Top Fifteen Favorite Brotherly Bonding Time Moments--The June Segment

Well, since I'm bored and whatnot, I decided to give you a nice little journal about my current longrunner (which is currently on break for the season while I focus on my Hearth's Warming fics), Brother Bonding Time.

I figure that since the first third of the story, which takes place in May-June, is made up of forty chapters (I know, the narrative exploded into a saga that would most likely require more than 100 chapters to cover... this ain't a fic one can read in a day... sorry...), I thought I'd do a countdown of some of my favorite moments in this segment.

Ready? Here we go! Spoilers ahead for you who haven't read it or are behind on it!

15. Luna Chases Hatu the Dream Gremlin

"Surrender, Hatu! I've caught thee many a night before!" she shouted. She swore that she was going to strangle that thing if she took too long in catching him. She always wanted to strangle the dream gremlins, but they were impossible to kill.

Hatu blew a raspberry. "Never!" He summoned more bees out of his hair, which took the form of seagulls.

I don't know why, but I just find this scene amusing. Perhaps because it just sounds funny out of context.

Imagine Luna, chasing a little black-bodied, blue-headed demon, with a literal beehive for hair, trying to fight her off with colorful bees.

14. Flora, Tommy, and Cheese at the Train Station

Flora returned with her ticket. She looked at Cheese with surprise, and smiled warmly. "Hello, Cheese!"

Cheese tipped his hat. "Pleasure to see you again, Flora. How's life treating you? Is Tommy behaving?"

"Life's been pretty good, though I've had my sour days. And yes, Tomato's been good. He's not one for getting into trouble."

Cheese chuckled. "You should have seen him as a colt. He nearly killed himself all the time. Running into the street, ferry, bridge, pack of dogs... you name it."

Flora tilted her head. "Um... pack of dogs?"

Tomato butted in with, "You don't want to know."

Ah, yes, the peaceful beginning chapter, where Flora's heading home to see family again, while the Sandwich Bros prepare to embark on their exciting adventure, oblivious to wait awaits them. Honestly, this chapter was so easy to write, and when it comes to Flora and Tomato, their conversations just come so naturally to me.

And of course, Cheese being a bit of a shipper for these two. Ship-teasing is so much fun!

13. Wings of Light

He yelled when the bat went straight through Tomato's heart, and the vermilion stallion clutched it like he had been shot and was now curled up in pain. Cheese felt his heart stop at the sight, and stared in disbelief. He could only hear his breathing, and he could only see his baby brother quaking... wavering... about to fall... and about to die at any moment. He could feel the wave of regrets coming toward him, and he was unable to move.

Those few agonizing moments were dashed when Tomato burst from his ball like a flower in bloom, and with him appeared the promised wings of light. The crowd cheered as Tomato burned brightly like a phoenix, and Cheese let out a sigh of relief. He glanced at Trixie, who was looking away and tossing her mane.

"It may be... just a tiny bit impressive..." Trixie grumbled.

Cheese chuckled. "Yeah, it was pretty cool." Cheese looked up at the stage, and frowned as Tomato was lowered, his hoof on his heart and teeth clenched. "Although I'm still worried about Tomato."

AKA, the moment when Kazam fused the bat with Tomato, which begun his transformation into a vampire.

I had this scene in my head quite sometime before I wrote it, and it usually popped up whenever I listened to the Transformation song from Brother Bear. Of course, what I like about this scene is just seeing how worried Cheese is about his brother, even when he's mad about what had happened in Halterside.

Considering that it seemed like Tomato was going to die there (and he could have died, if Kazam hadn't been careful) I don't blame Cheese for wanting to get Tomato to stop working for that crazy magician.

12. Memory Magic/Projection of Day Tomato was Born

Tomato answered with March fifth and the year he was born. Wanda nodded, and flipped some switches and punched in the date. Then, she turned on the projector, and static appeared on the screen. After turning a couple of knobs, the image became clearer, and Tomato beheld the faces that he had only seen in pictures.

The brown, balding, wrinkled stallion that he recognized as Grandpa Beans was on the screen, joined by his grayish yellow wife Panini, with her mane in a bun and a pair of glasses. He blinked in astonishment, seeing his long dead paternal grandparents actually moving.

I admit, I wrote this because I wanted to write Beans and Panini, the Sandwich Bros' paternal grandparents, who had died when Tomato was a baby. I also wanted to write toddler Cheese, who was just absolutely adorable! In fact... I just wanted to write a cute scene.

Granted, it's not just a filler scene... it was a setup for a plot point that comes up just a few chapters later...

11. The Circus Train

Goldie shakily lifted herself up with a grunt, and then asked, "What's everyone looking at?"

Silver watched as a colorful three-car train came chugging under one of the roller coaster's arches, presumably being the source of the circus music. His eyes widened as he spotted the two ponies who sat on the chairs on the open roofed locomotive. "Oh, no, not them!"

The train stopped, and the two yellow-coated, red-and-white haired unicorns dressed in striped vests and boaters--distinguishable by the fact that one sported a mustache-- stood up and looked around. They smirked at each other, and the clean shaven one sang:

"My, my, my, what a beautiful town
With many a curious pony
Take a deep whiff of the salty sea air
And take in the view of the sea"

Now, when I was having Flim and Flam come in, I was initially stumped on what I was going to have them do. I remember posting a journal asking for ideas on what I should do. After reading through your comments and some encounter with... some other thing (I forget, unfortunately ), I decided that a Circus Train would be something they would definitely do!

And I have to say, that song they sing was fun to write, it was fun coming up with freaks for the show, and of course, we have the introduction of Silk Shimmer in this fic, participating as their lackey AND the pony who was keeping the entire show together.

I'm forever disappointed that nobody commented about Tyrannosaurus Pecs... I thought it was funny...

10. Tormato

Tomato was in his face in the blink of an eye, with an unnaturally large grin and and crazed eyes. "I've always had curly hair it's a trait I inherited from my mom I just keep it straight so I'd look serious because Mom says I need to look serious and I was in a mood for defying my brother so I agreed to go along with it and now I keep the straight hair look except this big forelock in front always sticks up and it's embarrassing when I'm in serious mode but I'm not in serious mode right now I'm in silly mode!"

Double Diamond blinked and leaned back. "Wha...?"

Tomato threw his jacket and glasses off, and then yanked off his tie. He tied it around his head, and squealed, "See? Silly!"

Party Favor caught the glasses, staring wide-eyed at the sight, and then chuckled nervously. "Uh... what's going on?"

Tomato roared, "I'm in silly mode! And I'm going to fix this party!"

Hoo, boy. If you thought that Tomato would be the type to drink coffee... true, he seems like it, but I thought it'd be fun to defy that when he was still in the development stage. Seriously, if you go way back in the ask blog, you can see him getting hopped up on caffeine.

And when he gets hopped up, enough for his hair to go poof without his forelock being yanked, then you better run and hide. Because as Party Favor and co. learned, there's no reasoning with him in that state. You either wait for the inevitable crash or for a powerful unicorn to stop him (it's currently unknown if Cheese can stop him--he was either absent or sick in all the times Tommy was in a rush).

9. The Montage of Cheese Trying to Break Into Kazam's Trailer

He tried squeezing through a window--it failed, and ended with him on that wall. He tried distracting her with balloons--it failed as well, and he was on the wall again. He tried playing his accordion for her, in hopes that music would break the spell. And to his dismay, she had taken it, crushed it on the pavement, and then tossed him into the wall yet again. Every time he tried to get past her and break into the trailer, he ended up on the wall. The only thing he managed to succeed in was knocking off her hat and grabbing the anti-magic cone before he was thrown into the wall again.

Why is this on the list? Because I think it's funny how much Cheese fails in his attempts to rescue Tomato from Kazam. It was fun writing him do ridiculous things and then get thrown into the wall by a hypnotized Silk Shimmer. The paragraph isn't just the only thing in the montage.

It ends with him getting Trixie to help him, and that time, they succeed. And Cheese still gets rammed into a wall. Poor guy hit a lot of hard surfaces that day (both before, during, and after that montage).

Tommy wasn't in there (Kazam took him out at some point), but Cheese's attempt at trailer invasion was just way too much fun.

8. Bighoof

One moment, Cheese was just trotting back to camp, with plenty of firewood and a growling stomach. The very next moment, he paused as his little brother sped past him, shouting, "Cheese, run for your life, it's Bighoof!"

Cheese blinked, turned, and gave the still-running Tomato a funny look. "Huh? Bighoof?"

He jumped as he heard heavy breathing from a large creature, and turned back around to find a large horse galloping toward him, a roaring neigh coming out of his drooling mouth. Cheese's blood ran cold, and he didn't give himself enough time to process the horse before he turned around and sped off in the same direction Tomato did, dropping the firewood and screaming at the top of his lungs.

I was thinking of the Bigfoot scene from A Goofy Movie. I wanted to write a Bigfoot scene. This was the result.

What gives this scene bonus points is that we see Sedimentary Rock. Heck, yeah, Seddie's such a fun character to write, especially when she's wrestling a giant horse and pinning it down like it was nothing. Yeah, go Seddie!

7. Cheese's Nightmare

He heard a hiss in front of him, and he quickly pulled off his accordion, and slung one end at his attacker. The instrument smacked the creature in the face, and the creature was knocked back into the light.

Breathing heavily, Cheese was surprised to see that it was pink. Curious, he strapped his accordion back on, and walked forward, hoping to get a closer look at the creature he just knocked out.

The moment he stopped, the bat-pony turned to him.

He staggered back as he recognized the face of Pinkie Pie, with her raspberry locks in a wild tangle and her eyes now a piercing red. She hissed at him, baring her long, sharp fangs, and once she got up and stretched her wings, she began to creep toward him.

"Pinkie... I'm so, so sorry!" he begged, backing up. "I-I didn't know it was you! I never would have done it if I knew!"

Even though I'm known for being cute and writing cute stories--let's face it, I could get downright dark if I wanted to. And I have a tendency to turn my lighthearted longrunners darker as I go on. Not to mention, if I like a character, chances are I'm going to torture them.

Anyway, during both scenes where Cheese and Celestia switch, Cheese ends up having nightmares about what happened in Las Haygas (with it being more of a personal nature to him and larger scale than some of his other misadventures, he ended up being a bit traumatized). Knowing him, he'd want to play it off, pretending he doesn't have a problem and that absolutely nothing's wrong.

The latter nightmare was the more interesting one to write, since it involves him seeing vampire Pinkie. And she almost bites him.
Luckily, Luna came to the rescue, and learns the source of the nightmares. Of course, Cheese being stubborn, he's not going to admit that he's got a problem (at least in the waking world). Poor guy loses some sleep as a result, which drives him to make a rather... poor decision later on...

6. Cheese Messes Up Raising the Sun

Luna suddenly felt the sun yanked out of her grasp, and grunted in pain from the force of it. She looked up, and she watched in horror as the sun was launched upwards, high enough that it looked like one of the stars of the night.

Twilight shrieked and glared at Cheese. "What was that?!"

Cheese stared upward at the single star, looked back at the two glaring mares, and then turned around with a sheepish grin. "Oops... uh, let me get it down. I think I have an idea on how to use this magic."

Twilight put a hoof to her face. "Cheese, magic takes discipline and prac--"

Cheese ignored her, and focused on the little star. Once he felt a hold on it--and nearly jumped at the heat of the sun, he started to drag it back down. As he did so, it came down with a wobbly dance, doing figure eights in the sky, writing the name of Pinkie Pie in cursive, shaking erratically, and flaring at random as it drew closer. The crowd below was gasping and murmuring, and some screamed every time a flare erupted. The air was getting hotter as the star grew bigger and brighter.

Luna stomped and yelled, "Release the sun!"

I remember brainstorming this scene with my sister. We kept singing the beginning chant of "Circle of Life" and laughing too hard.

Either way, this was a fun scene to write, simply because Cheese almost killed everypony.

5. Cheese Tames Vampires With Polka

As the accordion sprung back into its normal shape, Cheese noticed another vampire flying toward him, and this time jumped over its head and onto its back. Sitting casually with his eyes closed, he played his instrument once again, and sang:

"Now, now, now, no need to be cranky
I just came here to have some fun
Those knocks on the head should have made you sane,
Now, I want to see the conga, everyone!"

Those vampires that had hit the pavement looked up, and spurred by Cheese's music, they looked at each other, shrugged, and then formed a dancing line in the air. The one Cheese had hit with his accordion joined it, and some previously aggressive vampires stopped their attacks, and joined in the conga line. Some were hesitant, but joined in in case Cheese decided to unleash the Pony Pokey on them again if they didn't.

Pfft, this one was just insane. How did I come up with this, and why?

I don't know, but it's fun to mention out of context to strangers, whether it be the violent Pony Pokey or the midair conga. I especially like the fact that it ended up confusing Kazam. It goes to show you don't underestimate the power of Cheese Sandwich.

4. Party Favor vs. The Snowball

Party Favor ignored the white stallion, still glaring at the snowball. He crouched on the roof, watching and waiting as the snowball flew closer and closer...

Then, in the blink of an eye, he leapt up, yanked a balloon from out of nowhere, and after a few stretches of the thing, he took a deep breath before exhaling in it. The balloon was swiftly inflated from a limp noodle to a gigantic, rubbery orb, blown bigger than the stallion that was inflating it with just his breath. As he started to fall, the snowball had made it to him--or rather his balloon, which was pressed inward by the momentum of the snowball and was pushing Party Favor back as well. For a brief moment, the unicorn could have sworn he saw a face pop out of the snowball.

The snowball was sprung back, just as the balloon popped and sent Party Favor falling onto the street. Even in the midst of pain from his landing, Party Favor thought he heard the snowball scream as it was launched back.

Dynamic arrival of the Sandwich Bros? Check.

Classic trope of the giant snowball? Check.

Party Favor's first scene in the story featuring him being awesome with just one balloon? Double check.

3. The Duet Battle

Flim continued, "And now... it's time to list off the rules....

Each verse from one side needs to be matched by the other
At least one line has to be sung by each brother."

Flam joined in with,

"Both siblings have to be equal, have to be in sync
If one does all the work, what would all these ponies think?"

Cheese stepped forward, and sang,

"I can accept those rules, I can say that they seem fair
My baby bro and I will certainly treat them with care."

Tomato gulped, and added,

"And now that we've got that covered, let this battle begin
Sandwiches vs. Flim Flams... let's see who will win..."

Cheese Sandwich having a musical battle with the Flim Flam brothers was something I knew I wanted to do when I began the story. I just needed the circumstances for it to worked. I have considered the option of the Flim Flams stealing Boneless 2, a battle for who stays in town, Silver Shill in danger of having to work for them to pay off a debt... heck, I even considered Comedy Gold being Cheese's partner in the battle, not Tomato!

But, ultimately, it had to be a brothers vs. brothers deal, and as I wrote the story, Goldie ended up being the damsel-in-distress, and Silk Shimmer the lackey assisting them in the dastardly deed of kidnapping. And you know what? I think it worked best that way, seeing as Silk ended up being part of the reason why Tomato got involved in the vampire mess in Las Haygas in the first place.

2. Tomato Saves Cheese's Life

Time seemed to slow down in his descent. All he could hear was his own heartbeat, and all he could see was Cheese, looking up at him with eyes gleaming with anxiousness. Tomato could only feel himself inching closer to him during the slow, agonizing seconds, even as he reached forward to try to grab him.

I'm not letting Equestria lose a party pony...

Cheese disappeared in the street of the cloud district, and Tomato just barreled through the mist. Still stretching out his hoof, he thought of the times that Cheese had made him laugh. The times that they played together as foals. The times that Cheese saved him from harm. The times that they exchanged letters. And finally, he thought of how in a house that they couldn't consider home, the love between them kept their days bright.

Tomato narrowed his eyes in determination. And I am not going to lose my big brother!

Speaking of the vampire mess, here's one of Tomato's shining moments. Given that Cheese kept him from dying when they were young, it's nice to see Tomato return the favor. Even if he was the one that lifted him into the sky in the first place... (but he was hypnotized, so it was Kazam's fault).

One of the questions I was asking myself while asking this... "We've got Cheese saving Tomato a bunch throughout their lives; could Tomato save Cheese?"

Well, we've got a save from a physical fall, that's for sure. And it was a close one. Good job, Tommy.

And now, before I reveal #1, let's take a little break with...

Honorable Mentions
--Any and All CheesePie Moments
--The Flashbacks
--The Pineapple Frog
--Tomato and Sweetie Belle are Apparently Friends
--Tommy and Silk's Day in Las Haygas
--Cheese Meets Discord
--Cheese's Reaction to Finding Himself in Princess Celestia's Body
--Cheese Tells Off Quasar Rune
--Pinkie Figuring Out the Swap
--Cheese Sets the Summer Sun Fair on Fire
--The Food Fight
--Celestia's Sneezing Fit
--Mini Party Pony Tommy and Mini Mozzarella Sitting on Tomato's Shoulders
--Party Favor Tells Tomato About Life in the Equality Cult
--Party Favor's Balloon Fair

And now... the moment you've all been waiting for...

1. Cheese's Memory Removal

Rooney took a deep breath, focusing on the skinny stallion on the bed. With an exhale, his horn was wrapped in its silver glow, and he levitated Cheese into the air. He closed his eyes, and summoned a string of magic into Cheese's ear.

Rooney searched through Cheese's mind, seeing if he could spot the familiar images of Las Haygas. He combed for those memories that were more recent, seeing the adventures that the party pony had with his brother during the summer. He quirked an eyebrow at one set of memories where Cheese had apparently been Princess Celestia, and tried to suppress laughter at some of the odd things that Cheese had done. And a constant image that appeared was that of a bubbly pink pony, and the brightness of those memories indicated that he was quite fond of her.

Finally, he reached a collection of memories clearly about Las Haygas. Seeing the images of vampires--including one that looked like Tomato--Rooney could see why Cheese wanted to forget it.

With the magic, he grabbed the set of memories associated with that event, up to the moment where Cheese sensed that Las Haygas was the place to go. And thus, he began to draw it out.

When I wrote the chapter called "Identity Crisis", there were two main focuses of the chapter: Party Favor telling Tomato about the Equality Cult, and the "kindly" old stallion Rooney pulling the memory of Las Haygas from Cheese's mind. The way it was written was meant to show the contrast between the characters and the situations, not to mention where it takes place, and well, Number One is the creepier scene.

When I first came up with the idea, it was absolutely creepy to me. And for that, I decided it had to be written, as part of the buildup for future plans. Heck, reading that snippet now is still creepy, especially since there's little indication that Cheese consented to that mind probing.

And since Cheese is sick of the nightmares, sleep-deprived, and sick with a cold, he's not in the best state of mind. So he makes that decision. That's going to give him some problems with headaches, forgetfulness, a fair bit of irritability, more bad decisions, his mind being easier to prey upon by a sinister unicorn...

And now... what I have left to say about future events...

PROTECT CHEESE SANDWICH 2K16

M'kay, good night, everybody.

Comments

[superfun]

Cheese's second nightmare is probably one of my favorite moments in the story.
Heck, it's probably the one chapter I've reread the most.