It's Far Too Early to Be Awake
The moon had shone brightly through the window and right on the face of a small, red-orange colt. He found himself unable to shut his eyes for long, and he laid in bed, staring at the ceiling. He blinked rapidly, in hopes that the tiredness within him would disappear. A small yawn escaped his mouth, and he began to squirm under his covers. The moon was too bright; it was like a second sun!
A surge of energy rushed through him, and he shot out from under his blanket and bounced on his bed. With a giggle, his eyes swept around the messy room before stopping on the second bed in the room. He gazed intently at the lump under the bedsheets, and a mischievous smirk formed on his face.
The colt crouched down, and then sprang from his bed to the other, landing on the lump.
“Oof! Ow!” the lump cried. “Tommy, get off!”
Tommy somersaulted off the lump and onto the mattress. He watched as the lump stirred and sank as another colt crawled out of it. A messy, curly brown mane slid out first, followed by a body of bright orange. The other colt turned to glare at Tommy, who only laughed.
“Yeah, really funny,” the colt groaned, snatching a pair of glasses from the nightstand. “What was that for?”
Tommy rocked back and forth. “Are you ready for school, Cheese?”
Cheese put his glasses on and allowed himself a few moments for his eyes to adjust. He glanced at the clock and sighed. “It’s three in the morning.”
“Yeah?”
“School doesn’t start for a few more hours.”
Tommy fell forward on his face. “Aww! Why?”
“Because it’s still dark? We’re supposed to be asleep.”
Tommy snorted and pounded on Cheese’s bed. “But I can’t go back to sleep! The moon’s too bright, so I can’t close my eyes, which means I’m not tired anymore! There’s only one thing to do, Cheesy! We have to play!”
Cheese sighed and shook his head. He didn’t even bother to remove his glasses when he laid his head on his pillow, curled into a ball, and squeezed his eyes shut. He even went as far to fake loud snoring to dissuade his brother.
Tommy was not to be stopped, however. He crawled on top of Cheese and began to bounce on him. The fake snores were disrupted, and each bounce brought “oofs” and “ows” from the colt trying to sleep. As he bounced, Tommy hissed, “Wake! Up! Cheese! Sandwich! And! Play! With! Me!”
Cheese responded in turn, “Get! Off! Tomato! Sandwich! And! Go! Back! To! Sleep!”
With that, Cheese rose up and pushed Tommy off his bed. The red-orange colt yelped as he fell into a pile of building blocks with a loud clatter, which startled Cheese into realizing what he just did. He winced at the teary eyes that Tommy looked up at him with, and bit his lip. He expected a loud wail to erupt, which would inevitably summon their parents and get him in trouble.
However, Tommy remained quiet as he clutched his head and hiccupped. Cheese jumped off of his bed, and pulled his brother into an embrace. Immediately he was pushed away.
“Hey… I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“Yes, you did!” Tommy whined.
“No, I didn’t!” Cheese combed through his brother’s dark mane, searching for a mark of Tommy’s fall. “Huh, I don’t see a bump. Maybe that’s why you didn’t cry as loud as I thought you would.”
Tommy sniffed, but glared at him. “I’m a big colt. Big colts don’t cry.”
Cheese inwardly winced at that phrase. That was a phrase that he heard all the time at school every time he was pushed down by a bigger foal. Of course, it was usually followed by “crybaby”, even when he had a very good reason to cry, such as a skinned knee. Looking at Tommy, he dreaded the predators that would prey upon the little colt once he started school.
“I’m hungry…” Tommy whimpered.
Cheese sighed and ran a hoof through his thick mane. “If I feed you, will you go back to bed?”
Tommy nodded ecstatically, all trace of his tears disappearing. The younger colt sprang to his hooves and sped to the door. He galloped out once the door was thrown open, with Cheese plodding out behind him, hanging his head in defeat.
The two curly-maned, green-eyed colts had pulled out the leftover cheese-and-tomato pizza from dinner the night before, and already Tommy was scarfing down whole slices before Cheese had nibbled halfway through his slice. Part of the reason Cheese was eating so slow was because he was amazed at the sheer speed that his brother had eaten more than a foal his age should. Imagining him as a big, fat stallion, he smacked Tommy’s hoof as he reached for another slice.
“Save some for me. I don’t want to go back to sauerkraut.”
Tommy crossed his front legs and stuck his tongue out. “You didn’t even eat all of that piece!”
“You keep eating and you’ll get fat!”
“No I won’t!”
“Yes, you will! And I’ll sing about it!”
“Why?”
“To pick on you.”
“Cheesy, you big dummy!”
“You’re the little dummy. That’s worse.”
Tommy puffed out his chest. “I’m no dummy! I can’t go to school if I’m a dummy! They don’t let in dummies! You’re the only dummy there ‘cause you play that… thingy…” He made a pumping motion with his hooves.
Cheese rolled his eyes. “Accordion.”
“Yeah, the acker-dee-dum.”
Nobody at school knew Cheese could even play an instrument. Why would he let them know when Mom dismissed it as a frivolous hobby that would get him ridiculed? He was already picked on enough for his poofy hair and his glasses, and given insulting nicknames because the name “Cheese Sandwich” was weird in itself, so he was always reluctant to reveal it. Revealing his instrument of choice might make things worse. Only Tommy was under the illusion that the accordion was any cool.
Plus, “dummy” kind of hurt due to their parents getting on Cheese’s case about his grades, even when school was out.
Cheese noticed that Tommy was slumped against the wall, his eyelids heavy and struggling to stay open. He shook his head, knowing that the colt had a habit of falling asleep after eating. Cheese stood up and set himself to put the pizza away when Tommy yawned and mumbled something.
“Uh, what was that?” Cheese asked.
Tommy groaned and repeated, “I said I can’t wait to meet all your friends.”
“Heheh… yeah… friends…”
“You’re the coolest pony ever, Cheesy… and the bestest brother ever… those ponies are lucky to have you as a friend…”
Cheese frowned. I wish.
Tommy was out like a light when the pizza was put away, and Cheese had to carry him back to their room. All the while, a heavy pit had formed in his stomach at the thought of returning back to that dreadful place. He was either alone or surrounded by bullies. With each new foal that came along, he always hung back, worrying about the awkward impression he’d make.
And yet, he had lied to his brother about his social life. That lie was going to be exposed in the morning.
Cheese walked into their room and shut the door behind him. It finally hit him that he and Tommy had managed to get a snack early in the morning without waking their parents up. He put Tommy in bed before slipping into his own, still astonished that they had gotten away with it.
Cheese removed his glasses and put them on the nightstand, completely ignoring the case that laid there. As he rested his head onto his pillow, he gazed at the dark red blob on the other bed, despite his fuzzy vision, and smiled.
He was not going to be alone this year. Even if Tommy was upset about Cheese’s fib, he could easily forgive him. They were still going to be best buddies. Little Tomato Sandwich was going to be by his brother’s side, no matter what. Having the little firecracker on his side would surely brighten up his days.
For once, Cheese was excited for the first day of school.
Cheese shook his head, willing the memory back to the dark depths of his mind. He hated it when somepony asked him about his family or assumed that they were proud; it usually brought forth the disappointed voices of his parents or the silly memories of his brother before that fateful first day of school. What should have been a happy memory was far too painful, especially after what happened the morning after.
Cheese Sandwich was left alone once again, only this time, he felt abandoned by his own brother. Tommy had made friends quickly and easily, and seemed to have forgotten the brother he looked up to. Even worse was that Tommy had gotten better grades, and was continually showered with praises by nearly everypony, while Cheese was either ignored or reprimanded. Cheese didn’t want to admit it, but he had been really jealous.
Now a full grown stallion, Cheese had found his own path. It had been an unprecedented course for a colt so shy. A party pony he had become; his cutie mark had sealed it.
He fed the fire that was burning before him. He held his rubber chicken close, and kept staring into the flickering flames. Unfortunately, more memories of the silly colt that his brother had once been manifested, and he could see the stupid situations that Cheese had to save Tommy’s flank from.
Oh, right, he didn’t like to be called “Tommy” anymore. Cheese snorted at the thought of what kind of stallion Tomato grew into—a snide and sarcastic jerk, who dismissed the very things he once thought were cool about Cheese. Just what did that fancy school do to him?
Cheese sighed and said to the rubber chicken, “Aw, what do I care? I should have known better than to trust Tommy to remain by the side of a timid dork. You’re a far better friend to me than he is, Boneless 2.”
Boneless 2. Recalling the day he gave the original Boneless to the sweet pink mare of Ponyville, his face lifted into a warm smile, and he dreamily gazed up at the stars.
“And so is she.”
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Sketcha-Holic · 2.3k words · 40 0 · 1.5k views
- Sketcha-Holic · 1.4k words · 69 1 · 2.3k views
- Sketcha-Holic · 2.6k words · 58 2 · 1.7k views
- Sketcha-Holic · 2.1k words · 49 0 · 1.9k views
- Servant Phoenix · 1.7k words · 34 1 · 997 views
- Sketcha-Holic · 2.4k words · 92 2 · 3k views
- scoots2 · 7.7k words · 75 5 · 1.8k views
- scoots2 · 4k words · 71 4 · 3.3k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.108 seconds
Total duration
1,029 users online
2,129,295 hits today, 2,205,040 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
You must! You must show us a picture!
And thanks for writing a colthood Cheese, too! I don't think there are too many of those. When you mentioned this before, for some reason, I'd imagined Cheese as the younger brother, but maybe this works better. The betrayal from behind makes it a lot worse.
Also, this is the first time you've given us in-universe Cheese, isn't it?
[insert picture of Pinkie with confetti and blowout noisemaker here]
Cheesy. Heh, I get it. Good one.
I liked this. Short and sweet and an overall fun, short read. You left me wondering exactly what happened to Tommy. It certainly feels like this could be a bigger story, and one worth reading at that.
Oh, and wonderful grammar, by the way. Errorless as far as I could tell.
4376457 Colt or stallion? Or both?
There's not enough colt Cheese fan fiction. Most of the ones I read were... um... meh. Kinda melodramatic.
Haha, he does seem like he'd be the younger brother, huh?
I just viewed him as an older brother because I have a silly older brother of my own. Plus, giving him an older sibling to overshadow him in youth would be too easy and too expected. And thus, we have the accidental backstab of the little bro (Tommy's oblivious to Cheese's feelings, and still kind of is).
Oh, yeah, this is Party Pony Cheese... in a solitary, quiet moment, but still.
4384336 This was melodramatic! Kinda. In the beginning
Niiiiiccce!
4384336 well then Tomatoe needs to stop being oblivious! NO.OBE.DIRESPECTS.THE.CHEESE!
4384336
Sigh. Yeah. I remember some of those. Some authors kinda over-egg the cake. I think maybe it's because we know he was unhappy enough to run away from home, and that's all we know. It's probably tempting to toss in heavy duty physical abuse, plus a fatal
plane crashPegasus collision, plus royal blood, plus pirates, when being teased or bullied at school and constant low-level disapproval from one or both parents is plenty to make any child miserable.The in-canon pony I think heard a LOT of stuff about being a crybaby is Babs Seed. She calls her cousin that because she hears it herself all the time back home. Being big for her age didn't help, because once the other fillies and colts figured out that she wouldn't hit back, she was toast. But I think authors have to be careful with that kind of stuff. I compensated by giving her an affectionate family (and also making her the youngest and the littlest foal. "Babsy-Bits" is a nickname.)
Awwww. This was so sweet and touching. I think you did the right thing by choosing to make him a younger brother, since you're right, it's less expect. Especially one who turned his back on his dorky older bro, whom he used to idolize. I'm a little surprised that Cheese didn't make any cursory or transitory friends in school, but then again, it makes more sense if his transition to exuberant weirdness was a lot more slow and subtle. Plus, this was big on flashbacks and focusing on his family, so it's kind of hard to mention any random and mostly pointless exceptions without getting uber heavy on exposition.
Also, the idea of him not showing off his instrumental talents in school makes sense, though I'd be surprised if he never tried joining a band/orchestra in high school. Manehattan is certainly big enough that they might organize some of their ages in to tiers. If you wanted to. If not, no big deal. (Although I would say Maud Pie proves they have doctorates and stuff. College! Whoo!) Then again, Cheese is very much a loner and it would depend on if his family didn't raise a fuss about focusing on bringing up his other grades.
I'd love to see more stories about Cheese and Tomato/Tommy as adults! Their dynamic has a lot of potential and I'm really curious to find out what he presumably got a degree in. I also really like the more subtle issues of disapproval, especially if his parents valued a different kind of success or had a different metric anyway. Especially love the whole nickname thing btw. It speaks volumes.
Oh! Oh... I feel bad saying this, but it would be funny if Tomato got fat and was content about it. Otherwise, big strong guy of an earth pony who happens to have higher education! I mean, not that he'd have to be either. It's just an interesting thought. Of course, if they're both scrawny things, that could sort of enhance the backdrop of "what could have been." Thematically or some such. I can't claim to be truly literary.
Round Tomato seems cute though. If he has the more normal body type it wouldn't even have to be that exaggerated.
We definitely need to see pictures.
I love the little nods to Weird Al in this fic. The sauerkraut, the accordion, the glasses. Fun times!
4384336 4387889
What! What have I been missing? That pegasus collision... please tell me that one was tongue in cheek. The other two are ridiculous as well, but kind of the norm in a fantasy fandom.
4400686 It was totally tongue in cheek! Plane or car crashes in which important people to the protagonist die are de rigeur, but if there are no planes, multi-Pegasus pileups will have to do.
4400905
Pffft. I'm imagining a pair of pegasi reporting on the big crash from the air and into a radio broadcast or something. One to report and the other to keep the cord from getting caught on stuff or something. I'm trying to make a helicopter reference and it's not even working in my mind very well.
I guess this means Rainbow Dash needs to worry about lawsuits and stuff if she ever crash lands into a couple with a young foal. The origin story of the next Mare-Do Well!
4400526
Baw, thanks. I did not not expect it to have such a good reception so far.
I am working on a sequel of sorts to this, only it's in Tommy's POV. This story is heavily biased for Cheese's POV, so yeah, of course it paints Tommy as the backstabbing brother. I'm trying to work in a sympathetic view in Tommy's story, even though the relationship between him and Cheese ends up being strained even more. I'm still trying to work out the kink of "How the heck did you not notice that Cheese was lonely and upset with you for the past few years?"
4403880
Aw yiss! Tommy's POV would be lovely. As for not noticing, what if he did notice? When we know something is wrong, often times the hardest thing is to talk about it. Especially if we feel guilty in any way. What if Tommy had some idea and he does feel bad for not helping, but he sees it as mostly being Cheese's fault? After all, once he had his own friends, he could try including his brother, but what if that would have been more awkward and not less?
What if he did try, little things, which Cheese never recognized for what they were? What if his only attempts at helping seemed like further betrayals and then he gave up and felt angry with Cheese for making everything worse when Cheese didn't realize Tommy was reaching out to him? It's not necessarily a misunderstanding either. Tommy could have been openly ashamed of him and defensive and over time got more critical, so it was hard to take anything he did at face value and Tommy himself had become grudging about it. I think Cheese had some idea of what he was doing with his life then, but not on a personal level, so maybe Cheese didn't want help. All he wanted was companionship and to repair the rift between the two of them, but relationships were never his strong suit. He found very little of that in Tommy, who had other things to do and who just wanted to shove Cheese off on some other pony, so he'd be less mopey and become the older brother that Tommy used to see in him. Maybe Cheese eventually gave up.
Just some of my immediate thoughts! There are ways to do it where it's not a case of ignorance, simply confusion and anxiety all around. It can get convoluted, but I think it's also more natural that way. It's realistic when the bigger problem is that no one knows what to do!
It's not as if one simple discussion would make it all better (although it could help, but it wouldn't solve everything.) They literally can't go back to the way they used to be. Tommy saw Cheese for who he was, found him wanting, and at the time moved on with his own childhood life. Cheese can't take it back or become popular. That's not his thing.
Of course, it also helps to show the good times. It wasn't all terrible. It just wasn't what Cheese or Tommy wanted and they never completely made amends?
But doesn't Cheese know that other colts are starving in Neigh-pon? He should just Eat It.
So that is Tommy. Tomato. I am looking forward to the other stories. Great job. I hope Tommy appears in Rock farmers Daughter.
4509157 ... You... You... Really just went there, didn't you? WOW, that pun was BAD. And TOTALLY cheesy.
It then turns out that their parents' names are Bacon and Lettuce Sandwich.
4400610
To be fair, the glasses and the accordion were already painted by canon
Did you catch the Fat reference?
9374592
Might have missed that one. Likely, I was running low on Vitamin Caffeine…