Brotherly Bonding Time

by Sketcha-Holic

12.2--Double The Fun

Before Cheese knew it, he found himself in the warm front legs of Pinkie Pie, being twirled around like he was on a merry-go-round. His laugh rang along with hers, uninterrupted by no one else. In fact, he could barely tell that there was anypony else around; just he and Pinkie. Feeling her grip, he marveled at the strength that he didn't know she had, especially since they were spinning right out of the tent and into the sunshine.

He was set back on his hooves, his head feeling like it was floating away like a balloon. A big, dopey smile was spread on his face, and all he could do was look at the happy, pink face highlighted by sunbeams, his eyes especially drawn to her gleaming eyes of azure.

It took him a minute to realize that she was talking.

"...and, anyway, Ponyacci invited me here because I inspired him to start this clowning school, and that I'd help plan the golden anniversary party." Pinkie tossed confetti as she said this. "And since you're here, it's going to be double the fun!"

Cheese laughed. "You bet it is! I learned the basics of party magic from Ponyacci himself in this town, so it's only fair that I'd have a part in this celebration."

Pinkie gasped. "You mean you were his apprentice?" She narrowed her eyes and leaned in close. "I am so jealous."

She was close enough that Cheese could give her a quick kiss, but seeing as that was impolite--not to mention that he certainly didn't feel that way about her, not at all--he brushed the thought aside. Instead, he just gave her a cheeky grin, giving the indication that he knew she wasn't serious about her jealousy. Or was she serious? Either way, it was minor, much like he hoped his headaches would be.

Speaking of headaches, he felt a mild soreness coming on. Medicine time was soon, much to his chagrin.

Ponyacci, Juneflower, Sparkleworks, and Tomato all came out of the tent. Sparkleworks had bounded out and jumped in between the two party ponies. "Ooooh! Looks like Grandma and Grandpa aren't the only lovebirds around here!"

Cheese backed up. "Oh, uh, no, no, it's not like that, Sparkleworks."

The filly plopped down on the grass. "You sure?"

Pinkie patted Sparkleworks' head. "Yeah, we're just simple friendly friends doing friend stuff, like collaborating on another party."

Cheese chuckled. "That's always fun."

Ponyacci approached them with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. "Well! Cheese told me that you two were friends, but seeing it for myself is much more satisfying that just hearing about it."

Pinkie hopped to the old clown, grinning from ear to ear. "Well, Cheesy and I have thrown quite a few parties together ever since we've officially met. Not to mention that he likes to visit from time to time, and I get to tell him all about my adventures with my friends!" She gasped and twirled around to face Cheese once more. "Speaking of adventures, what have you and Tomato been up to since we last met?"

Cheese sat on his haunches and stretched his front legs, feeling the sun on his face. "Oh, there was a welcome party for some ski committee in some town in the middle of nowhere, and a singing competition in the Crystal Empire. I'll give you all the details later."

Tomato looked at his brother with a raised eyebrow. "And how are you going to give her all the details about that first one when you were sick with a cold and lying in bed for a couple days?"

Cheese pouted at him. "Ah, shush you, I got secondhand accounts."

Juneflower frowned, and then trotted to just in front of Cheese, putting a hoof on his forehead. "You look a little pale. How long ago was your illness?"

Cheese gently removed the older mare's hoof. "It was a couple of weeks ago. Don't worry, I'm fine now. I still resent that cold for taking away precious party planning time, though."

Pinkie yanked a notepad out of her mane. "Speaking of planning... why don't we get started?" She looked at the happy couple with a smirk. "So... what do our lovebirds want for their golden party? I know Ponyacci likes circus acts and party tricks, but how about his wife?"

June waved a hoof. "I knew what I was getting into when I married him. Feel free to have a dance party in the celebration, so long as there's some slow dances involved."

Sparkleworks jumped. "Is there gonna be a ball pit? Bouncy castle?" Her eyes glistened. "Fireworks?! If there's fireworks, can I set them off?!"

June looked at her granddaughter in concern. "No, sweetheart, that's too dangerous."

"Aw, come on!"

Pinkie was busy jotting down the items listed so far. Rubbing her chin, she rolled the pencil to the side of her mouth and glanced at Cheese. "Do you have any ideas?"

Cheese shrugged. "I'll think of something."

Ponyacci nodded. "I knew I could count on you two to throw me and my honey a big bash. All it needs to be is fun for everypony, and I'll be happy. In the meantime..." He looked at Tomato. "I think I'll help this fella with his fear of clowns."

Tomato gave him a funny look. "That's... nice of you, but is it absolutely necess--"

Right on cue, one of the clown trainees, wearing a big, red clown nose, hopped right in front of Tomato with a maniacal laugh. She honked a horn in his face, and then guffawed when Tomato shrieked and hid behind an unimpressed Cheese. Her laughing only got louder when Tomato picked up a stick and thrust it forward like a sword, trying to shoo the clown away.

Pinkie grimaced at the sight. "That is sad..."

Ponyacci tapped the clown on the shoulder, and said, "Seems awfully convenient that you know exactly who the pony with the fear of clowns is, Giggles. Did you take what happened with your brother personally?"

Giggles scoffed. "Well, nopony wounds my brother's pride like that! Besides, this guy clearly doesn't have a sense of humor."

Tomato managed to swat her hoof with the stick. "It wasn't funny!"

Cheese pulled the stick away from him and threw it elsewhere. "No more sticks for you."

Ponyacci sighed. "There's a difference between a harmless joke and outright bullying somepony. Do you really think this pony would respect clowns after something like that? Honestly, it's a basic lesson not to jump the gun when you see somepony scared of you!"

Giggles crossed her forelegs. "I thought it only applied to foals."

"Believe me, I've dealt with plenty of adult ponies with coulrophobia." Ponyacci waved his hoof in a manner to shoo her away. "Now, tell the others that Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie Pie are here, and they're going to need some help with the anniversary party. And I don't want you scaring ponies on purpose again--we're meant to spread joy, not fear. Understand?"

Giggles sighed. "Understood." As she turned around to walk away, she glanced at Tomato and said, "Sorry. At the very least, you're cute."

While she left and joined the others at the other side of the field, Tomato pursed his lips, still clinging into his brother. "I don't know what to make of that compliment."

Sparkleworks popped up in his vision, as she too was hanging on Cheese. "No worries, she won't do anything that Grandpa doesn't approve of." Her head turned to Ponyacci. "Can I help with the clown phobia busting? Maybe a little kid clown will calm his nerves!"

Ponyacci chuckled. "Might as well try it. A filly can't harm him, after all."

Pinkie clapped her hooves. "This is great! We all have something to do! With me and Cheese and the clown trainees arranging the party, and Ponyacci and June and Sparkleworks helping Tomato conquer his fear of clowns, I have a feeling that this is going to be a fun-tastic day for all of us!"

Cheese pumped a hoof. "Yeah!"

Tomato slumped forward. "Yay."

---

Left to their own devices, Pinkie and Cheese immediately went to work.

They first went to Ponyacci's house in order to look through scrapbooks of the old couple's life together, provided graciously by Juneflower, while Ponyacci was outside in the backyard, priming Tomato for his lessons in handling his phobia. Munching on cookies, the party ponies turned through pages of the dating years of the clown and his makeup artist, laughing at the photos of the goofy antics Ponyacci did in order to impress June. There was the messy result of failed pie juggling, the clown getting tangled in the trapeze, and an apparent rodeo with a Manticore, among many others.

Pinkie turned the page, and grinned at one picture. "Ooooh, he looks good in a suit."

"Uh-oh, looks like there's some serious dating going on there..." Cheese looked at a picture on the next page and snickered. "But what's a date without a water squirting flower?"

Juneflower came into the room with a record, trotting toward the phonograph. "Ah, so you came across that date. Hm, yes, I've learned that it's a bad idea to suppress a party pony's natural urges for fun. One little thing could trigger a party overload of disastrous proportions." She put the record on the phonograph and started to play an old, slow tune. "But... he could slow down to give me a nice waltz."

Pinkie swayed to the steady rhythm of the brass instruments, a content smile on her face. Stuffing the rest of her cookie into her mouth and swallowing it whole, she said, "Wow, I had no idea that Ponyacci could slow dance! I could never get the steps right. I'm more into fast-paced dancing with a bunch of swinging and tossing and spinning and stuff like that."

Cheese turned to her with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. "Well, I'm up for that kind of dancing..."

"June wants slow dancing, remember?"

"Oh, right." Cheese put a hoof to his mouth. "Perhaps we could have both oldies and... newies... to keep things interesting."

"Oh, I like that idea!" Pinkie turned to June. "Do you mind?"

June shook her head. "Not at all. Ponyacci would be happy to include all sorts of styles."

"Okay, a mix of both it is!" After she had pulled out her notepad, wrote that down, and stored it again, Pinkie resumed swaying to the music. This time, she was humming along with with the relaxing tune, her face glowing with a sweet peace.

Cheese wanted to sit there and just watch her sway, but the trumpets in the music piece were permeated with that ghastly ringing in his ears, and everything in between his eardrums felt as if they were being clawed at by some animal. It sent waves through his body, and he had to fight the urge to cradle his head. Holding his breath, he silently cursed the signal of having to take his medicine.

By Parmesan, he hated that medicine.

He hopped off the couch. "Excuse me, ladies, but the bathroom awaits."

As soon as they affirmed being okay with it, he made his way to the bathroom, locking the door behind him. The moment he looked in the mirror, he let out a moan and leaned on it with one hoof, the other pressed against his forehead. Breathing through his teeth, he could feel every pulse of the blood vessels in his head.

Aw, Stilton, why do I keep having these stupid headaches? He looked up and slightly cringed at his reflection. June was right; he was looking a little pale. His eyes fell upon his forelock, which appeared to be sagging slightly. It wasn't too much, but it didn't have that perk that the family forelock was known for--neither Mom nor Tomato could keep theirs down for long, after all.

He reached in his mane and pulled out the pill bottle. Swiping a glass resting on the sink and filling it with water, he braced himself for the pill. He dumped one on his hoof, tossed it in the air, and let it plunge down his throat. One second later, he dumped the contents of the glass into his mouth. He smacked his lips, cringing at the strange taste.

"Mane-tua water is usually good..." He looked at the glass. "Why does it taste weird now?"

The color drained from his face when he spotted the word "dentures" on the glass.

"Eeee-hew-hew-hew-hew!"

---

After getting the information they needed for the party, Cheese and Pinkie called upon Ponyacci's students and told them the game plan, as well as glean for some extra ideas. All gathered together in the tent, they all sat, brainstormed, and provided quick demonstrations for what they planned to do in the party.

They all opted to make a very special performance for their teacher and his wife, which the two party ponies approved of. Among other ideas involved the students' secondary talents, with one planning to create an ice sculpture of the couple in their younger years, another going to paint the town square in watercolor, another arranging the dinner tables for the big dinner that night, and another being the DJ for the dance floor. One unicorn clown had an interesting idea of his own.

"So you're planning to convert that old barn near the wall into magic hall of mirrors?" Cheese asked him. He leaned forward with a curious pout. "Tell me what kind of magic you're going for, Lucky."

Lucky bounced up and down excitedly. "Oh, I'm planning to have the mirrors show different versions of whoever looks into them, with the entrance tunnel showing the lovely couple in all stages of life from foalhood to the golden years. That first hall will be a good way for them to reminisce together, and maybe goof around with their younger selves."

"Ooooh! Sounds like fun!" Pinkie said, mirroring Lucky's enthusiasm with her own. "Will we get to go through the hall once Ponyacci and Juneflower are done?"

Lucky nodded. "And after the tunnel, there will be a room of mirrors showing ponies miscellaneous versions of themselves, like, as in seeing themselves with a different talent and cutie mark, or as a different race, or as the opposite sex, or as a different kind of creature."

Cheese laughed. "Now I'm imagining myself as a pegasus. I remember as a colt that I wanted to sprout wings and fly."

"I don't know about sprouting wings..." When everypony had turned to Pinkie, they saw that she had balloons tied to her barrel, and she was busy doing a backstroke in the air around the tent. "But some good old-fashioned balloons are perfect for flight!" She rolled right side up, and added, "Oh! And so are umbrellas and kites if the wind is just right!"

"I agree with you on kites," Cheese looked up wistfully and shook his head. "Tomato nearly got carried away when I tried to teach him how to fly one. I was like, 'Dang it, Tommy, that's not how you're supposed to do it!' He crashed into a tree and lost a tooth."

"Wow, what a burden," Chuckles grumbled.

Cheese glared at him. "He was five years old."

Pinkie crossed her forelegs and shook her head, clicking her tongue as she did so. "Don't you know that five-year-olds are not that heavy? So calling him a 'burden' is flimsy at best when he took flight by way of kite!"

"Not to mention he was a pipsqueak," Cheese mumbled.

Lucky raised his hoof. "So... do I have permission to do the hall of mirrors?"

Cheese looked up at the unicorn. "Hm? Oh, right! I'll help you with it right away! And do I have any volunteers to help us?"

---

And so it was that the entire group went to work. Cheese and Lucky had quickly spruced up the barn, fixing up the old walls and refinishing the wood, adding a tunnel to it, and finally, borrowing mirrors from the townsfolk and strategically placing them within the tunnel and the barn. Once that was all done, Lucky cast his spell, and confirmed that it worked by going through the hall of mirrors himself. Cheese double checked, and came out of the tunnel laughing and clamoring about how in one mirror, he was apparently a Wonderbolt.

Pinkie joined the bakers in town, churning out delicious treats for the party, including a colorful cake emblazoned with a "50" and a figurine of a younger Ponyacci in costume carrying a younger Juneflower as he balanced on a ball. Everypony got in on the decorating, lining the buildings with streamers and banners, and setting up posters and prints of the elderly couple and their family. The field was cleared of the party implements and prank toys in order to make room for an arrangement of tables, which encircled a colorful dance floor and had a turntable off to the side. The arrangement was crowned with a table covered with a golden tablecloth, marking the place where the couple were to sit.

As the townsfolk greeted Ponyacci and June's children and grandchildren, most of them having left Mane-tua to pursue their own courses, Cheese and Pinkie sat atop the wall, with Cheese pointing out the ponies and places he knew in the little town. He pointed out the places where he learned to juggle, and where he learned how to build and repair, and where he received his new accordion after the "accordion incident" back in Manehatten and continued refining that talent. He even told her about the day he earned his cutie mark, and pointed out who had been the birthday boy when he arrived in town. They hollered and waved at him before they continued to talk.

"Now, out of their six children, only Pickle Barrel and Autumn Skye stayed," Cheese said, munching on a sandwich. "Kumquat, Figaro, Banana Cream, and Viola all left so they could go out and develop their talents, see the world, maybe fall in love... you know, all that jazz." He took another bite, and pointed to one of the houses. "That's where Pickle Barrel lives, and I played with his son Zucchini there from time to time."

Pinkie giggled. "Zucchini's a funny word. It sounds like the name of a zoo where all the animals have keys for knees. Or a bikini's evil cousin... or is it the good cousin? I don't know, but I can say it all day. Zucchini, zucchini, zucchini, zucchini, zucchini!"

"It's technically a cucumber's evil cousin, Pinkie," Cheese corrected. He leaned back, and sighed happily. "You know, I'm not sure what direction my life would have taken had I not come to that party in Ponyville you threw. I mean, after seeing you, I decided to seek out a professional to train me in the art of parties and party magic." He devoured the rest of his sandwich, and turned to the sunset. "Not that you're bad in any way--oh, no, you're really good! I just thought an adult would be... well..."

Pinkie put a hoof on his shoulder and nodded. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not mad. I'm glad that you found Ponyacci."

Cheese chuckled. "My Grandpa Pizza Pockets was a huge fan of him, so that was the first option I took. I had to... force myself to be brave and approach him when I met him... and it worked out. Sure, he had to go out with the circus and perform across Equestria, but I was patient... though I had to undergo tutoring for regular academics under June... blegh..."

Pinkie poked his head several times. "Well, we can't have a dumb party pony, can we?"

"No, we cannot." Cheese leaned in his knee as he watched the sunset and sighed. "I'm not going to lie, Pinkie... sometimes when I look at Ponyacci and June, I see Grandpa Pizza Pockets and Grandma Cucumber Melon. Heck, the similar colors don't help! And when I do see it... I'm reminded of how much I miss them, and I wish that they could have lived long enough see who I've become. Grandpa would have loved to see me rockin' the accordion."

Pinkie sighed along with him. "I know how that feels. I miss Granny Pie and Nana Pinkie and wish they could have seen the first party I've thrown. I also wish Nana lived to see Aunt Seddie finally come home, and have a happy reunion and see me and my sisters meet her and have fun in a "Auntie-Seddie-Has-Returned-After-30-Years" Party!"

Cheese laughed. "You like your aunt?"

Pinkie beamed. "You betcha! She's so, so, so nice and funny!"

"Good. You're welcome."

Pinkie tilted her head and processed it for a moment until her eyes widened. "Oh, right! It was you and Tommy who found her!" She narrowed her eyes in a mock glare. "Let me say thank you first!"

Cheese laughed some more. "Well, feel free to let me know if you run into my aunt Honeydew--she's been gone a while herself. Weird how we both have had missing aunts?"

"Psht, yeah, weird!" Then Pinkie winked. "Don't worry, I'll look for Honeydew."

"Heh, thanks." Cheese ran a hoof through his mane. "Anyway, I think you get the idea that I felt more at home in this town and Ponyville than I did in Manehattan. I always had the sense that I didn't belong there, and that I was just a freak of nature and a disappointment. It was better for me that I left it behind and set my past free." He blew on his forelock. "My only regret is that I hurt my brother."

Pinkie patted his back. "You're making up for it. Every time I've seen him, he's gotten happier. He doesn't always show it, but I can tell."

She whipped her foreleg in front of her, checking a watch that had appeared there conveniently. Nodding, she jumped off the wall and exclaimed, "Come on, Cheese! We better start the party officially!"

Cheese smiled and saluted her before jumping down himself. "Righty-ho!"

Author's Note:

In which Cheese and Pinkie are that good old party planning team that we have loved to write about. Ain't it a joy to have them interact?

Also, I should warn you that the next chapter is going to be a jump back in time from the end of this one; it's going to be the saga of Ponyacci and Tomato, with essentially one objective:

Except Ponyacci's going to be nicer about it.

Comments

[SageBrony07]

Great chapter. I was expecting a vampire mirror though. I can't wait to see what happens to tommy in the next chapter. Good luck.

[FanOfMostEverything]

It is nice to see Pinkie and Cheese interact... though the troubles under the surface are barely staying there. And that talk of party overload makes me wonder just what might crop up in the future.

Still, at least next chapter will focus on something with less obvious potential for mass destruction... or so I hope. I just hope Tommy comes out of this with his sanity relatively intact.

[Goldfinch142]

--not to mention that he certainly didn't feel that way about her, not at all--

Right. You keep telling yourself that, Cheese.

The color drained from his face when he spotted the word "dentures" on the glass.

Oh, that is so gross. The worst I've ever done was accidentally using my sister's toothbrush.

I'm really interested to see what that Hall of Mirrors produces...and just how Ponyacci will try to help Tomato conquer his fear of clowns, without doing what Grim did. Maybe a little-kid clown really would help.

[KawaiiShadow]

i loved it when pinkie and cheese just sat and talked at the end #thefeels

[redmar]

This was a great chapter. I liked the conversation between Cheese and Pinkie.
I wonder when Pinkie and Cheese stop being in denial about their feelings.

[Dashie04]

Cheese’s massive denial is like a kid friendly LittlePip

[Godslittleprincess]

Please let this arc be a break from all the turmoil and sadness. Lord knows that I need one.