Tears of a Party Pony

by PonyJosiah13

Tragedy

Cheese Sandwich dreamed that he was at a party, facing a great table loaded with sweet treats: cakes, pies, candies, and best of all, cupcakes. Plates of fresh, warm cupcakes topped with fluffy, bright pink frosting that smelled of sugar.

He opened his eyes, awoken by the wondrous scent of baking from downstairs. He was laying in a bed, covered in a sheet that was decorated with green and white squares, each with a pink or purple balloon in the center. More balloons, covering every color of the rainbow, surrounded the bed and were scattered around the room. The walls of the room were colored sunshine yellow, which was accentuated by the light of the morning sun filtering in through the window.

Rising with a contented groan, he stretched, loosening his joints with a series of pops and cracks, then swung himself off the bed. His trademark yellow shirt was laying on the floor, amongst the scattering piles of confetti and sheets of notepad paper littered with sketches and incomprehensible notes. He flipped the shirt up over his shoulders and onto his body, tugging it down. A squeaking noise caught his attention, and he turned to see a small, toothless alligator with bright purple eyes, its mouth held around a rubber chicken wearing a bowler hat with the number 2 painted in bright red upon its chest.

“Thanks, Gummy,” Cheese said, taking Boneless 2 in his mouth and gently prying him from Gummy’s grasp. He swung his companion up onto his shoulders. “Well, Boneless, what do you think? Should we go investigate that smell?”

Boneless’ reply was to droop his head forward. “Yeah, I think so, too,” Cheese agreed, pushing the bedroom door open. The floorboards creaked beneath his hooves as he descended down the stairs, following the enticing scent into the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner. The odors that tantalized his nostrils were joined by a melodious voice in his ears:

“‘Cause I love to make you smile, smile, smile, yes I do,
“It fills my heart with sunshine all the while, yes it does…”

The familiar lyrics, sung at a slower tempo than usual, but no less upbeat. How could it be otherwise with that voice? He peeked around the corner, and there she was. Her cotton candy tail swung from side to side as she carefully extracted a tray of warm cupcakes from the oven, steam rising from the chocolate baked goods. Placing the tray, she continued to sing as she pulled out a bowl of pink frosting and dipped a rubber spatula into the mix, swirling it around. As she turned, the sunlight through the window caught the golden ring held around her neck with a silver chain. The pink jewel impressed into the band shimmered, casting a small rainbow over her chest.

A smile spread across Cheese’s face, and he glanced down at his own neck, which was adorned with an identical necklace and ring. Pinkie took the spatula up in her mouth and began to spread frosting on each of the cupcakes, humming the melody as she did so.

Walking forward on tiphoof, Cheese made to creep up on Pinkie. She continued to frost the cupcakes, seemingly unaware of his presence. Pausing just a few inches behind her, Cheese took in a deep breath.

“Surprise!”

Cheese leapt back with a startled yell, Boneless 2 falling off his back and striking the floor with a squeak. Pinkie giggled at Cheese’s expression, dabbing some frosting onto his nose. “Gotcha!”

Cheese chuckled merrily. “You got me good, Pinkie!” He looped his forelegs around her neck and pulled her in, kissing her deeply. She started for a moment, then hugged him around the chest and kissed him back. Breaking the kiss, Cheese nestled his cheek against Pinkie’s, contentedly humming. Her body was warm and soft, and her cotton-candy hair tickled his nostrils, which were filled by the aroma of the frosting.

“Cheese,” Pinkie giggled, wiggling in his grasp. “Cheese...Cheese…”

---

“Cheese? Cheese Sandwich?”

Cheese opened his eyes. He was still standing in the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner, and there was a batch of cupcakes fresh from the oven sitting on the countertop, the bright pink frosting melting onto the chocolate cake. But instead of Pinkie Pie facing him with her glowing smile, Cup Cake was standing there with a look of concern.

“Are you all right, dear?” she asked. “You were just staring straight ahead for a full minute.”

“Just thinking, Mrs. Cake,” Cheese replied.

“Cheese, it’s been four years,” Cup Cake chastised gently. “You know you can just call me Cup.”

Cheese nodded and felt a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips. “Right, sorry, Cup.”

“I was just saying, do you think that these will be enough?” Cup Cake asked, looking over the countertops, which was laden with cakes, cookies, cupcakes and other treats. “There will be a lot of ponies there.”

Cheese pondered the arsenal of sweets for a few moments. “You know what, Cup? I think...I think we could use maybe a little more.” He grinned, a familiar twinkle in his eyes. “I mean, everypony knows you can never have enough cake, right?”

Cup smiled, although the expression did not quite reach her eyes. “Indeed. I think I’ll make the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness. It...it was her favorite.” She wandered off to the ovens, wiping at her eyes with her apron.

Cheese turned back to look over the baked goods once more. Lightly dabbing some of the pink frosting off of one of the cupcakes, he examined the little dollop of cream, then licked it off. He closed his eyes, allowing the taste to dissolve on his tongue.

“Can we help, Uncle Cheese?” a voice asked.

Cheese turned around and saw two young ponies looking up at him. Pound and Pumpkin had grown up quite a bit in the past four years, turning into prototypes for the fine stallion and mare that they would one day become. But right now, they were just a colt and a filly, flanks bare and eyes wide as they stared up at him.

“Sure you can help me,” Cheese smiled at them, crouching down so that he was at their eye level. “You can help me find my glasses!”

“Your glasses?” Pound asked, his brow creasing in confusion. “But you don’t wear your glasses much any—”

“Oh, what’s that?” Cheese asked, reaching forward behind Pound and Pumpkin’s ears. And miraculously, he pulled out a pair of glasses, one from behind each of the youngling’s ears, each of them full to the brim with chocolate milk. “Thanks!” Cheese grinned, downing both of them in an instant.

Pound and Pumpkin giggled. “You’re so silly, Uncle Cheese,” Pumpkin said.

“You know it!” Cheese grinned and stuck out his tongue. The mouse on the tip of his tongue launched into a tap dance, playing a little ditz on a tuba. Pound and Pumpkin laughed again.

Carrot Cake watched the scene from the door to the kitchen, a pensive frown on his face. As Cheese turned away from the two, he made eye contact with the party pony. Cheese’s green irides normally glowed like finely cut emeralds, but right now, they seemed more like dark, hollow tunnels that held a great tiredness that could not be put into words.

“Cheese, can I speak to you for a sec?” he called out.

Cheese turned towards him, a smile stretching across his face. “What can I do you for?” he chirped.

Carrot had lived with Pinkie Pie long enough to know the difference between a genuine smile and a false one. The false one on Cheese’s face was as thin as paper-mache.

“Are...are you sure you’re all right?” Carrot asked, cursing the feebleness of his sentence as it tumbled awkwardly from his mouth.

“Mmmm...nope,” Cheese shook his head, his expression suddenly serious. “I’ve got a left side, too, see?” He waved his left foreleg at Carrot, grinning cheekily. This paper-mache mask was even thinner than the one he had put on before.

Carrot forced a chuckle. “Ah, that’s a good one,” he sighed, before dropping his own mask and allowing his face to fall. “Listen, Cheese, you know you can talk to me and Cup if you need to. We’re your family too, right?”

“I know,” Cheese nodded, his smile falling into a smaller, sadder gesture. “But I’m okay now. I just...I need to go do some more thinking. I’ve got a lot of planning to do for tomorrow.” His mouth fell into a serious line and he looked down at the floor, reaching his hoof up to play with the ring around his neck. “It’s got to be perfect, y’know?”

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Cup reassured him, placing a hoof on Cheese’s shoulder. “It’ll be great, I’m sure of it. Just—”

“I need to go,” Cheese mumbled, turning around and climbing up the stairs, each step creaking beneath his hooves. Carrot half started to follow him, but stopped himself with a sigh.

His head bowed low as though a great weight was crushing down on his shoulders, Cheese walked down the second-floor hallway and entered the last door on the left. The walls of the room were the same shade of sunshine yellow that it had always been, and there were the same bright shades on the carpet and the bedsheets that adorned the double bed in the corner, but almost everything else had changed. The balloons that normally hung on every available surface had deflated and were now floating halfheartedly just inches above the ground. There was no longer any confetti or candy wrappers littering the floor, and the party cannon tucked against one wall had a thin layer of dust laying upon it. Gummy sat on the windowsill, blinking sullenly at Cheese.

Cheese closed the door behind him and slumped to the floor, staring straight ahead as though the room wasn’t there. He tightly clutched the necklace about his neck as though it were a lifeline, the one thing keeping him from falling into the dark depths that yawned beneath him. His body convulsed with sobs as he curled up into a ball, tucking his head between his legs as though to hide from the world.