White Lightning hopped aboard the Hot Air Balloon still set on the ground. Her hooves feeling the wooden basket feel of the bright pink basket. She sighed and laid her hoof down onto the side of the balloon near the pilot of the balloon.
She stared intently at the pilot, eyeing her cutie mark and then looking at the full body of the earth pony. Her cutie mark was a cherry, which felt weird to her. It's not about being a pilot-- and she is the designated hot air balloon pilot in ponyville. Her hot pink coat contrasted with her bright neon yellow mane.
Cherry Berry pulled on the rope with her teeth after fueling up the heat. It was out of the sky, she always felt an immense amount of joy whenever it started its take off. She looked at the passenger of the Hot Air Balloon, a pegasus with her cutie mark in stormy weather. Strange, she didn't particularly need this trip.
"Hey, um, Cherry Berry?" White Lightning spoke up to the other mare to catch her attention. "Yes, that's my name!" Cherry Berry smiled gleefully at the pegasus. "Hey- I just um, wanted to ask you something- if that's alright with you!" She felt nervous. She didn't like asking questions, or talking to people particularly.
"Well, no one's ever spoken to me up here. But sure! Go ahead." Cherry Berry answered her, Lightning Dust felt as though she had full permission to finally say what she could to ask her. "Well- I just wanted to know, How come your cutie mark is different from your profession? Well- I mean it's not very common to not have a cutie mark related to your job, so I just wanted to know"
The earth pony looked down at her cutie mark. "Yeah, I guess it is. I don't know, I never really wanted this cutie mark. My dream since I was a filly was to fly as high as could be! Of course that would be hard to do without wings, but it was still something I always wished I could do." She lamented on her childhood dreams.
"My mom and dad run a cherry farm down in southern Equestria, I live with my aunt in ponyville but every once in a while I would go down there and help on the farm and I just so happened to get my cutie mark in cherry farming. I was disappointed then and I still am now, but you can't change fate. Can ya." White Lightning looked at the earth pony in a new light, she never thought of cutie marks like that. Since her cutie mark was something she didn't mind.
"You know- did you ever wish you were a pegasus or something? Since you seem to really love flying! I mean, uh, it's okay if you didn't. That was dumb of me to ask." Cherry Berry looked at Lightning with surprised eyes. "What, no! That's not a dumb question, and yeah. All the time."
"Really" Lightning perked up with her wings opening up. "Yeah, I always wished I were born a pegasus. It always felt wrong that I was an earth pony, I even asked Princess Twilight if you were able to get wings-- at least for a day. But she said that it wasn't possible as far as she knows."
"I feel the same as you but in a different way!" Lightning replied to Cherry's disheartening reply to her question. "I mean, I was born in a family full of you unicorns! My dad and siblings were unicorns while my mother was a pegasus- I always felt left out somehow. Like- I didn't fit in, it was something I always felt bad about growing up. I didn't even like being a pegasus anyway, I felt it was kind of lame. But I eventually accepted myself-- though I still do sometimes think about my life if I was a unicorn! Would I be happier? I don't really know, that's something that I could never possibly know!" Lightning scratched her neck. "I'm sorry for going on way too long!"
"It's really fine, talking to you is fun." Lightning felt herself light up, someone thought she was fun? Wow! "No one has ever told me I was nice or fun to talk to- most people just say I'm annoying, which I may be. I mean I do get distracted a lot and I talk really fast and people say that it's kind of hard to follow me- and I did it again. Haha, oops!" Lightning awkwardly giggled.
"No, I don't think you're annoying. You're pretty fun to talk to! Legitimately." Berry laughed, "And I don't mind if you talk for hours. It'd be the most interaction I'd get in this hot air balloon." Berry sighed and looked down at the ground below them. "We're almost at your destination, do you still want to talk?"
"Yes! Also do people really not talk to you here?" Berry nodded. "They usually come along with their friends and talk to them. I'm always just something of background filler to them. Which I don't mind, it's just kind of sad that I have to either eavesdrop or think of something myself to entertain myself!" Berry laughed insincerely. "That reminds me, why did you take the hot air balloon?"
"What do you mean why?" Lightning tilted her head in confusion to the question Cherry Berry asked. "Well, you're a pegasus." She said pointing at the pure white wings on Lightning's body. "You can just fly wherever!" Lightning blushed in an embarrassed way.
"You caught me! Well, I can't really travel long distances for hours because I don't have that much energy, funny since I have a lot of energy when talking! But anyways, I wanted to try and travel the old fashioned way that earth ponies and unicorns do. Also I kind of wanted to talk to you, if that's alright with you?"
Cherry smiled. "You can talk to me anytime in Ponyville. Oh, and we're about to land. I really enjoyed talking to you, didn't make it as boring as it usually is. Lets meet again sometime!" Cherry smiled while the hot air balloon landed onto the ground landing spot.
"Bye! I'll make sure to do just that!!" White Lightning flew up into the air of the city and waved at the hot pink earth pony. Cherry Berry smiled, 'Well, I hope she keeps her promise.' She thought with a laugh.
