Brotherly Bonding Time

by Sketcha-Holic

12.1--Golden Years

It was late one night, with Cheese and Tomato taking a respite for the night while on their way to Mane-tua. Surrounded by a cool grassland sparse with trees, not too far from the mountains, and with only the chirps of crickets breaking the silence, the soft patch they had found convinced Cheese that it would make a good bed. Having felt the cool, silky blades that their hooves sank into like cotton, Tomato agreed that it would.

Not too far from the grass bed was a patch of dirt, where they had set up the fire and had their dinner of beans. While Cheese had already fallen asleep in the patch after taking his medicine, Tomato was using the last light of the fire to continue reading The Waters of Forever.

He held his breath at the story he read, being that of a murder mystery. He could guess that the murderer was some serial killer that used the Fountain of Youth in order to satisfy his or her bloodlust for centuries. He had a silent sigh of relief that the Fountain did not exist, as he was sure he didn't want to encounter some monster from long ago. But, still, he thought himself a glutton for punishment, as reading a creepy story might not allow him to sleep.

"As Detective Eagle Eye dipped his hoof in the blood dripping from the mouth of the hybrid corpse, Lilac Breeze felt a bit of acid rising in her throat. She forced it back, not wanting to distract her partner. However, seeing him bring the bloody hoof up to his nose and sniff it as a hound would made the temptation to set the contents of her stomach free somehow more appealing. She was thankful he didn't lick it, and had only grunted.

"'Eeyup, just as I thought,' Eagle Eye said. 'This blood smells of dark magic.'

"Lilac blinked. 'Dark magic?'"

Tomato leaned back from his book and raised his eyebrow. "Dark magic has a smell? What does it even smell like?"

Still, curious about this development, he continued to read, wanting to know Eagle Eye's answer.

"Eagle Eye nodded. 'And by the look of things... this poor pony's a victim of blood brewing.'

"Lilac's eyes feel upon the poor body, a mangled mish-mash of pony, cat, and dog, with bat wings haphazardly sewn onto its back with magic. What had once been her dear neighbor, and a childhood friend, his life cut short. She had to know what this mysterious 'blood brewing' was, so she dared ask the question.

"Eagle Eye grunted once again. 'It's when a warlock casts lotsa spells on one pony without deactivating any of them, for the sole purpose of creating a new, single spell for future casting. Casting the same combination of spells multiple times would get tedious, after all.' He snorted and spat into the gutter. 'The warlock lets them spells marinate for a bit before drawing blood and extracting the combined magic from it.'

"Lilac tilted her head. 'So... why's it so bad?'

Eagle Eye nudged the head of the corpse. 'Too much magical nonsense in the same body can at best, drain a pony's magic for a while, and at worst, make them explode. Your friend here was near to exploding.'

Tomato wrinkled his nose. "Not pleasant in any sense of the word. Good thing this 'blood brewing' stuff is absolute nonsense." He read on, squinting his eyes and gleaning the information on the blood brewing. Eagle Eye explained how it was a dark magic user's cheap shortcut in creating spells, and that many ponies had been crippled magic-wise or even killed because of it. One grand example was how one pony combined a fusion spell with a wolf, a contagion spell, a super strength spell, and a couple of others in order to create the werewolf.

"The werewolf thing again?" Tomato grumbled, closing the book. "Why does that of all things keep coming up?"

He stood up, taking a kettle of water to pour out the fire before heading off to bed. Laying down on the soft patch of grass and taking one of the ponchos for a blanket, a certain thought popped into mind once again. He had been shoving it off to the side with his book, distracting himself with tales of the Fountain of Youth. But, he knew that the thought was telling him about the inevitable action he needed to take, one that Tomato was not looking forward to.

Confronting Mom.

Oh, how he trembled at the mere idea of it. It was one thing for him to quip with sarcastic remarks under his breath now and again, making sure he kept his sanity whenever his mother ranted on what subject he chose for an essay, how much time he chose to spend at the library, or even scolding him for letting his tail bounce a hackey sack--whether it be about the hackey sack or the tail. Coming away from their conflicts with a good snark by his side made him at least have a taste of victory.

But, when it came to distrust stemming from the mismatch of Tomato and coffee, Mom did have a point. She also had a point for his attitude driving away potential allies. And lest he forget the loud, hyperactive clumsiness that had defined him as a colt. She had the duty of taming a force of nature, as she put it.

Still, whenever he had complained about bullies, he was always dismissed as the one who started it. A simple B had her lecturing him for hours until he did make-up work. He felt his cheek upon thinking of the whole Creme Brulee debacle, as not only was he humiliated, but Mom was humiliated by proxy, thinking that she was the only mare in the world with two freaks for children.

He rolled on the grass, turning to his snoozing brother. All that couldn't compare to the turmoil that the mere mention of Cheese Sandwich brought to the house. It was always the pattern of how Cheese needed a real job; how he shouldn't be wasting away on hedonistic nonsense; and, naturally, how if it wasn't for Tomato being so foolish, Cheese would have turned out as a respectable stallion instead of a clown. And Tomato just had to keep driving him away with his sour attitude, and was hanging tightly onto unhealthy bitterness over nothing.

Admittedly, Mom had been right on the bitterness thing--it was kind of hard not to be bitter when feeling abandoned and hated by a beloved brother, for reasons he had trouble wrapping his head around for a long time. Bringing Cheese up just to remind him how he ruined him only made that worse; by adulthood, he was sick of hooves constantly pointed at him, and he, in turn, pointed his own at Cheese. It wasn't right, but it happened.

As he rolled on his back and looked up at the stars, Tomato's tail threw itself into his forelegs. With all that against him, just what was he going to say? What kind of argument was he going to use? His heart pounding, he remembered all the ways that had been used to turn around his complaints in order for him to hold the blame. He stared at the moon, fearing that Mom would even make Nightmare Moon his fault somehow.

He squeezed his tail and sighed. He wouldn't go back to Manehattan until the end of August, and it was just a week into July. He had nearly two months to think over what he wanted to say to her. It still didn't make it any less terrifying.

He still stared at the moon, shifting himself and making Cheese's back his pillow. His heart pounding, he listened as a faraway wolf howled, joined by other wolves to sing their haunting song.

Cheese joined in, mumbling in his sleep, "Wooooo... let's party, Boneless..."

Tomato relaxed, and he couldn't help but chuckle.

---

The next few days were rather quiet, aside from Cheese telling stories about past parties, as well as grumbling about the headaches and his medicine. As far as Tomato knew, things were mostly normal, and it seemed like the rest of their trip was going to be straightforward. As long as Cheese didn't lose that medicine of his and kept his mind on track, then nothing else could go wrong.

They were weaving their way through poplar-dotted hills one morning. The cool and crisp air had Tomato doubting it was July, as it felt more like late October, minus red leaves and Nightmare Night decor. When Tomato had mentioned it, Cheese had laughed, and started talking about some of the scarier parties he had through, and mentioned one where he had to fight off a chimera. He grimaced, his tone solemn as he mentioned that quite a few ponies had been hurt in that attack.

When Cheese mentioned another party that had ended with several ponies in the hospital, calling it the worst day of his career, Tomato was tempted to correct it and tell him that it was actually Pegasus that was the worst. But he held his tongue, fearing that he might incur Cheese's anger, whether by triggering a bad memory that would shake him out of denial, or minimizing the disaster Cheese had mentioned.

Still, his brother's absolute denial of it made him uneasy. Tomato wondered if it wasn't just a front and Cheese truly did forget about it. He shook his head, reasoning that there was no way that Cheese could forget about it--perhaps putting it out of mind and pretending it didn't happen served Cheese well somehow. Maybe it was some kind of party pony benefit to be unaffected by trauma, much like a foal's cartoon comic character. Perhaps that's why he pushed family troubles out of his mind in years past.

It still didn't explain why Cheese hadn't done it earlier. The last he knew of Cheese still reacting to it was when he had a cold back in that town, throwing a pillow at the doctor for making a vampire joke. After that, he just stopped. It didn't make any sense, even for Cheese.

He sighed. If Cheese really did forget it just like that, then Tomato was alone in his memories of the experience. If one side of the situation was erased, why bother having the other side? Why couldn't he forget and trot across the country in blissful ignorance too?

Cheese stopped atop a knoll, and smiled at the sight of a white wall, presenting itself with an open gates and colorful flags. He jumped, whooping and clapping his hind hooves together. "Avast! The town is in sight!"

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Since when were you a pirate?"

Cheese landed. "Since never. They just have fun lingo." He bumped Tomato on the shoulder. "Give it a try."

Tomato blinked, and said in a flat tone, "Argh."

Cheese whickered and softly bopped him on the head. "You're going to have to try harder than that, matey!"

"I don't have much knowledge of pirate lingo."

Cheese closed one eye and grinned, getting close to Tomato's face. "Well, come along, lad!" He cartwheeled down the hill. "We best smartly go into port and pursue merriment! Yo ho ho!"

Tomato scoffed as he walked down the hill. "Belay that, ye scallywag."

---

Mane-tua couldn't be considered a big town. Its size was in the same vein as Nickerlite or the town where Cheese was sick in bed, though the colors were brighter than either of those places, especially since there seemed to be some decorating going on. The marketplace had nearly the whole town out and about, and those that weren't out on the street were shouting to others from the windows. Lively chatter filled the air, with the brothers catching snippets of conversations about a fishing trip gone hilariously wrong, somepony's daughter begging him to shave his mustache, and a killer blanket. Foals ran around laughing, engrossed in what seemed to be a a game of tag where a foal had to snatch a flag from one of his playmates.

Clear at the end of the street, there was a large space cleared out, with a schoolhouse being on one end of that field, and a circus tent on the other. In between those two structures, a few ponies were practicing tricks such as juggling, balancing on a ball, and walking on front legs--sometimes all three combined. One who had been doing all three, the objects he juggled on his hind hooves being pies, had slipped, resulting in him tumbling to the ground, and pies in the faces of his companions. Instead of anger, it just brought laughter.

Tomato looked around, sidestepping to let a couple of foals pass through. "This is a nice town."

Cheese took a deep whiff of the air, his muscles at ease as pleasant memories rushed to mind. "It sure is."

With Tomato beside him looking around, Cheese just blissfully walked down the street, drinking in each detail of the town and seeing the image of a bushy haired, bespectacled colt following a familiar path. Peeking through each window, being approached by local foals curious about this stranger, being pulled into some wondrous playtime not unlike that party in Ponyville, and finally, one of the colts bringing him home once it was revealed that he didn't have anywhere to go. And to little Cheese's surprise, that colt's grandfather was none other than the great Ponyacci.

Phantoms of the years that followed unfolded before Cheese. There was everything he learned by working with and observing some of the tradesponies, such as the music store owner, the hardware store owner, and the repairpony. He had been amazed when discovering that he wasn't stupid (though he hated having to sit through tutoring sessions with Ponyacci's wife), but was quite a fast learner, like his Grandpa Pizza Pockets once said regarding accordion lessons. Looking at the clowns in training wiping pie off their faces, he remembered his own training by Ponyacci, told how he needed to hone his natural gift for bringing joy.

And in throwing his first party, a birthday party for Ponyacci's grandson, his cutie mark had appeared. After that, he tried striking out on his own, seeing how his independent parties would go. It went much better than expected for a pony at the young age of thirteen.

There was a comfort in being called by Cheesy Sense to this little town that he considered a home--more home than Manehattan ever was to him. Only Ponyville made him happier, if only for Pinkie Pie. With a smile on his face, he wondered just what the occasion was that required a big party.

In walking through the marketplace, Cheese nearly bumped into a elderly chartreuse mare buying some fruit, and stumbled back at just touching her. "Oh, pardon me! I, uh, got a little distracted, ma'am."

Tomato stopped beside him. "Happens when La La Land takes control of your mind."

The mare turned to the boys. "Oh, don't you worry, I wasn't hurt." The mare brightened at the sight of Cheese. "Well, if it isn't Cheese Sandwich!"

The attention of the entire town snapped to the orange stallion. There was a brief pause, where Cheese tipped his hat and said, "Hello, everypony", before everypony broke into smiles and cheers. Some of the ponies surrounded him, excitedly chattering and asking what he had been up to and how life was. A couple of ponies appeared beside Tomato, nudged him, and pointed at Cheese with grins and waggling eyebrows, which Tomato merely responded with an uncomfortable furrow of his brow and a shrug.

Cheese grinned. "Aw, now I feel silly for not recognizing you immediately, Mrs. Ponyacci."

The older mare waved a hoof. "Oh, there's no need for formalities, Cheese. You're allowed to call me 'Juneflower'."

Cheese rolled his eyes. "Or just 'June'."

Tomato creeped away from the pair of ponies that he had been sandwiched between. "That's a pretty name."

June tilted her head and asked Cheese, "Who's your friend?"

Cheese pulled Tomato to his side. "Guys, this fella here's my brother, Tomato Sandwich!"

The crowd blinked and looked amongst each other, muttering about how they didn't know that Cheese had a brother. They looked at the vermilion stallion curiously, making Tomato shy away and stay huddled to Cheese, trying to shoo them away from him with a glare and a wave of the hoof. Some looked between the brothers, and nodded, mumbling about seeing the family resemblance.

The only one who wasn't surprised was June, who simply smiled and nodded. "Ah, yes, I remember you mentioning him the last time you were here." A little pout formed on her face. "It seems that he's just as thin as you--I was expecting somepony more plump based on the name. Goodness gracious, do you boys ever eat?"

Tomato's face was redder than normal, while Cheese rubbed the back of his head, mumbling, "It's not my fault it runs in the family..."

June shook her head. "Well, I best get you two to Ponyacci himself." She shooed away the crowd and started walking to the field at the end of the street, with the two Sandwiches following suit. "He and I were talking the other night about inviting you to our golden anniversary party, Cheese. I was going to send you an invitation, but Ponyacci said I didn't need to. He knew you were going to sense it and most likely set it up."

Cheese lit up. "Oh, your anniversary! Hitting the big five-o?"

June nodded. "Seems just like yesterday we were young and in love. Hehe, now we're old and in love."

It wasn't long before they made it to the tent, where inside, a, elderly, light orange stallion with a pale blue mane was correcting a pink-maned, orange filly on her juggling technique. He didn't seem to notice the others coming in, as part of his lecture was wiping egg yolk off of the poor filly.

Before either June or Cheese said a word, another pony--dressed like a clown for some reason--laughed as he skipped out of the corner and toward the tent door, carrying a fresh load of banana cream pies and unfortunately veering a little too close to Tomato.

The resulting scream made everypony jump, and the pies went flying. From Tomato clinging high on the tentpole, to the filly that had just been cleaned up, and from the old stallion on one side to the ponies at the tent door, there was not a single pie that hadn't hit a face.

The elderly stallion peeled the pie off his face. "...what was that?"

Cheese removed the pie from his face, glaring up at Tomato. "Seriously?"

Tomato's pie dropped to the floor, and he clung onto the tent pole more tightly. "That face looked like he was going to eat me!"

The clown removed the pie from his face and glared at Tomato as well. "Dude, it's just makeup, calm down. We clowns are ponies too, you baby!"

Tomato huffed, and still held on to the pole. Below him, the old stallion was looking up, and sadly shook his head. Walking toward the clown, he said, "Chuckles, that's not how you reason with a pony with coulrophobia. In fact, being hostile will only make it worse."

Chuckles nickered in annoyance. "Not my fault he has such a silly fear, Ponyacci."

"It's just as real as a fear of heights. Now, go clean yourself up."

Chuckles snorted, and trotted out of the tent grumbling. Shaking his head, Ponyacci's countenance brightened as he wiped the pie off his wife's face. Reaching for her ear to fix her hearing aid and pulling bits of crust out of her white, pale yellow, and pale pink mane, he said, "Are you all right, June?"

June nodded and waved a hoof. "Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine... you know I'm still aiming to hit 100, and no silly pie's going to stop me."

Ponyacci laughed as he finished adjusting the earpiece to fit in his wife's ear, and turned to Cheese. "Hey! Looks like an old student of mine came around to pay us a visit!" He leaned forward to give the younger stallion a hug.

Cheese returned the hug. "Sensed you guys having a golden anniversary!" He broke the hug. "I'm happy to have been led here!"

"Knew you would sense it," Ponyacci said. He grinned at his wife in an "I told you so" manner. Then, he looked up at Tomato. "Now... mind telling me who your jumpy friend is? I'd like to convince him that a clown like me don't bite. Hopefully Sparkleworks can coax him down."

The filly, having eaten her pie quickly, was at the base of the tent pole. Her big, blue eyes over freckled cheeks were looking up at the stallion clinging up there. "Don't worry, mister! Grandpa's a nice pony! He'll show you that clowns aren't scary!"

Tomato replied with a shake of the head.

Cheese sighed. "Tommy, you can come down now! Chuckles is gone, and Ponyacci's not in costume!"

Tomato pursed his lips, and then started to slowly slide down the pole. His tail loosened and tightened its grip on the pole in intervals, keeping Tomato from suddenly sliding down to the bottom for a rough landing. After about a minute, Tomato reached the bottom, and stood straight up to dust his jacket and look more adult than scared child.

Cheese was by him in an instant, followed by the couple. "Ponyacci, I'd like you to meet my little brother, Tomato Sandwich. I've been taking him on a summer road trip around Equestria. It's been a lot of fun so far."

Ponyacci narrowed his eyes and scanned the younger Sandwich. Then, with a smile, he held out his hoof. "Nice to finally meet a member of his family. I was hoping I would before I died."

Tomato looked at the hoof, and tentatively took it. "Cheese... well, he holds you in high regard. Don't die too soon, I guess."

Ponyacci beamed, and then clapped Tomato on the back. "Good to hear! I've worked hard for years at my talent of spreading joy, and even though I'm retired, well, teaching future generations of clowns is a way to spread joy, no?"

Tomato squeaked, "Yay?"

Sparkleworks climbed on Cheese and asked, "Hey, Mr. Cheese, why's your brother scared of clowns?"

Tomato backed up, and grumbled, "It's not anypony's busi--"

"Our grandparents took us to the circus when Tomato was a toddler, and a clown was overdoing his act right in front of him," Cheese answered. "It made Tomato think it was going to eat him, and scared him to tears. Doesn't help that when he learned to read, he stumbled across some horror stories... and they were about clowns." Cheese shook his head. "Poor pony's been scarred for life."

Tomato glared at him. "I hate you..."

Cheese smiled at him smugly. "Love you too, baby bro." He looked at Ponyacci again. "You can try to help him overcome the fear if you want. But right now, does the lucky couple have any specific requests on how their golden party should be?"

June chuckled. "Oh, you know Ponyacci--he'll just say to make it big and fun for everyone. Just as long as you put in a couple of slow dances, I personally don't care what you do."

Ponyacci chuckled. "I'd like to set the party up myself, but I'm not as young as I used to be... I'll try to do some tricks for the foals though." He looked at his granddaughter as he said this, smiling as she giggled. He then rubbed his head. "Oh, I almost forgot! You're going to have a fellow party pony collaborating with you on this."

Cheese blinked. "Really?"

"Mm-hm. I hope you don't mind."

Cheese laughed. "Absolutely not! I've done collaborations before! So, who's my partner?"

The familiar sound of a party cannon going off was heard, even though it was just somepony bursting through the door of the tent. Cheese leaned over to take a look at who was going to be his partner, but he and the other pony both gasped at the sight of each other. The stallion stared at the pink, curly-maned mare that stood there, his heart racing at the very sight of the one that had started him on his party pony path.

"Oh, my gosh! Cheesy?!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

A moment of silence passed between them, before Tomato broke it by saying, "Of course it's Pinkie Pie."

Author's Note:

The idea of Mane-tua being the home of Ponyacci is credited to Scoots2.

Anyway, I thought it'd be nice to have somepony celebrating a marriage anniversary sometime in this fic. And I thought to myself, "Why not Ponyacci?" After all, I was planning party pony appearances, and needed an excuse for this character from the comics.

Named his wife Juneflower... because it made a pretty name.
Also, revamped G3 pony Sparkleworks is one of his younger grandchildren.

Comments

[RadicalDishonesty]

Each new arc brings more interesting things. I'm always excited to see more growth for the characters. I'm particularly interested in how Pinkie is here... during a big maybe-romantic anniversary party.

[Goldfinch142]

thinking that she was the only mare in the world with two freaks for children.

I really hope the 'freak' comment is Tomato's own imaginings...it's disconcerting to think that Mozzarella called either of her children a freak to his face.

Turns out my prediction of Ponyacci being in costume was wrong, but luckily Chuckles was there to pick up the slack. Poor Tommy.

How fitting that two of Ponyacci's biggest fans will collaborate on a party for his and Juneflower's anniversary.

(Bring on the romance, Cheese! You know you want to!)

[FanOfMostEverything]

Very glad I'm caught up on this one. A lot to take in, all quite intriguing. Looking forward to more, especially since Pinkie also knows what happened in Haygas.

[Godslittleprincess]

Okay, unfortunately, I looked at the Tvtropes page before I got to this part, so I've been spoiled, but I'm hoping that this isn't the arc where Cheese hurts Pinkie's feelings.