Cheese Sandwich Gets a 'Real Job'

by PensacolaRanger

Chapter 2 - Cheese Returns

Once again in drifter mode, but this time without the signature Colt Eastwood duds or a rubber chicken companion, the cheddar-colored equine followed the road ahead, winding ever south-by-south westward, with only his instincts, and that very unpredictable Cheesy Sense of his, to guide him.

A conversation or two with a few ponies he met along the way (including a wayward postal stallion) filled our hero in on a few details, but not much. He remembered quite a while back (almost a year ago now) when several spikes and valleys in his Cheesy Sense one day, told him something big was going down in the country. But again, he couldn't place exactly what...

***

Soon... as Luna's Moon rose, the lonely ex-super party pony had found that the road he'd been following, had brought him straight up to the outskirts of Ponyville---the very place he was trying to reach! (*Sigh*) Not that he felt much like celebrating.

Being after dark, with all the shops closed and houses locked up tight, there was nary a pony to be seen besides himself. And now that he no longer had the gaucho hat & poncho (not to mention cigarillo party favor to blow) Cheese Sandwich now had all the appearance... of an average Joe Pony. And at night, that made him stand out even less.

But one definitely stood out to him. A cloaked equine in particular, with striped legs and glowing yellow eyes peering out from under the upturned hood whooshed past him, taking no notice, as it seemed to be searching and pausing every now and then to dig a hoof into the ground. Sometimes bending an ear low to the ground, listening. Or bending a nose to sniff and smell.

Strangely dressed ponies Cheese had seen before on many a Nightmare Night all over Equestria (some such costume parties he had even thrown himself) but none had ever really made him creep out---in quite the way this one did. He was reasonably sure he'd never met that one before, and certainly didn't know what to make of it. So he tip-hoofed and hid in alleys, nooks or crannies, to keep out of sight from this phantom.

***

Soon he came to the square where Town Hall stood. But, all was quiet, and all the lights were out, so he moved on...

Rarity's Carousel Boutique soon came into view. Whatever lights were on, seemed to be mostly in the back spaces. The living quarters, Cheese assumed, so paying a night visit here didn't seem the best idea...

Soon the smell of, hmmm... cotton candy and...(*sniff, sniff*) cupcakes?---came into range, wafting on the night breeze. Cheese followed his nose to----YES! Sugarcube Corner, the town bakery! But... no... all the lights were out, no more smoke billowed from the chimneys, and through a slightly open window, he could hear... snores. And sleep-whinnies. Nope. If Pinkie Pie was there, she and her employer family the Cakes were all sound asleep.

"Oh, well... the front steps seemed comfy." Cheese thought, so he nestled down on the top step. Perhaps he could curl up here and sleep like a guard Diamond Dog until morning. "Hmph, sleep..." Now he'd wished he hadn't been so hasty about burying his drifter outfit, or at least had sense enough to keep the poncho. He remembered how it always made the perfect campfire blanket on all his lone cross-country road trips between party gigs. Hmm...and the rubber chicken always made a great pillow. How he missed them both, right now. A quick movement out of the corner of one eye, revealed the cloaked equine retreating across town. "Must be leaving." he figured.

Then Cheese straightened up, his Cheesy Sense tingling slightly. He realized something. He had just noticed...something different about the town. At first, he wasn't quite sure what it was. He squinted...then closed his eyes, arched his eyebrows...and opened his eyes wide. Turning his head, he took a long scan around the village landscape before him, trying...to find...

"AHA!" Cheese exclaimed, in a hoarse whisper. "Well, well, well...that's new!" He spied a new structure in a vast clearing just outside of town, where a tall mountain waterfall cascaded down into a lake. The spires. The amethyst crystal walls. The golden gables. "Hoo-hoo-HOO!" he interjected, almost loudly! That certainly wasn't there before. Not on his last visit. "Since when did Ponyville get a CASTLE?"

Then he noticed something else, at another edge of the town: an enormous hole. Or at least, a large impression in the ground of...what used to be a...big tree? "(Gasp) Awww... what happened to the Golden Oak Library? Wonder if that means Twilight had to leave?" Cheese puzzled gloomily.

But then he noticed the big Sparkle Gem on the castle top-most spire. "Ohhh...I get it..." he concluded, "The Castle is Twilight Sparkle's new digs! HA-HA! Oh, what a swingin' classy joint that must be for parties! OH... yeah...right... too bad I'm out of the business, now..." he remembered sadly.

"Hmmm... but if Twilight lives there, now..." Cheese reasoned, "...and the place sure looks big enough...maybe her friends are there, too! Having a big sleepover, perhaps. And if they're there..." He felt a tingle in his tail. "Woo-hoo-hoo-HOO! Another doozie! That means---Pinkie Pie's there, too! YES! (*Ahem*) My Cheesy Sense says so." The big Cheese confirmed.

***

After tip-hoofing, then trotting, cantering...and finally galloping out of town and up to the foot of the new Castle of Friendship, the former king of party ponies brought his hooves to a screeching halt (like Clyde the Camel*; and old friend of Cheese's) to study the new structure. Sure enough, he could see that the lights were on in yonder upper windows. A warm glowing shade of canary yellow. (Luna's Moon had bathed the entire landscape in her own coat's shade of deep indigo, which made the yellow windows seem brighter and stand out proudly!) And... pricking up one ear and craning it around like a radar dish----he could just make out the faint sounds of... You guessed it: MUSIC and LAUGHTER!

"DEFINITELY a party going on in the Castle tonight!" Cheese boldly announced. Not an epic gala, like the annual one in Canterlot, but a more intimate, down-home, get-together soiree' between friends. Yep. That sounded like the bunch he knew.

It also sounded like it wasn't coming from the windows upstairs... but from somewhere downstairs...closer to the base, near the Mane Entrance. Cheese trotted closer for a better view. He climbed up the Golden Steps, then peered in through one of the tall stained glass windows on either side of the large swinging double-doors.

Sure enough again. It was indeed a house party in the Grand Entrance Hall. That DJ Pony---Scratchy Vinyl, or whatever her name was, Cheese thought---was kickin' the bass and flashing her laser-lights, as she head-banged her wild 2-toned blue mane to the beat while flashing her signature rose-tinted sunglasses. Her best friend, Octavia Melody from Trottingham was also head-banging as she jammed to a beat of her own, as she flashed a pair of dark sunglasses and sawed a string bass tune on her classical cello in time to her DJ friend's def-jam mix. All the while, Twilight and her friends Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Spike, Fluttershy, AAAAAAAAND----Pinkie Pie, all trotted in a conga line around the polished floor of the hallway.

"Oh...what the hay. One last fling, ol, Cheesy, for old times' sake?" Cheese decided.

He knew he'd never get their attention while that bass was busy booming, so...like on the steps of Sugarcube Corner, he hunkered down like a dog, and waited for a lull or pause in the bass mix, to try knocking on the big castle doors.

He soon found his chance...as the dance mix faded, and the ponies all flopped in an exhausted heap on one of the hallway's side sofas. Giggles and pants for air were evident from behind the doors.

Then suddenly... Pinkie's tail started twitching! "Huh? Now what's that for?" Pinkie wondered, looking back at her tail.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The knocks rang out like cannon fire!

Inside, everypony STRAIGHTENED UP, goose-necked, and craned their heads slowly toward the double doors...

"Whoa..." said a spooked Twilight Sparkle, "...who could THAT be, and at this late hour?"

"If they're here for the chips & dip, too late...*BUUURP!* I got 'em all!" boasted a full Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy had already ducked under the snack food table, and was trembling violently.

BOOM BA-DA-BOOM-BOOM! BOOM-BOOM!" A 'shave-and-a-haircut' knock.

"(*GAAAAAAAAAASP*) I KNOW THAT KNOCK!" Pinkie Pie said in a high falsetto whisper, her ears now twitching, too!

The pink party pony of Ponyville bounced like on her hoofs like a rubber ball toward the door.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!!!" She squealed with childish delight!

"Prepare yourselves, ponies!" Twilight commanded, as she and the others crouched into defensive postures,
"No telling WHO OR WHAT'S out there..."

Even Spike assumed an anime' attack stance, and snorted green flames from his stubby little nose.

"Oh, don't be silly, guys!" said Pinkie. "I know who it is!" And she opened the double doors!

"TA-DAAAAAH!" Cheese announced standing upright, his forelegs out wide!

"CHEESE SANDWICH!!" said everypony, smiles beaming brightly!

"THAT'S RIGHT, FRIENDS... THE CHEESE IS BACK IN TOWN!!!"

[CONTINUED NEXT CHAPTER...]

Author's Note:

* - Reference to Ray Stevens' Ahab the Arab.

Hmm... I need to go back and study other Cheese Sandwich comics and fanfics... but I'm pretty sure Cheesy had never actually seen the changes made to Ponyville since the Season 4 finale'. (He was seen noticing the rainbow that burst from the Castle of Friendship, arcing across the sky in a brief cameo. I don't think he saw exactly where it came from...) Oh, well... This was how I chose to present his reactions, for this fic.

Comments

[Thaums]

It feels like an actual episode from the show.

[PensacolaRanger]

Woo--hoo-HOO! Now THAT was a doozie! Thanks, Thaumic!

Hmm... who wants to bet some kind of canon counterpart is being cooked up right now for Season 6?

(Well, I don't have time to wait; I'm going through this crisis right now.)

[LCranston]

This was an improvement over the previous chapter. You actually described actions and used dialogue markings. You also got Pinkie's character well. Not bad.