Cheerilee’s head twisted around towards her rump as she nosed through one of her saddlebags, counting out payment. Her voice, muffled by the bag, echoed just loud enough to be heard over the commotion of the town market.
“Two… Three… And Four! Here you go!”
Delicately grasping the currency with her mouth, she withdrew the bits from her bag before setting them onto the stall table.
“Thanks!” The teenager working the market stall slid a jar full of honey across counter. “Here you go, Miss Cheerilee. Hope you like it!”
Not in any particular rush, Cheerilee carefully grabbed and deposited the jar into her bag with the rest of the day’s groceries, taking care to position them so that they didn't crush any of the perishables that she had picked up earlier.
After a quick exchange of pleasantries with her former student, she was off.
Walking along the dirt road leading out of the market, she couldn’t help but smile and bask in the atmosphere. Who wouldn't? It was an absolutely terrific day out!
Cheerilee noted the large number of ponies moving through the town. She glanced upwards and caught sight of a small group of Pegasi from the weather team weaving in and around a particularly rebellious looking cloud. In a sharp burst of speed, two of the weather Pegasi split off and crashed through the cumulus, breaking it into smaller, more manageable pieces. After rejoining the formation, the team took up positions along one side of squall and used their collective strength to push the larger cloud fragments over the town, providing a pocket of shade for some of the ponies that were out and about.
She trotted into the sunlight and took a moment to soak in some of the sun’s warmth as she looked around the crowded street.
In her short bout of pony-watching, her eyes briefly passed over a familiar group that was making their way past the crowds, towards the outskirts of town. Upon noticing the three green fillies and their caretaker, the corners of Cheerilee’s mouth tightened into an almost imperceptible frown. ‘Those poor girls sure do deserve some better luck…’
Watching as the four left, Cheerilee gave a small shake of her head before continuing down the road — her day slightly less joyful than before.
“Cherry! Hello? Are you home?”
“I’m out back!”
‘Oh, of course…’
Cheerilee followed the stepping stones around the side of the house — past a still remarkably overgrown garden — before arriving outside of a large sheet metal garage.
Well, hangar, really.
Spying inside and locating the pony in question, Cheerilee crossed underneath the hangar roof.
“Don’t you think you should take a break from work every once in a while? It’s the weekend!” She playfully chided her cousin. “Take the day off? Find a hobby? Maybe meet some stallions?"
“Oh hop off, I could count the number single stallions in Ponyville on two hooves. Besides, this is my hobby.” Cherry's response echoed through the otherwise vacant building.
The inside of the hangar was a bit of a wreck. Parts, pieces, and obscure bits of machinery laid strewn across the floor, and the air reeked of industrial solvents. Numerous workbenches and toolboxes ran along the walls, most of which showcased complex mechanical doohickeys and whatsits in varying states of disassembly. Near the door, the large wicker basket of a hot air balloon was resting on its side — its balloon and magical burner seemingly removed in order to facilitate some repairs.
On the far side of the spacious interior stood a grimy, hot-pink mare perched on top of a ladder. Her top half was buried inside the access panel of one of her flying machines, and the sounds of sharp metal on metal contact echoed from inside the aircraft as she worked. Only her rear half was fully visible as her grungy golden tail, mottled with oil and other mechanical fluids, whipped back and forth in annoyance.
“Having some problems?” Cheerilee asked.
“No I just–, this bucking piece of shit Thaumic Torque Generator that those Unicorns in Detrot sent me isn’t lining up with the mounts, even though I know that I sent them the right measurements. And knowing those jerks, they’re gonna give me the run-around when I try and get it replaced under warranty.”
“Well, that’s no good. Can you fix it?”
With a small grunt, Cherry Berry backed out of the open panel and began scurrying down the ladder.
“Nope. But on the bright side, I should be able to swap the old one back in pretty fast. I just won’t be getting that extra power from the new unit any time soon.” She jumped down from the last step, her confused face turning to meet her visitor. “Any particular reason you decided to drop by? Not that I’m complaining!”
‘This mare sometimes, I swear.’ Cheerilee rolled her eyes in amusement. “Just making sure my favorite cousin isn’t tucked away all by her lonesome on such a beautiful day.”
Here, want a snack? I just picked them up.”
Cherry happily accepted the offer of free food and was soon munching away on a fresh carrot. "How was your trip last weekend? I don't think I've seen you since you got back. Anything new back home?"
"Oh, you know how it is. Your mom was happy when I told her that your business is doing okay. She asked if I could get you to tag along next time I came in."
Cherry nodded, staring at the Whirlybird she'd been working on.
"Yeah, I need to. But with everything going on here –” she gestured a foreleg to the mess in her workspace “– I don’t know when I’ll have the time.”
Cheerilee didn’t respond, so Cherry took the opportunity to get a few more bites of carrot down.
…
“She also kept asking me when I thought you’d move back home to help out on the farm.”
“What did you tell her?” Cherry shot a worried looked over to her cousin.
“Oh, nothing you haven’t said before. I told her that you loved Ponyville and your work; that you seemed happy living here and hadn’t mentioned wanting to move anytime soon.”
Cherry bobbed her head in approval as she chewed on another bite of food.
“Although, I don’t really think she took that as an answer,” Cheerilee continued uncertainly.
Cherry Berry swallowed the last bit of her carrot before muttering a reply, her vision lazily drifting over her machines. “No, I’d be pretty surprised if she did.”
With that lovely news of home out of the way, a gentle silence reverberated through the workshop’s rigid metal walls. Looking through the hangar door to the outside world, Cheerilee watched as a soft breeze ruffled the somewhat overgrown flora of the backyard. Her focus shifted to the blooming pink flowers of the crape myrtle planted just behind Cherry’s house.
The impressive tree stood tall as a testimony to her and her cousin’s less utilized Earth Pony talents. In the singular year since Cheerilee had gifted and helped plant it, the small sapling had grown into a thick, mature tree that towered above Cherry’s modest home. Compared to the moderately overgrown backyard and garden, it was clear that a lot of care had gone into maintaining it.
Cheerilee spoke up, “I think your mom would have a heart attack if she saw how long your grass was.”
“You should bring your class around sometime for a snack,” responded Cherry, “It’d save me some work.”
“I think that might be a tough sell for their parents. It’s pretty difficult getting signed permissions slips out of some of them…” She paused, thinking over Cherry’s facetious request. “Maybe you could bring the balloon by one day?”
Cherry’s eyes dotted between her aircraft before turning back to her cousin. “Yeah, I might be able to do that. How are they doing? Not too much longer until summer break, right?”
“They’ve been busy working on their end of year projects.”
“Oh?”
“Yep!" The teacher immediately perked up. "Book reports this year. I let them pick any book that they wanted to write about.”
“Shouldn’t they be learning about history and math? Stuff like that?”
“It’s good to give them a little more freedom every once in a while,” Cheerilee explained. “You should see how excited some of them get when they get to read a story that they’re interested in, instead of one that I assigned for homework.”
“Wait. Are you trying to tell me they aren’t interested in the books you assign?”
Cheerilee chuckled and shook her head before adopting a mock look of disappointment. “Unfortunately, the youth of today just don’t appreciate the classic Equestrian novels like we did when we were their age: Of Mice and Mares, The Beautiful and Darned, The Princess and the Pauper…”
“Yeah, I think I remember getting in trouble for not reading some of those.”
The conversation lulled again, the two mares silently grinning at the memories of their own shared school years as they gazed at the plant life outside the hangar door that gently swayed with the breeze. As the branches and leaves shook, Cherry took a pause to appreciate the warmth of appreciation that Cheerilee had brought into the room. This was the way that their friendship had always worked, wasn’t it? One-sided support. What did she ever do to deserve it?
Cheerilee was the one to break the silence, her tone shifting up an octave out of apprehension.
“There’s something else I came here to talk to you about.”
“What’s that?”
Closing her eyes to think over her choice of words, Cheerilee slowly exhaled a full breath. The slight traces of a wince were visible on her face. “I may have put your name down on an application to foster one of the Nameless Fillies in town.”
“You did what?” Cherry Berry’s eyes widened and her head snapped towards Cheerilee.
“Oh… I’m sorry!” responded Cheerilee as she shifted her bodyweight side to side in a nervous little dance. “I hadn’t planned to, it just kind of happened!”
“What do you mean, ‘it just kind of happened’? Did you trip and fall with a pen in your mouth?”
Cheerilee stopped swaying in place. “No, it was what their teacher told me.”
A dubious looking Cherry Berry just continued to glare at her.
Cheerilee plopped her rump on the ground with a sigh. “She stopped by to talk to me about them. About the foals and their school work, I mean.”
“So? Why does she need to talk to you about that? Aren’t they getting adoption requests from all around Equestria? I’m sure there’s some big wigs in Canterlot that are picking apart every little detail about their education.”
“It’s because I’m going to be teaching them next year,” Cheerilee said. “They don't know it yet, but the last three fillies are probably going to be kept with families in Ponyville. It’s being finalized right now.”
“Oh, okay. That makes sense I guess,” Cherry replied with a look of understanding that was quickly replaced by one of confusion. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘probably going to be kept in Ponyville’? If their adoptions are being wrapped up right now, how is there any question about where they’re going to live?”
Cheerilee’s frown deepened. “Two of the three are being finalized. They’re having trouble finding a place for Anon. She's the only Pegasus out of the bunch.”
“What’s the issue? There may not be that many Pegasi in town, but with all the support those foals have gotten, I’m sure there’s still plenty of families that would be willing to take them in.”
“Sure, Tender Care told me that there were several would-be parents that could spare a bedroom in their cloudhouse.”
“Exactly! So what’s the problem?” Cherry asked.
“She can’t fly,” Cheerilee answered, “She can’t even walk on clouds. All of those fillies that turned up in the Everfree? They all have incredibly abnormal magic deficiencies. Cherry, they can't perform tasks that should be simple for ponies their age! Even the doctors that Celestia shipped in from Manehattan and Canterlot haven't seen anything like it before.”
Cherry Berry gave a dry, amused snort before standing and making her way back towards the helicopter she had been working on when Cheerilee first arrived.
Annoyed and confused by the mare's dismissive expression, Cheerilee got up and followed.
Moving wordlessly, Cherry grabbed a loose screwdriver off the floor with her mouth and climbed back up to the access panel she had been working in earlier. Setting the tool on the tray at the top of the ladder, she poked her head into the hole in the airframe before answering, “It’s alright, Cheer’, it kinda makes sense that you'd put my name down. I probably would have asked a few other ponies first, though.”
It was easier for her to hide the pain on her face up there.
Cheerilee stared up her, perplexed. An unfortunate number of seconds had to pass before the realization hit her. She had heard about a grounded Pegasus filly and her first instinct was to volunteer Cherry Berry.
Cherry Berry, the strong Earth Pony banging away on machinery in front of her.
The same Cherry Berry currently slaving away on a perfect Saturday afternoon so that she can experience what Pegasi do on a regular basis.
Cheerilee didn't respond. ‘She thinks I want to put the two broken ponies together.’
When Tender Care had shown up at the schoolhouse the Friday before last, the young teacher had been happy to offer her information regarding her current students. They had discussed which topics the class had covered recently, her teaching methods, how old all of the foals were, and a few other things regarding the school over the course of an hour. Likewise, when Tender Care had informed her that she would be getting three new students next year, Cheerilee was excited to get to know a little bit about the fillies she would be teaching in the fall. After all, it wasn’t every day that the fillies and colts of Ponyville got so many new classmates from out of town all at once.
Mrs. Care had spoken highly of the three foals. Her three little angels, she had called them. They were much more behaved than some of the others she had been taking care of a few months ago, from the sound of things. That didn't make their stories of home any easier to bare.
Poverty, war, corruption, plague.
A stark lack of friendship.
Most of the two dozen foals couldn’t name more than a few friends, some couldn't name any. Several no longer spoke with their families. The majority said that they felt alienated from those around them. That they were better off here, alone.
It was horrible.
So when Mrs. Care had asked her if she knew anypony that might be willing to take in one of the young mares, what else was she supposed to say? And it would only be for a few months! Just until they could find new living arrangements for one of the Pegasi couples that had applied to adopt.
If she didn't live in the tiny, one bedroom house behind the school, Cheerilee would have happily offered to take the filly in herself.
But she couldn't, so she recommended her somepony who could.
Cheerilee called out to the mare perched above her. "Hey, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have offered anything without your permission. If you want, I can go talk to her and let her know that you're n-"
"Don't worry about it." Cherry pulled her head out of the opening and gave a forced smile. "I'll go let her know I can't do it. Too busy with work."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely, I'll go find her as soon I can. Don't want her to get her hopes up for no reason, right? Does she live at the orphanage?"
Cheerilee brought a single hoof to her chin in thought. "I think so? Darn, I should have asked when I saw her on the way here. It looked like she was heading towards the train station, or maybe the library?"
"Perfect, I can work with that."
Cherry slid down the ladder and made her way for the exit as Cheerilee trotted alongside her. Outside, the two rounded the side of the house before making their way out into the street.
"See ya later." Moving to leave, Cherry hesitated. She stopped and turned back around before giving Cheerilee an awkward hug.
"Hey, uh... Thanks for swinging by, really. I'll get this sorted and we'll be good. It's no problem."
"I'm sure Tender will understand," Cheerilee answered while giving her unusually affectionate cousin a few pats on her withers. "Feel free to stop by to let me know how it goes."
The two mares split from one another and departed, each with a separate destination in mind.