Calm and Storm

by Fiddlesticks

Blue on Blue (One)

The kettle was cold now. So was Strawberry Sunrise.

A while ago she had wanted to brew some tea and relax to the drumming of rain against her roof, and take a break from the little things that had been chewing on her. She had been getting into fights with Cherry over small things: the dishes, their schedules, their future… Strawberry just wanted a break from it all.

But life --or more accurately her girlfriend-- had other plans. And unfortunately, those plans apparently involved the destruction of her barn.

Cherry Berry was sitting at the dining room table, still dripping wet, and glaring daggers at her.

Strawberry stared right back, leaning against the counter and holding a towel to her head. She pulled it away to see a light red staining it, and her scowl deepened. “Well?” she asked.

“Well what?” Cherry countered, running her own towel through her mane.

“Are you going to apologize?”

“Me? Apologize? I was handling myself perfectly fine until you flew up to me screaming like a banshee,” Cherry said, her squeaky voice full of bitterness and anger.

Strawberry threw her hooves in the air. “Oh! I am oh so terribly sorry I tried to pull you out of a fucking thunderstorm. That you were flying straight into.”

“The thunderstorm that wasn’t on the weather report,” Cherry muttered.

“The weather report? The weather report?!” Strawberry’s voice rose and she tossed aside her towel in disgust. “Do you not remember me telling you that the weather team was putting one together? Because of the clerical error that put my farm into a mini-drought?”

“You never said that!” Cherry countered. “Besides, I had that under control until you intervened and now I’m down a balloon!”

“Oh no! You lost one of your twenty fancy hot air balloons,” Strawberry answered, her voice raising to the pitch she reserved for mocking others. “You know that barn you crashed into? That’s worth every single one of those balloons and probably more!”

Cherry frowned, her eyes darting to the table at that. “...How bad was the damage?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t had a chance to look yet,” Strawberry grumbled, wringing out her towel over the sink. “I was too busy making sure you weren’t dead.”

They fell quiet again as the rain grew in volume outside the window.

Strawberry stared into her sink basin as she squeezed the bloody towel. She felt something brewing inside of her, but her brain was too tired and muddled to try and make sense of it. Her jaw began to ache from the clenching, so she closed her eyes and exhaled slowly.

She turned when she heard Cherry hiss in pain. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Cherry replied, pulling a towel away from her body.

Strawberry trotted over, fetching a clean one. Her eyes widened as she saw her wound. “Oh Celestia, that cut’s pretty deep.”

“Yeah, thanks Captain Obvious,” Cherry hissed, snatching the towel out of Strawberry’s hooves.

For a second, Strawberry was angry. But she took another breath and tried to shove it down. “Cherry, we should go to the hospital and get that checked.”

“I’m fine,” Cherry replied.

Strawberry frowned, tugging on Cherry’s hoof. “Come on, I’m worried about it.”

Cherry tugged her hoof away and scowled.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Strawberry’s calm quickly faded away as a resurgence of anger hit her body.

“Me? Me?! What the fuck is wrong with you!” Cherry shouted.

Strawberry snarled. “Oh, nothing darling. It’s not like you never listen to me, and it’s not like you’re never even home anymore to talk with me! Forgive me for worrying about you!”

“Oh, that’s just rich coming from you, a pony who has never given a shit about how anyone else feels!” Cherry shouted as she stood up. “You ever think that maybe you’re the reason you don’t have any fucking friends?”

That got a gasp out of her. Strawberry quickly narrowed her eyes as her scowl deepened, pressing her own face close to Cherry’s. “What the fuck?! Like I’m going to take advice from some pony who spends all day up in the clouds dreaming instead of doing any actual fucking work! You love being up there more than you love me, don’t you?”

Cherry recoiled for a second before recovering. “Fuck you, Strawberry! You’re a real fucking asshole! I don’t know what the fuck I ever saw in you.”

“Just… just get out,” Strawberry hissed, her voice dropping low as tears stung her eyes.

“Fine.” Cherry flicked her tail and left. Strawberry stood stock still as the rain beat down on the house, long after the door had slammed shut.

Eventually she moved, staggering for the sink. She looked into the cold, empty basin as she took a jagged breath. Her chest felt as if it was collapsing on itself, and in a panic she fumbled with the kettle, grabbing it in her hooves. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

With a scream she turned and hurled it against the wall. “FUCK!”

There was a roar of thunder outside.