Wallflower Blush follows the hiking trail, gazing upon the green beauties that weren’t there in her last visit: the swaying bushes, the rocking trees, the flowers bobbing back and forth as they react to her every move in slow grace.
She couldn’t help but double down to one of the flowers, fragrant as ever.
The flower smiles. Or, it smiles as much as its petals could form some kind of happy expression. Petals curve upward, and Wallflower gets the message.
“They say the plants here have fallen under her happy rule,” she mutters to herself, remembering the words of those who have visited the camp recently. “Timber said if a flower treats a visitor kindly, it’s a sign of her acceptance—even friendship.”
She shakes her head and chuckles to herself. “Still can’t wrap my head around all this magic stuff.”
Despite that, Wallflower’s heart gladdens upon encountering a lighthearted Gloriosa Daisy.
By the dirt path, the camp director and local druid busies herself with beautifying the trail by growing exotic flowers from above the ground, nurturing them with her nature magic-filled hoof: flowers striped with different shades of green, their stems and leaves scraggly just like the visitor’s mane.
“They told me you were coming, Wallflower,” says Gloriosa before turning around to see her. Around the druid, flowers and tree branches turn toward Wallflower too, gathering around Gloriosa to form a halo of plants around her, not to mention her older “halo” of daisies that has adorned her head for years.
With a kindly look at the unfazed green mare, she asks, “What brings you here? Is there some new plant I can bring for your medicines?”
Wallflower paws the ground nervously. “Well, that’s the problem. I think medicines alone won’t cut it for me and Rose these days.”
Gloriosa’s brow arched in confusion. “Is that so? That’s interesting! Let’s talk about it over some tea, shall we? Oh, I’ve always liked the tea that grows around here….”
The two Earth ponies sit at a table made solely of plant stems, branches, and vines. No chairs: they sit on the grass.
Wallflower is already half done with her herbal tea, the aromas enhanced by the magic spices mixed with it: a healthy and delicious scent. After all this time, it came as a surprise to her that Gloriosa makes good tea; it stretches back to the director’s childhood when she found out that she could make tea out of flowers, and if she could make tea out of flowers, she could make it out of daisies.
Gloriosa lets down another helping of tea down her throat before setting her cup on the table. “So, in short, you’re telling me that since everyone’s getting healthy, your shop of cure-’em-all’s isn’t going well.”
Wallflower nods. “Yeah. I figured that Zecora and others like her could survive because Equestria hasn’t much modern medicine like we do. They’ve got hospitals like ours, sure, but when there’s so many magic healing plants and potions out there, why bother?”
That prompts Gloriosa to lift a flower up to her hoof and pat it like a pet dog. “That is how it is with a magic world. Why mix chemicals and turn them into pills when a drink from an enchantress would do?”
The recently-graduated mare slumps on the table. “But, that doesn’t solve anything. That just proves my point: we do have hospitals and all this modern medical stuff, and even they are catching up with the times. I still have to think of something beyond cures for our venture. I’ve tried cooking, but I’m not a good cook nor is Rose, and I doubt her florist friends are good cooks too, and that’s without any of the magic stuff which makes cooking even more complicated.”
“Uh… don’t you do well with plants?”
“I’m a gardener, not a farmer,” replies Wallflower. “I’ve tried growing cabbages. Let’s say I once made my Home Economics teacher cry. Don’t wanna think about that….”
While the green pony mulls over the thought anyway, a light bulb pops over Gloriosa’s head. “You know, considering what you’ve done in your school, I’m surprised you don’t see the obvious answer.”
Wallflower shoots a curious glance. “Uh, what do you mean? And please don’t go all cryptic druid on me like the last time with those love pine trees.”
Gloriosa chuckles again. “That was just a prank, remember? Still….”
Her magenta hoof hovers over the table, causing a couple flowers to burst and bloom into life on the surface: lilacs, daisies, roses, lilies, even a few bonsai trees.
Another flower ripens right before Wallflower’s teacup, slowly shining under the sun. Its petals are striped with green.
Gloriosa looks upon the flower and her guest with a motherly smile. “I think it’s time you got back to what you’re really good at. Time to return to pure gardening, you know?... you still take care of gardens, right?”
Wallflower props her head back up to face her host. “Yes, I still oversee Canterlot High’s Gardening Club. Though I’ve moved on from high school, they’ve been happy to keep me as supervisor and I help out in the garden once in a while.”
“Then maybe you should scrap the cures as your primary thing… oh! I got it!” A big flower grows behind her and blooms over her head, literally turning on like a green light bulb. “I could help you with your store’s renovation! I’ll send you all the flowers you need so you can work on them. Then, it will be a true flower shop!”
Vines and flowers jump in joy as she stood on the table, proclaiming, “It shall be called, The Flowers of a Wall!… or something like that.”
Wallflower fulfills her namesake by blushing. “Becoming a professional magic florist, you say? That is going to be a big move… but do you think I could do it? Like, actual magic flower gardening?”
Some packets of assorted flower seeds slither their way on vines to Wallflower, courtesy of Gloriosa’s magic. “You’ll never know if you don’t try, Wallie! If you can make magic cures like an Equestrian enchantress, then I know you’ve got this!”
At those words, Wallflower smiles and takes the seed packets.
“It’s been the fifth set you’ve tried!” shouts a galloping Rose. “You have to admit that—“
“My name is literally Wallflower Blush! You can’t tell me I’ve lost the floral touch!”
It has been weeks after the trip. With the store temporarily closed for renovations, there has not been as much backlash as the two owners expected. However, with almost forgetting her experimental flowers in the dark, Wallflower has zoomed through the city blocks for painstakingly long minutes and has not slowed down a bit.
With key in her mouth, she unlocks the door to her house. An explosion-like door slam later, she turns on the lights just in time for the magic flowers to not roast in the darkness too long. A minute too late and the spell would go wrong and the flowers would wilt.
Wallflower stands frozen.
“Alright, what’s the hold up?!” Rose yells agitated, pushing Wallflower to the side. “First, not every pony is as fast as you! Second, now you’re being too slow with—oh, wow!”
What catches Wallflower and Rose stuck in their places are some potted flowers with names on them.
The flower labeled Rose is a brimming rose with red and pale yellow petals, more thorns and stems rising from the soil. For the one named Lily Valley grows a couple lilies but not in the white she would wear on her head; instead, the star-like petals shine yellow and raspberry, the colors of her mane and coat, with stemless flowers covering the soil. The same soil decorations go for the plant called Daisy, another old classmate to remember, with her namesake flowers the color of green and purple just like her, garnished with a miniature rainbow streaming above. For Derpy, a bonsai tree sits over there in its pot, a hoofful of magical bubbles staying still on the soil.
Then, there is the one with the florist’s name on it, joining the names of her Gardening Club best friends: a lone stem of wallflowers for Wallflower Blush, its stem a striped brown like her signature sweater and its petals a glowing and pulsating magiluminescent array of green.
The surprised Rose regains enough composure to check on Wallflower.
It does not take Rose long to hug her friend as she sits down on the floor.
Wallflower cries tears of joy. Rose joins in her tears too as she hears her friend mutter, “This garden… these flowers… b-back to where I truly belong….”