Brotherly Bonding Time

by Sketcha-Holic

11.1--The Shining Vocals Competition

The two entered the city, hearing the click clack of their hooves upon the shining street. Tomato could see his own reflection looking down, and wiped his face of any dirt and grime that had come upon his face during the past few days. Then, he looked around at the houses, resembling finely cut gemstones sparkling under the sun. They were a little duller up close, though that was probably a necessity in order not to blind anypony with more brilliance than was necessary.

Then, he took quick glances at each local. He was amazed at how the ponies shimmered, their crystalline coats giving each pony an aura of strange but happily wondrous magic. Their manes were all either poofed up, straightened into sleek, shining waterfalls of color, or done up in braids, buns, ringlets, or elaborate curls. Plenty that he saw had combined those traits into rather dashing hairstyles.

Then, he looked up at the crystal castle. He eyes scanned the rather tall tower from the plaza to the spires, noting the blue and white sheen that was reminding him of diamonds. It wasn't light before he reached the top, and the tallest and brightest spire resembled the sun a little too much for his liking, so he quickly looked away, trying to blink away the flash blindness.

Cheese glanced at him with a smile. "Super shiny, isn't it?"

Tomato rubbed his eye. "Almost made my eyesight worse than it already was. Times like this make me glad there's an anti-reflective coating on my lenses."

"We must praise the pony who came up with that." Cheese chuckled, and then looked around. "All right... my Cheesy Sense points me to..." He licked his hoof, thrust it in the air to feel the wind, and then pointed one of the other streets across the plaza. "The stadium."

As they started to walk to that street, Tomato asked, "Why did you have to do the licking the hoof thing?"

"Oh, it's just for fun."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "I wonder why we're even going to the stadium. Last I checked, you hated sports."

---

They soon arrived at the Crystal Stadium. After a bit of discussion with those at the entrance, they went into the field, finding that a stage had been built in the hexagon field. Looking around, they could see several ponies scattered in different places, either cleaning the seats surrounding the field, shining the crystal walls and decor, or working on lights and effects.

"Doesn't look like there are any sports going on here," Tomato said. "Looks like they're preparing for a concert."

Cheese pursed his lips as he looked around. "They seem to be doing just fine. I wonder why I was--"

He was interrupted by a mare shouting, "Well, well, well!"

Cheese jumped and turned to said mare--cream-coated, blue-maned, and dressed up in a wild and dazzling outfit--prancing toward him with a delighted expression on her face. "Look at what my eyes are beholding! The Super Duper Party Pony himself has come and graced us with his presence!"

Cheese tipped his hat. "Pleasure to see you again, Sapphire Shores."

Tomato blinked. "Sapphire Shores? Cheese, how many celebrities do you know?"

Sapphire Shores was followed by a purple pegasus with a three-toned pink mane. The pegasus grinned and said, "So it is Cheese! Have you come here for the Shining Vocals Competition?"

"And howdy to you, Starsong," Cheese said. He looked at the stage and chuckled. "So, the Shining Vocals are in the Crystal Empire this year? First it's the Equestria Games, and now the Shining Vocals are taking advantage of this great city of old that just returned over a year ago."

Sapphire Shores nodded. "That's right, and this city here hasn't been any less glamorous since the last few times I've been here, though they're still a little behind on the times." She winked as she added, "Gotta get these ponies used to modern music."

As the other two laughed, Tomato muttered, "What's with Equestria having beings or cities from a thousand years ago suddenly appear?"

Starsong looked at Tomato. "Cheese, who's your friend?"

Cheese glanced at Tomato. "Oh! This is my little brother, Tomato Sandwich. We're on a summer road trip together to have a bit of brotherly bonding time."

"Oh! A brother!" Sapphire exclaimed. "I had no idea you had a brother. And I dare say, he's as cute as a button."

Tomato felt his face heat up, and he pulled at his collar. "Uh, look, I don't really appreciate being called 'cute'."

"How 'bout just handsome, then?" Sapphire said with a smile.

After a still blushing Tomato backed up, Starsong looked between him and Cheese before finally resting on the elder brother. "Is he always this shy?"

Cheese shook his head. "Nah, he's just not used to being surrounded by celebrities. Though I will admit, he was a lot more social when he was a colt. And hyper! Pfft, you should have seen him zipping around from place to place, and I always had to catch him before he ended up killing himself."

Tomato nickered in annoyance. "Hey, save my biography for later and get back to business."

Cheese glanced at him with narrowed eyes for a moment, then rolled them and shook his head. He faced the girls again. "Excuse me for getting off topic. So, my Cheesy Sense led me here, apparently to make this show look a little more dazzling and showy and whatnot. Or maybe just planning the afterparty, I don't know."

"I wouldn't put it past you to make this show a lot more sen-sa-tional," Sapphire stated.

"Or maybe he could fill the place of the last judge," Starsong suggested.

Cheese blinked. "Wait... you mean the guys behind this whole shebang didn't choose a third judge for this competition?"

Tomato sighed. "Well, that's rather incompetent."

Starsong shook her head. "Oh, no, no, they did originally have three celebrities selected to judge the ponies competing: me, Sapphire, and Countess Coloratura."

Cheese grinned. "Oh, the Countess? You know, I was meaning to show her a parody I wrote of one of her songs..." He pulled a couple of papers out of his hat. "It's hilarious, she'll love it. Unless that annoying manager of hers gets in the way... again..."

"Well, she ain't hearing it," Sapphire said bluntly. "Family emergency came up, and she cancelled all of her appearances for the next couple of weeks."

Starsong sighed. "Family is important, so I understand why she felt she had to cancel some stuff. But it happened so close to the competition that the crew is in a bit of a pickle in picking a replacement judge."

"Oh, well..." Cheese stuffed the papers back into his hat, his eyes downcast. "I do wish that family member with the emergency well... whatever that emergency is." He looked up and smiled. "But, if you want me to be the replacement judge, sure, why not?"

Starsong gasped. "You'll do it?"

After Cheese's nod, Sapphire whooped. "Well, hallelujah! With a party pony as a judge, the Shining Vocals are bound to be fan-tastic this year!" She and Starsong turned around and beckoned them. "Well, c'mon now, Cheese; we've got to find the producer of this gig and tell him about ya."

Cheese followed with a grin. "Better be warned, I'll sneak in a few of my own touches in the decoration, effects, and my own role as a judge. And, well, we're definitely going to have a nice afterparty." He winked at the girls. Then, he turned his head to his brother behind him. "Come, Tommy, I don't want you standing around confused like that."

Tomato rolled his eyes and followed.

---

The producer was thrilled that a replacement judge had been found on short notice. After being given a brief overview of his temporary job, Cheese went across town with Sapphire, Starsong, and the host of the show, the middle-aged Windswept Goldenmane, to the train station to greet the contestants from all over Equestria. Behind them, keeping a fair distance from them in order to keep himself from being confused for a judge, Tomato was overhearing the conversation.

Windswept explained that various auditions had been occurring in eight cities, and that a mare and colt from each city were coming to the Crystal Empire to compete with their voices during the next few days. Whoever showed the best combination of style and versatility in both music genre and music range would go on to the next round, and they could keep doing this until a winner was decided.

"Now, remember, listening to a good song should give you the chills and thrills, making you feel," Windswept said, with a big grin and puffed out chest. "I personally compare my feelings with a song with a good romp on a beautiful day or a lovely, starry night. The energy, the rush, the feeling that you are defying gravity and out of this world, and just how it takes your breath away. Why, if I didn't feel that, I'd rate it a bad song."

Sapphire raised an eyebrow. "What about that catchy song about spoonfeeding snapping turtles? Doesn't make me feel, but dang! It gets stuck in your head! And ponies like it, critics like it, heck, everypony thinks it's a good song!"

Starsong giggled and sang, "You gotta make the spoon fly around like a birdie, and pop it into the little beaked mouth."

Sapphire screamed on hearing it, while Cheese laughed. Tomato groaned, for that blasted song was now stuck in his head, and he was unfortunately singing it to himself. "One cold morning in the Great Hoof River... I met a little beaked turtle hissing at me..."

Windswept sighed and shook his head. "I'll never understand why that song got so popular. It's like... a drunken jester being hailed as a wise king."

"Aw, what's wrong with a silly little ditty?" Cheese asked.

Windswept scoffed. "If a song is not serious and dramatic, with emotions pouring out of every fiber of a ponies being through the lyrics, then why shouldn't it get the praise it deserves? Why should I care about a song about a crocodile and a rock?"

"Thing about entertainment, you can't just force ponies to think," Cheese said. "Sometimes they just want to hear a fun little ditty instead of a guilt-tripping ballad about whatever issue the singer has. Can't expect every song to be powerful and life-changing."

Windswept stuck his snow white muzzle into the air and pranced just ahead of Cheese. "Hmph. Just because the other members of the crew like you doesn't mean I'll take your style seriously. You can't trust a party pony to be serious after all."

Cheese snorted, and his eyes went downcast. With a sigh, he grumbled, "Well, sorry if I just want ponies to be happy."

Starsong patted Cheese's back. "There, there, I'm sure he's just cranky from the whole setup and the Countess Coloratura debacle. Let's not forget, we're hearing a whole bunch of voices from all over Equestria singing all sorts of songs. I can't wait to hear them!"

"Ooooh, this year's competition is promising to be big!" Sapphire exclaimed. "In the gleaming Crystal Empire, with fireworks, lights, and a performance from the Wonderbolts to start things off! I hear they're getting a couple of retired Wonderbolts to perform alongside the current members."

Cheese perked up. "Which retired Wonderbolts?"

"From what I hear, it's Blazing Silver and Raincloud. Rumor has it that those lovebirds agreed to perform because their son and daughter made the auditions in Cloudsdale, and all of the family wanted to each have a chance in the limelight."

Tomato perked up. Something about those names seemed familiar to him.

They made it to the Crystal Empire Train Station, just as a train pulled in. As the host and judges went forward, Tomato just leaned on the side of the station, still bobbing his head. "The little turtle gave me a funny look, as the mashed potatoes bubbled in the pot..."

He looked at the platform where the others stood. He watched Cheese look back at him, checking to see if he was still there and safe. Tomato waved at him, and smiled as Cheese waved back and then turned back to the train. Licking his teeth once more, Tomato felt a little weird being the tagalong, and wondered what Mr. Goldenmane thought of Cheese bringing his brother along. Considering what he had just heard him say about Cheese, Tomato guessed that it wasn't very nice.

For some reason, as he glowered at Windswept, one of his teeth felt sharp again.

The train stopped, and soon the doors opened and ponies filed out. Tomato counted the contestants, and while at first he was confused that there were more than sixteen ponies, a closer look revealed that some of the ponies were older, and he figured that some of the ponies had their parents come along to watch.

Windswept walked forward, tossed his golden mane, and cleared his throat. "Good tidings, contestants. Welcome to the Crystal Empire!"

The ponies in the group all whooped, hollered, and stomped in jubilation. Waving a hoof to quiet them down, Windswept continued, "Now, now, let's not get carried away--save your voices for the competition. We have a lovely group of ponies here for this week, and it's clear to me that you all must have some beautiful voices to be able to come here." He stepped to the side and gestured to the three judges. "Now, meet our judges, I'm sure you all heard of them: the stellar Starsong, the sassy Sapphire Shores, and the uh... chipper Cheese Sandwich."

"Howdy, ponies!" Cheese chirped.

"Look at all of you," Sapphire said. "You darlings look ready to take on the world!"

Starsong beamed. "And we look forward to hearing all of your voices."

Windswept laughed. "Oh, yes, I hear that this year's contestants are promising. Question is... who will win?"

There was silence as the contestants looked at each other. Some were looking around curiously, some narrowed their eyes and glanced around at their competitors, a couple of them glared at each other, and then there were those were were sweating and rubbing their legs.

Windswept then said, "Come along, we must show you to your hotel, so that you may get settled in. Then you are free to explore the city."

The contestants and judges went ahead and followed Windswept off the platform and past the train station. As they were passing Tomato, Cheese patted him in the silent message of it being time to go. However, before Tomato could even start to move, he was yanked away from the wall by two pairs of hooves, and squeezed tightly in a sudden embrace.

"Oh, my gosh!" a male voice cried. "I can't believe Tomato's here!"

A female voice laughed. "Well, his brother is one of the judges, Nimbus!"

Cheese stopped and let the other contestants pass him, then spun around to find Tomato caught between two gray pegasi hovering in the air. Cheese recognized the pair as twins, the stallion having primarily blue hair with yellow streaks, and the mare having the other way around. His mane was long and shaggy, hers was cropped short. His face was blemish free, while she had freckles. His cutie mark was a yellow comedy mask, hers was a blue drama mask. And finally, Cheese remembered that the stallion was Nimbus, and the mare was Cirrus, and that they were Tomato's friends from school.

Cheese laughed. "Awww, Tommy, they're so happy to see you!"

Tomato gave him a half-lidded stare. "I've noticed." Looking between the twins, he asked, "Now do you two mind putting me down?"

They dropped him. Tomato's tail wasn't fast enough to catch him before he had a hard landing on his rump. He glared at the twins as they stifled giggles and descended from their place in the sky.

"Whoops!" Cirrus said. "Looks like we forgot that he doesn't use his tail as a cushion."

"Shame, his mane was so bouncy the last time we saw it in its natural form," Nimbus said.

Cirrus scratched her chin as she looked at Tomato's mane. "Speaking of which, why isn't it all curly? I don't recall there any hair gel in the wild."

Tomato stood up, and brushed off his rump. "Let's just say sheer force of will keeps it down."

POMF!

Purely to jinx him, his mane was suddenly poofed into curls. His eye twitching as the other three laughed, Tomato grumbled, "Most of the time."

As he smoothed down his mane, the twins were suddenly joined by an older stallion and mare carrying luggage. The stallion had the same color coat as the twins, with a mane of hot colors and eyes of blue; the mare, on the other hoof, was blue, with a dark blue mane, freckles, and orange eyes that matched the twins'. Once Tomato looked up, he was quick to realize that those were the twins' parents, Blazing Silver and Raincloud.

Cirrus and Nimbus turned to them, with Cirrus saying, "Oh, Mom, Dad, this is one of the friends we made in Manehattan!"

"Really?" Blazing Silver said, marching toward him. Giving Tomato a funny look, he said, "Well, I know he's not Bluejinx. He's not blue."

Tomato blinked. "Eh... no."

Raincloud hovered to her husband and lightly smacked his shoulder. "Of course not! This guy has a tomato for a cutie mark, so he's obviously Tomato Salad."

Cheese and the twins laughed again, and Tomato sighed. "Close... it's Sandwich."

"Oh, Tomato Sandwich! Sorry, I confused you for the drama king that drives Cirrus nuts with the super melodramatic lines he writes." Raincloud snickered as Cirrus huffed and looked away. "My bad, you're the businesslike bookworm that doesn't like to sing."

Tomato gave Cirrus a dirty look. "I see she complains about that at home."

Nimbus shrugged. "I tried to tell her to give it a rest, but she doesn't listen."

Blazing Silver rolled his eyes and chuckled. He thrust out a hoof. "In any case, glad to meet you."

Tomato shook it. "I can see where they get their sense of humor from."

Cheese popped up by Tomato's side. "You know, these meetings are fun and great and all, but Cirrus and Nimbus kind of need to be with the rest of the group. They have a role call."

Cirrus and Nimbus' eyes widened, and they didn't hesitate to grabbed their luggage from their father's back. Cirrus gave her dad a quick peck on the cheek. "We'll meet up at the park and explore the Crystal Empire later, okay?"

Blazing Silver patted her head. "It's all right, sweetheart, your mom and I have to catch up with the other Wonderbolts, okay?"

Nimbus gave both his parents a quick hug, and said, "Okay, Cirrus, let's go!", before speeding off without another word.

Cirrus jumped upon seeing Nimbus' hasty departure, and the pegasus guard that was unfortunately in his path. "Nimbus, wait! Look out for the--"

Nimbus crashed into the guard, the two pegasi rolling into a ball of gray, orange, and blue. They tumbled across the street, with some Crystal Ponies sidestepping to avoid them or pulling their children out of the way. They stopped when they bumped into somepony's house, and the two pegasus stallions landed in an ungraceful heap in the front yard. Both were dazed from their trip, and Nimbus somehow wearing the guard's armor.

Cirrus winced. "...guard."

The Sandwiches and Blazing Silver grimaced, while Raincloud sped through the air to the yard. She picked up Nimbus, hugged him, and gently felt his forehead. "Oh, no! Are you okay, my little ball of sunshine?"

Nimbus groaned. "...yeah, Mom, I'm fine." He looked at the guard. "Are you okay, Mr...?"

The guard sat up, groaning and rubbing his head. "Flash Sentry."

He opened his eyes, straight at the armored Nimbus. Looking down at his own body, and then looking up at him once again, Flash sighed and gave him an annoyed glare. "Would you please give me back my armor?"

Author's Note:

And here, I try my hand at writing Sapphire Shores, give you my interpretation of G4 Starsong, and finally show somepony who was originally part of another OC's backstory...

So, now Cheese is a judge for a singing competition. May you be an awesome judge, Cheesaroo.

Since Bluejinx had a role in an earlier segment, it was high time for the Pega-sibs to appear in the story. And thus, not only do we see these goofballs again, we also meet their parents, Blazing Silver and Raincloud.

Question is if we're going to meet Cadance and Shining Armor. We'll see.

Comments

[Jordan179]

Cheese grinned. "Oh, the Countess? You know, I was meaning to show her a parody I wrote of one of her songs..." He pulled a couple of papers out of his hat. "It's hilarious, she'll love it. Unless that annoying manager of hers gets in the way... again..."

Ah, you know the story of how Gaga's manager tried to prevent Weird Al from talking to her about his proposed "Perform This Way" and only after the fact did Gaga reveal that she actually liked the song? I'm glad that they've both been Ponified, more or less, in canon!

... and the host of the show, the middle-aged Windswept Goldenmane ...

Him.

Windswept scoffed. "If a song is not serious and dramatic, with emotions pouring out of every fiber of a ponies being through the lyrics, then why shouldn't it get the praise it deserves? Why should I care about a song about a crocodile and a rock?"

With a young Elton John performing it yet!

"Aw, what's wrong with a silly little ditty?" Cheese asked.

Windswept scoffed. "If a song is not serious and dramatic, with emotions pouring out of every fiber of a ponies being through the lyrics, then why shouldn't it get the praise it deserves? Why should I care about a song about a crocodile and a rock?"

"Thing about entertainment, you can't just force ponies to think," Cheese said. "Sometimes they just want to hear a fun little ditty instead of a guilt-tripping ballad about whatever issue the singer has. Can't expect every song to be powerful and life-changing."

Windswept stuck his snow white muzzle into the air and pranced just ahead of Cheese. "Hmph. Just because the other members of the crew like you doesn't mean I'll take your style seriously. You can't trust a party pony to be serious after all."

I totally agree with Cheese on this issue. Of course, I actually like both silly and serous music, depending on my mood.

Then again, "Crocodile Rock" is both a sweeter and a darker song than it appears at first glance. It's about deep nostalgia and serious loss. Don't know about the song they're actually discussing, though.

Of course, Cheese doesn't realize that he's already met somepony who knew Windswept not wisely, but too well.

"From what I hear, it's Blazing Silver and Raincloud. ..."

Yay! You're bringing them onstage!

Hey, it's Pony Flash Sentry! Continuing his long tradition of having ponies bump into him!

[Sketcha-Holic]

6805256 Nah, I just made it up.

[RadicalDishonesty]

6805306

I totally agree with Cheese on this issue. Of course, I actually like both silly and serous music, depending on my mood.

Then again, "Crocodile Rock" is both a sweeter and a darker song than it appears at first glance. It's about deep nostalgia and serious loss. Don't know about the song they're actually discussing, though.

Yeah... well the thing is, Music Has Emotion. That's just... a thing of music. Happy, frenetic, wild... silly. These are also emotions.

Too many people mistake "somber" for "the only way to have value" anyway. That, unless it's sad or about sad things it is not worthwhile.

But I like to smile and laugh and get chills from songs. Usually not from the same one, though.

I must confess, I can't remember who Windswept Goldmane was.

[howard035]

Between all the musicals and getting to know more of Tomato's friends, this promises to be a good chapter. I kind of hope Cheese gets sick or something so Tomato can take his place again though. Every musical contest with a panel of judges needs a grumpy sarcastic judge, and who would be a better Simon Cowell than Tomato?

[Goldfinch142]

Sheer force of will, huh? Lucky. I wish I could keep my hair somewhat manageable with sheer force of will. But alas, I shall be doomed to frizziness for the rest of my mortal life.

I'm looking forward to seeing exactly who's in the Shining Vocals Competition, and if it's anyone we know so far.

"Uh, look, I don't really appreciate being called 'cute'."

But Tommy, it's the perfect word to describe you!

I wonder how much of their skills Blazing Silver and Raincloud kept up after retirement.

Wasn't expecting to see Flash Sentry of all ponies, but I'm not complaining. I'd like to see your take on him. Nimbus' meeting with Flash sounds a lot like his first meeting with Tomato--crashing right into him.

[cowbrony93]

"brotherly bonding time."

roll credits *ding*

[Dashie04]

6805359
Sounds like it’d be a great one.

[Godslittleprincess]

So, where can I find the snapping turtle song?

Also, OMG, my favorite stallion has made an appearance.