Brotherly Bonding Time

by Sketcha-Holic

19.2--Say Uncle

The rain had stopped, and the sky had cleared for the bit of moonlight from a crescent, freshly sprung from a new moon. A trip-trap across the bridge, a downhill hike through the forest, and the unfortunate collapse of a bleeding party pony later, Cheese and Tomato got to see just what Fallow was talking about. Lying on Fallow's back, his own back facing up to keep as much blood in his body, Cheese had to stretch his neck to the side as far as possible without sliding over to the side to see what it was.

Curiously to the brothers, it was a series of pools, sparkling underneath the starry sky. The pools overlooked a little town just down the hill, which by all means should be described as sleepy--save for the apparent sounds of a zoo that seemed to come from it.

Fallow stopped at the edge of the nearest pool. "Okey-dokes, we're here." He knelt down and turned to Cheese. "Now just go and take a dip in that there spring. I promise you that the water has healing magic."

"Healing magic?" Cheese asked.

"Eh, after the Fountain of Youth and that super health-and-strength pool back in Sorrel Canyon, this isn't much of a stretch," Tomato said.

As Cheese climbed into the spring, Fallow turned to Tomato and said, "Get out! You found that rumored spring in Sorrel Canyon? No way, I was born and grew up in Sorrelsteed, and I've been looking for that thing for ages! And you're telling me that it just gives a pony health and strength?"

"Good health and a strong body," Cheese corrected, settling into the water. "Took a swig before bed when we were there, and well, I've definitely felt stronger recently."

"Not enough to defeat that bear," Tomato deadpanned.

Cheese huffed and grumbled, "Needed a pack for that."

Tomato scratched his head. Did he mean he needed a saddlebag to beat the bear with or...?

Fallow stroked his beard. "Well, I always thought the Mysterious Spring was some leftover from a battle waged there. Eh, I suppose the 'good health and strong body' thing is useful for a war, even though I'm frankly not a fan of war."

Tomato rolled his eyes. "Who is?"

"You'd be surprised."

He looked down at Cheese, who had his submerged back and his foreleg glowing. "Heheh, see what I mean?"

Cheese stared in awe at his foreleg, watching the raw burn fade into a healthier pink and grow his gamboge fur back. "Wow, you weren't kidding, I'm feeling much better already!"

Fallow nodded. "I've used this place plenty of times to heal injured animals or help a hiker who had an unfortunate incident like you. That's even how I met my wife! Of course, I've found that the pool only deals fully with physical wounds and ailments--it could settle some effects of magical ailments for a little bit, but the spell would cause the them to come back in full force soon enough. I've had to hire unicorns to weed out horrible spells that careless young unicorns cast on the animals--or worse, put the suffering animals down."

The glowing stopped, and Fallow pulled Cheese out of the pool. "It doesn't fix clothes either, but that back of yours is looking pretty good."

Cheese rubbed his back, smiling in relief. "Well, thanks anyway. I'm sure I have a spare shirt... but I can't find it..."

Tomato produced a yellow polo and gave it to him. "You dropped it during the bear attack."

Cheese blinked, and then shrugged, swapping the ripped shirt and the intact one faster than a wink, before hoofing off the wet, blood-stained jacket back to Tomato. Looking at Fallow, he asked, "Okay, so, do you know a place where we can stay for the night?"

Fallow scratched his chin. "Well, I managed to build a little cabin not too far from here; you could use that. The key's at my house, so we'll go and get it." He beckoned for them to follow him, and entered into another part of the forest. "I'd build more for campers, but my park here doesn't really get enough visitors to warrant that--it's usually just the residents of Aura Springs coming in for a day hike."

"Oh, so that's what that town's called?" Tomato said. "Huh, you'd think a town with magical healing pools and a big, beautiful nature park would be more famous."

Fallow shrugged. "Well... sometimes that happens. Suppose I should count my blessings, there are less idiots to disrespect the wildlife." He jumped at the sound of an elk call--which almost sounded like laughing--coming from town and sighed. "But then there are some ponies around here who spoil the animals."

The three staring at the town a little bit longer, Fallow waved a hoof and grumbled, "Well, my son's got the same talents and he lives closer; no doubt he heard that and is going to take care of it."

---

Leading them to a fairly large cabin at the top of the hill overlooking Aura Springs, Fallow Track was willing for a bit more small talk, and was interested in hearing about the brothers' travels. He laughed at the story of the Bighoof encounter, and remarked that he always wanted to find out if that was real, and that he'd like to meet the lady who tamed that beast one day. He laughed even harder at the sheer coincidence that the mare in question was the long-lost aunt of somepony they knew.

"And it gets even crazier," Tomato said, with a clear tone of disbelief. "We also have a long-lost aunt, and we've been hoping to bump into her sometime this summer."

"No such luck yet," Cheese said. "But after everything this summer, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to actually meet her. We've only ever seen pictures of her."

"We're weirdness magnets. Sometimes I wonder if the universe has it out for us."

"Well, I've been in some weird situations myself, so I'm not one to judge." Trotting up to the porch, he scraped mud off his hooves. "Okay, wipe your feet before you come in the house, I like my living space tidy, you know."

He opened the door, and the loud shouts from within the building nearly knocked the three stallions over. Rubbing his ear, Fallow glanced at the two younger ponies, muttered, "Sorry, I forgot to mention my two daughters," and then looked in the house, wondering what the ruckus was about.

"Hey, just chill, dude. I honestly don't know what happened to your pencil sharpener, sis, but I wouldn't be surprised if you misplaced it again. Like, seriously, you misplace everything, Toola Roola!" one mare complained. "At least I keep my stuff organized!"

"Oh, sure... never mind that you've repeatedly proved that you have no respect for art! I wouldn't be surprised if you did hide my sharpener somewhere with some dumb booby trap for a cheap prank! And I mean very cheap, thanks to your lack of imagination, Lemon Zest..." the other said.

"Not true! Music is considered art, and I like to write songs, and dance, and do poetry jams, and experiment with instruments!"

"In what universe is rock and roll considered art? It's all 'disrespect your surroundings' and no appreciation for anything."

"Seriously, Rools, cut the attitude out. You sound like a snob, and it's not helping you find your sharpener."

Cheese and Tomato were peeking over Fallow's shoulder, at the two pink mares standing among overturned furniture--one being darker with long, three-toned lime green hair, and the other one being lighter with wavy magenta, yellow, and orange hair. The older stallion slipped out from under the brothers and trotted into the house, asking his daughters, "Girls! What are you fighting about this time?"

The two young mares snapped their heads around, and the lighter one pointed to her sister with, "My favorite pencil sharpener's missing, and I'm absolutely certain that Lemon hid it somewhere just to mess with me. She did say she saw it last when she went into my room to use it."

Lemon rolled her eyes. "I put it back. Again, you always misplace your stuff. Not my fault that you're so scatterbrained."

Fallow sighed. "Toola Roola, I'm sure your sharpener will turn up somewhere at some point." He trotted to the kitchen, which was split from the living room by a staircase leading up to a quintet of rooms upstairs, and started looking through some drawers. "Your crayons did, your sketchbooks did, your paintbrushes did... so don't worry too much, it's probably still in the house. Now, the question is where the key to that little cabin is; we've got a couple stallions there who need a place to stay the night."

Lemon Zest and Toola Roola blinked, and turned to the Sandwiches in the doorway. Slinking in and shutting the door behind them, the brothers waved to the sisters, with smiles that may have been just a wee bit forced.

Toola Roola clapped. "Oh, they're cute!"

Lemon jumped. "Dude! That's Cheese Sandwich! Dad, you brought Cheese Sandwich to our cabin! This is so amazing!" She looked at Tomato and tilted her head. "So, uh, do you have some kind of roadie or something?"

"I'm his brother," Tomato said.

"Brother, huh? Wow, then you must get the best birthday parties! What's your name?"

"Tomato Sandwich."

"Girls!" Fallow snapped. "I know you like those two, but I need to know where the key is! Also, somepony needs to lend a needle and thread to Cheese, one of his shirts got ripped, and we're adding Tomato's jacket to the laundry pile."

Lemon and Toola looked at each other, and asked in unison, "Did you use the key? Yes. What for? To store some stuff. Where'd you put it? On the coffee table." They looked at the overturned coffee table, and glanced at each other sheepishly.

"I was running late to aerobics and kind of in a hurry," Lemon said, rubbing the back of her head.

Toola Roola looked under the table. "Key's not there. It must have flown off when I flipped it."

"Well, we better find it!"

"Right!"

The two started scouring the area for the key, crawling around the wooden floor and peeking under rugs. Standing off to the side, the Sandwiches looked at each other, and Cheese asked, "Hey, you need help? I've got a pretty good nose."

Lemon was flipping through books from the bookcase. "Yeah, yeah, sure." A little Mare Harmony shaped item fell out of the case when she pulled out another book, and she took a closer look at it on the floor. "Oh, hey, Rools, I found your sharpener."

Toola Roola pounced on it. "That's right! I was reading a book when I last had it!"

The two girls and the added members of their search party continued to scour the floor, peeking under blankets and pillows scattered around the room, crawling under the overturned furniture, and looking in every corner. Cheese sniffed everything, hoping to pick up a distinct metallic scent that surely only a key would have. And Lemon was starting to climb around in order to see if it had landed any higher.

Tomato was scouring a different bookcase when he accidentally pulled it forward. Seeing it tip toward him and some stuff starting to fall off, Tomato quickly pushed it back, but not before getting hit in the head with a family photo. Luckily for the photo, it wasn't to shatter, thanks to Tomato's tail quickly stretching out and catching it before it hit the floor.

Tomato grabbed it with his hooves, and looked up at its original perch. "Well, how do I get up there?"

An idle curiosity had him looking at the photo, just because. Fallow was younger in the picture, and was accompanied by a toddler Lemon Zest, and an older colt, green with a purple mane, that was obviously that son Fallow had mentioned earlier; funny how there was a forelock thing with him similar to Cheese and Tomato's own that was going on. There was no sight of Toola Roola, cluing him in to her status as the youngest.

And then his eyes fell on the mother. Light green coat, blonde hair with magenta streaks, and amber eyes that seemed strangely familiar to him; in color, in shape and even in eyelash thickness. There was no way he could have known this mare, but he felt like he had seen her before, or maybe even seen some of her individual traits before. The longer he stared at the mare, the stronger the sense of déjà vu.

Lemon Zest popped up behind him. "Yep, that's me when I was little--and our brother, Grapevine! Of course, Toola Roola hadn't been born until I was four, but, hey, it's not like we knew she was going to exist a couple years after that picture! Oh, and right there's our mom."

"Yeah, I know that's your mom." Tomato looked at it from a different angle. "Why does it feel like I've seen her before?"

"Uh, weird. I wish I could ask her what's up with that."

Tomato pursed his lips. "So, uh... what's her name?"

"Honeydew."

Tomato's eyes widened as the puzzle pieces fell together. It was clear where she got those eyes, and when he had felt them looking on him before. With the sudden realization of just why she looked so familiar, he started tapping on the picture, and chanted, "Wha? What. What. What. What! What! What! What?! What?! What?!"

Backing up, Lemon Zest said, "Hey, relax, dude! Her name's only a kind of melon, no need to freak out over it!" She turned to Cheese and exclaimed to him, "Hey, can you see what's up with your brother? He's freaking me out!"

Cheese sighed, and trotted over to them. "Okay, Tomato, what's the big deal?"

Tomato practically shoved the picture in Cheese's face. "Does this mare look familiar to you?!"

Cheese blinked, his eyes fixed on the green mare. "Huh, that's funny. She looks almost exactly like Aunt Honeydew."

Lemon blinked. "Wait, what? Are you saying that you have an aunt named Honeydew that looks like my mom? 'Kay, that's freaky."

Fallow came into the room, looking into some of the potted plants. "What's freaky, Lemon?"

"Oh, they have an aunt that looks like and has the same name as Mom. Weird, huh?"

Toola Roola was under a couch cushion, scouring the couch for the missing key. "Oh, doppelgangers happen all the time. Tomato looks like that one pop star that's, like, named after a flower and has his eyes change color all the time for whatever reason." She threw aside the neighboring cushion. "Though... the aunt's name being 'Honeydew' is really freaky."

She sat up proudly. "But, unless their mother is that legendary 'twin sister in Manehattan' that Dad wants to meet, it's probably just a coincidence. Right, Misters Sandwich?"

Now both Sandwiches jumped and screamed. Cheese yammered, "Holy macaroni! See, see, what's funny is that we were born in Manehattan, a-and our aunt, our mother's twin sister, left long before our Mom even got married and she never sent a letter, so we never met her and considered her long-lost, a-and we've only ever seen pictures of her, which looks like your Mom except she was younger in the pictures and its reasonable to assume that duh, of course she got older, and... and... Grapevine in the photo has a forelock thingy, and..." He rubbed his head. "Call me crazy, but I think we're cousins."

The two girls' jaws dropped, while Fallow stood up straight and started walking toward them. "Are you sure you're not just pulling my leg? Because you don't look all that related to my wife."

"Is... the term 'twins' tripping you up?" Tomato asked, rubbing the back of his head. "Because they were fraternal twins."

"I wish we had a picture to rest our case," Cheese murmured.

Fallow leaned forward, sniffed them both a couple of times, and his eyes widened. "Ah... oh-ho-ho, I can sense a difference, but it sure smells like you're from the same fruity-and-cheesy family as she!" He grabbed both their hooves simultaneously and shook them with vigor. "Well, if I had known earlier, I'd--well, I don't know what I'd have done differently. It's a real pleasure to meet you, nephews!"

He released them, and the shaken Sandwiches wobbled and stumbled to the floor. Face down, Cheese weakly cheered, completely with shaky pump of the hoof, "Hooray, we've got another cool uncle..."

Toola Roola looked to her sister. "Okay, this just got weird. Dad brings two strangers in our house and it's not even ten minutes before we learn they're our cousins? I was always curious about Mom's side of the family, but this is just random."

"Yeah, tell me about it. But still..." She shuffled closer to the brothers and picked up Cheese by the collar. "One of them's Cheese Sandwich, dude! It's already amazing enough that he's here, but to find out that he's our cousin? Like, wow! I'm related to a bona fide super party pony! This is the greatest day of my life!" She squealed in a pitch that made Cheese cringe, and danced in place in her utter glee.

Tomato sat up and smoothed his frazzled mane. "Well, and there is that big mystery solved. Say, uh... what happened to her?"

The room suddenly felt a little darker, especially with the emergence of more downcast expressions. Lemon halted her dance, Toola Roola started to sink, and Fallow looked away, pursing his lips to seemingly compose himself. With only Cheese looking at him, Tomato felt like melting into a puddle for causing a change of mood, especially since an unpleasant guess had run into his head.

Fallow sighed. "Sorry, boys, you missed her." He glanced at Toola Roola. "She passed away years ago."

---

After they finally found the key to the smaller cabin, the girls carried their spare items out of that cabin to make room for their guests--putting stuff like art pieces and burned records in the basement--while the boys put the living room back into shape. The chores done, the five then sat around the coffee table for some nice cups of hot cocoa.

Lemon looked at Tomato. "You sure you don't want coffee?"

Tomato grimaced. "I don't mix well with it."

"Coffee's gross anyhow," Toola Roola said, taking a sip of her drink. "I prefer chocolate."

Cheese recoiled when his attempt at lapping had the obvious result. "Ow!" Looking at his hanging tongue, he complained, "I tink I need 'nother twip to da sping."

"Don't think so, Dad says they should only be used for emergencies."

Fallow chuckled. "Well, small talk is nice and all, but I think we all know where the real substance is." He took a swing of his cocoa and wiped his whiskers clean. "I've been hoping for a chance to meet my in-laws, but it's kind of hard when you live on the other side of the country from Manehattan, plus if I did go there, I wouldn't know where to start."

"So, uh..." Tomato skimmed the rim of his mug. "What did Aunt Honeydew tell you about her life prior to meeting you?"

"Well... she didn't like me asking about it. She was always avoiding that subject whenever and however she could. But, there was a talk we had before Toola Roola was born that I managed to get a few things from her. Her twin sister in Manehattan, a dear friend that she missed, an apparent 'twin curse', the pizzeria her parents owned... they owned a pizzeria, right?"

"That they did," Cheese said. "We visited them and they visited us a lot when we were colts. Grandpa was a lot of fun and an active cook even in old age, and Grandma was a sweet and refined mare, acting like royalty even though we weren't that high on the social ladder. It'd be wonderful if they were alive to meet you guys... I can't even remember their deaths or their funeral."

"It was cancer, Cheese" Tomato said. "I remember begging Dad to take me to the hospital and suggesting bringing medicine to help. I still feel bad for not being there to say goodbye. I probably would have thanked Grandma for sowing the seeds of my interest in mathematics, while you were busy with Grandpa's accordion lessons."

Fallow visibly sunk. "Oh... I was hoping to meet Honey's parents someday. They sound like they were great role models for you two, and probably would have been wonderful grandparents for my own children--not to knock on my own parents, they're great too, I just wish Grape, Lemon, and Rools could have known their mother's side of the family." He stroked his beard. "Is it still feasible to meet my sister-in-law?"

Tomato pursed his lips. Are you sure you want to meet Mom?

"Yeah, Mom still lives," Cheese said, before dipping his tongue in the cocoa. He smacked his lips and lapped a few times before saying, "From what I remember, she was hard on us, but, well, we were wild kids, so it shouldn't be a surprise that she had to be hard to keep us under control. Luckily, I managed to be responsible enough to go out on my own and take care of myself for years while doing this party planning gig. I'm surprised that I was allowed to go."

Oh my gosh, Tomato inwardly groaned. Either his memory's more messed up than I thought, or he's just sugarcoating things so that Fallow doesn't get disappointed with the news of just how 'hard' Mom is. He really hoped it was the latter, because at least Cheese could forgive him for the correction instead of accusing him of slander.

"Well, there's no doubt that you're thriving, Cheese," Fallow said with a wink. "You and your shindigs pop up in the news from time to time. Were you always that talented or did you have a mentor?"

Cheese shrugged. "Eh, a little of both. I've always had talents in music and making my brother here happy and being goofy, but not only did Grandpa help me with learning the accordion, I also refined my joy-bringing talents under the Great Ponyacci!"

"Whoa, that's so cool!" Toola Roola said.

"Dang, I wish I'd get a big star to mentor me," Lemon Zest muttered. "But, you know, I got other things to worry about, like how I've got another semester of lectures, half of which I think are pointless, boring, or both--they need to spice things up a bit, like a with a catchy song. Also, I have to help my sis prepare for art school."

"D'oh, now I'm worried about my upcoming semester!" Tomato exclaimed, crossing his forelegs. He added under his breath, "At least I signed up for fall classes before I left on this crazy vacation..."

"Okay, what was Honeydew like as a wife and mother?" Cheese asked. "From what Grandma and Grandpa told me, she's much softer than our mom was."

Fallow was in the midst of guzzling the last of his cocoa when the question was asked, and wiped his mouth a little vigorously. Smacking his lips and glancing around, he set the mug down and cleared his throat. "Well... she, uh, put a lot of stock in letting our foals choose their own path and giving them freedom. Always talking about how we should appreciate nature and how all we need is to, uh, love each other and everything would work out. No doubt that she was curious, lots of sugar with a little spice, faith in the good of animal life--"

"A little too much if you ask me," Lemon grumbled.

"...and, uh... oh, sensitive. Haha, yep. Really sensitive."

"Aw." Cheese nudged Tomato. "She sounds like such a nice mare! Sad that we never heard from her."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "She and Mom didn't get along, remember? Like you said, Mom's hard, and I don't doubt that they clashed a lot when they were fillies. I wouldn't be surprised that between Mom's nature and Honeydew's fallout with Dad, she's been hurting."

"I guess," Fallow shrugged.

Toola Roola tilted her head. "Fallout with your dad? What, did they date or something before he chose your Mom?"

"I dunno," Cheese said.

"Aunt Cocoa said they were friends, but something happened between them," Tomato added.

"I guess your dad must have been Mom's 'dear friend'," Lemon said. "I say it was some tragic failed romance or something."

Tomato leaned in his hoof and rolled his eyes. Oh, if you want to see a failed romance involving my dad, you should take a good look at his marriage with my mom. One would think that they would divorce.

"Well, whatever happened, she managed to travel all the way over here before eating something that nearly killed her," Fallow said. "I found her, stuck her in that very pool you took a dip it, and from there, we became friends. After a while, we married, had Grape, then Lemon, and then..." He brushed his bangs aside, his blue-gray eyes looking aside with a hint of pain. "Giving birth to Toola Roola and her twin brother killed her. Honestly, I should have not shrugged off what I thought was a joke about a 'twin curse'."

"Yeah, looking at family records showed me that... yeah, there's definitely this weird trend of twins on Mom's side of the--ow!" Tomato was sharply nudged by Cheese, and rubbing his shoulder, he mumbled, "Well... it's awful that the curse claimed her. I really would have liked to meet her."

"Same here," Cheese said. "But, at the very least, we know what happened to her--and got to meet an uncle and cousins, too!"

Fallow chuckled. "Well, you haven't met Grapevine yet, but come morning, I'll introduce you. He'll be pretty happy to meet new cousins." He stood up and stretched. "Well, it's getting late, and I better escort you to your cabin."

As the Sandwiches stood up, the sisters looked at each other, and then Toola Roola said, "Oh, I left a needle and some thread at the cabin to fix that shirt of yours, Cheese!"

"Hey, thanks!" Cheese chirped.

Tomato glanced at Cheese, his mind playing back to earlier that evening when he kept snatching animals with the intention to eat them, or when he threatened to drop him off a cliff. It was strange, seeing Cheese mostly acting like his normal, cheerful self after darkness had seeped out like that. Perhaps it was just euphoria at meeting long-lost family, perhaps he was hiding the monster after that shameful moment, or perhaps that magic spring did more than just heal the burn and the bloody claw marks. Fallow did say that the spring temporarily inhibited the effects of a magic spell; the question was how long it'd last until the mysterious spell had its dark grip on Cheese once again.

Still, they bid their newly-discovered cousins goodnight, and marched off to the little cabin for the night.

Author's Note:

And thus, our next big arc is in Aura Springs. A small town named for the magical healing pools up the hill, it's a quiet place neighboring a vast nature park with various natural wonders (like some mix of Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks). The park's a wonderful place to hike for residents, given that they listen to Fallow's warnings about animals and keep a respectful distance away. However, thanks to the town's relative obscurity, tourism is a little low.

They've got other problems, but that's for next time.

And last, but definitely not least... the fate of Aunt Honeydew!

And random headcanon alert, we've got a cousin relationship between canon characters Cheese Sandwich and Lemon Zest (who I frustratingly have to adapt a personality with what little I got from the EQG series--she's a little too far from my sweet spot of 'enough personality to be interesting' and 'enough blanks for me to fill', essentially almost being a background pon--I mean, human, dangit). I chose her to be one of Honeydew's kids because I thought the colors fit and the basic personality contrast would be hilarious.

Other kids are OC Grapevine (should appear next chapter) and G3 pony Toola Roola, with Papa Fallow Track to complete the family... and I should update the Sandwich Bros' family tree soon.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

How long will this story be?

[RadicalDishonesty]

They... found their long lost aunt.

...

Cousin's are nice, though, and yes, Cheese is back to his ordinary self, except still missing the memories of every unpleasant thing that happened to him that might cause character growth during his childhood.

So basically everything except that he disliked Tomato, apparently.

[Goldfinch142]

Well, at least the Sandwich bros got some form of closure on what happened to Honeydew, and got to meet their uncle and cousins. I wonder how their parents will take the news.

And it seems Cheese is relatively back to normal--for now. Not sure if it'll last until the full moon or wear off before then, though.

[ClockworkShield]

Wait wait wait WAIT!

First off, great chapter as always! But just to clarify, who is toola roola's twin brother? Don't think he was mentioned anywhere. What about him?

[Sketcha-Holic]

8273271
He was briefly mentioned in my biographies for Fallow Track and Grapevine, as the twin who died at birth. He wasn't given a name in the bios, considering he's, you know, dead, but I've taken to calling him Roly Poly in my private story musings.

[ClockworkShield]

8273500
Crap. Had a feeling that was the case. Thanks for shedding some light on this. Where could I find the bios, if they're available?

[Sketcha-Holic]

8273749
I've got links to them on my profile page.

[cheeseisbestpony]

>>sketcha-holic
oh

[Godslittleprincess]

Oh man, if only those magic pools worked on magical ailments! I do not want to see another reappearance of whatever dark transformation Cheese is going through.