Despite being the middle of winter, the local weather team had cleared away the clouds above the park to let the sun melt the snow and warm the air. Crystal stood on a podium in front of a towering monument with a large white cloth concealing it from the curious eyes all around it.
Crystal looked out at the crowd of ponies gathered in the pathways running between the empty flower beds and around the monolith. From the rich elite to the average pony to the princesses themselves, ponies from all walks of life were together as one collective group.
Princess Celestia and Luna stood front and center before her, dressed in full regalia with their aides at their sides. Crystal struggled to keep a calm expression at the telltale rounded stomach Raven sported, or the multitude of notes tucked between the feathers of Willow's wings. Both alicorns held somber, almost mournful expressions; Luna already knew everything, and likely had told her sister.
Standing near them were so many familiar faces of friends and family, ponies who had spent the last week pouring sweat and tears into preparing for this day. It wasn't just the launch of a charity. It was the beginning of something new and wonderful that meant something special to all of them.
Crystal cleared her throat, the sound echoing through the vocal amplifier and silencing the whispers that filled the air. She put on an even smile as all eyes turned on her and, despite the nerves that bubbled up in her chest, she began her speech.
"Ladies and gentlestallions, I want to personally thank you all for coming today despite the questions I am sure so many of you have. What is the Flower Foundation? What are we doing here? And what is this behemoth behind me?"
A polite chuckle circled through the crowd before settling back into quiet for her to continue.
"First and foremost, I would like to take a moment to personally thank several ponies gathered here today. To the mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, sisters and brothers, and the children of our brave soldiers: thank you for your service." She gave a small bow of her head and went silent for a moment. "But what does that mean? I've had those words uttered to me and been confused by them. Over time, after much reflection, I've come to understand the meaning of these words.
"None of us asked for this war to happen. None of us even expected it. Our lives before were simple: the greatest struggle was not knowing if they'd be home in time for dinner. Now, however, we are burdened with true fear. Fear that they might not come home. Fear that they might come home as somepony changed by the horrors they’ve endured.
"And yet, not long ago, somepony asked me how I could smile in spite of all that. The answer is because that is my duty as my husband's wife. Someday, he will come home, and on that day I will be there to stand by him, to support him, and to love him through the trials that are still to follow."
Crystal felt her throat tighten as tears threatened to fall, but she caught Luna's gaze, one filled with a bittersweet fondness. She saw the same look in the eyes of all of her friends and family, and she returned it with a smile. They supported her, giving her the strength to keep going.
"That is the service for which I am thanked. Support, strength, and love. And that is the service for which I thank you all. It has been almost a year since we lost the Harmony—since we lost so many of our loved ones. No moment in remembered Equestrian history has resounded so deeply within all of our hearts with grief and despair as a kingdom.
"But in loss, there is hope. There is always hope. We must stand together, work together, and build together. Today, I am formally announcing the Flower Foundation, a charity organization built on the hopes and dreams of those who have felt and know the pain of loving a soldier. We will help the wounded veterans, and remember the fallen. Together."
Crystal turned her head and nodded toward the stallion standing just off to the right of her little podium. His horn lit up and projected three emblems, each corresponding to her next words above their respective branch leaders.
"The Flower Foundation is composed of three branches: the Red Poppies—"
Upper Crust stood up straighter as attention fell on her and the image of three red poppies set in a golden triangle, representing the power and strength of the families, the soldiers, and the Foundation. The words 'Remember Together' were inscribed on a white banner that stretched across the bottom of the symbol.
"—the Forget-Me-Nots—"
Orchid Bouquet smiled beneath the wreath of light blue forget-me-nots wrapped around a golden ring, a circle with no beginning and no end, its banner proudly stating: 'Never Forgotten'.
"—and the Carnations."
Verdant Wellspring kept his composure calm and collected. The golden cross of hope and health above him featured four carnations entwined around each limb, their stems joined at the center, and a banner that read 'Moving Forward'.
"Please reach out to anypony you see wearing a badge that matches these symbols to learn more about the services their branch offers. I will not go into the details at this time because I have something more important to share with you all." Crystal sucked in a breath while her magic grabbed a corner of the cloth behind her, signaling for Verdant, Orchid, and Upper Crust to join her in the unveiling.
Under their guidance, the cloth fell away to reveal the tall, white marble monument beneath, and a hushed gasp filled the air. The sunlight illuminated the entire structure, lighting up the engravings along the square base with glowing honor and pride. Inspiration from Crystal Empire architecture had been implemented into the design to harness and utilize the natural light, and though it had been difficult to replicate, the result was more than worth the effort.
"You are all standing in what is now the Harmony Memorial Park. The names of every soul lost to the tragedy of the Harmony bear witness to what we, as the kingdom of Equestria, hold onto in their memory: hope. Hope that they will never be forgotten. Hope that their sacrifice will not be in vain. Hope that our loved ones overseas will come home."
Crystal bobbed her head and smiled as her ponies fanned out to group up at each flower bed that stretched out from the center in the shape of large petals. "And as a symbol of that hope for these names to see, today, I invite you all to join us in planting flowers that will bloom by the time the remembrance day for the Harmony arrives. From the barren soil of despair, we will plant the seeds of hope for a future where our loved ones return home safely, where there is no more war and no more fear—and, together, we will work toward seeing that future become reality.
"Thank you all for coming today. We will be here all day tending to the flower beds and hope you will lend a hoof in honoring our fallen sisters and brothers. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask." She bowed her head. "Thank you."
As she descended from the podium, she was met with somber, polite applause. Ponies dressed in their finest attire seemed wary of gardening, though she had expected that. What surprised her—and everypony else—was four discarded hoofguards hitting the stone walkway with a resounding ting-tating-ting, drawing all attention to Princess Luna.
"Princess!" Midnight Snow exclaimed, her professionalism slipping from surprise. "What are you doing?"
"Setting the example," Luna replied with a toss of her flowing mane as she approached the nearest flower bed and struck her hoof into the earth.
A warmth spread throughout Crystal's chest when nearby ponies glanced at one another, then a few began to remove their heels and roll up their sleeves. Princess Celestia smiled and levitated her regalia off, trotting over to the neighboring bed without a word.
"Very wise," Sunny Day said in an exaggeratedly cool voice. "I see you're setting the example as well, Princess." She looked over at Midnight Snow and smirked.
Celestia looked over her shoulder at Sunny. "Captain, I believe you have something on your nose."
Sunny blinked and went cross-eyed to stare at her muzzle. "Huh? What?"
Reaching out a hoof, Celestia smeared some dirt right on Sunny's nose. "There."
"Hey!" Sunny's feigned decorum was dropped in an instant. "That's not fair! I can't retaliate when we're in public!"
"We are. But, my dear captain—" Celestia waggled the offending hoof. "—the regalia is off. The rules do not apply to the here and now."
"Oh. Well, in that case!" Sunny kicked off a hoofguard, stomped over, shoved her hoof in the dirt, and flung some at the princess.
Crystal smothered a giggle while gasps resounded from those nearby, but none gasped louder than Midnight Snow. Her expression was priceless—eyes wide, ears perked, and mouth agape. While Celestia laughed in her perfectly perfect way and Luna focused on tenderly tending the earth, ponies began to break off into groups at each petal-shaped flower bed.
"This seems to be a success," Jet Ship commented as he approached Crystal from the side. She turned to see a light smile on his face. "I believe you owe that to the princesses."
Crystal shook her head. "I owe it to everypony. To the princesses, to you, to my friends and family."
Jet Ship chuckled. "The speech has already ended, dear. You can be candid with me."
"But I mean it. I truly do." Crystal's gaze wandered the view all around them, the warmth in her heart spreading down to her hooves.
There were no lines drawn to separate ponies. There weren't groups of military spouses versus 'ignorant' civilians. All were as one, working together in harmony, fancy attire cast aside for spades and seeds. At each flower bed was a representative from the Forget-Me-Not branch to explain the various aspects of proper gardening.
"Hi there!" a cheerful voice called, and Crystal turned to see a creamy orange-colored mare with the curliest set of pink pigtails she'd ever seen. "How do I sign up?"
Crystal blinked. "Sign up? Oh, there's no need for that. Just pick any flower bed and join in. Everypony is welcome."
The mare giggled. "Oops! I mean, how do I sign up for the Flower Foundation?"
Crystal's heart sunk at the very thought of such a bubbly, cheerful mask hiding grief and pain, and she reached out to put a hoof on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry. Yes, absolutely. We can help you right away."
"Help me?" The mare tilted her head. "But I want to help you."
The feeling of sympathy was replaced by a wave of confusion. Slowly, she pulled her hoof back. "With what?"
"With the Foundation!" Another bubble of laughter, pigtails bouncing. "Let's start over, which is super okay, misunderstandings happen all the time. Hi! I'm Dream Pop. I'd like to volunteer to help out!"
"Oh!" Crystal's ears perked up. "Really? That would be wonderful! What would you like to do?"
Dream Pop smiled. "What do you need?"
Crystal hummed in thought, her gaze wandering before returning to the smiling Dream Pop. "I suppose that depends on what you enjoy doing. We need ponies for all three branches."
"I enjoy doing anything! Here's my card." Dream Pop reached into her side satchel and held out a business card toward her.
Taking the card in her magic, Crystal gawked. Dream Pop, Specialist, the first line read, followed by a long string of alphabet soup. MD, PhD, ABR, CPM, CFA, RFP, AICP, CCCA, CPCM, RPL, MS, CCM, CVA, NP, CLA, OTR, PSM, CPRC. At the bottom of the card was the statement Full list of credentials available upon request. in small font.
"I—uh." Crystal blinked a few times. "I suppose you could do whatever you wanted, by the looks of it. Why don't you just pick a branch and try it out for a while, then move around until you find what you want to do?"
"That sounds super okay to me!" Dream Pop smiled and looked around. "Eenie, meenie, minie... there!" She started trotting in the direction of Verdant. "Bye!"
Crystal could only wave, her gaze falling back to the card and the pile of designations on it. "How in Equestria—"
"I've heard of her," Jet Ship said idly, looking at the card as well. "Or, rather, of ponies like her. Ponies that just seem to have an endless source of raw talent and end up specializing in everything. We should bring her on board before she becomes bored and moves on."
"Verd will take care of it." Crystal tucked the card away and looked up at him with a smile. "If you'll excuse me, Grandfather, I'm going to make the rounds to ensure everything is going well."
Jet Ship nodded. "Certainly. Be sure to be seen digging as well. It looks good for the founder to be involved."
"Of course." That was what she said, but her nose scrunched up just briefly.
Digging. She could use her magic with a spade, of course, but the princesses were using their hooves. They were setting the example by not using their magic, therefore including and inspiring all ponies. It was admirable—and it was also troubling. Did she think herself above the princesses that her hooves weren't allowed to get dirty? Yet the very idea of digging into the ground made her skin crawl beneath her coat.
As she trotted around to check in with each volunteer, she came across a most amusing sight: Azurite stood on Soarin's back while the stallion dug.
"Dig, dirt pony, dig!" she squealed, her forehooves grabbing onto his mane to keep from falling off.
Soarin snorted and kept a good-natured smile on his face. "Hi, Mrs. Wishes."
Azurite's little ears perked up. "Mrs. Wishes?" Her head jerked to the side to look at Crystal. "Oh!" She squeaked. "Crystal! This, uh, this isn't what it looks like!"
"It looks like," Crystal said teasingly, "you are putting this stallion in his proper place. Good work, Warrant Officer."
"Proper place?" Soarin snorted again.
Azurite puffed out her chest. "Yeah! That's exactly it! Soarin was all 'we should work together' and I'm like, no way! If I'm not careful, somepony might try to plant me like a flower! You work and I'll stay safe!"
Crystal's hoof flew up to smother a giggle. "Is that your concern? Well, that certainly won't happen if you stay up there."
"Exactly!" Azurite tugged on Soarin's mane. "Hey! Who said you could stop digging!"
Soarin turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. "Tug on my mane one more time and we'll see who the dirt pony is."
Azurite blinked slowly, her hooves still holding onto his mane. With a small, mischievous swish of her tail, she gave his mane another tug, then squeaked when he stretched out a wing and leaned to the side. She tumbled down the makeshift slide and landed right in one of the holes that had already been dug.
"Nooo!" she squealed, scrambling back up onto all four hooves. "Soarin!"
Crystal smiled, shaking her head, and trotted to the next bed. Golden and Velvet were hard at work, albeit one more than the other—in fact, it looked like Golden had never seen a spade before with the way she ineffectually poked at the dirt with one. Crystal vaguely recognized the tawny brown mare standing at Velvet's other side, but the three mares seemed to be getting along well enough that she didn't want to disturb them.
Then, at the last bed she checked, was a group of familiar faces. Toffee Strudel, Bastion, Champron, Weather Front, and the rest of the support group were working together digging and planting seeds.
All except one.
"Hello, everypony," Crystal said as she approached the group, pushing the absence out of her mind. "Thank you all so much for coming."
Toffee smiled weakly and trotted up to her. "Hi!" His ears wiggled. "This is really great, what you're doing here."
"What can we help with?" Weather Front asked, chest swelling with bravado. "We're at your service, ma'am."
"Oh." Crystal's gaze darted between Weather Front and Bastion, the latter of whom had a cold look in his eyes. "I, um." She felt the weight of his stare suffocating her, and she gave a quick shake of her head. "I'm sorry. Give me a moment with Bastion?"
The others blinked in surprise, then nodded. Bastion didn't move and gave no indication that he would, so they made their way to another area of the flower bed.
Once they were relatively alone, Crystal looked up to meet Bastion's gaze. "I believe you have words for me," she said, her soft voice betraying her nerves.
Bastion snorted. "Words? Oh, little filly, there aren't enough words for ponies like you. You make a mistake, get scared off at a little confrontation, and run away to Saddle Arabia? Then you come back like some kind of savior of Equestria with this charity?" His ear flicked in annoyance. "You are a piece of work. I'd expect this kind of endeavor in earnest from the wife of Silent Knight, but you just prance around playing pretend."
Crystal kept her breathing even while her heart raced. She wanted to slap him, to yell, to pour out all of her pent-up doubts and frustrations. Instead, she simply held her ground and didn't look away. "What does my husband have to do with any of this? I may be his wife, but I am also my own mare."
"Are you? Isn't this a cute little stunt to show everypony just how important the wife of Silent Knight is?" He rolled his eyes. "He may be a hero, but you aren't. You haven't done anything. This is just a charade."
"Listen," Crystal snapped, her ears folding back flat against her mane and her tail giving a sharp lash. "Before I became Mrs. Wishes, I still existed. Yes, I want to make my husband proud. Yes, he is with me in my heart in everything I do. But the Flower Foundation isn't about him. I understand this may be difficult for you to comprehend, but I care about ponies. I actually give two snips about others, hard as it may be for you to imagine."
Bastion took a step forward to tower over her, raising one brow when she didn't flinch. "I stand by what I said the last time we spoke. You want the good feeling of helping ponies without the actual work. It's all a fun little feel-good game to you."
Crystal's coat bristled. Her temper flared. Knowing no other way to express herself, she stomped one hoof to loosen the soil beneath her, scooped up a hoofful of dirt, and flung it right in his face.
"What!" Bastion sputtered in surprise and nearly stumbled over his own hooves from backpedaling. "What's wrong with you!"
"Oh, what's wrong with you!" Crystal huffed. "Could you please stop being a little foal about whatever wrong I did to you and just mare up and talk about it?!"
"Crystal, what's going on here?" Verd trotted up, concern clear on his face.
Crystal jabbed a hoof at Bastion, whose expression was still unguarded from the surprise attack. "Him! He's what's wrong here!"
Verd raised his brow in both surprise and amusement, the latter indicated by the small upturn of his lips. "Oh, I see. Bastion, would you please not antagonize Crystal? We talked about this."
"She threw dirt at me!" Bastion exclaimed, much more like a colt than a grown stallion. "She threw dirt! In my face!"
"And I'll do it as many times as it takes until you stop being a pain," Crystal shot back.
"Foals, please." Verd chuckled lightly. "Or I'll send the both of you to time out."
Crystal huffed. "I don't know what I've done wrong, but I'll apologize for it if he would simply and clearly state it."
Bastion's nose scrunched up and he quickly shook his head to shake off the dirt. "You—" His ears flicked. "I let my guard down around you. I showed you a moment of weakness, and then you moved on. I don't want your apology. I just want my dignity back."
At first, Crystal wanted to roll her eyes and just walk away, but then her ears drooped. She sighed and shook her head. "I didn't move on, Bastion. I just—I suppose I just didn't understand. I consoled you as a friend. If you needed it again, I would have gladly done so, but you seemed to return to your normal self. How was I to know what you wanted?"
Bastion stared at her with an incredulous expression, mouth slightly agape. "You think I can recover from a shock like that overnight?"
Crystal threw a forehoof into the air. "How would I know to think differently when you acted as if you had recovered!" She sighed and stepped forward, reaching up to flick a piece of dirt out of his bangs. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry you needed me and I wasn't there. But I earnestly, truly had no idea. Would it have been so much for you to simply ask for comfort?"
"I think," Verd interrupted before Bastion could respond, "that is enough progress for the two of you. On that note, Crystal, everypony in the support group wants to know if you would be joining our regular meetings again."
"What?" Crystal blinked and looked past Bastion to see the other group members standing awkwardly off to the side, watching them. "Why?"
Verd chuckled. "Silent is still overseas, isn't he? That makes you one of us. Assuming you won't be so busy with the Foundation that you'll have no time for the little ponies."
"Oh. I—Of course." Crystal looked back up at Bastion, who avoided her gaze. She sighed and looked back at Verd with a smile. "But only on the condition that Bastion is my care companion again."
"Deal," Verd said right as Bastion opened his mouth to speak. "The next meeting is at my place. Bring a snack. Come on, Bastion, let's leave Crystal to focus on the event. You can speak with her at the meeting."
Bastion snorted his displeasure, but nodded and followed Verd over to the rest of the group. Crystal watched them a moment, catching Verd's mouth moving and Toffee's face lighting up. Her nerves settled into a calm warmth and she turned to look at the rest of the park.
Ponies from different walks of life working together, planting seeds and smiling. Princesses worked alongside the most ordinary of ponies under a midwinter's sun without reservation. More than anything, she cherished those smiles; they filled her with the confidence that this was the right path to follow.