Honorary Dreams

by Lonely Fanboy48

Nursery Flowers

Early the next day, Oliver joined Wallflower for a trip to a nearby nursery to buy new plants for the garden she had started behind the cabin.

They borrowed Rarity’s car and drove into town for their supplies. Currently, Wallflower was looking through a patch of herbs. The very kind that Oliver told her would attract benevolent insects to her garden.

Nearby, Oliver was looking at a decorative fountain. The decoration depicted a cherub holding a pitcher of water, who was pouring water out into a pool before it.

“So, it’s okay for this kid to get naked in public. I got ants crawling up my pant leg, and my mom says I got a problem after I try getting them out,” Oliver commented. “Some guys get all the luck.”

Wallflower giggled quietly as she looked over the herb planters, and picked up one for purchase.

“You said that herbs like oregano would be good for my garden patch, didn’t you?” she asked Oliver.

“Yeah, that’s the stuff. It’s like catnip for ladybugs. Now, get some ladynip for cats, and old ladies will come running. Then get some bugnip for ladies, and we’ll have one heck of a mother’s day present,” Oliver said.

Wallflower giggled uncontrollably. Even though he was too young to be dating, she knew he was definitely going to be popular with girls his own age when he was older.

“Alright. I just want to buy some more flowers, and I’ll be ready to go,” Wallflower said.

“Sure thing, Wallflower. What are we getting?” Oliver asked

“Um...I was thinking of something like a climbing plant, like roses or ivy.”

“Climbing plants? That must be some strong fertilizer they’re growing in,” Oliver said. He leaned in close, and smelled the roses deeply. His eyes watered, and his hair stood on end. “Oh yeah...definitely strong…” He squeaked out.

Wallflower giggled again and sniffed the roses herself.

“Oh! Honey perfume roses! We have to get these. No exceptions,” Wallflower said, as she loaded a planter into her cart.

“Can we leave the smell?” Oliver said.

“Sorry, no. The smell is what makes this rose special,” Wallflower said, as she walked along, and came to the ivy plants.

“What are you talking about? All plants smell. Now, if I ever find the plant that can sit up and bark, then I’d call it special,” Oliver said.

“Oliver, there’s a lot more to plants than what most people think,” Wallflower said, as she examined the fronds on a fern that was set with the ivy. “They’re living things, just like you and me. They need food, water, care and love.” Wallflower found that the fern she found had a few brown spots, and decided to revitalize it at home. She put it in the cart, and went to examining the ivies.

“Sure, I love plants. Mom’s basil-stuffed tomatoes: nothing even comes close. Except for her creamed cauliflower soup,” Oliver answered.

“Oh, Oliver. You don’t just have to eat plants. You can use them to liven up your house in so many ways. In fact, you can even make friends with them on most occasions,” Wallflower said, as she tickled her fingers through the leaves of the plant.

“I’m sorry? Friends? If I wanted to make friends with a do-nothing co-dependent, I’d move in with my cousin,” Oliver said, as he pricked his finger gently against a cactus thorn. Until he pricked it just a little too hard “Ah! It bites like my cousin too.”

“You shouldn’t say things like that around the plants. They understand everything you say, you know.”

Oliver raised a curious eyebrow, and looked all around at the plants in the nursery.

“You’re telling me these salad fixings can understand me?” Oliver said, pointing to the plants around him.

“Yes. The way they grow all depends on how you talk to them. That’s why you should only say nice things around them,” Wallflower explained. “And it’s not just words they understand. They respond very well to music too. And they can raise or droop their leaves when you’re happy or sad. And so much more. They even remember and react to certain things that happen to them. In fact, when you pluck a leaf from a plant, they scream.”

“Scream?” Oliver asked.

“Yes,” Wallflower said, as a leaf fell from the ivy she was handling. “They don’t scream in ways that are like people. But, when they lose a leaf, or a branch, or a root, the entire plant releases a huge surge of oxygen. It’s actually kind of sad to think about…”

Oliver thought hard about what Wallflower told him just then. Apparently, there was much more to the world he knew than friends and family. He always knew to treat all others with respect and kindness, people and animals alike, but never thought once about his treatment of plants. Just the mere thought made him decide to be a little more mindful when shopping for fruits and vegetables.

“Well, I think that we’ve got enough for the garden. Let’s get these paid for, and head back to the cabin,” Wallflower said.

Wallflower left with the cart, while Oliver mulled over what he was told. He wondered what else there was to learn about the world, and what he could discover from something else as mundane as a daisy.

He leaned his hand onto the nearby table, and yelped when he brushed his knuckles against the very same cactus as before.

Oliver glared at the succulent, as he held his stinging hand. He looked to make sure that Wallflower wasn’t looking. When he saw she wasn’t he leaned in close to the cactus.

“Die!” he quietly growled.

Every single spine on the cactus fell off at once, and landed in a heap around the pot it was planted in. Feeling satisfied with himself, Oliver turned around and left.

---

Back in the garden, Wallflower was busy digging small holes in the garden soil with her trowel. She gently scooped away a heap of dried leaves, and shoveled out a small hole, before taking a small piece of oregano, and the soil it was growing into its place.

After Wallflower was finished with the tiny sprig, she heard a sound like a loud heaving and wheezing.

Oliver came walking in, carrying an enormous planter with the rose in it.

“Doesn’t this break some child labor law?” Oliver huffed.

“What do you mean?” Wallflower wondered, as she dug another space for more herbs to be planted.

“I mean why do I, the skinny eight year old, have to haul this thing, which I’m sure has cement in the bottom, all the way from the car?” Oliver said, as he dropped the planter on the ground, with a thud that sent a small tremor through his feet.

“Well, I don’t know if I can do it, since you're such a strong boy, and I’m so dainty,” Wallflower joked.

“You’re not dainty. I haven’t met a girl in my life who was dainty. Not my mom. Not my sister. Not any of my friends. And not that paranoid schizophrenic my dad said he dated once,” Oliver said.

Wallflower stopped working to have a fit of giggling.

“You think I’m joking, don’t you?” Oliver said.

“No,” Wallflower giggled, “It’s just the delivery of it.”

“Well, the delivery comes natural,” Oliver said, as he put on a pair of gloves, and knelt down to pick up his tools to help. “But, I’m dead serious about that schizo. According to dad, she was the most interesting woman he ever dated.”

“I guess any woman like that would be,” Wallflower answered.

Minutes passed as the two went about finding spaces to plant what they had bought, and digging spaces for them to be planted in. They repeated the process of fertilizing and watering each hole, and soon enough, something began to happen.

It started with a buzzing sound, before a bee landed on the rose in the planter. The bee crawled and danced about in the flower’s blossom, before it buzzed away in a different direction.

“Guess it didn’t like the smell,” Oliver said, waving the air in front of his nose.

“I think it’s going to go tell its friends where to find those roses,” Wallflower said.

“What?”

“When bees fly in alone like that, it’s because they’re looking for new places to find food. I read that in a book I found,” Wallflower answered.

“Oh. So, I guess we’d better get that thing in the ground, before we’re stuck like pincushions,” Oliver said, pointing to the rose.

“Okay. Let’s get started.”

Oliver went and retrieved the big shovel that was leaning on the nearby wall. With a precise strike, he broke the soft ground, and started digging.

As he worked, Wallflower started noticing more insects that were popping up around the garden. A praying mantis had crawled out of the the roots of the nearby bushes, and curiously walked over to the new herbs that had just been planted.

The large insect touched its mandibles to the plant, then marched off to another section of the garden, where another mantis was standing. The two bugs raised their front legs, and spread their wings in a display of aggression, but it was quickly offset by a large beetle walking between them.

The beetle seemed to lumber along, paying no mind to any of the smaller insects around it. Its feet passed over a group of ladybugs, over a spider that found its way up a stalk of flowers. A dragonfly buzzed around Wallflower’s head, until it found a broad leaf to land on.

Oliver struck the shovel one more time, and found the hole was now deep enough to use. He and Wallflower poured water into the hole, along with a generous amount of fertilizer. Then they took the rose by its trunk, and lifted it out of the bucket it was in to place it in the hole.

After the rose was placed in the hole, the two of them stepped back to admire their work. The garden was certainly coming along nicely.

As he looked at the work he had completed, Oliver started thinking back to what he was told in the nursery. He almost felt as if the plants could thank him, if they had words. Maybe there really was something to what Wallflower told him.

“Wallflower?” Oliver began, “Do you think the plants would like it if we put a radio, or something, out here every now and then?”

“I think they would,” Wallflower said, as a smirk crossed her face.

However, it wasn’t music that happened next. Rather, the sound of many small wings buzzing sounded nearby, as many bees flew past them to get to the roses.

With a yelp, both Oliver and Wallflower ran around the corner of the house. Once they were out front, the two of them were swatting the air, and brushing themselves off to remove any bees they imagined were on them.

“I guess we finished that rose bush just in time,” Wallflower laughed.

“Yeah. One great big bee buffet, open for business. Best part is: no dress code for that restaurant,” Oliver said.

“Let’s go inside. I think I’ve had enough excitement,” Wallflower said.

“Amen to that, Sister Soil,” Oliver answered.

The two of them went inside. Wallflower took a seat in the den, while Oliver went to the kitchen. He rifled through the fridge for anything that he could eat, and found a loaf of sliced bread, a bottle of green olives, a head of lettuce, and a can of white beans.

“Nice,” Oliver said. In less than a minute, he had chopped the olives, spread the beans, and sprinkled it with vinegar. He took a moment to look at the sandwich, thinking earlier back to the things he said about eating plants. “Well, there’s no denying the one sad fact of life: plants are too darn tasty to stop eating.”

The boy opened his mouth for the first bite.

“Oliver?”

As soon Oliver’s teeth clenched around the sandwich, he turned to face who had spoken to him. There in the door was Sunset, and she was standing like she was holding something behind her back.

“Wassup?” Oliver asked, before chewing his food.

“Well, I was just thinking about taking you up on that rematch,” Sunset said, as she revealed the bag of water balloons the boy had given her. Oliver’s eyes lit up, and he nodded his head. As soon as his sandwich was finished, he was going to dominate as king of the court again.

Comments

[The Blue EM2]

So, if Oliver is 8, then something a bit weird is going on between him and Apple Bloom.

[Lonely Fanboy48]

9632528
Later in this story, it’s going to to drop once Rainbow and Fluttershy know more about his past.