Cheese and Braeburn, would that make it Braeese?
This was definitively worse than mixing salt and water crackers with chocolate.
Cheese had tried that once, the chocolate had been pretty good, but the taste of salt had been awful to him. What could he say? He didn't like to be salty. And he smirked at the joke. Salty, he had to add that one to the ever growing list of puns, plays on words, and fun words to say, the book.
It was a real book, even if every big publisher on Equestria said it wasn't properly a very good book. It was just a list of words he found funny.
But Cheese Sandwich thought that this was worse than salt on chocolate, as previously stated. Sure he had boneless 3, with a 3 painted on his rubbery exterior, but he owed it to himself to find Boneless 2 before swapping him. The fate of Boneless 2 rested sorely on his fore and hindlegs, he had to find it.
But where to start? He had his cheesy sense, but that didn't make Appleloosa any less big. The desert town was nothing compared to Manehattan but it was still fields and fields of apple trees (small path for carriages to pass through, notwithstanding), and Boneless had the habit of going places. Who knew? He could have even taken flight and be hiding in an apple tree.
"This is no time for hide and seek, oh Boneless 2, this a time for a party..." - But Boneless hadn't heard, almost like it was simply made of rubber. But Cheese knew better.
He had even asked for the help of the Appleloosa sheriff but...unfortunately.
Things got way full of waves, like a stone had been thrown in a pond as cheese reminded.
~~~~~~~~
"I need help" - It was Cheese, in his best southern accent, like a cowboy. - "It's gone."
The sheriff looked down from his game of cards and looked at the stallion, wondering just what had been gone.
He asked that exact same question. - "What is gone?" - and to his look of confusion after Cheese simply said "boneless", he realized it was just a rubber chicken.
Despite the fact that things were incredibly slow, so slow he could play his game of cards, the sheriff deemed it not really worth it to find a simple rubber toy. A chewy rubber toy at that.
Cheese had left vowing to find it.
Things returned to normal as the flashback ended, Cheese kept looking. Sometimes he showed up upside down or in the most unlikely of places using some of that cheesy power of his to look in old barns or under the chicken coop, or even inside apple (that promptly burst). Boneless and his habit of disappearing.
Braeburn observed the stallion appear and disappear out of places with amusement. It was clear that he had lost something, though the southern stallion didn't know what. Whatever it was it was clearly important to the other as he didn't seem to give up his search. He wondered if he should offer his help, the other stallion was desperate and it was just being a good Samaritan. Deciding favorably on helping him he approached.
Nothing could surprise Cheese, as he had spasms whenever someone approached from behind, a little condition of his no scientist could ever understand (and he wasn't about to show it to Twilight Sparkle, who'd go crazy). So he turned back and saw the stallion with the hat approaching.
"Hey!" - His voice was excited despite how tired he was from searching. Smile through everything that was Pinkie's motto and ergo his motto.
"Hey, do ya need some help? Ya look like you lost something!".
But Cheese wasn't listening, his eyes were fixated on Braeburn's eyes...he didn't know why but the sight of those eyes...oh they made him think of crazy things that shouldn't be appropriate for a twenty two minute cartoon. He shook his head, even getting a sound effect to go along with it.
"oh...hu..wha?" - He recomposed himself as Braeburn cursed his luck, when he had grown into making every stallion he met question himself into whether they wanted to stay with him. He appreciated the attention, sure coltcuddler as he was, but it definitively came as a hassle sometimes. He vowed to never go into a wishing well again, once more...
"I said..." - And Braeburn said each word like Cheese was a foal. - "Would...you...like...some...help?"
Cheese smile, whenever he showed up in a new town, or an old town for a new visit, he got himself a friend. So this was it. A new friend. He quickly accepted the offer.
"So where did ya lose the thing you are looking for?" - The southern accent in Braeburn wasn't as thick as it once were, but it was still palpable. It helped that Cheese seemed to take particular attention to the shape of his muzzle...and how nice it would be to ki...he couldn't think of such things. And how easy it was to read Braeburn's lips when all his focus was on it.
Braeburn had to stop Cheese from crashing into a ditch hole and falling because he was simply not paying attention. The brief contact of hoof on hind leg made them both shiver. What was the deal? Why were they feeling this way.
Suddenly an idea came to Braeburn's mind. "Did you check the lost and found?" - It was a new addiction to the town, and though mostly it was old horseshoes and some tooth there it was, shining, Boneless 2.
Cheese had no qualms about getting it back and, per Boneless 2 suggestion (really just the wind making it fall forward) he had the perfect way to thank the other stallion's help.
"Braeburn...isn't it?" - He had no idea how the other had guessed his name, but that was just part of Cheese being Cheese. - "Can I buy you dinner? Oh I could bake you a cake! Or...or..!"
He went on at about a million miles per hour and Braeburn just stared. He had wanted to help the other stallion, not get dinner from him. But if he insisted. He quickly agreed.
And when, that night, they were having a serious discussion on Apples fritters, Cheese and Braeburn were glad they had had that dinner.
