Let me tell you a tale...
One day, in the glorious land of Equestria, or more specifically, in the charming hamlet known as Ponyville, a foal was born around two weeks prematurely on a Tuesday afternoon.
There was nothing particularly special about that day, aside from the fact that it rained and rained when it had already forecast bright sunshine. The pegasi assigned to clear the skies that day got both barrels, let me tell you!
Neither was there anything extra-amazing about the new life brought screaming into the world, at a normal, local hospital by an underpaid midwife in front of proud-as-punch Earth Pony parents.
To them of course, she would always be a princess... yet she possessed no royal lineage, and would almost certainly never grow a horn or wings. Stranger things may have happened in this magical world which she now inhabited, but the odds weren't in her favour for sure.
Oh, but who cares about trivial things such as 'status', 'pedigree' and how much bits one has in the bank? The fact she emerged from her mother Sweet Corn's womb happy and healthy was more than enough for the whole family to savour.
When her father Pop Corn held her close soon afterwards and told her she was beautiful and unique in every way, he meant every single word.
True, there were plenty of other little foals and fillies introduced to the outside of their mummy's tummies that day alone, but as far as he and his wife were concerned, none of them could hold a candle to their precious bundle, now blessed with the name 'Kettle Corn'.
This theory would soon be tested in practice, as Kettle soon demonstrated the inarguable theory that babies aren't always as cute and cuddly as you might think.
Sometimes she cried so loudly at night her parents never got a wink of sleep, other occasions she loved to use her single sharp tooth to mark anypony who dared approach her to make condescending gobbledegook noises.
Oh, and let's not even get into those dreaded diaper changes. A very messy business indeed, and especially difficult for first time parents to deal with. It's alright, we've finished talking about them now... you can remove your fingers from your nostrils.
Nevertheless, Kettle loved to be thrown into the air and caught by her Daddy, while Mummy's main role seemed to function as a regular buzzkill. She was always lecturing Daddy to not throw her so high, that he should just sit with her and read stupid stories.
BOR-ING! Lying around the house all day and sucking on a dummy, while hearing on repeat the story of how the Big Bad Timberwolf was outsmarted by the three Breezies wasn't for her. She craved thrills, excitement... fortunately for her, she had a Daddy who felt exactly the same way.
Whilst Mummy was busy doing the dishes or catching up on her Barbara Carthorse novels, Daddy would often take her out for super, special trips that were arranged on a primarily need-to-know basis.
The Hayburger for greasy, delicious, strictly off-limits food was always a good choice, and then there was the park, where they could chase soccer balls with her pram or get tangled up in the strings of the many kites that were regularly flown there in the windiest corner.
Hoofs down though, the favourite destination for both Daddy and daughter was somewhere a lot further than what the meagre sights and sounds of what Ponyville had to offer.
It was very rare they got a chance to travel there, but when Mummy felt especially exhausted and left them to their own devices for the day, there was only one place the disobedient duo wanted to go.
Feigning an interest in seeing his annoyingly cloying sister who thankfully lived all the way over in Fillydelphia, Daddy and little Kettle instead caught the train west towards the hub of glitz and glamour that was Las Pegasus.
Thankfully, while nopony could accuse Mr Corn of being an especially responsible parent, he did draw the line at introducing his child to the wonders of syndicated gambling at her tender age.
Rather, both him and his young charge skipped that den of villainy and headed straight for the coast for a far more fun, wholesome experience.
There, on the sun-kissed beach, they could chase the day away by burying each other in the sand, scaring the holidaymakers in the ocean by pretending to be sharks or make castles together that they wished they could live in some day.
Then, if it wasn't too late, they could share an ice cream together (half of it always ended up on the ground, though) and watch the sunset, at which point it was time to bid the beach farewell and head home to lie through their teeth about where they'd been.
After all, they didn't want Mummy to worry or force Daddy to sleep on the downstairs sofa again, did they? Although, in deciding to continue the subterfuge for so long, they forgot the one golden rule: Mother Always Finds Out.
She soon cottoned onto their cunning little scheme, when Auntie Cracked Corn sent an urgent telegram bemoaning little Kettle's missed appointments to have her cheeks pinched to within an inch of their life.
Another dead giveaway was the very visible signs of sunburn running down the bodies of the naughty pair, as the only cream they were interested in at the beach was the sort they could combine with a cone and stuff their faces with.
In any case, Daddy's 'neglectfulness' of his duties when he was only trying to have fun with his daughter was a sore spot indeed for Mummy, and the rows about their foal's upbringing slowly escalated until Kettle began to think that her pleasant days out weren't worth all the feuding between her otherwise loving parents.
Things soon came to a decisive conclusion though, for better or worse. As is usually the case in a truly matriarchal society, Mummy eventually wore down Daddy with her incessant complaining and pleading, so eventually the fun days out between Daddy and daughter were stopped altogether.
No more getting stuck in the sand, when the tide was about to come in. No more traumatising innocent vacationers with falsified reports of aquatic predators in the sea. And no more multi-tiered building projects, destined to crumble into nothingness later on, but worth every solitary grain used in their construction before the big demolition.
Instead, worrying that her child had been exposed to too many of the elements at such a young stage, Sweet Corn developed a rather unfortunate overprotective streak.
Daddy could only watch powerlessly as Kettle was barely let out of her mother's sight from that point on, which meant l-o-n-g periods alone in her crib staring blankly at the drywall with the baby alarm on full blast.
The most anticipated thing in the foal's many dull days from that point onwards, were the little curly straws she got with her juice, that for some reason she just loved to unravel into multitudes of different shapes.
Hours were spent creating all sorts of exciting new forms: equilateral, isosceles, scalene, obtuse... of course, it would be years until she figured out what any of those terms actually meant, but her skills alone in devising them were enough to mark her out as an early geometry wizard. Not that anypony really noticed, of course.
(The one geometric phrase she did pick up from others was 'a cute', but that was more in reference to her own perkiness than any shapes she might be conceiving at a sharp angle)
.......................................................
In any case, now we have a time skip. Buckle up. The sheltered little foal known as Kettle Corn grew up to be a mollycoddled medium-sized filly, who wore her cute little pink striped mane in bows, and was so polite and soft-spoken anypony she met instantly fell in love with her.
Coincidentally enough, she had her own little crush on an equally shy colt in her year who went by the name of Skeedaddle, messy hair and unkempt blue coat notwithstanding.
Many a clandestine blush was exchanged between the pair in class every day, but worried about her mother's reaction to the big news, Kettle decided to keep her infatuation a closely guarded secret, and that's how it stayed.
Aside from always having to say where she was going however, and not staying out one minute over her designated curfew, life went on as normal, and both of her parents loved her very much. Basically, everything was going great: a happy family, no money worries, plenty of friends...
Until one day that is, when Kettle came home as usual to find Father looking paler than a snowpony and Mother on the couch with tears cascading down her face, and everything changed forever.
She would've figured out something was wrong even without the histrionics, as she was a full six seconds later than usual arriving back without it even being mentioned. Unlike the usual routine of Mother giving her the third degree, while Father winked at her in the background, there wasn't a peep heard about her tardiness from either of them.
Instead, she was grabbed without warning by her inconsolable mother, with her white-as-a-sheet father soon joining them in a warm huddle, and together they hugged and kissed each other emotionally long after Luna's moon had risen to indicate the end of another day.
Between their many sobs and muffled expressions of regret, Kettle Corn was just about able to piece together exactly what was going on. It wasn't nice, to put it bluntly.
Basically, her father was very, very sick with a horrible disease nopony could cure. Maybe if he'd gotten to a doctor at an earlier stage there would've been some hope for him, but being a 'tough' stallion he just ignored the obvious symptoms to carry on his life unimpeded.
Alas, his foolhardy bravado was destined to cost him dear, and now he had the incredibly difficult task of delivering the dire news to his family that he wasn't going to be around for much longer.
"H-How much time have you got left?" came the predictable response from both wife and daughter.
"A-A few weeks at the most... or maybe even days..." Pop Corn refused to sugarcoat the futility of the situation to his family, as hard as it was to do so.
"B-But, can't you use magic to prolong your life by just a little?" Sweet Corn was desperately trying to find a small sliver of hope in an otherwise unfathomably depressing situation. "I-I hear there have been some trials in Canterlot that have gone quite well..."
"No, because I also heard some of the side effects can be worse than the treatment itself." Pop Corn was already shaking his head long before his wife had finished making the suggestion. "Do you really want Kettle to hear me scream every night, the way she used to as a foal, while my mane and coat begin to fall out for something that isn't even guaranteed to get resul... ooh."
Suddenly realising his wide-eyed daughter was located just a few feet away, he decided to delay the rest of the slightly disturbing conversation until she was safely out of the room.
Once she was ushered away, Kettle did her best to eavesdrop through the door, but unfortunately her parents were now communicating in hushed tones which were quite impossible to make out.
Unable to decipher a single word, and having had quite enough of the waking world for one day, Kettle Corn eventually gave up and went off to bed, though any ponies watching her slumbering form would be able to tell you she tossed and turned and sobbed into her pillow from the moment she closed her eyes.
.........................................................................
The first thing Kettle Corn saw next morning upon stirring was something of a shock, though not near as much as the one she'd experienced the previous evening. First of all, she was shaken awake, then a strange noise greeted her unwilling ear, like a kind of shrill whistle. She opened her eyes...
...And there was Father, lit up by the light of the morning sun streaming through the window. Despite being in an obviously weakened state, he was doing his best to maintain a joyful smile, and he had in his hoof some kind of infernal plastic party horn, most commonly used by the likes of Pinkie Pie.
Wondering what the cause of this unexpected and unrequested alarm call could be, Kettle was about to open her mouth to enquire that very subject, before a cupful of salty water was poured on her head, causing her instead to jump out of bed with a shriek of surprise (and mild profanity).
"ARRGH!! W-What exactly is going on here?" Kettle was not best pleased at being roused so early in the day, although her mild anger was nullified by the thought of what her dad must be going through. In terms of suffering, there really was no contest.
"Well, aren't you going to start getting ready then?" Father said somewhat amusedly, on his way out of the door. "The train leaves in a short while, so you better get your skates on! Not that you can use skates where we're going, of course. Take that as just an expression. "
"H-Huh? What are you talking about?!" Kettle was very confused, but she wasn't about to complain too much. It was still a lot better than feeling miserable, after all. "Are we going somewhere? Today's a schoolday. Miss Cheerilee will be expecting me..."
"That's already been taken care of..." Father was already halfway down the stairs, and so spoke over his shoulder. "Your mum had a little chat with the teacher just before you got up, and she understands the situation. The little shower I gave you just now should give you some kind of clue as to what we're going to be doing today. Anyway, I hear Mother has been up all night making delicious sandwiches. I hope you show a bit of appreciation for her generous efforts by not scoffing all the egg salad ones, before we've even got there. You know they're my favourite, so don't even try it! See you downstairs in just a tick, after all... we don't want to have to walk all the way there if we miss the train now, do we?"
"T-Train?!" Kettle's half-yawn, half-word fell on deaf ears, as Father took the opportunity to duck out of sight, leaving the frustrated filly with far more questions than answers.
Going through her usual morning routine, all she could think of was just what on Equestria was happening, and once her face was clean and her teeth were fully brushed, she still wasn't any clearer as to her parents plans could be. Especially a mere day after receiving such tragic news...
Further bombshells awaited Kettle as she descended the stairs afterwards. Alongside a clearly itching-to-get-going Pop Corn, there was Sweet Corn standing right by the front door with a big fixed grin on her face, obviously ready to go along with whatever crazy scheme her husband had cooked out for the day.
"Here's our lunch, along with a few snacks for later..." Mother held up a bag containing the aforementioned items of food. "Come on, I want us to make the most of this day. If we leave now, we should be able to catch the first train there..."
But something else had caught young Kettle's attention at that precise moment. It was half-protruding from the holdall carried by Father, and it looked for all the world like her...
"That's my bucket and spade! We're going to the beach?!" Kettle blurted out suddenly, to the consternation of both her parents who obviously wanted to keep the trip as a surprise until the last minute.
"Oh well, the jig's up now I suppose..." Father shrugged his shoulders, while smiling ruefully. "Me and your Mum discussed this last night, and we thought that maybe it would be nice if we all had a little family outing together, while I still have the e-energ..."
Both Father and Mother glanced down at this point, not wanting to fully digest the implications of the end of that sentence on a day that was supposed to be all about enjoyment. Something else occurred to Kettle momentarily though, and her attention switched to her mother as she asked the question burning on the edge of her tongue.
"W-Wait, you're coming t-too?!" Kettle hadn't meant it to sound rude, but considering Mother hadn't shown the slightest interest whatsoever in accompanying her and Father on any previous outings, her amazement was somewhat more understandable.
At least a visibly mirthful Sweet Corn decided to take it with good humour. "What, don't you want your old Mum to join you and Dad on one of your 'special days out'? Afraid I might 'cramp your style'? Well, tough luck. A mare can only do so much housework and crossword puzzles before she goes stir crazy, so I'm tagging along whether you like it or not."
"B-But I thought you hated the beach..." Kettle continued to be rather curious as to her mother's abrupt change of heart, and under severe interrogation the older pony began to give in a little.
"Okay, so I've got something to tell you, darling..." Sweet Corn put a hoof around her daughter's neck, as though she was about to relay something very important. "When I was about your age, I bought my favourite dolly to the beach with me. Her name was Marebelle, and she was my best friend in the entire world. I had a great day out, but when it was time to leave, I was in such a hurry to get back I-I..."
It was at that precise moment a few traces of moisture began finding their way to the corners of Mother's eyes. "...I-I left her behind. I shouted and yelled and cursed at my parents to turn back, but they never did. To this day, I've never properly forgiven myself for my terrible lapse of judgement. Just the thought of her being out there all alone made me never wish the same for you, and that's why..."
"Wait just a second..." Despite his enfeebled state, Father still had the strength to grab ahold of his wife's teary head and stare deeply into her damp eyes. "...You mean to tell me, that the main reason you kept our daughter wrapped in cotton wool for all these years and got so upset when I took her down to the coast was because of a stupid doll?! Why am I only finding out about this now? It seems like the sort of thing you should've told me about years ago!"
"H-Hey... that's not the only bad thing that happened down there!" Sweet tried to defend her position, somewhat futilely. "I also got a pretty bad nip from a crab, that stung for weeks afterwards. Plus I had some sand blow into my eyes, I nearly fell into a rock pool..."
Taking on board all of her mum's somewhat silly excuses for treating her like a fragile antique for so long began to have an odd effect on the listening Kettle Corn. All that time wasted, all those opportunities to have fun days out lost, all over a silly toy. She should be angry, furious, mad as a hatter. But...
For whatever reason, she began chuckling. This state of merriment quickly escalated to a titter, a giggle, then a full-fledged belly laugh. Slightly stunned by their daughter's sudden hysteria, it wasn't long before the entire family was joining in too, despite it hurting so much for Father to expand so much movement.
It was only when the tears of amusement were wiped away and another long, comforting hug had been administered between the close knit trio that they were realised they were going to miss the train if they didn't 'shake a leg', so off they galloped.
Sadly, unlike a certain toy at the beach so long ago now, Sweet Corn remembered the stale sandwiches she'd made as they departed, which is a shame because Kettle really fancied a paid meal out.
Oh well, she could always 'accidentally' ruin them sometime at the beach, thus giving her mother no choice but to fund an alternative food source.
They didn't call them 'sand'wiches for nothing, after all.
.........................................
To put it mildly, the Corn family had probably their best day ever. It was like something out of a dream, able to eclipse the awful nightmare surrounding them and work as the ultimate form of escapism for the perils that lay ahead.
The entire journey there on the train, the three happy travellers were able to just enjoy each other's company and play all sorts of games such as I-Spy which Kettle Corn, having such an exquisite eye for detail, always won. Though, where the challenge was in constantly going with 'Sky' or 'Grass', who knows.
Then, when they actually got to the beach, they discovered it was more or less completely deserted. With all the kids being at school and working adults trying to earn a living wage, they were able to take full advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and extra space by experiencing all the things that they'd missed out doing together for years.
They didn't just get wet in the sea, they got drenched. They didn't just build a castle together, they dug a moat. They didn't just get a bit sandy, they rolled around in it. The usually fastidiously clean Sweet Corn didn't even care: she was having too much fun to think about such small things as getting a bit mucky and damp.
Lunchtime came and went, and Kettle didn't even try to wangle a better meal from her naive parents. It was an absolute fact that even half-filled soggy rolls taste great when they're eaten with the rest of your family.
That afternoon was more of the same, with a minor moment of crisis caused when Father sat on a sea anemone by mistake, causing him to unleash quite the girlish screech and launch himself several hundred yards into the sky.
It wasn't poisonous though thank Celestia, and it lead to a rather hilarious moment when Mother helped pull out the individual spines out from his posterior one by one using a handy pair of pliers she'd bought along with her. Mums always remember that kind of stuff, along with the Factor Ten suncream which finally meant that her husband and daughter could go home at the end of that day without resembling quadruped tomatoes.
Eventually, it was time for the sun to set on what had been a wonderful day for all concerned, despite the awful events surrounding it's inception. Each member of the Corn family was able to put their problems and anxieties on hold for a few precious hours, to just relax and unwind in the intense heat before the uncertainty over the future began to paralyse all their thoughts.
It was as Kettle Corn was in the middle of a loving embrace between her mum and dad, as they watched the sun disappear over the horizon together, that she had her brilliant idea. Glancing down momentarily, she couldn't help but notice that they were all seated in that most rare of geometrical phenomenons: a Perfect Circle.
This couldn't let this moment pass without action. Picking herself up off the floor, she grabbed a nearby stick and immediately got to work tracing the outline of the shape around where her parents sat, along with where she'd been sitting until just a moment ago.
A few seconds later, she was finished. She took a few steps backwards to admire her professional hoofiwork, surprised to see both Pop and Sweet Corn staring at her with open-mouthed amazement.
That's funny, they've never taken much of an interest in my shape creations before, Kettle noted, until she eventually realised that they weren't actually staring at her expertly done circle at all, but at whatever was in her hoof that she'd used to formulate it with.
Huh?! What's so fascinating about a dumb old twig? Kettle began to ponder, before taking a closer look at what she held in her hoof and almost dropping it in astonishment.
Four hooves. Four legs. Tatty mane, badly in need of a comb . And a pretty head, that even the loss of one eye and faded paintwork couldn't ruin the beauty of.
"T-That's m-my o-old d-doll..." Sweet Corn stuttered, somewhat pointlessly. She didn't need to say a word: both her daughter and husband had long since figured that out. Even if they hadn't, the name tag in permanent ink on her back clearly marked 'Marebelle' was a bit of a dead giveaway.
It was a special, memorable and somewhat creepy moment for everypony, and as Kettle Corn stepped back into the loving bosom of her family in the midst of her Perfect Circle, one that she'd remember for a long time to come.
Along with the rest of the glorious day, hopefully.
.............................................
They always tell you 'good things never last', 'you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone...' 'preserve your memories, they're all that's left you', along with various other hackneyed phrases which all amount to the same thing.
Well, guess what? They may be unoriginal cliches, but all of them are actually true. Nothing can prepare you for when the worst can happen, even if you've been warned about it a long time in advance.
Soon after arriving back from their Best Day Out Ever, things didn't take so much as a turn for the worst for the Corns, they jumped right off a cliff.
Pop Corn's health quickly began to fade, and unwilling to let his daughter see him in this rapidly deteriorating condition, he banned all visitors aside from his wife, leaving her crying in the corner as he slowly began to fade away.
Some might say this decision was borne out of pure selfishness, others would disagree and say he was just trying to protect his child. In any case, the choice had been made... and it wasn't until the date of his death that she would see him again.
She'd never forget that moment, as she held his pallid, trembling hoof in her own, promising that she'd be a good girl and look after her mother when he'd gone.
The ability of speech had long since left him by now, but Father seemed to understand every word of what his daughter had just said, nodding slightly in satisfaction as his spirit departed into the great unknown.
Now that she was the 'big filly' of the family, there were certain things she'd have to help with. Her grieving mother didn't have the strength or motivation to do very much besides cry all day and all night, and that was just fine. Mother could take as much time to recover as she needed, no rush at all. Father would have wanted it that way.
Alongside all her new chores and extra responsibilities though, Kettle Corn had picked up an interesting new hobby. The fact is, she couldn't stop thinking about that last, precious day she and her parents had spent at the beach together, especially the part where they'd cuddled while watching a sun as round as the circle she'd drawn around all three of them, set in an orangey, yellowy sky.
So, she began to draw. Not landscape, portraits or even surrealism... but shapes. Only circles, nothing more. The squares and rectangles and triangles she used to do were all consigned to the dustbin of history: circles were the only thing that bought her any comfort now, and that's what she spent all her spare time doing, besides look after Mother.
Speaking of Sweet Corn, while she was caught up in her own thoughts of loneliness and grief, she still cared about her daughter very much, and it upset her a great deal when she found out Kettle barely spent any time with other children her own age anymore, because she needed to take care of her ailing female parent.
Determined to get better and give her child a lot more freedom and choice in her life, one day Sweet Corn took the brave step of getting herself out of the house for the first time in months. Holding onto Marebelle in her bag for comfort, she staggered out through the front door to confront her fears head-on... as well as pick up something tasty for lunch, too.
All the way into town, her mind was urging her to go back and just lie around the house all day where she would be safe and well-attended to. All these negative thoughts though were instantly rebuffed once Sweet Corn reflected on how much her daughter had missed out on, both now and in the past, and eventually it became a lot easier to put one hoof in front of the other until she'd reached her destination.
It was on the way home that she saw it. A little wooden stall, set up by three strange little fillies with almost identical shield Cutie Marks, give or take the odd symbol in the middle of them.
Clutching the daisy salad she'd bought for later at her side, Sweet Corn couldn't help but wonder what this was all in aid of... until a stray gust of wind blew one of the leaflets resting on the table near to her feet.
After having a quick read of it, a wide grin suddenly appeared on Sweet Corn's face, as she dashed back home as fast as her underused hooves could carry her, desperate to talk to her now very grown-up child.
Needless to say, Kettle was most perturbed when she found out that her mother had been out and about without supervision. "Mother, don't you remember what I promised father? I said that I'd always look after you, but you're making that vow very difficult by galloping off who-knows-where without telling me first. Now, shall we get you back under the covers, then I can get you a glass of water, and..."
Kettle's rapid-fire patter was quickly halted by Mother putting a gentle hoof in her mouth, and the filly looked up questionably as her mother gazed lovingly at her with the warmest of expressions. "My darling, I never want you to do anything like that again, at least as long as I'm able to do it for myself. I loved your father so much and I miss him terribly, but when he said he wanted you to 'look after me', I'm pretty sure he didn't wish for you to become my personal servant! I'm positive he just wanted you to comfort me when I was crying, and hold my hoof when things got really bad. It's partially my fault that I let things get this far, but all of that is over now. I want you to return to the carefree child you once were without worrying about me all the time , and I have the perfect thing here to encourage you in taking your first steps to just being a normal filly again! I even think your friend Skeedaddle is going to be there! Here you go..."
After a warm hug of confirmation, Sweet Corn then proceeded to pass her child the brochure she picked up off the ground, and it was read by Kettle in a growing voice of incredulity.
"Cutie Day Camp?! What am I supposed to do there to pass the time?!" She wondered aloud... before the perfect answer to that question entered her head.
"Oh, I know!"
.............................................
Off the coast of Las Pegasus, lies a strange unexplained enigma in the sand which has become quite the tourist attraction.
No matter how much the tide washes over it, it won't disappear. No matter how much the wind blows, it remains intact. No matter how many ponies step on it, the hoofprints vanish the next day. The reason behind it's apparent durability has baffled both academics and regular beachgoers alike, but the answer has yet to be determined.
It's a perfect circle in the sand with three very distinct pony shapes in the centre of it, alongside a little inscription all written out in seashells:
'Sand scatters the beach
Waves crash on the sandy shore
Love is forever'
..........................................................
Author's Note
Unable to figure out why Kettle Corn seemed so fixated on drawing circles, I decided to invent my own head canon... and this popped out of nowhere. Hope you enjoyed it! And yes, the last few lines ARE a haiku. Somewhat appropriate, don't you think? 
Now imma just going to leave this here... 
