It's Not Easy Seeing Red

Cherry Berry often marveled at just how much of her life was represented in red. For example, her second biggest life-changing moment came from the red of promise. Like a hearts’ ever-faithful beat, or the opportunity emblazoned in the red-lined signature of Princess Celestia.

I call upon all aviating aces among my little ponies, for a Canterlot Craft Contest! the note read as Cherry downed a mug of coffee in her living room. Anypony with a craft that can navigate from one end of Equestria to the other and back, I seek out your designs! The pony whose craft can do it the fastest will be awarded one hundred thousand bits!

So elegant and yet so innocently jubilant. And Cherry knew it wasn’t just the note’s tone that qualified too. “So, when can I expect you back?” Strawberry Sunrise asked, hopping down the last step from the staircase and bouncing up to kiss Cherry on the cheek.

“Well, what makes you think I’m heading out? Cherry sassily asked. “I don’t normally head to Canterlot!”

“You can’t hide that grin from me, Berry.” Averting her eyes sheepishly wouldn’t hide her exhilaration from Strawberry either, but Cherry tried it anyway.

Red apparently was also the color of knowledge. Sometimes, it was in the crossed-out line bisecting a grammatical error. Here, however, it was in Strawberry’s crimson mane - which she knowingly fluffed as she broke through to her love’s inner thoughts.

“Oh, don’t worry, Strawberry. I’ll see if I can’t get the Princess to take us on this trip together.” And then, when we’re in the air, I can treat you to something else, Cherry thought. She shot a hasty glance to the balloon of hers outside - and the ring box bulging at its side in a pouch.

Hours later, Cherry was in the craft gliding over to Canterlot alone. She didn’t count on being alone long, though.

Because red was also the color of blood. It gave everycreature life, it heated up as they and their dreams floated high, whether on feathery limbs or air-filled sacs like Cherry did. And mixed with all the sweat and tears she shed to master her balloon-piloting craft, Cherry was sure she’d win.

The second she touched down in Canterlot, Cherry also saw that red was the color of remembrance. It showed in the ripcord she yanked as she had a thousand times before, now with a hundred thousand more reasons behind her fitful pull. Before it also used to be her balloon’s color, when she was flying solo. Now, Cherry’s balloon was purple, decorated with curling white swirls and dots.

That wondrously gracious unicorn at the Carousel Boutique - Rarity - had made it for her when a rip had opened in her last balloon sack, as a matter of fact. It’d been free of charge too, the second Rarity had seen the ring box Cherry was sorely considering offering to her as payment. “Darling, I simply cannot accept such a romantic gift. I shall make you a balloon shroud worthy of a queen! Hearing what Strawberry has to say to your proposal will be reward enough.”

Deep down, Cherry knew she should be happy enough with all this. But every time she thought of Strawberry’s smile, her welcoming aura, how fatefully it nearly ended for Strawberry when she stormed out after an argument she didn’t even remember the reason behind… it felt inadequate. Cherry wanted to show just how grateful she was to Strawberry for putting up with her. Saving her, both physically and emotionally.

Then Cherry signed up, and the rush of exhilaration finally slowed down enough for her to take it all in. She’d barely even remembered the trip to that sign-up station too. But she remembered the pony who’d taken her application. What pony wouldn’t remember seeing the Pony of Pop, Sapphire Shores herself, giving her a wink for good luck?

Soon, the contestants were all huddled in a lab within the School for Gifted Unicorns. And within those walls, Cherry had a lot more red to recognize.

Red was the color of the evening sky, as Celestia’s sun washed it over in its downward descent just outside her window. It was the color of the manual given to her on the rules of the contest, the cover glowing-in-the-dark for reading convenience. No outside help during the preparation, presentation or proving process, was the rule nagging the most at the back of her mind.

It meant she'd have to make her second maiden voyage on the balloon as the time to pop the question to Strawberry, then.

Red was the color of another lightsource in Cherry’s lab, too - the bunsen burner in front of her, heating to a boil her key to victory in the Canterlot Craft Contest. It was a newfound alcohol solution, one she’d gotten from a different Berry she was friends with. Chalk-white instead of red; pungent too, like the smell of spoiled strawberries and cleaning solvent.

They’d met under… less than ideal circumstances, at least in Cherry’s case. Being pulled from a crash after storming out on your girlfriend was a time Cherry would rather forget. But almost as common in her hospital room during her recovery was Berry Punch. When the regret most plagued her mind and Strawberry wasn’t there, Berry Punch was, with a drink on hand. Usually wine. Cherry had grown to like that red, in moderate amounts.

And as she added the final light to her mixture, she knew it was time for the waiting game. If it could burn for three days - and the preparation state was for five - she knew she’d have what it took to make the grade somehow.

On the fourth day, however, Cherry was brought to heel by another red; the red of weakness. Despite the cloth mask she’d worn, she knew something in that fuel mix had gotten to her. Red showed at the edges of her eyes, the growing number of swells and splotches on her cheeks, the corner of her mask every time she coughed after taking a drink.

Red was the color of many things on the fourth and fifth day in Canterlot. It wae in the fury Cherry felt for not being more careful, of embarrassment every time she stumbled as a competitor pony, of the helplessness for who else but herself to blame for her oversight.

It was the color of regret, the second she saw her solution still keeping the flame over it alight. Despite her success, Cherry now had to harbor another secret if she wanted to continue her balloon trip across Equestria.

A secret that was squashed hours later, given away by a gasp as Sapphire Shores walked into Cherry’s room at noon to ask why she hadn’t presented her report to Celestia. Cherry was before her unmoved from her bed since daybreak, still spewing yesterday’s dinner into the red trash can next to that bed.

By the end of the fifth day, red was also the color of the card Cherry was given; disqualified from further competition by Celestia herself, for medical reasons. Again, Cherry’s pleas to stay, to fight, to make this trip mean something, were whispers in the wind.

Thankfully, her condition wasn’t fatal; the emergency checkup from the medical ponies saw to that. Her splotches and fever would be over with in a day or two at max. But she’d have to be ported back to Ponyville, and she’d have to surrender her formula - the chemical makeup of it would have to be safely disposed of.

She spent several hours crying, her new horizon fading as fast as it’d arrived.

She couldn’t even take her balloon back with her - high altitudes were dangerous for her in her state. And despite Celestia’s tearful promises that she’d see that the balloon would be returned to her in perfect condition, Cherry couldn’t even muster the strength to smile back.

Back in and and under the care of another show of red in Cherry’s life - Nurse Redheart - with thermometers and syringes. Strawberry and Berry Punch arrived, an almost constant and always welcome presence. They brought bushels of fruits, wine, words of calm. Inside of Cherry, however, that boil of emotions raged.

All too soon she was cleared, assisted back to her house by Berry. She thanked Berry again for what felt like the hundredth time, walking through her front door with a heart as heavy as its beauty sounded in her ears.

And found Strawberry, on her knees in front of her, with a ring in her hoof.

“H-how?” Cherry spluttered. “I mean… but… how?”” Her balloon - and the ring still in it - was still left at Canterlot, the ring box confiscated for fear of contamination. Yet here was Strawberry, in front of her, holding it out to her like it was the priceless Idol of Boreas itself.

“I found it in your balloon before you left, I didn’t want to spoil the surprise.”

Still one issue plagued Chery’s mind. “But it was confiscated, how did you-”

“I had to petition Celestia for so long yesterday, but she… she let me have this.” Strawberry’s eyes were thick with tears. “And Cherry… you’ve always been the thing I love seeing come down from the sky the most, even more than the sun.”

Strawberry heard her heart stop. “Does this mean…?” she croaked out. Her throat was dry again despite the half-bottle of wine Berry had given her beforehoof.

“Yes, Cherry.” Strawberry responded. “I do.”

Cherry Berry soon swept her up in a hug, the ring clattering to the floor. Right now, red was the color of the warmth seeping through her pores, of pain and pressure and gratitude all leaving her body to be replaced with Strawberry’s warm aura.

Strawberry, who made her soar high in the air, and brought her down to earth.

Strawberry, who’s red mane contrasted perfectly with the white of her gown as they stood at the altar.

Strawberry, who was with her a day after their wedding ceremony when they both saw Cherry’s balloon came back. This time however, it was carrying two passengers: a purple alicorn with a red starburst on her flank and a tiny purple dragon almost bouncing with glee.

“Do you want to ask them for it back?” Strawberry asked Cherry, the ring now fit perfectly around the fetlock of her left forehoof.

Cherry Berry thought back to that horizon she’d raced to meet a month ago. She thought of the red she’d seen and labored under and walked the aisle with and endlessly pondered over. And then she turned to the mare who made her appreciation for that color possible.

“Nah,” Cherry said, adjusting the straps on her flight helmet. “I have everything I want right here.” Her hoof poked playfully at Strawberry’s chest. Behind it lay the most precious red of all: Strawberry’s loving heart.

And that was more than enough.

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