Brotherly Bonding Time

by Sketcha-Holic

14.3--Taking the Heat

The pair of weathermares that had been assigned to the Whicker River area had packed the last cloud into the sky over the mountains. As a yearly tradition and a safety precaution, the Salt Lick Weather Department would schedule a pre-festival rain. As Salt Lickers were prone to setting off fireworks for the Frontier Festival, they had to make sure that each step was taken to prevent any fires from happening. It wasn't one hundred percent effective, but they did their best in lowering the chances of fire incidents.

Still, on occasion, pony error did cause some mix-ups with the clouds. When Cloudsdale had sent the usual weather package to Salt Lick City, somepony had mistakenly packaged some dry thunder clouds--used for providing electricity to pegasus cloud homes--with the rain clouds used for the late July storm. Unfortunately, a couple of newer, unexperienced employees had received those clouds, stuffing them into the skies with little clue of why these clouds were different.

They realized their mistake when lightning struck the back of the mountain and started a forest fire. The mix-up became painfully clear when no rain fell to extinguish the fire, and they had to call for backup. Said backup was divided into two teams--one for the removal of the dry thunder clouds, and the other to shove rain clouds into their place.

Still, as quickly as they were acting, fire tended to spread fast, and it was too fast for a couple of stallions in that forest.

The forest was illuminated in an orange glow, with bright flames climbing and hopping through the trees. Said trees appeared to be nothing more than giant black sticks among the brilliant fire. Their branches were licked by the flames, growing weaker as they bore the searing whips. The soil was being rained upon with ash, and a cacophony of crackles and whooshes banged against the eardrums of the stallions that dashed as fast as they could to a way out from that chaos.

Tomato couldn't tell if he was sweating or if his skin was melting. The smoke had a grip on his throat, and he could feel that grip tightening, even as he coughed. His glasses clung onto his muzzle, branding him in the process. He could see his jacket blackening from its contact with the oven they were in, and he worried that it would burst into flame before they found a way out.

So far, they managed to find a path that allowed at least some degree of separation from the flames, but it didn't stop the heat from hitting them and the smoke from pouring into their lungs. Tomato could hear Cheese coughing, and the edges of Cheese's yellow polo had been singed from the degrees of yellow to orange, from orange to brown, and from brown to black.

They kept their heads low, in order to lower their smoke intake, but still galloped through the trail in hopes of finding where it began--after all, this hiking trail had to begin somewhere at the base of the mountain, most likely near civilization. And maybe that civilization may have noticed the fire and started working to stop it.

Still, the infernal tunnel of orange and black threatened to have its way with them. Already, a branch had nearly fallen onto Tomato, but Cheese had yanked him out of the way, and a bomb of sparks and cinders exploded where the younger brother had once stood. Later on, a tree fell between the brothers, and Tomato had to hop over it with Cheese's coaxing. He cursed himself for landing flat in the dirt after his jump, but Cheese reassured him that it killed any fire that got on him.

They had to keep moving. The smell of burning wood was joined by a more sickening stench, with Cheese gagging and saying, "Tommy, I don't think some of the woodland critters made it."

"That's really sad, but I don't want to join them!" Tomato replied before throwing his head down in a cough.

Cheese waved away any sparks in the air. "Don't worry, I'll make sure that we get out of this mess!"

"You sure?"

"Of course! I've been in plenty of--"

Suddenly, Cheese stopped, and perked his head up as he looked around. Tomato skidded to a stop, watched him imitate an alert deer for a moment, and shouted, "What are you doing? Why did you stop?"

Cheese was silent for a moment, twitching his ears to scan the area for any unusual sounds. So far, all that could be heard were the crackles and pops of the burning forest, along with some rolling thunder that made Tomato look up and wonder when it was going to rain. Tomato jumped when he heard the crash of a branch tumbling from its perch, and the distressed cries of birds flying away made him wish he could sprout wings again and join them.

Then, Cheese gasped. "Do you hear that?"

Tomato's scoff came out as a cough. "The crackling? The crash of falling branches? Hopefully the first sign of rain?"

Cheese stomped. "No! The screaming!"

Tomato blinked. "The what now?"

"Somepony's in this fire, too! We've got to help them!"

Before Tomato could protest, Cheese galloped off the trail and into the fire. With a gasp--followed by some coughing--Tomato followed, shouting, "Cheese, come back! I don't hear anypony!"

---

Tomato must be going deaf, Cheese thought. He rummaged through his secret compartment--accessing it through multiple angles through his mane, his tail, behind his back, and in his shirt--hoping to find that gag flower he kept somewhere in there. It wasn't funny how he could easily pull it out for a classic water-squirting gag, but how it got lost with the other junk when serious emergencies such as this happened. Party pony magic was a fickle mistress, sometimes working against him in a serious situation.

Sticking his hoof through his shirt, he touched Boneless Two. "Oh, no, you're not coming out yet. You're not burning rubber on my watch!"

He heard the scream again, still as far away as ever. The mare who owned that voice must be going hoarse, with all her screaming and all this smoke. That made Cheese's search for the gag flower as urgent as ever, as hopefully squirting some water around would make this fire easier to navigate. He cursed himself for forgetting about it earlier when the fire had first started. He seemed to be a little forgetful lately.

A flame whipped his foreleg, and he cried out. Clenching his teeth to bear the searing pain, he continued to gallop on forward, hoping to spot a sign of that distressed pony he had heard. As dangerous as this may be, he wasn't going to let anypony die as long as he was in the same area.

He paused in his dash, coughing and dancing on his tiptoes. He looked around, hoping to spot some shape of a pony. "Hey! Where are you, stranger? I'm here to help!"

However, all he could see were the flames and the black trunks of the blazing trees. All around him were loud hues of orange, yellow, and red, with streaks of blue clinging onto any dry vegetation they touched. The forest floor was a hot stove that he couldn't stand still on. His throat burned as he wheezed, and he could feel his own sweat sizzle off his brow.

"Come on!" Cheese coughed, and hopped onto a rock. "Is there anypony out there?" He hopped to another rock. "Somepony?" He threw down his head into a cough, and then called in a hoarse voice, "Hello?"

He jumped onto another rock, and sat down, taking a moment to hack and cough out any smoke and black spittle. Rubbing his throat, he wondered if he had been too late to save the pony. Or maybe, just maybe, Tomato was right in not hearing the scream, and Cheese was just hearing things? He simultaneously hoped and dreaded that it was the latter, as the weight of letting someone die wouldn't be on his shoulders, but he still dived headfirst into danger from the safest path. Not to mention he ditched his brother like that.

His head perked up when he heard the scream, and he spun around to find a black pony shape just meters away.

Cheese stood up, relieved that he found the pony. "Don't worry! Someone's here!"

He cantered toward the pony, his hoof busy trying to find the gag flower, or maybe a squirt gun, or water balloons. Any kind of water to try to fend off the fire would do, and it frustrated him that his magic was not cooperating. Oh, how he loved how when he thought he had the hang of it, it decides to screw him over somehow. Did other party ponies have this problem?

He got close to the pony, who was black and gray like ashes, and reached forward to touch her shoulder. "Don't worry, ma'am, I'll help you out! I've been in forest fires before, and I have a knack for--YEEOWCH!"

Cheese yanked his front leg back, and clenched his teeth as he looked at the burn he had received. Much to his horror, instead of the amusing, cartoonish kind of burn that just looked like he had been rolling around in soot (like he usually got), his foreleg bore a ugly red patch where his fur had been seared away. Looking up, he discovered that the pony he had come to the rescue of had turned into a burning bush, its crackle creating a tune of mocking laughter. In fact, he even saw a malicious face in the fire.

He backed away from the bush, the crackling turning into actual laughter. He jumped at the sound of some more wood crashing down, and turned to find some sparks forming into bats and getting into his mane. Brushing them out in panic, he ran off down the way he came, hoping to retrace his steps.

His canter was slow due to his leg feeling like it was on fire (it wasn't, thankfully), and it only grew slower when he coughed. He heard more screams ranging from foal to adult, and switching between male and female. His incident with that bush told him that those must be fake, but they sounded so real that he was sorely tempted to follow them and rescue those imaginary ponies.

All the while, he could hear the echoing crackles transforming into malicious laughter. The flames were all pointing their fingers at him, and chanting about how stupid he was for trying to rescue somepony who didn't exist from the fire. He tried to block them out, but a lump in his throat formed when one flame shouted to him, "Look at this jerk! Always ditching his little brother!"

Cheese had vowed long ago that if his baby brother got hurt or even killed, he would never forgive himself; there was no way that that vow was void now that they were adults. Knowing how accident-prone Tomato was, his first order of business was to find him.

As he galloped off, one flame shouted, "Hey! Where ya going?"

He skidded to a halt when another flame flared up and hollered, "Off on one of your fruitless missions? You know what just happened!"

Cheese shook his head. "That pony wasn't real! My brother is!"

He loped off to another direction, and ducked a falling branch as it cackled, "I betcha he's dead! I betcha he's dead!"

He hopped onto a rock, and perched on it as he looked around for any sign of Tommy. So far, there was no sign of any of his distinct features, whether it be the family forelock or the brown jacket he wore. He grumbled about how both Tomato's and his own coat colors could hide them in the fire, and hopped from the rock he stood to another, calling out his brother's name.

The entire time he leapt from rock to rock, calling out for Tomato, he was pestered by the flaming demons that bullied him. When he stumbled, they chanted for their friend to eat him, which had him bolting up and continuing on his path. When he tried to summon one of his party implements, they questioned how clowning around would help him in this situation. When he coughed, they laughed about how weak he was, and Cheese forced his aching and stinging legs to push forward and escape those bullies.

"Aw, look at him! He really does care!" the flames laughed. "And here we thought he only cared about his silly parties!"

"Shut up," Cheese growled.

"What? I'm only telling the truth! After all, his grandparents wouldn't like that he refused to remember their departure!"

As Cheese galloped toward one patch of trees, he was stopped by the flames forming the image of his grandparents, glaring at him in disappointment. He paused to stare at him, only to have a knife in his heart when they snarled, "How dare you forget our funeral! You never said goodbye, you ungrateful child!"

Cheese backed up, his heart aching at the sight of his beloved grandparents. He had never seen them so disappointed. "I'm sorry, guys... I'm sorry! I-I must have hit my head!"

"That's no excuse!" Grandma Cucumber Melon said. "I'd expect you to be more grateful to your grandfather for teaching you how to play the accordion. But, I suppose with you being so prideful, you thought you were above gratitude, weren't you?"

Grandpa Pizza Pockets snorted. "Phooey! He's just as bad as your snobby parents, Mel. I bet that's where he got that attitude."

"No, I'm grateful!" Cheese felt a lump in his throat. "I'm really grateful! I use that talent all the time, guys! You're the reason I'm a party pony!"

Then, he noticed Ponyacci beside them. "Oh, then I guess I'm not important?"

Cheese jumped. "Ponyacci?! What are you doing here?"

The retired clown leaned on a tree, nonchalantly juggling. "Nothing much, just checking up on my favorite protege. Didn't realize that you seem to forget just about every other trick that you learned from me."

Cheese shook his head. "No! You three are all important to my development! Please, don't be mad, I'm trying to give you guys the credit you deserve!" He was in his tiptoe dance again, though it was slower than the last time he did it. "I wouldn't forget the ponies who led me to become who I am!"

On the other side of them, there popped a mysterious mare. Though he didn't have any idea on who this mare was, Cheese could have sworn he had seen her in a dream before. The purple coat, the curly mane alternating between raspberry and blonde, and the limp forelock were all features he recalled. She was as old and tired as he remembered, and her golden eyes were in a sharp glare.

She whispered, "Aren't you forgetting somepony?"

Cheese blinked. "What do you mean? I don't think I've ever met you."

She was in his face in an instant. "No, not me! I'm talking about someone else."

"Uh, who?"

"The one who rekindled your Joy when you were in darkness? The pony who lit up your world when you needed it most? The pony who showed you that after all your misery, it was okay to be happy once more? The one who inspired you to seek out the tutelage of experienced party pony adults? The filly that awakened your dormant magic with her own?"

"Uh, I've met plenty of fillies? I don't really know what you're talking about."

The mare backed up, a grim look on her face. "You have repeated your mistake, Cheese Sandwich. You best fix it before you fall like I did."

As she faded away into the flames, Cheese cried out, "Wait! What did I do wrong? Please, let me know what it is so I can be able to fix it!"

The flames roared and towered over him, and he had no choice but to bolt off in the other direction. This time, however, the angry scoldings from his deceased grandparents and his aging teacher were in his mind. They were all insults about how he was ungrateful, too proud, veering too far into obnoxiousness, and how he had no right to crush other party ponies under his own hoof. He was supposed to be a spreader of joy, but instead he was a massive jerk. The evidence was how he treated his brother.

What reason did he have to abandon Tomato like he did? Sure, the kid had been annoying, but they had one of the closest sibling relationships around. Why was he a stuck-up entertainer instead of a friend when Tomato was moody? Maybe he could have learned earlier about how Tomato's life went downhill. Why was he boosting himself up and shoving Tomato down? Older sibling self-righteousness is not a good explanation.

He could see the events of his jerkishness forming in the flames, and tried to gallop faster to avoid them. Unfortunately, he stumbled onto his burned leg and landed in the ashy ground. Coughing in the dirt, his leg screaming in agony, and the rest of his body feeling weak, he wasn't sure if he was going to make it out of here alive. He supposed that that's where his stupid pride led him.

However, he was grabbed by the collar and yanked up to his legs. Even though they wobbled, he was standing, and turned to face Tomato, who was glaring at him. However, it was less of disappointment and more of worry, which lessened a bit as relief clearly hit Tomato.

"Don't ditch me in the middle of a forest fire, you big dummy!" he snapped. "We don't have time to fulfill any savior complex of yours! You're lucky I'm still in one piece!"

Cheese reached forward and patted Tomato's back. "I'm sorry, Tomato, I shouldn't have done that. You were right, there wasn't anypony out there; I was just hearing--"

He was interrupted by Tomato coughing in his sleeve, which sounded uncomfortably hoarse. After Tomato finished, Cheese muttered, "--things."

Tomato coughed a couple more times. "You think it's the smoke?"

Cheese coughed in reply. "Yep."

Tomato looked at Cheese's cutie mark, and then punched it. "Hey! Cheesy Sense! Get us out of here!"

"OW! Tomato!" Cheese barked. "Cheesy Sense leads me to parties in progress, not out of trouble!"

"Isn't the party-in-progress located in the valley and not the mountains? Because I don't think a forest fire was the party you're looking for!"

Cheese opened his mouth to respond, then shut it, pursing his lips. "Fair point." He flicked his tail and stretched his flank, looking around the inferno. "Now... come on, Cheesy Sense, guide me to the party site so we can get to planning the thing! Don't want to disappoint those ponies now, do we?"

He felt a pinch in his flank, and he could sense where he needed to go. He galloped forward, shouting, "This way, Tommy!"

Tomato followed, and together the two barreled through the burning forest. Hot tendrils slapped at the Sandwiches' legs, and sparks peppered them in such a way that singed their fur. Tomato's sleeves kept on catching fire, but Cheese was quick enough to slam him in a patch of dust before they spread--though half the sleeves had been consumed--before picking him back up and continuing their run.

A tree tumbled down right in front of them, ashes exploding from underneath to powder their faces. Coughing, the brothers opted to go around the tree, as the wall of fire was too high. Once they got around it, another tree slammed in front of them, and they jumped back to keep the resulting fireball from hitting them.

Cheese's tail caught fire from the first tree, and in a panic, he zoomed off to find another patch of dirt. Tomato dashed after, stepping around the second tree before breaking into his gallop. He hoped that it wasn't too far away from the path that Cheesy Sense was leading them on, and he could feel himself slowing down and weakening, the smoke choking him more and more as he sprinted.

Tomato was coughing out smoke by the time he caught up with Cheese in a grassy part of the mountain, which was notably darker than the forest. He looked up, and he could catch the blue and gray clouds above them, though it was being joined by black smoke. Tomato attempted a sigh of relief, only for hoarse coughs to come out.

With everything stinging, fresh air hurt to breathe, and he made it to where Cheese stood before collapsing in the dirt. To his confusion, his body lay flat, but his head dipped down into an abyss. Opening his eyes, he could barely make out a river in the canyon below.

Cheese picked him up. "Okay, we've escaped the fire for now." His ears perked up, and he looked back at the fire again. With a growl, he grumbled, "No, Cheese, no! You're just hearing things... the smoke's affecting you, that's all..."

Tomato nonchalantly looked at Cheese's leg and winced at the red spot. "That's a pretty nasty burn."

Cheese set him down. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't worry about it." He looked back at the fire again, a visible orange glow growing brighter on Cheese's face. "Uh oh, our fiery friend's catching up."

Tomato turned his head to look back, and watched a wall of fire rapidly approaching them. Glowing brighter as it came closer, with layers of smoke towering above them, the two backed up a little bit, only to be stopped by the cliff.

Cheese looked down to the river. "Well... I can see one quick way out of this."

Tomato glanced back and quickly realized what he was talking about. "You can't be serious."

"No, I mean it. Trying to get out any other way would put us in worse shape."

"And jumping down there would kill us! That river doesn't look very deep!"

"Trust me, Tomato, we'll survive."

Tomato snorted. "Survive?! Excuse me, but I have a better chance of surviving a drop from Bronclyn Bridge into the East River than I have surviving a drop from this mountain into... whatever that river there is called!"

Cheese sighed. "Well, if you think we're gonna die, then I suggest the way that is more likely to have our bodies recovered and identified. That way, we could have a proper funeral." He gestured to the canyon with a smile. "Wanna hold hooves on the way down?"

Tomato glanced at the canyon, and then back to the bright flames and black smoke closing in on them. With a resigned nicker, he took his brother's hoof, glanced at his shorter sleeves, and grumbled, "If we survive this, you owe me a new jacket."

He looked down. In his mind's eye did clouds under the white light of the moon appear, the river replaced with a tiny street among neon lights and a desert climate. He felt his teeth and his back tingle, the latter to the point where he felt giant, leathery wings sprouting from his back, and even flapping. Worst of all, there was Cheese, plummeting down quickly toward his doom, to a fate surrounded by inequine screeches. Cheese's wide eyes looked up at him with hurt and fear, and yet, all he could yell was "Sorry!"

Then, he heard, "Ready?"

Tomato blinked, and he once again felt Cheese's hoof in his own. Thankful that he was not in the vampire mess again, but still mad that they were in a completely different mess with this crazy way out, he nodded and muttered, "Ready."

They took their leap of faith, just as it finally started to rain.

Author's Note:

Yeah, dry lightning is a thing, I checked. The real question is who the schmuck who put some in that weather package is. Now the Salt Lick weatherponies are scrambling to fix a mess in the mountains.

I'm fairly certain that few folks could survive in a forest fire as long as the Sandwiches did. I guess magical ponies could survive fires longer than humans can, and that a party pony like Cheese could survive longer than a normal pony.

Anyhoozles, let's see where that river takes them.

Comments

[redmar]

The mare Cheese didn't recognize was the ghost of the wife of Wayer Runes.
I expect that after Salt Lick city the story will focus on getting Cheese's memories back.

[superfun]

Sheesh, that was intense...

Now I'm curious as to just how many chapters there are likely to be remaining.
Because the story is so long already.... in fact, it's currently long enough that i forget when I started tracking it in the first place.

[Goldfinch142]

He grumbled about how both Tomato's and his own coat colors, and hopped from the rock he stood to another,

About how both Tomato's and his own coat colors what?

he wasn't sure if he was going to make it out of her alive.

here alive

Tomato had to hop over it with with Cheese's coaxing.

There should only be one 'with' here.

Well, at least they made it to relative safety. If jumping down a canyon into a river can be called 'safe,' but it's still better than a fire. It figures that it would start to rain right after they jump. Couldn't have started ten seconds earlier, could it?

So Cheese doesn't remember Pinkie's role in his becoming a party pony. That doesn't really seem like a painful memory (the exact opposite, in fact), so I guess Rooney's just taking whatever memory he wants for kicks and giggles. Unless, of course, he has an evilly evil plan in the works.

Hopefully the river takes them right to a hospital. A huge jump like that on top of their burns won't feel very good, the poor guys.

[Sketcha-Holic]

7331406
Fixed them.

So Cheese doesn't remember Pinkie's role in his becoming a party pony. That doesn't really seem like a painful memory (the exact opposite, in fact), so I guess Rooney's just taking whatever memory he wants for kicks and giggles. Unless, of course, he has an evilly evil plan in the works.

It's more of how he can't remember how miserable his childhood was, and thus the memory of first seeing Pinkie loses the impact that it had before. When he remembered the painful memories, the memory of seeing Pinkie and the party she threw for the first time is one of the sweetest he's ever had, as that was his trigger for snapping out of his funk and pursuing the party pony path. Now that he doesn't remember them, that memory is more of, "Oh, she threw the party? Cool. I think she might have taught me a few tricks there."

He's kind of assuming that he's always been a fun kid who always knew his destiny (kind of like he lied about in "The Super Duper Party Pony" before we knew the truth). His childhood was just a normal happy one... aside from Tomato being annoying at times...

[Goldfinch142]

7331483
Ah, okay. That makes more sense.

As for annoying siblings...oh, yeah, I've had plenty of those moments with my little sister.

Oh, and I forgot to add this, but congrats on (being 76 words away from) hitting 300,000 words! That's quite the feat!

[howard035]

Quite a scary chapter. I wonder what dark magic was animating the flames?

[Jordan179]

Also, Earth Ponies are tough.

[Godslittleprincess]

Oh dear. So, how is Jamberry Rune haunting Cheese's dreams and hallucinations? Do all party ponies just have some kind of natural connection to her?