Brotherly Bonding Time

by Sketcha-Holic

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!

Instead I went for something else... hoo boy, wasn't that a beautiful sequence?

Comments

[superfun]

I have this feeling that later events, whether in this section or in the next, Cheese will end up needing that memory back at some point, and Rooney will have known that.

[RadicalDishonesty]

Oh boy... memory revision for Cheese Sandwich.

That's... going to be somewhere between confusing and awful, isn't it? Especially with Tommy's "itchy back." At least this mysterious often-inaccessible stallion has it for safe keeping...

This town is uh... going to town on the Sandwich brothers, isn't it? Everything which was precariously balanced is falling down for them.

[Jordan179]

Removing memories is a terribly dangerous thing. And this is not the town in which I would rashly wish to lose my Cutie Mark!

[SageBrony07]

I wasn't expecting this. Great job with this chapter. Thanks for the update. I wonder how this memory drain will affect cheese.

[Goldfinch142]

Removing a memory...that's a really, really bad idea. At the very least, Rooney seems to have good intentions. He doesn't strike me as the "Surprise! I'm evil!" type, like Kazam did.

Even so, what about Tomato? How would he feel about this? The Las Haygas event will probably be one of the most important events of their lives. And Cheese just threw it away. With good reason, yes, but still.

Besides, there might be some negative side effects to memory removal.

I'm also wondering where Rooney puts all the memory orbs. Does he destroy them, or keep them in a vault, or what?

[howard035]

For some reason I was sure that Rooney would be a changling, removing memories seems like the kind of thing a changling would do. I really like Party Favor's description of life in the cult. One thing kind of jumped out at me though:

"Utopia? Really? I don't call it a utopia if you're afraid of your leader."

For some reason I couldn't stop thinking about that time Twilight and Fluttershy thought they were going to get banished and imprisoned in the place they were banished to.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Rooney looked at him with a smile. "I know a spell that can remove the bad memory from your mind."

Well, there's no way that can possibly end well. It's definitely not going to work as a long-term solution. Probably not even a medium-term solution, especially not if Cheese is called in to testify against Kazam.

I do like how ancestor and descendant show very different means of dealing with deep-seated issues. Totally-not-Wayer goes for a quick fix, brute-forcing the issue into submission with no consideration for the deeper ramifications. Party Favor talks it out, allowing Tomato to confront his problem and learn from it. One of these is going to work out a lot better than the other.

And if that inability to perform well when dealing with personal issues is a family trait, it would explain a lot about Tomato...

[Princess rosa]

Why do I get the feeling that this isn't going to turn out well?

[KawaiiShadow]

i think i know whats going on here..... i dont want to spoil it tho

[redmar]

Cheese is still not finished with his stupidity. The memory is gone but the emotions connected to it aren't.
The nightmares will return and know he won't even know why he's having them. Rooney has made things worse.

[Sidetrack]

Roony=Rune-y=Wayer Rune?

[Godslittleprincess]

Well, on the bright side, at least Party Favor and Tommy are getting over themselves.