Birthday Bio Double Feature: Mozzarella and Honeydew · 4:49pm Aug 14th, 2016
Well, well, looks like it’s the turn of Naggity Nag Sandwich and her twin sister, Little Miss Disappear! I got to tell you, it’s weird diving into the backstory of someone who initially was Cheese Sandwich’s eternally disappointed nag of a mother. Okay, Ella is still that, but I always end up asking myself too many questions when it comes to writing characters, like how much of her attitude is natural and how much she just picked up along the way—and how she let the bad parts fester so much.
And Honeydew has only been mentioned, never shown, in my stories so far—is she as sweet as Cucumber Melon said, or a spoiled brat like Ella has said? In the category of long-lost aunts, how would she compare to the character of Sedimentary Rock, Pinkie Pie’s aunt?
Let’s find out!
Mozzarella Pockets and Honeydew Melon were born in Manehattan to parents Pizza Pockets and Cucumber Melon. “Ella” was the first to be born, showing off her strong lungs in the process, while Honeydew just squeaked out her cries.
They were small fillies, but they were always on the move and exploring, curious about the world around them. Their parents, who ran a pizzeria, had to keep them away from the stoves and ovens so that they didn’t get burned. A trip to the park usually had Honeydew playing in the mud, with Ella preferring to “read” aloud from a picture book, pointing at whatever she found interesting to show her parents. And when it came to wanting something, Ella often barked childlike shouts at her parents to ask for a snack or toy she wanted; Honeydew preferred to tug at either parent’s apron as her method of asking.
Soon enough, the two outgrew their diapers and learned to talk. Naturally, Ella started yammering and telling her sister what she could or couldn’t do. Some of her demands were born out of concern, like getting her away from the kitchen where Honeydew couldn’t burn herself, or telling her that stray dogs could bite; and then there were the times that Ella told Honeydew to stop playing in the mud because it’s gross, or to give her the toy because she wanted to play with it. Honeydew got annoyed and usually responded with hitting her or shoving mud in her face.
Of course, Ella didn’t have to tell Honeydew not to talk to strangers—Honeydew was not very fond of other ponies, especially the grumps in a hurry that they encountered on a regular basis on their days out. She thought that everypony was mean and looking for an excuse to hurt her. She was usually happy when the family went camping, where dirt, trees, and a stream was her perfect playground, and she could collect rocks and leaves.
They were nearing their first year of school when they visited their grandparents in Canterlot, hopefully for reconciliation. Unfortunately, Cucumber Melon’s parents took one look at their granddaughters, and recoiled in horror at the “worthless mongrels” they brought. The little fillies didn’t know what that meant, but it was clear that it was an insult—enough for Ella to get angry and want to prove them wrong, and for Honeydew to start crying and pretty much accept that she’s worthless.
Ella was going to make sure that either she, her sister, or maybe even both of them were going to change Equestria in a big way when they’re grown-up. Hearing that achieving something comes out of hard work, she was looking forward to school, and was perfectly okay with doing her chores. Of course, when noticing Honeydew not doing anything—passively waiting for Mom and Dad to clean up like they always do, Ella would tell her off for being lazy, which ended up in a fight that Pizza and Mel had to break up. Usually Ella was sent to her room for starting it against her sensitive sister, even when Ella tried to protest that Honeydew had just as much of a part in it as she did.
They started school, with Ella happily learning new things and doing the work required, while Honeydew usually just sat in the back and slept while the teacher rambled. Of course, when the teacher noticed, she had to tell her that it was against the rules to sleep outside of naptime. It was also against the rules to track mud into the school, to look at another foal’s assignment, and to walk off school grounds during school hours. She hated feeling like a bad pony, but came to the conclusion that it was because ponies only made rules as an excuse to be mean.
Despite preferring being outside, Honeydew stayed in on her first day because she was certain that the other foals were going to hurt her in some way. One other foal, a colt named Hay Burger, was in as well, and while she wanted to ignore him, she eventually mustered up the courage to say “Hi” to him. After finding that he was an exception to the “mean ponies” rule, she started showing her more friendly side to him and asked him questions about himself. While he was simply curt in his answers at first, he eventually got into more detail. Soon enough, they bonded over feeling alone, how unfair life was, and talking about their collections. They soon went outside and started playing silly games like jungle explorers or flower arrangements together.
Outside, Mozzarella had started off well, but her bossiness got the other kids—sans a filly named Dolly Flowerbox—sick of her, and she was usually left to her own devices. As a stickler for the rules, she tended to tattle on everyone who didn’t follow them, and she didn’t waste much time on having fun. Still, at times, Dolly got her to lighten up a bit and play skip rope with another filly.
Honeydew had problems doing her schoolwork, which concerned her parents. As she didn’t like disappointing them, she wanted to do better—however, she found it too hard, and decided that looking off other foals’ papers was easier. The easiest was Hay Burger’s, as he usually came over to play with her and help her with schoolwork. She was discreet about it, but sometimes Mozzarella caught her. All little Honey had to do was break something on her own head and summon crocodile tears to get rid of her before Ella could tell anyone.
While Ella was frustrated with her sister mucking up situations like this, she did like Honeydew’s little friend—even though he was scared of her. She wanted to tell him what Honeydew was doing, but she was always interrupted in one way or another. Plus, while it was nice that he cleaned up after himself, it seemed like another excuse for her sister to be lazy, and the sisters ended up fighting while Hay awkwardly slipped away.
Mozzarella got her cutie mark in being the playground monitor, making sure that everypony followed the rules and ordering them to lay off on some of the more rule-breaking actions. Honeydew got hers on a camping trip, for once actually protecting her sister from some poisonous plants.
The latter very much liked her cutie mark, and wanted to stay in nature where she didn’t have to do chores or cheat off papers to survive the pointless rules of urban society. She wished that society could be overturned so that there were no silly rules to be abused and that everypony could live in harmony. When Mozzarella argued with her over that, Honeydew didn’t listen, thinking that her sister was automatically wrong and brainwashed by the system. This thinking of hers went on into her teenage years, and she pitied the poor pushover Hay Burger for being a victim of the unfair system. She often daydreamed about a revolution to overturn the cruel society.
Meanwhile, Mozzarella was more content with making sure that the rules were known and followed, even if she wasn’t the most popular filly around. She worked hard on her schoolwork, and often had to nag Honeydew into doing hers and try to keep her from peeking at another’s, even if Honey found some way to get her in trouble. It wasn’t much, though, as their parents usually did some light scolding.
She got annoyed when ponies tried to tell her to lighten up, and that she should go to a party and cut loose. Seeing as the few parties she went to with Dolly always ended up going wild with loud music, drunk ponies, and makeouts that went a little too far, Ella was not too keen on them.
Ella always made sure that everyone worked on group projects when they came about, even if she had to nag some of her lazier partners. Projects with Honeydew weren’t fun, as Honey was lazy as always, and they argued without getting anything done. At least something came out of projects with Dolly or Hay, as they were willing to work with her. In return, she scared off the bullies that would pick on them.
One day, there came a math test, and Honeydew found herself isolated during it, too far to look off another’s paper. Thus, she failed spectacularly, doing much worse than the dim Dolly. Hay Burger had been upset as he had been tutoring her, and Ella didn’t sugarcoat anything when she told him point blank that Honey had been cheating off him and several others.
Hay didn’t want to believe it, but in talking to Honeydew, she expressed about how much she hated how pointless and cruel society was and how rules were only there to control ponies and keep them from being their true selves. While she fantasized over how wonderful a peaceful, rule-free commune within nature would be, Hay pointed out that it wouldn’t work out and tried to explain the actual reason for rules. Honeydew refused to believe it, accusing him of being brainwashed and on Mozzarella’s side, and they got into a heated argument which ended in in Honeydew’s tears and her believing that their friendship was over.
Seeing as there was nothing left for her in Manehattan, she packed up and left, though not without letting her parents know how upset she was that they let her sister become so mean and controlling. After that, the family never heard from her again.
Though Mozzarella wasn’t much for showing emotion, she was pretty sad that her sister left. She often wondered how long Honeydew’s way of thinking would persist until life gave her a good, hard slap on the face—or worse, killed her. Ella wanted to prevent that from happening again, and concluded that poor teaching on her parents’ part got Honeydew to think that way. She loved her parents too much to tell them this, though, as they were still upset over the whole thing, but she decided that if she had kids someday, she wouldn’t let them be like her sister.
Went she went to college, Ella found herself accompanied by Hay Burger, only because he was familiar with her and had warmed up to her. Ella’s talent of discipline and Hay’s talent of organization made them an unstoppable academic team, and their years in school blew by before they knew it. They were on a high of success after graduation, and had each other to thank for the assistance. It got them thinking that maybe a romantic relationship would work out, and they got married.
Ella still wished to bring something big to Equestria, though she simply had a job in editing books. She was facing some frustration in her marriage, as normal marital problems like money, job stress, and annoying habits of her spouse were arising. She tended to win the arguments, though sometimes Hay would just shut down and ignore her, which frustrated her more. Few times there was compromise, though most of those were small, and the only big one was the decision to have a baby.
Ella left her job after she gave birth to their first son, Cheese Sandwich. At first, things seemed to be improving, though Ella was just mellow from being tired from eleven months of pregnancy, giving birth, and recovering from it while caring for a newborn. Her parents often spoiled the little fella, though her house meant she was making sure that there were rules for Cheese to follow. She daydreamed over what her son would become, and was excited for a potential success story for him.
However, the cycle restarted anew, and Ella tried to control some of her husband’s more irritating habits and some of his sass. Arguments arose, her temper flared when Hay shut down, and found herself figuring out parenting on her own when Hay stopped playing with Cheese to throw himself into his work. She refused to believe that maybe the marriage wasn’t working out, especially since they didn’t want to disrupt their son’s life. She wanted to fix things, but all that resulted in was a mess of anger and confusion, and a second pregnancy.
While she wanted the second foal to be a filly, it ended up being another colt, which she named Tomato Sandwich. With Tomato’s birth, she decided to cool down and try to focus on raising her boys instead, though she was going to get Hay to be a father to them instead of just some stranger in the house.
As the colts grew, she found it peculiar that the two were best friends. After all, getting along with her own sister was a rare occurrence for Ella, so it was oddly fascinating to watch them play. While the boys had their squabbles, they were always quick to forgive each other. Of course, when something broke, somepony had to be punished (usually the hyperactive Tomato—Cheese was quiet and wasn’t much for trouble). And since both of them were starting to develop strange powers that broke reality, she had to keep that under control, lest they end up being labeled “freaks”.
When Cheese started school, she started prodding at him to do well, which annoyed him at first. However, as the school years went on and he was getting severely bullied for being a shy weirdo, he was getting stressed. Unfortunately, Ella got into the mindset of looking out for crocodile tears like her sister used to so liberally use, but couldn’t really discriminate between those and Cheese’s actual distress. She just told him to do his homework and study, and then got upset when he did poorly, given that she believed he was a smart kid (the stress got to the poor boy).
It got worse for both when Ella’s parents died, with grief affecting them harshly. They at least they got to say goodbye, but the family still misses them terribly. Even for all their not doing well in discipline, Ella still remembers them fondly for being sweet, kind, and good to her children. Her father's jokes were the only ones that made her laugh, and she wears her mother's necklace to keep her close.
Tomato started school under less pressure, and thus excelled. Ella fell into the trap of comparing them, which only made Cheese angry and start resenting his brother, as well as do worse. Thinking that he needed to study more, Ella took to shooing Tomato away so that Cheese could focus. To keep him from being a distraction, Tomato was allowed to go to friends’ houses given he did his homework—which ended up worsening Cheese’s jealousy, as he was a lonely kid without any friends aside from his pillow.
Cheese’s stress and anger built up until Tomato disobeyed his mother’s orders to watch the house and not invite anyone over, which resulted in Cheese’s accordion being broken. While Mozzarella hated the instrument for being loud, annoying, and a distraction, it was enough for Cheese to snap and run away from home.
Ella was in a panic when Cheese left, and got angry with Tomato for making him do so. She grew even more stressed out when Tomato got into fights with foals making fun of him for being upset over his “lame brother”. Between checking for updates on Cheese’s whereabouts and cracking down on Tomato’s missteps—be it academic or behavioral—she was a very volatile mare for a while.
Things went quiet after the initial panic, as Tomato fell into depression. While Mozzarella liked the quiet, she was concerned about Tomato and his moodiness. She attempted to help him move on, with the suggestion that he participate in a school function. She had to nag and prod a bit before he eventually agreed to do a fundraiser for the school. Amazingly, that was when he earned his cutie mark, and launched himself back into his happy and hyper mindset. While Ella was not a fan of the hyperactivity, she did like the mark he earned—that of dealing with money and business things—and believed that he was going to be successful as a stallion.
It wasn’t long before tensions rose again after Cheese’s sudden return and reveal of his own cutie mark. Mozzarella freaked out when she learned that he was a “party pony” and her mind immediately jumped to the most raunchy kind of party, refusing to listen to Cheese’s explanation of what his talent actually was. Her scolding and comparison to Tomato’s talent angered Cheese to the point of insulting his brother’s mark, which led to fighting and a bitter feud between them that lasted a long time.
Upset over her oldest having an unacceptable talent, she cracked down even harder on her youngest, dictating just how he should use his talent and how he should behave. Tomato only went along with it to spite his brother, but eventually dove into some serious depression and anxiety issues that affected his ability to make and keep friends. Sadly, Mozzarella only saw that as him being a moody teenager, and didn’t believe that he might have needed psychiatric help.
Cheese would visit for some odd reason, claiming that it was his “Cheesy Sense”. Ella was not shy in telling him that maybe he misinterpreted his mark, but he wouldn’t have it. Those visits usually ended in arguments after Cheese tried to show a new trick to Tomato and Tomato responding that he was faking his smile.
Sometimes, Tomato’s pent up emotions and “nonsense magic” would explode from time to time, usually when he ended up drinking coffee. Mozzarella often had to apologize to neighbors and ground Tommy for his misbehavior. It was frustrating to have a son who had uncontrollable freak powers, especially since it proved to be a threat to his career when he ruined a party thrown by his boss. Still, she believed it could be salvaged, as she still nagged Tommy into going to college, despite his hopelessness over the whole thing.
Since she had a little too much down time for her liking, Ella went back to editing books for publishing. While sometimes it's frustrating to see all the grammatical errors and the horrible plots, she hopes to help authors refine their talent into near perfection. Sometimes she does deal with spoiled brats that complain about her corrections and throw a fit when she tells them that the story needs revising. Other things she does is go to a book club, visit her friend Dolly, and run the usual errands of domestic life.
She’s got a horrible lack of self-awareness, as while she honestly thinks she’s helping, her methods prove to be more stressful for her loved ones. While she is right that her parents hadn’t really done much to teach Honeydew to defy her bad traits, Ella herself hadn’t been taught much about self-control either. Thus, she continues to inadvertently sever her bonds with her husband and her sons. Soon enough, even Tomato would leave to escape her tyranny.
Sad, really, because she did end up contributing something big to Equestria in an indirect manner--her sons, using their talents to help better Equestria. She's unfortunately having some trouble seeing it.
As for Honeydew? Who knows where she went.
Someday, it will be revealed in Brotherly Bonding Time...
I see what you mean when you told me Honeydew was an introvert. Indeed, they're rather like opposites of one another, and unfortunately for both of them, they have some serious oppositely bad traits too.
I've always seen Mozzarella as a Failed Heroine in the social sense of the word, in that she actually tried to be a good Pony, a good wife and mother, but she tried to do it too forcefully and lashed out cruelly when her husband and children wouldn't do what she wanted. That makes her an extremely tragic figure in her own small way -- unlike (say) my Crimson Quartz/Sombra, she didn't have ambitions as vast as restoring a mighty empire and fall so far as to become that empire's most nightmarish tyrant and the betrayer of all North Amareican Civilization. No, she just tried to love a stallion and bear and raise his sons, and she wound up alienating him and the sons she bore. Ella can't be very happy about this, even if she does blame them rather than herself.
A tragic hero always has a fatal flaw that causes their good aims to lead to bad ends, and Mozzarella's is that she's INCREDIBLY pushy. She doesn't acknowledge the autonomy, or even the worth of others save in that they behave in accordance with her ends. Because she does have high and often good standards, she tends to confuse What Ella Wants with The Eternal Philosophical and Moral Good. This arrogance prevents her from checking herself when she notices that she's driving others away -- obviuosly, they're not being Good enough, and she needs to nag harder!
I might possibly say you've overdrawn her this way, except for one thing. My adoptive mother was very much like your Mozzarella. Complete with generally good intentions and principles, executed abysmally badly in terms of getting others to go along with it, through aggressive nagging. She alienated both my (also adopted) sister and myself with this attitude; I reconciled with her before she died, but my sister never did.
It has occurred to me (and perhaps you) that Hay Burger might have been happier with Honeydew. He would have provided her life support and structure, and protected her from the random cruelties of the world, while she perhaps would have just loved and accepted him for who he was instead of trying to force him to be somepony else. It's of course, far too late for any such resolution right now, save by considerable plot contrivance.
On the other hoof, Honeydew has her own arrogance -- it's just more passive than Mozzarella's -- and her lackadaisical radicalism might have simply led to Honeydew pushing all the hard work over on Hay Burger, only really sharing fun times with him, while feeling superior to him because of his mere mundanity. Which might have hurt Hay Burger in a whole other way than Ella did. Heck, Hay Burger might have died trying to protect Honeydew from the consequences of her own mistakes.
I know in the SWSV someone with Honeydew's set of flaws would be risking a very dark end. Maybe your world will be kinder and gentler to her?
It's tragic, really. One day, Ella is going to find herself alone, and she's not going to know why. At some point, you need to stop cracking the whip. Sadly, she was never able to discipline the expression of her own talent. She never realized she had to. I can only think that if she and Starlight Glimmer touched, there would be some kind of catastrophic matter-antimatter reaction.
4149529
I wonder if Honeydew ever met Starlight Glimmer? It seems distinctly possible, given Honeydew's radicalism. Though, obviously, she wasn't in Our Town -- Cheese and Tomato would have noticed if their own aunt was there.
4149538
Would they? She ran away from home long before they were ever born, and I doubt Ella would mention her on a frequent basis (save perhaps as an example of how not to act.) Their grandparents may have shown them pictures of her, but that would've been a long time ago by the time they snowballed into Our Town. By the same token, she definitely wouldn't recognize them as her nephews.
Man this was an eye opener! Mozzerella has always been your most fascinating character to me, and I feel like we finally got to peer inside her head and figure out what makes her tick. I'd love to learn a bit more of what Ella is like when she is spending time with Dolly, it sounds like that is the only time she is happy these days.
I also wonder if Mozzerella will ever recognize how similar Creme Brulee is to Mozerella's own grandparents, and start feeling more sympathetic towards Tomato because many of his problems can be traced back to Creme.
4149524 I rarely find anyone who can dissect a character as thoroughly as you, Jordan179.