//------------------------------//
// Brother's Keeper, Losers Weeper 
// Story: Brother Bothers 
// by Sketcha-Holic 
//------------------------------//

Sitting under a lone oak tree, away from the festival, Pinkie awaited the answers from her party pony buddy beside her.

She was a little unnerved by Cheese's silence and the intensity present in his green eyes. It didn't help that his curls had become frayed bristles, and there was a tiredness that she had never seen him have. She had learned from their time as friends that he got worn out by parties before she did, but Cheese had always been in a chipper mood from start to finish, before jumping back into his cowpony persona. This time, it was an angry kind of tired, but with a good dose of sadness mixed in. A smile was absent, and he was rubbing his head like he had a headache. There was also an inconsolable itch upon his cutie mark, which Cheese dealt with by rubbing his tail on it. 

The version of Cheese before her was inconceivable. Just what was it about his brother that made him so sour? Pinkie was all ears for what Cheese had to say. She wasn't going to let him back out of it. 

Cheese merely stared at the red leaves drifting down from the branches. He glanced at Pinkie with pleading weariness, and sighed when she gave a look that indicated that she was not letting him off the hook. "Are you sure you want to hear?"

Pinkie nodded. "Cheesy, why don't you and Tommy get along? Aren't little brothers supposed to look up to big brothers and big brothers protecting the little brothers?"

Cheese leaned against the tree. "You better not be implying that I'm the little brother; I'm the older one."

"Ooh, really? By how much?"

"Three years."

"Wow! That means you were foals together! Oh, I bet you were both just the most cutesy-wutesy little colts ever!" Pinkie frowned. "Cutesy-wutesy little colts that fought a lot, huh?"

Cheese pulled on his forelock and strummed it. "Oh, it wasn't always this bad. In fact, when we were little, we were best friends."

Pinkie gasped. "So you were best brother buddies?"

Cheese smiled sadly and nodded. "Yeah, I could tell you about all the things we did together when we were colts. Imagine me and Tomato, both as colts... Tommy was a little curly-haired runt, I'll tell you that, and I told you about my glasses and big mane..."





At the Carousel Boutique, Rarity worked on fixing Tomato's jacket sleeve, as Sweetie Belle stood by, waiting to help in any way she could. Sitting outside the workroom, Tomato had in his tail a book, and was trying to get himself engrossed in the novel. Currently jacketless, he was clad in a white button shirt, and he had rolled up his sleeves. From where he was sitting, he could hear some of the going-ons inside the other room.

"Sweetie Belle, could you please get the brown thread?" Rarity asked.

Sweetie Belle's voice piped up. "Okay, Rarity!"

A series of crashes followed. Tomato dug his face deeper into his book, trying to hide his embarrassment for the filly. He imagined how exasperated Rarity must have been, having her younger sibling mess something up. He wondered if there was any amount of anger in her. That thought was followed by an image of a shattered accordion, and he cringed upon thinking of that.

The crashes ended, and there sounded a sheepish, "...here you go."

He heard Rarity sigh. "Well... thank you Sweetie Belle, that's all I need."

"Is there anything else I could do?"

"Er, no, I don't need any more help."

"Are you sure? I could clean up the mess I made."

"Ugh... but we'd need a repairpony for that mess! Look, Sweetie Belle, why don't you, um... oh, go check on Tomato, see how he's doing!"

A moment of silence followed Rarity's remark, and Tomato wondered what either of them were thinking. The moment passed, and Sweetie Belle said, "I don't know... what if he's still in a bad mood and yells at me?"

Tomato huffed. It wouldn't kill you just to say "Hi." I won't bite.

"It... shouldn't take long," Rarity said. "Just ask him how he's doing and his tone will tell you all you need to know. Now, go on."

A sigh followed, and the clip clop of little hooves approached the door. The door opened, and a little white unicorn peeked out at him sideways, with only the part of her head above her muzzle visible. She looked at him with wide green eyes for a second, before she looked at the floor, unmoving in her position. 

Tomato blinked. "Hi."

"Hi," Sweetie Belle replied. She looked back up. "How are you?"

Tomato resumed reading his book. "I'm good. How about you?"

"Oh, I'm good." Sweetie Belle stepped out of the doorway and revealed the rest of her body. "What are you reading?"

"Dash Silver: Thicker Than Water. It's about this spy fighting with his brother."

"Kind of like you are?" Sweetie Belle squeaked and covered her mouth when Tomato shot a look her way. "I'm sorry! I just-- I just--"

"Calm down. I've cooled down, and I'm not going to yell at you." Tomato wrinkled his nose at what he read. "I'm more likely to yell at this book for the stupid way they're handling the feud. Apparently, one was born evil, always has been evil, always will be evil, and therefore, he must be taken down. Um, no, real life doesn't work like that."

Sweetie Belle stepped back. "It doesn't?"

"In reality, Sweetie Belle, ponies change. You know, as in growing up, how they view the world, and their relationships with other ponies. For example, you might grow into a beautiful mare someday, with a talent and personality that charms others, whether here in your town or some.... other place."

Sweetie Belle gasped, covered her mouth, and blushed. "Really?"

"I did say 'might.' For your sake, I hope you grow up to be a sweetheart with a special talent that matches." Tomato put his book down, covered his cutie mark with his tail, and looked straight at her. "Personally, I wanted to grow up to be a cowspy."

"Cowspy?"

"A combination of cowpony and spy. It was a game I played as a colt."

"Oh. That sounds fun!" Sweetie Belle brushed her hoof on the ground. "So, uh... how'd you change? I mean, what were you like as a colt?"

Tomato took a deep breath, and slicked his curled forelock down with the rest of his mane. Almost immediately after, the forelock sprang back up. After exhaling, Tomato answered, "An imp."

"An... imp?"

"Mischievous little colt, got into trouble a lot, had too much energy, was most likely the very definition of annoying," he explained. He noticed his sleeve was unrolling and rolled it back up. "I was also very social, the smug kid with the good grades, and... well, I worshiped my big brother."

Sweetie Belle's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets. "Big brother? Are you saying Cheese is your big brother?"

Tomato shrugged. "I can see why you'd think I was older. I look like a million bits and I'm less... exuberant than he is." Noticing how confused the little unicorn was, he clarified, "I'm less energetic than he is."

Sweetie Belle blinked. "I don't get it... how'd you go from an... imp... to a... a..."

"Killjoy?" Tomato sighed and turned his back to her. "Long story short, it's safer for me than 'screw-up'."

"Huh?" Sweetie Belle tilted her head. "What did you do?"

Tomato growled and shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it."





"A long time ago, in a Manehattan hospital, a little toddler pony met a tiny newborn foal," Cheese began. "The moment I laid eyes on my baby brother, he was the apple of my eye. I claimed him as 'my baby', and dedicated myself to helping Mom take care of him. In fact, my very first memory was cheering him up when he was about to wail." He pulled a noisemaker from his hair, and sat up. He indicated for Pinkie to sit up as well, which she did. 

"Being a three-year-old, I wasn't very creative, so I merely did this," He leaned forward and blew the noisemaker, letting the paper proboscis tickle Pinkie on the nose. Hearing Pinkie giggle, he smiled and continued, "He had that same reaction."

"Hee hee hee, making babies laugh is so much fun!" Pinkie exclaimed. "They just have the cutest laughs! The Cake twins do, their little playmates do, and I bet baby Tommy did as well!"

Cheese laughed and leaned back against the tree. "Well, he did, and he was always happy to see me, other than the times I was stupid and dragged him by the tail and made him cry." Cheese grimaced, and then shook his head. "So, as we grew older, there was no doubt that he worshiped the very ground I walked on. He followed me everywhere, more or less copied my taste in food--except he put too much ketchup on everything--and when I started to learn to play the accordion, he would be dancing to the music. Over time, we were both singing whenever I practiced."

Pinkie's eyes widened. "So... you had little mini parties?"

"I guess you could say that. But, I really had no idea at the time that I was going to grow up to be a party pony. I just thought my brother would be the only pony who'd appreciate my fun side and I'd grow up to be... boring." Cheese cleared his throat. "Anyway, we explored the streets of Manehattan, where he'd almost get killed by speeding carriages, nearly falling off the ferry or falling off the bridge, being chased by a pack of dogs--what's funny about that last one is that he didn't have a fear of dogs after that; they ended up as his favorite animal for whatever reason. Still, I had to save him from whatever mishap he got himself into. 

"Anyway, we'd also munch on pizza together, shun sauerkraut together, played cowspies together, have snowball fights in the park, and a bunch of other stuff. And man, you should have seen him go! He had a load of energy, and he'd be trying to chat to strangers... but he always scared them off. I do admit, I had found him a little annoying at times, but I wouldn't have traded him for the world."

"So, what happened?" Pinkie asked, leaning toward him. "Why are you so mean to each other now?"

Cheese sighed. "Well... school happened. You know how I was very shy as a colt? Well, I didn't tell him I was so shy, so he was under the illusion that I had a lot of friends and that I was the coolest pony ever. So, when he started school and started making friends, he was shocked to learn that all the other foals thought I was just a shy geek worth picking on. And so, our relationship began to take a dark turn."

"A dark turn?"

"Yeah..." Cheese rubbed his temples. "I was completely okay with him befriending Bluejinx, who was clearly nervous about his first day. And then Tomato just made friend after friend after friend after friend. It puzzled me how he was able to do that so easily."

"What's wrong with making lots of friends?"

"Well... nothing, really, but I soon found myself home alone a lot, since he decided to spend time with his new friends. I tried to shrug it off, but it really hurt to have been abandoned like that. Still, I held out, in case he turned around and played with me again. He did, but it was always 'hey, come with me and my friends, you need to get out more!' Well, social anxiety kicked in, and I refused. Not to mention... I didn't really like the colts he hung out with. I swear, they were pure evil."

"Cheesy!"

"Well, they were! They were among the bullies that picked on me, along with their big siblings." Cheese's hair bristled even more, and he ground his teeth. "I don't know how the little ketchup squirt missed it, but he did, and tried to force a friendship between them and me. I never thought it was going to work, so I had to lock myself in our room so I didn't have to face those brats." He sighed and ran a hoof through his mane. "I hated to make Tommy sad, though. He wanted to spend time with me, but... psht, what did he need me for when he had all his buddies to make him happy?"

"You're his big brother! Of course he still needs you!" Pinkie said. 

"Pfft, no he doesn't. Oh, yeah, how could I forget his string of good grades? How could I forget Mom nagging me and telling me to try to get to his level of academic superiority? How could I forget that everypony we knew forgot my name, and only referred to me as 'Tommy's brother'? I swear, with each passing day, I found him more and more aggravating as he still had the gall to ask me to play with him. I felt more like his plaything than his brother, and I wasn't going to let him have the pleasure of my companionship if he had everything else!"

Pinkie scooted backward, unnerved by Cheese's anger. "Cheese, calm down!"

"And then when he smashed my accordion, that's when I decided to beat it! At least I found my calling, and now more ponies know my name than they know his! So, ha! I bet he's just jealous because I got an awesome special talent, while he's become..." Cheese slumped forward. "Such a killjoy. How the hay did that happen? What happened to my baby bro? Did Mom manage to suck the life energy out of him? I mean, he was just fine when I returned home the first time to show them my cutie mark..."

Pinkie shrugged. "I don't know how it happened. I wasn't there." 

Cheese sighed and laid down on the grass. "I try to avoid going back, but for some reason, my Cheesy Sense just drags me there whenever I'm in Manehattan. My parents disapprove of what I do, and Tommy... all he does is snark at me, especially when I force myself to try to make them smile. I... just feel useless there, and that I had lost the smiling, active little colt that was my brother. So... what's the point in even trying?"

Pinkie put a hoof on his shoulder, noticing the tear that was streaking down his face. "Don't cry, Cheesy."

"I'm not crying," he feebly denied.

"But, Cheesy, you are!" Pinkie leapt to her hooves. "I understand that you don't feel like he needs you; but being mad at him is not going to help either of you. You're not just hurting him, you're hurting yourself. Cheesy... can't you forgive him?"

Cheese crossed his forelegs and turned away. "No, I'm perfectly happy. He doesn't need my forgiveness, as long as he has Mom and Dad's approval and his friends. Big bro's just a disappointing side note." Once again, his tail rubbed his cutie mark, and his leg was twitching. 

Pinkie narrowed her eyes as she watched the leg. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Very suredy-sure?"

"Of course."

"Super duper absolutely very suredy sure-sure?"

Cheese sighed. "Yes, I'm absolutely sure!"

"How long has your leg been bothering you?"

"What?"

Pinkie pointed at the twitching leg. "Tell me, what does a twitchy leg mean?"

Cheese looked at his leg. "Well, this doesn't happen all that often. It doesn't usually itch unless somepony needs me to cheer them up personally." His eyes widened and his jaw dropped.  He fearfully looked at Pinkie, who looked ready to plot something. "Pinkie... I know what you're thinking, and I'm telling you, it's not going to work!"

She turned her head upside down and got in his face. "You won't know for sure unless you smile and put your heart into it." She batted her eyes. "Come on, Cheesy... can't you put aside all the bad stuff of the past just for this to work? Try to get back to the days when you'd make him smile because you wanted to, not because your Cheesy Sense just dragged you there. I bet the moment he smiles, you'll feel much, much better!"

Cheese bit his lip. "I don't know... the other times I tried, it didn't work. Still... maybe without Mom and Dad around, it'll be different."

Pinkie leapt for joy. "That's the spirit, Cheese! Now, you go set up what you need, while I go get him!" Before Cheese could tell her anything else, she sped off. 

Cheese stood there awkwardly. "Ehehehe... don't worry, Cheese... you've got this... you've always got this... if he stays grumpy after this, that's his problem, not mine. You're a party pony, and spreading joy is your job! There is no way you can fail this time! Remember... this. Is. Your. Baby. Brother!"

He now had his chest swelled in pride, grinning a manic grin. Those fell as his heart sank. "I'm in trouble."





When his jacket was fixed, Tomato thanked Rarity, put on the jacket, and then strolled on his way. He had no destination; all he wanted was to be alone and think. 

He looked around at the ponies enjoying the festival, partaking in the food and playing some of the carnival games set up. He took a deep whiff of the crisp, fall air, scented with freshly fallen leaves. A ghost of a smile appeared on his face. Fall had always had been his favorite time of year, and if there was anything that didn't change from his colthood, it was that. 

Still, seeing a bunch of ponies having fun with their siblings made him frown, and a melancholy feeling swept into him. Was he the only pony there who wasn't having fun with his sibling? He watched as one pegasus helped his brother with the milk bottle game, and a unicorn having fun in a jello-slurping contest with her sister. He tried to set his gloom aside with the funny thought of his friend Flora participating, since she had a fondness for jello, but soon he imagined her and her big family competing against each other with laughter. He lowered his head, and continued to walk. 

He passed by the Apple siblings' hay ride, and spotted Rarity and Sweetie Belle making necklaces together. Rainbow Dash was hanging out with a little orange pegasus, and cheering her on in a scooter race. Upon seeing Cirrus and Nimbus in a apple-juice chugging contest, he hurriedly passed them so they wouldn't see him. 

He looked up at a banner he came across, which said:


The Fall Friendship Festival! Celebrating the bonds of not only friends, but also those of sisterhood and brotherhood!


He mockingly laughed at it. "Wonderful, just wonderful. It's a shame that my own brother hates me."

He walked some more until he was on a bridge. He leaned against the railing and looked down at his reflection. The pony staring back at him definitely looked like a million bits--with how he dressed, how he had tamed his curly hair, and his general calm demeanor. However, a slow blink later, the serious pony he stared at turned into a grinning, curly-haired colt, who bounced around, giving a joyful laugh.

Tomato sighed. "Hi, Tommy. Having fun there?"

Tommy nodded, and soon enough, the image of a bigger colt--with a big brown afro, big glasses, and an accordion in his hooves--appeared next to little Tommy, who squealed in delight. The little red-orange colt soon leapt onto the light orange colt, and began to use the afro as a trampoline. Both colts laughed, and the image in the water disappeared before Tomato's eyes. He was alone once again. 

He leaned into his hoof. "Where did I go wrong?"

All of a sudden, Pinkie Pie popped up beside him. "I dunno, what did go wrong?"

Tomato scowled at her. "What do you want?"

Pinkie grinned at him and bounced in place. "I have some good news for you! I convinced Cheese to attempt to make you smile!"

Tomato stared at her awkwardly, pondering her words. A few memories came to mind, and he sighed. "It's not going to work."

"Why not? All you gotta do is smile for him."

Tomato raised an eyebrow. "Are you asking me to fake a smile? I'm pretty sure a party pony could tell a fake smile from a real one. So... no. Besides, I could always tell that his attempts to make me smile were just forced and obnoxious, and he didn't even want to be there."

Pinkie growled. "Come on! Why don't you lighten up for your big brother? Your grumpy-grumpypants attitude isn't helping anything!"

"Neither is your overbearing attitude. Besides, you either get the killjoy or the screwup," Tomato said, walking around her and completing the crossing of the bridge. "The killjoy is much safer, just so you know!"

Pinkie bounced beside him. "Why? Weren't you a silly colt when you were little? What happened?"

"If you're trying to speak for Cheese, then you're wasting your time. Why doesn't he just speak for himself for once? But no, he had to send his girlfriend to do the talking. How about instead of pushing me away and shutting me out, treat me with utter contempt, and only talking to me to let me know how much I ruin his life or how much of a party pooper I am, he lets me know exactly why he's upset with me? Was it the accordion incident? Was it that time I accidentally broke his glasses? Or was I just that annoying?" Tomato snorted and stomped on the ground so hard, his leg ached. He turned to Pinkie, his mane bristling. "And why do you even care? I'm beyond redemption, so you might as well just give up!"

Pinkie stopped her bouncing. "Tommy... I'm not his girlfriend. I'm just his friend." She pranced over to in front of him, and they were face to face. "And I care because I like to see ponies happy, especially my friends. Cheese is my friend, and he's not happy with how his relationship with you is! I don't like seeing you two fight, and I know that deep down, you both want to be best brother buddies again! So... can you please just give him a chance?" She batted her eyes and smiled. "He might surprise you..."

Tomato looked away and smoothed down his mane. "What if he's forcing it just to please you?"

"Don't be silly!" Pinkie said, grabbing him. "If he agreed to give it a shot, then surely he's doing his bestest. If it doesn't work... well, I guess I'll leave you alone. Okay, let's go!" She threw him up, and grabbed him by the tail, and started galloping somewhere, much to Tomato's chagrin. 

His front legs were crossed as he was pulled toward wherever Pinkie was taking him. His forehead hit a branch, and holding his throbbing head, he snarled, "Maybe I should clarify something. You are being overbearing!"