Cheese Sticks

“Technically, it’s not news, this was a known fact over two weeks ago.”

It was a quiet afternoon on the streets of Ponyville, as three ponies sat among themselves at a local café. While two of them were sitting quietly among themselves, one was excitedly bouncing up and down like a pogo-stick. The news her sister and her boyfriend told her made her thoughts rushing like a locomotive.

“This is so exciting, your birthday lands on the same exact day as your fifth month anniversary! It's a birthaversary!” Pinkie Pie happily stated. “Not only is that such a super rare party, but it’s related with my sister!”

“This isn’t just about me Pinkie.” Maud said stoically as she looked at her boyfriend and gave a small genuine smile. “This is his birthday, so this is about the both of us celebrating the day we decided to like each other. But mostly it’s about him.”

“Of course I know that Maud, but I’m just so excited that this is happening to somepony in the Pie family. I’m not even sure this happened to anypony I know in Ponyville. I don’t even know how to process this, I feel like I’m getting chills just thinking about it. Hey…!”

Mudbriar placed both hooves on Pinkie’s hooves and felt it up. “Technically, by the way your fur is standing up, the nerves on your skin, and your temperature, you have goosebumps, not chills.”

Pinkie swiped her hoof back from his grasp, feeling awkward at the sudden breach at privacy. She took a small breath as to not get upset at him again. Like it or not he was her sister’s boyfriend, and as long as Maud was happy, she was happy. “Now, this might be a once in a lifetime party I need to plan. I gotta bunch in store for the happy couple, so just wait until I show you what I can do!”

“Actually, somepony already came and asked me to plan the party.” Mudbriar stated matter-of-factly. “And as much as I told him not to this time, he decided to do it anyways I’m afraid. My apologies.”

“Another party planner?” The pink pony asked confusingly, feeling a bit betrayed that she won’t be able to plan another party for her sister. “Well…whoever this party planner is better put up one heck of a party fit for my sister. Who is this planner anyways?”

Maud glanced at a nearby clock. “He said that he would be coming at this exact café in a second…”

“Did somepony say ‘at this exact café in a second’!?” An orange, brown mane stallion with a rubber chicken in tow, popped out of seemingly nowhere as streamers and confetti fell from the sky. His excited demeanor caught everypony around off guard as the smiled at the newcomer. “Because the super duper party pony just got here right on time!”

“Technically, you were off by three seconds.”

“Oh little bro, I haven’t seen you in such a long time, but you’re still the same awesome guy I know and love.”

“Cheese Sandwich and Boneless!?”

“Pinkie Pie!” He said as he got up and gave the mare a strong, affectionate squeeze. His sheer happiness over clouding his judgement on how hard is hugs are. “I haven’t seen you since the movie! Howzit goin, life treating ya well? Or…not, you don’t look so well.”

“Nope…just…peachy keen.” Pinkie coughed out as she was brought back onto the ground, the slight pain being dulled by the mix of joy and bewilderment she was feeling now. “I mean it’s super great to see you back in Ponyville after so long, but I didn’t know HE'S related to YOU.”

“Oh yes siree my little Pinkie! Muddy’s my younger twin brother, we’d look the exact same if he wasn’t born a couple minutes after me. But boy was it hard for our parents to tell the difference back then. Ain’t that right little bro?”

“…M’yes.”

“Eeyup, that’s exactly right!"

Pinkie confusingly looked at the two stallions, her mind crisscrossing in several directions. Just the idea that a happy and cheerful party planner who sings whole show tunes about partying, is related to a pony who likes sticks. If she didn’t hear it from the pony’s mouth she would’ve thought it was all physically impossible. She stuck that thought as something to ask Twilight about. “Well it’s great to know that you’re the one who gets to plan their party, I was almost worried for a second. So does that mean you already met my sis?”

“Your who now?” Cheese looked next to her to see the gray, violet maned pony that sat beside him. The moment he looked into her still eyes, then back at Pinkie, then back at Maud then back at Pinkie, he placed both hooves on his cheeks in an exaggerated act of surprise. “Woah! You telling me you related to her!?”

Pinkie cocked an eyebrow at the question. “Uh…yeah, she’s my big sis. You surprised?”

“W…well yeah! I mean you two are just so different. You’re a party pony just like me and we have the greatest jobs in Equestria. I even learned some of my best tricks from my bro, just wait until you see all the cool stuff you can do with sticks is just amazing.”

Cheese Sandwich then shrugged pointed his hoof at Maud. “No offense to your sister though, but she must have the most boring job ever. There’s just no way you can plan parties with rocks.”

Pinkie gasped at what she heard, how could he say that about her sister? She has an awesome job! “Oh yeah, well, what about YOUR brother. He has a stick for a pet! It’s just a stick, you can’t have that for a pet.”

“Hey,” Cheese countered looking miffed, “Twiggy is an awesome pet! Unlike her plain old’ rock, Twiggy actually has a personality and a great one at that. You should see all the cool and wacky shenanigans him and Boneless gets themselves into. Ain’t that right little buddy?”

“…” Boneless stated.

“That’s exactly right! Boy, what a kooky day that was.”

Pinkie shook her head, clearly upset that her party friend just doesn’t seem to understand. “Well your brother is definitely a few floats short of a parade if you haven’t noticed. He held up an entire line just so he could see how he’ll say goodbye. And if that’s not enough there’s all those times he’ll correct somepony for making a mistake, I couldn’t take spending twenty minutes with him. He’s so annoying!”

Cheese feigned an overly-dramatic gasp, an angry glare wracking his face. “Like your sis is any better. I never thought it was possible to for a pony to have no funny bone, but she undeniably proved me wrong. Even after I told her some of my greatest knock-knock jokes, I couldn’t get even a single chuckle out of her. And don’t even get me started on those rock poems. It’s so weird…your sis is so weird!”

The two got closer as anger flared up in their eyes.

“Well your brother was the most nit-picky and meanest stallion I ever met!

“Well your sister was dullest killjoy I ever met!”

"What kind of brother gets scared of piñatas calling it stick abuse?"

"Well what kind of sister thinks rock jokes are ever a good idea at stand-ups?"

“My sister is a million times better than your brother!”

“Well my brother is infinity times better!”

“Could you two please stop yelling?” Maud nonchalantly demanded. “You two are very loud.”

“M’yes,” Mudbriar added, “also I think it’s fair to add that there were many inconsistencies in those rants. However considering our lack of time and priorities I’ll just write them all down for you to read later.”

Pinkie and Cheese awkwardly looked at their respective siblings, then back at each other, then stepped away from each other rubbing their own arms.

“Uh…sorry ‘bout that Pinkie, guess I got a little carried away back there.”

“Yeah…me too. Never thought I would start a whole argument about which sibling is better. Guess I was a bit upset about not being able to host the birthaversary party. Can you forgive me Cheese?”

“Totally Pinkie!” Cheese happily stated. “And as a sign of goodwill and role as party pony, how about we both plan this party together. We both showed your friend Rainbow Dash that having two party planners is much better than just one, how about we do the same for our siblings.”

Pinkie’s eyes lit up at the offer. “I thought you’d never ask!”

The two party ponies hugged and laughed all the way as they started brainstorming ideas for their respective sibling’s parties. All caught up on what type of sticks to shape the balloons out of, or the different kind of games they can play with rocks, they left the couple alone with they’re tea getting slightly colder by the second. The two glanced at each other.

“They would make a good couple.” Maud said.

“Technically, I think they would make a great couple.” Mudbriar added. "We should get them together."

The two smiled as Maud said: "They'd go together like petrified wood and rocks."