who spoil the animals."

The three staring at the town a little bit longer, Fallow waved a hoof and grumbled, "Well, my son's got the same talents and he lives closer; no doubt he heard that and is going to take care of it."

Leading them to a fairly large cabin at the top of the hill overlooking Aura Springs, Fallow Track was willing for a bit more small talk, and was interested in hearing about the brothers' travels. He laughed at the story of the Bighoof encounter, and remarked that he always wanted to find out if that was real, and that he'd like to meet the lady who tamed that beast one day. He laughed even harder at the sheer coincidence that the mare in question was the long-lost aunt of somepony they knew.

"And it gets even crazier," Tomato said, with a clear tone of disbelief. "We also have a long-lost aunt, and we've been hoping to bump into her sometime this summer."

"No such luck yet," Cheese said. "But after everything this summer, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to actually meet her. We've only ever seen pictures of her."

"We're weirdness magnets. Sometimes I wonder if the universe has it out for us."

"Well, I've been in some weird situations myself, so I'm not one to judge." Trotting up to the porch, he scraped mud off his hooves. "Okay, wipe your feet before you come in the house, I like my living space tidy, you know."

He opened the door, and the loud shouts from within the building nearly knocked the three stallions over. Rubbing his ear, Fallow glanced at the two younger ponies, muttered, "Sorry, I forgot to mention my two daughters," and then looked in the house, wondering what the ruckus was about.

"Hey, just chill, dude. I honestly don't know what happened to your pencil sharpener, sis, but I wouldn't be surprised if you misplaced it again. Like, seriously, you misplace everything, Toola Roola!" one mare complained. "At least I keep my stuff organized!"

"Oh, sure... never mind that you've repeatedly proved that you have no respect for art! I wouldn't be surprised if you did hide my sharpener somewhere with some dumb booby trap for a cheap prank! And I mean very cheap, thanks to your lack of imagination, Lemon Zest..." the other said.

"Not true! Music is considered art, and I like to write songs, and dance, and do poetry jams, and experiment with instruments!"

"In what universe is rock and roll considered art? It's all 'disrespect your surroundings' and no appreciation for anything."

"Seriously, Rools, cut the attitude out. You sound like a snob, and it's not helping you find your sharpener."

Cheese and Tomato were peeking over Fallow's shoulder, at the two pink mares standing among overturned furniture--one being darker with long, three-toned lime green hair, and the other one being lighter with wavy magenta, yellow, and orange hair. The older stallion slipped out from under the brothers and trotted into the house, asking his daughters, "Girls! What are you fighting about this time?"

The two young mares snapped their heads around, and the lighter one pointed to her sister with, "My favorite pencil sharpener's missing, and I'm absolutely certain that Lemon hid it somewhere just to mess with me. She did say she saw it last when she went into my room to use it."

Lemon rolled her eyes. "I put it back. Again, you always misplace your stuff. Not my fault that you're so scatterbrained."

Fallow sighed. "Toola Roola, I'm sure your sharpener will turn up somewhere at some point." He trotted to the kitchen, which was split from the living room by a staircase leading up to a quintet of rooms upstairs, and started looking through some drawers. "Your crayons did, your sketchbooks did, your paintbrushes did... so don't worry too much, it's probably still in the house. Now, the question is where the key to that little cabin is; we've got a couple stallions there who need a place to stay the night."

Lemon Zest and Toola Roola blinked, and turned to the Sandwiches in the doorway. Slinking in and shutting the door behind them, the brothers waved to the sisters, with smiles that may have been just a wee bit forced.

Toola Roola clapped. "Oh, they're cute!"

Lemon jumped. "Dude! That's Cheese Sandwich! Dad, you brought Cheese Sandwich to our cabin! This is so amazing!" She looked at Tomato and tilted her head. "So, uh, do you have some kind of roadie or something?"

"I'm his brother," Tomato said.

"Brother, huh? Wow, then you must get the best birthday parties! What's your name?"

"Tomato Sandwich."

"Girls!" Fallow snapped. "I know you like those two, but I need to know where the key is! Also, somepony needs to lend a needle and thread to Cheese, one of his shirts got ripped, and we're adding Tomato's jacket to the laundry pile."

Lemon and Toola looked at each other, and asked in unison, "Did you use the key? Yes. What for? To store some stuff. Where'd you put it? On the coffee table." They looked at the overturned coffee table, and glanced at each other sheepishly.

"I was running late to aerobics and kind of in a hurry," Lemon said, rubbing the back of her head.

Toola Roola looked under the table. "Key's not there. It must have flown off when I flipped it."

"Well, we better find it!"

"Right!"

The two started scouring the area for the key, crawling around the wooden floor and peeking under rugs. Standing off to the side, the Sandwiches looked at each other, and Cheese asked, "Hey, you need help? I've got a pretty good nose."

Lemon was flipping through books from the bookcase. "Yeah, yeah, sure." A little Mare Harmony shaped item fell out of the case when she pulled out another book, and she took a closer look at it on the floor. "Oh, hey, Rools, I found your sharpener."

Toola Roola pounced on it. "That's right! I was reading a book when I last had it!"

The two girls and the added members of their search party continued to scour the floor, peeking under blankets and pillows scattered around the room, crawling under the overturned furniture, and looking in every corner. Cheese sniffed everything, hoping to pick up a distinct metallic scent that surely only a key would have. And Lemon was starting to climb around in order to see if it had landed any higher.

Tomato was scouring a different bookcase when he accidentally pulled it forward. Seeing it tip toward him and some stuff starting to fall off, Tomato quickly pushed it back, but not before getting hit in the head with a family photo. Luckily for the photo, it wasn't to shatter, thanks to Tomato's tail quickly stretching out and catching it before it hit the floor.

Tomato grabbed it with his hooves, and looked up at its original perch. "Well, how do I get up there?"

An idle curiosity had him looking at the photo, just because. Fallow was younger in the picture, and was accompanied by a toddler Lemon Zest, and an older colt, green with a purple mane, that was obviously that son Fallow had mentioned earlier; funny how there was a forelock thing with him similar to Cheese and Tomato's own that was going on. There was no sight of Toola Roola, cluing him in to her status as the youngest.

And then his eyes fell on the mother. Light green coat, blonde hair with magenta streaks, and amber eyes that seemed strangely familiar to him; in color, in shape and even in eyelash thickness. There was no way he could have known this mare, but he felt like he had seen her before, or maybe even seen some of her individual traits before. The longer he stared at the mare, the stronger the sense of déjà vu.

Lemon Zest popped up behind him. "Yep, that's me when I was little--and our brother, Grapevine! Of course, Toola Roola hadn't been born until I was four, but, hey, it's not like we knew she was going to exist a couple years after that picture! Oh, and right there's our mom."

"Yeah, I know that's your mom." Tomato looked at it from a different angle. "Why does it feel like I've seen her before?"

"Uh, weird. I wish I could ask her what's up with that."

Tomato pursed his lips. "So, uh... what's her name?"

"Honeydew."

Tomato's eyes widened as the puzzle pieces fell together. It was clear where she got those eyes, and when he had felt them looking on him before. With the sudden realization of just why she looked so familiar, he started tapping on the picture, and chanted, "Wha? What. What. What. What! What! What! What?! What?! What?!"

Backing up, Lemon Zest said, "Hey, relax, dude! Her name's only a kind of melon, no need to freak out over it!" She turned to Cheese and exclaimed to him, "Hey, can you see what's up with your brother? He's freaking me out!"

Cheese sighed, and trotted over to them. "Okay, Tomato, what's the big deal?"

Tomato practically shoved the picture in Cheese's face. "Does this mare look familiar to you?!"

Cheese blinked, his eyes fixed on the green mare. "Huh, that's funny. She looks almost exactly like Aunt Honeydew."

Lemon blinked. "Wait, what? Are you saying that you have an aunt named Honeydew that looks like my mom? 'Kay, that's freaky."

Fallow came into the room, looking into some of the potted plants. "What's freaky, Lemon?"

"Oh, they have an aunt that looks like and has the same name as Mom. Weird, huh?"

Toola Roola was under a couch cushion, scouring the couch for the missing key. "Oh, doppelgangers happen all the time. Tomato looks like that one pop star that's, like, named after a flower and has his eyes change color all the time for whatever reason." She threw aside the neighboring cushion. "Though... the aunt's name being 'Honeydew' is really freaky."

She sat up proudly. "But, unless their mother is that legendary 'twin sister in Manehattan' that Dad wants to meet, it's probably just a coincidence. Right, Misters Sandwich?"

Now both Sandwiches jumped and screamed. Cheese yammered, "Holy macaroni! See, see, what's funny is that we were born in Manehattan, a-and our aunt, our mother's twin sister, left long before our Mom even got married and she never sent a letter, so we never met her and considered her long-lost, a-and we've only ever seen pictures of her, which looks like your Mom except she was younger in the pictures and its reasonable to assume that duh, of course she got older, and... and... Grapevine in the photo has a forelock thingy, and..." He rubbed his head. "Call me crazy, but I think we're cousins."

The two girls' jaws dropped, while Fallow stood up straight and started walking toward them. "Are you sure you're not just pulling my leg? Because you don't look all that related to my wife."

"Is... the term 'twins' tripping you up?" Tomato asked, rubbing the back of his head. "Because they were fraternal twins."

"I wish we had a picture to rest our case," Cheese murmured.

Fallow leaned forward, sniffed them both a couple of times, and his eyes widened. "Ah... oh-ho-ho, I can sense a difference, but it sure smells like you're from the same fruity-and-cheesy family as she!" He grabbed both their hooves simultaneously and shook them with vigor. "Well, if I had known earlier, I'd--well, I don't know what I'd have done differently. It's a real pleasure to meet you, nephews!"

He released them, and the shaken Sandwiches wobbled and stumbled to the floor. Face down, Cheese weakly cheered, completely with shaky pump of the hoof, "Hooray, we've got another cool uncle..."

Toola Roola looked to her sister. "Okay, this just got weird. Dad brings two strangers in our house and it's not even ten minutes before we learn they're our cousins? I was always curious about Mom's side of the family, but this is just random."

"Yeah, tell me about it. But still..." She shuffled closer to the brothers and picked up Cheese by the collar. "One of them's Cheese Sandwich, dude! It's already amazing enough that he's here, but to find out that he's our cousin? Like, wow! I'm related to a bona fide super party pony! This is the greatest day of my life!" She squealed in a pitch that made Cheese cringe, and danced in place in her utter glee.

Tomato sat up and smoothed his frazzled mane. "Well, and there is that big mystery solved. Say, uh... what happened to her?"

The room suddenly felt a little darker, especially with the emergence of more downcast expressions. Lemon halted her dance, Toola Roola started to sink, and Fallow looked away, pursing his lips to seemingly compose himself. With only Cheese looking at him, Tomato felt like melting into a puddle for causing a change of mood, especially since an unpleasant guess had run into his head.

Fallow sighed. "Sorry, boys, you missed her." He glanced at Toola Roola. "She passed away years ago."

After they finally found the key to the smaller cabin, the girls carried their spare items out of that cabin to make room for their guests--putting stuff like art pieces and burned records in the basement--while the boys put the living room back into shape. The chores done, the five then sat around the coffee table for some nice cups of hot cocoa.

Lemon looked at Tomato. "You sure you don't want coffee?"

Tomato grimaced. "I don't mix well with it."

"Coffee's gross anyhow," Toola Roola said, taking a sip of her drink. "I prefer chocolate."

Cheese recoiled when his attempt at lapping had the obvious result. "Ow!" Looking at his hanging tongue, he complained, "I tink I need 'nother twip to da sping."

"Don't think so, Dad says they should only be used for emergencies."

Fallow chuckled. "Well, small talk is nice and all, but I think we all know where the real substance is." He took a swing of his cocoa and wiped his whiskers clean. "I've been hoping for a chance to meet my in-laws, but it's kind of hard when you live on the other side of the country from Manehattan, plus if I did go there, I wouldn't know where to start."

"So, uh..." Tomato skimmed the rim of his mug. "What did Aunt Honeydew tell you about her life prior to meeting you?"

"Well... she didn't like me asking about it. She was always avoiding that subject whenever and however she could. But, there was a talk we had before Toola Roola was born that I managed to get a few things from her. Her twin sister in Manehattan, a dear friend that she missed, an apparent 'twin curse', the pizzeria her parents owned... they owned a pizzeria, right?"

"That they did," Cheese said. "We visited them and they visited us a lot when we were colts. Grandpa was a lot of fun and an active cook even in old age, and Grandma was a sweet and refined mare, acting like royalty even though we weren't that high on the social ladder. It'd be wonderful if they were alive to meet you guys... I can't even remember their deaths or their funeral."

"It was cancer, Cheese" Tomato said. "I remember begging Dad to take me to the hospital and suggesting bringing medicine to help. I still feel bad for not being there to say goodbye. I probably would have thanked Grandma for sowing the seeds of my interest in mathematics, while you were busy with Grandpa's accordion lessons."

Fallow visibly sunk. "Oh... I was hoping to meet Honey's parents someday. They sound like they were great role models for you two, and probably would have been wonderful grandparents for my own children--not to knock on my own parents, they're great too, I just wish Grape, Lemon, and Rools could have known their mother's side of the family." He stroked his beard. "Is it still feasible to meet my sister-in-law?"

Tomato pursed his lips. Are you sure you want to meet Mom?

"Yeah, Mom still lives," Cheese said, before dipping his tongue in the cocoa. He smacked his lips and lapped a few times before saying, "From what I remember, she was hard on us, but, well, we were wild kids, so it shouldn't be a surprise that she had to be hard to keep us under control. Luckily, I managed to be responsible enough to go out on my own and take care of myself for years while doing this party planning gig. I'm surprised that I was allowed to go."

Oh my gosh, Tomato inwardly groaned. Either his memory's more messed up than I thought, or he's just sugarcoating things so that Fallow doesn't get disappointed with the news of just how 'hard' Mom is. He really hoped it was the latter, because at least Cheese could forgive him for the correction instead of accusing him of slander.

"Well, there's no doubt that you're thriving, Cheese," Fallow said with a wink. "You and your shindigs pop up in the news from time to time. Were you always that talented or did you have a mentor?"

Cheese shrugged. "Eh, a little of both. I've always had talents in music and making my brother here happy and being goofy, but not only did Grandpa help me with learning the accordion, I also refined my joy-bringing talents under the Great Ponyacci!"

"Whoa, that's so cool!" Toola Roola said.

"Dang, I wish I'd get a big star to mentor me," Lemon Zest muttered. "But, you know, I got other things to worry about, like how I've got another semester of lectures, half of which I think are pointless, boring, or both--they need to spice things up a bit, like a with a catchy song. Also, I have to help my sis prepare for art school."

"D'oh, now I'm worried about my upcoming semester!" Tomato exclaimed, crossing his forelegs. He added under his breath, "At least I signed up for fall classes before I left on this crazy vacation..."

"Okay, what was Honeydew like as a wife and mother?" Cheese asked. "From what Grandma and Grandpa told me, she's much softer than our mom was."

Fallow was in the midst of guzzling the last of his cocoa when the question was asked, and wiped his mouth a little vigorously. Smacking his lips and glancing around, he set the mug down and cleared his throat. "Well... she, uh, put a lot of stock in letting our foals choose their own path and giving them freedom. Always talking about how we should appreciate nature and how all we need is to, uh, love each other and everything would work out. No doubt that she was curious, lots of sugar with a little spice, faith in the good of animal life--"

"A little too much if you ask me," Lemon grumbled.

"...and, uh... oh, sensitive. Haha, yep. Really sensitive."

"Aw." Cheese nudged Tomato. "She sounds like such a nice mare! Sad that we never heard from her."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "She and Mom didn't get along, remember? Like you said, Mom's hard, and I don't doubt that they clashed a lot when they were fillies. I wouldn't be surprised that between Mom's nature and Honeydew's fallout with Dad, she's been hurting."

"I guess," Fallow shrugged.

Toola Roola tilted her head. "Fallout with your dad? What, did they date or something before he chose your Mom?"

"I dunno," Cheese said.

"Aunt Cocoa said they were friends, but something happened between them," Tomato added.

"I guess your dad must have been Mom's 'dear friend'," Lemon said. "I say it was some tragic failed romance or something."

Tomato leaned in his hoof and rolled his eyes. Oh, if you want to see a failed romance involving my dad, you should take a good look at his marriage with my mom. One would think that they would divorce.

"Well, whatever happened, she managed to travel all the way over here before eating something that nearly killed her," Fallow said. "I found her, stuck her in that very pool you took a dip it, and from there, we became friends. After a while, we married, had Grape, then Lemon, and then..." He brushed his bangs aside, his blue-gray eyes looking aside with a hint of pain. "Giving birth to Toola Roola and her twin brother killed her. Honestly, I should have not shrugged off what I thought was a joke about a 'twin curse'."

"Yeah, looking at family records showed me that... yeah, there's definitely this weird trend of twins on Mom's side of the--ow!" Tomato was sharply nudged by Cheese, and rubbing his shoulder, he mumbled, "Well... it's awful that the curse claimed her. I really would have liked to meet her."

"Same here," Cheese said. "But, at the very least, we know what happened to her--and got to meet an uncle and cousins, too!"

Fallow chuckled. "Well, you haven't met Grapevine yet, but come morning, I'll introduce you. He'll be pretty happy to meet new cousins." He stood up and stretched. "Well, it's getting late, and I better escort you to your cabin."

As the Sandwiches stood up, the sisters looked at each other, and then Toola Roola said, "Oh, I left a needle and some thread at the cabin to fix that shirt of yours, Cheese!"

"Hey, thanks!" Cheese chirped.

Tomato glanced at Cheese, his mind playing back to earlier that evening when he kept snatching animals with the intention to eat them, or when he threatened to drop him off a cliff. It was strange, seeing Cheese mostly acting like his normal, cheerful self after darkness had seeped out like that. Perhaps it was just euphoria at meeting long-lost family, perhaps he was hiding the monster after that shameful moment, or perhaps that magic spring did more than just heal the burn and the bloody claw marks. Fallow did say that the spring temporarily inhibited the effects of a magic spell; the question was how long it'd last until the mysterious spell had its dark grip on Cheese once again.

Still, they bid their newly-discovered cousins goodnight, and marched off to the little cabin for the night.

Author's Note

And thus, our next big arc is in Aura Springs. A small town named for the magical healing pools up the hill, it's a quiet place neighboring a vast nature park with various natural wonders (like some mix of Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks). The park's a wonderful place to hike for residents, given that they listen to Fallow's warnings about animals and keep a respectful distance away. However, thanks to the town's relative obscurity, tourism is a little low.

They've got other problems, but that's for next time.

And last, but definitely not least... the fate of Aunt Honeydew! :pinkiegasp:

And random headcanon alert, we've got a cousin relationship between canon characters Cheese Sandwich and Lemon Zest (who I frustratingly have to adapt a personality with what little I got from the EQG series--she's a little too far from my sweet spot of 'enough personality to be interesting' and 'enough blanks for me to fill', essentially almost being a background pon--I mean, human, dangit). I chose her to be one of Honeydew's kids because I thought the colors fit and the basic personality contrast would be hilarious.

Other kids are OC Grapevine (should appear next chapter) and G3 pony Toola Roola, with Papa Fallow Track to complete the family... and I should update the Sandwich Bros' family tree soon.

20.1--These So-Called Beautiful Ponies

It was a golden morning in that grand forest. Sunlight shone through the Sandwiches' little cabin as Cheese spent his first waking hour that day mending the tears in that shirt. The brown of dried blood on the edges was sewn out of sight as they were mended inward, and Cheese pulled the thread good and tight for a completely closed hole. Soon enough, the shirt looked good as new, and it was wearable again. He wished it hadn't been torn in the first place, but at least it had been fixable.

He held up the shirt and smiled at it, looking over his work and feeling a swell of pride at a job well done. He turned to his brother reading on the other bed, and asked, "Hey, how's it look?"

Tomato peeked up from his book, and answered, "Presentable. I think only a Miss Rarity from Ponyville would notice a mis-stitch."

Cheese rolled his eyes, and examined his work a second time. He didn't think that there was a stitch out of place, and frankly, nopony would care enough to ask about what happened. If they did, they'd wonder why it hadn't been worse.

However, he longer he stared, the more he thought about how he would have needed stitches had it not been for the healing pool, and that led to thinking of a certain group of teenagers that did need stitches. Stitches... and bandages, and staples, and possibly even surgery. All because of him. Healed his wounds it did, but the pool could not erase that fight from his mind.

All sensations of that night came back to him, and they all swirled together to form a rock in his stomach. A glance at Tomato made the rock heavier, and he had to keep from slapping himself for yet another loss of temper the night before, which would have led to his own brother's blood on his hooves. He sure was glad he came to his senses, but he had to remind himself that he had been too angry lately, and he had to keep himself happy and cheery like his normal party pony self, even if it killed him.

"Hey, do you think it's weird that we haven't gotten any updates from Pinkie since Salt Lick City?" Tomato asked.

Cheese inwardly groaned. Why does that Pinkie Pie keeping popping up, and why in Tartarus is she sticking her nose into his business? If she weren't so goshdarn nosy, the Fall Festival last year would have gone smoothly. "Maybe she's just focusing on her own parties in Ponyville. From what I hear, that town has a festival just about every week."

"Yeah, but if Twilight found something that could help us find that memory, Pinkie would let us know. Her letters always find you somehow." Tomato shut his book and set it down beside him. "After all, it's not like her to just let you suffer like this."

Cheese huffed. "I'm not suffering, I'm just a little frustrated, that's all." His stomached rumbled, and ached with painful emptiness. "And hungry. Besides, maybe Twilight just didn't find anything yet."

Tomato grunted and leaned in his hooves, grumbling, "Well, she's taking too long. I'm completely useless in this memory search."

They jumped when the door was suddenly kicked open, and Lemon Zest came cartwheeling into the cabin. "Morning, cousins!"

Toola Roola trotted right behind her, rolling her eyes. "Sheesh, Lemon, did you have to do that? I swear, if they weren't already awake..."

"But, they already were awake, so we're off the hook." Lemon flashed a grin between both stallions, and their annoyed glares softened in more neutral faces. "So, I just cooked up some breakfast, and it'd be unfair to leave you out of our buffet. I mean, as family, we're making sure that you're going to feel right at home, plus, you'll maybe some privileges that other campers wouldn't get..."

Toola Roola scoffed. "What other campers?"

"Oh, shut up, you."

Tomato hopped off his bed. "Well, breakfast sounds good to me."

"Same here," Cheese said, folding his shirt. "I'm so hungry, I could eat a moose!"

Lemon laughed, and started to lead them out the door. "Well, I didn't cook any moose and I don't plan to anytime soon, but we've got a nice assortment of eggs, hash browns, cheese, tortillas, some vegetabaaaaaaahhhhh!"

Cheese, Tomato, and Toola Roola all poked their heads out of the door, and beheld a moose perched upon a large rock, looking around as if it were looking for something to eat. Lemon, in front and in clear view of the animal, essentially turned into a statue when the moose turned toward her and stared. To the other three, it appeared to be assessing a potential threat, which was undoubtedly uncomfortable, but it seemed like Lemon was thinking that it was going to eat her.

"Oh, how poetic," Toola Roola teased. "A moose."

"Shut up, you're not funny," Lemon hissed between her teeth.

Cheese focused on the moose's throat, wondering how hard he had to bite to take it down, but a quick glance at Tomato and the memory of the bear incident stopped him from taking any action. If it charged, then maybe he could try to defend his family.

Luckily, the shout of Fallow Track caught the attention of the moose, and it relaxed as the stallion greeted, "How you doing, Moe? Beautiful morning, isn't it?" The moose grunted and snorted, and Fallow laughed back. "Oh, I just met my nephews yesterday--that's them behind my daughters--and we're going to take them down to meet Grapevine."

Fallow made it to the cabin's porch, and Lemon immediately clung to him. Holding his daughter close, Fallow said to Moe, "Planning on going on your usual swim?" The moose nodded happily. Fallow grinned back. "Sounds like fun, big buddy. Remember to stay away from the waterfall, and say 'hi' to Larry and Curly for me, okay?"

Moe grunted, and then trotted off. Once the moose was out of sight, Fallow patted Lemon's back, and said, "There, there, Zesty, you're safe. As long as the animals remember who's in charge, they won't bother either of my daughters."

He looked toward the other three. "Well, I told the other rangers to keep an eye on things when we go down to see Grape. Now... shall we have breakfast?"

Once breakfast was all eaten, they went down the hill in the town's general direction. Enjoying the bird songs ringing through the woods, they all chatted amongst each other about random subjects, most of which veered some way toward the Sandwiches telling stories about their trip so far and both parties about funny incidents in their foalhoods. And as far as Tomato was concerned, Cheese still was putting their mother in a nicer light than she actually was--but, seeing as the thought of disappointing their uncle hurt too much, he was still silent about it.

First building he saw was the library, looking abstract and modern compared to the neighboring humble cabin structures of nearly every other building, save for what he guessed was town hall. When they were just at the edge of town, they then started to skim the perimeter, much to Tomato's confusion. "Uh... okay, where are we going?"

Fallow glanced back at him. "I never said he lived in town; just closer than we do."

"Well..." Tomato looked down every street, watching disgruntled ponies spruce up their houses and small businesses for the morning. Odd that it looked like a mini tornado had barreled down the street, and he cringed when watching a sign fall. He could have sworn he picked up some animalistic noises on another street. The others didn't seem to hear it, so it was either bat hearing or his imagination.

Diverting his attention to guessing what Grapevine was like, he muttered, "I suppose that he's not the neighborly type... likes his privacy... not very conversationa--hey wait, what are those huts?"

Indeed they were, as they came upon a little neighborhood of small shacks, hay huts, and tepees, surrounded by a ring of trees where treehouses were built. As they entered through the willow gate, Tomato was quick to notice the inhabitants, wearing beads and flowers, woven bracelets and rose glasses, headbands and old vests, and a variety of unkempt hairstyles. A good number were either mediating, practicing simple instruments, working a small garden, or making crafts. Seeing these ponies, Tomato's mental image of the mysterious Grapevine suddenly changed, and he inwardly cringed.

"Hey, um, I think you guys forgot to mention something about your brother," he griped to his cousins.

"Aw, chillax, dude, they don't bite," Lemon replied. "They're all about 'peace and love', yanno?"

"But they are staring." He attempted to hide in his shirt collar in a huff, partially to block their smell. He swore, if they were to spout some of their pretentious philosophy and imply that he was some kind of villain, he was going to scream.

Tomato nearly jumped when Cheese patted his back and said, "Hey, listen to Lemon. They're only staring because we're new, not because they see you as some kind of threat. Just be nice to them, and we'll have no trouble at all." He finished off his sentence with a grin that looked a little forced.

"Okay..." Tomato grumbled, rolling his eyes.

The group was suddenly stopped by a green mare coming to greet Fallow. With some kind of blissful, "out there" smile, she spoke with a tone of voice that matched her face. "Heeeeey, Fallow Track. I'm like so thrilled to meet you under this golden morning sun."

"Hello to you too, Tree Hugger," Fallow replied with a nod of his head. "Have you seen Grapevine around? There's a couple of ponies I'd like to introduce him to."

"Aw, he loves making new friends, how thoughtful of you!" Tree Hugger leaned curiously to see the sheepishly waving Sandwiches. "Ooooh... they're so tall... like trees. Like, redwood trees, stretching upward and always yearning to touch the sky..." She pointed to Tomato. "That one even has like a redwood color."

Tomato blinked and furrowed his brow. "Eh... I'm Tomato, he's Cheese, and we're not trees."

"Wicked rhyme..." Tree Hugger said. "Though I'm not sure you look like a tomato."

Tomato nickered in annoyance. "Sorry that genetics prevented me from being plump like my namesake."

Toola Roola popped between both parties and asked, "So, Tree Hugger, can you tell us where our brother is?"

Tree Hugger scratched her chin. "You mean your soul brother, or..."

"Blood brother," Lemon corrected. "You know, Grapevine? Dad already asked about him."

"Oh. He's meditating in that treehouse." She pointed up to one of the trees, where a spiral ramp led up to the central shack of the tree ring, connected to the other treehouses by rope bridges.

"Thank you, Tree Hugger," Fallow said. "I hope he doesn't mind being interrupted."

Pushing aside the bead curtains, Fallow allowed his daughters and nephews to slip into the shack. Incense tickled Tomato's nose, prompting his hoof to cover his nose to keep himself from sneezing. The candles of the room created two circles around the hut. One circle took up the perimeter of the hut, and the other was smaller, designating a space of meditation where one stallion sat.

The stallion definitely had the colors of the colt that Tomato saw in the photo last night; however, he was definitely shaggier than when he was younger. He had a beard covering the entirety of his chin, though no mustache to compliment it, and shaggy fur on his lower legs feathering thick, purple hooves. He wore a brown tasseled vest, which matched the eye that cracked open the moment they had come in.

Grapevine stretched upward until his bones popped, and then looked up at his father with a smile. "Ey, dad... I had a feeling you'd drop by... you having a bright aura today?"

"Oh, I'm fine as usual..." Fallow muttered. "In fact, we just had a pleasant surprise last night, and it'd be unfair to leave you out of it."

"The system stop bothering you?"

"Well, uh... it's not that, or anything related to that situation, but it's more of a family related thing."

"Aw, just cut to the chase, Dad!" Lemon complained. "Grape, we just met our cousins from Mom's side of the family."

Grapevine's eyes widened. "Get out... you must be tripping me!"

Lemon shook her head, while Toola Roola gestured to the Sandwiches like they were some grand prize in a contest. "Nope! They're right here, Mr. Super Duper Party Pony Cheese Sandwich, and his uh, business-y brother Tomato Sandwich. Dad found them in the woods, they recognized Mom from our family picture and freaked when we confirmed her name and some other details that match up, we had to tell them the bad news about her... so, yeah, guys, say 'Hi'."

Cheese waved. "Nice to meet you."

Tomato uncovered his nose, which twitched as he tried to speak. "Heeeeeyyy--CHOO!" Shaking his head and wiping his nose, he murmured, "Excuse me."

Grapevine stood up and turned to them. Seeing him approach, both Sandwiches quickly realized that this pony had his father's hefty build, and almost instinctively backed away. There was a wall there, of course, so there was not much they could do to get away from the smell test and the subsequent bear hug. Tomato didn't appreciate the latter, given that he was now guessing how long it had been since Grape's last bath.

"Aww, it's like, so amazing to meet my little cuzzes!" Grapevine said.

Tomato held back a gag and squeaked, "Gee, affectionate, aren't you?"

Grapevine set them down. "You caught me in the afterglow. Connecting with the cosmic magic has renewed my spirits today."

Tomato swayed in an effort to regain balance, while Cheese slammed face first into the floor as though he just died. While catching his breath, Tomato gave Grape a little stink eye. "Right... couldn't we just have started things off with a hoofshake? Hugs are awkward for a first meeting, you know."

Grape raised a bushy eyebrow. "No, I don't know. I don't understand why you Manehattan ponies are so uptight, man."

"Well, when you live in a heavily populated city of eternal hurry, you're bound to be a little--okay, wait, how'd you know I was from Manehattan?"

"My mother confessed to having origins there shortly before she passed to the next life. You're the fruit of her sister, am I right?"

Tomato gave him an odd look. "That's one way to put it... but yes. Also, what's a 'man'?"

"It's just a word he uses, dude, don't make too big a deal of it," Lemon answered for her brother. She looked down at Cheese on the floor, eyeing his tail in particular for good reason. "Hey, Cheese, your tail's on fire."

Cheese leapt out of his coma with a scream of "What?!" One look at his tail confirmed Lemon's claim, and he immediately galloped out the door, yelping like a puppy. A few moments of silence passed before they heard a splash below them.

Tomato looked at the candles against the wall, and lifted the end of his tail up to face level. "Now why didn't my tail catch fire?"

"I'd chalk it up to luck," Fallow said.

"As good an explanation as any," Toola Roola stated.

Grape chuckled. "Aw, it's just his tail's aura sending vibes to the flames to not harm its bro."

Tomato pulled at his collar with his tail, and nickered in annoyance. "That made no sense whatsoever. Now, can we go outside? It's a little stuffy in here."

"Sure, I need some sun, anyway."

The remaining five ponies went through the beaded curtains into the sunlight. Tomato reeled from the sudden brightness at first, but was quick to adjust as he looked out over the commune, the town, and the hills. He started to circle the deck to see the views he had ignored earlier when coming up the ramp. First was the view of the mountain forest overlooking the town, with the deep blue springs near the top of the first hill and steam indicating something more over the others. He kept going, seeing the grandeur of the lush, green, forest and the flowery grasslands where the river cut through. He looked straight down, where a small distributary flowed into a pond where Cheese and several others swimming.

Lemon Zest jumped off the deck with a "Cannonball!", joining the ponies below with a splash. Bursting from the surface, she called up, "Hey, jump in guys! The water's great!"

Toola Roola wrinkled her nose. "At this height? No thanks!"

"Aw, you're no fun!"

"I wouldn't worry about it, Lemon," Cheese told her. "She'll come down when she wants to swim."

"As long as she's not swimming doggy paddles like you are."

"Hey!"

Tomato chuckled under his breath, and returned to gazing at the landscape. The rolling, wooded hills were beautiful, no doubt about it. He continued to circle, taking it in more, and to his surprise, he could see another town in the distance, which was fairly bigger than Aura Springs was from what he could tell. At the end of his circle, he'd be lying if he said that he wasn't impressed.

Fallow was by his side. "The beauty of this landscape and the wildlife living in it is why I chose to live here. It's not that Sorrel Canyon isn't beautiful--I'll always appreciate that place for helping me discover my love of nature and my cutie mark, but I'm of the belief that Equestria needs more big nature parks like Sorrel Canyon, for ponies to learn to appreciate and protect nature."

"It's a magical place with wondrous vibes, cuz," Grapevine said. "I open up my chakras here, Dad studies and protects animals here, and Toola Roola gets inspiration for her art... not sure about Lemon, she's a little more interested in city life and I can't really dig it."

"You know your philosophy, Grape," Toola Roola said. "'Live and let live'. We can't fault Lemon for being afraid of animals; after all, you told me that she nearly got eaten when she was little, and doesn't have that whole 'nature talking' thing like you and Dad do to ease things. So, if she has an official life in some city in the future, I won't be surprised."

"Well, your place is beautiful, and it's a perfect place to get away from it all." Tomato looked down at the town, and frowned, especially now that he was hearing a zoo down there and yet saw none. "If I have one criticism, it's that the town is a mess! I mean, I imagine animal sightings are frequent there, but it's not like they actively vandalize ponies' property."

As the animal noises continued, Tomato turned to his uncle and cousins, narrowing his eyes in the process. Fallow gulped loudly, and shot a look at the more stoic Grape. "Well, as long as we remind them who's in charge... they shouldn't--"

And then, from the commune's willow entrance, came the shout of, "Fallow Track!"

Fallow cringed at the shout, and looked down at a herd of ponies glaring at them, along with a couple of sheepish vested ponies that Tomato guessed were Fallow's rangers. The big brown stallion muttered, "Not again...", and made his way down the ramp to greet the mare in front wearing a sash. Looking at each other, Tomato and his cousins followed.

Once he was at the willow entrance, one of the vested ponies immediately started, "Mr. Fallow, I'm sorry, Timber and I tried to drive the animals back into the woods, but they don't go where we want them to go! We try to tell them that their best interest lies in foraging in the forest, but they insist on coming and stealing from the ponies because--"

The sashed mare stopped the female ranger right there, her glare on Fallow. "You and your animals have been testing my patience for far too long, Mr. Track. Because of your son and the other flower ponies' insistence that we 'coexist' with those creatures and treat them like fellow ponies, they've been doing more than just snatching food from gardens and trash cans--no, they've been breaking into homes and businesses to steal any food, any flowers, and even important books and documents! This goes beyond 'animals being animals'!"

As the townsponies shouted in angered assent, Fallow backed up. "Now, now, Mayor, I assure you that I'm working on teaching the animals to leave the ponies alone, and I know I've told ponies not to feed the animals if they're not a nature talker..." He shot a stink eye at Grapevine. "And no, being a flowerpony doesn't automatically make you a nature talker, it's magic that a pony is specifically born with!"

Tomato scratched his head and murmured to Toola Roola, "Like party pony magic?"

"I... guess?" Toola Roola whispered back.

"I've had it with your excuses, Fallow!" The mayor snapped. "You owe two thousand bits for the damages that your 'precious' animals have caused, and I'm considering closing your park altogether if you can't control those beasts in three days! There's a big businesspony coming to town then, hopefully building an attraction that'll bring tourists and some much needed money into this town."

Visibly alarmed, Grapevine hopped to the front to face the mayor. "No, Mayor, you can't just destroy these animals' habitat for some silly bits! Don't you think it'll benefit you to shed your veil of materialism and see through nature's eyes? Surely you'd realize the horrors of pony civilization, taking land that rightfully belongs to the animal kingdom, and using and destroying it all for the sake of money and power. This is why I refuse to be a slave to the system."

There was a pause, with the townsponies looking amongst each other in confusion, while most of the flowerponies stood together with pride, confident of their purpose. The few ponies in between looked utterly exasperated, especially Tomato, who was the first to break the silence with, "But... what if the business decides it's in it's best interests to preserve the park?"

Angry eyes all turned toward him, and he wished he hadn't spoke.

Grapevine at least looked mildly disappointed in him. "I'd hate to be a downer, cuz, but don't you think you're being too optimistic? Those kinds of ponies have no interest in nature. All they want is to squeeze money out of brainwashed squares."

Tomato turned to show Grape his cutie mark. "Well, I probably am being optimistic... but surely there can be a compromise!"

Clamoring arose again between both sides, and Tomato couldn't help but notice there were several hooves pointed at him, and even ponies mocking him with hooves attempting to imitate his forelock. And then there were the accusations that his ears managed to pick up.

"Who's this kid? Does he want our town to be overrun with criminal animals?"

"Like, wow, I can't believe this square in a suit thinks that businessponies can be reasoned with."

"Can you believe this chump? Thinking that those idiots will give up their utter worship of their idealized fantasy of nature."

"He's clearly one of them. I bet he loves seeing animals suffer."

"What kind of cutie mark is that? A tomato money bag thing? No wonder he's so confused!"

"I can sense his aura's all messed up and such, totally darkened by the evils of The Mare."

"He clearly wants to destroy our town!"

"He clearly wants to destroy the environment!"

Then, Tomato snapped, "I don't want to destroy anything! I want to help!"

The mayor then leaned a little too close for comfort. "Then tell me, young stallion... who's side are you on?"

Tomato just wanted to melt then and there. He couldn't fully say whose side he was on--as much as he didn't like the flowerponies' lifestyle, he didn't want his uncle to lose his beloved park and animals, and maybe even have to move away. On the other hoof, the town wasn't in the best shape and likely had a troubling financial situation, and perhaps this coming businesspony would turn things around. Unfortunately, it seemed that both groups had a "with us or against us" mentality.

"I, uh... I'm going back to my cabin to think..." he murmured, pulling himself away from the crowds.

"Yeah, get your priorities straight!" one pony shouted.

"Careful not to get eaten on the way there!"

"We hope you become enlightened!"

"I hope he attains the ability to change his cutie mark."

Toola Roola hopped out of the crowd, and said, "Uh... I'll make sure he gets home safely."

As Tomato walked away and Toola Roola followed, the mayor turned back to Fallow. "Remember, three days to control the animals, Fallow--you do possess the magic to turn things around, after all, and not everypony is that lucky. If you can't do it by then, or can't pay your debt, then I'll see to it that I possess your park and round up those beasts for relocation, or even to be put down! Do I make myself clear?"

Fallow sighed. "Crystal."

The mayor nodded, and the townsponies all turned around, dispersing themselves to each street, while the flowerponies went back to their huts, whispering to each other. Fallow rubbed the back of his head, and looked at his rangers, who gave him looks of "I'm sorry," before going off to try to handle the situation in town once again. Fallow braced himself to go to town to do his job, but paused to turn to face Grapevine, narrowing his eyes into a glare.

"Hey, Dad, you're giving some bad vibes there..." Grape said.

"That's my intention," Fallow snarled. "How many times do I have to tell you that coexisting doesn't mean that the animals can waltz in there and actively disrupt everypony's lives? Now they're in danger because you think everypony's a nature talker at heart."

"Honestly, the rules of The Mare are just so flaky and oppressive... we need to shed them to coexist with those beautiful creatures and discover the nature talker in all of us. Wouldn't Mom want that?"

Fallow huffed. "Yeah, sure... your mother would want that."

Before he knew it, he felt something pounce on him and slide under his vest. He turned to see a teary-eyed Lemon Zest, shuddering under that vest and clutching his shirt as hard as she could. As she buried her face in his shoulder, Fallow looked up at Cheese approaching, and asked, "What happened?"

Cheese was licking his foreleg. "Mountain lion showed up. I scared it off. Where's Tomato?"

"Oh, he went back to your cabin," Fallow answered. "There's a little conflict going on between the townsfolk and the flowerponies and your brother made the mistake of launching himself in the middle."

Grapevine snorted, and turned to leave. "I should've known that he was a heartless square. It hurts to be his cousin."

Lemon groaned. "Is it this crap again?"

"Yep," Fallow stated.

Once Grape had left, Cheese blinked and turned to his uncle. "Uh... you want to bring me up to speed, Uncle Fallow?"

Author's Note

Look who took a month to update! :pinkiecrazy:

Well, considering how tricky this subject is, it's really no wonder (although, I will admit, drawing new stuff, having a Disney movie marathon, work, holidays and family events this summer, and just flat-out laziness all contributed). Issues like this would work differently in Equestria than in real life (because there's nobody that can talk to animals to mitigate things IRL), but it's still nerve-wracking to try to write this.

Well, I got myself into this mess, let's see if I can manage to crawl through this without falling into tired cliches (especially since the pony at the helm this time is Tomato, a guy whose kind is usually portrayed as the villain in these stories) or screwing up epically.

Guess I'll go hide under my rock again.

20.2--Tommy in the Middle

Tomato did a lot of thinking in the cabin the rest of the day. Not that it did him much good--if his thoughts dipped to one side, then a voice from the other side would ask, "Who's side are you on?" Should he think about the nature park, he'd hear the townsfolk complaining about him wanting the town destroyed. Should he think about the town, he'd hear the flowerponies whining about how he wants the environment destroyed. All would whine over his cutie mark depending on where they thought he leaned--one side over it being a tomato, the other over it resembling a money bag. By evening, he was drained from the imaginary arguments he had.

After a quiet dinner with his brother and two cousins, Tomato intended to just dangle from the chandelier and scribble on a clipboard. Quietly. But, that was short-lived, because his thoughts ended up spilling out of his mouth--a little too loudly at that.

"Mom always told me that my cutie mark was one of prestige, of wealth, and something that few ponies of lower classes earned. I'm one of those lucky few, she said, and I should be grateful, because I'd get respect that nopony of our socioeconomic status could ever possibly imagine." He let out a sardonic laugh, and shouted, "Well, where's my respect?! Most ponies in my life wanted to 'take me down a peg'!"

Cheese and Toola Roola were busy playing a game of finishing each other's drawings. The former looked up, and bluntly stated, "Respect is something to be earned, little dummy. Maybe ponies would've liked you more if you hadn't been so grumpy."

Toola Roola asked, "So... who didn't want to take you down a peg?"

Tomato groaned. "My friend Bluejinx... a few teachers... employers... and a co-worker who moved away years ago."

A headphone clad and gum chewing Lemon Zest looked up from the couch where she laid, and pulled one end of her headphones and asked, "Hey, did you always hang upside down from a chandelier back home? 'Cause I don't think that's normal."

Tomato glanced at his tail, and went back to his clipboard. "I don't want anypony looking at my notes."

"Okay... so, why'd they want to take you down a peg?"

"Some ex-friends holding a grudge, bullies preying after a nerd like me, a spoiled rich girl not wanting scum like me at her level, and, get this, gold diggers disillusioned by the harsh truth about my actual socioeconomic status. You'd be surprised on how much ponies will judge you based on your cutie mark."

Cheese giggled. "Well... not gonna lie, I've had ponies assume I'm a good cook when I actually set kitchens on fire."

Lemon looked at her mark and bounced up to her hind hooves. "Well, to be honest, I am pretty rad with food; but my mark's for my 'zest for life'!" She bounced up and grabbed an arm of the chandelier, joining her moodier cousin in hanging. "But, obviously, you're good with money, Tomato, so I think you can help Dad out with all the debts he's got, and maybe even talk to Mr. Big Businesspony coming in."

Tomato peeked from over his clipboard, and muttered, "Well... I don't know. I mean, 2,000 bits is a lot, and I don't know if I'm up to it--especially with most ponies around here not liking me for daring to state something that covers both sides."

Cheese leaned on the coffee table. "So... you girls care to explain how this big animal mess started?"

Toola Roola didn't take her eyes off the paper and still colored. "Oh, it started like any normal animal sighting--animal comes into backyard, does something neat that has locals taking pictures, and they zip back into the forest. Rinse and repeat. The park was pretty popular back then too, with ponies from here and Graze Valley coming here to hike and check out the wildlife. Dad and the rangers' job was to keep the peace between the animals and the ponies and make sure they respected each other. Ponies keep a good distance away and not make themselves a threat, and animals don't maim or eat the ponies. All's fair and good."

Lemon swung herself up to hang upside-down from her knees. "Then, some ponies got the idea that nature talking wasn't just a subtype of magic--I've taken a class on subtypes, it's wicked cool--but a skill that a pony can learn if they just believe and meditate and be one with nature and all that jazz. Thus, the flowerpony commune was started, and things went south. They kept saying that by shooing animals out of town and keeping distance, we were 'violating basic tenants of harmony' or something like that and that 'nature talking is a part of all of us' and we should 'try to make true friendships with the animals'."

"Dad argued with them over it, but they insisted he was a hypocrite and clearly didn't know his own magic," Toola Roola added, trying to swat Lemon's three-toned green hair away. "Now our brother's gotten into the idea, and they say that their 'soul sister', aka Mom, would not want the divide between ponies and nature. Then, the animals took advantage of it to ransack the town, knowing they'd be excused because, after all, we 'invaded their territory' and should 'share with them' if we're gonna live here. And obviously, the townsponies are sick of it and now want to get rid of the park altogether to stick it to the flowerponies."

"Have the animals hurt anypony yet?" Cheese asked.

Lemon shook her head. "Nah, not yet, but I expect that to happen soon enough."

Toola Roola looked up at her sister. "You're just saying that because you're scared of them."

"Am not! There's a slippery slope, dude! Nopony becomes suddenly evil for no reason."

Tomato raised his hoof. "Except me. According to the tons of fiction I've read over the years, I'm the bad guy in this kind of situation. Psht, or pretty much any kind of situation. I've got to have my money to put in my swimming pool and what better way to do so than to crush the little guy or the poor animals?"

"Is that what you're doing with the clipboard?" Toola Roola asked.

Noticing Lemon trying to lean over for a peek, Tomato lightly smacked her away with the clipboard. "Ech... it's more of fundraiser ideas, but after my 'controversial' statement, I'm not sure if anypony will agree to help."

Before anypony could say anything else, the front door opened and Fallow Track came marching in. He had bags under his eyes, his head swayed with his gait, and he didn't care to wipe his muddy hooves as he strode forward. There were sighs of relief at being home, and he looked up at his daughters and nephews to flash a sad smile at them.

He glanced at those on the chandelier. "Now, why are you acting so batty, you two?"

Tomato froze, clutching his clipboard tighter and squeaking out an "Uhhh...", before swinging off with a flip and landing face first on the floor. Lemon laughed, following up with her own flip and a perfect landing. Fallow chuckled, and said, "Perfect ten, Zesty. Tom needs a little more work."

"So, how was your day, Dad?" Toola Roola asked.

Fallow sighed. "Well... got animals out of town again, argued with Grapevine again, and took in refugees from the Smokey Mountains again... seriously, I hope those two families stop fighting soon, because this park could disappear and those animals would have nowhere to go."

He started to make his way up the stairs. "I think I'll contact a friend of mine. Maybe she'd have ideas on what to do."

After Fallow was out of sight, the four turned back to each other. Cheese in particular took the opportunity to snatch Tomato's clipboard from right under him, despite the younger brother's protests. His eyes danced back and forth across the page, his mouth uttering the words printed thereon. "Go to neighboring town and fundraise. Cart wash... music festival... book fair... art sale... carni--hey, why's carnival crossed out?"

Tomato brushed himself off. "I didn't think you'd agree to it."

Cheese glared at him. "Why wouldn't I? Is it about the 'losing my sense of humor' thing you mentioned earlier? Or did you think I wouldn't trust you after that little scam you pulled with you-know-who? Heck, you still have the money from that, donate those bits, you greedy little--"

Tomato flinched and shuffled away at the sight of Cheese threateningly shaking his hoof. "No, no, no! It's none of that at all! It's about what you said about 'party pony powers shouldn't be used for profit'. I worried that asking you to set up a carnival would violate that code of yours."

Cheese blew on his forelock, which Tomato could clearly see was limper than it should be. With a sigh, Cheese mumbled, "Well... I suppose that this particular case could be counted as 'charity' and not 'profit'. Still think you gotta do something useful with that bag of bits Snap gave you. Not like I'm going back into a hospital anytime soon."

Tomato inwardly groaned. After sending some money to Flora's family to cover the hospital bill in Salt Lick City, he still had plenty left over. Those bits could help him with school, or allow him to move out of Manehattan and start his own business elsewhere. He wasn't sure what business yet, but he could figure it out later. Maybe if the fundraiser went above and beyond their goal, he could still keep it for future use.

"Well, we'll see where this thing takes us. Not sure if we'll be able to find volunteers to help..."

Lemon scoffed. "Oh, please, it's not like the entire town was there when you said that thing, cuz. There's bound to be some ponies in Aura Springs that'll help us! We just gotta go out and look for them!"

Toola Roola grinned and nodded. "Yeah, wouldn't it be nice to have a friend in town?"

Tomato blew on his forelock. "I could use a friend. I do wish my friends from school were here to help."

"You've made new friends in other towns this summer," Cheese said. "I think you can make at least one more."

And off to town they went the next morning. Stepping over dirt and debris and through splintered cabins and shops, the quartet easily found who to approach first--the ponies out sweeping up or polishing the damages. They were a few older mares, their aprons and tags marking them as humble small business owners. Tomato thought of his first employer, Madame Bookshelf, when looking at them, and he couldn't help but smile. Surely these ponies would be reasonable.

Straightening his tie and flashing a confident grin to his companions, he stepped on forward boldly and said, "Excuse me, ladies, do you have a minute?"

When sure that he had their attention, he began, "We are looking for volunteers to help with a fundraiser carnival, in order to--OOF!"

Sent chin first to the street by a broom, stars danced in his vision around the trio of old mares, now glaring at him. He froze as one of them of them crooned, "Well, isn't it that little kooky-dook vegetable that thinks it's okay to have Mr. Track's animals eat my flowers!"

"And my bread..." another growled.

"And my manuscripts!" the third snapped.

Tomato heaved himself up, swaying and holding his throbbing chin. "First off, tomatoes are fruit. Second of all, I'm trying to help my uncle repay his debt! How is that synonymous with--"

Before he could finish, he was broomed on the face, which felt like someone scraping a comb across his cheek. The bread lady yelled, "Do you know how hard it is to run my bakery when animals break in and eat my goods?! Mr. Track's precious nature park is nothing but trouble!"

Cheese jumped between Tomato and the old ladies. "Hey! You have no right to hit my brother like--OW!"

The author huffed in satisfaction at watching Cheese cradle his head. "Because of that park and those ignorant flowerponies, I'll never be able to finish my foal's literature! They refuse to control those beasts and blame us for the mess!"

Cheese growled at her, his mane bristling. Toola Roola came in, blocking Cheese from even remotely stepping forward, and said, "Look, Ma'ams, my father is trying his best to control the animals and keep them--OW!"

The gardener was clearly softer on Toola Roola than on Tomato, but her tone didn't change when saying, "Don't bet on us giving money to your silly little fundraiser--Mr. Track's still gotta pay for all the damages!"

Lemon stepped forward. "But that's not what they were--" She sidestepped when she noticed a broom swinging her way. "You know what, guys? I don't think we're clicking with them, let's get outta here."

She grabbed her sister and cousins by the tails and dragged them away from the old mares.

"Yeah, you better run!" one screamed.

"Okay... old ladies didn't work, so..." Cheese knocked at the door the stood before. "Knocking! We'll have some nice chitchat with them."

"Hope this pony listens," Tomato muttered.

A gruff, middle-aged stallion opened to see the two younger ponies standing there with big grins. Almost immediately, Cheese started with, "Hey! Me and my bro here are going around with a very important message for everyone in town!"

Narrowing his eyes, the stallion growled, "I dun' want to hear no preachin'," and slammed the door in their faces.

Blinking, Tomato glanced at Cheese, who looked like he was contemplating murder behind his smile. Lightly tapping Cheese's back, as he felt a full on pat might be a little dangerous, he murmured, "I wonder how the girls are doing with their door."

"Hey! We're here to tell you about this rockin' fundraiser that we're doing!" Lemon exclaimed.

Toola Roola nodded. "Yepparooney! We promise that it's gonna be a treat for all!"

The scruffy stallion at the door raised a bushy eyebrow, and deadpanned, "I don't want your Filly Guide cookies", before slamming the door hard enough to make the mares jump. Toola Roola especially squeaked in fright.

After recovering from her shock, Toola Roola scratched her chin and asked, "He... does see that we're too old to be Filly Guides, right?"

Lemon glared at her. "You know what he meant, Rools."

Both sighed.

After several doors slammed in their faces, Lemon Zest then had an idea.

"Okay, okay, okay, so I have this friend who owns a music store down this street..." Lemon began, pulling the other three along with her. "He's always thinking that everypony here is cray-cray, so I think he'd be an open--"

She froze at the corner, eyes big as dinner plates. Tomato opened his mouth to ask why she stopped, but a little tap on the shoulder and a point from the other two told him that down the street was full of trouble. As a matter of fact, a gang of bears had clearly broken into the music store, and were now playing a country jamboree in the middle of the street, much to the aggravation of said music store owner. The neighbors, from their second floor windows, complained about the music as well.

Lemon hastily dragged her three companions away from the square, beads of sweat flying from her person. "Never mind!"

As they were dragged away, Cheese covered his ears and grumbled, "That's not music, that's a trainwreck!"

As the day went on and they visited more corners, the four often had to redirect themselves when finding some animal on the street, due to Lemon panicking and leaving the area as quickly and as inconspicuously as possible. Whether it was raccoons throwing garbage at residents, cougars hogging a foal's trampoline, foxes running around dressed in some poor pony's laundry, or porcupines threatening some older ponies if they don't give them pie, there seemed to be an abundance of animals. They acted less like actual animals, and more like spoiled children at best, or the mafia at worst.

As for the ponies, any one that they could talk to turned them down more harshly than necessary. Most of them just looked at Tomato, and complained to him about the animals ruining their homes and businesses and how that stupid nature park needs to go so that they could live in peace, and prosper with a new business in town. Some even threw half-eaten produce at them or wielded sticks at them when he tried to argue back.

A couple of times, they ended up seeing Fallow yanking some of the animals away by the ear, and giving them a good scolding for bothering the ponies. Those animals seemed to listen for the time being, and scurried back to the forest from whence they came. But, for every animal that was convinced, there were several more still reveling in anarchy.

After all involving both pony and animal, all the group could do was take a breather on a bench.

"Well, at least we're not the only ones having a sucky day," Lemon grumbled.

Tomato was busy brushing rotten cabbages out of his mane. "Have these ponies never heard of being moderate? Sheesh! Just because I'm trying to help my uncle pay that big debt of his and save his park doesn't mean I'm against the town improving their quality of life!"

"If anything, Dad's just one pony trying to corral dozens of unruly animals," Toola Roola sighed. "He can trust the rangers to look after the park, but they can't talk to the animals like he can. Grapevine and Tree Hugger are the only other nature talkers in town."

"And Grape's stubborn, and Tree Hugger is high ninety percent of the time so why bother talking with her," Lemon grumbled.

"Well, maybe a good bite to the jugular could stop them," Cheese suggested.

The other three stared at him with wide eyes. "Cheese, no!"

"What? On just one! Fear is the best way to control other animals!"

Tomato sighed. "And just when I thought the magic pool had made you stop being scary."

Cheese snorted. "I can control myself, thank you very much! I'm not like any of the animals we've seen today."

Lemon pointed across the street. "Speaking of animals, their flowerpony buddies are picketing city hall."

The other three looked where Lemon pointed, and sure enough, there was a crowd of the flowerponies in front of the single brick building in Aura Springs. Tomato counted the signs, all of which were large slabs of bark with messages and symbols painted on them. The messages included things like "coexist", "don't destroy another's home for $", and "animals are ponies too". He wondered how long they had been standing there, and how the hay they managed to miss the obvious.

Lemon raised an eyebrow at the "animals are ponies" message. "If they were, then we wouldn't have a problem."

"Yeah, you wouldn't be scared of them," Toola Roola teased. She dodged a punch from her sister.

"Oh, no, I agree, animals are ponies," Tomato said. "Those porcupines formed their own mafia, after all."

It wasn't long before a certain green, shaggy pony in the crowd happened to glance back and spot the quartet. With his normal laid back expression, he broke away from the crowd and approached the bench to lean on. "Hey, blood sisters and cuzzes. The sunlight sure shimmers today, huh?"

"Hey, Grapevine," Lemon and Toola Roola mumbled.

Grapevine nodded and looked up at Cheese. "You know, I never got to fully appreciate those wild curls of yours. My mane was always somewhere in the in-between zone of straight and curls, and it's like... I never feel complete. I'd hate to say it, but I kinda envy your hair, Yellow."

Cheese blinked. "Uh... Yellow?"

"Oh, I'm not a big fan of your name. Stealing milk from cows just to make cheese as always been kinda weird and gross to me. Besides, you've got a big yellow thing all over ya, so I thought calling you 'Yellow' would suffice."

Cheese's eye twitched. "Yeah, sure, call me Yellow, it's not like you offended me."

Tomato nickered in annoyance. "Or that we have a cousin on our dad's side that'd like to have a word with you over that."

Grapevine turned to Tomato. "And the littler cuz, Tomato! Now, I had to meditate and clear my chakras so that I didn't give in to the blindness of anger. I know our first meeting went sour, but I am willing to forgive you for your naivety."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "My what?"

"Naivety, of course!" Grapevine patted him on the head. "A poor pony raised in an oppressive city environment, being raised to believe that tearing each other apart for material gain is the only way to live in this world, instead of living together and sharing what this world generously has to offer us. Being a prisoner to The Mare for so long has tarnished your mind... but I can sense that there's still hope for you yet. My mother escaped your same situation, so perhaps I can help you."

Tomato leaned in his hoof. "Uh-huh."

"You see, perhaps you should meditate, and connect with the Cosmos and the Spirits of Harmony. Best chances of reaching them come with wearing lighter garments like mine, or better yet none at all; eating healthy, organic food; and allowing yourself to be one with nature. Only then, will you truly be free from your chains of societal oppression, your mother's abuse, and the sinister magic of your cutie mark."

Tomato's bored stare turned into a glare. "Okay, you lost me at suggesting I meditate in the nude."

Toola Roola started to giggle, while Lemon Zest roared with laughter. Cheese buried his face in a hoof and laughed as well, while Grapevine just looked confused. Ignoring the others' laughter, he asked, "What's wrong with what I suggested?"

"Oh, I dunno, I'm just getting the sense that you think I'm some poor, lost soul whose free spirit is oppressed by my own cutie mark. A cutie mark that I earned with my own actions, not suddenly had it forced upon me by a dystopian society expecting me to be something I'm not. For a pony who's motto is 'live and let live', you sure want to change my cutie mark."

Cheese cut in, "Also, I oughta ask why you brought our mothers into this? Mom's hard, but she's not abusive."

Tomato scratched his chin at that thought. Sure, she was an inconsolable killjoy. Sure, she often undermined him with guilt-tripping and screaming at him when things didn't go her way. Sure, she forbade him to do anything not related to his cutie mark when he actually wanted to. Sure, she was paranoid about him taking after his brother. And sure, she expected him to act like an adult, but still treated him like a foal. However, he'd just call her a pain-in-the-butt nag, not an abuser. At least, that's what he wanted to say to Grapevine just to spite him.

Still, remembering Flora's blunt statement of his 'dysfunctional family', and his heart-to-heart with Aunt Cocoa, he wasn't all that certain.

"My mom had a nick in her ear from how much her sister bit it," Grapevine said, shaking his head. "I'm telling you, there's a reason my mom didn't talk about her family much. She was lucky to find this place and be enlightened to know true harmony."

"I think you're putting her on too high of a pedestal, bro," Lemon grumbled.

Tomato scoffed. "Oh, yeah, true harmony, just like what's happening right now." He looked down the street, where the Porcupine Mafia had just extorted yet another hapless victim for their pies, and the country bears still terrorized everypony with their horrific music.

Grapevine was starting to get a slight edge in his voice. "Well, if the townsponies meditated and tried nature talking, than they'd discover that it was inside them all along. Their way of life just doesn't seem to be working in my eyes."

Tomato pursed his lips. "Are you sure I'm the naive one?"

"Yeah, still sure. After all, you think that cutie mark is a good thing when it's, like, a mark of greed and materialism..."

Tomato hopped off the bench and started to roll up his sleeve. "You know, I'm trying to use my powers for good. I'm hearkening back to my roots and pulling the classic fundraiser to help your father! Shame I'm wasting time talking to a hippie-crite!"

Grapevine just blinked, pointed at him, and then called out to his fellow flowerponies, "Hey, bros and sisses! This dude's oppressing me!"

Tomato's face fell. "Wait, what?"

One by one, the flowerponies turned, curious to see who Grapevine was talking about. As they all took a look at the 'oppressor', their eyes widened, and their peaceful expressions turned into soft glares of utter contempt. Slowly, they all turned, brandishing their picket signs high, and bouncing them in some sort of psuedo-war cry. Peace signs, flowers, and dreadlocks have never looked so terrifying.

"It's the Square again!" the stallion in front exclaimed.

"How dare he interrupt our peaceful protest in order to taunt us about the Mare coming to destroy the forest!" a mare cried.

"What?!" Tomato stomped a hoof. "Hey! I wasn't doing that at all! As a matter of fact, he insulted me first."

Cheese slid beside him and slapped a hoof over Tomato's mouth. "Stop talking! You're only digging yourself deeper!"

"Wow! He lies just like the rest of them!" Another stallion shook his head. "Grapevine would never do such a thing!"

"He has to stoop to slander?" another mare gasped. "Killing animals isn't enough for him!"

"Let's kill him with kindness!" a foal hollered.

Chanting, "Down with The Mare, With nature we must share! Down with The Mare, With nature we must share!", they marched forward slowly, offering him flowers and oranges menacingly. Those with signs looked prepared to shove them in the target's face, and frankly, Tomato didn't want to know just want 'killing him with kindness' entailed. Were they going to literally love him to death? What did that even mean, anyway?

Cheese also didn't want to find out, and took off around the corner, with Lemon Zest and Toola Roola following behind. The flowerponies broke out into a trot behind them, still chanting and throwing their flowers and oranges as tokens of 'love'. Their chants droned on and on, attracting attention from some of the confused townsfolk.

Some passerby animals even noticed, and decided to get in on the action.

As the quartet tried to weave through town for their escape, they found the critters at every corner. Beavers gave them a tail slap at one corner, and bit at the ponies' tails as they turned around and went off elsewhere. At another corner, they got kicked in their faces by rabbits. A raccoon jumped out of an alley when they sped down a street, and stole Tomato's glasses--only giving them back when Cheese dared to bite the critter on the tail. When encountering a skunk at another corner, they didn't need to be told twice to take off.

Slipping onto another street after fighting off tantrum-throwing ducks, they took a moment to catch their breath. Toola Roola looked down the street, and then pointed at the library, its abstract architecture sticking out like a sore thumb among the cabins. "The library! We haven't been to the library! Maybe there's some sanity there!"

"Yeah, I trust librarians!" Tomato exclaimed.

"I dunno, I'm not a fan of books..." Cheese murmured. "Love the architecture, though."

"How did we even miss that this morning?" Lemon complained. "That thing's the closest building to our house!"

When hearing, "Down with The Mare, With nature we must share..." coming their way, the four quickly took the beeline toward the library. It didn't matter that birds were now dive-bombing them, and that the porcupine mafia was now chasing them on fox-pulled wagons, shooting quills like bow and arrows, the two mares and two stallions had a destination, and they were going to reach it.

No matter the opinions of each individual in the quartet, that was going to be their sanctuary.

The librarian was re-shelving the books when the door opened. Turning in curiosity, the sudden slamming of said door made her jump and drop her books. With a sigh, she looked up and beamed at the four ponies now blocking the door, panic on their faces. "Hello, welcome to Aura Springs Library. If you're having trouble finding a book, then old Kimono or her assistant will help you find it."

Tomato was pulling porcupine quills off his body with his tail, gritting his teeth and squeaking each type one was plucked. "Oh, that's fine... we're just here for sanctuary--ow!--that's all. Geez, everybody's being nasty today..."

"One of my big reasons why I hate animals," Lemon grumbled, pulling quills off herself. "YOWCH! I'm gonna need a trip to the pool..."

Hearing the chanting outside and seeing her guests freeze up, Kimono smiled. "Well, I guess my assistant will barricade the doors... again. I swear, if it wasn't for Summer, my books would've been torn apart and this library a nesting ground." She trotted off, shouting, "Summer! Oh, Summer! Get the couches and chairs, we've got another situation!"

Toola Roola sighed. "Summer's such a pretty name! I'd like to name my daughter that someday..."

Tomato shrugged. "I knew a Summer. She was that co-worker that moved."

Pulling quills out of his hind leg with his mouth, Cheese tried not to scream in pain. He spit them out, and then proceeded to smack Tomato upside the head. "What were you doing starting an argument with him, you little dummy?! Do you want to look like the bad guy?"

Tomato pulled a final quill out of his shoulder, and his tail flicked it to the floor. He covered his nose to block the smell of blood. "Well, excuse me if I don't like it being implied that I'm evil thanks to my cutie mark! What do you want me to do, take his advice and try to change my mark? Nuh-uh, I just recently started seeing it as me, instead of some arbitrary, vague standard that some ponies think I should attain!"

"Well, gee, if you weren't Public Enemy Number One before, you sure are now!"

"Heh, thanks for stating the obvious... Yellow."

Cheese's mane bristled, and he crossed his front legs. "I swear, that is the dumbest and most insulting reason for a nickname I've ever encountered..."

A green, bespectacled pegasus carrying a couch came flying in, and she asked, "Excuse me, I'm gonna need you to move so I can barricade the door."

The four stepped aside to make room, and the pegasus, presumably Summer, set it down against the door. Brushing her hooves off and tossing her white and cyan ringlets, she grinned at them. "Thank you very much! And don't worry, if a bear breaks past this, I'll punch it in the face! As you can see, I'm stronger than I look."

As she took interest in the quills on the floor, Tomato spotted her cutie mark. Wisps of wind it was, alternating between chartreuse and lavender. He was taken aback by how familiar that very mark was, and wondered if that really was who he thought it was. Memory tended to be faulty, and they hadn't been that close, but this mare's name was Summer...

Summer rose back up with a quill in her hoof. "Say, did you know that there are tiny backwards barbs in a porcupine quill? It makes it easier for the quill to puncture the skin... and hard for it to come out! I think it evolved that way so that predators will never forget the pain!" She looked around at them and grimaced. "Okay, you guys need some bandages because you guys don't look too hot."

She zipped to the large checkout area, and came back with a first aid kit just as quickly. She swabbed the wounds on the girls, noting the sting by how they grimaced, and carefully stuck bandages on them, followed by wrapping gauze on the legs. She worked on Cheese as well, cleaning and bandaging the wound as she did with the girls. She took a big bandage to his hind leg, where three quills had stick and created one big wound. He tried to nip at her with each wave of pain, but she swatted him away each time.

But when she came to Tomato, she scratched her head over his sudden lack of quill punctures.

"Hey, wait a minute!" she said, hovering around and studying him, taking each leg at some point. "There's about twenty quills, and I've covered sixteen of the wounds... did they hit your hair or clothes or something? I mean, porcupine injuries don't just disappear into thin air... unless you go and sit in the magic pool uphill, but none of you have sat in the pool yet, so there's no way that--" She stopped when hovering around Tomato's flank and looking at his cutie mark. "Hey, wait a minute..."

Uh-oh, Tomato thought with an inward sigh. She is who I think she is. Yet another coincidence this summer.

The moment of Summer studying the mark was brief, and she gasped, and hugged Tomato's rump, lifting him up in the air by that end, and twirling. "I know that cutie mark anywhere! Hahaha, I can't believe that Tomato Sandwich is here! He's here, he's here, he's here!"

"Will you stop hugging my butt?!" Tomato snapped.

Summer dropped him, and muttered, "Pinch me, I must be dreaming." She nipped herself, squeaked in pain, and then after a moment of taking it in, she hovered higher and squealed. "Wow! How long has it been since we've last seen each other? Oh, it was such a downer, given that we last talked at Madame Bookshelf's funeral, and your last words to me were 'Of course', in response to my moving away, and--"

"Hold on!" Cheese interrupted. "Okay, back up, back up... uh, who are you and how do you know my brother?"

Tomato was face first on the floor. "She was my co-worker at my first job..."

Summer nodded, and shook Cheese's hoof. "Summer Wind, librarian assistant, student teacher, and lover of all things literature! I didn't know that Tomato had a brother! In fact, he didn't like to talk about his home life much, just that he didn't like his house very much." She gave him a stink eye and drew uncomfortably close. "You didn't bully him at home, did you?"

"Nah, I didn't even live there. Just visited from time to time." He gave Tomato a dirty look. "And why didn't you tell her I existed?"

Tomato sat up and rolled his eyes. "Our relationship was hostile, Cheese. You know, the same reason I didn't tell my college buddies about you? Sheesh, you'd think it'd be obvious."

Cheese snorted, and whispered to Summer, "Moody teenagers; what can you do?"

Summer raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh... so... what's your name?"

"Cheese Sandwich, the premier party pony in all of Equestria."

"Oooooh, you're that party pony! I've heard about you a lot both here and in Manehattan, but I never realized that I knew his brother! Are you older or younger? Because with our ages and how close in age you two seem, it's kind of hard to--"

"I'm older by three years."

"Oh! Okay, okay, gotcha." She looked at Lemon Zest and Toola Roola, who were just silently watching the whole thing in disbelief. "So, I take it you made friends with the nature park owner's daughters?"

Toola Roola lifted a hoof. "Actually... we just found out that they're our cousins. Crazy, right?"

Summer's jaw dropped. "Get out! As if this couldn't get any weirder! But so much more amazing!"

Tomato blew on his forelock. "My whole summer's been full of weird coincidences, so I really shouldn't be surprised that this happened."

Summer nodded. "So... I have to ask, what brings you to town?"

By the time that the group was finished telling Summer--and later Kimono--about the circumstances that led to the Sandwiches arriving in town, the whole cousin issue, and Tomato's efforts in trying to help, they were all sitting at a round table, drinking glasses of water provided by a nearby well. Their pursuers were long gone, but they still stayed in the library, just to be safe.

"A fundraiser? Here?" Summer clicked her tongue and shook her head. "I highly doubt if anypony's willing to help a pony whose animal friends are actively destroying the town. My dad's been run ragged trying to fix everything that's been broken."

"And our dad's been run ragged trying to get the animals to stop, but they won't listen for long," Toola Roola argued.

"We're gonna throw the carnival in Graze Valley," Lemon said, leaning forward. "I got a friend there that could pull some strings for us and let us have some space outside of town. Still, we need volunteers to help out, but... you know."

Kimono finished her glass and huffed. "Well, we wouldn't be having this mess if..." She paused and her eyes swept across her guests. "...someone didn't preach about how setting a line between animal and pony was limiting our potential, and therefore wrong, and that deep down, we all have the magic to speak to them. Hmph, nature talkers are the only ponies who can act as a steward for the wildlife; if anypony else tries it, animals start going to ponies for an easy meal, and soon enough... well, now the animals think they own the joint--all because the flowerponies think it merciful to spoil them."

"Yeah, those porcupines are not too far off from Manehattan gangsters," Tomato muttered, looking at his bandaged relatives. He cradled his head in his hooves and sighed. "I don't know what I can do about the animals--I'm no nature talker! All I'm trying to do is raise money to help Uncle Fallow pay for damages, but I don't know if I can even do that! One side hates me for supporting him, and the other side hates me for thinking that maybe a new business in town wouldn't be a bad thing."

Cheese leaned toward him. "We don't even know if that business wants to preserve the forest. It's a wild card, honestly."

Tomato blew on his forelock and laid his chin on the table. "I guess I should have known this is a lost cause." He looked at Summer across the table. "Remember my failed effort to save Madame Bookshelf's store? Yeah, wasn't that a wild ride, cutting the coffee shop and forcing you to chase ponies across Manehattan in a book costume?"

"Psht, don't I remember that," Summer answered. "I still have the costume, in case you're wondering."

Toola Roola whispered to a snickering Lemon, "Is it wrong that I want to hear that story?"

However, Summer took to the air. "But that embarrassment doesn't matter! What matters is that you didn't quit, even when the odds were against us! With our sudden influx of patrons liking our 'at home' thingamahoozy, I actually believed that the store was going to survive! If it weren't for laws forcing wage raises across the city, then maybe the store would have survived, thanks to a Mr. Tomato Sandwich giving everything he got to save something he loves! He's no quitter!"

"Uh, I didn't save it, and you have no idea how much I did actually quit in my life," Tomato deadpanned.

"Pfft, I bet the things you quit at weren't important." Summer waved a hoof, and then flew to Tomato's relatives, hovering over each she emphasized. "You're the brother of the Super Duper Party Pony, correct? He's known for throwing epic parties, so setting up a carnival should be a piece of cake for him! Lemon Zest's got a bunch of talents in music, chemistry, roller blading... so she's bound to bring some fun stuff to the table! And Toola Roola's an artist, so maybe her art will wow ponies over the beauty of nature, and she could sell some custom pieces at your carnival!"

She flew back to her seat and raised her hoof. "And I'll be happy to volunteer to help you guys out! I'll carry stuff, sell some of my old stuff like a yard sale, and I'll even put on my book costume to advertise! Anything to help an old friend!"

Kimino raised a hoof as well. "I'd like to volunteer as well. There are a few stories I'd like to tell foals over there."

Lemon nudged Tomato. "Hey, looks like we found a couple friends in town after all! We can't let them down now!"

Toola Roola nodded. "That's right! Maybe we can all put our special talents together to make the best carnival ever!"

Cheese grinned. "Well, with both me, the carnival master..." He pulled Tomato to his side. "And Tomato, the fundraiser master, I don't doubt that we can do it! Heck, Tomato even got his cutie mark at a fundraiser, so I know my bro's got this."

Tomato blinked, and then smiled. "Heh, okay... fine, you convinced me." He put his hoof at the middle of the table. "Here's to setting up the most awesomazingtastic fundraising carnival on this side of Equestria!"

The others put their hooves in the middle, and then threw them up in a mutual agreement, cheering in delight.

As Cheese pulled in Tomato for a noogie, Summer sighed, and muttered, "He's so handsome when he's confident... and that smile! Eee!" That was not unnoticed by Lemon Zest and Toola Roola, who looked at each other and giggled.

Meanwhile, Cheese cooed, "Aw, great adjective there, bro! I guess I'm really rubbing off on you, huh?"

Tomato pulled himself away from Cheese's death grip, gasping for breath. "C-can't I... rub off on you... for once!"

Wincing in pain, Cheese whined like a dog, and muttered, "We should go to the healing pools soon..."

Then there was a knock at the door. Summer went to the door, pulled the couch out of the way, and opened it to reveal Tree Hugger, who just beamed and said, "Blessings..."

Tomato snorted and pawed the floor. "I swear, if she tries to throw an orange at me..."

Tree Hugger ambled in, looking up in a daze. "Whoa... this is such a radical design! So much colorful light! I've never seen a sunbeam's aura be as alive as these ones! It's like you made your windows out of the most magic of magic crystals..."

Lemon and Toola Roola waved nervously, the latter saying, "Hey, Tree Hugger... what brings you here?"

Tree Hugger turned her attention to them. "Hm? Oh, the beautiful fruit sisters! Yeah, I'm here to escape the bad vibes that are fogging up the town and turning everyone's auras into the darkest of nights." She shook her head sadly. "I have been in a retreat near the geysers in the mountains, and letting the steam lull me into true bliss for my connection to the Spirits of Harmony, so that I may know what I must do to drive away the black auras from both pony and creature."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "I have no clue what you just said."

Tree Hugger didn't seem to hear him. "They told me to locate you, so that I may assist in restoring harmony to our little town. I humbly ask that you receive my talents in your efforts to ease Fallow Track's burden. Peace will be achieved much easier then."

Cheese shrugged. "Well, we need all the hooves we can get. Tomato?"

Tomato pinned his ears back for a moment, but relaxed and sighed. "Fine, I guess you can join our little club."

Tree Hugger beamed brighter. "Righteous."

Author's Note

So, "Fame and Misfortune" has introduced an official Toola Roola. She's cute and all, but she's just so generic that you could honestly replace her and Coconut Cream with literally any background fillies and the episode would be exactly the same. The only reason they even stick out is because "OMG G3 Pony!". Thus, I'm just going to be sticking with my version, thank you very much.

I'm more amused than I should be over the Porcupine Mafia...

Anyway, here, we meet Summer Wind, an old co-worker of Tomato's from his teenage years. She's now an excitable library assistant that's training to become a teacher during the school year. Since hearing of her, some followers of mine wanted to see her cross paths with Tomato again. If any of you are reading this, you got your wish!

Also, Tree Hugger. Can't just pin her to an extreme side, you know.

20.3--Reworking On the Fly

The quartet was free from the library later that afternoon, though they planned to meet their three volunteers there the next day for their big fundraiser. After Cheese, Lemon, and Toola Roola had their dip in the healing pool, they tried their luck for more volunteers for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, they were met with the same reactions as before their trip to the library, and thus shuffled off back to Fallow's cabin at dusk.

They had opened the door to hear a soft, feminine voice say, "...sounds an awful lot like my brother! I'm so sorry that you--"

Both Sandwiches' ears perked up at the strange familiarity of that voice, but Lemon Zest interrupted their ponderings with, "Hey, Dad! We're back from our big day out in town! We got three volunteers to help out with a fundraiser we're planning!"

Fallow's head poked out from the kitchen. "Fundraiser? You're doing a fundraiser? Why was I not told of this?"

Tomato shot a look at the others, who just shrugged. "Uh... we didn't want to get your hopes up? I mean, we did have a bit of trouble finding volunteers--the town's split and they hate my guts for not picking a side. We were lucky to find three sane ponies in this entire town!"

"The librarian, her assistant, and Tree Hugger," Toola Roola muttered. "And that's not going into the animal situation."

"Dude, we had to run from the Porcupine Mafia!" Lemon complained. "Not to mention all the other animals that thought it'd be fun to pick on us..."

"My goodness! I didn't realize it was this bad..." Fallow's guest trotted out of the kitchen, revealing herself to be...

"...Fluttershy?" Cheese asked.

Fluttershy appeared to have the same inward gasp at seeing Cheese and Tomato. "Oh, my! Fallow, are Cheese Sandwich and his brother those guests that turned out to be your nephews?"

"That they are," Fallow said, nodding. "You know each other?"

"Well... just a little bit, but Cheese is closer to my friend Pinkie Pie." She looked straight at Cheese with concern, and then walked to her saddlebags hanging on the wall. "She's been worried sick about you, Cheese. A couple weeks ago, she suddenly started panicking over your whereabouts, almost like she had been sensing you this whole time, and you just... disappeared."

Cheese scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Okay, last I checked, I can sense her, but she can't sense me."

"I don't know..." Tomato started scratching his chin. "I wouldn't be surprised if she picked that little ability up."

"Well, she'll be happy to know you're okay." Fluttershy pulled an envelope out of her bag and gave it to Cheese. "She told me to give this to you if I happened to bump into you. She made it clear that it was super important. And I mean a literal... in-your-face kind of clear..."

Cheese hesitated for a moment, but accepted the envelope anyway. "Okay, sure... but just what are you doing here, anyway?"

Fallow stepped in. "Well, she's a friend of mine from the Society of Preservation of Rare Creatures. I wrote to her about the situation at hoof and how it's just too big of a job for one pony. I was hoping that an extra nature talker, especially one as persuasive as Fluttershy, could help convince the animals to stop terrorizing the townsfolk and understand that they're in danger if they keep this up."

"And once the animals stop being so mean, perhaps the ponies will have an easier time finding middle ground," Fluttershy added.

"Well... I hope the extra help does the trick for you, Uncle Fallow," Tomato said. There was a growl in his voice and a redder tint in his face as he continued, "Of course, Grapevine will be his stubborn, self-righteous, preachy self, telling us all to share the world, that 'nature talking is a magic we all have', and will probably keep referring to me as a greedy slave of 'The Mare' who wants my corporate overlords to destroy the environment for the bits! Why, next time I see him, I'll--"

"Okay, easy there, Tomato!" Toola Roola said. "I know you're mad, but I don't think violence will get your points across."

He snorted. "But anyway... we're handling the whole 'paying off the damages' thing so that the mayor could let Fallow off the hook."

"Carnival style!" Cheese exclaimed, juggling some of the knickknacks that were lying around. He winked as he added, "And hey, it could serve as a little advertising for your nature park and get it back into gear like the good old days..."

Fallow furrowed his brow. "How do you expect Aura Springs to--"

"We're throwing it in Graze Valley," Lemon said. "And knowing that we have Cheese Sandwich on our side, we'll attract a crowd in no time! And one, two, three, we'll have the money and live happily ever after!"

Tomato sighed. "Not quite. There's still the matter of the big businesspony coming to town. Both the town's and the animals' fates are hanging on whatever he or she is planning to do. I just hope their decision doesn't destroy all Uncle Fallow--and we, for that matter--worked for." And prove the flowerponies right about ponies like me.

"Don't worry," Fluttershy said. "I'll do everything in my power to help both animals and ponies live in actual harmony, and help this super-important businesspony see that the park's worth preserving."

Lemon forced a large grin. "As long as your definition of 'harmony' means that they stay away from me..."

Fallow smiled. "Aren't I lucky to have these kids sticking up for me?"

The next morning, Fluttershy allowed the group to borrow the hot-air balloon she had used to come to Aura Springs so that they'd travel more quickly to Graze Valley. After meeting at the library, they and their volunteers packed up to meet Lemon's friend in the other town. Art and supplies from Toola Roola, old records and a karaoke machine from Lemon Zest (as well as some amps she borrowed from a friend), old toys and books of Summer Wind's, jewelry, dresses, and lanterns from Kimono, and woven items and a yoga mat from Tree Hugger were among the items that were donated. Plus, everyone figured that Cheese Sandwich had stashed some surprises in his own 'secret compartment'.

Summer, the lone pegasus, pulled both the balloon and the cart full of items. Back in the basket, the others (save Lemon, who was a little busy rocking out with her headphones) passed the time by pointing out the shapes of clouds, and Cheese talking about how he'd wish for wings when he was a colt. When asked why, he just replied, "I don't know, I just thought flying would be cool!"

"It is cool!" Summer hollered back.

"I sometimes envy your wings, Summer!" Kimono shouted, to which Summer replied with laughter.

"I've felt myself float during meditation before..." Tree Hugger said.

"Oh! I have to show you my painting of a bird's eye view and it's in the cart..." Toola Roola blankly stared at said cart for a moment, and then looked down. "Well, I better memorize this landscape for my next piece."

Tomato scratched his back at the thought of the one time he could fly, and then looked to Cheese. "Hey, that reminds me, did you read that letter from Pinkie yet? Because surely if she sent a message, Twilight must have found something to help."

Cheese groaned, and told Tommy in a less-than-thrilled tone, "I've been a little busy drawing up plans for today's carnival, so no, I haven't read it." He leaned on the edge of the basket. "Why does she have to stick her nose in our business anyway? I don't go barging into her days out with any of her sisters or drag my friends into solving any of her dumb problems."

Tomato forcefully poked Cheese's head. "Friendly reminder of just why she's concerned! Twilight Sparkle is our only chance of getting this fixed, and Fluttershy being around means that we can get to her as soon as possible. Wouldn't have that if Pinkie didn't know about our little problem."

Cheese growled, pulling back like the tide and ready to pounce in a tsunami of aggression. Tomato was thankful that Cheese paused to take a breath, and then straightened back up to say coolly, "Well... I'll read it later. But for now, we've got your fundraiser to throw."

As Cheese shuffled away, Tomato sighed and ran a hoof through his mane. Healing pool or not, that temper that could snap at any moment still unnerved him. So far, he was lucky that Cheese had been holding back, instead taking out any spare aggression on the troublemaking animals in protective spurts. At least there was clearly still some love for his little brother keeping him in check.

But he couldn't help but wonder about Pinkie Pie.

As the balloon neared Graze Valley--which was definitely a bigger town than Aura Springs--Lemon stopped her headbanging and pointed to a nearby field. "Hey! Summer! There's my pal over in that field! You should go land there!"

Summer saluted toward her. "Aye aye!"

She circled down for a landing, though Lemon seemed content to ignore Summer's warnings to hold on tight, instead jumping down when they were close enough to see the somewhat arrogant pout on the bright blue pegasus mare below them. With a cheer of "Sunny!", she landed, rolled forward, and then jumped in for a hug straight after.

"Gak!" Sunny cried. Cautiously patting Lemon's back in return, she replied, "Hey, Lemon. See you're still as peppy as ever."

The balloon had landed when Lemon broke the hug, and then gestured to a certain occupant hopping out and scratching his ear with a hind hoof. "See? I wasn't kidding when I said that Cheese Sandwich is my cousin! Anyway, thanks for convincing your mom to let us use this field for the fundraiser carnival, and let me tell you, with him here, it's going to be sweet!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Sunny looked at the ragtag group of helping hooves. "Sunny Flare, daughter of Graze Valley's mayor, nice to meet you."

Cheese hopped onto all fours, and trotted over to shake her hoof. "Nice to meet you too! I'm glad that you're gonna let us throw a carnival here. It's not gonna be free like my usual shindigs, but this is a fundraiser... you know, raising bits for our uncle and all that. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm going to make this a fun-raiser! Eh?"

Behind him, Tomato facehoofed, while the others cringed.

"Uh-huh," Sunny said, raising her eyebrow. She turned to Lemon. "I thought you didn't like animals."

"I don't, but I love my dad, and his park, his research, and the animals mean a lot to him," Lemon said.

"Hm, they don't play games with his heart, so okay," Sunny said. When faced with Lemon's glare, she backed up, and proceeded to change the subject. "Okay, what have you ponies got? This better be good."

Toola Roola jumped into the cart and held up several paintings with ease. "Oh, I've got plenty of stuff that I painted of various areas in the park and town. There's Unicorn Horn Falls, a bear with cubs, our namesake springs, your namesake valley, the geysers--"

"Okay, I get it. You've got a lot of those, don't you?" Sunny scratched her chin as she gazed at the art. "Why didn't you sell those before?"

Toola Roola shrugged. "I didn't think anyone would buy."

"Oh, I'd buy one, dear," Kimono said. "Especially that one with the wolf and the full moon."

Toola Roola beamed. "Thanks! I actually painted that one last night. There was this wolf howling nearby and inspiration just struck!" She put those paintings down and held up more cartoony posters. "I also do caricatures, and I'll draw portraits in either style for five bits!"

"Wow... trippy stuff..." Tree Hugger said.

Sunny flinched at the caricatures of Toola Roola's family members, and then straightened herself out. "Okay, anything else besides art?"

"I'm cleaning out my closet," Kimono said, holding up several oriental dresses and some fancy jewelry. "Surely there's ponies who'd love these."

"I'm also giving up some of my old books and toys and all of my old dog toys." Summer bounced a ball, squeaked a squeaky toy, and held up a dog whistle. "I wasn't allowed to get another dog after my old dog died, since, you know, certain things in town... anyway, I'm going to miss these things, they're all I have left of Curly... besides pictures."

She blew the dog whistle in an attempt at a mournful tune, despite most not hearing it. Cheese and Tomato jumped in surprise and then stared at the whistle in disbelief. Rubbing their ears, they muttered, "So that's what a dog whistle sounds like..."

Tree Hugger held up a woven basket, almost singing, "My weavings will bring happiness to all. Ah, and also some yoga to help your body and spirit."

Lemon nodded. "And you know I'm bringing the music stuff, because what is a carnival without music?"

Tomato shrugged. "I'm just making sure the money goes where it needs to go so that we reach our goal."

Cheese scoffed. "Well, if we don't reach it, you've got some that you could donate out of the kindness of your heart, nudge nudge, or maybe have a lower goal if you donated all of it, nudge nudge... how much did Snap give you anyway?"

Tomato snorted and grumbled, "It was 1,800 bits, but I sent some to Flora and family so now it's 1,500."

"So just 500 for us to earn, huh?" Cheese ignored Tomato's annoyed growl, and started popping his joints as he walked to the middle of the field. "Well, I've got the biggest, and most important contribution of all! I've done this for years, no matter how big, and let me tell you, that we're going to have the time of our..."

He turned to the others and made a motion to pull something from behind his back. "...lives!"

He threw his hoof out, but that was it. No party bomb, no confetti cannon, not even a single streamer. Seeing the absolute nothing that he threw, Cheese attempted the throw again, this time from inside his shirt. Again, nothing. Gritting his teeth, he attempted to pull something, anything, out of his mane, his tail, behind his back again, from his shirt again, and even jumping to the nearest tree to try to yank any of his stuff from apparently nowhere. The more he failed, the harder he threw, and the harder he threw, the louder his growls and angry exclamations of gibberish when it didn't work.

Sunny blinked numbly, and turned to a confused Lemon. "So, he's supposed to have this weird magic, right? I've heard the rumors and read the news, but... I'm not seeing it."

Lemon chuckled nervously. "Uh... Cheese? Isn't something supposed to happen?"

Cheese was still frantically trying to pull something from behind random shrubs at the edge of town. "Usually something does!" He threw some leaves into the air. "I would have liked for that to be confetti!"

"Oh, come on! Unleash the magic already!"

Cheese ripped off the leaves in clumps and threw them in the air. "I can't! I don't know why, but my magic has gone kaput!"

Tomato had been staring in disbelief the entire time, and now the level of disbelief went up to wide-eyed levels. "What?!"

Cheese came back, stomping hard enough to leave dents on the ground. "Yeah, I'm literally hearing raspberry noises every time I try."

Tomato pulled at his mane. "Are you kidding me?! Now, of all times, when we need to summon an entire carnival?!" Tomato started to pace back and forth frantically. "Argh! This is just great! How could party pony magic just die on the Super Duper Party Pony, when it's his literal job to spread happiness and joy and parties and be some sort of spirit of celebration..." He stopped and glared at Cheese. "Okay, what did you do?"

Cheese pinned his ears back and glanced away uncomfortably. "What did I do? Don't be crazy, I've been focusing a lot on throwing shindigs all summer! You know how my magic is, it's fickle over whether it works or not, depending on the humor of--"

"Well, do we need to make this situation funny for you? Okay, I'll make it funny!" Tomato then pulled Boneless 2 from behind his back, and then slapped Cheese across the face with him.

There was silence for that very long moment. Half of the girls were trying to figure out where the rubber chicken came from, while the other half were gaping at the fact that Tomato just smacked his brother like that.

Cheese himself was stunned by that turn of events, but for a different reason. "Wait... why do you have Boneless 2?"

"You dropped him during the bear attack, and I've been holding onto him ever since," Tomato answered.

Cheese narrowed his eyes. "And how come you summoned him effortlessly while I can't even throw confetti right now?"

Tomato blinked, and then his eyes widened. "Uh..."

Cheese swiped Boneless 2 from him, and then started smacking him on the head. "Give me back my magic, you thief! I need that to throw parties!"

"Ow, ow, ow! I did not steal your magic--ow!--I've been doing crazy stuff since this stupid vacation started! Ow! Why would I-ow!--steal yours? How would I even--ow! Okay, that's it!" Tomato whipped out the fruit firework launcher and pointed it at Cheese's face. "Stop hitting me with poultry or you get a fruit firework to the face!"

Summer was between them in a second. "Okay, cut it out! You're both funny, guys, but I don't think your slapstick routine is helping."

Cheese snorted. "Well, I don't know what will help--unless Tomato has an entire carnival in his pocket."

Tomato unbuttoned and opened his jacket, and allowed the party implements he had picked up earlier to fall out, complete with a burst of confetti. "Well, I've only got what you dropped. Several cans of silly string, a unicycle, the fruit-flavored fireworks--"

"Wait, what?" Toola Roola asked. "How can fireworks--"

"We've got a chemist aunt and uncle on our Dad's side, the latter of which has a bit of a screw loose," Tomato answered. He picked up the accordion and gave it to Cheese. "If anything, I think you can still sing and play the accordion."

Cheese stared at the accordion, and then glanced at the silent rubber chicken on his shoulder. "It doesn't help the fact that now our carnival's nothing more than a glorified yard sale. I'm sorry, but reaching our goal is going to be impossible."

Tomato's heart sunk. All that talk and planning of their great carnival fundraiser, one that'll attract ponies in herds and make them loathe to leave, one where everything is so fun that ponies would pay again and again to play, one where even the volunteers he gathered would have fun sharing their talents... it all seemed like a waste now. Indeed, he could see the downcast eyes and the looks at their items among the others. Even Tree Hugger had an appearance of mournful fatigue.

His eyes lingered on Cheese the longest. The party pony had his back to the others, sitting and moping in an almost-ball as he stared at his accordion and rubber chicken. It was clear that Cheese had been the one most excited to throw it, given his usual confidence in his talent, only to have his own magic yanked out from under him. Tomato didn't know if it was the memory issue branching out and complicating things, or just a response to the whole money factor possible ruining fun. Either way, there was no big carnival today, and Cheese was not happy to be a disappointment.

Tomato's hoof went into his jacket, his eyes closing to think. He felt around in that secret compartment--something that prior to this summer he'd never thought was a possibility for a young business student like him--and lightly brushed the various books he read throughout the summer, a few souvenirs from other places, the surprise pocket watch, his wallet, the money that Snap had paid him...

He opened his eyes, and looked at the town. The money he had was five hundred bits short of their goal, but there was a town, full of many ponies of many different special talents right there. The idea forming in his head was nothing short of a gamble, but he hoped that the sacrifice was worth it.

"Well, this sounds like this was a big waste of time," Sunny groused, turning to leave. "So much for something exciting happening around here."

"No, wait!" Tomato shouted. "We can still make this work!"

Lemon and Toola Roola looked at each other, with the latter asking, "How? Did you forget what happened five minutes ago?"

Tomato grabbed his brother--much to Cheese's surprise--lifted him up, and shook him violently until several more party implements fell out, along with the plans that Cheese drew up. Grabbing the plans, he shoved them into Cheese's hooves and said, "Okay, you might have to do some on-the-fly edits and improvisations with the junk lying around, but I'm going into town to recruit some more volunteers for this. Be prepared to meet whatever ponies I end up sending."

Before Cheese could even respond, Tomato zoomed toward Sunny Flare and asked, "Hey, can you show me around town?"

Sunny replied with a blunt, "No."

"Oh, come on! Why not?"

"I only take my dates flying around town. I don't want rumors spread about me and some out-of-town weirdo."

"Are you kidding me?"

Lemon jumped in. "Relax, I've been here before, cuz, so I'll show you around." She turned to Sunny. "You can stay here and help set up. I know you'll like working with Kimono right there and helping her with the dresses..."

Sunny was clearly suppressing a smile. "Well, those dresses are pretty."

"Hey, thanks, Lemon, I really appreciate the help," Tomato said.

Summer Wind then hopped in and giggled. "Gotta love a stallion that takes charge! If you'd like, I could carry you two and make the trip around town quicker. I mean, I'm strong enough and my wings don't get tired easily, so if we want to get this carnival going ASAP..."

"Well, all right. Just one concern: who's taking care of your stuff?"

"Um, Kimono will, duh." Summer took to the air, and grabbed Tomato and Lemon by the barrel. "Okay, just tell me where to go, guys, and I'll get you there!"

Tomato glanced at Lemon. "Any other friends in town?"

Lemon scratched her chin. "Well, there's the candy mare, Sour Sweet. Might want to be careful, she's kinda spiteful."

Tomato smirked. "Candy mare, you say? Well, what's a party without candy? Let's see if we can convince her to give us a helping hoof."

Lemon blew at her bangs. "If you say so. Take us away, Summer! Sour Sweet's on the other side of town."

Summer grinned. "Okey-dokey!"

And with that, Summer was in the air, and Tomato and Lemon were carried above the buildings, waving their goodbyes and shouting their promises of more volunteers. The others waved backed, and then looked at each other in confusion.

"So, uh... we set up our things, right?" Toola Roola asked. "I think Tomato asked me earlier to paint Summer's book costume to be an advertisement, so I think I better do that."

"Well, Sunny and I will set up the racks and shelves for my dresses and jewels," Kimono said.

Tree Hugger had her yoga mat in her mouth and carried a large basket of her many woven items on her back. "I must find the magic current of this meadow... it'll be easier to connect with others' auras so that I can see them in their maximum traquility..."

"Uh, okay, sure... huh, I wonder what auras look like..." She turned to Cheese, who was simultaneously looking over the plans and looking at the surprising amount of silly string cans that both he and Tomato had on their person. "So, you got any ideas?"

Cheese glanced at her before returning his sight to the cans. "I've been thinking silly string fights."

"And here we are!" Lemon exclaimed as they landed. "The candy store!"

Tomato took note of the candy corn shape of the building. "Well, what else could it be?"

Summer touched down beside him. "It could be a Nightmare Night store, for all your Nightmare Night needs! Oooooo..." She waved her hooves around like the spookiest of spooky ghosts, and drew a little too close for Tomato's comfort, enough that he gently pushed her away. Getting the message that she should stop, she added, "But yeah, but it's probably a candy store."

"Well, let's see if Sour Sweet's got nothing better to do." Lemon opened the door and leapt in.

As they followed into a room full of colorful shelves of all sorts of candy, Summer rambled to Tomato, "Okay, but that does remind me that I've got to decide a costume for Nightmare Night. I was planning on being a vampire, but after what happened in Las Pegasus, I think it'd be kind of insensitive to dress up as one. I was thinking of a werewolf as a backup costume, because those are really cool. How about you?"

"Eh..." Tomato said. "Haven't thought about it, I haven't dressed up since I was a kid. Besides, it's August!"

"Never too early to decide a costume, my friend."

They stopped their conversation to hear what Lemon was telling the yellow, freckled-face mare leaning on the counter. Though most of the conversation was clearly about the carnival and how they're recruiting her, Tomato was a little taken aback by what Sour Sweet said next.

"Why, of course I'd help you save your Dad's nature park!" Sour Sweet said with a clearly fake grin on her face. "Never mind the sheer terror that wild animals give you. Why do you even bother?"

Lemon had a hoof to her face. "Look, you don't need to rub that in my face, dude. But I love my dad, so I gotta do something to help him."

Sour Sweet scoffed. "How do you even know if he is your dad?"

Lemon slammed her hooves on the counter. "How dare you! I have plenty of reason to diss my mom, but she's no floozy!" She looked away and grumbled through gritted teeth, "Besides, we took the blood test. He's my pop."

Summer trotted forward and interrupted the conversation with, "Fun fact! Did you know that brown stallions carry a gene that allows them to sire pink daughters, no matter the color of the mother? It's really weird, but really cool."

Tomato was rubbing his chin as he came forward. All of a sudden, Pinkie Pie in comparison to the rest of her family made a little bit more sense. Still, the part of the conversation suggesting something rather unsavory about Aunt Honeydew seemed a little off to him.

Sour Sweet said in plainly obvious fake cheer, "Well, hello! Who are these friends of Lemon Zest's?"

He snapped out of his reverie. "I'm her cousin, Tomato Sandwich, and this here is Summer Wind. Lemon's already told you the situation, so I guess I better cut to the chase and ask you for your assistance and your tasty treats at our carnival."

Sour Sweet idly drew her hooves in circles on the counter. "Oh, I'd love to, but I've got a candy shop to run, stocks to take, a whole cartload of leftover caramel that I have to find a way to get rid of..." She looked straight at them with a raised eyebrow. "Maybe you can take that off my hooves."

Tomato leaned on the counter. "So... is that a no? Sure nothing can change your mind?"

Sour Sweet pouted. "Give me one good reason why I should care about some stupid nature war the next town over?"

Tomato grabbed one of the bags from the roll on the counter, and then rummaged through his jacket for a good few seconds. When he was done, he pulled the bag back out, filled with a significant amount of bits. "So... I guess this won't change your mind, either?"

Sour Sweet blinked, and then twirled a lock of of her magenta hair. "Well... I guess selling my candy at this carnival of yours could help my business..."

Tomato set the bag down. "Glad to know we're on the same page. So, here's what I'd like you to do..."

"I'm glad that we came to an agreement, Miss Sweet!" Tomato hollered as they departed. "Meet my brother Cheese Sandwich at the carnival site, and he'll direct you from there!"

Sour Sweet waved goodbye. "No problem!"

Tomato chuckled, and faced forward. "So, where to next, Lemon?"

Lemon scratched her chin. "I need to think a bit about who else could help." She gave him a curious look. "Say, how come you didn't mention that you could summon bits out of nowhere before? Because with that, this whole carnival deal is a waste of time."

"Eh... I can't create money out of thin air, I can only store existing money. I think party pony magic gets that just magically making money like that would be considered counterfeiting." Tomato wiped sweat off his forehead. "I've only got a bunch on me because a did a favor for a wealthy someone, and even then, I was 500 bits short, and I don't know where to get 500 without risking those ones."

"Well, whatever the case, you convinced her with those bits," Summer said. She winked as she added, "Doesn't hurt that you're tall, dark, and handsome."

Tomato scoffed. "I don't think she cared about how I look."

"Hey, it's still a possibility." Summer started to hover around, apparently to free her hooves for a dramatic backward lean. "You're like some mix of a troubled, cute colt..." She gripped her pink sweater vest and held it proudly. "...and a suave, sharp-dressed stallion. And you know, we ladies go absolutely nuts for those character archetypes."

"Well, I'm not a book character, I'm a real pony. I don't think anypony's interested in my 'tragic backstory' anyway." Tomato turned back to Lemon. "Speaking of backstories, what was the deal back there with her taking potshots at your mother?"

Lemon winced, and replied in a low voice, "It's nothing, Tomato. We just poke fun at each other, that's all."

"I don't know, suggesting unsavory things about her seems--"

Lemon faked a smile and loudly interrupted, "Hey! I've just now got a great idea! Why don't we grab some stuff from the hardware store and build some classic carnival games? Can't go wrong with a bean bag toss!"

She turned on one hoof and marched down the street. "This way! Vamanos!"

Tomato and Summer looked at each other and followed quietly. Tomato however still had that exchange in his mind, wondering why anypony would slander Honeydew in front of her daughter. For that matter, why was Lemon herself not that fond of her, even after losing her at four? From what he remembered, his grandparents always said that she was sweet and sensitive, and was just too timid to fit in at Manehattan. Surely she was somepony not unlike Fluttershy.

Surely his mother was wrong in calling her a spoiled crybaby.

One hardware store trip later, Summer carried the wooden boards and planks and tools to the field for Cheese and the others to go crazy with. Upon her return, they stumbled onto a farm, with plenty of the classic farm animals calmly munching on cud, rolling in mud, pecking at buds, or playing with their young.

"It is so nice to meet animals that are not trying to kill us!" Tomato exclaimed.

Lemon had a hoof on her nose. "Yeah, yippee."

The farmer came trotting up to them, with several kittens climbing all over her. "Well, howdy, stranger! What can I do ya for?"

Tomato cleared his throat and straightened his clothing. "Would you be interested in running a petting zoo at our carnival?"

"Ch'ya, I'm only the fastest cart flyer in town!"

"Oh, come on, Thundersnow! You know I'm faster!"

"Nuh-uh, Tornado Alley, you're like, not as fast as a tornado..."

"Oh, please, you two, you know that I, Cyclone, am faster than the both of you!"

"Oh, there he goes, being his jerky self!"

Lemon whistled loudly to make the pegasi stop. "Okay! We get it, you're all fast! So, can you do the flying cart rides for us or not?" She pointed to Tomato behind her. "He'll pay you."

So around town they went, hopping from place to place and from pony to pony, asking for their assistance with any carnival attraction that fit with their talent. Some happily did it for free, citing as helping the environment and saving that old nature park as its own reward. Others needed a little convincing with the bits Tomato had on hoof, but they accepted their tasks with dignity. There were even a few who only volunteered because Cheese Sandwich was in town and they couldn't pass up the opportunity to work with him.

They also made a few stops at stores to buy supplies. Some shelves and racks to hold the items that the others were selling, a lot of toys to use in games or give out as prizes, more art stuff for Toola Roola in case she ran out, and balloons, both for giving away helium filled (they had to grab a helium tank as well) and balloon modeling (which made Tomato wish Party Favor was there to help).

At one point, Summer said, "Wait, if you're paying some of these ponies, then they're not really volunteers, are they?"

Tomato said in response, "Yeah, I'm kind of bribing a bunch of these ponies, aren't I?"

By the time that they returned to the field, Cheese had already arranged all the volunteers (and bribed ponies) into place. There were no fancy rides or big game booths, but as per usual, Cheese still contained enough creativity and planning to make what would be a mess of ponies into a grand fair in its own right. From the 'yard sale' items to the art and yoga Toola Roola and Tree Hugger offered, and from the games run by other ponies to the petting zoo, and so much more, Tomato wondered if there was still a little magic in Cheese left.

Summer flew to Toola Roola to put on the reworked book costume, while Lemon went to check out the karaoke machine that Cheese was kind enough to transform into its own little attraction with its own space for a possible crowd.

Cheese came trotting up to Tomato with a clipboard. "Well, glad to see you're back, bro! I have to say, I was surprised that you got this many ponies over here. I was having a little trouble putting them in place too! But, no worries, I've got it all arranged perfectly."

Tomato smiled at him. "Well, who am I to doubt my big bro's planning ability? You're looking so happily happy, I guess your anger has been wiped away by just how amazing our carnival is turning out, ehehe..."

"Uh... thanks?" Cheese looked at the clipboard and then showed it to him. "Oh, by the way, you should set the prices on everything before we get started. Can't have a fundraiser without funds, you know?"

Tomato grabbed the pencil with his tail, and scribbled down all the prices for all the attractions within ten seconds. "Done."

Cheese blinked, and looked again. "Wow... that was..." His ears pinned back. "...fast. I'll let the others know."

Then came the shout from Sour Sweet many yards away, "Hey! I've got this tub of caramel over here! I gotta get rid of it somehow!"

Cheese scoffed and yelled back, "A caramel apple dipping activity! Duh!"

Tomato cocked his head. "Do we have apples?"

Cheese's eyes widened. "Oh, Stilton, we don't! Quick, is there an apple orchard here?!"

"The only farmer I met is the petting zoo gal over there! I don't know where to get apples here!"

A passerby then answered, "Go to the local produce shop, dude. They ship apples over here all the time."

Tomato blinked, looked at Cheese, and then yelled, "Thank you!" to the passerby. Then, turning back toward town and running off, he yelled back at Cheese, "I'm going to get apples, you and Summer work on advertising this shindig to the rest of the town! Grab your accordion and unicycle and hop to it! I'll be right back!"

Cheese waved goodbye, and then groaned. "Sheesh, what did you think I was going to do?"

As he turned around and looked around to find Summer, he muttered to himself, "I wonder how Uncle Fallow and Fluttershy are doing right now..."

Author's Note

Right now, my biggest regret is not having Fluttershy and Tree Hugger catch up, but I didn't know where to put it in without it being awkward. I possibly have other regrets about this chapter that I can't really think of right now.

20.4--Fair For Its Time

"...and that's why you shouldn't destroy others' property." Fluttershy looked around at the debris that was scattered around the intersection she stood on, and then back to the ashamed raccoon family. "Don't worry, maybe if you clean up this mess, the townsponies won't be so harsh toward you."

The raccoons looked at each other, chattered for a moment, and then immediately began to pick up strewn pieces of wood. As they dragged the wood to the nearest trash can, Fluttershy beamed in encouragement. "That's the way to do it! I have to go for now, but I'll be happy to see your progress when I come back."

Once they chattered their goodbyes, Fluttershy turned and left the raccoons to clean up. As much as she wanted to help them, there were other animals in town that were still causing trouble, and she had to find those that Fallow wasn't already dealing with. Walking through the streets of Aura Springs, she scanned every foot of the area, hoping to catch a glimpse of even a tail of one of the troublemakers. If she was lucky, perhaps she could find the infamous Porcupine Mafia and give them a piece of her mind.

Turning the corner, she stopped when seeing the crowd of flowerpony protesters surrounding city hall. She stood there, blinking, and read some of the signs that they were brandishing. They were clearly short phrases about living in peace and not letting greed destroy the animals' home, messages of which she agreed with. However, surrounded by scattered trash and splintered buildings, she had to question just why these ponies were looking the other way when the animals misbehaved.

She managed to spot Grapevine's darker green out of the many colors of the other flowerponies, and he seemed to be at the head of the protests, apparently arguing with the mayor in the window. Fluttershy had met him before, as she did Fallow Track, Tree Hugger, and others, when going to study the Breezies; Grapevine had seemed like a pleasant fellow then. Now she wasn't so sure, given the situation and how Grapevine was clearly front and center in the debate.

Fluttershy wanted to know why he was letting the town devolve into chaos, but there were too many ponies around and she didn't know how to broach the subject. It was best for her to just continue on with giving the animals around town a good talking to.

However, as she attempted to leave, Grapevine had already let another take a turn in debating so that he could apparently recharge. So he seemed to have suddenly appeared in front of her, greeting, "Ey, Fluttershy!"--which was more than enough for her to jump with a squeak. After receiving an awkward hug, she caught her breath, realizing that now she had to face him sooner rather than later.

"What're you doing here, soul sister?" Grapevine asked. "Are you here to save the animals from tyranny?"

"Well, uh, I'm definitely saving the animals..." Fluttershy said, bearing a grin that she hoped he didn't see through.

Grapevine didn't appear to notice, now musing, "Wow... it's like we have a psychic link... I wonder if it's a thing all ponies have or it's just those who've mastered nature talking."

On hearing "psychic link", Fluttershy's mind immediately went to Pinkie's panic over not receiving some sort of signal from Cheese. At least when she returned, she could give comfort to Pinkie over Cheese's safety. Granted, she might have to bring the Sandwiches over there anyway, given how Twilight had something to help Cheese with his unfortunate condition.

She shook her head and went back to the current conversation. "Oh, no, no psychic link. Just a letter."

Grapevine raised an eyebrow. "I didn't send a letter."

Fluttershy sighed, and then put her stern face on. "No, you didn't. Your father did, requesting help in getting the animals under control."

Grapevine's eyes widened, and he backed up a few steps. "Now you are wanting to control the animals? Why would you do that?"

"Why would you just look the other way when they're clearly making the townsponies miserable? Do you not see the damages?" Fluttershy swept her front leg out to the messy streets. "I just don't see why you'd let this happen."

Grapevine stared at the street for a moment, and replied, "The animals have every right to be upset that ponies invade their land and destroy it with their carelessness. I don't blame them for wanting to tear down the establishment."

Fluttershy rubbed a temple. "Standing up for animals doesn't mean hurting innocent ponies. I'm all for animals and ponies coexisting peacefully, but there are boundaries that need to be set so neither side gets hurt."

"Boundaries?" Grapevine scoffed. "Sounds like the unfair rules that The Mare uses to oppress ponies, and keep them from being their true selves. My mother escaped the city for a reason; she told me that her stickler sister was so controlling and harsh, and vowed not to be like her. I mean... just look at my cousins... I pity them, I can sense that their chakras are all messed up."

Fluttershy pursed her lips. "Okay, some ponies in charge aren't so nice, and maybe there are some rules that are unfair in some places. But I still set boundaries for the animals back home, because while they are my friends, I can't let them push me around or hurt my pony friends. Not every animal is a saint, so I have to nudge them in the right direction."

"Or brainwash them."

"What?" Fluttershy could not believe what she just heard. "No! Guiding an animal or a pony to become a better... uh... citizen of Equestria that treats others kindly is not brainwashing! I don't control them, I communicate with them! So why don't you do your job, and tell these animals that their anarchy is only going to bite their tails if they don't clean up their act?!"

Grapevine rubbed the back of his head, his face taking on a neutral expression. "Yeah... uh, wouldn't it be hypocritical to put myself in charge when I'm trying to stop The Mare's tyranny? I'm not big on authority figures controlling my life, so why would I want to control others?"

"I'm not asking you to be a tyrant, I'm asking you to be responsible," Fluttershy said. She turned around and started to walk away. "Now, I must be responsible with my talent and convince more animals to stop harassing the townsponies before someone gets hurt."

As she left, she held her head up in pride. But, alas, she felt her heart sink at the thought that all she convinced him was that now she was against the coexistence of pony and animal. She didn't want to look back, but her resolved failed with a quick glance behind her. Though his face showed a neutral calm, she worried that he might be seething under the surface.

Her head slowly sunk into a slouch.

Meanwhile, in a Barnyard Bargains store in Graze Valley, the main executive of the chain had been making recommendations to the manager in order to improve business. A proud stallion of brown with dark hair and blue eyes, he talked about how the displays for each section of the store could be arranged, adjusting prices, and taking note of what was and what wasn't selling. It was a fine meeting and inspection that day, and now they were just having a friendly chat.

"Wow, I had no idea you liked country music, Mr. Rich!" the unicorn manager said.

Mr. Filthy Rich laughed. "Well, of course! I've always enjoyed how down-to-earth and homey it sounds, and it reminds me of some favorite business partners of mine. It's a real shame that kids these days can't appreciate it; even my daughter complains when I put Low Places on the record player."

"Just wait until their kids complain about their music." The manager chuckled, brushing some of her mane out of her face. "So, what are you planning to do while you're here?"

Filthy rubbed the back of his head. "Well... I've been thinkin' of expanding my horizons a little bit when exploring Aura Springs. While another Barnyard Bargains wouldn't hurt, I want to see what that town has to offer, and perhaps build that spa resort that I promised my wife."

The manager frowned. "Are you sure you want to do that? Aura Springs has been having trouble with the wildlife for some time now."

"Oh, it can't be that bad. I like animals."

As they trotted out of the aisle, they were stopped by a group of rolling barrels, much to their confusion. They stared at the young, lean stallion that balanced himself on the final one, pushing the others with its forward roll. As the employees paused in their tasks to stare at the sight, the young stallion glanced at them with an expression that said "What?", and continued on to the front counter. There, the bespectacled, reddish fellow hopped off his barrel, and started heaving it right side up with his tail.

Filthy whispered to the manager, "Might want to have a training session with the employees so they'd stop nonsense like that in the future."

"Noted." The manager then marched up to the young stallion, who seemed to make the cashier a little nervous. "Excuse me, young stallion... but, might I ask why a slim fellow like you is doing with all these barrels of... uh..."

"Apples," the young stallion replied.

"Apples, yes. But I'll kindly ask you not to roll those barrels down my aisles again. I'm not risking displays getting knocked over or customers getting hurt. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal, ma'am. I was going to leave anyway... just as soon as I pay for my apples."

Filthy Rich joined them. "Apples? Ah, good choice, young pony! The farmers of those apples are some of the finest ponies you'd ever meet, and they have the finest apples that you ever did taste. I'm proud to have done business with them and help them spread their fruit across the land. I could also give you a sample of their delicious Zap Apple Jam."

"Maybe later." The young pony pulled a surprisingly large bag of bits from his brown jacket--Filthy wondered how it could fit in there--threw it on the floor, and then almost literally dove headfirst into it. With just his hind legs keeping the hind half at bay, the front half was busy swimming through the bag, and counting the bits inside.

Filthy crouched down to get a good look at the bag's size. "How does he even fit?"

The cashier drummed her hooves on the counter. "I've been hearing some talk about some weirdo in a suit going around and dragging ponies into some kind of weird business of his... I'm starting to wonder if that's him right there."

Choking was heard from the bag, followed by, "Gak! Dang it, I swallowed one!"

The manager nickered in bemusement. "Do I call the cops on him?"

"He's not technically breaking any laws..." Filthy scratched his head. "Except maybe the laws of physics."

The young stallion erupted from the bag with a small armful of bits, and dropped them all on the counter. "Okay, here's the money for my bushels. I counted them, but of course you're recounting them to make sure..."

He trailed off as he realized that the cashier was now ignoring him, counting the bits as fast as she could. With a sigh, he looked around for a bit, muttering to himself about the place. It took a bit before he finally noticed Filthy Rich staring at his glorious curled forelock, adorning the forefront of his mane like the embarrassment it was. The pony attempted to slick it down, staring back at Filthy, but it was in vain as it sprung back up with a boing. With a groan, he grumbled, "I'll kindly ask you to not stare at my forelock."

"Oh, pardon me about that. I'm curious about what all the apples are for."

"Fundraiser. My brother came up with a caramel apple dipping activity, and well, here I am." Tomato noticed his bag on the floor and then swiped it, storing it in his jacket. Filthy still didn't know how he was fitting that bag in there without any noticeable lumps."

Filthy scratched his chin, scanning the boy up and down. "Say... have we met before? You look awfully familiar..."

The younger stallion raised an eyebrow. "No..."

"Hmm... what's your name, son?"

"Tomato Sandwich."

Filthy tapped his head. "Sandwich... Sandwich... now where have I seen a guy named Sandwich...?"

Just then, the cashier tapped Tomato on the shoulder, glaring at him. "Hey, buddy, you're one bit short."

Tomato blinked in disbelief. "What? How did I miscount? I had a system of organizing the bits into fives and tens!"

The cashier presented her stacks of bits, one of which was clearly shorter than the others by one bit. "I do too, and the stacks don't lie. Now, are you going to cough up one more bit?"

Tomato groaned and made a move to pull one out of his jacket, but then he started to cough, which was soon followed by heaving. Filthy stepped back, worried that Tomato was having an asthma attack or was about to throw up. He teetered on the guesses on what was happening between the wheezing and the choking and the coughing. Should he get somepony to get a doctor?

Then, Tomato pulled at his tie, and out flew a bit.

The cashier jumped at the spit-covered coin landing on the counter, and stared at it in horror. Tomato stared as well, a hoof on his chest. His head slowly raised, his face flushed redder than normal, and he muttered, "You might want to sanitize that."

The grimacing manager levitated the coin. "I'll do just that. You can... take your apples..."

Once the manager had left, Tomato smiled and was about to gather the barrels, only to stop and stare at the several that he had rolled down the aisle. Filthy Rich could see the realization dawning on him that he probably should have brought help to carry the apples to the fundraiser site. A stomp, a snort, and a curse under Tomato's breath indicated his change of mood.

Filthy Rich looked out the window, and noticed some ponies pulling carts outside. "Tell you what, why don't I get those fellas out there to help you out. I'm sure they won't mind a little persuasion..." He pulled his wallet out of his saddlebag. "If you know what I mean."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Okay, what's the catch?"

"You seem like a nice fellow, if a bit eccentric. Besides, I have nothing better to do today and I'm curious about that fundraiser of yours."

Tomato scanned Filthy's person, cutie mark included. He blew at his forelock, and answered, "Well... the fundraiser's nothing fancy, but with my brother's talents, it's at least serviceable. But, anyway, I guess you could help me out with this thing."

After having sung and played polka to any pony he could find, Cheese Sandwich was now wheeling back to the fairground. He didn't know where Summer was, but wherever she had flown off to, he trusted that she could fly her way back. He himself was almost there.

He didn't exactly feel like the Pied Pony Piper, but at least they made sure that everypony in town knew of a fundraiser carnival today. He hoped that they weren't expecting bouncehouses--they were out of reach for the time being. Or amusement park rides, he wasn't sure he could arrange one of those within an hour. In fact, he hoped for realistic expectations for a simple fundraiser carnival that was also partially a yard sale, but if any of those ponies knew who Cheese Sandwich was, they definitely had high expectations.

The carnival was good for a normal pony... but subpar for Cheese Sandwich. Heck, even his advertising was subpar next to his normal shenanigans. If only he could do more than just play the accordion on a unicycle.

He wasn't fully paying attention to his surroundings, and thus was caught off guard when he bumped into a cart and tumbled onto the barrels within, inadvertently throwing his accordion in the process. The trip had not been nice and he was now sore, but he didn't have time to be concerned about that when his precious instrument was now soaring in an arc.

Tomato just so happened to be by the cart with a couple of other ponies, attempting to greet him, but swiftly interrupted by Cheese's "Gah! My accordion! Oh, no no no, somepony catch it!"

Tomato turned around to see said accordion having reached its peak and was now descending, heading on an collision course toward the crude karaoke stage that Lemon Zest was busy straightening. "Uh oh."

The Sandwiches were bracing themselves for the shattering of the instrument, but thankfully, a certain green pegasus dressed as a book popped out of nowhere and caught it. She was knocked onto the stage, surprising Lemon Zest, and for a couple of moments she lay still. But she held accordion up triumphantly, and wheezed loudly, "Caught it!"

There was a sigh of relief, and the Sandwiches raced to the stage, where Lemon helped Summer up. There, Tomato said, "Hey, are you okay? That looked like it hurt."

Summer scoffed and waved a hoof. "I'll be fine, I'm a tough girl." She gave the accordion to Cheese. "Here you go. Don't want that breaking, you know?"

"Heh, thanks." Cheese looked it over and played a few notes, relieved that all that was needed was some tuning. "With my magic on the fritz, I don't know if I can fix it like I usually do. And if I can't fix my accordion..." He didn't even bother finishing the sentence, he was getting angry just thinking about it. He was releasing it through laughter, but the others just instinctively started backing away when he did so.

"Hey!" the cart puller still on the sidewalk shouted. "Where do you want these apples?"

"With the candy mare!" Tomato shouted back.

Tomato's other companion came trotting forth, looking around at the carnival. "Well... you were right in saying that it wasn't fancy. It's like you fused a school carnival and a yard sale together." He looked straight forward and pointed to Cheese. "And you've got Cheese Sandwich right there! You'd expect more out of him." He paused a moment to contemplate just who he was seeing. "Uh... how did you get Cheese Sandwich, Tomato?"

"He's my brother," Tomato answered.

Cheese narrowed his eyes, feeling himself bristle. It was frustrating enough without somepony pointing out today's shortcoming. "Yep. I could show you baby pictures and everything."

"Ooh, show them!" Lemon exclaimed.

"I bet they're cute!" Summer squealed.

Tomato pursed his lips. "Please don't."

The companion's eyes widened, as if something clicked. "So that's why you looked familiar! You were at the Fall Festival in Ponyville!"

Both Sandwiches groaned, and Tomato grumbled, "Well, thanks. I didn't think anypony remembered that when we went to Ponyville earlier this summer."

Cheese scoffed. "Come on, you can be annoying, but you're not to blame for that disaster. It was Pinkie Pie's fault." He ignored the concerned confusion that Tomato had on his face, and turned coolly to the brown businesspony. "Anyhoozles, just what might your name be, Mister?"

"Name's Filthy Rich," the older stallion replied with a sparkle in his smile.

Tomato snapped his attention to Filthy in shock, and with a gasp, he grabbed Cheese and Lemon and pulled him behind the neighboring attraction. Tomato made sure to flash a grin to Filthy and said, "Excuse us for a moment, Mr. Rich, I've got to have a word with my bro and cuz."

Filthy Rich raised an eyebrow and said to Summer. "It's fairly obvious they're about to talk about me. Now, uh... may I ask about the costume?"

"Advertising," Summer deadpanned.

Meanwhile, behind the bean bag toss, Tomato peeked through one of the holes at their guest. With a hoof to his forehead, he murmured, "I can't believe that I was being friendly with Filthy Rich! He's one of the biggest names in Equestrian business, how could I have missed it? I'm pretty sure I've seen his picture in the business section of the news a few times!"

"Get a hold of yourself, Tomato," Cheese said. "I don't really see what the commotion is."

"Well, when you have a big businesspony in a relatively unknown area that's expecting a big businesspony..."

Lemon's eyes widened. "You're not saying that he might be the guy who's visiting Aura Springs tomorrow, are you?"

"I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised." Tomato peeked at Filthy once again. "If he is, the question is if he's building another Barnyard Bargains or if he's got something else in mind. Whatever he's thinking, we need to make sure he's playing in our favor."

"Does he know what the fundraiser's for?" Lemon asked.

"Well, he was following me because he was curious about it and apparently had nothing better to do... so, yeah."

Cheese crossed his front legs, rolling his eyes. "Well, I don't think we're impressing him with this cheap 'school carnival'. Sorry for having an off day."

Tomato glared at him. "Look, I know it's not up to your usual faire, but we still arranged it the best we could, and we'll have to show him that just because it isn't anything fancy doesn't mean it doesn't have merit. We've come this far, so we can't back out now!"

At last, the carnival was opened, and the first few curious ponies came in. They were mostly parents with eager foals, and if this fair could stave off the kids' boredom, it was as good as anything. Fillies and colts quickly ate up the bean bag tosses, caramel apple dipping, and silly string fights. Toola Roola was especially popular with the kids, since many of them wanted their faces painted or wanted a picture of them drawn. Meanwhile, their parents browsed through the yard sale portion of the fair.

Tomato wasn't surprised that the first fair-goers were families. After all, a lot of the games seemed to be kiddie fare, especially with candy and toy prizes. When it came to child customers, he made things cheaper for them due to allowances smaller than an adult pony's paycheck. At the very least, some of the parents picked up the slack by buying some of the stock from the yard sale section.

Soon enough, curious adults--single or dating, but without children regardless--came trotting in. They were more drawn to Tree Hugger's yoga sessions and the daring sky cart rides, but some of them joined into the kid activities. Some teenage colts were getting a little too into the silly string fights, teenage fillies were browsing Kimono's dresses and jewelry, and couples were commissioning sketches of themselves from Toola Roola.

So far, so good, Tomato thought. He explored the fairground as the carnival went on, with Filthy Rich beside him and watching the ponies have their fun. Tomato gauged the older businesspony's reaction throughout the tour, trying to keep a straight face. Filthy's face was neutral, but neutral faces had a way of looking angry or disappointed. Tomato's insides felt like an earthquake as he tried to guess what was on the older businesspony's mind, and some of his guesses were negative to say the least.

Nevertheless, he had to make sure to keep a good relation between them.

They went to the petting zoo, where Filthy didn't seem to mind petting the animals. He commented about how soft the fleece on the lambs was, fed the ducks, and even joked and laughed about Tomato being a 'chick magnet' when the latter had chicks climbing all over him. He even baby talked a couple of them, especially the puppies and kittens.

It seemed to go pretty well... up until they had to play tug-of-war with a goat snacking on Filthy's tie. Tugged as they might, they couldn't save the tie from the hungry goat, who cackled triumphantly when the tie ripped and ate the half it already had.

Filthy glared at the goat. "Your owner's lucky I decided to pack spares."

The goat glared back, and then rammed the fence, making both stallions jump. Tomato then dragged Filthy away, saying, "You know what? Animal time over, don't sue the goat. Let's go elsewhere! Oh, how about the silly string fight?"

Filthy looked down at his half-eaten tie. "I've had enough wardrobe damage for today."

"Now, you must arch like a feline..." Tree Hugger crooned, doing just that.

Among the ponies in the yoga session, both Tomato and Filthy were attempting to copy Tree Hugger's pose. Tomato seemed to be doing well at it; Filthy on the other hand, seemed to be straining to keep the pose.

"I don't understand... how my wife... can handle this..." he croaked.

"Takes a bit of practice to really feel it," Tomato replied. "I only know a little because I have a friend who does this kind of thing and made me join her a few times. It's pretty relaxing once you get it down."

Tree Hugger stopped her arching, and then rose onto two legs. "Straighten out... and slowly reach for the sky..."

Tomato groaned. "I hate this one."

Filthy glanced at him. "Why?"

Tomato wobbled as he tried to reach for the sky, only to fall back on all fours halfway. "With these long legs, it throws me off balance."

As Tomato tried again, Filthy got it right. "Hey, you're right, it is relaxing! I should do this more often, my life gets awful stressful. I oughta have these yoga sessions as one of the options of a spa resort. I'm sure my wife would love them."

Tomato caught himself before falling on his face. "Spa resort?"

"Promised my wife I'd build one. Question is where I'd build one, be it in this area or someplace else."

Tomato took note of that revelation.

They swam through the yard sale section, where Tomato paused and looked at the selection of books that Summer was selling. It was mainly a bunch of romance novels and Daring Do, neither of which Tomato really cared for, but it was nice to see that she had a selection of classics like A Hearth's Warming Tale, Dr. Jockey and Mr. Hide, Frankenstag, and more. However, what caught his attention the most was a blast from the past that made him gasp.

"'The Adventures of Richard Duckworth'?! This was my favorite book series as a kid!" Tomato grabbed the book and flipped through it. "I wanted to be him for Nightmare Night once, but my mom's a wet blanket and since my grandparents usually took us treat-or-treating and they had died the year before, I didn't get to. I was disappointed, because being an adventure capitalist duck would have been amazing!"

Summer grinned at him. "I loved reading those as a kid too! As as an adult, you realize just how smartly written it is."

"Oh, you bet!" Tomato stopped at a page and showed her. "I mean, look at it! It actually understands how economics works! Not to mention the great relationship between Rich and his nephews and how they look out for each other and banter and teach each other important lessons. I used to annoy Cheese with how much I talked about these books."

"Say, did he ever read?"

"Eh... it was usually comics, books gave him a headache trying to figure out what's going on or what something looked like. I'd always catch him reading Mr. Bizarro or Al Ammo. Those might have influenced his personality quite a bit."

Summer looked over to elsewhere in the field, where Cheese was juggling for some foals. "I get the Mr. Bizarro part, but what about Al Ammo?"

"He dresses up as a cowpony between towns," Tomato said.

Summer noticed a pony waiting at the other table with the dog toys. "Excuse me, got to help this guy."

Tomato had his eyes on the book he held. "Go ahead, I'll just flip through the book and see what other tidbits I can find."

As Summer turned away, Filthy Rich came back. "Well, there are some necklaces and dresses I personally think are beautiful, but unfortunately, Spoiled has a way of smelling when things are not from the highest rated jewelers or seamstresses." He took a look at the book Tomato flipped through. "'Richard Duckworth'?"

Tomato didn't take his eyes off the book. "Favorite book series as a kid, and now I realize just how smart of a series it is. Why does everyone get so hopped up on Daring Do? Sure, there are smart moments, but the stories are mediocre and repetitive, and I can't stand her as a character."

"Careful, some Daring Do fans will get on your case if you say that out loud."

Tomato was about to reply when a shrill whistle shot through his ears, sending a shudder through his entire body. He dropped the book and covered his ears. His first instinct was to turn in Cheese's direction, but he could see that Cheese was hearing it too, lashing out at the kids and scaring them off. Naturally, some parents were marching his way to scold him.

Tomato uncovered his ears, thankful the whistle stopped. Heart pounding, he turned to where Summer was getting paid by a hooded figure, holding a dog whistle in his magic. Rubbing his ear, he glared at the whistle and cursed the leftover bat hearing he had.

"What was that you just did?"

Tomato turned back to Filthy Rich. "Sudden earache. Left as quickly as it came."

Filthy had picked up the Richard Duckworth book and looked at it. "Hey, it has an excellent understanding of economics!"

They passed Toola Roola's "art bar", where the mare was having trouble deciding what to do next. Between the murmuring lines for the sketch commissions, face painting, and selling her pieces, Toola Roola noticed him and cried, "Tomato! I'm popular and I can't keep up! Help!"

Tomato scratched his chin. "Do you have any art friends?"

"Of course I do! But I can't leave to go get them!"

Tomato nodded, and then trotted off toward the karaoke stage, where Lemon Zest sat bored. Knocking at the wood, he asked, "Hey, Lemon, since business is slow for you, do you think you could find some of Toola Roola's friends? I think she's overwhelmed."

Lemon leaned to look beyond Tomato and Filthy Rich to see her sister nearing a breakdown. "Typical Rools, biting off more than she can chew. Yeah, I know where they live, one of them is the sister of one of my aerobics classmates."

Lemon hopped off the stage and trotted off, saying, "Things are slow for me, so I'll be back soon enough."

Watching her leave, Tomato sat down on the stage, picking up the mic and tapping it. "Weird, ponies love music. I thought they'd be all over the karaoke music. Do none of these ponies know how to sing?"

"Perhaps they need a little more convincing," Filthy Rich suggested.

"You're not going to bribe them into it, are you?"

"What? No, I pride myself in being an honest businesspony! I meant somepony should demonstrate how fun it is to sing."

"Oh, you're right." Tomato stood up, looked across the field to a puppet show, and shouted, "Hey, Cheese! You want to help me bring attention to this attraction?"

Cheese shouted back, "I'm kinda busy! Do it yourself!"

Tomato froze, and then laughed nervously. "Uh... I think it'd work better if you were singing, Mr. Super Duper Party Pony!"

"Well, I can't just stop in the middle of a puppet show!" Cheese made one sock puppet hit the other with a baseball bat, making a squeaking noise and making a bunch of toddlers laugh.

"You know how I am about stage fright!"

"Oh, please, the ponies loved your singing back in Seaddle, you'll be fine!" And with that, Cheese just decided to ignore the rest of Tomato's complaints, continuing with a slapstick puppet show.

"How dare you leave out the context of that event!"

"What context?" Filthy asked.

Tomato froze. There was no way that he could tell the truth to Filthy Rich or any curious bystanders without getting himself--as well as Snap--in trouble. He glared at Cheese for playing that card, and not only did he have to come up some stupid lie, he was now forced to back up the implication that he could sing. Maybe, since nopony was watching or caring, he could get away with it...

"Oh, uh... I lost a bet and had to sing karaoke."

Filthy raised an eyebrow. "So, you can sing?"

"Well, yeah, I can. I mean, I'm no Bridleway singer or anything, in fact, my Mom always said that I should stay away from it because it might tarnish my image, and ponies are always judging me for one reason--" He looked at his cutie mark. "--or another." He could feel the bitter taste of coffee on his tongue and felt a brief, terrifying rush. "It's just not my place, Mr. Rich."

"Well, I know it's not your place, son. Your place is clearly on your flank," Filthy said. "Doesn't mean singing can't be a hobby. After all, if I did business all the time, I'd work myself to death and be one of the most boring and stifled ponies in Equestria."

Tomato blinked. "What do you mean by 'stifled'?"

"Nopony is made up of just one talent--especially not businessponies, no! You need several talents in mathematics, money management, social interaction, advertising and others to survive in that world. And even then, if you don't explore your options outside those areas, how would you know just what you want your business to be about? A fellow businesspony in Ponyville has interest in fashion, and that's the business she pursued. And let me tell you, after opening her second boutique, it's clear that she's thriving."

Tomato's mind flashed back to how miserable his teen years were. Whether it was by Mom's paranoid restrictions or his own stubborn pride, it was clear to him now that Tomato had been practically dead during that time. His social life barely existed, going out for fun was forbidden, and all silly inclinations were suppressed--all because they were trying to avoid the possibility of him being like his rebellious brother. Perhaps Ponyacci's statement about him being afraid of himself had merit in areas other then his silly clown phobia. And perhaps his mother was afraid of him, and the ways that his repressed crazy could go terribly wrong.

Then his mind landed upon that school fundraiser. He looked forward, and he could see those same hard workers working for a cause, those same curious eyes looking at the many options presented to them, and those same smiles of ponies enjoying themselves, seeing old friends and making new ones, and having fun as they gave bits for the benefit of both parties. Tomato did so much to make that school fundraiser a success and earn his cutie mark, and he could see the echoes of the past in this fundraiser here. He didn't need to be so overly serious and dull to make either of them work--he just needed his eyes on the prize and work for it.

Maybe, just like when he was a colt, Tomato could make his innate silliness work for him and his special talent.

He held the mic up, and flipped it. "Huh, I guess you're right, Mr. Rich, I do need to be more than just one talent. I'm not meant to be completely boxed into one thing all of the time--frankly, it was impossible to be just the 'business student' when travelling with my brother all summer. Seriously, I think his crazy rubbed off on me!"

He looked across the field at his brother and smiled warmly. Who would Tommy have been if it wasn't for Cheese's idea of a vacation? "In trying to be perfect for someone else who thought she knew better, I guess I was shutting out the way to be my best self. I guess I can sing if it means bringing attention over to this neglected area. Just don't count on it being a regular thing."

Filthy looked confused. "Uh, I have no idea what you just had an epiphany about, but all right."

Turning on the karaoke machine, Tomato played the tune of one of his favorite songs, and began to sing heartily.

Author's Note

It's been a month since the last chapter. The only reason being that I was having a hangup over whether or not I wanted to use Filthy Rich for this. It was a case of asking myself way too many questions about him, his personality, his business(es)... so yeah, big road block he was, yikes.

But, I've written him now, and it's kind of fun to play with him and his various reactions to Tomato and the carnival. Though, if he were reading this, I think he'd disapprove of me calling him 'Filthy' a bunch (don't want to use full names all the time, though in some cases, like Tree Hugger, it'd be really awkward to shorten it to... Tree).

Take a wild guess on what some of the mentioned media in this chapter is based on. :derpytongue2:

20.5--For Beauty and For Profit

At last, evening fell.

As Cheese was preparing to wow the crowd with fruit-flavored fireworks, Tomato was sitting in Summer's cart, busy counting the total of bits raised by every event in the carnival. From the games to the food, the karaoke to the petting zoo, and the art to the white elephant items, everypony had been kept busy throughout the day. Mare, stallion, and foal alike got to enjoy themselves in at least one thing.

However, there were complaints, of which Cheese relayed to Tomato while sitting behind the karaoke stage with their tasks, as Lemon Zest distracted the guests with songs. With the accordion strapped over his shoulder and Boneless 2 in his mane, thanks to his new inability to reach his secret compartment, Cheese was making it clear that he didn't exactly have the best carnival run that day.

Cheese looked over the mini firework launcher. "Some parents were mad that I scared their kids. Well, sorry that I heard the most annoying whistle in my life and felt like murder!" He snorted and shook some dirt out of the barrel, and then went on to tighten a screw. "I also had to make sure bugs didn't get into the caramel, and keep some ponies from harassing the petting zoo animals. I also tackled a couple of thieves and graffiti artists bothering Toola Roola, got headbutted by a goat, nearly had my accordion and rubber chicken stolen, and some ponies were taking cheap shots at other ponies with the silly string."

"The eyes?"

"Yep."

Tomato grimaced. "My eyes hurt now."

Cheese huffed. "And there were the ponies that were just plain rude. Do you know how many ponies took one look at me and said to my face, 'This doesn't look like a Cheese party'?" Cheese tightened the screw on the launcher, set the screwdriver aside, and cocked the launcher. "About two or three dozen. I think a couple of them were outraged that it wasn't the grand festival that I'm known for."

Tomato pursed his lips. "For what we could do, it turned out pretty good."

Cheese stroked the mini launcher, glaring at the grass. "Not so dumb when you know you've done better, and ponies always expect you to bring your A-game."

"Well, you are kind of sick."

"I am not sick," Cheese growled.

Tomato held his hooves up. "Okay, I could have worded that better. I'm sure that once this is all over, Fluttershy can take us to Twilight, and whatever solution the Princess has will, uh... make you whole again."

Cheese looked up at the rising moon. It was nearly a half moon. "Yeah... sure. We want the whole thing."

The mesmerized stare and monotone in his voice sent shivers down Tomato's spine. Just when he gets comfortable with Cheese again, something happens that makes him reconsider being so close. It made him almost glad that Cheese barely had any party magic on him at the moment, because if Cheese snapped, somepony would die horrifically and hilariously, and there wouldn't be a thing anypony could do about it. At least as an almost normal pony, somepony could stop him before he could do too much damage.

Lemon Zest poked her head into their space. "Yo, I'm out of songs, does Cheese have the fireworks ready?"

Cheese shook his head and said, "Oh, yeah, I do!" He tightened the strap on his accordion, and then picked up the firework launcher. "Let them know I'm ready!"

Lemon grinned and bounced back to the stage. "Ladies and gents..."

As Lemon made the announcement, Cheese took a deep breath, and then looked at Tomato and his bits. "You know very well how businessponies are driven by profit. Tomorrow, your new friend's going to be considered the enemy, and if he decides on that spa resort... well, Fallow's park can't really survive against that."

Cheese trotted onstage to launch the fruit fireworks, leaving Tomato alone with the bits and his thoughts. Putting the bits in stacks of ten and putting the stacks in groups of ten, he thought about how that spa would go. How big would it be? How much damage could it cause to the environment around them? And even if Fallow paid for damages, there was still the fact that there clearly wasn't much funding or profit for the park. Sooner or later, it would likely be sold off.

At last, he finished counting; however, to his dismay, he was around 150 bits short.

He sighed, putting his face in his hooves and shaking his head. He should have known that the presence of Cheese Sandwich would have led to high expectations, followed by disappointment that scared off ponies that otherwise would have come. Fallow could at least pay off most of the damages to the town, but the mayor's threat could still wipe out the park sooner rather than later. This was frustratingly less like the fateful school fundraiser and more like Madame Bookshelf's shop. So close, and yet so far.

Still, there was one last thing Tomato could do. Pulling out a limp bag with the remainder of his bits, he estimated that there was still around 200 bits in there. He had spent so much trying to improve this carnival, despite plans for his own education, buying his own home, and starting his own business one day. Now, with a heavy heart, he dumped the rest into the box.

A firework boomed above him. He caught one of the flavored sparks with his tongue, because he had to treat himself somehow.

Tomato's last contribution was worth it to see Uncle Fallow's smile when they returned to his cabin that night.

"You actually did it? Sweet Celestia, you guys are amazing!" Fallow caught his daughters and nephews in a bear hug, squeezing the wind out of them. Tree Hugger and Summer Wind stood by, taking in the happy moment.

Fluttershy smiled as she watched the scene from the couch, holding a cup of tea. "I knew we could count on you."

"Ack! Dad..." Toola Roola squeaked. "Can't... breathe..."

He set them down. "Sorry about that, I got a little too happy. Still, I'm grateful that you helped me cover the damages. Between this and our getting the animal situation under control, things are looking up."

Fluttershy nodded. "The best way to get them to listen is to remain calm, but stern. We even got some of the animals to start cleaning up."

"Wow, aren't you persuasive," Cheese said. He pointed to his brother. "Kind of like how Tomato managed to persuade a bunch of other ponies to help us after..." He trailed off, instead holding up a hoof to stare at dolefully.

Lemon Zest finished for him. "His magic's fried. He tried pulling party stuff out of nowhere but he got nothing, not even confetti! Weird part was when Tomato pulled stuff out of nowhere and shook stuff out of Cheese... like, what? Can you explain that?"

"It'll make your head explode," Tomato said bluntly.

Fluttershy had been staring at Cheese in concern. "Cheese, are you all right?"

Cheese had still been staring at his hoof, though his doleful look faded into a mild scowl. "I'll be fine. I just... need to go to bed."

With that, Cheese turned around, and went out the door, slamming it hard enough to make pictures shake and the others flinch. They all looked at each other in concern, and then turned their attention to Tomato, who just said, "He didn't have a really good day. Ponies expect a lot more from him than, quote, 'a fusion of a grade-school carnival and yard sale'."

Summer hovered by Tomato, squeezing him with a big grin. "Even if it was that, Tomato was so persistent and persuasive and wily and...you know, amazing! I don't think we'd have made it if it wasn't for his quick thinking! Even if Cheese wasn't doing too hot, the rest of us had a lot of fun! Am I right, or am I right?"

"I did get overwhelmed with art requests before my friends came along," Toola Roola muttered.

Tomato pried himself out of Summer's grip and looked between Fallow and Fluttershy. "So... dare I ask if either of you bumped into Grapevine?"

Fluttershy sipped her tea and sighed. "I tried to talk sense into him, but I think all I did was convince him that I was brainwashed."

Tomato groaned. "Of course it didn't work! If he tried to persuade me to change my cutie mark, then what point is there in reasoning with him? What's his deal anyway? He's like a parent that refuses to be responsible for his own children, and blames the rest of us when they misbehave."

Tree Hugger sat next to Fluttershy. "I've known him since we were small flower children. He's been off balance since his mother passed into the next life, so I suppose he's just trying to live up to her legacy of love, kindness, and oneness with nature for all."

Tomato leaned on the wall and chuckled sardonically. "I bet she was more reasonable about it."

Lemon scoffed, and went to fill a nearby chair, crossing her front legs. Fallow rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably, while Toola Roola looked around confusedly and said, "Probably. I dunno, I was a newborn when she died, so I only have secondhand accounts."

Fallow then decided to change the subject. "So, shall we discuss the game plan for tomorrow?"

Summer perked up. "Oh, yeah, turns out Tomato made friends with the businesspony that's coming. I think he's the Barnyard Bargains guy?"

"Filthy Rich?" Fluttershy asked.

Tomato nodded and started to pace back and forth. "Yep, Filthy Rich. He's thinking of branching out of Barnyard Bargains and making a spa resort for his wife, which... I'm not sure how that would affect you and the park, Uncle Fallow, so I'm inclined to be wary of the spa idea and maybe convince him that maybe he should just build a Barnyard Bargains here instead. Still, I'm more concerned about how this town is more likely to survive on tourist revenue, and a spa resort is an attraction that many ponies would like and be willing to travel to and, so... ugh, I'm so conflicted!"

Fallow shrugged. "Well, I don't know much about spas, all I know is that it's going to get a lot more attention than my park when it's built. I mean, nature's pretty relaxing, but it can't compete with the glamour of a spa. Unless you can get Filthy Rich to sponsor my park so that ponies can learn to appreciate nature, the most I can do is hope for stragglers finding my neck of the woods and enjoying the wonders within it."

Tomato perked up halfway through Fallow's talking, the wheels in his head turning. A smile gracing his face as Fallow finished, he said, "You know, not everypony relaxes at a spa. So, tell me, what are these wonders?"

"Dear Cheesy,

"Where the hay are you?! The last I heard from you was Salt Lick City, and I was getting ready to send you an update on Twilight's research when all of a sudden I couldn't figure out where to glide my paper to! East? West? To Baltimare? To Whinnyapolis? To Applewood? I didn't know, and it wasn't long before I realized that I was sensing you this whole time, like you're right next to me and letting me know you're doing great, and now you're gone. Sheesh, I don't know why I can't sense my friends like that, but I guess it's a party pony thing. Pinkie Sense keeps surprising me! Sadly, I don't think I can sense your missing memory. Pleeeeeeeease tell me you're not dead!

"If you're not, then you really, really must know that Twilight found something really neat! Well, she found a lot of neat stuff on memory magic but I'll tell you the important one so she'll gush about the others. She said she can track your lost memory through your magic signature, which is weird, because earth ponies can't use magic to write. She had to tell me that it meant a magic DNA thing which is unique to only you. It's reeeeeeally important that you come back to Ponyville as soon as possible so she can take your magic signature (still a really weird term), track your memory, and put it back in your head. I don't want you to have those awful headaches, Cheese!

"Oh, and I wrote to Party Favor and Silk Shimmer about the thing. They don't know about any friends their big brother had, sorry. But, Silk Shimmer said she was going to Kazam's trial! I can't wait to meet her in person, she sounds really nice. I hope we find the memory before the trial, because wouldn't that be awkward if you showed up without it!

"Other than that, how's your trip going? Are you taking your medicine? How's Tomato doing? What kind of parties did you throw and in what cities and what other crazy adventures did you have? I really want to hear it! It's going to be so much fun catching up when we see each other again (unless you're dead), and I hope those headaches aren't making you too cranky.

"Love, Pinkie Pie"

After reading through the letter, Cheese sneered and tore the paper to pieces. Sure, he loses his magic, but she was most likely still partying it up in Ponyville like some spoiled child. He didn't need her stupid pity and wished that she would just leave him alone.

At least she didn't rip teenagers to pieces like some rabid animal, the voice in his head taunted, if only to summon nausea within his gut. Maybe you're losing your magic because of your anger issues.

He threw the bits of paper out of the window, and slammed his head onto his pillow. "I am not angry... I am not angry... I am not angry..."

The morning sunlight washed over Aura Springs the next day. The townsponies had gotten to work cleaning up more of the debris from the streets, all the while keeping an eye out for any critters that didn't listen to either Fallow or Fluttershy the day before. When some small animal families showed up, the ponies instinctively froze until the critters showed them that they were helping clean up. The ponies continued on with their work, but still gave them wary looks.

Other animals had gone to the commune, where the flowerponies were picking special herbs from their gardens to soothe various illnesses that the critters had developed. These days, animals visiting for healing was not uncommon, whether it be eating the wrong thing or getting into one mishap or another. If any illness or injury was bad enough, then an animal was carried to the healing pool.

Grapevine made a tea out of his herbs and gave it to a cougar. It wasn't long before the big cat vomited out a sock.

Grapevine picked up the sock. "Surely you know the difference between food and not-food, right? Thistle Whistle had that assembly last week about what's good to eat and what's not."

The cougar glared at him. "Rowr..."

"Well, I'm sorry that you didn't understand a word she said. I'll make sure her language is clearer next time."

As the cougar sauntered off, Grapevine trotted to the next ailing animal, a shivering fox, and cradled it as it took a sip of the tea. He caught the diaper that it coughed up, put it in the sock, and then returned to cradling the fox as it relaxed in his forelegs. He took a look around at the other flowerponies, all offering healing herbs from the gardens to the animals, as well as some food to go, but holding back physical comfort thanks to said animals snapping at them. The only one who was physical was Tree Hugger, who was off in the corner, singing to and massaging a bear who was recovering from a pie-induced bellyache.

It was so strange, seeing most of the commune, who wanted a connection with nature and animals, to be unable to touch the animals that they wanted to heal. Grapevine wondered if they simply hadn't meditated enough, hence the lack of connection that came so easily to him and Tree Hugger. His mother had always said that it should be easy to connect with nature, and that everypony could find the nature-talking ability within themselves so that all may live in harmony. Who was he to question his mother's wisdom?

But, sometimes there was a haunting echo from long ago, that still made his heart ache whenever he thought about it.

"Honeydew, just because Grapevine can do it, doesn't mean that Lemon can! If it wasn't for the healing pools, we would have lost her!"

He quickly shoved that thought aside before the image of the blood could show up in mind's eye. Like most others, he didn't want to remember a painful part of the past. A happy distraction in the present would be welcome so that he could stave off the nausea.

There was a distraction, all right, but it didn't exactly make him happy.

There, with the mayor, was that big businesspony he had been hearing about throughout the days of protest. They were not hard to spot, as they clearly all sported neckties, slicked back their manes with artificial goop, and a smugness that reeked of exploitation. He recalled his mother saying that she had seen many of that kind in Manehattan, and that anypony with a moneybag cutie mark was a sign of trouble. It hurt to know that one of his own cousins was one of them. What was next, another cousin that's a bloodthirsty, warmongering soldier?

He quickly gave the fox to Tree Hugger, who asked, "Hey... are we swapping the healees? I hope you've been perfecting your sonic bliss..."

"Uh... I'll come back, I gotta persuade The Mare's new friend to leave this paradise as it is..."

Grapevine turned to leave, but Tree Hugger said, "I don't know... animals falling ill and ponies with negative vibes doesn't feel like paradise to me..."

Grapevine breathed through his nose. "Well, maybe if the townsponies treated the environment with respect, the animals would be nicer. The animals have a right to be upset over ponies' carelessness."

Tree Hugger gave him her dull stare. "Should you argue with blocked chakras?"

"My chakras are fine." Grapevine turned around and left without another word.

"Now, Mr. Rich, I assure you that our proximity to the forest will guarantee some of the freshest air in Equestria and the tranquility of nature should bleed into this town and refresh the spirits of any visitors to our humble town!" The mayor clapped giddily. "So, there you have our little town of Aura Springs. Gotta love our hard workers and the beauty of our landscape, right?"

Filthy Rich looked around the streets, and stared at a raccoon carrying a garbage bag to the nearest dumpster. "I don't know what anypony's talking about in regards to an 'animal problem'. Most of the critters I see have been picking up trash instead of raiding it."

The mayor forced a grin. "Yesiree, we have some amazing wildlife... the local researcher sure loves those creatures..." She then muttered under her breath, "If only he could keep them in check and that stupid commune wasn't so irresponsible..."

"What's that about a commune?" Filthy asked.

"Oh, just a group of flowerponies living on the outskirts of town, and you can see them just over there..." The mayor's ears pinned back and she groaned. "Aaaaaand here comes one of them now, it looks like their ringleader."

Filthy barely paid attention to that approaching pony, for he was distracted by other approaching ponies running down the hill.

Both approaching parties had come onto the scene a little too rapidly. Both Filthy and the mayor cringed as red-orange in a suit and green in a vest collided headfirst with an audible bonk, sending both on their haunches while cradling their heads. The other ponies with the former had slowed down and stopped upon seeing the collision, and grimaced at the sight, with the yellow pegasus coming forward to make sure both were all right.

The mayor turned to the party from the hill, and focused on the oldest one, who stood among his daughters and older nephew. "Oh, hello Fallow. I hope you're here to tell me that you miraculously obtained the bits to pay for damages."

"Well, that's one of the reasons I'm down here." Fallow pointed to the disoriented Tomato Sandwich trying to guess how many feathers Fluttershy had. "My nephew right there arranged a fundraiser to help me out."

Cheese Sandwich cleared his throat. "With the help of his certified party pony brother, of course. I mean, I wasn't completely useless, you know..."

Lemon Zest and Toola Roola had on saddlebags that jingled with the money. The former stated, "We're gonna go around town and pay those ponies back for all the crap they had to deal with for a while."

The latter nodded. "I mean, if anypony destroyed my art, I'd demand restitution too." She gave her sister a stink eye, to which Lemon glared back with a 'I thought we settled that years ago' look. Toola Roola then turned back and said, "I think we have enough to cover it."

Fluttershy stood up. "I'll be checking for any animals that are still naughty and making sure they understand why their behavior is wrong. I still have that Porcupine Mafia to track down and talk some sense into."

Filthy's eyes widened. "Porcupine Mafia?"

Tomato, now back to his senses, made a throat slashing gesture. "Ex-nay on the Orcupine-Pay Afia-May."

Fluttershy covered her mouth. "Oh, right. Uh... better go now!" She flew off, off to do the duty she proclaimed she would.

Cheese started to awkwardly shuffle away. "Aaaaaand since I'd be useless in what Tomato's planning to do, I'm going to help Fluttershy out." He pointed to the accordion slung around his shoulders. "I hear animals like music, so I might as well just... uh... go."

Watching Cheese leave, Lemon said, "Well, guess me and Rools will head out, too."

The sisters left, and the mayor and Filthy looked between Fallow and Tomato. The mayor asked, "And just what do you plan to do, young stallion? Turn our town into a zoo and profit off that? Because that's not the kind of business that I'm asking for."

Grapevine now stood up. "Oh, putting animals in cages is just cruel. How would you like to be trapped in one for your whole life and never knowing freedom?"

Tomato glared, lingering on Grapevine a little too long before going back to the mayor. "Will you ponies stop putting words into my mouth? I'm not planning on putting anything in any cages! Besides, I'm just here to ask if you showed Filthy Rich everything that your town has to offer."

The mayor scoffed. "What kind of question is... of course I have! The wares and souvenirs our shops sell, our tradesponies, our government buildings, our schools, our library, our residences, the scenery... and apparently the wildlife cleaning up everything for some odd reason."

Tomato put a hoof to his chin and smirked. "What about the nature park?"

The mayor waved a hoof. "As if Filthy Rich is interested in some campground. What use would it be for his business?"

"Do not speak for me, I have my own opinions," Filthy Rich said. "Besides, that's not really showing me what Aura Springs has to offer, is it?"

Tomato chuckled and started to prance around. "No-siree! I mean, he deserves to know what kind of place he's considering expanding his business into, what kind of risks and benefits that building here has to offer, and possibly finding out other ways to make a profit for himself and his employees around here." Tomato turned to the mayor and quirked an eyebrow. "Have you never taken a hike up there? Somepony would have had to approve Fallow's park..."

"The previous mayor did. I have better things to do than walk through a forest."

Tomato stopped and leaned onto his uncle. "Well, Fallow and I will happily take over and show Filthy Rich what wonders of nature are in that park, because it's only fair that he sees those things for himself."

"Hold on!" Grapevine objected. "How can you say that you want to exploit nature with a straight face? Surely you understand that animals are our equals, and that they shouldn't be enslaved to become circus performers for uneducated masses."

"Um, what?" Filthy Rich asked. "I don't run a circus, boy, and I hire ponies to do work for me. I'll be leaving the critters alone."

"Are you sure? How do I know that you won't be destroying their homes instead?" Grapevine picked up a passing chipmunk and held it in Filthy's face as it chirped. "Perhaps you should learn to communicate with nature before doing any business with them."

"Oh, now you're just using emotional appeals!" Tomato exclaimed. "Besides, I don't think he has the gift of tongues."

Filthy silently brushed the chipmunk-holding hoof aside. "Now, I do admit that cutting down some trees is likely; can't go through life without hurting something or someone. Still, if you want me to do as little damage as possible, isn't it best that I learn about this park and what's in it? I'm trying to find a good spot for my business, and if keeping the damage to a minimum will make ponies happy, well, I'll see to the most cost-efficient manner to do so." He turned to Fallow. "I hear you run that park right there. Please educate me."

Fallow nodded. "Well, you're definitely a polite fellow, Mr. Rich. If I have Miss Mayor's permission, I can give you the tour."

The mayor sighed. "Well, you do know your way around the park. But don't be feeding him to any bears!"

Fallow laughed. "No worries! I think they prefer party pony anyway."

From the distance, Cheese yelled, "I heard that!"

As the older adults dispersed, Tomato was left to face Grapevine, who only seemed to have a slight furrow of the brow to indicate any anger. Tomato wondered when the last time he was that stoic was, and couldn't help but be impressed at Grapevine's self-control. Still, there was an incoming argument, and Tomato was grateful that this time he had the upper hoof.

"What's your damage, man?" Grapevine asked. "Why are you getting an oppressor that only cares about money interested in this place?"

Tomato groaned. "Oh, for the love of... he's not an oppressor if his job is convincing ponies to make a purchase. You still have a choice to either buy the thing, or boycott it if he displeases you; nopony's forcing you at spearpoint."

"But do the animals have a choice?"

Tomato pursed his lips and snorted hotly. Wouldn't that have been quite the zinger had it not been for recent circumstances. "Oh, they've made choices all right. They made the choice to interpret your speeches of 'coexistence' to mean that they can do whatever they want without consequence. They made the choice to disrupt the lives of innocent ponies that were just minding their own business. And they made the choice to destroy property, steal food, and leave a mess behind for the rest of us to clean up! If animals are equals to ponies, then you better hold them to standards like ponies are!"

"They've been victims of pony carelessness for far too long, and 'standards' are always just some lame excuse to control them. Same applies to ponies oppressing other ponies, keeping them from finding their true selves!" Grapevine turned his back. "I swear, spoiled squares like you would do better to actually listen."

Tomato could feel heat rising throughout his body, and he felt like he was going to explode. "Okay, first off, what do you know about my life? You think that just because I wear a suit and have this cutie mark, my life is perfect? I've got many stories to prove you wrong, pal.

"Second, maybe the reason these townsponies don't listen is because the animals are actively ruining their livelihoods! If you wouldn't sympathize with violence, what makes you think they will? They don't see poor abused souls, they see spoiled little monsters taking as they please and throwing temper tantrums when something doesn't go their way! And you have the gall to be a whiny little snot waving slogans around like a flag while your father is left picking up the pieces!"

Tomato turned his back as well, knowing that Grapevine clearly wasn't listening. "I've been giving so much of my time, energy, and talents to help your father, while you just held a sign and complained. And frankly, I'm not finished yet."

He galloped off without another word, intending on catching up to Fallow Track and Filthy Rich.

Grapevine, on the other hoof, just started slowly going home, still silent and still steaming. He put his little chipmunk down, patted its head, and said, "There's no reasoning with him, little guy. He's too brainwashed by The Mare for us to reach. I wish I knew a way to stop them before you and your friends lose it all. Mom would have been crushed."

As Grapevine walked away, the chipmunk's doleful stare lingered on him for several moments. Scratching its chin, it decided that if their pony friend couldn't stop those oppressors, then perhaps it could fetch someone who could.

And thus, it scurried off.

For the rest of the morning and half the afternoon, Fallow led them through every trail of the nature park. Much of the journey was quiet, with only chirps of birds and moments of idle chatter breaking the silence. Uphill and downhill, over dust and rock, and through the gorgeous greens of conifer and deciduous, he intended to have every inch of his park shown to Filthy Rich, hoping that he'd be impressed.

Fallow did not quite understand why Tomato seemed so confident about this. It was ridiculous, this Filthy Rich guy would never agree to help him out with the visitor problem; he had his own things to attend to, after all! Mr. Rich didn't even seem to have that much reaction to everything around him.

But, nevertheless, he had to see all of what Aura Springs had to offer, and well, this park was technically an attraction of the town. It was nice to give a tour after such a long time, but he could still feel his stomach clench throughout the entire thing.

They skimmed the edge of the forest, putting tall, majestic mountains into view, with some looking like bread loafs or cones, and with the stone varying between colors of gray, brown, and even yellow. They paused one time to take in the sight of Unicorn Horn Falls, which did indeed resemble its namesake. The shape was one factor, but it also went the extra mile and created a sparkling, rainbow-colored aura in its mist. Just looking at it cast a spell on the two outsiders.

"My, oh my, I do wish I brought my camera," Filthy Rich said.

He was startled by a snapshot, followed by Tomato giving him a freshly-taken photo. "Here you go."

Fallow blinked. "Hey, wait, where'd you get a camera?"

Tomato dropped the camera into his shirt. "Out of nowhere."

Filthy just stared at his new picture. "Shame the sparkles don't shine through."

They soon moved on, climbing the hill to the top of the waterfall to see the view of the valley. The hills rolled through many shades of green, speckled with dots of color assumed to be wildflowers. The river cut through the valley, but its shimmering waters only added to the beauty of the valley. They even caught glimpses of the buildings of both Aura Springs and Graze Valley.

They moved on, following the river upstream for some time before coming across a beaver family working on their dam. As the ponies paused and watched the beavers in action, Fallow said, "I hate to pick out favorites, but I've always enjoyed watching the beavers. It fascinates me to see those master engineers at work, changing the landscape around them by creating their own little reservoirs." He paused when a beaver hollered and a tree came crashing down into the river. "Also, did you know that beavers are monogamous?"

"Oh, really?" Filthy asked. "And here I thought only ponies were like that."

"Nah, we're not alone in that. Wolves are also part of the club, their packs are made up of family. I could name a few more species that stick with one mate." Fallow stroked his beard and waved at the beavers, who waved back. "It's interesting to think of the ways that various animals have in common with us ponies. Some are very intelligent and solve puzzles, some build, some create family units... just seeing how they work is just remarkable."

"Huh..." Filthy tilted his head. "And here I just thought they were entertaining."

Suddenly, the beavers in the water screamed, and swam out of the way of a ball of three bull moose, tangled by the antlers that tumbled from a nearby hill. The moose landed in the water with a big ker-splash, resulting in a tidal wave that rammed beavers into the dam and riverbanks, and dumped water on the three stallions. While both Filthy and Tomato glared at the moose, Fallow just laughed.

"Well... I'll give you that, there are animals that are entertaining, like those stooges there." Fallow turned to see the beavers glaring at the moose and brandishing sharpened sticks, with some even showing off orange teeth in the process. "Excuse me, I've got to untangle the moose and keep the beavers from hurting them." With that, he went wading in to keep the peace.

Tomato tried to find something dry to wipe his glasses with. "Well, at least we didn't get attacked by anything, just splashed. But don't worry! Fallow can keep any of the meaner animals away from us! I mean, he can talk to them, heheh..."

Filthy squeezed water out of his tie. "I really should not wear my nice clothes when venturing into nature."

From where they stood, they could hear Fallow scolding, "Hold still, Curly! I can't have you kicking us!"

"All right, now that you've seen some wildlife, it's time for some really neat stuff I've found when hiking around here," Fallow said, climbing a hill. Helping both of the business-stallions up, he gestured into a large pit. Filthy looked uncomfortable for a moment, but peeked in closer, where in his sight were giant bones, petrified scales of many colors, and fossilized broken eggs scattered across the pit's floor.

Filthy backed up. "What is that?"

"Well, I think it might be an ancient dragon graveyard. I'm no expert in that field, so I can't really say anything about it, though I have been meaning to call a paleontologist over here to take a look ever since I stumbled onto--or rather, into--this thing."

"Well, why didn't you?" Tomato asked.

"Well, I don't know if I can afford it. I mean, you know that the Graze Valley folk are usually too busy to visit, and I'm sure Aura Springs is boycotting me for recent events, so haven't been making much money. I've even had to lay off rangers to the point I've only got Gloriosa and Timber left."

Fallow looked into the pit forlornly. "Well, such is life. This graveyard isn't even the best part."

After climbing another hill, they looked over a ledge to see a wide basin of steaming vents, colorful hot springs, and bubbling mud pits scattered among both barren landscape and green hills. The land had a rotten egg smell and it was noticeably warmer than the rest of the forest. Nevertheless, they were a different feature from what Filthy Rich had been expecting.

Fallow smirked. "Now, don't build any spas in this field. Killing ponies is bad for business."

Filthy had a hoof to his nose. "I don't think tourists would appreciate the smell either."

"Well, I don't know why it smells bad, I think it might be some weird chemical reaction happening in there or something. I don't know exact details, I'd like to have some kind of geologist take a look at this too." He leaned over to ask Tomato, "Say, what time is it?"

Tomato pulled out the pocket watch. "Two o'clock. Why?"

"Okay, good, we're just in time to see an eruption."

"What?"

One of the steaming vents in the middle of the basin bubbled, and sure enough, one large bubble gave way to a jet of white water spewing out of the vent. The fountain sprayed meters into the air, garbed in a robe of white steam and raining its hot tears around the immediate stone ground. A rainbow formed around the sight, almost in a manner of the geyser smiling at them. Tomato whistled at the sight, while Filthy just blinked in amazement.

"One of these things erupts every hour or so, and they like to take turns," Fallow said. "They're pretty to look at, so sometimes when I want to be alone, I go up here and just watch them blow."

"I see why. That Tree Hugger lady mentioned meditating near geysers," Tomato muttered. "That was the only part of her sentence that made sense."

"Dare I say, that looks like it could be a fantastic tourist attraction!" Filthy exclaimed. "Is it possible for ponies to take a closer look?"

Fallow grimaced. "I've tried it before, I've gotten scalded for my troubles; and the less said about about incidents about animals I couldn't stop from wandering in there, the better. Like I said, I need to get a geologist to figure out where it's the safest to traverse the field. But, like the paleontologist thing, I'm not sure I can afford it."

Filthy huffed and softly kicked at the ground. "For a guy who runs a big park, you sure have money troubles."

Fallow sighed. "Don't remind me."

Tomato pawed at the ground. "Well... we've seen flora, fauna, rocks, dragon bones, and hot water. I think it's about time he sees the town's namesake."

Fallowed nickered grumpily. "Do I have to?"

"Ow! Where'd that rock come from?!" Filthy yelled.

Tomato glanced at Filthy's now bleeding fetlock and the older businesspony's reluctance to put weight on it, and said, "Well... now you do."

Back on the hill with the town in view, Filthy Rich got to dip his hoof into the healing pools, and was amazed at the sight of his fetlock being restored to normal within seconds. Bringing his dripping hoof up to eye level, he said, "Wow. I had no idea that anything like this ever existed! I mean, doctors always tell me that there's no 'heal-all' spell, and yet, here it is! Right here!"

Tomato grinned. "Well, it's handy for when a pony gets hurt in the park..."

Fallow nodded numbly. "Yeah, we don't even need a hospital."

"I'm surprised nopony in Equestria heard about this place." Filthy looked down at it, rubbing his chin. "It'd make a fine attraction for sure, enough that anypony who heard about it would drop everything just to heal some affliction they had. If there were more of these across Equestria, hospitals would go out of business. Have you given a fine to anypony you caught taking a dip?"

Fallow raised an eyebrow. "Odd question, but no. Closest I've ever done was give my wife a scolding for using it to cure our kids' minor cuts, bruises, and the common cold. I kept on telling her to use it for emergencies only, but..."

"Wait, it can cure the common cold?" Tomato asked.

"I told you, Tomato, it can heal any non-magical affliction."

Tomato's mind flashed to Cheese, and he wished that the pool could do more than just repress any physical symptoms of a spell. Even then, he was still wondering if that extended to brain chemistry. If not, then Cheese was doing a heck of a job keeping his anger in check.

Fallow sighed. "But, honestly, the reason I never even tried to bring attention to this park beyond Aura Springs and Graze Valley is because I fear that ponies would swarm these pools, and not just for anything life-threatening--for dumb things like colds and bellyaches, all with an excuse of 'it could actually be a life-threatening condition', when most of the time they're not. I've managed to convince the animals to save it for emergencies, but I may be a bit of a pushover when it comes to ponies. This fear kinda bit me in the flank, since now most ponies around here are either too busy or angry with me to even come."

Filthy still stared down at the pool. "I'm well aware that this sounds cruel, but you need to erect a fence and put a price on these. Otherwise, ponies would end up abusing it like you've said. The idea of paying money for it will make ponies evaluate their priorities, and if the sickness or injury is bad enough, then they're more likely to take the risk. Nopony's that cheap."

"I don't know... wouldn't that just make ponies mad?"

"I know it would. But, not only will it protect those pools, but it may just give you some much-needed bits." Filthy looked at Tomato. "Your nephew here can't be saving your behind forever, he's still young and has his own life to live. Though, if I may, perhaps I may provide some assistance as well."

Fallow blinked. "Pardon?"

"I'm no outdoor pony, but that doesn't mean everypony else isn't as well. I know some ponies back in Ponyville who would consider this place paradise. They could hike, climb, go river rafting, take in the scenery, see animals... maybe along with a spa for those who like to be pampered, perhaps my plans for a resort can include your nature park for all those who like to channel their rugged mountain horse. Of course, if you and the mayor are willing, we could start discussing plans for how it'll work."

"I, uh, don't know what to say..." Fallow said, scratching his head. "I just... is there a catch? Is there any reason I should be concerned about what happens with the healing pools, the geysers, the animals?"

Tomato slid in between them. "I'm hoping that the most damage that happens is just that a few trees are felled, because I'm sure the point of Fallow's park is to protect nature and to help ponies appreciate the beauty of it. And Mr. Rich's spa is meant to help ponies relax, wind down, gain back their senses, teach them new relaxation techniques... you know, they're both meant to help you get away from the stresses of life!" Tomato rubbed the back of his head. "I think my friend Flora would be able to explain it better if she was here, but I know they can coexist, especially if Mr. Rich leaves the natural things alone."

"Well, perhaps not completely alone," Filthy said. "Some paths need fixing up, you need new signs, some cabins like that one should be built, and you clearly need more than two rangers. I may have to tweak prices in Barnyard Bargains to cover those, but perhaps we can make this work."

Fallow smiled. "Well, that sounds fair enough, and I appreciate the burden off my shoulders. For my part, I'll be keeping the animals in check, so that they don't hurt anypony or damage property, and educate the ponies on how to respect the creatures. I want every visitor to be safe and respectful. And I'll keep your fines suggestion in mind."

Tomato grinned at the sight of the compromise. They said it couldn't be done, that both sides couldn't coexist like that. But here he was, having orchestrated events so that the cards could play in both favors. While there were still some rogue animals that Fluttershy and Cheese were looking for, and the flowerponies were going to protest no matter what they did, Tomato still felt victorious over seeing the agreement unfold before his eyes.

Fallow's ears perked up at the sound of his daughters calling about extra bits. "Oh! I think we still have some bits left over. I guess I'll put that away for safekeeping." He laughed and patted Tomato on the back. "I bet your parents would be proud to hear what their son did."

Not noticing Tomato's sudden frown, Fallow started to walk away. "I'll meet you at city hall!"

"Uh, actually..." It was too late, Fallow was too far for Tomato to correct. "Never mind."

As both started their way down the hill, Filthy quirked an eyebrow. "Hey, what's with the sour face? All he said is that your parents would be proud."

Tomato sighed. "I just... ugh, he doesn't know that my mom--his sister-in-law--is insanely hard to please. No matter how close I am to her 'perfect son', if my entire person isn't perfectly aligned with what her interpretation of my mark, I'm a criminal destined to fall into Tartarus with my brother if I'm not corrected. I want to tell Fallow the truth, but I don't want to disappoint him with the harsh reality of my mother."

Filthy just stared at him, and pursed his lips. "'Perfectly' perfectly? We businessponies have standards, and my pappy was hard on me when I did wrong, but... you don't sound like you're free. You sound like you've been put in too small of a box all your life."

"Not all my life, just after I got my cutie mark." Tomato inwardly recoiled at his next thought. "Maybe Grapevine was about half-right about some rules keeping you from truly blooming. But, don't worry about me, because this trip my brother concocted helped me out of my box."

Filthy laughed. "I'm guessing that that was the epiphany you had yesterday, huh?"

Suddenly, after Tomato had finished his nod, something zipped by their faces and planted itself in a nearby tree. Turning to see what it was, they were surprised to see a porcupine quill, with a rope tied to it and stretching from where it came. Filthy strummed the rope curiously, Tomato could feel a sense of horror dawning upon him as he stared at the quill.

"What the...?" Filthy murmured as the rope started falling loose.

Tomato pawed at the ground. "Mr. Rich, we need to get out of--"

They heard a battle cry, and they turned to see a porcupine riding upon the back of a falcon, clutching the end of the rope and flying right toward them. Tomato attempted to hurry Filthy away, but the rope was suddenly in their way, followed by another roped quill-arrow and another porcupine riding in on a hawk. Several more roped quill-arrows followed, embedding themselves in trees and surrounding them, as porcupines and other animals rode in on large birds and started to circle them. The animals looped around quicker than Tomato could react, with the ropes being pulled tighter and tighter. All either Tomato and Filthy could do was wonder how they could coordinate such an attack without stumbling, and what the animals were planning to do with them once they had them.

Now tied up with layers of rope, finished with pretty bows, Tomato could feel the pressure on his chest and the wobbling of his legs as both he and Filthy tipped over, their faces hitting the pine needle ground. They could only look up as a gang of porcupines and other critters stood over them, and laughed at them, high-fiving each other. They even patted a little chipmunk on the head.

"Oh, no, not the Porcupine Mafia," Tomato groaned. "I thought Fluttershy was taking care of that."

"Uh, what are they going to do to us?" Filthy asked with panic in his voice. "They don't look as nice as those beavers were!"

The lead porcupine chattered threateningly at them, though with no nature talker in sight, all Tomato and Filthy could do was just stare in fear and confusion. Then, before they knew it, the leader snapped his claws, and they were picked up by a bear. It was too much effort for either to resist gagging at the bears rancid breath, and when the bear roared at them, Filthy just cowered, while Tomato hissed back.

As all animals in that area, big and small, chanted their war cries, they carried the two ponies off into the forest, to a fate unknown.

Author's Note

Well, this is longer than I expected it to be. :applejackunsure:

Regardless, here's another installment of the story, which yet again took a while to write because ~~I was lazy half the time~~ ~~I was worried about it being forced~~ ~~I was lamenting about how any research I do doesn't cut it and I'm a failure of a writer~~ real life has its demands. Also, it's fun to randomly look up beavers and geysers to see what you can add to the story.

I think I may have fused Yellowstone and Yosemite for that park. Ah, whatever, it's Equestria, not everything is perfectly aligned with America, like how Pony China is in the equivalent of New England.

I'm still more amused than I should be about the Porcupine Mafia.

20.6--No More Mr. Nice Guy

When he had made it to town, Fallow had to swim through a crowd to get into city hall. He saw the usual signs about peace and coexistence from one side, and heard complaints about stolen items from the other. He could see the town's few police officers breaking up fights, with at least a couple of the ponies involved having bloody noses. Some even dared to notice him, and attempted to accost him, only for him to keep pressing forward. Still, he heard the complaints, and could tell who was on what side by their complaints. One side accused him of selling out; the other brought up stolen food, documents, and other things like a crossbow collection.

He made it to the door, and quickly slipped in. He cantered his way to the mayor's office through a city hall that looked as much like a cabin lodge on the inside as it did out, and ended his journey through another door. He entered the room to find Summer Wind hovering and showing the mayor various books on wildlife and natural wonders.

Summer looked up. "Hey, Mr. Track! I'm just giving our lovely mayor a bit of education about what your park has to offer!"

"Oh, is that so?" Fallow waltzed forward and sat in one of the comfy chairs before the desk. "I could have brought her along and shown her myself, but I guess a little budding teacher like you needs a little practice."

The mayor rubbed her temples. "I let you keep the thing, and yet you ponies still won't let it go. I swear, it's Oatley all over again..." She leaned forward on her desk and narrowed her eyes. "Where's Mr. Rich?"

Fallow looked at the other chair and rubbed the back of his head. "I gave him and Tomato a headstart for city hall while I sorted out the extra bits from the fundraiser. I thought I'd meet them here, but I guess they might have tried to find a detour to avoid the crowd outside."

Summer flew to the window and looked outside. "Yeesh, I wouldn't blame them. They'd have lynched Tomato!"

The mayor had a hoof on her brow and shook her head. "Fallow, don't tell me that you convinced Mr. Rich to make your park part of the resort? In case you haven't noticed, just because you and an animal-talking friend managed to sweet talk those animals yesterday doesn't mean that they'll keep behaving when she leaves. As long as your son keeps perpetuating his mother's ridiculous claims of how no pony and no animal needs any rules or laws to live in harmony, the little beasts are going to take advantage of that!"

"I'm going to talk to Tree Hugger, as she can get through to Grapevine," Fallow said. "Maybe if he hears it from her, he can get it through his thick head that not every law is inherently oppressive, not every creature is inherently nice, and that nature has the ever cruel law of 'survival of the fittest'. It's why I have rules on ponies and animals keeping a safe, respectful distance from each other."

"Do you even care about the safety of the townsponies? Because this town would be better off without the little monsters."

Summer whistled and shoved a book in the mayor's face. "Hey, just so you know, nature does have a delicate balance, and removing species entirely will disrupt that balance, like an overgrowth of flora or an infestation of bugs. You can't just expect to have an extermination order without both natural... and political consequences."

The mayor pushed the book out of her face. "Well, I know some immediate political consequences being those blasted flowerponies getting in everyone's way and preaching 'tolerance' every time somepony decides to retaliate and scare the things off." She turned back to Fallow and narrowed her eyes. "Bottom line is, irresponsibility is not just on their parts, Fallow, it's on yours as well. If you truly had been responsible, you would have abandoned that park when your daughter nearly got killed by predators. How long will it be until somepony actually does get killed?"

Fallow's gut twisted within him. No matter how much he argued for the wilderness he loved, there was always going to be a danger of an animal attacking a pony. Lemon Zest was one such victim, and it was only Fallow's timing and the existence of the healing pools that just barely averted tragedy, and even then, though there were no physical scars, there were still mental scars. Even he himself was not immune, he reminded himself as he looked at the scars from youth underneath his shirt. He could preach to ponies all the time about not provoking the animals, but that wouldn't account for the bad eggs of the animal kingdom.

Suddenly, the door burst open, and Fallow's two daughters, Fluttershy, and Tree Hugger came dashing in. Lemon and Toola Roola were clamoring incoherently while the other two were rather silent. Fluttershy was still clearly concerned, and while Tree Hugger's expression was still far more relaxed than the other girls', she still held a frown that indicated that something was wrong.

"Whoa, whoa, girls!" he exclaimed. "Calm down, and speak slower. What's wrong?"

Tree Hugger was the first to speak. "I received an invite to an animal rally about celebrating the end of the Mare's tyranny, and I got ugly vibes from the venom of the message."

"What the hay does that mean?" the mayor said.

"I got some clarification from the peaceful animals," Fluttershy said. "They told me that the Porcupine Mafia had captured two agents of The Mare with stolen crossbows, and carried them off into the forest. And since the mayor's right there..."

Lemon Zest then screamed, "The animals are going to kill Tomato and Filthy Rich!"

Summer dropped her books. "What?!"

Fallow was swiftly on his hooves. "What?! How?! Why are they going along with the porcupines? Fluttershy, how did you miss them? And lastly, does Grapevine know? Or how about Cheese? Where the heck are those stallions?"

"If they invited Tree Hugger, they might have invited Grapevine," Toola Roola said. "I don't know if he knows what it really is."

Fluttershy twiddled her hooves. "Cheese and I split up to cover more ground; last I saw him, he was tracking them like a dog would. I was just so much in a hurry to find you that I neglected to find him too."

The mayor slammed her hooves on the desk, her face now having turned red and steam coming out of her ears. "Fallow Track! You best stop that execution of those innocent ponies! If those animals slay those two I'm going back on my promise and taking that park away from you! After everything that's happened, I don't care what happens to the forest as long as those stupid animals don't harass my little ponies anymore!"

Fallow backed up at the sheer volume of her voice. Turning to Lemon, the daughter that he nearly lost, he felt a heavy heart at history repeating itself; however, he was unsure if he was going to make it in time. He stroked her hair, he told her, "You stay in town and look for Cheese; he couldn't have gone far. The rest of us will look for the animal party and hopefully stop them from doing anything to Tomato and Mr. Rich."

Lemon nodded. "'Kay, Dad." She leaned over to look at her sister. "Just make sure they don't hurt Rools."

Summer was punching her hoof. "Count me in! I'll wrestle a bear if it means saving Tommy!"

Fluttershy turned to glare at the mayor. "I'll have a word with you after we save the businessponies."

Fallow was already galloping to the front door. "Well, come on, gang, let's go! Not a moment to lose!"

"When I wondered what it'd be like to get tangled with a mafia, porcupines were not part of the equation," Tomato grumbled.

"Did you imagine these other animals?" Filthy Rich deadpanned.

Being dangled from an elk's antler was not either pony's definition of fun, but here they were, attached to said antler as the elk marched in a parade with other animals. Led by the Porcupine Mafia, there was dancing and cheering as they marched through the forest. From the smallest chipmunk to the largest bear, there were a variety of critters celebrating the capture of those two businessponies and showing off their trophy to any other critter that watched. The leaders were clearly saying something, but unfortunately, there were no bats in the procession, and those were the only animals that Tomato could understand.

They stopped at a ledge, and the two stallions could see the geyser field in view. Between staring at the field, and noticing a bear and a couple of beavers in the process of felling a tree, they started to piece together what the animals were planning to do.

"I thought they were going to cook us and eat us!" Filthy Rich exclaimed.

"How is that any better than what they do have planned?" Tomato asked.

"Ever heard the tale of the pony who dissolved in a hot spring?" Filthy shuddered. "I'd at least like to have remains for my family to bury, even if they're just bones."

Tomato grimaced. "I'm surprised that they're doing this instead of just mauling us like, you know, the animals they are."

There was a boom, and they looked at the tree that once stood tall, now reduced by bear and beaver to an incomplete bridge over hot water. Before they could even process it, the elk strode forward and dumped the tied-up pair onto the log, with the animals chanting some sort of tribal chant. The bear pinned the log down so that it wouldn't tip, and the leader of the porcupines, who donned a fedora, hopped onto the log with them, and pulled one of his quills off his back.

"You know... I think I'm starting to get it," Filthy Rich said. "They're doing a 'walk the plank' kind of deal like pirates. Not something I'd associate with the mafia, but this isn't Manehattan, so I guess they're making do with what they have here." He glanced at the steaming vents, one of which puffed out an extra burst of steam, and gulped.

"There's got to be some way to get out of this pickle..." Tomato mumbled. He looked around, hoping for some kind of tool or distraction to help them escape, or at least some way to untie the ropes so that he could reach into his secret compartment for one.

The porcupine made a lunge, to which the ponies instinctively shuffled back. The porcupine made another, the ponies backed up more. More and more the rodent made moves to stab, sending them back further and further over the geyser field. It would be easy for them to lose their balance, and only Tomato's tail kept them from falling into literal hot water.

At the end of the log, the porcupine stuck his quill in the bark, and then swiftly pulled other quills out to make a barrier, and create spikes all along the length of the fallen tree. It did this under the other animals' cheers, and much to the dismay of the businessponies. All that was standing between life and death was that bear holding the tree, and it was clear whose side he was on.

The lead porcupine held his paw up, and started announcing something. Granted, noises akin to a high-pitched honk didn't make for easy understanding of details, but Tomato could guess just what the speech was about. Looking between the animals and the sweating Filthy Rich he was tied to, all he could think was, Good job, Grapevine. Your lack of discipline is going to get us killed.

Naturally, after the speech was finished, several birds arrived with a curious Grapevine. He was fairly calm, with his usual chill expression, and seemed to be happy just following the birds wherever they led him. However, that expression changed once he saw Tomato and Filthy on the log, and he just stared in disbelief at the lead porcupine after that.

"Wait, this was the party you invited me to?" he asked. "Why are you doing this?"

After hearing some chatter from the porcupine, Grapevine replied, "What? No! Just because I dislike them doesn't mean I want them dead. All I want for them is to see the light and rethink their life choices."

"I'm certainly rethinking my plans to expand my business here," Filthy grumbled.

Tomato sighed. "Figures."

The porcupine chattered some more, and Grapevine responded, "Well, I didn't count on my cuz being so stubborn, but, man... this is just cruel. I just want us all to live in peace and harmony, and for us to be free from the oppression of The Mare. Surely you can find it in your hearts to treat them as kindly as I've been treating you, and perhaps their hearts will be changed."

The animals all looked at each other and chattered a bit. For a moment, it seemed like that they were reconsidering their plans; but it was just for a moment, and the animals, glaring at Grapevine for his 'betrayal', started their rallying cry. The lead porcupine snapped his claws, and the bear let the log go. Tomato and Filthy felt a sharp drop and a frightened cry burst out of their mouths.

Grapevine gasped, jumped forward, and managed to grab the tilting log just in time. With all his strength, Grapevine managed to boost the log up, with the businessponies still staying on thanks to Tomato's tail. He could only go as far as making it level with the ledge, however, and with many porcupine quills in the way and a tail too occupied to remove them, the two were still reluctant to cross back to land.

"Holy cow, you're strong!" Tomato exclaimed.

"It runs in the family!" Grapevine replied.

The animals were stunned by Grapevine's brazen action, and many of them narrowed their eyes and growled at him. However, as they started to make a move to gang up on him, with the bristled porcupines in front, a stone suddenly flew out of nowhere and nailed the bear on the head. Hearing the bear's roar, the animals turned to see the perpetrator, who was none other than Cheese Sandwich.

"I thought I smelled something fishy when I smelled Tomato's scent and porcupine scent together." He stepped forward and swept his eyes across the crowd of angry animals. Seeing Grapevine, he said, "I hope you realize that this is a direct consequence of you looking the other way when they're being bad."

Grapevine shot back, "I don't want to abuse my powers and control them to be lifeless squares! It's the same way my mom raised me!"

As he said that, the animals all jumped after Cheese, and the party pony was forced to pick up a nearby stick and bat the smaller critters away, while he continually dodged the larger animals and made them hit each other. Looking down at the accordion strapped around his shoulder, he was clearly considering trying the "music soothes the savage beast" trick. But, he still didn't have enough time to unstrap the instrument and had to continue dodging, batting, and throwing rocks.

Tomato scoffed. "I know she was more lenient than my mom, but surely she understands that there are basic boundaries for her kids to follow."

Filthy Rich nodded. "Yes, like bedtimes, eating nutritiously, taking baths..." Filthy looked down and cringed. "Not in scalding hot water like the springs we need to be saved from, mind you, so can Cheese Sandwich hurry up so he can get those quills out of our way?"

Cheese snapped from a distance, "You try fending off a bunch of animals!"

Grapevine cringed at Cheese swatting critters away. "Don't hit them too hard!" He felt the log tip, and pushed it level again, his front legss starting to tremble from the exertion. He looked up at the other two. "Mom always told me that rules are a form of abuse. They're just made by The Mare to oppress us and keep us from being our true selves."

Filthy gave him an odd look. "Do you mean all rules? I know some pretty unfair ones, but..."

Tomato's face went from red-orange to crimson. "Are you saying that your mother just let you do whatever you want and didn't set any standards?!"

"Hey, I turned out just fine. Sure, Mom and Dad argued about it, but obviously rules are just there to control ponies, anyway."

Cheese yelped, and the conversation paused to see that Cheese had been on the receiving end of a few quills shot by crossbow, and just barely made it behind a tree as a skunk started to spray. That didn't protect him from angry squirrels and chipmunks making it rain acorns and pine cones on top of him.

Tomato still glared at Grapevine. "Do you realize that you sound like a criminal when you say that? Ugh, I can't believe your mom is the opposite of mine in the most dangerous way possible! You turned out 'fine' because you're clearly the mellow one of the family! Well, what about Lemon Zest? How'd your mom's policy work for her, huh?"

"Hey, it's not Mom's fault that Lemon was a wild child." The log tipped again, and Grapevine righted it again.

Tomato did not like that bounce, as he nearly lost his balance. "No, but it pays to teach a four-year-old self-control, because they don't automatically gain it when they're older. With those animals, the sheer amount of cliffs, and this geyser field below us, I'm guessing the only reason Lemon's even alive is because of her father!"

Grapevine blinked, and then looked away. "And... the healing pools."

Behind Grapevine, Cheese managed to get some space between him and all of the animals, and he had his accordion slung out to the front and ready to play. He soon noticed that he had little time before a charging deer came into contact.

"Okay, time for my signature accordion attack!" He then attempted to throw one end of the accordion to hit the deer. Sadly, it didn't even go two feet; instead, the bellows hung limp, playing sad notes as the keyboard dangled above the ground. Staring at it in disbelief, Cheese threw his hooves up and complained, "Really?!"

Then he found himself having to catch the deer by the antlers and having to wrestle it away. It was then that he noticed an elk charging, and thus, had to muster enough strength to swing the deer around and smack it in the face.

Grapevine watched the scene and turned back to the other two. "I don't want the animals to hurt anypony. But punishing them just sounds so... not groovy, man, and might turn me into an oppressive killjoy."

"Grapevine, take it from me, my mother is an oppressive killjoy," Tomato said. "I do get where your mother got the idea that rules are inherently unfair and oppressive, because she had to deal with my mom as a sister. I wasn't always this 'square' you see, I was once a hyperactive social butterfly that was all smiles. Long story short, grandparents died, Mom got harder on Cheese, Cheese ran away, Mom got harder on me to the point where I was reduced to an emotionally repressed prisoner of guilt and anger that had trouble making friends. College was my first taste of freedom, and this summer is the most freedom that I've ever had in my entire life! I've learned so much about the world and myself in such a short time!

"But as much as I needed freedom, that doesn't mean that your mother was right in going to the other extreme. Heck, in copying her style, you are responsible for all of the damages in property and livelihood in town, and have put the animals in a lot of danger of getting poisoned, getting hurt, getting removed from their habitat, or even dying! If the animals were ponies, they'd be considered criminals and thrown into jail! I've known classmates back in Manehattan with lax parents, and quite a few of them were bullies who eventually became criminals.

"You are the nature talker, so it's your job to take care of them--and that includes discipline, so that long term damage can be prevented. Sometimes, you need to be a little mean in order to truly be kind."

Grapevine pursed his lips and thought for a moment. He looked at Cheese fighting the animals, who had turned on him the moment he decided to save the enemy, and then looked back to the pair of tied-up businessponies, who were only perched on that log over the geyser field because of said animals. With a sigh, he said, "That's a lot like what Fluttershy was telling me yesterday."

Filthy Rich grinned nervously. "That's real nice to hear, Mr. Grape. Now, uh, how long until we are rescued?"

Tomato tilted his head. "Well, Cheese is playing his accordion now, so maybe music will soothe the savage beast."

"Hey, they dig it when I play music, so I think it'll work," Grapevine said. "Then again, they hate Lemon's music."

The bear stood up and roared.

"Something tells me that they don't like polka either," Tomato said.

Cheese was lucky that he went just the right direction so that the bear tripped over one of the porcupines, leaving it with quilled knees. But, he made the mistake of pausing to laugh at the bear's knee pain, and a raccoon snatched his accordion right out of his hooves.

"Hey!" Cheese snapped.

As the critters angrily chattered and cheered over removing Cheese's "weapon", the raccoon tossed it to the deer, who batted it away with his antlers, and the accordion soared through the air, straight to where Grapevine was holding the tree in place.

Grapevine did what any sane pony would do when a hard object was flying his way: he instinctively jumped out of the way, letting the accordion hit the log. But, in consequence, the log fell off the ledge before he could catch it, and the tied-up businessponies down with it. Both ponies screamed as they fell into the field, and they and the log bounced and rolled through it, bouncing in between trickles and streams of hot water flowing from springs and geysers. They rolled to a stop just before one of the colorful springs, and they laid there on that crust, moaning in their dirty soreness.

Tomato glanced all around him. The hot spring right there, that geyser over there, another in that direction, a bubbling mud pit not too far away... and the steam billowing from where they had just came. Staying put was dangerous, but so was moving. Fallow was not kidding when he said that the geyser field was difficult to navigate.

Cheese dashed to the ledge, looking over the geyser field and hoping to see how far they had rolled. The cracks from where they had bounced had burst out hot steam, concealing his view of the businessponies, and there was no way of knowing where it was safe to step. He couldn't just gallop over there and fetch them without getting hurt, and, as much as he didn't want to admit it, his party pony magic couldn't protect him now. He couldn't save Tomato and Filthy Rich.

To add salt to the wound, at the bottom of the cliff, his accordion was in pieces.

He was on his knees, numb to the quills in his back, numb to the cheers of the animals behind him, and numb to Grapevine putting a hoof on his shoulder in an attempt at comfort. He couldn't see them; for all he knew they could be dead, boiling away in some hot spring. The uncertainty gnawed at his heart, and the weight of failure was going to crush him.

"I'm sorry," Grapevine said. "If I could have gotten them off that log, I would have."

He turned to glare at the animals laughing behind them. "Hey! That was his brother... like, he was both his blood brother and his soul brother! This is not the harmony that I've been preaching, man! Can't both ponies and animals just coexist peacefully?"

The lead porcupine shook his head and chattered, and Grapevine replied in disbelief, "Dude, you didn't have to make this a downer with cold-blooded murder. I don't dig their lifestyle, but taking them out is just way out of line."

As Grapevine argued with the animals, Cheese could feel his numbness evaporate as he heard those animals chatter, squeak, and roar. A fire had been sparked; a fire that manifested in his bristling fur, tight and shaky muscles, and growls rumbling from deep in his throat. Any will to resist this feral rage within him was gone, and he was ready to release a sudden burst of energy. If they thought they won just by taking out a so-called "symbol of oppression", then Cheese was going to make them think twice. He was going to make them pay with their blood.

Before Grapevine could even blink, Cheese turned around and pounced on the very raccoon that had taken his accordion in the first place, and with an predatory snarl, chomped down on the critter's neck and thrashed it about. It wasn't even ten seconds until he threw the limp critter into a tree, and sped off to catch another of the scattering critters.

"Whoa!" Grapevine exclaimed. "What are you doing, man?!"

Cheese's next bite broke the skin of a beaver, and he looked up with his mouth covered in blood and his eyes dark. He barked viciously before tossing the beaver into a deer's face, sending it stumbling onto it's side. It was just getting up when Cheese jumped it, and found it's neck caught in his death grip, rolling it to the ground and twisting its neck further than was comfortable.

Grapevine jumped forward and pulled at Cheese's tail. "Stop, stop! This isn't even, like, pony behavior!"

Cheese released his grip, hopped to his feet, and grabbed Grapevine by the vest. "You wanted no rules, cousin. Well, who are you to stop me?"

He lifted the green stallion, and tossed him just far enough for him to stumble back over the ledge. Now with nopony to stop him, he now turned his attention to the porcupines preparing their crossbows. Using the deer as a shield as they shot their quills from those crossbows, he took a nearby long, sharp stick, and had his eyes on the fedora-wearing leader.

Throwing the deer proved an effective distraction, making the porcupines scurry, and he swiftly blocked the leader's path. A whack with the stick sent it on its back, and before it could use the crossbow, Cheese plunged the stick into the critter's chest. It was satisfying to see the stick sink through, the blood oozing out of the wound. As the porcupine went still, he lifted it on his spike, and smiled wickedly. "I do wonder what porcupine on a stick tastes like."

He noticed a elk charging him, and proceeded to use the porcupine as a club.

Meanwhile, Grapevine had grabbed a root to keep from falling all the way down, and was helpless as he listened to Cheese continue his slaughter of the animals, with both the wiliness of pony and the ferocity of beast. All he could think about was the possibility of how he could have prevented it.

In the geyser field, Tomato was never more grateful for his tail.

It kept him and Filthy above the fragile crust of the field, not even wobbling under the weight. He considered bouncing across the field with it, as maybe it could keep him safe, but he was unsure if it could keep up with that for a long time. Not to mention he had never tried it before, and he was worried about cracking open more steam vents, or splashing hot water onto himself or Filthy. Or worst of all, with limited visibility, he could end up stumbling into a hot spring.

"Okay, so maybe if we just stay here until the steam lifts, we might just get rescued," Tomato said.

"This place is a sauna that's a little too... strong..." Filthy held back a retch. "...and it smells so much like rotten eggs."

"Hm, yeah, the rotten egg smell might indicate something... bad." But what else was he supposed to do? Any step or bounce he could take was potential danger. He managed to get himself and Filthy away from that one hot spring, but he couldn't see any other dangers. Sweating from the heat and his stomach churning from the smell, he wished he could fly like...

"Summer!" Tomato perked up. "She's a pegasus! And hey, there's Fluttershy too! I can give Cheese a holler and he'll fetch one of them!"

"Glad to see that you have useful connections," Filthy said. "Pays to make good friends."

"Do you mean that casually or professionally?"

Filthy didn't even bother to answer it. "Just holler."

A party of five galloped through the forest, hoping to reach the party of animals before they executed the businessponies. Fallow, Fluttershy, Toola Roola, Tree Hugger, and Summer Wind went as fast as their legs--or wings--carried them. Periodically, Fluttershy and Summer flew up to check the surroundings, to find any sign of a disturbance in the forest. So far, their scouting brought up practically nothing--except awesome views of the surrounding landscape, to which Toola Roola bemoaned not being able to fly.

Going up for another scouting flight, Summer asked, "So, you think you can talk sense into the Porcupine Mafia? They're nasty pieces of work, they extort ponies for pie and have tried stealing books from the library. Do animals even read?"

"Oh, they can learn if they're taught," Fluttershy answered. "Besides, I'd like to find out why they're doing this, and remind them that it's more healthy for them to eat their natural diet instead of sugary pony foods. If they're doing it just because they're mean, well, I'll have to use The Stare on them."

"The Stare?"

"It's sort of a superpower that gets the rowdiest of animals to listen. I prefer to save it for emergen--" Her ears twitched, and her eyes fell onto one patch of forest just by the geyser field. "I'm hearing something coming from over there!"

"Really? What?"

"It sounds like... cries for help! Oh, no, some poor animals are being attacked!"

Summer punched an open hoof again. "I bet it's the Porcupine Mafia and their cronies, terrorizing the animals that don't want to ransack town! If those little gangsters are there, then so is Tomato!"

The two pegasi swooped down to meet their earth pony friends, and Fluttershy darted the direction she heard the cries. "This way! There's a commotion over here and it might be the animals that kidnapped Tomato and Mr. Rich!"

"That's the direction of the geyser field!" Fallow exclaimed.

"And here I thought they were just going to eat them," Toola Roola murmured. "Talk about a complicated murder plan."

Tree Hugger shivered. "I trust Fluttershy's judgement, but I'm feeling a dark aura over there..."

The others followed Fluttershy's lead, weaving between the trees and jumping over rocks to reach their destination. They startled many peaceful animals along the way, and all three nature talkers could only say a quick "sorry" before pressing on. They couldn't afford to waste any more time. There was a chance that it was a false lead, but there was also a chance that they'd find the ponies they were looking for. In either case, they were profusely hoping that they weren't too late.

Fluttershy suddenly stopped, and gasped. The first thing she saw was an elk stumbling forward, covered in porcupine quills on its face and side, but bizarrely, also bore bloody scratches and bites from a larger predator. Did the Porcupine Mafia have an attack dog?

Fallow stopped behind her, and muttered, "Sweet Celestia, what happened?"

The elk bugled weakly, kneeling down and taking a breath. It took a quick look back, expecting it's attacker to return to finish the job, and then weakly bugled some more.

"What? No, that's crazy talk..." Fallow murmured.

Fluttershy stared in horror. "That can't be right. He was nothing but nice every time I've met him..."

"Uh, who are you talking about?" Toola Roola asked.

Neither of them answered, pressing forward while the others followed. Slowly, but surely, other animals appeared in sight, many of them lying still, bleeding from wounds made from this creature. Some of the injuries were clearly made by a hoofed creature; others had the distinct bites of a predator. And then there were the animals that were clearly dead, the most horrifying being the porcupine, impaled with a stick and plucked of all its quills. Fallow swiftly covered Toola Roola's eyes when they passed that one.

Finally, they came across the least injured of the animals, a bear with porcupine quills in its knee. Above it stood Cheese Sandwich, with bristled, blood-stained fur, unusually dark eyes, and a feral snarl, holding up a large rock and preparing to drop it on its head.

Fluttershy's shock turned into anger, and she shouted, "Cheese Sandwich!"

That caught the party pony's attention, and he blinked in confusion at the glare that the yellow pegasus gave him.

"Put. The rock. Down."

Realizing that finding a loophole in that statement would only make her angrier, Cheese threw the rock aside, but not without a glare of his own. He set himself back down on all four hooves, not taking his eyes off her, and crept a few steps toward her. The others looked away at the cold, icy stare, and they scattered a little to try to tend to any of the injured critters with what little they had.

Tree Hugger heard Grapevine say, "Is that Fluttershy? Did you make Cheese stop?", and quickly excused herself to go help him.

Fluttershy marched forward. "I didn't want to believe the elk. I really didn't! But, here you are, caught right in the act of attempting to kill this poor bear! I've seen the trail of the bloodied and battered animals that you left, and I see you covered in their blood! What do you have to say for yourself, mister?"

Cheese snarled. "Listen, you little softie, those little monsters started it by kidnapping my brother, and throwing him into the geyser field! They weren't showing mercy to ponies, so why should I show mercy to them? I'm only giving them what they deserve, and I don't need you excusing them just because you're a little animal lover like that stupid hypocrite Grapevine!"

Fallow looked up from plucking quills from a deer, and his eyes widened. "We are too late."

Toola Roola, busying slowing bleeding from a beaver, gasped, while Summer, examining a bobcat's broken leg, froze in shock.

Tree Hugger had managed to pull Grapevine back up to the ledge. "But that violence, and the red painting the forest... I fear you might have some chakras blocked."

"Oh, did you want me to cry in the hopes that the animals would feel sorry for me?" Cheese scoffed. "Well, no tears are going to bring my brother back."

The moment was interrupted by a whistle from the steaming geyser field, and a shout of, "Hey! Hey! Cheese? Are you still there?"

Cheese turned to the geyser field and blinked. "Tommy?"

Summer snapped out of her frozen state and grinned. "Oh, my goodness! He's still alive!"

"Well, I'll be..." Fallow scratched his head. "How did he not fall in one of the springs? Is Mr. Rich still with him?"

"We're okay!" Tomato shouted, answering Fallow's question. "But, could you get a pegasus over here to fetch us? I have no idea where it's safe to step and I'm afraid to risk it."

Summer took off her glasses, and gave them to Toola Roola. "Hold these, I don't want them to get foggy." Then she took to the air, and shouted back, "Hey! We're here! Just keep talking so I'll follow your voice!"

As she went into the steam, Fluttershy and Cheese were face to face yet again, and the former did not even soften her glare. "Well, your brother's alive. Do you regret causing so much carnage now?"

Cheese huffed. "After what they put the town through, they still deserved it."

Fluttershy stomped her hoof. "I cannot believe you! I could have persuaded even the infamous Porcupine Mafia to reconsider their actions and realize that it'll only hurt them in the long run! I could have just talked to them and the town's animal troubles would be over! But, no, you had to employ senseless violence, all because you couldn't handle your grief differently and control your temper! Tomato and Mr. Rich are alive, we can put the injured animals in the healing pool, but we can't bring back the ones you killed! What would Pinkie Pie think if she saw you like this?"

Cheese huffed. "Why would I care what she thinks?"

"She's your friend! And she would not want to see her friend just killing willy nilly like a monster!"

Cheese's muzzle wrinkled up in a snarl, and he prowled like a predator. "I've had enough of your pretentious preachiness."

There was a brief startle as Fluttershy saw Cheese's posture. It was clearly not pony, and whatever Twilight and Pinkie had been concerned about was clearly worse than they thought.

But, then, she glowered with a magical force unlike any other, and it stopped Cheese in his tracks. He couldn't look away from those eyes, for they had an iron grip on him and forbade him from crossing their owner. His snarl faded and his ears drooped, and all he could do was back up away from her, only for her to follow. He was backed into a tree, and he could only look up at this new and terrifying overlord with the magic eyes.

"You have absolutely no excuse to stoop this low! I don't want to see this callousness from you ever again!"

Cheese whimpered. "Don't hurt me..."

Fallow blinked. "Okay, that's odd..." He looked around at the others. "While she's got him distracted, we should get to work on getting these guys to the healing pools."

It was just then that a sweating and somewhat burned Summer returned from the geyser field, carrying two tied up businessponies--one who was looking a little green, and the other who was just annoyed at his mane's frizziness, but who were otherwise all right. She set them down, and quickly ripped the rope apart. Once free, the two stallions were happy to stretch their legs after tied for so long, and they breathed sighs of relief over their rescue.

"Thanks, Summer," Tomato said. "I don't know what I'd do without a flying friend around."

"Ah, shucks. Blame genetics for these things," Summer said, winking and waving at him with one wing.

Tomato laughed, but quickly went dead silent on noticing the dead and wounded animals scattered everywhere. "What happened?!"

Filthy Rich glanced over to the sitting Grapevine, who looked heartbroken and was being comforted by Tree Hugger. "Mr. Grape? Could you explain what was going on while we were down there?"

Grapevine could only look at them with tired eyes, and muttered, "He snapped."

Tomato's eyes widened, and he turned to stare at Cheese, who was under Fluttershy's mercy. He could feel his heart hurt on seeing the damage, all of which was far from the hilarious that the Cheese everyone knew and loved would employ. Instead, the bloodbath alternated between mindless predator and a mindful sadist. He would have liked to just blame it on some random animal jumping out of the forest and causing havoc, but he had seen enough of Cheese's newfound aggression that he couldn't really deny it.

It couldn't be just a lost memory causing this. It just couldn't be. Whatever it was, they needed to see Twilight, and fast.

Tree Hugger stared at the scene between Fluttershy and Cheese Sandwich. "I had no idea she could use The Stare on ponies."

20.7--Past, Present, and Future

Hours were spent going back and forth between the geyser field and the healing pool. Each trip consisted of carrying makeshift stretchers to the many injured animals, and carrying them to the healing pools. Most of those who went to the healing pool first were the most gravely injured, while the ones with lesser injuries could wait just a little bit longer.

Along the way, the dead animals were buried. The four nature talkers were solemn in digging the graves and placing the bodies in; despite the fact that scavengers were likely to disturb the graves because it was free food, the ponies at least wanted to give the fallen a dignified funeral.

Fluttershy was quiet, with a tinge of bitterness that many sensed was toward Cheese, and moments of staring at nothing with a furrowed brow that meant something was bothering her. She had not let Cheese touch any of the animals, for good reason, and ordered him to his cabin, where he was essentially grounded. Nopony blamed her, and most quietly helped with the trips.

Then, after carrying the last of the animals to the healing pools, they had to do damage control at town hall.

"Why did you invite me here?!" Filthy shouted, his hair still disheveled from the near-death experience. He hadn't even bothered to clean up for this meeting with the mayor and the three main ponies involved with the mishap. "When I heard that there was an animal problem, I thought it was just critters running 'round the streets and raiding garbage cans, not anything like big city gang members!"

The mayor leaned on her desk, barely composed and glancing at Fallow and Tomato as she replied through her teeth, "Well, clearly somepony's idea to show you the nature park was a terrible idea. You clearly had a friendlier and safer idea, Mr. Rich, but somepony just can't accept competition against his precious forest."

Fallow groaned. "Well, I'm sorry for showing him what my park--which is part of the town, mind you--has to offer."

"Yes, where the animals are poised to strike the moment you turn your back. Great job keeping them under control."

"Well, I'm sorry that two ponies couldn't get all of the animals under control in just three days! Seriously, with that deadline you gave me, I wouldn't be surprised if you were purposefully trying to get rid of my park!"

"Because it's not safe, and those stupid beasts keep harassing the citizens! But you and those stinkin' flowerponies--especially your son--" She paused to glare at Grapevine, who seemed to barely acknowledge the conversation, instead staring sadly off into space. "--have to give me your tired save-the-forest-protect-the-animals spiel, when most of you don't even give a flying feather about pony safety!"

"I'd like to make my park safer for ponies, but it's hard with my financial troubles, my being outnumbered by the animals I'm trying to discipline, and everypony's black-and-white mentality!"

Tomato jumped from his seat into the middle. "Hey, hey, hey! Playing the blame game is not going to solve the problem. I'm sure that there's a way to work this out, and everypony will be hap--"

Filthy stomped a hoof, making him shut up. "All of you are at fault! And boy, I get that you have good intentions, but good intentions can lead to Tartarus! What were you thinking trying to convince me to partner with your uncle when he can't even discipline his animals?!"

Tomato backed up and shrunk. "But, sir..."

"My life was in danger, and customers' lives would be in danger! How would my little girl feel if her daddy didn't come home from what should be a harmless business trip? Why should I build a business where ponies are at risk of getting kidnapped and killed if they cross the animal mafia? As far as I'm concerned, you're all better off moving out of this town, and I'm better off seeking business elsewhere!"

As Filthy turned to leave the room, the mayor cried, "But this town needs the money!"

He ignored her and walked out the door. All the mayor could do was slump in her chair and cover her face with her hooves. Fallow sighed, knowing full well that both the town and his park were as good as dead, since word about this incident and how dangerous the town was would likely spread. Tomato sat on the floor, crushed from the failure and once again wondering if he deserved the mark on his flank.

Grapevine stared at them for what seemed like hours, but was more likely mere moments. He supposed that he technically won the war, as the businesspony was walking out the door. But it was all hollow, knowing all of the damage, bloodshed, and heartbreak that it took to get there. The ponies couldn't keep fixing their property forever, the healing pools couldn't bring the dead animals back to life, and no matter how much he disliked the mayor and had disagreed with his father, they were losing something they held dear. Looking at Tomato, Grapevine felt sick over how he just cast his own newfound cousin aside as the enemy, which nearly cost Tomato his life.

He silently slid off his seat, and cantered out into the hall.

As he caught up to Filthy who was at the front door, he said, "Hey, uh, Filthy, is it?"

The older stallion cringed, and corrected, "Call me Mr. Rich."

"Uh, why get all uptight with names, man?"

"Well, when you have a derogatory word for your first name, you may get a little offended." Filthy turned his head for an easier look at the green pony. "Now, why are you following me?"

Grapevine rubbed his leg, not making eye contact. "If you need to put the blame on someone, put it on me. Communing with nature is my talent, and I... I did it all wrong. My mom always said all ponies needed to be free from the oppressive laws of The Mare and live in harmony with each other and nature, free from all wants, needs, or cares, and free to be ourselves. I tended and taught the animals by that philosophy, and tried to sway the ponies to it... even though the animals were oppressing them."

Filthy raised an eyebrow and turned fully. "What did you think was going to happen? That selfishness would just disappear and pony and animal would sing kumbaya together? If anything, all you did was fester it and make the critters entitled to what we ponies have."

"I get that now. I was trying to be kind like my mom was, but a fellow nature talker told me earlier that I was being irresponsible."

"I agree with him."

"Her."

"I agree with her." Filthy scratched his chin. "So, why are you apologizing just now?"

"Just wondering what you were gonna do? Yanno, with my old stallion?"

Filthy sighed. "Your father and cousin were convincing me that the unspoiled nature in that park was awe-inspiring, and just as relaxing as a spa. I got to thinking that maybe it could become a big resort, for both the outdoor adventurers, the sightseers, and pampered spa attendees. It seemed like a good idea at the time--I get to build that spa I promised my wife, your father gets to keep his park and protect his animals, and we'd both earn more money doing it. Don't know what Tomato would have gotten out of it, I guess he just finds this fun."

"Man, his mind works weird."

"I think that too, but for an entirely different reason," Filthy said with a chuckle. He then frowned once again. "But now I'm not so sure if it is a good idea. I don't know if you were paying attention, but animals acting like delinquents is not good for business."

Grapevine pursed his lips, and he cringed at what he was about to say next. "...if I set some, uh... standards for the animals, like my dad wants me to, will you rethink not working with my dad? The town's important to the mayor, the park's important to my dad, and... my cuz Tomato's done more to help than I did, and if it wasn't for me, well..."

Filthy nodded. "I get it, especially Tomato's part. I like the kid, it's obvious that he's got potential. He's just a little naive, crazy, and needs some refining. When he grows into the role, I'm uncertain over whether I want to hire him or fear him as a competitor..."

He sighed. "But regardless, can you do what you're promising? I don't want expanding my business here to be too risky..."

"Some of the worst are... in the next life now, but maybe the survivors will be open ears. Dad and my soul sister Tree Hugger can do it too, so we can make sure that both pony and animal can respect each other."

Filthy thought for a moment, stroking his chin in thought. "I suppose I could come back in a couple of months, and make sure that it's really safe..." He straightened up and nodded. "Well, since you're willing to make up for all the damage, I might as well go back in and see if the other three will agree to it."

Grapevine smiled sadly. "Righteous."

Later that night, after Filthy Rich returned to his Graze Valley hotel, most of the ponies who had tried to help in some manner were having a modest party in Fallow's cabin. Fluttershy and Tree Hugger were telling each other stories over tea, Lemon Zest and Toola Roola were playing an improvised ping pong game on the coffee table, Fallow Track was laying over the ground rules of animal discipline to Grapevine, and Tomato was telling Summer about incidents back home in Manehattan. The only one not present was Cheese, who was still grounded.

"Oh, there's absolutely no way that this Flora could beat up several muggers in five minutes!" Summer said, taking a swig of hot cocoa. "Are you saying that your little psychologist buddy is also some kind of ninja? Next you're gonna tell me that she's an alicorn princess."

"Oh, no, she's an earth pony," Tomato stated confidently. "She's just really into martial arts, and it scares me sometimes, to the point where I ask, 'Should Peace really be part of her name?'."

Summer tugged at a lock of hair. "Well, it sounds like you attract the crazies! I mean how do you even get along with a ninja hippie when you couldn't get along with your own cousin?"

"I ought to tell her about your 'ninja hippie' comment, she'll get a kick out of that." Tomato peered into his empty mug, and set it on the nearby bookshelf. "Besides, she's not crazy... okay, being friends with me does put her in the crazy category a little bit. Still, she's so sweet and friendly that I can't help but be comfortable around her, and she's reminded me to slow down and relax very often. I have no idea how she saw a better me within that grumpy shell she first met, but I'm glad that she did. It had been years since I had a love that tender..."

Summer held a tight smile, and slightly cracked her mug. "Love, huh?"

"I mean a more platonic love, Summer," Tomato said, scratching his chin. Dang, he must have confused her with his poor choice of words. "She's kind of a mother hen, and well, when we were kids, Cheese was kind of a mother hen to me. That's what I meant."

"Right..." Summer murmured.

"Well, it's not like our mom was mother of the year, despite her delusions of grandeur!" Mentioning his mother reminded him of a misunderstanding that he had to clear up, and he looked over to his uncle at the kitchen door. With a sigh, he said, "Well... I'm sure you'd like her. Now, I got something to tell Uncle Fallow."

Summer shrugged. "Eh, sure, go ahead. I'm sure it's important."

It was odd see Summer not excitable or wanting to talk literature, but he thought little of it. He trotted to where Fallow and Grapevine stood, hoping that he wasn't interrupting an important part of the discussion. Luckily, they more or less seemed to be instead exchanging tales of their separate lives, not unlike how he and his pals would do it back in school. He looked forward to the day where he could relay the wackiness of the summer to them, though he wasn't sure he wanted to relay a certain bloody part of this story..

Grapevine turned to him first, his expression going duller and more unsure than normal. "Hey, cuz, whatcha hanging for?"

They hadn't really spoken since city hall; Tomato was a little too busy reeling from Filthy Rich's change of heart and decision to come back later, thanks to Grapevine of all ponies. The most that they had spoken since then was Tomato asking why Grapevine did it, to which the older cousin replied with something that he had heard from Fluttershy: protecting animals should not mean harming innocent ponies. With that in mind, Tomato could call it a half-success if there was still a little hope for both town and park.

"Oh, just waiting for this conversation to end so I can tell your dad something."

Fallow tilted his head. "Oh?"

"Yeah."

Grapevine interjected, "Before you do that, I should say something. Cuz, I'm not proud of how our first meeting went down. I went all harsh judge on you just because you had a talent that was more mainstream. Freedom of choosing your destiny belongs to the squares too, and I should not just call you the enemy just because you think differently from me. Can we try the cousin thing again?"

Tomato was still not a fan of Grapevine's lifestyle, and half-wanted to push him away because it was just embarrassing to be related to him. Still, it wouldn't be fair to Grapevine, who went through much heartbreak and sacrifice in one day, and Tomato would be a hypocrite for not accepting Grapevine after accepting Cheese back during the Fall Festival.

So, he shook Grapevine's hoof and said, "You've got a deal."

And then, much to the laughter of all those in the room, he was treated to another musty-furred hug.

Now outside on the front porch, Tomato and Fallow were outside breathing the fresh night air. Crickets played their nightly melody, the trees basked under a bright gibbous, and the stars adorned the sky like crystals, some sparkling brighter than others. Other than the crickets, neither could hear any disturbances in the forest.

"What a beautiful night," Fallow remarked. "The only way it could be perfect was if the moon was full."

Tomato patted the porch's railing. "Yeah, it does seem peaceful, doesn't it?"

"So, what'd you want to talk to me about? Are you still worried about Aura Springs' future? Come on, if it wasn't for you, I think the animals and ponies would have waged full war until the town was destroyed. Right now, we'll just have to rely on ponies who work in Graze Valley to keep the town alive."

Tomato chuckled. "That's... not it at all. I just want to clear up something about my mom that I couldn't thanks to the recent mess."

Fallow gave him a quizzical expression. "What do you mean? Cheese said she was hard, but she can't be that bad if she let him be a party pony."

"That's just it," Tomato said. "She didn't let him. He ran away from home."

Fallow blinked. "Wait, what? Why?"

Tomato grabbed the railing, as if he was going to rip it off. "Yes, she is hard, but she expected her sons to be these perfect kids with perfect grades and grow into perfect stallions with a respectable job. Thanks to her mom being of noble blood, she thinks that we need to pick up the slack that Grandma dropped since she couldn't, and she just pressured and nagged us and forgot the basic idea of empathy in the process!"

He rested his chin on the railing. "Being the oldest, Cheese had the most pressure, and he couldn't handle it. So he took off. He thought that being the 'favorite' meant I had it easier. He was wrong... Mom was so upset about Cheese leaving that she took it out on me, expecting me to be ten times better, like I apparently already was in the social skills and academic sense. But I was so crippled by her stupid ideas on what my talent should be, and so angry at Cheese that I fell from grace. I've thought about ending it all, but my one friend left wouldn't let me."

Tomato sighed, and straightened up. "I'm sorry that the sister-in-law that you want to meet isn't someone all that pleasant. I didn't want to disappoint you, but I don't want you to find out the hard way, either. No wonder that your wife ran away from home, my mom's horrible!"

There was a pause. A pause only filled with the chirps of crickets, and the howl of a wolf in the distance. Fallow had gone through motions of blinking, stroking his beard, and gathering his thoughts on what to say. Tomato expected him to be unhappy with the sudden revelation, and think of him as a lying, spoiled brat.

But, Fallow just said, "I didn't want to disappoint my nephews either."

Tomato blinked. "Huh? What do you mean--" He stopped himself when remembering what Grapevine had said about Honeydew and what that implied, and then waited for Fallow to continue.

"You might have noticed a difference in opinion between Grapevine and Lemon Zest over their mother," Fallow said. "Well, when I said that your aunt Honeydew was sensitive, I meant the 'ditch me and spend a week at the commune to heal' kind of sensitive. When I said that she valued letting our foals choose their own path, I meant the 'no rules whatsoever and no discipline because that's mean' kind. And when she said that we should all just love each other and everything would work out..."

Tomato furrowed his brow. "Did that mean that you couldn't disagree with her, or else she'd throw a fit about how you didn't love her?"

Fallow ran a hoof through his mane. "I shouldn't speak ill of the dead, I really shouldn't. But it always frustrated me that she was so lazy, and such a goshdarn moron that had no idea how to do anything. In fact, I think the only work she ever did was tend her garden and feed the baby. She always claimed that she was this sweet and kind thing, but acted like a spoiled foal whenever I told her to take care of the house while I was working, or to cook dinner for once, or maybe enforce the rule about our foals not going into the forest alone!"

Tomato looked in the house, and could see Lemon Zest knock a ping pong ball onto her sister's forehead, which resulted in a chase. He glanced back at Fallow, who watched his older daughter sprint and jump around the room like an acrobat as the others in the room laugh.

"Lemon bumped into a bear." Fallow pursed his lips, and tensed his muscles. "She was lucky that I heard her scream, and I came galloping in before the final blow. She was in bad shape when I found her, and I was furious. It was the only time I've ever killed an animal, because you do not mess with a nature talker's kid... you just don't. Got her to a healing pool, and chewed Honeydew out for neglecting her job again, and how she thought Lemon could talk to animals like Grapevine could. Naturally, she ran off to the commune to cry, which I hope was because of guilt and not because I was scary."

"To be fair, a guy who can kill a bear in a rage is pretty scary."

Fallow glanced at him tiredly. "Ha ha. Well, thanks to that incident, Lemon's afraid of animals, and she's as much of a daddy's girl as Grapevine is a mama's boy." He put his face in his hoof. "Honeydew had eight years to influence Grapevine before she passed, and it feels like I'm arguing with her all over again whenever I argue with him. No doubt, they're both pretty stubborn, and it has worn me out."

He looked up and turned to face Tomato. "With both secrets out, the questions now are who was worse, and who started it? I can see my wife being against all rules and discipline after dealing with your mom... but I can also see your mom being a dictator because she had to put up with a lazy and irresponsible sister. It could go either way, but I'm not sure if we'll ever find out."

Tomato leaned on his hoof. "I'm a little freaked out that my Mom may have been right about her sister being a spoiled brat."

"Well... in any case, there is an important lesson from their parenting styles and the last few days," Fallow said. "Too many rules can prevent a pony from becoming their best self, but no rules at all can easily turn them into their worst self."

Tomato took a moment to process it, and nodded.

Fallow patted him on the back. "I'm glad that we both got those off our chests. In any case, even if the respective mothers aren't great, I'm at least happy to have met my nephews." He frowned, and looked at the small guest cabin in the distance. "Although we all learned about a pretty nasty dark side of Cheese Sandwich. I'm not so thrilled to be related to him now... does he get that from your mom?"

Tomato jumped. "What? No! Well, uh, he's always had a temper, which I'm sure he did inherit that from Mom... still, he usually can control it, and even then, the whole murderous rage thing has never happened before!"

Fallow just stared at him skeptically. "Well, where did it come from?"

Tomato rubbed the back of his head. "Eeeeh... it involves a memory thief that we're trying to find... it's kind of why we're going back to Ponyville with Fluttershy tomorrow, because she has a friend that can help! I promise you, Cheese is not himself right now!"

"Hm. Well, if that's the case, I better meet him when he is himself. But you're sleeping on the couch tonight, because clearly, he's dangerous."

Fallow trotted back into the house, leaving Tomato alone to stare at the small cabin with his thoughts.

Tomato groaned. He couldn't believe just how stupid he was to let the whole thing fester. There was clearly a problem back in Seaddle, when Snap had told him about Cheese's outbursts; it was then that Tomato should have insisted that they go to Ponyville--no, scratch that, they should have done so right after Salt Lick City, when he found out about the missing memory thing. By now they would have found the memory and the thief, and Cheese would be back to normal. If it wasn't for that stupid Cheesy Sense excuse...

In any case, there was still the nagging feeling that there was more than just a stolen memory going on with Cheese. The question was if it was a number of memories, or there was something else going on. If the first option, how many memories had to be stolen to turn a nice and fun-loving party pony into an angry killer? If the second, then what the heck was this other spell?

Whatever it was, Tomato was glad that they were finally going to get to the bottom of this. There was no doubt in his mind that it would lead to a certain unicorn, and whatever that guy's intentions were, they were destined to be stopped.

He yawned. Hopefully the party will end soon so that he can go to bed.

Author's Note

Well, I guess I can say that I wrapped up the Aura Springs arc! And just before the New Year, too!

I guess that means I'll start the next arc next year. :trollestia:

21.1--DNA Sample

"Dear Fluttershy,

"How long did you intend to stay in Aura Springs? We need you to return soon because Kazam's trial is this week and you have to bring the bat he fused with Tomato Sandwich. Speaking of him, if you miraculously found him and Cheese Sandwich, bring them too, for they are key witnesses to the event. I also have to take notes on Cheese's health and do what I can to help him--as well as reassure Pinkie.

"We'll most likely be in Canterlot by the time you return. Don't forget to make a quick stop in Ponyville to fetch the bat! In the meantime, we all hope you're all right, and that you managed to help your friend with that animal problem. See you soon!

"Your friend, Twilight Sparkle"

Fluttershy sighed, and turned to the two Sandwiches sitting on the freshly made bed. It was nice of them to tidy up the small cabin for their uncle--especially Cheese, who had initially camped out the night before in overturned furniture, chewed up pillows, and a ripped bed sheet (somehow the other one was intact). Now that the furniture was in the right place and the pillows and bed sheets were replaced, they just needed to get ready to go.

"We're going to have to be in Canterlot instead," Fluttershy said, her eyes back on the letter. "Kazam's trial is in a couple of days, and since you were both there..."

Tomato groaned and fell back onto the mattress. "Can't it wait until Cheese is fixed?"

Cheese's eyes widened, and he crossed his hind legs nervously.

Tomato was quick to notice that. "Not that kind of fixed! I mean your mind!"

"I do hope that he is restored soon," Fluttershy muttered. "That missing memory better not be too far away, because he needs to give his side of the story in the trial." She glanced up from the letter, and looked at him with a cautious glare.

Cheese leaned on his hoof. "Nothing left to do; might as well go now."

The hot air balloon lifted out of Aura Springs to loud farewells, and Fluttershy and the Sandwiches went on to spend hours in that basket. Between the duties of making sure that everything was in place and working as it should, keeping the balloon going in the right direction, and the occasional bathroom break, there were basically long stretches of nothing going on. Often, Tomato would be reading in those stretches, while Cheese took a nap. There were a couple games of "I Spy", and a few card games, and some times when they'd look at the landscape below them.

The Smoky Mountains were as hazy as their name suggested, and seemed barren save for a couple of houses atop two hills. The Salt Lick Desert did in fact look like a giant Salt Lick. Over the populated green crescent of the Valley, Tomato just waved as if Flora and her family could see him. And then over the mountains again, more lush and green than what came before and dotted with more small towns.

The sun was setting as they passed Cloudsdale. Tomato couldn't help but whistle at the grand cloud city, which looked like golden brush strokes on a blue canvas, molded to the ancient pegasi architecture.

"Well, I can check seeing another major city off the list, even if I didn't set foot in it," he said.

After hours in that balloon, they had enough of the cramped basket, and just decided to sleep at Fluttershy's when they touched down that evening, going to Cantelot the next day. She had a spare room in the attic, though she had qualms about putting them in the same room. Sure, Cheese didn't do anything on the way to Ponyville, but it was likely out of fear for her Stare.

She decided to let Tomato take her bed, and she could sleep with the animals downstairs. She made sure to lock the door to the room Cheese was in, so that he couldn't do anything to her animals, and then asked her nocturnal animals to keep an eye on him from the window. Even so, even when given as much comfort as possible from her animals, she still worried, especially over one question that nagged at her mind for the last couple of days.

Why did the Stare work on Cheese?

No time for any big breakfast the next morning; they just had toast. Grabbing the box bed of a certain vampire bat that Fluttershy called Vladimir, they all piled back into the balloon and set off for Canterlot. Thankfully, it took only about ten minutes, most of which Tomato spent talking to the bat and finding out that Vlad now loved doing math and was an avid reader. Fluttershy was perplexed by the conversation even happening at all, while Cheese was just disturbed.

They landed in the Canterlot Castle courtyard, where Fluttershy's friends all awaited, fiddling with some activities from their saddlebags in the grass. Granted, their landing was because of an impatient Rainbow Dash spotting them, flying up, and pulling the balloon down to the ground, but they still made it. When she hopped out of the basket, Fluttershy was greeted with warm hugs from her friends.

"Welcome back, Fluttershy!" Twilight said. "Do you have the bat?"

"Yes, but he's asleep right now." Fluttershy had the box in her saddlebag, and reached back to stroke the snoozing Vladimir's head. "He had quite the conversation on the way here."

"So how did the thing in Aura Springs go?" Rainbow asked. "Were there any fights?"

Fluttershy grimaced for a moment before relaxing. "Oh, it had its ups and downs, and Grapevine was very stubborn, but we managed to talk sense into him and most of the animals."

"That's good to hear, Fluttershy," Twilight said. "It's obvious you're the right mare to turn to when there's an animal problem."

Rarity said, "I don't blame those townsponies for being angry, I'd be angry too if my boutique was continually vandalized or stolen from."

"Like the parasprite invasion?" Pinkie asked. "Oh! If I had been there, I'd have pulled out all my musical instruments and played some music! After all, you know what they say, music soothes the savage beast!"

"Psht, I'd scare them straight if I was there, no matter what the bunch of hippies said!" Rainbow said.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Like Twilight said, you're the best for a critter job, Fluttershy. Though, I reckon that it'd have still cost a lot of bits to fix things."

Tomato hopped out of the basket next and boasted, "Don't worry, I took care of that!"

The other mares blinked, with an extra loud gasp from Pinkie. "Tomato Sandwich?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Yep, I found them. Turns out that they're Fallow's nephews and they had set up a fundraiser to help him."

Cheese climbed out of the basket last, grumbling, "It still wasn't up to my standard."

Pinkie's eyes were on him the moment he climbed out, and she looked as if her heart skipped a beat. Biting her lip in the midst of her huge smile and tearing up, she was blur before anypony knew it, and she grabbed Cheese in the tightest of squeezes. She cuddled him, her fluffy mane serving as a pillow for the stunned Cheese's chin, and she took a deep whiff of his cheesy smell. She didn't even care that the other girls were grinning and giggling--save Rainbow, who rolled her eyes at the mushiness, but smiled anyway.

"Cheesy, I'm so happy that you're alive and kicking and talking and doing fundraisers with your brother and bonding with him and busy not being dead!" Pinkie held on tighter, lip quivering. "I got this sudden weird empty feeling a few weeks ago on a full moon night, like you just went poof into nothing and I couldn't feel you or send you a letter or know that you're doing all right because you travel everywhere and don't have an address like all my other friends, so I was so, so, so worried that you were dead!" She laughed in an unnerved tone. "I haven't been this stressed since trying to impress the Yak Prince. But, now I know that you're--"

Suddenly, Cheese growled, and shoved her off of him, yelling, "Get off!"

Pinkie was down on the ground, looking up at him with bewilderment and hurt. "Huh?"

Tomato gaped, his expression mirroring that of the other five, taking a moment to process what just happened before saying, "What the hay was that for?"

Cheese just glanced off to the side and muttered, "I couldn't breathe."

"Well, that is no excuse for being so rude, Cheese Sandwich," Rarity scolded.

"Have you got burrs stuck where the sun don't shine?" Applejack said. "Pinkie was just happy to see you."

Twilight scratched her chin and approached him, looking back at the others. "Well, keeping that memory loss that Pinkie told me about in mind, it looks like it might be the side effect of irritability." She gently patted Pinkie's shoulder in reassurance, which made the pink mare perk up. Facing Cheese again, she said, "It doesn't mean you can treat anypony like dirt, Cheese, so I expect you to be polite, understand?"

Cheese rolled his eyes. "Guess I'll try."

"You better," Fluttershy growled.

"All right..." Twilight said cautiously. "Since Pinkie told me about how somepony must have stolen your memory of Las Pegasus, I've been browsing the subject of memory magic in order to figure out how to help you reclaim it. And I have to tell you, it's amazing."

Pinkie hopped up and nodded. "Yep! Twilight says that you can create an entire world out of just one mind! And that yanking all your memories out all at once has a high chance of killing you! And also, you either have to be a super-powerful magic user or somepony that the memory's owner trusts in order to hold the memory--or else you get shocked."

Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth. "Goodness!"

Twilight chuckled. "Mm, yes, that is true, but we need to stay on task. Answer me honestly, have you really been suffering from headaches, and if so, for how long?"

Cheese pursed his lips in thought. "Well... I did, quite often, since, uh... about the Crystal Empire or something? Beginning of July. At least until somepony gave me some kind of potion that stopped the headaches a few weeks ago. Now they're not a problem."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Odd. What kind of potion?"

"Beats me, I don't pay attention to that stuff."

Twilight sighed. "Of course. Still, even with that mysterious potion, do you still get headaches when you try to remember the missing event?"

Cheese closed his eyes. "So, uh... Las Pegasus? Something to do with vampires?" He grit his teeth and started to sweat, trying to picture what it was like. "Tomato says that he was a victim, but I'm not sure... it had to be some kind of weird coincidence that we were there while it was--OW!"

As Cheese rubbed his head, Twilight said, "That looks like a yes. Now, have you ever felt muscle weakness?"

"Once, before the doctor gave me meds."

"Nausea?"

"Same deal."

"Forgetfulness?"

"A few times."

"Hallucinations?"

Cheese scratched his head. "Uh..."

Tomato interjected, "He nearly destroyed Salt Lick City because of them."

"I did not," Cheese corrected. "It was just sticky from candy for a few hours."

"Candy that you blasted all over the place as a candy cannon commando."

"Ah, what do you know?"

Twilight scratched her chin. "I may have to double check the book, but usually the hallucinations happen after multiple memories have been removed. Doesn't mean it couldn't happen after just one, and being that Cheese is atypical, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened with him. I mean, if it was a friend of Kazam's who did this to you, what use would they have for your other memories?"

"Unless they're making a Cheese planet!" Pinkie gasped.

"Sounds almost as crazy as Discord's dimension," Rainbow muttered.

"I don't think it works that way," Applejack said.

"It doesn't," Twilight deadpanned. "It still doesn't answer the question of who the hay this guy is."

"Well, I do suspect this Rooney guy that we've bumped into a couple of times..." Tomato said.

"Oh, how do you know he isn't just a nice stallion trying to help out with the headaches?" Cheese shot back.

"Well, maybe we'll find out if the 'Rooney' guy is the culprit or not once we get Cheese's magic signature," Twilight said. "I theorize that your memories still contain your magic signature, and that we may be able to trace them that way. It's pretty easy to extract the signature, all we need is a DNA sample."

"Well, fine." Cheese turned to pluck a hair out of his tail, and then gave it to Twilight. "Will this do?"

Twilight looked at it, and took it in her magic. "Yes. It did test the spell with my friends' hair, and it worked. Now..." She concentrated on the single strand, glaring at it with an intense determination. It was a few moments, but finally there were a few sparks of magic popping out of the hair... when then made the hair dissolve and the magic fizzle away.

Twilight stomped. "Oh, drat! The memory removal depleted his magic enough for the hair to be utterly useless!" She took a deep breath, and said, "Not to worry, I have a backup plan. If drawing his magic signature from his hair won't work, then maybe drawing it from his blood will."

The color drained from Cheese's face, and he backed up. "Wait... you're not saying..."

Twilight's horn glowed, and she levitated a hypodermic needle out of her saddlebag, all sharpened up, sterilized, and ready to go. "How I got this thing is a long story... but anyway, we just need a small sample from your jugular vein, and I promise that it will be--"

Cheese spun around and ran off the opposite direction. "Nope! Nope! Nope! You're not poking me with that thing!" He hopped the fence and continued to flee down the Canterlot streets.

"Hey!" Twilight yelled. With a growl, she asked Tomato, "Is he afraid of needles?"

"Yep," Tomato answered.

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

"It wasn't relevant until now."

"Well, you did just pull that needle out and ask for his blood like some madhorse, dear," Rarity said. "I'd freak out too if someone pulled that unpleasant surprise on me."

"Well, now we have to go catch him, maybe even wrassle him to the ground," Applejack said.

Twilight blew on her bangs. "Yeah, we should. We've got an hour before the trial starts, and I want to get his magic signature before then."

"On it!" Rainbow dashed off without noticing Twilight about to say more. "You better get back here, Cheese Sandwich!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight shouted. "I was just about split us into groups!"

And so the chase was on. A lone Rainbow and three pairs of ponies split through the city in order to find the runaway party pony. Normally, as Tomato put it, Cheese was the world champion of hide-and-seek, but perhaps with him being crippled in the magic department, he'd be easier to find. However, Canterlot was still a large city, so they had to cover more ground.

Tomato was teamed up with Rarity, trotting down one street in search of his brother. It was a door-to-door effort of asking if anypony had caught any sight of an orange stallion, and if he was possibly hiding in one of their homes or businesses. When somepony dared to ask why, the answer was, "He hates needles."

Rarity was scowling when one door was slammed in her face. "Well, I never! You have some nerve to slam a door on a lady!"

"Yeah, where's that trademark Canterlot 'politeness'?" Tomato mocked. "Are you too sophisticated for basic manners?"

They trotted away from that building and moved on. Rarity was rubbing a temple. "And to think that I had an entire hour to check up on Canterlot Carousel before the trial begins. But somepony just had to have a fear of needles."

"Tell me about it." Tomato kicked at some rocks on the street. "Say, what is Canterlot Carousel?"

Rarity's sour mood evaporated and she gushed, "Oh, it's only the fulfillment of my destiny! As a mare of fashion, it's only natural that I want to leave my mark on the world! Thus, I have plans for boutiques in just about every major city, making as many ponies as possible look fabulous!" She paused to see Tomato's concern for her sanity, and she finished with, "I earned enough bits to build a second boutique here in Canterlot."

Tomato's eyes widened. "Like that one in Ponyville? Where you stitched up my jacket at the Fall Festival? Are you expanding your business?" He grinned from ear to ear and there were stars in his eyes. "As much as I don't understand fashion, that fact that you're branching out to other places and sharing your craft with the world and it's quality enough that ponies are all over them and you've earned enough excess to even get this far... AMAZING!" Tomato leapt several feet high in his excitement, not noticing that Rarity and several other pedestrians were weirded out by him being able to do that. "Can I see it?"

Rarity blinked. "Pardon me for saying this, but I am starting to wonder if you switched personalities with Cheese."

Tomato blushed. "Eheheh... sorry about that. My inner crazy's been seeping out all summer."

Rarity nodded. "All right... I guess it runs in the family." She smiled. "Regardless, I do appreciate your praise. Why, if you'd like to see it, Canterlot Carousel's just right over ther--oh, Sweet Celestia, he's going to hide in there!"

Tomato blinked, and turned to a lavender building, which was designed to look like it was behind an open white curtain, with windows having their own curtains. Sure enough, there was someone tall, orange, and brunette, slipping through the violet door. "Oh, hey! What do you know? He's just right there for the picking. Nice building, by the way."

"Oh, he thought he could escape us just because we don't have his magic signature? Well, he thought wrong!" Rarity stamped her hoof, ready to charge.

Tomato pursed his lips. "I hope we don't cause too much damage wrestling him."

And so, into the boutique they charged. Rarity swung open the door, and both leapt through in a blur, and maybe with a battle cry. The manager and the patrons jumped at the sound, and the target only barely turned before being tackled into the nearest rack of dresses. With now hills of dresses and hangers piled up in the corner, said manager and some curious customers crept toward it, though fearing the stray hooves that pounded the fabric in an attempt to swim up for air.

Rarity's head popped out first, and the manager asked, "Rarity! What are you doing?"

Rarity spit out some lace. "I apologize for the commotion, Sassy Saddles, but I am hunting down a friend of Pinkie's. He's been avoiding a certain kind of needle..." She noticed half the patrons cringe at that statement, not that she could blame them. "But he will not get away!"

Tomato's head popped up next. "Bad news..." He pulled up the pony they tackled, who was a unicorn mare with Cheese's colors. "This isn't Cheese."

"I haven't been doing anything, honest!" the mare cried.

"Oh!" Rarity exclaimed. "I am terribly sorry for this misunderstanding!" She hopped out of the clothes pile, and after a few moments of scanning it, she pulled out a dress and said, "Let me make it up to you! This magnificent dress matches your color scheme, and it'll really bring out your eyes!" She pulled the mare out of the pile of clothes, and let her take the dress. "Go on, try it on."

As the mare huffily trotted into the changing room, Rarity telekinised all the dresses and hangers off the floor and put them into their proper place. "So, Sassy, it appears that all is going well here?"

"Indeed it is, Rarity!" Sassy replied. "Your summer line has been such a hit, and I was starting to consider hiring more helping hooves because of all the business we've been receiving these past few months."

"Oh, that's wonderful! Soon enough, I'll be opening a boutique in Manehattan!"

"Hey..." Tomato said, out of their line of sight. "I appreciate that you're considering spreading into my hometown, knowing how well this place is doing, but... can you get me out of this thing?"

They turned, and stifled a bit of laughter. Not only was Tomato hanging from the rack, but he was also stuffed into a breezy green dress, spruced up with ribbons and flowers and managing to cover his entire lanky figure. His scowl was accompanied by a deep blush, and never had he been more thankful that nopony in the building had a camera on them.

"I best do so, we are looking for your brother," Rarity said. "Although the dress does match your eyes."

Meanwhile, Twilight and Fluttershy were in another part of town, with Twilight asking the ponies and Fluttershy asking the birds where Cheese had gone. They've been pointed down nearly every direction, and so far, not a single curly hair had turned up--though there were plenty of knocked over trash cans with some of the contents eaten, and somepony complained about some doggy treats being stolen. In between, Twilight was looking among any clocks in view in order to gauge the time they had.

Twilight galloped around a corner. "Oh, we've been at this for twenty minutes, and none of the directions we've gotten have led us to him yet!"

"I hope nopony makes him angry," Fluttershy said, right on her tail. "His temper's been really bad lately."

"Well, missing memory or not, he's still Cheese Sandwich, and that means he'll likely make the most ridiculous outburst out of anypony. It's not like he'll commit assault or even murder."

Fluttershy pursed her lips, the scene of the results of Cheese's forest rampage coming to mind. "I don't know... he's been having a lot of trouble being, uh... funny, so he has been resorting to more... aggressive measures to keep the peace in Aura Springs. It was bad enough that I actually used The Stare on him!"

Twilight stopped in her tracks. "Wait... you used The Stare on him? I thought you could only use it on animals!"

"Well, so did I... at least until that moment." Fluttershy brushed her hoof on the ground. "I don't know what thought is scarier: that I can control ponies with my Stare, or that Cheese might be turning into an animal."

Twilight had a hoof to her mouth. "That's something to look into, all right."

The sudden blare of rock music rang out, making both mares jump and use their wings to plug their ears. They looked across the street, where a stage in a park was surrounded by a modest audience. On the stage was a tall, burly, blue minotaur, addressing the crowd.

"Do you consider a stampede of bunnies scary?! Well, Iron Will is here to tell you that bunny stampedes are nothing! There is danger all over Equestria, and it only gets more dangerous under the full moon! Magical mayhem that can smell fear, and will snatch up your children if you're not prepared! And since the full moon is just two nights away, it is imperative that Iron Will teach you some reliable self-defense moves to protect you from the monsters that come out on that night! And perhaps it can drive away those who dare cross you!" He whipped around in various poses showing off his physique, fireworks burst, and the crowd cheered.

"Iron Will?" Twilight muttered. "Well, he certainly is as flashy as you told me. He rivals Trixie."

Fluttershy tilted her head. "I don't know about what he's saying, I wasn't satisfied the last time I saw him. And what's this about the full moon?"

"Oh, I read this!" They walked away from the scene and continued on their search. "Their superstition about the full moon comes from back in their war with the ponies over a thousand years ago. The same one that Kazam's ancestor was in and created the werewolf to stop... using the same fusion spell that Kazam did to create the vampire."

"Aww..." Fluttershy looked back at her saddlebag where Vladimir slept. "That wolf and the first pony victim must have felt awful once they were cured, just like Tomato and Vladimir did."

Twilight did not want to tell her that Wayer Rune used the spell on himself and that the poor wolf died. She looked at the next clock. "Well, I certainly know that Kazam's sentence will not be being sent to Tartarus. Alcatrot, maybe, but not Tartarus. But, for now, we still need to find Cheese."

Rainbow Dash hated it when she lost someone.

Cheese seemed to have slipped into a hiding spot at some point and taken a detour from there, and she was going too fast to notice. She soon realized that she must have passed the turn he made, so she went back to locate just which turn it was. Unfortunately, wherever the turn was, he clearly had ditched it by then.

Now she was turning corners left and right, weaving around frightened Canterlot denizens and looking all around for orange. And she did see orange; only she ended up tackling several different ponies in the process. There was a fancy stallion covered in jewels, and when Rainbow tackled him, he called for the guards and accused her of trying to mug him. Another was a charity worker, and took Rainbow's tackle as volunteer work for the local soup kitchen that night--and she would not take no for an answer. Another one was a foreign-looking unicorn sweeping the front steps of her restaurant, and as shocked as she was from the tackle, she said, "If you are that hungry, you could be more polite."

And so she kept on looking for Cheese, checking out every orange pony that she came across. When she thought she had him for sure, she just ended up with another unicorn, this one oddly having Cheese's colors, and shouting, "Come on! That's the second time today!"

And the final orange pony she tackled just so happened to be Applejack. Rainbow barreled into her, surprising the Pinkie Pie that was right next to the Apple, and sent her flying right into the nearby Canterlot River.

Spitting out water, Applejack grabbed her hat from the current and said, "You mind watchin' where yer going, Dash?"

"Hey! It's not my fault you're orange, and Cheese is orange, and... argh!" Rainbow slammed the water in frustration. "I've tackled too many orange ponies today!"

Pinkie Pie bounced to them. "Look on the bright side! It's a hot day today, and a good swim is the best way to cool off!"

Rainbow was rolling her eyes, but then caught sight of the stallion they pursued, all tuckered out and now lapping up water from the river. Nudging Applejack, she whispered, "And so is taking a drink of water."

Applejack looked at her oddly for a moment before she noticed Cheese, her mouth forming into an O. She shushed Pinkie when the pink mare had noticed too, and was about to shout that they found him, and climbed out of the river as quietly as she could. Hoping that Cheese was too thirsty to care what was going on around him, she led Pinkie around a building to get behind him without being noticed. Meanwhile, Rainbow stayed in the water, and slipped beneath the surface to swim toward him.

Cheese had been relaxed, and was happy to quench his thirst after a chase under a hot summer sun. That was short lived once he noticed an unnatural blue in the water, followed by every color of the rainbow. He leaned forward just a bit to try to sniff it, only for Rainbow Dash to burst out of the water and grab him by the neck, yelling, "Gotcha!"

Alarmed, Cheese slipped himself out of Rainbow's grasp with a pop, and attempted to run off, only to by stopped by Pinkie and Applejack jumping out of the nearby alley, with Applejack readying a rope to tie him down. Looking in between the two parties, his back bristled and he growled. There was no way they were going to catch him and make him face that needle.

He tried to leap into another alley, but Pinkie was quick to tackle him. Pinning him to the ground, Pinkie growled, "Come on, Cheese! We're only trying to help!"

Cheese rolled them so that he was pinning her down. "How is sticking a needle in my neck helping?!"

Pinkie rolled back so she was on top. "I wish that the hair thing worked, I really do, because having a needle poking your neck and sucking up blood like a vampire sounds really, really, really not fun. We can get your blood other ways! Maybe we could just scrape your ear, or maybe floss your teeth until your gums bleed! Those are still not fun, but better than a needle, am I right?"

Cheese rolled again and he was on top again. "How is making me bleed any fun?! I've already gotten hurt plenty of times this summer!"

Pinkie looked at Applejack, who was swinging her lasso, and to Rainbow, ready to tackle him the moment he did something funny--or rather, unfunny. "I said it's not fun! As much as I don't want to do the not fun thing, that not fun thing is the only way to--OW!"

Applejack almost dropped her rope, and Rainbow gasped. Cheese had outright chomped down on Pinkie's front leg, with his teeth sinking down like she was a pillow. After the initial scream of pain, Pinkie could only stare in shock at the suddenly dark eyes of her fellow party pony, and whimper some more from the pain that the bite was giving her.

Cheese was caught on the hind leg with the lasso, and Rainbow tackled him so that both she and Applejack could tie him up. Pinkie got up, but her usual bounce wasn't present. Instead, she stared at her leg. While there was no blood drawn, she felt as if he had stabbed her heart instead. Looking at the scene before her, and thinking of how Cheese was before, from the most exciting of parties to the most relaxed of walks, she wondered who that stallion was.

It sure wasn't her Cheese.

Rainbow had given a holler to inform everyone that they had caught Cheese, and they returned to the courtyard so that they could draw a blood sample. Just as Twilight had promised, it was quick, but that didn't mean Cheese liked it. Not even being given a lollipop afterwards cheered him up, as a band-aid on his neck reminded him of the torture. Tomato just rolled his eyes and said, "You big baby. How did you survive booster shots?"

"At least I'm not afraid of clowns," Cheese shot back.

"All right, you two!" Twilight said, injecting the blood into a vial. She looked at the nearest clock tower. "Now, thanks to the chase, I have to wait until after the trial to extract your magic signature. I'm going to make sure you don't testify, since you're still lacking the necessary information, Cheese."

"Okay, fine. I'm sure we have enough between Tomato, Fluttershy and the bat, some other ponies..." Cheese grumbled.

"Well," Applejack said. "Let's go now. Don't wanna be late."

As all eight ponies trotted off to the courthouse, Tomato noticed something unusual. Usually, whenever they were in the same place, Cheese and Pinkie were more than happy to walk beside each other. This time, however, there was Cheese on one side of the group, being all cranky and bristle-haired, while Pinkie was on the opposite side, her curls drooping and forlorn eyes just staring at her foreleg.

He was not a big fan of Pinkie, and he was getting sick of Cheese's attitude, but his heart just ached seeing them separate like that.

Author's Note

Well, we've got Kazam's trial to get through. But hey, at least the Mane Six are getting involved in the what-is-going-on-with-Cheese-Sandwich plotline now! :pinkiehappy:

I wanted to put Trenderhoof here just to bug Cheese, but I couldn't come up with a bit part that'll annoy even normal Cheese (I accept scoots2's headcanon that Cheese dislikes him). And Trend's one of those ponies that you could throw in anywhere and it would work...

Ah, well. Let's just get on with the story.

21.2--The Trial

Cheese looked all around the court room as everypony settled into their seats. He had heard stories about various trials, but actually being in a courtroom was something else entirely. His eyes started at the bench where the judge was to sit, and would flick around to the witness stand, the jury box, and to every court official that stood beyond the bar, waiting for the judge. Looking all around at the other spectators, they all seemed eager to see how this would go--save for a couple, the stallion of which Cheese vaguely recognized.

Cheese's sights landed on the defendant's table, where a lawyer would have to defend that Kazam fellow. He wondered what it would be like to sit there, all eyes on him and declaring him guilty before the trial even started. Indeed, he already had a pit in his stomach over a hypothetical trial of his own, and feeling like he was still covered in the blood of Applewood teenagers and woodland critters.

He sat on the same bench as Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash; as witnesses, his brother and Pinkie's other two friends were seated elsewhere. He supposed he was technically a witness, but Twilight made sure to excuse him for the whole missing memory reason. Every so often, despite Rainbow sitting in between them, Pinkie would turn to him, wanting to say something, but ultimately deciding against it. He was glad she did, because he was in no mood for conversation.

When Kazam came in with his attorney, all fell quiet, and all eyes were on him. Cheese stared at that strange, royal blue unicorn, who wore an inhibitor ring on his horn, and made eye contact with him as he passed. Kazam, who was stoic before, quickly turned confused at the sight of Cheese, and his eyes lingered on him for some time before urged to look forward by the attorney.

Cheese felt like he was expected to be really angry at that stallion. Some part of him was, knowing the basic story about the Las Pegasus debacle and that somehow he and Tomato ended up involved. But, at the same time, he might have been a little too weary from anger over other things to care about something he didn't remember. His loss of his magic, feeling singled out like he was some sort of criminal, forced to endure that stupid needle after a tiring chase--all those he was unhappy about.

After the prosecution, the defense, the jury, and other court officials were settled, it was just the judge who had to arrive.

"All rise," the bailiff said. After everypony in the room complied, he continued, "The Court of Equestrian Justice is now in session, the Honorable Judge Primrose presiding."

The judge walked in and took her seat, and everypony else sat back down. Cheese leaned in his hoof, watching as the jurors all made their promises to be as fair as possible, and the bailiff presented the case of "The City of Las Pegasus vs. Kazam Rune."

"Ah, so today's the big one, huh?" Judge Primrose said. "Well, this should be interesting. Is the prosecution ready?"

The Las Pegasus representatives stood and said, "Yes, Your Honor."

"Is the defense ready?"

Kazam's lawyer stood up. "Yes, Your Honor."

"Very well." Judge Primrose adjusted her glasses. "The prosecution shall present their case."

The case against Kazam sure painted a picture. Cheese imagined the scene of "vampires unleashed onto terrified citizens and tourists" quite vividly, with blood splattering on the streets and coating the fangs of the monsters, and the twisted cries of ponies being sucked dry. According to Tomato, the transformations were unpleasant, but Cheese couldn't know for sure. His only ever transformation was puberty, and every teenager and adult knew what that was like. Regardless, at least he could see what the criminal charges against Kazam were.

According to the defense, however, it was likely that he was framed. Interesting to go on that note, but they did explain that there had been a Magic Expo that night, and that any one of the mages and magicians there could have been the real culprit. He started to wonder if that Great and Powerful Trixie he bumped into from time to time was now a suspect. Either way, how was this case going to go?

And then Cheese wondered if the court allowed bathroom breaks.

The first one called to the witness stand was Silk Shimmer. After the formalities of swearing to tell the truth and giving her name, she was soon treated to some interesting questions.

"All right, Miss Shimmer," the prosecutor said. "Could you describe your relation to Mr. Rune?"

"He's my older brother," Silk answered.

"Ah, I see. How many of you are there?"

"Three. I'm the middle child and only girl."

"Who is your other brother?"

"His name is Party Favor."

"And what was his relationship with Mr. Rune like?"

Silk Shimmer leaned on the stand, looking out in space as if the memory were in front of her. "They didn't get along. When you have an older brother who's a magical prodigy and a younger brother who can't even make a spark of magic, there's obviously going to be some bullying. I remember the days when Kaz would try to fuse Party Favor with the cat or with the doves or even with Party Favor's balloons. He always had the excuse that he wanted to 'help' Party Favor and give him some sort of superpower, but Mom would never listen."

The prosecutor rubbed his chin. "So, he tried to fuse his brother with the cat?"

"Yes, sir."

"Ah, so it is. Reports have said that the vampire spell was created by fusing a bat with a pony and imbuing that fusion with increased strength, speed, and stamina. It's clear that he has held an interest in this magic since he was a foal. Where did he discover this magic, anyway?"

Silk Shimmer glanced around the room. "Well... at home, we had a library of books on magic, because our bloodline is supposed to be naturally gifted at magic. Dad tried to have us exercise caution, and told us the story of our ancestor, Wayer Rune, but I think that might have sparked Kazam's interest instead of scaring us straight."

The prosecutor plodded back and forth in front of her. "Wayer Rune? Care to elaborate?"

"He's the guy who created the werewolf, with a fusion spell and other..." Silk paused to think. "...uh, for lack of a better word, additives to make the monster stronger and more durable. He also did stuff with memory magic, astronomy, alchemy, and trying to study a phenomena that he called 'jester magic'."

"Jester magic?" Pinkie whispered. "Is that the magic of having silly outfits? Or jingling silly bells? Or doing silly things? Oh, is that another term for party pony-ness? Wow, this Wayer guy must have been a big fan of party ponies."

"Pinkie, shush!" Rarity hissed.

Pinkie pouted at her, but obeyed. She did turn to Cheese for silent affirmation of her inquiries, but thought better of it when Cheese gave her a glare from the corner of his eye that said, "Leave me alone." She instead just looked at her foreleg, and continued to watch the trial.

Up on the stand, Silk continued, "Wayer was a gifted mage in the Princesses' court back in the day--I'm sure they have more detail on him, all I know is that it was sometime after Star Swirl. Before the Minotaur War, I assume he was a pretty nice guy, seeing as he married an earth pony jester--which was kind of radical during that time--and had kids with her. But, messing with dark magic, even to stop a war, does make a pony corrupt, and he somehow decided that it was a good idea to spread that werewolf curse around. Party Favor and I were scared when we heard the story, but Kazam was more fascinated than anything."

"Ah, so we can assume that this fascination with dark magic led to the events of Las Pegasus."

Silk rubbed the back of her head. "I don't know... Dad did forbid dark magic, even though he did encourage Kaz's talents, to the point that Party Favor and I--especially Party Favor--felt kind of left out and not good enough." She glanced at a stallion in the audience, who presumably was her father, who just looked away in shame.

"Ah, yes, thank you for the background, Miss Shimmer," the prosecutor said, straightening his tie. "Though, I have to ask, where is that other brother now?"

"Some town in the middle of nowhere... kind of northeast Equestria... I'm not sure, we just recently got word from him after a few years of not knowing. I'm really thankful that he's been found and is all right, and I have to thank a couple new friends I made for finding him and convincing him to send me a letter. In fact, I can see one of them in the audience right now." She grinned and waved at Cheese, who just stared back awkwardly.

"I'm happy for you, and I'm glad to hear that brother's all right," the prosecutor said.

"As am I," Judge Primrose said. "The prosecution may be seated. The defense may stand."

The prosecutor took his seat, and the defense attorney stood up. "Thank you, Your Honor." He turned to Silk Shimmer. "Now, I did hear that Mr. Rune is your elder brother, is that correct, Miss Shimmer?"

Silk nodded. "Indeed it is, sir."

"Then my I ask what your relationship with him was like?"

"Well, we weren't exactly close, and he did pick on me for being a lesser mage than he was. On the flip side, however, he never really tried to cast any harmful spells on me like he did with Party Favor. The worst he's done was hypnotize me into breaking a rule or being his little minion. It was enough to make me prefer going out with friends than staying at home. Still, by the night of Magic Expo, I thought he had grown out of that."

The defense nodded. "I see. Just what were you doing at the Magic Expo?"

Silk Shimmer rubbed the back of her head. "I was going to him for a favor, since I was making up for helping out with a scam that nearly had somepony kidnapped--I was helping that somepony's brother start a business so he could contribute to paying her medical bill. Kazam agreed to lend money on the condition that I would be one of his assistants. Another new friend of mine was helping me and took the job as the other assistant so that my debt would be lower. The shows for the next few days were actually kind of fun, but then the whole vampire fiasco happened, and I woke up to find my friend half-bat."

"Interesting." The defense paced back and forth. "Miss Shimmer, perhaps if it really was Kazam who turned your friend into a vampire, if he was as uncaring of you as you claim, why didn't he turn you into one as well? Wouldn't two vampires have made a quicker job of converting patrons at the Expo?"

Silk Shimmer blinked. "I... guess he cares on some level to not choose me for the spell. Still, he had no attachment to his other assistant... and he did hypnotize me to be his lackey. Let me tell you, the other assistant's brother was not very happy about what happened. And he was annoyed that I kept beating him up."

Are you kidding me, I was being beat up by that mare? Cheese thought. As if I'd let myself get thrashed if my brother was in danger. I probably would have broken off her horn in a second.

The defense attorney fixed his hair. "Do you remember what you did during this hypnosis?"

Silk blew on her bangs. "Well, no, most of what I did was told to me by others."

"Well, I have reason to doubt that it was your brother. Somepony else could have placed a mind control spell on you while you were talking to him, and then did the dirty work behind his back. This other unicorn could have easily transformed the first victim, placed him behind the stage, and then released it onto the audience when Kazam's show began."

"Then... why didn't Kazam stop the vampire?"

"Who says Kazam wasn't also put under hypnosis?"

Silk paused for a moment, and tapped her chin. "I... don't know how to answer that."

Judge Primrose tapped the gavel and said, "All right, it sounds like we have enough information from Miss Shimmer. The defense may take his seat, and the witness may step down. Let's call forth the next witness."

"Trixie was just minding her own business at the Expo, performing for the adoring Las Pegasus audiences, when all of a sudden, Cheese Sandwich popped out of her hat and spooked the living daylights out of her!" The mare referring to herself in the third person shook her hoof at Cheese in the audience. "He begged her to help him rescue his brother from being a vampire, which she didn't believe until he said that it was Kazam Rune who did it."

The lawyer looked at her oddly. "Why did you change your mind when Mr. Rune was mentioned?"

"Because Trixie always suspected that Kazam was evil! He had this creepy look in his eyes, a devilish smirk, and a fascination with the darkness that Trixie wouldn't dare go near! As soon as Cheese Sandwich's brother was transformed, Trixie's fears were confirmed!" She snapped her head toward Kazam, and narrowed her eyes. "Trixie hopes that you rot in prison! You're lucky that the Great and Powerful Trixie does not suffer from nightmares!"

As the spectators watched Trixie laugh maniacally for a good ten seconds, Cheese raised an eyebrow, while the girls just stared at her uncomfortably. Rainbow leaned in her hoof and murmured, "Yeesh, she's still as big of a loudmouth as before."

"Calm down, Miss Trixie!" the lawyer said. "Did you help Mr. Sandwich?"

Trixie blinked. "Oh. Yes, Trixie did. A frying pan goes a long way in fighting off vampires, and an anti-magic cone to stop magical foes."

The purple pony with the silver pompadour, all dressed up in a sparkling suit, was another pony that was up on the witness stand.

"I remember distinctly that my resort got robbed that day, by the notorious Pinkerton Headsmasher! I remember the police telling me that he was ranting and raving about getting attacked by a vampire, and we all had a good laugh, uh-huh-huh! Then, night falls and there really is a horde of them! I had a lot of ponies retreating into my resort, and I remember hearing the phrase 'There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of' over and over from outside. And I thought, 'What the hay?! There's a lot to be afraid of!' When it all stopped, everypony was confused, even the vampires themselves, and we had to wait a week until everypony was cured."

"Ah, yes... uh, thank you, Mr. Gladmane."

The off-duty policepony huffed. "I remember that night like it was yesterday. I was doing important paperwork when one of my officers burst into my office and shouted that it was an emergency. It was easy to believe when I saw way too many civilians panicking at the front desk.

"I went out there with my officers, and there they were, barreling down from the sky and tackling ponies left and right, sinking those fangs in their necks and sucking them dry."

Rarity shivered. "I didn't need that mental picture."

"We fought the vampires as hard as we could. They were innocents, many of them foals, that had been morphed into inequine monsters." The chief slammed on the stand. "Several of my officers had been bitten, and I had to fight them! I was lucky that the vampires were repulsed by me for one reason or another, but my officers? They looked tasty."

Rainbow whispered to Pinkie, "Well, considering his name is Chief Garlic..."

Several other witnesses went up to the stand and testified of what they had seen. A couple of ponies had been in the audience when Kazam sicced the vampire on them, while a few more had been on the streets when it happened. Some had transformed, some did not. So far, surprisingly, Tomato had not gone up, despite being arguably the most important of the witnesses. Still, when Twilight and Fluttershy were up, Pinkie could not help but cheer for them, and had to be silenced by the judge.

"All right, Princess Twilight," Judge Primrose said, setting her gavel down. "You may begin."

"Thank you, Your Honor." Twilight straightened her notes, and nodded to Fluttershy, who opened the box and picked Vladimir the vampire bat up. "What my friend Fluttershy has here is the very bat that was fused to the first victim. I haven't had the opportunity to study the pony victim, but I did examine the bat for the traces of magic that is still left in them. Being fused to a pony for a week can... imbed some pony qualities into the bat."

Fluttershy nodded. "Normally, vampire bats can only drink blood, and unfortunately... they have a preference for pony blood."

Every spectator and court official cringed at that statement, with Rarity especially nearly fainting. Even Kazam rubbed his foreleg in discomfort, suggesting that he had learned that lesson the hard way.

Then, Fluttershy pulled a tomato out of her saddlebag, which Vladimir happily pounced on and started to suck on it. "So, I found it strange that he happily ate tomatoes and didn't get sick. I took him to the vet for an X-Ray, and found that his digestive system had been altered so that he could have fruit... so, I guess he's kind of a vampire fruit bat now."

Twilight took two X-Rays out of her notes and showed the officials. "I have Vladimir's X-Ray, and a normal vampire bat's X-Ray for comparision. While he still does like blood..." Under her breath, she grumbled, "...he bit me the last time I visited Fluttershy and it still hurts..." She cleared her voice and continued, "The fact that he suffers no ill effects from any other source of food suggests that his physiology was affected when he was fused with a pony. And it was just a week! Imagine if it had been a month!"

The prosecutor scratched his chin. "Interesting... is there anything else about him that is more pony than bat?"

Fluttershy put a hoof to her chin. "Well, I don't know much about his personality before, but he does like wearing ties, reading books, and doing my taxes. Also, when I tickle him..." She stopped there and tickled the bat. Vladimir laughed normally at first; but, then, everypony had to keep from laughing when he whinnied. Poor Vladimir covered his mouth, and zipped into Fluttershy's mane.

"Oh!" Fluttershy immediately regretted doing that. "I'm sorry that I embarrassed you, Vladimir. We just needed to show them the side effects of the spell." The bat just hissed in reply, and Fluttershy looked as if her heart just broke.

The defense tapped on the table. "You very well could have falsified that evidence, this is utterly ridiculous. Are you so sure that that bat is now part pony? Does it work the other way around?"

"That's my hypothesis," Twilight said. "Luckily, with their varied diet, I don't think any of those ponies who turned into vampires will start drinking blood anytime soon. On another note..." She shuffled through her notes until she found what she was looking for. "Working backwards from the counterspell that the Princesses and I used to cure the city, it does appear that the spell is in fact a variation of Wayer Rune's werewolf spell, with other spells compiled on it to make the vampires deadly foes. As it stands, Mr. Rune has been performing blood brewing."

"What is blood brewing?" the prosecutor asked.

"It's a shortcut to spell creation. Instead of doing the hard calculations and word compositions to combine with magic, the mage would just mix a bunch of spells into somepony, and draw the magic from their blood to read the new magic signature of that spell." Twilight frowned. "It's very dangerous, it often causes a lot of physical and magical damage to a pony."

"So, are you suggesting that Mr. Rune was treating his victim like a cauldron to make a new spell?"

"Yes, I am.

The defense attorney scoffed. "So now ponies can pull magic out of other ponies? Since when are all unicorns Tirek?"

"Oh, it's not stealing magic like Tirek was, it's just reading the magic signature and replicating the results." Twilight shuffled through her notes some more. "Anyway, back to the vampire thing. It did require a high magical level to both create and perform, and the Runes are notable for having a family history of powerful unicorns."

"I am sure there are other families that have powerful histories, Princess," the defense attorney said. "From what I've heard, the Light clan has also had an extensive history of powerful mages, one of the more recent ones being yourself. There is still a chance that an obscure distant relative of yours had done it, and Mr. Rune, due to being more well-known, got caught in the crossfire."

"Hm, perhaps. I could do it if I wanted to... but I don't want to." Twilight let the judge look at the notes. "This is just from studying the one spell and the bat. If I had done the research on the victim before he left, I'm sure that I could have gotten more."

Judge Primrose nodded. "Impressive. Speaking of the first victim, I don't believe we have heard from him yet. You may step down, Princess Twilight and Miss Fluttershy, and we'll have Mr. Tomato Sandwich come to the stand. Maybe we'll see if he does still have a little bat in him."

Now it was Tomato's turn on the witness stand. With all eyes on him, there was part of him that was relieved that they weren't expecting him to sing, but the rest of him was nervous over them not believing his story. If he hadn't experienced it firsthoof, he probably wouldn't have believed it either. It was strange, he lived in a world of magic, but there were things that did sound preposterous, such as ancient Equestrian legends popping up in the modern day. Well, if Nightmare Moon happened, anything could happen.

He looked to his brother for comfort, and only got confusion over why Rainbow Dash was sitting in between him and Pinkie. That made him wonder just what happened between the two party ponies during the chase.

Once he swore to tell the truth, the first question was, "Tell us, what were you doing in Las Pegasus the night of the crime?"

Tomato cleared his throat. "Well... I was on summer break, and my brother Cheese was taking me on a trip across Equestria. We pretty much went wherever his Cheesy Sense told him to go, and Las Pegasus happened to be the destination that week."

"I see. What is this Cheesy Sense?"

"It's a sense that tells him what town a party's being planned and if that party needs his touch. That week, he sensed that the Magic Expo needed him, and thus, there we were, in Las Pegasus. Since I'm hardly a party pony and was frankly useless at party stuff, I explored the town with Silk Shimmer while Cheese worked on the Expo."

"So how did you get tangled with Kazam?"

Tomato drummed his hooves. "Well, Silk Shimmer is Kazam's sister, so she was asking him for money. I was helping her out, because that money was to help a new friend of mine start up a business. From what I've been told, the guy's been doing pretty well, because so many ponies like pizza!" He grinned and chuckled, but soon straightened out. "But I digress. Silk Shimmer was in debt then, and I was helping her pay it off through both of us being assistants. I thought it was just a normal deal, but..."

He remembered how he had briefly felt his back tingle when making the deal, as if something was warning him to get away and fast. Alas, he had ignored it, shook Kazam's hoof, and listened to the lie of "There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of."

The attorney stomped his hoof to get Tomato's attention. "Mr. Sandwich, how were you transformed in the first place?"

Tomato's ears pinned back, and his drummed his hooves again. Here he goes, reliving that event. "Er... I think it might have been the Wings of Light trick. It was supposed to be something where he made a bat phase through me and briefly give me... well, wings of light. It was a cool trick, but the part where the bat 'phased' through me felt like I was being stabbed. I think that's when the fusion happened."

Tomato squeezed his eyes shut, his heart aching from the memory. "I quickly fell sick. I had a headache, I was nauseous, my chest hurt, and I was hungry. Cheese took me to our motel room that night, giving me a little snack and water and imploring me to go to sleep early, but all that did was make me throw up." His muscles tensed and started to tremble, and his guts twisted and ached. "I pretty much camped out in the bathroom for half of the night, and it felt like I was in there for much longer, retching until I had nothing left, sweating from the heat, shivering for whatever reason, and feeling like I was having a heart attack!"

He felt the wings on his back, spreading out for all to see, even though he knew they didn't exist now. "Then, I felt two of my front teeth grow into long needles, and lumps in my back just grew into wings, and I could just feel my skin back there being stretched out. I felt so horrible that I thought I was going to die, and I was relieved when the pain faded. I was weak, but I was alive. Unfortunately, one look in the mirror made me realize just how much trouble I was in."

The prosecutor adjusted his glasses. "Well, that transformation sounded horrible."

"I don't recommend it."

"I wouldn't want it anyway. How did your brother find out?"

Tomato rolled his eyes and leaned in his hoof. "It would have been too much trouble to hide it from him, so since he was at the door being worried, I just opened it and showed him. He fainted." He looked out at the spectators to see Cheese displeased with that statement.

"I don't blame him. Anyway, let's skip forward to when the disaster struck. Do you remember how it started?"

Tomato rubbed his head, and then shook it, saying, "Barely. We went to Kazam, thinking that he must have made some sort of mistake, but Cheese got mad at him, Kazam found my form interesting, and then... it felt like I fell asleep, but I know it was just hypnosis. Next thing I knew, I was up in the sky, under a bright moon, and I had just been punched in the face." He rubbed his face, wanting to glare at Cheese for even doing that, despite knowing that he must have been desperate.

"And then, I looked down..." Tomato's heart pounded, just like it did that night. "...and Cheese was falling. We were in the sky about... I don't know, twice the height of Manehattan's Trade Center, so it was a fall that not even he could survive--and trust me, Cheese is a tough cookie. I managed to swoop down and grab him just before he hit the street of Las Pegasus' ground neighborhood, but it was so close. So close!" He cradled his head in his hooves. "Sometimes, I think about how it would have been if I didn't catch him in time."

The prosecutor had a hoof on his heart. "It's a miracle how you barely averted tragedy. How did it all end?"

Tomato looked up. "Well, Kazam was about to blast us to smithereens, but he had several anti-magic cones latched into his horn from behind. After that, Cheese smuggled me out of Las Pegasus and took me to Twilight, where she turned me back to normal."

"Any leftover bat in you?"

Tomato blinked at the odd question, but answered, "...well... I, uh, sometimes feel the wings on my back, and I ended up trying to take off a few times... I fell on my face, obviously. I've also hissed at ponies when I got angry. I also have better hearing and can speak bat now."

"Do you still crave blood?"

"What? No! I'm sticking to pony food, thank you." He didn't feel nauseous at the thought of blood, but it was still uncomfortable to think about. Especially after that one time he smelled blood on Cheese, which he still wasn't sure where it came from.

After the prosecutor was done, the defense attorney went up to him, and dared to ask, "Now, how can you be so sure that it was Kazam when you were hypnotized for nearly the entire duration of the attack?"

Tomato crossed his front legs. "He tried to kill me when I didn't do want he wanted. He outright said he had more vampires to play with."

"Oh, really?"

Tomato raised his eyebrow. Somehow, he doubted that this lawyer had any good tricks up his sleeve, and from what he could see in the audience, everypony else had the same thing. So far, he was just rearing to get Tomato mad, and perhaps even hiss at him for getting on his nerves. Tomato didn't want to make a scene, but if he hissed, at least it was further evidence that he had some bat in him.

Was there really any point to this trial if they knew Kazam was guilty?

The two attorneys made their closing remarks, and as per Equestrian tradition, the attending Princess was to extend a hoof to the accused, which is exactly what Twilight Sparkle did. She trotted up, despite being able to fly, and faced Kazam.

"Well, we've heard from every one of the witnesses present, and soon the jury will reach their verdict," she began. "As the Princess of Friendship, it is my duty to let you know that your magic can be used for good, Kazam. Guilty or not guilty, I have a duty to be a guiding light for all of Equestria, and to let everypony experience the magic of friendship, even ponies like you. Should you be declared guilty, I'll personally see to it that you have somepony work with you so that you may be a better you. I've seen it with those who have done worse than you."

Kazam glared at her and sighed. "You sound awfully presumptuous, Princess. You should know that not every ill in the world is because somepony didn't have friends." He raised an eyebrow, putting his hooves together. "Sometimes it's because of bad friends, or sometimes, somepony goes bad in spite of good friends. How are you sure that it'll work on me if I'm guilty?"

"Well, nopony came forward and said that they were ever your friend, or said that you ever had friends, so, I thought--"

"I did have friends as a foal, Princess. I helped them with their magic studies in school. We just drifted apart as we pursued our different careers and interests. I don't have some sobstory involving being lonely; my brother's the one with the sobstory. So, I don't see why I need to learn about the Magic of Friendship when I already know how to talk to ponies and get them into my good graces. The reason nopony mentioned it was because it was an unimportant detail. Stop looking for problems where there aren't any."

Twilight blinked, and then glared at him. "Well, if that's what you wish. She turned to the judge. "You can--"

"I do have a question," Kazam interrupted. "Why wasn't Cheese Sandwich called up as a witness?"

Judge Primrose glared at him. "That information is confidential. Now--"

"Oh? Is he sick? Puh, I saw him among the spectators, so he's clearly not. I would think that somepony who had planned the Magic Expo, was responsible for it, and who was very much involved in the events, enough that most of the witnesses we've seen here have mentioned him in some shape or form, and of course... it was his brother who was the first victim." Kazam leaned back in his chair and chuckled. "Don't tell me that he was too traumatized to even think about the event without having a breakdown."

The defense attorney turned to him and whispered, "Kazam, stop it, you're not helping your case!"

However, the sound of an angry gallop barreled through the court, and soon enough, Cheese Sandwich skidded to a halt in front of Kazam, growling at him. "Oh, you think you're so tough, talking smack about me like that?"

"Ah, long time, no see, Cheese," Kazam said. "You seem different."

Twilight hovered to Cheese. "What are you doing? Get back to your seat!"

Cheese ignored her. "Oh, I seem different? Well, maybe that's because you had your lackey rip the memory of Las Pegasus from my mind! Forgive me for being a little cranky for having part of my mind stolen!"

The crowd gasped, and Kazam's smug smile faded into a frown. "Wait, what?"

Twilight had her hoof on her face. "Well, thanks for revealing that, Cheese. But, yes, his memory of Las Pegasus has been stolen, and we have reason to suspect that it was the one behind the Las Pegasus disaster, be it you, or this somepony else that your attorney keeps claiming it is. After all, if there's anypony who'd benefit from the missing piece of the puzzle, it's the culprit."

Kazam blinked and scratched his chin. "Are you sure it wasn't a mind wipe? Outright stealing the memory is an older spell. Props to the guy who decided to be thorough, mind wipes have a risk of the memory coming back with a certain trigger."

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "He had the symptoms and has suffered from magical damage, so I'm certain it's the memory removal."

Cheese slammed on the table. "You better give that memory back, you coward!"

Kazam raised an eyebrow at him and turned back to Twilight. "I guess that's why he seems so different. He's not as ridiculous as before. However, if it is the memory removal, then I fear that I may be correct about my assumptions about his character. After all, memory removal is not an easy spell."

"What do you mean by that?" Twilight asked, still glaring.

Kazam leaned toward her, and whispered, "I hear you're an aficionado of research, Princess, and you're bound to have done a lot of it to figure out how to help him. You must have researched my ancestor's writings on the subject, compared it with different kinds of mind spells, and how it relates to the pony body. Surely you know that the method is extremely painful, and that he would have felt it. He would have seen the pony's face, and the only reason he doesn't remember is because plucking out a piece of the mind disrupts the memory process. He wouldn't have been some sitting duck to somepony trying to steal a piece of him by night, and the thief taking the memory by force as Cheese fights it would have killed that clown if his mind wasn't sufficiently weakened."

Kazam watched as Twilight bit her trembling lip, and her eyes glanced away to Cheese, to somepony in the spectator seats, and to the witnesses in the back, most likely Tomato. He smirked. "You're neglecting a vital piece of information, Princess. Are you trying to protect somepony?"

Twilight sighed. "Cheese Sandwich... consented to the memory removal."

Cheese stepped back in alarm, several ponies gasped, and Pinkie yelled, "What?!" Twilight flinched at all those, and was tempted to hide in her wings for the rest of the week. She especially watched Cheese, and how he was taking this new information in.

Cheese shook his head. "No, but I... I would never..." He growled, and jumped onto the table, his mane, tail, and the fur on his back bristling. "That's insane! You're just making stuff up to make me look bad and yourself not so bad! You're guilty! You did steal it! You did!"

Kazam examined his hoof. "Afraid not. Not very many ponies want to associate with me after my accusations, so I don't have a lackey to obstruct justice. Therefore, I plead innocent to that charge."

Judge Primrose tapped her gavel. "Now, can Mr. Sandwich go and sit down?!"

Cheese ignored her. "Liar!"

Kazam huffed. "Going to keep calling me that, huh? It's a shame, really. To know that a pony like you couldn't handle the guilt of a party going oh so terribly wrong under your watch, that a simple little grudge that you held against your brother had him flirting with danger and turning into a monster. That he couldn't handle the fear that there might be just enough bat in that brother to suddenly turn back into a vampire and kill him. That he couldn't handle the fact that he nearly died, and he couldn't save himself because it wouldn't be funny, and humor in that situation would have been cheap."

The defense attorney covered his mouth. "That's enough! Do you want them to declare you guilty?"

Kazam rolled his eyes and brushed the hoof aside. "What does it matter? We all know where it's going."

Judge Primrose looked at the bailiff. "Please drag Cheese Sandwich away."

Kazam made eye contact with Cheese. "I bet you had nightmares... nightmares of all the little vampires jumping at you, as if they blamed you for their pain, nightmares of your brother changing back and attacking you, and perhaps nightmares of falling and going splat on the pavement. With all that in mind, it's no wonder you gave up that memory to the 'memory thief'. You are weak."

In a split second, Cheese's eyes turned black as night, and he pounced on Kazam. The unicorn had been fully expecting a flurry of punches and kicks that any other pony would have done to try to prove him wrong; instead it was a storm of teeth and growls, with Cheese trying to tear him apart and strip the flesh off his bones like an animal would. With his magic blocked, he could barely defend himself, and made sure to keep Cheese's mouth away from his throat.

"Cheese, stop!" Pinkie cried.

"What are you doing?!" Tomato yelled.

Twilight used her magic to peel the feral Cheese off the now-bloodied Kazam, and soon enough, the bailiff and several other guards had tackled the party pony to the floor. After a bit of wrestling, some chains, and a muzzle to restrain him, the guards hoisted Cheese up and carried him out of the room. Other ponies went out to take Kazam to a doctor, with Kazam's family, Silk Shimmer included, following in their worry. As all the commotion went on, all ponies could do were gape at the scene unfolding before them.

Pinkie Pie and Tomato Sandwich were two of those gaping, and they were still in a stupor as everypony else began to clamor.

Author's Note

Researching this courtroom stuff to the best of my ability gave me a headache. Figuring out how it would go in Equestria was an even bigger headache. :applejackconfused: At some point, I think I might have given up on the finer details and just went nuts.

Ah, well, at least I got this over with.

21.3--Heart to Harsh

Later that evening, Tomato was with Twilight and her friends in the Princess' Canterlot suite. Twilight had set up a little mini lab in order to examine Cheese's blood sample, with the vial containing the sample, extra jars for anything else she might find, paper to take notes on, and a whole lot of books making up the entire thing. Tomato would have said that she was overprepared for just reading a magic signature, but it didn't take long for him to realize that Twilight was thinking there was something more that was going on.

Of course, she still needed one more thing: Cheese himself, who wasn't present for an unfortunate reason. As such, she had to write a royal pardon to free him from custody. She opted to stay behind to do as much work as possible, so she asked if anypony would take it and go get him. Despite Applejack's and Rainbow's protests, Pinkie Pie was the one to volunteer.

"Are you sure it's wise to send Pinkie out to fetch him?" Applejack asked.

Twilight leaned on her desk, pursing her lips until she sighed. "She did volunteer, and she is the closest to him out of the rest of us, save arguably Tomato. She does have a knack for appealing to his better nature when he's... upset, to say the least."

"He bit her earlier! That's our problem!" Rainbow shouted. "And if he's so close to Tomato, why didn't you send him?"

"Because Tomato can answer questions about Cheese's behavior over the past several weeks," Twilight said, jotting some things down in her notes. "So far, we have what we have observed today, and what Fluttershy observed the past few days, but I'm sure Tomato has seen more."

Tomato shifted on his stool. "Well, when you're the only constant in his life all summer, you pick up on a few things."

"All right, at least you're cooperating... Cheese is making this more frustrating than it needs to be," Twilight grumbled, setting her quill down. "I hope Pinkie doesn't have any trouble bringing him here. In the meantime, before I ask you anything, I might as well draw his magic signature out. The sooner we can locate the memories, the better."

Tomato crossed his front legs. "Be my guest."

Twilight pulled the cork out of the vial and then began to concentrate. Her aura surrounded the blood within, and it sparkled and popped as she stirred it. The blood bubbled, fighting the beckon of her magic, before humming and glowing under the spell. The others leaned forward, as if the blood were a lava lamp, and they waited for the magic mist that Twilight would draw from it.

Suddenly, a purple bolt shot out of the blood and hit her horn, causing Twilight to cease the spell when she tumbled back with a yell. The blood sloshed back in the vial, and it returned to its dark red color.

"Twilight!" The girls shouted, rushing to her aid. The four of them picked her up off the floor, and she wobbled before she regained her balance and assured them that she was okay. Tomato just watched the scene, glancing between Twilight and the blood and hoping for an answer to what had transpired before them.

"Twilight, whatever just happened?" Rarity asked.

"You look like you got shocked," Fluttershy said.

Twilight glared at the blood. "Well, it just decided that it doesn't want me to read its magic signature!"

"What do you mean by that?" Applejack asked. "Blood ain't exactly alive, yanno."

Tomato shrugged. "Maybe because party pony magic doesn't follow conventional rules?"

Twilight walked toward it, and scratched her chin as she stared at it. "I don't think so. I didn't have any trouble drawing Pinkie's magic signature out of her hair." She levitated a book, and flipped through the pages. "Maybe it's because magic drawn from blood has more power than magic drawn from hair, and is more likely to fight back. I think there's a different approach to the extraction..."

She shut the book, put it aside, and concentrated on the blood again. "Let's see if this one works."

It wasn't Cheese Sandwich's first time in a jail cell.

Typically, he was in a cell for an overnight stay, usually for disturbing the peace. It was always frustrating, but in most cases, Cheese would just pass the time with a tune on the harmonica. Sometimes he'd end up coming up with a song, and would write it down as soon as he could, from the notes to the lyrics, and would play it at the next party. It was a way of turning lemons into lemonade.

This time, he couldn't summon a harmonica, and he couldn't come up with any tune or a poem to be turned into a song. All he could think about was how unfair it was that he was thrown in here when that rat Kazam had deserved his thrashing. He just paced backed and forth in front of the bars, glaring and snarling at anypony who walked by. Other ponies taken into custody drew back out of fear, while the guards just glared back at him in a "don't you try anything funny" manner.

He stopped pacing when a guard arrived, with Pinkie Pie by his side, and opened the cell door. "This mare has arrived with a pardon from Princess Twilight, Cheese Sandwich. You're free to go, and hopefully you'll act like a responsible citizen from now on."

Cheese huffed, and he trotted out the cell without a word. He faced Pinkie Pie, who flashed an awkward grin at him as they were lead out of the holding area.

"So... jail time." Pinkie forced a giggle, snort and all. "I guess we can call you a hardened criminal now, eh, Cheese?"

Cheese just rolled his eyes and snorted.

Pinkie pursed her lips, and then said, "If you're wondering, they found Kazam guilty. He's spending a loooooooong time in Alcatrot. You know, that one prison full of really nasty ponies on an island in the middle of a freezing cold bay--so cold that I'd be a Pinkiesicle if I swam in it! It's not Tartarus, but aren't I glad that neither me or you will ever go there."

When Cheese didn't answer, she asked, "So, I didn't get to ask you what kind of crazy adventures you and Tommy had since I last saw you. What'd you do in Manehattan? Or in Salt Lick City? Or wherever else you went to after that? I bet you two had a lot of fun with the parties you planned!"

Cheese still didn't answer, and Pinkie bit her lip, searching her mind for what else to ask him. Even as they went out onto the Canterlot street, waltzing under the glow of the city's lanterns, she still racked her brains until she asked, "Have you guys made any new friends? Or visit family? Oh! Did you find that Aunt Honeydew of yours? Because I tried to see if she lived in Ponyville, but we don't have a Honeydew, so I asked my Aunt Seddie, who's been all over Equestria, if she's ever met a Honeydew. She did, but it was years ago, so she doesn't know where--"

"Honeydew's dead," Cheese stated.

Pinkie blinked. "Oh... uh, how did you find out?"

"We met her husband and offspring, and they confirmed it for us."

"Aw, that's sad... I'm really sorry. On the bright side, you met a new uncle and cousins!"

"Yippee."

The gruff tone that Cheese said that in made Pinkie's heart sink, after that little hope spot of getting Cheese to respond. She thought that Cheese would be happy to tell her all about those cousins that he and Tomato had found, in spite of the downer that was their deceased aunt, but he didn't seem to want to talk much. Heck, he didn't seem to want to listen to her talk this time, unlike their previous meetings.

She glanced down at her foreleg, feeling the bite from earlier that day, and thought of the moment that landed Cheese in jail. However, she pushed those thoughts aside, knowing that her party pony buddy was still in there. And she was aiming to push the right buttons to draw that party pony out.

"So, remember our dance at Ponyacci's anniversary? That was fun, wasn't it?"

Cheese huffed again, and Pinkie growled in frustration. He wasn't as easy to talk to as usual, but that didn't mean she couldn't still try. "Well, I sure thought it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun planning that big anniversary party for Equestria's greatest clown, and hearing stories about him and you and his grandkids..."

She paused when she noticed Cheese wandering in another direction, and used her tail to pull him back. "No, no, no, Twilight's place is this way." She dragged him further the direction of said suite. "She wants us back as soon as possible so she can work on making you better. I promise there aren't any more needles."

Cheese shook his head in some attempt to clear it of something, and rubbed his brow like he had a headache. "Will you stop dragging me? I can walk!"

"All righty!" She released him. "Anyway, I thought Zucchini was a great guy and..."

Several more attempts at magical extraction were made, and much to everyone's frustration, none of them had worked. Twilight had checked the book for the different formulas for extraction, but each was in vain, and thus, she had to check the next one on the list. All the while, she grumbled under her breath about how it was just her luck that the spell wasn't working properly.

As she figured out the spell, the others took to questioning Tomato about Cheese's behavior. They asked him questions about anything that Cheese had forgotten, whether it be recent or long ago; any angry episodes from just being snippy to outright violence; and any changes to his party-throwing ability.

Part of Tomato was glad that Cheese wasn't there, because there was no doubt that in his condition, Cheese would lash out to just about every answer Tomato gave. The callousness over breaking somepony's wings, angry outbursts, a tendency to bite and growl, the muddled up explanations of things that happened in the past, hunting animals and wanting to eat them, and showing less of a regard for life than normal were among the things that he told them.

"He's also taken to staring at the moon at lot," he added, scratching his head. " I mean, the moon's beautiful, don't get me wrong, but he just seems hypnotized by it."

"Mm, not that I blame him, I myself have drawn designs for new lines based on the night," Rarity said. "I'm sure Princess Luna does appreciate that we give more attention to her beautiful nights than our ancestors did."

"Yeah, but I don't think he means 'staring' like he's taking in the sight of a gal he fancies," Applejack said.

Tomato shook his head. "Nope. His moon staring is actually pretty creepy. It's like he's drugged or something."

Fluttershy had the notes in her hooves, looking at what they had written down so far. "So... do we add the moon thing to the list?"

"I say we should; Twi did say to put down anything that's unusual for Cheese Sandwich, and as weird as he is, there are some lines he's crossin'," Applejack said. She looked back at the alicorn at the desk. "Have you figured out anything yet, sugarcube?"

Twilight glared at the blood, scratching her chin. "I think the block might actually be in the blood. I've read that certain kinds of spells can block the proper extraction of a magic signature. I just need to extract that spell first, and then I can get the magic signature."

"Geez, talk about complicated!" Rainbow complained. "Didn't Cheese have a memory removed?"

"I think it might be more than one, based on how Tomato described Cheese recounting things that had nothing to do with Las Pegasus," Twilight replied. "Also, memory removal is not one of the spells, so... there really is something else going on with him, and we're going to find out what." Just as Twilight turned and started to concentrate, there was a knock at the door. She groaned briefly, but then looked back at the door and, figuring that it must've been Pinkie and Cheese, shouted, "Come in!"

The one who opened the door was not Pinkie; it was Princess Celestia. "Well, well, Twilight, what kind of project are you working on?"

Twilight spun around in her seat, while the others took to the floor and bowed. "Celestia! I was just... figuring out how to extract magic from a blood sample."

Celestia curiously looked at the vial on the desk. "And who's blood is that?"

Twilight grinned nervously. "It's... Cheese Sandwich's. Eheheh... it's a wild story of how I got it from him, but I assure you he's still alive!"

Celestia frowned. "I know. I heard about what happened at Kazam's trial. It seems unlike him to try to tear another pony apart like that."

Tomato stood up. "He's, uh... not been himself lately, Your Highness. See, he's had memories stolen, and it's making him act off. And I mean, really off. He's been having a worse temper than usual, sometimes to the point where he makes me look like the life of the party." He rubbed his leg. "Do you think Princess Luna saw anything? She does go into dreams after all, and she did go into Cheese's back during Summer Sun..."

"Luna has been pretty busy soothing the dreams of the many victims and witnesses of Las Pegasus, so it's likely Cheese didn't get the attention that he needed," Celestia answered. She then asked, "But stolen memories, you say? That's quite an old spell that very few still use today. Are you sure it's not a mind wipe?"

"Well, both Pinkie and Tomato have reported his symptoms, and they line up with memory removal," Twilight answered. "Not only that, but there's an extra spell that's making it difficult to read Cheese's magic signature. I'm hoping that if I can locate the memories, we'll find the one who did this."

"I'm still convinced that Kazam found a lackey to do it!" Tomato snapped.

Twilight shook her head. "Afraid not, Tomato... Kazam was genuinely confused over the accusation. I think he knows that it's impractical to remove the memories of every important witness to the crime, since you all went different directions, and it is a dangerous spell."

"Well, what would some random pony want with my brother's memories?!" Tomato yelled, his mane bristling. "Does he or she get a kick out of seeing him have headaches? Or blab about some nonsense about how our mother wasn't that bad or imply that we never had a feud? Or watching as Cheese sabotages his own career by acting less like a party pony and more like a monster? And why Cheese?! What did he do to deserve it?!"

The others winced, and Rarity mumbled, "Well, it's certainly not going to reflect well on him once word of the assault comes out."

"I'm sorry, Tomato, but I don't have all the answers yet!" Twilight exclaimed. "I'm trying all I can to find out who convinced him to--"

Tomato stamped a hoof. "No! I refuse to believe that Cheese consented to have his memory removed! He should know that something that alters his mind like that would be completely stupid!"

Twilight's horn sparked, and there was lightning in her eyes. "Well, maybe he couldn't think straight because he was still traumatized from fighting vampires and almost losing you to a nutcase!"

Celestia walked in between them and pushed them apart with her wings. "Enough! I understand you're both stressed, but arguing is going to get you nowhere."

She folded her wings and sighed, and then looked at Tomato. "Look, Tomato... I know exactly how hard it is to watch someone you love fall to darkness." She looked out the window at the rising moon, just one night away from the month's first full moon. "Especially a sibling. When a pony who is meant to be a lifetime friend becomes your enemy, it is one of the worst pains to grasp your heart."

Tomato's ears drooped, and he looked at the floor. "Do you think we can cure him before... well..."

Celestia nodded. "I have faith that Twilight can find a way. She's succeeded in much tougher tasks."

Twilight smiled up at her. "Aw, it always means so much that you believe in me!" She looked at Tomato. "And don't worry, I promise that I'll do all I can to turn Cheese back into your super duper party pony brother. It'd be so wrong for a party pony to be so... dark."

"Oh, I don't know, I'd say that Gallow Humor was a dark party pony," Celestia said with a chuckle. With a wistful sigh, she said, "But, in all seriousness, Cheese Sandwich is not the first party pony to lose their light. Jamberry Rune was the best jester that I ever had in my court, but all it took was the death of her brother and for her husband to commit horrific deeds for her to lose her light."

"What kind of horrific deeds?" Applejack asked.

"Wayer Rune was an observer of jester magic and a pioneer of memory magic, but it's sad that he'll forever be infamously tied to the creation of the werewolf and the plague that claimed many lives. Jamberry was a witness to all of that, and she was in so much devastation and denial that she lost her magic. After their son exposed the source of the bloodshed and I had to send Wayer to Tartarus, all that was left was for Jamberry's broken heart to claim her life."

"Aww..." Fluttershy said. "That's so sad. I'd hate for it to happen to Pinkie."

"Any of those fates is something I do not wish on anypony," Celestia said. "Though, what's strange is that Wayer Rune did use his memory magic in his tactics. This mystery pony might view him as an inspiration much like Kazam did..."

Twilight rubbed her chin. "That does sound likely. Hm, maybe it's just a case of Cheese upstaging the wrong pony, and said pony just found an opportunity to sabotage him recently. Maybe a descendant of Wayer that's too proud of their heritage and is not Kazam. Wayer and Jamberry did have five foals that went on to have their own descendants."

Celestia smiled. "Well, I better leave you to your work. It was nice visiting with you."

She turned and walked out the door, shutting it behind her. The group stared at the door for a moment before Rainbow Dash piped up, "I bet it's Starlight Glimmer!"

"And why's that?" Rarity asked.

"Well, she removed cutie marks! I bet she can remove memories too!"

"Oh, dear!" Fluttershy squeaked.

"Unless Cheese did something to her, I don't think it's Starlight," Twilight said. "Now, where are Pinkie and Cheese? They should be here by now! What the hay are they doing?"

Tomato looked at the door and started to walk toward it. "I think you girls asked me all that I needed to, so I'll go find them."

Rainbow zipped to him, flapping her wings and pointing to them. "Oh, I'm sure I could find them faster."

"I'm sure you can, but right now, I think I can appeal to his equinity more," Tomato said, opening it. "Unless Fluttershy wants to use The Stare on him again."

Fluttershy drew back into the corner and shuddered. "I really don't."

"Ahem." Twilight flashed a magic bubble from her horn, which went on to expand all the way to the city limits. With a nod, she said, "Okay, I can detect that at least Pinkie's still in town, and I'm sure Cheese is still with her. They're on Restaurant Row... for some reason." Twilight groaned and grumbled, "Pinkie, now's not the time to grab a bite to eat."

She cleared her throat. "Okay, one of you go fetch them, and get them here within the next ten minutes."

Rainbow saluted and then zipped out the door, and a surprised Tomato shouted, "Hey!" and gave chase, yelling that he volunteered first.

Twilight stared at the door, muttering, "I said one of you, but I guess you can watch each other's backs..." She turned back to the blood in the vial, looked in her book again, and said, "All right, let's take this extra spell out, and then getting the magic signature should be a piece of cake."

Pinkie sheepishly pulled Cheese away from the table were a glaring pony and her small dog sat, shouting, "Sorry!"

Turning both herself and Cheese around, pulling him by the shirt collar and dragging him the direction they needed to go, she started wondering if it was a good idea to grab a bite to eat. It was the only thing she said that actually made Cheese perk up, and she thought she had him--only for him to start stealing others' orders, even gourmet kibble from dog dishes! And much to her disgust, the kibble gave Cheese bad breath, which she could definitely smell when he burped.

She could hear Cheese shouting for her to let go of him, but didn't listen this time. In fact, she considered getting a leash, because if she let him go, he'd randomly wander off somewhere in a trance again, eyes glazed until she quite literally yanked him out of it. Or he'd get distracted by a random smell. Or even hear something she didn't hear.

Out of Restaurant Row and around the corner, now she was making sure that there were no detours, no distractions, no--

She felt teeth clamp down on her foreleg like a steel trap. "Yowch!"

She let go of Cheese's collar and yanked her foreleg out of his mouth. She panted and looked at the leg, which thankfully wasn't bleeding, and then up to the bristled stallion that glared at her. With a snort, she shouted, "What was that for?!"

"I wanted you to let go of me," Cheese replied. "I told you I don't need to be dragged!"

"Well, sor-ry! I didn't want you to wander off like you've been doing this whole walk!"

Cheese turned his back to her. "Oh, now you're trying to be the responsible one."

Pinkie wanted to shout that she had a really good reason, but her anger was swallowed up by the gloom of knowing that she wasn't talking to the Cheese that she knew and loved. Cheese would rarely hurt anypony on purpose; this guy she was looking at had bitten her twice and sent somepony to the hospital in that day alone, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know what he had done before then. Pinkie would have preferred Cheese's attitude at the Fall Festival to be the worst she had ever seen him over this.

She sighed. "Cheese... can we be real? I mean, really real?" She walked around so that she could see him face to face. "I'm really, really worried about you. You're not being you, and I just want to help you be you again."

"Oh, you're serious?" Cheese spat.

Pinkie nodded. "You know I can be serious, Cheese. Remember, when we first met at the Birthversary, when I realized that Rainbow wasn't having fun during our Goof-Off? Or the Fall Festival, when I wanted to know why you and Tommy were mad at each other? I'm very serious when it comes to making sure that all of my friends are happy, and right now, you're not happy! It makes me sad that somepony is messing up your mind, and now you don't know who you are anymore!"

Cheese lurched at her, and Pinkie staggered back in a brief panic. Growling, Cheese retorted, "I know perfectly well who I am! And I know who you are, too... a spoiled, nosy little baby who thinks she owns a monopoly on partying and throws a fit when another party pony dares to exist! After all, I remember how you tried to run me out of town when I was just doing my job!"

"Wait, what?!" Pinkie blinked in disbelief. "No, it was just a misunderstanding! We settled that, remember?"

Cheese scoffed. "Yeah, sure, you took it like an adult after being a crybaby all day. I also remember how you just had to butt in when I was simply trying to have a good time with my brother. Thanks to you, Tomato suffered a broken leg, and everypony's day at the festival was ruined! Puh, for someone who claims to make others happy, you sure are bad at it."

Pinkie stomped a hoof. "What are you talking about?! You and Tomato were fighting the whole time! I admit, forcing you two to spend time together was a mistake, but Tomato broke his leg because you lost your temper! And we all apologized to each other after that! Did the memory thief steal that part, too?"

Cheese scoffed. "Right now, I wish they had stolen all of my memories of you."

Pinkie gasped, and that stab to her heart was enough for a lump to form in her throat. "W-What...? Did you hear what you just said?" She shook her head, and stepped forward. "Cheese, if you forget about me, you'll forget why you became a party pony in the first place! I... I inspired you, remember?"

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "You're crazy, you had absolutely nothing to do with my career. I always had that party magic since I was little, made my little brother happy, and I learned the art of laughter from Ponyacci to share my talent outside my house. All you are is just some other party pony that I know a little too much for my liking, where it wouldn't make any major difference in my life if you didn't even exist!"

"No, there would be a difference!" Pinkie yelled, misty-eyed. "You said so yourself, you were shy and bullied and jealous of your brother and yelled at by your mom and really sad and scared of yourself... but you saw me. You saw me as what you could be! I gave you hope!"

Cheese laughed, but it wasn't his usual joyful laugh--it was one of scorn, one that mocked the very thing that Pinkie plead to him. "You have to be joking, you really have to, because you sure sound full of yourself! How do you know I wasn't lying because I pitied you? Well, that was a mistake, because now you're spewing hot air." He marched forward with a predatory creep, making Pinkie back up out of instinct. "What makes you so special that you have to stick your nose in everypony's business? What gives you the right to just flail and screech like a maniac when nopony wants it? Why is it that an irresponsible brat like you gets to keep her magic when a hardened stallion like me, who has been through Tartarus this whole summer, can barely throw confetti?!"

Pinkie was so sure that he was about to bite her again, but all he did was shove her onto the ground, glare at her through the shadows on his face, and growled, "Let me put in a way that your simple mind can understand. I don't ever want to hear your voice again. I'm better off forgetting all about you and your dumb little parties."

So many questions ran through Pinkie's mind so quickly. Why was he being so mean, why he thought she was spoiled, why he didn't get her anymore, why he wanted to forget her... all of which led to the question of why he suddenly hated her. The questions all overwhelmed her to the point where she couldn't ask, and the knife in her heart had been twisted to utter agony. The fact that her party pony pal--heck, a pal that made her heart go all aflutter--was spitting in her face and turning his back, made her want to cry.

And so she did. She got to her hooves and darted down the street, tears flying from her eyes and a wail erupting from her throat. She barely noticed any other ponies on the street, familiar or not, and she just galloped on.

Tomato couldn't believe what he had just seen.

He and Rainbow had only arrived at the tail-end of it, but the utter fact that Cheese told Pinkie right to her face that he wanted to forget her left him frozen in shock. Rainbow Dash hovered beside him, with a slack jaw as well. When Pinkie ran past them crying, that was when Tomato had to unfreeze to keep Rainbow from killing Cheese, who had noticed them and was giving them an odd look.

"Hey!" Rainbow yelled to Cheese. "What makes you think that you can make my friend cry like that?!"

"Rainbow, Rainbow, Rainbow, Rainbow!" The message came through Tomato's mouthful of rainbow tail, despite a muffled delivery and the stallion dragged several feet. When Rainbow stopped tugging, he spat out the tail and said, "Rainbow, I'll handle Cheese, you should go take care of Pinkie."

Rainbow crossed her front legs. "All right, but let me know if he bites you."

When she dashed off, Tomato was left facing his brother. His angry, grizzled brother under a spell, but still his brother. Stepping forward cobblestone by cobblestone, his stomach churned with the thought that if Pinkie wasn't spared from his wrath, what chance did Tomato himself have? Pinkie Pie had been a sacred cow, while he had been the subject of Cheese's scorn for years until the previous autumn, and even then wasn't exempt from any mean words that Cheese had for him.

Cheese just stared at him. "What?"

Tomato sighed. "Cheese... what the hay was that? Did you just make Pinkie cry?"

Cheese huffed and looked away. "What do you care?"

"Oh, it's nothing, really, except it was Pinkie Pie. You know, the mare who inspired you to become a party pony? That friend you always gush about to me whenever she's brought up? The freakin' love of your life?!"

Cheese scoffed and poked Tomato in the chest. "Oh, so now you are going to peddle those stupid lies to my face? That's not how I remember it! I didn't need any inspiration from a filly like that, I have my own intuition. I made you happy when we were little, remember?"

Tomato swiped the hoof away. "I remember that, Cheese. I also remember how terrified you were of my friends when I tried to show them how amazing you were, to the point where you locked yourself in our room. I remember all those bruises and scratches and black eyes that you claimed were from a door, which now I believe were from bullies. And I remember the accordion incident."

Cheese gave him a confused look. "What accordion incident?"

"The one where me and my friends broke your accordion and you got angry and you ran away because you couldn't take the bullies and Mom's nagging and me being better anymore and which put you on the road to Pinkie Pie and your party pony-ness! That accordion incident!" Tomato heaved after that rapid-fire yelling, having wasted so much breath in that line. Looking up with a glare, he shouted again, "How many memories did that jerk steal from you to make you scorn her?!"

Cheese blinked, and then growled at him. "What makes you think stolen memories made me say that?"

Tomato backed up, but started to stare him down. "Oh-ho-ho, I have plenty of accounts of you lighting up whenever you see her, or talk about her, or think about getting her a present, or baking that apology cake for her, or planning a party with her, or perhaps that one dance at Ponyacci's anniversary that you--"

He stopped when a shrill whistle rang in his ears, and it sent a chill through his body. He covered his ears, and looked around for the source of the noise, grumbling, "Dang it, who would be blowing a whistle at this time? It's not exactly time for track practice right now!"

He turned to speak to Cheese, but the party pony was walking away. "Hey! I'm not done!"

He caught up quickly and tackled him, to which Cheese snapped, "Hey, get off!"

Tomato hopped off. "Don't ditch me when I'm talking!" He watched as Cheese got up and rubbed his chin. "Now, Cheese, I was saying that I have plenty of evidence that you don't actually hate her, but that you are really in--"

There it was again. He shuddered at the whistle, cursed under his breath, and looked to Cheese, who was walking away yet again. At first, he was angry that he was just walking off again, this time to the park; but then he thought it was weird that he was only doing that during that weird whistling. So, he galloped to Cheese, skidded to a stop in front of him, and looked in his eyes. Once he saw that they were glazed, Tomato's eyes widened and there was a tightness in his gut. So, without thinking, he slapped Cheese.

Cheese, with his eyes back to normal, barked, "Hey!"

Tomato bit his lip, and grabbed Cheese by the hoof, dragging him across the grass. "Sorry about that, but I'm having a really bad feeling about that weird whistle and how you keep walking off and we really need to get back to Twilight right now!"

Cheese blinked. "What whistle?"

Tomato groaned. "Well, how do I explain this, it's high-pitched, shrill, long--" He was interrupted by that very noise ringing through his ears. "That whistle!"

Just as he said that, Cheese slipped out of his grasp. Tomato spun around to see Cheese galloping away this time. With a gasp, Tomato yelled, "Cheese!" and gave chase.

They galloped through the park, weaving through the trees and bushes until they were out on the other street. They galloped down that street, curving through neighborhoods that were unfamiliar to Tomato. They looked like suburbs, as far as he could tell under an almost-full moon, and the few ponies walking about were startled at the scene of the chase. There were hills that he didn't expect, and bridges that Cheese leapt off of that Tomato simply went around.

The lantern lights were gone, and Tomato was thankful that the moon was a bright gibbous. with just a sliver of blue keeping it from fullness. Regardless, he should keep his sights on Cheese, who was ditching the city, and bounding into the wilderness. If he could just get in a good tackle, then Cheese should snap out of it.

Through the trees and bushes, and down hills leading down the mountainside, Tomato was amazed that he could keep up this long--but also at how Cheese just kept going. All the while, he was looking for the source of that stupid whistle, figuring that whoever it was was following them, and didn't want them to get back to Twilight.

Finally, it seemed like Cheese was slowing down, and Tomato had one last burst of energy to tackle him. And sure enough, he did--only to realize that they were now tumbling down a steep mountainside, with little hope of stopping the momentum.

Down they bounced, Tomato's life flashing before his eyes. They were going to fall off a cliff, all because of a stupid hypnotizing whistle that only got Cheese for some reason. Tomato would have questioned when Cheese had been that weak-minded, but it was clear that it was the moment of the first stolen memory. He could only scream in his mind over the sequence of events that led up to this moment, where maybe this time they'd die--or worse, fall into the clutches of this mysterious villain.

As he thought, they rolled off a cliff; however, that tumbling got Cheese back to his senses, and quick as a whip, he managed to grab a long, stray root, and swing on it like a vine. There was some relief on Tomato's part when that happened, as there was still some Cheese left in there; on the other hoof, how were they supposed to get back up?!

He got his answer soon enough; the cliff was over a railroad, and there was a train. The last thing he thought was the hope that it was going up the mountain, and the last thing he saw was rock, metal, and a flash of light in the corner of his eye.

And then he landed headfirst atop the train, and blacked out.

Meanwhile, as he landed on the train, Cheese shook his head and rubbed it, wondering what had happened. With a deep breath, Cheese just sat on his rump, and glanced back at his unconscious brother, a little too close to slipping off the edge of the boxcar.

At first, he thought about just leaving him, so that Tomato would fall off, and thus, no more nagging brother to bother him. Who was he to tell him what to do? It was crazy how he was scolding him about he he treated Pinkie Pie--maybe Tomato was the one with the crazy crush instead of him. Odd, he didn't take Pinkie for Tomato's type.

On the other hoof, he felt sick just leaving him to certain death. No matter what, that was his brother, his family, and no matter what, he didn't want his family to die. It was strange, it was like Tomato was his last link to sanity. He couldn't drop him off that cliff, and he sure couldn't let him slip off a moving train. So, he grabbed Tomato's tail, and pulled him close. Once Tomato was in his grasp, he hugged him tight, and felt a lump in his throat, almost like he was going to cry over this nightmare.

He looked up, the wind blowing through his mane. It was soon clear that the train was chugging away from the mountain, and away from Canterlot, which gleamed under the silver moon. Where it was going, he was not sure. His sense of direction died along with his Cheesy Sense, and for all he knew, it could be to the middle of nowhere.

It was just as well. Ponies were not a fan of how he was handling things. They wouldn't want Cheese Sandwich anymore.

At least his tail still worked. Otherwise he'd have more trouble getting into the boxcar.

Author's Note

Hey, look, over 500,000 words now. I think I have a problem.

22.1--The Final Countdown

Now that she had chosen the right formula for spell extraction, Twilight could overcome that road block. As she took a deep breath, she concentrated on the blood, and her horn began to glow.

It began to glow and boil yet again. This time, she was drawing this mysterious dark purple haze out of it, which gave out a shrill cry not unlike a banshee, and bubbling in purple, green, and black. Purple bolts crackled from it, and it turned the room cold and dark as it floated higher. The cries of the magic sent chills down everypony's spines, and they could only watch as Twilight's eyes turned red and green in order to fight this magic.

As the magic was separated from the blood, Twilight yelled, "Jar! Now!"

Fluttershy whimpered and grabbed a jar, tossing it to Rarity in a panic. Rarity opened the jar with her magic, wincing from the haze shooting from the air into the jar. Once it was all in, Applejack took the lid and slammed the jar shut, screwing it tight for good measure. Once the magic was contained, the room grew warm and light again.

Applejack backed up, gazing at the jar of weird purple bubbly haze. "Uh... what just happened?"

Twilight sat on the floor, panting. "That was... dark magic..."

Rarity gasped and dropped the jar, regaining her senses just in time to catch it. She still opted to keep her distance from it by putting it on the desk. "Dark magic?! Egads! I shudder to think about what would have happened if we hadn't been so quick!"

Applejack was helping Twilight up. "I dunno for sure, but I reckon we'd turn nasty like a rabid timberwolf."

"Like Cheese Sandwich?" Fluttershy said dolefully.

Twilight rubbed her head. "It explains a whole lot about his recent behavior, though now I need to pin down the specific nature of his corruption." Her eyes widened. "Not only that, we sent Pinkie out to free him from jail, and Tomato and Rainbow to find him! Oh, no, we sent them to play with fire!"

The other three gasped. Applejack in particular stomped a hoof and shouted, "Dagnabbit, I told y'all we shouldn't've let Pinkie go!"

"Maybe I should have gone," Fluttershy said. "I would've kept him in check!"

"Twilight, we must go out and rescue them immediately!" Rarity cried. "I just know Rainbow will get into a fight with him if Pinkie gets hurt."

Twilight nodded. "Right, let's go--"

The door swung open, and they turned to see Rainbow uncomfortably escorting a deflated and tear-stained Pinkie into the room. She watched with sympathy as Pinkie made a leeway for the bed, grabbed a pillow, and proceeded to sob in it, hugging it as tightly as she could. She lingered on Pinkie a few more moments before turning to Twilight with knitted eyebrows.

"So, a certain buttmunch said nasty things about her and implied he hated her," she stated.

Fluttershy and Applejack were by Pinkie's side in an instant, with Applejack holding her and Fluttershy rubbing her back. As Pinkie sniffled, she sputtered out, "H-he said... he said he wanted to forget me! He said I was nosy a-and irresponsible... and a brat..."

"Oh, no, you poor dear!" Fluttershy said, drawing closer for a soft hug. "I'm sorry that he was so harsh to you. It's awful when somepony says such mean things to their friend."

Applejack patted her head. "Oh, sugarcube, his head's not screwed on right. Who would wanna forget you when you put so much effort into making us happy? I'm honored to be your friend, and your cousin. Don't worry, we'll set him back straight and have him see the light again."

Pinkie sniffled, her face buried in the pillow. "Okay..."

Applejack looked up to Twilight. "Twi, can you get to figurin' out this dark magic stuff quick?"

Rainbow blinked. "Wait, dark magic? Uh, what happened when we were gone?"

Twilight rubbed the back of her head. "Funny thing, that extra spell in Cheese's blood has dark magic in it. Crazy, right?" She pointed to the jar of dark magic as proof. She dropped her hoof, and looked at the door. "Uh, Rainbow? Where are Cheese and Tomato?"

"Well, Tomato said that he'd handle Cheese--" Rainbow backed up when Twilight's glare was practically shoved in her face. "...and I'm getting the sense that it was a bad idea."

"Well, yeah!" Twilight snapped. "Between the missing memories and the dark magic, Cheese is highly unstable for the time being! There's no telling what he'll do to Tomato if he loses his temper yet again! Maybe he'll hold back because they're brothers... or maybe he'll maul him like he did with Kazam and those animals!"

"Hey, it was Tomato's idea!"

"Doesn't matter whose idea it was, you shouldn't have left them alone!" Twilight turned back to the blood and concentrated on it yet again. A green mist slipped out of the blood easily, and Twilight readily absorbed it into her horn. "At least now I can track Cheese."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her horn created a magic bubble, which expanded outward to phase out of the suite, and kept growing until it covered all of Canterlot. She stood still for a few moments as the others stared, waiting for her answers. Then, after the slow, silent moments had passed, Twilight's face scrunched in confusion, followed by her eyes snapping open.

"I can't sense him!" she cried. "I can't find his magic within the radius! It's like he just disappeared!"

Pinkie looked up from her pillow. "Again?"

"Wait, wait, wait..." Applejack said, hopping off the bed. "Are you tellin' us that he might've hightailed it out of Canterlot?"

"Maybe his magic's too low for you to sense it," Fluttershy said.

"No, no, no, last I checked, Cheese still had his cutie mark, so he should still have enough for me to sense him." Twilight then slammed her face on the desk. "But how did he manage to ditch town so fast?! Why is he ditching town? Does he think I'm going to poke him with a needle again?" She pulled at her ears. "I don't know if Tomato is with him, and I didn't get his magic signature when I had the chance!"

"Perhaps we should ask around Canterlot," Rarity suggested. "Some ponies are bound to have seen what happened."

Applejack nodded. "Agreed. We'll go out and see what we can find, and you find out more about this dark magic that's infecting Cheese. I sure hope it ain't contagious, or we may have ourselves a plague on our hoofs." She turned to Rainbow Dash. "Can you lead us to where you last saw them?"

"Psht, yeah," Rainbow said, beginning to hover. "If we're lucky, they're probably still there arguing."

Fluttershy patted Pinkie on the head, slid off the bed, and muttered, "I might as well go too, in case things get too rough and I have to..." She winced at the thought of it. "You know..."

She turned to Pinkie. "Would you like to come, or are you still..."

Pinkie hugged her pillow, laid on the bed, and turned away. "No... I'll just keep Twilight company."

With one last sad, lingering look at the pepless Pinkie Pie, the party of four accepted this, and bid her and Twilight farewell as they went off into the night. It fell quiet once the door clicked shut, and all that was done was Twilight gathering the notes with her magic and laying them across the desk to read.

Before she did so, she turned to Pinkie. "I'm sorry that he said those things to you. Corrupted or not, I never thought he of all ponies would treat you with such contempt. I don't blame you if you don't want to look for him."

Pinkie squeezed her pillow tighter and hiccuped. "I... I know his mind's all scrambled, but... but... how much of it did he really mean?"

Twilight glanced at the jar of dark magic on her desk, crackling and bubbling as it tried to escape its prison. "I don't know, I can't read his mind, nor can I compare his normal state of mind to his current. Dark magic may amplify traits to negative extremes, but I'm not entirely sure what the select traits are for him, and the missing memories only muddy the water. Still, I know enough that once he's cured, he won't hesitate to try to make it up to you. And the sooner we fix this, the better."

Pinkie sniffled. "I... guess that's good to hear." She shoved her face in the pillow once again. "But, I still need some time."

Twilight sighed and rubbed her eye, turning back to the notes. Wishing she had a book on types of dark magic spells, she had to rely on memory of what she had read before as she scanned through each bullet point, each sentence, and each word. The pieces were in front of her, and now she just needed to solve the puzzle, and use that as a launching point for a cure.

Heightened aggression... short temper... violence when angered... predatory tendencies... She yawned. What time was it? Growing in winter coat in summer... submissive to Fluttershy's Stare... unusual fascination with the moon...

She yawned again. So much excitement that day, from the chase to the trial to investigating the spell Cheese was under. Twilight was tempted to go to bed, though she didn't want to leave the desk before figuring it out, or learning where Cheese and Tomato went.

Though, maybe she could close her eyes for a few minutes...

His head cushioned on a bale of hay, and rocked by a rickety boxcar, Cheese Sandwich was wrapped up in a dream.

It had started simple enough, with a party of the caliber that he once held, and ponies smiling and laughing as they had their fun. He had been dancing along with them, relishing being in the hooves of his old self, the old self that was wild and carefree, imaginative and wily, a master of the strange magic of laughter, but most importantly, the old self that was happy. There were no worries, there was only fun.

But, in the midst of his dance, he was pulled out of the dance floor by what he could only see as a magic aura around his hoof. He dug his hooves into the dirt, and tried to break free of the magic, but that only resulted in him just getting dragged across the ground. He tried to yell at the magic, but all that came out was the barking of a dog. The owner of the magic just laughed, and continued pulling him forward.

As he was pulled over to a ledge, threatened with a fall down an abyss, a mouth clamped onto his tail, and he was pulled back from the ledge. He looked back, and there she was, that purple-coated, curly-maned mare from visions before. She was trying to drag him back to the party, pleading with him to fight as much as he could and to return to where he belonged. As much as he wanted to listen to her, and go running back to his calling, he found himself frozen and unable to determine his own fate. He was just the rope in this tug-o-war.

Yanked forward and yanked back, and forward again, Cheese kept his eyes on the mare, not wanting to see who the one pulling him forward was. He wanted the mare to win the tug-o-war, to bring him back to safety, and to bring him back home. He wanted for this nightmare to end, so that he could be at peace.

Then, his tail slipped out of the mare's mouth, and he found himself falling through the dark clouds of the abyss, reaching out in vain to the mare. The clouds gave way to red flames, which sang with the screams and the cries of animal and pony alike, calling him a monster. As he fell through the fire, which was shaped like anguished ponies and animals, he looked at his body, where the skin was burning away to reveal something underneath that pony hide--the monster the fire was talking about.

Amid the screams, there was a single bellow of laughter.

The screaming only stopped when he heard, "HEY! What are you doing here, stowaways?!"

His eyes snapping open, he realized that he was face to face with a railroad worker, who did not look too happy. Before he could answer, Cheese was grabbed by the shirt and thrown out of the boxcar, landing face first and with a mouth full of dirt. As he spit the dirt out, a confused Tomato landed right on top of him, and Cheese crumpled under the momentum.

The worker spat in the dirt. "You're lucky you're in the desert, or you'd be in a bigger heap of trouble with the law! You better not have gotten fleas in the hay I'm unloading. Now git!"

Tomato groaned, rubbing his head and grumbling something under his breath, only for his ears to perk up in alarm. He hopped off Cheese and asked, "Wait, did you say 'desert'?"

The worked spat at Tomato's hooves. "I did. And I told you to 'git'!"

Tomato spun around in a circle, looking all around at the barren landscape. Dried up under the morning sun and with few cacti and tumbleweeds as plant life, the landscape did indeed confirm what the worker told him, much to his dismay. "Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no, no, no! This isn't good! Not good at all!"

Cheese got up and brushed himself off. "Glad to see you're awake."

Tomato spun around to face Cheese and snorted hotly. "Why the hay are we not in Canterlot?!"

Before Cheese could answer, the railroad worker burst into laughter. "You was heading to Canterlot? You done hopped on the wrong train, because this one was heading south, and you just ended up a trot away from Appleloosa." He pointed to the nearby town just a half-mile away. "You poor souls with no sense of direction."

Tomato rubbed his temple. "No, sir, we were already in Canterlot, but--"

The railroad worker raised a hoof. "I don't wanna hear your excuses. I told you to git, and I expect you to git."

Tomato nickered in annoyance. "Fine, then. We'll just have to find a train back." When the worked narrowed his eyes, Tomato hastily added, "I'm going to pay the fare!"

As he and Cheese turned and walked to town, Tomato grumbled, "It was completely by accident... I didn't even want to go freight hopping!" He sighed. "Do I have enough for the train fare? Maybe I was a little too charitable back in Aura Springs..."

Cheese rolled his eyes. "Well, gee, last I remember, we were talking in the park, and then suddenly we're falling off a cliff. Care to explain how that happened?"

Tomato groaned. "There was a weird whistling noise, and you were trying to follow it in a daze. I don't know what it was or why it was attracting you or how that magic even works... but, still, it's why we were falling off that cliff. So, now we need to beware of whistles, which should be valuable info for Twilight... if we were back in Canterlot."

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "A whistle. That's why we ended up here?"

Tomato rubbed his head. "I wish I didn't hit my head, because maybe we could have jumped off that train and climbed back to Canterlot, because, you know, we've got a magic problem that only Princess Twilight could help us with."

Cheese snorted. "Well, you better hope that that stupid tracking spell can reach this far, because I'm not going back."

"Wait, what? Um, I don't know how far that spell can reach... I mean, Equestria's pretty big, so I think that'd take a lot of magic to perform... can we not put a strain on the poor princess and just go back and set you right?"

Cheese snarled in Tomato's face. "Shut up, or I'll bite you."

Tomato backed up. "What's with you and biting?"

Cheese snorted, and sped up his pace. "So what if I go back to Canterlot to get my magic problems fixed? Even if we do manage to find that stupid memory, I sure as Tartarus can't go back to my former glory. Ponies will judge me for what I did at that trial and think I'm too dangerous, so my career is as good as over! And if I can't be a party pony... what's the point? At least you can go finish college to at least become something."

Tomato matched his pace. "So, what, are you going to wander into the desert and die?"

"Oh, thanks for the idea, it's not like I have any other option."

"What? Okay, no, my brother is not a cynical coward! You're the pony who fought through crippling shyness to become one of Equestria's greatest entertainers! You're the pony that braves every danger to reach a party that needs your touch! You're the pony who can swallow his pride when he messes up--after all you apologized for the feud before I did! You're supposed to be the bigger pony than I am!"

Cheese stopped and turned to him. "Feud? What feud?"

Tomato blinked, and he exhaled sharply. "The Feud! The one that started after Mom derided your talent and you insulted my cutie mark! We spent years having a cold war that consisted of you avoiding us unless Cheesy Sense told you I needed you and me shunning parties and fun and being miserable and you faking a smile while showing me a trick in order to try to get me to lighten up when I didn't need to be entertained rather I needed you as a friend and d'ooooh!" He stomped hard on the ground, dust billowing from the impact. "What's the point of rambling about this when you can't even remember something that lasted around a decade?! Wow, I thought a memory thief would take the good memories to make you act like this, but apparently, getting rid of some bad ones sure did lessen the impact the good ones had, like how you see Pinkie Pie."

"Again with Pinkie Pie..." Cheese growled. He could feel his fur bristle just hearing that name, as if somepony was about to compare them. "Seriously, why are you defending my biggest rival? I thought you didn't like her, but I guess that's just a front for something else."

"She is not my type, and I'm defending her because she is the reason that you decided to break out of that shell that you apparently forgot that you were ever in! Well, I guess you're now a brat that can't handle negative emotions anymore, and this extra spell in you just makes it worse!" Tomato was clearly misty-eyed. "I don't even know you anymore!"

Cheese shoved him to the ground and pinned him down, eliciting a squeak from the younger brother. Holding Tomato down so that he could barely move, Cheese loomed over him with a growl. "Oh, I'm the brat? Listen, you, you'd be angry too if everything you have ever worked for was falling apart! And you have the gall to consider me the bad guy? Why, I oughta..."

However, he stopped once he saw Tomato's pained eyes and the quivering of his lip. His mind's eye seeing an Applewood teenager or one of the animals of Aura Springs, he mentally hit himself for doing it again--to his brother of all ponies! Looking up at his forelock, which had a noticeable sag to it, he released his hold, and backed up, his ears drooping.

Then, with a bitter tone, he sighed and said, "You know what? I think it's time for you to go home."

Tomato sat up. "What?"

"You heard me," Cheese added with a sharper tone. "Cheesy Sense is dead, so no more parties. Besides... you're safer with Mom."

"But, Cheese, what about--"

"Canterlot? Puh, they're better off not bothering." He helped Tomato up, and continued the walk to Appleloosa. "Don't know when the next train to Manehattan is, so I'll get you something to eat."

Tomato paused for a moment, watching as Cheese plodded forth with a gait that seemed a little off. He tentatively followed, his head hung low. An angry part of him considered just going home, to get away from this killjoy who made Mom look like a saint. Still, the sad part of him just looked up at that curly mane, longing for the party pony that he had traveled with at the journey's start.

Down the street of the dusty desert town, Tomato just followed behind Cheese as they searched for a place to eat. Surprisingly, many of the ponies that passed by them and tipped their hats, saying howdy to Cheese Sandwich, and even briefly asking who the pony behind him was. Just like Mane-tua, Cheese apparently frequented this town enough that ponies were familiar with him as a pony rather than a celebrity. Tomato wondered if Cheese found it relaxing to visit towns where that was the case, like Ponyville and Mane-tua.

Regardless, just what would these ponies think when they learned that Cheese was not quite himself?

Then, all of a sudden, a yellow stallion, with a mane of strawberry blonde under a cowboy hat, had caught sight of them from across the road, and immediately dashed to Cheese with a big grin on his face. "Cheese Sandwich! Well, I'll be the son of a biscuit, I haven't seen you since spring!"

Cheese was quickly caught in a hug, followed by two hard thumps on his back. Cheese patted the other stallion's back in return, holding an awkward grin, and replied, "Braeburn! It's nice to see you again..."

"Darn tootin'!" Braeburn practically leapt out of the hug. "I was worried that you weren't goin' to keep your word that you'd visit with that brother of yours..." He glanced at Tomato and pointed at him. "But you remembered! Haha, I'm over the moon that that summer trip you've been planning has a stop in my sweet home Appleloosa! Though, I do wonder why so late..."

Cheese rubbed the back of his head. "Cheesy Sense isn't exactly predictable, so I wasn't sure."

Braeburn nodded, and then turned to Tomato. "And I am mighty honored to meet you, Tomato Sandwich. Cheese has been talkin' 'bout you his last couple of visits, and meeting the kin of a friend makes me as happy as a pig in the mud."

Tomato blinked. "You sure caught on quickly that we're related."

Braeburn waved a hoof and pointed to various areas of Tomato's head as he explained, "Easy to tell that you're kin--you two have the same muzzle, same eyes, same forelock, and you're both tall. But, enough of that, I'm fixin' to show you around!"

Cheese got in between them. "Eeyeah, we're just here for a bite to eat, and then I'm sending Tomato back to Manehattan."

Braeburn's smile fell. "What? You just got here! And with the anniversary of the peace treaty between us Applelossans and the buffalo tribe tonight... I thought for sure you'd be jumpin' right in to plan the hoedown."

Tomato winced at Braeburn's tone. If Braeburn's attitude up until that point was any indication, he and Cheese must have been pretty good friends, and it hurt to see him suddenly so disappointed like that. However, with the mention of a party that night, he suddenly got an idea. Perhaps in getting Braeburn what he wanted, Tomato could get him to help with their situation and alert Twilight of their location--or Cheese's last location, depending on how long it'd take for Twilight and friends to arrive.

"Sorry, Braeburn," Cheese began. "But I haven't--"

"Did you say 'hoedown'?" Tomato interrupted. "Because what kind of party pony would my big brother be if he refused to help you folks celebrate a special occasion?"

Cheese slapped a hoof over Tomato's mouth. "Tomato, no, you know I--"

Tomato pulled the hoof off his mouth. "Now, now, Cheese, even if your magic's not up to par, you still can organize the event with what the Appleloosans have on hoof. It's what we did back in Aura Springs with the fundraiser, and that turned out well, no?"

Braeburn blinked. "Wait, what's wrong with your magic?"

Cheese sighed. "It's gone kaput. So I can't really do anything fancy."

"Oh, uh, we don't need nothing fancy. Even if you can't do much, we'd appreciate the help."

Tomato waggled his eyebrows. "And it wouldn't be fitting to end our vacation without one last hurrah, one last party, and a night to wind down and relax and have fun before it all comes to an end, and I have to go back to school. Not to mention how happy Braeburn would be to get to know his pal's brother. So..."

Cheese stiffened, biting his lip as he desperately tried to search for a reply against it. Not helping was the double-whammy of puppy-dog eyes from both Braeburn and Tomato. After a few moments of sifting through his thoughts, Cheese groaned. "Fine, one last party, and then Tomato goes home."

Braeburn cheered and threw his hat into the air, while Tomato just smirked in satisfaction. Even with a spell screwing him up, there was still a little bit of Cheese's party pony instinct in there. Now, all he had to do was get Braeburn in on his scheme without Cheese knowing. Hopefully, he could find an opening for that soon.

And then his stomach rumbled loudly, and Tomato blushed.

Braeburn laughed. "Well, somepony needs to fill up his bread basket."

One messy meal of apple pie at Braeburn's house later--mostly done by Cheese gobbling his slices--Cheese was off to discuss the party with Sheriff Silverstar, and Tomato thanked the heavens that a opening presented itself while he helped Braeburn clean up the mess.

"Didn't expect him to throw slop around like confetti," Braeburn said as he mopped. "I know apple pie's a slice of heaven, but he didn't need to compete with pigs for messiest critter."

"Mm-hm," Tomato said, watching from the window as Cheese walked further off. "He's been gobbling his food like that for the past month."

"And he was bein' all ornery when I told him to slow down," Braeburn said. "Come to think of it, his trot's lost all his skip and he looks like he's grinning at spear point. I'm gettin' the sense that he ain't all that healthy."

Figuring that Cheese was now out of earshot, Tomato walked away from the window and faced Braeburn. "He's not. This is going to sound crazy, but some of his memories have been stolen and he's also under another spell. It's messing with his mind and magic to the point that he's not exactly Cheese anymore."

"He what now?" Braeburn blinked, and took a moment to let it sink in. "Wait, wait, wait, he's under a spell? Land sakes... that's awful! What kind of spell is he under?"

Tomato sighed. "That's the thing, I don't know. All I know is that it's there and it's making him act weird. What you saw is just scratching the surface."

"All right, uh..." Braeburn scratched his head. "What do you expect me to do? I ain't a unicorn."

"Don't worry, you don't have to do anything magical. See, uh..." Tomato wasn't quite sure if Braeburn would believe the next part. "We were initially in Canterlot, to have Princess Twilight find out what the spell is, but I'm sure that somebody sabotaged us by tricking us onto a train out of the city. Whoever it is doesn't want Twilight to fix Cheese, and even worse, Cheese is convinced that there's no point in going back if his life's falling apart, since he did... not-so-good things. So, I was thinking that we could lead Twilight here, and since she probably knows what it is by now, she can come and one, two, three, she'll break the spell!"

Braeburn furrowed his brow. "Eh... I'm not sure if I follow... I know you said something about Princess Twilight breaking the spell?"

Tomato blew on his forelock. "I get it, it sounds crazy, how do we even know a--"

"Oh, no, I believe that part! My cousin Applejack is one of her friends, and I know Cheese knows Pinkie Pie! It don't take a lot of horse smarts to figure it out." He pursed his lips in thought and rubbed his chin. "So... what's my part again?"

Tomato sighed in relief. "I just need you to cover for me while I send her a message. Cheese would probably kill me if he caught me doing it, but Twilight is our only option to get him back to normal."

Braeburn grimaced. "I dunno... I'm not one for going behind ponies' backs... it ain't honest."

"I know it isn't!" Tomato snapped. "But at this point, I don't care, I just want my brother back!

Tomato could see that Braeburn had flinched at that, and then he saighed. "Not only that, if any of your neighbors end up setting off that temper he's got, he will get violent. I don't think you want your neighbors getting hurt or for Cheese to show himself a monster. So, please... just help me out with this."

Braeburn stared at him for a good ten seconds, his face creasing with growing concern. Then, with a sigh, he said, "Well, if it's the way to get him grinnin' again, then all right, I'll help out." His face brightened with an idea. "And I have the perfect cover!"

When Braeburn said that he had the perfect cover, being pushed around town and given the grand tour was not what Tomato had in mind. He felt his ribs being nearly crushed by the cowboy's head, and he had to bite his lip to keep from crying out in pain. Still, in passing Cheese, who just glanced at them and rolled his eyes in a "here he goes again" manner, the performance was at least convincing. Of course, the tour was indeed genuine.

"This here's the Salt Block!" Braeburn chirped, showing him a saloon. "You ever need a drink or a salt lick, you can just drop by here."

"Salt's fine, but I'm not a fan of liquor," Tomato replied.

"That's all right, it serves soda and ice cream, too!"

Braeburn pushed him to the next attraction. "This here's our clock tower!" And then to the next. "This here's our stage for our hoedowns and concerts, which will definitely be used tonight at our talent show. Can you sing?"

"It runs in the family," Tomato replied.

Braeburn pushed him yet again, this time bumping into the mustached sheriff of the town. When all parties gave each other their space, Braeburn continued, "Tomato, meet Sheriff Silverstar, and Sheriff, meet Cheese Sandwich's brother, Tomato Sandwich."

Sheriff Silverstar tipped his hat. "Howdy, Mr. Sandwich. Are you going to help set up this hoedown for tonight like your brother?"

"Uh... after Braeburn finishes up the tour, sir," Tomato said.

"Well, with his energy, you should be done faster than a hungry jackrabbit sprintin' for a carrot field." He walked off to the main street. "Now, I oughta make sure that everypony's ready for any coyotes sneakin' in to catch chickens. We've been having problems with those varmints for months."

Braeburn lifted one of his forelegs and moved it around. "Yup, I injured one of my forelegs fightin' one of those things. Had to miss out on our local rodeo." He smiled. "Speakin' of rodeos..."

Tomato was suddenly pushed to another part of town, this time to an arena where various ponies, from the little midget to the enormous Clydesdale, were practicing various kinds of circus tricks. Juggling, jumping through hoops, and stacking themselves into a tower were among the things that they did.

"And here's our arena! Where we have our rodeos, sports, and occasional circus," Braeburn explained. "Those folks are the rodeo clowns."

Tomato felt his blood run cold. "C-clowns?"

"Hey, they don't bite. They ain't even in--LOOK OUT!"

Braeburn shoved Tomato out of the way of a falling tower of barrels. Some of them popped some boards out of the fence; some bounced out of bounds and all the way to the hoedown area, scattering some ponies. As the two stallions looked up from where they had stumbled to, they could see a mountain of barrels where they had once stood.

The Clydesdale ambled forth to see the mess and sighed. "Not again."

Braeburn helped Tomato up, and they could see an angry Sheriff Silverstar and an angry Cheese Sandwich galloping forth. The former did not hesitate to shout, "D'oh, Trouble Shoes! How many times have I told you to be careful? Now you have to clean up this mess again!"

Trouble Shoes lowered his head. "I apologize, Sheriff. I'll get to cleanin--"

Cheese grabbed him by the nose and yelled in his face, "My good friend and my brother could have gotten killed, you clumsy moron! I've heard a lot about your and your rodeo ruining ways, and I'm surprised that nopony ever thought of giving you the death sentence so that you couldn't cause any more trouble!"

Sheriff Silverstar pulled him away. "Easy, now! The death penalty didn't fit his crimes, he just needs to work on his coordination. Honestly, I'm surprised at your temper, Cheese Sandwich, and I don't want you getting violent, you hear?"

Cheese huffed. "I hear."

As he walked away, he turned to Braeburn and Tomato, who fumbled over each other's words in telling them that they're both all right, and that Braeburn was about to show Tommy the apple orchard. Cheese nodded in satisfaction, and he left.

Both breathed a sigh of relief. Braeburn turned to Trouble Shoes and said, "Aw, don't worry, pardner, I ain't mad."

Trouble Shoes rubbed his nose. "I know you ain't. I best get to picking up them barrels."

When Trouble Shoes left, Braeburn turned to Tomato. "I admit, I had a lick of doubt about the magic spell thing, but now... I mean, I know Cheese can get mad--everypony does. But practically wishing death on somepony for an accident? That ain't right. Sorry for gettin' carried away with the tour."

Tomato sighed. "Well... if you can sneak me to the post office as soon as possible, it's fine."

After showing him the apple orchard and telling him the story of the conflict they had with the buffalo over it, Braeburn snuck Tomato around the hill and back to town, leading him to the post office. It only took a few minutes of Braeburn standing watch and Tomato writing on some stationery, but it felt like hours. Braeburn expected Cheese to pop out of nowhere, asking him where Tomato was. He had a cover story of "Outhouse", but he wasn't sure if Cheese would believe it.

Thankfully, Cheese was too busy with the party to notice any of it, and Tomato walked out. They trotted down the street to the square where the party was to take place, so that they could finally pitch in. They could see a pegasus taking off for Canterlot from the corner of their eyes, and Tomato said, "I gave them instructions to try Ponyville if she's not in her suite."

Braeburn nodded, and then frowned. "I dunno... all this secrecy bothers me. Are you sure he'd whup you for trying to cure him?"

"He's been pretty stubborn about this," Tomato said. "He implied that he wanted to be left alone earlier, and he just expected me to just go home, no questions asked. But if he is left alone, this mystery mage will nab him, and... and... I don't know, but I know it'd be bad."

Braeburn pursed his lips before letting them pull up into a sad smile. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he don't go anywhere. And if I know him, tonight's party will have him smilin' and laughin' like his old self!"

Meanwhile, back in Canterlot, a good night's sleep lead to clearer minds, especially on the part of Twilight Sparkle. A clearer mind brought better analysis, and better analysis led to solving the puzzle that much more quickly. The bullet list, some back and forth with Pinkie--having already cried enough and now providing some of what she witnessed--and searching through a few of her books on Equestrian history all suggested what Cheese's symptoms were pointing to. The answer was less than pretty.

Twilight and Pinkie went out onto the streets to gather their friends. Now with newfound information telling them that there was a time limit, it was a good thing that Twilight could track them through their magic signatures. As it turned out, after hours of searching, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had rested at the park, while Applejack and Rarity did so at Canterlot Carousel.

"Hey, I don't blame you all for falling asleep in the middle of a crucial search, I mean, yesterday was pretty exciting," Pinkie said once the rest were all gathered in the square. She looked at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. "Was the tree comfy?"

"I've slept in trees before, Pinkie," Rainbow said.

"It actually was kind of comfy," Fluttershy mumbled.

Rarity stepped forward. "I'm terribly sorry, Twilight, we did try our best to find some witnesses, but everypony just had to retire early! I know beauty sleep is so very important, as I do try to keep a consistent sleep schedule for optimum health and fabulousness." She swung her head to let her violet ringlets fly and bounce back into perfection. Then she scowled. "Still, a little help for finding a corrupted party pony would be appreciated!"

"Anyway..." Applejack said. "I'm guessing that you found something. At least somepony's making progress."

"Eeyeah, I did," Twilight said, shifting on her hooves. "Looking through all the behavioral changes suggests that the nature of the spell is making Cheese devolve into animalistic behaviors--hence why Fluttershy's Stare worked on him. A shift in diet, such as Pinkie's account of him eating dog kibble, or Tomato's account of him trying to hunt, suggest a carnivore. The aggression is more or less a corruption of that, with Cheese's mental state compounding it. But it could have lead to anything... if it wasn't for the fact that one key factor means that we have a time limit to find him before--"

"Get on with it!" Rainbow shouted. "What's wrong with him?"

And so, with a sigh, Twilight said, "He's a werewolf."

Pinkie was the only one who didn't gasp, having heard Twilight's conclusion before. Still, hearing it again made her sick to her stomach, and the subject just left her not Pinkie enough to clamor along with her friends like she usually would.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rainbow shouted. "First his brother's a vampire, and now he's a werewolf?"

"Oh, Fluttershy, you dummy!" Fluttershy said with a facepalm. "I brushed off his scent tracking, his lapping up water, and even his gait as just... a party pony being a party pony." She turned to Pinkie. "Uh... no offense."

"None taken," Pinkie replied.

Applejack was next to turn to her. "Er, Pinkie? Didn't Cheese bite you?"

Pinkie looked at her foreleg. "Yeah, but Twilight says not to worry, it's only contagious if the bite bleeds, so no Pinkiewolf."

"But there is going to be Cheesewolf," Rarity said. "Tonight's the full moon!"

"Well, technically it's still a gibbous, but it's close enough for it to look full and have just enough power for Cheese to transform... so, yeah, three straight nights of Cheesewolf," Twilight said, desperately trying to keep her voice level and her eye from twitching. She cleared her voice. "It's more urgent than we thought--innocents are in danger, and tonight's the night that his symptoms are coming to a head! It's imperative that we locate him as soon as possible."

"How far can your tracking spell reach?" Fluttershy asked.

Twilight said. "I can only get it to cover an area the size of Manehattan. Sure, that's big, but it's only a small fraction of all of Equestria, and somehow, he must have escaped that radius and galloped off to who-knows-where!"

"Maybe the Map could track them," Applejack suggested.

"Maybe... but I don't want to tamper with it and end up breaking it, and I don't know if it would detect a werewolf as a friendship problem!" Twilight paced back and forth. "Could Celestia cover a wider range? Can we convince Luna to not raise the moon? Or do we have to wait until he or Tomato sends a letter that says, 'We're in so-and-so town, come cure Cheese before he bites anypony!'" She plopped down onto her rump. "Ugh..."

Pinkie patted her back. "Hey, don't panic, Twilight! My Pinkie Sense is telling me that we'll find out soon."

She looked up at the clear blue sky with a serious expression, imagining the full moon when it was in place that night. "I hope we find out before tonight."

Author's Note

Hey, I planned on Appleloosa, and I'm going to write Appleloosa! Braeburn is simultaneously fun and frustrating to write. Poor guy, he has to see his friend Cheese when the latter is... not quite himself.

Oh, and in other news, Twilight found out what's wrong. I did debate with myself on where I wanted to reveal it (in most cases, the obvious choice would be the transformation, but no matter how I sliced it, leaving Twilight figuring it out out was just awkward for me). Of course, by this point, I'd be surprised if you didn't figure it out--my subtlety wasn't at its best in this tale. :ajsleepy:

Anyway, next chapter, the moment we've all been waiting for...

22.3--Musings

The rumble of the train car was the only sound that night. It was a sound that its passengers grew used to quickly, and even let rock them to sleep. A few certain passengers, having boarded late that night, certainly needed their sleep to fix a problem at their destination, and most of them took that chance to get comfortable and get their shuteye.

Pinkie Pie couldn't sleep. She kept staring out the window and at the full moon, her mind transfixed on what was happening in Appleloosa that very moment. If anything could put a serious damper on a party, it was the host turning into a monster. She didn't even want to imagine what kind of damage was being done; especially by a good friend of hers. If only they had managed to keep Cheese in Canterlot, so that they could have cured him before he hurt anypony else! She wished that they could just pop over there in a second, but even Twilight had her limits on her teleportation.

She soon realized that she needed to stretch her legs, and since she didn't want to wake up her friends, she settled on pacing. After all, pacing was done with serious thinking, and Pinkie definitely was doing serious thinking. She was gonna go back and forth in the aisle, her mind swirling around all that had to do with the werewolf spell on Cheese.

Being a wolf would definitely ruin a party, she thought. Getting bitten by that would be anything but fun! Why couldn't Cheese make being a werewolf funny? That one time eating the dog kibble should have been hilarious, or maybe he could have been distracted by a frisbee, or he'd chase a cat! Or maybe he would have licked my face because dogs do that to ponies they like, right? Sure, I'd find it yucky, but it's a lot better than being yelled at and told that he wants to forget me because at least I'd know that he still likes me!

She wanted to believe that it was just the spells talking. After all, Cheese was the pony that she inspired to break out of his shell and throw himself into the spotlight, ready for those smiles. He had told her that he always felt different, and she showed him why, as well as how his gifts could be used for good. But at the same time, this was the same pony who resented his brother--said brother having been a lot like Pinkie when he was a colt. What if Cheese really did come to resent her for similar reasons to his resentment of Tomato?

She glanced out the window, seeing that the train hadn't yet reached the desert, if green grass and leafy trees were anything to go by. Rocking herself side to side and humming softly as she paced, there was the sense of we-need-to-be-in-Appleloosa-right-now, with Pinkie hoping that nopony got bitten or even died. But at the same time, she didn't even want to go and face Cheese, lest he decided to outright attack her instead of just saying mean things, even if the mean things hurt enough as it is.

She turned in the aisle, and looked up to notice a magenta glow coming from one of the other seats. Blinking, she quickly galloped to that seat, and then slid to a stop right next to it to find Twilight, who was up and had her nose in a book.

Looking at the emblem on the front cover, which was a full moon surrounded by stars, she asked, "Whatcha reading?"

Twilight's head jolted up on hearing a sudden voice, but when she turned to Pinkie, she relaxed. "Oh, I'm reading Wayer Rune's journal. His words can give us better insight on the nature of both the werewolf and memory removal spells. But, I'm not going to lie, reading about his life is absolutely fascinating."

"Oh?" Pinkie sat down beside her, peeking at the Old Ponish and drawings scribbled within. "Do tell."

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but upon seeing one of the others stir across the aisle, she quickly made a bubble around her and Pinkie. "There, now we can speak as loudly as we need to without waking anypony up. Anyway, one thing I'm sure that you'll like to hear about is Wayer's wife, Jamberry Rune."

"Ooooh, Equestria's greatest jester? Some of the stories my Nana Pinkie told me and my sisters were about her! Like how she jumped right into the job opening when the old one died and made the Princesses laugh, and was accepted despite being just a lowly peasant, or how she went behind everypony's backs to create a giant faire for both noble and peasant, despite party planning not exactly being in the job description." Pinkie frowned. "Why was she married to the werewolf guy, anyway?"

Twilight flipped back a few pages. "Well, according to Wayer himself... 'I have traveled many miles from the city Foreverfree, enough for my hooves to be sore long after my journey has ended. Ponies back home thought I was mad for investigating the rumors of a mysterious earth pony mage, who doth not need potions and alchemy like Mage Meadowbrook did--this strange peasant could summon goods from behind her back, and survive injuries that would be fatal to another, with nary a scratch to be found. Perhaps I am mad, for I was always a curious stallion, and when there is new knowledge to be sought, how can I not seek after it?

"'My arrival to this village was recent, and the mysterious earth pony made herself known to me almost immediately. She was eager to ask me to do a magic trick, as she had never seen a unicorn before. I merely levitated an apple; in exchange, I asked her for one of her magic tricks. She was confused, and argued that earth ponies can't do magic like that. In short, we argued about that for quite some time, until our discussion ended with her drawing a fruit pie from her cloak, which I was certain had nothing in it before, and shoving it in my face. Quite the brave mare, doing that to a unicorn, especially a young mage with promise such as I; even braver for her fellow villagers to laugh. But, shocked as I was, I did get my magic trick, and as penance for losing her temper, the mare, named Jamberry Harvest, offered me a place to stay with her family.'"

Twilight turned to Pinkie. "The next few pages detail how Wayer would attempt to study Jamberry and all the crazy goings-on around her, kind of like the time I tried to investigate Pinkie Sense... and getting hurt. A lot. And yes, Wayer got hurt often, such as when Jamberry threw a beehive to distract a rampaging bear, the bees tried to attack her... only for her to hide and the bees to attack Wayer instead. Ouch." She shuddered. "He tries to soften it by mentioning how amusing it was that the swarm was shaped like an arrow, but I can just sense his frustration over how the heck they even knew to coordinate like that."

Her eyes flicked right and left as she scanned each entry. "He also mentions her sudden teleportation when he looks away, abnormal stretching of her body, her eyes popping out of her sockets before springing back in, how she only ended up covered in ashes after Wayer misfired a fire spell, and much more. Wow, Wayer must have been tenacious to gather all of this."

"He should really stop trying to dissect the joke, because explaining the joke kills it," Pinkie said, crossing her front legs.

"Oh, no, he doesn't quite 'get the joke' until Jamberry's parents die." Twilight flipped forward to said entry. "'Tis been a somber day in this house. Wheat Harvest is now head of the house--'" She paused and looked up. "Wheat is Jamberry's older brother, just so you know. Anyway... '...and we have just buried their parents. With seven younger siblings to feed and protect, I do not envy Wheat's postion. However, I was surprised when he treated me with kindness instead of contempt, and for once did not view me as a scoundrel seeking to steal his sister's virtue.

"'Jamberry was not her usual joyous self. She did not speak in jest, she did not perform any tricks, and she did not use any of her impossible magic. I sought to comfort her, and she said not a word, only holding me all through the night. We merely fell asleep; had Wheat come into the room, tis likely that he would have misunderstood and his wrath would have led him to break off my horn. The family has had enough heartache, and that event would have made down spirits worse.

'After Jamberry's sorrow these past few days, it came to me that her impossible magic was meant for the joy of others, and that it is profoundly affected by her intentions and emotions. Indeed, many did laugh with her when her feats of madness were performed, and I did learn to love and laugh more than I ever did back home. I suppose that's why I hesitated to call it Chaos Magic; Chaos, much like its infamous wielder, Discord, has no rules and no regard for anypony's well-being, being out for its own amusement and rewriting the world into complete madness.

'Jamberry's magic, which I shall now call Jester Magic after those amusing ponies in the Princesses' court, has a certain pattern consistent with promoting mirth among the villagers, and any selfishness on Jamberry's part always led to retribution, as if her own magic was displeased with her. It seems to be profoundly affected by deep sorrow, such as the death of a loved one, or perhaps a troubling event of that nature where laughter is inappropriate. Indeed, it seems that the powers of Harmony may have deemed her worthy to wield this magic, for she is a mare who ultimately seeks the happiness of others, and I love her for it. Even if the finer details on how it works do escape me, that is the conclusion I have made.'"

Twilight lowered the book. "I'm not sure about Jamberry's side of the story, but it's clear that Wayer definitely fell in love with her for being different and her desire to make others smile."

Pinkie beamed. "Oh, I definitely relate to Jamberry! I bet that if I traveled through time and met her, we'd be friends and throw a super big party together! Heck, wouldn't it be amazing if every party pony in history all came together to throw the biggest party ever? How many party ponies would that be? I bet lots of party ponies would be lots of fun!"

Twilight grinned nervously. "I don't know... there is such thing as too much of a good thing..."

Pinkie shrugged. "Eh. Oh, and I totally get why Jammie married Wayer... he sounds like he was a really nice guy, eeeeven if he was a little nosy. But still, it sounds like he's a smart guy... like you! And what crazy pony wouldn't like you?" She frowned, and looked out the window at the moon again. "But none of Nana Pinkie's stories ever mentioned a husband... heh, guess we know why..."

Twilight patted her back. "Are you okay? Knowing that Cheese is..."

Pinkie sighed. "I'm really super nervous, and my heart's still achy from what he said. I don't know if he'll yell again, or bite me again... and if he does bite me, will I turn into a werewolf? What does a werewolf even look like? Is it a Timber Wolf or a regular wolf?" She pulled at her mane. "I don't know, and I don't know if I want to know or not, because I'm really scared of what's happening to my bestest party pony friend!"

"Pinkie!" Twilight exclaimed. "I know you're worried. But I promise, we'll be in Appleloosa tomorrow. Most likely during late morning or early afternoon, but I can cure Cheese and anypony he's bitten before the next moon rises. And since the sorcerer who did this would likely be nearby, we could track the memories and get them back as well."

Pinkie hugged her tail. "I hope the sorcerer pony doesn't dognap Cheese tonight. Why would you want to randomly turn somepony into a werewolf, anyway?"

Twilight shrugged. "For this age, I'm not sure. But I know why and how Wayer Rune invented it in the first place." She opened the journal once again. "Um, spoilers, he used a dire wolf as the base, not a Timber Wolf."

"Why a wolf?"

"Convenience, I guess." Twilight looked in the book again. "Might as well read some more and see what else we find."

The rest of the night passed without incident, and those that were bitten were herded into the rodeo arena so that their wounds were all tended to and they could wait for a session with the medicine bison. Cheese Sandwich, back to pony form when the moon had set, was among them; or rather off to the side, leaning on the fence, away from the crowd that eyed him warily. While he'd rather that the stares were because he was currently shirtless, he knew that being 'patient zero' was why all were scooting away. It was just as well.

Naturally, he was the first to be examined, lead away to be inspected in private to a hut outside of town. After getting dusted with some sand and having to bear her hoof waving around him, much to his annoyance, he had to review his summer as well as he could; perhaps he could pinpoint the moment that he could have contracted the spell. He didn't transform on the last full moon, so it had to be sometime during the past month, when he started feeling unusually angry and his magic faded until he couldn't even throw confetti. During his spiel, the medicine bison had a face of stone, listening intently.

It was thinking back to that full moon that he recalled the magic pool that gave him strength, and that elixir that Rooney gave him to stop the headaches. Along with those, the question Tomato had asked one night come to mind: "Don't you think that Rooney guy did something?"

No, Tomato was just being paranoid, he thought. If Rooney had been plotting something, wouldn't he have done something when Cheese had been sick in bed back in that one town where Party Favor lived? Why would he just wait to cast a spell on him? Why would he want to cast a spell on him if Cheese never did anything to him? For that matter, what purpose would turning him into a werewolf serve? And why would he just leave Tomato alone? None of it made any sense!

For now, his best guess was that the mystery sorcerer was some unicorn that he accidentally upstaged one time.

After Cheese finished his story, there was a pang of disappointment as the medicine bison explained that the spell was an unfamiliar ailment to her--she could detect that it was a pony spell, to be cured by pony magic. However, she had continued, she could help with the severe magical disharmony within him, and heal his mind and spirit so that his body may be open to physical healing when the cure arrived.

After some herbal treatments to soothe his anger, he went back to town, with the advice to seek support from friends and family, and to prepare for a ceremony for all the victims for spiritual cleansing. When there, he had barely caught word of somepony having sent for Princess Twilight, much to his surprise, and figured that it was going to be a couple days before her arrival. It wasn't long before everypony noticed him and hastily parted out of the street, staring at him cautiously.

He snorted, and still a little woozy from whatever that bison burned, he didn't burn with anger. Instead, he just strode forward quietly, his hoofsteps quietly patting the dust. Shielding his eyes from the sun, he looked around in hopes of locating Braeburn or Tomato. He noticed a couple of ponies sharpening pitchforks and making sure chunks of wood were dry, or knocking on bottles to test their hardness. He noticed that many foals and their mothers were on the roofs, their eyes on him.

He checked the rodeo arena. That proved to be a mistake.

When Cheese left that morning, the ponies were still acting like ponies; they were right to shy away from the werewolf that bit them, pounding their hooves on the dust to warn him away. They ate their hay cakes and apple tarts for breakfast, and plodded with the swinging gait of a relaxed horse when they paced. Now, revisiting them, it was a little more than startling to see that some of them had started to chew bones that weren't there before, and while those looked tantalizing, Cheese couldn't help but wonder where they came from. There was also a tug-o-war with somepony's hat, with all the snarling and attempted swings of head that only dogs were known for. And seeing Trouble Shoes yelling at Sheriff Silverstar made Cheese realize that during his feral state of mind, he didn't consider that biting a massive Clydesdale would create one of the scariest werewolves of all.

Who had just finished his tirade and was glaring at him.

"You!" Trouble Shoes snarled.

And now all eyes of all the new werewolves were all glaring at him. Though in pony form they may be, they still had the wolf's boring glare, and he felt a knot in his gut knowing that he made them this way. Where was the medicine bison to give them all a mass spiritual cleansing right then and there and make them stop looking savage?

Tail between his legs, Cheese just answered, "Hi... so, uh... have any of you seen Braeburn around?"

One mare snapped, "Oh, why? So you can finish turnin' him like you turned us?!"

Cheese shook his head. "No, the medicine bison told me that I needed the support of a friend..."

One stallion rolled his eyes. "Suuuuuuure... a friend to join your pack. Whose next, that brother of yers?"

Cheese looked away. "No. As far as I'm concerned, he should be going back home to Manehattan, because this is too dangerous for him. I'm too dangerous for him." He hoped they weren't reading his thoughts, because he was well aware that sending Tomato away might be against the medicine bison's advice. But as he saw it, it was the most responsible thing he could do. At least he could feel at peace knowing that his brother was safe.

Now that he thought of it, he hadn't seen Tomato all day. What was it, noon now?

"Oh, you shoulda thought of that before tryin' to throw us a party! Now we ain't nothin' but wild animals thanks to you!" Trouble Shoes yelled. He raised a hoof to smash the fence and narrowed his eyes at Cheese. "How I'd love to smash your head in."

Sheriff Silverstar, who had been watching the exchange, slid in between them. "Settle down! Y'all need to remember that you're still civilized ponies and expected to act like such! I will have no lynchings in my town!"

As the victims starting barking and snarling their protests, Trouble Shoes grabbed Silverstar by the vest and brought him up to face level. "And just how are you gonna stop me? I'm more than two times your height, and I can use my size and strength to bring some real justice!"

He threw the Sheriff aside, and smashed the fence. Trouble Shoes lumbered forward, while others started running out, shouting and barking their protests of their condition. Cheese backed up as much as he could, his tail still between his legs and his eyes avoiding their gaze, though he gauged the numbers. With ten to one, especially with Trouble Shoes on their side, he was as sure as dead.

Just then, it was Braeburn who came in between them, with no regard to the big bruise on his foreleg. He shouted, "Hey! If you so much as lay a hoof on my friend, I'll give y'all a good lickin'!" He stood up straight. "Y'all are bein' unfair. He's as much of a victim as y'all are, and real justice will be finding who did this to him and making 'em answer for it."

The victims backed up and murmured amongst each other, while Trouble Shoes just stared. Braeburn stared back, took off his hat, and said, "Trouble Shoes... I know you wouldn't hurt a fly... on purpose. You were willing to do time for all the rodeos you ruined, and all of those were accidents! I know you're mad, but you know that killin' Cheese wouldn't turn you back."

Trouble Shoes blinked in confusion. "Whaddya mean I ruined rodeos? I don't recall none of that."

Now Braeburn was confused. "It was just earlier this year, remember? My little cousin helped you figure out your mark?"

"Why would I be confused about my cutie mark? I remember watching a lot of rodeos... and wanting to join in... but I never wrecked them! Why in the flamin' hay are you lyin' to me, Braeburn? Are you accusing me of bein' an outlaw?!"

"I'm not! I..." Braeburn scratched his head. "Since when does turnin' into a werewolf cause memory loss?"

Sheriff Silverstar came ambling back, with some cacti stuck onto his back. "All right, enough of this nonsense! No attempted lynchings until after the medicine bison takes a look at all of you! Cheese don't want no trouble, so that's a good sign."

Cheese sighed. "She did say it was a pony ailment to be cured by pony magic. She just helped me control the symptoms."

One of the mares scoffed. "He's lucky the one buffalo he bit wasn't here. That would've been messy."

Sheriff Silverstar sighed. "That so? I hear Princess Twilight's coming; I do believe she's good with magic."

Cheese pinned his ears back. "Can't wait for her to chew me out." He looked at Braeburn. "Can I have lunch? I'm hungry."

Braeburn nodded. "As long as you ain't asking for any meat, I'll feed you." The two turned around, and Braeburn waved at the Sheriff and the victims as they began another trek through town. "I'll see y'all later! Here's hoping y'all are cured soon."

With a nervous chuckle, Braeburn turned back to Cheese, though he could still feel Trouble Shoes' glare. "Cheese, pardner, I'm gettin' more worried about this spell the longer it goes on. I didn't expect ponies to lose their memories when under it!"

Neither did Cheese, who had let the memory thievery thing slip from his mind thanks to his transformation the night before. It was really weird, because if he recalled correctly, weren't his memories being stolen before this werewolf thing was a problem? He could have sworn that they were two different things.

He snorted. "Enough about that... I don't want to think about the others wanting to murder me. How's your leg?"

Braeburn looked at his leg, which had splotches of black and blue marring his yellow color. "Oh, it's easier to walk now than it was last night, but it still hurts like someone's still beatin' me with a hammer. Forget it not breaking the skin, I'm surprised that you didn't break my bone!"

"Yeah, forget I was this close to turning you into a werewolf, I nearly crippled you." Cheese forced a snort, hoping that it sounded as horselike as possible. He kept staring at his hooves, with the single toes they should have. And he licked his teeth, they were as flat as they should be. By all means, it should have been a dream, but the way everyone was acting, there wasn't any way around it.

But now, he had a second question to ask. "So... Tomato left, right?"

Braeburn's face sunk into a deep frown, followed by yet another nervous chuckle.

Cheese instantly realized what that meant. "He's still here?!"

While putting in a few hours of sleep in between reading sessions, Twilight and Pinkie spent most of their time on that train reading from Wayer Rune's journal and learning more about his life.

Twilight held much interest in how Wayer was always exploring various ways of using magic, from casting spells using his horn, to trying his hoof at alchemy and potions, to the use of runes, as was apparent in his family name. He liked to experiment with any spells he found or anything he discovered on his own. Any magic that he could not do, such as earth pony and pegasus magic, he'd observe, drawing sketches of how wings and hooves were as potent conduits as unicorn horns--and that for some ponies, tails were a good conduit as well.

"I pitied earth ponies before, having no horn to levitate objects. But, when I accidentally made anti-magic crystals grow on my horn, Wheat Harvest taught me how to channel magic through my hooves so I could carry objects with my hooves more effectively, and how to use tools with my mouth--though Jamberry's efforts to get me to use my tail were fruitless. It was useful for the time I couldn't use my horn, and served me until I created an antidote for my misfortune. But my writing was atrocious! I suppose I learned a lesson in that prejudice does not only manifest by hatred, and that is important to draw wisdom from many sources; keeping to oneself reduces progress."

"I tried out a rune circle to see if I could teleport further than normal. The results were that I indeed did, but I had to make another one to return, and I forgot the book that had the design I needed. Thus, I had to walk all day to return to my lodging. I had to scare off many bears and wolves and bandits--foolish bandits who thought I could be taken down with a rock."

"Memory magic is an odd subject to peruse, but it seems that for all the magic information in the world, there's not that much about it. There's tales of a memory stone, but it appears that it is lost, so I decided to see what unicorn magic could do with it. So far, there was the one that I unintentionally ripped out from Golddrop's mind when he died, and while it's a nice memento of our deceased son, it was also a treasure trove of information. I could create a physical manifestation of the memory and relive it with him, see what was going on in his mind that day, and discover details that I hadn't noticed or have entirely forgotten. Unfortunately, when experimenting with removing a memory from a living being, I discovered that tugging on it led to extreme pain for my wife, and I had to cease before I possibly killed her. It still gives me concern over whether dying just released Golddrop's memory, or the removal killed him. I hesitate to find out for sure."

Pinkie, on the other hoof, liked the entries about his relationship with Jamberry, and how she made everyone's lives more fun.

"When I had left that village to go back home, I intended to go alone, but Jamberry pestered me because she was both curious about where I lived, and because she didn't want me to part. With her brother's blessing, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to show her the capital. I expected to give her a tour and entertain her for a few days before I created a rune circle to send her back home. However, when on our tour, we happened upon a rumor of the court jester's sudden death, and Jamberry turned frighteningly ambitious. I chased her around town but failed to catch her before she broke into the castle, and then I pursued her through the castle until I lost her. By the time I found her, she was in the Princesses' throne room, and the sisters were rolling on the floor with laughter, presumably from something she did. I tried to hurry Jamberry out, but it was too late, the Princesses liked her and invited her to be their new jester. And then Jamberry boldly asked if they could bless us to wed. I had nary a clue of how I was supposed to inform Wheat of this insane event."

"She did it again. At the Gala, she was just expected to juggle and tell jokes for the amusement of the nobility. However, when she overheard from somepony that her marriage to me was a joke and that our foals are mongrels, she decided to overstep her bounds yet again, which Princess Celestia lets her do on a regular basis. She made the fountain gush with custard, she summoned colorful banners from the ceiling, and she kept changing outfits in the blink of an eye in a display of her magic. Most of all, she stretched a rope high between two pillars set in opposite sides of the room, and then proceeded to balance on it, performing a dance and singing a boastful song about how she was powerful at magic, just a different kind of magic, so why shouldn't two ponies matched in magic power be together? And then she threw pies yet again. I wonder why she must throw pies all the time."

"She does not like being confined to the throne room, and thus enjoys the days when she can walk out to a faire and entertain all who attend, no matter their status. Some days, she'll go to the village that her brother built just to throw her own faire, because she was weary of the nobles she had to perform for. All she wanted was for our surviving children to laugh with their cousins, without worry of judgement for mingling with the wrong class. Our youngest, Destiny Star, is not yet aware of the pressure like her elder siblings are, but as I watch Silver Rune, our eldest, teach her some magic tricks, I suppose I could lay down my burdens for a time and just rest."

Over the course of the morning, the others had woken up, and joined them in the reading session. Applejack was first to arise, and on joining the pair, she immediately took to the entries about Wheat Harvest, who somehow scared Wayer into compliance, despite the latter technically being more powerful. Fluttershy was next, and she would delight in the entries about the foals, cooing at the births of the ten foals Wayer and Jamberry had, and nearly crying at the deaths of five of them. Rarity would recoil at everything Jamberry did to spite the nobles, and Rainbow, the last to awake, was just waiting for the part when the whole werewolf thing started, though she laughed at some of Jamberry's antics and the ever exasperated Wayer.

"Are you sure this is the werewolf guy?" Rainbow asked with a laugh. "He's a major dork!"

Twilight giggled. "Well, he had to connect with Jamberry on some level. I was expecting him to be a serious mage focused on his magical studies and figuring out ways to improve upon past spells, or... knowing what happens, be kind of a power-hungry jerk from the get go. But, seeing his thoughts and feelings here, it's like... this is a pony that I would have loved to meet. Not as much as Star Swirl, but still."

"Do you think that if he never made the werewolf, history would have been kinder to him?" Fluttershy asked.

"If he never made the werewolf, Cheese wouldn't be in that mess," Pinkie grumbled. She looked out the window. "Are we there yet?"

Applejack peered out as well, watching as tumbleweeds bounced on the sand and the cacti stood erect. "I can't tell just where we are, but I reckon we should get there before nightfall. Heck, with how long this train's been goin', I think we got an hour or two."

Twilight sighed. "Well, if it wasn't for the war, he wouldn't have created the spell. It's sad, his experiments on memory magic or his stories of Jamberry would have had more focus if his life had gone differently."

"I shudder to think of how he just snapped like that," Rarity said. "That war must've been horrible to push him to create that awful spell!"

Twilight turned the page of the journal. "Well... here we are, I think we're at that part. Ahem... 'Silver Rune is of marrying age--'"

Suddenly, an explosion sounded from ahead, and the train rocked violently. Stomachs lurched as their car quaked, and time slowed down as all six mares were thrown from their seats. They could barely register the slow screams, the tipping of the car, and the shattering glass as they floated through that tumbling car. Their lives flashed before their eyes, and just like that, once the side of the train car hit the ground, time sped up. They all landed in a pile, atop a broken window and among mangled seats, twisted metal, and a lot of dust.

Pinkie was on top of the pile, cracking open a single eye to see her surroundings. What was once welcoming and comfortable was now dark and dusty, save for sparks flicking out of the lamps. She coughed at the sheer amount of dust, and sat up only to nearly hit her head on a hanging seat. With a flinch, she slid her achy body off of the pile and onto a stray cushion. She took a moment to rub her shoulder, and turned to the others.

"Hey! Are you all right, girls?" she asked.

Rainbow forced herself to hover with eyes squeezed shut. She coughed as she rose, up until she hit the dangling seat and had to catch it and toss it aside. She rubbed her eyes. "Ugh, I got dust in my eyes!"

Fluttershy crawled to the cushion, and looked at the scratches on her legs. "Some of the glass got me."

Applejack dragged Rarity to the cushion, and sneezed. "My legs feel like jelly in a summer afternoon."

Rarity shot up. "Oh no! My mane's a complete mess, and my hairbrush and spray are lost in the wreckage! It's bad enough that we are in a train wreck, but now I look like a train wreck too!"

Applejack raised an eyebrow and shook her head. Then she looked behind her. "Twilight? How're you holdin' up?"

Twilight slowly got up, coughing as well. She peeled the journal off her chest, and strode forward. She was grunting and grimacing, holding back tears as she dragged a limp, mangled wing to the cushion where the others sat. Panting, she said, "I think my wing's broken."

Fluttershy gasped. "Oh, no!" She looked around. "Where's the first aid kit?"

Rainbow Dash finally opened her eyes and looked up. "I don't think we'll find it in this mess. Let's just get everyone out of here, Fluttershy."

And so they did. They picked up each of their friends one by one, being extra careful with Twilight, until they were all out and in the sun. Sitting in the sand, all of their eyes scanned the entire length of the train, which was all tipped over on the side from the locomotive to the caboose. Cars had buckled in every direction, with some in the desert dust, and others resting upon the rails. During their scan, they spotted a big gaping hole in the locomotive, charred as if it had been blasted.

Seeing the bloodied engineer crawl out, Rainbow zipped to the pony, and pulled him and another who was unconscious out of the wreckage. She carried them back and set them down, asking the engineer, "What happened?"

The engineer rubbed his head. "It happened so fast... I was just driving the train, I don't know what I did! All I know is that some random blast came right the heck out of nowhere and hit my engine!"

"Random blast?" Twilight narrowed her eyes, and traced an imaginary path from the hole to a nearby mesa. "Looks like somebody doesn't want us to get to Appleloosa before tonight." She winced and grunted, and looked at her wing. "And he's lucky that I can't fly right now."

The engineer started to rock back and forth. "We're nearly forty miles from Appleloosa, I don't know if any of us can get help in time!"

"Hey, easy there, fella! If anypony can get us help faster than a jackrabbit on hot coals, it's her," Applejack said, pointing to Rainbow.

Rainbow smirked. "Psht, yeah! Forty miles is a piece of cake for Equestria's fastest pegasus!" She took to the air. "I'll tell them about the trainwreck."

"If there's anything that can help with first aid, or at least some water, could you bring it?" Fluttershy asked.

"Not a problem."

Twilight furrowed her brow. "And don't forget the reason we were coming to Appleloosa in the first place. Whatever this sorcerer is planning, it can't be good, so tell them that we're going to be there as soon as we can. They should keep an eye on a certain pony."

Rainbow nodded, and finally took off, following the railroad to Appleloosa, as the engineer hollered his thanks.

The remaining five sat and watched as Rainbow disappeared, and then turned to each other. Looking at Twilight's wing, they all looked at each other, thinking the same thing.

"All right, let's get to making a makeshift splint for that," Applejack said. She tilted her head as she stared at the wing. "Anypony know how to splint a broken wing?"

Fluttershy raised her hoof. "I do."

Rarity had trotted back to the train, pulling some curtains out of the wreckage and shaking dust off. "We'll see if these curtains will make good bandages until we get better ones. Pinkie, if you can be a dear and collect more from around here, that would be nice."

Pinkie nodded. "Okey dokey."

While she was hopping to it, putting on a smile so that nopony would get even more distressed, she was inwardly screaming. The longer they were stuck out here, the longer Cheese was a werewolf and was in danger from the scary sorcerer pony. Pulling the first curtain out of the first window, she wondered what he and Tomato were doing right then.

It didn't matter that the desert sun was beating down on him. He could sweat, he could sip from that canteen that Braeburn threw onto the roof he sat upon, and he could take off his suit jacket and roll up the sleeves of his white shirt. It didn't matter that most ponies thought he was being lazy and unhelpful by moping on a roof. It wasn't like he could keep the victims in check, perform healing rituals, or even cast a spell to make it all better. And it didn't matter if Cheese wanted him to go home; Tomato did not want the uncertainty of Cheese's fate to agonize him.

He had had been sitting on Braeburn's roof all morning, staring out to the landscape to see if the train with Twilight and friends would pull in soon. Word had spread that somepony had sent for Princess Twilight, though not who did or when the Princess would arrive. Twilight arriving earlier than expected for most would be suspicious and point to the guy who knew the most before the disaster happened, but really, he'd have that over a night of angry werewolves tearing through the town.

His gut tightened, and he didn't want to face anypony in town. He had known that Cheese was under a spell that made him violent, even without knowing what exactly it was, and yet, he pushed him into working on a party, just to keep him there until Twilight arrived. Now about a dozen werewolves were on his head, and if the pattern was correct, they were developing the same nasty temper Cheese had shown for the past month. Knowing his part, they'd decide to tear Tomato limb from limb for letting it happen.

Figures that he'd eventually screw up again. Unfortunately, Tomato wasn't sure what else he could have done. All other options in his head left gaps wide open enough for the mystery sorcerer to come in and get to Cheese before Twilight could.

And then again, he wondered, Why him?

He jumped when a rock smacked just shy of his feet. Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked down to see Cheese glaring at him from the ground, with a concerned Braeburn beside him. Tomato felt his stomach drop right onto his intestines.

Cheese called up, "Hey! I thought I told you to take a train out of here!"

Tomato took a deep breath. "Well... you never made me Pinkie Promise, did you?"

Cheese scoffed and rolled his eyes. "So? Last night should have been reason enough for you to go."

Tomato drummed his hooves on that roof. "I just... I... ugh, I'm still reeling a-and letting it sink in that you're a--"

"Don't say it!" Cheese held a hoof up and looked away, gritting his teeth. "Don't say that word, I don't want to hear it. I don't even want to believe it! But it's real, and what I do want is for you to get out of here before I or some other pony bites you, or worse!"

Braeburn glanced between them. "I hate to say it, but I agree with Cheese. One of them werewolves was like a fox in a henhouse; now we have a pack, and now folks are campin' out on roofs or packin' their bags. Maybe you are safer in Manehattan."

Safer, maybe, but Tomato was not up for listening to Mom's tirade on how his summer vacation was a horrible idea and how she was going to fix him. She was bound to see the news on Kazam's trial and realize not only their involvement in the Las Pegasus incident, but how much more dangerous Cheese had become. She'd freak out over how this trip was a disaster, and demand that he'd never move far from home, close enough that she can make sure he's living his life correctly. Barging into his house and removing any music records that he purchased of his free whim and sang along to? Pushing him more and more by-the-book in how he relates to his talent? Will she start taking away some of the books he loves because their content could spur him to something reckless yet again? Will she meddle in his friendships? Will she meddle in his love life and decide on who he marries? Will she dictate how he should raise his foals--or even raise them for him? If it were anypony else, this would be stretching things, but Tomato knew that his mother hardly trusted his judgement on anything, as if he was a perpetual toddler, and would indeed strive to control his life even more. Any freedom he had would be gone, and that scared him more than any werewolf. The only thing scarier was losing his brother again.

"Tomato!" Cheese shouted. "Are you even listening?"

Tomato decided to look down, seeing what kind of wood the roof was made of. "You're not even worried about the pony that did this to you?"

Cheese pursed his lips. "Maybe I'll get some ear plugs, so we wouldn't have to worry about that whistle you keep talking about."

"Tomato, I'll keep an eye on him," Braeburn said. "It ain't like that sorcerer's gonna attack with all us around to guard them wolves. And if it's a whistle, then'll I'll definitely hear it and whup him out of it."

"Please stop referring to us as 'wolves', Brae, you're really testing how well that herbal and spirit stuff keeps me from getting too angry," Cheese chided. He looked up at Tomato again. "But, I'm serious, you need to get out of here, or else you'll be one of us or maybe even dead. If anything happened to you..."

Tomato crossed his front legs. "I'm surprised that you're feeling guilt this time. Nothing over those kooky kidnappers, or the animals, or a defenseless Kazam, huh? Is it because these guys are innocent, or maybe because transforming is such a shock that you start rethinking yourself?"

Cheese growled. "How would you know?"

Tomato glared for a few seconds more, tempted to hiss back; but, on feeling that urge and feeling the itch on his teeth and his back again, he made himself relax. He sighed. "Las Pegasus, that's how." He looked at a confused Braeburn. "Cheese doesn't remember, but, if you've heard of Las Pegasus, then you can guess what happened to me. And now, the same thing's happening to Cheese... although I envy how he turns back into a normal pony when the moon sets; I had to be stuffed in a trenchcoat."

Braeburn thought for a moment, and then his eyes widened. "You turned into one of them vampires?"

Tomato nodded. "And when Cheese found out--after he initially fainted--he did everything he could to turn me back to normal. He snuck me across town in that trenchcoat just to get the guy who did it to change me back. When that went south and said guy used me to create an army, Cheese faced off against that army to get to me. And when the attack was over, Cheese snuck me to Ponyville to have Twilight cure me. If nothing else, he is a hero. And what do I do when put in a similar situation? Sit here and hope that crazy whistle guy doesn't come before Twilight."

"Aw, don't sell yourself short, pardner! You saved me from turnin' wolf, and you sent Twilight that message!" Braeburn chirped.

Cheese blinked. "Wait, that was you who sent that letter?"

Tomato nodded tentatively. He was sure that once he was all cured from the werewolf spell, Cheese would forgive him for going behind his back and giving Twilight their location when Cheese just wanted to be left alone. Still, he was still a little worried over what his initial reaction would be.

Cheese rubbed a temple. "Look, I appreciate you trying to relate to my situation, but you're not me, so if you don't come down here, I'm going to have to climb up there and drag you all the way to the train station. I don't care for your excuses, you're going home!"

Then, a voice from above said, "Hate to break it to ya, I don't think that's an option."

The trio of stallions looked up to see Rainbow Dash hovering above them. She had her front legs crossed, but instead of the expected smirk, her expression was much more serious, her brow furrowed with concern.

"Rainbow Dash?" Cheese asked.

The sky blue pegasus landed in front of him and nodded. "Yep! We got the message." She shoved her face into his and yelled, "Now don't ditch us again!"

"Oh, that's great to hear!" Braeburn said. "And earlier than everypony thought too." He frowned, and lifted up his bruised foreleg. "However... he got some ponies and a buffalo already, and I nearly turned myself. We're trying to keep them in line, but I dunno how long we can do it."

"Medicine bison treatments are surprisingly soothing," Cheese muttered, rubbing his ear. "And what do you mean taking the train's not an option?"

"I just came from a train wreck!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Someone shot us while we were heading here, and now we need help from you guys because a bunch of ponies, my friends included, are stranded in the middle of the desert."

"Oh, no!" Braeburn said. "That's awful! Is anypony all right?"

"Uh... don't know. All I know is that me and my friends were mostly okay, but Twilight broke her wing."

"How far away are you girls?"

"I think it was forty miles."

Tomato slid from his perch down to the edge of the roof. "You think it's crazy whistle guy?"

"If Twilight isn't teleporting that far, what makes you think that guy can?" Cheese rebutted. "Probably some random bandit."

Braeburn then said, "Either way, it's bad. But then, I dunno if Appleloosa can offer her usual hospitality right now, 'cause we are in the middle of a werewolf crisis. Bringin' in injured ponies would just made the poor folks easy pickin's."

Rainbow then smirked. "Maybe... but Twilight's among them, and she can fix your werewolf problem, no sweat! We just need to get her over here, like, ASAP."

Braeburn pursed his lips. "Hmm... well, let's see what Sheriff Silverstar has to say about it. In the meantime, we can pack you extra canteens, some medical supplies, and--"

"Sounds great, let's find the sheriff!" Rainbow whipped herself behind Braeburn, and started pushing him back to main street, much to his alarm.

Cheese watched as the two left the yard and went into town, and groaned. "This is just great... train wrecks leave a mess that other trains shouldn't go through, and now you're stuck. What are we going to do once the moon rises and all of us werewolves end up losing control?"

Tomato rocked on the eaves. "If nothing else, there is hope for the victims."

Author's Note

Again, buffalo are frustrating. :fluttershyouch:

Nevertheless, here's a slow day in Appleloosa and a train ride gone bad. Yeah, this one was a groaner, and I hope that the next chapter is a little more exciting.

22.4--Brink of Tragedy

As it turned out, cleaning up a train wreck takes a long time. In fact, it took most of the Appleloosans a few hours to get there by pump car, with only the pegasi arriving much earlier.

After Rainbow returned from Appleloosa, there was a lot of hassle. Letters had to be sent to the railroad bigwigs about the wreck, and to other stations so that other trains could take alternate routes. The Appleloosans that had arrived on the scene had put up medical tents near the crash site, because goodness knows they don't want to expose train wreck victims to werewolves. And whoever was able and not tending to the wounded were picking up the pieces, salvaging items that survived the wreckage intact, and putting broken things in a garbage pile to be taken to a dump later.

Twilight's wing was properly cast sometime after the more seriously injured were tended to, Fluttershy had her cuts bandaged, and the others had their checkup, brushed the dust off and tidied themselves up, and rested for a time for the soreness to fade. In the meantime, as a few ponies were preparing one of the pump cars for them to get to Appleloosa, Twilight did a little more reading aloud of Wayer Rune's journal, sitting on a rock as the others surrounded her.

"Silver Rune is of marrying age, and Jamberry and I argued over which of the fine mares in town he should court. She believes that Silver should choose for himself, with no regard for any social status; I don't believe that's quite realistic for our family to do it a second time, as we were just fortunate that the princesses liked her. Regardless, it will have to be settled another time, because I hear there's a call to war with the Minotaur Kingdom."

"Finally, we get some action!" Rainbow said, throwing her hooves up in the air. "I can't wait to hear how he kicked minotaur butt!"

Twilight rolled her eyes and read the next entry. "'Princess Celestia was acting rather strange today. She declared to those going off to war that minotaurs had been stealing from and killing ponies near the borders, and apparently that was enough for her to assume that they are all evil and should be swiftly dealt with. I'd assume that diplomacy with the minotaurs about this problem did not fare well, but I was shocked to see her ranting and raving about how they harmed our citizens and were planning to take land, thus they needed to learn a painful lesson. It must have been serious if she was angry enough to char that railing.'"

Twilight pursed her lips. "Okay, I know that relations with other kingdoms were less than ideal during that time, but that does not sound like Celestia when she's angry."

"I dunno, it sounds like them minotaurs were causin' too much trouble to ignore," Applejack said.

"But it could have been just a big misunderstanding," Fluttershy said.

"A misunderstanding that left a high death toll on both sides," Twilight said. "The war is considered by both us and the minotaurs to be one of the most pointless wars in history, due to it being started by nothing more than an overreaction to bandits who could have been taken care of rather quickly. At the time, it was perceived by both parties as their opponent attempting a land grab, and it took several years before the truth came to light."

"It doesn't sound like Celestia to be so impulsive," Rarity said. "Just what was she thinking?"

"Celestia doesn't talk about it much, so I don't know what she was thinking." She grinned nervously, and awkwardly turned the page. "It's clearly miscommunication, there's no other way that Celestia would have made this big mistake that lead to the creation of a monster and ruined relations with the minotaurs until relatively recently."

"Oh," Applejack said, rubbing the back of her head. "Still, he makes it sound like an army was attackin'."

"To be fair, he didn't have all of the information at that time." Twilight looked back in the journal. "'It has been a fortnight since I and many others have left our homes and families to fight. My dear brother-in-law, Wheat Harvest, and I are in the same cohort, and we promised our wives that we'd watch each other during the war. It may seem concerning that a unicorn like I and an earth pony like he are in the same unit, but our military is specifically trained for cohesive teamwork between unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, utilizing each specific magic discipline toward a common goal. And since we ponies are more well-versed in magic, I am confident that this war will be short.'"

There came a whistle from the railroad, and the girls turned to see that the pump car was ready for them, with enough space for most of them to ride to Appleloosa. Twilight shut the book and stood up. "Well, I suppose that we can read more on the way there."

As they approached the thing, Rarity grimaced at the sight of the car. "Oh, I know it'll be faster than walking. But, I still distinctly remember when Pinkie and I had to travel that way after getting abandoned in the desert..." She shot a glare toward Rainbow Dash, who turned to avoid her gaze. Rarity then continued, "And believe me, it's not as fast as a train, especially when you get tired!"

"Well, we ain't got time to lose," Applejack said, picking up and slinging a canteen over her neck. "If we work together pumping the thing, we'll get there before that moon rises."

"Or I could push it!" Rainbow suggested.

"Uh, I think most of us would fly off," Fluttershy said. She looked at the lever. "Or get hit by the lever."

"Not if we hold on tight and duck!" Pinkie exclaimed. "We really, really, really need to hurry and get those werewolves back to normal! I hope they don't forget what it's like to be a pony."

Fluttershy furrowed her brow. "As concerned as I am for the werewolves, I don't want us to risk any other injuries by being reckless."

Twilight looked at her wing sadly. "I'm afraid she's right; any further injury will just slow us down. We'll have to see which speed is safest for us."

As the mares all boarded the pump cart, with four of them taking the lever, the stallion who had been preparing it chimed in, "Are you sure you should go to Appleloosa, Princess? Things are real tense there, and the wolves might swarm you if you tick 'em off."

Twilight smiled confidently. "Don't worry. When I cure those ponies, Appleloosa will be safe enough for these ponies to recover at. I hope you have enough water to get through the rest of the afternoon."

With that, the mares started pumping the lever, and the car moved forward. Rainbow Dash pushed behind as well to help speed it along, and they were soon yards away from the train wreck. Out into the desert they went, their only companion being the railroad.

Pinkie was looking at a watch on her foreleg that had not been there before. "Alrighty, it's late afternoon, and we gotta travel about forty miles until we get there, but so far, we are making good time! At least until we get hungry and have to have something for dinner, but still, we are coming, Cheese Sandwich! No more will you be an evil dog thing--and maybe you won't be so mean anymore!"

Rainbow groaned. "Twilight, maybe you can keep reading the journal."

Holding on to the book tightly in her magic, Twilight cracked it open. "It'll be a good way to pass the time. Ahem... 'As it turns out, minotaurs use talismans to counteract our magic. They are more skilled than I thought...'

The sun set, and there was still no sign of Twilight and her friends.

The dozen bite victims made a tentative attempt at their normal routines and tried to connect with friends and family as part of the medicine bison's advice for spiritual healing. But, even with magical desert plants calming them, they were still subjected to the fear of the townsfolk, with many still sitting upon rooftops to avoid them. There was even a sizable number of volunteers that left town to help victims of a train wreck that were a good distance from town, and thus, the wolves.

The fence that Trouble Shoes smashed was fixed. Once evening fell and there was no princess in sight, Sheriff Silverstar rounded up the bitten, as well as patient zero, and held them in the rodeo arena with several ponies and a couple of buffalo standing guard. With eyes on the victims, all they could do was wait.

Braeburn rocked back and forth on the bleacher he sat upon, and stretched his neck up as high as he could to see the railroad. "I'm getting mighty nervous 'bout this. Moon's about to rise, and I don't see no sign of the princess!"

Tomato sat beside him, bouncing his leg impatiently. "Well, she better get here soon, or we'll have to face Round Two of wolf nonsense." He looked straight at Cheese, who was just moping and staring out into the desert, separate from the others. He gulped. "Let's just hope the medicine bison's methods work to keep them from going crazy."

It was mostly silent for the next few minutes. The ones in the arena didn't say a word, only performing simple actions such as sitting in meditation or to scratch an ear, pacing back and forth, and chewing sticks. Every so often, one of them would take a quick peek at the dimming sky before facing the ground again, drumming their hooves. The guards had ropes and nets attached to crossbows ready, and most townsponies just stared from their high perches, waiting for disaster. The only noise made was the nearby chatter of pony and buffalo, with the latter lamenting the perversion of the noble wolf.

The moon rose into view. The bitten looked up and stared at it, and held still in a trance, their eyes drinking in the moonlight like sweet nectar. A chill fell over the rest of the town, and the guards readied themselves without a word.

And then suddenly, the bitten screamed.

Some of the ponies crumpled into a heap and curled up, shuddering and crying as they clutched their heads or stomachs. Some tried to walk off the pain, only to fall on their knees and bite their tongues hard enough to bleed, breathing through their teeth. And some of them crawled, and reached out to those outside the arena, squeaking out pleas for either help or the sweet release of death. The guards staggered back at the sight, their eyes showing that they wanted to help, but there was nothing that could be done. A couple of them turned away, and another couple gagged at the sight, especially when those ponies' bodies began to change.

As the transformations progressed, Tomato hugged himself and just looked down, not wanting to see. The screams and cries made his body shudder and his stomach churn, and he could feel those vampire fangs and those wings growing in again. Braeburn rubbed his back sympathetically, his reaction being the rest of his body freezing, with his own heart pounding.

The only two who didn't have a extreme reaction were Cheese, who simply grunted and panted as the second transformation took hold and passed much more quickly than the others', and the lone buffalo, who was stoic as he morphed into his half-wolf form and only sweated through the process.

Those who expected a haunting melody of howls were to be disappointed, as the transformations ended with the former ponies catching their breaths, relieved that they didn't die, but also afraid to look up. Some dared stand up, their legs wobbling as they did so, but still had their eyes on the ground. Unfortunately, that gave them a good view of their own hooves-turned-paws, and they staggered at the sight.

One even backed right into Trouble Shoes, and the two snapped their heads around, seeing each other's canid muzzles for the first time. Their gasps and screams made everyone else jerk their heads up, and look around in panic at the nightmare they were living. Some tugged at their shaggier fur, some squeezed on their new paw pads, and some felt the cold, wet, black nose at the end of their muzzles. Regardless of what they did, all bemoaned their new state.

"I'm asleep! I must be asleep!"

"No, no, no, I didn't want this to be real!"

"I shouldn't have paws... I shouldn't have paws!"

"I'm still a pony, I swear!"

"That dang Cheese cursed us all!"

Tomato looked up at that, and his eyes fell on his brother. Cheese stayed in his corner, opting to lie down in the dust and just bear the curses flung at him from most of his victims. From the way that the fur on their back was raised to the bared fangs, Tomato was fully expecting them to rush him like savage animals. He tensed up and held his breath, still watching as Cheese was ready to accept his fate.

"Silence," the lone buffalo-wolf said, still sitting. He paused to let the others turn to him. "He is just as much a victim of this curse as we are. Do not let this dark magic turn you into the demons they all believe we are now; you are still in touch with your pony selves."

Trouble Shoes snorted. "But he bit us! We demand justice!"

"Real justice lies in subduing the one who cursed him," the buffalo continued.

Braeburn now stood up on his bleacher and shouted, "He's right, y'all! Somepony put that spell on him, and whoever it is, that one's to blame! And right now, none of us don't want y'all actin' like animals, not when Princess Twilight's coming! I promise, y'all will be cured soon!"

Another werewolf growled. "It better happen soon! I don't like bein' in this here pen!"

Another one was clearly holding back tears. "My family been lookin' at me like I was some devil."

Trouble Shoes looked at his paw and sighed. "Just my luck, ain't it? I earn a little respect, and now I lose it by turnin' monster."

The other werewolves turned around and left Cheese alone, glumly going forth to other spots and taking some provided toys and sticks to chew. Tomato let out a sigh of relief, thankful that if nothing else, the medicine bison's treatment had them avoid a rampage like Cheese's, and instead keep their reason intact from the get-go.

Braeburn looked over the horizon once again, biting his lip. "Ohh... what's takin' her so long?"

Even with the hope of Twilight on the horizon, Tomato still felt a pit in his stomach. A chill ran up and down his spine, telling him that there was still danger. He wanted to believe that the reason Twilight was late was because she had been fighting the sorcerer and that she would come with the good news of his capture. After all, wouldn't that be nice, to have that taken care of and then everyone's back to normal? It'd also probably explain why the creep was also taking his sweet time to actually cause more trouble.

And then, he heard it.

The whistle.

The drive through the desert was long and hot, and constant pumping for a half hour was tiring enough, to say less of how tiring a few hours was. There were times the car slowed because somepony needed a water break or a cupcake break courtesy of Pinkie. There were a couple times that the car ended up derailing thanks to Rainbow's impatience, or how they had to stop so Fluttershy could talk whatever wayward animal was sitting on the tracks. Even as the sun was setting, they still hadn't made it to Appleloosa, much to everypony's frustration.

At the very least, they had Wayer Rune's journal passing the time.

"I do enjoy those quiet days when we do not fight or discuss plans of attack, where I can just enjoy nature's beauty and write letters to my family. One of my favorite spells is an imitation dragonfire spell that allows me to send letters instantly--saves me the worry of having to send a messenger that could be captured. Silver Rune and Pixie Dust could receive the letters easily, but once in a while I send them to Destiny Star, who had just received her cutie mark before I left, and thus, she needs the practice. I hope her elder siblings warn her about being overzealous; I do not want to be rained upon with whatever drawings she wants to show me."

"I had received a wound on my shoulder because Destiny did the one thing I feared she would do; rain her letters and drawings upon me with that spell while I was in battle, leaving me vulnerable to attack. I was gored by a horn before I could put a shield up, and I barely escaped with my life thanks to Wheat. I had to bite a stick as my wound was stitched, and I wished that healing spells weren't some of the most difficult, stubborn, and unpredictable magics of any creature."

"I feel your pain, Wayer," Twilight sighed. "If I could instantly fix my wing, I would."

"Good news; I've reworked the spell so that letters cannot reach me when I'm in battle, so I don't have to worry about being rained upon again, and Destiny has been instructed to send one at a time as to not overwhelm me (and to not waste parchment). Unfortunately, we keep losing soldiers in our battles with the Minotaurs. As adept in magic as we are, they are much more adept in battle strategy, and even when we outnumber them, the combination of their strength, ferocity, and use of talismans can have one winning against several ponies. I am currently in search of a weak point."

"Another battle was fought today. Since we couldn't hit the enemy directly, we had to make them slip on sheets of ice that we unicorns conjured, and it admittedly was amusing to see them slide. The pegasi dropped rocks upon them, causing several fatal blows to the heads of those who didn't hoist their shields up in time, before diving at them and striking them like a swarm of bees. I'd like to think we won the day, but I fear some of the pegasi have been captured."

"I feel truly awful. When we out to battle, the minotaurs taunted us with the head of one of the captured pegasi--a beloved one, the ever optimistic Cumulus Formation, who gave us all a good laugh and told me that he admired my wife for her efforts in joy. In a fit of rage, had tried to blast the minotaur captain with a powerful fire blast; however, thanks to runestones that he had grafted into his palms, he deflected the fire away from his soldiers, and sent the fires among mine. The field around us was soon aflame, with walls of fire towering above us and roaring like dragons. From then, our priority was to escape the flames, and navigate the burning labyrinth as the minotaurs laughed. The smoke overcame me and I collapsed, but Wheat picked me up, and galloped through in search of an exit, searing his legs in the process. He found a way through, along with several others, and we managed to retreat. Breath spells were cast on us survivors... however, it pains me to know that many had perished in that fire because of my foolish attack, and I should have died along with them."

"I now know what they do to prisoners of war. After several of us were captured in an ambush, they dragged us to a cavern, where they had dug an entire labyrinth to throw pony prisoners in. They broke the horns off the unicorns, and ripped the wings off the pegasi, and let them loose in the labyrinth, to never return. I managed to flash a hypnosis spell to fool the minotaurs into thinking he broke my horn off when it was actually intact, and I only stayed in the labyrinth in order to find other survivors. I spun a magical thread to create a path back to the entrance, and wandered the caverns. I managed to find Wheat Harvest alive, much to my joy, but we came across ponies ripped apart in ways I shan't describe should somepony read this. We soon discovered that they had 'wardens' marching through the maze, brutalizing any pony they came across, often to the point of killing them. When one of them caught Wheat and prepared to rip his limbs off, I struck the beast with a blast that decapitated him. It had happened so fast, that I could scarcely believe my eyes, and could hardly move. Wheat took me out of there, following the trail I left until we found the exit. He got me to my senses, and I phased us out and we galloped back to our camp. Even now, I still tremble at the thought beheading a fellow sapient, even if he was trying to kill me. Now, two years into this war, do I wonder what we are fighting for."

"Twilight," Rarity piped up in the middle of the reading. "Hearing all those entries about war is getting rather depressing. My own morale is sinking just hearing about all the bloodshed, and I feel like... erm... throwing up just a little bit."

Twilight looked up at her, and looked at the others looking a little gloomy from hearing all the entries about the war. "I'm sorry, I might be getting a little too caught up in the narrative. We're supposed to be learning more about the werewolf, after all, so I'll just skim the other entries until we get to his turning point."

Applejack huffed and puffed as she pumped, looking to the horizon as the sun sank out of sight. "Might wanna give yourself a little light there, sugar cube. I don't know how long we'll be until we make it to Appleloosa... at this point, I think we're only runnin' on Pinkie."

Indeed, Pinkie was the only one still furiously pumping as even her friends were worn out by the long journey. Rainbow was even resting from pushing and grumbling about how the stupid cart needed to go faster. On hearing her name, Pinkie shouted, "Well, every second we waste is another second that Cheesy's a werewolf, and I won't rest until he's back to a super party pony with all his memories in his head! I can't stop now when the moon is rising! I need to go faster! Come on, Dashie, help me out!"

"Well, sor-ry!" Rainbow snapped. "I'm not allowed to go too fast or else this thing will derail again!"

"Hey!" Fluttershy interjected. "You should keep the fighting down, it won't solve anything."

Twilight lit up her horn and sifted through the pages. "Look, I'm sorry we didn't get there before sunset, but I'll get to curing the werewolves when we actually get there! I'm just hoping nopony else gets hurt or that Appleloosa's not an entire werewolf town by now. Just let me read through this..."

"Why do we even need to know why the werewolf guy did it?!" Rainbow shouted. "You just need to zap them with the cure, and you're done!"

Twilight growled. "Well, maybe I just want to know his thought process that lead to the disaster in hopes that I could understand it better in order to deconstruct it, and maybe prevent something like that from ever happening again!" She looked in the book and grumbled, "Too bad this isn't indexed. Let's see, battle, battle, battle... a mind probe in a prisoner of war that reveals that the minotaurs are just as confused as they are... battle, battle... Jamberry is apparently very critical of the war and begs Wayer to come home... battle, battle, battle... lots of doubt..."

"Wow, that's a lot of battles," Pinkie said.

"That's war for you," Applejack sighed.

Twilight stopped flipping the pages and landed on the spot she intended. "Aha! Right here. 'We lost more soldiers in this battle, and I fear that we may be on the verge of losing the war. Princess Celestia has been sitting back, and Princess Luna has fallen ill from a mysterious condition involving toxic magic--much like several friends of mine have, though I know not where it came from. This is mad, Celestia has gone mad, and I'm sure the nobility is only keeping this war going for their selfish interests. This is clearly just a ploy for more land, and the minotaurs are the perfect scapegoat.

'Much to my shame, I have considered pulling out the grimoire I found back in Hollow Shades, to see what is there that can help. Could dark magic get past the talismans unlike regular magic? So far, only physical blows have an effect, seeing as their talismans only defy our magic and not regular swords and spears. If dark magic could penetrate that shield, we just might turn the tide.

'However, Wheat saw me with the book, and was quick to talk me down. Even as an earth pony who could never understand magic like I do, he was wise to point out that using that magic would corrupt me. I think back on the fire incident or the labyrinth, and just how fearful I was at becoming a monster, and I am thankful to have a brother who supports me when I'm troubled and talks me out of any more foolish decisions.

'Even so, I don't know how we'll end this. I'm tired.'"

"You know, why do they have to fight some silly war?" Pinkie asked. "A party would be a whole lot better! You get to make new friends, share stuff from each other's cultures, eat lots of cakes and pies, play games... that's a thousand times better than killing each other over some silly misunderstanding! After all, we prevented a war with the yaks because of a party!"

Twilight smiled at her. "Yeah, parties are better than wars. Unfortunately, it might be too late for a party by this entry."

"Knowing that he's Wayer's anchor... what did Wheat Harvest think when he finally cracked?" Fluttershy said.

Twilight turned the page, and sighed. "Well... as Wayer says here... 'They killed him.'"

The other five gasped, with Fluttershy whispering, "Oh, no."

Twilight continued, "'Wheat was gored right in front of my eyes, to the point of impalement. He coughed up blood, and didn't say a word as he fainted. After I disposed of that now red-horned bull by causing a tree to fall on him, I cradled my brother-in-law, screamed his name in trying to awake him, shaking him and slapping him to see the light in his eyes once again. But it was all in vain, he was gone. Only Wheat's family and my wife will sob harder than I at his death.

'I have had it. These monsters shall pay for their bloodlust, and our royalty and nobility shall pay for their greed! I will do what I must to end this war, even if it means reading from the grimoire and learning a new way to cast. I have avoided dark magic for so long, fearing its power and how it will corrupt me; but as of now, this blasted war has already corrupted me. The question is what course of action I shall take now.'"

Twilight looked up at her friends, who were silent at the words they heard. Downhearted as she was by the entries of the war, she continued to skim through, instead paraphrasing, "A wolf's howl gave him the idea, and he captured a lone dire wolf to experiment on. He gave it a coat of enchantments such as boosts to speed and strength, a communicability curse to spread to others through bites, moon masking to hide the appearance until a certain phase of the moon, and a mind control spell that responds to a certain pitch picked up by dog ears, so he could reign his pack in when necessary. Wrapping it all up by fusing himself with the wolf and drawing the new magic from his own blood sample, he created the werewolf spell."

Fluttershy snorted hotly. "How dare he drag that wolf into that awful curse! Poor thing must have been separated from its pack and looking for them. I know he's desperate, but he shouldn't hurt innocent animals in the process!"

"And that spreadin' it through bites thing..." Applejack said. "I reckon that means he dragged other ponies into it, too."

"Well, it was first spread because he cast his new spell on drinking water, so nopony was none the wiser until the next full moon," Twilight said, scanning the pages. "The Battle of Sorrel Canyon was bloody, and any restraint that the ponies had was gone. The minotaurs' talismans could protect them from magic attacks, but not from pack coordination and bites to the throat."

After reading a little bit more, she widened her eyes and grimaced, and followed up by slamming the book shut. "Okay, Wayer didn't need to go into that much detail about the battle and how they ripped their opponents apart like..." She shuddered. "I feel queasy just knowing that those are still ponies acting like monsters."

Rainbow blinked. "Okay, so those minotaurs could defy a big friggin' fire blast from a powerful wizard, but then ponies turn into wolves and all of a sudden they get their butts kicked? Did I miss something? Because I thought minotaurs were strong enough to rip ponies in two with their bare hands and had that talisman thing going on."

"Well, Wayer did say that the talismans protected them from magic attacks, not physical attacks," Rarity said. "Not to mention that if my enemies suddenly turned into wolves, I'd be rather shocked myself."

"And the moon masking was for the element of surprise," Twilight said.

"Talk about an awful surprise!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"But what happened when they lost that element of surprise?" Applejack asked.

Twilight looked in the journal again, reading the entries after the Battle of Sorrel Canyon. "With enhanced strength, speed, and stamina, as well as heightened aggression to match their opponents, the ponies were winning more battles even without the transformation. It would be a few more full moons until Celestia met with the Minotaur King to finally end the war, and the survivors could all go home."

"So... that's it." Applejack said. "That's the end of the werewolf thing, right?"

Pursing her lips, Twilight shook her head.

Just then, Pinkie looked down the railroad and gasped. "Hey! Appleloosa ho!"

The others turned the direction she pointed, and sure enough, under the light of the full moon they could see dark buildings in the distance, with some light emanating within the town square. They weren't close enough to see the ponies, but just those buildings had the girls nearly leap for joy, for the end of the journey of pumping across an endless desert was nigh.

"It's about time!" Rainbow shouted.

Pinkie leapt up and down along with the lever, her smile snapping to an impatient scowl. "Come on! We can get there faster if all six of us pump like crazy! If we don't hurry, more ponies will end up getting invited to the werewolf party, and that's a kind of party that I know the real Cheese would really hate to throw! So, come on, let's get moving!"

Everypony on that pump car took hold of the lever, with three ponies to each side, and set loose a great burst of energy into their pumping. The car went the fastest that it did all day, skimming along the railroad as the town came closer and closer, and they listened for the sounds of any ponies or wolves coming from the town. Even when their limbs started to feel like jelly, they kept going.

I hope they were able to keep the werewolves at bay until we made it, Twilight thought.

One moment, it had been calm. The werewolves were calm, content to chew on items or just lie in the dust until help arrived. They had no interest in attacking, even though most were shooting glares here and there to Cheese, growling under their breath about how he deserved to be ripped apart. Regardless, they kept their level minds, like the ponies and buffalo they were.

Then the whistle blew, and the werewolves went nuts.

That whistle was so shrill and so loud, that Tomato was glued to his seat, only shuddering and covering his ears to try to block it. He watched in horror as Trouble Shoes and the buffalo hopped to their paws and barreled through the fence, with the rest of the werewolves to follow. He watched as the guards lassoed and netted a couple, only to be attacked by a few more in the process. Some spread out, in order to find stragglers on the ground. The two steamrollers of the pack attacked the buildings in hope of getting the prey on the roofs.

He looked down to see that a cloudy-eyed Cheese was sprinting up the bleachers, teeth bared without mercy. He was lucky that Braeburn was quick to buck Cheese away, though not without a "Sorry, pardner!", and then pulling Tomato away from the arena, and hopping out to find a high place for both to take refuge in.

As they cantered away from the town the werewolves harassed, Braeburn hissed, "Are you a plum darn fool? Cheese was aimin' for yer throat and you just sat there like tortoise glued to the road! An ear infection should be the least of your worries!"

Tomato blinked. "Ear infection? I don't have an ear infection, I was trying to block that annoying whistle noise!"

Braeburn stopped at a tree, and then started to hoist Tomato up. "What whistle noise?"

Tomato wobbled as he suddenly found himself sitting on Braeburn's head, and only held the tree for stability. "What do you mean 'what whistle noise'? I heard it clearly! It was loud and shrill and one of the most annoying noises that I have ever heard!"

Braeburn pushed him upward along the trunk, wincing from the pressure on his bruised leg. "I didn't hear no whistle! It was quiet until the werewolves went crazy!"

"The whistle is why the werewolves went crazy! It's not like it was a dog whi--" Then and there, it clicked. His eyes widened at the realization that he was the only non-werewolf that could hear the whistle, and to everypony else, this attack just seemed unprovoked. And as random as it seemed to him, he could guess that the mystery sorcerer was doing it to terrorize the townsfolk, and showing them his work without revealing himself.

And Tomato knew why only he could hear the whistle.

He flinched as the shrill song stabbed his ears again, and he let out a loud hiss in response. He wouldn't blame the werewolves for going nuts if they weren't clearly hypnotized; the dang noise was making him show his vampire side, enough for Braeburn to jump in fright and send him higher up the tree.

"What was that?!" he cried.

Tomato breathed through his teeth. "Vampire thing." He hovered the end of his tail in front of Braeburn. "Now, take my tail, and I'll toss you to that branch, and then you help me up. Deal?"

Braeburn nodded, and was about to take the tail, but he was swiftly interrupted by one of the werewolves having grabbed his tail, and was promptly tossed aside. Tomato watched as Braeburn rolled in the dust meters away, skidding to a stop on his side, and taking a moment to hold his bruised leg, gritting his teeth. The cowboy cracked an eye open, leaving no doubt that he was okay, but Tomato was quick to realize that the lone wolf was joined by the rest of the pack, and they surrounded the tree.

Stupid! Branching off from the crowd put a target on our backs! He didn't know if that thought was toward himself or Braeburn, but either way, he was in trouble. Trouble Shoes easily pulled him back down to earth, and Tomato turned around to face the wolves--but more specifically, his brother. He backed up against the tree as Cheese, apparently taking the role as leader, approached.

It was hypnosis all right--the glazed eyes were a sign of that. But, he recalled the one thing that Cheese did to make him snap out of it during the Las Pegasus debacle, when Kazam had pulled the same hypnosis stunt on the vampires.

So he slapped him. Hard.

"Ow!" Cheese cried. Turning back with his normal green eyes, Cheese rubbed his cheek. "Hey! Why'd you do that?"

Tomato breathed heavily, his back against the tree. "You were hypnotized. And so are they."

Cheese glanced around at the confused pack, and grimaced at the implication at what they were about to do. "Tomato, I... I, uh..." He sighed, and shot glares at the rest of the werewolves to order them to back up. He kept on glaring, adding growls to make his point clear. Tomato had to admit, it was impressive how quickly he went from pariah to the alpha wolf.

Then, turning back to him, Cheese said, "Tommy, I won't let them hurt you. I lost too much of myself... I can't lose you."

"Just... hold on a bit longer, big bro," Tomato pleaded. "Princess Twilight's on her way."

Cheese looked down at the ground, and then looked up with a ghost of a smile. He opened his mouth to say something, but was suddenly interrupted by the whistle shrieking through his, Tomato's, and the pack's ears. As Tomato covered his ears in an attempt to save his eardrums, he could only watch as Cheese switched between snarling like an animal, and screaming like a pony.

Cheese's eyes filled with tears, and he tried to cover his ears. "Somepo... augh! Somepony help me!" He snarled again, and his eyes shifted between clear and opaque. As the whistle continued to stab at him, Cheese smashed his paws against his ears, and kept chanting, "I'm a pony... I'm a pony... I'm a pony..."

But it was no use, and they both knew it. Staring straight at his brother, Cheese whimpered, "Buh... baby bro?"

Tomato wanted to answer, but couldn't. He could only watch as the whistle's spell took hold, and dark, cloudy eyes glowered at him. The snarling beast clamped onto his tail, pulled him forward, and then proceeded to whip him against the tree. There was a crack as Tomato's head hit the trunk, and his vision went black.

The hypnotized Cheese looked down coldly. The whistle sounded again, whispering to him, Take the vampire.

Braeburn barely got up to his hooves when Tomato was knocked out. And he couldn't chase after when Cheese, carrying his brother by the back of the shirt, lead the rest of the pack into the forest, as his still throbbing leg had him stumbling. He didn't know why they didn't take him, or why they didn't just tear Tomato apart then and there, but he stared into the cold, dark forest, fearing over what was to happen in those Macintosh Hills.

He took his hat off and held it over his heart. "I'm sorry."

Author's Note

Sometimes, one of the most frustrating things about writing a pony fic is figuring out what the heck to call certain things that normally have the word hand in them. Today's word is handcar, as in this thing:

Found out that it does have several different names, but I used the simplest alternative.

In other news, apparently listening to music from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith kind of sets the tone I was going for when I was writing this thing. Don't know how well I succeeded. :applejackunsure:

22.5--Preying On Pony Minds

At last, Twilight and friends galloped into town.

They had expected to bump into a pack of colorful werewolves causing chaos, but there was not a single wolf to be found. There were, however, claw marks on buildings, residents sitting atop the buildings, and Sheriff Silverstar and some of his deputies lying on the ground, bleeding from wolf bites. The only one on the ground that wasn't bleeding was Braeburn, who had been applying pressure to the others' wounds with whatever he could find.

Applejack sprinted at the sight of her cousin. "Braeburn!"

The stallion looked up. "Cousin Applejack!"

She threw herself into a relieved embrace with him. After a moment, Applejack immediately took Braeburn's front leg to look at the bruise. "Oh my, that's a mighty nasty bruise. I can't believe that bite didn't break the skin!"

"It woulda... if Tomato didn't jump onto Cheese's tail in the nick of time."

"Speaking of the two ponies you just mentioned..." Twilight said, looking around. "Where are they? Where are all the werewolves?"

Sheriff Silverstar had barely raised his head, wincing from the pain in his shoulder. "Yer a little late. We tried to keep 'em in the arena, you know, keepin' an eye on them and making sure they don't go bitin' anypony else... and they were calmer than a summer breeze at first, not wantin' no trouble like any sane pony. We thought the medicine bison's treatments worked, they weren't actin' like Cheese was last night. But then outta nowhere they just went crazy, and started attackin'."

Twilight winced at the rag soaked with blood. "I can definitely see that. I better cure you."

Applejack then asked, "Why would they just go all crazy like that?"

Braeburn looked at the ground. "Tomato said he heard a whistle, but I didn't hear no whistle. I tried to get him to safety, throw him in a tree, but... the pack just threw me aside like a rag doll. Then they snatched him and carried him off into the woods."

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie was in his face, her pink face now a redder hue. "And you let them get away?!"

Braeburn flinched hard enough to stumble onto the ground. "What good would I do against a pack of wolves?"

Pinkie groaned loudly, and started pacing. "This is just great! Our train crashes, Twilight's wing breaks, we had to drive a pump car for hours, and after all that, we miss them?!" She yanked at her raspberry curls. "Come on, universe! I just want my party pony pal back to normal, is that too much to ask?!"

Fluttershy tentatively approached her. "Pinkie... are you okay?"

Pinkie breathed heavily and sat, her eyes misty. "Why him? Why...?"

Rainbow Dash hovered above her, staring as Fluttershy and Rarity comforted the pink pony, and then looked at the forest that ran into the Macintosh Hills. "Hey, they couldn't have gone that far! Twilight can still track Cheese! We can just zip in there, change them back, and bring them back to town!"

As if she was demonstrating how easy curing them was, Twilight had just pulled some dark magic from Sheriff Silverstar, and the magic took the shape of a wolf and howled before dispersing. However, she turned to the others with a serious look. "It might not be as easy as you think, Rainbow. For one, the wolves would have to hold still, and two... there's clearly a powerful mage meddling in our efforts, and they're going to push back harder this time. And if it's the same pony that's been stealing Cheese's memories..."

"But what would somepony have to gain from stealing memories and turning other ponies into werewolves?" Rarity asked.

Rainbow smirked. "If they're gonna pull a Kazam, we can take 'em. Besides, we have Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy pursed her lips. "I don't feel so comfortable using the Stare on other ponies... but I'll do it to make it easier for us to help them."

Pinkie looked up and wiped her eyes. "And we'll cure Cheesy, right?"

Twilight smiled at her. "I promise we will." She crossed her heart and put a hoof over her eye. "Pinkie Promise."

Pinkie beamed. "I can't wait to throw that 'We Cured Cheese Sandwich and Others of a Werewolf Curse' party."

The pack had bounded through the forest, their path lighted by the full moon. They wove through the trees and leapt over shrubs and rocks, their eyes taking in every obstacle as they ran. Their paws had kicked rocks aside and snapped sticks in two, but they were otherwise quieter than they would have been as pony hooves. To any random passing animals, they would seem to be predators chasing some unknown quarry, and would flee before they could be noticed as easier prey; but, alas, what the werewolves pursued was no less than the siren song of a dog whistle, enchanted with hypnotizing magic.

They had captured the one prey that the whistle had bid them to, and the pony was lying unconscious on the lone buffalo-wolf's back. The pack darted through, still dancing through until they reached the Macintosh Hills, where an old, abandoned mine rested, with boulders of various shapes and sizes blocked the entrance.

One would think the wolves would have turned one way or the other, or stopped at this hill of rocks. But they continued running straight, not even slowing to avoid crashing headfirst into a rock. But, with a flash of magic from somepony watching them, the wolves slipped through the stony hill and entered into the shaft as if the rocks were made of water. They continued onward through the tunnel until they entered the large, barren mine.

Within the mine, the leader of the pack, Cheese Sandwich, clutched his head and panted. As the fog in his head cleared up, he started to scan the area much like anypony who woke up in a strange place would. He drowsily took in not only the normal mine features of dark, stone walls and a railroad stretching forth into a black abyss, but the odd parts such as how much of the room's space was taken up by what looked like the lab of a alchemist or a sorcerer, the cave now apparently had extra rooms with steel doors, or that the pillars were made of glowing crystal when this was clearly supposed to be a coal mine.

After he coughed harder than he'd like, he was fully awake, now wondering what the deal was with the cauldron, the shelves of spellbooks, and the various ingredients stored everywhere. He looked at the others, who also gazed around the underground amphitheater with no memory of how they even got there. To his horror, his brother was present as well, unconscious upon the buffalo-wolf's back.

"Guys?" One lady croaked. "What's going on? Why are we in the old mine?"

One guy held his knees, rocking back and forth and trembling. "We're underground... we're underground... we're gonna die!"

"Why do you suppose the whistle has called us here?" the buffalo asked.

"I dunno, maybe Cheese can explain it," Trouble Shoes muttered.

Cheese turned and backed away from the group of nearly a dozen. "Hey, the whistle wasn't my fault! If it was, I wouldn't have led you to an abandoned mine!" He paused a moment in order to sneeze, and looked up with a glare. "My question is why we took Tomato along for the ride?"

Now the group was even more confused as they looked at the sole non-werewolf on the buffalo-wolf's back. They followed that up with glancing amongst each other in panic, and then debating over how to get out of the mine and making sure Tomato was safe before anypony started acting wolf again.

They stopped once a flash appeared in the middle of the room. Cheese had his back to it, but he caught it from the corner of his eye and spun around to see Rooney, smiling with a grandfatherly warmth at the pack of werewolves.

"Well, well!" he exclaimed. "It seems I have visitors on this lovely night. I suppose I should make some tea, and make you feel at home."

As the others started to murmur amongst each other behind him, Cheese blinked. "Rooney? What are you doing here?"

Rooney just glanced around the mine. "Oh, this is one of the camps I occupy throughout my travels, just like in Sorrel Canyon. I just spent the day cleaning up so that charcoal smell doesn't suffocate me. And it's good to see you again, Cheese."

All eyes were now on Cheese, and he bristled at the accusatory stares.

"Wait, you know this guy?" one guy asked.

"What kind of lunatic lives in an abandoned mine?" another asked, flinching at the sound of screeching bats.

"Why ain't he bothered that we're... you know..." Trouble Shoes asked.

The buffalo-wolf narrowed his eyes and snorted. "This is a pony of suspicious character. We must leave this place at once."

"Whoa, whoa, guys!" Cheese said, waving his paws. "Guys, relax, Rooney's a pretty cool guy, trust me! He once stopped Tomato from a caffeine-induced rampage that could have completely destroyed the town we were visiting! He gave me something that cured these nasty headaches I was having! A-and I got to drink the best water ever, that made me stronger and healthier, which is something I really needed because I've been seriously out of whack for about half the summer..."

One girl raised an eyebrow. "Being a werewolf is not out of whack?"

"Well, uh... it is, but..." Cheese looked between Rooney and the pack, the gears turning in his head and his stomach in knots. The "best water ever" sure did make his body stronger and healthier, but it did nothing for his magic, which still died on him. "Look, Rooney here is good with magic! We don't need to wait for Princess Twilight, we could get cured by this guy right here, right now!"

Rooney stroked his beard. "I suppose I could."

Trouble Shoes looked at Tomato, and then back to Cheese. "What did yer brother think of him?"

Cheese rolled his eyes. "Oh, sure, you want your nervousness validated, huh?" He turned to the neutral-looking Rooney, explaining, "Yeah, Tommy didn't trust you, can you believe it? He thinks that just because I was getting kind of mean in Seaddle..."

He thought of the unnecessary beatdown of Midnight Belle and Dusk Knight that resulted in broken wings. How he flipped tables and punched a hole in the wall. And how his temper had scared Snapdragon Apple and Countess Coloratura out of their respect for him.

"...and Applewood..."

He thought of how he treated his cousin and his fiancee's friends, being unnecessarily harsh when they messed up the wedding planning--which they had to do because he spent all day having an adventure instead of doing his job. The image of those teenage gangsters made him sick to his stomach--even if they had started the fight, he ripped them apart and left them for dead. They were lucky to be alive, but they still ended up in the hospital. He didn't even want to know if his bites were contagious outside of wolf form!

"...and Aura Springs..."

He had tried to stay calm, be happy, let the show go on... but all that resulted in were dead and half-dead animals, bloodily mangled in just about every way that he could come up with, both in animal-like and pony-like sadism. Maybe if Cheese had bothered to shout for Tomato, he could have held off on the brutality until reinforcements arrived. Maybe the part of him that had craved blood had stopped him from doing anything sensible, maybe he wanted to release his pent-up frustration over his dying magic, or maybe he was also furious that his accordion had been smashed and he couldn't fix it. But there was really no excuse, was there?

"...and Canterlot..."

No matter how much he could justify that Kazam had deserved to be punished for that awful vampire crime, the unicorn had still been defenseless when Cheese attacked him. And no matter how annoying Pinkie Pie was, no matter how nosy and arrogant he found her, no matter how much he wanted her to stay away from him... there was still a part of him that hated to see her cry, a part of him that was drawn to her, a part of him that appreciated her concern. Was he just frustrated and jealous? Or was he missing something?

He looked up at Tomato, resting on the buffalo's back. Cheese had been jealous that Tomato could sing strong while he himself dwindled in his party magic. He had been annoyed by Tommy's whining, paranoia, and worry. He even considered killing him! He felt sick for even dwelling on those last thoughts, knowing that Tommy might be his last link to sanity.

All that happened within the last month, after drinking that magical water. The headaches didn't start until after Rooney came to that town. And Rooney seemed to be following them--he could have sworn there was one point where he saw him in Manehattan. The thought sickened him, it really did, but things got worse whenever Rooney showed up.

Tomato was right.

He spun around and shouted, "You're the memory thief!"

The declaration had echoed. The others gasped, and started to back away. They watched as Cheese heaved, his glare hardly concealing the fear and hurt that shone in his green eyes.

Rooney raised an eyebrow. "Now, now, there's no need to jump to conclusions."

Cheese winced from a headache, but continued, "Look... I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you were trying to help me with some nightmares I was having about a certain big event that I was apparently a part of, if the whole trial thing was any clue. Maybe I had some bad foalhood memories? Maybe I was feeling guilty about something terrible I've done and wanted to forget it? And it just so happens that taking memories is a bad thing, so maybe, just maybe, you could really help me out by returning them to me? Please?"

"Oh, why, my friend?" Rooney said, his tone growing more condescending by the second. "So you could have the nightmares that prevent you from sleeping? So memories of a dysfunctional family and a horde of bullies descending on shy, lonely you can hold you back from your true party pony potential? And why should you remember those times where you fell short, and actually hurt somepony, such as your precious Pinkie Pie?"

Silver magic emanated from his horn, and he snatched Tomato right off the buffalo's back, showing him off to Cheese. "Or how about your beloved brother? How would your relationship be if you remembered all the heartache that surrounded him for years?"

Cheese's fur bristled. "Put him down."

Rooney glanced at one of rooms, steel door wide open, and then started to stroll toward it. "Let's make him comfortable. I'll make sure that he doesn't turn into a werewolf. Although I am willing to work with his vampire blood."

The witnesses there were sure to tell their friends that Cheese Sandwich's bristled fur seemed to move like fire, as if it needed to show everyone just how angry he was. It was why one would tell others that threatening his brother is a terrible idea. Indeed, in that moment, a snarling Cheese darted forward, his fangs bared and intent on maiming that crook until he was bled dry.

But, he was so no match for a sorcerer who could turn around and grab the wolf in midair with his magic, without even breaking a sweat. He simply smirked at him, and said, "I knew you would do that."

He stuck him on the ground, and pressed down until the cave floor swallowed the werewolf's feet, leaving him trapped. As Cheese started to struggle and snapped at his captor, Rooney made sure to trap the others the same way so they didn't get any ideas. With that, he continued on to the room, where Cheese could see Rooney binding Tomato in chains.

Cheese grunted as he tried to break free, but it was to no avail, so he could only watch as Rooney pricked Tomato and gathered his blood. "What did I ever do to you?! I've been nothing but nice to you, and you go and take everything away from me!"

Rooney pulled at Tomato's tail. "It's nothing personal, Cheese." He swung his head, and a blade of magical energy cropped Tomato's tail short. "I just need somepony to help me with a little payback toward somepony who took everything away from me. I had a lot of options, actually. There was Trixie, but she was certainly going to be suspicious if I showed up more than once. Those ponies at that village founded by the infamous Starlight Glimmer? My descendant is among them, and I couldn't risk him catching on."

Cheese growled. "Well, didn't count on my brother catching on, huh?" He smirked. "Or the fact that we know Twilight Sparkle."

"Oh, I figured that out when I saw you dancing with that pink mare. But, regardless, I can adapt."

Rooney spun around and shot a stream of magic into Cheese's ear, which would've made the werewolf jump had his feet not been stuck in the ground. Cheese felt the orbs containing his memories zipping out on the magic thread, causing his head to pound and his vision to blur. Swaying back and forth, he looked up at the memories floating around his head amongst the stars.

Rooney clicked his tongue. "Funny thing... once I take one memory, it's easier to remove the others. You also become less likely to faint when I pluck something like..." His magic wrapped around the dimly-lit memories of Cheese's skills and related knowledge, and yanked it right off the string. "This!"

It was as if wasps had been released into his brain and stung every nerve. Cheese screamed, wishing he could clutch his head as static filled his mind and everything he ever knew about his talents, from his main talent of throwing parties, to his skill with playing and writing music, his many odd interests and love of laughter, and even his various hobbies of tinkering and craftsponyship, was wiped away. He tried to sit to recover, but it was so uncomfortable for his legs he could only stand and sway.

Rooney looked to the other werewolves, who all had their heads low through the duration of the memory removal, gritting their teeth as memories similar to Cheese's spilled out of their ears, and wafted toward him until he formed them into orbs, and strung them into a necklace. He looked at the others, all drowsily confused over what just happened.

He asked, "So, Cheese, do you want to throw a party?"

Blinking stars out of his vision, Cheese replied, "...what's a party? How hard would it hit somepony's head?"

Rooney then gently took the Pinkie Pie memory in his magic. "I suppose you could ask a Miss Pinkie Pie about it." He shook his head at the sad sight of how dim it was. "I've heard that you are quite fond of her."

Cheese stared at the memory, his blank stare turning thoughtful. "Well, I know her. I don't know why I know her, I... think we played as kids? I saw her juggling once, and uh... she sang a song that one time, and we ate pizza..." His head hurt just thinking about Pinkie Pie, and what it was that drew him to her. "I think she made me really happy sometimes. Oh, and she's cute! Kind of annoying, but cute."

"Ah. Well, it's quite a shame... she's a lot like my wife."

Rooney yanked that memory, and the sharp pain made Cheese scream, jolting his mind back to the horrible torture and what it meant. Surprisingly, for how dim it was, Rooney had to put in a little more effort to yank Pinkie out of Cheese's memories. He tugged and tugged, even though Cheese cried, "Hey! Ow! No, stop! Ergh!" He was starting to shed tears, though he still glowered. "Don't I even have a choice?!"

"You had a choice long ago, and you've made it."

"But what if she's important to me somehow?!"

Rooney snorted. "If she was, you've forgotten why." The memory flashed to Cheese yelling at Pinkie, making her cry. "Look at this, Cheese... would she really believe that she means anything to you with how you spat in her face like that? You'll only feel guilty because I removed the talents that you stock so much of your pride in!"

Cheese sunk at the sight of the memory, and looked up pleadingly. "Can't I at least tell her I'm sorry?"

There was no answer as Pinkie was ripped away from him.

Rooney looked at the orb full of the excitable pink mare, and asked him, "So, who did you want to apologize to?"

Cheese stared blankly at the orb, seeing the mare within dance. "I don't know."

Rooney stored the memory in his cloak. "Hm. It doesn't matter anyway."

Over the following minutes, more facts and figures he knew were torn from him, as if one were tearing a sleeve from a jacket. Most of what he could remember after each time was how much pain he was in, feeling like his head was bleeding. The hornets in his head still stung, even as he tried to remember what was taken from him. Friends like Braeburn, mentors like Ponyacci, and many of the ponies he met on his travels were all forgotten. His mother, his father, aunts and uncles and cousins all disappeared, and for all he knew, he was an orphan.

As Cheese was torn apart memory by memory, Rooney could see all the similar memories of the others bleed out. When Cheese lost his talent, so did the others. When deprived of his friends and mentors, so were the others. Worst memories were gone, best memories were gone, all now threaded together in glowing necklaces, destined to be stored elsewhere in the abandoned mine. Such was the magic of the Alpha Elixir; any werewolf shall follow Cheese's lead, even by magic composition.

Cheese was barking more like a dog and whining to get his feet out of the mine's hard floor. His fur bristled, and he growled and yelped each time he was hurt. But, he also got in words that complained about losing something, still remembering that he was a pony and that his current form wasn't his true self. Tears poured as he begged Rooney to stop. As angry as he was, he was even more powerless, and soon, he couldn't even remember how he even got into that position.

At last, Cheese was whittled down to his last set of memories: those of his brother, Tomato. The glow had wavered with each taken memory, but it still shined the brightest. Rooney wasn't quite sure what it was, only guessing that it was due to being close in age and growing up together. There were a lot of foalhood adventures and misadventures he saw in the orb, between busking at a park, eating pizza, or playing an odd game of cowboys that were also spies. Still, as long as Tomato was remembered, Cheese was likely to break free of Rooney's grasp to protect him.

The final tug-of-war began with Cheese crying, "Brother... brother... Tommy? Tommy!"

It was then Rooney noticed that Tomato had started to stir. Now, adding on to the fact that Twilight Sparkle and friends were likely out there searching, he had more reason to hurry. So, he tugged harder, trying to cut the thread with magic as he had done before.

Cheese growled, and pulled back, wishing he could move his feet and just run away. "I won't let you take him away from me!"

Rooney scoffed. "I've had my brother taken away from me, and you don't hear me complaining about it!"

Cheese had to fight for his last shred of equinity; even if all he knew about himself was that he was once a pony, and now he was a wolf, it was clear that the difference lay all on his brother. So much of that one pony, that one pony always looking up to him, playing with him, getting into mischief with him. If he could just hold on to Tommy, there was still a chance of staying pony, of knowing who he was, of becoming whole again. So, he pulled with all his might, even managed to clamp his mouth on the thread and pull harder.

But, Cheese couldn't pull forever. In a snap, Tomato was in Rooney's clutches, and Cheese buckled down to the floor.

After collecting all the memories that wafted to him, stringing them through necklaces that made his cloak pocket bulge, Rooney released the werewolves' feet from the floor. He looked at Cheese, pulled the dog whistle from his cloak, and tooted it. "Rise, Alpha."

After taking a second to breathe, Cheese did so, and looked up, his irises now pitch black.

Petting the werewolf, and looking at the other blank slates in the room, he continued, "You are all my servants now, and you will do my bidding. And while I mesh two hybrid spells and sway our vampire friend, I have a task for you..."

Tomato wasn't sure if his eyes were open or not when he finally woke up to chirping bats. Cold stabbed through his coat and sent a chill onto his skin. A strange smell that could only be described as "cold barbecue" filled the air, and it made his stomach churn. He rubbed his head, only to feel shackles chafing on his ankles and chains brushing his face. After a startle that revealed more shackles and chains binding his neck, hind legs, and barrel, he tugged at them, wondering how he got into this scrape.

He reviewed the moments before he was knocked out; there was no way any of the werewolves, least of all Cheese, would chain him up like this! And if he recalled, in a brief moment of being half-awake, he had heard Cheese calling his name in a panic. Clearly, this was Whistle Guy's doing, and now, sitting in what felt like a cave, Tomato had no idea why he was a captive.

He was soon to get his answer when a door opened, colorful light washing his prison. Walking in was that Rooney character, who simply greeted, "Well, well, look who's awake."

Tomato inhaled sharply, and then snarled, "You!"

Rooney shook his head. "That's no way to address an old stallion, boy. Didn't your mother teach you any manners?"

The chains didn't stop Tomato from standing up, and he had his head lowered as he hissed, "I knew it. I knew it was you! Cheese may have thought it was just a coincidence, but it's way too convenient that right after taking some 'special medicine', he starts acting like a monster!"

Rooney sighed. "It wasn't the elixir, it was the water that turned him."

Tomato blinked. "What, you're not even going to deny it?"

"The Wolf Plague wasn't ever made into a potion, but was cast on a pool to turn anypony who drank from it." Rooney paced around the room, slowly circling his prisoner. "I don't know what would have happened if you drank from it; your vampire blood could interfere with it... perhaps the Wolf Plague could have overtaken it and turned you into a werewolf. Perhaps it'd cancel it out, making you immune. Perhaps it'd kill you. But, regardless, I couldn't risk it." He stopped and stroked his beard. "I needed your blood intact to... study it."

"Study it?" Tomato scoffed. "Yeah, right... you turning ponies into werewolves? Maybe you'll serve vampires too! You're so transparent, I'd laugh if it wasn't for how you destroyed my brother. Where is he?!"

Rooney waved a hoof. "He and his pack are out, moving about to distract your little search party while I finish up a few things."

His horn glowed, and he shut the steel door. The only light came from his horn as he continued, "A risky little venture, but I needed to buy time, after cleaning up all day and waiting for the others to transform. Besides, if they don't give the dear princess enough time to focus, they should be all right until I jump in. I just need to do one more thing."

Whatever it was, Tomato knew that Rooney was going to leave soon, and that would leave him ample opportunity to escape. But, his hopes were dashed once he looked at his tail and saw that it was cropped short. His jaw slack, he grabbed his tail, and started to tug at it, in some feeble attempt for it to grow back.

Rooney chuckled at that sight. "Oh? You think I was going to leave you without making sure you couldn't escape?"

Blood boiling, Tomato attempted to pounce on him, with a inequine screech and eyes flashing red. The chains stopped him from reaching any further than a few feet, but Tomato still attempted to drag himself forward, ready to bite this crook and suck him dry.

Rooney raised an eyebrow. "Thank you for reminding me that I should reawaken your inner vampire after I'm finished tinkering with your memories. I don't want a super strong vampire breaking those chains and having me for supper."

Tomato stopped to catch his breath. "Tinkering with... what?"

In a silent demonstration, Rooney shot a stream of silver magic into Tomato's ear, and yanked all the memories out. The shock jolted him into a stupor, seeing stars among a green blur. Buckling onto his knees, he allowed himself a moment to regain his senses, and looked up to see Rooney examining his memories.

It was then he realized that this was likely the exact scenario Cheese had been involved in before losing memories. He stood up, a head rush making him sway, but he still sputtered, "D-don't you dare!" He pulled at the thread and attempted to pull one of the orbs back into his ear. "You're not going to steal my memories!"

The unicorn paused in his analysis and clicked his tongue. "Not with your attitude, I'm not. If I don't receive consent at this stage, I can't remove any memories... without killing you, of course. I only made it this far because your brother wanted to forget Las Pegasus."

"That's a lie!" Tomato snapped. "Cheese is not that stupid!"

"I hate to disappoint you, but many decisions are made of fear and stress; your brother was overwhelmed, so I relieved him of pain. All of his pain."

"All of his pain?!" Tomato seethed once again, it finally sinking in that this memory thief must have stolen the rest of Cheese's mind. "And all of his joy, too, huh?!" He stomped on the floor. "No, you didn't relieve him! You took a perfectly good party pony and turned him into a bloodthirsty monster! How can you justify turning somepony like him into your puppet and ripping away his entire life? Do you just hate parties?! Do you think that just because he's a goofball he doesn't have feelings?! His life had meaning before, and you took that away from him!"

Rooney laughed darkly, with a bit of an angry edge to it. "Oh? And what did you do to comfort him when he needed it? If any of his and your memories are any indication, nothing you do ever helps him. You're nothing but a curse to him, you know. In fact, you seem to be a curse to everypony. Shameful as it is, your entire life is a curse."

Tomato's glare softened into a more unsure expression, and he backed away, avoiding his gaze. "I... don't know what you're talking about."

Rooney rolled his eyes. "I suppose that could be the case. Why don't I refresh your memory?"

A flash from his horn made the orbs burst into smoke, swirling around the two stallions in a whirlwind. Tomato had closed his eyes and shielded his face from the storm; by the time the dust settled, Tomato opened his eyes to find the chains were gone. So were his clothes, and he discovered to his horror that he was now younger, back to baby-faced colthood days. Finally, he somehow had possession of an accordion--or at least was trying to tear it from the grubby, eight-year-old hooves of his friends.

Before he even realized what was happening, it sprung out of their grasps and smashed against the wall.

Then Cheese opened the door, and walked in to see the wreckage. His jaw dropped in shock, and the horrified gaze at the remnants of his instrument made Tomato want to disappear, to run away before he could relive the rest of the event.

His friends rushed out of the room at Cheese's venomous glare. Tomato was alone to face this dragon, who was ready to breathe fire over the loss of his treasure. Never before had he felt such fear when facing his brother, and he fully expected a beating.

“So…” Cheese spat. “Your friends are nice.”

Tommy squeaked and nodded.

Cheese turned back to the accordion, sat down, and squeezed his eyes shut. “Fitting for such a little backstabber. That promise not to touch it meant nothing to you, huh?”

Tommy blinked. “Uh, Cheese, I—”

“Get out.”

“But, but—”

“I said GET OUT!”

Tomato darted out of the room, and the door was slammed behind him. Once again, he felt like crying--only this time, his adult mind had the knowledge that those were the last words that Cheese said to him before running away. Tomato tried running away from the memory into the green smoke, trying not to let his foalish emotions get the better of him, only to bump into somepony's leg. He looked up to see his mother looking down at him, her face twisted into her meanest scowl.

"Tomato Matthew Sandwich, stop crying!" she snapped. "Your picking fights at school is making this harder than it needs to be! If you had just been a responsible colt for once, your brother wouldn't have run away! For all we know, he could be dead because of your actions!"

He turned and ran away from his mother, wiping his eyes clean from any tears that slipped out. He barreled into the smoke, hoping to run into a better memory, a time when he was happy and had no worries.

He skidded to a stop and stumbled onto his face. And then he heard laughter.

He looked up to see the majority of his classmates surrounding him, pointing at him and chanting, "Crybaby!" over and over amongst their own laughter. Some remarked that he looked so funny when he cried, some said something about how he was a baby, and some declared that he deserved it for being a mean party pooper for the past few weeks. Some even announced Tomato's horrible secret of being a nerd the entire time, because how dare he be smarter than everypony else.

And then there was Squirt, who dared to say, "I can't believe how he only cares about his lame brother."

Never let it be said that Tomato didn't ever beat the snot out of anypony; that day, in total fury at that callous comment, Tomato had pounced on his now-ex-friend, and absolutely clobbered him with his own two front hooves. He landed a few good hits, caused a few big bruises, and even chomped down on the other colt's leg, all while hot tears flew out of his eyes and curses spilled out of his mouth.

A teacher came out of nowhere and snatched him. The foals all stared in fear of this little fireball hauled to the principal's office, and destined for heavy-duty grounding from his mother. Tomato knew it too, and he knew that despite fights between rambunctious colts being par for the course for the playground, this fight was way too personal for him to even forgive his classmates, or even those friends. Indeed, those 'friends' were not his friends anymore, and there was soon to be animosity between him and most of the foals.

The teacher dropped him in front of a crowd, who were yelling at him and his parents, nearly frothing at the mouth as they pointed to the various houses in the neighborhood that looked as if a tornado had torn through. The only thing that seemed to keep the crowd under control was a police officer in between them. Still, he backed away from them and hid behind his parents, now overtaken with a headache, a queasy stomach, and the jitters.

"Listen, pal, I don't care if he has some so-called medical condition!" a fat stallion spat in Hay Burger's face. "What kind of of medical condition turns a kid into a maniac when he drinks a cup of joe anyway?!"

Hay Burger looked at the ground. "I dunno."

A mare in front glared at Mozzarella. "Well, you two have to keep that little freak under control, or he might end up in juvy!"

The nearby officer lifted a hoof, and the crowd silenced. He wrote a note, and gave it to his mother. "Well, ma'am, seeing as your son has now gotten a mark against him in property damage, physical assault, and disturbing the peace, we'll have go down and decide what to do with him. It's a good thing he's still young, so we'll likely give him community service to make up for his actions."

Mozzarella's side glare made Tomato shrink even more. "Okay, Sergeant. In the meantime, I'll remind him just what kind of citizen he's supposed to be."

"Don't forget to keep him away from my coffee," Hay Burger muttered.

Tomato was snatched by the ear, and dragged out of that vision, only to find himself being chewed out by his mother for how irresponsible he had been, how close he was to the slippery slope that lead to a life of crime and thuggery, and how she already lost one son to hedonism and how Tomato had to make the difference. He wanted to cover his ears to block it out, but his adult mind had no power over the scene, so he just bore it as his younger self was cowed by the volume of mother's voice, holding back tears.

When the opportunity came for him to break the illusion and run into the smoke away from the dream, he did so, only to barrel into the scene of Cheese arguing with their mother. Tomato looked at his cutie mark, Cheese's words about him being an accordion-smasher, who more than likely did unethical things to earn his cutie mark, being that same stab in the heart that it had been when it really happened.

"I have had it with him!" Cheese yelled. "All he was ever good for was screwing up my life and breaking my stuff! And yet you scold me just for my cutie mark?! Let me just say that I'm glad we don't have the same special talent!"

Tomato just about crumbled. The shock of Cheese not just insulting Tomato's new cutie mark, but possibly even hating him as well and confirming two-year-old fears, sent him to his haunches. What point was there in apologizing for the accordion incident now? Cheese was not just another pony who was angry with him--this was his brother, his best friend, who all but declared that Tomato was evil just for his cutie mark.

He backed away before the big fight, but bumped into ponies he knew as a teenager, who were quick to declare, "What do mean you aren't rich?! You bozo, you lied to me! That cutie mark is a sham!"

He took off from those ponies, but skidded to a stop in front of a bookstore. A sign on the door declared that it was out of business, and a teary-eyed old unicorn mare--who he recognized as his first employer, Madame Bookshelf--turned away from it. "I'm sorry, Tomato. You did your best."

Tomato breathed heavily at the sight of what he had come to consider a second home. Oh, how his spirits sunk at how much his own special talent had failed, and how he wondered if his mark really was a sham.

He turned, and found himself sitting in the middle of a trashed dinner party, feeling that headache, queasiness, and muscle weakness yet again. Blinking drowsily, he could see many of Manehattan's most influential heads of business cowering behind tables. Among them was Rich Custard, who held his crying daughter Creme Brulee close as he peeked from behind the table, and with a far bit of anger, shouted, "How dare you?! I should have known you were a monster! From this day forth, you are terminated!"

Even in his hangover state, that felt like a buck to the chest. Even more so when looking at Creme, who paused in her crocodile tears and smirked. He knew what that meant. He was invading on her turf, and thus, she arranged this mess just to keep him out of it, and remind him where a poor boy really belonged.

He felt that he should run again, but there was no point--he was just going to run into bad memories, and with each one, he was dying inside. He just fell onto his knees with a sob, his head hurting and his body weakened from the hefty reminders of how much he had been unwanted. How much he was just Plan B. How he was a little freak. How he was a sham. Most importantly, he was always a disaster waiting to happen. He was even sure that he wasn't even meant to be born--just a little accident that even Cheese would eventually come to resent.

He felt the chains binding him, he saw the smoke clear, and he looked up at Rooney, who held the most fake grandfatherly smile he had ever seen. The older stallion said, "It's hard to remember those difficult times, when you feel that you hurt more than help. And what's worse is that there's more where that came from. But, perhaps I could relieve you of those burdens."

Tomato breathed heavily, shaking. Even so, remembering what happened to Cheese, he still glared, and answered, "No... no, I won't let you."

Rooney stared a moment before shrugging and heading to the door. "I figured as much. I suppose I should just leave you alone with your thoughts."

Tomato jolted up, the chains slamming against him and the shackles chafing where they bound him. "What?! No, no, please, don't!"

Rooney opened the steel door, and then flashed his magic at Tomato's floating memories, making them release steam once again. "Oh, don't worry, I'll be back. Only by then, you'll be too weak to resist."

With that, he slammed the door.

Author's Note

Well, sorry for taking a while, but I got involved in a little event called SpringTime Sequel-Slash-Sandbox Switcharoo. It's basically fan fiction of fan fiction, and I urge you to take a look. :twilightsmile:

Also, this is Chapter 100! And I have no idea how this thing ended up this long. Help me...

22.6--Loose Threads

After removing the spell from the bitten Appleloosans, Twilight, Pinkie, and the rest set out into the Macintosh Hills in order to locate the werewolves. Though they traveled through a dark forest, with just rays of moonlight poking through the branches, the mares reasoned that it should be easy enough to find them. Twilight was already using the tracking spell to pinpoint Cheese's location, and all the others had to do was follow her and keep eyes and ears open for any sign of the pack.

There was a chill that the girls' coats barely blocked, and the night sung the haunting song of a thousand crickets. Sticks and leaves crunched under their aching hooves, and wide eyes that fought sleep scanned the dim trees for what seemed like forever. Twilight and Rarity's horns glowed, and Pinkie held a flashlight with her forelock hook, so that none were completely blind.

The sole hoverer, Rainbow Dash, groused, "No sign of any werewolves yet. Didn't think they'd run this far."

"Yeah," Applejack said. "I hope we find 'em and turn 'em back soon; as long as they're wolf, their bites are more trouble than a rattler with a mean streak."

"Agreed," Rarity said. "Plus, we have been traveling all day, and this expedition is infringing on my beauty rest!" She took a moment to pull at her bottom eyelids with a groan. "I simply cannot be seen with bags under my eyes!"

"Girls, I'm trying to concentrate," Twilight said through her teeth. "I have a lock on Cheese, but unfortunately, he keeps moving!"

Fluttershy looked toward Pinkie, who stared blankly at the ground as they pressed forward. "Uh, Pinkie? Are you alright?"

Pinkie snapped out of her trance. "Oh, umm, just thinking of how great it's gonna be when Cheesy's back to normal, and he can throw parties again, and we'll have fun together after all this craziness is done! I mean, it's not like he meant any of that stuff he said, because, come on, it only took losing a few memories to hate me." She chuckled weakly. "I'm sure that the real Cheese doesn't think I'm annoying, or nosy, or irresponsible, or that I didn't actually inspire him the whole time and he was just lying to me because he was sick of me being a so-called crybaby! No, no, he doesn't really want to forget me..."

She started to hop from rock to rock, pointing the forelock holding her flashlight at random spots and ignoring the concerned looks from her friends. "Maybe when we'll find him, he'll just be, uh... fun scary! Yeah! Because that's how Cheese Sandwich is--fun scary, not scary scary! Maybe he and the others are practicing for Nightma--"

She paused her spiel and stood nearly still on a rock. She lifted her knee and flexed the joint several times, wincing as she did so.

The others stared at her silently, until Rainbow asked, "Uh... Pinkie?"

She turned to them with wide, fearful eyes. "Guys, look out, something scary's about to happen!"

Twilight blinked. "Wait, is Pinkie Sense telling you--"

Suddenly, a large animal shot out from the trees, making the others jump back in surprise as it tackled Applejack. The cowgirl stared in shock for a few moments, while holding back the beast with her sturdy legs, but was snapped out of it by slimy drool dripping on her face and the rancid breath of the unequine beast. With jaws snapping just millimeters from her nose, Applejack shoved the beast off of her, and quickly got up to her hooves, lungs heaving and heart racing. She stared at the animal, which was clearly a wolf of unusual size.

"Land sakes..." she murmured.

Before anyone else could respond, other wolves zipped from the darkness and around the mares, snapping their jaws as the girls' hooves to startle them into position. While the earth ponies, unicorn, and the alicorn with a broken wing were jumping out of the way of those bites, the two pegasi took to the air to see the formation, and look for a weak spot.

"Looks like we found you!" Rainbow Dash shouted at the wolves. "Now just try to bite my friends!" With a roar, she sped down to the ground like a bullet, slamming in front of a couple of wolves nipping at her friends and making them leap back. Their shock gave her a window to headbutt them.

Rarity was nearly pounced on, but she jumped out of the way, and picked up a nearby large stick with her magic. "Oh, no, you're not biting me, you foul creature!" She spun the stick like a helicopter blade. "Perhaps we can play fetch instead!"

As Rarity whacked away any wolves hopping at her, Twilight was throwing them aside with her telekinesis and pushing them away with magic beams. "I don't know if I can hold them all in place at once, and I need to concentrate on using the cure!" She grunted as she tossed aside the single buffalo wolf of the pack. "We're gonna have to herd them into one spot so Fluttershy can use her Stare!"

Pinkie jumped out of the way of one bite, pulled a pie out of her mane, and threw it at the offending wolf. She produced more pastries from nowhere for any other attackers. "Like that time with the vampire fruit bats?"

"I reckon that's what she means! But wolves ain't that easy to herd!" Applejack said, bucking a wolf away. "Gonna hafta use my rope!"

She heard the rumble of large footsteps, and her eyes widened on seeing the biggest pony-wolf of the bunch barreling toward her. Leaping out of the way and pulling a lasso out of her hat, she started to swing it when the wolf--a pony she easily recognized as that Trouble Shoes feller that her sister and her friends helped out--spun around and leapt at her again. She managed to lasso the beast, only to be pulled off her hooves, and literally tossed around when Trouble Shoes shook his body. It took a bit to land on his back, but now she was in a rodeo, only with the added bonus of avoiding the sharp teeth of a werewolf's maw.

Watching as her friends fought back, Fluttershy took a deep breath and counted the wolves, flying left and right so that any wolf who jumped didn't catch her. There were about a dozen of them--all of which she had to use The Stare on to keep still. She knew she should probably go down and join in, so that they may corral them into one spot so it'd be easier to get them all with one Stare.

On the other hoof, the werewolves were actual ponies, and the thought of them being vulnerable to her Stare unnerved her. Thinking of how she cowed Cheese into submission back in Aura Springs, she wasn't sure she wanted to do that to any other pony.

Then, she noticed from the corner of her eye that Pinkie, who had been unleashing a volley of pies and cupcakes at any wolf who attacked her, spun around to one, only to freeze at the sight of that one and drop her pie. Fluttershy fully turned to the scene, watching as Pinkie backed up from a hulking, black-eyed wolf, her flashlight revealing it to be light brown, with dark brown fringes on its front legs and tail, and what was essentially a mane of the same color, with a single limp forelock now lying against its muzzle.

"...Cheesy?" Pinkie gasped.

Cheese didn't respond to his nickname, instead creeping forward with a long, deep growl. Pinkie soon had her back to a tree.

Pinkie laughed nervously. "Oh, hi! It's been a couple days since we've seen each other, and you're looking really, really different from last time. Did you change your hair? I'll have to be honest with you, you looked better when that forelock was perky. Isn't having it in your eye annoying?"

Cheese lunged forward, and Pinkie rolled out of the way, allowing the werewolf to ram into the trunk. Heaving, Pinkie kept her eyes on that one wolf, who shook his head and darted for her yet again. As she hopped boulder to boulder and log to log, avoiding the snap of the wolf's jaws, she tried to process this monster she was seeing as her best party pony friend, twisted into something not fun scary, but scary scary. When he came too close, she had to whip out the party cannon, and blast him away.

A confetti-and-streamer-covered Cheese, lay for just a moment on the ground before getting up and shaking off the party decoration. As he snarled and prowled forward, Pinkie bit her lip, her forehead sweating, her heart racing, her eyes welling, and her blood boiling all at once. "Cheesy! It's me, Pinkie! Remember, your bestest party pony pal?"

She jumped out of the way of another lunge. "Come on, snap out of it! You're not a wolf! Don't make me use the cannon again!"

Meanwhile, any of Fluttershy's doubts about her role had definitely vanished on seeing what had happened to Cheese and how Pinkie was forced to fight him off. Yes, the werewolves were actual ponies--ponies who were most likely hurt and afraid by their situation, and their loved ones were being hurt as well, knowing the spell that had overtaken them. She could stand a few minutes of discomfort so that these ponies could get better. Now, to find an opening where she could join in.

Before she could do anything, however, she was hit with a magic beam, and had tumbled to the forest floor unconscious.

The other mares turned and gasped. "Fluttershy!"

The wolves had noticed the easy prey, and started a race to claim their prize. Trouble Shoes finally threw Applejack off his back, Cheese darted out of the line of Pinkie's party cannon, and the rest followed suit. Fluttershy was at their mercy, or so they thought.

Rainbow also joined the race, and won in a flash of color. Staring down the wolves with snorting and stamping, she was ready to drive the wolves away from her friend. And indeed, she did so, throwing punches and headbutts, and bucking them away, regardless if she was outnumbered twelve to one.

As she did so, Applejack asked, rearing to go help her, "Where did that come from?"

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Clearly it's from the sorcerer behind this."

"And behind you."

They turned around to see an older stallion, veiled by a cloak and gazing with violet eyes under his hood. Aside from his eyes, the most distinguishable trait of his blue face was his silver beard, which barely concealed a smug smile.

Rarity glared. "And so the rat comes out of the shadows."

"I had to make sure that my pack didn't lose this battle. Looks like I came in just in time."

"Your pack?" Twilight growled. "These are innocent ponies! Why are you taking their equinity away?"

"One of them's a bison, dear." The stallion rolled his eyes. "And frankly, equinity is such a shallow concept--aren't we all animals? And even as herbivores, we ponies have a way of being predators--even we're not above starting a war or sabotaging somepony else for our own gain. Why not make them an animal that's as savage as we ponies pretend we aren't?"

Pinkie was in his face, her face screaming that she was close to throttling him. "Cheesy is not a savage animal and definitely not your attack dog! You better turn him back to his nice and fun self, mister!"

The stallion enveloped her in his magic, startling her, and smirked as she struggled to break free. "Ah, it's nice to finally meet you face to face. You have an especially strong jester magic spark and the spunk that comes along with it. I've always been fond of that."

Twilight's horn flared with hot sparks. "Put her down!"

The sorcerer rolled his eyes. "Very well. I'll throw her to the wolves."

Pinkie's eyes widened. "Wait, what?!"

Before she knew it, she was flung into an arc that landed her right on Rainbow Dash, leaving a pile of ponies that were sore and in need of rest, unfortunately in a situation where doing so made them vulnerable. Knowing that they were surrounded, Pinkie scurried back up to her hooves, and helped Rainbow Dash up. She tried to shake Fluttershy awake, but quickly dropped her to slam a pie in a werewolf's face.

The other three gasped, and Applejack and Rarity rushed to help them. That left Twilight to face him, and she struck him with a magic bolt before he could react. He was tossed back by the force of it, and slammed into a tree hard enough that he was winded. He had to sit and rest for a moment, rubbing his aching shoulder.

Twilight walked forward with a glowering face and a burning horn. "I don't like picking on old stallions, so I suggest you surrender before I make an exception. I do not take abuse of this sort of dangerous magic lightly."

Her opponent cracked open an eye and looked up at her. "I suppose that age may have slowed my reflexes a little..." The wind started to blow as he stood back up too his full height, his cape blowing about and revealing his well-built body. "But I assure you, I'm no weak old stallion."

Twilight examined her opponent, seeing if there was a visible weak spot to exploit. The scarred shoulder was a likely spot, or perhaps she could use that cape or the contents in its pockets to stymie his efforts. Then her eyes landed on his cutie mark, which was a full moon surrounded by stars. Her eyes widened as she quickly realized what kind of opponent she was up against.

She gasped. "Wayer Rune?!" She backed up a few steps. "How did you escape Tartarus?"

"Good question. Ask Tirek." With that, Wayer threw his head down to create a shockwave on the ground.

Twilight attempted to fly, but one wing flapping did not give her enough lift to avoid it, and she was knocked back several feet into a bed of pine needles. Jabbed in the back by said needles and pain spiking in her broken wing, Twilight didn't even have enough time to stew in agony before Wayer came flying in atop a rock he levitated, and fired a magic beam at her. Twilight rolled out of the way, wincing from the pain in her wing, but she got up anyway. Breaking a branch off a tree, she stripped it quickly, and launched it like a makeshift spear.

Wayer dodged the branch. "Odd how I'm better at evasion while sitting on a rock." He then attempted to crush Twilight with said rock, or at least slam it on the ground near her to keep her running.

It didn't last long, as after a few slams, Twilight remembered she could teleport, and blinked out of range. As Wayer stopped to try to figure out where she went, Twilight, who had appeared in a cluster of trees behind him, didn't waste any time with zapping a large tree several yards away, and making it fall toward him. It was close, but Wayer noticed it just in the nick of time to teleport himself out of range, and let the tree slam the boulder into the ground.

He reappeared just up a nearby hill, and zapped the trees Twilight hid among so that they bent outward to reveal her. He touched his face where the branches had scratched him. "Well, well, Princess, I have to say, it's nice fighting somepony who could give me a challenge. I haven't had that in a long time."

Twilight's horn crackled with volatile magic. "Don't think you'll get away with this! My friends and I have faced greater obstacles!"

"With the power of friendship?" Wayer huffed, brushing dust off his shoulder. "I'm well aware of how powerful virtually any kind of love is, so I took precautions."

Twilight blinked. "What do you mean by..." Her eyes widened as it clicked. "That's why you were stealing his memories."

Wayer nodded, and then blasted her with a magic bolt. "Whatever works."

Twilight summoned a force field to block it, holding still with a stony glare during her spell. "Don't think you're gonna keep them for long."

The bright green mist swirled around in that chamber like a sauna, though it did nothing to alleviate the chill of the cavern. Instead, it simply cast its lone prisoner into the memories he wish had never been made, the events that caused him torment, and the mistakes that he wished he could erase. He relived them, step by step, no matter how much his adult mind screamed to his younger self not to make that mistake, or to run off in the other direction before something bad happened.

There was the day of the tetherball, where his friend Squirt had announced to him that for once, the playground tetherballs were free. Oh, little Tommy always wanted to try that, but the stupid older kids always hogged them, and their chance had arrived!

But, on the other hoof, there was the unmistakable sight of his big brother getting chased by some of the bigger colts in his class, one of them having apparently stolen a mop bucket from the janitor's closet. As much as he wanted to deny it and say that it was just a game of tag, Tommy wasn't stupid, and those bullies were clearly intending to literally mop the floor (or asphalt, he supposed) with Cheese's big mane. The sight of bullies being so blind to Cheese's amazingness and picking on him because of his hair and glasses made Tomato's blood boil, and he was thinking of giving those meanies a piece of his mind.

But, Squirt called on, reminding him that they could lose the tetherball any moment. That was the first thing to give him pause, followed by the thought of how much bigger those bullies were than him, and how they could squish him like a bug. He thought of telling the teachers about the mop bucket, but everypony knew that if you tattled once, you will tattle again, and thus you were a tattletale betraying the secrets of foalhood and ruining everyone's fun. Even if it was just on the older kids, who's to say he couldn't betray the colts his age? Not to mention those bullies would still squish him.

So, Tommy turned around. The adult Tomato within the colt's body, witness to this event, wanted to force him to turn around and stand up for Cheese. He knew that Cheese saw that action, where the little brother that always vouched for him just turned his back for a stupid game of tetherball.

Even with any way to paint the action as understandable for a colt his age, Tomato writhed from the pain of having been put through that dilemma again, and still choosing the option that stabbed Cheese in the back.

He was thrown into a older grade, post-cutie mark, now being cussed out by two of his classmates who pointed to their big science project, which was a mess of sticks, cardboard, and glue stuck into a box of dirt and rocks, and blamed him for the failing grade. As they ranted about how they expected him to be the smart kid that would carry them through, he was standing there, seething at them for dilly-dallying and leaving him to do all the work which he couldn't finish in time. From the research, to the report, to creating the diorama about geology, and to the presentation--which the other two turned into an interpretative dance and just repeated rock names. He had tried to explain that art was not his strong point, but they didn't listen. Now Mom was going to chew him out for this failed project.

When they bragged about how their dance was the only saving grace, Tomato just snapped. His adult mind, knowing what happened next, screamed for his preteen self to stop, but he had no power.

He grabbed their project off the desk, and shoved it right in their faces. Unfortunately, that was followed by the other two screaming and crying, and the teacher yanked him away from them so he couldn't cause more damage. The teacher sat him into the corner, and rushed the other two out of the room, calling for the nurse. As he would later learn, one had a stick jabbed in his eye, and the rocks broke the other's teeth. From then on, he couldn't even look at the two without wanting to cry.

He darted out of the classroom in a panic. He took a deep breath, relaxing now that he was out of there... but then, his now-teenage body was on the streets of Manehattan, walking to the subway after a long day at the library, not wanting to miss curfew. He was already likely in trouble for not having his chaperone around--even though Bluejinx had newspaper intern stuff to work on. But as would happen to many Manehattanites who weren't careful, Tomato was yanked into an alley by a mugger, who had his weird knife anklet at the boy's throat and demanded all the money he had.

Tomato couldn't speak, he just gazed up at the grizzled stallion that spat in his face. It didn't matter the answer, the thief would just throw him aside and take his saddlebags, and very likely kill him. He was just a helpless, pathetic little colt, with no friend or older brother to come to his rescue. He backed up into garbage bags, which the thief used to demonstrate how sharp that knife anklet of his was by cutting them open.

One of the trash items that fell out was a coffee cup from a local cafe. And he could clearly see that last puddle of joe within.

There really was no way to spin that event so that any other option would have gotten him out of that both safely and with his stuff. Still, Tomato's adult mind couldn't bear to watch those desperate seconds where his teenage self grabbed that cup and drank that puddle, slurping any leftover droplets that clung within. The drink was bitter and likely tainted with garbage, but teenage Tommy bore it.

The mugger attempted to strike, but that pony was not prepared for the horror he was to witness.

Tomato could not remember what happened next. The next memory was of him being sick in bed, his mother waving a newspaper in his face and lecturing him about how he apparently thought that it was a good idea to walk the streets by himself and snatch some coffee. Said newspaper was about that street looking like a tornado had swept through, with witnesses claiming it was a maniacal pony zipping through and screaming about feeling alive, moving too fast for folks to get a proper description. Tomato tried to explain the situation with the mugging, but his mother wouldn't have it, and put him on lockdown for the next couple of months.

Tomato never found out what happened to the mugger.

The memories didn't stop there. He darted through the mist from memory to memory, trying to find a way out and end the barrage. However, he'd just end up reliving another old shame, another humiliation, or another moment of pain.

He once again felt a kickball slam into his leg. He foolishly felt the need to grin and bear the pain the entire day of school until he got home, fearing that if he cried, he'd be laughed at for being a baby.

He once again got spanked for breaking something in a burst of energy, having gotten too excited for Mom's liking.

He once again made a mean quip about Cheese's "forced grin" and "cheap, annoying party tricks", causing the older brother to get angry all over again. Both the guilt for driving Cheese away and the frustration over his brother treating him like some nobody to be impressed with stupid antics ate him up inside.

Once again, he was taunted by Creme Brulee over how he had no future. Once again, he was scolded by his mother for something he did in a fit of anger, or an accident, or having a lower grade than she liked. Once again, a budding friendship died before even two weeks had passed. Once again, he ended up breaking his leg in a fight with Cheese. And again and again, his mother would scream at him, "If you had just focused on your special talent/studies this wouldn't have happened", or "You're a straight-A student and I expect you to act like one", or even "If you keep getting emotional like this, Manehattan will eat you alive".

And then came the bad moments of the summer--covered in chocolate and laughed at for poor performance in Halterside, turned into a vampire at Las Pegasus, that one village ruined when party planning with Party Favor wasn't going well, among other moments.

And then, Rooney's voice taunted, "My, my, such a pathetic little fool, always looking inward at his problems. If only he had acted sooner, then maybe his dear brother would still be a pony instead of a wolf!"

His legs couldn't hold him up when the angry voices yelled at him for ruining everything for everyone. He crumpled to the ground, drained from being bombarded with every ounce of blame directed at him or guilt gnawing within. He felt alone, holding up an impossible burden, and he just wanted to die.

His head pounding and his lungs heaving, he choked back a sob. He desperately needed a friend, with the first pony coming to mind being Flora Peace. She would be best at stopping this madness and soothing his mind, but she was so far away at her home, completely oblivious to what he was going through.

All he could do was croak, seemingly in vain, "Somepony... help me...

Just as he was about to break, a single compassionate voice broke through the chorus, and silenced them with, "Tomato?"

He looked up, and he blinked away the tears. An awed sigh escaped his lips when the very friend he thought of had appeared before him, her soft blue eyes gazing at him with concern. He stared back, wondering what kind of memory it was, if it was something involving a time that he had hurt her feelings. But, when nothing happened, he tentatively lifted a hoof, and reached out. He saw her smile, and felt her hoof take his, warm as if he was touching the real thing.

"Flora!" He leapt into her embrace, clinging to her like the safe haven she was in that storm. Illusion or not, her firm hug felt so real, she smelled so real, and the strawberry blonde mane that tickled his nose felt so real. Peace and joy swelled within him, and he just wanted to hold her forever.

They broke their hug. The bright green mist fell dark, until the two ponies were alone in a void.

"Flora, this is... uh, wow..." Tomato rubbed his head, looking around. "I can't believe I just thought of you and poof! You appeared! I mean, I guess because these are my memories..." He felt a chain brush against his face, and lowered the hoof from his head to look at his shackled leg. "Aw, was I still chained up this entire time? This is confusing."

"Yeah, no kidding," Flora replied with a giggle. Then, he face grew serious once again. "That was one awful memory attack. You've had to put up with a lot in your life."

Tomato slumped forward, looking at the chains that bound him. "I know. Comes with being the king of epic fallouts. Feuding with my brother... losing my friends... getting into trouble... all because I'm just. So. Stupid! And because I'm stupid, I ended up so alone."

The void transformed into Tomato's foalhood bedroom, with he and Flora sitting on the bed. He looked around the tidy room, which he could have sworn was bigger and wasn't black and white. He took in the desk where Cheese's bed used to be, the shelves of books right next to it, and the small closet containing any articles of clothing he had. He knew under his bed was a money stash, where every bit he earned was stored in various containers and hidden with a spare blanket.

He himself turned into a little colt of eight, and sighed. "I suppose my life's saving grace was that there wasn't a big, dramatic moment every day. Most of it was just a boring routine."

He hopped off the bed and walked out the door, with Flora following behind. The scene changed to the neighborhood, all still in black and white as he walked to school. It was still black and white when he made it to his seat in the back and just dully stared at the teacher's lecture. It was still black and white when he sat alone at lunchtime, and when he just counted pebbles at recess--up until his former friends started chucking wet sandballs dug up from the sandbox at him. And then he walked back home, and encountered his mother flapping her lips over his grades or something. He ended that cycle in his room, doing homework, reading, and laying in bed.

The cycle repeated, only with an angry preteen colt the second time around, and a moody teenager the third. He tried to mix things up, but singing a song summoned his mother scolding him with some variation of, "Do I see a musical cutie mark on that flank?" or a game of hacky sack ending with him getting startled and hitting some kid on the head, prompting him to hightail it before he could land in another fight.

The last cycle ended with him back to his adult self, sliding his back against the door and plopping to the floor. He looked up at the Flora illusion. "Yeah, if I dare stray out of that routine, or away from my cutie mark or academics... well, that's where you get my epic screw-ups, and the harsh hoof of justice would smack me hard. To keep from being a screwup, I had to be a killjoy."

He angrily grabbed a book and threw it across the room. "I'm still a big screwup! Everything I do ends up in disaster! Up to and including this summer, my life has been utter crap! Worst of all, my stupidity cost Cheese his equinity!"

He put a hoof to his face and squeezed his eyes shut. "If I had just... if I had said something sooner, maybe Cheese wouldn't have fallen into that warlock's clutches!" He looked down in shame. He hiccuped, and tears rolled out of his eyes and onto the floor. "I noticed something was off, but I did nothing."

Flora sat down in front of him, cupped his chin and made him face her, and wiped his tears. "I'm sorry, Tomato. I know how much it crushes you to feel like you failed somepony you love." She held his hooves and took a deep breath, with Tomato immediately mimicking her. After the exhale, Flora continued, "But you're not going to solve this with a self-defeating attitude. There's still hope; you're in charge of your memories, and Rooney's not here to stop you."

Tomato sighed. "But my life was a mess, Flora."

Flora looked at him sternly. "I know you have a lot of bad memories... but you have a lot of good ones too."

Tomato smiled sadly at her. "Like meeting you?"

Flora smiled and nodded. "Now... think of some of your favorite memories. What is it that made them special?"

With an exhale, Tomato closed his eyes, and did as she told him to. When he opened them, the scene had changed to a college campus, and Tomato found himself walking on the path and exploring his new surroundings. He was startled by a frustrated scream, and he noticed a spring green mare adjacent to the path he took and just a few steps from the gate, sitting among papers, books, and a torn pair of saddlebags. He thought about walking past to continue his little tour, reasoning that somepony else would take care of it.

He had just walked past her when he realized that everypony else who'd walk past would have that exact same thought. A twinge of pity spurred him to turn around and approach her, coolly asking if she needed help. And... and...

By golly, she was pretty.

But he wasn't going to let himself be smitten by another pretty face; the last one humiliated him and cut his chances of being truly successful in Manehattan. He was just going to be polite, help her carry her books, and then part ways with this mare once he was done helping her. Her name invoked a hippie feel, even though she insisted that she wasn't a hippie, and she tried to engage conversation. There wasn't much he wanted to say, really; he probably wasn't going to see her all that much anyway.

As they parted, Tomato chuckled. "I guess fate had other plans, and I'm glad we crossed paths again. You just refuse to be broken by everyone else's crap, and yet you're still so kind. I wish I knew how you did it, because I want that kind of spirit."

He walked out of the scene, knowing of his taking the mantle of Flora's math tutor that marked the beginning of a wonderful friendship. A new source of light, after a long, dark night where there was really one light to guide him. On remembering that light, he pranced right into a memory of that very pony.

There he was, now a sad eight-year-old sitting alone at lunchtime, a scene that he grew familiar with. He just silently ate a sandwich, watching the other kids engage in silly conversations with their friends. Once upon a time, he'd have been at the center, his antics drawing many a laugh; now, he was the outcast, having fallen from grace from his class clown status into a guarded, sullen little boy.

But then, another kid sat next to him. Little Bluejinx, though he fidgeted and had a hard time looking him in the eye, then levitated a chocolate chip cookie out of his lunch bag, and split it, offering him the second half. Tomato was unsure about taking the cookie at first, wondering if it was actually poison or full of needles.

But then, Bluejinx said, "I, uh... I'm sorry about the accordion. And your brother."

Tomato blinked, and then wordlessly took the cookie. As he nibbled at it, he listened to Bluejinx say that if he was sad that he lost his father, then Tommy had every right to be sad over losing his brother. It was followed by awkward silence as they ate, but Tomato's shield lowered a little, and he was glad to have some company that wasn't concerned about his social status or ready to bully him.

Tomato still sat, as memories of other lunches came to being with Bluejinx bringing mad lib games, crossword puzzles, or just silly stories to share. There even came a time when Tomato talked back, and they often discussed their favorite books.

Tomato finally stood up, breaking out of the memory. "Thanks for being there for me, Blue. If it wasn't for you being my anchor, I wouldn't be here today. You're like another brother to me."

The scene changed again. Now morphing into an adult again, he found himself walking out of a theater, humming to himself as Cirrus and Nimbus flew circles around him, jabbering about the musical they had just watched. He, as a casual, thought it was pretty good, but seeing those that were very into theater praising it was something rather nice, and boosting his spirits.

They were just about to bemoan writing a review of the play for their class when Tomato interrupted them by getting a little too into his own musical interlude. Now starting to bounce around, he sang, "Now you see me all spruced up for this gig; I'm gonna go wow all the girls..."

He hopped to the nearest pole and twirled around it. "I will show them just what I'm made of; I'm gonna be on top of the world!"

He then noticed the twins staring at him, and it suddenly hit him that they has been watching him. Now, Tomato's mind then was frankly embarrassed that he let that talent slip, especially after that one passerby called him a weirdo. But, to the older self reliving the memory, he smiled at how genuinely impressed Cirrus and Nimbus had been with his singing, and wanted him to do it more often.

He laughed. "Even when you two annoy me when pestering me over my singing, I do appreciate that we have a little common ground in loving show tunes. My life's just a lot more fun with you two around."

Smiling, he now happily leapt between memories, now that he managed to summon the good memories. Reliving the moments of fun, laughter, and the bonds he made with others was made his heart leap with joy. After all the bad he went through, seeing all this good in his life was all the more sweeter, though also a little bittersweet regarding some memories.

Once again, he learned math from his grandmother, before he even started school. The praise she gave for him being such a fast learner reminded him just why he found math so much fun. Just hearing Grandma's voice in his head always kept him going, so that math was always his best subject, even on his worst days.

Once again, he was working at Madame Bookshelf's bookstore, trapped in a snowstorm with the old mare and Summer Wind, where they all shared hot chocolate and exchanged stories. Tomato didn't say anything about his home life or his brother, but his cutie mark story was something he was glad to share, at a place he was starting to consider a real home.

And once again, he earned his cutie mark. Surprisingly, being a cute kid who could sing gave him a charm that was hard to say no to. And having the ability to pop out of nowhere sure enabled him to keep his classmates in line when the white elephant sale--which was essentially a fair at that point--was under way. It was the event that defined just what kind of pony he was meant to be, a little fact that he forgot throughout his years of misery.

But he remembered now. Helping Silver Shill start a pizzeria, working with Party Favor to impress that ski committee with a fun party, giving all he had in creating a fundraiser carnival when Cheese's magic didn't work... that was what Tomato Sandwich was all about. He didn't need to suppress his "nonsense" magic to succeed like Mom thought--he just needed to know how to use it to his advantage.

More memories he relived, from the life-changers like meeting Bluejinx or Cirrus and Nimbus, to smaller ones like when he went on a caramel apple hunt to give his best friend one last hurrah before getting braces. Even those random moments where he laughed, had a random pony be nice to him, or got to spend time with his only friend were memories that shone that much brighter in a dark life.

The memories of Cheese were bittersweet, knowing what that colt he saw had just recently become. There was the day that they earned bits at the park just by virtue of Cheese singing, with many folks recognizing his talent. There was the kite incident where Tomato lost a tooth and Cheese comforted him. There were the cowspy games, the days out with their grandparents, and when they got into mischief together. He even relived the recent summer vacation memories, where he and Cheese bonded and had fun together.

And then, came the day that the feud between him and Cheese ended.

There he was, his big brother, admitting that he had been bitter and jealous. There he was, giving his apology for treating him like garbage, and forgiving Tomato for the accordion incident and the subsequent fights. Tomato had been shocked, confused, and fearful that it hadn't been real. Even when he argued against Cheese doing it, Cheese just replied, "No matter what, I'll always love you, baby bro."

That was the moment that Tomato burst into tears and cried into his big brother's shoulder, realizing that Cheese truly meant what he said. After all those years of frequent loneliness and anguish, with everything going wrong for him, it was such a relief that this wrong had finally been righted. Finally, he had his brother back, and they were going to start all over.

Tomato sighed, and he closed his eyes again. He opened them to find himself back to his sitting position, back in his foalhood room, and his hooves on Flora's. He looked around, and as he thought of the Cheese memories, the room morphed from its tidy state into a mess of toys, with the desk and shelves replaced by a toy chest and an extra bed.

Looking at her mournfully, he told her, "Cheese was not only just my brother... he was my first friend. He always went above and beyond to make sure I was happy, even with less than stellar parents and the world on his shoulders, because he really loved me. It goes to show that he really was destined to be the party pony of the family, because he gave me joy."

Flora nodded. "I've seen it plain as day; you were a lot happier after your feud ended."

"That feud'll teach me to take him for granted," Tomato muttered. He knitted his brow, and gave a hot snort. "It hasn't even been a year since that Fall Festival, and already somepony's taking him away from me, ripping him piece by piece and twisting him into some feral monster!"

He stood up, with the image of Flora following suit. "Well, I'm not gonna take it lying down. That warlock's not gonna break me with my past, he's not gonna keep me in here, and he's not gonna keep Cheese's memories away from me!" He stamped his hoof on the ground with a whinny. "It's a good thing he's up against Princess Twilight; that werewolf curse of his is not getting out of this forest."

After catching his breath after his shout, he turned to Flora and smiled warmly. "I know you're just an illusion, but... thanks for helping me out. Even in my mind, you have a way of putting me back on track and making me feel at peace."

Flora smirked. "You're welcome. Now, get out of here."

Flora disappered, and the mist was vacuumed up by the memory orbs that floated above, still attached to him by that strong. Tomato was back in the chamber, still chained down to the floor. Looking up at his own memories, he had no idea how to stick them back into his own mind. He double-checked his tail, confirming that it was still cropped short. There wasn't much he could do with that now. With a frustrated snort, he wondered just how he was going to get out of there.

His ears picked up chirping from the corner, and he turned around to see that in that corner, there was a crack just large enough for some members of a bat colony to peek in curiously at this stranger and his floating mind. It took Tomato a bit to realize that if there was bat colony next door, they had a way to fly out. Even then it didn't look like he could fit through that crack, but, with his normally useless ability to speak bat, perhaps he could persuade those bats to help him out.

He whistled to get their attention. "Hey!"

The bat's shuddered from the sound piercing their ears, with some grumbling about how ponies were loud. Tomato took note of this, and asked more softly, "You guys mind helping me out? I'm kind of in a bind here."

The bats blinked, and then looked at each other, murmuring over this turn of events. Then, one bat fluttered into the chamber, hung from Tomato's forelock, and asked, "Uh... you are talking to us, right? I mean... you probably don't understand this, so I could probably tell you my infamous toenail story and you'd be none the--"

"Oh, no, I can understand you," Tomato said. "And no, I don't want to know about your toenails."

The bat representative blinked, while the rest of the colony gasped and murmured to each other once again. The representative started to gesture all over the place as he asked, "Whadda what now? Uh, I-I don't detect the right magic from you, buddy, so I gotta... gotta ask... where did you learn to speak bat?"

Tomato sighed in exasperation. "Long story, but I need to get out of here, and my usual lockpick--" He turned to show the bats his tail. "--is not up to par. So, do any of you know how to pick locks?"

A female bat piped up, "You're asking a bunch of bats if any of them could free you from a pony invention. Why would any of us have needed to know?!"

"Oh, shut up, Betty!" the first bat shouted. He turned back to Tomato. "Well, can't help you with that. Sorry, pal."

Tomato snorted, wondering why he even bothered to ask. However, another idea came to mind. "Okay, okay, my mistake... but, say, how about you go find somepony for me? See, I was waiting for someponies before I was kidnapped and chained up, and they should be here by now. The pony I'm asking you to find is yellow, has a long pink mane and tail, wings, and butterflies on her flank like this tomato money-bag thing on mine. She can talk to animals, so just tell her that Tomato Sandwich is in this mine... cave... thing, I dunno, near your home. Then, I can be gone and not bother you anymore, Mr...."

"Name's Bart," the bat said. He scratched his chin. "Well, I guess if it gets you out of our hair, then one of us can go."

Betty immediately said, "All in favor of Bart going, say 'Aye'!"

"Aye!" the rest of the colony called in unison.

Bart stuck his tongue out at the rest. "I hate you guys." He turned back to Tomato and said, "All right, I'll find this pony, Tomato Sandwich. You say she has butterflies on her flank, right? The bugs that are like day moths or something?"

Tomato nodded.

"And what's her name?"

"Fluttershy."

"Gotcha. Well, I'll be off to find Fluttershy, the Butterfly-Butt!" With that, Bart took off through the crack, with the other bats waving goodbye to him as he flew his way through the cave.

Tomato waved as well, but then, remembering what was out there, shouted, "Oh, keep an eye out for wolves!"

He didn't know if Bart heard that. Regardless, Tomato then thought of how Fluttershy and the rest had probably met the pack by now. It kind of hurt to think of Pinkie's reaction to werewolf Cheese. But, most importantly, he hoped the fight wouldn't be long, and that Twilight had defeated the Rooney guy.

As they were outnumbered three to one, the best that Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie could do for the unconscious Fluttershy was to put her in a tree, in a position that kept her from falling. From there, they just had to keep the buffalo-wolf and Trouble Shoes from hitting the tree and knocking her off--while also fending off the other ten.

"Lobo! Lobo!" Pinkie shouted, having pulled a cape out of nowhere. "Lobo!" The buffalo wolf charged her, as if some part of him stillnremembered that he was a buffalo. Regardless, he missed, with Pinkie twirling the cape away and shouting, "Olé!"

Of course, a couple other wolves tried to jump at her, only her her to spin away with the cape billowing about, repeating her shouts of "Olé!" as she did so. She jumped from place to place, taunting the wolves with her cape, even making one run into a tree at one point. However, she couldn't help but eye Cheese, wondering why her display hadn't gotten him cheering "Olé!" with her, snapping him back to his pony mind.

Applejack had roped Trouble Shoes, and was pulling him away from the tree that Fluttershy was in. Several times Rainbow Dash and Rarity had kicked some wolves away from her, and went through fighting full force. Applejack continued to pull with as much strength as she could. She could feel rope burns on her lips and tongue every time she slipped, and Trouble Shoes nearly got free before Applejack regained her bearing and clamped tighter on the rope.

Rarity had been batting away wolves with the stick, not letting them nip and bark at her in order to herd her to vulnerability. However, it occurred to the wolves that they needed to rid her of her weapon, and so several circled her so that she would be on edge, waiting for a wolf to strike her. Two pounced at her; one she batted away, but the other managed to catch the stick, and she was in a tug-of-war with the one until the stick broke.

They all jumped at her; thankfully, Rarity could roll out of the way, and then slam a stray one away with a roundhouse kick. The others scooted out of the way of the kicked one, and after a moment to let the one rise back up, they started to approach her, growling. With her white coat now stained from sweat and dirt, Rarity snarled, "Oh, the stick was just a formality, darlings. I can take you with my hooves!"

Rainbow Dash continually flew and divebombed any wolves that threatened her friends, along with headbutting some on the ground that tried to fight back. Several times, she was caught by the tail and thrown elsewhere. Often, it was just a roll in the cold dirt and some mud that she had to spit out, but a couple of times, she felt a stone scrape her back, or a stick stabbing her flank. She was not one to let anything like that slow her down, even if her bleeding attracted the wolves.

Once, teeth clamped down on her wing. After she pulled away, it was lucky that she only lost some feathers from the bite and didn't bleed from that, or else her friends would have been in trouble from Wolf Dash. After taking a second to bemoan losing some feathers, she punched the offending werewolf, and darted off to kick a wolf away from Applejack.

Twilight was busy with fighting Wayer Rune. Although she didn't have her flight advantage, she could still fight as the unicorn she once was. The two exchanged magic bolts in their fight, and teleported left and right to attempt surprise attacks on the other.

Light of magenta and silver flashed in that area, and trees fell from the impact of each blast. Rocks were blown to smithereens, dust was kicked up from all over the ground, and both pony and wolf had the added danger of dodging stray magic blasts that came their way. Pinkie Pie was hit by one bolt, and while her shoulder was burned from the impact, she had more pressing matters that she had to literally roll away from.

At one point, they clashed horns, and sparks crackled from the tips. They glared into each other's eyes, with Twilight seeing the hate in his, and Wayer seeing the determination in hers. The clash ended in an explosion that pushed them both back, and they took a moment to look up at each other.

"Wayer, I know you're still angry about the war," Twilight called. "But making innocent ponies suffer is not the way to cope!"

"Oh, so you're gonna lecture me?" Wayer spat. "I'm sorry, but that's not a good way to get me to listen."

His glowing horn touched the ground, and induced a shockwave that sent Twilight into the air, which necessitated her teleport into a nearby tree. Panting, Twilight shouted, "Equestria is at peace now! You can make a new life! You can get help! You can learn so many new things you've never seen before! You can make new friends!"

"Thank you for reminding me that I'm out of my time!" He shot a orange firework-like spell into the air, and let the fireballs just rain down on the trees above, including the one Twilight sat in. "So, who did Celestia and her court sacrifice to expand this country?"

Twilight choked on the smoke and coughed. With her skin searing from the heat, she looked around to find an unburning tree. Once she found one, she teleported again, and fired another shot at the older stallion. Wayer felt the bolt hit his foreleg and stumbled, and looked to the tree where Twilight shot from, only to find that Twilight had blinked away.

He looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mare before she performed another hit-and-run. He could see spots where she was dousing the fire with water she teleported from a nearby creek--presumably to protect that one friend from any spreading flames--but she blinked away before he could zap her back. He fired a few bolts where she was playing firefighter, but missed as she continued on that work and zapped him back. This time he stepped out of range, and he scanned the trees to find one not burning or wet. He found a good, dry tree, where Twilight appeared to douse the last of the fire.

But instead of firing another magic bolt, he simply shot a spell at the tree, making it bow and shake until Twilight was out of its leaves.

She summoned a bubble to cushion her landing after a long fall, and took a moment to catch her breath, even after the bubble popped. Between her broken wing and the long journey, she wondered if she should have given herself some rest to prepare for this exact situation.

She looked up, and peered through the trees to the others. Applejack had loosened her grip, and the rope slipped through. As she screamed from the rope burn, she watched in horror as Trouble Shoes went forward to slam into the tree that Fluttershy was in. Rainbow Dash kept having close calls with werewolf maws, losing hair and feathers to their bites. Rarity resorted to throwing pine cones and rocks at the wolves, as clearly her legs ached too much to keep kicking. Even Pinkie was tired of playing matador, and was now in a tug-of-war with Cheese, screaming at him to snap out of it.

Twilight rubbed her eyes, bemoaning the growing fatigue. As important as it had been to hurry, it just had been a really long day.

When she opened her eyes, she saw tree roots having sprung up from the dirt, and before she could try to run, the roots snagged her, wrapping around her body and constricting her so that she couldn't move. The pain in her wing spiked, and she cried out, a few tears flying out of her eyes. Breathing through her teeth, she looked up to find herself face-to-face with Wayer Rune.

"Well, well, it seems like you're in a bind, dear princess," he said.

Twilight said nothing, she just charged up her horn.

Not even pausing to see what she was preparing to do, Wayer levitated an orb full of crystal out of his cloak, and then tossed it at her, jumping back to avoid the mist that it exploded into.

The mist drifted onto her as she coughed, and she shook her head, and aimed a spell at the roots. However, all she got was a jolt of pain, which radiated from the base of her horn to throughout her head, and made her stomach churn. Heat ran through her body, and she once again breathed through her teeth in an effort to quell the discomfort.

Wayer was kind enough to release her from the roots, and allow her an opportunity to feel her horn. When she felt various rectangular and sharp bumps on her horn, Twilight immediately realized what Wayer did and gasped.

"Where did you get the ingredients for a crystallization potion?!" she cried.

Wayer tapped one of the crystals on Twilight's horn. "I've traveled a bit, so I managed to find plenty of ingredients for various potions. I did always like exploring different methods of magic use."

He pulled his dog whistle out of his cloak. "But, now, I just have one more loose thread to tie up..."

When he blew it, Twilight asked, "What are you doing?"

The wolves perked up in attention. They listened for the instructions that the ponies couldn't hear, and the ponies were confused over why the wolves had stopped attacking. As much as they needed a break, they still had to get ready for another round of fighting.

However, the wolves all turned to just one pink party pony, and they all started to run toward her. Seeing how she was the target, Pinkie panicked and screamed, galloping away from them, leading them to give chase. The other three mares then started to pursue the werewolves, with Applejack aiming to get her rope back from Trouble Shoes, Rainbow Dash divebombing the ground to disorient the wolves, and Rarity grabbing another large stick to swat them away from Pinkie.

Twilight watched in horror as the chase went on. "Pinkie's your last threat?"

Wayer shrugged. "As said before, I know love's a powerful force. You know Cheese Sandwich would deem her worthy to carry his memories."

Twilight looked between Wayer and the chase, and shouted to Pinkie, "Pinkie! Where's your party cannon?!"

Pinkie stopped. "Oh, yeah."

She turned around, pulling the party cannon out from behind her back and started blasting the wolves with confetti, streamers, and various pastries with as much force as she could without killing them. She saw one in front, she blasted it. She saw another coming to her left, she blasted it. And another coming to her right was blasted as well. She bucked one that had jumped onto her back off, and then she turned around and blasted that one too.

Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack went to pull some wolves away from her, but fighting for some time left them unable to pull them very far. Trouble Shoes, still having that rope around his neck, went to tossing Applejack into the other two, and the three of them just laid in the dirt, aching from the collision.

Pinkie saw the action take place, and gasp. "Girls!"

She pushed her party cannon along the forest floor, hoping to reach them so she could defend them. It was a bumpy ride, with the sticks and rocks that littered the ground slowing her progress. She looked around, and saw that the wolves were catching up. After a moment of thinking, she figured that she could just point the cannon at the ground, and rocket herself over to her friends without dealing with the wolves.

Before she could do that, however, she was bitten on the tail, and dragged backwards. As much as she tried to pull back, she only fell flat on her face and ended up with rocks scraping her chin. She rolled and tried to kick the wolf's face, but she stopped short of the muzzle when she saw it was Cheese.

Twilight saw the dragging, and took off in a gallop down the hill. "Pinkie!"

Cheese stopped dragging Pinkie, and they were surrounded. At that moment, there was a stare-off between a party pony and what was once a party pony. Cheese just bored into her with soulless, black eyes, showing nothing but a remorseless predator. Pinkie stared back with horror and sadness, desperately trying to find her friend inside.

"Come on, Cheese, you have to be in there somewhere!" she cried. "Remember this song? 'Super Duper Party Ponies..." She bit her lip and gulped down the lump in her throat. "'...t-that is me and you...'"

He aimed for her throat, but she broke her foreleg free from his paw and blocked the jaws just in time. That bite was the hardest one she had received from him, as if several little knives had stabbed her up and down that foreleg. She screamed, pulled her foreleg away, and then scrambled away to limp to her friends, who had just gotten up and saw what happened.

Rarity gasped. "Oh, my goodness!"

Rainbow's jaw was slack, and she could only croak.

Applejack kept her composure, though her eyes betrayed her worry. "Pinkie Pie? Y'alright?"

Twilight caught up, but only to find Pinkie's leg was bleeding from what looked like a bite wound. "Oh, no! Pinkie, I--"

Pinkie looked down at her leg, and then back at the wolves, especially Cheese, who didn't even try to pursue her. She turned back with a forced grin, and answered, "Oh, don't worry... I'm sure it's not that bad." She continued limping forward, her bouncy hair now drooping into ringlets. "I could smell really, really good, and help find lost things! Or... or I can hear customers heading to Sugarcube Corner from a mile away! Or... maybe I could talk to... your dog, Applejack..." She held her head and winced. "I think she's a really nice creature..."

She crumpled to the forest floor, her mane falling completely straight, and a blue mist coming out of her ears. The others rushed to her to try to help her, but alas, all they could do was watch as Pinkie writhed in agony, clutching her head and crying. They could do nothing about the blue mist that seeped out of her ears, with Twilight trying to scratch the crystals off her horn before it was too late.

"What's happening?!" Rarity cried.

"Is the weird blue mist part of turning into a werewolf?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Wayer Rune teleported among the werewolves. "Oh, I say it is now, with my... improvements."

"Improvements?" Twilight looked between Wayer, the werewolves, and Pinkie. Seeing as the blue mist was coming out of her ears, she came to a harrowing conclusion. "Oh, no, Pinkie, you're losing your memories!"

Pinkie still cried. "Forgetting hurts! Forgetting hurts! I don't wanna forget you!"

She fainted, and the blue mist rushed to Wayer and formed into a blue orb, which held an image of her cutie mark. He stashed it into one of his cloak pockets, and just smiled at them. "I have to say, her eyes are beautiful. No wonder Cheese likes them so."

An angry Rainbow dashed toward him. "Why you--"

Wayer pushed her away with a magic bolt. "Enough of that, fight's over." He levitated Pinkie out of their grasp and set her atop Trouble Shoes' back. "Don't worry, ladies, I will take good care of her. Now, I'm going to take a trip, so I have to bid you farewell."

And just like that, he teleported himself and the entire pack of werewolves away.

Rainbow, who was sitting on the ground rubbing her head, stamped a free hoof on the ground. "I can't believe it! We lost!" She took to the air, hovering as much as she could with her remaining feathers. "We lost the fight, we lost the trail... and we lost Pinkie! The only way this could have been worse if we all got bitten!"

"Well, shoot," Applejack said. "What are we gonna do now, Twi?"

Twilight sighed and shook her head. "I don't know. He disabled my horn, so I can't track them, cure them, or even return their memories to them! He must have formulated a way to fight us when he found out we're acquainted with Cheese."

Rarity brushed dirt off her coat. "This is just awful! It was bad enough that Fluttershy turned into a vampire batpony last fall, but I can't imagine our sweet and jubilant Pinkie Pie as a ravenous werewolf!"

From up on one of the trees, they heard a gasp. "Pinkie Pie got bitten? Oh, no, if only I hadn't passed out!"

They looked up, and they could see that Fluttershy was now awake, with her horrified and guilt-ridden eyes staring down at them.

"Fluttershy... it's not your fault," Twilight said. "Wayer Rune knocked you out."

Fluttershy tilted her head. "Wayer Rune?"

"Oh, right, you weren't awake for the reveal. He's the one behind the stolen memories and the werewolf spell. He escaped from Tartarus, and I have a feeling he's not done causing trouble. Question is what he's planning to do with the werewolves."

"Well, it's not like he can spread it too far," Applejack said. "It's likely Celestia will stop him when she notices another werewolf problem."

Twilight blew at her bangs. "Well, at least that's a comforting thought... sort of."

Fluttershy was about to descend from her perch when she noticed a little bat fly to her and hang from the branch above. "Oh! Hello, little bat. What's your name?" The bat chirped at her, and she nodded. "Oh, Bart? That's such a nice name."

"Fluttershy!" Rainbow complained. "Now's not the time to make new animal friends!"

Fluttershy ignored her, instead listening to Bart's chirping. "Well, yes, I'm Fluttershy. Uh... how did you know my name?" She listened to him chirp some more, her eyes growing wide. "Wait, Tomato Sandwich? He sent you?!"

"Wait, since when did that feller have a messenger bat?" Applejack asked.

Fluttershy looked down at them. "Oh, he must be in a cave somewhere!" She heard Bart chirp some more. "Abandoned mine? Chained to the floor? Oh, my! We better go get him out!"

She hopped off her branch and swooped down to the ground, facing her friends. "Girls, Bart says that Tomato Sandwich needs help."

Twilight scratched her chin. "Hmm... if we find Tomato, we find Wayer's lair, and if we find the lair, we might just find the memories and a way to stop him!" She looked up at her horn and sighed. "And find some ingredients to make a potion that'll melt those crystals off."

Fluttershy looked at Bart, who had swooped down as well and was waiting for them. "Okay, Bart, lead the way."

Author's Note

*looks at word count* Hey, remember when 5,000 was a long chapter for me? Well, meet the longest chapter I've written so far. I hope I never write that much in one chapter again.

22.7--Mining for Answers

Wayer had to check a few more things back at his lair before his trip.

He picked out one of his books of runic circles from the shelf, and flipped through it until he found the one that could help him travel long distances in a single teleport. He went to his desk to draw the magic out of the mix of the Sandwich brothers' blood, which needed to sit after magical stirring for the magic to settle into its new state. Finally, he went back into Tomato's chamber to check on him, see how he was handling the memory attack.

To his surprise, the memory attack had worn off. Even more surprising was that Tomato, while tired from the bombardment of bad memories, still wasn't budging. It was odd, as Wayer had been certain that Tomato's normally self-defeating attitude would have made this easier. So, he restarted the spell, and left him alone in the chamber once again.

Closing the door behind him, he looked at the pack, all of whom were taking a breather after the fight. After sweeping his eyes over those chewing bones, those scratching, and those taking a nap, he set his sights on Cheese, who was just curiously sniffing at the sleeping Pinkie on the cot, who had yet to transform.

He approached the wolf and petted him. "Now, now, don't eat her. We still need her to awaken and see the moon so the transformation can be complete. I'm surprised that it was easier to get her than your brother. He's more stubborn than I thought." He chuckled. "But, eventually he'll break."

The talk of Tomato and the thought of what he needed to do once Tomato broke reminded him to take Pinkie's memories out of his cloak. He watched them play within the blue orb, showing a filly with her sisters at a quarry, taking an apprenticeship in baking, and her first time saving the world with her friends. "Hmm... no doubt that Jamberry would have loved to throw a festival with this mare."

It had been more than a thousand years, and he didn't doubt that Jamberry had passed away soon after his banishment. She had been so weak those days after the war, her efforts to pretend that all was well taking a toll on her and driving her mad. He reasoned that it was because she was upset over the war and the pointless deaths, among them her brother; their son Silver had disagreed, instead claiming the ridiculous notion that it was actually Wayer's progress in the werewolf spells and "violent outbursts" that was causing her to fret.

And then came the betrayals. First was Silver, having exposed his goings on to Princess Celestia. His old teacher, tearing the wolf from Wayer and sealing a powerful purification spell on him so that he could never transform again. Old friends in the guard, recounting how he had relieved them of their awful memories of the war and the deeds they did under the werewolf curse they never asked for. And finally, Jamberry herself.

When Princess Celestia, the archmage, and the Guard had arrived to arrest him, Wayer simply defended himself by holding their minds hostage and threatening to tear them out, which would have killed them. Jamberry then dared to jump in and smack his horn, screaming that he had gone too far. That one hurt the most, and he threw her around like a rag doll in retaliation, until he was subdued by the archmage, his horn locked with an enchanted ring, and dragged out. His and Jamberry's eyes locked for the last time, except instead of joy and love, her eyes were filled with horror and pain.

He had to shake himself out of that, and make his way to a different chamber, the door of which was near his desk and cauldron. He opened the door, walking into a room with shelves that held a dozen memory orbs, colors matching the eyes of the owners who once held them. In the center of it all, there was Cheese's, playing some of his best moments.

Wayer slipped Pinkie's orb beside Cheese's, as even an old mage like him had a romantic side, and he could see a spark of interest between them. The orbs even reacted as such by playing the memories they had of each other.

He knew he should leave soon, but the idea of Princess Twilight and her friends somehow finding this place crossed his mind. It wasn't likely, seeing as Twilight's magic was blocked and the entrance to the mine shaft was obstructed by a rock slide, but one can never know what tricks his opponent had up their sleeves. And if they found this lair, then no doubt they could find the memories, and perhaps Tomato.

So, he cast a spell on Cheese's memories, assuming that would be Twilight's first priority, and the orb started to flash. He smiled, knowing that his trap was now set and that there were few ponies would could get them out of it.

He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. Now that he had his book, his improved monster spell, and took an extra measure of protection, he and his wolves could leave for their first target. And better yet, Pinkie was beginning to stir, and thus, he could test the change to make the transformation quicker very soon.

He drew the needed runic circle on the floor. "Come along, everyone. We have more work to do."

Bart the bat was a faster flier than the mares thought. Fluttershy kept as close as possible to him, only giving him enough room to fly freely to lead the way. Even so, the two were way ahead, as aching legs kept the other four girls from going any faster than a canter--and even then, only for a few seconds. They kept ears open for any predators--be it the werewolf pack once again or some other animal looking for an easy meal. Rarity and Rainbow provided light for the others with the former's horn and Pinkie's flashlight respectively, so that all they wouldn't lose their guide.

Finally, they stopped at a hillside, illuminated by the full moon. Most of it was made up of tan soil with shrubs and small trees sprouting all over the hill. However, near the bend, there was one section of hill were it was all a pile of rocks, like a landslide had struck. Among the colorful rubble, a single wooden sign poked out, saying, "Danger! Mine Shaft: Do Not Enter".

After reading, Applejack said, "So, his lair is in a mine?"

"How do we get in there?!" Rainbow exclaimed. "The entrance is blocked!"

"How does he get in there?" Rarity asked.

"Probably moves the rocks out of the way with his magic, or just walks right through 'em." Applejack looked to Twilight's horn, the black crystals shining in the moonlight, and noted how her jaw was set in frustration. She patted Twilight's back and sighed. "If I wasn't so goshdarn tired, I'd move some of them rocks myself."

Twilight looked to Fluttershy and Bart, who were just going around the nearby bend, with the former beckoning them. "No, there's another way in; how do you think Bart and his colony found Tomato? If anything, I think we were just shown what kind of place he got imprisoned in."

As they turned and followed Fluttershy around the bend, Applejack asked, "So, why did Wayer imprison Tomato? Why not just have the werewolves bite him and turn him into one?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "He already turned into one monster this summer, why not the other?"

Twilight glanced back at them. "Hmm... what if it was because Tomato was a vampire? I mean, come on, he apparently can speak bat, so he still has the dormant spell in his blood. I wouldn't be surprised if Wayer would definitely be interested in adding vampires to his roster, and turning Tomato into a werewolf might ruin that."

As they entered the cavern next door, Rarity shivered and lit up her horn, while Rainbow turned on the flashlight. They trotted through the tunnel, a chill pricking each mare like a thousand needles. Lonely drips echoed through, and the only other sound was the chirping of bats deeper inside. They passed many stalactites and stalagmites, the horn and flashlight being the only lights to warn them.

Then, they saw a green light shining through a large crack at the end, and the girls rushed forth to it. Though they were greeted with a cacophony of a curious bat colony, Bart just had to chirp to the others to get their attention and present Fluttershy to them. They stared at the yellow mare, who simply said, "Hello, little bats! It's very nice to meet you. Could you move out of the way, so we can take a look?"

The bats complied, and Twilight stepped forward to peek in, with the others poking through in any open space that she left. Sure enough, Tomato was there, bound by chains clasped to all four limbs, his neck, and his barrel. With him was a mare glowing neon green, completely unchained, with whom he was having a conversation with.

"I know, I had a bad foalhood," Tomato said to his companion. "But in a strange way, the second time around is neat to observe, just to see what those things taught me, for better or for worse. On the good side, I learned not to take my brother for granted, and I did develop a good work ethic, if only to keep Mom from yelling at me. And it's nice to be reminded of how Bluejinx at least tried to help me feel like a normal teenager with the time he had."

Twilight paused, wondering why Wayer let Tomato have a cellmate, only to notice the glowing green orbs above him, attached to a string coming out of his ears. That told her that he was just talking to a projection of a friend. With that question answered, now she was just curious as to what Tomato was talking about.

"On the bad side..." Tomato pursed his lips, rubbing his front leg with the other. "...well, trust issues. Kinda hard to trust ponies after getting hurt time and time again. Not to mention I was, frankly, kind of sheltered. I know Aunt Honeydew not having any rules is bad, but that doesn't excuse my Mom from keeping me in a little bubble of just... 'studies and special talent' after Cheese rebelled. Even though I like my talent, I wasn't happy because... well, uh, because I wasn't really given a choice in how I should pursue it. Made me resent it, you know?"

The friend projection nodded. "I know. It must feel nice to get out of Manehattan and see the world and have experiences that you could have never had if you stayed in that town all your life. Though... I think your mother might have tried to teach you become your best self, but someone needs to tell her that all she did was stifle you and basically cripple your chances of being successful in the future."

Tomato groaned. "Do I have to tell her? Last time didn't go so well."

The friend shrugged. "I'm sure you can come up with a better argument this time around."

Tomato scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Well, I'll try to think of it after I get out of here. Huh, how long is it gonna take Bart to--" He turned to the crack and just about jumped at the sight of five faces. "Oh, wow, you're here already? Okay, how long have you been standing there?"

"Oh, about a minute or two," Twilight said. "Sorry for eavesdropping on your conversation. But, don't worry, we're gonna get you out of there."

Tomato glanced at his friend projection. "Well, Flora, this was a nice chat, but we have some things to do. I hope to see the real you soon."

Flora nodded, and dissolved into a mist in a flash, which wafted back to one of the memories. Now, all he could do was just sit and watch as the five mares started to dig and hammer away at the crack, in hopes of making it tall and wide enough to squeeze through. Applejack bucked some rocks loose, Rarity ground the edges down by filing a tough rock against the cave wall, Rainbow punched at it, and Twilight, Fluttershy, and the bats dug away at it.

"You know, if Maud were here, she'd break this open easy," Rainbow said, digging from the top and catching stones to toss aside.

"Well, Pinkie has been dragged into this werewolf mess now, so she'd absolutely have a good motivation for it," Rarity replied, picking off some huge chunks. "But alas, she doesn't even have a clue about what happened to poor Pinkie."

"Uh..." Applejack looked at the stallion in the chamber. "Does Tomato know?"

Tomato pursed his lips. "Well, last I saw Rooney, he didn't say much--he just started up my bad memories again and told me no one's coming to my rescue. But if I were to hazard a guess... Pinkie got bitten, didn't she?"

The girls nodded, before going back to picking at the crack. Twilight added, "Wayer Rune saw us as threats, and took advantage of our fatigue to defeat us. After disabling my magic--" She pointed to her crystallized horn. "--he sicced the entire pack on her. And Cheese was the one who bit her."

With wide, disbelieving eyes, Tomato looked down at the floor. "Wayer Rune? You mean... the werewolf guy? That's who Rooney is?" It was a moment until Tomato stomped on the floor. "Argh! I can't believe it! Now we've lost two party ponies! I was hoping you'd beat that stupid sorcerer, but now he's off to cause mayhem with a spell that should've been extinct!"

He rubbed his temples and sighed, shaking his head. "Oh... Cheese is going to be devastated when he finds out what he did." He snorted and looked up. "And Wayer Rune of all ponies... I was thinking that he was just some crazy fanboy or descendant like Kazam, I didn't think it'd actually be him! How'd he even survive this long, and how did he escape Tartarus?!"

"Well, Tartarus tends to keep its prisoners alive for an indefinite amount of time, for purposes of eternal suffering," Twilight answered. "As for escaping... uh... I'm thinking that it was when Cerberus abandoned his post?"

"I asked how, not when!"

"I don't know how!"

Suddenly, there was the sound of a new crack, scaring the bats away from the wall. Before they knew it, that section of the wall gave way, and the three groundbound ponies fell forward into the chamber. Amidst the dust, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash quickly swept in and pulled them out of the way before any larger rocks fell on top of them. They set them against the opposite wall, and all the girls coughed from the dust that kicked up.

Tomato sneezed as well. Wiping his nose, he looked at the new pile of rocks, and said, "Good news is the door's open."

The girls laid there a moment to catch their breath. Rarity was the first to stand, and she walked forward, pulling out a bobby pin from her hair. She coughed before saying, "So, I assume you want to be freed?"

"Well, yeah," Tomato said. He wiggled his cropped tail. "I've got a problem with my usual lockpick."

"Oh, my!" Rarity said, already picking the lock on one of his front legs while she looked at the tail. "A bobbed tail quite simply doesn't match the smoothed-down business manestyle that you always employ, Tomato. It looks more punk if you ask me."

Tomato wrinkled his nose. "Well, now I'm wondering what I'd look like as a punk."

The first lock broke open, and Rarity went to work on the next. The others had now gotten up and came closer, and Twilight was looking up at Tomato's memories. She smiled at the sight. "I'm not gonna lie, seeing the memory orbs of a living pony is amazing! This used to be a method for studying the mind and how memories work! The practice was only discontinued because removing the memories is painful and dangerous for the subject, and usually the memories would zap anypony that they hadn't subconsciously deemed worthy or was a powerful magic user."

Fluttershy just gazed at the memories with concern. "Do you think Wayer was trying to remove Tomato's memories?"

"Well, he intended to do it," Tomato said. "But, he said that yanking them all out at once when I don't consent would kill me, so he just tried to weaken me. Is that true, Twilight? Or did he just make me relive my bad memories for kicks and giggles?"

Twilight counted the memories floating above. "Hmm... so he used a memory attack? Yeah, those are known for weakening resolve and inducing implicit consent because reliving the bad events in your life over and over is exhausting. I think that might be what he did to Cheese to make him give up his memories."

"Well, it is mighty interesting, Twi," Applejack said. "But... how's he supposed to put 'em back in his head when you can't?"

"Oh, easy," Twilight said. "Smashing the orbs will automatically return the memories to their rightful owner."

"You mean like our cutie marks did when broken out of their jars?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yes!" Twilight chirped. She then pursed her lips. "Well... memories have to be within a certain range."

Tomato took one of his memories into his hooves. "Shame, I would have liked to smash Cheese's and solve the problem instantly."

After Rarity had finished unlocking the second lock and went on to the lock on his back, Tomato slammed the orb into the ground, shattering it. A mist wafted up and then quickly zipped into his ear like a little flying worm. Tomato jolted from the sudden entrance into his head, and he blinked stars out of his vision. Rubbing his head, he muttered, "...that was weird."

Tomato looked up and grabbed another memory. "But I have to do it a few more times..."

Now that Tomato was freed from his chains and all his memories back in his head, the ponies all had to shove a heavy door open in order to get into the main mine chamber. The first things to catch their eyes were the glowing crystal pillars, followed by the lab in the corner, and then to the runic circle several yards away. No Wayer Rune, werewolves, or even Pinkie Pie in sight.

"Well, we have an idea on how he can teleport long distances," Twilight said, her eyes on the circle. She turned to the lab, especially to the desk and shelves of books, potions, and glassware. "Let's take a look at some of those things--there's bound to be something that'll help us."

The group rushed over to the lab and started to rummage through books and look at potions and ingredients. Twilight spotted a journal on the desk, and started to flip through his notes, turning the pages with her hoof. Fluttershy hovered over a higher shelf, while Tomato covered a lower shelf, looking at the various symbols on the books and trying to decipher what they were about. Applejack and Rarity looked at each ingredient, with Rarity gagging at some of the more foul-smelling ones, those involving animal body parts, and even the beaker of blood. And Rainbow Dash was kicking the doors of the other rooms open, to see if there was anything else to find.

Fluttershy grabbed what looked like a book of potions, and flipped through it until she landed on an illustration of crystals melting off a horn. She gasped. "Twilight! I think I found a cure for your crystally horn condition!"

Twilight looked up from the journal. "That's great, Fluttershy! It'd be so nice to get my magic back, especially if the werewolf thing gets out of control."

Tomato looked at a journal full of illustrations of werewolves and and old language he couldn't read. "What do mean by 'gets out of control'?"

"Mmm, well, it can't get too out of control when Celestia finds out and puts Wayer in his place. Still, we should be prepared for the worst case scenario, and I have no doubt we'll need plenty of magic to cure a lot of werewolves."

"Sounds like it'd be a tedious and frustrating problem since he'll spread it far and wide by the time we're outta here."

Twilight turned to a later entry and read it through. Her eyes widened, and she cracked a smile. "Not if he already gave us a way to just cure all of them at once!"

Applejack turned from the jar of dried apples. "Er, pardon?"

Twilight carefully turned the book to show the others. "See this picture of this pink potion? This is the Alpha Elixir, which when attached to a certain transformation spell and a certain pony, that pony becomes the template for others under the same spell."

Rainbow hovered close to the rest of the group. "Meaning...?"

"Wayer must have given Cheese this elixir at some point after he contracted the werewolf spell," Twilight explained. "Since it's attached to both him and the werewolf spell, that means whatever other magic happens to him also happens to other werewolves. It's why Pinkie lost her memories after getting bitten--Cheese has no memories, so the werewolves automatically lose theirs. If he gets those memories back, so do the others. And if Cheese gets cured..."

The other girls finished with, "So do the others!"

Tomato just looked at the illustration. "Huh, I remember Rooney giving this to Cheese under the guise of 'headache medicine'; I thought it was poison, but I was proven wrong quickly. But... why would he put such an obvious weakness in this weird plan of his?"

"Probably just to make things easier, because, well, removing memories is a tedious process." Twilight looked through some later pages. "Weird, he keeps referring to you as 'The Vampire', Tomato. It seems that he did want to use that last bit of that spell in you to add vampires to the mix..." She turned the page and scanned it. "...and combine spells into a dice-roll sort of spell that'll turn a pony into one or the other when directly cast. Sounds like he wants to make future vampires just as susceptible to Cheese's conditions as the werewolves are."

"He did tell me he was planning on reawakening my inner vampire after he took my memories." Tomato shuddered at the thought, licking his teeth and feeling the phantom wings once again. "I very much would like to avoid that, once is more than enough."

"That still presents the problem of just where the memories are, dear," Rarity said.

Rainbow looked at the nearest door, the one she hadn't checked yet, and zipped over to open it. She looked inside and laughed. "Why didn't I check this one first? He just left them in this closet without even locking it!"

The others set their items down, and walked toward the door that Rainbow pushed wider. They all trotted in to find the shelves of memory orbs, lighting the dark room with several different colors. They had a moment to take it in, seeing all the memories of each pony playing within the orbs.

Applejack looked at a green one to her left, and spotted an image of her little sister and her friends. "Hey! This one must be Trouble Shoes' memory. Aw, it looks like he remembers the Crusaders quite fondly--OW!" She made the mistake of poking it, which brought about a bolt that zapped her hoof.

"Careful!" Twilight said. "Remember, the memories of the living don't like to be touched by anybody other than a select few ponies that they fully trust."

"Hey, there's Pinkie's!" Rainbow zipped to the end of the room, and picked up a blue one. She smirked. "Well, it's a good thing that Pinkie trusts her best friends. Turning her back will be a piece of cake."

Twilight walked toward her. "If she wasn't subjected to, well..." She stopped and pointed to the green, flashing one that Pinkie's had been next to. "Following the leader. The memory that we should be really be focused on returning is Cheese's. Remember..."

Rainbow groaned. "If he's cured, so are the others. But, hey, maybe Cheese will let us carry it. He likes us, doesn't he?"

"Well, yes, but..." Twilight narrowed her eyes at the orb. "Something's not right. It shouldn't be flashing."

Tomato squeezed through to look at his brother's memory. "Flashing? Does that mean there's something wrong?"

"I don't know, none of the books I've read said anything about flashing."

Rarity cleared her throat. "Perhaps its best that we focus on removing those crystals from your horn first, Twilight. We're going to have to clean up some messes, and you'll need your magic, darling."

Twilight turned to her. "You're right, Rarity."

"I even left the book open on that page," Fluttershy said.

Tomato still stared at Cheese's flashing orb, seeing various memories dance within. It was strange to think that this was where his real brother was--his pony mind trapped in a clear little glowing ball while his body was running around being a mindless animal. It was painful, seeing that his big brother was not whole, and wondering if he could have done anything to stop it.

Out of some odd hope that Cheese wasn't mad enough at him for the orb to shock him, he touched it.

Twilight had turned around to ask him something, but was interrupted when Tomato jumped back in fright. Cheese's memory had started to tremble, letting out steam and mist that started to fill the room. The girls gasped and cried out in horror and confusion, seeing the room turn greener and greener with the swirling mist. Twilight gave Tomato a "What did you do?" glare, with Tomato only shrugging in response. But, there was no time for words, and they all turned to run out the door.

However, they couldn't make it. A bright, white flash overtook them before they could reach the door.

23.1--Sweet Dreams are Made of Cheese

The Canterlot Water Plant was perched further up the mountain than its home city. As a lone facility that had a large plot of flat land to itself, it overlooked not only the neighborhoods and hubs of the city, but also the many towns scattered across the valley. The Plant had a purpose to pump water from the river through the pipe system to reach many homes and businesses, as well wipe away any sediment and possible contaminants that could have come from upstream. Even so, being so high up on a mountain, residents bragged that they had the purest water in Equestria.

Still, it was better safe than sorry, in case of some mountain goat taking a potty break upstream.

Security guards marched around the area that night. Whether it be strolling through hallways of pipes, passing open water tanks of varying cleanliness, or circling the perimeter of the area, those ponies shone a light--be it by horn magic or flashlight--wherever they went. There were moments where they paused to appreciate the moon's reflection on the pools, or have a little chat with each other, but otherwise, guarding the facility and the workers treating the water was serious business.

One guard was stationed at the gate. It had been a long and boring night, with just the night shift workers clocking in as usual and going off to do their business. So, he had been pacing back and forth, counting the links in the fence, when he noticed a lone, cloaked figure approaching the gate.

He stopped his pacing, and turned to face the visitor. As the visitor came closer, it was clear that this was a stranger. "Sir, this is a restricted area, I'm going to need some identification."

The stranger said nothing, and simply ripped the gate off the fence with his magic. The guard kept himself from jumping from that bold move, but it was clear that this fellow had no good intentions. He turned back and said, "Sir, I'm going to have to escort you off the pre--"

The stranger blew a dog whistle, and before the guard knew it, he was pounced on by a rather large attack dog, one that could easily be seen as a wolf. Jaws snapped short of his muzzle, and the stench of dog breath--mingled with the smell of cake and ice cream--made his stomach churn. As he was busy defending himself from the dog, he noticed from the corner of his eye over a dozen of those dogs popping out from behind trees and rocks, and rushing into the facility at command of their master.

He wrestled the dog until finally managing to buck off of him, and looked to the hut. There, on the panel, sat a big red alarm button, meant to alert all personnel and summon the Royal Guard in case of emergency. He wasted no time in getting to his feet and galloping toward it at full speed, in hopes of making it.

But, that very same dog--which was pink of all colors--suddenly popped up in front of him, and pounced him.

The stranger marched deeper into the facility, moving swiftly and calmly as chaos raged around him. Colorful canines took both security ponies and plant operators by surprise, with the former attempting fight and the latter choosing flight. Those that fought sustained injuries, and cried for somepony to call for backup. Those that ran found themselves herded into various corners and dead ends in the facility, and were backed into pipes and tanks before the canines lunged.

Blood started to stain the concrete as ponies left and right were bitten, and the victims had barely any time to agonize over their wounds before mists matching their eyes billowed out of their ears, and they fainted. The mists reformed into orbs in the stranger's hoof, and the stranger blinked them away to an unknown place.

As his dogs continued their rampage, the stranger made his way to the storage tanks, which were closed off and about to pump the newly filtered water to the city. He levitated himself to the top, and opened a hatch to see the water churning within. With one final look at the city below, he flipped off his hood, and his horn created a large ball of magic, which crackled, glowed dark hues of red and purple, and bore silhouettes of running wolves and flying batponies. He cast the ball into the water, and one by one, the tanks glowed.

He smirked. It wouldn't be long before the pipe system did the rest.

When Tomato opened his eyes, he found himself in a tree. Little pieces of bark stuck to his cheek and his long legs dangled from the branch he lay in. He took a moment to gauge how high the tree was--not very high, thank goodness--and to determine his location, which was in a park of all places. In fact, it looked just like the park he and Cheese often visited in foalhood.

He sat up and took a moment to stretch. Out of habit, he expected his tail to wrap around the branch to keep him balanced; unfortunately, thanks to it being cropped short, he quickly tumbled out of the tree and landed chin first in the grass. He cursed under his breath, and picked himself up, rubbing his throbbing chin.

He looked around the pack, rotating his body to get a full view. He could see trees where he remembered them, the pond where he remembered it, and gazebos where he remembered it. He could even see that one ice cream pony that their grandparents used to buy treats from to give to their grandsons.

Tomato blinked. "How did I get here?"

Last he remembered, he was in some mine shaft near Appleloosa; now he was in a park in Manehattan? But, then again, looking up at the skyscrapers yielded completely different buildings from familiar ones like Equire State or the Trade Center. There was a circus tent, a tower of building blocks, and what looked like Cheese's party tank, except being more like an observatory. And strangely, this city seemed to be in some sort of pit, if the cliffs taking up the skyline in all directions was any indication.

He wondered if Twilight and the others were around; they had been in the room when everything flashed white. He reasoned that they must have appeared in other spots in the city, so it's only fair that he should go out to look for them. Plus, he was curious.

The first thing that Twilight felt was the fluttering of her own eyelashes, immediately followed by the bad, dry taste in her mouth. Her legs felt like wood, which should be easily remedied by a simple stretch. She felt a soft bed against her back, But, more importantly, she could hear two voices, both male, engaged in conversation that she couldn't interpret.

She felt a strange, rubbery limb on her forehead, and she heard one of them say, "Oh, I think she's waking up!"

"It's about time, bro! How should we celebrate?" the other said.

Twilight barely opened her eyes, spotting two yellow, blurry figures. "Huh?"

"You've been asleep for quite a while, Twilight," the first one said. "In fact, we thought you girls were dead until we saw you breathing."

"Well, they have been through a lot in just one day," the second said. "Is it any surprise that they're pooped?"

Twilight figured that somepony from Appleloosa found them somehow, and brought them back to town to nurse them back to full strength. She sat up, yawned and stretched, and rubbed her eyes. "Mmm... thanks. I can't tell you how grateful I am that..."

She fully opened her eyes, and her vision cleared to reveal a couple of giant rubber chickens staring at her.

She screamed and tumbled out of the bed, hitting the floor with a thud. The pain from her broken wing shot through her body, and he panted as she looked around the pink room, trying so hard to ignore the poultry that was untangling her hooves from the sheets. She spotted the rest of her friends in other beds, having just woken up and were now confused at being cared for by things like a giant hamster, a T-Rex, a pegasus version of Cheese Sandwich, and a potato on a mobile couch.

The rubber chickens freed her hooves, and one of them helped her up. "You're grateful that... 'ahhhhh'?"

Twilight scanned the room again, hoping that each creaturewould remove their heads to reveal ponies in costumes. "Wha... what's going on? Where are we?" She looked up at the rubber chickens. "Who are you?!"

One of the rubber chickens, wearing a bowler hat, grinned widely and shook Twilight's hoof. "The name's Boneless! And this guy in the tie is my brother, Boneless 2! Right now, you're guests in our little abode!"

Rainbow perked up with an odd look. "Wait, Boneless? Isn't that the name of Cheese's rubber chicken?"

"Well, technically, his physical form is dead; mine is the one who travels with Cheese these days," Boneless 2 said with a chuckle. Then he gave them a concerned look. "In all seriousness, you appeared in this realm during a bright flash several hours ago. We found you girls unconscious, so we had to put you somewhere comfortable."

"Wait... several hours?!" Twilight exclaimed.

Boneless 2 stepped back. "Of course... time moves differently in the mind than in the real world, don't you know?"

Applejack blinked. "Err... did you just say the mind? As in... Cheese Sandwich's mind?"

Rarity stared at the spud that handed her a plate of eggs. "Well, it'd explain why a potato is giving me breakfast, but... huh?"

Rainbow looked up at the ceiling and shouted, "Okay, Discord! We know you did this! You can come out now!" She glared at the hamster that brushed Fluttershy's hair and got in its face. "Oh, I know it's you, Dissy! You can make yourself cute all you want but we all know you have a soft spot for Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy pushed her away from the giant hamster that now cowered and cried. "Rainbow Dash! That is no way to talk to Harvey!"

Pega-Cheese gently pulled Rainbow back. "Sorry, but I don't think Discord's involved with this one. I'm pretty sure he doesn't know that as a colt, Cheese Sandwich wished that he'd grow wings and take to the skies." He fluttered his wings for emphasis.

Harvey looked up and squeaked, "Or that he always wanted a pet hamster."

"Or that he likes dinosaurs!" the T-Rex roared.

The couch potato just blinked with a grumpy pout. "I have no idea why I'm here."

Twilight stared at the scene, processing the information that she and her friends had just received. It was then she realized why Cheese's memory orb was flashing, and what had happened when Tomato touched it. She turned to the Bonelesses. "I can't believe it... Wayer must have set it so that if anyone touched it, they'd be trapped in Cheese's mind!"

Boneless blew a party blower and threw confetti. "Congratulations! You figured it out!"

"Oh, don't mock her!" Boneless 2 scolded. He turned to Twilight with a sheepish grin. "Sorry about that. Boneless takes more toward Cheese's more exuberant traits... and some of his sass. As for me... well, I take more toward Cheese's more reserved and responsible attributes."

Boneless rolled his eyes. "Lighten up, Twosie. It's not like we'd have figured out why they're here before she did."

Twilight scanned the room a third time, and noticed somepony was missing. "Wait, where's Tomato?"

Boneless blinked. "Tomato?" He scratched his chin and thought for a moment. "You mean the party pooper brother of Cheese's? I thought they didn't want anything to do with each other ever again." He rolled his eyes. "But Cheesy Sense insists that Cheese has to try and make Tommy smile..."

Twosie hit his brother. "Boneless, you're a little too stuck in the past, they made up last fall!" He turned back to the girls. "My apologies, ladies... Tomato is categorized differently from you, so he must have landed someplace else. And since things are positive between the brothers now..." He gave Boneless a stink eye. "...he should be safe."

"Huh... so, what's outside of this room? I'm sure a party pony would have a lot more going on in his mind than just a pink room with several weird pictures and unusual creatures being nurses."

The Bonelesses and the rest of the nurses laughed, and Twosie took Twilight by the hoof. "Oh, dear Princess, of course there's more! We just put you in a quiet place so that you five may sleep!"

Twosie escorted Twilight out of the room, followed by his brother herding the other four as well. They turned into a foyer, where the front door sat. Twosie turned to smile at the mares, and then threw the door open to lead them outside. The girls filed out, and looked up to see what was outside.

It was the biggest, loudest, and strangest carnival that they had ever seen. Rides wove around the grassy landscape, jumping tracks and shooting confetti cannons like it was going out of style. Ponies galloped within bubbles of all shapes and sizes, and some took to slinging accordions around and swinging on them like jungle vines in the candy trees. A pizza island floated in a fruit punch lake, and pinatas exploded to reaveal delicious prizes. Balloons didn't just float; they danced to the music, changing colors with every beat. There weren't just ponies, both familiar and strange; there were many other creatures, both real like buffaloes and griffons, and make-believe like butterfly-winged mice and living food people enjoying the crazy festivities. The party seemed to stretch left and right for miles, with screens that clearly played some of Cheese's party-related memories, including Rainbow's birthaversary.

Twilight gazed at the scene before her. "Wow... the books weren't kidding when they said you could create an entire world out of one mind."

Rarity watched a line of models march in front of her, wearing outfits of garish colors, unnecessary straps, and mismatched pairs. Poodles atop their heads added the final touch to clothing that made her gag. "Couldn't he have imagined outfits less... tacky?"

"Sure looks like something Pinkie would like," Applejack said.

"Hey, what's up with the sky?" Rainbow said.

The other girls looked up to see that the sky was green, much like Cheese's eyes were, but oddly, it seemed to be fractured. It seemed like a cracked window just barely hanging together after a nasty blow, and was one hit away from being completely shattered. None of the party guests seemed to notice, but whether they were ignorant or just didn't want to cry that the sky was falling was in question.

Boneless blew a party blower and grabbed Fluttershy. "Come on! Cheese created this extravaganza, and he'd be happy to have more guests!"

"Wait, no, I--" She was suddenly whisked away into the party, squeaking in surprise. Following that, the other nurses grabbed a mare, and pulled them into the party, laughing all the way and excitedly leading them to something they thought that each girl would like. Twosie, startled by the sudden turn of events, shook his head with a little half-smile.

As each girl was dragged into the party, Boneless started to sing,

"Come on, girls, let's run on in
This party is only just startin'
What you saw was just a little taste
We can see more if we make haste!"

Boneless threw Fluttershy into a petting zoo of strange and colorful animals, each engaged in a circus act that normally ponies would perform, such as the tightrope, trapeze, or clown skit. She looked around the ring with awe, and smiled at the creatures that turned and bowed to her.

Boneless grinned. "Watch the lion tame the rabid pony
Behold the elephant's tightrope dance!
The acrobat sheep are really soaring
Go on, Fluttershy, just give it a chance!"

Fluttershy skirted to the edge of the ring and faced the rubber chicken. "Look, I do really like this animal circus, they actually look like they're having a lot of fun! But, I need to be serious, and ask you where--"

She didn't get to finish, as she was pulled into a hippo's juggling act.

Meanwhile, Rainbow was taken up to the sky by PegaCheese, who had suddenly changed into a Wonderbolt outfit when they passed through a cloud. Before she could ask how he did that, she was interrupted by the Wonderbolts zooming by.

PegaCheese and the rest of the 'Bolts flew in circles around her, singing,
"Oh, what a feeling it is to taste the wild blue yonder!
Freedom and fun just like this is something you shouldn't squander..."

PegaCheese clapped, and the 'Bolts started to write words in the sky.

"But here in the Mind Realm!
In Cheese Sandwich's Mind Realm!
You have enough room to spread out your wings
Write a song to sing!
Have some joy to bring!
Limitless imaginings!"

He gave a curt nod to Rainbow, and pointed forward. Rainbow stared a moment before grinning, and zooming forward to underline "Welcome to the party!" with her rainbow contrail. Her heart swelled as the crowd below cheered, and PegaCheese flew next to her.

"There is no room for fear and stagnation
When you hold.... the spirit of celebration!"

PegaCheese took Rainbow by the hoof and pulled her down to the roller coaster, where they landed in a car and started to ride it, through hills, loops, hoops, and jumps, all while Rainbow was cheering and laughing. Landing one jump elicited a cheer from a nearby crowd of Pinkie Pies.

Rainbow's smile faded at the sight of the Pinkies. She turned to Cheese. "Hey, this is awesome and all, but Pinkie's in trouble right now!"

"I'm sorry! Can't hear ya!" PegaCheese shouted.

Rainbow growled. "I said Pinkie's in trouble! And so are you!"

At another part of the party, Applejack found herself part of a food fight with Harvey the giant hamster, dodging rocky road ice cream, sandwich cookies, potatoes, lasagna, and of course, cheese, among other items. As Applejack ducked and jumped and chucked food, Harvey danced along with her, singing,

"You gotta boogie like you're makin' headline news
You gotta dance like you're a wonder
Or you'll end up with a face full of food--"

SPLAT! Applejack now had a face full of pear jam, much to her annoyance.

Harvey winced. "--when you make a blunder."

Nearby, Rarity was witness to the T-Rex of all creatures knitting banners from the giant ball of twine they sat upon, all of which took to the air to travel to other parts of the party. One of them, which had a pattern of a sunset fading into a starry night, picked them up and flew them around like a magic carpet. As Rarity clung to her prehistoric companion, she looked around to see various articles of clothing, accompanied by many other kinds of art.

The T-Rex sang,
"Creativity is an adventure to behold
With just your mind you can ever travel bold
Be it through parties or fabrics or painting or stone,
Those who imagine can make their own throne."

Their banner swooped down to grab Applejack and Harvey. Then, it replaced Rarity with the giant hamster, while juggling her and Applejack as the dinosaur and rodent sang,
"Oh, what a feeling it is to dance in the open air!
And make dreams a reality without judgement or care...

"But here in the Mind Realm!
In Cheese Sandwich's Mind Realm!
You have enough room to spread out your wings
Write a song to sing!
Have some joy to bring!
Limitless imaginings!"

The banner hovered through a tangled mesh of strings and yarns, and dropped both mares in screaming. When they fell through the other side and bounced on the trampolines underneath, that was when they noticed that they were dressed in festive attire--along with tinfoil hats. Once they landed in a ball pit, making a splash of colorful balls, they popped their heads out and looked up at their chaperones levitating down.

"There is no room for fear and stagnation
When you hold.... the spirit of celebration!"

The two girls looked at each other and then at each other's outfits. Rarity said, "Alright, the outfits are lovely, but the tinfoil hats are just garish!"

Applejack sighed. "This party would be fun, but we've got an emergency right now. Where's Twilight?"

Little did Applejack know, Twilight was running through the party, having escaped the couch potato and was now looking for her friends. She dodged pie throws from aardvarks, weaved through a forest of candy with swinging accordion-slingers, and barely avoided a spatula fight between party guests. As she kept looking, she didn't see a slide open up on the ground in front of her, and thus, she stumbled down it and went for a wild, underground ride.

When the slide ended, she popped from the ground onto a purple platform, where magicians showed off their fireworks--including The Great and Powerful Trixie--and wowed a bunch of Mirrors that showed alternate versions of the performers. Twilight was uncomfortable to see a male version of herself, as well as her animal selves, her younger self, and even her self from the Canterlot High dimension.

And then, she felt an arm on her shoulder, and turned to see Boneless, who started to tango with her, much to her dismay.

"Being one with a crazy mind does bring ridicule
Classmates laughed at this poor kid for being uncool..."

The mirrors changed images to show foals laughing at a little colt cowering in the corner. Twilight winced, seeing an actual image of Cheese's foalhood for the first time, and her heart ached on seeing the little guy bullied.

"But a talented pony reminded him of his magic's worth
So the greatest potential he mined from the gift that was present from his birth!"

After the mirrors showed images of a juggling Pinkie Pie and an inspired Cheese growing up, they fell back to reveal a cheering crowd. Twilight looked around the enormous crowd, unsure of what she should do. She just watched as Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy were carried forward until thrown on the stage. Fluttershy froze at the sight of the crowd, while the other three just looked around confused. And then, Boneless resumed the song, with the crowd singing along.

"Oh, here in the Mind Realm!
In Cheese Sandwich's Mind Realm!
You have enough room to spread out your wings
Write a song to sing!
Have some joy to bring!
Limitless imaginings!
Dancing to swing!
With your bells to ring!
Trampolines for springing
And many more thiiiiiiinnnngggs!"

Boneless grinned at the girls. "And even if they think you're crazy..."

"There is no room for fear and stagnation
When you hoooooolllllllld....

...The Spirit of Celebration!"

The song finished with a literal bang as fireworks burst above them, and the crowd went wild. Tinfoil and poodle hats were tossed, colorful flags were waved, and party blowers were blown. The girls waved at the crowd sheepishly--except Fluttershy, who was still frozen. They still looked around until they spotted Twosie swimming through the crowd, and climbing up the stage.

He exhaled. "Well... glad I found you. I hope you ladies had a blast."

Boneless waved a wing. "Oh, I'm sure they did."

Twilight looked between them. "It was the most wild party that I've ever attended, but it's hard to have fun when we have pressing matters at hoof. Namely, involving the very pony that this mind belongs to."

Boneless bit his lip and sweated. "W-what do you mean? Did we forget something?"

"No, no, no! You have plenty of fun stuff for Cheese to call upon when he plans a party... but he can't throw a party when he's literally lost his mind and is running around as a werewolf!"

A flash of green light painted the landscape for a moment, followed by thunder booming above the party. The crowd gasped, cried, and murmured at the deafening noise, and they started to scatter all over the place in search of shelter. The mares themselves shuddered at the sound, and looked up, seeing the cracks in the sky flashing.

Twosie grimaced. "You might want to be careful, ladies... Cheese is in a great deal of distress right now."

Boneless nodded, looking cautiously at the sky. "Yeah, he's trying to keep himself sane with his happy place. Otherwise, we'd have a nasty storm."

"Nasty storm?" Applejack asked. "Hold on, are you saying the magic mind ball is still conscious?"

They jumped when another crash of thunder sounded, and pieces of glass rained from the sky. The rubber chickens looked at each other, and nodded. Twosie fixed his tie, and explained, "Well... this is more of a dreamlike state, but he's still very much aware of what happened to him, and he's not happy about it. If he snaps, the sky cracks open, and the entire realm is in trouble."

"Oh, that's awful!" Rarity said.

"Maybe I could control the storm!" Rainbow suggested.

Twosie shook his head. "Afraid not. Cheese is the one in charge here, and you can only calm things by well, reasoning with him. The main Cheese avatar is... well, he's running around the realm somewhere. I'm just not sure where or in what form."

Twilight pursed her lips. "It sounds like a decent short-term solution to find the main Cheese avatar and talk to him, wherever he is. Still, how we can really help him is to put his mind back where it belongs, change him back to normal... and maybe get him a therapist. But we can't do that until we get out of here, and I don't know if you noticed, but I have crystals on my horn! Any ideas on how to escape?"

Twosie tapped his beak. "Well... you need somepony that Cheese has full trust in. Somepony who wouldn't have been sent here, to the 'party guest' and 'imagination' district, but rather to one in one of the deeper districts of this realm. I'll show you."

He beckoned them to follow him, and hopped off the stage. They walked past the mirrors, and weaved through more party games and rides, until they reached a curtain. Twosie opened up the curtain, revealing that the huge party had been on a ring of land, overlooking what resembled an open-pit mine, with several layers holding different districts of a city. The closest layer was clean and colorful, while lower layers got darker and dirtier, culminating in a single, domed building of jet black, with only green shining out of its windows to show activity in there.

Twosie pointed to the layer they were on. "This district represents what Cheese shows on the surface; anything involving odd thoughts, feelings, ideas, and memories involving just any random party he's thrown or wants to throw. There's a lot of party guests here because he sees most ponies as, well, party guests--he doesn't really get to truly connect with very many ponies, you know."

Twosie pointed to the next layer down. "That district is where the the memories he cherishes reside. There, you can find the ponies he feels a deeper connection to, and even see what his other interests outside of partying are. Close friends, family, mentors... for example, you'll see plenty of Pinkies around because she's the one who jumpstarted his party pony path. By the way, where is Pinkie? She could get you out."

"But we don't have Pinkie Pie! The bad guy took her!" Rainbow yelled.

Boneless put his wings to his mouth. "Oh, no!"

"Well... maybe we could use one of the Pinkies 'round here," Applejack said.

Twosie sighed. "I don't know... using the real deal is your best bet. You can't really use a shallow memory to get out."

Rainbow hovered toward Twosie and crossed her front legs. "Maybe one of us could touch the memories and get us out? He likes us!"

Twosie turned his back and shuffled forward, scanning his eyes across the ground. "I'm sorry, Rainbow, he really does think you're cool, and you know a little about his background. The thing is, he's still a little too shy to essentially trust most ponies to handle his mind with care, even if he likes them. And with his current state... he'll have a hard time fully trusting anypony."

Fluttershy pursed her lips. "Even his brother?"

Twosie looked back to see if the mares were following him, which they were. "Oh, that little problem was worked on since they made up at the Fall Festival. Maybe... just maybe, he's the one who could get you out."

"He did get us stuck in here in the first place," Rainbow grumbled.

"Well, they are kin," Applejack said.

Twosie nodded. "Eh, Cheese doesn't trust his parents, but still, Tomato's likely to be worthy." Then he turned and pointed to a lower and darker layer. "That dark place is where his negative memories reside. All his fears, grudges, regrets... even ponies he doesn't like. They range from just simple annoyances to legitimate grievances and traumas. That's a place where you have to watch your step."

He pointed to the domed building. "And that... is the memory orb storage... and your ticket out of here. The fully-trusted one must touch what are essentially the main memory orbs that hold the rest, and there you go, you're free. Of course, there are other random thoughts that run all over the place, like how Harvey can travel between here and there."

Fluttershy looked down. "Oh, dear... we have to go through that dark place?"

"Yep," Boneless said.

Twosie patted her back, and gestured to a set of stairs that descended into the next level of the pit. "Don't worry, I'll lead you girls. As a trusted friend, I know my way around. And I'll be happy to help you look for Tomato." He turned his head to face his brother. "And I know Boneless can watch the party alone, right bro?"

Boneless grinned and nodded. With that, he skipped away to calm the panicking patrons.

Twosie smiled, and started going down the stairs. "Come along, ladies."

They followed him downward single file, looking at the city that they were about to enter. It seemed strangely normal after the wild ride of the party district, so the more down-to-earth memories were something to wonder about. And even with the pressing issue of Wayer Rune and his monsters on mind, there was also the curiosity of what their own mind realms would look like.

It was one thing for a Manehattan park to be in the middle of a new and strange city; it was another for Tomato to end up bumping into several Pinkie Pies. The first one seemed normal, as she joked around and affectionately treated him like he was her brother, and asked where Cheese was. If it hadn't been for the news of both Cheese's and the real Pinkie's werewolf status, he wouldn't have been surprised at seeing her act this way.

But, then he kept coming across many Pinkies, each wearing a different outfit, and sometimes as a unicorn, pegasus, or alicorn--or even a dude. He thought that she was just messing with him by rounding the park and changing clothes, but when he saw two of them talking to each other, he wondered how the heck she managed to clone herself. He awkwardly shuffled away, not looking at any of them when he was greeted.

And then there was filly Pinkie, who was throwing a party in the middle of the park, with plenty of ponies attending. He had to admit, it was difficult to leave, especially when there was cake, ice cream, and sandwiches to eat, and he was hungry. He watched as the filly juggled rubber chickens as she balanced on a ball, wondering if she had been an early bloomer. She certainly seemed to be talented enough as a kid to have thrown an impressive party.

He soon moved on, out of the park, and started to wander the streets. He rounded blocks and crossed the crosswalks, noting the variety of other buildings that scattered the area. He had seen several hardware stores, joking to himself that Cheese would like those places. Every corner he came across had some talented musician playing for pedestrians. Tomato paused at the sight of that one-pony band that gave Cheese his accordion when they were small, when neither their parents would buy one or their grandparents could afford one. It would have been a shame if Grandpa Pizza Pockets didn't get to teach Cheese how to play.

Another odd thing was that many of the pedestrians he passed by looked like variations of ponies that Cheese knew. There were several Ponyaccis, both casual and in clown attire (Tomato made sure to be on the other side of the street from that guy), as the opposite gender, a younger version, and even as the other races. He saw similar instances with Braeburn, each of whom greeted him cheerfully, a stallion that he was sure was Ponyacci's adult grandson, and members of their extended family.

And then, he bumped into a mare.

After both shouted in unison, "Hey!", they paused to stare at each other and just how similar they looked. Same coat color, same hair color, same glasses, same forelock, and the mare wore a jacket similar to the one Tomato usually wore. Sure, she wore a bowtie in contrast to Tomato's usual necktie, and wore a bob hairstyle, but a quick look at the cutie mark confirmed that he was looking at a female version of himself.

Both awkwardly shuffled away from each other, and Tomato mumbled as they departed, "And I thought the Snapdragon Apple incident was weird."

He spotted a younger version of himself meeting a younger Pinkie Pie, with this exchange:

"Hi, I'm Pinkie!"

"Hi, I'm Tommy!"

"Wanna be friends?"

"Sure!"

Tomato wouldn't lie, that was probably how it would have gone down if they met as foals. It was hard not to smile at the two playing a silly game and chattering about their amazing big siblings. Of course, hearing Pinkie mention her big sister by name had him wondering what the heck this Maud character was like.

There was a strange pattern with this city: it leaned more toward ponies Cheese knew, sights that Cheese had seen, and things Cheese liked. There was no city that Tomato knew of that had studios and stages from Applewood, the castle from the Crystal Empire, or any of the manors from Canterlot, but also houses from Appleloosa, the town of Aura Springs, and that pirate ship pizzeria that Tomato helped Silver Shill start. He could see the Wonderbolts flying above in a sky that was green and cracked for some reason, a pet store full of hamsters and chickens to his side, and a zoo, one of Cheese's favorite places to visit when they were kids.

He passed the circus tent, hearing singing inside. He was tempted to peek in, but continued onward, hoping to make himself un-lost before he stumbled somewhere bad. As if anything could be bad in what was apparently Cheese's dream city. He was surprised that there wasn't an enormous shindig in sight. Still, he had no idea where he was going, and the moment he considered asking for directions, everypony just disappeared.

Except for one. He spotted something in an alley staring at him. The alley was strangely dark, but he could make the outline of a big head and small body, and he could see the bright green irises that seemed to glow.

He stopped. "Uh... hello?"

The figure jumped, and turned tail deep into the alley.

"Wait! Can you help me?" Tomato gave chase.

He wondered if it was a good idea, because that alley led into a maze that wound every which way. Left and right and left again, followed by a hall that led both ways. He was unsure of where to go, but soon an idea popped into mind. So, he closed his eyes and whistled, and listened for the echoes. He visualized the little stranger deeper in the maze, and determined that he should go right.

He repeated this method for every crossroads, turning each direction that the echoes told him he should go. Soon enough, he found the little shadowy figure, that still ran through those alleys like a pro, despite any puddles or garbage that was in his way. Tomato was starting to pant, and jumped when stepping in something, but he didn't slow down, and imagined that he was just chasing another version of himself.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Listen, I need to know where the heck I am... and where I need to go... and what this city is!"

He tripped and fell on his face. Even if his nose was now numb, he was lucky to look up and see that the shadowy figure had reached a dead end. He took a deep breath and crawled forward, even as the figure turned around, and backed up against the wall.

Tomato panted, wiping sweat from his brow. "Look... I'm not gonna hurt you... I just need direct--"

He stopped when the lights in a nearby building turned on, and revealed the face of the one he chased. This kid had green eyes and curly hair, wore glasses larger than Tomato's own, was a lighter and yellower shade of orange, and had a massive chocolate afro that the little guy could easily hide in. The kid shivered in fright, with a look in his eyes that expected to be hurt. Again.

Tomato backed up, realizing just how scary he must have seemed to the kid. Still, he sputtered out, "...Cheese?"

Little Cheese tried so desperately to squeeze into the corner and whimpered.

Author's Note

The weird part about this chapter was how I had to look up water treatment facilities to get at least a basic idea of what the place looks like and how water filtration works. Hey, if you're gonna make the bad guy enchant the water, you should try to do your homework.

Yeah, that's the weird part about a chapter about being stuck in a weird guy's mind.

23.2--A Trip Down Memory Lane

Tomato recalled a time when he wished to be a big brother for once. Being the littlest meant that he wasn't taken seriously, and was subject to being treated like a baby or brushed aside as a nuisance by everyone--including Cheese! Being talked down to was frustrating--especially now as an adult--and he had wished his mother would have another baby so he didn't have to put up with it anymore (he had since changed his tune, realizing that it'd be cruel for the hypothetical third Sandwich kid to be born into their disaster of a family).

But in all his fantasies of being a big brother, he usually imagined a little sister that he and Cheese would look after. Barely learning about the difference between fillies and colts made him curious about what having a sister was like. But never had he ever daydreamed about his big brother being the little brother: Cheese was perfect as a big brother, so it impossible to imagine little brother Cheese.

But, yet, here he was, in the middle of an alley maze in the middle of a strange city, staring at a younger version of his big brother.

As little Cheese tried to hide in the corner, Tomato's mind ran through all the possible options of why he had turned into a colt. A reasonable option would be the Fountain of Youth, of which he was starting to guess that there was more than one. Maybe some random unicorn used an age spell on him. Maybe Discord showed up out of nowhere and messed with Wayer Rune by turning all the werewolves into foals (or in the case of the bison, a calf)--and creating this weird city that Tomato was now lost in. Or maybe the flashing memory orb sent him inside Cheese's mind. Whatever the case, something was seriously wrong.

Regardless, he now realized that he had to convince this scared child that the stallion towering over him was his little brother. The best question he could ask himself was what Flora would do if she was in this situation.

He took a deep breath. "I'm, uh, sorry that I scared you. I probably should have asked directions from somepony else."

Little Cheese said nothing. He stared with his big, chartreuse eyes, expecting him to make a wrong move. He then slowly reached up to grab his curls, only to then swiftly yank the excess mane he had downward to conceal himself, withdrawing into his shell like a little hermit crab. There was barely any hint of Cheese's body--just a little bush of chocolate curls that quivered.

Tomato groaned and sat down, resting his chin on his hoof. "Okay, be that way. Still, you're lost, aren't you, Cheese? Welcome to the club."

Suddenly, Cheese cried, "How do you know my name?!"

Tomato couldn't tell if he was scared or angry--maybe he was both--but in any case, the kid's volume made him jump. He glared at the bush, and he felt as if it was glaring at him back. "Okay, it's not polite to shout! I'm just saying that I'm also lost and scared, like you are!"

Cheese still played the timid hermit crab, though Tomato could see hints of eyes peeking out from under the bush--a pair which told him to go away. Tomato ran his hoof over his mane, his mind still pondering on how he was supposed to break the news. Should he break it to him quickly, or try to coax him out of his shell first, or maybe just let him notice the resemblance to their father?

His hoof reached his forelock, and the idea popped into his mind like lightning. He turned to the bush, and leaned against the brick wall. "Yeah... we're both lost. Honestly, I have no idea what city I'm in, or how I got here, or... really, what the hay's happening. There was one disaster I was facing... and then, all of a sudden, I end up here, and I guess... crisis averted? Somehow?"

His gut twisted, and he doubted that crisis really was averted. If it was, thanks to Princess Celestia, then that didn't solve the current crisis he was in. "I don't know. How about you?"

The bush moaned like the frustrated child underneath. "I don't know... my brain just feels scrambled..."

Tomato was not entirely sure what he meant, but it definitely had something to do with memories. Was this some kind of really weird mind game? This entire thing was going to give him a headache from working out what was going on. Still, he had his hoof on his forelock. "I've had those days where my brain feels like pudding. Still, I hope you can recognize this little thing."

A curious muzzle poked out from under the bush. Green eyes looked up, and stared a moment to process what Tomato was talking about. Seeing the hoof on the forelock, his eyes widened, he gasped, and the bush of brown curls popped up to become the afro once again.

He pointed at the forelock, and then to his own. "That's a family thingie! You got the family thingie! M-my mom has it, my grampa has it, my little brother has it..." He paused to think of more relatives. "My dad doesn't have it." He narrowed his eyes and peered closer at Tomato. "Hey... you look a lot like my dad, but you got the forelock thingie..."

Good, now he had Cheese's attention. Tomato smiled and nodded. "Well... yeah, I guess that means we might be related." He wrapped the forelock around his hoof and grasped it tight. "I can do a little magic trick with mine, you wanna see?"

Cheese quietly pondered a moment before giving a tentative nod.

Tomato yanked the forelock, and his mane burst into its natural curls, which made the colt stumble back into the wall. Taking off his glasses and shaking his head for a little extra bounce, he looked at Cheese--which was annoyingly like looking through an out-of-focus camera--and said, "Ta-da!"

Cheese blinked at the sight of a weird serious suit-pony now having shown off wild hair. It was strange how familiar this pony seemed to him. There was the forelock, there were the wild, dark brown curls, and the bright green eyes that drank in new experiences like juice boxes. The face oddly looked like their father's, except a lot less tired and was actually smiling at him--though the smile slowly faded as Tomato worriedly awaited an answer.

A flash of lightning lit up above them, followed by strangely soft thunder. In that instant, Cheese rubbed his eyes, which flashed brightly once he opened them. After a few moments more, he gasped, "Tommy?!"

Tomato grinned sheepishly. "Glad you recognize me now, big bro... or in this case, little bro?"

Cheese crept forward, narrowing his eyes. "Why are you bigger than me now? Last time I checked, I was three years older than you."

Tomato put his glasses back on and rubbed the back of his head. "Uh... magic shenanigans? I'm still not sure what happened."

Cheese sat down and rubbed his head. "I knew I was missing something, but I couldn't remember what. I found one of my missing somethings, but I feel like there are more missing somethings around here. And I, uh... think I oughta know this place, but I don't."

Whatever this place was, Tomato could tell that it was connected to Cheese. The city had way too many things that Cheese liked and frankly not much of what he didn't like. Maybe helping this little version could help him know for sure what was happening and how to get out of it. Not to mention, being the big brother for once might be a little fun.

He stood up. "Well, if you don't mind, perhaps I could help you find those other missing somethings of yours. Being your brother and having a not-scrambled brain at the moment, I do have a few ideas on what those could be. Maybe it could help the both of us be... not lost."

Cheese stared at him, pondering on Tomato's offer. Tomato held a forced smile, hoping that Cheese wasn't subconsciously afraid of some of the memories that they were looking for. He had this nagging feeling that deep down, Cheese really, truly knew what he was missing, but his mind was too scrambled for him to remember properly. This city's patterns of leaning toward Cheese's interests could help straighten things out.

Then, Cheese nodded and mumbled, "Okay."

Tomato crouched down, and let Cheese climb onto his back. He grunted as he got up, mumbling that Cheese was heavier than he thought, but he was still able to walk. So, he turned around and started to walk back out of the maze, hoping that he could retrace his steps.

Cheese looked down at Tomato's flank, and asked, "So... what's your cutie mark?"

"All right, it looks like he's stable... for now," Twosie mused, looking at the sky.

The group reached the bottom of the steps and were exploring the zone of pleasant memories. It seemed like a normal city as they first trotted in, looking around for any sign of Tomato. The only thing that seemed odd about it was how colorful the buildings were, and how there were several different variations on a few select ponies, like Pinkie Pie, Braeburn, and a handful they didn't recognize. Regardless, they seemed to be acting like normal ponies, with normal crowds with normal conversations on a normal day.

Rainbow looked around at the crowds. "Are you sure this is Cheese Sandwich's mind? That party up there seemed more Cheese than... this."

"It resembles Manehattan a little bit," Rarity remarked. She looked down at the sidewalk, her brow creased in annoyance. "Except I'm certain the Trot of Fame is in Applewood and has actual pony stars instead of 'Wonder Hamster', 'Superfly', and 'Santa Hooves, World's Greatest Horror Villain'. What even is that last one?"

"He had a bad incident with a Mall Santa who snapped from stress," Twosie answered. "At least that's what Boneless tells me."

Suddenly, a Braeburn popped up right next to Applejack, making her jump. "Oh, the Santa incident is nothing compared to all the wackiness that happened in Aaaaaaaaaal-bucker-que!"

"Do I even wanna know?" Applejack asked.

"It's a long story," Twosie answered.

"Then we have no time to hear it!" Twilight said, trotting up to the Braeburn and shooing him away. "We can hear it from Cheese himself when we get out of here, and turn Cheese back to normal!"

"Twilight, remember Cadance's breathing exercises..." Fluttershy said.

Twilight put a hoof to her chest and took a deep breath, and exhaled, drawing the hoof outward. "I'm sorry. I'm just a little stressed from being stuck in somepony else's mind and not being able to get us out of here myself. Boneless 2, where do you think Tomato could be in this city?"

"Well..." Twosie rubbed his chin. "He could be in an area that involves a Tomato-related memory. After all, the city has some resemblance to Manehattan because it's the place of Cheese's birth, but has a Trot of Fame because Cheese has thrown a lot of parties in Applewood and remembers the city quite well. In fact, there are plenty of sights based on experiences Cheese has had in the past."

"Well, we better go searching for a Tomato-related memory," Twilight said.

"Also!" Rarity interjected. "Tomato currently has a cropped tail, so it should be easy to tell who's the real one if we bump into memories."

"Good thinking, Rarity." Twilight turned to Twosie. "Can you name some memories?"

At last, Tomato and Little Cheese had made it out of the maze, and were back out onto the streets. Tomato looked around for something, anything, that could help jog Cheese's memory, but strangely patterned, brightly colored buildings, as well as the multiple versions of several individuals, were a little distracting. Seeing lampposts that were nothing more than glowing balloons and ponies traveling by trapeze, he could only conclude that this place was getting weirder.

"Uh... do any of these things look familiar to you, Cheese?" he asked.

Cheese watched the trapeze commuters as they swung, leapt, and flew. "Gramma and Grampa did take me and you to the circus when I was five and you were two. I remember that a clown honked in your face and you cried."

"I don't need to be reminded of colthood trauma, thank you very much."

Cheese still gazed at the trapeze, eyes flashing as more things came to him. "Grampa was a big fan of Ponyacci, Equestria's Greatest Clown! He talked a lot about how cool it would be to meet that pony in person, instead of just watching him do silli-ously awesome tricks." Cheese scratched his chin. "It does feel like I met Ponyacci once, but it's kind of fuzzy. Maybe it was a dream where I made colorful bubbles, and he liked it, and taught me how to ride a unicycle."

That sounded a lot like dream logic for sure, but Tomato wouldn't have been surprised if those were involved when Cheese did meet Ponyacci. Perhaps if he could find that circus tent, maybe more Ponyacci-related memories would come back to him.

However, he stopped at the sight of a familiar corner, where a plain red brick building somehow stuck out from all the colorful towers. There was the large pizza sign above the large windows, proclaiming that particular establishment as a restaurant, and the spring green door that welcomed everypony who came to that corner. As patrons entered that door, the smell of pizza wafted to his nose, and his stomach gnawed at itself, growling in the universal language of hunger.

That couldn't be real. That could not be real. That corner was sold off after Grandpa Pizza and Grandma Mel passed away, and became a pawn shop. But, their pizzeria was there, in all it's glory, just as he remembered it from his colthood.

Cheese smiled, boosting his upper half on Tomato's head. "Hey, it's Gramma and Grampa's pizza place!" He looked down at Tommy and grimaced. "Oh, boy, how am I going to explain why you're so much bigger now?"

"Uh, magic?" Tomato said.

"Sure, I guess..." Cheese rubbed his belly, and when Tomato's stomach growled again, he giggled. "Yeah, we should get something to eat, and nothing beats Grampa's pizza!"

Tomato couldn't remember what his last meal was, and the thought of having Grandpa's pizza again, so long after his death... it was too tempting for Tomato to ignore. The perfect cheese-to-sauce ratio, the minimal grease, the crust that was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside--and sometimes had cheese in it!--and most importantly, how much love he could taste in it. With that in mind, he only answered with a nod and made a beeline for that corner building.

He opened the door, and the inside looked just as he remembered it. Booths with green benches lined the walls, and tables with chairs were standing on the checkered tiles. Pictures of Manehattan in the old days, ingredients of favorite dishes, and Grandpa's family hung on the walls, admired by the patrons of the restaurant. Tomato was drawn to one booth, where a picture of him and Cheese as colts hung, and he smiled sadly at the scene of two colts messily eating their grandparents' pizza and grinning stupidly for the camera.

Cheese hopped off Tomato's back, and onto the counter, where he rang a bell.

Tomato held back a gasp when his grandmother trotted in, as elegant as ever. Only Cucumber Melon could make the job of a cashier at a pizza place look glamorous and fun, and he recalled when he first picked up his early love of mathematics from her. He could smell her watermelon scent again, and seeing her light up at the sight of Cheese and hug him... it was even more tender than her remembered it.

He silently sat down at that counter, and just watched, his heart swelling so much that it hurt.

Cucumber stroked her grandson's mane. "Oh, Cheese, I was wondering when you'd drop by! It's too beautiful of a day not to have your dimpled smile around. How are you today?"

"I'm good, Gramma," Cheese replied.

Cucumber gave him her warm, wrinkled, matronly smile. "That's always wonderful to hear."

Tomato nearly jumped when Grandpa Pizza Pockets popped his head out of the kitchen, grinning his classic gap-toothed grin. "Aha! If it isn't one of my favorite musical buddies!" The rest of Pizza's body followed suit. "I hope you've been practicing your accordion, little stallion."

"Why would I want to stop?" Cheese said in a cocky tone. "It's kinda hard, but fun to play! Not to mention how much fun Tommy has dancing to it!"

The older couple laughed, slinging forelegs over each other's shoulders. Their eyes naturally shifted to where little Tommy would be sitting--only to see that adult Tomato was there instead, now feeling awkward that he was the only set piece that didn't belong in this scene.

The older couple blinked at the sight of Tomato. Glancing at each other awkwardly, they took a moment to process before Cucumber Melon said, "Oh, Tommy! You're getting so big! Tell me, have you been practicing your numbers?"

Tomato glanced at Cheese, who just shrugged, and then answered his grandma, "Uh... yeah! I've been practicing aplenty! I think I've got it down!"

"Oh, that's good, sweetheart." Cucumber patted his head. "You're a bright lad, Tommy. I'm sure you've earned a good cutie mark."

Tomato stared at her, and then with a sheepish grin, awkwardly raised his rump to show her the emblem on his flank.

"And what do you know?" Pizza Pockets chirped. "He got a talent where math is useful!" He nudged his wife and laughed. "We always talked about how he took after his father's side of the family, especially his Nana Nini, but apparently he inherited some of your family's business empire tendencies!"

Cucumber rolled her eyes. "Hope he doesn't turn into an overly strict, killjoy dictator like my parents... I don't want him to be perpetually unsatisfied with life. Besides, he'll still have to build his own business, thanks to my disowning ordeal years ago."

Pizza waved a hoof. "He'll be fine! Our favorite joy master Cheese will keep him in check!"

Cheese beamed, even though Tomato had expected him to be a little envious. There was something weird about how quickly his grandparents had accepted that their younger grandson was a stallion while their older one was still a colt. He wondered if they were a pair of ghosts just catching up to old news, or this was some kind of staged thing. His heart leaned a little more toward the ghosts idea, and thinking that made it sink.

He sighed, drawing his hoof on the counter. "Well... I guess that killjoy thing almost happened. You weren't exactly there to make sure we were still allowed to be kids from time to time." He took a deep breath and swallowed a lump in his throat. "Things haven't been the same since you were gone. Cheese earned his talent too--like you said, he's a joy master, or more accurately, a party pony--and he's good at it... but he only earned it because he got away from Mom. Me... well, I wasn't allowed to be a kid, or have feelings, or really anything besides read, do homework, or hold a not-fast food job."

He looked around the pizzeria and noted his grandfather's sad frown. He just realized how much of an insult that clause of Mom's standards for teenage jobs was. "Anyway... point is, I really miss you guys. I guess Cheese has some of Grandpa's jovial spirit, and I have some of Grandma's intelligence, but we can't replace you. I just wish I was there to say goodbye."

The older couple stared at him for a moment, taking in his words. Slowly, they slipped their hooves off the counter, and rounded out the door to meet Tomato in the parlor, and then wrap him in a group hug. Tomato choked out a brief sob before taking a deep breath and hugging back. Ghosts or not, they sure felt real and so warm. It was like the hug Cheese gave him at the Fall Festival--something that deep down, he really wanted, but thought he wasn't ever going to get again.

"Oh, we know, Tomato..." Cucumber said. "We miss you boys too. But we're still alive, so long as you and Cheese still remember us and still hold our influence. Like you said, you have some of me within you--but not just in finance handling or business affairs, but in how you would do so much to make sure another good pony prospers."

"And it's obvious that Cheese has some of me in him," Pizza Pockets said. "Even when he has little, he wants to make others happy. Just make sure he doesn't sacrifice something important in that pursuit--he might lose something precious. I kind of sacrificed discipline to try to make our girls happy, only for them both to be unhappy and to even lose Honeydew."

Tomato drew out of their hug. "Don't worry. I'm good at learning from mistakes, both mine and others'."

Tomato looked at Cheese, expecting envy to show up this time to ruin the moment. Thankfully, a glowing-eyed Cheese just sat there smiling, as if this was something he had imagined would happened if their grandparents met him as an adult. He didn't think too deeply on it, just relieved that he didn't have to deal with a jealous Cheese again.

Cucumber perked up. "Oh! I don't think he ever had his cutie mark party!"

Pizza Pockets gasped. "You're right! We better fix that! I hope you boys are not tired of pizza!"

Both Cheese and Tomato shook their heads, chanting that no, they weren't tired. As far as Tomato was concerned, it had been years since he had his Grandpa's pizza, and this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to truly have it again. Plus, Cheese was remembering stuff, so that was a little cause for celebration as well.

"Perfect!" Pizza Pockets ran into the kitchen, shouting, "Woohoo! Pizza party, everypony!"

Meanwhile, Twilight and the gang searched for a good Tomato-related memory. As time went on, the city, while not as crazy as the party uphill, did start to get a little weird like Cheese himself.

Rainbow Dash, while darting up for a bird's eye view, found some trapeze artists flinging through the city in their own little commute. Curious, she followed them until they ended up at a big circus tent downtown.

She swooped down to peek into the tent, only to see one of the wildest circus shows she had ever seen. Ponies danced along a tightrope like they were performing a ballet. Strong ponies lifted weights that held other strong ponies, who also lifted weights of their own. The clowns bounced and flipped around in a ninja pie fight, with an older one weaving around them and dodging each pie like a pro, and a young adolescent clown--one that she instantly recognized as Cheese--swing around on an accordion like it was a vine. All the while, the ringmaster was belting an energetic musical number.

When the others caught up to her, she beckoned to them. "Guys! Check it out! I think Cheese was part of the circus at some point!"

The others peeked in, oohing and aahing at the incredible show. Twilight pointed to the older clown, and said, "Hey! I see Ponyacci! Wow, Pinkie wasn't kidding when she told me that Cheese had been Ponyacci's apprentice."

Twosie watched blankly. "Well... Boneless is more familiar with this part of Cheese's life than I am. However, I do know that Tomato's most likely not here, being afraid of clowns and all. So, we best move on."

Fluttershy got the group sidetracked by a zoo, which had its strangeness immediately apparent by the presence of dinosaur zookeepers and unnaturally colored animals. They wandered around the zoo, reasoning that Cheese and Tomato would like a trip there. And when they asked one of the zookeepers if they've seen a Tomato Sandwich around, they were led to one, all right.

"Hi, I'm Tommy!" the little colt chirped.

They stared at the small colt for a moment, before Rainbow Dash said, "That's not the Tomato we're looking for."

"Oooh, he's so cute!" Fluttershy squeed. She crouched down to his level. "I bet you really like the zoo, don't you, Tommy?"

"Yeah!" Tommy replied. He hopped over her head and onto her back, making her squeak. "You have wings? Wow, a real pegasus up close! Did you know my brother draws himself as a pegasus a lot? Oh, oh! You have butterflies as a cutie mark? Does that mean you like bugs?"

He hopped to Rarity. "You're a pretty lady! And are you a unicorn? My Gramma's a unicorn! Do those diamonds on your butt mean your special talent is being pretty? Like my Gramma, except her cutie mark is a weird-shaped watermelon thing?"

He rolled to Applejack. "Are you a cowboy girl? My brother likes cowboys! Do you like apples? You have an apples cutie mark!"

He leapt onto Rainbow Dash. "Ooooh, you have rainbow lightning as a cutie mark! Do you have lightning powers?"

Rainbow watched as he bounced off of her, and started pinballing and popping up in random places around the group, asking various questions about their cutie marks--or in Twosie's case, his status as a giant rubber chicken. "Okay, he's giving Pinkie Pie a run for her money in hyperness. Maybe we were better off meeting him as a party pooper."

Twilight winced from Tommy shouting in her ear about how she was an alicorn and how cool that was. "I really hope Cheese's mind is just exaggerating, and he was... a normal kind of hyper. Little colts are rambunctious, you know."

Fluttershy grabbed the colt, and shouted, "Excuse me? Can anypony find this foal's parents?"

An older unicorn mare trotted to her. "Oh, I'm his grandmother."

"Hi, Gramma!" Tommy squealed.

Fluttershy hoofed him off to her. "Take him, please!"

They next checked an old western town, which partially resembled Appleloosa and Dodge Junction, but also had some buildings that looked like they were drawn out of a comic book. Applejack could not take her eyes off the ponies that resided in Appleloosa, especially since there seemed to be a few Braeburns among them.

"Okay, why is there more than one Braeburn?" she asked.

"Oh, more than one memory of Braeburn," Twosie answered. "Cheese really likes having him as a friend."

"My question is why some of these buildings look like illustrations..." Rarity said, looking around at the area. Then, she looked forward at the tall, dark, cowboy at the end of the street, with intense eyes and a soft smile. He looked illustrated as well, but that didn't stop her from admiring his features. "...or who that handsome character over there is."

Twilight tilted her head. "Why does he look familiar?"

The cowboy strode up to the group. "Howdy, ladies... name's Al Ammo, I protect this here town."

"Oh, I saw him on a comic cover when helping Spike pick out new comics to read." She tilted her head. "I had no idea Cheese was into comic books... or the Western genre for that matter."

"Well, now you know. This was one of his favorites," Twosie answered. He strode up to Al Ammo and they bumped hoof and wing. "Hello, Al! How have you been?"

"Just peachy, Twosie," Al answered. "What can I do you for?"

"Have you seen Tomato Sandwich around here? The girls are trapped in this mind and he's their ticket out."

Al scratched his scruffy chin. "Can't say I have." He turned and pointed to a neighboring town, which looked like the party zone threw up on it, painted it green and purple, and populated it with cartoon characters. "Maybe you should ask Mr. Bizarro, he sees a lot of weird stuff."

"Mr. Bizarro?" Twilight asked.

"His other favorite comic," Twosie replied.

After Mr. Bizarro explained that he didn't see Tomato either, they next checked a section of the city that resembled the Crystal Empire. They trotted through some strange mix of the Crystal Fair and the Equestria Games celebrations, only seeing a memory Cheese talking with a memory Pinkie and them laughing together. Twilight paused a moment, pondering if that was the main Cheese avatar.

When Twilight asked Twosie, the rubber chicken replied, "No, the main Cheese avatar's eyes glow, usually when he recognizes something. Also, I don't think he's in his normal form right now, because, you know, not a normal situation?"

Twilight looked at the memory Cheese. "Hmm... so, does that form mean he's secure?"

Twosie nodded. "I'm glad you catch on quickly." He looked around the fair. "I don't think Tomato's here; the Crystal Empire incident that Tomato was present for wasn't exactly a fun time for Cheese."

"I don't think I've flown a kite in a long time," Tomato said.

After the pizza party and Tomato's late cutie mark celebration, he and Cheese wandered to the park, where they had stumbled upon a pair of kites. Tomato recognized the kites as ones they flew years before, and that triggered another one of Cheese's memories. So, at the behest of the colt, they flew those kites, with Cheese trying to teach him all over again, just like the first time.

Cheese just gazed at his kite as it flew in circles. "Yeah, I remember the first time you flew a kite... it carried you and you crashed into a tree. You were really upset that you lost a tooth, but at least Gramma gave you a bit for the Tooth Fairy."

Tomato scoffed. "Well, I'm bigger now, so it can't carry me away."

Cheese giggled. "That would be weird if it did..." He turned to Tomato. "Hey, don't you think it's unfair that Mom didn't allow the Tooth Fairy to... uh-oh."

Tomato wasn't sure what happened. One second, he was flying his kite just fine, content with watching it soar above the park. Next thing he knew, an updraft had literally swept him off his feet, and he was carried along by the kite, as if life decided to repeat that incident for kicks and giggles.

"What, how?!" he shouted. "I was four when this happened last!"

Cheese dropped his kite and ran. "Use your big feet! Use your big feet!"

"My feet aren't that big," Tomato grumbled. He kicked at the ground to get some traction, but soon discovered that it was too late. He looked right behind him just in time to ram into the tree face first. As salt in the wound, the bark made for a rough ride as he slid down, right until he reached the ground and flopped onto the grass. Now he ached and his world was spinning.

Cheese winced. "You... didn't lose a tooth again, did you?"

"I'm okay..." Tomato slurred. "Just gimme a minute..."

After recovering from the tree incident, they went on to the edge of the park, finding themselves witness to what looked like Manehattan's big Summer Sun parade. As Cheese watched from his back and he himself leaned on the fence, Tomato watched in awe, seeing many different floats and balloons pass by. From the Daring Do balloon to the marching Celestia statue, it was certainly as big as he remembered his one time seeing the parade. Confetti rained down and candy was tossed, and floats bearing all of Equestria's beauty rolled forth.

He questioned how accurate some of those floats were, looking like stereotypes that a sheltered Manehattanite would assume of other places. He swore, if he were in charge of that parade, he'd look more into what was real about those places. Cheese would definitely be a big help in giving him ideas.

On one float, they spotted a one-pony band.

"Hey!" Cheese cheered. "It's that cool guy from the park that one time!"

Tomato found it a little odd, seeing as they met that pony in a park, when they were earning money through Cheese's singing. It was way back when Tomato had a little trouble counting to big numbers, but he still remembered that it was at the park, and that Cheese attracted a crowd with his singing. Little Tommy that day had no doubt been happy to have his bias toward his brother's amazingness confirmed, and he wondered if his little business idea that day had been an early sign of his eventual special talent.

Cheese waved at the one-pony band, who smiled, plucked an accordion off his back, and tossed it to the colt.

Cheese may have caught it before it hit Tomato, but the red-orange stallion was still a little annoyed. That was not how Cheese got his accordion! For one, there was no parade float, and two, the one-pony band actually talked to Cheese before hoofing it off to him. It was as if the two events of that day were conflated. Still, the sentiment was there, and Cheese was happy, and maybe they'll bump into Grandpa again to see how relieved he was to not have to buy an accordion for his grandson, and just jump right into the lessons.

Tomato didn't know why his thoughts jumped there, other than things were starting to get scarily familiar.

He was tempted to leave before anything else happened, but, then again, Tomato never got to see the whole parade before. Not to mention he didn't want to disappoint a currently happy kid. So, he stayed, and watched to the end to see just what were those really amazing floats that Cheese had talked about for years.

Staying for the parade was worth it. And now, Cheese and Tomato searched the park for the ice cream pony, all the while wrapped up in conversation that tended to be controversial for little colts, but not so much for stallions.

"What do mean you don't like fillies? They're ponies too!"

Cheese wrinkled his nose and stuck out his tongue. "Sure, but fillies are mean! They tell you you're ugly and a freak, and that you have extra cooties compared to the other colts. Not to mention all the adults think it's fun to pair me up with the worst girl in my class... I try to tell Mom that Balcony Flowerbox picks on me, but noooo, 'she'll grow out of it'. Or my teacher saying 'that means a girl likes you'. And then there's the other colts singing about our 'love', and calling me girly for dating even when I'm not!"

Tomato grimaced. "Well, it's a shame that all of that happened to you. I've met some girls who were really nice, and some of them are even my friends. I could tell you all about my friend Flora, and how she's good at helping ponies calm down and relax, or about Cirrus, how she's a great actress, and how much fun they're to be around."

"Did you give up that stupid crush for Creme Brulee?" Cheese grumbled.

"Not soon enough, I'm afraid, but I saw the light." Tomato's ears perked up when he heard music, and he turned to see that party he saw earlier, with a certain filly in the center of it all. "So... how about that filly? Is she bad?"

Cheese rolled his eyes and turned, only for him to drop his jaw at the sight of a younger Pinkie Pie, balancing on a ball and juggling rubber chickens. His eyes glowing once again, Cheese started to march over to the party in a trance. His eyes only moved to take in the party around him, the realization hitting him that this filly threw this party, making everypony so happy and eager to welcome him into the fold. He just about shrunk when Pinkie set his sights on him, but she hopped down to be face to face with him.

"Hiya! I'm Pinkie Pie!" she chirped. "What's your name?"

Cheese gulped. "I, uh... Ch-Cheeeeeee-aaaaaaahhhh, Slabbick inn--no, no, uh, Cheeeeeers--no, no.... Queso Fromage! Free Shavaca-Doo! Yeehonk! Okey-Dokey!" He blushed furiously and quickly hid himself in his hair, becoming a quivering brown bush once again.

"Aww, don't be shy, Okey Dokey!" Pinkie lifted up the afro to reveal Cheese, and took his hoof. "Come on! I have lots of games, and you can play with me!"

Cheese stared at her kind smile for what seemed like an eternity, before glancing back at Tomato. At his brother's nod of approval, Cheese turned back to Pinkie and nodded, and was then dragged into his first party game, Pinkie chattering excitedly all the while.

Tomato just had to smile at that event. He had heard the story of when Cheese first saw Pinkie before, but now he got to see it for himself. Granted, there were details different from the story, but perhaps it was for the best. Maybe it was skewed a little more toward what Cheese would have liked to happen. He also had to stifle laughter from Pinkie thinking Cheese's name was Okey-Dokey.

Still, even with the happy scene before him, there was something that gnawed at his mind. For some reason, events seemed a little skewed toward how Cheese remembered things--or wanted them to go. Even if he didn't realize it, the colt seemed to have control over this place.

There were many implications about that that scared Tomato.

After a while of searching--through the party tank observatory, to a soda fountain, to an ice rink, to Whinnyland, and many other locations, they ended up in a polka-dotted part of town. Rarity immediately blanched at the sight.

"Oi! What is with Cheese and his overabundance of colors in the wrong places?!" she exclaimed. "For Celestia's sake, Cheese Sandwich, you're an artist! You clearly have the understanding of how these things work, so why does your mind realm look like this?!"

Rainbow groaned. "Come on, Rarity! Some creep's trying to start a monster apocalypse and you're worried about how Cheese decorates his own mind?" She flinched when thunder boomed above her, and covered her mouth when the others glared at her.

"It is an assault upon my senses!"

Then, someone piped up, "Oh, I don't know about you, but I think it's beautiful!"

Realizing that none in their party had said that, they turned the direction of the voice. There, sitting atop one of the balloon lampposts, was a lavender mare in purple and gold jester garb. She sat with her legs crossed, bouncing her knee and waving at them with her blonde and raspberry tail. She wore a big smile that read part-friendly, part-smug, and part-joking, though there was an aura about her that said, yes, she seriously liked the polka dot buildings.

Rarity huffed. "Well, no offense, but I don't think Cheese will win any architectural design awards anytime soon."

Rainbow narrowed her eyes. "All right, who are you?"

The jester mare just giggled and stood atop the balloon. "A ghost that knows what you're looking for and where to find it." She hopped to another balloon, and then to another, and she turned around, having a more serious face. "Follow me! Things are going bad in Canterlot and Cloudsdale, and we need to get you out to stop it!"

As the jester hopped balloon lamp to balloon lamp, Twosie squawked like the chicken he was and pointed to her. "Girls! Cheese has seen that ghost several times this past summer! She even showed up in a couple of his dreams! Seeing her now, I just realized... she was trying to warn him about you-know-who!"

"Are you sure about that?" Applejack asked.

"Hmm... how do you know that it's not just his memory of that ghost?" Rarity asked. "She can't possibly know if anything's happening in Canterlot unless she was just there."

"Maybe she can enter minds, too?" Fluttershy shivered at the thought. "Goodness, the idea of having a ghost enter my mind makes me feel... um, violated."

"I've read legends that ghosts are magical apparitions summoned to foretell events that relate to the ghost's past," Twilight said. "And if she's here to help us fight against Wayer Rune..." She looked up at the sky apprehensively, expecting the crash of thunder, and was a little confused when nothing happened. Supposedly, Wayer didn't spill the beans of his true identity to Cheese. "...I have a feeling that she might be his wife, Jamberry Rune!"

Then, Jamberry shouted, "Are you coming?!"

Twilight looked amongst the others. "We better get going. A certain someone might be spreading his curse further than we thought."

At last, after Cheese had some fun in Pinkie's party, he and Tomato finally found that ice cream pony. With Cheese burying his face in rocky road, and Tomato pulling cookie chunks out of cookies n' cream, they just sat at a bench and relaxed, watching ducks (both of the rubber and real variety) in a duck pond.

It was certainly a wonderful day, with Tomato getting a little extra kick from being the older brother for once. Of all things that he expected, he sure didn't expect reliving some of the best parts of his and Cheese's shared childhood, and not having Fountain of Youth magic to keep him from remembering it. If every day could be that nice, then that just suited him just fine.

But even then, in the back of his mind, Tomato was sensing something off. Maybe it was the green sky that looked cracked. Maybe it was how unusually colorful the city was. Maybe it was how everything seemed to fit Cheese's ideal days, and while that was all well and good, Tomato kind of wanted a little fundraiser to run, or to find a business to study and learn from, or maybe even a book to read. Or have some fun with his friends with inside jokes and games he did only with them. And most of all, he wanted his big brother to be... well, his big brother. Some things just didn't feel right with Cheese being the younger one.

He kept on a brave face, so Little Cheese didn't question his state of mind. But this city they were in felt alive in some way, and this kid seemed to be in control. But the bigger worry was just where Wayer Rune was and what he was doing--he just woke up here after rummaging through the sorcerer's little mine lair.

"You know," Cheese said, interrupting Tomato's reverie. "Seeing those rubber ducks makes me think... we should both have rubber birds."

"Oh?" Tomato said.

Cheese nodded. "Yeah, with me having a rubber chicken and you having a rubber duck. That'd be funny."

Tomato pursed his lips and nodded. "Yeah, I can see you having a rubber chicken. Maybe you could give me a rubber duck for Hearth's Warming... or maybe my next birthday."

"I can remember that."

Suddenly, a pony leapt over the two of them, and they ducked. They peeked up, and watched the purple pony in jester garb bounding away. By the time that she reached the duck pond, the mare seemingly faded out of existence.

They unrolled themselves from their balls. Tomato blinked. "What was that?"

Cheese hopped off the bench, and trotted further to see if he could see the pony. "Wow... déjà vu."

Suddenly, a female voice cried, "Tomato Sandwich!"

Tomato's eyes widened, and he turned around to see Twilight and friends galloping toward him, accompanied by a giant rubber chicken of all things. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but several fast blinks told him that they really were there. They looked like they were in a hurry, with the relief that they found him mixed with the worry of something else.

"Oh, hey!" he hollered. His eyes shifted to the rubber chicken. "Wait... what's with the chicken?"

The girls caught up to that bench, and took a second to catch their breath. Twilight was the first to look up, with an annoyed look on her face. "That is Boneless 2, and he's been our host while we're here. We just ran all over town looking for you; what were you doing this entire time?!"

Twilight shout made Tomato jump off the bench. "Hey! I was planning on finding you guys, but first, I got lost. And second, well..." He stepped aside to show them Little Cheese, and rubbed his leg. "I got sidetracked."

The girls and Cheese stared at each other, with the girls all bearing wide eyes and O-shaped mouths, and Cheese dropping his ice cream and shrinking in, like he was trying to be a turtle withdrawing into its shell. There seemed to be a full minute of them processing what that meant, and Tomato half wanted the silence to be broken, but also dreaded what Twilight was going to say next.

Finally, Twilight spoke. "So... you were spending the day with a younger version of your brother?"

Tomato pursed his lips, and nodded.

"I didn't take him for the type to wear glasses," Rainbow said.

"Neither did I..." Rarity said. "And a pair of plain ones like that."

"Aww, he looks so scared," Fluttershy said.

"Well... I reckon you shouldn't let a child wander the streets of a big city alone," Applejack said.

Tomato blinked. "What, no questions on why he's now a kid? Well, I don't really know why that is myself, but I expect more than just you guys commenting on his glasses." He looked at Cheese, who was hiding in his own hair again. "Or how different he is from his adult self."

Twilight gave him a serious look. "That's because we're inside Cheese's mind."

Tomato blinked, now dropping his ice cream. "Wait... really? But how can we...?" His lips formed a tight line, and he looked at the ground. "Surely we..." He looked up at the fractured green sky and sighed. "I knew there was something weird about this place, but I couldn't put my hoof on it. Is that what touching his memory orb did?"

Lightning flashed and thunder boomed, causing Cheese's hiding spot to pop from its position and bounce back to the top of his head, forcing him to look at the adults. His eyes started to flash on hearing the memory orb thing, and those mares were starting to look more and more familiar as the seconds ticked on. He shivered as a cold wind blew, reminded that something wasn't right.

"Tomato, careful!" Twilight said. "Speaking of Cheese's current situation could cause a massive storm!"

"What? Why? It's not like he remembers anything past colthold at the moment! I've been going around all day trying to get him to recall stuff!"

The giant rubber chicken stepped forward. "Tomato, that particular Cheese is not a memory or a thought like everything else here; that's the incarnation of Cheese himself, and trust me, he remembers everything. He just pushed a lot of memories down so they won't bother him while he's in this state."

The sky rumbled, and Tomato snorted. "So, wait, are you saying I've been wasting time?"

"Yes!" All six yelled at him.

Appejack then said, "You should've just left him with an adult he knows and trusts. Here in Pleasant City, there's bound to be a lot of 'em and not so many cranky strangers."

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Please, tell us what you two have been 'recalling'."

Tomato glared at her. "Gee, I guess if I'm wasting time, I suppose I could have some fun while I'm at it! Maybe seeing my deceased grandparents again was something I wanted after not being there to say goodbye! Maybe I was overdue for a cutie mark party after I didn't get one thanks to a fight with Cheese! Maybe just flying a kite was all the relaxation I needed, or maybe seeing the rest of the Summer Sun parade would have been nice after my only time seeing it was cut short, when Cheese at least saw the whole thing before! Or maybe, just maybe, I wanted to see how Cheese first saw Pinkie! Maybe I just wanted a nice, normal day with my brother, because for the past month, I had to watch Cheese's life go to Tartarus! For all I know, Cheese created these scenarios to..."

His eyes widened, and something clicked. "...to make me happy. Because... it always made him happy."

He turned to see Cheese, his eyes glowing, and with a face that spoke of pain and world weariness that only adults should know. Tomato felt his heart sink at that, realizing that he only didn't remember the pain, because he didn't want to remember the pain.

"I... I can't believe you deceived me," Tomato said.

As the sky above him went dark, Cheese looked down at the ground. "Not just you, Tommy. I was deceiving myself, too."

As Cheese sat there, just staring at the ground and seemingly waiting for lightning to strike him, the others looked amongst each other in concern. As much as they wanted to comfort him, there was also the sense that they could make things worse. Besides, what he really needed was his mind to be put back in his body.

Applejack broke the silence with, "Maybe we should take him home before we leave."

Tomato sighed and looked at Cheese. "Yeah... you hear that, Cheese? I better get going, so how about I take you to Grandma and Grandpa?"

Cheese looked up at the girls and Twosie, as if he was accepting that the day was over, and Tomato had to go back to the real world. However, as he counted them, horror started to dawn on the little colt's face. "Where's Pinkie?"

Just about everyone blanched on hearing that. It had to be that question.

Cheese's brow furrowed into a glare, and he stood up. "Where is she?! I thought she would be with you!"

"Uhh..." Twilight croaked.

Fluttershy hid behind her hair with a squeak, while Applejack hid her face with her hat. Rarity shrunk, and Rainbow looked around for a good place to fly off to. Twosie just stared at them in both concern and confusion, knowing only a bare basic of what happened but not the details. Even so, their discomfort was hitting him hard.

Tomato did not blame them for not wanting to tell him what happened to Pinkie. However, when some lightning struck some nearby trees, reducing them to ashes and splinters, he realized that they were screwed either way.

Cheese's eyes landed on Rainbow, and his eyes glowed intensely. "You! You said earlier that 'the bad guy took her'."

Rainbow yelped. "How do you know that?!"

"This is his mind, Rainbow Dash!" Rarity snapped.

More lightning struck, this time decimating buildings. As those buildings crumbled into rubble, booms and crashes echoing throughout the realm, the colt still burned with anger. "What did Rooney do to her?!"

Twilight's face writhed with anguish as she said, "I'm sorry, Cheese, but she got bitten! Rooney sicced the werewolves on us, tired us out, and blocked my magic! I couldn't do anything to stop... you from biting her!"

Cheese looked as if she threw a spear in his heart. Trembling from the abundance of emotion within him, he looked down at the ground again, wind tousling his chocolate locks and the dark sky only lighting up with lightning and fracturing even more. "I bit her? I turned her into a werewolf? No... I couldn't have! She's too fast for that, how could it happen?!"

Twilight squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm really sorry."

Cheese kicked at the grass, snorting through his nose. The wind was picking up. "Why did she even get involved?! I didn't want her to get involved with this! She should have stayed home in Ponyville! She would have been safer if she just left me alone!"

"Cheese, you know she cares too much to just sit by and let you suffer," Fluttershy said.

Tomato looked frantically at the weather. "Cheese, calm down, we can fix this!"

Lightning struck between the brothers and Tomato was sent flying into Twosie's wings. Jittering and aching from the sudden strike, not even the burns he received hurt as much as seeing a young Cheese Sandwich, planted on the ground like a tree, eyes burning with a fierce, chartreuse glow, and with a voice that roared, "Everything would have been just fine if everypony just left me alone!"

The sky gave way, and the pieces rained onto them like they were broken glass, and they were only saved by Twosie whipping an umbrella out of nowhere and shielding them. Above, dark green storm clouds rumbled with lightning and thunder, and the breezes grew into gales that blew everyone off their feet.

The lightning was striking every part of the realm. Each strike made a building crumble, a cliff tumble, and a balloon lamp pop into an enormous explosion. The circus tent deflated, the observatory's telescope was snapped off to crash into the street below, and the building block tower tumbled, its blocks raining upon the city like giant hail. The bolts struck the fleeing memory ponies and the panicking memory animals, reducing many to ashes that were picked up by the wind.

The winds whipped debris from the lightning, and even tore into surviving buildings to carry even more victims out. Bricks and boulders were tossed about, slamming into more buildings that would fall. Dust was kicked up, and blown around to create a dust storm, blinding many. Lightning still did its deadly dance in the sky, and a cacophony of scream reverberating all around the realm.

In the center of it all, was a very upset little boy.

Tomato, Twosie, and the girls desperately held on to anything rooted to the ground--the bench, a tree, or even a rock--hoping that the lightning wouldn't strike them or that they wouldn't be blown away. It was hard to see with the dust, and the roar of wind and the endless wailing made their ears hurt.

Twilight and Tomato clung onto the bench together. Cracking open an eye to see him, Twilight said, "Tomato! You have to make him stop!"

Tomato gritted his teeth. "Why me?! What can I do?!"

"Boneless 2 said that Cheese trusts you, and that you're our key out! If you can get us out, maybe you can calm him down!"

"But I'm not a therapist! My friend Flora's better at that!"

"Trust me! He'll listen to you!"

Tomato held on tighter to the bench, all of his legs wrapped around it. He looked up, seeing the colt planted in the middle of a whirlwind. Without even time to take a deep breath, Tomato yelled, "Cheese! Cheese, can you hear me?!"

There was no response, but he continued, "I get it! You're angry and frightened and even sad! I would be too if I had gone through what you had! Somepony used you as their pawn, and ripped you apart until you didn't even feel like a pony anymore! I'm sorry that you were treated that way, you didn't deserve it! But, please, let us do what we can to make things right! We can save Pinkie, and we can save you!"

Cheese looked up, his glowing eyes welling up in tears. The winds started to die down.

Tomato smiled and nodded at him. "You've helped me so much when we were little... can you allow me to return the favor? Because I love you!"

The storm faded into gales, and the gales to breezes. Tomato let go of the bench, and nearly lost his balance from wobbly legs. Now wobbling over to the colt as slowly as he could, he took deep breaths, looking around in relief that Twilight, her friends, and Twosie were all still in one piece. Even then, his heart hurt at the once colorful city having become gray and crumbled, wasted away by a terrible storm.

He sat in front of Cheese, whose eyes went back to normal. "I'm here for you."

Cheese blinked his wet eyes. He hiccuped a few times before burying his face in Tomato's chest, and letting out his childlike sobs. He shuddered and hugged his brother tight as the tears flowed, clinging to him in order to absorb every ounce of comfort he could.

Fluttershy hovered from her tree to the two, and she sat down beside them, rubbing Cheese's back. "Oh... you poor thing."

The others followed suit, watching the scene before them. Twilight then said, "Don't worry. We'll make you whole again. I promise."

Cheese sniffled and hiccuped, still not looking at them, but nodding to showing he heard them. For now, he was just content to still sob in his brother's shirt. Tomato didn't mind; he just rested his head atop the child's curly mane, taking that moment to rest and think about what he had to do.

The thought of going back out to face wolves scared him.

Author's Note

So! This was kind of a hard chapter to write. It's a weird mix of groaner and doozy, so I was worried that I was going to take a month to finish it.

Nevertheless, I got it done! Anyway, I'm happy to finally write the scene inspired by this piece of music:

Can you guess which scene? Hehehe...

I also made a few references to this little fic, which still makes me squee because of how much the author absolutely nailed the spirit of the young Cheese and Tommy stories.

Anyway, it was kind of fun to have these guys explore Cheese's mind a little more.

23.3--My Own Personal Tartarus

It was quiet. Twosie beckoned the ponies, and they followed him through the park, heading for the road that would lead them to the mind realm's next level. They could still hear the howl of the earlier hurricane in their minds' ears, and much of the land appeared as if a party of tornadoes had danced through. They climbed over uprooted trees, many of them having turned gray, with leaves shriveling into dry, brown crisps. Others had been replanted upside down, with kite tails and picnic blanket alike sticking out from the ground. Benches were reduced to splinters that the ponies tiptoed around, and rocks were embedded in every tree, every patch of soil, and every structure that dared to stand in that park. Grass had been ripped from the ground--revealing barren dust instead of healthy soil--and drifted down from the sky like confetti. There was not a sign of life anywhere--neither pony nor strange sapient animal or object.

The city didn't look any better. Adding on to the problems of no life and rocks, dust, and grass confetti everywhere, the city looked like a warzone. Entire buildings had been leveled, many having turned to ashes. They rounded the severed telescope of the party tank observatory, which bore dents and gashes like if somepony had vandalized it. They passed the circus tent, which not only had been deflated, but flung into half a building, dangling and blowing in the breeze like a limp cloth.

Tomato, carrying a melancholy young Cheese on his back, stopped in his tracks when they passed one familiar corner. The pizzeria--what was once warm, once happy, once home--was nothing but a pile of bricks, with a couple of stone slabs poking out above the rest of the rubble. He stared at it for several long moments, his mind whirring back to the conversation he had with his grandparents earlier. The reality of this world not being real--just a projection of Cheese's mind--stabbed him, and he doubted that his so-called "closure" with Grandma and Grandpa even meant anything. He was snapped out of his reverie when the others called him, and he gave one final look before turning his back on the rubble and catching up with the rubber chicken and the girls.

It was soon clear to Twilight and friends that the party zone hadn't been safe from the storm. The twisted pieces of roller coaster that Rainbow had ridden had impaled various half-buildings and were speared into streets. Applejack recognized the scattered foods that were used in the food fight, now moldy and covered in dust and ashes. Rarity nearly cried at the torn banners drifting down from the sky, shrouding various patches of ashes like a burial garment. Yarns were tangled with popped balloons, and any confetti that joined the blades of grass in a midair dance crumbled into dust before they even touched the ground. Finally, Twilight noticed a lot of mirrors, all shattered, and all showing an adult Cheese Sandwich in everyone's place, his colors gone pale, his eyes having bags under them, and his normally perky forelock gone completely limp.

Everything was cold and gray, with Twosie and the group of ponies being the only splashes of bright color in the decimated city. They all pressed forward down the street, turning at a corner when a sign pointing to the "Negative Zone" appeared, surprisingly intact after the storm. All the while, they climbed or flew over debris and rubble, finding new party implements that were casualties of the storm.

As they neared the Negative Zone, Rarity broke the silence. "Oh... I never thought I'd miss those polka dots so much."

Pieces of glass crunched under Applejack's hooves, as she scanned the rough skyline. "I wish we coulda done more to help before it got this far."

Fluttershy had been looking at the twisted remains of the zoo, where the broken cages were completely empty and devoid of sound. As she teared up at the sight, she tripped over an item. Her body, especially her chin, was lucky to have hit a soft pile of dust, although the impact still sent a jolt through her body. Nonetheless, she picked herself up, and turned to see that the item she tripped on was a broken accordion.

Tomato caught up to her. "You okay?"

Fluttershy nodded, and hovered to pick up the accordion with both hooves. She looked at Tomato, and back to the instrument. "I think this was broken back in Aura Springs."

Tomato stared at it for a moment, and nodded. "Yeah. It's kind of tragic, Cheese Sandwich without an accordion. I remember how excited he was when a musician liked his singing and gifted him his first one, and how upset he was when I broke it." He rubbed the instrument and glanced back at Cheese still laying on his back. "I think he said his second one was a gift from one of his first friends."

Fluttershy's mouth was an O, but before anyone else could say anything, Cheese had turned his head her direction. Once he had his eyes on the accordion, he sat up, hungry eyes yearning to hold it despite its condition. Fluttershy was quick to get the message, and hoofed it off to him as carefully as she could.

Once it was in his hooves, he cuddled it like a security blanket.

At last, they reached the edge of a cliff, which overlooked a dark, gloomy city shrouded in mist. From what they could see, it looked like it had survived the storm, much against many hopes that it had been destroyed like the rest of the realm. When they complained about this to Twosie, he simply replied, "Unfortunately, the negative memories tend to be very hardy."

Though the stairs were only a few feet away, they just stood there, hoping to prolong their inevitable encounter with Cheese's fears. Part of it was that they just didn't know what was down there; they could be things that they could laugh off even if Cheese couldn't, or they could be horrific monsters. The other part was that they had a colt Cheese with them, and had no idea what to do with him.

"You think maybe we could find his house somewhere around here?" Rainbow asked.

"I don't think he has many fond memories of our colthood home," Tomato scoffed.

"Well, we can't just leave him alone, or bring him into the Negative Zone!" Fluttershy exclaimed, staring at the practically lifeless colt. "The poor little boy's scared to death."

"Isn't there any safe haven for him to stay in? Or somepony he trusts to watch him?" Twilight asked Twosie.

Twosie looked back at the decimated city. "I don't think there's either at this point in time."

Fluttershy ran up to the front of the group. "Maybe one of us can stay behind and take care of him! Surely Tomato touching the memories would get us all out automatically, no matter where we are! I just can't bear the thought of abandoning a foal in his time of need!"

Twosie rubbed the back of his head. "Well... I guess maybe that could wor--"

Suddenly, Cheese piped up, "No."

They all turned to the colt, who had jumped off of Tomato's back, and was walking to the edge of the cliff. His vacant expression had been replaced with a soft glare as he stared over the misty city, and he sat down. "I can't let you go in there without me."

"Pardon?" Applejack said. "Uh, Cheese, you're a young'n at the moment, and it ain't right to just pull you into danger."

"Applejack's right," Twilight said. "You're just too vulnerable, especially after having a meltdown."

"Yeah, but this is my mind," Cheese growled. "It's not like I'm gonna die within my mind."

Tomato blinked. "You do realize that that place is full of your worst fears, right?"

"And the things that annoy me, the things that angered me, saddened me, and my regrets." Cheese sighed. "I know what I've been avoiding. I always thought that if I pushed aside those things and pretend they didn't exist, then I would be happy and my life would be just fine. But when those things catch me off guard, like you at the Fall Festival, or how the werewolf thing hurt Pinkie... I just have a meltdown, and then nopony's happy."

Twilight's face softened. "That's why you let Wayer Rune remove the memories, isn't it?"

Cheese choked out a sob as he nodded, and glanced back at his brother. "I'm sorry, Tomato... this summer was supposed to be our time to bond like family, but it turned out to be a disaster." He threw a hoof against his forehead. "I never should have taken you on this stupid road trip!"

Tomato inhaled sharply through his nose, and exhaled the same way. The thought that Cheese willingly gave up that first memory made him want to scream, and hit Cheese for his stupidity. Yeah, maybe he shouldn't have taken him on this road trip if it meant that Cheese was going to put Tomato--and all of Equestria for that matter--in danger!

However, no matter how angry at him he got, it wasn't going to help the situation. Cheese didn't need a lecture; he had suffered enough because of that one mistake, and that got the message across. Tomato just needed to breathe, and calm down, and reserve his anger for the one who took advantage of Cheese's insecurity. Right now, the colt just needed a friend.

He walked over and sat down beside him. He sighed. "Look... I'm not happy that you let him take your memories from you in the first place. But, that doesn't mean that this road trip was all bad. If your goal was to make me feel happy and find new meaning in my life... well, you succeeded. This road trip gave me experiences that I never could have had by just staying in Manehattan! Seeing new places, making new friends, new opportunities to explore my talents... if it wasn't for you, I don't think I'd have really grown up. Making me happy was always your specialty, and you really nailed it this summer."

Cheese turned to him, looking up with those large, childlike eyes and a small smile. "You really think so?"

"I know so." Tomato tousled Cheese's mane, making both laugh. Then, turning back to the misty city, he frowned. "I did promise to return the favor, but I don't know. Are you sure you want to go down there?"

Cheese bit his lip, his voice squeaking more than normal. "Not really... but, I'm kind of the one in charge of my mind, so I was thinking that maybe by going and facing my fears, I could lessen the danger for you guys?"

Twilight grimaced. "I don't know... it's risky to just throw you in the among past traumas when you're still in the middle of one."

"I know." Cheese stood up, still staring down the cliff. "But, I want to make sure you get out of here safely. Even if the fears can't kill me... I'm worried that they could kill you. Just let me try to control them, okay?"

"We don't go down that easily, Cheese," Rainbow said, smirking. "But, hey, if you're up for facing your fears, then I'm totally behind you! I wouldn't have gotten into the Wonderbolt Reserves if I caved to my doubts!"

Fluttershy walked to Cheese's side. "I'll be here for moral support if you need it. I know quite a bit about facing fears myself."

"I'm still not sure about this," Applejack murmured. "But I guess if this is his mind and he is in charge..."

"Well, I suppose he did overcome his shyness to show the world what he's made of," Rarity said. "I hope he knows what he's doing here."

Twilight looked at Twosie. "Do you think he can do it?"

Twosie stood further apart from the group, grimly staring at the unsure Cheese. "Only if he believes he can do it. He better be prepared for it, because it's not going to be fun. In any case, we should head down now if you want to get out of here as soon as possible."

And so down they stairs they went, descending into the dark mist. The sudden cold of the cloud layer stabbed them, for a moment, it seemed that their coats were about to become ice. The light grew dim as dusk, and the earthen cliff walls had gone from a warm brown to an icy jet black. They could make out the lights of a dark city, though a gray fog made things fuzzy. The clearest thing that they could both see and hear was a circus tent right below them, blaring out the same joyful, epic tune that the one one level up had done.

Rainbow Dash paused to hover over the tent. "Hey, wait! Boneless 2, I thought his stint at the circus was a good memory!"

Twosie paused, and turned back to her. "Well, yes, for the most part."

From his perch on Tomato's back, Cheese leaned over to look at the circus. He immediately grimaced and blushed at the implication of that circus tent. "Oh, no..." He grabbed his wild mane and pulled it down to make a brown bush of himself yet again. "Aw, man, why did that have to be first?"

"Oh, no, did the circus abuse you?" Fluttershy asked.

"N-no, I--"

Before he could finish, the song from the tent finished. Suddenly, something snapped, and the whole thing collapsed. Crowds of ponies galloped out of the deflating tent, with others presumably trapped inside by either canvas or broken pole as everything flattened. Seeing the lumps and bumps of ponies trying to break free, an angry voice cried out, "Cheeeeeeese Sandwiiiiiich!"

Cheese groaned, feeling the eyes of the other ponies and chicken on him. "I hijacked the show and ended up tearing down the big top. I wasn't allowed to perform for some time after all the legal crud was settled. Had to clean up after animals instead."

Tomato just stared at the flattened canvas. "Why did you even hijack it in the first place?"

"Uh... I guess I was just... trying to impress... a, uh, girl?"

Tomato just nickered. "Do you just have bad luck in trying to impress girls?"

Cheese peeked out from under his hair just to glare at him. "Gee, thanks for the support."

"Let's... keep moving," Twosie said. "Already, we've encountered one of his greatest shames. I suppose it won't be long until we bump into a dislike such as--"

A pony suddenly fell from the sky, plopping in front of them with the sound of dried-out coleslaw mixed with potato chips and seemingly standing up like a minotaur. Applejack muttered a "What in tarnation?!" from the sudden appearance, and Rarity screamed the moment she noticed that the pony's lower half was nothing but a million tentacles made out of strips of old, pale yellow cabbage, matching the upper half's coat. With long, spring green hair, eyes of green sclera and red irises, a sweater and bow tie to match his eyes, and a devilish smile full of sharp teeth, this pony was the furthest thing from normal.

"Ooooh, lookit zhis! Seven leetle ponies and a rubber chicken to feed!" the weird stallion cackled. "Ja, ja... you shall suffer first under the wunderbar sourness, and soon, the vole vorld shall know the might of... Dr. Sauerkraut!"

As the girls just stared in bewilderment, Tomato shot a look at Cheese. "Really? Him? What's he doing here? He was just a part of our cowspy games!"

Cheese huffed. "He's here because I hate sauerkraut."

Twosie huffed and marched closer to the hybrid. "Now, listen, Doctor, you're gonna have to move--"

Dr. Sauerkraut smacked him off the stairs. "Nein!"

Twosie managed to grab onto the edge with his beak before he plummeted down, but he was still unable to pull himself up, thanks to limbs shorter than his neck. He muffled out angry curses as he desperately clawed at the wall in hopes of a little ledge to boost himself up on. Before any of the others could help him, Dr. Sauerkraut slithered closer to them, enough to be between ponies and chicken.

"Now, kleine stuten..." One of his tentacles grabbed Rarity and pulled her closer, making her writhe in disgust. "I do believe I vill feed zhis beautiful pony first! Yes, fill her figure, make her round, and make her an example unto all!"

Rarity's offended gasp was swift and sharp, and her disgust had powered into anger. Without even thinking about it, she raised a hoof and smacked him across the face and right off the edge of the staircase. "Keep your revolting excuse for vegetables out of my mouth!"

As Dr. Sauerkraut fell, the cabbage tentacle snapped, and Rarity was free. All the others could do was just watch in shock as the half-pony, half-vegetable plummeted down onto the collapsed circus tent, warbling out cries of terror. Landing on the tent only knocked him out, thankfully, but they still looked up at Rarity like she had just committed murder.

Rarity huffed. "What? He's imaginary, he'll be fine. Besides, I have a distaste for sauerkraut... not to mention his accent is atrocious."

Applejack pursed her lips. "I don't like sauerkraut none either. I'm more of a coleslaw pony." She looked at the dangling Twosie, whose beak was starting to lose its grip. "We better help him up."

They reached the bottom of the stairs, and walked through the gray fog to the city. There were thankfully signs that were pointing them to memory storage, so they reasoned that as long as they could follow the signs, they should be all right. However, the sound of a heartbeat that permeated throughout the area left them hushed, and unsure of what traps they'd spring. All they knew was that Cheese was still behind them, trying to perform breathing exercises to keep himself--and the telltale heart--calm.

The last stretch of road before the city proper cut through a cornfield--or rather, a syringe field, growing needles like corn. As unnerving as that was, the girls reasoned that they should be all right as long as they avoided the crops.

Then Rainbow Dash heard something.

"Look out!" she shouted, tackling Twilight. Just in the nick of time too, for a rubbery line had zipped right where Twilight had stood, and at the end, sticking in a corn stalk, was one of the needles. It sucked a green liquid out of the stalk, making it dry and wither into limp, brown death. The needle popped out, and whipped back to the stalk it came.

"Did it just... suck the life out of that plant?" Fluttershy asked, shrinking and shivering.

Tomato blinked and turned to Cheese. "Is that what you think of needles?"

Cheese clung to Tomato's neck. "No, my problem is they hurt! I just have Twilight taking my blood sample in mind!"

Tomato was about to reply, but then he noticed a stalk shooting a needle at him, and backed up to avoid it. Watching it suck the life out of another stalk, he muttered, "Okay, now I'm starting to get scared of needles."

After watching the scene in horror, Rainbow and Twilight scrambled to their hooves, and as a few more needles were shot, they both shouted, "Run!"

And run they did, and the cornstalks started to shoot at them in a frenzy. Fluttershy squeaked when a needle barely missed her hooves, nearly tripping her up until Applejack helped her. Rarity caught a few in her magic at a time, tying them together swiftly as she kept on galloping. Rainbow was nicked on the shoulder by one zipping past too close for comfort, and clutched the stinging red ribbon as she kept on flying and moving Twilight out of the way of the darts.

Twilight tried to blast the needles out of habit; unfortunately, the crystals on her horn prevented that, and all she was left with was a headache. She had to rely on Rainbow to move her and kick the needles out of her path.

Twosie hung back to protect Cheese and Tomato, batting away needles left and right with his wings and neck like a karate master. He whipped his head to mow down stalks, and pulled out needles from his body as he went. Though he tried to be quick, he could feel himself slowing down, even from the slightest drain from the needles that stabbed him. He felt like he was going to drop dead any moment.

"Are you sure you should take this journey with us?!" Twosie asked Cheese. "Needles aren't even the worst of it!"

Cheese tried to breathe slowly. "Come on, come on, come on... think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts..."

Suddenly, a needle pinned Tomato down to the ground by his shirt, and Cheese was thrown off, and Twosie tripped up. Tomato felt the sting of the needle scratching him, and the soreness of his chin, but he was otherwise all right. However, it was mainly because Twosie was taking most of the needles, and was starting to deflate.

The girls stopped and turned to see the scene. On seeing the rubber chicken turning gray, they gasped, and all darted toward him, in hopes of saving him before it was too late.

Cheese was on the ground, watching as Twilight and Fluttershy yanked needles out of Twosie, while Rarity, Rainbow, and Applejack kept swatting any new needles away, and even getting shot themselves. Screams of pain rang, but they just yanked the needles out and kept fighting, trying to prevent themselves from being withered into dust. Beneath them, Tomato was helpless, stuck underneath a chicken weakly telling him to stay calm.

Cheese breathed, squeezing his eyes to think of something, anything, that would save them. Something falling from the sky to crush them? All the crops just suddenly withering and dying before they drained the party? Thinking of something actually positive about needles?

Sure, needles could draw blood out of them... but, didn't they also inject some kinds of medicine? Maybe he could think of the needles giving them life instead of taking it! Taking a deep breath, he just thought long and hard about that, hoping that it would work.

After a few moments of Twosie dying and the girls getting weaker, suddenly, the rubber chicken started to inflate, and regain his bright yellow color. As he took a deep breath, the needles flew off, and went back to their stalks. Any needles that hit the girls, though they yelped in pain at first, restored their colors back to healthy luster and returned to their husks as well. Blinking and looking around, they wondered what happened until they saw an awed Cheese, who was panting.

The final needle released Tomato, and he got back onto his hooves. "Oh, thank goodness, he actually stopped it."

"I'll never look at a needle the same way again," Fluttershy droned.

"Huh..." Applejack said. "Maybe we do stand a better chance at survivin' with him around."

Twilight rubbed the leg where a needle had punctured. "Maybe. Still, we need to be more careful, because even if he's facing fears, we need to make sure that he's not put in a position where he's doing it alone."

Twosie rubbed his head. "Also, I don't want to find out if you really can die in here."

Tomato sighed, and walked toward his brother. He looked down at the little colt, who was sitting in the dirt and staring into space, and pondered on how how this little fella was for all intents and purposes a deity in this realm, and yet, was still a scared little boy.

He knelt down. "Hey, you okay?"

Cheese looked up and nodded with an, "Mm-hm."

"So... are you sure you want to go on?"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I've survived plenty of crazy stuff since I was a kid."

"You are a kid."

"Tomato, you know I'm actually an adult."

Tomato growled. "Okay, fine, whatever, we'll still bring you into the city of death." He motioned his head to urge Cheese to climb on. "We'll try to make sure you have better support from us than just... the entire group almost dying and making you desperate."

The group then embarked again, the rest of the cornfield walk being relatively peaceful. However, in a teasing attempt to lighten the mood, Cheese asked Tomato, "So... if my needle phobia is essentially evil needle corn, then what would your clown phobia be in your mind realm?"

"I don't want to know."

When they marched into the city proper, they immediately noticed that it looked a lot like Manehattan. Instead of the inhabitants being cheerful party guests or close friends and family, there were a lot of gray strangers, calmly marching about their business with scowls on their faces. They walked to the rhythm of the heartbeat, not missing a step like a normal pony would, and one yelled at Applejack when she bumped into him.

As Applejack glared at the pony who yelled at her, she muttered, "This is why I ain't a fan of the city."

Cheese, lying face up on Tomato's back and looking at the sky, pulled at his lower eyelids and groaned. "Yep. Not a fan of throwing parties here, either. A city with too many grumpy strangers for me to handle, and lots of stupid laws on what I can or can't do when I throw one here."

"Huh, no wonder you don't visit often, even after we made up," Tomato said. "Oh, and let's not forget our one and only moth--"

Cheese turned around and covered Tomato's mouth. "Don't say it!"

"Hey, now, what's wrong with your Ma?" Applejack said.

Rarity looked around at the area, remembering what zone they were in. "Surely, she cannot be that bad!"

"Well... she may have a few good points from time to time..." Tomato said, going between pursing and biting his lips during his pauses. "But, let's just say that she's a little lacking in... uh... empathy."

"Will you stop talking?!" Cheese snapped. "Now I'm thinking about her and that means--"

"Cheese Alfred Sandwich!"

The voice came out of nowhere. Both Cheese and Tomato had froze, with the wide-eyed look of confused panic that asked "What did I do?" The girls were confused at this turn of events, and looked around for the lady who had said that. So far, all the ponies they could see were just black and white, still walking to their beats. They turned back to the boys, who were now shrinking in fear.

"I heard about what you did," Mozzarella's voice snarled. "It just goes to show that you're still as ignorant as when you were in school."

Cheese nervously looked up at the sky, and waved his hoof in a motion that said, "Keep moving". Questions or not, they kept on moving, and looked at the various signs leading them to the memory storage. As they turned the corner, however, it started to rain papers, like ponies had thrown their documents out of skyscraper windows. Looking up, they could see that they were coming from the clouds.

One smacked into Twilight's face. "Huh? Wait a minute, he got a D in the history of Manehattan quiz?"

Fluttershy caught another paper. "And a C minus in science."

Tomato watched another paper waft by and winced. "Cheese, you did those math formulas wrong."

Cheese sat straight up, his mane bristling. "Well, gee, I'm sorry that they make math so complicated that it gives me a headache! I don't know how you do it!"

Rainbow watched several more scores ranging from average to bad flutter down. "I feel you, pal."

They had to duck and cover their ears when Mozzarella's voice thundered, "You're not going to get anywhere with those poor scores, young stallion!"

As the papers whipped through the wind , Fluttershy huffed, "Well! He wasn't going to get better if you say things like that!" A paper smacked into her face, and she practically threw it off. "Why not just say, 'Cheese, you're a smart boy, and I know you can do better'?"

"Maybe you should tell her off," Tomato grumbled.

Twosie was thunked on the head by a flying, broken diorama of the Equestrian government. "Ow! That blasted diorama! Urgh, and that was one that would have a least got a good mark for craftsmanship if it hadn't been for bullies!"

Twilight watched another paper fly by. "Hey, wait, that looks like an A minus in grammar."

"Emphasis on minus," Cheese deadpanned.

The skies roared with, "If you hadn't wasted time on that ridiculous instrument, you would have had better grades in school, or maybe even a degree, and surely a more stable life, and an actual career instead of that hedonistic road to nothing you're traveling!"

"Shows what she knows," Rainbow said. "Seriously, she should be proud that you're a great party pony!"

Cheese just laid down, his cheek against the back of Tomato's neck and his legs dangling. "Considering what happened to me, I wonder if I should have gone for a more stable life."

"Can we just keep going?!" Applejack shouted. "I think we get the picture!"

They trudged forward through gales--though thankfully not a hurricane like before--and continued to be smacked in their faces by Cheese's various school assignments. Most of them were on paper, but there were a few broken dioramas and art projects in the mix, which resulted in throbbing bumps on the head. All the while, Mozzarella's voice boomed above them like thunder.

"You have a roof over your head, an education, and I feed you, bathe you, and give you medicine when you're sick. And yet you have the gall to be ungrateful and not try to improve yourself!"

"Your brother has better grades than you did at his age! Why couldn't you be as smart and hard-working as that?"

"I don't care if 'they started it'! I'm ashamed of you for getting into those fights in the first place!"

"If you keep up those bizarre stunts of yours, then ponies will see you as a freak. And as far as they're concerned, freaks are not pony."

"Oh, don't give me those crocodile tears. Those are a weapon for selfish, spoiled brats to get their way. You're not a selfish, spoiled brat like the rest of your peers, are you?"

Phrases like those kept ringing out through the city, and both Cheese and Tomato shrunk at each of the phrases. There were plenty involving Mozzarella asking Cheese why he couldn't have good grades or be more social like his brother, and Tomato could feel the inhabitants of the mind realm turning to look at him, shaming him for daring to actually do good in school. Meanwhile, the girls, while confused at first, grew more and more uncomfortable with just how many of those reprimands there were.

"Sheesh, glad that's not my mom," Rainbow said.

"Didn't she ever pay you any compliments or encouragement or... or..." Rarity tried to finish the question, but couldn't think of a final thing to add to it.

Fluttershy finished it with, "...anything that didn't strike at any insecurities you had?"

"You would have heard them in the Pleasant Zone," Twosie said. "And only if you knew where to look."

Cheese just numbly watched the graded papers waft by, now with Tomato's good grades blowing in and starting to laugh at him. An A here, an A there, A's that he was tempted to say were short for a certain word. After all, what else could they call papers that went as far to chant, "You're so stupid! You're so stupid! You got a brother that's smarter than you!"

Tomato grabbed one of the papers, and looked it in the eye. "Shut up! The brother doesn't appreciate Cheese getting mocked like that!"

The paper laughed. "Well, he is stupid! Equestria wouldn't be in danger if it wasn't for him!"

Tomato snorted and ripped that paper into pieces. "Don't listen to them, Cheese. You can make art, make music, build things, fix things, navigate an entire country, and speak several languages. And that's without mentioning your street smarts. That's smart, just a different kind from mine."

"Would it really please Mom?" Cheese grumbled.

"Cheese, you didn't care what Mom thought since you left! I'm the one worrying about Mom these days," Tomato said.

Their mother's voice then declared, "How can you expect to climb the social ladder if--"

Tomato jumped up to standing on his hind hooves, and pointed at the sky, shouting, "Shut up, Mozzarella!"

Twilight groaned. "I'm with you on getting tired of hearing her voice." She looked up at the next sign, and the group pressed forward down the street. "If we hurry, we can escape the nagging and the evil chanting paper, and get to the memory storage so Tomato can get us out of here!"

Rainbow hovered down to Applejack, and whispered, "I think the nagging's contagious."

"I heard that!"

Applejack stifled a little laughter before growing serious again. "You know, we haven't bumped into anything real life-threatenin' since the needle field. Does this mean we just have to ignore those for the rest of the way, or is this just the calm before the storm?"

Before anyone could answer, the crowd suddenly scattered at the sight of a large party bomb rolling down the street. While any other bomb would be worrisome, the girls knew that Cheese's party bomb was much like Pinkie's party cannon--a quick way to set up a party.

However, both Cheese and Twosie's eyes widened. The latter grabbed the girls, and they took off around the corner of the intersection, with Cheese spurring a confused and annoying Tomato on. "Oh no! It's the malfunctioning party bomb!"

"Whoa, whoa!" Rainbow shouted. "What do you mean, 'malfunctioning'? Doesn't Cheese know what he's doing?!"

"Most of the time, but in this case--"

The bomb then exploded in a great eruption of flames. The hot shockwave sent the group flying forward, and rolling on the street--some on their sides, and some forward in a somersault. Despite scratches, slight burns, headaches, and other aches, the ponies in the group were just fine. The same could not be said for all the grayscale adults in that intersection, who boasted a harsher range of severe burns, heavy bleeding, and clear head injuries. They couldn't see much of the gory detail from where they were laying, but that suited them just fine.

Cheese looked at the scene, and curled up in a ball. "This used to be the worst day of my career. Plenty of ponies in the hospital and I was banned from that town. If I had just checked on that stupid bomb before using it!"

Tomato pursed his lips, and rolled to his belly. "Well, uh... at least you didn't kill anypony." He let Cheese climb on before standing up. "But... I don't know. All I can say is that we all have to live with mistakes. If anything, at least you're wiser about your gadgets now."

The others got up, and prepared to look for a detour to the memory storage--only for something to swoop down and snatch Cheese right off Tomato's back. It was so fast that no one had time to even flinch. They gasped right after it happened, and they spun around to look at the entity that had carried Cheese into the sky. They had expected a large bird or dragon to have taken him, but instead it was a pegasus foal, carrying Cheese by the tail. Regardless, Rainbow Dash sprung into action.

She caught up with them to see that the pegasus was bouncing Cheese by the tail, and periodically dropping and catching him. Cheese whimpered and screamed with each drop, and was looking a little green from being upside-down and bounced about.

"Oh, what's wrong, Mr. Wonderbolt?" the pegasus sneered. "Aren't you gonna grow your wings?"

"It was just a daydream!" Cheese cried.

"Psht, come on! I thought you could do the impossible! So, grow your wings!"

He dropped Cheese again, this time letting him fall for a few seconds more before deciding to catch him. However, Rainbow Dash beat the kid to the punch, zooming forth to catch Cheese in mid-air, and holding him with a firm grip. She then turned around, and glared at the confused colt.

"Hey, kid, that was too far!" she scolded. "You don't just drop ponies you don't like out of the sky!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, it's just a game, ma'am," the colt sputtered.

"Just a game? Basketball is just a game, what you're doing is torture! You know earth ponies can't fly! Now I don't want to see that kind of so-called 'game' again, understand?!"

The colt pouted and put his hooves behind his back. Out of shame and apparent avoidance of the simple act of apologizing, the kid just disappeared into thin air in a puff of smoke. Rainbow stared at the smoke for a few moments before turning to Cheese.

"You okay?"

Cheese nodded.

Rainbow smiled. "Hey, I'm totally cool if you want to daydream about having wings. I mean, they are awesome."

She flew back down to the others, ready to tell them that crisis was averted. Unfortunately, as she was descending, she found that the group was now surrounded by a bunch of foals with blank eyes. Even from where she was, she could see the vacant stares of them boring into everyone's soul, which made her second-guess her landing for a moment. Regardless, she landed, and set Cheese down.

And then, the foals' eyes literally lit up, and shone right on Cheese, who went stiff at the realization that they were looking straight at him.

They pointed, one said, "Hey, is that a new kid?"

Tomato blinked. "New kid? We never moved."

"No, it's the four-eyed freak!" The crowd of foals then roared in laughter.

Cheese instantly hid behind Twosie, who was the tallest creature in the area, and the rest took to shielding him through layers of grown up ponies. And yet, despite all that, they could see one sinking into the ground like a ghost, and then popping up right behind Twosie to grab Cheese, and then go back in the street right before the ponies could jump forward and grab him.

Tomato's chin hit the sidewalk, but that didn't stop him from getting back up. Looking at the spot where they sank through, he asked, "Where'd they go?!"

They all stood up and looked around, the crowd all laughing and scrambling elsewhere, some darting and some waddling, and some flying and some phasing through the street. Twilight watched the pattern of how they ran, and said, "Come on! Let's follow them!"

In following them, it wasn't long before they found Cheese, where a foal skating on just two roller skates was skidding around a street, dumping Cheese's head into a bucket periodically and then using him to mop the road. Spectators cheered that foal on, especially when Cheese was dunked into dark, soapy water, his gargled screams bringing more laughter to the crowd, even as Twilight and the girls watched in horror, and Tomato and Twosie winced.

"They didn't really use him as a mop, did they?" Rarity asked.

"Maybe we can take comfort in the fact that this place is, um... exaggerated," Fluttershy suggested.

"Actually, they did use him as a mop," Tomato said. When they turned to him, he sunk down to below their heights. "There weren't any roller skates, though."

Twilight sighed, and nudged Rarity. Rarity, getting the message, grabbed the coughing Cheese with her magic and pulled him away from the moppers. The crowded turned to the group, seeing them squeeze water out of his mane and trying to dry him, and immediately started to boo.

"Oh, hush up!" Applejack shouted. "You can play your game with a real mop!"

The crowd still booed, shouting things such as, "But it's more fun with Curly!" and "But it's all the blank flank is good for!" and many other nasty things that all sent the message that they thought very little of Cheese. The group tried to ignore them as they took care of Cheese. They noticed that Cheese's glasses were missing, and tried to start a search for them, but that was halted once the crowd started to pelt produce at them. With that, they had to run away, with Cheese in Twosie's wings.

"Dagnabbit!" Applejack said. "Why are these foals so dang mean?"

"I've met plenty of nice Manehattanites!" Rarity shouted. "Cheese, explain the bullies!"

"I'm shy, have big hair and glasses, a late bloomer for the cutie mark thing, and generally considered a freak of nature. That's a recipe for being bullied anywhere!"

"Oh, my recipe's a little different," Tomato said. "Being a crybaby over my brother, a nerd, a lying liar about my cutie mark, and also being a freak of nature. But, hey, us bullying victims oughta stick together."

"Oh, I was bullied for being shy and a weak flyer," Fluttershy said. She jumped at the sound of a bad accordion, and spun around to the building from whence it came. "Oh! I think I found the glasses!"

The rest of the group stopped. They looked to where Fluttershy pointed, and sure enough, there was a kid wearing Cheese's glasses, singing in a nasally voice, "Oooooh, I'm a big weirdoooooo! I have four eyeeeeeees, and I pick my noooooose! I'm a wimpy blank flaaaaaank, who squeaks like a moooooouse..."

Tomato scowled. "His voice is not that nasally!"

"I'll get the glasses," Rainbow grumbled.

As she flew up to the window, the kid suddenly teleported to the next building. Rainbow jumped when that happened, and stared in confusion for a brief moment before heading to where the kid poofed to. Unfortunately, he teleported to another building, and Rainbow zipped to the new location before he teleported again.

Rainbow looked down at the others. "Uh, you know what? I'll catch up! Just get to the memory place!"

As she flew to the next building, the others noticed the spotlight-shining eyes of the kids, which had turned red. Even worse, the foals had grown sharp teeth, and screeched for their favorite toy to break. They once again summoned rocks and rotten produce into their hooves, and chucked them at the ponies and rubber chicken. With each hit resulting in a new bruise and bump, they darted around the corner to escape. They didn't stop running for a while.

Now having hidden themselves away in a deeper, darker part of that urban jungle, they stopped in an alley to catch their breath. They debated waiting for Rainbow Dash to find them with glasses in hoof, or going forward to the memory storage, where Tomato was going to automatically release all of them anyway. Some of the group took some time to scope out the rest of the distance to the memory storage, Twilight dragging Tomato along for a reminder lecture on what he needed to do and why he was the one who had to.

Drying off Cheese with some old curtain, Rarity just listened to the colt vent.

"Argh! I'm so stupid!" Cheese yelled. "I let myself be a sitting duck for my colthood bullies, instead of, you know, imagining them as adults? Because last time I saw them, they were just living normal lives and not even remembering me as the kid they bullied until I reminded them. I think they were ashamed of it when they remembered. So why didn't I remember that? Why did I just let them use me as a mop?"

"I suppose that it's hard to think in the heat of the moment, Cheese," Rarity said. "And even then... it is hard to overcome fears and shortcomings. I remember finding it hard to embrace my Ponyville heritage when rubbing elbows with the Canterlot elite."

Fluttershy sat next to her. "And it took me a long time to overcome my shyness. I just had to remember it's okay to take baby steps."

Cheese blinked, before looking away. "Yeah, I know about the overcoming shyness part. Honestly, I often doubt that I did overcome it. I'm still hiding from the world, but in a different way."

Fluttershy put a hoof on his shoulder. "I'm guessing that you don't trust very many ponies with the real you, huh?"

Cheese shook his head and sighed. "It's not like anyone cares. Heck, how I do know you're only involved because Pinkie got involved?"

The girls looked at each other and then back at him. Rarity cleared her throat. "All right, that may be the main reason why we're here. Even so, even if I don't always agree with your style, it is absolutely dreadful to see your life falling apart and your creativity snuffed out by some monster. Pinkie or no Pinkie, what we've seen shows us that you are a wonderful pony worth loving. Perhaps someday I'll make you a nice suit to wear for any special parties you want to throw."

Cheese sunk his head in his shoulders bashfully. "Really? Well, okay, I guess if you want to do that..."

The others returned from their examination of the street. Applejack started off with, "All right, everypony, we've got some good news: we ain't too far from the memory storage. It's just a couple of blocks away, so we should be out soon."

"Oh, thank goodness," Fluttershy said.

"Bad news is that Twosie said that some of the really nasty stuff is in that final stretch," Twilight said. "We need to be really careful, because as much as I'd like to..." She scowled and pointed to her horn and wing. "I can't do anything to protect you. Ugh, I can't believe I was so useless this entire time!"

"And usually I'm the useless one," Tomato said.

"Anyway..." Twosie said, looking around the corner. "Let's get going. Hopefully Rainbow Dash will show up and kick some tail when we need her." He strode forward and picked up Cheese, noting his lack of glasses. "Try to think of any positive spins or outcomes of any fears to fight these monsters, okay?"

When Cheese nodded, out into the street they went. They could see the dome right there, at the end of a dark, barren street that lasted only a few blocks more. It was cold, like they were trudging through an arctic cave. They quietly plodded along, scanning the buildings and alleyways for anything that could jump out and attack them. Broken windows, bent lampposts, and graffiti coating the walls made them wonder about criminal activity, and what kind of monsters they were about to face.

Tomato then noticed something about the buildings. There was a pyramid with a red tip shining in the darkness. There was the Trottospere, trapped in dark clouds. There were hotels that he knew should be brightly lit, but they weren't. One even had a dancing fountain in front, filled with red liquid that he really hoped wasn't blood. Finally, one intersection was just them crossing a bridge, over clouds. As he noted the similarities to Las Pegasus, it dawned on him just what they would face if they didn't hurry.

About halfway there, a shadowy figure in the form of a wolf emerged from the street. Stopping in their tracks, they looked at each other for a plan, knowing that in the negative zone, no one was friendly.

The shadow wolf grinned a wicked grin. "Ah, so Cheese invited a pity party in his mind. Pathetic."

"All right... who are you?" Applejack asked.

The shadow wolf stood up, and started to pace. "Isn't it obvious? I'm the dark magic that twisted the mind of Cheese Sandwich once he drank that enchanted water. I have to say, it was a lot easier to twist it since he so foolishly removed the negative memories that vexed him so."

He turned into smoke, and got up into the frightened Cheese's face. "His confidence turning into arrogance, his anger turning into bloodlust, and most deliciously of all, apathy of another party pony, born by removing her status as inspiration and light in the darkness, turning into jealous hatred. It's a shame your jester magic cannot survive when you have blood on your hooves, because imagine how much more damage you could have done with it."

Twosie pushed the wolf away. "Hey, back off! We don't need you getting in our way."

The shadow wolf growled. "Rude much, aren't we? I suppose you're sick of being stuck in someone else's mind. You poor souls wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for the one memory that tipped him over into his dark path..."

Tomato's eyes widened as the wolf looked straight at him with its green eyes, and then whistled. Of all things, he hoped it didn't call what he feared it was calling.

But it was just that. From the sky, a winged creature dove down and landed right in front of them, cracking the street beneath. Large bat wings stretched from the creature's back, and it looked up to reveal red eyes, long needle-like fangs, and messy, dark brown hair with a distinct forelock. Standing up fully, clad in the same white button shirt that Tomato wore, was his vampire form, grinning wickedly at the group.

"No..." Tomato said, backing up.

The shadow wolf chuckled. "Cheese feared that this was still a part of you, Tommy, that you would transform back and suck the life out of him. Seeing this happen to you, leading to a cataclysm that he felt he could have prevented, was why he wanted to forget. It's too bad that the same would later happen to him, though with a different animal."

The ponies and chicken suddenly heard hissing and cackling above them, and looked up to see many more vampires, either in the sky, perched on buildings, or hanging upside-down from lampposts. They all backed up, their hearts racing--especially as the cackle of Kazam rang through the avenue.

Twilight looked around at the rest of the girls. "Okay... this should be somewhat like fighting the changelings. Just remember, don't let them bite you--I don't know what'll happen here in Cheese's mind."

"Even the ones that look like us?" Applejack asked, pointing to a building.

"Wait, what?" She scanned a row on that building, that did indeed look like all six of them--including the absent Rainbow and Pinkie--as vampires. "Cheese, why did you imagine us as vampires?"

Cheese shuddered. "I don't know..."

The vampires all hissed and leapt toward them, aiming for their necks. While the rubber chicken took the blind colt to the nearest alley to protect him, the ponies all went into battle with all they had. Applejack went in with full bucking strength, bucking away every vampire that dared to jump her from behind. Rarity chopped and kicked her way through like a martial arts master, and used her telekinesis to grab one by the tail and throw it into another. She then whirled around to punch another square in the face.

Fluttershy imitated a vampire's creeping, hoping that maybe somehow she could talk with these creatures. After all, weren't they part animal? Not to mention she had been one before--a fruit-eating one, but still--so maybe she could understand them better than any other?

"Listen, I know you're hungry, but don't worry, we'll turn you back?"

She rolled out of the way when that vampire leapt at her, squeaking in fright. It was then that Twilight reminded her, while busy having a wing fight with a vampire of her own, "Fluttershy! These are not real ponies! They're projections of Cheese's mind!"

"Oh, right," Fluttershy said. "Oh... now what do I do?"

She continued to dodge, only reluctantly getting hits in to keep the vampire away.

Twilight, currently magicless and with one broken wing, had to use her other wing to swat vampires away. She used said wing to pick up debris and chuck it at them, screaming all the while. She cursed in her mind about how when she needed magic to fight, it wasn't there, and she only had one wing to fight with.

When startled by herself as a vampire, she tripped on a pothole, and landed on her hurt wing. The pain shot through her body, like she was struck by lightning, and she could barely move. She watched as the vampire hovered over her, cackling and looking straight at her neck. It licked its lips, and descended, preparing to feast.

And then Rainbow Dash zoomed in and kicked it in the face.

Sending vampire Twilight flying, Rainbow nodded in triumph. She then went down and helped Twilight up. "Sorry I took so long." She gestured to the scorch marks all over her. "The evil foals got laser eyes."

"Well, I'm glad you made it, because we just need to get through those vampires and we're home free," Twilight said.

Rainbow turned to watch the others as they fight the vampires and grinned. "Sweet! This is gonna be like the changeling invasion!" She looked at the glasses in her hoof. "But first, I gotta give these to Cheese."

"In that alley," Twilight answered, pointing with her wing.

"Cool, I'll be back in a sec."

Rainbow zipped to the alley to hoof off the glasses to Cheese, and then zipped back to join the fray. Cheese put on and readjusted his glasses, and peeked around the alleyway to watch the battle. Rainbow was clearly having fun punching and kicking around the vampires like she was in some sort of game. Applejack and Rarity were putting up a good fight with their respective bucking and martial arts maneuvers. Fluttershy was a more fierce fighter than he thought, even as she clearly did not enjoy beating on imaginary vampires. Twilight was at least using her wing to slap vampires and throw stuff. But, Cheese's eyes were on Tomato, who was fighting his vampire self.

Tomato hopped on his counterpart's head, covering its eyes like he had done to Roanie earlier that summer. When thrown off by a pair of wings, he landed face first in the pothole. As his counterpart moved in for the kill, thinking that Tomato was down for the count, the real pony spun around, and spit mud at his eyes. As the vampire Tommy screeched, the real Tommy bucked it away as hard as he could, and somersaulted out of its reach.

Back and forth they went, with Tomato throwing rocks and Tommybat swatting them away, and going in for a tackle. However, even with a cropped tail, Tomato managed to use it to bounce over the vampire. He yanked out a pocket watch from behind his back, twirled it, and then slung it to hit Tommybat on the head. He dropped down for a tackle, only to be pushed away by a pair of bat wings and whipped across the street. Finally, when seeing the vampire fly toward him, Tomato pulled out the fruit firework launcher and started shooting his counterpart with a seemingly unlimited supply of fruit fireworks.

Cheese sighed. "Wow, look at him go. To think that when this road trip started, he was just a burden that I had to save all the time. I didn't think I'd see anything like this from him, when I'm the one in need of saving."

Twosie nodded. "Yeah, but I don't think any of them can fight forever. Can you try to remember what you did to defeat the vampires?"

Cheese snapped his head around, his eyes aflame. "I didn't defeat the vampires! Trixie did! I was dropped from the sky, and set to go splat on the pavement! Do you know how helpless falling from the sky with no way out makes you feel?! If it wasn't for Tomato, I'd be dead!"

He slumped forward, a lump in his throat. "Boneless 2... I'm not supposed to be this pathetic, helpless colt. Cheese Sandwich is not supposed to be nothing. I thought I left it behind when I became a party pony, but now... someone took everything away from me. He even took you... and Pinkie Pie!"

Boneless 2 pulled him in for a hug. "There, there, buddy... I know it seems hard. But remember, you stopped the needles, so I know you can stop the vampires. I think if that crazy Kazam didn't get in the way, you would have tamed all the vampires by yourself. And I know you think you lost everything... but, I don't think I need to remind you that you didn't lose your brother."

Cheese pursed his lips, and turned back to the fight, where Tomato continued to blast his vampire self with fruit fireworks. "Maybe... but he did lose me."

Before Tomato could fire the last shot, Tommybat suddenly shrunk into a foal form, and lost the wings to appear normal. Looking up with innocent, green eyes, the little Tommy said, "You wouldn't hurt a foal, would you?"

Tomato stopped, and stared at his other self. Backing up, he questioned if what he was seeing was real--well, real in mind realm terms--and kept looking at his weapon as if he was in a silent argument with it. While he was in his little debate, the little Tommy smirked, summoned an accordion from behind his back, and pulled it like a slingshot. By the time the real Tomato looked up, the accordion was launched, and smashed into his face, knocking him down and breaking the thing at the same time.

"Oops!" Little Tommy said. "I broke Cheesy's accordion... just like you did!"

Tomato sat up and held his nose, which didn't just throb, but screamed in agony. He swear he felt blood gushing out of it, but he didn't see any of it. He just looked up to see that Little Tommy had now summoned lots of ponies, all holding the same evil smirk he did. Walking up to the real Tomato, he said, "Look at all my friends! I have lots and lots of them! I sure don't need my brother anymore!"

That struck Cheese in the heart, realizing that was once something that he had thought when Tomato made friends.

Tomato's jaw went slack. "What? I never said that!"

"Sure, but you kept on visiting friends and playing with friends and talking about your friends... actions speak louder than words, Tommy!" Little Tommy flashed, and was dressed in a graduate's outfit. "Not to mention how everyone talked about how smart you surprisingly were... how you were a shoo-in for success when big brother was destined to be nothing!"

He shifted into teenage form, circling Tomato like a vulture. "And let's not forget the Super Duper Party Pooper, always throwing the rotten tomatoes at big brother's ideas, not caring for all the crazy stuff he did. Cheese always wanted you to like him again, but you always made it so hard with that grumpy, killjoy attitude! What, was he cutting into your time of being Mom's perfect, ambitious son?"

Tomato started to shrink with guilt, watching as the other one morphed into an adult, looking nearly identical save for a fancier suit, and a lack of forelock. "All work and no play makes Tommy an industry giant, taking over Manehattan and spreading to every town in Equestria! Cheese won't be able to escape the fact that this is what his mother wanted, not some ridiculous one-pony circus who indulges in selfish, drunken pleasures! Maybe I'll hire a hitpony to get rid of that embarrassment once and for all... just like I did with the competition..."

The other Tommy regrew his wings and fangs, and chuckled darkly over the shuddering real Tomato. "I guess Tomato Sandwich was always destined to be a blood-sucking vampire."

Cheese watched as the two Tomatoes faced each other, with the mind one morphing over and over in order to remind the real one just what Cheese thought of him during their feud. His heart ached to see just how poorly that he once thought of his brother, and how much Tomato was hurt by it. So much heartache, because Tomato had simply been careless, as the broken accordion had attested to.

But, then, he realized the mind Tommy was being malicious--something the real Tommy never had been.

Jarred by that inaccuracy of that narrative, a new fire burned within him, and he couldn't believe his own mind was bringing up old wounds just to make Tomato vulnerable. So, before Tommybat could lunge at the real Tomato, Cheese darted out of the alleyway, ignoring the warning that Twosie shouted, and slid in between them. Tommybat jumped back when a colt Cheese jumped in, glaring him down like a wolf.

"You are not my brother." Cheese's eyes glowed with intensity. "You're only half the story."

Tommybat blinked, and laughed. "Half the story? Come now, you're not going to deny any thoughts and memories you had, are you?"

"No, I know what I thought. But how do you expect me to accept you when I now know Tomato's side of the story?" Cheese glowed, and he suddenly grew taller, now becoming a teenager. "How do you expect me to accept you knowing that it was my jealousy and pride that created you?"

He stepped forward, making Tommybat back up out of fear for the glowing adolescent now preying on him. "Yes, Tommy's a real pain in the neck, but I know that he would never, ever break my accordion on purpose. I know now that he suffered a lot after that incident, even dealing with the same crud I did, and that all his anger was born from so much heartache. And you expect me to allow you to hurt him now?"

He grew into an adult, his yellow shirt appearing and the glasses disappearing. He still glowered with his sun-like intensity. "No, I've already apologized for treating him like garbage, and forgiven him for the times he's hurt me! You're just outdated misinformation that has no place in my mind! So, I'm going to have to ask you kindly to leave my brother alone."

Tommybat squeaked in fright, and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Cheese huffed, and then turned to help Tomato up. "Besides... my real brother is more complicated than that."

Tomato blinked. "Whoa... I can't believe you'd step in the line of fire just to protect me... from yourself, even!"

Cheese chuckled. "Well, that's what being a brother is all about."

Tomato smiled, and picked up the fruit firework launcher. "Well... I still have to return the favor. Also, what about the other vampires?"

Cheese frowned, and turned to see them still fighting the girls. He blanched and shifted uncomfortably. "Oh... gee, those things still make me uncomfortable. Do I have my accordion? I don't think I can fight without my accordion!"

He took a moment to watch the fight, trying to gauge how long anypony would last. With a gulp, he grabbed Tomato by the foreleg, and dragged him through the fray. "You know what? It's just easier to take you straight there! Everyone will get out the moment you grab my memories!"

"Hey, wait, why are you panicking?" Tomato asked. "You just scared vampire me out of existence!"

"No, I scared my negative thoughts of you away, the Las Pegasus memory is harder to--"

It wasn't long before they were nearly jumped by a vampire, which Cheese froze at the sight of. Tomato tried to smack him back to his senses, but Cheese just quivered slightly, and staring at the vampire--who just so happened to be an angry Pinkie shouting, "I challenge you to a goof-off! Loser loses their blood!"

Luckily, Twosie flew in to knock it away, shouting, "Keep going!"

Tomato pushed the petrified Cheese forward. "Come on! Cheese, Cheese, this is your mind, you can control this! You obliterated vampire me over there, why don't you obliterate the others?!"

Cheese took in a sharp breath and screamed, "I can't! They keep haunting me!"

Tomato pushed him to the final Las Pegasus bridge, pulling out the launcher to shoot fruit fireworks at any vampires coming their way. Cheese screamed when Tomato nearly missed the bridge and pushed him into the cloud sea, and Tommy had to pull him back, and then force him across the bridge. All the while, Tomato kept shooting the vampires.

"Cheese, we won this day! What's wrong?" Tomato asked.

"I could have prevented this!" Cheese cried. "I was so stupid to let my anger over the duet battle loss make me ignore you, and I could have kept an eye on Kazam! The entire city suffered, my brother turned into a monster, and I almost died! I know they say that 'what happens in Las Pegasus stays in Las Pegasus', but that memory can't stay there! And I flippin' made things worse by letting Rooney take the memory! Now, my body's a werewolf, I'm reduced to a stinkin' mind ball, and who knows what Rooney's doing while you guys are here!"

Throughout Cheese's panicked spiel, Tomato had managed to push him to the memory storage's gates. By that point, Cheese was crying. "I'm sorry, Tommy... this is all my fault. Rooney promised me I'd be free, and I was stupid enough to fall for his epic lie! If I could clean up my own mess, I would... but I can't. I'm his prisoner."

Tomato pursed his lips. "Cheese, I--" He shook his head, brushing away the first thing he had in mind. "Cheese... I know you feel like you caused all this. To tell you the truth, I feel like I could have prevented your werewolf transformation. If I had just... well, taken the chance for both of us to process the Las Pegasus incident together... maybe this road trip wouldn't have gone so wrong. I'm sorry I couldn't do more. But don't worry, like we've all said over and over, we'll turn you back to normal."

Cheese sniffed. "Can you? Even when you return my mind to me... I'm not sure I'll be whole."

The shadow wolf appeared between them. "Of course not, Cheese... why would you still possess your party magic when you have the blood of them..."

He pointed to the left, and a lamppost lit up to show a bunch of teenage ponies, lying in pools of blood that poured out of wounds ripped open by an animal's mouth. They groaned in agony, looking at Cheese in tearful, fearful eyes.

The wolf pointed right. "And them..."

The lamppost on the right shone on a group of mangled animals, both dead and half-dead, and surrounded by bloody paw prints. They had similar wounds to the teenagers, except the clearly dead ones had the worst damage on them.

"...on your hooves." The shadow wolf grabbed Cheese by the shoulders, and turned him to the front, seeing the girls still fighting the vampires, and how now there were werewolves crawling out of the buildings. Its claws sank into his legs, bringing out Cheese's pained grunt. "I hope you realize that once the werewolf is in you, no matter what Twilight Sparkle does, it will be inside you forever. You'll still be a monster, dragging innocents into your nightmares. Especially a mare that you love dearly..."

The shadow wolf snapped its front toes, and Pinkie Pie appeared, her mane drooping, and her eyes tearful. Cheese stared at her, his lip quivering and his hoof reaching out. He tried to call her name and his apology, but no words came out. As both tearful Cheese and Pinkie stared at each other, Tomato could practically hear Cheese's heart breaking.

The shadow wolf wisped around behind Pinkie. "Poor Pinkie Pie... I'm surprised that her friends aren't angry with you for destroying her like you destroyed yourself. Though, I do wonder... what do you think werewolf Pinkie looks like?"

Cheese backed up, and he turned to Tomato. "Tommy... go in."

Tomato looked up. "What?"

"Go in now, get everyone out of here!"

"But, what if you--"

"Just return my mind home!"

Tomato swallowed a lump in his throat, and nodded. As he turned and slipped through the gates, he glanced back one last time, at Cheese watching the shadow wolf seep through Pinkie's skin, and for the party mare to scream and grow canine features.

Cheese glanced back and smiled. "Tommy... you need to know that I'm proud of you."

Tomato smiled back, and then ran into the dark dome, before he could see Pinkie's completed transformation, and the attempted rage-filled attack Cheese was making toward the shadow wolf for daring to hurt her.

It was peaceful and quiet in the memory dome. Many, many memories floated above him like fireflies, yet stringed by a thread like Hearth's Warming lights, and Tomato couldn't help but stare in awe. He poked some of the memories, where he could see several parties that Cheese threw in the past. He giggled at a few of the antics, including those from the summer vacation. But, he had a job to do, and so, he went deeper into the room.

He wasn't sure what he was supposed to be looking for, but he supposed that the main files would stick out like a sore hoof. He scanned each one briefly, unsure of each memory's importance. He spotted some from their colthood--random things, such as eating ice cream, or Cheese teasing him for being sweet on a filly at the park. She was green, and green was his favorite color, he remembered. But, if he decided his love based on color, then maybe he'd have had Summer as a girlfriend in his teen years, or be married to Flora as an adult.

Thinking of Flora, there was the memory of when Flora calmed Cheese from his rampage. Wasn't he glad that was a solution, instead of the mare just beating poor Cheese up. He wasn't sure about her chances against a party pony, but he knew she was a crazy awesome fighter from that one incident with that gang.

Another memory bumped into his head, instantly making his temple sore. When he looked at the offending memory, lo and behold, it was the Las Pegasus incident.

He grabbed the memory, staring at the images of Cheese fighting vampires. He chuckled when he did the Pony Pokey violently, and made the vampires do the conga, and he wondered why Cheese didn't think of that out there. But, the moment that Tommybat returned, his eyes red pinpricks and with an animalistic hiss, Tomato backed up, and looked away for a moment. When his eyes returned to the scene, it was just Cheese falling like a helpless little rag doll.

That memory made Cheese freeze up and cry. That memory was clearly the source of the nightmares. Tomato had nightmares himself, but perhaps it was better that he didn't remember much, despite being the one who had transformed. Maybe Cheese still wouldn't miss it.

So, he grabbed it, and yanked it off the string.

He stored it in his shirt, reasoning that as long as he had the memory, Cheese would be fine. He was sure Cheese would rather deal with the headaches than nightmares that prevented sleep. There was a pit in his gut telling him that no, it wasn't right, but he ignored it, because the vampire memory was a terrible one that deserved to be forgotten.

He hurried away from the spot, and kept on going forward until he found the five biggest memory orbs, sitting on a display table. They didn't play images like movies, but instead, held symbols representing certain kinds of memories. There was Cheese's cutie mark, Pinkie's cutie mark, his own cutie mark, a pair of glasses, and... flash cards? Tomato found that one the weirdest.

Tomato took a deep breath, and walked forward. Seeing that the string ran through all five of them, he grabbed the sections at the two ends of the row, and with all his might, he yanked them off the table.

There was a sudden, bright flash of light.

When he opened his eyes, Tomato was in that very same closet, storing the memories of over a dozen ponies instead of just Cheese, that he and the girls were in before they ended up in Cheese's mind. Behind him, he could hear Rainbow grunting, and he turned to see her throwing a couple more punches before she stopped, and looked around. The other four looked around, taking a moment to process what happened, before they breathed sighs of relief. Twilight Sparkle looked at Tomato, and then at what he held.

Tomato glanced down at the memories--now having gone from a single orb to five strung in a necklace. He held it up to his face, staring at what was left of the true Cheese Sandwich, and hoping that he and Boneless 2 were okay in there.

"All right, Tomato, you're holding the key to stopping Wayer Rune. You think you can do it?" Twilight asked.

Tomato put the necklace on. "If he trusts me to do it... then yes."

Twilight smiled at him. "All right, then. Now, I think Fluttershy left that book open to the crystal remover, so let's take care of that problem." She scowled as she looked up at her horn. "I swear, I've never felt so useless."

"And then we'll find Wayer Rune and Cheese's... uh... other half." Applejack said.

"Well, I can't wait to kick his keister!" Rainbow said.

Fluttershy hovered over to Pinkie's memory orb and picked it up. "If it's okay, can we bring Pinkie's memories too? After being in Cheese's... it'll feel like we're just leaving her alone here."

"All right, Fluttershy," Twilight said. "Besides, Pinkie's might be the only one we can carry. I don't think most of these ponies really know us enough for us to carry their memories."

Fluttershy tapped Pinkie's orb until it poofed into necklace form, and put it on herself as well. So, as the ponies walked out of the closet to get back to work, Rarity examined how the two necklaces on their wearers looked. "I have to say, Fluttershy, you look darling with that necklace on! Tomato... well, perhaps if it was a different shade of green..."

"What are you talking about?" Tomato replied, fluttering his eyes playfully. "I think it matches my eyes."

Author's Note

Welp, it looks like I beat my personal record of long chapters again. Geez, this was a hard chapter, and I spent all day yesterday trying to finish it before July ended. Obviously, I failed, since at the time of publishing, it's August.

So, uh... here's a couple of things I listened to while writing this:

But, hey, now that the Mind Realm Chapters are over, I can finally get to the climactic chappies! Woohoo! :yay:

24.1--Eclipse

The rocky hillside seemed peaceful enough in the dim twilight. The first birds were singing their morning song, and some critters woke up or went to bed with the grand confusion about what time it was. Shrubs scattered the hillside, barring the one place where a rockslide had struck years before. Save for a sign that warned ponies not to enter, nopony would have guessed that it was home to an abandoned mine. Thus, the only way anyone got in or out, was through a unicorn's intangibility spell.

That changed when the rocks all levitated several feet into the air, jarring any lizards that crawled upon their rough surfaces and scaring off birds perched there. The mine shaft entrance was revealed, as well as the one causing this mass levitation--Princess Twilight Sparkle, relieved of horn crystals that prevented her from using magic.

Behind her, her friends and their acquaintance Tomato, watched in awe and relief, knowing that the challenges before them would be much less harder with her magic--as well as a book on runic circles that they had taken due to believing it could be useful. Twiilight urged them out quickly, and she herself was the last one out. She set the rocks down when it was all clear, and she took a moment to catch her breath.

"Whew! That was... big, for my first spell after being cured," she said.

"I'm afraid you'll have to do some other big spells later," Rarity said, looking at the book. "Do you suppose these circles would make things easier?"

Twilight took the book and flipped through it. "Summoning objects or even ponies... turning things to gold... pony transmutation... ah, long distance teleportation. It'll be a lot easier and less draining than just zapping us all to Canterlot with just my magic. Combining one of these with alicorn magic should give the runes a greater boost and help us travel greater distances in a second."

"Well, we oughta grab the stuff we left in Appleloosa before we go," Applejack said. She looked around at the dim forest and scratched her chin. "How long have we been in there? It looks like dawn."

Tomato pulled a pocket watch from behind his back, peered closely at it for a second, and was taken aback by what it said. "Is this thing broken? Because it says it's just after ten o'clock."

Fluttershy looked up at the sky and gasped. "I don't think it's your watch, Tomato."

The rest of the group looked to where Fluttershy pointed, and staggered back at the sight of an eclipse. All that could be seen of the sun was its corona; the rest was blocked by a dark moon, ensuring a dim landscape for all.

"But... Celestia and Luna didn't schedule a solar eclipse for this month!" Twilight cried. "Something must have happened to them!"

"What, really?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed in disbelief. "But how could Wayer Rune take them out? It's not like he can go toe-to-toe with them in a magic fight or sic some werewolves on them! What could he have possibly done that they couldn't counter?"

After staring at the sky for some time, her mind running through any options that Wayer could have taken, Twilight's brow furrowed and she turned to the others with a serious look. "No doubt that Jamberry was right. How he got this far, I don't know, but we're going to find out, and we're going to stop this disaster. Not just for Cheese, Pinkie, and the Appleloosans, but for all of Equestria."

Tomato felt just about everything under his skin turn to jelly. Yeah, sure, he had the fate of all Equestria in his hooves now. No big deal.

Getting back to Appleloosa was a piece of cake. Nothing in the forest to jump them, and most animals they came across just scattered at the sight of ponies. And when they got to the town itself, they had Rainbow Dash quickly scope out the town in case Wayer Rune attacked it one last time before moving on.

Thankfully, it seemed that Rooney had forgotten about the town, for it was simply a case of pony and buffalo tending to the wounded from the train accident. Braeburn was among them, gathering water from a local well and distributing it among pegasi to take up to the rooftops. The medicine bison gave a salve and herbal drinks to them as well, while many of the buffalo warriors guarded the town, with Little Strongheart being a watchful eye in a tree.

The little buffalo was the first to spot Rainbow, and gestured to the rest of the warriors to relax, and let them pass through. She expressed relief that they were all right, but she still frowned on seeing that the only change to the group was that the pink one was replaced with Cheese's brother, and that there was no one else to be found. She kept glancing back at the girls as they continued down the road, even as she continued her watchbison duties.

Sheriff Silverstar noticed the girls, and immediately trotted to them. "Well, well! You sure gave us a scare when you trotted into that forest and didn't come out these past few days."

Twilight blinked and her jaw went slack. "Wait, what?! A few days?"

Silverstar nodded. "Yep. Now, I don't blame you for thinking it was just until dawn that night--somethin' weird's going on with the sun and moon."

"Yeah, we noticed," Rainbow deadpanned.

Braeburn, after hoofing off the last bucket, stood up, and made a beeline for the group with a grin. "Thank heavens, y'all are all right! We were worried that you got bitten or even killed!"

Applejack grinned at her cousin. "I'm awful glad to see the real you, Brae!"

Braeburn skidded to a halt, and scanned the group. His big grin sank into a frown when he counted the ponies, and saw that the only rescuee was Tomato. "Wh... where's everypony else? What happened to your pink friend?"

Applejack pursed her lips and sighed. "I'm sorry, but we were awful tired when we fought the pack, and Pinkie got bitten."

Fluttershy nodded and held up the blue necklace she wore. "The curse not only turned her into a werewolf, but it made her lose her memories like everyone else under it."

"That's awful!" Braeburn exclaimed.

Applejack nodded. "We managed to find Tomato in an abandoned mine, but the crazy sorcerer set a trap before he left and got us stuck in Cheese's mind. I can't believe we were in there that long!"

Braeburn blinked. "Uh... you were in Cheese's mind?"

Sheriff Silverstar backed up. "That last part makes you sound plum crazy."

Rainbow flew to their faces. "Yeah, we were, and it was nuts! We'd tell you all about it, but it's been a few days, and we really need to get to Canterlot and teach that sorcerer a lesson!" She punched the bottom of her hoof with the other, a hot snort blowing out of her nostrils.

"Right," Twilight said. She looked at Braeburn and looked at the book she levitated. "There's a spell in this book that'll instantly teleport us to Canterlot. We need to gather our things and a few supplies to help us fight the werewolves and vampires there. We're going to have to fight a lot of monsters to return these memories--" She pointed to the glowing necklace that Tomato wore. "--back to Cheese. He's the linchpin of this sorcerer's plan, and when he's cured, so is everypony else."

The sheriff backed up even further. "Well... I suppose if you'll be on your way soon, I'll have to wish you luck. Right now, I have the rest of the town to take care of." He turned around and trotted to the nearest building.

Braeburn stared at Silverstar for a moment as he left, while processing what was told him. He turned back to the girls, rubbing the back of his head. "Well... I reckon that makes some sense." He looked up at Tomato, and then back to the girls. "But does Tomato have to go? I know Cheese is his brother, but, I don't know if he can survive it, especially since now there are vampires too! When did that happen?!"

"Braeburn, I'm the only one who can carry the memories," Tomato said, pursing his lips. "And this warlock made things personal, and I'm not going to stand by while he's still using Cheese as his attack dog. Besides, I'm tougher than I look."

The cowboy stood there a long moment looking in disbelief, and reading the girls to see if any of them had a problem with it. When he saw that they simply accepted the fact that Tomato had to help them, he didn't look any of them in the eyes as he said, "...I'll help you gather things."

Trotting into Braeburn's guest room to see Boneless 2 the normal-sized, inanimate rubber chicken on one of the beds was surreal. Despite his destination being the other bed, Tomato couldn't help but be drawn to the toy, thinking of the tall, living version that he and the girls encountered in Cheese's mind. He kept expecting him to talk, such as when he picked up the chicken, or when he shook him. All that came out were squeaks, some that Tomato kept trying to translate in his head as a sage word of advice, an inquiry of where Cheese was, or a simple "Put me down." But nothing happened, and Tomato found himself a little disappointed by reality.

He set Boneless 2 aside, and turned to the bed he had been going to before the rubber chicken distracted him. There, his suit jacket and necktie lay, folded neatly atop the quilt. Given how that little sunlight had made things chilly, it was prudent to slip his jacket back on--though, it'd look awkward without the tie, so he might as well put that on as well.

All the while, what was ahead of him gnawed at his mind. How do Princess Twilight and her friends do it? He thought this as he snaked the end of the tie through the loop and tightened it. Did they ever wonder if they were up to the task? He wiggled the tie and determined that it was indeed tight enough. Were they afraid?

Before putting on his jacket, he reached into his white shirt and pulled out the memory he took. Setting it on the bed, he looked at it as he slid his front legs into the sleeves. Along with the questions of how the girls were able to save Equestria, there were also the questions of how Cheese did it during the Las Pegasus incident. No doubt that there was fear, that he had to repress the flight instinct in order to fight off gangs of them with just an accordion, that he knew he was risking his own life to stop Kazam and snap Tomato out of it.

Knowing that how it ended in Cheese's near death, Tomato just stuffed the memory in his jacket and sighed. He didn't want this burden; he wished that someone else could carry it. There was absolutely no way he was qualified for something as big as saving Equestria! He was a business student, not any kind of trained soldier or magical prodigy that was built to fight.

Still, the necklace he was wearing, with Cheese's memories dancing within, reminded him why he was doing this.

"I'm coming with y'all."

Tomato spun around to see Braeburn in the doorway, a serious look on his face. Blinking for a few moments, Tomato pursed his lips and shook his head. "It's nice that you want to help, but don't you think it's a little risky to bring more ponies on this mission? Look at your foreleg! You nearly turned into a werewolf!"

Braeburn took off his hat and held it over his heart. "I know. But, Cheese Sandwich is my friend, and most of that first pack are my neighbors, so it's just as personal for me as it is for the rest of y'all. How could I live with bein' a yellow-bellied coward when fellow Appleloosans are hurtin' and not rememberin' bein' pony?"

"Even if I agree to this, I don't think your cousin would. Just because you know how to fight coyotes doesn't mean you'll survive against werewolves and vampires."

"I don't think no pony has much experience fightin' them either," Braeburn retorted. "Still, I reckon I have more of a fightin' chance than most ponies."

Tomato sighed. "Well... as much as I'd like to argue against you going, it doesn't stop the fact that I'm going, and I'm pretty sure I'm less fit for this than you are. I don't know if we'll be able to talk the others into letting you come, but hopefully they'll see that a little more muscle might not hurt."

After everypony had gathered their saddlebags and packed the things they needed, the ponies went outside town to proceed with the long distance teleportation runes. However, Applejack then learned that Braeburn was not exactly there to see them off.

"Braeburn, are you crazy?!" she yelled. "Have you already forgotten how your last fight with werewolves went?!"

"Applejack, my leg's feeling a whole lot better! I'm in better fightin' shape than I was a few days ago!"

"So? That don't mean you can wrassle monsters like you do with pigs!"

Twilight could not focus on drawing the needed lines and runes in the circle thanks to the yelling between cousins. A line out of place here, a wrong curve there, and the stick ended up flicking dust onto a rune when somepony's pitch suddenly went higher. Looking between the book's illustration and her attempt at imitating it, she had to admit that it was not all that great. She grumbled about the desert sand and how much she'd have preferred chalk on stone, but they had to make do with the desert soil outside of town.

At one point, her stick caught a rock, and a shout from one of the cowpokes startled her into flinging it right over the other ponies' heads, all of whom ducked. When they looked up, they turned to the arguing cousins, and then looked at each other.

"Well, I should have argued harder so we didn't have to put up with this," Tomato grumbled.

"You think?" Rainbow said.

Rarity looked up at Twilight. "Twilight, perhaps I could take over in drawing the runes?"

Twilight sighed and levitated the stick and book toward Rarity. "Fine. You are a better and faster artist than I am. Maybe I can get those two to stop arguing."

She trotted to the arguing cousins, magically grabbed them by the ears, and dragged them a good distance from the circle. Sitting them down on a pair of rocks, Twilight took a deep breath. "All right, that's enough! Braeburn, I understand that members of your community have been dragged into this, and I'm sorry, but are you sure that you're up to this?"

"Oh, no, he ain't!" Applejack snapped. "He can't even watch three fillies, how does he expect to fight off a bunch of werewolves?"

"Watchin' fillies and fightin' animals ain't the same thing!" Braeburn shouted. "And you're makin' it sound like I'm expecting to do it alone. I know I can't do it alone--I fought Cheese with Little Strongheart's help, and if I go, I could help you ponies."

"You'd also be at risk of getting bitten, or even killed," Twilight said. "I don't want to drag any more inexperienced civilians into this. Tomato's only along for the ride because Cheese deemed him worthy to carry his memories. You'd have to be somepony he'd really, deeply trust to do that. Or a powerful magic user, but I need my magic to do a lot on this mission."

"And the only one out of us gals who could carry it is Pinkie, and you know what happened to her," Applejack said.

Braeburn sighed. "I know it's dangerous. I just thought a herd that's a little bigger could make a difference in fightin' the pack. And even if Cheese Sandwich don't consider me worthy enough to touch his memories... well, I still want to help save my friend, and my neighbors. Not like you knew if you'd survive any time you saved Equestria."

Twilight pursed her lips, and looked at her cast wing. She exchanged uncertain looks with Applejack, wondering if the risk would be worth it, and then looked back to the serious, steadfast Braeburn.

A few moments of silence passed, and Applejack said, "Brae... do you really know what you'd be gettin' into?"

Braeburn pursed his lips. "Appleloosa got the first werewolf, and the first pack. I think I have an idea."

Applejack sighed. "Well... maybe we do need all the help we can get. The magic of friendship ain't just for us, you know."

"You're right," Twilight said with a nod. "And family relationships can be the most valuable of friendships."

Applejack turned to Braeburn. "All I ask is that you be careful."

Braeburn smiled. "Don't worry, cuz. We can watch each other's backs."

Then, they heard Rarity trilling, "Yoo hoo! I've drawn the rune circle, and we're still waiting for your decision on Braeburn!"

The Apple cousins hopped off the rocks, and followed Twilight to the newly drawn runic circle, which was drawn a harder, more clay-like patch of ground. After confirming Braeburn as a member of their party, Twilight put the spellbook in her saddlebag, and urged everypony into the circle's perimeter. Everypony squeezed in--though there was just barely enough room for all to fit.

"Ergh! Gee, Rarity, could you make this circle smaller next time?" Rainbow groused.

"Hmph! No need to descend into biting sarcasm, Rainbow Dash," Rarity grumbled back.

Twilight sighed. "Firing up the spell now."

"Wait!"

They looked up to see Little Strongheart leaping out of town and running toward them. They just watched as she skidded to a halt, took a brief moment to catch her breath, and then straighten out into a steadfast position. "I heard that Braeburn was planning on going on this quest to right this wrong, is that correct?"

The ponies looked at Braeburn, with the girls and Tomato nodding and Braeburn saying, "Yes, ma'am, that's what I'm doin'."

"If so, I request to join you. A member of my tribe is part of that pack, and I must bring him home."

"Wow, this is personal for a lot of us," Tomato muttered.

Rainbow grinned and said to Twilight, "Hey, her sweet moves could be a lot of help!"

Twilight groaned. "All right! Little Strongheart, you may help."

Little Strongheart smiled and nodded. "Thank you. I know it will be hard, but I will fight until all are free from that curse."

Braeburn smiled. "That's the spirit! I'm awful glad that you're comin' with." The genuine smile soon turned sheepish. "Though, we're a mite squeezed like grapes in a juicer, so you'll have to get on somepony's back."

Little Strongheart complied with that suggestion by getting on Rainbow's back. With everyone squeezed within the circle and holding their breath, Twilight lit up her horn, and in a flash, they had disappeared. All that remained in the desert outside Appleloosa were scorch marks that resembled the circle.

A flash of light illuminated the Canterlot Castle's throne room for a second, and the once empty room was now occupied by seven ponies and a little buffalo, all tumbling out of their squished circle onto the magenta carpet--or the hard marble floors if they were unlucky.

After they picked themselves up, Rarity brushed ashes off her white coat and smoothed down her mane. "Well, we'll certainly make the circle bigger next time."

Wincing from the soreness in her wing, Twilight lit up her horn, with Rarity following her lead. Looking around the throne room, she said, "Well, we made it with all of us in one piece."

Tomato, Braeburn, and Little Strongheart wandered around a little bit, gawking at the banners on the walls, the tall pillars, and the colorful stained glass windows. Braeburn took off his hat and said, "Is this what the Princess' throne room looks like? Wow, ain't that fancy."

"Do all ponies not of Appleloosa live like this?" Little Strongheart asked, noting how high the ceiling was.

"I don't," Tomato said. "I grew up in a little brick house in one of Manehattan's poorer neighborhoods."

"Well, this is the Princesses' castle, so of course it's more grandiose than the average Equestrian house," Rarity said.

"But where are the Princesses?" Fluttershy asked.

"That's what we're here to find out," Twilight said.

She pulled open the doors, and the group went out into the hallway. The first thing they noticed were broken windows, leaving sharp glass on the floor that most of the group had to tiptoe around, with only the two pegasi flying over it. Miraculously, the stained glass depictions of events in Equestrian history remained intact.

Peering out the windows for brief moments, they could already see pony-sized creatures flying around, or some that hung off various ledges of the castle. The light outside was too dim to see any features with a quick glance, and nopony wanted to pause for a closer look.

"Uh... maybe they're just Luna's guards," Twilight suggested, forcing a grin.

They hurried past the windows and turned down the hallway. The further they went, the more that they could see was wrong. More windows were cracked or had panels shattered. Decorative centerpieces had been thrown about, leading to shattered vases and busts and dying flowers, as well as tipped over pedestals and fake fruit scattering the floor. Claw marks ran across the walls, and tore up the carpets.

They had held their breath within icy silence for what seemed like hours, tiptoeing around broken glass and torn flooring. The wind blew through the windows, giving them a chill, and they froze each time they heard a door creak, or another item shatter in another part of the castle, or even a distant scream echoing across the land. In an attempt at self-comfort, Rarity levitated pedestals back upright and crowned them with fake fruit bowls, and straightened out pictures.

Twilight stopped in her tracks when she heard a shower running in the bathroom on her left. The door had been torn off its hinges, and the curtain draped over the bathtub's rim, water droplets running down the waterproof cloth in their own small little race. Said curtain was the shower's only occupant, with no pony in sight and the room a mess like the rest of the castle.

After Twilight used her magic to turn off the shower, everypony jumped and shuddered when Fluttershy screamed. They spun around to see Fluttershy, with a red hoof, looking down at the floor and quaking.

"Fluttershy, what are you..." Applejack looked down at the floor, and saw the large spot of blood soaking the floor. "...oh, my."

Rarity pulled a cloth out of her saddlebag and wiped her friend's hoof clean. "I'm not looking at that dreadful sight! No, I'll just look down that adjacent hallway and... oh, dear sweet Celestia, there's footprints!"

The others shuffled to where Rarity looked, and indeed, there were footprints, which morphed from a pony's hoofprints to a wolf's pawprints the further they went down. Peering as far as they could, they could see that the tracks lead further and further down the hall.

Rainbow hovered over them. "I say we follow them!"

"I have a better idea," Tomato said. "Let's not do that."

"Well... maybe it's somepony we know," Twilight said, starting her trot down the hall. "Somepony that we could apprehend easily, change them back, and then ask them what happened. Somepony like, uh... Raven Inkwell... or Kibitz... or one of the Royal Guards..."

Rainbow flew ahead to see where they lead, while the others galloped after her--though Applejack was in the back, making sure Rarity and Fluttershy recovered from their shock. As they ran, Twilight continued to name castle inhabitants that they could possibly bump into that they could defeat easily, or better yet, didn't transform. She droned on about it until a crash and clatter from a room ahead made the group jump and stop in their tracks.

Seeing where the tracks lead, Twilight grabbed Rainbow Dash and pulled her back before she could start a fight in the room ahead, and shushed her before her protest. They looked up at the door just barely hanging on by a hinge, revealing a messy kitchen with just food on the walls and floor, and a few glasses that were dropped near the sink. In the middle of it all, it looked like Royal Guards and a couple of others were feasting from the tipped over refrigerator.

"Why am I not surprised that they go straight for the food?" Tomato whispered.

"Guess hunting's not goin' well for 'em," Braeburn said, scratching his head.

Twilight peered closer and scratched her chin. "Well... doesn't look like the princesses are in there. Still, with those guys occupied, maybe we can cure them before they--"

Another shriek came from the three girls in the back, and half the the group spun around to see that some vampire ponies in guard armor had jumped them from behind. Applejack bucked one away, Rarity knocked another away with a nearby vase when it came too close to biting her, and they dragged a third off the startled Fluttershy and threw it aside, before darting off to the rest of the group.

Of those who just turned their heads, they turned back to the kitchen, where the Royal Guard werewolves and their royal aide counterparts had perked up and spotted them. The growling canines leaped over the counter and out into the hall, some revealing that they still had pegasus wings on them.

Rainbow kicked a pegasus werewolf in the face, and punched another. "So much for secretly curing them!"

Twilight blasted another werewolf into a wall, before following that up with shooting at a vampire heading her way. "Where did these vampires come from?!"

Tomato found himself pinned to the wall by one of the vampires, who sniffed him and hissed. "I think they smelled the blood."

Little Strongheart jumped at the wall and sprung off it to kick the vampire off Tomato. When she landed on the floor, she said, "I have never seen anything like them!"

"I was one once," Tomato grumbled, whipping out Boneless 2 and smacking a werewolf with it hard enough to draw a whimper. "Bad dog!"

Braeburn hopped to Applejack's side to help her buck some werewolves and vampires away. The wolves growled and barked as they pounced, only for those growls and barks to devolve into whines and whimpers went met with a pair of back hooves. The vampires hissed as they attacked, only to shriek when they were met with the same fate. The Apple cousins didn't have much time to grab ropes from their saddlebags, for they were still being leapt at by hungry hybrids and had to keep bucking.

"I ain't sure which one's worse!" Braeburn cried.

"Bein' ripped apart or sucked dry? Definitely a hard choice," Applejack replied.

"How about the ones that fly?!" Rarity shouted, punching a vampire in the face.

Rainbow Dash was leading some monsters up to the ceiling for them to smack into. Once they slammed headfirst and then fell to the floor, Rainbow descended to kick more butt. "Well, some of these werewolves are flying!"

Twilight picked a werewolf up with her magic and threw it into a trio that tried to pounce on her. "At least these guards don't remember their training! Then again, if they remembered anything, they'd be begging to be cured!"

Rainbow kicked a vampire away from Fluttershy, who was holding one werewolf hostage with her Stare. "Fluttershy! Why aren't you doing that on all of them?!"

Fluttershy spun around and screeched, "Because they keep moving around everywhere, and I can't focus on more than one in this chaos!"

Little Strongheart bounced off a wall to bowl over several of the monsters, including the ones that Applejack and Braeburn had been fending off. With that small window open, they pulled out ropes and made lassos to tie up the monsters with. They threw the lassos up and began to twirl like the cowpokes they were--only for a couple of vampires to swipe the ropes out of their mouths and throw them aside.

Applejack stomped on the ground. "Dagnabbit! You're gonna get a lickin' for that!"

Tomato rolled and jumped out of the way of each attack from either monster, landing hits when he jumped from head to head or smacked them with rubber chicken or pocket watch. He looked around the halls, which while seeming spacious normally, was a whole lot more cramped when filled with vampires and werewolves trying to kill them. He paused in his jumping, right atop a flying pony, to shout, "Princess! We need to get out of this hallway!"

Unluckily for him, he was sitting on a vampire, who promptly bucked him off and sent him hurtling to the floor. One the one hoof, it wasn't too high of a fall, but on the other... it still hurt. Especially when his back landed straight on the ropes that were taken from the Apple cousins.

As much as his spine hurt and he just wanted to lay down and rest, that wasn't an option at the moment, and he rolled off the ropes. He grabbed them and stuffed them into his jacket, and then hopped up to make a beeline for Twilight, who realized that the only way out of this was to teleport away.

A couple of vampires blocked his way, with one reaching forward to grab him by the memory necklace to pull him forward.

A flash was followed by the smell of burning flesh, and the crackle of electricity. The two vampires dropped to the floor utterly dazed, seeming dead until he saw their chests rising and falling rapidly. Tomato froze at what had transpired in front of him, and gripped the necklace that he was nearly pulled by. He glanced down at it, and thought to himself in amazement about how Cheese still managed to look out for him.

He barely had time to process it more before Twilight called him, and he darted to the group. While some tried to jump him, they backed off when seeing the other two on the floor and hearing Tomato's shout of, "You wanna touch the living bug-zapper, pal?! Come on, I dare ya!"

Applejack reached out and pulled him in, and Twilight lit up her horn to teleport their entire party out of that hall.

They reappeared in the castle gardens, where neither werewolf nor vampire was currently residing. Hidden by trees and shrubs, with an sweet scent carried by the cool breeze and space to breathe, they could feel themselves ease from the cramps caused by fighting monsters in a hallway. For at least a moment, they could sit down, catch their breath, and examine what damage they took from the fight.

"I'm startin' to wonder if this trip is worth it," Braeburn said, searching for a first aid kit in his satchel.

Little Strongheart noticed the scratches and bruises she got from the fight, and gently ran her hoof over them. "Even if we are starting to regret this, we cannot turn back now."

Rarity looked up at the castle. "I'd hate to say it, but it think everypony in the castle has been transformed."

Fluttershy gasped. "You don't think the Princesses transformed also, do you?"

Twilight stood up and stomped a hoof. "No! There's no way they'd let that happen so easily! Both Celestia and Luna can repel a bunch of measly little werewolves and vampires without breaking a sweat! Wayer Rune can't possibly catch them both off guard; heck, you'd think Luna would have noticed if he struck in the middle of the night! What could he have possibly done to them to cause the eclipse?"

"Heck if I know," Tomato muttered. "But... whatever happened to them, I think it's better to look for the guy you have a magic signature for." He held up the necklace for her to see. "You know, the guy we have to return these to and turn everything back to normal?"

Fluttershy looked at her blue necklace. "Including Pinkie."

Twilight huffed. "I know, Tomato! I just want to know what happened to the Princesses!"

Applejack came to Twilight's side and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Twi... I know you're worried, but maybe if we focus on our goal, we can save the princesses too."

Twilight pursed her lips, and then sighed. "Yeah, I guess. I might as well track Cheese now."

But before she could do so, they were startled by a large werewolf hopping right out of the brush. All gave a shriek of fright and backed away, with most of the group clinging to Twilight. They stared at the white wolf, crowned with a unicorn horn and a messy mane of light brown, and fringed with the same color on his legs and tails.

Rarity gasped. "Blueblood?! I knew he was a beast, but seeing it taken literally is so much worse!"

Blueblood pounced, but Rainbow darted forward to kick him away, sending him flying. "Back off, Fido! I still have a lot of fight in me!"

By chance, she looked up, and noticed the vampires hanging from the various castle ledges awaken, and direct red-eyed gazes toward her. She just hovered and stared back at them, her mind torn between standing her ground--so to speak--and fighting, or retreating back to the others for a quick teleport away.

Her choice was made by Twilight shouting, "Rainbow Dash! We need to focus on tracking Cheese!"

Rainbow turned and sped back, with the vampires beginning to give chase. She took the hoof of Fluttershy and was pulled into the group, and once again, Twilight teleported them all elsewhere.

Canterlot Main Street was not much better. They appeared to a scene of werewolf-vampire gangs caught up in a brawl, which stopped the moment that non-cursed ponies and a buffalo came on scene. With fresh meat and blood standing right there, they broke their fight, and crept forward for a smell and quite possibly a taste of that food.

"And I thought Manehattan gangs were bad!" Tomato shouted.

"Let's go to my boutique!" Rarity cried. "Perhaps we'll be safe there!"

Fluttershy gave them the Stare to freeze them, while Twilight charged up another spell to escape.

Surprisingly, the boutique was rather clean when they popped in. Rarity, thanking the heavens and laughing, leapt to each rack and to each displayed dress, none of which were in tatters, and posed and cuddled with them. She swooned near one dress, flung a hat off a mannequin and wore it, and danced with another mannequin. It only brought about awkward stares from the others and nervous glances between them.

Rarity calmed down quickly, and returned the hat. "Regardless, the untouched state of Canterlot Carousel suggests that we are safe here." She looked at Little Strongheart. "Someday, I would like to make a dress for you, to highlight your bravery."

Little Strongheart tilted her head. "Thank you? I did not feel very brave with each retreat."

"That's because our focus should not be fighting the vampires and werewolves, it should be tracking Cheese down and taking advantage of his status as the linchpin of this curse," Twilight said.

"But why would anypony want to..." Braeburn's question drifted off as his eyes wandered to a nearby dressing room, and widened. "Uh, gals? I don't think we're alone."

They turned to the room that Braeburn looked at, and saw a horned, red-headed vampire hanging upside-down from the curtain rod, glaring at them with glowing red eyes. The blue creature spread its wings, revealing a skinny body wearing tattered dark clothing, and hissed loudly.

Rarity gasped. "Sassy Saddles?! Oh, no, the curse got you too!"

Tomato looked around at the neat room. "I'm surprised she still has respect for your work."

"Still, we're not safe here, either," Twilight said. She pulled the others close to her. "Maybe Moondancer can give us refuge."

And she teleported away before Sassy could snatch them.

They teleported in the middle of a monster slumber party, where vampire Moondancer and the the werewolf Minuette, Twinkleshine, and Lemon Hearts all jumped at the flash of light that revealed several ponies and a buffalo on a silver platter. After recovering from the flash, they all sniffed, and prowled forward to the delicious meal that had just appeared in front of them.

Twilight gasped. "Oh, no, not you guys too!"

"Is anywhere in Canterlot safe?!" Tomato snapped.

"Possibly... maybe... I don't know! We're just here because Wayer Rune might be here!"

"It's been a few days, he could have left for a different town!" Rainbow snapped.

"Girls?" Fluttershy said. "We need to leave, uh, now."

Twilight looked sadly at her old group of friends, all devolved into mindless predators that sized them up for slaughter. As she lit up her horn to teleport away, she whispered to them, "I'm sorry."

There was no thought put into their next destination, so they appeared in the middle of another Canterlot street, in view of a lot of vampires and werewolves. Many of these former ponies had their fine garments reduced to tatters, as much shells of their former selves as their owners were. Familiar faces were spotted among the packs and colonies--Fancy Pants had been digging through trash as a werewolf, whilst famous face Trenderhoof glided down onto an unlucky wolf as a vampire. Tomato could see Great Uncle Lemon Lime and Great Aunt Macaroni snapping and hissing at each other as the two monsters, and many other upper crust ponies of all shapes and sizes acting as mere animals.

It was hard for them not to notice the flash that came with teleporting ponies, and they almost immediately crept toward them on realizing there was free food. They were completely surrounded within seconds, thanks to the sheer number of the cursed ponies on that very street. With nowhere to run, Twilight needed to teleport again.

Before she did so, Twilight noticed one of the inter-monster couples among them, and cried out a gasp of, "Mom? Dad?!"

Twilight's werewolf mother was the first to pounce, and onto the stunned Twilight. She had her jaws on the alicorn's horn before Rainbow Dash kicked her off, and helped Twilight up. Before she could ask if Twilight was okay, another wolf pounced, and she had to throw that off, and then had to punch away a vampire. She took off alone in the sky to lead any vampires or pegasus werewolves away from her friends, but that didn't take care of all of them.

Apple cousins were forced to buck more monsters away, with everyone else doing punches, kicks, smacks with whatever inanimate object they had on hoof, hisses, and stares. Whines and shrieks came from each blow that hit, and some dropped stunned after contact with Cheese's memory necklace, but more and more just kept coming, landing hits and scratches on each member of the group with each attempt to bite their necks. Soon enough, it got crowded enough for Twilight, once she recovered from her shock, to summon a shield and push the monsters out of their personal spaces.

"Twilight, let's get out of here!" Fluttershy cried.

Twilight looked up at the sky at Rainbow's fight. "I don't want to leave Rainbow behind! And... I don't know where else to go!"

Applejack watched the werewolves try to claw and gnaw their way through. "I hope you can keep this shield up awhile."

Twilight looked around at the once-pony creatures that were trying to break in. Rarity's Canterlot associates were digging at the shield, ready to eat the horrified fashionista alive. Neighbors that she recognized from her youth bore fangs when they once bore smiles, and even her own parents were trying to kill her and her friends. All this from what she had thought was just an inconvenience to be quickly solved, which not only stole Tomato's brother's equinity, but extended to her own loved ones and acquaintances as well.

And then, suddenly, there came a shout of, "Wolves holding ponies hostage? Throw them in the garbage!"

Strong, blue hands yanked werewolves from the bubble one by one, and tossed them away. The wall of armored muscle they belonged to barreled through the crowd of monsters, grabbing vampires in midair and flinging them at others with a roar. The two-horned beast raced through, knocking all the fanged beasts away from the shield with frightening ease, and even yelling at them to scare them off.

"Yeah, you better run! Iron Will's prepared to kick your butts!" their savior roared.

Little Strongheart watched the scene with wide eyes. "What is that?"

"That's a minotaur," Fluttershy stated.

Joining Iron Will was a bubble that zoomed out of nowhere, and pinballed against vampires and werewolves with the bounciest of forces. Coming over the hill, control the pinball bubbles and shooing monsters away with frequent zaps from her horn, was none other than Silk Shimmer, who didn't even seem to have her makeup smeared or a hair out of place.

After hopping atop Twilight's shield and zapped more monsters, she looked down and spotted Tomato. "Oh, hi, Tomato! Can you believe we're going through this crud again?"

"Tell me about it," Tomato grumbled. "But I have a different perspective this time."

Suddenly, another unicorn sprung out of nowhere, and bathed in a fireball of powerful magic, she slammed right onto the street, and sent a shockwave that not only shattered Twilight's shield--which had Silk Shimmer falling on top of the group--but shook the houses in the neighborhood. Seeing that display of power, both werewolf and vampire pinned their ears back, and took off with excessive yelping or panicked chirping.

The unicorn rose from the dust, revealing herself as turquoise, with lilac and violet hair put up in a ponytail. She turned to Twilight and her friends with narrowed eyes and a scowl, and she seemed to ponder on whether they should live or die.

Rainbow Dash landed from her midair fight, ended by flying monsters fleeing the shockwave. "Whoa... that was awesome!"

Twilight stood up, and walked toward the unicorn. "That was really impressive. I have to thank you and your companions for coming to our rescue. I'm afraid we might have underestimated just how many werewolves and vampires there would be."

The unicorn huffed. "Well, I'm sure that as princess, you just have a need to save the day."

Twilight backed up. "What?"

Silk Shimmer slipped to the turquoise pony's side. "Sorry about that. Glimmerdust has a bit of an attitude, but, she did give the, uh... for lack of a better word, 'survivors', a warning about the water."

"What about the water?" Rarity asked.

"It's enchanted," Glimmerdust said. "Don't drink it, or even play in it, unless you want fangs and a hunger for pony."

Iron Will picked up the entire group, with half the ponies (and buffalo) under each arm. "Iron Will warned the lot of you that strange things happen under a full moon!" He looked up at the sky. "Or an eclipse, strange things happen then, too. We minotaurs always feared the return of the werewolf, and thus, we are prepared! Now, let's take you ponies to our little safehouse!"

"It's technically a cave, but... yeah," Silk said.

"Yeah, we don't want you turning into a monster now, do we?" Glimmerdust said with a condescending tone.

And thus, they took off for the refuge.

Author's Note

And thus, the final stretch begins! I think it could be around an eight chapter thing (or maybe even ten), but that's just a guess based on how much is going on in my head and what I want to stick in the finale. What do you guys hope to see? Who do you guys hope to see?

I'm already having a few players march in to join the battle. :pinkiehappy:

24.2--Something in the Water

In times of war, it pays for a country to build shelters in a safe place for civilians to flee to in the event of an attack from hostile foreign powers. Canterlot had tunnels bored into the mountain leading to such shelters, which were caves furbished to make those who escaped the crossfire as comfortable as possible as they waited out the attacks. Food and water and simple bedding were commodities stored within, leaving the possibility of one such crisis lasting days. Clocks to keep time, maps of the tunnel system, books and pamphlets about handling crises, paper for important notes, and more were stored in desks within in case of emergency, and some thoughtful pony thought of the foals and stored coloring books so they wouldn't get antsy.

One tunnel lead from the Rune Manor, where Silk Shimmer and her two companions led the party of their eight rescuees, albeit having to brush away more vampires and werewolves along the way. They barreled on down to the basement, where the secret door was hidden, and went through it. Silk made sure to reseal it with the magic signature lock--which was only to be opened by a Rune family member such as her--and then, they all were led down the tunnel to the shelter.

They entered into the chamber, atop a set of stairs that overlooked the ponies below. It was lit up by colorful crystals and with space enough for the few dozen ponies inside. Some laid on cots or sleeping bags, some were talking over bottles of water, some foals were coloring in coloring books or playing quiet games, and some were discussing the crisis and what they should do about it. There was a sizable portion of the ponies complaining to the latter group, wondering when they could get out of the cave and back into their comfy homes.

Braeburn scanned the mine and whistled. "Golly, this hidin' spot's a whole lot bigger than I imagined!"

"They certainly took 'hiding in the mountains' literally," Little Strongheart said.

"This feels like the mine," Tomato said, shrinking into himself.

"At least it doesn't smell like wet barbecue," Rainbow said.

"Y'know, it's a miracle that these ponies escaped both enchanted water and a whole city of ponies gone varmint," Applejack said.

"Bah, it was more Iron Will's preparation and skill in fighting off those monsters!" Iron Will gloated, striking a pose and flexing his muscles. "I carried many defenseless, innocent ponies to escape the horrible fate of their neighbors!"

Fluttershy gave him a look. "You didn't kill anypony, did you?"

"No, but I knocked plenty of teeth out!"

Tomato cringed. "Ouch..."

Rarity shivered. "Well, it's a fairly decent cave that no vampire and werewolf can get in--but I wouldn't want to be stuck in here to wait things out for... who knows how long? Oh, and I hate that I'm dreading the feeling of thirst more than I should!"

Silk Shimmer glanced at a shelf at a faraway wall, and levitated a bottle from said shelf across the room. Giving it to Rarity, she said, "If you're thirsty, the bottled water isn't enchanted. Believe it or not, some of these ponies escaped because they refuse to drink from the tap."

Rarity sadly took the bottle in her magic. "Then how did Sassy transform? I know she prefers bottled water." Rarity looked at the label and gasped. "Like the AquaShimmer Spring brand! I hear that it's some of the finest vitamin-and-mineral enhanced water in all of Equestria!" She unscrewed the cap and guzzled it down.

Rainbow Dash gave her an incredulous look. "It's water."

Fluttershy shrugged. "I guess as long as it's not enchanted..."

Twilight went down the steps, hanging her head. "My parents don't object to drinking from the tap... and there's no doubt they would have on a hot summer day. And my old friends... they just wanted a get together and were just unfortunate enough to get thirsty! And... Celestia and Luna..." Twilight paused to swallow a lump in her throat. "I can't believe this spell got to them, and I wasn't here to stop it!"

Tomato held the necklace in his hoof, and looked at Twilight somberly. "Yeah, welcome to the club."

Twilight sighed. "Well, even more reason to reverse this spell. This shelter is the only place where we can rest, and figure out where our villain is. And maybe formulate a better plan than just poofing around everywhere and fighting off everything that attacks us."

She made it to the ground, where ponies started to notice her and gasp at the sight of one of the princesses. Reaching the bottom of the stairs and spreading out a little, the others sat down and pulled first aid kits from their saddlebags to treat each others' cuts and bruises. Iron Will marched off to the shelf to grab some water of his own, and then to a gym bag in the corner to apparently take care of himself. Twilight approached the circle of ponies discussing the crisis. She swept her eyes between the ponies bickering over plans and the ponies brushing up on the books to figure out what to do next. Then, she caught their attention with the clearing of her throat.

"Princess Twilight?" one cornflower blue stallion said, lowering his book. "Thank heavens, a princess managed to escape!"

Twilight grinned sheepishly. "Actually, I wasn't here when the whole thing started. I had a little business elsewhere."

As she cleaned off Rarity's cuts, Glimmerdust snidely stated, "I bet those werewolves and vampires caught you off guard, huh, princess? You're lucky that we were around to save your butts."

"Don't be so rude!" Silk Shimmer scolded after looking over Tomato. She stood up, trotted over to the circle, and looked to the blue stallion. "Well, Dad, we didn't get the counterspell, but Princess Twilight might just be better."

"Wait, that's your father?" Tomato asked, to which Silk Shimmer nodded.

"I also recognize him as a teacher at Celestia's school," Twilight added.

"My name's Quasar Rune," Silk's father said. "And I do hope that you still remember the vampire cure from when you had to clean up..." He sagged and looked away in shame. "...my son's mess. And perhaps could modify it for this situation."

Twilight sat down. "I'm sorry about Kazam, Quasar. It must be hard knowing that somepony you love has done something so terrible."

Quasar sighed. "I've tried to deny that he had done something that awful, but to do so now..." Quasar looked at Tomato, who just furrowed his brow. "That would be an utter insult to the victims who went through that disaster. It's not the first time anypony in my family has done something horrible, but those were before I was born. In this instance, I feel like I could have prevented it."

"Oh, it's a sad case of somepony who thinks his special talent puts him above everypony else," Glimmerdust grumbled, putting a white band-aid on Rarity's foreleg.

It wasn't loud enough to leave her and Rarity's small space, but Tomato picked up on it, and turned to her with a sharp glare, snorting hotly. He took several steps to accost her. "Please, keep using Kazam's victims as your soapbox; I dare you to say it loud enough for his dad to hear."

Rarity wrinkled her nose. "That certainly was in poor taste; you almost sound like Starlight Glimmer."

Glimmerdust glared at her like she was barely repressing a vicious attack, down to her horn sparking. "Well... whoever enchanted the water to turn ponies into monsters is definitely much worse than her. For starters, there isn't even a good point to it!"

Twilight turned to them and asked, "Um, her?"

Glimmerdust blinked, realizing that Twilight didn't hear the exchange. "Oh... him, I mean him, Mr. Rune's son." She looked to Tomato and Rarity, who still glared at her, and shuffled away from them.

Quasar Rune sighed. "That much is obvious, but right now, the villain contest is not important, it's cleaning up the current mess."

Glimmerdust huffed. "Yeah, of course. I do have to say, it was a devious move."

"No doubt about that," Twilight said. Then, her eyes lit up. "Of course, if he can enchant the water to spread the curse, why can't we do it to spread the cure? It'll at least lighten up the attacks until we can get to the root of the problem." Twilight pulled a blank page from somepony's notepad and a pencil from another pony, and then scribbled it down. She turned to Quasar. "Can you go to the water plant and fix this?"

Quasar frowned. "I'd like to, but unfortunate, my magic power only goes so far--transmogrification magics are not my strong suit. But perhaps Glimmerdust could do it--she has proven herself quite powerful."

Glimmerdust sighed. "All right, I'll go along with your idea--I just want these stupid vampires and werewolves out of the way so I can get back to my plans."

Tomato piped up, "What plans?"

Glimmerdust paused for a moment to think, and then answered, "Furthering my education."

Twilight levitated the note to her with a grin. "Oh! What are you studying?"

"Uh..." Glimmerdust turned around and made her way to the exit. "Magic and stuff. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to fix the water system. I'm sure we're all sick of being cooped up in here and worrying that we'd run out of the non-enchanted water."

Before Glimmerdust went too far, Twilight asked, "But how did you come to the conclusion that it was the water?"

Glimmerdust groaned and rolled her eyes. "Was leaving the library after late-night research, saw hooligans playing in the water fountain, and I watched half of them turn into werewolves and the other half into vampires. Ask the others for their stories, the common theme confirmed my suspicions."

And with that, she practically floated up the stairs and out of the chamber.

Tomato pouted at her, and turned to Rarity. "You know, I don't like her very much."

"Agreed," Rarity said.

Twilight turned to them. "I don't think it matters if we like her at this point."

"She's at least powerful enough to defend herself." Quasar frowned, looking down at the ground and displacing his glasses with a rub of his eye. "But, yes, it seemed pretty obvious after going through our stories. My wife Merry and I were helping Silk pack to go back to Halterside when Merry grew thirsty and went to the kitchen for a drink. We heard her pained cries, and ran to her to find that she had transformed into a vampire and could not recognize us. We managed to fight her off and escape but..." He swallowed a lump in his throat and exhaled. "Thinking of my wife in that state just compounds the anguish I already felt this past week."

One teary-eyed mare in the circle piped up, "My husband was taking a shower when the spell affected him. He became a werewolf and clawed himself out of the bathroom just to try to eat me and our foals!"

Another mare said, "Me and a coworker were helping a fellow waitress clean up in the bathroom after she took a tumble, and the waitress suddenly grew bat wings! I escaped... the other girl didn't."

"My wife was giving our little son a bath!" one stallion shouted. "And both turned werewolf and tried to kill me, no matter how hard I tried to remind them that I was their husband and father!"

"Sure, my mare runs through the sprinklers to be goofy, and then she comes running back as a werewolf, ready to pounce!" a younger stallion complained, curled up in a ball, holding back tears. "And I was planning to propose to her, too!"

Fluttershy gasped, breaking out of her focus on cleaning Rainbow's cuts. "Oh, you poor ponies! I can't imagine how awful that must have been."

Twilight's gaze fell to the floor and she pursed her lips, taking a moment to dislodge her next words from her throat, before taking a deep breath. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop this before it got this far." She glanced at Tomato, who stood up, and mirrored her apology with just his expressions. "We thought we were dealing with somepony sabotaging a witness testimony, but it turned out that it was something much more sinister."

"Sabotaging a witness testimony?" one pony asked. "How in the blazing hay did that lead to vampires and werewolves overrunning the city?!"

Quasar Rune narrowed his eyes. "Sabotaging a... are you saying that the pony who stole Cheese Sandwich's memories is behind this?"

Now having band-aids scattered around her body, Rainbow hovered above them. "Uh, how do you know that?"

"I was at my son's trial, and I didn't miss that part." Quasar stroked his purple goatee. "So, it really wasn't somepony sabotaging the trial, huh? Instead, it's part of a plot to overrun Equestria with vampires and werewolves that have no memory of who they are? Either Wayer Rune has returned, or somepony out there is taking a page from his book. Pray tell, Princess... which one is it?"

Twilight pursed her lips. "I'm sorry, Quasar, but it is Wayer Rune."

The others gasped, while Quasar remained stone-faced. Not able to look Twilight in the eyes, he simply looked down. "I see." He ran a hoof through his two-toned hair and sighed. "Ever since Tirek escaped Tartarus, I started wondering if my ancestor could have done the same, and if he did, stop and appreciate how much progress we've made in Equestria... or simply use the time to plan on a better way to destroy it. Seems like his time in Tartarus has only embittered him more."

Tomato trotted forth to the circle and asked, "All right, so why take it out on us? We had nothing to do with that stupid war!"

"Yes, but I don't doubt that he just wants to destroy everything that Celestia built."

Twilight levitated Wayer Rune's journal out of her saddlebag and gave it to Quasar. "I read this to try to understand his mindset, and from what I've read... yes, that does seem to be the case. I stopped before he started removing soldiers' memories, and the wolf plague started causing massacres and spreading to the surviving innocents. A couple of my friends wouldn't have been able to handle the details."

Fluttershy slumped forward. "The war was depressing enough."

Quasar flipped through the journal. "Well, he certainly described a lot, especially since he was on the front lines of those attacks, causing a lot of the bloodshed. And well, from what he says here, his wife's sixth sense picked up on it, thus she knew a lot more than she let on. He simply threatened her and the rest of the family into silence, and she complied by falling into denial and hiding her anguish behind a smile. It took a lot of bravery for Silver Rune to inform Celestia about the source of the wolf plague."

"Okay, I think we got the backstory down," Rainbow said. "Right now, we need to actually find Wayer Rune and kick his butt! Twilight, don't you have the magic tracker spell thing? We were looking for a safe place for you to do that!"

"Oh, right, we'll see if he's still in Canterlot," Twilight said. She took a deep breath, and her horn glowed. She created a magic bubble which expanded outward throughout the entire chamber, then through the walls. She held her breath for a few seconds more, reading every square of the mountain that Canterlot resided on.

She sighed. "No, he's not here. I can only detect my friends and the memories."

The others, who had managed to listen enough while patching each other up, snapped their heads toward her and groaned. Rainbow threw her hooves up and yelled, "Really?! Where the hay did he go?!"

"On vacation," Tomato deadpanned.

Quasar gave Tomato an odd look, but then turned back to Twilight. "Wait, you have Wayer Rune's magic signature?"

Twilight shook her head. "Cheese Sandwich's, actually. As the linchpin of this plot, I don't think Wayer's going to let him out of his sight." She beckoned Tomato to draw closer, and once he did, she pointed to the necklace he wore. "We need to return these to Cheese so that not only he will regain his memories, but every other werewolf and vampire will as well. Once they remember who they are, Wayer will have no power over them."

"Uh, actually, we'd also need to take away his dog whistle," Tomato said. "He kind of made that his siren call."

"Right, that too," Twilight said. She looked back at Quasar. "Is there a map of Equestria around here? That might help us determine where he has likely struck, and where he will strike next."

"Perhaps somewhere around here," Quasar said. "We were a little too focused on our city to bring one out."

Silk scoffed, taking off her hat and pulling a map out. "I have one in my hat; I did use to travel around a bit." She spread the map in the circle, which grew larger as she, Tomato, Twilight, Twilight's entourage, and the two allies of the southern desert scooted in.

Little Strongheart blinked at the scale of the map. "Is Equestria really that big?"

"Yep," Braeburn said, staring as well. "Most ponies don't even trot every inch of it."

"I was traveling around this country all summer," Tomato said, his eyes trailing to each city he visited in order. "Seen a lot of neat sights, met different kinds of ponies, did a lot of amazing things... makes me sad to think that any one of those places could be next."

"Not just any one," Twilight said. "We need to figure out which is the best target for his type of attack."

"Which, frankly, would be a major city," Quasar suggested.

Tomato felt his stomach drop. The term "major city" brought to mind his hometown of Manehattan. Towering skyscrapers and a large population were tempting for any warmonger wanting to spread death and fear, and after Canterlot, was more than likely to be next.

But Manehattan being next was not a guarantee when Rainbow Dash gasped, and pointed to a cloud city on the map. "Cloudsdale! Remember what the crazy jester ghost said? What if he went after the weather factory there?! If he gets that, then Equestria's royally screwed!"

"Oh, dear!" Rarity said. "You mean ponies getting transformed by enchanted rain? Oh, the equinity!"

Twilight thought for a moment, and her eyes widened. She stood up. "You're right, Rainbow! Jamberry did mention Cloudsdale! He must have attacked that city, too!"

Rainbow was in her face. "What are you waiting for?! My hometown's in trouble!"

Fluttershy gasped. "And our families!"

For Tomato, there was only a tiny bit of relief that it wasn't Manehattan; but, that was swiftly replaced with the knowledge that Cloudsdale was Cirrus' and Nimbus' hometown, and the horrifying images of Cirrus and Nimbus undergoing the painful transformations he and Cheese did. Imagining them as either monster was just as wrong as seeing Cheese as a werewolf.

"All right, calm down!" Twilight said. "Let's take a minute to think of a plan before popping over there."

Rainbow crossed her front legs and rolled her eyes. "We need to get to the factory and zap the weather junk with the cure, now let's go!"

Twilight groaned. "How about a fight plan?"

"Encase yourselves in a bubble, and run them over like a hamster in a ball," Silk Shimmer suggested.

"Okay, okay, we'll go with that!" Twilight looked among the group, reading each nervous face. "It's simple enough, and we wouldn't waste time punching and kicking them until they end up overpowering us like the changelings did. However, I just need a small group to come with me. I know Rainbow Dash is up for it..." She looked to her other pegasus friend. "What about you, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy was twisting her mane in her hooves. "Well... I will admit, I'm still very scared about all this..." She glanced down at the blue necklace she wore, and then stood up. "But, my fear is nothing compared to all the suffering that's going on right now, and I'll help any way I can."

"Okay, that's two," Twilight said. She looked at Tomato. "He maybe could still be there..."

"Uh, doubt it," Tomato said. "It's been a 'few days', remember? He'd have moved on to some other city." He still internally begged that Manehattan wasn't a target--as mad as he was at his parents, they didn't deserve that fate, and if Bluejinx had returned home from Nickerlite, he'd be in danger. He then found himself praying that the Salt Lick Valley was spared, so that Flora would be; as well as Seaddle, Applewood, and Aura Springs, where his extended family lived.

Still, there were still two friends whose home was hit. He looked up, and pulled his wallet out of his jacket. "I am worried about a couple of friends of mine, though." He opened it, letting a row of pictures fall out. He pointed to a picture of two certain gray pegasi and asked, "If you see monsters resembling these two... don't be afraid to tell me the bad news."

Twilight nodded. "I understand."

And then Silk stood up. "Excuse me, but could I come as some extra muscle? I've got a little experience with cloud spells and fighting vampires."

Quasar looked up at her, his eyes wide. "Silk Shimmer! Are you sure about this?"

"Dad, I was fighting werewolves and vampires the past few days, I'll be fine."

"Yes, I know, but you'll be in the sky, and at risk from falling."

Rainbow smirked. "Hey, don't worry! If she falls, I can catch her long before she hits the ground!"

Rarity nodded. "Believe me, she can."

"We won't let your daughter get hurt, Mr. Rune," Twilight said. "I think she might be a little help."

She turned to the friends who were staying. "The rest of you guys, stay here and try to figure out where else Wayer Rune will strike. There are plenty of options, so you have to narrow things down based on each town's relative importance."

"Will do, Twi," Applejack said.

"Good luck up there!" Rarity said.

Quasar stood up and walked to Silk. "Silk, do be careful on this mission. Right now, you're the only family I have."

Silk smiled at him. "Dad, I'll be fine. And hey, if there's any good for our family right now, it's that Party Favor is safe from this madness." She gave him a stink eye. "If we make it through this alive, we need to talk about visiting him sometime. At the very least, we should spend Hearth's Warming with him!"

Quasar pursed his lips. "Yes... of course."

Twilight gathered the team several steps away from the circle. Once everypony in the small group was ready, with Silk Shimmer making sure to cast a cloud-walking spell on herself, the princess lit up her horn, and they disappeared in a flash of light.

They dropped on a cloud just outside of Cloudsdale's city limits. Rainbow and Fluttershy hovered above it, while Twilight and Silk gracefully landed on their feet. The latter stared at her hooves, and bounced a little, giggling.

"Oh, that never gets old," she said.

After the other three smiled at her, they turned to gaze at the city, which looked like giant, ugly brown swirls held up by pillars, looming over them like a giant. Against the dark sky, it looked less like a cloud and more like a monster, with the shining rainbow falls appearing as multiple luminescent eyes and glowing, colorful drool. Rain clouds rapidly pumped out of various exit pipes, heading in every direction possible. Their ears picked up the screeching of bats and howls of wolves and came from within, confirming the citizens' fate.

Fluttershy had her hooves to her mouth. "Oh, no! I don't know if our families escaped!"

Rainbow's slack jaw closed with a growl. "Oh, you just made it even more personal, Rooney! We'll kick your butt until it falls off!"

While the pegasi had taken in the sight, Twilight cast the tracking spell to make absolutely sure that leaving Tomato behind wasn't a bad idea. She pursed her lips. "Well, we'll have to go somewhere else for that, because I don't detect his main attack dog, and, well, he's not letting that boy out of his sight."

"I'm still reeling from the fact that he used Cheese instead of Trixie," Silk muttered.

Twilight beckoned Silk Shimmer over, and said, "All right, let's create a double-layered shield, and we'll roll it through town straight to the factory."

"Gotcha," Silk Shimmer said, already forming a shield around the cloud.

Twilight created the second around Silk's, and floated the group to the main cloud platform of the city. Once there, the four mares galloped forward, and the bubble began to roll down the cloud paths of the city, like a bowling ball thrown by a pro.

Many of the half-pegasus monsters had barely any time to react before being mowed down or knocked aside by a giant hamster ball. Of those that were lucky enough to be already out of the way, seeing fresh pony meat running down the street, foolishly hopped upon it to try to break into the orb. Some werewolves tried to bite through, while vampires divebombed the orb in an attempt to shatter it. Silk's shield gained some cracks and scratches, but the monsters didn't go very far until nearly flattened, saved only by soft cloud.

Rainbow had to direct them to the factory, swerving right and left through around every cloudy hill and ramp. It was easy for somepony to lose their step and slip, caught in a spinning ride until the others tripped on the first tripper. It was easy for another to stumble, and send the ball spinning like a top, leaving the passengers green and dizzy. It was easy for the ball to get airborne when running too fast toward a hill, prompting Rainbow to fly it back down to Cloudsdale and continue on their way. And it was also too easy to make a wrong turn, and suddenly plummet to the ground. For that one, both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had to lift the ball back up to Cloudsdale, and then continue the run.

They continued to bowl over every monster, with Fluttershy crying "I'm sorry!" to each one of them. They rolled on forward, until Rainbow pointed to a spacious, multi-leveled building, decorated with cloud pillars, domes, and arches, with pipes that either drained rainbow, or shot clouds into the sky. "There's the factory!"

They rolled across the bridge to the factory, with Rainbow hovering and knocking the walls of the ball side to side to keep them from falling. They rolled to the steps, where Twilight allowed Rainbow to exit the sphere, and then kick it through the door.

When she followed, her need to duck five seconds later made it apparent that the ball was pinballing through the factory, which bounced off various lab equipment, and she had to give chase. Room after room, machine after machine, and water tank after water tank, the shield bounced, enough that Rainbow inwardly cringed at a memory of some mischief in this very building under a year ago.

If there was any good thing about the ricocheting, it was that it was taking care of most of the vampires and werewolves inside the factory. There were some that escaped the sphere, but Rainbow was more than willing to knock aside when they tried to attack. She kept up with the pinball shield while knocking out as many monsters as she could, until finally, sometime when most of the monsters who hadn't attacked or been knocked out had fled the building, Twilight popped the bubble, and she and the other two mares were on the factory floor, catching their breath.

Rainbow hovered down to the floor. "You okay?"

Twilight sat up and rubbed her injured wing. "Yeah... but I don't want to do that again."

Fluttershy got up on wobbly legs. "At least we made it."

Silk rubbed her head. "And at least we don't have to worry about any vampires or werewolves jumping us."

Fluttershy looked around at all the unconscious half-pony monsters around the water tanks. "Oh, dear, I'm not sure I can write that many apology notes."

Rainbow crept closely to one of the werewolves. "Does anypony else think that werewolves with feathered wings look silly?"

Twilight was now on her hooves. "Yeah, they kind of do. But, we do have business to attend to." She trotted to one of the water tanks and climbed the stairs. "Thankfully, we're already in the water storage room. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, could you shut off the big cloud machine? I'd like to stop this cursed weather before it goes too far, and only after I put the cure in should you turn it back on."

The two pegasi nodded, and went off to the other room. Twilight then turned to Silk. "You think you can help me open these water tanks?"

"All right." Silk turned and trotted up another water tank's steps. She opened a hatch at the same time as Twilight, exposing the water to any magical influence that Twilight could give.

Silk looked at Twilight's wing. "Um, Princess? Is it all right to ask what happened to your wing?"

Twilight glanced at her casted appendage. "Oh... well, when the Sandwiches tumbled on a train to Appleloosa, we had to catch a train to get there so we could cure Cheese. But a certain somepony didn't want us to get to him before the next night, and caused a train wreck miles from our destination, which injured my wing."

"Oh, I see." Silk trotted down the steps, and moved to the next tank, her head hanging a little.

Twilight moved to the parallel tank. "You're not happy having him as an ancestor, are you?"

Silk was already climbing the steps. "No. Once ponies learn about the 'Werewolf Guy', it feels like we have this stigma, like one of us is going to go off the deep end and destroy Equestria, just because we're descended from him. Doesn't help that my older brother did exactly that earlier this summer. And knowing that our ancestor is causing trouble right now... I can't help but feel a little guilty about it."

"I see. Well, I don't hold your ancestor's actions against you; they're his actions, and you have absolutely nothing to do with what he did. I'm judging you by your actions, Silk Shimmer, and your actions tell me that you're brave and kind, and I'm glad that you're willing to help us fix things."

Silk blushed. "I never really saw myself as brave... I always felt that I was a bit of a pushover. But, I appreciate such kind words--especially from a princess!" She opened the hatch, and slid down the railing to the floor. She looked up at the top of the tank. "I hope opening these things doesn't take too long."

Then, the door to the other room opened, and Rainbow Dash poked her head in. "Twilight, I think we have a problem!"

The two horned ladies looked at each other and galloped off into the cloud room. Once inside, they went past the two rows of smaller cloud machines, which all continued to belch clouds, and under many tubes that sucked the clouds outside and sent them to different cities. They made it to the main machine, and Rainbow Dash presented them with a machine that only buzzed when Fluttershy pushed its buttons, and valves and levers broken off of it.

Fluttershy pushed another wrong button, and an alarm just buzzed in her ear. She covered her ears and wailed in frustration, crying, "Even if it wasn't half-broken, I don't know how to work this thing!"

Silk grimaced. "Oh... that is a problem."

"Yeah, the obvious ones are broken, and we can't figure out the dumb buttons!" Rainbow exclaimed. Another buzzer sounded in her ear, and she growled, reeling her body back in a prepared attack. "That's it, I'm smashing this thing!"

"Rainbow, don't!" Twilight said, snagging Rainbow's tail with her magic before she went too far. "For all we know, that could cause the machine to explode with steam! If we don't die from it, we'll turn into monsters!"

She trotted forward, and peered closely at the controls, pursing her lips while she searched for labels. She instead found the remnants of half-ripped stickers and groaned. "Well, somepony realized that most ponies these days are literate." She looked back at the funnels continuing to pump out clouds. "Guess those new automatic water pumps bit Cloudsdale in the flank, huh?"

"My dad would know the controls," Fluttershy said, slumping and swallowing a lump in her throat. "But what are the chances that he escaped the enchanted water?"

"There's gotta be an instruction manual somewhere..." Twilight murmured.

They heard a bang from the water storage room, which made all their hearts stop. They had little time to relax until another loud bang echoed through the factory, making them wonder what it was, and if it was coming to get them. With the thought that perhaps there was a vampire that was bumping objects with its large wings, or a werewolf so focused on sniffing the ponies out that it bumped into a water tank, there came the thought that they should get ready for a fight. Horns charging with magic and a prismatic pegasus rolling up nonexistent sleeves steeled themselves to keep more monsters away, or perhaps pin it down to cure a hapless factory worker that could help.

The door opened, and Rainbow tackled the two figures that attempted to enter.

And then she stopped, realizing that these two factory workers were still normal ponies.

The stallion of the pair shivered, trying to hide under his helmet. "Oh, please don't hurt us! We don't mean any harm!"

Rainbow blinked at the teal stallion with a pale pink mustache. "Wait... Mr. Shy?"

The stallion's co-worker gave them funny looks. "Do they seriously call you that, Gentle Breeze?"

"Oh, I don't mind, Raincloud," Gentle Breeze said. "I... do find it a little meaningful, to be honest."

The other three appeared behind Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy gasped, a relieved smile gracing her face. "Dad! You're okay!"

Rainbow Dash hopped off them, and helped them up. Gentle Breeze went to his daughter for a hug. "Oh, Fluttershy! It's so good to see you!"

Rainbow turned to Raincloud, and her eyes widened. "Wait... you're Raincloud!" She gasped and squealed. "Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh! One of the best of the retired Wonderbolts! I remember seeing the one time, when you, Blazing Silver, Wind Rider, Thunder Zoom, and other retirees did that big Wonderbolts anniversary show! Even a few years out of practice, you were still awesome!"

"Who said I was out of practice?" Raincloud laughed. She put a hoof on her heart. "But, still, it never fails to amaze me that years after I resigned I still meet fans!" She scrunched her nose. "Though... I didn't expect to meet one here... during an ongoing disaster..."

Twilight stepped forward. "Can you tell me what happened here? How did you manage to avoid transforming?"

Raincloud grimaced and rubbed the back of her head. She slipped past a water tank to the window, beckoning the group. She pointed to the dim landscape, overseen by the black sun. "Well... it started when that eclipse happened one morning... not sure how long it was, that morning felt forever ago. Still, when I was starting my shift and checking the water levels, it went dark, and we all stopped just to see what was going on.

"After a few minutes, we were just going back to work... and then some creepy unicorn pops in. Security tried to tackle him, but he had these big... attack animal things. Some looked like dogs, some looked like bats... but he sicced them on us, and it was a madhouse in here. I was fully expecting to see a lot of death... I was not expecting seeing ponies actually transform into the attack animals. Thanks to mad flying skills, I was able to avoid getting bitten like most of my co-workers. But with those animals everywhere, nopony could apprehend the unicorn and stop him from casting some spell on the water!"

Gentle Breeze held a somber expression. "I was in the cloud room when it happened. In the chaos, I bumped into Raincloud, and she seemed relieved that she found a pony that didn't turn into a monster. She grabbed me, and we spent some time dodging monsters until she found the break room and locked us in--or, rather, tipped the refrigerator to block the door. She was telling me that an intruder had done something to the water, and she needed to get the authorities, but... how could we when we were trapped?"

"We only came out after we noticed that it got eerily quiet," Raincloud said. "We pushed the fridge aside, and flew around to find all these guys knocked out." She gestured to the unconscious werewolves and vampires scattered all around the tanks. "I guess you did it, huh?"

Twilight and Silk grinned sheepishly, the latter murmuring, "Bouncy bubbles make for a wild pinball ride..."

Twilight furrowed her brow. "Well, you deserve an explanation on why that happened. You see, that unicorn's spell on the water is the same one he used to turn innocent ponies into his 'attack animals'. He's enchanting water so that whoever drinks it or gets wet turns into either a vampire or a werewolf."

Gentle Breeze gasped. "Oh no! Why would he do that?"

"Let's... just say he's mad at Celestia and wants to destroy everything she built."

"Well, no wonder he attacked the factory!" Raincloud exclaimed, stomping a hoof and snorting. "And this place isn't just weather--it's also a water plant for the city of Cloudsdale! Which means my husband could have drank it and... and..." She sat down, grinding her teeth. "I wish I could have stopped him..."

Fluttershy and Gentle Breeze looked at each other sadly, both being near tears. The former took a sharp breath and said, "It must also mean that Mom and Zephyr..."

Gentle Breeze's lip trembled. "I don't even want to imagine my dear sweet Posey that way..."

Rainbow rubbed the back of her head. "Not even Zephyr deserved that."

Raincloud just stared out the window, watching the small, colorful dots buzz around like flies and tear into cloud structures. "I suppose if there's a silver lining on this cloud, it's that my kids left town for Manehattan; they have a semester coming up."

Twilight stopped herself from saying that Manehattan was a likely target, and instead decided on a more positive idea. "Well, we're glad that you two are okay, because we need your help. I can enchant the water so that it can cure this curse, and perhaps we can engineer the weather to cure the citizens of Cloudsdale. Though, we need a little help with the cloud machine, it's going a little crazy."

Gentle Breeze blinked. "Oh, what kind of help?"

Raincloud turned. "What did the creep do?"

"Well..." Fluttershy said. "We'll have to show you."

And thus, they showed them the broken levers and valves of the cloud machine, with Fluttershy imploring her father on how it worked and if there were any buttons that could turn it off. There were merely straight faces from Raincloud and Gentle Breeze, as the former nudged the latter, sending him to a nearby closet, and pulling out spare rods and valves, and some duct tape.

"You can't be serious," Rainbow said.

"Well, we make do with duct tape until we get a replacement lever," Raincloud said. "You would not believe how often those things break."

Gentle Breeze taped the most prominent one, and shut down the machine. "I think this poor thing needs to cool down. It's been running quite awhile."

"But we need to make our own cure weather as fast as possible!" Rainbow said.

"Well, we could gather the clouds that were already sent out," Silk suggested.

"That's a problem," Twilight said. "If any pegasi touch them, then there's a big chance of them transforming."

"Oh, gee, if only we had full body suits in this factory like the ones we use in the first stage of rainbow brewing, or for when we have to handle lightning," Raincloud said. "But in all seriousness, there are suits like that in another room. I'm sure we can find a few your size."

"Well, I can't fly at the moment," Twilight said, pointing out her wing. "But, if you really do have these suits, we just have to send out our ex-Wonderbolt and our Wonderbolt Reserve; the rest of us can fix the water and draw up a weather plan."

"Sounds good to me." Raincloud turned to Rainbow. "And you're a Wonderbolt Reserve? Wow, I have a feeling this will be fun."

Rainbow squealed. "I'm gonna fly with Raincloud!"

Meanwhile, Glimmerdust had made her way uphill, blasting werewolves and vampires aside like nopony's business. Sometimes she just had to fire a blast at their feet, to effectively scare them off. Other times, she had to outright zap the animals away, hurting them so that they got the message. Fewer of the monsters bothered her when she cantered out of city limits, but there were still a few that attempted a surprise attack.

She was feeling a little winded by the time she made it to the water plant, which was guarded by more of the same two monsters. Realizing that she needed as much energy as she could to cast the curing spell on the water, she decided that one certain spell that she had been maintaining all day had to go, at least for a little while.

Her turquoise coat turned to lilac, and the lilac stripes in her purple hair turned turquoise. She let down the ponytail, though her mane still had a strange bounce to it. Her magical burden was lighter now, and thankfully, there was nopony around that could recognize her as the infamous Starlight Glimmer.

She peeked from the bushes, and tried to decide where the spell needed to be cast. Perhaps she should have gotten a book on the water system to know exactly where to cast; oh, well, she'll have to cast it in every tank possible.

"Stupid crazy sorcerer, turning ponies into these monsters," Starlight grumbled. "If I could find that guy, I'd remove his cutie mark."

She was certain that her frustration over this interruption of her magic research and plans could fuel her just enough to succeed in this goal. Then, back to figuring out a way to get back at Princess Twilight for ruining her cutie-markless sanctuary.

She readied herself to jump in and attack. "At least my revenge won't destroy Equestria."

24.3--Close to Home

Tomato idly rolled a marker back and forth with a hoof, the other hoof supporting his leaning head. The words between others at the table ran together into one long drone. His eyes hopped from one circled city to the next, imagining the very disaster that happened to Canterlot happening in those cities. It was unknown if Princess Cadance could have learned of what was happening in Equestria, but who was to say that Wayer Rune couldn't have struck the Crystal Empire before any messenger that somehow escaped even reached her? Could he have decided to make the residents of Las Pegasus to relive the vampire horror of June--except with the addition of werewolves? Why not an entertainment center like Applewood? Or a historical center like Fillydelphia? Or seaports like Baltimare or Seaddle? Heck, there was even the reluctant option of Ponyville, which Applejack and Rarity had to admit that as an exurb of Canterlot and home of a princess, he could have struck it as well. Once Little Strongheart brought up the possibility of Wayer enchanting rivers, the task of finding their current location was growing larger.

And then there was Manehattan, the city with the highest population in Equestria. Seeing it being the second city circled, just behind the Crystal Empire, gave him the sensation of a stone in his gut, weighing him down and making him feel sick. Any frustrations he had with the city were brushed aside, and all he could think of was how that was his home. Whether or not he liked them, he still felt a chill over ponies that he knew suffering the same fate as Cheese.

He stopped playing with the marker, and shifted his attention to the memory necklace. The stone in his gut stirred within as he imagined how it would be on finally finding that amnesiac werewolf that was his brother. He could feel the pain of being ripped apart by those teeth, the tightness of an attending Wayer's magical grip, and even the sensation of something draining out of his ears, his brainpower sapped as the curse thoroughly removed his equinity, and his very identity.

Rolling the little memory beads back and forth on his hoof, Tomato then wondered what Wayer would do with them once the lanky earth pony had failed his mission and succumbed to the feral curse. If he couldn't smash them--that would just restore the memories to a nearby Cheese--then what could he do?

Next to him, Braeburn's boredom was crushed by concern over his neighbor's anxiety."Y'alright?"

Tomato kept staring at the necklace. "Yeah."

Braeburn just leaned over for a closer look at the necklace. "Awful crazy to think that's Cheese's mind there. He must've had one heck of a headache after getting 'em pulled out. I wonder if he can still think."

Tomato thought of when he and the girls had been trapped in there, accompanied by a living Boneless 2 and a younger version of Cheese. "Well.. I think he sorta can? Or maybe it's like he's asleep and dreaming of everything not falling apart?"

"Sounds confusin'."

"Yeah, it is."

"Okay then." Braeburn pursed his lips, looking among the circled cities on the map. "Tomato, I've been wondering... what'll happen if you get bit? Ain't there anypony else who can grab them memories and give 'em back to Cheese before this gets out of hoof?"

Tomato brushed at one of the beads, his brow furrowing. "I don't know. The only other ponies I know for sure could carry these things are Pinkie Pie and Twilight... and, well, we already lost one, and the other said it takes a lot of magic to hold it without retaliation. Maybe Cheese's mentor could carry them, but I'm not putting an elderly stallion in danger. Maybe if you could carry them, you could be my backup--but, we'd have to know for sure..."

Braeburn blinked, and with an exhale, he slowly reached toward the necklace. The first poke, thankfully, did not bring a shock; he eased himself onto letting his hoof rest on the beads, where a few seconds of nothing made both stallions think that maybe they really had a backup plan after all.

But, it was around ten seconds where Braeburn felt a buzzing and tingling discomfort right down to his bones, and pulled his foreleg back. He rubbed the leg, grimacing in seven different ways and snapping, "Dagnabbit! Feels like them goshdarn pins and needles you get from a hoof fallin' asleep!"

That got the others at the table looking up at them, with Applejack showing a bit of concern. "Braeburn! What have you been doin' over there?"

Braeburn cradled and bounced his foreleg like it was a baby, forcing an unstable grin. "Oh... just discussin' any backup plans in case we lose this pony here." He tilted his head toward Tomato, who sunk below the tabletop. "Cheese's memories just made my foreleg fall asleep and the feelin' drives me crazy!"

Little Strongheart sighed. "One must regard magic with caution, Braeburn."

"Don't need to tell me twice. Surprised it didn't kill me."

Rarity blinked. "Oh, my! I don't think any of us realized that the shocking had... er... intensity levels? Granted, I'd be quite uncomfortable having that pins and needles sensation for however long carrying those memories, but at least you're not toast."

Quasar Rune stroked his goatee. "Interesting, I don't think there's much information on a memory's shock intensity. I think the simple discomfort instead of outright electrocution does suggest that he does like you... though perhaps he's still a little cautious."

Braeburn huffed. "But I guess bein' his friend ain't enough, huh? Wonder what makes a pony worthy."

Tomato noticed the glance Braeburn gave him, and shot back up. "Well, I'm sorry! I didn't ask to be worthy in any sense of the word!"

Braeburn hit him with his hat. "You don't need to yell 'bout it. Sure, I'm disappointed..." He placed his hat back atop his head and adjusted it. "...but I gotta be a big colt about it. Maybe if he visited more often, our good friendship maybe could have had me bein' worthy, and I'm happy that he trusts his brother to that point." He pursed his lips. "Still worries me 'bout how you're the only one."

Applejack sighed, and looked at the boys with tender eyes. "Well, ain't much we can do about that other than guardin' him."

"Maybe the one who tolerates the discomfort the most is the backup," Little Strongheart said.

It was at that moment that they heard a click from the tunnel, followed by the sounds of a door opening and closing. Everypony looked to the tunnel, where Glimmerdust was the first to emerge, surprisingly without a scratch, though clearly winded; behind her, Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Silk Shimmer appeared. Glimmerdust went down the stairs, almost to escape them, though the other four descended after her.

Silk waved to her father. "Hey! We took care of the weather problem!" She side-eyed Glimmerdust. "And we stopped to pick up that tired mare; I'm surprised she isn't more banged up..."

Glimmerdust shot a glare to Silk behind her. "At least I took care of the water system! And the river! And I would have thrown every werewolf and vampire in any water if I had the energy... ugh, I need a nap."

Quasar smiled at them. "Aren't I glad to hear both good news? Though, Glimmerdust, perhaps you should have had Mr. Will with you." He pointed to the meditating Iron Will in the corner.

"I did fine on my own, thank you." Glimmerdust went off to a bed against the cave wall, burying herself in the blankets and grumbling that nopony even take the blankets off of her.

Iron Will cracked open an eye, stood up, and stretched. "Iron Will does not appreciate getting left out. But he has renewed his energies, and is ready to make those monsters take a swim!" He saluted to the ponies and then started running up the stairs that the Cloudsdale group had just gotten off.

Rainbow darted to the table. "And I got to fly with a Wonderbolt legend! You know Raincloud, guys? A master of weather acrobatics? Turns out she escaped getting turned into a monster! She was a lot of help in grabbing all those cursed rainclouds, and we both dodged and punched and kicked any vampire or... flying werewolf..." She made motions matching her listed actions, swooping and striking the air, before stopping at the thought of the winged werewolves. She stifled a laugh before continuing, "And we grabbed just about every stray cloud we found, and even zapped the monsters with some lightning... but yeah, flying with Raincloud is every bit as awesome as I imagined it!"

Tomato perked up at the sound of that. "Raincloud? Hey, wait, that's Cirrus' and Nimbus' mother!"

Rainbow turned to him. "Uh... are you sure you're not confusing her with a different Raincloud?"

"Oh, no, I've met her. And seen her and her husband in action at the opening of the Shining Vocals. Trust me, she's the twins' mom."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Right..."

Twilight came and sat at the table. "If that's the case, you should know that she mentioned that her kids left for Manehattan before the curse happened."

Tomato breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness, they escaped!"

Fluttershy made it to the table, sitting by Applejack. "And my Dad managed to escape the curse, too. Four pegasi definitely made squishing the clouds into a cumulonimbus easier than with just two."

"And now we have our own enchanted rain over Cloudsdale!" Twilight said. Her smile fell into a frown. "But our baddie's still not in sight."

Tomato snorted and leaned in his hoof. "Guess I was right. So, where next, your Highness? We've got a lot of options."

Rarity slid the map to Twilight. "We thought very long and hard about where he'd want to strike after Cloudsdale, but it's terribly hard to narrow down where and why and if he could be still there... for all we know, he could have already teleported to Vanhoover!"

Another pony piped up, "Well, it's obviously either the Crystal Empire or Manehattan that was hit next; either Princess Candance needs to be out of the picture, or he hits the highest population in one sitting."

"Well, thanks for the inf--wait, Crystal Empire?" Twilight's pupils shrunk into pinpricks and she stood up and paced. "Oh, no no no no no! Not my brother and sister-in-law! I've already lost more than enough family to this curse! I-I-I... we gotta go to the Crystal Empire! We gotta make sure they're all right!"

Applejack had a hoof up. "Now, calm down, Twi... maybe Wayer didn't get the memo that--"

"He's from before the Crystal Empire disappeared! He has no reason to not target it!"

Quasar Rune stood up. "Your Highness... I sympathize with your situation, and I want my wife returned to normal just as much. But, we all know that the fastest way to save them all... your family, Tomato's brother, my wife and Silk's mother... everypony's families, is to locate Wayer..." He turned to look at Tomato and the memories he held. "...and pull the linchpin to bring his plot down."

Twilight pursed her lips, frantic eyes now on the map. "Maybe he's still in the Crystal Empire... not much of a time waster to save Cadance and Shining Armor while also stopping our bad guy, right?"

Rainbow groaned. "At this rate, he probably already left it and went on to the next city." She pointed to Manehattan, restarting the chill in Tomato's blood. "Or the next..." Her hoof jumped to Fillydelphia. "Or the next..." Her hoof jumped to Las Pegasus. "Or the next." She ended it with a hoof on Applewood. She pulled back to hover over everypony, and looked at the little circle near Canterlot. "Or maybe even Ponyville! If only our big magic map back at the castle could help us!"

Then, from her wall across the cave, Glimmerdust piped up. "What's stopping it?"

The members of the table turned to the mare underneath the blankets, pondering on how much she must have heard. Twilight answered, "The problem is, it only sends us on missions to solve friendship problems! I'm not sure if the Map counts this as a friendship problem."

"So... you never bothered seeing if it could do more? Wow, you're not very proactive, are you?"

"Hey! It's not that!" Twilight snapped. "It's just... what if messing with the map breaks it or something?"

"Oh, surely you can ask it to help you locate Wayer and his attack dogs--it probably has the... best interests... of Equestria at heart."

All fell silent at that statement, with each pondering the possibility of them using the Map to locate Wayer Rune--or more accurately, Cheese Sandwich--more quickly. Twilight looked among her friends, who stared at the little paper map on the table, with multiple cities circled and question marks all around.

Then, Tomato asked, "Could this map of yours help?"

Twilight turned to him. "I... never really tried anything with it."

"It's worth a shot, Sugarcube," Applejack said. "The Tree of Harmony is on our side, ain't it?"

Twilight sighed. "Well... I guess we'll try it. Come on, Ponyville's not too far, so we won't need a circle."

She trotted over to an empty space on the floor, with her party standing up and coming to join her. They positioned themselves accordingly, close enough to be in range of Twilight's magic, but giving each other space. Rarity scanned the floor, as if to imagine the circle she'd need to draw for the next long distance teleport.

But, before Twilight could cast the spell, Silk Shimmer jumped forth to them. "Wait! Don't you need all the help you can get?"

Twilight blinked, and grimaced. "Silk Shimmer, you were a big help in keeping the monsters away when the rest of us were busy with the weather... but, I don't know if I want to bring more ponies into this hunt."

Quasar was right beside his daughter in a flash. "Especially since this time, you might come face to face with Wayer Rune! Our ancestor's too dangerous, Silk! The moment he finds out you're his descendant, he might get interested in dragging you down to his level!"

Silk turned to him. "Dad, whatever city they'll end up in, they'll be outnumbered! I've got experience dealing with that, I can help them!"

"You can also help Iron Will toss some of those hybrids into the water, I'm not letting you face off against that warlock! It'd be like sending Party Favor to fight Starlight Glimmer!"

The lump in the corner that was Glimmerdust perked up, her eyes strangely confused and interested at the mention of Starlight. After a second, realizing their relation to the other mentioned pony, she went back to resting, still buried within her little cave of a blanket.

"I'm not planning to face him directly, I'm just going to be fighting the monsters," Silk said. "Everyone in this cave can go and trick those things in Canterlot to jump into some water; I don't think you need magic to manage that. I don't recall much magic from Iron Will, after all."

Quasar growled. "Silk Shimmer... it's not a matter of if we can avoid being bitten, or can restore the monsters to their rightful forms... it's about the pony behind this disaster. He just might plan to corrupt you and have you assist him!"

Silk pursed her lips. "Kazam hypnotized me, and I still helped stop the Las Pegasus incident."

Among the group watching the argument, Tomato looked at the memories he held and muttered, "I dunno, I'm a bigger target..."

Quasar held his hard glare for several more seconds, before relaxing into a worried look. "I already had a son corrupted by dark magic use, and the other get seduced by a cult... to say nothing of what happened to your mother. I don't know if I'll be able to handle my only daughter getting dragged into a terrorist's scheme. We can send Glimmerdust to help them."

Glimmerdust stood up from her bed and snapped, "Oh, no, I'll just be splashing a bunch of monsters here in Canterlot, I'm not going on some crazy stallionhunt with Little Miss Goody-Two Shoes and her friends. I'm rested enough, bye!"

And then she poofed away.

Everyone in that cave just stared at where Glimmerdust once laid, her teleport apparently having scorched that bed. Twilight especially appeared perplexed, with everyone turning to her as she asked, "What did I ever do to her?"

Quasar slumped and nickered in annoyance. "So much for that."

Silk shook her head. "I don't understand her attitude." She took her father's hoof. "I know it's risky, but I want to do all I can to help them accomplish their goal. After all, all they need to do is return Cheese Sandwich's memories; I just have to keep the monsters off them, and I've got quite a bit of experience on that."

Quasar glanced away from her, thinking for a few moments, and sighed. He put a hoof on her shoulder. "Very well. All I ask is that you stay away from Wayer Rune. I could give you a long list of what spells he knows and the ways he can use them. Remember your shield spells, sweetheart."

Silk nodded. "No problem."

After giving him a kiss on the cheek, she turned and joined the group, who were now resigned to their new party member. She grinned at Tomato, and he smiled back before they shared a hoofbump. They looked forward at Quasar, who still stood there to see them off.

"Good luck, ponies. We'll be cleaning things up here in the meantime."

Twilight gave him a curt nod. "Thanks." She glanced around at everypony. "You guys ready?"

After receiving the word of affirmation, she teleported the party away.

They teleported straight into the throne room, which was basked in a colorful glow thanks to the crystals of the tree root chandelier. A room that seemed normally cold was instead looking like a warm sanctuary in a dark storm, and the Map table glittered under the dancing lights. The visitors to the castle looked around in awe, with Braeburn, Little Strongheart, and Silk Shimmer exploring the room a little, with especial attention drawn to the Map. Meanwhile, Tomato just looked up at the windows, which looked black among the crystal light, and he was unsure exactly what would stare back if one dared to stare into the darkness.

Twilight looked and trotted around. "Spike? Are you here?"

Rainbow Dash decided to be the one to check outside. Pressing her face against the glass, her eyes swept the landscape, catching nearly twice as many winged ponies as normal, with all having leathery bat wings instead of feathered pegasus wings. She could see packs of wolves feasting on kills from beyond town. It was too dark to recognize most, but one overeager howler with a lot of muscle made his own identity clear to Rainbow.

She looked down sadly at the rest of the group. "I think he got Ponyville."

Sharp gasps came from the rest of the residents in the room, while the visitors stopped their little tours. Apologetic looks were shot from those at the table, while Tomato looked down at the floor, cursing under his breath over Wayer having decided to pay the town a visit.

Immediately after, Fluttershy zoomed up, and looked out as well. On seeing the packs of werewolves having their meals, she slowly hovered back, her hooves to her mouth.

"Muh... my..." She bit her lip and choked until she coughed out, "My animal friends! Oh, no, they could have been eaten by our neighbors!" She teared up, and went down to Applejack for comfort. "And I wasn't here to protect them!"

As she held Fluttershy, Applejack came to a realization about her own family. Though she still stayed strong for her friend, she could feel her own heart pounding and her own body going numb. She looked away as she chanted, "Oh, they better have escaped... they better have escaped..."

Rarity gasped. "Oh no! Sweetie Belle! I... I don't want to think about her being..." She choked on the last word, neither option being pleasant, and then fainted with little fanfare. Silk Shimmer zipped to her side, picked her up with her forelegs, and then used her magic to fan her hat over Rarity's face.

Twilight peeked out of the throne room door. "Spike? Spike, please tell me you're alright!"

Rainbow snorted, and readied herself to break the window. "I oughta go out and find Scootaloo!"

Twilight whipped around, and grabbed Rainbow with magic before she even made a move. "Rainbow, wait! You can't just break the window and let them know we're here!" She set her on the ground. "We have to stay in here and figure out where Wayer went."

Rainbow was in Twilight's face in a millisecond. "Maybe there's a chance that somepony did escape! The Crusaders, Big Mac, the Mayor... anypony! I gotta go and find and rescue somepony, anypony, who didn't drink cursed water, or got bitten, or something! Heck, where's Spike? What could the spell do to him?!"

Twilight bit her lip. "I don't know! I-I'm not sure just what a werewolf and vampire spell will do to a dra--"

The door creaked open, and everyone spun around to see a small purple dragon, shaking like it was a cold winter day. He stared at the room, eyes wide as dinner plates and taking in the sight of actual, non-monster ponies, with no fangs of any kind. Other faces of other creatures peeked over as well, seeing if it was safe.

On seeing Twilight, he threw the door wide open, and darted for her, followed by several animals running to the rest of the girls. Applejack was licked by a border collie, and she moved away as a rabbit dried Fluttershy's tears. Rainbow happily embraced a tortoise wearing a propeller on its shell, and a cat patted Rarity in a fairly weak attempt to wake her up. A little alligator just waddled into the room, and looked around, seeing all but the one it wanted to see. All this as the dragon ran and cried, "Twiliiiiiiight!"

Twilight's face brightened as the dragon jumped her and clung on for comfort. "Spike! Oh, Spike, you're all right!" She noticed an owl perching on her horn. "And it's good to see you too, Owlowiscious."

He squeezed her leg and buried his face into it. "It was awful! I-I was watching the pets like you guys asked, and we were watching the Cutie Mark Crusaders swimming when an eclipse happened... next thing I know the Crusaders are growing fangs and stuff and becoming monsters! Everypony turned into monsters! It was like the Flutterbat thing all over again, except with all of Ponyville, and even werewolves were a thing! I had to grab the pets and hide here... scare the monsters off with fire... barricade the door... and hope that none of them break in! I don't know how long it's even been!" His teary eyes looked up at Twilight's. "What's going on?!"

Twilight gently squeezed him. "Oh, I'm sorry you had to go through that! I wish we could have stopped him before he got this far."

Between labored breaths, Spike asked, "Him? Who?"

"Wayer Rune... that one wizard from after Starswirl's time, and before Luna's banishment. He broke out of Tartarus and must have spent some time learning about modern Equestria... and planning on how to destroy it. Did you see anypony or anything unusual when things started happening? Besides the eclipse, that is."

Spike backed away and twiddled his claws. "Well... I know that in the few minutes we watched it, the water started sparkling, and that's when the Crusaders turned all monster and attacked us. I think some random guy zapped a well, but that's it. I just wanted to get out of there."

"Well, if it's anything like Canterlot, he clearly enchanted the water supply."

Spike blinked. "He got Canterlot, too?"

"And Cloudsdale, but we managed to take that back."

"And he did it by enchanting the water?" He paused, staring at the floor in thought. "I guess I was right to be paranoid about turning on the tap and using the emergency water bottles instead. Gee, I wonder what would have happened if the Crusaders weren't swimming."

"So, all three of 'em were in the water?" Applejack snorted hotly. "So is Apple Bloom a vampire, or a werewolf?"

Braeburn galloped around the table and slid beside his cousin. "Applejack, I don't think gettin' angry is--"

"Don't you tell me not to be angry! He dragged my home into this!" she snapped, cowing him. Her dog shrunk at her yelling as well. "He dragged my family into this! You think I want to think of Granny Smith drinkin' blood, or Big Mac chowing down on our pigs? Or even little Apple Bloom actin' like some rabid wild animal? My baby sister was supposed to be safe here in Ponyville, away from all the crazy magic nonsense involving that no-good, memory-stealin', monster-obsessed varmint giving us all a lickin' for a war that happened long before Granny Smith was even born!"

Rainbow flew to where Applejack was, holding her tortoise tightly. "Same for Scootaloo! I'd love for her to fly, but not as a vampire! And how many times will Rarity faint if we get her to think about what happened to Sweetie Belle? I'm lucky that Tank didn't become tortoise stew! At this point, I think it's safe to say that now all of us have somepony we love turned into either monster!" She glanced her dagger eyes at Tomato watching the exchange. "Too bad a certain somepony's brother has priority over everyone else."

Tomato stepped back, furrowing his brow. "Why are you looking at me? It's not my fault Cheese is the linchpin of his stupid plan!"

Fluttershy shook her head. "Girls! I know you're upset, but yelling isn't going to solve anything!" She noticed the lonely little alligator, flew over to it, and picked it up. "Poor Gummy here doesn't have his owner to comfort him in this scary time, and I don't know what to tell him." She looked over at Twilight. "I hope we stop this madness quickly, and get Pinkie back for him."

Twilight sighed. "So do I. Perhaps I could quickly cast the cure in the water."

Spike tapped her shoulder. "Uh, how is Cheese Sandwich the linchpin of this crazy pony's plan?" He looked around to confirm the absence of their party pony, even among visitors that he recognized and the one he didn't. "And what happened to Pinkie?"

Twilight glanced at Tomato briefly before she looked back to Spike. "He manipulated Cheese Sandwich, tore out his memories, and put him under his werewolf curse; he also altered the spell so that every werewolf would lose memories like he did, and that vampires were subject to the same. Pinkie was bitten, and we saw her lose her memories in front of our eyes."

Spike covered his mouth. "You mean... Pinkie's a werewolf? And Cheese?"

Twilight nodded, and glanced at Fluttershy and her rabbit stroking Gummy, who despite displaying a wide-eyed, emotionless stare had a sad aura around him. She pursed her lips and then straightened resolutely. "However, there is a loophole in the curse. The same alteration that made everyone suffer Cheese's amnesia also makes it so that when Cheese regains his memories..." She gestured to Tomato, who lifted the necklace up and gave the dragon an awkward smirk. Twilight turned back and finished, "...everypony else would get their memories too. Same deal with curing him; he's cured, the rest are cured."

Spike blinked to process the information, and then nodded. "Oh, I get it! Guess his whole plan's too easy to break apart, huh?"

Twilight sighed, and then trotted to the Map. "Well... we have to find him first. Someone suggested that we use the Map to try to find Cheese, but... I've never really done anything with it before. We just let it call whoever to fix a friendship problem and that's it, and I don't know if this whole thing even counts as a friendship problem."

"Well, surely the Tree of Harmony will understand," Spike said.

"Maybe, but... I don't want to risk breaking it."

Silk Shimmer looked up. "I remember an ancestor of mine--not the one we're dealing with, but a different one--saying that there would be no progress if nopony took risks. I don't know much about it, but maybe you should do a little more to figure out how it works and what it's capable of? I mean, you do want harmony back in Equestria, and this is a thing of harmony..."

The moment she noticed Rarity stir and sit up, she let go and gave her space. Rarity took a moment to process her surroundings, petting her cat and looking around, up until she noticed Spike. Her eyes widened. "Oh! Spikey-Wikey, you escaped this dreadful disaster! Oh, what joy it brings me to see you as your normal self instead of some... hideous half-bat or half-wolf monster!"

Spike brightened at the sight of her, and sprinted to her. "Oh, Rarity! Are you all right? I'm sorry, I got so caught up in getting up to speed, I forgot to check..." He put a finger to his mouth and scrunch up his face in thought. "Wait... can the spell even affect dragons?"

"Oh, I'd rather not find out." Rarity shuddered. "It's bad enough realizing that... Sweetie Belle..." She choked, and then grabbed Spike. "Please tell me she's all right, and she's not some vampire or werewolf or... some horrible mix of the two!"

"Uh..." Spike looked at the others, who gave him grim looks, with Rainbow and Applejack especially giving him hurt looks, and Gummy's stare boring into his soul. He opened his mouth to answer, still undecided between truth and lie, and choked hard enough for smoke to puff out.

Rarity noticed all the looks and frowned. "I see. So my sister's suffering like everyone else?"

Spike teared up. "I'd have saved them if I knew it was coming!"

Tomato sighed and sat down on the floor. "I feel you, little guy."

Twilight pursed her lips, and backed away. She looked at Silk Shimmer. "Well... I'm going to be thinking about how best to approach asking the Map... in the meantime, I'll get that water supply taken care of so that some ponies could turn back to normal. I'll be right back."

And so, she teleported away, leaving the others to wait.

What was a group of ponies, pets, a buffalo, and a dragon to do when hiding in a throne room and waiting for their leader to return from a little side mission?

Playing Go Fish was a way to keep some minds off the current state of affairs, as was telling a nice, fluffy story to the animals. Spike played tour guide to Braeburn, Little Strongheart, and Silk Shimmer, answering questions about the Map and some adventures the girls had, and maybe even a few about himself as a dragon. Tomato did what he always does when bored; he pulled a book from his jacket and read. It was somberly quiet, even with the banter of the card players and the animals' reactions to Fluttershy's story.

Tomato was just getting to the good part when they heard the crash of a window breaking elsewhere in the castle.

His blood ran cold. He could hear the others asking just what that was and which of the many rooms of the castle it was in; but, when closing his eyes and focusing on the sounds of the intruder--or rather, intruders, as there were multiple little growls and hisses--he could sense that it was several rooms away, where plates were being shattered, pot and pans were being banged upon, and cupboard doors were opening and closing.

He piped up, "Hey, guys? I think they broke into the kitchen."

Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack, still holding their cards, turned to him. Rainbow asked, "Uh, they?"

"Well, when you still retain the bat hearing, you hear a few more details than everyone else. I think there's three?"

"Well, guess we just need a small party to take care of 'em." Applejack set her cards down and stood up, looking at her fellow card players. "Come on, y'all--let's grab somethin' and scare them monsters off."

Fluttershy looked at the pets and stood up. "Excuse me, fellas, but I think they need my Stare to help them."

Rainbow was already at the door, cracking her neck and punching one hoof into the other, while Rarity and Fluttershy just simply trotted. Applejack paused at the saddlebags against the wall to grab a rope before continuing on. As those girls walked off to confront the monsters, Rarity murmured, "Oh, I hope it isn't somepony we know."

At the kitchen door, three pairs of hooves grabbed Rarity by the mouth before she could gasp or perhaps even scream.

They had only caught a glimpse of their intruders, but the colors were enough to confirm the identities of the creatures. A vampire white as snow crawled along the counters and stoves, knocking over any pots and utensils that had been left out. A second vampire, this one orange, hopped among the shelves, cupboards, and the pan hanger directly over the island counter, knocking off anything in its path. The lone werewolf, yellow and wearing a tattered hair ribbon, raided the fridge and pantry, searching for something to eat.

The party of four could only look at each other in shock and horror. Spike had told them, sure, but seeing the Cutie Mark Crusaders for themselves made their very hearts crumble. Applejack heaved, her chest visibly rising and falling and her grip on Rarity growing tighter.

Fluttershy rubbed her back and whispered "Take slow breaths, Applejack... take it slow..."

When she managed to peel the hooves off her mouth, Rarity willed herself not to wail, though she still teared up. "Why must woe be upon my darling little sister? What did she do to deserve such a cruel fate?"

Rainbow clenched her teeth, shaking from just the sheer pressure she was holding back. "He did this to spite us."

Fluttershy sighed. "I'm... honestly not doubting that. Let's just catch them before they cause too much trouble."

She peeked in the kitchen to scout for anything to catch them--and to spare her friends the sights of their monsterfied sisters. Apple Bloom got a hold of lemons, only for a slow, squishy bite on one that dripped juice on the floor to convince her to toss them aside. The vampires snatched a couple lemons, and sucked from them; they recoiled with tightened faces, and tossed them out the door.

Unluckily for Fluttershy, she got a face full of lemon.

"Oh, ouch!" she squeaked. "There's juice in my eyes!"

The Crusaders turned to where the yellow pegasus was, squeezing her leaking eyes shut, and all three licked their lips. A growl and two hisses alerted the little monsters' sisters, and they pulled Fluttershy out of the way of their pounce. Backing to an adjacent wall, the ponies watched as the monster trio turned, with barks and hisses toward them.

Rainbow groaned. "Great, now the Stare can't help us!"

Fluttershy wiped tears from her eyes. "Just give me a minute, I'll cry it out..."

"I don't think we have a minute!" Applejack exclaimed.

The Crusaders pounced, and Applejack, Rainbow, and Rarity yanked Fluttershy out of the way. They rounded around the momentarily confused monster fillies and back into the kitchen, where they immediately looked around for a solution to their friend's eye problem.

Rarity stared at the sink. "Do you suppose Twilight fixed the water by now?"

"Not risking it!" Rainbow shouted, rummaging through the fridge. She pulled out a milk jug. "Would milk work?"

Applejack stared at the milk. "I dunno! Maybe we should try one of them cucumber sli--look out!"

She grabbed Rainbow by the tail and yanked her out of the way of another pounce from the Crusaders. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo turned to them, backing them across the kitchen. The mares couldn't look the little monsters in the eyes, making them think that they had them cornered.

But, Applejack had her rope, and she had her eyes on a bag of flour. In one quick move, she twirled her lasso, and while the startled monster fillies sidestepped to dodge, she nabbed the flour, and yanked it back, causing Apple Bloom and Scootaloo to stumble in their last second attempt to avoid it. Rainbow caught the flour, and together, the mares grabbed some flour to throw in the monster fillies faces each time they tried to pounce. Between licking and shaking or dusting the flour off, the monster fillies' cleanup made the mares slip away, which resulted in a chase that involved more flour thrown at their faces.

"This is not how I imagined this fight!" Rainbow groused.

"Would you rather kick Scootaloo?!" Applejack retorted.

Rainbow glanced back at the little orange vampire, who could only hover for a few seconds at a time just like her normal self. She took a quick look at Sweetie Belle, who was flying just fine despite having those wings a few days at most. She grimaced at the sight before having to toss flour at Scootaloo again. "Nope."

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle had her sights set on Rarity and Fluttershy, the former of whom had levitated a broom and was trying to shoo her away without having to hurt her. The most she did was bop her away with the bristles, and pat her down when she tried to fly. She parried with the broom, making sure to keep the little vampire away from Fluttershy.

At some point, Sweetie Belle had enough and kicked the broom away, which spun right above Rarity and Fluttershy's heads, and landed on the sink in such a way that turned the handle and made water run from the faucet. Rarity didn't bother to turn off the water; she simply grabbed the broom, and parried yet again, and even started to sweep her away.

It was such a strange bit of chaos in one small room. There were two mares running around an island counter, throwing flour at their pursuers, with Applejack wondering if she should just hogtie them, even if the thought of doing that to her sister and her friends made her sick. There was also Rarity, switching between fencing at and sweeping her vampiric sister in her little fight, trying to keep her away from Fluttershy and herself so that neither were a feast. And then Fluttershy, a sitting duck with burning eyes, silently lamenting that crying the lemon juice out was not going fast enough.

Eventually, Rainbow and Applejack ended up running into the broom, making Rarity stumble and fall. The flour was tossed from the bag into the air, and then landed atop the pile of mares. And they found themselves surrounded by and pounced on by the Crusaders, where they had to wrestle them off before any fang even came in contact with any skin.

And Fluttershy, in her pain, forgot about the risk of flushing her eyes out with the running water.

When the yellow pegasus started washing, Rarity noticed almost immediately. "Fluttershy! Not the water!"

Fluttershy had given herself several splashes on her face, stopping when she remembered why she shouldn't have done that. She turned, and opened her eyes. It was blurry for a few moments, before she blinked into clarity and saw the wrestling scene on the floor. The other three, wrestling their respective sister or sister figure on the floor, covered in flour, were looking at her in horror--at least before turning their focus back on the monster fillies trying to bite them. Fluttershy herself stood still, her whole body tingling with the dread of her transformation, especially since this time she'd be out for blood instead of fruit.

It was a good long minute of nothing happening before Fluttershy looked at herself, and realized what that meant.

Grabbing the nearest pitcher, she turned the water up for a quick fill, and then tossed it at the ponies on the floor. The water slapped and splashed all over the six on the floor, stunning the little monster fillies from their attacks. Their sisters grabbed them, sat up, and held them tightly as Fluttershy brought another round of water, preventing any bites from the fillies from having any affect on the mares. Refill after refill, she tossed the water again and again, until the other ponies were soaked, with the Crusaders having stopped struggling.

The fillies dropped into their respective sister's forelegs, and the mares cradled them. They watched as fangs retracted into flat incisors, paws hardened into hooves, wings either returned to feathery form or disappeared completely, and a black nose returned to a normal horse snout. The fillies moaned, and fluttered their eyes open to see familiar faces.

"...Applejack?" Apple Bloom asked.

Applejack responded with a big smile and a hug, choking out, "Oh, my baby sister's back to normal!"

Sweetie Belle rubbed her head. "Ugh, I don't feel so good..." She took a look at her hoof to see the wet flour. "And what are we covered in?"

Rarity could hardly care about the mess at the moment, she just snuggled her sister. "Oh, Sweetie Belle! I was so scared to see you as some awful monster! I'm just..." she sniffled. "...so happy that you're Sweetie Belle and not Sweetie Bat!"

Scootaloo looked around tiredly. "Huh? Monsters? What happened? Weren't we swimming?"

Rainbow chuckled. "It's a long story..."

One cleanup of pony bodies with towels later, they met in the throne room where Twilight had returned and announced her successful cure enchantment of the water supply. She was pleased to see the Crusaders were all right, especially since they were proof that the cure did work. They had to do a little explaining about the werewolf and vampire thing, since they couldn't come up with any other excuse for suddenly being in the castle when they last remembered swimming.

"...and now we have to find the bad guy to stop him," Spike finished.

The Crusaders were still huddled in their towels, processing what had been told them. Scootaloo scoffed. "For real? That's got to be the craziest thing I've ever heard!"

"Well, we have had eternal night almost happen, a brief stint of chaos, a Changeling invasion, a bunch of magic vines, and a magic-stealing centaur..." Sweetie Belle said. "Doesn't seem like a stretch that eventually vampires and werewolves would come in."

"And by enchantin' the water supply too!" Apple Bloom exclaimed in concern. She looked up at Applejack. "Sis... are Granny and Big Mac okay?"

Applejack bit her lip, looked at the floor, and shook her head. "I don't think so. Hopefully they'll get thirsty, and drink the cured water, but I'm not sure we have enough time to make sure of that. Our baddie's still out there, and we need to nab him now." She looked at Twilight. "Twi, have you thought about how you're gonna do this?"

Twilight stared at the map nervously. She glanced at every corner of the map, and then at everyone in the room. Her final gaze rested on Tomato, and then to the memory necklace he wore. She took a deep breath, and thought of the spell she was going to cast. "Yes, I have."

She zapped the map with the tracking spell, hoping that it didn't break. A few moments of casting had the map flashing, which made the group worry that it was a warning signal to back off. Most backed away in case it retaliated. However, the moment passed, and the map emitted a warm, steady glow. Floating cutie marks pop up above Ponyville, bearing the marks of Twilight's friends, and a small cheese sandwich representing the memories; their eyes scanned the map for any other marks until they found a pair floating in the northeastern corner of Equestria, above one particular city.

"Manehattan..." Twilight said, looking at the split cheese sandwich and three balloon cutie marks. "They're in Manehattan."

Everyone turned to Tomato, who had paled at the name of his hometown. It was easy to tell what was running through his mind; from ponies he knew becoming ravenous beasts to the inevitable confrontation with the alpha wolf and the attending beastmaster, both ready to kill him. He looked ready to throw up, which had ponies like Braeburn and Silk Shimmer coming in to rub his back in comfort.

Twilight sighed. "I guess I can't check on Shining Armor and Cadance. Well, at least the spell worked..." She smiled at the map. "Thank you."

She looked up at Tomato. "Don't worry, we've all got your back. I'll make sure that Wayer doesn't get in the way."

Fluttershy raised her hoof. "I can stop Cheese with my Stare so it'd be easier to return the memories."

Rainbow was in the air. "And the rest of us will be kicking werewolf and vampire butt! Don't want all of those coming after you, huh?"

Tomato smiled. "Thanks... though, Manehattan's a pretty big place, with a lot of ponies. Do you think we have enough ponies to keep them all at bay?"

"We fought an army of Changelings," Applejack said. "We're kind of experts at this."

"And I did just fine with only Trixie to help in Las Pegasus," Silk Shimmer said.

"And we have held our own before, in both Appleloosa and Canterlot," Little Strongheart said, gesturing between herself and Braeburn.

Braeburn smiled. "It ain't a problem; I want to rescue my neighbors and my friend; heck, we all have somepony to rescue in this mission. And we're gonna make sure that you make that happen, because we ain't giving up our loved ones without a fight."

Tomato inhaled, and then slowly exhaled. "All right... no pressure. Let's go."

All grabbed their saddlebags and tied them on their barrels. Twilight levitated the spellbook out of hers, and held it up so that Rarity could reference the alchemy circle and draw it on the floor, big enough for all to fit.

As they did this, the Crusaders piped up, "We can help, too!"

Applejack glared at them. "Oh, no! It's way too dangerous for you fillies!"

Apple Bloom pouted. "And Ponyville isn't?"

"We want y'all to stay in the castle, it's the safest place in town. We don't want you fillies to get hurt--especially since gettin' bit will just have y'all transforming back to them monsters. Just stay in this here building until we come back, and don't do anything reckless, you hear?"

"What if something breaks in?" Scootaloo asked. "What do we do then?"

Twilight answered that with, "Hey, there are several places in this castle where you can get water; it has the cure, so you could splash any intruders with it to defend yourselves. Be sure to tell them what's going on, and maybe they could pitch in. It's the best way you can help."

Spike was by the Crusaders' side. "Don't worry, I'll be with you fillies..." He was joined by the pets all waddling, hopping, or floating to right behind him. "And so will these guys. If any vampire or werewolf gets in here, we'll give them a water fight they'll never forget!"

The Crusaders looked amongst each other to ponder this. After a moment, they smiled, and shouted, "Cutie Mark Crusader Defenders of the Castle!"

Applejack grimaced and asked Twilight. "You sure we shouldn't lock them in the library?"

Twilight glanced at her. "Well, they need to know how to defend themselves when all else fails. Here's hoping it doesn't go wrong."

They noticed that Rarity was done with the circle, and all the adult ponies and their buffalo friend gathered onto it. They looked at the young fillies, dragon, and pets one last time, and waved goodbye to them. And thus, Twilight cast the spell and activated the circle once more.

And off they were to Manehattan.

Author's Note

Well, this took a much longer time than I'd have liked to come about. :ajbemused:

Anyway, now we're getting somewhere. Here's hoping I don't take forever to get to the next part.

24.4--Standing Up

Rolling hills overlooked the Hoofson River, their normal green color hardly visible thanks to the dimness that the eclipse evoked. They lay just across the river from the urban jungle of Manehattan, the sounds of which yielded more howls and screeches as minutes ticked by. It was on these hills that the group appeared in a flash of light, and stumbled into individual sprawls onto the grass. They took a couple of seconds to pick themselves all up.

Rainbow Dash was the first up, hovering to look at the city, which was half-lit with sparse dots that flickered. “Okay, why are we just outside Manehattan? I thought we were gonna kick some butt!”

Twilight, in the middle of it all, laid face first in the blades, only to raise her head at Rainbow’s statement. “I need to find the exact location of Cheese, and we need to form a game plan!” Her head plopped back down. “Ugh… I wanna hurry but I’m getting tired…”

Applejack sat up next to her and rubbed her back. “S’alright, Sugarcube… you’ve been teleportin’ and castin’ cures a lot--remember what happened back in them Macintosh Hills? We probably need a rest before chargin’ in like a stampede.”

Twilight’s head popped up, and she jumped to sitting position. “It’s not alright! I don’t know how long it’ll be until we lose him! And we’ll have to ask the Map again, and poof to that city, and take even longer to cure everypony--especially our loved ones!”

Fluttershy had hovered from her spot to beside Twilight. “Still worried about Shining Armor and Cadance?”

Twilight whined like a dog. “He could have gotten to the Crystal Empire by now… not knowing what became of them is killing me!”

“We know, Twi,” Applejack said. “Us all havin’ families and friends bein’ caught in this plague… it’s mighty painful. We just need to remember that we can fix this in one fell swoop.”

Twilight took a deep breath, though she still held a deep frown. “Right. Gotta remember that.” She turned to where she remembered Tomato stood. “Now, Tomato, let’s go over…”

Her sentence died as she realized Tomato wasn’t in that spot, and her eyes trailed up to the dark shape of a lanky stallion, staring over the hill and across the river to the city. A cold wind blew through his fur and tousled his mane, but that was nothing compared to what he must have been feeling looking at his hometown. Hearing the chirps and screeches of the vampires, and the howls and barks of the werewolves, some of whom may have been ponies he knew, and wondering if he could have somehow prevented this.

On some level, Twilight had an idea of what he felt. They had all felt it between Appleloosa, Canterlot, Cloudsdale, and Ponyville. She stood up, and walked to his side. Closer to him now, she could see the weary, sullen face he held.

She took a breath. “I guess it’s come to this… fighting for your hometown. I’m sorry that it ended up this way.”

Tomato glanced at her. “We’re fighting for yours, too.” He sighed. “It’s strange, really. I can’t really say that I have warm and fuzzy feelings towards this place, given how many jerks I grew up with, the crud I’ve been through, and the feeling of being alone in a crowd… but, it still hurts to see a familiar place just… destroyed by some madhorse with a vendetta. I grew up here; for some reason, it felt like it was indestructible. Now, just trying to imagine my former classmates, my neighbors… my parents…” He shuddered. “Just my brother was bad enough.”

Silk Shimmer came to his other side, watching some of the city’s lights flicker into pitch black. “I hope we aren’t too late, and they didn’t leave as soon as we showed up. Hopefully, he’s still in the middle of working on it, knowing how big this city is.”

Hearing that, Twilight cast the tracker spell, and the bubble expanded from where she stood all the way to the East River. With a smile, she nodded and said, “Yep, they’re still here. Perhaps he has to track the progress of the spell.”

Tomato’s eyes swept the entire island. “Or he’s just tired. He’s old and has been cursing water for the past few days now, after all.”

Silk Shimmer stifled laughter, while Twilight looked at him incredulously and shook her head. The princess said, “I’m sure he’s had some rest times between the cities.”

“Yeah, and now’s a rest time.”

“I thought you were the serious Sandwich.”

“I tried to be, but the humor in my blood is a little too strong.”

“Ugh… well, for whatever reason it is, I hope he sticks around long enough for us to stop him.”

They heard Rainbow whistle behind them. “Hey! Are we going to prepare for battle or what?”

The three looked at her and then back to each other.

Silk shrugged. “Well, we might as well sit in a circle and yammer on about an actual attack plan… hopefully this’ll go smoother than Las Pegasus.” She turned and trotted to the group.

Tomato noticed Twilight staring at him, expecting him to expand on Silk’s statement. “Uhh… I can’t remember much of Las Pegasus… all I remember is the part where Cheese almost went splat.”

“Oh, right, I think you said that at the trial.” Still, while the Las Pegasus would be the first comparison that came to mind, a smaller experience from the beginning of that summer came to Twilight’s mind. “But, this does kind of remind me of the vampire fruit bat thing when you and Cheese first stopped at Ponyville. Funny, we just dismissed you that day, because frankly, we didn’t think you’d be any help…”

She pursed her lips, staring at the memory necklace around Tomato’s neck. “And now... it doesn’t seem like we can stop this much bigger disaster without you.”

Tomato glanced down at the necklace, and took a deep breath. “Well… let’s just do it already. It can’t be any scarier than facing my mo--” He stopped, and his ears twitched. “Wait, did you hear that?”

Twilight blinked. “Hear what?”

“Hoofsteps. Someone else is here.”

“Wayer Rune’s in the city, so it can’t be him. So… who… or what--”

Before they could finish, a large lasso made of magic swung over the entire group of nine, and nabbed them like lightning. Tomato and Twilight, being the furthest away from the rest of them, had been rammed right into a couple of heads. The pain in Twilight’s broken wing shot through her spine, and she couldn’t hold in her cry. Everyone’s heads felt like pudding, and the dim landscape suddenly sparkled in their view. They were rotated slowly, so that each of them could look at the pony who had caught them.

It was a cloaked, middle-aged mare, whose colors they could not see in the dark, but the glow of magic on her horn did highlight a pair of stern, magenta eyes.

“How did you tourists get this far?!” she scolded. “The city is closed off! Neither me nor the officials want anypony in Manehattan right now, it’s having a major crisis!”

The ponies groaned and moaned from the sudden whiplash they had just received, but Twilight tried to sputter out, “Miss… listen… we…”

The mare shook her head. “Oh, don’t you ponies…” She paused to look at Little Strongheart. “...and buffalo, give me any excuses! The monsters in that city will tear you apart! I’m going to take you to my shelter right now!”

Twilight shook her head. “No, wait, we--”

And they were teleported elsewhere.

The next thing the group knew, they were in a spacious cave. The walls looked as if a giant mouth had bitten chunks out of the cave, though with the smooth cuts that suggested magical removal and some makeshift beds, benches, and lamps made from the removed rock. There was large opening in the ceiling, showing the eclipse in full view, with a pool of sparkling water right beneath it. All around them were ponies, clearly rescued from Manehattan, who had paused their respective conversations to see who the rescuer had brought. Not recognizing anyone in the new group, the refugees turned back to their companions and continued talking.

The ‘rescuer’ released them from her rope. “There. Hopefully I can find a spell or potion book to multiply my food supply…”

Tomato rubbed his head and looked up. He pointed to the opening. “Weird… I think I’ve seen that hole in the ceiling before--” His eyes drifted down to the pool. “--and that spring?” He looked around. “But… not in this cave?”

“Another cave?” Rarity groaned. “Haven’t we been in enough of those this past week?”

Rainbow shook herself out of her dazed state and shot into the air, barely missing the ceiling. “Hey! We were just about to go and rescue Manehattan, lady! Who do you think you are?”

“The magical hermit of this cave, who’s been running herself ragged rescuing Manehattanites since her last shopping trip,” the older mare sighed. “I made myself some magic candies to keep me going on full magic, but I’m running out of the ingredients for those, so I’m not sure how much longer I can do this.” She jabbed a hoof on Rainbow’s nose. “So count yourself lucky! Seriously, what makes you think you can save that town?!”

Twilight slipped through the group and emerged to face the mare. “Well, they have a princess on their side.”

The mare’s eyes widened. “Wait… a princess? And it’s that young one that looks kind of like me!”

Twilight paused to see that the mare did indeed look a lot like an older version of herself. Though she was still just a unicorn, her mane alternated between two tones of blue, and her eyes were magenta, there was still enough resemblance for her and the others to wonder if they were somehow related.

“Well… yes.” Twilight cleared her throat. “We were just making plans to track down the one responsible and foil his plans, but… you interrupted us.”

“Oh, and I didn’t let you explain! I’m so sorry, I didn’t notice that there was a princess in this posse, I just saw a couple of cowpokes--” She pointed to Applejack and Braeburn. “--and a buffalo--” She pointed to Little Strongheart. “--and their friends and thought, ‘Tourists’.”

“Oh, it’s all right,” Twilight said. “Though… I won’t lie, you’ve got some great magical skill. It could be a lot of help in stopping the madhorse doing this. So… what’s your name?”

“Name’s Destiny Star.”

Silk Shimmer was dusting off her hat, and her ear quirked at the sound of the name. “Wait, what? Where have I heard that name…?”

“Oh, there’s only so many words in the Equestrian language, dear,” Destiny replied to Silk. Then she turned back to Twilight and shook her hoof. “It would be nice to get these ponies back home, Your Highness, so that I don’t worry about somepony drinking from or falling into the Fountain right there.”

Twilight turned to the pool. “Fountain?”

Tomato shoved his way to the front to hear that, turned to the pool, and his eyes widened as it finally clicked. “Oooh! That’s why it feels familiar! That’s that Fountain of Youth thing that Cheese threw me in that one time!”

Destiny tilted her head. “Hm?”

Tomato looked around the chamber, noting the smoothly carved walls. “The remodeling really threw me off, because it looked like an actual cave before…”

Rainbow looked at the pool and gasped. “That’s the Fountain of Youth? Whoa! It’s just like it was in the new Daring Do book!”

“Oh, I can’t imagine why,” Rarity deadpanned.

Destiny narrowed her eyes at Tomato and scratched her chin. “Say… were you that little red baby I rescued? Huh, now that I think of it, your face looks awfully similar to that wild-maned brother of yours!” She laughed, scanning the tall stallion up and down. “Though, I think you might be a little more handsome.”

Braeburn leaned over to look at Tomato. “Wait, Cheese threw you in there and you turned into a young’n?” He snorted and started giggling. “Wow, how’d it feel to be a foal again?”

Tomato’s face turned redder than normal, and his head sunk into his collar. “I can’t remember. I was thrown in that pool one moment, and then suddenly on a Manehattan street the next, punching out Cheese for it!”

“Oh, don’t be ashamed, you weren’t the first one to take a dip,” Destiny said. She looked at the pool, briefly skimming the edges to make sure nopony was too close. “You were only number two out of three this summer. The first was an intrepid explorer who was pushed in during a scuffle.”

Tomato heard Rainbow squeal at that, and glanced back to see her hovering over her friends with a knowing expression. Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy just wearily nodded, getting her silent message of… whatever it was. Was it similar to that Daring Do book? Whatever it was, that reaction seemed a little disrespectful to him.

Destiny continued, “And number three was a geology student exploring the cave just last week, thinking that it was a good place to take a bath. Thankfully, she’s a pleasant guest no matter the age, even if she’s a little odd. I was getting some food to restock her supply for her trip, but that’s when disaster struck. She helped me carve this cave for the refugees safely.” She stood on her tiptoes to look over the group. “Speaking of whom, here she is now!”

Everyone in the group whirled around to face Destiny’s helper, who had just walked through the clearest route through the crowd. Gray as a rock, with shoulder-length purple hair and a slate blue frock, she stared at the group with the stoniest stare that Tomato had ever seen.

“Maud?” Rarity asked.

Maud’s eyes just flicked to Twilight and each of her friends. “Hey.” She just marched past them and to Destiny. “I marked the spots where it’s safest to carve.”

“Oh, thank you, Maud,” Destiny said. “Though, we have Princess Twilight here, so this crisis should hopefully be averted soon.”

“I noticed them. They’re my sister’s friends.”

“Oh, really? Wow, what a coincidence!”

Her sister’s friends? Tomato glanced at Twilight and the others, noting the increasing dread on their faces. That dread, the lack of resemblance between Maud and any of those ponies, and the memory of meeting Pinkie’s mostly gray family in Nickerlite, had him coming to the realization: This was Pinkie’s sister, and they were going to have to tell her what happened to Pinkie.

He gulped. He had to tell himself that no matter how scary this mare was--and she was plenty scary, since he couldn’t read her--it couldn’t be any worse than telling Cheese in the Mind Realm.

Maud then turned around to face the group. She glanced at the extra ponies and buffalo that they had brought--Tomato’s heart skipped a beat at that stare--and then went back to the main mares. After a good, long minute of examining the group, she finally asked the question, “Where’s Pinkie?”

And the mares froze again, looking at each other in a panic. Oh, how they wanted that other girl to spill the beans. Tomato could see them nudging each other, Fluttershy trying to hide behind the others, Rainbow pushing Applejack to bear the bad news, Rarity not wanting to look Maud in the eye, and Twilight looking down, probably thinking of what to say. All while Maud just bore into them with her stoic stare.

Tomato looked at the memory necklace he wore, and sighed. “Hey, girls? Why don’t I just tell her?”

Maud turned to him, the stare giving him a chill. The other girls just looked at him with quirked eyebrows.

“No offense, Tomato, but Maud don’t know you,” Applejack said.

“I know, I know… but, uh…” He noticed Maud’s stare again, and he instinctively leaned back. “Sibling of a party pony to sibling of a party pony? Brings a unique perspective, methinks.”

While most in the group rolled their eyes, Maud just blinked. “Fair enough. I’m listening.”

He had no idea how that worked, but at least he managed to find a little common ground with her. Hopefully, how he said this would keep her from wanting to kill Cheese over biting her sister. “So… Miss… Maud, was it? Okay, Maud, the name’s Tomato Sandwich, nice to meet you, I’m brother of Cheese Sandwich… Pinkie told you about him, right?”

“Yes,” Maud said.

“Okay, I’m an acquaintance of your sister because of that.” He cleared his throat. “You know the big werewolf and vampire crisis in Manehattan right now?”

Maud gave him a curt nod.

“Eeyeah… it started because some wackadoo from last millenium stole my brother’s memories and turned him into a werewolf. And he, in turn, bit other ponies and turned them into werewolves. I’m afraid that Pinkie was one of them.”

Maud blinked, and turned to Twilight and the others. “Is this true?”

Twilight hung her head. “Yes, it’s true. We were trying to help him, but we were fought every step of the way by that warlock, and he took her. He even set a trap so we couldn’t rescue them, and stop him from striking several cities.”

Destiny had a hoof to her mouth. “Oh, no… it really was him...”

Fluttershy hovered toward them, holding the necklace of Pinkie’s memories up to Maud’s face. “She lost her memories when the curse kicked in. We hope we can return them to her as soon as we can.”

Maud touched the glowing blue beads, and watched as they played images of days past, from she and Pinkie making rock candy necklaces, to ice skating on a pony, to a “water” party--a tea party but with water--with the two of them, their sisters, a pet rock, and Gummy the alligator. Her face did not change, so Tomato had to guess that yes, she was sad.

Tomato held up his own memory necklace. “I know. You hate to see her reduced to those… I have my brother right here. But, we’re going to restore them, because I want my brother back as much as you want your sister back. It… might take a little fighting to get there, though.”

Maud looked at the memories Tomato held, looking at the images of him and Cheese having their own bonding moments. She looked up at him, and said, with a slight growl in her voice, “I’m ready to help take this monster down.”

Destiny stepped forward, with a sad smile. “As am I… so, Princess Twilight, shall we draw up a plan?”

Twilight smiled. “As a matter of fact, we should probably get you two up to speed first. Because, well, this monster, his name is--”

“Wayer Rune.”

Twilight blinked. “Well… yes… how’d you know?”

“I saw him earlier. I don’t know if he saw me, or if he did, he recognized me… but for me, but it’s hard to forget your own father’s face.”

While the others froze at that revelation, Silk jumped. “Holy mother of eek! That’s why that name sounded familiar!” She paused when everyone turned to look at her, silently inquiring of her knowledge on the subject. “What? I was told the story of Wayer Rune as a kid, of course I know stuff like that! Just… needed a little jog of the memory.”

Destiny looked at Silk quizzically. “I had no idea they still told his story.”

Silk fiddled with her braid. “Well… I was only told because I’m descended from the guy, and it was a warning not to mess with dark magic.”

Destiny lit up and jumped to her. “Ooh, my relative! Tell me, out of me and my siblings, who are you descended from?”

Silk held her hooves up and grinned sheepishly. “Silver Rune?”

“Oh, my eldest brother!” Destiny took a deep breath, her eyes now focusing somewhere in space as she reminisced. “He was such a good stallion, and had he not been brave enough to tell Celestia of our father’s wicked deeds, who knows how far that first plague would have gone? After father was banished and mother died, he was my magic teacher. I have to say, it’s awfully nice to meet his descendant; you’re like a pretty little porcelain doll, and I can tell that you’re so sweet.”

“Well, I’m not as fragile as a porcelain doll, but thank you.” She tilted her head. “Why are you still alive?”

“Been busy guarding that.” Destiny pointed to the Fountain, her tone dripping with disgust. “Darn Fountain can keep a pony alive for centuries with frequent drinks, but it has killed unsuspecting swimmers by regressing them into nothing. Somepony has to keep that from happening! I’ve rescued plenty of ponies out of that thing for centuries, though I wish it’d just go away so I don’t have to deal with it anymore and finally die in peace.”

“Can we get back on track?” Twilight asked. “We could lose him at any moment.”

“Oh, right,” Destiny said. She looked at Tomato. “So, I get the sense that you’re the main crutch of this plan, huh? Memories are what ultimately separated pony from beast; without those, the werewolves were just animals, killing without remorse.”

“I take issue with using ‘animals’ as a synonym for ‘monsters’,” Fluttershy huffed.

Destiny glanced at her. “I’m sorry, dear, I’ll try to think of other words.”

Tomato looked at the memories, and nodded. “Well… yeah, I’m the VIP here. Right now, I’m the only one that can carry these. Need to return these to Cheese to stop all the madness.”

Destiny frowned, and turned to Twilight. “Dear, what did he do to the spell that makes the memories that important?”

Twilight began, “Well…”

Suddenly, a voice familiar to Tomato echoed, “Oh, my gosh!”

All had barely turned to the direction the voice came from, which was just across the Fountain, when a gray blur zipped above the water and right at Tomato. The stallion found himself hoisted up in a quick toss, and caught by a bear hug that could only belong to one pegasus.

“Tomato!” Nimbus shouted. “I can’t believe it! It’s so good to find another friend in this crazy time! Let me tell you, I’ve had a really bad day… night… week… whatever!”

Tomato managed to loosen the grip on himself just enough to breathe. “Nimbus! It’s… ack! It’s good to see you, too. Where’s Cirrus?”

Nimbus frowned, and looked him straight in the face with a pained look. Before he could answer, however, they heard someone calling Nimbus’ name, and looked to the voice’s source. And sure enough, just a few steps short of the Fountain, there was Flora, waving and calling Nimbus down. The very sight of her made Tomato’s mouth automatically perk up into a smile.

Nimbus held Tomato further out for her to see. “Hey! Look who’s here!”

On seeing Tomato wave, Flora’s face lit up. “Tomato? Nimbus, bring him down here so I can say hi!”

“Will do!”

As Nimbus readied to take him across, Tomato shouted to the group, “Uh, excuse me, I’ve got a little friendly reunion! You guys keep bringing them up to speed, I’ll be right back!”

As Tomato was being kidnapped, they just stared up for a few seconds before several ponies sighed.

“Well, it’d be rude to not let him catch up with his friends,” Fluttershy said.

“I bet they’re gonna end up helpin’ us too,” Applejack said.

“Hey, the more the merrier,” Braeburn said.

Twilight rubbed a temple. “Well, when we need him, we can locate the memories he’s holding and grab him then. In the meantime, let’s get Destiny and Maud all caught up.”

Tomato found himself unable to be angry when Nimbus practically tossed him into Flora, hard enough for the two to roll in a ball about a dozen meters on the cold cave floor. Everypony else saw Twilight as the bright spot in a bleak time, and he didn’t fault them for it; but for him, it was Flora, bright enough that his anger, fear, and weariness had evaporated, even for a moment. A floor of stone was hard on a pony’s back, but he didn’t care; this good friend of his was with him, bringing comfort just with her presence--this time, instead of a mind projection, this was the real thing.

It was a few cycles until they finally unrolled, Tomato finding himself right over Flora, the two locking eyes for a few moments more. Once he realized that was happening, a blushing Tomato scrambled off, and let her sit up, mumbling, “Sorry, that wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Of course, she then threw herself into a hug with him, something Tomato gladly returned.

Once they broke the hug, Tomato asked, “What are you doing here?”

Flora raised an eyebrow. “We’re about to start another semester… well, we were, but the apocalypse is upon us. My train was stopped at the station before Manehattan.” She glanced to where Tomato had been before and counted the ponies there. “Where’s Cheese?”

Before Tomato could answer, Nimbus glided over and landed by them. “Cirrus and I were on our way when the eclipse happened, and after we made it to Manehattan and got a bite to eat, ponies started growing bat wings and fangs and also some turning into weird dog things… and they attacked anypony who didn’t turn into some weird monster!” He flailed his front legs, and started throwing soft punches in the air. “I lost count of how many jabs and crosses and hooks and uppercuts I threw before the weird unicorn lady grabbed me and teleported me here!”

“Figures that Manehattan would just keep going, even with an unscheduled eclipse.” Tomato deadpanned. He returned his attention to Nimbus with concern. “What happened to Cirrus?”

Nimbus slumped forward, his wings and ears drooping. “One of the dog things jumped her and chomped on her wing. I grabbed the thing and chucked it away, and I was gonna take her to a hospital…” He snorted, glanced at Destiny across the Fountain, and growled through his teeth. “But weird unicorn lady took me, and not her! I can’t believe she left my sister to fend for herself with an injured wing!”

Tomato grimaced. “Oooh… uh, Nimbus, you know what werewolves are, right?”

Nimbus scoffed. “Yeah, that old Nightmare Night tale, what does that have to do with--” His eyes widened in realization, and his mouth took on an O shape. It wasn’t long before he started to pull on his ears. “Oh, no no no no! My sister can’t be that!”

Flora pursed her lips, rubbing her left temple. “Well, if vampires happened in Las Pegasus, I guess both that and werewolves can happen in Manehattan. I hope Bluejinx didn’t get there first.”

“Haven’t seen him?” Tomato asked.

Flora shook her head.

Tomato fell back like he had been punched in the chest, nearly lying down, but caught himself. “Aw, man, and I was hoping that all of you could have been spared. It was bad enough that I had to witness the beginning of this madness with Cheese’s transformation, I didn’t want to lose any of my friends!”

Flora’s eyes widened. “Wait, you mean… Cheese is patient zero?”

Nimbus’ jaw went slack. “....huh?! But… what… how?!”

Before Tomato could explain, someone from above hollered, “Aha! So that’s why our senses went off!”

Tomato flinched at the sudden random voice from above, and looked up to see a trio of ponies clinging on to large stalactites. A stallion of yellow, a stallion of blue, and a mare of cream looked down at them, and then proceeded to leap off. The mare used her teal, pink polka-dotted cape as a parachute, the blue stallion pulled a balloon from behind his back and inflated it to cushion his fall, and the yellow guy just smacked face first on the floor. But, he got up just fine, and the other two landed just behind him.

Flora wasn’t impressed. “Bananas, you show-off.”

Bananas raised an eyebrow. “Tell that to these two, they did the tricks.”

“Get good, you crazy fruit!” the mare, Comedy Gold, shouted.

Nimbus turned to Tomato. “Oh, hey, have you met Flora’s brother yet?”

Tomato’s eye twitched. “Are you kidding? I met all three of these guys! And Flora, why didn’t you mention that your brother was here?”

“I was going to,” Flora deadpanned. “Bananas followed my train by balloon, and then the other two just popped out of nowhere. They’ve been going around the cave, keeping spirits up for the past few days.”

The blue one, Party Favor, waved at him. “Hi, Tomato! I know that you weren’t really expecting me here… granted, I wasn’t expecting you either, but when you get a weird dream from your big-number-great-grandma that tells you that something’s wrong in the order of things, and you need to help fix it… well, gotta listen, you know?”

“Uh, okay,” Tomato said. “It’s still really nice to see you again, Party Favor. Is the town doing well?”

Party Favor nodded. “Railroad’s done, ski resort’s getting built… and quite a few ponies came to see the ‘balloon wizard’!” He giggled and winked. “It’s… weird, getting some attention that’s, well, positive.”

“Good to hear!” Tomato looked at Goldie. “And it looks like you finally healed.”

Goldie nodded and waved a hoof. “Psht, yeah, I’m a fast healer if you don’t baby me. Good thing, too, ‘cause Goldie Sense was really chewing my flank the past few days! It was telling me that we’re down two party ponies!”

Bananas sat down and looked straight at Tomato. “And Banana Sense told me the same thing. So, Tomato, since you know what’s going on, give us the details.”

Flora pulled him out of Tomato’s face. “Bananas, don’t be aggressive, he was going to tell us anyway.”

“Well, yeah,” Tomato held the memory necklace up. “So, something awful happened to Cheese.”

“He turned into a necklace?!” Goldie shouted in disbelief. She leaned forward to poke it, and was promptly zapped. “Ow! An electric necklace, too!”

“Wow, he kind of matches Flora’s,” Nimbus said, looking between the memory necklace and Flora’s magenta beads. “Flora’s just needs to glow, and it’d be like… a watermelon glow.”

“If he’s electric now, how are you not getting shocked?” Party Favor asked.

Tomato chewed the inside of his cheek for a bit and snorted. “No, this is his mind… memories… whatever, we keep conflating those. As for why I’m not getting shocked, I think it’s a matter of trust, really. Somepony that he loves, and knows for sure he can count on to carry him.”

Party Favor blinked. “Mind-memory things? Oooh, I think I know what you’re getting at.”

Bananas looked at his sister. “It’s like those orbs at the family history library… except, Cheese is still alive! Wait, is he?”

“Well, the library’s instructions of handling memories do say that the living ones zap you, unless the pony is worthy or a powerful magic user,” Flora said. She turned her attention to Tomato, brow creased in worry. “What happened to him?”

“Well… he is alive, but right now he’s an amnesiac werewolf.” He looked at the beads, the memories running around in them, and sighed. He looked at Party Favor. “Ever since we were at your town, there was this sorcerer, who was convincing Cheese to let him take his memories…”

Once again, Tomato told the tale of how the disaster came to be. From the first incidents of Cheese’s headaches to when he learned the why of those headaches, and from the first signs of doglike aggression to the moment of transformation, Tomato just spoke, gauging their reactions. Nimbus winced in realization of why Cheese hadn’t been doing so good at the Crystal Empire. Party Favor was getting more pained as the tale went on, especially at the revelation that it was his ancestor’s doing and the part where Cheese tore into Kazam. Bananas and Flora looked at each other, their minds on his freak out in Salt Lick City. And Goldie was just shocked, trying to process Cheese Sandwich, a fellow party pony who tried to save her from kidnapping and exploitation, as a monster.

“...and… I feel like I could have done something to stop it sooner,” Tomato said, looking at the ground. “But I got so worried about setting Cheese off after Las Pegasus, I just kept quiet and let him avoid it.” He brushed his hoof over the beads. “I don’t really know why I’m worthy of carrying these, and… I’m kind of... scared of what could go wrong in town.”

A moment of silence between the group passed, allowing them to let it sink in. Then, Flora reached forward and put her hoof on his.

“Tomato, I don’t fault you for being afraid in your position,” she said. She tilted her head towards her brother. “If Bananas was in the same position Cheese is, and I had your burden, I sure would be scared.”

Tomato scoffed. “You wouldn’t let it happen, you’re Little Miss Easing-Whoever’s-Distress-Comes-Your-Way. Didn’t you help him emotionally recover from a terrible accident?”

Flora shrugged. “Well, I did all a kid could do.”

“And then some,” Bananas chimed in. “You earned your cutie mark from it, remember?”

Flora hummed, drumming her hooves on the cave floor. “Regardless, conversations between the two of you would have helped the both of you process what happened in Las Pegasus and move forward. But, here we are.”

Tomato snorted. “Yeah, it’s too late for conversations now.”

Flora chuckled. “Don’t worry, it’s not. He might act all independent and such, but things like this are why we need good friends, and a brother can be one of the best a pony could have. We might have to get Cheese back to normal first, but you must be willing to talk, listen, and support him any way you can. You can’t read his mind…” She made a motion to touch the necklace, but stopped when remembering that it wasn’t a good idea to do so, and drew back. “But, I can see he loves you, trusts you… but most of all, he needs you. You’re worthy to help him carry this burden.”

Tomato still wondered what made him worthy. His mind drifted to the Mind Realm, hoping that the answer was there; all he could think of were the final words that Cheese said before they got out of the realm:

"Tommy... you need to know that I'm proud of you."

But why? Thinking over his accomplishments over the summer once again, he pondered on how most of them weren’t really things a party pony would care about. Even the parties he was involved in had him being more behind the scenes managing, negotiating, or checking funds. All Tomato was doing was just helping in a way that his talents allowed.

And yet, Cheese was proud of him.

“Well… if you say so.” Tomato rose to his hooves. Everypony else followed suit. Then, he turned around, and said while looking back, “Well, I need to get back with those guys over there. Last we checked, Cheese was in Manehattan.”

Nimbus jumped up. “If you’re gonna fight, I’m in! No way I’m gonna sit this out while my sister’s still there!”

“Mine too!” Goldie said. “Not to mention my brother-in-law and nephew! Mr. Crazy Warlock Guy’s gonna pay for hurting them!”

“And you’re not gonna leave me out,” Flora said with a smirk. “It’d be a crime to leave this master butt-whooper out of the action.”

“And I’m here to backup my sister!” Bananas chirped.

Party Favor rubbed his leg. “It is my ancestor causing the problem…” He looked up at his horn, and then to his hooves. “I’m not a fantastic sorcerer, but I hope you don’t mind having a good Rune on your side.”

Tomato chuckled. “Well… two, actually, your sister’s here.”

Party Favor jumped at that statement. “Wait, what?! Silk Shimmer?” He stood on his tiptoes to look over the chattering groups of ponies to try to spot her. “What’s she doing here?”

“We… uh… picked her up in Canterlot. She volunteered to help.”

Goldie raised an eyebrow. “Does anyone else have sisters involved?”

“Well, there is Maud over there…” Tomato mumbled. He took a deep breath. “It’s going to be pretty dangerous, guys. One bite from either and you’ll completely lose your equinity and forget everything. Are you sure you guys want to come?”

Flora stepped to the front of the group, a warm smile on her face. “Tomato, we’re your friends. No matter what, we’re all behind you.”

A part of him did want them to stay behind in order to stay safe; but, at the same time, he knew he needed them. Even though it hurt to know that Cirrus was a victim in Manehattan, and nopony knew where Bluejinx was, what Tomato did have was good to have behind him. Nimbus was strong and could throw mean boxing punches; Flora was a proficient martial artist, having a way of placing jabs and kicks in just the right spots to take anypony down; and the other three were party ponies--they were guaranteed to have some crazy stunts under their belts. They, along with the others, could keep the many monsters of Manehattan at bay.

“Thanks, guys, you’ll be a lot of help. Just try to be careful.” He started walking across the chamber, still looking back at them. “Now, let’s get back to the main group so we can pitch in on that battle plan.”

Just as they started to follow, a pony stepped out in front of Tomato. He bumped into this other pony, and was ready to complain to them about watching where they were going. But on taking one look at that pony, he staggered back, he held his tongue, and he could feel the color drain from his face.

Of all ponies to bump into during this crisis, it had to be her.

Knowing that he was likely in trouble, his head sank into the collar of his shirt. “Hi, Mom.”

Mozzarella tapped her hoof. “Tomato… did you just suggest leading ponies in a charge against those beasts?”

She practically bit him with those words, making him seem like some bloodthirsty warmonger. There was a strange relief in seeing her as not a vampire or werewolf, but being either one of those beasts would make her less imposing. As a pony, she still held memories of the majority of Tomato’s mishaps and wrongdoings, and would wield those like a whip. Remembering their last talk, his mind screamed about how not ready he was to face her again.

Mozzarella rubbed one of her temples. “Of all the stupid, reckless ideas that entered your brain, this has to be the worst yet!” She gestured to the ponies behind Tomato. “Do any of those ponies look like soldiers to you? Or even remotely combat ready?!”

Tomato hated that she sounded rational this time around. If it was Flora facing her parents, they’d probably say the same. Already, he felt like he was losing.

Flora piped up, “Hey, I’ve beaten up thugs who harassed us! And I kicked a mountain lion in the face once.”

Goldie laughed. “I like you!”

Mozzarella gave her a funny look, and then looked down at Tomato. “Why do you make such weird friends? Why are none of them questioning your inane plan to face off against several million monsters that infest the city?!”

“It’s not really my plan… it’s Princess Twilight’s,” Tomato answered. He touched the necklace. “See, I have to go because this necklace is the key to stopping it quickly; I just need some allies to keep the monsters from killing me as I return the memories to the alpha wolf.”

Mozzarella blinked. “You can’t be serious. How would you even know Princess Twilight?” She reached forward and grabbed the necklace. “And how is this supposed to--ouch!”

After sparks popped from the necklace and she quaked for a few moments, she staggered back and shook her hoof, gritting her teeth. Smoke wisped from where she had grabbed, carrying a smell of singed flesh.

Tomato grimaced at the sight, but at least she couldn’t just snap the memories off his neck. Still, he couldn’t help but murmur to the necklace, “Cheese, be nice.”

Mozzarella’s ears perked on hearing that. “Did you just call the necklace ‘Cheese’?” She straightened back up to her stiff, towering stance. “And speaking of Cheese… where is he? I need to have a talk with him about his courtroom incident.”

A inward tremor ran through Tomato’s body on hearing that. How fast did the news of Kazam’s trial spread? How much detail about him and Cheese had been displayed on newsprint? And as the glare deepened, Tomato felt himself sinking over the realization that reading about their involvement in the trail meant that their mother was now aware of their involvement in Las Pegasus.

She grabbed him by the ear and dragged him aside, slipping between ponies in the process. Weaving between ponies and squeezing between groups, there was this sense that she was taking him to a private room, where a punishment no doubt lay. He felt an urge to cover his rump, half expecting a spanking.

There was a little “room” of sorts that she dragged him to, with a lower ceiling than the rest of the chamber and somewhat isolated from the crowd. She planted him on one of the rocks that lay in it, and drew back only for her predatory back and forth pacing to begin.

“It seems awfully convenient for you that ponies remember the perpetrator’s name better than the victims’,” she started. “The news plastered with Kazam this, Kazam that, wailing about how he terrorized the city of Las Pegasus with his insane vampire spell! But, they barely mention who his first victim was, usually referring to him as an ‘assistant’, and just have him get lost in the hundreds of others that got bewitched. Imagine my horror to find out that not only were both my sons involved, but that that first victim was you.”

Tomato’s head sank into his collar. “Mom, I didn’t know that he--”

“Yeah, sure, you didn’t know. But it’s clear proof that sneaking off to spend the summer with your wayward brother was a terrible idea!” She stomped her hoof, with an echo that nearly sent Tomato falling back. “How can you be so naive?! You could have spent your summer safe at home, away from any bad influences, and certainly not subject to your brother’s irresponsibility. If I had known that he’d leave you with some random pony, and frolic off to his stupid parties, I’d have locked you in the house, and just banned Cheese from ever coming back! If his assault on Kazam is any indication, he can’t control himself! And that’s poison to you, a boy who still struggles with self-control!”

Tomato nearly jumped off the rock, but his hooves clung on as his neck stretched forward. “Excuse me?! And just how do you know he’s ‘irresponsible’? Because of what happened in Las Pegasus? Well, gee, how could anyone have known the vampire thing was coming besides some heebie-jeebies we got from the creepy Kazam? Cheese almost got killed trying to clean up the mess and save me, and you have the gall to blame him for not preventing it?!”

Mozzarella was unmoved. “Believe me, I’ve known a lot of party animals in my teenage years. Some of the dumbest, hedonistic spoiled brats just ill-prepared for the world. Are you seriously defending that kind of pony?”

Tomato stood up. “I’m not. I’m defending a pony who dedicated his life to spreading joy. I’m defending a pony who puts so much effort into making his parties fun for all ages, not just stupid teenagers. I’m defending a pony who is actually concerned for others’ health and safety, mine especially! And I’m definitely defending the one member of my immediate family who actually gives a crap about who I am, not what I am. You hardly know who he--may I remind you, your eldest son!--is, and you don’t even bother to try because of your stupid preconceptions!”

Mozzarella blinked, but her dull glare fell into a deeper scowl. She started to walk forward, driving Tomato back. “Even if Cheese is as responsible as you claim, which I highly doubt, that doesn’t change the fact that you have a knack for stupid situations! How do I know Las Pegasus isn’t the only disaster you’ve been in? How do I know that you and Cheese didn’t cause the current situation in Manehattan? Did your so-called responsible brother get himself bitten or did he drink the water? Or should we take it a step further and say he brewed it in a coffee, like what happened with your unsuspecting father?” She pointed to the necklace. “And you think you can stop it quickly with a magic necklace?! What makes you the supposed ‘Chosen One’ to stop that madness?!”

Tomato shrunk a little. “Well… uh… let’s just say that the owner of these memories is the one who… chose me, only by way of actually letting me carry them. See, this pony loves and trusts me enough to know I’d go through Tartarus to return them to him. If I return them, he remembers, everypony else remembers, the day is saved!”

Mozzarella gave him a funny look, looked down at the memory necklace to stare at it for a bit, and on seeing familiar images of two familiar colts, and then her eyes widened as it clicked. “You can’t seriously be the only one he trusts, can you?”

Tomato rubbed the back of his head. “No, but he bit the only other pony I know he’d let carry them.”

She narrowed her eyes, and marched forward again to make Tomato shrink. “Tomato, even disregarding everything else about him, Cheese is an absolute fool for trusting you of all ponies! You can’t take care of yourself, much less others! You just make everypony’s life hard with your impulses! The fights, the outbursts, the near-death situations, the coffee incidents…”

Then she pointed at Tomato’s cutie mark. “And of course, the ridiculous cartoon magic that doesn’t fit your cutie mark at all! Why couldn’t I have a foal who didn’t have that magic? Why couldn’t you be what a businesspony should be? Why couldn’t you be normal? Do you not understand that the world does not care about your feelings and would just see you as a monster? If it wasn’t for me, you’d be rotting in jail with no hope for your future because nopony wants to associate with a freak!”

Tomato had just about enough. He reared up to startle her into backing off, and then landed back on all fours with a resounding thud. Standing erect, he marched forward himself, now realizing that he was actually taller than his mother.

“Mother… don’t you think I know the world doesn’t care about my feelings? Let me tell you, I do know; and that’s why I needed somepony at home to care! Don’t you think I needed some affection from you? Don’t you think I needed some comfort after I had a hard day full of bullies, or one of my mishaps, or even stressing out over a missed assignment? Don’t you think I needed some actual advice to navigate a problem instead of being told to just ‘work harder’, or just grounding me every time I get a bad grade or do a bad thing?

“And speaking of bad things, why is your definition of ‘bad’ so broad? You always told me, ‘don’t sing’, ‘don’t play hacky-sack’, ‘don’t work in fast food’, ‘don’t take that elective’, ‘don’t roughhouse with the other colts’, ‘don’t go to parties’, ‘don’t cook anything’... might as well just say I shouldn’t do anything outside of reading, academics, and business… you know, what you think a businesspony should be. Is there some unspoken rule that a pony can’t have harmless hobbies outside of their special talent? What, are you afraid that my cutie mark would change? It’s not going to change, all you did was cripple me to the point where I have no idea what business I should go into because whatever I do might displease you!”

Mozzarella pursed her lips. “Tomato, you’re being ridiculous! All I’m doing is trying to protect you, and make sure that you’re the responsible stallion you should be instead of some spoiled brat.”

Tomato snorted. “Controlling my life doesn’t make me responsible on any level, and giving me basic affection is not spoiling me! You think I survived all the crud on this vacation on my own? No, I survived because Cheese cared. I stuck through my teenage years because Bluejinx cared. College was only not a waste of time because Flora, Cirrus, and Nimbus cared. But you? You only cared for me as an extension of yourself!”

Mozzarella was taken aback by that statement. “How dare you make that accusation! I care for you because you’re my son, and it’d benefit you more to actually try to live up to your talent and make a name for yourself.”

“That shouldn’t involve metaphorically beating everything that’s not you out of me! Is the whole package not good enough for you? Why do you insist on keeping me on a leash and pushing me to your agenda? Wouldn’t it actually benefit me more to explore my business options so I really know what I want to do with my life? Self-discovery is how cutie marks come to be; I know I didn’t earn my cutie mark your way, I earned it my way.”

“Oh, please,” Mozzarella said, waving a hoof. “You wouldn’t even have earned your mark in the first place if I didn’t convince you to participate in that fundraiser. Are you saying that I should have just let you do whatever you want like so many other parents in the neighborhood did? I think that brother of your former friend went to jail because his mother was a careless floozy that thought foals could regulate themselves; do you honestly think you wouldn’t have ended up like that?”

Tomato smacked his forehead. “Mom, I’m not saying that my life should have been rule free!” He slid his hoof down his face, stretching his cheek until it snapped back upon release. “Look… I found out what happened to Aunt Honeydew.”

Mozzarella blinked, her hard features softening for once. “What? But how--”

“I don’t know, it was coincidence. I will concede that you were right about her, that she was an irresponsible, spoiled brat. From what her husband told me, her lax parenting turned her son into a stuck-up pain in the butt that let animals ransack a town because ‘rules are oppressive’, and nearly killed her daughter because she wasn’t taught how to be careful. I do know how dangerous overly lax parenting is, but just because Aunt Honeydew was wrong doesn’t make your dictatorship right.”

Mozzarella sighed. “Sounds just like her to parent like that. From the way you’re talking, it sounds like one of those animals must have killed her because she trusted nature too much.”

“Actually she died giving birth to twins. One of them survived, and she was lucky that her father could give her the boundaries that her siblings needed from the start. But, still, even if I needed boundaries to keep me from commiting crimes or killing myself, I also needed room to explore who I’m meant to be and become my best self. Mom, you were only hurting me in the long run, and it only really hit me when I stepped out of Manehattan and found myself utterly useless at the beginning of it.”

“Oh, I’m hurting you?” Mozzarella’s face was in her hard glare again. “No, I was trying to prevent another Honeydew situation! I wasn’t going to fall for any crocodile tears like my parents did, or let you be an idiot who mooches off others’ hard work! I wasn’t going to let you indulge in stupid fantasies that would turn you into some stuck-up brat that thinks everyone should bow to their whims and start crying when somepony disagrees! You think you can do better on your own? What could you possibly accomplish without any of my influence?!”

Tomato raised an eyebrow. “I may have been useless during the beginning of the summer, but not the entirety of it. I helped somepony start a business, I’ve helped ponies with debt, I ran a fundraiser, I convinced businessponies to build in struggling towns, giving hope for those towns’ recovery! And I’ve made a lot of friends, which is a good lesson on making business connections in the future--heck, I’ve probably made connections then! All of those without you around to nag me into shape! Clearly, I don’t need your help at being an adult.”

Mozzarella’s scowl deepened, and Tomato could hear her teeth grinding beneath that closed mouth. Then, she said, “So, you claim to be an adult now? I suppose age-wise that’s true, but you’re still one of the most immature--”

“Insulting me is not going to make me that perfect son you want!” Tomato snapped. “I’m not perfect; nopony is! Would it have killed you not to expect either me or Cheese to be so? Has it ever occured to you that maybe Cheese ran away because you put way too much pressure on an eleven-year-old, and my breaking his accordion was just the final straw? Will you ever realize that just because Grandma came from the Canterlot Elite doesn’t mean we have to act like them? News flash, we’re lower-class Manehattanites!”

Mozzarella growled before composing herself. “We don’t have to act like lower-class Manehattanites. I sure don’t want to prove your great-grandparents right by acting like the mongrels they called us.”

Tomato blinked at that statement, and took a deep breath. “Just because I don’t act like some Canterlot snob--or even Manehattan snob--doesn’t mean I’m an animal. And speaking of animals, there’s still a guy poofing around Equestria turning ponies into demon animals, so I need to go and fix that!”

“Tomato, that’s enough. You’re sounding like a bratty foal again.”

“No, I’ve been dealing with a lot of horseapples thanks to the current situation, and I don’t want your naggity nagginess getting in the way of saving my brother, my friends, my groups’ friends and families… oh, yeah, and your husband. Or do you just not care about him? Never really seen anything but the occasional argument between you two.”

“Tomato, just hoof that necklace over to somepony else and let them take care of it; you’re not cut out to save the city!”

“Maybe I’m not cut out, but I’m the one who can hold them without getting shocked or magic-drained. Should I take this up with the Princess of Friendship?”

“This does not need a princess to intervene.”

“It does if you’re prolonging a national emergency!”

“Well, considering that Cheese’s memories are needed to stop this, maybe it could have been prevented if neither of you were so stupid!”

“Oh, blame us instead of the sorcerer who took advantage of him? How would you like it if I played the long-term blame game and said that you were ultimately responsible for Cheese being reduced to this necklace of memories? After all, maybe if you had been a kinder and more supporting parent--”

Mozzarella wound up her front hoof. “Stop suggesting that I’m a bad mother!”

Like lightning, the hoof flung itself across Tomato’s face. The slap echoed like a clap of thunder, and it felt like a meteor impact. He nearly stumbled to the ground, but caught himself. Still, his cheek stung and throbbed, and he caressed it to make sure it wasn’t swelling.

He looked up at his mother, with a lump in his throat and his eyes welling up. His heart crumbled, leaving behind only a cold, empty feeling toward her. There was no more energy to even try to reach her after that.

He noticed from the corner of his eye his friends, gaping with either hooves to mouths or slack jaws at the sight, and some bystanders who curiously looked on, wincing at what they just witness. And looking forward, he could see the dawning look of horror in her eyes, as she froze in her post-slap stance.

Tomato stood erect and held his composure. “So… I guess it was only a matter of time before you resorted to that.”

Mozzarella slowly put the offending hoof down.

He pursed his lips and sighed. “You know what? I’m done. I don’t care what you say anymore; it’s my life, and I’m going to live it on my terms.”

He turned around, and walked out of that smaller shelter, moving toward and then past his friends and the party ponies. “You can go on with your life; just leave me alone.”

As he left, and the others followed him, Mozzarella just sat on a rock, and held her face in her hooves.

Tomato was quiet while walking back to the main group, slumping forward in a somber manner. They just weaved around ponies and groups, the only conversation being held by said groups, with hardly a word being said between him and the five that accompanied him.

They were about halfway there when Flora trotted faster to get to his side. “Tomato, are you okay?”

Tomato took a breath. “I’m fine.”

Party Favor trotted closer as well. “You weren’t kidding when you told me your mom had no respect for you. My dad’s disappointed in me, but he never used words like that. Or slapped me.”

Nimbus hovered to him. “You need me to cheer you up, buddy? I can do an impersonation of dolphins, that gets everyone laughing.”

Tomato lightly chuckled at the thought. “Thanks, but no. I’m just… wondering if I did the right thing.”

“Honestly?” Flora said. “I think you did. There are just some ponies you need to break away from to heal and pursue a happy and healthy life. Sadly, sometimes those ponies are your parents. But, just know that we’re still behind you.”

Tomato glanced at her and smiled. “Well… I do have good family left--and not just the one I’m hoping to save. Some of them aren’t blood related, they just go to college with me and be my friends.”

Flora beamed at him, while Nimbus wiped his eye.

Tomato exhaled. “Okay, I want to get on with dealing with the crisis. Are you guys still in?”

A chorus of affirmations got him walking faster, as well as the others to keep up with him. It wasn’t very long before they passed the Fountain, and went on to find Twilight, her posse, and their allies cramped in a circle against the wall. It appeared that they had finished explaining the situation to Destiny and Maud, with the former being absent for some reason.

Tomato cleared his throat and announced, “Okay, we’re back.”

They all turned to him, and counted the allies he picked up. Fluttershy perked up and waved to Flora, and said, “Oh, hi, Flora! How have you been doing?”

“Oh, pretty good! My last semester was great!” Flora said, squeezing next to her. “How about you? Your animals doing good?”

“Oh, they’re as happy and healthy as ever,” Fluttershy said. “I even made some new friends.”

“Like a vampire bat?”

“Oh, I guess Tomato told you about…”

“Well, he had to bring us up to speed about this whole thing if we’re gonna help.”

Meanwhile, Silk Shimmer and Party Favor, once they spotted each other, had sprung to their hooves and jumped at each other in a hug. They laughed and squealed and bounced in a circle for a full minute before breaking apart.

“What are you doing here?!” Silk exclaimed.

“I had a dream telling me that we’re down two party ponies and I needed to come here to help save the day!” Party Favor said semi-seriously. He then grinned. “I also met these other two party ponies who sensed that same thing, and we’re gonna make this battle wild.”

Silk glanced at Bananas and Goldie waving. “Well… I guess some party ponies would be a lot of help. In Las Pegasus, Cheese Sandwich did do pretty well on his own with just an accordion. Just be sure to stay away from Wayer Rune.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I will. I’ll just fight with a balloon sword.”

“...okay.”

Twilight looked at the ponies Tomato brought, from Goldie getting fascinated with Maud, Bananas getting fascinated with Little Strongheart, and Nimbus flying around to find a place to sit. “Well, I’m glad that you guys are willing to help. Though, as soon as Destiny comes back out of her room, we’re going to take this outside so that there’s more room for all of us. I sure hope you have some skills that could help.”

“I can box!” Nimbus chirped.

“Plenty of martial arts,” Flora said.

“Party pony!” Goldie exclaimed.

“Same!” Party Favor and Bananas said.

Twilight nodded. “Well, all right, I guess we need our battle plan and we’re ready.”

Destiny came out of her room with a couple of bags to hear that. “Oh, I don’t know, Princess, are you sure this is enough ponies? We’d probably need an army to face all those vampires and werewolves, not just a rag tag team. Don’t you know anypony else who can help?”

Twilight rubbed her leg. “Well, my brother’s Captain of the Guard, and my sister-in-law is Princess of the Crystal Empire. Thing is, I fear Wayer Rune got to the Crystal Empire before now, and they could be under the spell. And even if they weren’t, it’s not like I can summon them!”

“Oh? How did you get to this area so fast again?”

Twilight sighed and pulled the spellbook out of her saddlebag. “This has alchemy circles, one of which we used for long distance teleportation. Why?”

Destiny peered at it. “Well… if I remember correctly, there is one in there that can summon allies from anywhere.”

Twilight grabbed the book and pulled it close. “Uh, that sounds tempting, but I’m a little worried about sending more ponies into danger. As a princess, I’m supposed to protect the citizens of Equestria, not just send them into battle against monsters!”

“Oh, I know. It’s just that I’m worried that a group this small would get whittled down too quickly for Tomato to do his job. Werewolves were designed to be smart and strong enough to take down minotaurs, and those vampires have air advantage. Do you know ponies who could defend against that?”

Rainbow Dash hovered to them. “Wait, there’s a summoning spell? Why not just summon Cheese and we can fix him here?”

“Uh, maybe we shouldn’t poof a werewolf in here,” Applejack said, pointing to the many other refugees in the cave.

Rainbow pouted at her, and then turned back to Destiny. “Okay, fix him outside?”

Destiny rubbed her chin. “Oh, that would be a good idea… if it didn’t have a failsafe that prevented any creatures full of dark magic from being summoned. Believe me, I’ve tried. Werewolves sadly fit that bill, so we still have to cure him the hard way.”

Party Favor looked up in alarm. “Why were you trying to summon demons?”

“To see if I could. I was a curious foal.” Destiny turned back to Twilight. “So…”

Twilight pursed her lips. “Well… each of us might know ponies who can help. Let’s continue this outside, I think some ponies are getting uncomfortable.”

Author's Note

Special thanks to Chromio for editing this chapter! :twilightsmile:

I had a goal to get this done before February was over, and I made it with two days to spare! Yeesh, whenever I get a word count this high I feel like I'm overdoing it. :twilightoops:

Aw, well, I least I got to Tomato's Calling the Old Mare Out scene.

24.5--We Are All Gathered Here Today...

Once the posse and all its volunteers had been teleported out of the cave and to a nearby glade, Twilight and Destiny opened the book to the page of the summoning runes. As grass was swiftly cleared and the rune circle created, Twilight teleported to the outskirts of Manehattan and back, making sure that their quarry was still within the city limits. They were, but knowing that they could leave at any moment, the group started thinking of ponies who could be a big help in this endeavor.

Tomato and friends rested around a tree. He glanced at Flora, who was giggling over an inside joke with Bananas. I wonder if either she or Bananas is going to bring their father over here; he is in the military, so he’d be a big help. His eyes drifted up to Nimbus in the tree. Would he summon his ex-Wonderbolt parents? Or does he want to spare them the news of what happened to Cirrus?

He looked away from them and down at the grass. I met a lot of ponies during the trip; who could I summon to help?

As Destiny put the final touches on the circle, Twilight looked up to the rest of the group, which had gained several more ponies since the mission started, and was destined to increase in number. “All right, everypony. Here’s how this is going to work.” She pointed to a horseshoe shape near the edge closest to the group. “One of you simply has to step on this symbol, and think of the pony you want to summon. Once I activate the runes, the pony will appear.”

“Gee, Your Highness, don’t you think them ponies will get startled just bein’ suddenly teleported across the country?” Braeburn asked.

“Being teleported is already disorienting when we are expecting it,” Little Strongheart said.

“I’m a little unsure about this myself, but given how many of those hybrids we have to fight off, I think Destiny might have a point about needing more help,” Twilight answered.

Rainbow shot into the air, raising her hoof. “Are we able to summon more than one?”

Twilight paused, looked at the book, and nodded. “If you have a few ideas for helpful ponies, you could summon them all at once. It shouldn’t be too much trouble; runes combined with my magic make this so much easier.”

Rainbow laughed. “Good! I was thinking that since we took care of Cloudsdale and the Academy, I could get the Wonderbolts over here.”

Before she could touch down, however, Comedy Gold leapt from her spot and slammed her hoof on the symbol. “Dibs on the test run!”

Rainbow was taken aback. “Hey! I was gonna have the test run!”

“Well…” Comedy Gold thought for a moment, clicking her tongue before saying matter-of-factly, “tough cookies, it’s the law of dibs.”

From the back of the group, Silk Shimmer just pulled her hat over her head and groaned, while Party Favor patted her back. “Why is she like this?”

Rainbow’s face had started turning red and she made a motion to grab the strawberry blonde party pony, almost letting out a curse in the process, but she was pulled back by Applejack, who simply told her, “Look, I know what she did was a mite unfair, but we shouldn’t waste time with an argument. You’ll get your turn.”

Rainbow just huffed in reply.

“Okay…” Twilight turned to the one with her hoof on the symbol. “So, what’s your name?”

“Comedy Gold, but you can call me Goldie.”

“Well, okay, Goldie. Just picture an ally that could be a big help while I cast.”

Goldie squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating on the image in her mind. While she did so with a confident smile at first, soon enough her lips started to purse, pout, and fidget, as if she realized just how unsure of this she was.

Twilight didn’t really notice, and zapped the runes. They glowed for several moments, humming with a low melody, before there was a flash of light. All in the area staggered from the sudden brightness and had to take a few moments to blink spots out of their vision until they could behold who Goldie had summoned.

It was a short, gray stallion with an underbite and a powder-blue mare in a dentist uniform, both looking around the area with panicked confusion.

Twilight tilted her head. “Um…”

“What the hay just happened?!” the stallion asked. He turned to Goldie, who just stood there wide-eyed and biting her lip. “Huh? Goldie? What are you--how did you--what is going on?!”

The mare just pulled at her curls. “Have you been messing with magic stuff again?!”

Goldie rubbed the back of her head. “Oops.”

Rainbow Dash fell into laughter at who Goldie had summoned, while everyone else groaned and put hooves to their own faces. Tomato Sandwich looked at the duo--who he recognized as Silver Shill and that one dentist lady from Peanut Butter’s wedding, and just thought about how doomed the both of them were. The mare was slightly less doomed, having once helped catch a changeling, but still doomed.

Silk Shimmer trotted up to her, inhaling and exhaling sharply. “What do you mean, ‘oops’? Are you saying that you didn’t mean to summon your brother and sister here? Well, I can be glad you didn’t actually think that they’d put up a fight against vampires and werewolves, but… who were you intending to get, anyway?!”

Both Silver’s and the mare’s eyes widened. “What?!”

Goldie sighed. “Ugh… that Trixie pony you worked with when Las Pegasus happened. But, then I remembered that I don’t know what she looks like, and I wondered if that would affect it at all. And then my mind jumped to my sister Penny, and how I was supposed to tell Silver and Pearl about how she might be a blood-sucking vampire right now, and… well…”

“Pfffft, you were going to summon Trixie?!” Rainbow laughed harder.

Twilight facehoofed. “I didn’t think I needed to mention this, but you need to keep your mind on the pony you want to summon, or else we might end up with the wrong pony! Then again, you should have thought of someone you actually knew in the first place. And now we’ll have to waste time sending them home.”

“Pardon me, but…” Pearl said. “Did I just hear that our oldest sister might be a vampire?!”

“What about Coppersmith?! And Noble?!” Silver gasped. “Did the Kazam guy break out? Is that why everything’s getting wacky with the eclipse and whatnot?!” He turned to Silk Shimmer. “You know magic stuff, Silk Shimmer, please tell me what’s going on!”

"For goodness’ sake, Silver, please calm down!” Silk Shimmer exclaimed. “It’s not my big brother this time, it’s actually our crazy ancestor that broke out of Tartarus.”

“Whaddya mean your crazy ancestor?!” both Silver and Pearl yelled.

Goldie growled, and then slapped them both in one stroke. “Get a grip, you babies!”

Applejack stood up and got in between them. “All right, that’s enough!” She looked at Silver quizzically. “Right, I think you’re that pony that worked with the Flim Flam brothers that one time…”

“Silver Shill,” the stallion replied. “Pearly Whites and Comedy Gold are my sisters. Goldie right there is why I did it. I was desperate to pay that hospital bill and, well…”

“I getcha, we were both blackmailed.” She patted his head. “Now, you don’t have to fight this baddie with us, we just need you to calm down right now. We don’t have much time to draw another circle to send you home, but we’ll do so after we take that varmint down. I reckon you have another sister in trouble?”

Pearl nodded. “That’s what Goldie said. What’s happening in Manehattan?”

“Well, Silk’s ancestor is enchantin’ water to turn ponies into vampires or werewolves. We’re workin’ on fixing this, so don’t you worry. Now, uh… we need you to get off the circle.”

Goldie grabbed their hooves, and pulled them back to the group. “Yeah, you two can sit with me, Silk, Silk’s not-evil brother, and the rock mare right there that out-deadpans Penny.” She leaned closer to them and whispered, “She doesn’t even have the eyebrows going for her.”

Silver and Pearl just looked at each other as Goldie plopped down next to Maud Pie, and just followed her lead in sitting in the grass. Silk Shimmer plodded by them, rubbing her temple and taking her seat in between them and Party Favor. Glancing between stallions, she said, "Oh, by the way--Silver Shill, meet my brother Party Favor, and Party Favor, meet my co-manager for the Pirate Pizzeria."

The two stallions stared at each other for a bit, before reaching across Silk's vision to shake hooves.

Twilight brushed away hoofprints and redrew a couple of lines to neaten the circle. “Okay, now let’s see if we can actually get someone useful,” she said, a slight edge in her voice. “Let’s do one at a time for a couple more turns, just to make sure it’s working all right.”

Rainbow groaned and plopped back first into the grass.

Fluttershy raised her hoof. “Maybe Discord?”

Rarity looked at her funny. “Would he help?”

Twilight grimaced. “Well, he does have a lot of power and could snap plenty of ponies back to normal… still, after the Tirek incident and what happened at the Gala, I’m still not sure if it's a good idea.”

“Well, it’s worth a shot; we are his friends, he could want to help us,” Fluttershy said, hovering to the circle.

She put her hoof on the horseshoe mark and closed her eyes. Twilight zapped the circle to activate the runes, and they hummed and glowed once more. One flash of light later, the ponies rubbed their eyes, blinked to adjust, and beheld what was within the circle.

A piece of paper. A letter, to be precise.

Fluttershy tilted her head. “Did I do something wrong? I know I thought of him.”

Twilight levitated the paper close enough to read. She cleared her throat.

“‘Dearest Pony Friends,

‘As much as I, the Lord of Chaos, would like to help out in your mission to stop Mr. Looney, I’m afraid that my scheduled vacation to my Hawaii volcano vacation house just gets in the way of that. After all, powerful spirits like moi also need to get away from it all every now and again!

‘I’ll send you pictures of my adventures in lava surfing, scuba hulas, and picking on that alien on the other island. Have fun kicking vampire and werewolf tail! :D

‘Your friend, Discord.’”

Twilight looked up with a scowl. “I guess he doesn’t want to be bothered. And he spelled Haywaii wrong, that’s really bugging me.”

From the tree he leaned against, Tomato remarked, “And here I was hoping that I’d finally get to see Discord in person… and maybe not have to waste time going through this the hard way when he could just snap his fingers and everything’s back to normal.”

“Well, I suppose if he needs some time off from… chaos-ing here, I’ll let him relax,” Fluttershy said in a puzzled tone. She backed away from the circle. “Perhaps I should let someone else summon a friend of theirs.”

Silk Shimmer, who had been poked and prodded by the ever-moving Goldie throughout the attempt to summon Discord, stood up. "Well, we still have that Trixie idea to fall back on."

Then Rainbow shouted, “Pfft, what can that loudmouth do without the Alicorn Amulet?”

Silk Shimmer glanced at her. "You’d be surprised at how well she can deflect vampires with smoke bombs and a frying pan! Plus, she’s a magician; maybe a skill in misdirection could be useful.”

Twilight shifted her eyes to the side and said through her teeth, “I don’t know, I’m not sure I can trust her to not do something stupid.”

“She was the one who came up with the plan to stop Kazam back in Las Pegasus.”

Twilight blinked. “Really?”

“Yes! Plus, she was my minder when I kept falling under the ‘absolutely nothing to be afraid of’ hypnosis. So, don’t worry, she can stay focused in a crisis.”

Tomato sat up and raised his hoof, and all eyes went to him. “And she saved me and Cheese from being obliterated by Kazam, so…”

Fluttershy, who had sat down, then said, “I guess that’s argument enough.”

Twilight sighed. “Fine.”

Silk Shimmer rose from her spot and daintily trotted to the circle. She put her hoof on the symbol, and Twilight zapped the runes. A glow and a hum and a flash of light later, the Great and Powerful Trixie was revealed on the circle.

“Behold, citizens of Chestnut, for I am here to put your minds at ease with--” She opened her eyes, which widened even further on seeing her surroundings. “Eek! Who are you ponies?!” She looked to the familiar face of Silk Shimmer. “What are you doing here?! What am I doing here?!” She turned to Twilight, who backed up in discomfort, and scowled. “Oh, so are you going to arrest me for the Amulet incident, Prin-cess? I thought you forgave me for that!”

“It’s been more than a year, Trixie,” Twilight said coolly. “Besides, that’s not what I summoned you for.”

"Then why..." Trixie blinked, and then smiled smugly. “Oh? So you have a task that only the Great and Powerful Trixie can perform for you? I’m flattered that Silk Shimmer recommended me to you.”

Comedy Gold hopped up. “Oh, so that’s Trixie!” She stared at Trixie intently for a few seconds, processing those first moments of seeing her, and then asked Twilight, “Can we send her back? She’s kind of annoying.”

"I wish," Twilight muttered.

Trixie whirled around to glare at Goldie. “Oh, how dare you insult Trixie! If I could, I'd remove your mouth!”

"Then I'd hit you with a giant flyswatter!" Goldie shouted.

Silver and Pearl pulled her down by the tail, saying in unison, "Stop that!"

Before Trixie could retort, Destiny came forward and tapped her shoulder to get her attention again. “Hey, now, let's not waste time fighting! Don't listen to her, Trixie, of course we would like you to help us.”

Trixie still held a sharp glance toward Goldie for a few moments before focusing on Destiny with her prideful smirk. “Well, no matter what any hecklers say, I am both great and powerful. You'd better believe that I have tricks up my sleeve; so, what’s this task of yours?”

“We just need all the help we can get to fight vampires and werewolves in Manehattan.”

Trixie’s smile was wiped away and she paled into a lighter blue. “I’m sorry, what?”

“See, we have to protect Tomato over there while he--”

“I have to fight what in where?!” Trixie backed up swiftly, looking ready to turn around and just sprint away. She glanced between Twilight and Destiny while addressing the former. “Oh, heck no! Heck no! You and your mother must be insane to suggest that! It was bad enough dealing with vampires in Las Pegasus, and you want to put Trixie through that again?!”

Twilight gave her a weird look. “Destiny’s not my mother!” She looked at the older mare. “The resemblance is just a coincidence.” Then, sighing and stepping toward the showmare, she said, “Trixie, if we play our cards right, it won’t take very long.”

“Oh, what do you know, Princess?!” Trixie spat. “You weren’t there! You didn’t have to dodge a bajillion vampires and hit them with a frying pan in hopes they don’t bite you! I bet you wouldn’t even have had to worry about that because you’re an almighty alicorn now. Sometimes I think that Kazam’s going to escape prison and take revenge on me for blocking his magic! And you have the nerve to say that Trixie not only fight vampires again, but werewolves too?! In a bigger city?! Nothing you say can change Trixie’s mind, she’s not going! Go call Cheese Sandwich, I recall from the trial that he doesn’t even remember it, so he can do his crazy party pony thing just fine!”

It fell silent, and everyone else just glanced and grimaced at each other. Trixie heaved a few moments, her eyes screaming her fearful rage right at the princess and her exhales loud and wheezy. It was only when she glanced at the others’ reactions that her face softened to a puzzled unease.

Tomato might have been ready to jump and chew her out, but Silk trotting over to Trixie and reaching out made him decide not to.

Silk sighed. “We would call for Cheese… if he wasn’t the linchpin of this sorcerer’s operation. Not only is he a werewolf, he’s the alpha wolf that’s setting the standard for everypony else’s condition--amnesiac, confused monsters with no sense of self or even equinity. Tomato’s got to return Cheese’s memories so that everypony can be saved, but we have to make sure he isn’t attacked.”

Trixie blinked and looked at Tomato, who held up the memories on cue. Pursing her lips, she asked, in a wavering voice, “Please tell me that Kazam didn’t escape from prison and is doing that stunt again.”

Silk grimaced and rubbed the back of her head. However, before she said anything, Party Favor trotted up to her side, and answered for her, “No, it’s not our brother this time. It’s our ancestor, straight out of Tartarus.”

“Uh… wait. Silk, you have two brothers?”

“Yes,” Silk deadpanned. “I thought I mentioned Party Favor.”

“Kind of hard to remember when the other one did the vampire thing.” Trixie snorted, some slight anger returning to her face. “Did he say your ancestor? The one who inspired Kazam to do that? Well, if he’s back and bringing back werewolves, why did he choose Cheese Sandwich for his stupid plot?”

Twilight stepped in. “If I were to hazard a guess based on his past actions and current methods, I think Wayer Rune just wanted to use somepony harboring mental trauma, who is generally an out-of-the-way loner--somepony to secretly work on with as little suspicion as possible.”

Trixie scoffed. “Well, he clearly made a wrong choice, because he was traveling with his brother!” She pointed as hard as she could to Tomato, who just waved back. “Was he scoping out ponies who were in Las Pegasus during the vampire disaster? It's not like Cheese Sandwich was the only one there! Trixie was there, too, you know, and fought valiantly! Does this Rooney guy think Trixie is not worthy to be part of his little plot? Does he think she would not make a Great and Powerful werewolf? Well, it's not like Cheese Sandwich was a better candidate! He certainly didn't deserve that 'honor'!”

She choked a little, and took a breath before she continued. “Not even at his most annoying, or when he steals my spotlight, or even when he takes the last peanut butter bar… he’s not werewolf material.”

She stared at the grass for several moments, while the others remained mostly silent to let her think. Some might have whispered, but not loudly enough for anypony to understand. After a few more breaths and swallowing a lump in her throat, she stood erect.

Then, with a forcefully proud tone and smirk, she said, “Still, thinking it over, I’d be screwed over anyway if you guys lost, and I’m sure you’d be grateful for my contribution. I did save Las Pegasus, after all. What’s another city to save for the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

Twilight sighed. “I suppose I should say ‘welcome to the club’ and invite you to sit down… anywhere. Probably next to Silk Shimmer and her friends.”

Silk beckoned Trixie and said, “Just don’t sit next to Goldie; I don’t think you’d get along.”

"I'll distract her," Party Favor whispered.

While Trixie headed to sit down with them, Twilight went back to the rune circle to dust away hoofprints and refine the lines again. She took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. “Well… we got one--technically three--but one who might be useful. Who’s next?”

She looked around at the group, some of whom were whispering to themselves and each other about possible other candidates, along with an antsy Rainbow in the air. There was bound to be some good ideas, but everypony else could see Twilight fidget a bit, looking at the horseshoe symbol just within reach, and wanting to put her hoof on it.

Destiny noticed and said, “You know, Your Highness, whoever you’re thinking of, you can just summon.”

Twilight put her hoof on the symbol, but drew back again. “What if it’s too late for them? What if they’ve transformed?”

Destiny pursed her lips. “Only one way to find out.”

Twilight took a breath, put her hoof on the symbol again, and then cast the spell.

Everyone covered their eyes just before the flash, though they jumped when they heard an extra crackle and a high screech this time. Several yelped, and some others clamored about how that was new. Regardless, they heard the humming die down, and once they heard the voice of a stallion, they looked up.

“--and we have a messenger on the way to Canterlot for...” The sturdy, white unicorn’s sentence died as his eyes widened. He still held his rigid, authoritative stance, but his stern face swiftly dropped into confusion, pupils darting around to scan the area.

Twilight formed one of the biggest, quivering smiles that anypony had ever seen. “Shining Armor!”

Shining Armor whirled around to face her. “Twily?”

He was suddenly caught in her hug, which had a slight squeeze to it that made him go bug-eyed for a moment before returning it. It didn’t last long, but as he peeled her off him, he still had his hooves on her shoulders and said with a warm smile, “Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.”

“I could say the same about you…” Twilight’s smile evaporated. “But, I was meaning to summon both you and Cadance.”

“Is that why I’m suddenly here and not in the bunkers with the Crystal Ponies?”

Twilight had a sharp intake of breath, tired eyes dilating upon hearing a confirmed fear. “So he did attack the Empire. He must have gotten Cadance!”

Shining’s brow furrowed. “Wait, who?”

“Wayer Rune!” Twilight shouted, stomping her hoof. “He escaped from Tartarus, experimented on an innocent pony to revive and revise his werewolf spell, cast said spell into water supplies, is trying to destroy Equestria by removing everypony’s equinity, and I gotta check to see if he’s still in Manehattan!”

Before Shining could say anything, Twilight zapped herself away. He looked around awkwardly at everypony, trying to read them for any implied thoughts. He was briefly curious about the glowing necklace Tomato held, but stopped once Twilight poofed back.

“Okay… he’s still there…” Twilight heaved.

Shining patted her back. “So, that werewolf guy’s attacking, huh? I should have guessed that when Crystal Ponies started turning into werewolves. Say, did his, uh, revision have anything to do with vampires?”

Twilight nodded.

Shining pursed his lips and stood up straight. “Me and the guards herded the remaining Crystal Ponies into the palace’s underground bunkers, but in the process, Cadance disappeared. We’ve been trying to find her or anyone who escaped the spell, but nothing! We were just sending for help when you summoned me.”

Twilight looked down at the dirt. “Canterlot’s busy with its own monster problem. In fact, Wayer’s been striking every major city, and we just managed to locate him in Manehattan. I was summoning you and Cadance to help us."

"Then why isn't Cadance here?"

Twilight sighed. "I can’t summon a pony who’s been transformed.”

Shining’s eyes narrowed into a glare. “You believe he did that to my wife?”

Twilight’s expression mirrored his. “Shining, I know he did. Fortunately for us, we have a tool that can help us get the root of the problem...” She turned and pointed to Tomato, who just held up his necklace again for Shining Armor to see.

Again, Shining was confused. “Is that the guy that turned the Shining Vocals into a gladiator ring?”

As Nimbus burst into laughter above him, Tomato rolled his eyes and replied, “Yes, I am, thank you for reminding me.” He proceeded to chuck a pebble at his pegasus friend to get him to shut up.

Twilight turned back to her brother. “Wayer made a mistake in establishing a link between the Alpha--Tomato’s brother--and all the other wolves so that they collectively suffer what he’s suffering--he gets amnesia, every vampire and werewolf is afflicted with a similar amnesia. We return the memories to him, everypony gets their memories back, Wayer loses his power over them. We have to make sure that none of them go after our memory carrier and, well, there’s a lot of monsters in Manehattan to fight off.”

She gestured to everyone else. “All of the allies that we have so far have had at least one friend or family member affected by this spell, and they’re going to fight to get them back.”

Shining Armor scratched his chin. “Okay, I think I get it. If you need my help, then I’m happy to give it to you to end this madness and get all our friends and family back.”

Most of the large group whooped and clapped, while Twilight just smiled. “Thanks.”

Shining smiled back, though the warmth turned to sheepishness when he added, “Though, I might have to be a little short-hooved. I need the Crystal Guard to stay home and protect the remaining citizens.” He looked around at the others with a bit of concern. “Still… isn’t there any other military personnel you could summon, Twily? I know you're desperate, but I’m not so sure it’s wise to send civilians instead of trained soldiers into this.”

Twilight rubbed the back of her head. “Well… the spell works better at summoning specific ponies, and I don't think I can summon much of any military personnel that I know personally. Plus, I don't know if anyone you know in Canterlot has been cured yet."

Shining groaned. "Well, I’ll see if I can get a few of my buddies to help. Normally, I’d have to go through a process, but… not quite an option right now. Otherwise… I guess I have little choice but to make do. They can fight, right?"

Tomato just looked at Flora and Bananas again, pondering about their father.

After Shining had managed to summon a few friends, Rainbow at last got her turn. The Wonderbolts were summoned in a flash of light like the rest, and Rainbow wasted no time in bringing them up to speed about the situation. Their leader, Spitfire, then chewed her out for summoning them when they were busy dealing with a recovering Cloudsdale and the situation in Canterlot. Twilight had to calm things down between the two parties, and Spitfire and the team begrudgingly agreed, since this battle was where the root of the problem was and getting back to their original cities was a long flight.

Little Strongheart had thought about some braves she knew at home that could provide some muscle, citing that when Cheese first transformed, most of them had driven him away from the youngsters, and most that had fought him off escaped without being bitten. Granted, it had only been one werewolf instead of a city full of them, but she knew her kind had fought many other kinds of battles and braved many other obstacles. So, she was allowed to summon members of her tribe.

Applejack took a bit of time to think before she thought of someone. She knew this pony was a good roper and fighter, and thus Cherry Jubilee was summoned.

Fluttershy decided she wanted to try a different approach. She summoned Tree Hugger, Fallow Track, and Grapevine, and explained the situation--as well as her idea for them to try to talk some of the werewolves and vampires down.

“After all,” she said. “They are animal enough for us to communicate with them, and well…” She grimaced and blushed. “The Stare worked on Cheese Sandwich…”

Fallow nodded, and looked up at Tomato. “Well, I’m on board to help my nephew. It’s fair after all the trouble he went through to help me.”

“And I’m definitely willing to end all this useless violence, man,” Grapevine said.

From their tree, Nimbus looked down at Tomato, Flora, and Bananas. “Uh, any of you guys know what a ‘man’ is?”

Tomato rolled his eyes. “It’s just a random thing he says.”

Flora pursed her lips, staring oddly at Grapevine. “I can’t believe that’s your cousin.”

“Not like we don’t have a cousin that surprised Tomato,” Bananas said with a grin. He received a hard nudge in the ribs from his sister for that.

Shining Armor would grimace and fidget with each summon, having to be reassured by Twilight that they wouldn’t have been summoned if the pony doing the summoning didn’t think they could handle it. Still, given that he was seeing mostly civilians volunteered for this dangerous mission, he still couldn’t help his discomfort.

Evidently, there were others that felt the same to a lesser extent. Party Favor didn’t come up to summon his friends, nor did Maud Pie summon her parents or sisters. There were many members of the Apple family across the country, but neither Applejack nor Braeburn attempted to summon them.

Tomato noticed those bits of discomfort. Seeing all the ponies being summoned, and surprisingly accepting the mission, all to protect a pony they barely knew only because he had the key to stop the whole mess, he started to wonder if it was really necessary to have this many. Maybe he and Twilight could just slip in and out, smashing the memory orbs within range of Cheese and solving the problem in a snap.

His eyes stopped at the sight of Flora, and worried that her combat capabilities might not be enough. Sure, she could take down a gang by herself, but could she continuously fend off actual monsters aiming to literally rip her apart? The thought of her dying or even turning monster made him sick--just as much as the thought of Cheese suffering either fate did.

Regardless, he proceeded to walk to the runic circle, put his hoof on the main rune, and think of ponies that he believed could help. He thought of Flora’s father, who he heard had scared off rogue teenage dragons from various Equestrian villages. He thought of Nimbus’ parents, ex-Wonderbolts who at least had some combat training. He thought of Sedimentary Rock, who could wrestle Bighoof into submission, and Summer Wind, who had unusual super strength.

He had a couple more ponies in mind, who he tried to mentally cross out. He thought of Peanut Butter’s wedding, where he, his bride Jelly Jubilee, and a few of their friends captured some changelings. He wondered what tricks that Uncle Acorn or Aunt Cocoa would have up their sleeves, and if Creamy could do anything. Would any of them be able to help, or was he overestimating their abilities?

He also wondered how Lemon Zest and Toola Roola were doing, since their father and brother had suddenly disappeared on them.

Twilight didn’t give him much time to settle, and she cast the spell before Tomato could protest that he wasn’t done deciding yet. The result was a pile of very confused ponies on the circle, all of whom were those Tomato had thought of. From a wide-eyed March buried by several ponies to a blinking Summer sitting on top, each pony that Tomato had considered was there. Even the side thoughts of Lemon and Toola Roola had caused them to appear. He watched them process what had just happened, while he himself felt eyes behind him judging him for his pony pile.

Summer’s eyes fell on Tomato and her face broke into a grin. She spread her wings and zipped forward with a shout of, “Tomatoooooooooo!”

Tomato was nearly knocked back from her impact and caught in a crushing hug. “Ack! Hi… Summer…”

Also on top of the pile, Lemon and Toola Roola had started to slide off as it was starting to pull apart into individual ponies. Tomato just watched as the two--those he really didn’t want to summon--looked around for a familiar face. They spotted Summer hugging him and grinned before locating their father and bolting toward him.

Summer broke free and hovered around him. “I can’t believe we’re seeing each other again so soon! I mean, given how we have semesters starting soon on opposite sides of the country, I thought it’d be a long time before one could visit the other!” She looked down at the summoning circle, where ponies were climbing off each other, getting up, stretching, and looking around in confusion. “But I guess summoning is a thing now...”

She glanced up when facing the opposite direction of Tomato and nearly fell out of the air at the sight of Twilight. “Holy cow, it’s Princess Twilight!” She whirled back to Tomato. “How do you end up with friends in high places?”

“I have no idea,” Tomato deadpanned.

Flora got up and trotted to Tomato’s side. “Who’s your friend?”

Tomato glanced between them and grinned nervously. “Flora Peace, this is Summer Wind… Summer Wind, this is Flora Peace.”

Summer stopped beaming, coolly staring at Flora as the little green earth pony waved. “Ah, so this is the Flora you were talking about.”

“Aw, he mentioned me? I’m flattered.” Flora giggled. “And I’m guessing you’re that Summer that he mentioned working at a bookstore with. I’m glad someone in his foalhood was willing to reach out without assuming his cutie mark meant wealth.”

Summer shrugged. “We’re both book nerds. So what’s the basis of your friendship?”

Flora was taken aback by Summer’s comment and the blunt way she delivered it, but before she could answer, Bananas slipped in behind her, tapped her shoulder, and then pointed forward when he got her attention. It was that moment that she realized that her father was right there, and that he just noticed his daughter and son.

With a gasp, she grabbed Tomato’s collar, and squeaked, “Tomato, why did you bring my dad here?!”

Tomato blinked. “I just thought he could help.”

Flora opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by March saying, “Flora? Bananas? You mind telling me where we are, how I got here, and why there are so many ponies gathered here?”

Flora and Bananas glanced at each other. “Uh…”

Above them, Nimbus’ parents had darted to the tree where Nimbus had sat and grabbed him in an embrace. His mother, Raincloud, cried, “Oh, my baby! It was such a close call! Cloudsdale was attacked just after you and your sister left!”

“Yeah, wouldn’t you believe it?” Blazing Silver said. “I was a vampire for several hours!”

“I was taking sanctuary in the break room, the uncertainty eating me alive!” Raincloud looked around. “Sweetie, where’s your sister?”

Nimbus grimaced. “Uh…”

Rainbow Dash gaped upward at the exchange. “Wait, two of the best former Wonderbolts really are the parents of Tomato’s friends?”

Spitfire, who sat nearby, shrugged. “The kids are why they retired.”

Rainbow was about to comment further when she spotted a certain pegasus among the recently summoned. In a flash, she was in the air and shouting, “What?! Tomato, you met Lightning Dust?! How in Equestria did you meet Lightning Dust, and why did you think it was a good idea to bring her here?!”

Lightning hovered toward Rainbow, looking at her coolly. “Clearly, he recognized a great flyer when he saw it. I’m surprised that he knows you.” She smiled smugly a few moments, before it sank into a confused frown. “Okay, who are we talking about?”

Rainbow pointed to Tomato. Lightning pursed her lips and said, “Right, Peanut’s cousin. The one that didn’t yell at us.”

Rainbow blinked. “Who’s Peanut?”

The mentioned stallion and his wife walked off the circle, the former answering, “I’m Peanut, and what the hay is going on here? Can’t Jelly and I enjoy our honeymoon in peace?”

Uncle Acorn adjusted his glasses and looked at the circle beneath him. “Okay, I think we just got summoned via magical rune circle…” He whirled around to look at Twilight. “...by one of the princesses, and we’re surrounded by a bunch of ponies we don’t know…” His eyes scanned across the group to see Peanut, Jelly, Creamy, and Tomato, as well as some of the other guests from the wedding. “Aaaaaand a few we do! Hey, fellas, how’s life?”

Creamy shrugged. “It’s alright. The cows have been arguing with the sheep next door, but it’s not serious.”

The last of Peanut’s friends, Victory Screech, flexed a front leg. “Been keeping up with the workouts.”

Jelly smiled at her in-laws. “Our honeymoon in the San Palomino Rock Parks was a blast! I’d show you pictures of the canyons, hoodoos, and arches, but they’re kind of in our suite, and I don’t know where we are.”

Tomato started sweating. “Uhhhhhh…”

Aunt Cocoa blinked. “Okay, why are we here? I was in the middle of planning lessons for the upcoming semester!”

Before either Twilight or Tomato could answer, Fallow Track stood up, gesturing to his daughters. “Tomato, why’d you think of Lemon and Toola Roola?! I really don’t appreciate them being brought on this dangerous mission!”

“Yeah, man!” Grapevine said. “They can’t talk to animals, and Lemon’s kinda scared of them.”

Lemon frowned. “Okay, I don’t like where this is going…”

“Dangerous mission?” Sedimentary Rock trotted out of the circle. “What kind of dangerous miss--” She spotted Maud. “Oh, lucky me! The niece I haven’t met yet is here! She looks just like her picture!”

Maud blinked. “You must be Aunt Seddie.”

Seddie grabbed Maud’s hoof and shook vigorously. “Yes, I am! I’m guessing you’re here for the dangerous mission too, sweetie?”

Maud leaned to look at Tomato. “I hope you know what you’re doing with who you’re summoning.”

Tomato laughed nervously. “Maybe I was still deciding who’d be the most help and well…”

Twilight groaned. “Tomato! Did you not learn from Comedy Gold’s blunder?”

Nearby, March had finished talking with his kids, and turned to the princess, barely keeping his composure. “Your Highness… is it true? Are you really summoning citizens--untrained, unarmed citizens--to fight a horde of werewolves and vampires? Pardon me for saying this, I mean no disrespect, but… why are you summoning civilians?!Why couldn’t you have summoned actual military personnel trained to fight threats like these?!”

Flora jumped to his side. “Dad, it’s all right! Between you and Master Balance teaching me, I can fight! And with his magic, Bananas can--”

March snorted. “Flora… I told you, I can’t let you two go out and get yourself hurt or, dare I say it, killed. Do you even know what those things are capable of?”

Bananas hopped in. “Come on! Cheese is my buddy! I can’t let him be a monster!”

“Sorry, kiddos, but I’m with your dad,” Raincloud interjected, with her husband by her side. “Blaze and I already lost our daughter to this stupid curse, and I spent the last few days hiding out in a break room with a coworker because it attacked Cloudsdale!”

“I was a vampire the past few days!” Blaze snapped. “And you want us to put our son on the front lines?! I don’t want him to suffer the same thing that me and his sister did!”

“Well, maybe I want to fight to get my sister back!” Nimbus shouted. “She’s not dead!”

Summer blinked, hovering in place. “Um, forgive me if I’m not hearing correctly, but… did you say ‘curse’? And ‘vampires’ and ‘werewolves’?”

Cocoa was taken aback by the revelation. “Wait, what?! Why are me, my husband, and my kids here, then? Acorn and I are scientists! Peanut’s a basketball player, that’s not equivalent to a soldier! His wife works at a farm! Creamy’s a dairy farmer! We’re not trained for this kind of thing!”

Cherry Jubilee looked at Jelly, whose cheery demeanor had faded. “And now I’m having second thoughts--I don’t want my darlin’ niece to be fightin’ those varmints!”

Silver Shill raised his hoof. “A-and I don’t know if Goldie should be fighting, either. She just recovered from surgery!”

Goldie groaned. “Seriously? We talked about this!”

One by one, ponies were starting to object, having second thoughts about going in to fight actual monsters. Those with military training expressed their concerns about civilians getting involved, while others had their own objections. Why should they be okay with this friend or family member getting involved? How many were destined to fall quickly because they weren’t fast enough? Why were they being summoned to fight what was clearly a losing battle? Princess Twilight’s wing was injured, she was down one friend, and they were relying on some skinny business student from Manehattan to save the day.

Sure enough, there then came arguments between parties. Rainbow and Lightning Dust were on a tiff about who would stay and fight, and who’d fly away at the sight of the first vampire; also not helping was when Peanut and Vic tried to get them to stop. Goldie’s siblings were getting on her case, and Silk Shimmer and Party Favor were getting annoyed with Trixie’s bravado. Someone made a snide comment about Tomato, to which Summer got in their face in response. The rest of Twilight’s posse tried to keep the peace, but to no avail. Some parents argued with their children, while other parents tried to shield theirs.

Tomato slinked away from the increasingly restless crowd. Now making himself sit against a rock, he let out a deep exhale. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, his mother had been right about something. Why were they leading innocents against the entire monster-fied city of Manehattan?

He looked at Cheese’s memories. He didn’t want to fail Cheese, he really didn’t. But at this point, he wasn’t sure if he could rally everyone else to help him.

Then, he overheard Twilight, Destiny, and Shining Armor nearby, and turned to look at them.

Destiny had a hoof to her mouth. “Perhaps I should not have suggested getting more help.”

“Ponies! Please, calm down!” Twilight pleaded. “Nothing will get done if we panic!”

Shining Armor sighed and turned to his sister. “I figured someone would object sooner or later. You should just go and cure the Crystal Empire, and my soldiers will be free to fight. Then, we’ll get every available soldier that we can--”

“We’ve already wasted enough time, Shining Armor!” Twilight snapped. “If Wayer Rune escapes now, we won’t be able to catch him in time to stop him from cursing all of Equestria!”

“Well, why hasn’t he already escaped? You’d think he’d have left by now.”

Twilight blinked, and teleported away. It wasn’t long before she returned and confirmed that Cheese Sandwich was still there, and thus, so was Wayer. She rubbed the back of her head. “He could just be tired and recharging; I’m sure his teleporting of long distances and enchanting water supplies would take a lot out of him.”

“Are you sure it’s not a trap?” Shining Armor said.

“His last trap trapped us in Cheese Sandwich’s memory, and I don’t think he knows we got out.” Noticing Shining Armor giving her a funny look, she said, “It’s a wild story to tell later. Still, I don’t think we have the time to amass a proper army!”

Destiny sighed. “I’m sorry, my idea was a terrible one. I thought that there’d be more actual warriors in our ranks, but maybe I still hold a small part of a grossly outdated mindset. Still… I don’t know, I want this over quickly as much as you do, since my cave can’t support all the refugees forever.”

He looked from that conversation to the argument between Flora, Bananas, and March, and from that to Nimbus’ argument with his parents, and from that to Trixie caught in a three-way quarrel between her, the Rune siblings, and the Metal siblings. His glances kept jumping between the fights taking place between nearly every party there, and just about nothing was getting done about the crisis.

This is a mess, Tomato thought. Shifting the memories in his hoof, he wondered if they’d react in some way if he drew closer to Cheese. Surely, if they’d return to him when broken within a certain distance, they’d give Tomato some indication that they’re almost home. It was enough to make him wonder if he could slip in alone and get the job done.

That is a stupid idea, he thought. After all, there were over eight million who lived there, and Destiny was only able to rescue a crumb of that. The rest were now vicious monsters that’ll jump him the moment they see him.

Still, he had a few things at his disposal to help him: he could navigate the city fairly easily. Cheese’s memories would shock any monster that touches him, he still had a couple leftover vampire powers, and he had his own little pool of jester magic to help him out. Cheese was alone when facing Kazam’s vampire army and did pretty well, from what he heard.

Then again, Cheese ended up falling out of the sky.

Going back and forth on it for a bit, he ultimately looked up at the rest of the arguing ponies and decided that everyone was wasting time, and maybe he shouldn’t drag others into what was his problem to begin with.

Seeing as everyone was distracted with their arguing, he slipped away.

Several more minutes of arguing had passed, and that was when Summer, gesturing at the spot where he once stood, did a double take. After staring at that spot for a good ten seconds, she glanced around to see what spot he could have moved to. She saw that he didn’t move to Flora or to Nimbus, or to Silk Shimmer or to Twilight. He was around none of Twilight’s posse, or any member of his extended family. He just disappeared.

She shot up into the air. “Everypony, shut up!”

A sudden silence sprung up as the sound of Summer’s strong voice caught everyone off guard. On seeing all eyes turn to her, she swallowed to get the choking feeling out of her throat.

“Does anyone know where Tomato went?”

Seeing their necklace-bearer gone, ponies started to murmur to each other, asking companions if they had seen him go off somewhere. Most of those who didn’t know him simply shrugged, muttering things about whether he went off on his own or got kidnapped under their noses.

“Wait, what?!” Twilight exclaimed, turning to a rock. “Okay, he was right there when I last saw him! How the heck did he disappear without anyone noticing?”

From where she sat, Maud said, “You all were getting very into your arguments.”

Flora trotted forward. “Did you see what happened to him?”

“I think he might have gone somewhere to think.”

Then, from the large hill behind Twilight, they heard cackling that sent shivers up nearly everyone’s spine. Turning to look up the hill, there stood a unicorn stallion of royal blue, his raven hair and maroon cape blowing in the wind, and his violet eyes gazing wicked at them. He would have looked a lot more intimidating if he hadn’t been covered in bandages.

Silk Shimmer and Party Favor shot up. “Kazam?!”

Trixie yelped and hid behind Maud. “He’s here for revenge on me!”

Twilight glared at him. “What are you doing here?”

Kazam levitated and lowered himself down to their level. “Well, thanks for the warm welcome, everyone, I very much appreciate it.” He turned to a glaring Silk. “Well, well, sis, glad to run into you here. And I see you found our brother.” He shot a smug smile at Party Favor. “Long time, no see, little brother. Did the balloons keep you happy while you were… wherever you were?”

Party Favor scowled, wearily saying, “Hello, Kazam.”

Then Kazam turned to Twilight. “I guess I should answer your question of what I’m doing here… I’m simply here to help you against Wayer Rune.”

Twilight blinked. “Um, what?”

“Huh?” Silk and Party Favor said in unison.

Trixie popped up from her place behind Maud. “He speaks lies! He’s clearly working for the monster causing this mess, and he must have kidnapped the cranky red guy!”

Comedy Gold stood up and drew a frying pan from her cape. “I got this.”

Kazam gave them a side glance. “I can’t believe you recruited the loud mouth. Regardless, you must hear me out. I simply don’t like being someone else’s lackey, nor do I want to become a monster under his influence--even if he is my ancestor.”

“What?” Party Favor said. “You idolized him growing up. How do we know that you really aren’t working for him?”

“Oh, hush, Party Favor. Anyway, I had vampires and werewolves attack my hospital bed, and I was lucky that my inhibitor ring broke so I could escape. After I left Canterlot, I just so happened to see you, Princess, when you were fixing Ponyville’s water supply. So I followed you, hoping I could discreetly catch some information.”

Twilight still glared at him. “You really expect us to trust you?”

“Not really, but I would be a valuable asset, being a talented wizard myself. I’m sure you’d like to have more magic muscle to help break the spell on all those ponies.”

“So would Starlight Glimmer,” Party Favor deadpanned.

“Why not get her?” Silk asked.

“Are you kidding? They’d try to kill each other.”

Summer snorted. “Oh, how do we know you don’t have Tomato held hostage?”

Flora’s face turned red. “If you turn him back into a vampire…”

“Calm down, ladies, I didn’t touch him. He just got tired of your big debate, so he decided to go handle things alone.”

“He what?!” Twilight shouted.

“Hey, the madness technically stops when Cheese gets his memories back.”

“But going in without someone to back him up?!” Flora looked at the rock and the woods behind it. “Why sneak off when we’re still busy planning our move?!”

Nimbus hovered to Flora. “Were we really planning?”

Applejack came away from the group of cowpokes and buffalo she had been trying to placate before this came up. “No, we weren’t, we were too busy fightin’.”

“Because a lot of us are scared of what’s happening,” Fluttershy said, looking at some others. “Do we really know if we’re going to win?”

“Well, we have to win, or Equestria is doomed!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“I still wonder if we’re asking too much of these citizens,” Rarity said. “After all, not everyone has the experience of saving Equestria multiple times as we do.”

Kazam, Summer, Flora, and Nimbus moved aside to let Twilight approach her friends. “I know, girls… it’s usually just the six of us overcoming these obstacles. I don’t know how Pinkie’s absence is going to affect this one. I guess maybe I was hoping that by taking Destiny’s suggestion, friendships outside of our circle--other friends we have, friends that Cheese and Tomato have, friendships these ponies have with each other--could, well, add to the magic of friendship and save all our loved ones. Perhaps we’ll just need a few key friendships in this endeavor.”

Flora waved a hoof to get their attention. “Would my friendship with Tomato be a key one? Because there’s no way anypony’s hurting him without dealing with me.”

March raised a hoof in objection. “Flora, I told you, this is too dangerous!”

“Dad! I know it’s dangerous! That’s why I want to help protect him!”

March fumed a moment before sighing. “I swear, I have no idea where you get your stubbornness from… but, if you insist on doing this, I might as well make sure my daughter doesn’t get hurt.”

“Hey! Don’t leave me out!” Bananas exclaimed.

Nimbus shot a look at his parents. “And I want to get my sister back, too. Plus, Tomato could use a little more backup.”

Blaze and Raincloud hovered to him, the former saying, “If that’s the case, you could use some backup too.”

“And let’s not forget me! I’m a friend!” Summer exclaimed. She prodded Flora and said, “It’s not like any of us could fight off an entire army on our own.”

“Hey, I’m a friend, too!” Silk Shimmer said.

“So am I!” Party Favor said. “Tomato helped endear my town to some influential ponies!”

“Really?” Fallow Track said, stepping forward. “Well, I’m his uncle, and he helped me pay a debt and convince a businesspony to invest in our little town.” He gave Grapevine a look. “As long as we clean up our messes.”

Grapevine, with a sheepish grin and a nod, said, “He helped open my eyes to how my irresponsibility was hurting others.”

“Hey, now, I’m his uncle, too!” Acorn Compound said. “And I think I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve.”

Cocoa Butter chuckled. “Don’t leave me out, honey.”

“Or me!” Ice Cream said.

“Well… maybe I have a few moves that I can use,” Peanut Butter said with a grin.

“Same here, sweetie!” Jelly Jubilee said, coming up to her husband’s side.

Cherry Jubilee noticed her niece’s volunteering and said, “I reckon I oughta make sure you’re alright, hon.”

Victory Screech tackled Peanut. “Hey, I’ve got your back, buddy.”

Lightning Dust looked down at them, and then up at Rainbow Dash. “Well, I can’t let Dashie over there have all the fun of being an epic flyer. Besides, Peanut, you need air support.”

Rainbow Dash snickered at her. “So, there is someone you care about?”

“Hey, I have a life outside of flying! Heck, I’d say that I don’t need to be a Wonderbolt--I’ll find my own path.”

It was then that Silver Shill stood up. “Tomato helped me too! Not only do I have a job, I run a business! And I won’t lie, ponies really eat pizza up, haha! So… maybe, uh, I could help?”

Applejack looked at him. “Well, good for you! Though, I dunno how you can help…”

“He can be my assistant while I do my thing!” Comedy Gold hollered. “Also, the Sandwiches saved me from being kidnapped, so this’ll be a good way to repay them.”

Pearly Whites stood up as well. “I just want to make sure my younger siblings and my best friend Jelly don’t kill themselves. I did help beat up Changelings, so I guess I could help?”

Braeburn stood up. “I’m still goin’ because Cheese is my friend, and some of my neighbors are in trouble.”

Little Strongheart stood up. “And so are members of my tribe!”

Maud Pie stood up. “I’m here to save my sister.”

Surprisingly, one by one, each pony and buffalo stood up, announcing either a friendship with Twilight’s group, either Sandwich, or another who volunteered before, or at least a personal motivation to join. Some fought for friends, some for family, some for country, and some just for peace in general. What was once a mass of fighting was now a crowd ready to fight for freedom.

Shining Armor was last to speak. “As much as I have my reservations about this... I’m here to help my little sister, and get my wife back.” Patting Twilight on the back, he asked, “So, what’s the plan?”

Before Twilight said anything, Bananas hopped in. “If I may, can I suggest enchanting pies so that when we throw them at the monsters’ faces, they turn back?”

“Um, pies?” Twilight said, blinking. Looking around at her friends, who all seemed a little perplexed as well, she said, “You know… that’s not a bad idea.”

“Oh, I’m all for it!” Destiny said. “And I still have some magic candy to replenish energy if needed.”

Party Favor raised his hoof. “Can we add water balloons?”

“And water guns!” Comedy Gold shouted.

Twilight smiled. “Sure--in fact, keep thinking of anything we can throw.”

She turned to Kazam, her eyes narrowing and horn lighting up. “All right, I’m going to test to see if you’re telling the truth about Tomato, or if the memories he should be wearing are where he logically shouldn’t be. If what you say is true, then I’ll trust you with the cure and the use of it in our… er, weapons. But you better not be planning anything.”

Kazam nodded. “Hey, I’ve got nothing to gain from betraying you mid-battle; if you lose, I’ll lose too.”

Twilight nodded, let the pulse radiate out from her horn, and stood still a moment to gain the knowledge. She slouched forward and groaned.

“So, you weren’t lying; he is moving in. Ugh, what is Tomato thinking?”

Author's Note

Guess who finally updated after a year of slow progress on this nightmare of a chapter!

Between work, personal art stuff, getting interested in a show from the early 90's (Darkwing Duck if you're curious), family matters, and even during quarantine having to take care of our new lambs among our other animals (dog, goats, chickens), time really passed by quickly before I even knew it. That's not even going into how frustrating it was to write this thing since it's mainly standing around and talking and just adding characters to help with the final showdown (which should finally start next chapter, sheesh).

Anyway, hope future chapters aren't nearly as tedious as this, and that the waits for them aren't as long. :ajsleepy:

1.1--A Good Ol' Break

Manehattan--the city that never sleeps. Filled with a variety of ponies running in the streets and skyscrapers dominating the landscape, there were sights to see and wonders to behold. Many an outsider gazed up at the sheer height the buildings often reached, and many an outsider zoomed towards the famous places that the city held. Some took a ferry to see the statue in the bay, others opted to see a show on Bridleway, and there were those who took a trip to the park instead. There were many things to do in the city, some well-known, and others obscure.

Of course, there were some ponies who just wanted to get away from it.

It was a warm, late spring day. A taxi carriage stopped in front of the train station, the well-muscled driver announcing the stop to his two passengers. With a word of thanks, a light green mare jumped out first, her mouth latched onto her suitcase and her hoof brushing her strawberry blonde mane out of her eyes. She was followed by a vermilion stallion, who stretched his entire body, from his head to his slick, dark brown tail. He stood erect to his full height, which was a full head taller than the mare, and adjusted his glasses.

The mare waved goodbye to the taxi pony, and she and her friend started walking up the steps. As she glanced back at the pony taking off running to his next destination, she mumbled, "Gee, that was a wild ride."

Her friend answered, "Don't worry, I've had worse, Flora."

Flora jumped to the top, pausing to wait for Tomato to catch up. "I wonder why he was so jumpy, Tomato. It's not like we were going to pounce on him with violent intentions."

Tomato shrugged, reaching the top of the stairs, and continuing forward until he paused to open the door. "You never know. I just think he got yelled at and was expecting us to do the same." He glanced at Flora and quirked an eyebrow. "Or perhaps he found you pretty and was too flustered to think straight."

Flora scowled and lightly punched his front leg as she walked past him. "That's not funny."

"Funny is not my business," Tomato replied, waiting until Flora was inside before shutting the door. "That's the department where Nimbus, Cheese, and Bananas reside."

Flora rolled her eyes. With a smirk, she asked, "Speaking of Cheese... are you excited for your vacation with him?"

Tomato smiled and nodded. "Indeed. It was his idea. I think his Cheesy Sense might have told him that I need to spend more than a weekend away from this city."

Flora sighed. "I know I do. This place is so fast-paced I get a little dizzy just thinking about it. I can't wait to go back home." She beamed and giggled. "I betcha that all my siblings are going to jump on me and squeeze the air out of me."

Tomato chuckled. "I can imagine that. I mean... how do you live with seven siblings? I only have one sibling and well... you know about the stupid feud we had until last fall." He narrowed his eyes. "Tell me your secret."

Flora rolled her eyes. "I grew up with them. Granted, I was an only child until Bananas was born, but I just rolled with each new birth and took it as a learning experience. They know I'm on the top of the sibling pecking order... but Olive just loves to challenge me."

Tomato whickered. "She thinks it'd be fun to be top dog?"

"Yep. She doesn't seem to get the part that being the oldest comes with responsibilities. You're essentially a mini-parent for ponies that are simultaneously your best friend and your worst enemy."

"Huh. Well, I wouldn't know, I'm the youngest in my family."

Flora laughed. "I wonder if ponies saw you and Cheese together and thought you were older."

Tomato snorted. "The last time I was with Cheese was Hearth's Warming. He dragged me to a party, and it was fun. Of course, I got a stomachache from eating too much. But those cookies were dipped in the chocolate pudding and it was the most sweet chocolate I've ever tasted in my life. And then there were the meringue shells that were the perfect combination of crunchy and chewy, and the tortes, and the tarts, and just about everything there. He had to drag me away from the table because he feared that I was going to throw up."

Flora laughed some more. "Oh, goodness! I didn't even ask if you had a sweet tooth."

Tomato flushed redder than his coat. "Oops... caught in a tangent."

Flora just beamed at him and shook her head. "Under that suit and slicked down mane is just a huge dork."

Tomato was still blushing, but he was now glaring at her. "Gee, thanks."

Flora blinked and raised an eyebrow. "An endearing dork that I'm proud to consider my friend. I know for certain my folks would like you. Anyway, watch my luggage, I got to go buy my ticket, I'll be back in a jiffy."

She turned and trotted to the ticket booth, and Tomato just sat on a nearby bench and started to strum the large forelock curl gracing his mane, his tail holding Flora's suitcase. He looked up at the clock, noting that it was half past twelve. He glanced around the station, seeing some ponies board the train, some ponies get off the train, and some ponies either entering or exiting the station's front entrance. He scanned the crowd for either a brown serape or a loud yellow shirt. Or perhaps a rubber chicken.

All the while, he couldn't help but wonder what was in store for him. He knew that he was going to go to a LOT of parties. After all, with his brother being a party pony, it was inevitable. If there were ponies out there that recognized Cheese Sandwich, how would they react to his brother Tomato Sandwich? Hopefully those meetings would be much less disastrous than the day Tomato met Pinkie Pie.

He remembered that day both with fondness and disdain. On the one hoof, it was the day that he and Cheese had decided to end their feud and try being "best brother buddies" like when they were colts. On the other hoof, a lot of things were broken, a lot of ponies were unhappy, and relations between the brothers could have been damaged beyond repair. Tomato's foreleg ached upon remembering the stage collapsing, resulting in the limb fracturing from the fall and the combined weight of his body and Cheese's accordion. That was not fun.

And somehow, everything worked out. That disaster did knock some sense into them.

True to the party pony style, Cheese Sandwich in cowpony gear popped into Tomato's vision upside-down and with a grin, exclaiming, "Hey, baby bro!"

Tomato looked up and saw he was hanging from a rope attached to the ceiling. It was best not to question things like that. He looked back at Cheese's face and replied, "Hello, Cheese."

Cheese flipped off the rope and stuck a perfect landing on two hooves. He bowed dramatically before going back to four hooves and grinning. "So, are you ready for a road trip? I've got extra thingamahoozies and stuff packed for for the three of us."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Three?"

Cheese nodded. "You, me, and Boneless 2."

"Oh."

Cheese slid over and grabbed him, gesturing dramatically toward the ceiling. "Yes, brother, we are about to embark the adventure of a lifetime! We will get dusty and dirty, we will get hungry, and cold, and tired, and we might run into some poisonous plants, venomous animals, and plenty of crazy ponies. But it will be glorious, and we will party hard!"

Tomato rolled his eyes. He could just feel some ponies staring at them. "My overdue teenage rebellion; Mom's going to hate it. So... where are we going first?"

Cheese dropped him. "I have no idea!"

Sitting up and rubbing his head, Tomato looked up at him with a glare. "What do you mean you don't know? Didn't you plan anything out?"

Cheese turned and tapped his cutie mark. "I just go wherever Cheesy Sense says I need to go. But no worries, baby bro, I'll get you back home before Fall Semester begins."

Flora returned with her ticket. She looked at Cheese with surprise, and smiled warmly. "Hello, Cheese!"

Cheese tipped his hat. "Pleasure to see you again, Flora. How's life treating you? Is Tommy behaving?"

"Life's been pretty good, though I've had my sour days. And yes, Tomato's been good. He's not one for getting into trouble."

Cheese chuckled. "You should have seen him as a colt. He nearly killed himself all the time. Running into the street, ferry, bridge, pack of dogs... you name it."

Flora tilted her head. "Um... pack of dogs?"

Tomato butted in with, "You don't want to know."

Flora pursed her lips and glanced upward. "You're not the only one who had to deal with a mischievous younger sibling, Cheese. About half of my siblings got into trouble on a regular basis."

Tomato then added, "But she's top dog."

Flora rolled her eyes. "Ruff ruff."

Cheese laughed, and then asked Tomato. "Have you met her siblings yet?"

Tomato shook his head, and Cheese scratched his chin. Upon seeing Flora shrug, Cheese said, "You know, if we're lucky, my Cheesy Sense will lead us to wherever you live and a nice party will be thrown and then we can meet your family. After all, I was lucky enough to meet my friend Pinkie's family in Nickerlite."

Flora gave him a funny look. "Um... where is that?"

Cheese lifted his serape and started to rummage through one of its inside pockets. "Now, I'm sure I have a map somewhere in here..."

The train whistled, and Flora gasped. "Sorry, no time for that, I've got to board the train home!" She shook Cheese's hoof, gave Tomato a hug, and picked up her suitcase. As she cantered off, she waved and said, "Bye, guys! I'll see you later!"

The two stallions watched her take off, and looked at each other. Cheese nudged Tomato and clicked his tongue playfully, accompanied with the waggling of the eyebrows. Tomato shot him a funny look and said, "Cheese, you know that's getting old. Our relationship is platonic."

"Yeah... sure... so where does she live?" Cheese took out the map he was looking for and looked at it.

"Neighton."

Cheese frowned. "Which Neighton? There's several on here. There's one several miles away from Manehattan, one north of Las Pegasus, one near Cloudsdale, one under Canterlot, one in the Salt Lick Valley, one by the San Palomino Desert, one near Detrot, one several miles east of Seaddle--"

"She never specified..." Tomato's face flushed. "I, uh, keep forgetting to mention that there's more than one..."

Cheese looked up at him with a annoyed pout. "Huh." Cheese folded the map and stuffed it back in his pocket. He smiled at Tomato and said, "So, ready to go?

Tomato looked down at his body. "I guess?"

Cheese smirked. "There is one last thing..." He pulled out an extra serape and hat, and he put both on Tomato faster than one could wink. Once he was finished, Cheese stepped back and admired his work. "Yep, you're definitely ready, my fellow cowpony."

Tomato looked at the outfit that Cheese had just dressed him in. His serape was striped with different shades of brown and yellow, and looking up, he could tell his hat was a tan color. He looked at Cheese with a dead serious expression, pulled his green tie from the neckhole, and tied it into a bow.

"I am a cowspy."

Author's Note

More people were expecting a sequel to "The Rock Farmer's Daughters"; but I don't have any good ideas for that.

But "Brother Bothers"... yeah, I could think up several more sequels if I wanted to. :rainbowwild:

So, now I start a fic about a buddy road trip about these two! :yay: Let's see how this "Brotherly Bonding Time" turns out. Let's go and see what kind of adventures these two doofuses have!

1.2--Just the Two of Us

Once out of the city, Cheese found his body relaxing. He briefly glanced back at Manehattan, the one city that made him tense whenever Cheesy Sense called for a party there. There were more unpleasant memories there than pleasant ones, so he had tried multiple times to break away from it. But, there was still one tie there, which was the pony walking beside him.

Tomato had been his one remaining tie to Manehattan, thanks to Cheesy Sense always insisting that there had been unfinished business in the city. For years, they had believed that if they pretended the other didn't exist, everything would just work out. Cheese especially had the pressure of keeping a happy face for other ponies--after all, who ever heard of a party pony in a feud with his brother? He inwardly cringed at the memory of how he had just exploded in front of the entire town of Ponyville at the Fall Festival.

Perhaps that anger needed to be released in order for him to see how much Tomato had really been hurting. Cheese didn't have the full story behind his transformation from happy colt to sour stallion--he had only the bits where salt was thrown into Tommy's wounds by Cheese himself--but from what he could gather, it wasn't the happiest story. Even if Tomato was noticeably happier, Cheese knew that was more that needed to be done.

Hopefully, pulling him out of Manehattan and away from their parents would improve things. Cheese prayed that Tomato would move out of the city as soon as possible, for both of their benefits.

It was then that he realized that things were awkwardly quiet. The silence being awkward was a strange feeling; Cheese was used to quiet, since he often traveled alone and only talked with Boneless 2. But now that a living, breathing pony was traveling beside him, he felt like he was wasting a chance for a conversation. Of course, he couldn't predict just what Tomato was going to say, and he kept on assuming the worst coming out of his younger brother's mouth.

He noticed Tomato turning to him. Cheese braced himself for an insult out of the blue, reminding him about how he was the family disappointment, wondering how he managed to survive on his own for years--

"You're awfully quiet, Cheese," Tomato said. "Thinking up ideas for the next party?"

Cheese wanted to slap himself for falling into that old line of thinking. He had convinced himself that Tomato had been turning into their mother and became as stagnant in his attitude as she was in hers. Cheese suspected those friends of his kept him from going all the way.

Of course, not wanting to leave the question unanswered, Cheese answered, "Well, I do use the time in between parties thinking up of new ideas."

Tomato nodded. "Can't wait to see those ideas in action. You always were the creative one."

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "You had your moments of creativity, too, you know."

"Yeah... but I'm going to admit that I've always been jealous of how artistic you were. I still only draw ponies as incomprehensible blobs."

Cheese blinked as he processed that, and then laughed. "Oh, yeah, I remember that picture you drew of our family years ago. I remember I was the blob with big eyes and a circle for hair and you were the blob with small eyes and a single black curl."

"Those 'big eyes' were your glasses."

"Oh, really? Explains why Dad's blob had them too." Cheese looked at Tomato's glasses. "Do you draw yourself with big eyes nowadays?"

Tomato shook his head. "Nah, I don't draw much. My talent never was in art. I do not understand how ponies can draw a straight line, let alone an accurate profile of Princess Celestia."

"A lot of ponies have practiced since they were little. I once met a filly who earned her cutie mark early because she was very obsessed with drawing."

"I suppose I couldn't sit still long enough to learn. Eh, not like it mattered in the long run: my talent is in the area of finances."

"Your cutie mark makes that a little obvious." Cheese threw his hat up, started walking on his two front legs, and caught the hat with his tail, twirling it. "But, hey! That's not the only thing you can do, bro--you can sing, remember?"

"If you're trying to convince me to perform with you at one of your parties, sorry, not happening."

Cheese pouted. "But we went caroling..."

Tomato sighed. "I appreciate that you think I have a decent singing voice, but I'm not a performer like you. I don't want to draw any attention to myself."

Cheese narrowed his eyes and raised an eyebrow. Funny, you loved attention when we were little. You were always begging for mine, even when you had everyone else's. Taking a deep breath, he said, "Well... you have to have something to do when it comes to setting up the party. After all, it wouldn't be fair for me to leave you out."

"I can just read a book while you plan the party." Tomato forced his hoof into his hat, presumably to scratch his ear. "So... when is that Cheesy Sense of yours going to activate? I'd like to have an idea of where we're going."

Cheese fell back on all four hooves. "It'll do that in it's own sweet time. For now, let's just relax and keep on walking forward."

Tomato pulled at the neckhole of his serape. "Hopefully the heat doesn't kill me."

Their first day out was rather uneventful. All that had happened was just the pair walking, with Cheese singing impromptu road songs and throwing ideas out on Tomato, who was a little confused and not very helpful with his feedback. They exchanged stories of their daily lives, and laughed over the antics of party goers or one of Tomato's friends. They came across a family of deer crossing their path, and a rather friendly cat and dog duo. They passed a few ponies on their way, with Cheese tipping his hat to each.

Much of Tomato's time was spent looking around at the scenery. Cheese wondered how their neighbors would react to the supposedly stiff and humorless younger Sandwich son with the look of childlike wonder on his face as he took in new sights. Knowing their parents were hardly the vacation type, he could see Tomato didn't get out of the city much. Cheese could hardly wait to show what other sights Equestria had to offer. If Tommy had read about it, there was a chance he'd see it in person.

Tomato did have a few complaints about the heat, which Cheese responded to by pulling him to the next stream, and playfully splashing him. Tomato scowled at him each time for that, and then silently drank from the stream. And Cheese would sigh in exasperation.

The sun was just descending in the horizon when they made their stop for the night. The field that was chosen had soft and cool grass, and Cheese did not hesitate to leap forward--with Boneless 2 flying off and Tomato catching the chicken--and begin rolling in it. He laughed aloud as he let each blade gently brush his coat and the coolness seep into his skin. Once he stopped rolling, he gave a blissful sigh and looked at the sunset, blending bright orange and luminescent pink. He especially focused on the pink, and imagined wide and bright blue eyes among the color, staring back at him.

Tomato strolled up to him, and laid down beside him. "Well... that sunset is beautiful."

Cheese sighed once again. "She sure is."

Tomato gave him a funny look. "I never knew that it had a gender. Tell me, is the sunrise a boy?"

Cheese blushed and sat up. "Did I say 'she'? 'It', I meant 'it'."

Tomato held his curious expression just a little bit longer, until he shrugged off Cheese's fumble. It was then his turn to blush as his stomach growled. "Uh... what's for dinner?"

Cheese grinned at him and took off his hat, giving it to him. To Tomato's surprise, there were tortilla chips in the hat, which didn't bear any strand of Cheese's hair in them and were completely intact. He confusedly looked between the chips and Cheese, and gingerly poked at one of the chips, seeing if they were real.

"Um, Cheese? How did you manage to conceal these... and not drop them when you tipped your hat at strangers. Or not crush them with your head?"

Cheese chuckled. "They're leftovers from my last party." He pulled out a pair of maracas and shook them. "It was quite a fiesta!"

Tomato was even more confused. "I didn't ask where you got them."

Cheese blinked, and threw the maracas away, groaning. "You know how a magician never reveals his secrets? Well, neither does a party pony." Besides, it'll be impossible to explain in a way that a non-party pony can understand and not be broken.

Tomato pouted. "I won't tell anypony."

"Tomato, in case you didn't understand, that meant 'no'," Cheese said firmly.

"I don't see why you can't just tell your own brother what's going on."

"Ugh... Tommy, it'll ruin the magic. Besides, your head would explode from the weird complexities of my career--much of it is stuff I had to figure out on my own. Now, stop asking, and just eat your chips like a good little ketchup squirt."

Tomato groaned and rolled his eyes. He leaned forward and sniffed the chips. "Are these safe to eat?"

"Yes!" Cheese shouted.

Tomato jumped from the volume of Cheese's voice. He then stared at the chips, with only slow blinks gracing his face. Awkward silence was filling the air again, and there weren't even crickets to break the silence. Cheese stared at Tomato, who for some reason seemed to be mesmerized by the food in the hat. Cheese whickered in annoyance.

"Are you going to eat it?" he asked, forcing a smile.

Tomato looked up. "What are you going to eat?"

Cheese blinked, and then shook his head. "Uh-uh, don't worry about me, I've been feeding myself for years." He narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth. "Just... eat it."

Tomato merely gave him a half-lidded look and a raised eyebrow. He held this look as he took a chip, and munched into it. He chewed it for a bit, his eyes veering away from Cheese, and then swallowed. He smacked his lips and tapped his chin.

Cheese was stamping his hoof. "Well?"

Tomato looked straight at him. "Well, it doesn't taste like it's been in your hair."

Cheese blinked, and then forced a laugh. "Of course! Even if it did taste like that, I know for a fact that my hair tastes better than yours."

Tomato shrugged. "You're right on that account."

He ate another tortilla chip. And another. And another. And another.

Night had now fallen. Though they could see the lights of Manehattan in the distance, neither of them were focused on that. They were instead focused on the stars above them, lying on the grass and using both their serapes as blankets. The moon shone its gentle, silver light on the brothers, and stood out beautifully against the dark blue sky.

"I spy with my little eye... a triangle," Tomato said bluntly.

Cheese spread his arms out in front of him. "I see a glorious picture of a dancing rubber chicken!" He gasped and thrust Boneless 2 upward. "Boneless 2, your brother is up there! Princess Luna created a constellation honoring him for his sacrifice!"

Tomato turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "Why would she honor a rubber chicken?"

Cheese glared at him and held Boneless 2 close. "A guy can dream, can't he?"

Tomato sighed and shook his head. He looked forward once again, and said, "Okay, this time I see a smiley face."

Cheese nodded. "Yeah, I can see it too. Meanwhile, over there..." Cheese pointed to a random spot in the sky. "I see... I see... three balloons."

"Huh, balloons, okay."

Cheese chuckled and sighed. "Yeah... balloons..." Patting his belly, he just stared out into the dark sky. "Say... do you ever wonder what's out there?"

Tomato rubbed his eye. "Not really. I try to keep my focus here on this planet."

Cheese put his hooves under his head. "Well, I do. I wonder if there's life beyond us ponies and dragons and griffons and whatnot. I wonder what kind of creatures live on other planets, and how they live their lives. What are their parties like? How do they have fun?"

Tomato scratched his chin. "Huh... that is food for thought... Now that I think of it, how do they run their economy? What kind of trade do they participate in? What do they use for money?"

"What kind of music do they listen to? What kind of instruments do they play?"

"What kind of books do they read? In what ways do they learn?"

"What kind of holidays do they celebrate?"

"What kind of work do they do?"

"What kind of magic do they possess?"

"What do they even look like?"

Cheese shrugged. "Dunno. But I know my counterpart's name is Alfred."

Tomato gave him a funny look. "Alfred? Okay, you just named an alien after your middle name."

Cheese laughed. "You got me there, baby bro. By the way, your counterpart's name is Matthew."

"That's my middle name," Tomato deadpanned.

Cheese nodded. "And now we have pet aliens! I betcha that on the planet they live on, they're cowspies, fighting the evil Dr. Sauerkraut to keep him from taking over their world!"

Tomato covered his mouth, but a few laughs managed to escape. "Pet aliens? Okay, you're ridiculous."

Cheese raised an eyebrow. "Am I?"

"Of course. But, eh, knowing ridiculous ponies keeps my life from being boring, especially if you're related to one of them." He glanced at Cheese. "But you're the good ridiculous."

Cheese looked up at the sky again. "Just like Pinkie Pie."

"Eh, I won't be surprised if you two get married."

Cheese leapt to his hooves. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Tomato, I keep telling you, Pinkie's a friend. Seriously, where do you keep getting that idea?"

"The story of how she inspired you to become a party pony does sound like a 'love at first sight' kind of thing." Tomato sat up and blew on his forelock. "And I've seen the way you look at her; I've seen a lot of ponies with that look on campus."

Before Cheese could respond, his eyes widened and his body began to quake. Accordion notes could be heard from his flank, and he leapt up into the air. "Whoo! Okay, Tommy, the Cheesy Sense has spoken!"

"Took long enough," Tomato muttered.

Cheese bit his lip and squealed. "And, boy oh boy, what a first stop for our trip! Haha, it's none other than the place that started my career!" Cheese started to do cartwheels around the field. "Oh, sweet Celestia, what luck! What does Ponyville have planned? Oh, I bet it's something big, and it's going to be epic, and I'm going to plan with Pinkie Pie again--" Cheese stopped upon seeing the smug look on Tomato's face.

Tomato chuckled. "Yeah... going to plan a party with Pinkie Pie again..." He straightened up and stuck his nose in the air. "Platonically, of course."

Cheese's face flushed. He sat on his haunches, and tapped his two front hooves, glaring at his brother. There was no way that Tomato was going to have the last laugh! Providing a comeback about Flora would have been too predictable, but there was one other filly he could namedrop...

"Yeah, planning a party with Pinkie is sweet, I'll tell you that... but you know what else is sweet?" Cheese snickered at Tomato's fading smile. "Creme Brulee."

Tomato's face turned beet red, and a scowl crossed his face. He ground his teeth, and he hid under his serape, snapping, "We are never speaking of that witch!"

Cheese only laughed in response.

Author's Note

The journey has just begun, and not much has happened yet. Eh, it's only the second chapter, I'm sure we'll get to something exciting sooner or later.

If I need to explain the Creme Brulee thing, she was a filly that Tomato had a crush on when he was a colt. He got over the crush, and now loathes her to this day.

And of course, first stop, Ponyville! What are they going to do there?

6.3--The Experiment

Sunlight spilled into the motel room the next morning, bathing the three beds with it's warmth. The beam shone directly into the face of Cheese Sandwich, sprawled out over the sheets with his tongue lolling out and snores sounding from his muzzle. The light on his face made him scrunch his face and squirm. He sat up, yawned, and stretched, smacking his lips in an attempt to rid himself of a bad taste in his mouth. He opened his eyes and blinked several times to adjust to the light.

He looked forward, and yelped at the sight of an upside down face with fangs and red eyes.

"Glad to see you're awake," the fanged face deadpanned.

Cheese shook his head and looked up and down the body. The creature was wrapped up in his own wings, hanging from his tail on the ceiling fan that was amazingly still. The coat was a dull-reddish brown color, and its dark hair was a mess, and he could barely make out his family forelock. With a gulp, he wondered if he was still dreaming that his brother was a vampire.

Cheese bit his lip as hard as he could, and flinched at the pain. Thinking it wasn't enough, he slapped himself with Boneless 2. His throbbing cheek told him that he wasn't dreaming, and he stood up on the bed and poked Tomato on the nose.

"Are you done being in denial yet?" Tomato inquired.

Cheese ran a hoof through his mane as his rump plopped back onto the bed. "I never thought I'd see a vampire... let alone see my own brother as one! Great Monetery Jack, I thought they were just a myth!"

Tomato rolled his eyes and spread his wings, revealing crossed front legs. "Well, technically, the true vampires still are--I'm still quite alive, can still see myself in a mirror, and I don't feel any different under the sunlight--granted, we're inside, so we don't quite know what'll happen when I go outside."

Cheese hopped off the bed. "I'm surprised you haven't bitten me!" He pulled off the sheet off the bed and wore it like a cape. He obscured his body save for his eyes and above. "Don't you vant to suck my bloooood? You were interested in it when I scraped my knee last night."

Tomato put a hoof to his face. "As delicious as you smell, I'm not risking either putting you under this curse or killing you."

"Hey..." Cheese slid beside Tomato, their cheeks pressing together. "At least you're still in a sound state of mind. Most transformations like this make a pony act like an animal!" He frowned and backed away. "Wait, did you just call me delicious?"

That was when they heard a yawn, and glanced to Silk Shimmer's bed. She was smacking her lips and rubbing her eyes, mumbling about wanting breakfast. When she finally looked up, her eyes went wide at the sight of Tomato, and she tumbled off the bed, screaming loud enough to make Cheese jump and for Tomato to hide in his wings and yell "Ouch!".

Cheese jumped from his bed to Silk's, and looked over the edge to gaze at the upside-down, frazzled unicorn, laying on the floor in an uncomfortable position. He could hear hear rapid breathing and see her chest rising and falling, and her face was stretched in a large, teeth-baring frown under a pair of wild eyes.

"Who the hay let that thing in here?!" Silk snapped.

Cheese chuckled nervously. "Well, funny story..."

That was when Tomato remarked, "'Thing?' That's not very nice."

As Cheese shot a glare at his brother, Silk hissed, "Cheese... can you please get it out of here?"

Cheese turned to her in order to answer, but Tomato interrupted, "It is the wrong pronoun; I'm a he."

Cheese groaned and said, "Tommy, can you please not interrupt when I'm trying to explain that you're the big vampire bat-pony monster in the room? She needs to know that you're not gonna bite!"

Silk blinked. "Wait... Tomato?"

Tomato dropped from where he hung, and landed on his hooves. Then he jumped on the bed right next to Cheese, folded his wings, and flashed a fanged grin. "Zhat's correct! A velcome development, don't ya think?"

Silk scrambled into sitting position, her ivory face red. "No! You look like an animal! Your eyes look evil, your hair's a mess, your coat looks sickly, those fangs are freaking me out, and that accent needs work!"

"Animals have accents?" Tomato deadpanned. He turned to Cheese and added, "Should we see that yellow pegasus Pinkie is friends with again, I'll have to ask her about animal accents and just what kind of accent a bat has."

Cheese laughed. "Her name is Fluttershy. And hey, I think she'd be more interested in you now that you're half-animal."

Silk got to her hooves. "Okay... so, uh... I just have one question..." Then she snapped, "Why is he a vampire bat-pony?! For goodness' sake, when I saw him in his bed last night, he was still a normal earth pony! And now... wings! And fangs! And... and... evil eyes!"

"I don't know why, but I can tell you the transformation hurt," Tomato said. "What, did you miss my hissing? It was loud enough to wake Cheese up even though I had locked myself in the bathroom."

Silk pouted. "I'm a heavy sleeper. Not even Kazam popping a balloon could wake me up."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "How'd you know he popped a balloon then?"

"Party Favor always complained about Kazam stealing his balloons and doing that to scare us."

Cheese scratched his chin, the show from the night before popping into mind as he looked at Tomato's bat wings. "Speaking of Kazam... do you suppose that he goofed up his trick, accidentally fusing the bat with Tomato? I mean, he's not really a 'true' vampire, because he still has a reflection, his body's still warm, and the sun's shining through the window and he's not on fire."

"Some mythical vampires don't burst into flames, just become weaker under sunlight," Silk pointed out. Then she tapped her chin. "But your theory does have credence... Kazam did tell us before the show that the bat he was using was a vampire bat. I wonder why he didn't just use a less creepy kind though..."

Cheese grinned and hopped to his hooves. "Well, the Magic Expo's not over yet! We can get Kazam to fix Tomato before we all part ways. If he can't... well, there is Twilight Sparkle, am I right?"

Silk tilted her head. "How can you get a princess to--"

"Oh, I have a friend who's friends with her. Now..." Without warning, Cheese hopped onto Tomato's back, with the bat-pony responding with a "GAK!", but amazingly not buckling down under his brother's weight. Cheese noticed and said, "Hey... looks like you got extra strength too! Now, let's fly to the convention center!"

"Get off!" Tomato said, bucking Cheese off of him.

The elder brother smacked onto the ceiling, and stuck there for a few seconds before peeling off and landing face first on the floor. With a aching head, back, and jaw, Cheese was seeing stars in a spinning world and moaning, "Eeyup... extra strength all right..."

Silk rubbed the back of her head. "I don't think flying's a good idea. After all, bat-ponies aren't a common sight in Equestria."

Cheese quickly recovered from his trauma, and stood up. "Good point. He needs a disguise." With that, he pulled out a trench coat, hat, and sunglasses, while wearing a silly grin on his face.

Tomato and Silk stared in bemusement, with the latter asking, "...where'd you get those?"

As they trotted down the walkways, Tomato felt like throwing up once again, but was also simultaneously hungry and thirsty. He was also sweating enough to make his thicker fur wet, and his wings were folded uncomfortably under the trench coat, and his ears were stuffed awkwardly under the hat. He didn't like the musty smell of the trench coat, but he had to keep his muzzle in his collar in order to hide the fangs. And the sunglasses didn't really help the fact that the sun was hurting his eyes.

Everypony they came across was alarmed at the sight of somepony in a trenchcoat, some of them going around them with wider space than needed, and some wiping their foreheads as they passed and kept on giving Cheese and Silk dirty looks. Some of the strangers passing were drinking water, which made Tomato frown, wishing that he thirsted for it instead of blood.

Panting, he asked, "Are we there yet?"

Cheese grimaced. "Not quite. Still have several more blocks to go."

Tomato groaned. "Of all the places I had to turn into a vampire, it had to be Las Pegasus in the summer. I need a drink but I'd have to bite somepony to get it." He yawned and leaned against his brother's barrel. "Ugh, I didn't get much sleep last night either..."

"Hang in there, baby bro," Cheese said. "Once you're all fixed up, you'll be back to drinking water and eating good old pony food in no time! If we're lucky, we won't have to worry about anypony losing their blood." Chuckling nervously, he asked Silk, "Do you know anything about vampire bats, and can they eat anything else?"

"I'm not an animal expert," Silk replied.

Cheese sighed. "Again, I wish we had Fluttershy here to help us."

That was when another pony in a trench coat, galloping down the street, bumped into Tomato and sent him tumbling to the sidewalk. The impact had knocked off his hat and sunglasses, and his cheek slammed into the corner of the walkway, which had Tomato's face in the clouds. Even as Tomato got up on a front knee and cradled his throbbing cheek, the pony didn't even pause to say sorry as he continued to gallop.

Cheese and Silk helped Tomato up and brushed him off. The former said, "Geez... that was rude. Now... where's that hat?"

Tomato didn't listen, as he still processed what had happened. His head ached and eyes burned as he stared at the pony turning the corner, not caring for anything in his path. He stood up, still processing the event while Cheese and Silk picked up the hat and sunglasses and dusted them off.

And when it had clicked, his stomach growled, and he let out a bloodcurdling screech, which made Cheese and Silk jump. Without thinking, he dashed off in pursuit of the offender, his eyes full of blood lust.

Cheese stared for a moment before he realized what was happening and chased after him, yelling, "Tomato! Stop!"

Silk was still staring in disbelief when police officers brushed past her.

Heart racing, adrenaline pumping, and heat rising, Tomato felt very little control over his actions, but there was fire burning within him and an instinct urging him to take vengeance on the one who dared knock him to the walkway. His wings tried to spread so that he could take flight to catch up, but the coat blocked that action, so he was just left with his hooves. Thoughts jumbled around in his head, reminding him of how hungry he was, and how good of a meal that pony would make. His fangs were itching to sink into that jerk's neck.

Even though his coat wouldn't allow him to fly, he still weaved around and jumped over other ponies. Though his eyes still hurt, he still looked for that trench coat, knowing that hardly anypony else would be wearing one in this heat. He didn't care for any screams and shouts coming from ponies startled by the fangs; he just wanted to catch that one pony.

Finally, he spotted that trench coat turning into an alleyway. He jumped, caught a light post with his tail, and launched himself into that alley, tackling the pony and making the both of them tumble forward, tearing Tomato's trench coat apart and spilling bits from that other pony's coat. some landing on the solid walkway and some falling through the clouds.

When they had finished their tumble, Tomato had the other pony pinned down, spreading his wings, giving him a feral glare with contracted pupils and bared fangs, and hissing in his face.

The other pony--a large magenta pony with a yellow and white striped mane--had his eyes wide in shock and the color drained from his face. "What the--"

"You bumped into the wrong pony," Tomato snarled.

The pony tried to drag himself out of Tomato's grip, but to his surprise, he couldn't budge. He looked up in horror at the skinny stallion, who was stronger than he looked, and was forced to look into Tomato's scarlet eyes as the bat-pony started to chuckle threateningly.

Trembling, the magenta pony begged, "Please... please don't hurt me!"

Tomato laughed some more. "And, what? Skip out on lunch?"

He crouched down and opened his mouth wide at the neck, ignoring the other pony's frightened blubbering. His fangs still tingled from anticipation, and couldn't wait for that scrumptious smell and the undeniable taste. He was going to love this two-for-one deal--satisfying his thirst for vengeance and his thirst for blood.

However, before he could begin, he was yanked off the other pony, turned around, and slapped across the face. Tomato hissed at the perpetrator, but stopped once he realized that it was Cheese, who was giving him a disappointed glare.

"Tomato Matthew Sandwich!" Cheese growled. "What the hay was that?!"

Tomato's ears drooped. "Well... he..."

"Tomato, he was rude--that doesn't equal a punishment of sucking his blood!" Cheese ran a hoof through his mane. "Oh, dear Celestia, it's getting worse... you need to be changed back before it gets out of hand."

Tomato's heart sunk, realizing what had come over him. He glanced back at the magenta pony, who was curled up in a ball and still blubbering about having met an actual vampire. He licked at his fangs, which had nearly drawn blood--that he was actually going to enjoy drinking. He cringed at the thought, knowing that he was growing closer to becoming a full monster.

He turned to the magenta pony. "I... I'm sorry. I overreacted."

Cheese pulled out another coat and wrapped it around Tomato. "I don't want to see anything like this again. You scared me."

Not five seconds later, some police officers came filing into the alley, looked at the scattered bits on the walkway, and then pointed to the magenta pony. "There he is!" They quickly swarmed him, and a few unicorn officers levitated him with their magic.

The one of the unicorns looked at the Sandwich Bros (Tomato hid his mouth with the coat's collar), and said, "I'm amazed you survived an encounter with Pinkerton Headsmasher! Dangerous thief we've been trying to catch--guy's been robbing casinos and smashing heads for the past few months, and he just stole from Gladmane's today. Now Las Pegasus will rest knowing that he's behind bars."

Cheese and Tomato blinked, and glanced at each other. They didn't quite see that coming.

Pinkerton cried, "Officer! That's a vampire you're talking to! He's got wings and fangs and everything! He pinned me down and I couldn't move and he nearly bit my neck and sucked my blood! He needs to be arrested too!"

The officer gave Pinkerton an annoyed glance. "Ah, shut up! Everypony knows vampires don't exist. And even if they did, they'd strike at night. All right, boys, take him away!"

The Sandwiches were still stunned at the turn of events, watching as the officers took the panicking Pinkerton away and picked up the scattered bits. Then they stood up, and awkwardly shuffled away, heading back to where they left Silk Shimmer.

When they had finally made it to the convention center, Silk Shimmer lead them to the hall where Kazam's show was going to be held. After being held up by ushers pushing an anti-magic cone on Silk Shimmer (explaining that all unicorns watching Kazam's show need their magic blocked so they don't disrupt Kazam's special trick), which she ultimately put under her hat, and then swimming through the crowd, they finally made it to the stage, where Kazam sat and was drinking a bottle of water.

The blue unicorn finished his gulps and wiped his mouth, and then looked down at the trio with a sneer. "Silkie... care to inform me why you're late? And why Tomato's wearing all that junk in this heat?"

Silk grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, we ran into a dangerous thief on the way here--don't worry, the police caught him! That... and..." She rubbed the back of her head as she glanced at the covered up Tomato. "We'll... have to go somewhere private, so we don't freak anypony out."

Kazam opened his mouth to answer, but Cheese was swiftly in his face. "And I'd like to have a word about the danger you've been putting my little brother in!"

Kazam blinked, and then chuckled. "Well, come along to my trailer, you three--I can't wait to hear your complaints and excuses."

Once they were in Kazam's trailer, Cheese and Silk unveiled Tomato's new batty form.

Kazam raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. "You grew wings."

Tomato glared at him. "And fangs. It was painful."

Cheese stepped forward. "And there is no doubt in my mind that it was because you goofed up that Wings of Light trick last night. That looked like it hurt him! And I was looking everywhere for you last night, because frankly, I'm not comfortable with my brother working for you if you're putting him in situations that would kill him--or in this case, mutate him!"

Kazam turned to Cheese. "What's with this sudden overprotective behavior? Tomato said that before your only complaints were mainly about how you seem to be disapproving of how he was trying to get money to help somepony start a business. Don't tell me you believe that silly adage of money being the root of all evil."

Cheese backed up. "Well... we did run into a robber... robbing money from a casino... I mean, bits make ponies go bonkers, am I right?" He merely glanced at Tomato, who looked away with a small scowl. He shook his head. "But that's not the point! The point is, you turned my brother into a vampire!"

Silk jumped. "Cheese, calm down. I know you're upset, but yelling's not going to help anything." She turned to Kazam. "Okay, we came to you in hopes that you would fix it before Tomato goes completely nuts. He already threatened to suck somepony dry just for nearly knocking him off the walkway."

Tomato rubbed his cheek. "That corner hurt."

Silk continued, "So, you think you can find something that'll cure him?"

Kazam scratched his chin and smiled. "I don't know... I kind of like this bat-pony thing that Tomato turned into. I mean, imagine that... the first vampire that's not a myth... right down to the the blood-sucking..." He chuckled and started to pet an uncomfortable Tomato. "I think he's perfect."

Cheese felt a chill upon hearing those words, and narrowed his eyes. "Wait a minute... you did it on purpose!"

Silk recoiled upon hearing that. "What?! Okay, Cheese, that's ridiculous!"

Kazam put a hoof to his chest. "What? You accuse me of transforming your precious little brother? What do you have to back it up?"

Cheese snorted. "You just sound a little too pleased that this 'accident' happened. You're not even all that surprised that it did!"

Kazam shook his head. "Cheese, Cheese, Cheese... you are so quick to jump to conclusions! I mean... just because I'm interested in so-called 'creepy' things doesn't mean I'm a bad pony." He took an apple from his fruit bowl and chomped into it, causing orange juice to drip from it. "Is that why you're so suddenly overprotective? Hearing crazy tall tales from that amateur Trixie? Come on, we all heard about the Ursa Minor thing that blew up in her face in Ponyville. I'm surprised she recovered from that embarrassment."

"Is talking smack about Trixie really a good argument?" Cheese asked. "Besides, if you were willing to unleash a feral dog for my brother and your sister to fight, I don't doubt you'd do something this crazy. And I'm sure a true 'accident' would have actually killed Tomato."

Silk groaned. "Fusion's a difficult spell, Cheese. And as obsessed with it as he was as a teenager, even he knows its fruitless, and has given it up long ago." She turned to her brother. "Ehehe... right?"

Kazam shrugged. "I don't know... it somehow worked on Tomato." Then, he looked straight into Tomato's eyes, and said, "And even though this change seems frightening, there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of."

Tomato blinked, and his pupils shrank down to pinpricks. He nodded, and said, "You know... I think I like being a vampire bat-pony. As one, I have amazing powers such as flight and super strength."

Cheese's jaw dropped. With a gulp, he said, "Uh, Tomato... have you forgotten the part where you almost killed someone?"

Tomato turned to him, giving him a creepy stare. "He was a criminal. He deserved to have my punishment, but you foolishly stopped me."

Cheese shook his head. "Tomato! You attacked him just because he knocked you down."

Tomato's brow furrowed, and he hissed, creeping toward his brother. "You're a fool, Cheese Sandwich. Thinking that parties will solve all the problems in the world? Thinking you're better than me just because my talent's connected with an 'evil' thing? Thinking it's okay to ignore me just because I screwed something up?!"

"I-I-I never said any of that! Tomato... Tomato!" He backed up, noticing that Tomato's eyes were now glowing. With a quick glance at the smirk Kazam now held, it finally hit him. "Tommy! Tommy, listen to me! Kazam's hypnotizing you!" He looked at Silk Shimmer in desperation. "Silk, can you override the mind control, please?"

Silk Shimmer held a stony expression. "I can't do that, Cheese. Kazam's the greatest unicorn to ever live--he deserves to be an alicorn."

Cheese stumbled out of the trailer backward, and hit his head on the pavement. Silk Shimmer hopped out, with Kazam giving her the instruction of "Guard the trailer for me, sis--we don't want any nuisances trying to disturb our new pet."

Cheese flipped back onto his hooves. "My brother is not a pet!"

Kazam locked the trailer, and descended down the stairs and started to walk away. Huffing, Cheese galloped toward him and hopped onto him, pulling his cape over his eyes. "Listen, pal, I never gave you permission to turn my brother into a monster! You turn him back right now!"

Kazam bucked Cheese off, untangled the cape from his own face, and then whirled around and zapped Cheese with a beam that sent him into the outside wall of the convention center, leaving a dent in it. A dazed Cheese Sandwich peeled out of the dent and onto the pavement, looking up and seeing stars as Kazam walked away, taunting, "Can't do that... my experiment isn't done."

Shaking his head and getting up on his haunches, he rubbed his head and mumbled, "Forget Fluttershy... this a problem requiring Twilight Sparkle."

He looked up at the trailer, guarded by Silk Shimmer, and narrowed his eyes. "Don't worry, baby bro... I'm gonna break you out."

8.8--Resurrection of the Summer Sun Fair

When she and Spike had made it to Lemon Hearts' house, Twilight knocked on the door. She was quite surprised when Twinkleshine answered the door, and a peek in the house told here that Minuette and Moon Dancer were in the house as well, comforting Lemon Hearts. Twinkleshine invited the alicorn and dragon in, and they sat by Lemon Hearts as well.

"Hey, Lemon Hearts..." she said. "I heard about what happened to the fair."

Lemon Hearts held a tub of ice cream and was spooning it into her mouth. "Months... been planning it for months... and it was destroyed in a matter of seconds..."

"And we were all going to have fun together as a group," Twinkleshine said, leaning in a throw pillow. "It'd be the first time in a long time that we would have Moon Dancer with us, too."

Moon Dancer had a book in hoof, with a picture of Princess Celestia in her fire form. "We've been trying to reason why Celestia would even do this. It says here that when she when she had barely learned the fire form is that she had to have the utmost emotional control. Factors like anger, stress, lingering trauma, or even getting too excited could have accidentally activated it."

"Or maybe she was possessed!" Minuette suggested.

Spike scoffed. "Or maybe she had sw--"

He was interrupted by Twilight giving him a hard nudge, and he remembered that he wasn't supposed to reveal the real reason why the fire form had been activated. He sheepishly cleared his throat. "I-I mean maybe she... yeah, maybe she was possessed..."

Lemon Hearts sighed. "Like it matters why it happened--the fair's destroyed, and the Summer Sun Celebration has been ruined."

Twilight smiled. "Oh, I wouldn't say it's been completely ruined."

Lemon Hearts gave her a tired glare. "Oh, really?"

"Really, Lemon Hearts--the fair can be fixed!"

Moon Dancer shut the book and pushed up her glasses. "You do realize that a bunch of stalls, stands, carnival games, and some rides can not be cleaned up and rebuilt in a few hours, right?"

"Oh, when it comes to most ponies, that's true." She and Spike looked at each other and smiled knowingly. "But I know a couple of ponies that can revive the entire fair in at least a half hour."

When Twilight had brought her group of Canterlot friends to the fairgrounds, Cheese and Pinkie had set up the party cannon on one side, the party tank on the other, and a party bomb right in the center of the grounds. The two party ponies were making adjustments to their respective party weapons, while everypony else was gathering the splintered wood and debris from the field.

Lemon Hearts jumped at the sight of the artillery. "That's their solution? Blowing it up does not equal fixing!"

"What are they, trying to wage war?!" Minuette exclaimed.

"After what's been happening with Celestia all day, I'm not surprised," Twinkleshine muttered.

"Guys, don't worry! Pinkie and Cheese Sandwich know what they're doing," Spike said. "They both have a history of quickly setting up parties."

Moon Dancer looked between the cannon, the tank, and the bomb. "The way they're going about it is highly impractical and dangerous, and it'll only make this Summer Sun worse than it already has been. And that's an understatement." She heard a sneeze, and then looked up at Cheese Sandwich blowing his nose while surrounded by confetti. "Plus, I don't trust a pony with a cold to work complicated machinery."

"Actually, he had an unfortunate incident with pepper," Twilight said, looking up at Cheese from his perch. At least, she hoped that it was just the pepper. "But I've seen those two work together before. I trust them that they can pull this off."

Moon Dancer gave her a funny look. "Look, I know Pinkie Pie is your friend, and that other guy is apparently another friend of yours, but last I checked, any one of those will actually kill ponies, not to say the type of damage they'd make when combined. How are you okay with this?!"

Tomato Sandwich passed by, carrying some wood with his tail, and answered, "She has accepted that they're insane and run on nonsense magic."

Moon Dancer blinked, and then gave him a funny look. "Nonsense magic?" She looked at the way his tail was wrapped around the wood, holding it steady on his back. "I suppose that guy's full of nonsense too."

Lemon Hearts grimaced. "Nonsense magic or not, I don't feel comfortable with this."

That was when Cheese popped up next to her and said, "Don't worry, little filly, I assure you that there won't be any damage done." He held out a hoof to her. "Name's Cheese Sandwich, premier party planner in all of Equestria. You must be Lemon Hearts."

Lemon Hearts nodded. "Yes, I am."

"Heard about what happened to the fair..." He looked at the field before him with a grimace, and sighed. "...and I'm really sorry. All that hard work ruined like that. Ruined parties are just some of the most painful things, with a lot of disappointed ponies and a gut-wrenching sense of failure. Makes you just want to forget them, huh?"

Lemon Hearts looked away. "I know... I'm still trying to understand why."

"Well, don't you worry, Pinkie and I will fix it right up!" He backed up and hollered to Pinkie, "Is it all clear?"

Pinkie waved back and shouted, "Rainbow Dash just took the last piece of wood! We're good to go!"

Cheese clapped and rubbed his hooves together. "Good, now we can get to the fun part!"

Moon Dancer glared at him. "The 'fun' part? You mean blowing up Canterlot?"

Cheese glanced at her, and then groaned. "Oh, goody, somepony else who'd want a detailed explanation of how party ponies work. Look, it's impossible to explain to you 'logical-minded' folks, and frankly, I don't want to waste any more time. So..." He pointed behind them, and the others turned to want looked like a bomb shelter, which already had the cleanup ponies in it. "You might want to go in there, this fair-fixing might be a little... violent."

"What?!" Lemon Hearts cried. "But, but, but--"

Twilight had already emcompassed her Canterlot friends in her magic and was carrying them toward the shelter. "Let's listen to him, I don't want to deal with any comical repercussions that may arise out of this."

"Eh... comical repurcussions?" Twinkleshine asked.

"The repercussions of a cannon, bomb, and tank combo would not be comical!" Moon Dancer snapped. "I can't believe you're being so nonchalant about this!"

Twilight sighed. "I've tried studying Pinkie... went through a lot of pain and learned nothing."

She made it to the shelter, went inside, and then dropped her Canterlot friends. Her Ponyville friends--sans Pinkie--were at the window, watching as Cheese and Pinkie prepared their party weapons. On the other side of the bunker, Tomato was reading a novel, casually holding himself up with his tail as if he sat in a chair and seemingly not caring about what was about to happen outside.

Minuette laughed nervously. "You know, I like Pinkie Pie and all, but this is crazy, even for her! Or was this Cheese Sandwich's idea? He's known for doing things big! And this is definitely going to be a big disaster!"

"As if this day could get any worse," Twinkleshine mumbled.

Lemon Hearts sat in the corner and sighed. Sniffling, she muttered, "I don't even think that plan would work..."

"You are seriously underestimating them," Tomato stated, turning a page in his book.

Moon Dancer stared at Tomato's tail for a long moment. Then she glanced at Twilight and grumbled, "Or maybe he's overestimating them. For that matter, if he's brothers with this Cheese fella, why didn't he try to talk sense into him? Is he made of crazy, too?"

Tomato looked up and glared at her. "I can hear you. And if you're going to talk smack about me, say it to my face."

That was when they heard a loud explosion outside, causing all to cover their ears. Those at the window covered their eyes from the flash of light, and everypony felt the ground rattle from from the blast. The Canterlot unicorns screamed, Tomato dropped his book, and Spike fell over. It was a few moments after the rattling was done, and everypony took a moment to breathe.

The moment was short lived, for a smiling Pinkie Pie opened the door. "All done."

Everypony gathered outside, joining a bunch of other curious ponies that had felt the blast. They all gaped at the sight of the renewed fair, which seemed to glow with the utter glory of the sun and ring out beautiful music inviting everypony to play. All the food stalls and stands, carnival games, and thrill rides had not only been recreated, but they were in the same exact spots that their destroyed counterparts had stood. Above the ponies was a banner, welcoming them to the fair with a picture of a smiling sun.

Lemon Hearts especially was in awe. She still stared, even as Pinkie Pie trotted up to her and asked, "You like it?"

She smiled, and tears started to streak down her face. "It's... it's... exactly how I planned it, but with more pizzazz!"

"Of course! I memorized the entire layout of all the food and souvenir stands and activities so that it could go according to your plan. The pizzazz thing... that's Cheese being a show off."

Cheese ambled to where they stood, presumably walking from his party tank, and sneezed. Wiping his nose, he shot a mock glare at Pinkie and said, "I heard that. How dare you deride me like that."

Lemon Hearts giggled and beamed at them. "Thank you. Thank you both! Now everypony can have their Summer Sun fun before the sunrise ceremony!"

Meanwhile, Moon Dancer was staring at the sight in shock. "But... that's impossible... h-how are they able to do that...? They shouldn't be able to do that!"

Tomato rolled his eyes. "Told you. Nonsense magic."

Moon Dancer rubbed her head. "I'd accept it if it was Discord but... but..."

Twilight patted her back. "Don't worry about it, Moon Dancer--what matters is that the fair is back and we can all spend time together tonight!"

Pinkie zoomed to under the banner, pulled the microphone out of her mane, and told the crowd, "Hello, everypony, and welcome to the Summer Sun Fair! We're really sorry it's late, but better late than never am I right? Anyway, my friend Cheese Sandwich and I set up this fair according to the layout of Lemon Hearts, who planned this thing for months! Now, are you ready to party all night?"

At the sight of Pinkie cupping her ear, the crowd cheered.

"Great! Now, what are you waiting for? Get in there and have some fun! We've got several hours 'til sunrise!"

The still cheering ponies all dashed to the fair, and everypony quickly went to work on going to some of the activities or on a ride. Pinkie smiled as Twilight and Spike gathered their Canterlot friends to have some fun together, Rainbow Dash and Applejack went off to competitively play some carnival games, and Rarity and Fluttershy went around to see the sights. She turned to the Sandwiches, and frowned upon Cheese laying on the ground, and Tomato prodding at him.

Pinkie dashed toward them. "Oh, my gosh! Cheese, are you all right?"

Cheese looked up and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, guys... I'm just exhausted. I think I put a little too much of my magic in rebuilding." He sneezed, and bubbles floated away from his person.

Tomato stopped poking him. "And Celestia's sneezing must have taken a lot out of his body, too. Guess that nap earlier didn't quite recharge him. I've never seen him this tuckered out, even when he was a more tired pony as a colt." He sighed. "And I was looking forward to some family time with him."

"Aww..." Pinkie sat down and patted his head. "You need some time alone to recharge? It's okay if you need to."

Cheese tried to stand up. "Oh, no... no, I'm going to have some fun with my brother, and--" He fell back down. His face was in the grass, and he groaned. "Okay... yeah, I need some rest."

Pinkie patted his back. "I'll keep an eye on him for you, okay, Cheesy?" She crossed her heart and put a hoof over one of her eyes. "Pinkie Promise."

Tomato held a half-lidded look. "Yay..."

When they had let Cheese rest in the bomb shelter, Pinkie did not hesitate to drag Tomato around the fairground, showing him all the things to do and stuff to eat. Although it wasn't quite either's plan for that night, Pinkie was determined to make the most of it and make sure that Cheese's brother had fun. After all, she didn't want to disappoint her friend! Plus, it would be a chance to be better friends with Tomato.

The first thing that she dragged him to was a spinning teacup ride, which made her feel a little dizzy just watching them. After staring at them for a moment, she turned to Tomato and examined the look on his face. His eyes especially told her that he secretly yearned to go on a ride.

"All righty, then, let's have some fun on the teacup ride!" she exclaimed.

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "What if I get dizzy?"

Pinkie rolled his eyes at his denial. "Tomato, you said you don't get sick easily. I can tell you're lying." She grabbed him and dragged him to the teacup ride. "Now, let's go!"

"I don't even get a say in this?"

After they got off the teacup ride, Pinkie noticed the look on Tomato's face, and said, "Looks like somepony's smiling..."

The little smile that had been on his face fell into a scowl, and he retorted, "I am not!"

"I saw it with my own eyes. I know a smile when I see one!"

"Trick of the light, let's go somewhere else."

Pinkie scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You totally smiled."

After going on a couple more rides, they decided to eat something. Pinkie got two of everything for her and an indecisive Tomato, and they sat down at a table. There, Pinkie goaded him into an eating contest, to which he reluctantly complied. A lot of ponies had heard their conversation about this, took one look, and some from Ponyville decided that it wasn't worth watching, since Pinkie Pie was participating, and her equal, Cheese Sandwich, wasn't against her.

A few munches and gulps were heard, followed by Pinkie exclaiming, "I wo--huh?"

"What?" Tomato said.

"Did I accidentally eat your food? I'm so sorry!"

"Eh, no, you didn't. I ate my own food."

"Oh? My mistake, I just had my eyes closed." There was a pause and Pinkie then said, "Unless you're lying."

"Why would I be lying? I'd be complaining if you ate my food."

"How do I know you're not just trying to make me feel better?"

Tomato groaned. "Believe me, I wouldn't do that. I'm trying to keep you from wasting an apolo--"

A loud burp was heard, and everypony snapped their heads around to the table where Pinkie and a blushing Tomato sat. Covering his mouth, he sank in his seat, and muttered, "Excuse me."

Pinkie sniffed the air. "...okay, you did eat your food." She leaned on the table. "So... who won?"

They participated in a few carnival games. While they were standard hit-and-miss games, the fact that just Pinkie Pie was playing them was enough to win them prizes. Soon enough, she had a load of stuffed animals, inflatable bats and hammers, and rubber birds all perched upon her back. Tomato questioned why she didn't stuff them into nowhereland, but thought it best not to comment.

"Cheesy's going to be so surprised to see all these prizes we won!" Pinkie squealed. "I had no idea you had such good aim!"

Tomato scoffed. "I've blown a few spitwads when I was a colt to get attention from my friends. Got in trouble for that. My mom would always scold me on how I needed to behave like a straight-A student, being quiet like Cheese, obedient like Dad, and polite as she..." He stuck his tongue out in disgust. He then chuckled. "She had no idea how I turned out to be some booksmart kid after being the idiot that nearly got himself killed all the time."

"Did Cheese save you from dying all the time?"

"Who else? He was willing to risk everything to make sure I was safe."

"Wow... then he definitely deserves these prizes! He's a great big brother!" Then Pinkie gasped. "And I should give some to my sister Maud, too! She used to save me from the dangers at our farm when we were fillies!"

"Well, good. They at least need to know that they're appreciated." Tomato looked away, and sighed sadly. "I may have not gotten my appreciation across correctly in my case."

"It's okay, Tommy... you're doing better..." She tapped her chin. "Funny how Cheese is a lot more like Maud than I thought, and you're a lot more like me than I thought."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "Crazy talk."

"No, really, Cheese has said that you liked to have fun when you were little, and you liked to run around and explore and talk and stuff like that! You even have curly hair!" Pinkie said, pointing to his head.

Tomato snorted. "Yeah... but I was little. I've grown out of that, since after all, it's not like anypony will take me seriously if I'm a weirdo." He turned and pointed at his cutie mark. "See this? My Mom tells me that this cutie mark is for serious ponies only, and absolutely nopony would ever want to associate with a silly businesspony, who will be nothing but a laughingstock if he acts weird in any way whatsoever. That's why we're not alike, and can never be alike--you're a party pony."

Pinkie gazed at the mark, and tilted her head. Scratching her chin, she remarked, "I don't know, it seems sillier than the cutie marks of most businessponies I've met."

Tomato backed away, covered his flank with his tail, and then walked away. "Aw, forget it. Just take the prizes to Cheese, and do whatever you like. Don't need me holding you back from anything fun."

Pinkie blinked as she watched Tomato leave, and then hollered, "I didn't mean it as a bad thing!"

When Tomato didn't answer, she sighed and walked off.

Tomato didn't know how long he'd been walking, thinking about what he had said, but he stopped when he came across a curious attraction in a large tent.

He looked up at the sign, which read, "A Trip Down Memory Lane", and figured that there was something to look at in there. So, he went in, finding himself in a curious room with several other ponies.

He looked around at the shelves that had been set up along the walls of the tent. Orbs and necklaces were on the shelves, softly glowing every color in the rainbow. A closer look told Tomato that the necklaces were made of smaller versions of the orbs, and that the orbs played moving pictures within them. The particular orb that Tomato stared at played a little movie of some foals playing in a pond.

"Welcome, welcome, everypony!"

Tomato looked up, and there, by a white screen that was place between shelves, was a excited looking unicorn mare. Several steps away from the screen was a large something hidden under a cloth. "Good evening, ponies. My name is Professor Wanda of the Memory Magic Department from Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns. Oh, aren't we all lucky to be here!"

Some of the ponies chuckled, and a couple others groaned. Tomato stayed silent.

Wanda cleared her throat, and levitated one of the orbs from the shelves. "Anyway, I bet you're curious about what all these orbs are. Well, these are the memories of my ancestors, having passed long ago. When each had passed on, they had granted permission for them to be removed in order to leave something for their descendants to remember them by."

Tomato blinked, and walked further forward to listen more intently.

"Memories are precious things..." Wanda said, stroking the orb. "They are replays of the events that shape who we are. Some memories provide fun stories, some provide lessons, some continue to inspire us, some protect us, and some help us recognize those we love."

"Or hate," some random pony said, eliciting a few chuckles.

Wanda raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "Anyway... the purpose of memory magic is to fight against memory related disorders, or to provide a window to the past from those who passed on. Of course, we're not allowed to do anything unless the patient grants his or her permission for us to do so. We're not allowed to alter any memories so that everything is all sunshine and rainbows, or remove any memories of mistakes that a pony would have made--those that forget history are doomed to repeat it, after all."

"Why not? What about those suffering from trauma? Wouldn't they like the offending memory removed?" another pony asked.

"We haven't gotten anypony suffering from trauma coming to us yet--but we're developing a method that helps them deal with the trauma without leaving a gap in their collective memory. See, removing memories is dangerous, and quite often changes a pony because they don't remember their experiences. Memory removal spells are only done with ponies on their deathbed who want to leave their memories with their families, and are not to be used without caution."

"Why are they orbs?" someone else asked.

"Oh, because the one who invented the memory spell made it that way... for some reason." She shrugged. "I don't know, really."

"Who invented it?"

"Oh... a pony by the name of Wayer Rune did." That was followed by a cry of dismay, and Wanda sighed. "Yes, I know, the werewolf guy. Anyway, he invented it when his son was dying of a terminal illness. As the colt was passing on, the memories were removed so that they could still have their son-slash-brother with them. This was before cameras, you know."

That was when Wanda smiled. "Speaking of cameras..." She galloped forward and removed the cloth, revealing a projector with a helmet attached. "Okay, this isn't a camera--but you have the opportunity to watch a memory like a movie! So... who's going to be our volunteer?"

Nopony raised their hoof, so Wanda just pointed to Tomato, and said, "How about you, you handsome stallion?"

Tomato jumped. "Uh... me? Are you sure you want to see any of my memories?"

"Well, did you commit a crime?"

Tomato blinked. "Eh... no."

"Well, then, come on up!"

Tomato sighed, and then walked to the front. He sat on the stool beside the projector, and had the helmet attached to his head. After a few adjustments so that the helmet was comfortable, Wanda asked him, "How old are you? When's your birthday?"

Tomato answered with March fifth and the year he was born. Wanda nodded, and flipped some switches and punched in the date. Then, she turned on the projector, and static appeared on the screen. After turning a couple of knobs, the image became clearer, and Tomato beheld the faces that he had only seen in pictures.

The brown, balding, wrinkled stallion that he recognized as Grandpa Beans was on the screen, joined by his grayish yellow wife Panini, with her mane in a bun and a pair of glasses. He blinked in astonishment, seeing his long dead paternal grandparents actually moving.

"Hey, looks like the new munchkin's awake!" Beans said. He laughed, and said, "Hey, little buddy... looks like you's seeing your ugly Gramps' face, huh? I'm surprised you're not crying yet."

Tomato heard cooing, and it had confirmed that he was watching an image of when he was a baby. Blinking, he asked Wanda, "...hey, how'd you get something from when I was a baby?"

"Oh, we've figured out how to find tiny foal memories that are buried under the many memories of your years."

Tomato turned back to the screen to see Grandma Panini tickling his baby self's chin. "Well, ain't he just the li'l doll? He's cuter than a litter of puppy dogs learnin' how to howl! Shoot, he looks so much like his Pa!" She turned to somepony offscreen. "Hay Burger, get away from the window and say hi to yer young'n!"

He heard a grunt, and Panini's face went sour. "Why's he bein' like that? He was happy when Cheese was born, and now he won't look at little Tomato."

Beans shook his head. "At least show respect for your flesh and blood."

Tomato heard the groan of his mother, who said, "How do you expect to be a good father if you can't even bear the thought of a second foal?"

Tomato's heart sunk, and he held himself. He looked at the other ponies, who were looking at him with concern, and then hissed, "Don't pity me. My brother says I'm the favorite." He turned back to the screen and muttered, "...am I?"

He heard his father scoff. "You wanted a filly. He wouldn't be pleased to learn that."

Tomato glowered at the screen. "Well, I learned it. Thanks a lot."

On the screen, Beans groaned. "Stop spoiling this day, you two. We have a new member of the family, and you just treat it as some excuse to insult each other. If you don't clean up your act, both of your sons will not grow up very happy. Geez, you're acting like my parents, and I was a miserable colt growing up under them!"

There came the sound of the door opening, and Panini said, "Looks like Pizza and Mel brought little Cheese. Let's see what Tomato's older brother thinks of him."

That was when the voice of Grandma Cucumber Melon came and cooed, "Oh, my! Look at that precious little baby! Cheese, do you see that baby? That's your new brother."

Grandpa Pizza Pockets' voice chuckled. "Well, well, he looks a lot like his dad."

Hay Burger groaned and said, "I know..."

"Well, don't just stand there, let little Cheesaroo take a closer look!" Panini said.

Tomato snickered. "Cheesaroo? Never heard that before..." He leaned forward, and watched as a tiny orange colt was placed onto the bed, and stared at him with big, bright green eyes, tilting his head. Tomato was astonished to see a toddler version of his older brother, and leaned back as Cheese crawled toward him.

The point of view moved as baby Tomato was moved into Cheese's front legs, and Mozzarella said, "Careful! Cheese is only three, he might drop him!"

The screen showed little Cheese's face again, and Tomato could clearly see the awe on the toddler's face. Having received accounts of Cheese's reaction to first seeing him from his maternal grandparents and Cheese, he wondered if they had been accurate, or were just romanticized. He continued to watch the face closely, wondering how he was going to react.

Cheese's awe gave way to a smile, and he said, "Hi! I'm big brother Cheesy!"

Tomato heard a delighted coo from his baby self, and Cheese nuzzled him in response. He looked up at his parents and grandparents, and announced, "This my baby. This my baby forever and forever."

The ponies behind him all sighed, "Aww...." and some of the mares giggled at him. He heard some whispers about how his brother was cute, and some other whispers about how Tomato must have been a cute baby, since he was a cute stallion. He turned away in embarrassment at the latter.

He heard Beans laugh. "Looks like Cheese likes him. You gonna be a good big brother?"

Cheese nodded, and Beans continued, "Well, at least somepony's happy he's here. Heck, most of us are happy Tomato's here. I can just imagine these two being the ultimate musical team!" He paused as he popped into view and looked at Tomato for a brief moment before zooming back out of view. "Looks like they both have the pipes. So, accordion, piano, and both singing voices will be a winning team. Can't wait until Tomato's old enough so I can start teaching him my craft."

Tomato blinked. He was going to teach me how to play the piano? He knew that Grandpa Pizza Pockets had intended to teach Cheese accordion for a long time--and got to do it. Tomato felt himself feeling even more disappointed that Grandpa Beans had died when he was a baby.

The projector was shut off, and Wanda said, "As you can see, we have reached through the darkest depths of his memories, and pulled up the day he was born. Good thing we didn't show the actual birth... that's a messy process, you know!"

Tomato shuddered. No, no, I don't want to think about my mom giving birth... aw, dang it!

Cheese sprung up from his tarp in a cold sweat, and started to rock back and forth. "It was just a bad dream... just a bad dream..."

"What's a bad dream, Cheesy?"

Cheese turned, and found Pinkie sitting beside him, watching him. Blinking, he asked, "Uh... how long were you sitting there?"

Pinkie gestured to a pile of prizes. "Tomato and I won a bunch of these at the fair, and we thought it'd be nice to give them to the best big siblings we know! You get half the prizes, and Maud gets the other half!"

Cheese blinked, and then chuckled. "That's very thoughtful of you two..." He looked around the bunker, noticing that it was just the two of them. "Uh... where's Tomato?"

"Still at the fair." Her mane started to droop. "He got upset with me and stormed off."

"What? Why?"

"All I said was that he and I might be more alike than it seems."

Cheese shook his head. "That's a silly reason to be mad. I'm going to have to talk to him about that. Besides... I don't see what's wrong with him and you having things in common. Common ground is often basis for friendships, am I right? I'd like for you two to be friends!"

Pinkie looked away. "If so... does that mean if I get annoying enough, you'll stop being my friend and start hating me and wanting to avoid Ponyville? Would you want to forget I ever existed?"

Cheese nearly jumped. "What? No, never! Why would I hate you or even want to forget you? Come on, Pinkie, don't you realize you saved me?"

Pinkie sighed. "I know I'm the reason you're a party pony. But... I don't want to lose a friend. I don't like the thought of losing any of my friends! But... it makes me really sad to think of a fellow party pony hating me. I already came close with the Fall Festival."

Cheese took her hoof in both of his. "Pinkie, I could never hate you. You lead me to my destiny, we worked on the greatest parties together, you helped me and Tomato reconcile... honestly, I can't think of a better pony in the world. I just wish I could do more to thank you."

Pinkie lit up and then caught him in a hug. "Aww, really? I did that much for you? That's really nice of you to say, Cheesy!"

Cheese hugged back. "Yeah... your friends and all of Ponyville are lucky to have you around. You're amazing."

That was when he felt a sharp pinch in his flank, and he felt his tail point in the direction he was to go. "Hello! Cheesy Sense alert!"

Pinkie released the hug, and then sighed. "Darn... I was hoping you and Tomato could stay long enough to see the sunrise!"

Cheese twiddled his hooves and blushed. "Well... I suppose I could stay a few more hours... just long enough to see Celestia raise the sun..."

Pinkie perked up. "Great! But first, I gotta find your brother. Who knows where he wandered off to, that little rascal!" With that, Pinkie sped out of the bunker, leaving Cheese alone with the toys.

Cheese was grinning and waving goodbye. However, that was interrupted by a rasping cough. He coughed for a good ten seconds, and then felt his throat, groaning, "Ugh... darn tickle in my throat..."

Author's Note

Aaaaaaand... I have finally finished the Summer Sun arc! Ugh, took longer than I thought it would...

So... what place do you suppose is next?

9.7--A Town Worth the Time

"Well, well, it seems the snow passes the test!" Peppermint Chill said, pulling a clipboard and pencil from his saddlebag with his magic and writing something down. "Not exactly powder, and has a bit of crud to it, but, all in all, it's a good ride down."

He looked up the hill to see the rest of the ponies bounding down on their skis. Beside him was Double Diamond, who had already finished his run, and was proudly looking up to see the other ponies having fun. He smiled, knowing that the snow had thoroughly impressed the committee through all the runs they had at different points of the mountains.

Above them, still tied to the big balloon made of balloons, Night Glider nodded. Looking down at her friend, she hollered, "Hey, D! Were you happy to have skiing buddies that are on your level?"

Double Diamond smiled at her. "You bet! It's a lot more fun when you're not alone!"

"Oh, pfft, I've air dropped you whenever you had that skiing itch!" Night Glider's ear twitched as she heard a voice from the distance, and she turned to the direction of the town. "Oh, it sounds like Party Favor's calling me. You guys pack up those skis, I'm going to go pick up our little clown and be right back in a jiffy."

With that, she zoomed off with the balloon in tow. Blinking, Peppermint asked, "Why does she need to pick that guy up when she could just tow us back on her own?"

Double Diamond shrugged. "He knows how to work the balloon best."

"Oh, yes, yes, he was the one that made it. Plus he'll replace that side we popped to get out of the balloon easier." Peppermint laughed heartily as he put the clipboard and pencil back in his saddlebag. Then, his laughter died and he was somber. "Now, it's best we get the elephant in the room out of the way..."

Double Diamond frowned, knowing just what was coming next.

"I hope you know that ponies don't look keenly on your town due to you ponies giving up your cutie marks to live in equality."

Double Diamond glanced away. "I'm well aware of that. Sometimes I wonder if anypony who derides us understand why we did so. We all felt as if we fell short of perfection, that our talents were useless, that we're the disappointment of our families and communities, and that others were better than us at the exact same talents. We were, like, pretty much giving up on life." Double Diamond sighed. "It was a poor choice on our part. I never realized how much I missed skiing when I was so-called 'equal' to my fellow ponies in town."

Peppermint nodded. "I see. A bout of discouragement with your special talent turned into despair and drove you to make a wrong choice, am I correct?"

Double Diamond winced, then nodded.

"That's not too different from ponies who turn to a life of crime because they think they're good for nothing else, or they're angry at the world for choosing that other pony with the same talent. I hear that happened to the outlaw Peppermint Stride; denied enrollment to dental school, married the sadistic Roanie, and they've been picking up other down-on-their-luck ponies and terrorizing towns until they were caught in Nickerlite nearly a month ago."

Double Diamond glared at him. "Thanks for comparing us to outlaws."

"M'kay, maybe that wasn't the best comparison," Peppermint said, rubbing his chin. "You're more like Jasper Horseshoe, a decent fellow who got caught up in that kind of madness and didn't quite realize it until he was caught, and turned around to the right path. Of course, you and your friends got caught up in a different kind of madness, but it's madness nonetheless."

Double Diamond snorted and kicked the snow. "It was madness, all right. Starlight had us wrapped around our hoof, and she still haunts us to this day. Even though I was her right hoof stallion, her most trusted lackey, the one most loyal to her... she still lied to me. To all of us."

Peppermint blinked. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but... how close were you to her?"

Double Diamond looked away in shame, brushing his hoof on the snow. Staring blankly at a patch of snow, he gathered his thoughts about those months when they were still equal. Back when she was still around, proclaiming her ideology and keeping everypony smiling their big fake smiles. Back when he had been looking at her in admiration, helping her every step of the way, unaware of her hidden mark.

With a sigh, he muttered, "Not as close as I thought."

Peppermint nodded. "I can't imagine what you've been through. But don't worry, I'm not going to judge you by what your former mayor did. What happened in that town is mainly her sin; I can tell you and your pals are healing and growing from the experience."

Double Diamond merely turned his head and gave a small smile.

That was when the rest of the skiers came down to the bottom of the hill and skidded to a stop, all of them laughing, sans Winter Mist, who while not smiling, was giving an approving nod. Evergreen and Crystal excitedly chattered, Cocoa Latte was bouncing, and Big Freeze tipped over and fell in the snow with hearty chuckles.

Winter Mist looked in the sky. "Where's that pegasus with the balloon?"

Before Double Diamond could answer, he was interrupted by Night Glider returning with Party Favor, and shouting, "You guys all done? Because we've got a great party to show you!"

Party Favor held his breath as he leaned on the edge of the balloon basket, standing by as the skiers talked. He had made some adjustments to the basket when Night Glider brought it in, including a compartment for the supplies that the Double Diamond and the committee were carrying, and a little trap door on the floor of the basket, activated by a lever. He felt silly for not including that earlier; then again, no one else knew how to work it.

As they flew closer and closer to town, his heart pounded against his chest, wondering what they'd think of the big surprise he had waiting there. The committee knew that they were throwing a party in order to prove their hospitality; but how would they react to the biggest and best manifestation of his own talent waiting there? Would they like it? Would they laugh like everyone else? Would they get angry about what could be considered the biggest joke in Equestria?

His brother and father had said that balloon modeling was a limited talent; Starlight used that argument to convince him to give up his cutie mark. Still, all the others had so much faith in him; he prayed with all his might that he would not let them down.

He looked down, and signaled for Night Glider to stop. This was it. Double Diamond had his moment of truth; now it was his turn.

He turned around and cleared his throat. "May I have your attention, please?"

When all those in the balloon stopped talking and turned to him, he said, "First of all, I'd like to thank you all for coming to our town. From what I could tell when picking you up, you all must have had a great time checking out the slopes."

The others murmured in assent.

Party Favor nodded. "That's great to hear! But the fun's not over yet!" He put a cork on his horn, and then onto Peppermint Chill's. Then he grabbed the lever. "I've got one last air drop for you to make... except there are no skis required!"

With that, he pulled the lever, the trap doors opened, and everypony plummeted out.

Their hollers and screams rang through the air, not only as they fell, but as they found themselves bouncing down a super slide made of balloons. The slide twisted and turned around the landscape, giving them a tour around the outskirts of town and showing them the rock formations, the pathway to the mine, the riverbanks where gardens and small orchards were grown, and the various houses around town that the townsfolk lived in. There were also several other things built by balloons around the slide, such as a bouncehouse, a little ring for some kind of match, and an obstacle course. The ponies were flying through hoops, leaping over balloons in a rubbery steeplechase, and shooting through a tunnel, and their screams had turned into laughter.

The ride ended in the Main Street, and they all slid into the main party, where everypony threw their snowy confetti, cheering and clapping at the grand entrance of the committee, ignoring the mess of manes standing on end, and more focusing on the awe on their faces.

Double Diamond and Party Favor slid in front of them, grinning as they threw their hooves open in presentation. They were joined by Night Glider descending from the sky (after hitching the balloon somewhere), and Sugar Belle holding several cupcakes in her magic and making them revolve around her.

Peppermint Chill stood up. "My word..."

Winter Mist was up as well. "Well... that was a wild ride."

Big Freeze stood up and sniffed the air. "Something smells good!"

As the twins and Cocoa Latte stood up, the four presenters parted to reveal Tomato Sandwich, bearing a smirk on his face as he accosted the committee. Dwarfing Peppermint Chill, he held out a hoof, and they shook a couple times before releasing.

"Well, well, well, I see the committee has arrived to the party!" He tightened his tie, and brushed off his jacket. "Did you like the balloon slide? It was built by none other than this town's very own Party Favor." He gestured to the blue unicorn, who waved cheerfully.

Evergreen and Crystal grinned at each other. The former shouted, "Dude, it was one of the greatest surprises we ever had!"

The latter nodded and added, "I had no idea that an entire fun fair could be built out of balloons!"

Cocoa Latte then said, "It must have taken him days to do that!"

Tomato laughed and pulled the cork off Peppermint Chill's horn. "Well, the miracle of Party Favor is that he created all of that and all the balloon decorations that you see around here. He's a wizard with balloons!"

He pointed to a large table at the side, with Sugar Belle standing near it and others sitting at it, waving at them as they presented their goodies. Tomato continued, "For that matter, you could call those ponies wizards of baking!" He pointed to some of the snowflake figurines made of glass and crystal, with some ponies by them waving. "And that those ponies are wizards of glass and crystal art, and those who mined them are wizards of... well, mining."

After some laughter coming from several others, he then pointed to the painters standing by the paintings over the windows. "We have wizards of painting, and wizards of sculpting, and wizards of building and fixing." He pointed to some of the rock snowponies, with some little foals pretending to ride them. "Okay, the foals didn't make those, but they're clearly having a good time."

He finally gestured to the roofs, were all the musicians--with both real instruments and those made of balloons--played an upbeat song. "And here are the wizards of music! As you can see, we are all pitching in to help make this party a memorable one!"

Peppermint Chill blinked. "Well... we weren't exactly asking for a party like this..."

Tomato bit his lip, and looked around at the other ponies, who looked nervous as well.

Peppermint smiled. "Still, I can't deny all the effort that went into this! Especially with what the little balloon wizard did!"

Party Favor backed up and blushed with a silly smile, waving a hoof. Double Diamond gave him a sly look, elbowed him, and said, "Don't be so modest, buddy."

Tomato breathed a sigh of relief. With a smirk, he said, "All right, go and try some stuff. There's a lot to do and eat. And feel free to ask what kind of services that some of the other folks do around here, they're itching to let you know!"

The first thing he heard was a ringing in his head. A high-pitched, unpleasant ring, which sounded more like a drawn-out, irritable squeak than the jingling of holiday bells. The first thing he tasted was the unpleasant taste of absolute blah that came in the mornings, taunting at him to try to wipe it away with breakfast. And his attempt to breathe through his nose brought about a snort, and he felt something slimy land on his tongue. He swallowed it, unfortunately adding it to his collection of phlegm.

Cheese felt an aching in his head, as if his brain had been squeezed by a minotaur using it as a stress ball. Clenching his teeth in some sort of attempt to will the ache away, his hooves slid out from under the covers, hoping to help ease the ache by rubbing his temples. His eyes, having felt like they had been glued shut sometime earlier, creaked open and slowly let the light into his pupils.

His vision was blurry for only a moment, but it soon cleared itself to reveal his place in the doctor's hut, surrounded by all the cabinets that contained medicine and equipment. Hoisting himself onto his haunches, he continued to rub his head, this time with one hoof, as he looked around. His other hoof made it's way to his throat, and he grumbled about how stuffy he felt there.

But, stuffy as his throat was, his throat was not sore anymore, that last snort made him able to breathe through his nose, and a few stretches of the front legs were already pouring energy into him. He finished his stretch and yawned, and then realized that other parts of his body felt tense. So, taking a deep breath, he hopped out of the bed, and then stretched his other legs, as well as his back, his neck, and his tail. A few satisfying pops came from his body, and he stood erect again, a smile coming across his face, knowing that Cheese Sandwich was as good as new.

Remembering the night before, his eyes widened as the last thing he remembered was Tomato running off after the stress of facing the town's angry mob got to him. He still remembered being too weak to chase after him, and after that... he passed out. He didn't know why he had passed out--maybe this annoying headache had something to do with it--but that didn't matter, because Tommy was still out there.

He gasped and cried in a still hoarse voice, "Oh, no! I gotta go find him!"

He hopped over the bed, threw open the door, and dashed out... only for sudden bright lights to blind him, and crash into another pony. The two fell into a heap, and Cheese's headache was more acute, and he felt the world spin all around him. He groaned, cursing himself for being so reckless.

"Excuse me, sir," the other pony said, crawling out from under Cheese. "Could you please watch where you're--hey! You're awake!"

Cheese shook his head--which unfortunately felt like his brain was rattling around in his skull--and he looked at the curly-haired, blue unicorn he crashed into. He simply stared at the other pony, trying to process the guy's name as he was helped up by the hoof.

"Are you all better from your cold?" the unicorn asked.

Cheese squinted his eyes, a list of names running through his mind. Hearty Flavor? Pretty Caper? Pouty Frowner? Potty Engraver?

He looked at his surroundings, realizing the assortment of treats, decorations, and musicians on the roofs that was all around him. He could smell the sweet scents of chocolate, lemon, strawberry, and vanilla, and he noticed the ponies all around laughing and smiling and chattering. Some were staring at him and whispering, and others were too busy munching on goodies to care. Blinking, he could have sworn that there wasn't a party here before.

Party... Party... Party Something...

"Uh... are you going to answer?" the blue unicorn asked cautiously.

He looked at him and said, "Oh, yeah, I'm fit as a fiddle, Party Pooper."

"Uh, it's Party Favor," the other stallion replied, with half-lidded eyes and a little twitch of the eyebrow. Then, he said, "And that's good to hear! Well, mostly, because you're still hoarse..."

Cheese replied in a mock serious tone, "A pony can be considered a miniature horse if you think about it."

Party Favor laughed. "You're silly, I like you!"

"Well, good! Because silly is my business!" he exclaimed, standing proudly for a moment.

Then a big frown came across his face as he remembered why he was out in the first place. He pawed at the ground as he looked around. "But we need to find my brother! There's no telling where he could gallop off to, or what dangers he'll end up facing without me to protect him!"

Party Favor waved his hooves. "Whoa, whoa, it's okay, Cheese, we found him last night. Come on, I'll lead you to him." He squinted his eyes as he scanned the party guests that were scattered along the street. "Now I know he's around here somewhere..."

He cleared his throat, and shouted, "Tomato! Tomato? Tomato, your brother's awake!"

Tomato Sandwich walked around the balloon fair, watching as ponies ran around and played in the various balloon attractions that Party Favor had made. He watched as several ponies bounced in the bouncehouse with whoops and hollers, and others played with some balloon carnival games. Then he turned his attention to a couple of ponies, playfully duking it out in the ring with balloon swords before one dramatically fell to the ground after the sword was plunged into his "heart". His eyes then went upward, seeing ponies climb to the beginning of the slide, and then bound down the bouncy tour. And then his gaze fell to the obstacle course, as the ponies scaled a balloon wall, weaved through balloon poles, and crawled under... balloon barbed wire? Well, nopony ever said that party ponies made sense.

Still, this party had turned out better than he imagined. Party Favor's fullest extent of his magic was amazing to say the least.

He scanned the ground as well, seeing some ponies surprisingly find fun in the dirt. Big Freeze was building sandcastles with a couple of foals, and Rooney was weaving a story for a small group of foals, magically manipulating the sand as three-dimensional illustrations. It seemed to be a story about pegasi and a big city.

He was going to trot toward the story, curious about what it was about, but his ear twitched upon hearing the call of his name. Turning, he started to trot toward the source of the voice, coming through the alley.

Sure enough, Party Favor popped out of the alley, looking from side to side; and he was swiftly followed by Cheese, who started coughing.

Tomato jumped at the sight of them. Seeing Cheese, he smiled and shouted, "Hey! I'm over here!"

The two party ponies turned to him, and Cheese sped to him like lightning, wrapping him in a tight squeeze. Tomato found himself unable to hug back; he was even having a hard time breathing, and he wondered why the hay he was behaving this way.

Cheese released him. "Tomato Sandwich, don't you dare run off in the wilderness like that! You don't know what's out there... heck, I don't know what's out there! You're lucky Party Favor and his friends found you when they did!"

Oh, that's why. It was weird how he was sounding like a parent--then again, Cheese was no stranger to Tommy doing something stupid. With a sigh, Tomato replied, "Yes, I know, I shouldn't have galloped away like that. I'm sorry that I worried you. So... did you have a good sleep?"

Cheese rubbed his head. "Ugh... I'm surprised the worry didn't keep me up... or this headache. Yeesh, where did it come from?"

"Your never-ending frustration with me," Tomato deadpanned.

Cheese nickered in annoyance. "Well... at least you're not hurt." He looked up, and jumped at the sight of the balloons. "Oh, wow! I've never seen balloon sculptures like that! Hehe, and they're being inflatable bouncy slides... and just... carnival games!"

Tomato smiled, and gestured to the approaching Party Favor. "That's his handiwork."

Cheese turned to Party Favor, who was giving him a sheepish smile. Cheese smiled, and said, "Oh, really?" When Party Favor nodded, Cheese continued, "Well, what did Cheesy Sense even bring me here for? You're capable of creating a fun fair entirely out of balloons!" He laughed as he watched ponies bounce down the super slide. "Seriously, my balloon sculptures don't even hold a candle to this..."

Party Favor breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh... I was worried that somepony used to creating big parties wouldn't be impressed. I mean, balloons are all I can do. I can't cook, I can't sing, and I had no idea how to organize this thing."

Cheese nudged him. "Hey, don't worry about it. I can't cook either." He coughed a couple times, prompting Tomato and Party Favor to scoot away. With a cheesy grin, he added, "And I don't think I can sing at the moment... stupid phlegm..."

Party Favor chuckled. "Well... call me crazy, but... what if your 'Cheesy Sense' thing led you guys here because we needed Tomato?"

Cheese blinked, and then scrunched his nose and rubbed the back of his head. "Uh..."

Tomato sighed. "That's not how it works. It tells him where a party is going to be thrown and if it needs him to give it a little 'oomph.' I'm not part of the equation. I just happened to be on a summer road trip with him when Cheesy Sense led him here."

Party Favor looked away. "Oh, well then, uh..." He cleared his throat. "Forget I said that. I have a history of saying stupid things." He looked to where Rooney sat with the foals, and then started trotting toward there. "I wonder what he's doing..."

Once he left the Sandwiches alone, the two looked at each other.

Cheese coughed a couple of times. "So... uh, what'd you do for the party? Did you take another shot with the coffee thing?"

Tomato shook his head. "Nah, I'm never doing that again. It was stupid and I never should have done it; I got in trouble for it before, what made me think I wouldn't get in trouble now? I'm lucky there's no formal police force here."

"Oh. So..."

"Oh, I just checked out what kind of talents everypony had, organized them into teams, and then made sure they did their job in setting up the party. I also got a little help from railroad workers from across the way." Then he muttered under his breath, "After a little arguing with their boss."

Cheese nodded. "I see."

"Yep."

They stood silently and awkwardly for a moment, before Cheese said, "It's pretty good, considering your limits and the fact that we're in the middle of nowhere..."

"Helps to be teamed up with a pony with an infinite supply of balloons," Tomato chuckled. He looked at Party Favor, who was sitting with the foals watching and listening to the tale that Rooney was telling. "At first I thought that his balloons were nothing more than a hindrance on the party we were planning, since that's the only thing he could summon; turns out, it's actually the best part of this thing."

Cheese was nodding as he looked around at all the ponies having fun among the balloon attractions. "No doubt about it! Then again, I wanna try them, just to be sure." He pulled his brother to his side. "But, seeing as he said that he didn't have any clue on how to organize it... maybe you were the one he needed. I ought to give both of you a gold star."

"Well, thank--" Tomato was interrupted by Cheese slapping a golden, star-shaped sticker on his chest. Staring at it with a blank look on his face, he muttered, "This thing has my name on it."

"I was saving it," Cheese said, turning in order to trot to Party Favor.

Tomato sighed and rolled his eyes with a smirk. "At least it tells me that this party's better than my first attempt years ago. Psht, or even the last time I worked with a member of Party Favor's family for sure."

Cheese stopped and turned. "Huh? Did you work with Silk Shimmer or something?"

Tomato blinked. "Well, uh, yes... remember, when we were in Las Pegasus, and she and I were getting money from Kazam to help Silver Shill?"

Cheese furrowed his brow. "But... we didn't go to Las Pegasus. I guess Silk Shimmer did, but not us."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Yes, we did. There was a Magic Expo you were helping with, your loudmouth friend Trixie was there--"

"Oh, Trixie! I haven't seen her in a long time--wait, you know that I'm friends with her? How?"

"I met her in Las Pegasus! And surely you remember the creepy arrogance that defines Kazam, right? I mean, he's hard to forget, especially after..." Tomato rubbed the back of his head, not wanting to say it out loud, out of fear of both Cheese getting upset over it and the possibility of Party Favor overhearing. Plus, he still felt queasy just thinking about it, especially as he licked his teeth, and two certain spots on his back tingled.

"After what?" Cheese asked.

Tomato groaned. "Forget it. You don't want to be reminded. After all, it's hard to believe that Kazam and Party Favor are brothers."

Cheese scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Okay, sure, Mr. Moody, have fun reminiscing about your imaginary trip to Las Pegasus, where you won a lot of bits gambling, got drunk and danced your legs off, got it on with some showmares, and, psht, soared like an eagle. Because that definitely aligns well with your stuffy and prudish personality."

Tomato glared at him. "Stop mocking me and just bounce down the slide."

"All right, then, I'll just have some fun in current reality." He turned around and walked off.

When he noticed Party Favor walking back from where Rooney and the foals had sat, apparently having finished the story, he stopped him, put a gold star on his chest, and patted his back with a smile. Party Favor smiled back, and when Cheese trotted off, his face fell into a big frown.

Party Favor looked up at Tomato, and then back at Cheese. "Why couldn't I have a brother like yours? Why did I have to have stupid Kazam as a brother?"

Tomato's heart skipped a beat. "What?"

Party Favor walked to the nearest building and sat against the wall. He was joined by Tomato, who sat beside him and waited for the reason why Party Favor was unhappy.

Looking at the dirt, Party Favor said, "I can't believe it. Rooney was telling those foals a little story... which turned out to be some awful news that happened in Las Pegasus a couple weeks ago, involving my older brother of all ponies."

Tomato blinked. "He was?"

"Wouldn't you believe it, Kazam made the vampire real. Doing the classic fusion technique on an innocent pony and vampire bat, and then siccing them on his audience... and then on the entire city..." He sighed and turned to Tomato. "Please tell me that he's just making it up? That he's lying about how it had been all over the news, and that ponies actually did turn into vampires, and that it Kazam really wasn't emulating our crazy ancestor that did the werewolf thing!"

Tomato was silent for a moment, thinking about what had transpired that week, and how much it still haunted him, and haunted Cheese as well, clearly going pretty far with his denial. On the one hoof, he didn't want to upset Party Favor even further, with the knowledge that a member of his own family--even one that he didn't like that much--had in fact committed a serious crime against equinity. On the other hoof, it shouldn't be that Party Favor live in ignorance. Plus, if Party Favor had told him about Starlight, it was fair that Tomato do the same.

He sighed. "Rooney's not lying. There was, in fact, a vampire attack in Las Pegasus, started by your brother..." He looked at Party Favor, gauging his reaction. "And I was his pawn."

Then, Tomato continued on about how the incident came about. He talked about how he and Silk Shimmer were helping somepony start a business, in order to pay his sister's medical bills. He talked about how they got caught in Kazam's trap, falling under his hypnosis, and how Tomato himself had ended up fused with a vampire bat, which in turn transformed him into a vampire. Finally, he talked about how even though he can't remember much about it, he had been an animal attacking Kazam's audience, sucking their blood, and transforming them into vampires. All had been hypnotized, all had attacked innocent ponies, and then Cheese...

Tomato squeezed his eyes shut. "He was doing all he could to stop the madness. Given that he planned the Expo, I can see why he felt a responsibility toward the whole thing. Still, in the process of fighting vampires and making them snap back to their senses, Kazam used me to catch him, and then try to kill him. The only reason Cheese survived was that he punched me in the face to snap me out of it. Even so, the moment I saw him falling... that was the most terrifying moment of my life. I almost lost him. I'm glad that I was able to save him, but... what if I wasn't fast enough? What if I had missed?"

Party Favor put a hoof on Tomato's shoulder. "I'm sorry that Kazam caused you trouble. He was always a jerk, but I never thought he'd go that far."

"Well, he did. I'm just glad the Princesses turned all the vampires back to normal. Heck, Princess Twilight tested the cure on me," Tomato said with a little smirk. He frowned again. "I'm sorry that you had to hear bad news involving family of yours. If only I could give you good news about your sister, but I don't know her current status right now. Last I saw her, she was turning a de-powered Kazam in."

Party Favor gave him a sad smile. "Like I said, I wish I had a brother like yours. Or like Double Diamond. At least they wouldn't pull off any stunts like he did." He snorted and threw his front legs up. "Ugh, why, Kazam, why did you do that? What made him think that he could get away with it? What was the point?!"

"I wish I knew," Tomato said. He licked his teeth, expecting to be pricked. He looked up at the balloon fair once again, noting that how Party Favor's greatest achievement thus far was creative, while Kazam's had been destructive.

Party Favor leaned in his hoof. "My life is full of maniacal unicorns. My and my lousy luck."

"D'oh, you know more non-maniacal unicorns than maniacal ones."

"Mmm... my mom, my sister... my dad, I suppose..." He smiled. "Sugar Belle... a bunch of other unicorns in town..."

"Yeah. That's good to hear."

Party Favor drew on the ground. "Speaking of Mom and Dad... I hope they're alright. I want to be sure, but how do I send a letter without a post office?"

One member of the ski committee, Winter Mist, trotted by, and then stopped when she noticed Cheese bouncing down for another turn down the slide. Backing up, Winter gave him a stink eye, and said, "Wait a minute... what is he doing here?"

Tomato blinked, and then stood up. "Oh, my brother? You recognize him?"

Winter turned to him. "Well, yeah, he was in Halterside earlier this month." She squinted her eyes and rubbed her chin. "Say, aren't you his stooge that performed with him against those con ponies?"

Tomato's eye twitched. "Brother. And thanks for reminding me about that humiliation."

"Ah. So, it seems that he must have done something here for the party. After all, Cheese Sandwich is the so-called 'Super Duper Party Pony', am I right?"

Party Favor stood up. "Thing is, he was sick for the past few days, so it was me and Tomato planning it. Or, rather, me building the big balloon fair, him organizing the rest of the town to build this party, and just... everyone, really. Except Cheese, because of a cold."

Tomato nodded. "And while Cheese is better now... he still didn't have any part in this. As far as he says, we've done pretty good."

Winter raised an eyebrow, and then smiled. "My cohorts think that both the snow and the welcoming attitude make this a prime spot for a new ski resort."

Tomato's face brightened when he heard that. "Really?"

Winter nodded. "What can I say? I think these ponies are ready for visitors."

Tomato leaped into the air, Party Favor clapping along. "Yes! I knew they could do it!" When he landed, he suddenly remembered something important about where this mare was from. Here was the chance to ask about how Silver Shill was doing.

Taking a deep breath, he braced himself for any bad news. "Oh, I was meaning to ask you--"

"Date denied, I'm not interested."

Party Favor giggled, and Tomato glared at her. "That's not what I was going to ask. I was going to ask about the, uh, new pizzeria in that town? Because a couple of friends I made are running it and--"

"Oh, that?" Winter Mist said, tilting her head. She nodded, and said, "Silver Shill and that... Shimmer lady, opened it around Summer Sun. I'm surprised that it's so popular, given that Shilly's the biggest dork in town. But, nevertheless, we in Halterside have embraced the Pirate Ship Pizzeria."

Party Favor blinked. "Shimmer lady... you mean Silk Shimmer?"

"I think that's her name," Winter remarked.

"It is her name," Tomato said. "And it sounds like she's doing well."

Party Favor beamed. "At least I have some good news about my family." He tapped his chin, and turned to Winter. "Say, uh, I hope you don't mind if I write a letter to her and have you deliver it. I don't know the address, and we don't have a post office--"

"Eh, sure, why not," Winter answered. "I guess I could tell her that I met her brother."

"Oh, she'll be over the moon! I can't wait to tell her about my friends Sugar Belle, and Double Diamond, and Night Glider..." Party Favor bore a sheepish grin. "Oh, boy, I'm going to have to tell her about the whole Starlight thing. And let her know that I know about what our brother did. Hmm... maybe I shouldn't--"

"Hey," Tomato said. "Don't keep her hanging. I was worried over a missing sibling once, and it's not fun. It's better that you be honest than let your sister worry about your whereabouts."

Party Favor blinked, and then nodded. "All right. I best get to writing that thing. Who knows... maybe she'll write back and tell me how Mom and Dad are handling the whole thing that Kazam did."

With that, Party Favor galloped off to his house. Then, after a moment, Winter shrugged, and then walked off.

Tomato was alone, feeling like he was floating from the good news he received. Even the recent revisiting of the nightmare in Las Pegasus wasn't dampening his spirit. He looked up at the sky, and felt as if the sun was shining on him. He turned to look at his flank. Maybe... just maybe, he was doing something right with the cutie mark he got.

He jumped when Cheese suddenly touched down next to him. With a laugh, Cheese hollered, "Woo! That balloon slide was a blast!" He frowned and rubbed his head. "Or at least it would have been better if my brain didn't feel like it was rattling in my skull. Geez..."

"Must be a lingering thing from the cold," Tomato said.

"Yeah... maybe...." Cheese looked at him. "So, anything new on your part?"

"Just found out about how well that pirate ship pizzeria is doing in Halterside, and that this town might actually be approved for the ski resort." He glanced at Cheese. "Say, could we stay long enough so I could help Double Diamond seal the deal?"

Cheese shrugged. "Eh, sure. Maybe I need another day of rest before I get back to being a party pony."

"Sweet." Tomato looked up at the sky. "Say, I just thought of something..."

"What?"

"We found Pinkie's long lost aunt. And we found Silk Shimmer's long lost brother. So..."

Cheese rubbed his chin. "You think we might find our long lost aunt Honeydew?"

Tomato brushed at his sleeve. "Maybe. I mean, it's not likely, given you've been all over the place and haven't seen her, but--"

Cheese put a hoof on Tomato's mouth. "Tommy... I have a feeling we'll find out what happened to her. Maybe she got some sort of 'Seddie shame' that made her embarrassed to return, or maybe she became an adventurer like Daring Do and lost track of time, or maybe..." Cheese frowned. "Maybe she..."

Tomato removed the hoof. "Maybe it was what we were told, and she's just mad at our grandparents and Mom?"

"Maybe, I don't know." Cheese gave him a somber look. "Or maybe she's dead."

The party was done, the deal for the ski resort was sealed, and a lot of ponies--both resident and guest--went to bed happy. All day, Double Diamond had heard much praise for Party Favor, who was being called the "Balloon Wizard", and for the treats that Sugar Belle and her team had made. Some of the railroad workers had gathered some of the goodies to bring to the coworkers back working at the railroad, and he was expecting some more of those workers to come by and buy some in the coming days. Oh, boy, he had to help Sugar Belle restock her supplies again.

And Tomato Sandwich? Between organizing the whole thing and helping with the business deal, there was no doubt that the town had forgiven him for the coffee incident. It was a shame that he and his brother were leaving the next day, but they were happy that he had come.

Double Diamond did one last thing before retiring for the night.

He visited the vault once again, carefully stepping around the shards of glass and growing closer and closer to the familiar panel. He still remembered when it once glowed, and held the cutie marks of him and his friends. He looked up at one box, marking it as the one that stored his.

He looked down at the former Staff of Sameness, remembering when he had used it to shatter the panel to set the cutie marks free. He found it funny that restoring his cutie mark also restored his hair, as well as the hair of his friends. He picked up the staff and put it on the pedestal, and eyed the spot where a plaque could be made.

He looked up once again. This was this town's scar. A reminder of a horrid deed done. And instead of hiding it, perhaps it could be used to teach visitors as to why a cutie mark shouldn't be removed--or any vital part of a pony's identity, such as a memory. As much as it hurt, he realized that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

He looked at the cave floor. This place needed cleaning up.

Author's Note

And now Cheese is all better! Well, not all better, he's still a little hoarse. And has a headache. And can't remember what happened in Las Pegasus (or the moments leading up to the memory removal as well).

Also, we get to see what Party Favor did. Yay!

And thus... I believe I'll end the Our Town arc here, and move on to the next one.

13.3--Lost in Manehattan

Little Tommy galloped as fast as his little legs could carry him. He didn't dare look back to see if he had lost that tall foalnapper claiming that he was Cheese. That would require him slowing down, possibly getting caught by the crazy pony and getting shoved back in that diaper. He didn't need a diaper! He was a big boy, completely potty trained since he had been a toddler!

The rhythm of his hooves on the pavement was rapid, accompanied by the yelps and screams of pedestrians, the grinds and squeals of carriages coming to a sudden halt, and the heavy breathing that stung his throat. His eyes were straight forward, guiding him as he weaved through the legs of many adult ponies, around other foals, and straight across streets. He didn't know quite how far he was going, but he wanted to put some distance between him and that not-brother.

Soon, his legs got tired and his feet hurt. Knowing that he was slowing down, he turned a corner, and let himself slow his gallop to a canter, his canter to a trot, and his trot to a walk before he plopped down on his bottom and panted. His forehead had gotten a little moist due to sweat, and his four legs felt like jelly. His lungs were like balloons inflating and deflating repeatedly to put pressure in his little chest, and his grayish pink tongue lolled out as breaths rushed in and out of his stinging throat.

He looked up. Before him was a great junction, with two big streets crossing in an X. On the buildings surrounding those streets, billboards proudly hung over the hundreds of ponies that strolled through the junction, illuminated with lights and boasting the images of products and shows they advertised. The air was humming with the drones and chatters of the ponies around him, with Tomato barely making out phrases such as one pony saying he was gonna be late for something, another complaining about losing his bits, and a mare mumbling about a gang of dogs howling in the subway.

He stood up and trotted around, looking up at the billboards. While he had walked down this road before with his grandparents and brother, the flashing lights never failed to amaze him. Some pictures he was drawn to, like the one with the alicorn witch, another with Spider-Colt, another with snowflakes, and another with a serious-looking lion, that to which he bore his teeth at and growled playfully. From what he was able to read on the billboards, he guessed that there were plays about them or something, since Cheese had told him that there were a bunch of theaters at or near this intersection.

Then it hit him that he was alone. Well, he wouldn't say he was alone since he was in a crowd, weaving through the legs of grown up ponies. Even so, there was no presence of Gramma, Grampa, or Cheese, which was enough for him to feel alone. The buildings stretched up for what seemed to him miles, and he wondered what it'd be like if they got knocked down like his building blocks.

Tomato had crossed the street as he put his mind back on track. He jumped on a lamppost, and leaned from it in order to look around. He felt a pit in his stomach as his eyes darted back and forth, hoping to spot somepony he knew. One side of the street had him picking out some dude with a gold tooth, a mane styled to be shaped like a boot, and a bunch of ponies wearing headbands resembling Mare Harmony's crown. The other side of the street boasted a cowpony strumming his guitar, some guy with a big, bushy mustache, and a quartet of mares dressed like Princess Celestia, that pink princess he forgot the name of, and two other princesses, blue and purple, that he could not recognize. When did they get new princesses?

He pressed his cheek on the post. "Maybe they're home? Yeah, I think they went home." He scowled and hopped off the post, landing with the hardest stomp he could. "I can't believe they left me at the park when I was taking a nap! Ugh, that's really mean!" He stomped forward, ignoring the ponies staring at him. "I'm gonna yell at them so loud for leaving me there and letting a creepy guy put a diaper on me and making me walk home by myself! They better say sorry!"

He paused to find himself at another street just past the junction. He scanned the blocks before him, down the street to his left, and down the street to his right. He looked behind him at the junction, and then back forward, a sense of dread filling up his barrel.

"Uh... which way is home?"

Cheese Sandwich told Coco Pommel the story about what happened to Tomato. Much of the story was told after Coco had Flower Garland look after the party site and went with the lanky stallion in search of the runaway colt deep in the city. She merely nodded as Cheese rambled on about a cave, a millennium-old unicorn mare, and Tomato apparently communicating with bats. The farther he went with his story, the crazier he sounded.

"So..." Coco said, trying to process what had just been told to her. "Are you absolutely sure that the Fountain of Youth exists, and that you don't just have some kind of head injury? Because I can take you to a hospital if you do."

Cheese sighed and rolled his eyes. "I think seeing that age-up back at the park should be proof enough. And my head's just fine, no injury present whatsoever." He rubbed his head, thinking, Unless you count a stolen memory as one.

Coco stared at the sidewalk, idly taking note of the rhythm of her hooves and those of the ponies passing them by. "That was rather strange... this entire situation is rather strange..." She looked up at him again. "So, if he's aging up back to being, uh, a college student... what does he look like at that age? You know, in case he ages up again before we find him."

Cheese pulled out the polka dot wallet, opened it, and let a list of pictures fall out. "Here you go."

Coco blinked at the photos before her, and then smiled. "Is that your girlfriend?"

Cheese nearly jumped upon hearing that, and he looked at the string of pictures, which, of course, were of Pinkie Pie being her funny, bubbly self. A belly flop, to some stills of her dancing, several goofy faces, her with her friends, several depicting past party collaborations, and scenes of the Pie-Sandwich duo were among the pictures, and he could feel the heat rising in his face. Coco smiled in a sweet and congratulatory manner as she perused the photos.

He grinned and chuckled nervously as he folded the photos back into the wallet. "Eh, uh, no no! She's just a friend... you know, a fellow party pony? We sometimes throw parties together... in fact we did that just a few days ago!" He cleared his throat and started sifting through the wallet. "Professional relationship."

Coco tilted her head with a curious expression. "Doesn't seem professional to me."

Cheese ignored that last sentence, and unveiled the list of photos which had Tomato in them. "Here we are! Behold the real age of Tomato Sandwich."

Coco examined the photos one by one, starting from the top with him as a tiny foal, and going down to see him grow up, ending with several adult pictures at the bottom. "My, he grows up to be handsome! And yet... so, uh... grouchy." She looked up at Cheese. "How'd that happen?"

Cheese folded the pictures back in the wallet and stored it away. "I don't exactly have all the details, but life in this town essentially beat him down to a shell of his former self." He shook his head, and he and Coco continued forward. "Poor boy has always been sensitive, and he's been trying to hide it in order to protect himself." He sighed. "I don't really like to think about it, since it invariably leads to..."

He went quiet, looking down on the ground as he ambled down the street. A scene of a cold, dark night flashed before him, and he felt as if he was eleven again, with a bindle on his back and his eyes straight forward, scanning the streets with the clearest vision his glasses could provide him. A black hole resided in his belly, sucking every emotion from him to the point that his heart ached. All through his mind, the laughter of bullies, the voice of his mother cracking like a whip, and his own self-deprecating thoughts echoed. At the forefront of his mind, there was a guilty-looking dark-haired colt and a broken accordion. The very sight of those two things together had anger bubbling within him, fueling him forward even as the black hole ate the emotion.

I'm never going back, he thought, feeling the venom in that statement. I'm never going back... I'm never going back... I'm never going back...

"Leads to what?" Coco asked with concern.

Cheese shook his head, and he was back in the present, with several ponies grumbling as they walked around him and Coco. He rubbed his head, cursing himself for flashing back to that fateful night. He reminded himself that he had forgiven Tomato for the accordion incident, that he had been a colt at the time and hadn't been thinking straight, and that he was currently in a happier time of his life. Had Pinkie not been there to open that door, who knows what would have happened?

Thinking about Tomato's transformation from happy colt to grumpy stallion, he wondered if that would have happened.

The thought of himself as a depressed pony with a boring job was uncomfortable. It was enough to start up another dull headache, doomed to sharpen in the near future. Glancing up at the Manehattan skyline, he felt constricted just thinking about all these towers and ponies surrounding him all the time, and these thoughts were already draining him of precious party-planning energy.

He snorted. "Never mind that, Coco. We have a small child to find."

At Times Square, Cheese and Coco had approached several ponies, asking if they seen a little colt, rolling out the series of Tomato's photos to show them what he looked like. The responses were varied in tone to say the least.

"Is that your son? Sorry, I haven't seen him."

"Nope, didn't see him, gotta go somewhere, bye!"

"Keep an eye on your kid, stupid!"

"Uh, which one? They all look like the same pony growing up..."

"Why don't you just go to the police?"

"Your Cheese Sandwich costume is great, but your shirt's the wrong shade of yellow."

Cheese gave that pony--one in a group of four dressed as princesses--an odd look. "Eh? Okay, first off, my shirt's not the wrong shade of yellow, it's always been this shade of yellow since I started wearing it. And second... that's not what I was asking."

The mare scoffed. "Whatever. Come on, girls, we can't reason with colts about color. They've always been a bit colorblind."

Cheese furrowed his brow. "Hey!"

The quartet of princess cosplayers giggled as they trotted away, leaving behind an annoyed Cheese and a confused Coco. The former sat and rubbed his temples, grumbling about a headache, while the other patted his back.

"There, there, I'm sure we'll find somepony who spotted him," she said.

Finally, they asked the cowpony on the corner. The cowpony simply pointed to the photo of the five-year-old, confirming that he did indeed see the colt, having been hanging from a lamppost and looking around the square. After expressing that the kid looked lost and pointing the two ponies the direction of where he went, Cheese thanked him and he and Coco went on their way.

"Where do you think he's going?" Coco asked as they left the junction.

"Isn't it obvious? He's either looking for our grandparents and me--eight-year-old me, that is--or trying to go home," Cheese answered. "Problem is, at that age, he doesn't really have a good sense of direction. For all we know, he could have gone in circles and ended up just about anywhere in this town! Heck, wouldn't it be ironic if he circled all the way back to the park?"

"Why don't we go to the police, like that one guy said? They might be able to help."

Cheese shook his head. "As if they'll believe my story about the Fountain. Heck, what'll happen if they do find him? Tommy will just scream and accuse me of kidnapping, and I'll get arrested before I have a chance to explain the situation. So... I'm not too keen on getting the police involved."

Coco rubbed her chin. "I forgot that he can't remember past that age."

Cheese chuckled. "You know, what's funny is that at his toddler stage, he didn't mind hanging around me. Usually, stranger anxiety is a thing at that age, and I'm practically a stranger to him until he's about... uh... I'll say teenager, he'll recognize me then."

They stopped at a corner, and looked forward, left, and right to decide which way they'll go. Cheese continued, "It's like he subconsciously knew that I was big brother Cheesy, even though I'm not five, not wearing my glasses, and very clearly have a different voice."

Coco blinked. "That's strange."

Cheese whickered, and shimmied up the nearest lamppost to hang upside-down from it, much to a few other ponies' confusion. "I wonder if any other repressed memories are poking out like that."

That was when he noticed a red-orange pony in the middle of the street about a block or two away. As far as he could tell, the pony was tiny, had dark hair, and apparently had his hoof stuck on a wad of chewing gum that had been left there. Cheese brightened at the sight and laughed, shouting, "I knew looking from another point of view would help! Tommy at 12 o' clock!"

Coco looked up at him and smiled. "That's wonderful!"

Cheese continued to grin as he kept his eye on the colt, but his jaw dropped when along came a speeding taxi carriage that was around the corner and several blocks away, the number dwindling every second. The carriage had a crying driver and a passenger wielding a whip as he screamed "Faster!" The cracks of the whip rang through the streets, causing a few of the pedestrians to murmur in confusion, including Coco.

Cheese picked up the command of "you better turn left at 41st", and looked at the street signs at the corner that the little pony he was focused on was. His heart stopped when he realized that Tomato was right in that path--and that carriage didn't seem to be slowing down.

His heart resuming back to a heavy drumbeat, he flipped himself right side up and pulled a rubber band out of his mane. He looped it on the lamppost he sat on, and then jumped across the street to loop it onto the other lamppost. Seeing as the bad was secure, he hopped to the middle, leaned his back on it as he descended to the street, and caught a different carriage heading up to the square with his hind leg. He shifted the band's position on his back to make sure it'd launch correctly.

Ponies watched him as he did this, and murmuring loudly about what the hay was this stunt and questioning why he was doing it. Coco in particular shouted, "What are you doing?!"

"Saving my brother, of course!" Cheese replied.

He freed his hind hoof from his ride, and he was slingshotted down the road, zipping straight toward Tomato like a bullet. Ponies ducked and gasped as he zoomed overhead, and before he knew it, just before the whip-happy maniac was around the corner, Cheese grabbed the smaller pony, curled up to protect him, and bounced and rolled down the sidewalk before bumping into a discarded pile of trash. Once there, he uncurled from his ball, and exhaled a great sigh of relief.

He looked up the street, seeing the skid marks and the resulting wreckage of that speeding carriage, and patted the little pony's back. "It's okay, buddy, you're safe now."

Then the other pony said, "Do I know you?"

Wait a minute, that voice is too deep. Cheese's eyes widened, and he held the little pony up in order to examine him. Wait a minute, his eyes are brown! Wait a minute he has a mustache! Processing this new information, he grinned sheepishly, realizing that these factors made this pony decidedly not Tomato.

The little pony glared at him. "Do you mind putting me down?!"

Cheese set him down, and stood up, giving an uncomfortable smile toward the pony he towered over. "Excuse me, sir, but I couldn't help but notice you were stuck in the street, and there was a carriage coming after you, so..."

"I wasn't stuck! I'm an ABC gum collector! And what do you mean by...?" The little pony turned, and jumped at seeing the wreckage. "Holy smokes! You saved my life!"

Cheese rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, uh, it was nothing."

He felt something being slapped into his free hoof, and looked down to find a bag of bits in it. As he stared at the bag, the little pony patted Cheese's hoof, and said, "Get yourself something nice," before trotting off, humming a merry tune.

"Uh... thanks?" Cheese mumbled.

Cheese still stared at the bag, even when Coco finally managed to catch up with him. She paused to catch her breath, though between seeing the pony leave and the bag in Cheese's hoof, she caught on to how that exchange went. After taking a deep breath, she said, "Well... wasn't your brother, but... I suppose those spare bits will be useful in the future."

Without turning to her, Cheese mumbled, "I don't know what to do with this."

Little colts were not known to have well thought out plans. An end goal was one thing, but taking the steps to the goal was important, and those details were often tough for them to figure out at that age. Tomato Sandwich was one such colt, and his main goal was to go back home; however, he was smart enough to think of one other step he needed to take in order to achieve said goal: find the bridge or take a ferry.

He remembered that his home was on the other side of a large river--his grandparents always took him and Cheese across a bridge to the main part of the city. If he could just cross it, then finding his house would be easy.

He walked down many streets and turned many corners, hoping to catch the sight of water in his vision. So far, he came across none, just turning around many buildings, from tall to super tall. In turning corners for what seemed like forever, he soon discovered that he was going around in circles like ring-around-the-rosies. With a sigh, he just decided to go straight, figuring he'd hit water sooner or later.

Tomato wandered into one neighborhood, with brick apartments decorated with plenty of fire escapes descending from each floor. Sports courts within cages took up one block, surrounded on three sides by the buildings. There was another building that he swore was a school, several others that were stores (especially the one with the fruit stand), and another that... he didn't quite know. Alleyways boasted graffiti that were half-legible for a five-year-old mind, and one such profane word popped up that put the taste of soap upon Tommy's tongue. Celestia knows that he wouldn't make the mistake of repeating that word again!

As he strolled through the neighborhood, he started to hear a rhythmic tapping. Blinking, he looked around the street before finding the source of the tapping from the basketball court, where a group of teenage colts leaned against the fence all clicked their hooves on the pavement, just glaring off into space.

Tilting his head with a curious pout, Tomato started to copy them.

Across the street, another group of teenagers were just walking past. Their ears twitched as they heard the tapping, and they slowly turned to the first group with narrowed eyes. They responded with their own clicks, walking down that side of the road with spiteful caution.

The first group stood up, and slowly approached the second group, almost in a dance-like motion that made Tomato giggle. The second group turned, and performed different moves while meeting them halfway. Tomato giggled some more as they kept on tapping their hooves, swaying in their steps, and spinning. When the two leaders were face to face, Tomato held his breath, awaiting the musical number he was sure was about to begin.

The first leader gave his rival a shove. After staggering back, the other stomped forward and responded in kind. There came a hoof to the face for the second leader, and he responded with his own, but hard enough that it knocked the first to his rump. The first gang tried to swarm him, but those on the other side were not about to let them do that. Soon, both gangs were caught up in a rumble, varying between rearing up and bashing each other with their front hooves, bucking at each other, and throwing pebbles from the street at each other.

Tomato gasped. "Hey! Stop that! Why are you fighting?"

Only one gang member noticed him, and snapped, "You stay out of this, you little rat!"

Tomato scowled and stamped a hoof. "I'm not a rat!" He stood up and waved his hooves. "Now, stop it! What'd they ever do to you?!"

They still didn't listen, with most unaware that he even existed. Seeing several of the other ponies in the area look straight at him, shake their heads, and wave their hooves across their throats before heading indoors, Tomato realized that he should probably keep his mouth shut. He backed up, seeing that the fight was starting to widen, and he looked around for a place to hide.

Suddenly, he felt something bullet past his ear and nearly slash it, making his heart leap into his throat. Grabbing his ear out of reflex, he took a quick look at what that was, and saw a knife embedded diagonally in one of the brick walls. He remembered the time that he couldn't find the scissors in cutting a piece of paper, so he opted for a knife instead--he ended up needing stitches. With that in mind, a surge of fright overcame him, and he bolted in the other direction, screaming. He didn't want to see if any of those meanies was going to end up hurting him, knife or otherwise, and he didn't even notice some of the residents beckoning him in order to provide him shelter.

"You monster! Your knife nearly killed a kid!"

"You threw the stupid thing!"

Cheese peeked out from behind one lamppost, scanning the street for the small colt. Coco followed suit, looking in the opposite direction from Cheese. They looked right, and they looked left, and they looked up and down the streets. So far, no sight of anyone who was even five.

Coco blinked, and they were suddenly across the street, looking out from behind a different lamppost. Dazed from the sudden trip, she quickly looked back and forth and across the street, and shook her head in not being able to spot him.

Another blink, and they were yet at another lamppost at the next corner. She gasped and looked at Cheese, who didn't seem fazed one bit by the sudden teleport from that one side of the street to this corner. She scratched her head, wondering how he didn't even notice.

Another blink, and they were at a different corner. Another had them going down an entire block. And other went another block, scaring a hot dog vendor. Trips that lasted minutes on foot were now literally at the blink of an eye, and Coco was feeling sick to her stomach with these instant trips. She wasn't sure what was happening and why, but with each blink, it was becoming clear that Cheese was pulling it somehow.

They were at the Equire State Building when she finally begged, "Stop with this teleporting!"

Cheese blinked. "Huh?"

Coco peeled herself away from the lamppost and took a good look at Cheese's forehead. A slight breeze blew the forelock, proving any assumptions she had wrong. "I'm sorry, Cheese, but I've got a bit of nausea and I'm a little dizzy from our, uh, kind of impossible jumps from lamppost to lamppost. I get you're trying to search for your brother as fast as you can, but I need a break."

Cheese's eyes went downcast. "Am I freaking you out?"

Coco rubbed her leg. "Maybe just a little..."

Cheese leaned on the lamppost. "You're not the first. Sorry about that."

"Oh! I didn't mean to offend you, I just--"

Cheese held a hoof up to silence her. "It's all right, you didn't mean any harm. Really, I think you might have saved me from scaring some uptight jerk who'll call the police and get me in trouble again."

"Again?"

"Yep. I've got plenty of stories of me accidentally getting ponies on my case here." Cheese leaned on the post and then slid down to his rump. "Sometimes I wonder if Mom was right to advise me to keep it on the down low."

A moment of silence passed, with Cheese looking up at the tall building before him. After a moment of staring, Coco noticed that he was looking less at the building and more off into space. He had done that earlier, but there was less context for this than the last time. There was at least something about being beaten down, and here it was just something about that strange magic he was exhibiting.

Coco tapped her chin. "Is there anything else you can do track your brother?"

Cheese snapped out of his trance, and stood up. "Oh, uh, sorry about that, just thinking about times that my so called 'freak nature' would have helped me had I thought to use it, or wasn't too scared to use it, or even could use it--ahem." He turned to look at his flank. "Well, maybe if he grows up to his miserable years, I might be able to sense him..."

Coco tilted her head.

Cheese glanced at her, noting her questioning look. "Oh, my Cheesy Sense! It leads me to wherever a party that needs my touch is--wingding, hoedown, hootenanny, shindig, you name it! It also lets me know if there's another party pony around or if there's somepony that needs me to get down on a more personal level with them to make them happy. Guess who ended up activating that last function."

"Wow, so you're psychic?"

"Eh... not necessarily." Cheese started bopping his flank with his hoof. "If only I could rewire it to being able to track him whenever I needed to, and not just when he's seriously unhappy... or needs a Cutecenera or Mark Mitzvah or whatever you want to call it."

He sighed. "I hope he's still in one piece. Let's keep looking. I'll keep the lamppost thing to a minimum."

His hooves were killing him and his legs felt like rubber. He was so out of breath that he could only keep a slow walking pace. His stomach rumbled its pleas for food, growing louder with every sign advertising fast food he came across. He was feeling far too sleepy for his liking, and he snapped at anypony who dared to yell at him for bumping into them. He looked up to find that the buildings had somehow become even taller, and one had a horse head that glared at him. It had been forever ago since Tomato had escaped the creepy diaper pony, and he wasn't sure if he was any closer to home.

After that knife nearly slicing his ear back in that neighborhood, Tomato hadn't had the best time. Trying to get something to eat at a restaurant? He was chased out by the place's clown mascot for not having any money. Asking for directions? Turns out the guy he chose to ask led him to an alleyway, and had attempted to skin him alive; Tomato escaped through a comical method that confused the creep. Trying to take the subway? They tried to have the police take him! What rules did he break?

He found a bench and sat on it. Looking around, there seemed to be plenty of ponies who knew where they were, where they were going, and how they were getting there. Some walked alone with confidence; others seemed to be chatting with friends. And he caught a few adult ponies walking with their younger charges, with the foals clearly secure under the protection of either parents, grandparents, or older siblings.

He thought of his usual chaperones--Gramma Cucumber Melon, Grampa Pizza Pockets, and big brother Cheese. It was so wrong that they had left him alone at that park. If one or two of them left, it was usually for a short time, and he was always left with those left behind. He used to insist that he could take care of himself; now he was regretting ever have saying anything like that.

A horrible thought came to his mind: they must have abandoned him.

His breaths were shallow as one of his worst fears seemed to come true. He always had the sense that neither of his parents wanted him around, and he had hoped that Gramma, Grampa, and Cheese wouldn't be like that. As it turned out, they got tired of him too, and left him at the park to live alone as some wild pony. After all, what pony would want a little rat who breaks everything and makes all his loved ones mad all the time?

He didn't want to be alone! What did he do wrong? He can be a good pony!

Those thoughts, his experiences, the scarily high buildings, his loneliness, and just how lost he was all struck him like a tidal wave, and an ocean of helplessness weighed on him. Shallow breaths gave way to hiccups, and those hiccups gave way to sobs. A wail rang out of his mouth, as a call to anypony that would rescue him from his miserable state. He was tired, he was hungry, and he was alone. All he wanted was just to go home.

He felt a presence right next to him, and his tear-stained face looked up to see who it was. To his surprise, there sat a colt around his age, bearing messy, two-toned brown hair, a gray coat, and dark blue eyes. He smiled at Tomato with a sincere warmth and friendliness that was unlike any that he had seen all day.

"Hi!" the gray colt chirped.

Tomato wiped his eyes, but was too choked up to even speak to the stranger.

The gray colt leaned closer. "Why are you crying?"

Tomato squeaked, and tried to croak out his answer. Unfortunately, he only sounded like a frog, and he looked away and shed a few more tears out of embarrassment.

"Whatcha sad about?"

Tomato wanted to wait for a chance for his throat to clear before he could answer, but the mere thought of why he was upset only made him sob some more. It was nice to have somepony be concerned about him, but he really shouldn't be here.

A female voice rang out, "Noble!"

The gray colt perked up and looked forward, and Tomato took a look at who was calling his companion, who was apparently named Noble. She was a tall mare, with a coat similar to Noble's, a dark blue mane tied up in a bun, and light blue eyes that showed little expression. The mare was clearly of the serious and professional sort, wearing a purple suit jacket and light blue eyeshadow. Tomato's first guess was that she was Noble's mom, and he started to scoot away.

She said in a stern voice, "What did I say about wandering off?"

Noble twiddled his hooves. "I dropped the bit I found, and I was looking for it..."

"You could have just told me, Noble. You know that I'm not risking the chance of you running into a bad pony."

Noble sank in his seat. "Sorry, Mama..."

Noble's mother turned to Tomato, and asked her son, "Who's your new friend?"

Noble shrugged. "I think he can't talk."

Tomato leapt on his hooves and snapped, "Can too!"

"Settle down, little guy," the mare said. She looked around and asked, "Where are your parents?"

Tomato rubbed his eye. "Mommy's home... Daddy's at work..."

"Why are you out here by yourself?"

Tomato whimpered. "I was with Gramma... and Grampa... and my big brother..." He looked back up, his eyes leaking out more tears. "I've been looking everywhere to find them... or-or find my way home!"

Tomato threw his face into his hooves and cried some more. Noble's mother sat down next to him, letting her son climb onto her. Patting Tomato's head, the mare said in a soft voice, "There, there... I'm sure it was just an accident that they lost you... would you like me to take you to the police station and wait for them there? They'll be sure to go there to ask for help."

Tomato sniffled. "What if the police arrests me for being bad?"

"Don't worry, they won't arrest you. They don't arrest little colts." She stood up, let Noble hop onto her back, and beckoned Tomato to come. "Come along now, we don't want to waste time and have them worry some more."

Tomato nodded, hopped off the bench, and followed her. As they started making their way on the sidewalks, dwarfed by the towers that surrounded them, Tomato looked up at her, and asked, "What's your name?"

Noble gave him a funny look. "She's my Mama!"

A soft chuckle came from Noble's mother. "Yes, I am indeed your mama, young colt, but not his." Then, she answered Tomato, "My name is Platinum Pen."

Tomato wrinkled his nose. "Pla.. Pla-Platty-mum... Platti-cake..."

"Just call me 'Penny.' And what do Noble and I call you?"

"I'm Tomato! But you can call me 'Tommy'."

Author's Note

Hooray for this frustrating effort to write Manehattan! I developed plenty of headaches from studying maps, pictures, descriptions of stuffy-stuffs, the Manehattan episodes of MLP, and media set in NYC to develop one painful chapter. :pinkiecrazy:

Whew, tiring chapter... :ajsleepy:

On the plus side, I got to use a few jokes that I've planned. Hopefully I'll be able to use the rest (that would fit in Manehattan anyhow) in the next chapter. And maybe survive writing more of this segment... at least it's not as bad as when I was writing the Canterlot arc (freakin' politics).

15.8--Ever Onward

"I'm really sorry that we were unable to teach Creme properly. If I could have done more, I would have."

Flora sat across from her aunt and uncle at a picnic table, under the shade of Livery Park's trees. Being a hop, skip, and a jump away from the fair--where ponies were taking part in dutch oven cookoffs and two-wheeled cart races, playing pioneer games like a stick pull or flying hoops, dancing, and going to nearby tents to learn more about pioneer life--neither one of the couple felt like participating in anything. Some funnel cakes and other treats were given to them by Flora's siblings popping in and out of the fair as presents to at least comfort them.

Jasmine Flower dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief. "Qui--quite frankly, that's exactly what we were thinking about ourselves."

Custard was leaning in his hoof. "Indeed. A successful businesspony I may be, but an attentive father I am not. I always thought the servants could handle her just fine, but that wasn't what she needed. I never wanted her to fall the way she did."

Flora twiddled her hooves. "Me neither. Only bright spot right now is that she's beginning a turnaround."

"Yes... I do hope that once her punishment is through, she'll come out a better mare."

Jasmine sniffled, still wiping her eyes. "I wish we weren't dealing with this in the first place."

Flora reached forward and patted her aunt's free hoof. "Same here. But, I talked with her as she was cleaning up the parade route, and she wants the rest of us to enjoy the holiday despite her actions, so that's a good sign."

The older couple glanced at each other and nodded.

Flora smiled wryly. "I also wanted to make her apologize to Tomato for her effort to ruin him, but Tomato didn't want it. He'd rather wait until she's absolutely ready to do it on her own and with sincerity. After his issues with his brother, it won't ever be too late to apologize to him."

"Oh, that reminds me," Custard said, straightening his suit jacket. "Where is he? I'd like to apologize for my assumptions about him, and tell him I'll try to put in a good word to other Manehattan business leaders. Can't say if I'll be successful, since he was absolutely terrifying to everypony at my party, and his crazed coffee high might frankly be all they'll see him as. First impressions can have quite the impact."

Flora smiled and shrugged. "All I can say is that he's somewhere in the fair, spending time with his brother."

"Little pig, little pig, let me in!"

Tomato hoped that the silly Timber Wolf getup that Cheese was wearing was comfortable; his own getup of a simple pig nose was too tight on him, squishing his muzzle to the point where it was hard to breathe through his nose. Still, Willow and Kernel needed a third pig for the little play that they were having. Sitting on a stage in the fair set up with all sorts of props and costumes for whatever skits any foals wanted to do, Tomato still wasn't sure how he and Cheese got roped into doing The Three Little Pigs.

Amber Waves, sitting to the side as the storyteller, said, "And then the third little pig said:"

Tomato boosted Kernel up above the cardboard house, and the little toddler shouted, "Not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin!"

Amber grinned at the little audience made up of other foals waiting their turn to use the stage. "The Big Bad Timber Wolf got annoyed over hearing that same exact phrase for the third time in a row! Because, really, why do the pigs keep saying that? Is it an integral part of pig culture to sass predators with pathetic excuses for beards? Anyway, he roared:"

Cheese complied with a growling voice, "Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blooooooow your house in!"

"And so the Big Bad Timber Wolf blew and blew," Amber said, with Cheese doing said actions at the stage. "And he blew all day and all night, huffing and puffing at hurricane force winds! The roof shingles blew away, but the brick walls held strong! Helps that their foundation was on a rock, and as you know, the wise pony built his house upon the rock, while the foolish one built his upon the sand. And so the Big Bad Timberwolf blew in vain, and worse, the pigs were taunting him!"

Willow and Kernel poked out from the sides of the cardboard cutout, squealing, "Na-na na-na na na!"

Amber looked at Tomato, who just smiled and shook his head. "Except for the pig who had the straw house. He was still traumatized."

She noticed Cheese getting a little tired from his blowing "And so, the Timber Wolf blew until he caved in on himself, becoming a pile of sticks in the process!"

Cheese mock fainted, crying, "Oh, what a world!" Some of his costume fell off when he hit the floor and he laid there, lolling out his tongue like he was dead. His dramatic pose made the audience giggle, and even more so when he pulled out his accordion and played a death march.

"And thus, the little pigs had a bonfire that night. They roasted yummy marshmallows and made s'mores!"

The three "pigs" marched out of the house, picked up a couple of the sticks that Cheese dropped, and pretended to roast marshmallows over the remains of Timber Cheesewolf, even as he still played his death march. While the other two giggled along with the audience, Tomato looked at the area that his stick hovered over: the burn that Cheese got a few days ago, and still hadn't healed if the freshly changed bandages were any indication. His heart sank, knowing that while all the other ones healed quickly thanks to party pony magic, that one still stayed. It was like the magic had somehow failed to protect him right there.

Amber cheerfully continued, "And they lived happily ever after! Except the Timber Wolf. 'Cause he's dead."

After a some laughter and round of applause, the group all faced the crowd and bowed. Then they removed their costumes and got off the stage to let other foals make their own skit. And so, they trotted away from that stage, off to find something else to do.

"Thanks for helping us with our skit, you guys!" Amber chirped. "Usually Bananas and Alfalfa would be with us, but Al's got a Scout thing and Bananas is helping the committee run the fair. Still, Cheese made a pretty good Timber Wolf."

Cheese rubbed the back of his head. "Aw, shucks. Playing with you guys was the least I could do for Bananas after he agreed to take my place in the running of this thing." His hoof slid from the back to his forehead. "Doctor said I needed to take it easy and try not to stress myself out for a bit. But, with my new medicine--" He pulled a pill bottle out of his mane, filled to the brim with blue-and-white pills that could not be easily replaced by mint. "--I should be back to, uh... some semblance of normal."

"Looks like candy," Willow said.

Cheese stuffed the bottle back in his mane. "It's not. Don't eat it."

Amber looked around. "Aw, fetch! Where'd Kernel go this time?"

Willow looked straight ahead and pointed forward. "To Mom."

Amber looked ahead, seeing her little brother hopping in front of their mother, who was ready to share some of her dutch oven cornbread with him. "Oh, so he is!" Grabbing her little sister's hoof, she walked forward and waved to the Sandwiches. "Meet us at the pavilion at dinnertime! We'll eat, then go to a Tabernicker Choir concert, and then go up to Uncle Spruce's house on the mountain to watch the fireworks! Bye!"

The Sandwiches waved to the fillies as they trotted off to meet their mother, and then looked at each other. Cheese chuckled and said, "I sure hope this fair makes up for me missing the Summer Sun fair earlier this summer."

"Heh. Shall we go look around?"

"I don't see why not. Maybe we could get some souvenirs."

The two had walked around the park, going through the path that marked tents holding merchandise, simple carnival games, and ponies eager to tell history lessons. During their walk, they spotted Ash Tree attending a reptile show, being the lucky pony to hold a large snake. They also waved at Bananas as he was inspecting one of the carnival games, and cheered for Olive and Alfalfa--apparently having finished his scout thing--in a two-wheeled cart race. And true to Cheese's word, a couple of souvenirs were bought--including a new suit jacket for Tomato, which was almost exactly like his old one. That made Tomato quite happy.

In between those, Cheese brought up several parties past for him and Tomato to laugh over; but while Tomato went along with it, there was a clear nervousness accompanied by fake laughs and forcing random subjects into their conversations to keep the silence away. And at times, Cheese stared off into space, and looked around at random places where nothing was.

It was when they made it to the playground when Tomato finally said, "Okay, I'd like to know what the doctor told you."

Cheese's face went pale. "Oh... uh... basically the same thing we found out at the Crystal Empire--you know, the chemical imbalance thing and the magical damage. They just adjusted my medication to account for recent developments..."

"What, nothing else?"

Cheese's eye twitched. "Nope, not at all!"

Tomato gave him a half-lidded stare. "Cheese, you're obviously hiding something."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

Cheese stomped in frustration. "For goodness' sake! Why are you pestering me about something that isn't your business?"

"It kind of is my business," Tomato said. "You're my brother, and if you don't spill it, we might have more situations like what happened in the Crystal Empire and earlier today. Between the headaches and the hallucinations, I'm not sure if it's a good idea for us to continue with this trip! I think both of us need to stay in one place for the rest of the summer."

"Tomato! How am I going to find that missing piece of my mind if I stay put?" Once he realized what he had just said, Cheese covered his mouth. He glanced at the nearby playground, blushing at the sight of the foals staring at him.

Tomato blinked. "Wait, what? What do you mean 'missing piece of your mind'?"

Cheese's hooves slid off his mouth and he slumped in defeat. "All right, all right... the doctor said that the magical damage I received was centered around the head, and that it was akin to somepony plucking a chunk of my mind out without any physical damage to my brain." He looked at his bandaged foreleg and sighed. "Ponyacci and Pinkie Pie were right in guessing where the headaches came from... I just... didn't say anything about it because I didn't want you to worry."

Tomato pursed his lips. "Well, you made me worry anyway. How can you even literally lose a chunk of your mind?! If it wasn't magical, I'd have assumed you were actually going insane!"

"Tommy, cool it! It's just... uh... I don't know how I lost it. Best guess is that somepony stole it while I was asleep."

Tomato's mind flashed back to Wayer Rune's scroll earlier, Flora telling him about what her psychology textbooks mentioned about him, and than much earlier to the memory exhibit back during the Summer Sun Fair. Was Cheese going through the same thing as those poor soldiers? Considering his whole denial of the Las Pegasus incident, Tomato wouldn't be surprised if his memory of that had actually been stolen. But why would anypony want to steal any of Cheese's memories unless...

"Kazam! Of course! He must have an equally powerful friend that is trying to aid him in his trial! He's making sure you can't testify!" Tomato grinded his teeth, feeling a little hiss come from between them. "The whole pretending that Las Pegasus thing didn't happen thing... it wasn't pretending or even that weird forgetting thing that I saw Pinkie do once; it was magical thievery! That explains everything!"

Cheese furrowed his brow. "Huh, I think one of the other party ponies mentioned that... but, wait, why didn't they steal yours?"

Tomato rubbed his head. "I don't know. You'd think they'd want to prevent the testimony of somepony who actually turned into a vampire."

Cheese stared at him with wide eyes and backed up a little. "Yeah... so, we're going to find the pony who did it and get the memory back."

Tomato sighed and muttered, "I'm not entirely sure it's one you'd want back... but regardless, how do you propose we do that? Equestria's not exactly a small country and there's thousands of unicorns that the pony could hide among. Plus, we don't know much about who Kazam mingled with at any point in his life!" His eyes widened in realization as he remembered two key ponies. "Except his siblings."

Cheese blinked. "Who?"

"Ha ha! Maybe Silk Shimmer or Party Favor could help locate the memory! They probably have an idea on who could be doing this!"

"Wait, Party Favor is the vampire guy's brother? And who's Silk Shimmer again?"

Tomato's eye twitched, and he had to remind himself to keep calm. "Oh... she was that mare who was working with the Flim Flam Brothers back in Halterside, but then remembered she had a conscience and quit working for them."

"Oh, that's right..." Cheese rubbed his chin. "I guess we could contact them..."

Tomato smirked. "You do realize that in order to keep in contact with them, we'd have to stay put so they can answer?"

Cheese scowled. "Tomato, you're forgetting one thing."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "And what is that?"

Cheese opened his mouth to answer, but the sound of an accordion played from his flank, and his tail spun and yanked half his body to the north. He blinked for a moment before closing his eyes and finally answering, "My magic may be a bit weaker than usual, but Cheesy Sense still works. It's telling me that we're going to Seaddle. We can't really stay in one place without Cheesy Sense attacking me."

Tomato's eyebrow twitched; never had he wanted to strangle a sense of all things until then. "Well... can't you just... ignore it?!"

"I tried that once, Tommy! I got terribly weary and sick from my magic endlessly reminding me that a party needed me! It's a horrible experience, and I really don't want to put up with that again. Not to mention my itchy hooves would kill me." Cheese shook his head. "I can tell that you like it here, but we're travelling all over Equestria together to catch up and bond as brothers. That's why I planned this trip, you know?"

Tomato stared for a moment, his heart sinking. Cheesy Sense just wasn't going to let them try to investigate, was it? At this rate, that memory of Cheese's was as good as lost, and he'd be stuck in a cycle of headaches and hallucinations for a very long time. His eyes downcast, he replied, "I... I just want you to be okay."

Cheese sighed. "Well, unless a miracle from the sky comes, there's not much we can--OW!"

A paper glider had crashed right onto Cheese's forehead, and fell straight to the ground after its momentum was disrupted. Rubbing his head, he noticed that it had his name on it, followed by a "From: Pinkie Pie" on it. Curious, he picked it up and opened it, wondering what she had to say.

Tomato read the names as well and snickered. "Well, well, she dotted her i's with hearts."

Cheese rolled his eyes and read:

"Dear Cheesy,

"Hi! How's it going? How was your party in Manehattan? Was it a lot of fun? Where'd you go to next? The next time you see me, you better give me all the details on what parties you've been throwing around Equestria!

"I threw a great birthday party for Mayor Mare. I made the biggest cake I ever made for her and her family and everypony in town! I had no idea she had such a big family. There was also a jell-o trampoline because they all love jell-o, and lots and lots of whipped cream! We had a whipped cream fight and it was a blast. You should have seen me, I had this big, whipped cream beard that made me look like Santa Hooves, tee hee hee.

"Anyway, I told Twilight about your memory problem, and she's working on finding a way to find it for you. Sadly, she's also suuuuuper busy with princess stuff, so it's taking her a little while to find anything. How about you, did you finally tell Tommy about it? I hope he's not too upset about how much it's been hurting you. And I really, really hope you didn't lose any more! It'd be awful for you to forget something important like your friendship with me or making up with your brother. The thought of it makes me really sad.

"I gotta go and bake now--I've got the most scrumptious batch of cupcakes to make with the Cakes for a super important town meeting! Can you write back? I really enjoy getting letters from friends, and you're definitely one of my bestest friends! Say 'Hi' to Tomato for me, and remember to make everypony you meet smile!

"Love, Pinkie Pie"

When they both finished reading, Tomato glared at Cheese. "Okay, how much about this situation does she know?"

Cheese shrugged. "Who cares? They're already investigating it!"

Tomato sighed. "Well, at least Princess Twilight's involved--with her magical knowledge, she might find some convenient spell to track it down. Still, we might as well share our idea about Kazam's siblings with them."

"Okey-dokey. If we bump into the thief and get the memory back on our own, that'd be great too. I hope he or she doesn't steal any more if we do meet him or her." Cheese rubbed his ear, sticking his tongue out in disgust, only to pull out a piece of paper and a pencil from behind it. "Better write my reply. And thus, we have our plan... not perfect, but it'll do."

Tomato nodded silently, defeatedly accepting it. Why was party pony magic so hard to fight against? Still, part of him wished that if they found the creep, he'd show them what kind of monster that Kazam created in the most up close and personal manner. Scaring the wits out of them with an actual vampire would be quite cathartic, and Tomato could feel his teeth grow sharper at the thought of it.

Thankfully, he snapped out of his stupid daydream when he heard Flora calling him. Looking around until he spotted her beyond the playground beckoning him, he glanced at the writing Cheese and said, "I'll be right back."

Cheese looked up, spotted Flora as well, and waggled his eyebrows at Tomato. Tomato gave him a shove back before trotting over to Flora.

"Hey, what's up?" he said with a smile.

"My uncle wants to have a word with you."

Tomato frowned. "Oh."

That talk went better than anticipated, but even with Rich Custard's apology and vow to fix things in Manehattan, Tomato found himself not really caring. The fact was, he wasn't sure he wanted to live in the same city as his parents and former bullies anymore.

He couldn't imagine living anywhere else before this trip; he had daydreamed about moving away from that house he couldn't even call "home" before, but he assumed moving across town would be enough to avoid his parents. Now, his immediate thoughts were wondering what it'd be like to live in his current surroundings. Rolling mountains and a dry valley would definitely make for an interesting change of scenery, and he wouldn't mind being neighbors with one of his best friends, her family, and the neighbors that she grew up with.

His thoughts had wandered to other places he had been during the summer. From the smaller towns like Ponyville, Halterside, and Nickerlite to the larger cities like Canterlot and the Crystal Empire, he couldn't help but wonder what it'd be like to live in each one of the cities. He avoided thinking about living in Las Pegasus--aside from vampire traumas, he just didn't like that constant raunchy party there. Still, there were possible other places to visit for the rest of the summer--he wondered what other options he would end up considering.

He simply ambled on throughout the rest of the day, having thoughts turn on and off during events. He could talk during the dinner with the extended Flower and Wood families, and he and Cheese told stories about their adventures in both colthood and that summer to Flora's cousins. Later that evening, the group attended the Tabernicker Choir concert. The harmony of the voices soothed him, though some of the songs did make him wonder about his life, such as one about a young adult pony leaving home to find themselves, or how how beauty was around when there's love at home. He did get a kick out of the Bridleway songs that were in the program.

When they were out of that hall and onto the street, Amber Waves had exclaimed to him, "You should hear them at Hearth's Warming!"

Finally, they had gone up to that uncle's house on the mountain, ready to watch the fireworks show. Their spot provided a view of the city and beyond, letting them see the lake and the salty desert shimmer under the setting sun and the rising moon. Salt Lick City was speckled with lanterns, and the Salt Spires bore a magical glow, shining as a beacon among the dark buildings. Sitting out on spread blankets, everypony had a bit of cotton candy or a caramel apple or even some of Honeysuckle's leftover cornbread. A large blanket held the family of ten plus the Sandwiches, with the parents holding their two youngest close in a protective embrace, and the six other kids scattered on the blanket around their guests.

Flora sat next to Tomato in their little group. "So, did you have a good day... aside from, you know..."

Tomato smiled. "Are you kidding? I love spending time with one of my best friends, her family, and my brother."

"Yeah, it was like a... uh... an eleven in one package deal?" Cheese said.

"I'm pretty sure you counted right," Bananas said, counting the ponies on the blanket.

"Nah," Alfalfa deadpanned. "You'd have to include our cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas and the living grandpa."

"And the cousins' kids," Ash Tree added.

Cheese chuckled and shook his head. "But it can't last forever. We're heading off to Seaddle first thing in the morning."

"Aww, but we didn't get to show you all the sights!" Amber piped up. "You still need to see the lake up close on Lope Island and meet the bison tribe, see the ranch there, and feel the weird sand on the beach! Or maybe lick the salty desert over there!"

Tomato turned to the filly and shrugged. "Maybe next time?"

"There better be a next time," Olive said with her front legs crossed. "We don't want you to be strangers!"

Flora giggled. "I'm glad you guys came, even if it was kind of a harbinger to disaster, considering your... history with one cousin."

Tomato smiled at her. "Don't worry, Flora. I know that just because you're related doesn't mean you're anything like each other. It would be unfair for me to dislike you just because of your association with her. You've proven yourself with your own merits, anyway."

Flora blushed and idly tugged at part of her mane. "Well, I try. I just wish Creme didn't have to cause a mess."

The rest of her siblings sighed. "Yeah."

After a few moments of silence, the sound of crickets permeating the air, Cheese piped up. "Well, speaking of relatives... we actually have an aunt in Seaddle. So, yeah, we're visiting some family of our own."

"Are they fun? Flora mentioned meeting your mother and..." Bananas grimaced.

Cheese chuckled. "Oh, Aunt Cocoa and Uncle Acorn are actually a lot of fun. They're a pair of mischievous chemists that do a lot of experiments." His eyes widened and he exclaimed, "Oh, Tommy! I just remembered that we were going to ask them to make fruit-flavored fireworks!"

"Oh, right," Tomato said.

"That sounds so cool!" Bananas squealed. Then, at the sound of a boom, he looked up. "And speaking of fireworks..."

From the park they had been in earlier, streams of light shot up and exploded into brilliant colors, one by one. A red beam exploded into a golden waterfall, a white one exploded into a sun shape, a yellow one exploded into a smiley face. Some exploded with a pop, while others exploded with a thunderous bang. Some even screeched as they ascended, ending in their explosions. All the while, the ponies oohed and ahhed.

The pattern of awe was disrupted when Flora turned to Tomato with a soft glare and said, "Tomato, please let go of my tail."

Flushing, Tomato looked behind him, and noticed that his tail had curled up around Flora's. His brother and Flora's siblings were stifling laughter, even as he yanked his tail away and shook his hoof at it, hissing, "Bad tail!" The tail replied by going limp, accompanied by a dog whine. With a sigh, he went on to hold his tail for the rest of the fireworks show, wondering if he was going insane.

With a quick glance at Cheese, who seemed perfectly fine at the moment, he thought, Well, as long as he just takes his medicine and takes it easy, the rest of the summer can go smoothly.

Author's Note

Aaaaand that's a wrap for the Salt Lick Valley! And we have our next location: Seaddle!

Now, to speculate on what mishaps these brothers get into next...

19.1--Just Grin and Bear It

With his mouth opened wide, Cheese's eyes scanned his teeth in the bathroom mirror. His tongue ran across the edges of his incisors, feeling as sleek and smooth as ever, save for the rough patches of plaque that he quickly brushed away with a toothbrush. Opening wider to look at his molars and run his tongue over them, they were as flat with minor bumps as normal, though a few of the bumps felt a little sharp. The useless, annoying nubs known as canines between the molars and incisors were ground down as they usually were. He scrubbed at that as well to remove gunk, and as far as he could tell through the toothpaste slime, it all seemed normal.

By that bit of evidence, Cheese couldn't have been the one to maul those gangsters, and it was a large dog like the police said. Either that, or the local hospital was too stupid to tell the difference between injuries from dog teeth and pony teeth.

And yet, any attempt at denial had those teens' faces thrown back at him, and the taste of their blood staining his tongue, no matter how hard he brushed. Any thought of "I didn't do it" was overpowered by the stronger, conflicting thoughts of "How could I do that to kids?" and "They attacked me first, they had it coming."

After the spit and rinse, he checked his teeth to see how clean they are, both front and back. A jolt of fright hit him as the mirror revealed that his normal pony teeth had suddenly grown sharper, with his canines--normally out of the way--having become longer and more prominent. They were perfect for ripping apart anypony that dared to cross a monster.

He cringed and looked away, his stomach churning at the sight. His tongue feeling his teeth yet again, he told himself that there was no way that was real and that his mind was playing tricks on him. Hopefully it was a temporary thing, and Tomato wouldn't nag him about taking that dumb medicine. Peeking from the comfort of behind his front leg, he checked his teeth once again, and sure enough, they were normal pony teeth. Even the canines were back to the nubs they had been.

"Cheese! What's taking so long?!" Peanut Butter called from downstairs. "You want to go to Whinnyland or what?"

"Uh... yeah, I'll be right down!" Cheese leaned forward on the sink, and sighed. Regardless of whether or not he was responsible for the attack on the gang, perhaps he had been a little too angry lately. And if a party pony like him had one job, it was spreading joy. There was the question of why he was throwing parties for countless ungrateful and shallow ponies in the first place, but nevertheless, he was an agent of joy, not anger.

He face slowly but surely broke into a crooked smile. Unlike all the other times he smiled, it was physically painful.

He managed to get through that day of Whinnyland without incident, though he did have to calm Peanut down whenever he got hopped up over somepony being a changeling. Even if there were changelings around, he said, they weren't causing any trouble, so calm down, this is Tomato's first time in the famed amusement park. He just wanted his little brother to have fun, and put aside any troubles for the time being.

Of course, Cheese was sure that Cheesy Sense would be a-calling soon, so the brothers packed their things, ready to venture back out into the wild. They at least took some time to say their goodbyes to the newlyweds getting ready for their honeymoon and to the other family members and friends gearing up to go back home.

"Thanks for helping make the wedding something great, Cheese," Acorn said. "I don't think we'd have gotten the fruit-flavored fireworks idea on our own, and those spares you're taking will make for a great party surprise! Eh... as long as you use the mini-launcher correctly. Heh, you really weaved everyone's ideas together into something amazing!"

Cheese waved a hoof. "Oh, it was nothing. I mean, I only stayed up... all night..."

The other four co-planners stood by, rolling their eyes and grumbling admissions that it probably wouldn't have been as good as it was without him. Still, the soft glares from Pearl, Lightning, and Vic were as plain as day to Cheese, while Cherry just looked like a disappointed mother. His first thought was that of snipping at them for being babies who couldn't handle criticism, but he instead forced a smile at them in an effort to show good will. Remember, Cheese, they're sour because you're too angry; be nice...

Was Pearl going to notice something wrong with his teeth? Because they felt different, and Pearl the dentist would surely notice that his teeth are not normal. They were fine last time he checked, but still!

"Honestly, we're glad that both of you could come," Peanut said, holding Jelly close. "I really appreciate you guys coming over to support us, and it's nice to see our favorite little ketchup squirt all grown up."

Tomato's eye twitched and he looked away, biting his lip. "Please don't call me that, worse implications come with that nickname in adulthood than in colthood."

"Hey, what do you mean by--oh." Peanut paused for a moment to let it sink in, and than laughed. "Oh! I get it, that humor's not your style."

Jelly pouted. "I don't get it."

Creamy cringed. "I do."

Cheese glanced at him curiously, and Tomato said, "Hey, I never thought you'd listen to your little party pooper of a brother if I complained about the nickname. At least you stopped calling me that."

"And 'baby bro', even though it's harmless," Cheese huffed.

Cocoa then stepped forward. "You guys can come and visit us whenever you want. Auntie Cocoa Butter likes seeing her two crazy nephews, you know. I mean... just because I can't get along with your folks doesn't mean I don't want you as a part of my life."

She then turned to Tomato, who was rubbing his leg. "And I know that you're still confused about how your parents treated you. It's hard to tell if it was something you did or just their issues controlling them. But, it's not your job to take their heat. Just because they're miserable doesn't mean you deserve misery too."

Tomato only glanced at her for a brief moment. "I'll, uh... try to keep that in mind."

Cheese blinked. He wasn't sure what Aunt Cocoa was talking about, with that speech on how miserable his parents were and how they loaded that onto Tomato. From what he could recall, it was just Tomato being a moody teenager that was too good for parties, and their parents... their parents... gah, he had a headache trying to think about it. Still, if they were miserable, why didn't Cheese, who was their firstborn, feel any of it?

Creamy then piped up. "Also, drop by the farm and we can have some nice dairy treats!"

The brothers laughed, and made their final wave goodbye as they started to make their way out of Applewood. Even among that bit of confusion, Cheese at least felt lifted spirits, a sense of excitement at the next party, and relief over how his overblown anger was dying down. He was optimistic that the rest of the summer could go smoothly.

That optimism died rather quickly.

The bouts of worry began when Tomato asked, "So, yeah... do you know where the next party is?"

Cheese sighed in reply, "No, Cheesy Sense hasn't given me anything yet."

That was putting it nicely. It had been a couple of days, and he couldn't pick up any signal, and anything he felt on his flank was just an itch, with no town name popping up in mind. True, sometimes the Sense took a couple days to kick; however, there was this strange deadness he was feeling, and a malaise that had him dragging his hooves at times. For some reason, a nagging thought in the back of his mind told him that he wasn't going to get a signal at all.

It was silly, the front of his mind thought--it was likely just a party dry spell, common this time of year thanks to summer burnout slowing parties down. Still, he could normally pick up the hints of any individual birthday parties, or weddings, or the beginning stages of a last hurrah of summer. Was there another town day? Did any individual provinces have their own holidays in August? He didn't know.

But there was also the fact that Cheesy Sense was his compass, and he and Tomato were in the middle of some forest. All he knew was that they had gone north, through grassland and desert brush, and poked their way into a forest after getting tired of the sun beating down on them. From there, his sense of direction somehow disappeared.

Weaving around conifers and deciduous plants they did, some of which towered as high as a skyscraper, which Tomato did not miss and stared at for some time. The calls of birds and the rushing of a nearby river rang through the woods, accompanied by the sticks and pine needles crunching under the brothers' hooves. Though it still was warm, cool breezes did waft their way, spreading the mist of a local waterfall and the pine scent through the air.

"Okay, Cheese..." Tomato said. "Where are we?"

Cheese scratched his chin. "Uh... my guess would have to be the Coltifornian Forest, or something... but where exactly in this forest, or what town we're closest to, I'm not really sure."

Tomato sighed. "Cheesy Sense say anything? Because, you know, it'd be nice to lead to civilization. It did save us from that forest fire."

Cheese glared at his cutie mark, and hit it a few times. "Ugh, no, I don't have anything--August tends to be sort of a dry spell." He straightened up, forced a smile, and continued trotting forward. Best not give Tomato the wrong idea about his weird dead feeling. "But, don't worry, I'm sure we'll get to a town with a party in need."

"I sure hope so," Tomato mumbled. "We always run into trouble in forests."

Evening had them finding a hollowed out tree for shelter, and starting a fire for dinner. Being the guy who knew what was edible and what wasn't, Cheese jumped in and out of the campsite to fetch plants for a soup Tomato was making with some leftover nopal and nacho cheese. Wild alfalfa and some variety of wildflowers were added to the soup, and it was smelling pretty good in that pot.

But then Cheese brought something else back to camp.

Tomato looked up, raising an eyebrow. "Cheese, that's a duck."

It was a miracle that the thing was still alive and quacking, but Cheese's right front leg had a tight grip on it so that it didn't fly away. Cheese looked at the bird, wondering if he was a little too merciful, and should have crunched its neck before bringing it back to camp. He simply answered, "Well... I thought we'd add a little duck to our dinner."

Tomato blinked, and cringed. "I really hope you mean as a guest and not as an entree. Remember, we're vegetarians."

Cheese pursed his lips. He had nary a clue why pony society doesn't expand its dietary horizons, as he had tried that pet food--or rather, devoured it--and it turned out that meat tasted pretty good. He and Tomato were alone, so nopony else could judge them. That stupid little ketchup squirt was being nothing but a picky, snobbish little--

He stopped his thoughts there, reminding himself that it wasn't that big a deal, and he shouldn't lose his temper over it. If Tomato didn't want duck added to the soup, then perhaps Cheese should respect his wishes. "All right, I'll let it go."

He loosened his grip on it, only for it to jump him, biting at him and screeching out maniacal quacks. Between the flapping of suddenly razor sharp feathers and the attempted murder by bill, Cheese swatted and flapped his own hooves, yelling in frustration as he tried to shake it off. A few bites of his own at the air missed, and the duck continued its furious attack.

Thankfully, Tomato picked up a stick and batted the duck off, though he hit Cheese on the head in the process. Flapping its wings to soften its landing, the duck continued its quacking rant, but chose to waddle away rather than deal with the pony with the stick.

Tomato sighed, and looked at his frazzled brother. "You okay?"

Rubbing his head and swaying, Cheese grumpily slurred, "I want a new duck."

"No."

Tomato had to repeat his assertion of "We're vegetarian" a few times more when Cheese decided to go hunting for animals for the soup, bringing back animals such as a rabbit trying to kick him, a squirrel trying to bite him, and a quail that scurried away once Cheese listened to Tomato's order to drop it. And when Cheese spotted a deer, Tomato did not hesitate to hold him back from trying to attack it, reciting once again that not only are they vegetarian, he's not a predator.

The worst part was that Cheese was annoyed with him, as if he actually thought that meat was an acceptable part of pony diet. Tomato couldn't help but scratch his head at that, considering that this is the same guy who threw up three times when going into a butcher shop.

Feeling like he needed to sit a fair distance away from Cheese, Tomato was smelling more of magical foul play, and that favorite suspect popped up in his mind. Breaking sticks and feeding them to the fire, he thought over how he was going to confront Rooney if they bumped into him again, but what would stop the unicorn from doing the same to him, or even killing him for knowing too much, despite not knowing what exactly was going on? He was already feeling powerless with searching for the missing memory (or memories, he started to wonder); how would he deal with this?

He swatted some flies away with his tail. The sooner they meet Twilight again, the better.

Despite all difficulty, the cheese and herb soup was finished, and the duo had their dinner. Tomato poured soup in his mouth at intervals, the creamy cheese swirling on his tongue and the bits of cactus adding some crunch. Cheese, on the other hoof, had stuck his muzzle in the bowl and slurped it up rather quickly, and did that with his seconds, and then his thirds.

"You... sure are hungry today," Tomato said.

Cheese licked his lips. "Hey, the soup's pretty good, and it's making for a happy Cheese. Where'd you learn to cook?"

"I'm self-taught." Tomato checked how much was left in the pot. It was enough for Cheese to have a fourth, which was quickly taken; Tomato didn't feel like having seconds. "Got sick of Mom's bland meals, and Old Mare Lavender's bland meals... so, I might have snuck the latter some sleeping pills when she came over to babysit, and I cooked for myself."

"You naughty colt!"

Tomato shrugged. "I was a little desperate for a little freedom. Mom's all talk of 'responsibility', and yet I can sense that she still doesn't fully trust me." He downed the last of his soup and wiped his mouth. "Sorry if I couldn't be a perfectly sensible adult before I turned eighteen."

Cheese tilted his head and furrowed his brow. "Uh... wasn't she a kid once? Because she really must know better than you say she did."

Tomato scoffed. "Well, she must have forgot! Seriously, I wonder what it would have been like if Dad had married Aunt Honeydew instead. Hmph, maybe she would have been a better mom--Grandma and Grandpa did always say she was the sweetest thing."

Cheese scratched his chin. "I don't know, Mom did complain about her being a spoiled crybaby."

Tomato looked at his dirty bowl. "I'm sure that's just jealousy talking. Anyway, can you point me the direction to the river?" He looked up. "We need to clean this before--yikes!"

The word "yikes" was an understatement compared to the near heart attack of seeing Cheese standing on one hind leg, with the front hoof holding his bowl of soup as high as he could, and his other hind leg holding back a little bear cub of all things. The cub scratched at Cheese's leg, whining its little cub cries as it eyed Cheese's bowl. Cheese himself looked equal parts annoyed, pained, and fearful over the cub, and he looked at Tomato with a "help me" expression.

Biting his lip, Tomato glanced at Cheese's bowl, and then said, "Uh... should I throw the soup off a cliff?"

Cheese blinked and snapped, "What? No! I still want to eat it!"

"Cheese, you already had three bowls! Besides, eating's not really a good idea with that little guy around."

"Find some other way to distract it before mama bear comes!"

"With what? Boneless 2? Your snorkel? My tail? Those are nothing compared to food!"

"Well, I'm not letting it have my soup; feeding wildlife is bad, you know."

Tomato threw his hooves up in the air, and then marched to Cheese. "Well, do you have any better ideas? Are you gonna play your accordion for them? Or are you going to scare the bears off with your party tank? I sure hope that you can summon it this time!"

Cheese growled at him, shoving the soup at his muzzle to scold, "Hey, it's your fault for making good soup! You cooked it and served us both long enough for this thing to smell it! If only you had been a good boy and didn't pull the sleeping pill stunt."

Tomato then swatted it away as hard as he could. "How was I supposed to know this situation would occur several years down the line?"

A splat was heard, followed by a growl. Eyes widening, they slowly turned their heads to the brush, where a big, burly bear with a face full of cheese stood. Teeth were bared as she looked at the two stallions, one looking as if he had kicked her precious little cub in the gut. Her growls grew louder and her eyes seemed to flash red as her baby wailed louder and scurried to her, leaving the two stallions at the mercy of the beast.

Tomato chuckled nervously. "Okay... that one was my fault."

Cheese huffed. "You little dummy."

The bear roared, and started to charge them. The jolt of fright sent both of them into different directions, with Cheese rolling a bit before jumping back on his hooves, while Tomato skidded to a shuddering stop. Panting, they watched the bear as it looked between them, deciding just which pony to attack first. Ultimately, it decided on Tomato, the smaller pony by just a mere inch.

Tomato backed up as the bear lumbered toward him, his mind drawing a blank as to any options there were. All he knew was that a set of sharp teeth and claws were heading his way, and he was likely dinner for both mother and cub.

Cheese wasn't having that, and jumped forward for a well-placed bite on the bear's hind foot. After a roar, the bear turned, and took the bait to try to swipe Cheese with a strong paw. Ducking, Cheese hopped to the other side to nip at, and bounced back out before the bear could strike. Hopping in and out, and nipping like a dog, Cheese was certainly keeping the bear busy.

Tomato was a little confused and disturbed over his current fighting style, enough that Cheese remembering that he was a horse and actually bucking the bear was some weird sort of comfort. Nevertheless, he just stood there and stared, until Cheese skidded to a stop in front of him, and yelled, "Hey! I'm buying you time, get out of here!"

Tomato shook himself out of the daze. "But, Cheese, what if the bear kills you?"

Cheese snorted. "I've fought monsters and wild animals before, and a bear's not the worst I've faced. All I gotta do is confuse it with random distractions until it's wor--AUGH!"

The bear had taken advantage of Cheese's pause and slashed his back with a force to knock him aside and send a few party implements flying from his mane and tail. The sight was enough for the bear cub to laugh, but for Tomato to gasp at the damage. His face in the dust and his back starting to bleed, Cheese was slow to get back up, and his groans of pain sent the message loud and clear.

Seeing the bear walk toward Cheese, Tomato frantically searched the party implements that could deter the bear from killing him. He didn't know how to use the accordion, Boneless 2 was nothing but a chew toy, what use were streamers and confetti, a pie in the face might make things worse (and why didn't Cheese bring that out for dinner?), Cheese could probably make silly string work but not Tomato, what was he supposed to do with the spare fruit fire--wait, is that a mini launcher?

Just as the bear pinned Cheese down and prepared to bite his head, she got hit on the side of its own head with a cream pie. The bear gave a confused snort, followed by annoyance when attacked with silly string and slapped by a rubber chicken. Turning to the perpetrator, who mocked her by blowing a raspberry, she roared at him and started a charge.

Tomato cocked the mini-firework launcher, aimed it at her feet, and shot a ball there so that it'd burst in front of her. She skidded to a halt in shock, and had little time to process it before another one exploded next to her, and to the other side, and in her face once again. Now in a state of panic, a fifth explosion spurred her to take off, her cub following her. Tomato chuckled, and blew at the end of the launcher with a sense of pride.

Of course, there was no time to really celebrate, so Tomato picked up all of Cheese's party items, and opted to hold them in his own 'secret compartment' for the time being. He helped Cheese up, and took off his own jacket to fold and hold over Cheese's back, slowing down the bleeding. All the while, he couldn't help but think how strange it was, Cheese having a bad wound that party magic apparently refused to heal. The bear wasn't a funny situation, but normally Cheese could make it funny by fighting like, well, a party pony. But he didn't fight like a party pony.

He looked down at the burn, the bandages having been ripped off and showing that while it had healed in the past couple weeks, it still looked raw. It could be his own worry preventing Cheese from healing, like what happened with Comedy Gold and her worrywart brother, but even when their minds were off it, that burn still took its sweet time.

Tomato lead him out of the campsite, thinking that it wasn't a good idea to stay in that camp for long. They'd have to find some other shelter, and fast. It was starting to rain.

The first dead end had to be a cliff, which was graced with a waterfall. Making Cheese sit under a tree, Tomato looked over the edge, hoping to find some kind of path down, but there was none. He looked over to the river, realizing that a river crossing was not a good idea this close to a waterfall. With a groan, he kicked a rock over the edge, and watched it tumble to the river below. He wasn't sure if he and Cheese could survive that drop like that one in the Salt Lick mountains, and he definitely didn't want to find out.

Cheese stood up, teeth gritted from the pain, and then ambled out from under the tree into the rain. Looking out at the forest before them, he said, "You gotta admit, it's a lovely view."

Tomato nodded. "Yeah."

Cheese kicked a rock over the edge, and growled. "I can't believe I couldn't defeat that bear! I've outsmarted hydras, chimeras, Ursa Majors, Timberwolves... but a dumb regular bear? I embarrassed one of those by dressing it up for the circus! And now..." He picked up another rock and chucked it pretty far.

"Well, you seem to be losing your sense of humor."

Cheese's head snapped around, a roll of thunder accompanying the movement. "What?"

Tomato winced and pursed his lips, letting out a sigh. "Well, I, uh... noticed that you were fighting more like an animal than Cheese Sandwich. It was weird, I'd think the first thing you'd do was throw a pie at it, or maybe hit it with your accordion, or have Boneless 2 attack. Then, maybe you'd run it over with a unicycle, or tie it up in silly string, or scare it with the fruit-flavored fireworks. Then shoo it off somehow, I can't think of anything besides the fireworks."

Cheese had tight lips, and his eyes started to grow dark. "Oh... I wasn't funny enough for you?"

"No, no, see, you weren't funny enough for yourself!" That sounded stupid. That sounded really stupid. "I mean, I don't think trying to herd a bear like a dog herds sheep was a good idea, because you know how strong bears are, a-and--"

Cheese was in his face, his eyes almost completely black. "Oh? You want to talk about bad ideas? How about your apparent idea of standing there like an idiot when I was fighting so you could escape? Or how about the switch with Snapdragon Apple that could have caused a scandal? Or drinking coffee when you know what that does to you? Jumping on a bandit? Leaving a trio of fillies alone to fight a lot of bats? And every time you put yourself in danger as a colt because you couldn't control your impulses! And you have the gall to go all 'whine whine whine' and 'complain complain complain' when things go wrong! I'm starting to think that taking you on this stupid road trip was a bad idea!"

A thunderclap accompanied Tomato's own outburst of, "Hey! It's not like you were free of bad ideas! Who was the guy who wandered around Applewood instead of doing his job? Who was the one who threw his brother in some random, mysterious spring which could have killed him? Dragging me into a duet battle even though I'm no entertainer? Making me shave with whipped cream which attracted Bighoof of all ponies?! Or how about your oh-so brilliant idea of treating me like I'm just some other grouch who needs to see the light with a party instead of a colt who needs his brother to be his friend?! Heck, how do I know that you still put more stock in your stupid career of partying than your own brother as a pony?!"

"Oh, that's just hilarious, coming from a pony whose talent is the definition of caring more for profit over ponies." Cheese rubbed Tomato's cheeks mockingly. "It's a real shame that you can't change your cutie mark, because at least you're not like the rest of them."

Tomato swatted his hooves away. "Oh, are you saying that everypony with the same talent as me have the same personality? What, did somepony make assumptions about you based on party pony stereotypes, like how you can't feel any emotion besides hyperactive happiness? But don't worry, you're not like the rest of them--instead of being annoying, you're a jerk!"

"I'm not the jerk, you are!"

"Ha! I find that hard to believe these days! I'm not the one who brushed off breaking pegasus wings because they 'deserved it'! I didn't bite the troll, and I didn't call any co-party planners idiots and refuse to apologize!" Tomato's glare wavered, and he asked, "Seriously, Cheese... what's wrong with you?"

Cheese bristled, the lightning reflecting in his unusually dark eyes. He swiftly grabbed Tomato by the collar, and dangled him over the edge of the cliff. "Nothing's wrong with me! I'm still the Super Duper Party Pony, and no Party Favor, no Comedy Gold, no Bananas, and definitely no Pinkie Pie is gonna change that!"

Tomato gasped, and daring to look down at the rocky base of the cliff hundreds, maybe even thousands, of feet below started to make his world spin. He could feel wings itching to fly, but he knew they weren't there. He looked back up at Cheese, who seemed to actually want to kill him. If he didn't know any better, he'd call it revenge for the Las Pegasus incident--but that still didn't comfort him, as Cheese's eyes were not the soft, loving green they usually were; they were a hateful black void.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just drop you," Cheese growled.

Tomato's heart was sinking deeper than he thought possible. "So... now you're willing to kill your family?"

Cheese held that glare for a few seconds more, but the black in his eyes brightened back to their normal chartreuse, and his expression softened, anger replaced with horror. His jaw slack, he brought Tomato back to land, and set him down gently. Stepping back, he held his head, shaking it and mumbling, "I can't do that to my brother."

Tomato breathed a sigh of relief, and stood up. "Cheese?"

Cheese shot a softer glare toward him. "Just drop it. I don't want to be angry again."

Tomato rubbed his leg, and asked, "Uh... how's your back?"

Cheese looked at his back, and attempted to lift off the jacket, only to wince and yelp like a puppy. "Your jacket's sticking to it. I kind of wish my first aid kit fell out so you could have used it."

"Well..." Tomato stepped forward, only for Cheese to step back in fear. "Really? You can stand a little pain, you know."

"Well, excuse me if I don't like--" Cheese's ears perked up in response to a stick breaking. "Wait, did you hear that?"

Tomato nodded and groaned. "I hope it's not another bear."

A rustling from the bushes, and Cheese grit his teeth in hurrying behind Tomato. "You might want to get the firework launcher out, just in case." The bushes rustled again, and Cheese snipped, "Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

Luckily, instead of a bear or some other predator, it was a pony with a lantern and umbrella that came out. The big, brown stallion nearly staggered back at the sight of two frazzled, rain-drenched ponies, and he rubbed the red and purple whiskers on his chin. "Say... what are two young ponies like you doing here? This isn't a camping area!"

Cheese and Tomato looked at each other. "We didn't know that, sir."

"Aw, don't call me 'sir', that's a knight thing," he joked, gesturing to his gray work shirt and green vest. He walked closer to them. "I'm Fallow Track, I work in this nature park."

Cheese blinked. "I had no idea we were in a park."

"Well, you are, and you're in bear territory. Hope you didn't have any--" He took one look at the blood-stained jacket on Cheese's back and winced. "Sweet Celestia, you did. I'm amazed that it's not worse."

"Party implements work wonders," Tomato deadpanned.

Fallow pursed his lips. "Ooo-kay. Anyway, luckily I know just the place to treat that nasty wound."

"Oh, great, another hospital," Cheese groaned.

Fallow laughed. "Oh, it's no hospital, I'll tell you that. Follow me boys, and if Mr. Bleeding Back there has any problems, he can hitch a ride on my back. I'm a strong guy, and a slim pony is nothing compared to a full grown grizzly."

Tomato blinked. "Wait, why were you carrying a bear?"

"That's a long story." As he led the two to the mysterious healing place, he asked, "So, boys, what are your names?"

Author's Note

Dang it, I took too long again. :ajbemused:

Hey, have you ever heard of horse canines? Well, they exist (and are more prevalent in stallions)! Take a lookie here:

Neat, huh? I think the articles about them I read said that they were for fighting.

Anyway, there wasn't originally a bear attack planned for this chapter, it was just the two getting frustrated over being lost, but, you know, sometimes random ideas creep into these stories. I also ended up watching silly bear videos, like how they sometimes hang out in swimming pools. That led to an elephant drinking from a swimming pool, then silly elephant videos, and all of a sudden I'm watching a documentary about how terrifying hippos are. Stupid YouTube.

I hope I never encounter a bear in the wild--I'd probably die. Don't take advice from this chapter, these two are outliers in bear attack survival and should not be considered for multiple reasons.

22.2--The Sandwich Horror

The sun began to set on the town of Appleloosa. Lights were strung above the stage, the chairs and tables, and the dance floor, promising the square a warm glow throughout the night. A long table bore treats of all sorts--aside from the apple pastries, caramel apples, and apple drinks, there were pies of blueberry, blackberry, and cherry among others; there were troughs of water, plates of vegetables, and an ice cream maker. Appleloosans were hauling instruments to the stage for dances and their respective performances, with some mares in gaudy costumes to titillate the stallions and the rodeo clowns in silly attire to make the foals laugh. In an open space outside the dance floor, games such as horseshoe, stick pulling, and several types of races were set up for mare, stallion, and foal alike.

"We really appreciate your help, Mr. Sandwich," Sheriff Silverstar said to the party pony, who just stared at his work disappointedly. The sheriff scratched his chin. "Though I reckon that I don't see none of your signature style here. Usually, when you visit, you've got a--"

"I know!" Cheese snapped.

Silverstar blinked, and then knocked Cheese on the shoulder. "Now, don't get a burr in your saddle! The hoedown don't have to be fancy to be a good party, y'know. As long as we all have fun, it's a success."

Cheese snorted. "I guess. Helps that a lot of ponies pitched in..." He glanced at Tomato, who was busy perusing the food. He whistled, and when Tomato turned to him, he said, "Tommy! Make sure to give me the launcher later, okay?"

Tomato just looked in his jacket, nodded, and then continued scanning his greedy eyes over the table. Not that Cheese could blame him, the food selection looked delicious. After all, much of that was made by Braeburn's kin.

"Eh, what do you mean by launcher?" Sheriff Silverstar asked uncomfortably.

"Oh, we've been carrying around fruit-flavored fireworks since Seaddle," Cheese answered. "Launch those little balls fast enough and they'll explode, and then you can stick your tongue out to catch the fruity goodness. It's been a hit at the last couple of parties."

Sheriff Silverstar raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? I'll test your claims yet."

Braeburn, who had been busy fixing up the stage curtains, suddenly noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head toward the horizon, he smiled, pointed, and hollered, "Hey! Everypony, the buffalo are here!"

Everypony turned to where Braeburn pointed, and indeed, a tribe of bison--from the big and burly chief to the scrawny young--were parading forth, carrying baskets of their own food. It wasn't long before they were within town boundaries, and one of the younger ones darted forward. Braeburn himself jumped off the stage and galloped forth to greet this particular buffalo.

"Howdy, Little Strongheart!" Braeburn said. "Have you grown since I last saw you? You're lookin' taller!"

Little Strongheart beamed. "It's good to see you, Braeburn. And, yes, I have grown since we've last met."

"Shoot, I was right. Sounds like you've been eatin' well."

Little Strongheart nodded, and then looked around until she spotted Cheese. "Hey, is that your friend Cheese Sandwich?"

Braeburn nodded. "Yup! He dropped by with his brother! I was startin' to get worried that they wouldn't come for this Appleloosa party; I've been wantin' to meet Cheese's kin for the longest time."

When Braeburn pointed Tomato out, Little Strongheart turned, and both buffalo and pony exchanged waves. "Ah, so that's the mysterious brother that he's been telling you about. He's taller than I expected."

As Braeburn and Little Strongheart continued their conversation, the buffalo chief approached Sheriff Silverstar and raised a hoof. "Greetings, Sheriff Silverstar. Words cannot express how happy my tribe is to attend our annual celebration of peace."

Sheriff Silverstar tipped his hat. "And we're happy to have you, Chief Thunderhooves. It's always an honor."

Chief Thunderhooves glanced for a moment at Cheese, and said, "It seems you have the great party planner in your midst. This holds some promise for our event to be exciting and for our good relations to continue."

Cheese smiled confidently. "Well, I'm glad that you--"

He was interrupted by a crash at the stage, and all looked in that direction to see Trouble Shoes with a large hoof stuck in the floorboards, grumbling, "Just my luck."

Cheese scowled, and started marching toward the stage past the buffaloes. "Dang it, you! Now we have to fix those stupid floorboards!"

As he marched past, each of the buffaloes' eyes widened, and they shuddered as if they had felt a winter wind. They looked to Cheese Sandwich, and then to each other in confusion. The ponies were just as confused at the train of shivering.

Tomato, who had been watching the buffaloes with fascination, felt a pit in his gut when they all shuddered. Part of him hoped that it was just some random magical nonsense that was heading their way that had nothing to do with Cheese's condition, that there was some mean thing in buffalo tradition coming to cause trouble. But, as much as he wanted to deny it, what those buffaloes sensed was likely Cheese and the spell he was under.

He leaned over to look at Cheese, who was scolding Trouble Shoes for the accident, and yet also wincing from a headache. Tomato felt in his jacket, right into his 'secret compartment', and touched the medicine bottle, ready to be taken for Cheese's next headache. He considered nagging Cheese about it, but didn't want to be chewed out by Cheese--or prove himself turning into Mom.

After his eyes met Braeburn's and they stared at each other in concern, the cowboy went to stop Cheese's aggressive scolding, being closer to the scene. Tomato was glad that Cheese wasn't being violent, but he still dreaded the possibility that somepony would make him snap. As much as this party was a ploy to keep Cheese here as long as both he and Braeburn could, he was growing more and more unsure if it was a good idea.

Oh, please, let the letter reach Princess Twilight soon, he prayed. She needs to get here as fast as possible!

Twilight trotted through the open door of the suite, walking in on her friends packing. With a sigh, she levitated the vial of Cheese's blood out of her saddlebag and to Fluttershy. "Well, good news and bad news, girls. The bad news is that since the magic in our only DNA sample is depleted, Celestia can't get a magic signature and track him. The good news is that she did lend me some valuable books on werewolves, including Wayer Rune's old journal. Whoever's doing this was definitely inspired by him."

"Well, at least it's somethin'," Applejack said, tying her bags.

Fluttershy, who had been brushing Vladimir's fur, gave the vial to the little bat. "To think that Cheese's memory problem transformed into a werewolf problem. I never thought that it would be this complicated."

Rainbow Dash looked at her cutie mark. "And we haven't gotten a Map Call to point us to him."

Pinkie Pie groaned loudly from where she sat. "You know, I do have faith that the answer to our problems is coming... but it's taking such a looooooong time to get here, and we only have until the moon rises to find Cheese and un-werewolf-ify him! Twilight, did you ask Luna not to raise the moon? I don't want my bestest party pony friend to turn into a monster and hurt his brother."

Twilight rubbed the back of her head. "Eh... the princesses say that disrupting the natural order of things will have a major negative impact on the world. It's not worth risking it just because one pony is turning into a werewolf. I'm sorry, Pinkie."

Pinkie just laid on the floor and crossed her front legs. "Come on, universe, just give us a sign already!"

It was then that Twilight heard raspy breathing behind her, and spun around to face a messenger pegasus, with a envelope in hoof. As the others gathered at the doorway, the pegasus said, "Message... for Princess Twilight Sparkle... from Appleloosa...", before he collapsed in a heap.

Fluttershy crouched down and patted him. "Oh, you must be so tired, flying all the way from there."

Pinkie pulled a smoothie out of her mane. "Want a drink?"

Rarity stared at the envelope as Twilight took it. "Appleloosa? I wonder what's so important that they need a princess."

"I sure hope they ain't having a dispute with the buffalo again," Applejack said. "It's their second anniversary, for Pete's sake!"

Twilight opened up the letter, and read aloud:

"Dear Twilight Sparkle,

"I'm writing this in case that tracking spell of yours cannot reach this far, and you need to know where Cheese and I have ended up. Long story short, last night, Cheese got mesmerized by a whistle, I chased him down, and we tumbled down the mountain onto a train. I hit my head and next thing I know we're in the desert just outside of Appleloosa. Now, with a Mr. Braeburn's help, I'm trying to stall him from just wandering into the desert so that you can come and set him straight.

"I don't know if I'll be there when you arrive; Cheese wants me to go back home to Manehattan. But, if anything, I don't want him to be left alone. The mystery sorcerer is still out there, and if we're not careful, Cheese might fall into his clutches.

"Sincerely, Tomato Sandwich."

"Well, isn't that convenient?" Rarity said. "Seems we did get our answer after all, Pinkie."

"Yes!" Pinkie cheered.

"And it looks like he's got Braeburn in on this, too," Applejack said, pursing her lips. "I get that Tomato don't want Cheese to be caught by this mystery sorcerer, but he just put my cousin and the rest of the Appleloosans in danger! I know it's a 'darned if you do, darned if you don't' situation, but he don't know what he's messing with!"

Twilight folded the letter. "Then we have no time to lose! Let's take the next train to Appleloosa and end this once and for all."

Rarity was looking up at the sky. "We might be a little late. Look!"

All the ponies looked where Rarity pointed, and there was the rising moon, a full circle shining in its nightly glory. Its silver glow spilled over the landscape, providing a beautiful night. As much awe as it would have inspired, it was tainted by the knowledge of what was about to transpire in Appleloosa.

The messenger glanced between the horrified mares. "What's wrong?"

And so the evening celebration went on, with both pony and buffalo having their fun. The buffaloes had provided some trinkets to hang around to ward off any evil spirits and keep the peace, and so far, it seemed to be working.

Pairs shared plates of fruit pastries, and toasted their mugs of cider. Groups of ponies would prance around in their square dances, swinging around as the song of the fiddles rang out. Many had their moment in the spotlight during a talent show, from a stallion's country croon to a buffalo's spirited dance. Foals and buffalo calves played games together, laughing in their merriment. In between, many were just happy to relax and talk with friends during this small holiday.

However, of all ponies, nopony would expect Cheese Sandwich to be a party pooper.

He didn't know if something was in the food or if it was just the heat, but he felt queasy and needed to sit down. Not helping was the throbbing headache that had emerged, and the music was not helping matters. Weary were his limbs, and he found himself wishing for the ability to sweat, as only panting could relieve his hot feeling. Try as he did at the start of the party, he couldn't enjoy it thanks to his malaise, and had to retire to the side much earlier than he normally would.

Normally, he thought, glaring with envy at the rest of the partygoers. His normal self would have added extra touches for a little more pomp, pizzazz, and party games. His normal self would have whipped out his accordion and performed tricks as he sang onstage, his voice ringing with utter joy. And his normal self would not have been tired this quickly, with others giving him pity.

Braeburn was quickly by him with a mug of water. "Hey, pardner. Want a drink?"

Maybe it was the heat, so Cheese took the mug and started to lap at it, much to Braeburn's confusion. As Cheese drank, Braeburn rubbed the back of his head and said, "I was really hoping that a party would getcha up like the mornin' sun, but you're lookin' all tuckered out instead." He set a hoof on Cheese's forehead. "You alright?"

Cheese paused to rub a temple, balancing the mug in his other hoof. "I don't know... most I can say is, well, I feel kind of dead."

"You sure don't look dead," Braeburn replied with a grin.

Cheese growled. "Not in the mood for jokes, Brae."

Braeburn's smile faded away, and he sighed. "Must be somethin' serious if a joke ain't gettin' you to crack. I don't think I've ever seen you so glum. Heck, I can see Tomato over there, and I don't think he's enjoying himself 'cause he's sick with worry 'bout you."

Cheese set the mug aside and rubbed both his temples. "He better enjoy the party; it's his last before school starts, and I don't want him wasting it pitying me. He should actually participate instead of just wolfing down those fritters and giving me those looks." He cupped his hoofs over his mouth and said loudly, "It's the least he could do to actually try to make me happy like my efforts weren't wasted!"

There was no way that Tomato didn't notice that, and he just responded with a glare that was nothing more than a sarcastic apology. The party had briefly stopped to watch the quiet exchange awkwardly, and then resumed their activities.

Cheese held his head and breathed through his teeth. Maybe yelling wasn't such a good idea, especially since he had felt acid in his throat from that. "Ugh... you know... I think I should go to bed."

As Cheese stood up, Braeburn sighed and said, "Well, I might as well take you back to my house."

Cheese shook his head. "No, no, I can get there myself... nothing's gonna happen, I promise." He started to walk away from the party, walking toward the alley that would take him straight to Braeburn's house. "Good night."

Braeburn waved softly. "G'night."

Switching between normal pants and doglike pants, Cheese ambled through the dim street, further and further away from the lights of the party. His legs trembled with each step, but not nearly enough for his legs to buckle underneath. He felt that bile in his throat and the ache in his stomach, praying that a final push wouldn't have him blowing chunks. The aching wrapped his head like a turban, and part of him wondered if Tomato still had that headache medicine, because he sure needed it right now.

He stumbled through the alley he had aimed for. Barely rounding barrels and nearing tripping over boxes, he questioned how he had come to such a pathetic state--magicless, joyless, and clueless. He wished sleep could wash away all his problems, but it wasn't so.

As he walked out of the alley, he was suddenly struck with a faceful of moonlight. Though it startled him at first, he naturally looked up. It was no wonder that it was so bright tonight, as the full moon rose above desert hills and apple trees in all its glory. A queen it was, surrounded by her twinkling subjects as all decorated the dark blue sky.

He stared in wonder at the queen, his headache and nausea evaporating in his bliss, and instead a newfound strength beginning to run through his veins. If he could stay here, staring at the moon forever, then he would, for it was peace. For a moment, he felt healed, he felt his magic renewed, and he felt like running back to that party and showing those partygoers what he's got.

The moment ended with a sudden sharp pain buzzing through him, and the headache and nausea crashed onto him with full force. His legs buckled under him from the sheer power of that pain, and he breathed through his teeth in a futile effort to stop it. His heart raced, and he had no idea which area to clutch, for all demanded his attention.

"What's... Ergh! What's happening...?" His voice grew deeper and more gravely in that short sentence, before they gave way to agonized groans. He crawled forward, trying to reach the house that seemed so far away, but he could only move inch by inch. His teeth were clenched tightly to keep himself from screaming, but he wasn't sure how long he'd hold out.

His muscles pulsated like balloons ready to pop. His guts felt like someone jabbed a fork in them and twirled them like spaghetti, making colic seem tolerable in comparison. His muzzle felt like it was being pulled forward, and his teeth all felt like they were being yanked out. His heart pounded violently, and in trying to catch his breath, he briefly wondered if he was dying.

Cheese's mind soon grew lost in a a fog made from both his pain and the anger which had vexed him for weeks. While it seemed like he was falling asleep, his front legs and knees still held him up, clutched in that pain and trembling as unequine features grew in.

His height was sacrificed for muscle mass, giving this not-pony a broader build and a distinct hunch, ripping his shirt until it fell into the dirt as torn, yellow rags. His teeth sharpened to fine points, with prominent fangs baring themselves at the edges. Hard hooves grew soft, and his feet sprouted toes, paw pads, and dull claws in their place. His nose blackened, taking in the whiff of the apple-scented air, and the ponies that trotted through it.

Each part of his body morphed until he could hardly be recognized as a pony. Indeed, if one had been there to witness his long minute of suffering, they'd remark that his appearance that was less equine and more canine.

At last, the pain faded. The black-eyed monster rose to its feet, panting heavily and taking in its surroundings. It's stomach free of nausea and now filled with hunger, it caught the whiff and heard the sound of its nearby prey.

It looked up at the moon once more, and howled.

As much as Tomato wanted to enjoy the party, he still couldn't help but worry about another incident where Cheese would fall into another fit of fury. Much of his attention was drawn to Trouble Shoes, who was performing silly gags with the other clowns, and came to the conclusion that if Cheese snapped again, it would be because of that pony's destructive pratfall. Already, Tomato pitied him.

As of that moment, Tomato could only try to eat the worry away, something that he couldn't quite do before thanks to limited supplies or little desire to eat too much leftover cake. Pies were much better in his book, especially since he enjoyed the crust.

It took one moment of looking away and looking back to discover that Braeburn and Little Strongheart were in conversation on a nearby wooden walkway, while Cheese was nowhere in sight. Alarmed, Tomato jumped over the table and weaved around other ponies and buffaloes to reach them.

Once they looked up, Tomato asked, "Hey, what's up?"

Little Strongheart just looked down at the dirt. "I want to enjoy the party, put I keep pondering on that chill that my tribe felt." She looked up at some of the buffalo trinkets hanging around. "Even with the precautions that our medicine bison has been taking, Cheese Sandwich did still fall ill."

Braeburn sighed. "I just want my friends to have a good time, but they ain't feelin' too good. Cheese even went to bed."

Tomato blinked, and his tail whipped around. "Uh, Braeburn, you did walk him to the house, right? You know, remembering the thing about not leaving him alone because there's some weirdo after us? The reason we're trying to keep him in Appleloosa until a certain princess shows up?"

Little Strongheart looked between them in confusion, while Braeburn chuckled nervously.

Tomato stomped a hoof. "Oh, for the love of--the guy's not going to care if Cheese is sick, he's alone and he's perfectly snatchable!" Tomato turned and headed to the shortcut alley, snorting hotly all the while. "I'll scold you later, right now I have to make sure he's not been kidnapped!"

Braeburn stood up. "Tomato, I--"

He was interrupted by a loud, deep howl. Tomato stopped in his tracks, and the party stopped at that haunting sound. There was a eerie silence after that. All ponies playing music had paused, some even lowering their instruments. All the dancing had stopped, and several ponies dropped the food they had been eating. Everyone, pony and bison, young and old, male and female, was looking around, trying to pinpoint the direction the howl came from.

Tomato himself stood still, his heart pounding. As the one furthest from the party, save Cheese, he realized that he just painted a big target on himself for this predator. He could only look around, expecting the animal to come out and pounce at him.

Back at the party, a pony asked Sheriff Silverstar, "You think it's one of them coyotes?"

The sheriff didn't answer, instead listening further to try to gain more clues on where the creature might be. The distant yips and howls of distant coyotes were heard, their pitch higher than the one howl from nearby. Pursing his lips, Silverstar answered, "Maybe."

Suddenly, the foals and calves screamed, and everypony snapped around to the game space that they had occupied. Over there, the kids were being scattered by a large canid, growling and snapping at them in its pursuit. It'd flank a group, and nip at the terrified kids to push them where it wanted, and did so again and again, keeping few of the kids from escaping and shoving them to a corner.

"Sweet butter on a biscuit!" Sheriff Silverstar cried. "That ain't no coyote, that's a wolf!"

All the party attendees gasped. Without hesitation, the buffaloes were the first to action, charging at the wolf so that it would stop harassing the youngsters, knocking over chairs and tables in the process. The wolf noticed their charge just in time to jump out of the way, and as the buffaloes surrounded both foal and calf to protect them, the animal darted right into the square.

The lights now revealed the beast's tan color, with brown, matted fringes on its head, neck, and tail, almost like a pony's mane and tail. Its eyes were pitch black, with not even a shimmer of light in them. At the center of the dance floor, the ponies could now see just how big this animal was. Between its bulk and the fangs it bore, it gave them a reason to fear it.

It quickly tackled one of the ponies, who barely missed death by shoving a foreleg in front of her own neck, and kicking it off of herself, even though the bleeding wound left her with a limp. The rest of the ponies started to scatter, galloping around in order to get themselves--and the injured mare--as far away from the beast as possible.

The wolf just had to pick out a loner trying to escape the crowd, and then weave out in order to catch that pony. A swift bite on the back leg took that pony down before he could reach a building, and he'd have been dinner had Trouble Shoes not come and pulled the wolf off of him.

"I got him!" he yelled. "I got the wolf! Now, what do I do--YOWCH!"

The wolf had clamped down on Trouble Shoes' foreleg, hard enough that it was starting to bleed. As the Clydesdale gritted his teeth to bear the pain, the wolf had started to wriggle its way out of his grasp. Trouble Shoes still held on, for he was no stranger to pain.

Sheriff Silverstar whistled. "Come on! Let's get our ropes and wrassle this critter to the ground!"

Tomato had stood on that street, frozen and staring at the scene in shock. It was a miracle that the wolf didn't single him out, and that Braeburn and Little Strongheart had escaped its sights as well, just watching as the stampede had unfolded. Tomato just watched as the other two turned to him, gave him a serious look that told him that they were jumping into the action, and then disappeared within the crowd, off to prepare for a fight should Trouble Shoes lose grip of the wolf.

Tomato knew that he should run for cover, but his mind flashed to the scenario of Cheese encountering this wolf, and he just darted off to make sure that Cheese was still there. There was probably a pack somewhere, but Tomato didn't care; he just wanted to know if his brother was okay.

He galloped through the alley, and skidded to a halt once he saw yellow on the ground. He gasped at the sight of Cheese's shirt, all torn up in the dirt and with its owner nowhere to be seen. Dropping to his knees, he picked up the pieces, staring at them as he tried to envision what had happened. With rapid, shallow breaths, all he could think was, He shouldn't have been alone.

After a moment of fearing Cheese's fate, he took a second look at both the shirt and the ground, and realized that there was not a drop of blood in sight. It struck him as odd, knowing that if Cheese had been killed by the wolf, there would have been blood, there would have been drag marks in the dirt... and the wolf probably wouldn't have bothered attacking the rest of the town with a perfectly good horse taken down. He wondered if the sorcerer had gotten him first, but that just bared the question of why Cheese's shirt was torn off.

He looked up at the full moon. "It's not like Cheese is the..."

Everything suddenly clicked. The aggression, the animalistic behaviors, the taste for meat, the fascination with the moon... it all made sense now. Even his cat collecting in Applewood made sense! He wanted to hit himself for not seeing it before, or even asking that question after the vampire question came up negative. There was no doubt in his mind that Twilight must have figured it out by now, and that it was ever more urgent than before.

But, thanks to a part of him that wanted to resist the idea, Tomato had to double check to see if there was any resemblance between Cheese and the beast. So, Tomato turned around, and galloped back to the square.

When he returned, he came upon the scene of the wolf having broken free of Trouble Shoes' grasp, and was forced to wrestle other ponies and having to dodge headbutts from buffaloes. It was amazing how strong the wolf was--Tomato didn't think that one wolf could throw off several ponies at once; there was a reason they hunted in packs--and how agile it was as well. Still, it didn't help that it was moving around too much for him to take a good look at it.

He hopped onto a barrel, and climbed onto an awning to get a good view of the fight from above. After running forward and then settling on his perch, he could see more clearly what was happening.

One pony foolishly wrestled him to the ground, only to get bitten for his troubles and left with a bleeding leg that he could only limp on. He could see that he wasn't the first to get this idea, if several other mares and stallions with torn and bleeding wounds were to go by. Any stragglers that the wolf targeted had to buck it away in order to escape. He watched as a buffalo charged the wolf, who had the brilliant idea of whipping dust in the buffalo's face and then making him trip. The wolf pounced, and started to rip at the buffalo's hunch before getting kicked off by Little Strongheart and roped by Braeburn. The pained whine from the canine was enough to make one flinch, despite it being the enemy.

As he had watch, Tomato had searched for any telltale markers that it was Cheese. He truly hoped that it wasn't, that the coloring was just too close for comfort, and that it was just too big and bulky to be his lanky brother.The fact that the thing didn't have a cutie mark was a ray of hope. But, the one thing he spotted that left him without any doubt of it being Cheese was that the matted brown fur on its head boasted the family forelock. It drooped, and it was messier than normal, but there was no way any normal wolf would ever have that.

Ache gripped Tomato's heart, and he ran a hoof through his mane. "I can't believe it... Cheese was a werewolf this whole time."

And now he was forced to watch as Braeburn and Little Strongheart had their turn in fighting him. The little buffalo was quite agile compared with her lumbering elders, while Braeburn proved himself a real cowboy with his rope work, lassoing him as his friend distracted the wolf. There were times that Cheese would break free, gnawing the ropes until they snapped and hit Braeburn in the face from the recoil.

As Cheese attacked Braeburn, Little Strongheart would knock him away. As he attacked Little Strongheart, Braeburn would buck him away. At it they went, roping and kicking and punching as much as they could, only to get frustrated by this creature that just won't stay down. Braeburn bit the wolf's tail, resulting in a yelp that told Tomato that Cheese's tail wasn't mostly skirt anymore, there was now more flesh underneath that bushiness.

As he watched the exchange of blows and tackles, Tomato didn't know who to root for. On the one hoof, Braeburn and Little Strongheart were protecting friends, family, neighbors, and tribe from what they saw as a ferocious beast. On the other hoof, that ferocious beast was his brother, and if they decided to kill him, well, Tomato was going to be stupid enough to intervene and spill the beans.

However, at one point, when Little Strongheart was knocked far to the side, unconscious and Braeburn was forced to wrestle the wolf to keep it from getting her. Tomato's heart raced as he watched them wriggle around on the ground, dragging each other through the dirt as Cheese attempted to break free, and Braeburn desperately trying to keep it still. He held his breath, hoping for the moment that Cheese snapped out of it...

...only for Cheese to snap his jaws on Braeburn's foreleg.

With the sound of Braeburn's scream, enough was enough, and Tomato jumped off the awning. Landing on Cheese's tail, the wolf's yelp released Braeburn from the jaws, and while the cowboy limped away, there was no blood, but the beginnings of a bruise. And now, Tomato found himself face to face with a snarling werewolf.

Braeburn limped to Little Strongheart to check her, and breathed a sigh of relief when she began to stir. Then, he looked up, and shouted, "Tomato! What are you doing?!"

Tomato could not break away from Cheese's stare, but still answered, "Stopping Cheese from spreading his curse to you!"

Braeburn blinked. "What?"

Little Strongheart rubbed her head. "Cheese Sandwich is... cursed?"

"Son of a crossbow..." Sheriff Silverstar muttered.

"No wonder we sensed something wrong," Chief Thunderhooves whispered.

Everyone else gasped and muttered to each other about this news. From the ponies who were hiding and watching from the buildings, to the buffaloes guarding the youngsters, and to those who were wounded and what that meant, everypony could not help but gape at the beast that once was Cheese Sandwich. Braeburn looked hurt, more from the revelation than from his bruise, and he didn't know whether or not to continue fighting. Everypony else stared at Tomato, who was now at the mercy of the wolf.

Tomato rummaged in his jacket to try to locate the firework launcher, but Cheese pulled his tail out from under Tomato. The pony stumbled, and then was pounced on by the wolf. As Cheese prepared his jaws to chomp down on the jugular, Tomato gasped, and yelled, "Cheese, stop!"

Almost. The jaws were almost at the throat. Hearing his name directed at him gave Cheese pause, and he drew back in order to look at this pony he pinned down. After a moment of pondering, the werewolf's eyes widened in recognition, and the black eyes turned green. He climbed off, and groaned with a shake of his head.

As Tomato sat up, Cheese rubbed his head and muttered, "Ugh... Tommy? Wha... what's going on...?" He looked around in confusion. "I was going to bed, and I was sick and in pain and... what am I doing here?"

Tomato opened his mouth, but he couldn't speak. He just watched as Cheese kept looking around, going from tired to confused, and from confused to worried when he saw that everypony was staring at him in horror. There was nothing he could say; he just put his hoof to his throat, thinking of how close he was to a gruesome death, and flashing back to that Las Pegasus night, how those innocent ponies must have felt when he sunk his own fangs there as a vampire.

Cheese spun in a circle. "Why are you all looking at me like that? What's going on? Why aren't you saying anything?!" Cheese faced Tomato again, seeing his gesture and deducing why he was doing that. "Tomato! What was I doing? Am I...?"

Cheese felt his back, spreading his toes to make sure he was covering as much back as he could... until he realized he had toes. He whipped his paw forward, seeing that it was indeed a paw, and then looked around frantically before spotting the trough, and zipping toward it. Just one look at his reflection in there, and Cheese jumped and screamed.

He felt the black, wet nose, and wiggled his toes again. He pulled at his ears and ran his paws through his fur, and felt his tail in hopes that it was still mostly skirt, but was promptly disappointed. He felt all those areas again and again, and kept looking at his reflection sporadically. "No, no, no... Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this can't be happening! It can't be! I can't be a werewolf!"

He spun around to face the townsfolk again, and his eyes fell on those with wounds. Bite wounds. Made by him.

Cheese clutched his head, shaking it and trembling in horror. Instead of anger, for once, Cheese looked ready to cry, and he looked around for a place where he didn't have to be pierced by those terrified eyes. Breathing heavily, Cheese managed to spot a crawl space under one of the building, and darted straight for that. While most of the ponies and buffaloes gasped and braced themselves for another brawl, it didn't happen. Cheese just dug at the crawl space, and then yanked himself through the hole until he was all in, head, tail, and all.

Sheriff Silverstar helped the still stunned Tomato up. "There, boy, you all right? We were sure you were a goner."

He and the chief nodded at each other, and he shouted, "All right, everypony! We need to count who's been bit and round 'em up! Since this spell here is contagious, we need to do what we can to make sure that it don't spread too far!"

"And we'll do all we can to make sure that all ponies and buffaloes are healed!" Chief Thunderhooves bellowed. "Our medicine bison will get to work as soon as possible! Please, make it easier for us!"

As everypony started to organize themselves, Braeburn just limped to Tomato, supported by Little Strongheart. "I have to say, Tomato... what you did was plum stupid. Still... if he didn't go back to his senses, we mighta pulled out the crossbows, and..."

Tomato didn't answer, but just silently stood up, not even making eye contact.

Little Strongheart patted him. "Listen, you realized what was wrong, and you got through to him. That's what stopped the violence." She dolefully looked over to the crawl space where Cheese hid. "Now we just need to heal him and those he wounded."

When Tomato didn't respond, she and Braeburn looked at each other. The latter sighed, and said, "Come on, pardner... maybe you need to go to bed."

Tomato nodded glumly and accompanied them on the trip to Braeburn's house. The streets were dark, with only the moon and stars as a light. Neither were expecting Tomato to want to talk, given what had happened just then, so they just lead him through the street, the alley, and to the house. They let him go alone to the door, with Braeburn reminding him where the guest bedroom was.

Turning back to go back to the plaza, Braeburn looked at his bruised foreleg. "Cheese bit me. Don't that mean I'm a werewolf now?"

Little Strongheart shrugged. "The skin didn't break, so... maybe not?"

Author's Note

At last! After almost four years of desiring to do it, three years of writing this dang thing, and months fantasizing about how this scene would play out, I finally get to write my "Werewolf Cheese Sandwich" thing! I also have ideas for an AU where Cheese was a werewolf the entire time, but that's for another time (if I ever get to it).

So, now Tomato knows. And Cheese knows. And all of Appleloosa and the buffalo tribe know. Hey, at least Twilight and friends are on their way, even if they're a little late to stop the rampage.

Also, writing the buffalo is kind of frustrating.