loosing faith (open)

[Ceria]

Ceria was a bit glum today about her wing. During her weather patrol later that day, making sure not too many clouds were in the sky, her wing became stressed out and failed to cooperate with her. Like usual, as this happened, she would stop working in weather until her wing felt better, but during the meantime, she goes off and delivers mail by hoof. It wasn't her first choice for a second job, but it was the easiest one to day dream to, keeping a steady trot as she goes on with her day.

Lately, she's worried even more so about her wings and if this would be a permanent condition she would have to always deal with, or if it would go away. Something she worried even more about was if it continued, would she be laid off due to her irregularity? She hoped not. The weather patrol was her dream job, to fly, keeping the skies as they should, the wind underneath her wing, the fluffiness of the clouds and the joy of being in control. She wasn't in control, anymore. Not like this.

She sighed, pulling out a few piece of mail and slipping them into somepony's mail box. Ceria found this to be a very lax job, so on these days, when her wing hurt, it wasn't so bad to deliver some other pony's mail, but debated going to the hospital for a check up, seeing if it was another muscle spasm or if she was over working it.

A soft breeze passed by and she stopped to enjoy it, flexing her healthy wing, aching to fly again. Once again, she sighed heavily and continued to walk on, hoping her leg wouldn't give out on her either, today. If that happened, she would just give up. If she couldn't fly, and then couldn't walk, what was the point.

[Snowdrop]

A couple houses down the line, After Ceria nudged the postbox closed (after depositing some letters inside, of course!) something white exploded from a nearby shrub, missing Ceria's 'bad' leg by less than 6 inches! Tumbling, rolling, and jingling all the while, Snowdrop finally came to a halt in the middle of the lane. Slowly, the little pegasus filly unrolled and lay quite still as the world went on spinning a bit longer.

When the world had enjoyed itself completely and settled down into it's proper place and motion again, Snowdrop blinked hard, shook her head, and jumped to her feet. Looking up at Ceria, Snowdrop grinned sheepishly. The now-slightly-less-than-white foal had little jingle bells tied to her wings, of all things, and they moved whenever she did. Which was a lot. But then, were the bells really any stranger than the mess of twigs and leaves now stuck in the cloudy blue mane and tail?

"Hello!" Snowdrop sang out cheerfully, not in the least aware of endangering life and limbs by cannonballing out of unsuspicious-looking hedges. "Are you the mailpony? What's your name? Is there anything from Cloudsdale today? Maybe addressed to Snowdrop? 'Cuz that's me!" The little filly giggled, delighted to introduce herself and ask the all-important questions at once!

[Ceria]

Ceria didn't think anything strange would happen on a dreary day like this, but she was proven wrong when a ball of white passed right by her. Instinctively, she tried to move out of the way to save herself, but she only managed to move an inch or two. But those inches seemed to let her pass unscathed by the odd ball.

Upon further inspection, she noticed it wasn't a ball of white, but a pegasus pony instead, as white as the clouds. She was about to ask the young pony if she was okay when she was bombarded with questions at the speed of light. Such energy! She envied the filly, but she also felt very energized by her energy. She managed to smile and pulled a few of the prominent twigs from the white filly's mane.

"Erm... Yes, I'm a mailpony. Sometimes," she answered. "I'm Ceria, and I don't know. I'll check," she informed. Snowdrop was a nice name. Very well suited for the white filly, she had to say. After looking through the assorted letters, she had found Snowdrop's answer: "No. Sorry. Were you expecting something?" she asked.

[Snowdrop]

Snowdrop giggled when Ceria pulled some twigs out of her mane. The white filly spent her entire waking hours in the process of getting dirty or getting clean. If left to herself, she would have ignored the twigs until they either broke apart enough to fall out, or pulled them out when they got in her way of doing something else. Snow was rarely bothered by burrs, twigs, leaves, sap, or most other things that got stuck to her. The only things she did mind were thistles and thorns, as these tended to get stuck in her. She tucked her wings in after a careful preening.

"Well, my parents are a little late in sending me a letter from Cloudsdale," Snowdrop replied, cheerfully. "So I am kind of expecting one. Still, they're on the weather-planning committee and, you know, spring is always such an important time of the year. They're probably very busy just now, and don't have time to write." wisely, the pegasus foal nodded, as though this made perfect sense and was, after all, only to be expected and reasonable and not in the least bit disappointing.

Snowdrop looked at Ceria and realized this explanation was a little incomplete. "I cant walk on clouds like other Pegasai, for some reason, so I cant live with them. I have to stay on the ground, where I'm safe. At least until I learn to fly good." Snowdrop showed off her tiny wings, each equipped with a jinglebell. "That's what these are for! I have a problem with my wings not working together all the time. So I gotta train them! if they're not flapping at the same speed, I can hear it and try to correct it!" Snowdrop demonstrated the way the bells rang in harmony when the wings worked together. Then she laughed happily. 'I have a lot of problems."

[Ceria]

Ceria couldn't get why the girl could talk so cheerfully about all of this. She couldn't live with her parents because of a problem with her wings? That seemed just to be something a parent wouldn't do. Still, she stayed quiet as Snowdrop continued to talk a mile a minute. Besides, it was nice to just stand around instead of going to the next house. She didn't have too much mail, so hopefully the other mailponies wouldn't mind. And Snowdrop was just so cute.

"Well, if I see something addressed to you, I'll listen for the sound of bells and follow that," she told her. "I also work on the weather patrol. That's interesting your parents are the head of it," she wondered outloud, though the information she was talking about probably wasn't very useful to the young pegasi and perhaps she confused her. "Oh! I have a bit of a problem with my wings as well, but when I'm not able to fly, I work with the mail," she explained.

"Every so often, this wing," she lifted the wing slightly, "and this hoof," she picked up her bad leg, "hurt so much, I can't use them. It's a real bummer, but I'm told it will go away with time," she said and waited a bit, preparing herself for a storm of questions and/or babble. Well, cute, naive babble.

[Snowdrop]

Snowdrop looked at the injured wing and leg thoughtfully and respectfully for a moment, as though she could see the injury itself. Which of course, she could not. X-ray vision was not a gift for even unicorns, much less Pegasai. "That's too bad." she said after a while, regretfully. "It must be hard to fly when you know how and want to, but cant. And to have a bad leg in the bargain seems unfair." Snowdrop thought a moment longer, and then brightened. "You should spend time at the spa, soaking in the nice baths they have. Granny Weathermane has lots of aches and pains and she says that soaking always helps a lot!"

Snowdrop didn't add that Granny Weathermane was old and well past her flying days herself, figuring that the 'granny' part would give it away. A sudden thought struck her and she giggled. "We're a lot alike, you and me." she told Ceria. "We both have problems and things we want to do, but cant, at least not yet. What do you do on days when both your wing and your leg hurt?" Snowdrop knew what she would do, in Ceria's place! She'd find a nice cloud and a good book and just drift along, lost in story and being carried on the breeze. An impossible dream for the little white pegasus.

[Ceria]

"The spa? I usually don't have time to," she explained, though that really wasn't the reason. With Berry and herself, they weren't exactly tight with money, but it didn't mean they could do whatever they wanted, either. Stuff like that was a holiday treat, or something of the sort. Escpecially with her wing and leg like this, she can only do so much work, which equals so much money. "Maybe I'll draw up a bath at my place," Ceria said.

The peagasus nodded. "I guess we are. It's nice to know I'm not alone on this sort of thing. It's nice," she mused out loud. Though the filly wouldn't have been her ideal companion to sympathize with, she didn't mind it. "I usually stay at home, drink some tea, eat an apple, read a book," she told her. Did she plan on keeping her company? The idea sounded nice, but she wasn't used to socializing. This was really something very new to her.

"So. Um. Can I ask what you were doing in that bush, over there?"

[Snowdrop]

Snowdrop looked back at the hedge which was perfectly trimmed into a box-like shape... except where she had burst out. in addition to branches being pushed into new places and a few being broken, Snowdrop had taken many leaves and twigs with her, and left a small hole behind. Snowdrop turned a slight pinkish color.

"Well, you see, behind that hedge is a small hill, and I was practicing somersaults down it, to see how many I could do in a row!" The white filly puffed up proudly. "I can do seven now before I get too dizzy and fall over! I used to be only able to do four! Anyway, I thought maybe if I got a running start, I would be able to go farther, because I'd be going faster. " Snowdrop giggled and blushed again. "Well, I did do a lot more, I think, but I got out of control and the hedge just happened to be in the way. I wish I hadn't lost count. I bet I did at least fourteen. Don't you think?"

The little pegasai glanced at the mailbag, and then at Ceria. "Do you still have many letters to deliver?" she asked, "May I walk with you?" Snowdrop didn't usually meet too many pegasai on the ground, where she was stuck. She liked to get to know them when she did!