Blood

by Maltese462

From Blood to Blue

Over the cherry orchard of Dodge Junction, Celestia's sun was in its final position. Lowered from its dominance over Earth's inhabitants for the day, it was starting to settle just behind the faraway mountains. The blue sky was now bathed in a crimson color courtesy of the fading brilliance. The continuity of the warm temperature that had kept a firm hold on a town had begun to regress, the mild chill in the air foreshadowing the approach of night. Already, one could see the faint silhouette of the moon rising up to take its sister's place.

As she was putting up the 'Closed' sign on the windowsill of her store, Cherry Jubilee kept her tired and lime eyes on the red sky. She blinked a few times, raising a hoof to her mouth and emitting a tired yawn from her orifice. "Hoo wee!" She said, shutting her eyes and working out her neck a few times. "My dogs are barking." She walked over to the front door and twisted the knob to make sure that it was securely locked. She took what would be her last walk down her aisles, inspecting her goods for any sign of spot or wrinkle. Then, when she was done with that, she headed to her own private break room in order to gather the necessary materials for what was to be her daily practice.

Upon entering the break room, she walked over to her refrigerator to grasp a bottle of cold water. As soon as her hoof graced its surface, a small but sudden shiver ran down her spine at the chill it produced. She smiled in anticipation, sliding the object off of its shelf and closing the door behind it. Briefly, she set it down on a nearby table before reaching into her hair and undoing the ties that kept it in position. Once she pulled out the bonds, she shook her head repeatedly to let her rosy red hair fall freely around her shoulders. She took in a deep breath, sighing happily as she felt a burden lifted off of her shoulders. She grasped the body of the water bottle in her mouth carefully, stepping out of the break room and shutting the door behind her.

As she exited the store via back door, the chill of the wind nipped at her skin with a jarring yet welcome sensation. She shuddered, shaking herself off as she continued to step through the grass of her cherry orchard. Her eyes drifted to the trees she passed by, looking upon each and every one of them with pride. But there would be one situated on the outskirts of the orchard she would pay attention to. Its pink and cloud-like clusters of leaves would shine the most brightly within the light of the sunset, its cherries gleaming as they swayed lightly within the soft winds. She walked over to it, sitting underneath it and extracting the water bottle from her mouth's grip.

As she unscrewed the cap, she feasted her eyes on the mountains and the sun that peeked from behind their tops. She tilted her head back and taking in the contents of the bottle. The cold water splashed down her pipe, acting like an ice pack to her heated innards. Within a span of several seconds, she had drank down the entire contents of the water bottle before tilting her head back into its former position, wiping her mouth of any drops that had spilled around the corners. Then, she screwed the cap back down and laid back in the grass, allowing the dull blades to grace and bristle against her form. Her forelegs folded themselves behind her head, her eyes closing and her mind falling into its own private thought process.

This was her daily routine whenever she finished work, as she didn't have much time for anything else. The cherry orchards were of high demand in Dodge Junction, and all helping hooves had to be up and working in order to ensure that demand was met accordingly and on time. It didn't leave room for much talking to friends or relatives, and as a result, she had regularly isolated herself from the rest of the community. Now that she thought of it, the only people she could bring herself to talk freely with were her employees, and even then discussion was limited to the conditions of the workplace. To any other pony, it would've seemed like a mundane, unwanted, depressing and stressful life to live. But she never minded, for working with the cherry tries was an activity she put her heart and soul into. In the end, the positives always outweighed the negatives of it all. Still, it seemed like she was all alone at times like this, that there was no one else to sit beside her and share such a fine moment of time.

But just because it didn't seem like there was anyone with her didn't mean that there wasn't.

"Hey, Juby. What did the two lips say to the stomach?"

Abruptly, Cherry's eyes shot open at the Southern-accented voice of another female just above her. She opened her mouth to speak. "Wha--"

But that was all she could get out before she felt two lips crash down on her stomach and blow right onto her ticklish spot. It was sudden, unexpected and robbed her of any immediate speech. A fit of laughter escaped her, and she started kicking her legs in an attempt to get up. But because of the ticklish sensation, she simply could not find any ground. "Stop it!" She stammered, shutting her eyes and trying to keep the laughter from affecting her protest. "I'm warning you, knock it off!"

By this time, her whole body was shaking with mirth under the sudden attack on her person. Her assailant was ruthless, dragging out the tickle torture by sliding her mouth up and down Cherry's stomach as she blew. The only mercy her victim had was the privilege of regaining breath, only to lose it when another raspberry was unleashed on her. Any protests and warnings were promptly ignored with the knowledge that she had nothing to worry about in the case of retribution. She would continue this for a minute, and by the time that she was finished, her quarry was in tears from the laughter. The attacker raised her head up to smile in satisfaction at her work.

"Still got your laugh box right where you always did. Might wanna do something about that sometime."

Cherry drew in a sharp breath, blinking in order to get rid of the tears from her eyes. As she inhaled and exhaled, she fixed a glare as best as she could at the mare who had ambushed her. "What in the hay, Hen?" She complained, holding a foreleg over her stomach in order to protect herself from a second attack. "I was just laying here and minding my own business, and you come and do that? We aren't fillies no more, you know?"

The mare rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, Jubilee!" She said with a dismissive wave of the hoof. "I know it's been years since our kid days. But I'm not gonna have you of all ponies start talking like you're already a senior. Don't start pretending that you didn't miss me!"

At the jovial tone, Cherry couldn't help but grin. She sat herself up from the grass, leaning against the tree after she was sure she wouldn't get tickle tortured again. "I could've done without the sudden entrance, Peachbottom." She said, watching as the mare took a seat down beside her. "You could've given me a heart attack or something. I was just starting to get in the zone! You don't just interrupt some pony when they're in the zone!"

"You're always in the zone!" Now it was Peachbottom's turn to complain, abruptly moving her face inches from Cherry's. "Every time I drop by, you just happen to be lying under a tree and looking like you're about to fall asleep. And you say you're just "in the zone"!" She pulled herself away, pouting. "Sometimes, I think you're just too much in your zone. Whatever happened to thinking outside the zone, outside the box?"

"You're a box!"

"You're a square!"

A gasp of mock shock escaped Cherry before she fixed Peachbottom with a glare. "You take that back!"

Peachbottom grinned deviously. "Make me, filly."

"All right, I will!" In acceptance of the challenge, Cherry pushed herself off of the tree and made a grab, only for her companion to deftly dart away. "C'mere, you little chicken!"

Thus began a chase between the two in the open plains beside the orchard outskirts. It was brief, but not because Cherry caught up to Peachbottom quickly. As a matter of fact, Peachbottom was the more athletic out of the two and could have kept herself ahead. But instead, she purposefully slowed down and allowed Cherry to tackle her. There was a few minutes of wrestling, biting and more tickling (much to Cherry's chagrin). In those minutes that passed, neither of them seemed to gain the advantage on the other.

But eventually, an exhausted Peachbottom would find her back against the ground and an equally exhausted Cherry's hoof pressed against her chest. As best as she could, she raised her forehooves in front of her in a gesture of surrender. "All right, all right, I give up." She panted, closing her eyes and trying to focus on recovering air for her lungs. "You're just too much.."

Fortunately, Cherry was too tired to gloat on the matter. With a removal of the hoof, she unceremoniously fell on her back beside Peachbottom. As she placed a hoof to her forehead, she let out a groan of annoyance. "Great. Now I'm all hot and sweaty. Thanks a lot, Henny!"

"How is that my fault?" Peachbottom asked, cocking an eyebrow. "You were the one chasing me, remember? You wouldn't be all hot and sweaty if you hadn't been trying to catch me."

Cherry huffed. "You called me a square. I may be many things, but "square" certainly ain't one of them. You got that, chicken foot?"

After Peachbottom stuck her tongue out in response, the two fell into a comfortable silence. Both were looking upwards at their upside-down perspective of the sunset as they were recovering, For the longest moment, the two did nothing but stare at the living piece of artwork in front of them, captivated and mesmerized in their own little way. Then, Peachbottom broke the silence, finally having recovered enough breath to speak.

"It always feels like forever since we've last seen each other." She said, her voice expressing a composed nostalgia. She moved her head so that she could look at Cherry, who was looking back at her with attentive curiosity. "Haven't you been getting my letters? I've been sending them through the mail every chance I got!"

Cherry winced. "Oh, I've tried, sweetheart, believe me I've tried!" She lamented, directing her eyes to the sky. As she stared at the crimson red, a flicker of pain came across those green orbs of hers. "But, I... I just..." She let out a heavy sigh, slapping both of her forehooves to her eyes in frustration. "I've just been so busy! Everypony in this town seems to have an addiction when it comes to cherries! Cherry cake, cherry pie, cherry-flavored soda, cherry molasses, chimi-cherry-changas... I have to keep pumping them out like I'm some sort of baby-churning wife! Don't get me wrong, I love the job. But..." She dropped her forelegs beside her and gave a heavy sigh, closing her eyes. "Sometimes, I just get a bit too swamped to focus on anything else..."

"That bad, huh?" Regarding her with sympathy, Peachbottom rolled over on her stomach and scooted closer to Cherry, who had rolled over on her own stomach with her legs tucked underneath her. She wrapped a foreleg around the cherry mare's shoulders, gently pulling her closer and resting her head against her friend's. "Well, at the very least, you're happy with your job, right? It would've been worse if you weren't enjoying yourself over here, now wouldn't it?"

This brought about a small but appreciative smile on Cherry's face. "Pretty much." She lapsed into silence for a moment more, allowing the two to look at the sunset for a moment more before speaking. "Things like this, they tend to take me back to our preteen days. Back then, our parents did all the work for us. Sure, they'd have us help out with a chore that only the young ones would be good at. But we had no place, and we had no responsibilities to worry about. There was just... us."

"You're killing me here, Juby." Peachbottom pouted. "I thought I told you to stop talking like you're an old mare."

"Humor me, Hen." Cherry rolled her eyes. "You just got done complaining about how I wasn't sending back any letters to Mustangia. You can't say that you haven't been thinking about it, too."

"Well..." Peachbottom had to stop herself out of thought, wincing as she realized that she could not come up with a rebuttal. She let out a short and mockingly irritated sigh. "Okay, okay, you got me there. I admit that I might have just settled down and started thinking a tad bit about yesterday before coming here." She smiled lopsidedly, directing visual attention to the sun. "Back then and at least once a week, you would pull me over to your parents' orchards to watch the sunset with you. Though..." She giggled. "I can't help but feel you were just trying to get me to shut up for once."

"Well, most of the stuff I tried to make you do was for your own good." Cherry said flatly. "You couldn't keep your haunches out of trouble even when you tried to! I don't think that they ever forgave you for going nuts and trashing that convenience store--"

"Now you know that wasn't my fault!" Peachbottom complained, reflexively retracting her foreleg from its position around Cherry's shoulders. "I get real bad when it comes to really small spaces. They had a real complex name for it that I can't bring up, it's on the tip of my tongue..." She placed a hoof to her chip and began to tap it as if attempting to jar the desired memory to the surface. "Clestre... Closet... it starts with a see and it's a real big word--"

"Claustrophobia?" Cherry blinked. "You never told me you had claustrophobia."

"Well, I didn't plan on having you laughing at me because of it!" Peachbottom snorted.

The redhead raised an eyebrow slightly. "Honey, I would never laugh at another pony because they're afraid of something. For one thing, you're one of the best friends I could ever ask for, and I'm not one to make fun of my own friends for their personal problems. Two, even if I did, that would just make me look like a fool. Don't you remember how we met?" She looked at Peachbottom expectantly, watching the mare lapse into silent thought. The innocently blank expression on her face didn't help convince Cherry that the memory was solid.

But that wouldn't last long; those clueless green eyes flashed with recognition, and a lopsided grin crossed Peachbottom's face. "Oh, that's right! We met back at Cowhand Elementary, didn't we?" She exclaimed, nodding in enthusiasm. "Yeah, I remember now. You were the quiet and shy filly that just loved to keep your distance from the rest of the boys and girls. Didn't stop you from beating up any pony who tried to mess with you..." She placed a hoof to her mouth as she giggled. "I still remember when those colts tried sneaking up on you when you were in your hippie phase at recess. It's a shame my parents never taught me how to fight like that!"

"Hippie phase?" Cherry said in disapproval, looking at Peachbottom pointedly. "Once again, just to get through to that pea brain of yours, chicken foot. I was in the zone. There ain't nothing hippie about it!"

"Right." Peachbottom rolled her eyes. "Anyway, after I saw you take them down like you did, I was very impressed. When you were lying in the grass again during another recess session, I walked up to you and started...well... gushing like a waterfall! I don't think excitement led me to talk so much in my lifetime! Now that I think about it," Her enthusiastic expression switched to one of curiosity. "How come you just went with it and accepted my offer of a visit to my house instead of smacking me and telling me to shut up? Not that I was seriously expecting that to happen, it's just that every time I run off at the mouth with somepony else, that's usually the response I get."

Cherry shrugged. "I'm a good listener. Always been, always will be. The last thing on my mind is being one of those valley mares who do nothing but gab off, gossip about and laugh at other ponies like they've got nothing better to do. Speaking of visits," She regarded Peachbottom with her utmost attention. "How has the family been doing? Considering I haven't been sending letters, I can at least assume the folks back home aren't exactly as calm as a still river about it."

It was as if that sentence triggered something. For the briefest of moments, Peachbottom's eyes flickered with an emotion Cherry had caught right away. The smile on her face faltered, and she only looked at Cherry for a few more seconds before averting her gaze away. In turn, this caused Cherry to furrow her eyebrows in confusion. "Henny? Come on, I'm not going to freak out over how they're feeling right now, even if they are worried. They sent me off with a good farewell before I came to Dodge Junction, after all. I'm sure they can't be--"

Closing her eyes, Peachbottom let out a heavy sigh. "I was really hoping that you wouldn't have bothered asking that, Juby. Wanted to keep this reunion as jovial as possible, but you just had to pick this particular day to be a bit nosy."

"Hen...?" Now Cherry's own composure began to falter. Apprehension was starting to leak out as she regarded her friend, her words sending a rather foreboding signal through her nervous system. Slowly, her heart began to pick up in the tempo, beating a little more quickly as she listened.

"Four months after you left, Jubilee. My father came bursting through the door while Mom and I was grooming the chickens." Just like that, Peachbottom's voice had switched to jovial to solemn as she spoke the words. She kept her gaze lowered. "He told us that your mother had been hit with a severe case of cholera and that the doctors were scrambling to keep her bound to the Earth. That's what one of the letters I sent you was about. I was hoping you would've had a chance to read it and get back as soon as possible. But, I guess the folk of this here town can get too rowdy to be left alone, huh?"

"Ch-cholera...?" The word might as well have been the nastiest food that could've regurgitated out of Cherry's throat. Her face had paled, and she was now regarding Peachbottom with a look of horror. One hoof was pressed to her quivering mouth. "But... she's okay, right? They managed to treat her and now she's kicking like a mule. Something like that couldn't have--" But she was cut off when Peachbottom turned to look over at her, regarding her with a sad expression.

"She was trying to hold on, hoping that you'd come back so that she could at least see your face one last time. But her body just couldn't take it. I'm sorry, but... she died a few weeks after I sent the letter. There was nothing more the doctors could do."

The area fell into a deafening silence afterwards. As Peachbottom looked at Cherry, her expression changed from solemnity to concern as she saw the red-maned mare shrink away. "Juby--"

"No..." Shakily, Cherry climbed up to her hooves and staggered away from Peachbottom, the statement of her name. "No, no, no, no, no... I couldn't have just... how could I miss...?" She only got several drunken steps away before she fell back down on her haunches. Her forelegs raked through her hair in anxiety, the grief and horror on her face all too clear. "Oh, Celestia, how could I have been so stupid?!"

"Hey, hold on, now..." Peachbottom briskly jogged up to Cherry with a bit of alarm, even as she attempted to keep her own voice calm and controlled. Her friend didn't react when she wrapped her forelegs around her in a comforting hug. "It's not your fault that--"

"It's not my fault?!" Cherry shrieked, swinging herself around and grasping Peachbottom's chest in a move that startled the lime-maned mare. "My mom died, and I was too busy caught up in my affairs to go see that her dying wish was carried out! I was too busy with my job to realize that my parents needed me to be there for them! If I had just kept looking at those letters, I would've--" She couldn't bring herself to say anymore, shutting her eyes as the tears spilled from her tightened lids. She lowered her head, shaking it back and forth before burying her face in her friend's chest and sobbing.

Peachbottom bit her lower lip, feeling tears leak out from her own eyes as she felt Cherry's tears stain her fur. She sniffled a little as she wrapped her forelegs around the crying mare's back, softly petting a hoof against the strands of the crimson mare. "Sshh..." She cooed, allowing Cherry to unleash every bit of her grief and sadness upon her form. "I'm telling you, sugarcube, nothing's your fault. I'll be honest with you; when I came up here to meet you, I thought that you had really forgotten about us. But now I know that your career just demanded a bit too much out of you. Don't put weight that you clearly don't deserve on your own shoulders."

There was no response afterwards. Peachbottom simply fell silent and kept physically consoling the despairing mare until the flood of tears had lessened bit by bit to the point of nonexistence. When Cherry pulled her face away, she looked up with tear-stained but grateful eyes. "M... my pa..." She said, her voice affected by her emotion. "What about him? What happened to him?"

"He's fine." Peachbottom assured her. "But he wasn't too happy about the fact that you never showed up. It took a lot of convincing from me to not jump to conclusions. But..." She gave a sigh, worry once again gracing her features. "I think it'd be a lot better if I took you back up to Mustangia so that he won't do anything rash. I know that's a lot to ask from you considering you're busy with keeping this orchard of yours alive, but--"

"Are you kidding me?!" Cherry would cut her off, grasping Peachbottom's forehooves and holding them together with her own. "The orchard's got plenty of reliable workers to take care of it. It's not gonna get ruined over the course of at least a few days. My blood's more important right now, and this mistake just may have made them lost his faith in me as a daughter." Briefly, she bit her lip, the resolve shimmering within those green orbs of hers. "I'm going to make amends. I've got to."

A hopeful smile spread across Peachbottom's face. "You mean you'll come with me, even if it's just for a little while?"

Cherry smiled warmly, giving an affirmative nod. "Yep. This cherry ain't falling too far from the tree, after all."

"Oh, Juby!" Immediately, Peachbottom enveloped her in a light bear hug, nuzzling her cheek against her friend's. "You don't know how much this means to me. I can't wait to let my parents see you again, too. I can already hear them gushing over how tall and mature you've gotten over the years. We're going to have the best time, I just know it!"

Cherry laughed a little. "As do I, Henny." She said gently. "Just.. one thing."

"Yeah?"

"Mind if we stay out here until nightfall? I've got nothing to do for a while, and the least I wanna do is remember this little moment."

Peachbottom released Cherry from the hug, but kept a foreleg wrapped around her shoulders. The two directed their gaze back to the sun, which could now barely be seen from its position behind the mountaintops. Although the chill within the air was growing, it did nothing to turn her away from her response. "Sure thing, Juby. I'll stay with you as long as you like."

Cherry simply rested her head on Peachbottom's shoulders, and the two would spend the rest of the night watching the sun disappear.