Dawn Flower moved to Ponyville less than a year ago. She has no stallion, but she does have an adorable foal Camille, whom she loves dearly. Dawn moved into a shop near the edge of town, now named "Dawn's Floral". Dawn makes floral arrangements.
Her first friend, Summer Rain, helped Dawn through some rough times, and they are now good friends. Summer also introduced Dawn to Rarity, who immediately appreciated Dawn's artistry with flowers. They became good friends too, and share a lot in common artistically.
Dawn did a lot of work for Rarity, and had actually spent most of the day working on five 'florals' for one of Rarity's customers. Each one had to emphasize a different, specified color, and still be amazing. Dawn was constrained by the flowers she could find in the meadows around Ponyville, but still...
After spending the whole previous day scouring the meadows, and most of today working on the florals, Dawn was almost done, and they really did look amazing. The last Floral was on one of the two tables, and the four completed florals were on the other table.
Finishing up the last one, Dawn realized she needed one more flower...
Dawn was in a fix. She needed to go and try to find the last flower. She could take Camille, but the trip would go slower. This was normally not a problem, Dawn loved her daughter. She could also leave Camille here, she didn't think she would be gone long.
Dawn tossed this back and forth for a little while, then decided to let Camille say which.
"Camille honey, I need to run and get one more flower. Do you want to come with me, or should I give you a special privelage, and let you stay here by yourself until I get back?"
Camille thought a minute. Wandering around the meadows all day yesterday had tired Camille out, she really didn't want to go.
"Mommy, I'll stay here, if you think I will be safe" Camille answered quietly.
"Camille, I think Summer and Shysage are working next door, you can go visit them if you need anything." Dawn said comfortingly. Dawn really didn't worry much with them so close.
Dawn hugged her daughter and said "I'll be back as soon as I can", and she was out the door.
When Camille was standing, she was just barely short enough that she could walk under her mom's tables. Camille knew this wouldn't last much longer however. Camille walked under her mom's two work tables, found a spot, walked in a partial circle, then lay down on the floor.
She didn't stay there long, something poked her. It was a stem from some plant.
Camille used one of her front legs, and brushed it away, and tried to lay down again. Something else poked her. Camille got up again.
From under the table, she looked across the floor, and saw a few weeks worth of clippings, many brown, completely covering the floor.
Simply brushing some aside had made it so she could see the dirt floor in a small spot. She remembered her Mom doing this a few times, but she knew her Mom had been pretty busy lately.
Camille got up, and used her front legs to brush some more clippings around. It was very easy, and where she had brushed, she could see the floor, and Camille thought it looked a lot better.
Camille was in no hurry, but she walked to one of the walls of the showroom, and started brushing clippings into the center of the room. She liked what she saw, so she moved to the next wall, and continued to clean. Camille thought that this would make her Mommy very happy, and this was important to Camille. She loved her Mommy.
Soon enough, the floor in Dawn's Shop was clean, except for a large pile of clippings in the center of the room, under one of Dawn's two tables.
Camille wasn't really sure what to do with this big pile though. She decided to try and move it.
She carefully tried to climb over the top of the pile so she could brush it away from under the tables.
Suddenly, one of the dried stems in the pile poked her belly, and she jumped up a little.
Camille heard the sound of a stick falling, and realized that one of the table legs had fallen down from the table. The weight of the table shifted onto her back. It wasn't very heavy, but still...
Camille was paralyzed. She knew if she moved, the table would come crashing down, and her Mommy would be very angry with her.
At this point, she was actually part way under both tables, and so she tried to move out from under the table that still had all the legs. But when she moved, a different dried stem poked towards the front of her belly, she jumped up a little, and one of the legs fell out from the other table.
Camille was sure her Mommy would kill her...
Camille couldn't move... She just started to cry...
After maybe a minute, her mom's friend Summer burst through the door, in her 'person' shape. Camille didn't understand much about that.
Summer quickly grabbed the edges of both tables with her hands, and lifted them up, freeing Camille.
As soon as Camille was freed, she quickly bolted back, through the showroom, through the kitchen, and into her room. She curled up in the corner and just sobbed...
Summer sighed, and said quickly "Shysage, please let me set these tables down on you, I need to help Camille."
Shysage was a pony at the moment, so he got down on his 'four knees', backed in underneath both tables and held them up so they didn't fall.
Summer was back to being a Pony, and quickly ran to Camille. Summer scooped her up, and held her close, and tried to calm her down.
"My Mommy..." Camille said through her tears... Camille was shaking. She couldn't say anything else.
Summer just held her, and continued to try to calm her down.
After maybe ten minutes, Dawn returned. She quickly found the flowers she wanted, and even got some extras.
Dawn walked calmly in the front door of her shop. It looked strange, but she heard her daughter crying.
Running around the outside edge of the showroom, Dawn was quickly at Camille's side. Summer and Dawn were now both trying to comfort Camille.
Dawn said calmly "Camille, I love you so much! I just need to know what happened to make you so upset. And I promise I won't be mad at you."
Camille needed to hear this last part, and she began to calm down.
Dawn just held her daughter close, as she thanked Summer for helping out.
Summer mentioned what she found when she came in, and Camille tried to explain.
"Mommy, I was trying to clean up some... the floor... in your showroom... ..but the tables broke, and I didn't want to hurt your flow--" Camille got this far then burst into tears again...
Dawn pulled her daughter's face close to hers and rubbed her nose, then said quietly "Camille honey, you are more important to me than a hundred florals It's fine, I'm just glad you are not hurt."
Camille began to calm down at this.
"Camille" Summer began "Can I tell you a story?"
Camille was looking up at Summer, that probably meant yes.
"When Fluttershy and I were very little, our Mom had this amazing Feather Sculpture. It was a replica of the city of Cloudsdale, made entirely out of feathers -- it was amazing! You could see the Weather Works, Town Hall, the School, the Wonderbolts Academy, everything. It was very detailed.
We were told to not get it down unless we had permission.
"One day, my Mom said she had to run down the street, and that she would be back soon. She specifically said that we must stay in the house. She didn't come back right away though.
"I was the big sister, and I wanted to find something fun for Fluttershy and I to do together. I got that Feather Sculpture down. We both just looked at it in amazement for a little while.
"All of a sudden, a big gust of wind blew through the house, and the Feather Sculpture was quickly sitting in the avenue outside our house. We were both very scared. We walked to the door, but it was quite a bit further, and neither of us would go outside. I just reached out for it, but it was too far.
"Another big gust of wind came and picked the Sculpture up... It was quickly rolling, bouncing, spinning down the avenue. Before long, it was just a cloud of feathers blowing down the avenue, and they all just curled over the edge of Cloudsdale, and were gone.
"We knew our Mom would kill us..."
"Did she?" Camille asked at this point...
"Camille when we were bad, which didn't happen a lot, but when we were, Mom would sit us both in the corner in our room.
"That day, we both put ourselves in that corner. We were crying a lot. Fluttershy was shaking, she was so scared.
"Mom finally came home, and found us both crying in the corner. She gently asked us what happened, and Fluttershy couldn't even talk. It was my fault anyway, and I was crying, but I slowly explained that we got the Sculpture down to look at it, and the wind blew it out the door, then over the edge of Cloudsdale.
"I was sure she would be very very mad...
"Mom lay on her belly in our room, and pulled us both very close. We were still crying.
"She said softly 'Dear girls, please listen to me. I only have two treasures in this house.' Then she poked Fluttershy in her ribs, tickling her, then she said 'you', then she poked me in the ribs too and said 'and you'. Then she said quietly 'You two girls are my amazing treasure.' "
"Camille, I think your Mommy loves you a lot more than flower arrangements."
Dawn just pulled Camille close -- it was true. They were both crying softly.
After a few minutes, Camille said "I love you Mommy."
Dawn hugged her precious daughter tight.
Everypony just relaxed for a few more minutes.
All of a sudden, Summer got up with a start -- "Shysage!"
Happy Mother's Day!
