Brotherly Bonding Time

by Sketcha-Holic

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?

Comments

[SageBrony07]

Wow. That was shocking. The first was the level of destruction Tommy caused. They other was that tommy wanted to get rid of his cutie mark.

[RadicalDishonesty]

Weeeell that was a lot worse than I thought it would be.

A lot.

I wonder if there's... a way to non-destructively summon Tommy's silly side. Maybe there isn't unless something takes off the constant pressure that must be building up inside of him, both emotionally and... maybe magically.

Also. Las Haygas, in the region known as Neighvada.

[Jordan179]

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.

Pinkie thought it was neat, though. And ... Party Favor of course doesn't know this ... but have you noticed that Pinkie has started to practice the noble art of, um, balloon-thing-making? (someone came up with a formal name for that sort of party pony magic, but I forgot the word).

How ironic. Mozzarella has the opposite attitude toward Cutie Marks as Starlight Shimmer, and her interpretation is just as disastrous!

[mlpsuperfan]

6551840 It's called balloon sculpting.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Of all that ways that could've gone...
Well, it wasn't quite the worst possible way. No one got hurt too badly. Still, this is not good. Not at first blush. Tomato may need to be broken down like this in order to be rebuilt in a healthier way, but someone needs to help reconstruct him in order for that to happen. This could go very, very wrong.

Also, the lingering bits of Glimmerist propaganda are still disturbing.

[Goldfinch142]

Notice: cuppa joe from Cuppa Joe is being pulled from the shelves for causing dangerous behavior.

"I don't want my cutie mark anymore!"

Uh oh. Starlight Glimmer would love to hear that, if Tomato were to ever run into her.

His head hurt trying to wrap around his mother believed was the meaning of his cutie mark,

wrap around what his mother believed

Welp. That was an utter disaster. That definitely won't help his morale.

From a past comment:

I feel like Rooney's going to come up again sometime.

Ha! Called it!

EDIT: I vote for Las Haygas. Better ring to it.

[howard035]

I feel like they intend for Las Pegasus to do double duty as both Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

[Jordan179]

6551020

Tommy should be careful. Our Town might be watched by one of the only two Ponies who could remove his Cutie Mark -- and the only one who would actually do it.

[MeadowRosePony]

Las Neighgas

[KawaiiShadow]

las pegasi

[redmar]

All of this could have been prevented if Cheese Sandwich hadn't ignored Luna's advice.

[Dashie04]

What if weasels eat his face..."

In Albuquerque!

Man I love it when I appear to get references when no one else did!

[Godslittleprincess]

Okay, this could all have been avoided if people just talked about what needed to be talked about, just saying.