Brotherly Bonding Time

by Sketcha-Holic

21.1--DNA Sample

"Dear Fluttershy,

"How long did you intend to stay in Aura Springs? We need you to return soon because Kazam's trial is this week and you have to bring the bat he fused with Tomato Sandwich. Speaking of him, if you miraculously found him and Cheese Sandwich, bring them too, for they are key witnesses to the event. I also have to take notes on Cheese's health and do what I can to help him--as well as reassure Pinkie.

"We'll most likely be in Canterlot by the time you return. Don't forget to make a quick stop in Ponyville to fetch the bat! In the meantime, we all hope you're all right, and that you managed to help your friend with that animal problem. See you soon!

"Your friend, Twilight Sparkle"

Fluttershy sighed, and turned to the two Sandwiches sitting on the freshly made bed. It was nice of them to tidy up the small cabin for their uncle--especially Cheese, who had initially camped out the night before in overturned furniture, chewed up pillows, and a ripped bed sheet (somehow the other one was intact). Now that the furniture was in the right place and the pillows and bed sheets were replaced, they just needed to get ready to go.

"We're going to have to be in Canterlot instead," Fluttershy said, her eyes back on the letter. "Kazam's trial is in a couple of days, and since you were both there..."

Tomato groaned and fell back onto the mattress. "Can't it wait until Cheese is fixed?"

Cheese's eyes widened, and he crossed his hind legs nervously.

Tomato was quick to notice that. "Not that kind of fixed! I mean your mind!"

"I do hope that he is restored soon," Fluttershy muttered. "That missing memory better not be too far away, because he needs to give his side of the story in the trial." She glanced up from the letter, and looked at him with a cautious glare.

Cheese leaned on his hoof. "Nothing left to do; might as well go now."

---

The hot air balloon lifted out of Aura Springs to loud farewells, and Fluttershy and the Sandwiches went on to spend hours in that basket. Between the duties of making sure that everything was in place and working as it should, keeping the balloon going in the right direction, and the occasional bathroom break, there were basically long stretches of nothing going on. Often, Tomato would be reading in those stretches, while Cheese took a nap. There were a couple games of "I Spy", and a few card games, and some times when they'd look at the landscape below them.

The Smoky Mountains were as hazy as their name suggested, and seemed barren save for a couple of houses atop two hills. The Salt Lick Desert did in fact look like a giant Salt Lick. Over the populated green crescent of the Valley, Tomato just waved as if Flora and her family could see him. And then over the mountains again, more lush and green than what came before and dotted with more small towns.

The sun was setting as they passed Cloudsdale. Tomato couldn't help but whistle at the grand cloud city, which looked like golden brush strokes on a blue canvas, molded to the ancient pegasi architecture.

"Well, I can check seeing another major city off the list, even if I didn't set foot in it," he said.

After hours in that balloon, they had enough of the cramped basket, and just decided to sleep at Fluttershy's when they touched down that evening, going to Cantelot the next day. She had a spare room in the attic, though she had qualms about putting them in the same room. Sure, Cheese didn't do anything on the way to Ponyville, but it was likely out of fear for her Stare.

She decided to let Tomato take her bed, and she could sleep with the animals downstairs. She made sure to lock the door to the room Cheese was in, so that he couldn't do anything to her animals, and then asked her nocturnal animals to keep an eye on him from the window. Even so, even when given as much comfort as possible from her animals, she still worried, especially over one question that nagged at her mind for the last couple of days.

Why did the Stare work on Cheese?

---

No time for any big breakfast the next morning; they just had toast. Grabbing the box bed of a certain vampire bat that Fluttershy called Vladimir, they all piled back into the balloon and set off for Canterlot. Thankfully, it took only about ten minutes, most of which Tomato spent talking to the bat and finding out that Vlad now loved doing math and was an avid reader. Fluttershy was perplexed by the conversation even happening at all, while Cheese was just disturbed.

They landed in the Canterlot Castle courtyard, where Fluttershy's friends all awaited, fiddling with some activities from their saddlebags in the grass. Granted, their landing was because of an impatient Rainbow Dash spotting them, flying up, and pulling the balloon down to the ground, but they still made it. When she hopped out of the basket, Fluttershy was greeted with warm hugs from her friends.

"Welcome back, Fluttershy!" Twilight said. "Do you have the bat?"

"Yes, but he's asleep right now." Fluttershy had the box in her saddlebag, and reached back to stroke the snoozing Vladimir's head. "He had quite the conversation on the way here."

"So how did the thing in Aura Springs go?" Rainbow asked. "Were there any fights?"

Fluttershy grimaced for a moment before relaxing. "Oh, it had its ups and downs, and Grapevine was very stubborn, but we managed to talk sense into him and most of the animals."

"That's good to hear, Fluttershy," Twilight said. "It's obvious you're the right mare to turn to when there's an animal problem."

Rarity said, "I don't blame those townsponies for being angry, I'd be angry too if my boutique was continually vandalized or stolen from."

"Like the parasprite invasion?" Pinkie asked. "Oh! If I had been there, I'd have pulled out all my musical instruments and played some music! After all, you know what they say, music soothes the savage beast!"

"Psht, I'd scare them straight if I was there, no matter what the bunch of hippies said!" Rainbow said.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Like Twilight said, you're the best for a critter job, Fluttershy. Though, I reckon that it'd have still cost a lot of bits to fix things."

Tomato hopped out of the basket next and boasted, "Don't worry, I took care of that!"

The other mares blinked, with an extra loud gasp from Pinkie. "Tomato Sandwich?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Yep, I found them. Turns out that they're Fallow's nephews and they had set up a fundraiser to help him."

Cheese climbed out of the basket last, grumbling, "It still wasn't up to my standard."

Pinkie's eyes were on him the moment he climbed out, and she looked as if her heart skipped a beat. Biting her lip in the midst of her huge smile and tearing up, she was blur before anypony knew it, and she grabbed Cheese in the tightest of squeezes. She cuddled him, her fluffy mane serving as a pillow for the stunned Cheese's chin, and she took a deep whiff of his cheesy smell. She didn't even care that the other girls were grinning and giggling--save Rainbow, who rolled her eyes at the mushiness, but smiled anyway.

"Cheesy, I'm so happy that you're alive and kicking and talking and doing fundraisers with your brother and bonding with him and busy not being dead!" Pinkie held on tighter, lip quivering. "I got this sudden weird empty feeling a few weeks ago on a full moon night, like you just went poof into nothing and I couldn't feel you or send you a letter or know that you're doing all right because you travel everywhere and don't have an address like all my other friends, so I was so, so, so worried that you were dead!" She laughed in an unnerved tone. "I haven't been this stressed since trying to impress the Yak Prince. But, now I know that you're--"

Suddenly, Cheese growled, and shoved her off of him, yelling, "Get off!"

Pinkie was down on the ground, looking up at him with bewilderment and hurt. "Huh?"

Tomato gaped, his expression mirroring that of the other five, taking a moment to process what just happened before saying, "What the hay was that for?"

Cheese just glanced off to the side and muttered, "I couldn't breathe."

"Well, that is no excuse for being so rude, Cheese Sandwich," Rarity scolded.

"Have you got burrs stuck where the sun don't shine?" Applejack said. "Pinkie was just happy to see you."

Twilight scratched her chin and approached him, looking back at the others. "Well, keeping that memory loss that Pinkie told me about in mind, it looks like it might be the side effect of irritability." She gently patted Pinkie's shoulder in reassurance, which made the pink mare perk up. Facing Cheese again, she said, "It doesn't mean you can treat anypony like dirt, Cheese, so I expect you to be polite, understand?"

Cheese rolled his eyes. "Guess I'll try."

"You better," Fluttershy growled.

"All right..." Twilight said cautiously. "Since Pinkie told me about how somepony must have stolen your memory of Las Pegasus, I've been browsing the subject of memory magic in order to figure out how to help you reclaim it. And I have to tell you, it's amazing."

Pinkie hopped up and nodded. "Yep! Twilight says that you can create an entire world out of just one mind! And that yanking all your memories out all at once has a high chance of killing you! And also, you either have to be a super-powerful magic user or somepony that the memory's owner trusts in order to hold the memory--or else you get shocked."

Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth. "Goodness!"

Twilight chuckled. "Mm, yes, that is true, but we need to stay on task. Answer me honestly, have you really been suffering from headaches, and if so, for how long?"

Cheese pursed his lips in thought. "Well... I did, quite often, since, uh... about the Crystal Empire or something? Beginning of July. At least until somepony gave me some kind of potion that stopped the headaches a few weeks ago. Now they're not a problem."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Odd. What kind of potion?"

"Beats me, I don't pay attention to that stuff."

Twilight sighed. "Of course. Still, even with that mysterious potion, do you still get headaches when you try to remember the missing event?"

Cheese closed his eyes. "So, uh... Las Pegasus? Something to do with vampires?" He grit his teeth and started to sweat, trying to picture what it was like. "Tomato says that he was a victim, but I'm not sure... it had to be some kind of weird coincidence that we were there while it was--OW!"

As Cheese rubbed his head, Twilight said, "That looks like a yes. Now, have you ever felt muscle weakness?"

"Once, before the doctor gave me meds."

"Nausea?"

"Same deal."

"Forgetfulness?"

"A few times."

"Hallucinations?"

Cheese scratched his head. "Uh..."

Tomato interjected, "He nearly destroyed Salt Lick City because of them."

"I did not," Cheese corrected. "It was just sticky from candy for a few hours."

"Candy that you blasted all over the place as a candy cannon commando."

"Ah, what do you know?"

Twilight scratched her chin. "I may have to double check the book, but usually the hallucinations happen after multiple memories have been removed. Doesn't mean it couldn't happen after just one, and being that Cheese is atypical, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened with him. I mean, if it was a friend of Kazam's who did this to you, what use would they have for your other memories?"

"Unless they're making a Cheese planet!" Pinkie gasped.

"Sounds almost as crazy as Discord's dimension," Rainbow muttered.

"I don't think it works that way," Applejack said.

"It doesn't," Twilight deadpanned. "It still doesn't answer the question of who the hay this guy is."

"Well, I do suspect this Rooney guy that we've bumped into a couple of times..." Tomato said.

"Oh, how do you know he isn't just a nice stallion trying to help out with the headaches?" Cheese shot back.

"Well, maybe we'll find out if the 'Rooney' guy is the culprit or not once we get Cheese's magic signature," Twilight said. "I theorize that your memories still contain your magic signature, and that we may be able to trace them that way. It's pretty easy to extract the signature, all we need is a DNA sample."

"Well, fine." Cheese turned to pluck a hair out of his tail, and then gave it to Twilight. "Will this do?"

Twilight looked at it, and took it in her magic. "Yes. It did test the spell with my friends' hair, and it worked. Now..." She concentrated on the single strand, glaring at it with an intense determination. It was a few moments, but finally there were a few sparks of magic popping out of the hair... when then made the hair dissolve and the magic fizzle away.

Twilight stomped. "Oh, drat! The memory removal depleted his magic enough for the hair to be utterly useless!" She took a deep breath, and said, "Not to worry, I have a backup plan. If drawing his magic signature from his hair won't work, then maybe drawing it from his blood will."

The color drained from Cheese's face, and he backed up. "Wait... you're not saying..."

Twilight's horn glowed, and she levitated a hypodermic needle out of her saddlebag, all sharpened up, sterilized, and ready to go. "How I got this thing is a long story... but anyway, we just need a small sample from your jugular vein, and I promise that it will be--"

Cheese spun around and ran off the opposite direction. "Nope! Nope! Nope! You're not poking me with that thing!" He hopped the fence and continued to flee down the Canterlot streets.

"Hey!" Twilight yelled. With a growl, she asked Tomato, "Is he afraid of needles?"

"Yep," Tomato answered.

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

"It wasn't relevant until now."

"Well, you did just pull that needle out and ask for his blood like some madhorse, dear," Rarity said. "I'd freak out too if someone pulled that unpleasant surprise on me."

"Well, now we have to go catch him, maybe even wrassle him to the ground," Applejack said.

Twilight blew on her bangs. "Yeah, we should. We've got an hour before the trial starts, and I want to get his magic signature before then."

"On it!" Rainbow dashed off without noticing Twilight about to say more. "You better get back here, Cheese Sandwich!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight shouted. "I was just about split us into groups!"

---

And so the chase was on. A lone Rainbow and three pairs of ponies split through the city in order to find the runaway party pony. Normally, as Tomato put it, Cheese was the world champion of hide-and-seek, but perhaps with him being crippled in the magic department, he'd be easier to find. However, Canterlot was still a large city, so they had to cover more ground.

Tomato was teamed up with Rarity, trotting down one street in search of his brother. It was a door-to-door effort of asking if anypony had caught any sight of an orange stallion, and if he was possibly hiding in one of their homes or businesses. When somepony dared to ask why, the answer was, "He hates needles."

Rarity was scowling when one door was slammed in her face. "Well, I never! You have some nerve to slam a door on a lady!"

"Yeah, where's that trademark Canterlot 'politeness'?" Tomato mocked. "Are you too sophisticated for basic manners?"

They trotted away from that building and moved on. Rarity was rubbing a temple. "And to think that I had an entire hour to check up on Canterlot Carousel before the trial begins. But somepony just had to have a fear of needles."

"Tell me about it." Tomato kicked at some rocks on the street. "Say, what is Canterlot Carousel?"

Rarity's sour mood evaporated and she gushed, "Oh, it's only the fulfillment of my destiny! As a mare of fashion, it's only natural that I want to leave my mark on the world! Thus, I have plans for boutiques in just about every major city, making as many ponies as possible look fabulous!" She paused to see Tomato's concern for her sanity, and she finished with, "I earned enough bits to build a second boutique here in Canterlot."

Tomato's eyes widened. "Like that one in Ponyville? Where you stitched up my jacket at the Fall Festival? Are you expanding your business?" He grinned from ear to ear and there were stars in his eyes. "As much as I don't understand fashion, that fact that you're branching out to other places and sharing your craft with the world and it's quality enough that ponies are all over them and you've earned enough excess to even get this far... AMAZING!" Tomato leapt several feet high in his excitement, not noticing that Rarity and several other pedestrians were weirded out by him being able to do that. "Can I see it?"

Rarity blinked. "Pardon me for saying this, but I am starting to wonder if you switched personalities with Cheese."

Tomato blushed. "Eheheh... sorry about that. My inner crazy's been seeping out all summer."

Rarity nodded. "All right... I guess it runs in the family." She smiled. "Regardless, I do appreciate your praise. Why, if you'd like to see it, Canterlot Carousel's just right over ther--oh, Sweet Celestia, he's going to hide in there!"

Tomato blinked, and turned to a lavender building, which was designed to look like it was behind an open white curtain, with windows having their own curtains. Sure enough, there was someone tall, orange, and brunette, slipping through the violet door. "Oh, hey! What do you know? He's just right there for the picking. Nice building, by the way."

"Oh, he thought he could escape us just because we don't have his magic signature? Well, he thought wrong!" Rarity stamped her hoof, ready to charge.

Tomato pursed his lips. "I hope we don't cause too much damage wrestling him."

And so, into the boutique they charged. Rarity swung open the door, and both leapt through in a blur, and maybe with a battle cry. The manager and the patrons jumped at the sound, and the target only barely turned before being tackled into the nearest rack of dresses. With now hills of dresses and hangers piled up in the corner, said manager and some curious customers crept toward it, though fearing the stray hooves that pounded the fabric in an attempt to swim up for air.

Rarity's head popped out first, and the manager asked, "Rarity! What are you doing?"

Rarity spit out some lace. "I apologize for the commotion, Sassy Saddles, but I am hunting down a friend of Pinkie's. He's been avoiding a certain kind of needle..." She noticed half the patrons cringe at that statement, not that she could blame them. "But he will not get away!"

Tomato's head popped up next. "Bad news..." He pulled up the pony they tackled, who was a unicorn mare with Cheese's colors. "This isn't Cheese."

"I haven't been doing anything, honest!" the mare cried.

"Oh!" Rarity exclaimed. "I am terribly sorry for this misunderstanding!" She hopped out of the clothes pile, and after a few moments of scanning it, she pulled out a dress and said, "Let me make it up to you! This magnificent dress matches your color scheme, and it'll really bring out your eyes!" She pulled the mare out of the pile of clothes, and let her take the dress. "Go on, try it on."

As the mare huffily trotted into the changing room, Rarity telekinised all the dresses and hangers off the floor and put them into their proper place. "So, Sassy, it appears that all is going well here?"

"Indeed it is, Rarity!" Sassy replied. "Your summer line has been such a hit, and I was starting to consider hiring more helping hooves because of all the business we've been receiving these past few months."

"Oh, that's wonderful! Soon enough, I'll be opening a boutique in Manehattan!"

"Hey..." Tomato said, out of their line of sight. "I appreciate that you're considering spreading into my hometown, knowing how well this place is doing, but... can you get me out of this thing?"

They turned, and stifled a bit of laughter. Not only was Tomato hanging from the rack, but he was also stuffed into a breezy green dress, spruced up with ribbons and flowers and managing to cover his entire lanky figure. His scowl was accompanied by a deep blush, and never had he been more thankful that nopony in the building had a camera on them.

"I best do so, we are looking for your brother," Rarity said. "Although the dress does match your eyes."

---

Meanwhile, Twilight and Fluttershy were in another part of town, with Twilight asking the ponies and Fluttershy asking the birds where Cheese had gone. They've been pointed down nearly every direction, and so far, not a single curly hair had turned up--though there were plenty of knocked over trash cans with some of the contents eaten, and somepony complained about some doggy treats being stolen. In between, Twilight was looking among any clocks in view in order to gauge the time they had.

Twilight galloped around a corner. "Oh, we've been at this for twenty minutes, and none of the directions we've gotten have led us to him yet!"

"I hope nopony makes him angry," Fluttershy said, right on her tail. "His temper's been really bad lately."

"Well, missing memory or not, he's still Cheese Sandwich, and that means he'll likely make the most ridiculous outburst out of anypony. It's not like he'll commit assault or even murder."

Fluttershy pursed her lips, the scene of the results of Cheese's forest rampage coming to mind. "I don't know... he's been having a lot of trouble being, uh... funny, so he has been resorting to more... aggressive measures to keep the peace in Aura Springs. It was bad enough that I actually used The Stare on him!"

Twilight stopped in her tracks. "Wait... you used The Stare on him? I thought you could only use it on animals!"

"Well, so did I... at least until that moment." Fluttershy brushed her hoof on the ground. "I don't know what thought is scarier: that I can control ponies with my Stare, or that Cheese might be turning into an animal."

Twilight had a hoof to her mouth. "That's something to look into, all right."

The sudden blare of rock music rang out, making both mares jump and use their wings to plug their ears. They looked across the street, where a stage in a park was surrounded by a modest audience. On the stage was a tall, burly, blue minotaur, addressing the crowd.

"Do you consider a stampede of bunnies scary?! Well, Iron Will is here to tell you that bunny stampedes are nothing! There is danger all over Equestria, and it only gets more dangerous under the full moon! Magical mayhem that can smell fear, and will snatch up your children if you're not prepared! And since the full moon is just two nights away, it is imperative that Iron Will teach you some reliable self-defense moves to protect you from the monsters that come out on that night! And perhaps it can drive away those who dare cross you!" He whipped around in various poses showing off his physique, fireworks burst, and the crowd cheered.

"Iron Will?" Twilight muttered. "Well, he certainly is as flashy as you told me. He rivals Trixie."

Fluttershy tilted her head. "I don't know about what he's saying, I wasn't satisfied the last time I saw him. And what's this about the full moon?"

"Oh, I read this!" They walked away from the scene and continued on their search. "Their superstition about the full moon comes from back in their war with the ponies over a thousand years ago. The same one that Kazam's ancestor was in and created the werewolf to stop... using the same fusion spell that Kazam did to create the vampire."

"Aww..." Fluttershy looked back at her saddlebag where Vladimir slept. "That wolf and the first pony victim must have felt awful once they were cured, just like Tomato and Vladimir did."

Twilight did not want to tell her that Wayer Rune used the spell on himself and that the poor wolf died. She looked at the next clock. "Well, I certainly know that Kazam's sentence will not be being sent to Tartarus. Alcatrot, maybe, but not Tartarus. But, for now, we still need to find Cheese."

---

Rainbow Dash hated it when she lost someone.

Cheese seemed to have slipped into a hiding spot at some point and taken a detour from there, and she was going too fast to notice. She soon realized that she must have passed the turn he made, so she went back to locate just which turn it was. Unfortunately, wherever the turn was, he clearly had ditched it by then.

Now she was turning corners left and right, weaving around frightened Canterlot denizens and looking all around for orange. And she did see orange; only she ended up tackling several different ponies in the process. There was a fancy stallion covered in jewels, and when Rainbow tackled him, he called for the guards and accused her of trying to mug him. Another was a charity worker, and took Rainbow's tackle as volunteer work for the local soup kitchen that night--and she would not take no for an answer. Another one was a foreign-looking unicorn sweeping the front steps of her restaurant, and as shocked as she was from the tackle, she said, "If you are that hungry, you could be more polite."

And so she kept on looking for Cheese, checking out every orange pony that she came across. When she thought she had him for sure, she just ended up with another unicorn, this one oddly having Cheese's colors, and shouting, "Come on! That's the second time today!"

And the final orange pony she tackled just so happened to be Applejack. Rainbow barreled into her, surprising the Pinkie Pie that was right next to the Apple, and sent her flying right into the nearby Canterlot River.

Spitting out water, Applejack grabbed her hat from the current and said, "You mind watchin' where yer going, Dash?"

"Hey! It's not my fault you're orange, and Cheese is orange, and... argh!" Rainbow slammed the water in frustration. "I've tackled too many orange ponies today!"

Pinkie Pie bounced to them. "Look on the bright side! It's a hot day today, and a good swim is the best way to cool off!"

Rainbow was rolling her eyes, but then caught sight of the stallion they pursued, all tuckered out and now lapping up water from the river. Nudging Applejack, she whispered, "And so is taking a drink of water."

Applejack looked at her oddly for a moment before she noticed Cheese, her mouth forming into an O. She shushed Pinkie when the pink mare had noticed too, and was about to shout that they found him, and climbed out of the river as quietly as she could. Hoping that Cheese was too thirsty to care what was going on around him, she led Pinkie around a building to get behind him without being noticed. Meanwhile, Rainbow stayed in the water, and slipped beneath the surface to swim toward him.

Cheese had been relaxed, and was happy to quench his thirst after a chase under a hot summer sun. That was short lived once he noticed an unnatural blue in the water, followed by every color of the rainbow. He leaned forward just a bit to try to sniff it, only for Rainbow Dash to burst out of the water and grab him by the neck, yelling, "Gotcha!"

Alarmed, Cheese slipped himself out of Rainbow's grasp with a pop, and attempted to run off, only to by stopped by Pinkie and Applejack jumping out of the nearby alley, with Applejack readying a rope to tie him down. Looking in between the two parties, his back bristled and he growled. There was no way they were going to catch him and make him face that needle.

He tried to leap into another alley, but Pinkie was quick to tackle him. Pinning him to the ground, Pinkie growled, "Come on, Cheese! We're only trying to help!"

Cheese rolled them so that he was pinning her down. "How is sticking a needle in my neck helping?!"

Pinkie rolled back so she was on top. "I wish that the hair thing worked, I really do, because having a needle poking your neck and sucking up blood like a vampire sounds really, really, really not fun. We can get your blood other ways! Maybe we could just scrape your ear, or maybe floss your teeth until your gums bleed! Those are still not fun, but better than a needle, am I right?"

Cheese rolled again and he was on top again. "How is making me bleed any fun?! I've already gotten hurt plenty of times this summer!"

Pinkie looked at Applejack, who was swinging her lasso, and to Rainbow, ready to tackle him the moment he did something funny--or rather, unfunny. "I said it's not fun! As much as I don't want to do the not fun thing, that not fun thing is the only way to--OW!"

Applejack almost dropped her rope, and Rainbow gasped. Cheese had outright chomped down on Pinkie's front leg, with his teeth sinking down like she was a pillow. After the initial scream of pain, Pinkie could only stare in shock at the suddenly dark eyes of her fellow party pony, and whimper some more from the pain that the bite was giving her.

Cheese was caught on the hind leg with the lasso, and Rainbow tackled him so that both she and Applejack could tie him up. Pinkie got up, but her usual bounce wasn't present. Instead, she stared at her leg. While there was no blood drawn, she felt as if he had stabbed her heart instead. Looking at the scene before her, and thinking of how Cheese was before, from the most exciting of parties to the most relaxed of walks, she wondered who that stallion was.

It sure wasn't her Cheese.

---

Rainbow had given a holler to inform everyone that they had caught Cheese, and they returned to the courtyard so that they could draw a blood sample. Just as Twilight had promised, it was quick, but that didn't mean Cheese liked it. Not even being given a lollipop afterwards cheered him up, as a band-aid on his neck reminded him of the torture. Tomato just rolled his eyes and said, "You big baby. How did you survive booster shots?"

"At least I'm not afraid of clowns," Cheese shot back.

"All right, you two!" Twilight said, injecting the blood into a vial. She looked at the nearest clock tower. "Now, thanks to the chase, I have to wait until after the trial to extract your magic signature. I'm going to make sure you don't testify, since you're still lacking the necessary information, Cheese."

"Okay, fine. I'm sure we have enough between Tomato, Fluttershy and the bat, some other ponies..." Cheese grumbled.

"Well," Applejack said. "Let's go now. Don't wanna be late."

As all eight ponies trotted off to the courthouse, Tomato noticed something unusual. Usually, whenever they were in the same place, Cheese and Pinkie were more than happy to walk beside each other. This time, however, there was Cheese on one side of the group, being all cranky and bristle-haired, while Pinkie was on the opposite side, her curls drooping and forlorn eyes just staring at her foreleg.

He was not a big fan of Pinkie, and he was getting sick of Cheese's attitude, but his heart just ached seeing them separate like that.

Author's Note:

Well, we've got Kazam's trial to get through. But hey, at least the Mane Six are getting involved in the what-is-going-on-with-Cheese-Sandwich plotline now!

I wanted to put Trenderhoof here just to bug Cheese, but I couldn't come up with a bit part that'll annoy even normal Cheese (I accept scoots2's headcanon that Cheese dislikes him). And Trend's one of those ponies that you could throw in anywhere and it would work...

Ah, well. Let's just get on with the story.

Comments

[SageBrony07]

Great chapter. I wonder how things will go at the trial. I loved this update. Its funny how Cheese reacted to Needles.

[Goldfinch142]

That poor orange unicorn mare.

It's a shame Cheese can't testify, but at least everyone else can. And hey, maybe he can add additional evidence after getting the memory back or something.

Nice to see Kazam finally facing justice. Kinda feel sorry for his family, though.

[ChaoticKindness]

Ahhh I feel so sad for Pinkie here

It's really good to see them working to fix Cheese though!

[redmar]

It's strange that it's stated that the Stare only works on animals since it worked on the red dragon in Dragonshyness. In Salt Lick City Cheese told Tomato that he had lost more memories so it's a bit strange that neither of them mentions it. At least now they can begin making Cheese normal again and rebanish Wayer Rune to Tartarus.

[Sketcha-Holic]

8658916
Actually, before Salt Lick City, Tomato had no idea that any of Cheese's memories were stolen; he just assumed that Cheese didn't want to talk about the Las Pegasus incident, and didn't know where Cheese's headaches were coming from. The most he could say was that there was something "off" about Cheese and that there was some type of "magical damage". Salt Lick City is the moment where after Cheese finally tells him that a piece of his mind is missing, Tomato figures "Obviously, Kazam had a buddy that stole that memory so Cheese can't testify!"

At this point, he does suspect that there might be more to it, because one missing memory does not justify Cheese's heightened aggression. But since he's no magic expert, he doesn't want to jump the gun, and is waiting for Twilight's opinion.

As for The Stare... I probably should have said that The Stare doesn't work on ponies, I completely forgot about the dragon.

[Sketcha-Holic]

8658916
Correction! I just remembered Dragonshy (well, I did while I was leaving for class, but I couldn't turn back just to make this correction), and while she did look it in the eye, she didn't use The Stare. She just scolded it.

Still, the point stands that she doesn't use it on other ponies, hence why it bothered her that she used it on Cheese.

[Godslittleprincess]

Ooh boy. Bad feeling just got worse.