I found myself sitting in a beautiful park, Lily by my side, as we watched ponies pass by. The sun was high in the sky and shone down through a smattering of clouds. We were watching a group of young ponies playing in particular, imagining our little Brisk Breeze playing with her future group of friends. I smiled at Lily and she smiled back, placing a hoof on my slightly swollen belly.

“She's gonna be so beautiful, Rose.”

“Yes she will.” I smiled back.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through my body, emanating from my belly and spreading outward. I was about to scream in pain when I saw a small trickle of blood coming out from between my legs.

“No…” My stomach and heart dropped lower than they had ever done before. “NOOO!”

-

I was in the doctor's office, waiting for the doctor to come back. My heart was racing as I held onto Lily’s hoof. He'd be back any second now to tell me what I already knew. I jumped and gripped Lily’s hoof tightly as the door to the office swung open. The doctor walked in, a blank, emotionless look on his face.

“Ms Roseluck, I have some unfortunate news for you. It seems that your foal had miscarried. I'm very sorry for your loss.”

Tears fell freely from my face as I let out an absolute, primal wail of sadness. She was gone. My little Brisk Breeze was gone.

------

“Rose, please!” A voice shouted as I sobbed, thrashing around.

“Please!” the voice screamed, panic in her voice. “Wake up, Rose!”

I flung myself upward and threw my forelegs around Lily.

“She's gone!” I screamed into the crook of her neck, soaking her with saliva and tears. “I can't l-live without her!”

“Hey, hey, calm down Rose. Everything's alright. I'm still here. I haven’t gone anywhere.”

I sobbed for a while longer before looking between my legs, fearful of what I might see.

Nothing. Just plain white sheets. It was…

“You were dreaming, Rose. Everything's gonna be okay, I'm here.”

“I-it wasn’t a m-memory?”

“What… What did you dream about?” Lily asked apprehensively.

“I…” I tried to force the words out, but they got caught in my throat. I hacked and coughed, the phlegm from my sobbing clearing itself a little. “Brisk… I l-lost her!”

“What do you mean?”

“I… I miscarried.” I said and broke down once more.

“Oh, Rose…” Lily said, holding me softly and whispering in my ear. “It was nothing but a dream. She’s still here.” She brought a hoof to my belly and rubbed it softly. I glanced down, seeing that my belly was still swollen and full. Brisk was alive.

“Oh gosh… Oh thank god.” I said, the weight lifting off of my chest. “Th-thank you, Lily.” I said, smiling sadly at her, the dream still on my mind.

“I’ll always be here to protect you, Rose. You and Brisk Breeze.” She kissed me lightly on the forehead and nuzzled up against my wet cheek. “Did you want to get some more sleep, beautiful?”

I shook my head.

“No… I don’t want to e-even possibly have that dream again.” I replied.

“That’s fine. Come on, let’s go downstairs. You get comfortable and I’ll make you a warm drink.” She smiled an almost motherly smile at me and I nodded back.

“C-could you make me a c-cup of tea?” I asked nervously.

“Of course. I’ll bring down a duvet too so you can wrap yourself up in it.”

We stood up together and Lily walked by my side as we descended the stairs to the living room. She kissed me on the cheek before walking off into the kitchen and preparing my cup of tea. I pulled the blanket over myself and hugged it tightly, longing for Lily to return so I could hold her instead. Even while wrapped up in the blanket, I was still a bit chilly, so I stood up and turned on the gas heater, quickly filling the room with a heady heat.

“Brrr, thanks for that, Rose.” Lily said, carrying two cups of tea over to the coffee table one by one.

“I should be thanking you. All I did was turn on a heater…”

“You’re still amazing.” She said and pulled herself under the blanket, moving as close to me as possible while still letting me hold the mug. She hummed in satisfaction as she lay her head on my shoulder.

“You’re more amazing, Lily.”

“No, you.” She said, booping my nose playfully. “You’re so cute, Rose.”

“Am not.”

“Yuh huh. You are. You are going to look even more cute in your wedding dress.”

“W-wedding dress?” I stared, a little shocked that she had brought this up out of nowhere.

“Yeah! I think you’d look absolutely amazing in a short, simple but poofy dress. Maybe even a veil of flowers.”

“Lilies.” I said without even thinking. “I… I want to wear lilies.”

My fiance’s face went a little bit red at that and she smiled bashfully.

“R-Really?”

“Y-yeah. And… I think you should wear roses. I-if you want to, of course.”

“Of course I do! That sounds like a lovely idea. Where do you think we should get married?”

“I dunno. I haven’t ever really thought about it. Maybe a small little chapel or something-”

“Not in a chapel.” Lily interrupted. “Sorry, but I hate churches.”

“What about…” My mind drifted to a memory of mine. I had no idea if it would be anywhat appropriate or not, but the idea of getting married there kinda… felt right. “What about in a field of flowers?”

“Wh-what!?” Lily looked at me, surprised. “Y-you don’t mean where you…”

“Well, not exactly there, but a similar kind of place. A field, full of flowers… the smell, the colours, in spring too. I… I think it would be nice.” Lily began to relax and I could see her mind working.

“Y-yeah, I actually think that’d be pretty nice.”

“You sure?” I said, placing a hoof on her cheek. “I don’t want to do anything you don’t want to do.”

She nodded confidently.

“No, I am sure.”

“Well, you two are up early.” I heard my mother's quiet voice say from behind us and we turned around to see her enter the room, still in her pyjamas. I opened my mouth to speak, but Lily beat me to it.

“Rose had a nightmare, so we decided to get up a little earlier than usual.” Lily said, holding me tightly.

“Well, nothing wrong with getting up early. I was going to get some gardening done today, if you two wanted to join me?”

My face immediately lit up and I nodded excitedly.

“Absolutely!”

My mum giggled and raised an eyebrow at me.

“I was expecting a ‘no’ from you, Rose. Since when have you enjoyed gardening? No, wait, that’s a silly question.” She chuckled to herself as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “I’ve been growing some flowers recently, if you two wanted to help them grow while you’re here?”

“That would be lovely.” Lily replied.

“I’d love to, mum.” I said as well.

“Oooh, I'm so excited! Thank you, girls, it does really mean a lot to me.” She said, walking over with her coffee in hand.

“So, mum…” Lily said nervously. “Rose and I were just talking about our wedding.”

“Oh! That reminds me, I have something for you, Rose.” She jumped up all of a sudden and walked out of the room. We sat in silence, and after a short while, she came back, a small bundle in her hands.

“I want you to have this.” She said, handing the paper bundle to me. I cautiously took it from her and unfolded it to find… Oh my gosh. In my hooves was a pure white veil, lined with small pearls.

“M-mum…” Happy tears began to well up and I looked up at her, smiling. “Y-you don’t have to give this to me.”

“Of course I do. I know it’s quite large, and probably looks a bit too seventies for you, so I know you’ll have to get it altered once you leave, but I still want you to have it.”

“Th-thank you, mummy. I love you.” I said, crying happily while leaning forward and embracing her. I hugged her tightly as she placed her arms around me and hugged me back.

“I’ll keep this forever.”

“I know you will, Rose.”

------

The midday sun lazily shone down on us as we happily worked away in my mum’s garden. It was much larger than it was when I was a kid, probably due to the fact that she had more time to herself with me out of the house. I wiped the small amount of sweat from my brow and smiled over at Lily who was currently pulling out a weed from the ground with her teeth. I had no idea why, but any weed we began to pull on never snapped prematurely and we were able to pull it out, roots and all. Did it have something to do with our earth pony affinity for nature? I had no idea, but it was entirely possible.

I trotted over to Lily, smiling happily before nuzzling her after she pulled the weed out. She spat it into a nearby pile with a “pwah!” and nuzzled me back. We glanced over at the garden, impressed with the amount of work that we had managed to do in such a short time. I kissed Lily on the lips briefly before walking off to do some more work. As I traveled around the corner, I spotted a bush that sent a strange wave of happiness and familiarity through me. I knew for a fact that it was a rose bush. Staring in wonder, I slowly approached the plant. As I neared it, I reached out a hoof and placed it on one of the closed buds.

-

“Ugh, why does everything have to be so hard!” I screamed, slamming by pens down onto the table.

“Dear, you must be more patient.” My mum said, placing a hoof under my chin, directing my gaze toward her. “It takes time to learn all of this stuff, but you know you must do it.”

“Muuum, maths is boring! And super hard! I suck!”

My mum responded by harshly placing a hoof down on mine.

“Roseluck, do not speak like that. You are a young lady and you will act like one.”

“Oh, calm down, dear.” My dad said, walking in the door and placing his hat and coat upon the rack.

“Daddy!” I jumped up, to the dismay of my mum, and ran over to my dad.

“Hey, Rosie!” He said, picking me up in his hooves and swinging me around. “How’s my little blossom doing?”

“Thorn, she was in the middle of studying.” My mum said, walking up to my dad with an annoyed look on her face.

“She wouldn’t let me play outside until I was done.” I whined. “I tried really hard, but I'm not good at maths!”

“Dear, look at her!” My dad said. “Poor widdle thing.”

“You should be more strict on her, darling.” She said as my dad let me down.

“You always say that. What were you trying to teach her?”

“Just some basic calculus, but I don’t-”

“Calculus!? Clover, she’s twelve! I don’t think I studied calculus until I was in university!”

A look of guilt passed across my mother's face.

“I know, I know, I just wanted to give her a headstart in learning.”

My dad laughed and walked over to my mum placing a kiss on her lips (gross) and placing a hoof on her withers.

“Dear, you have to let her be a kid. You only get to be a kid once, and for Rosie, that time is now.”

She sighed in defeat.

“Okay, fine. Roseluck, you may go outside and play.”

“Yaaaay!” I ran forward and hugged my mum before turning around and heading out the door.

-

Woah! This park was so big! I know my dad had said never to go here alone, but I loved all the pretty flowers and plants so much, I just had to. I wandered around aimlessly, gazing in wonder at the greenery. A few ponies were here, playing around with their parents or friends and laughing happily. Sometimes I wish my mum and dad would come and play with me, but dad was always working and mum never wanted me to play outside. Maybe if I gave my mum something super pretty, she would want to play with me!

I trotted over to a bed of flowers and scratched my chin. I picked a few colourful flowers and held them together. Hmm, that was nice, but it could be a lot better! I wandered around, looking for more flowers, when I saw some roses, just beginning to bloom. I quickly ran over and began picking them before stripping them of leaves and thorns like my dad had shown me.

Before long, I had a nice arrangement of flowers, the red of the roses perfectly accented by the purple and yellow of the other flowers that I had found. Mummy would love this!

-

“Mummy!” I called as I walked into the house, the bouquet I had arranged hidden behind my back.

“In here, dear!” My mother called out from the living room. I walked in, a huge smile on my face, and I pulled out the bouquet

“Rose! They’re beautiful, where did you get the money to buy them?” My dad said, looking up from his newspaper as my mum sat, mouth open wide. “You didn’t spend your pocket money on them, did you?”

“Nope! I made them myself with flowers from the park!”

“The park? Rose, I said you shouldn’t go there alone. Not to mention, the park owns those flowers.” My dad chastised me and I looked down in guilt.

“Sorry, daddy…”

He laughed and motioned for me to come over.

“It’s fine, Rosie, just tell us so we can come with you next time.”

“Roseluck, this…” My mum stared at the flowers and I walked over, holding them out to her.

“They’re for you, mummy! I hope you like them.”

“Roseluck…” Tears began to well up in her eyes. “They’re beautiful!”

“Wh-why are you crying, mummy?” I nervously stepped toward her.

“Oh, sorry dear, they’re tears of happiness. These flowers are absolutely beautiful.”

“Yaaaaay!” I said, jumping around in a circle. I had my eyes shut so tight that I didn’t even notice the flash of white light fill the room.

“Roseluck, oh my gosh!” My mum said, gaping in awe. I stopped and turned to her, confused.

“What’s wrong?”

“Y-your cutie mark!” My dad stuttered, smiling as he did. “Rosie, you got your cutie mark!”

“I did!?” I said, staring back at my flank to see that a single red rose with a bright green stem had appeared. “I did! This is the best day ever!”

I rushed toward my parents and they both pulled me into a tight, loving hug.

“We love you so much, Roseluck.” My mum said, calmly. “And we both couldn’t be prouder.”

------

I stumbled back as the memory of how I attained my cutie mark rushed into me.

“H-holy crap.” I whispered, my mind swimming after having so much information shoved into me at once. I glanced forward, not noticing until my eyes began to focus again that the rosebud I had touched was now in bloom.

The last time this had happened to me, I thought it would be a one off thing, but this was completely new information too, not just a more vivid version of what I had already dreamed. Not only did I now know how I got my cutie mark, but I also knew who my pony parents were!

Lucky Clover, my mum, was a statistician for a huge company in Manehattan and had a beautiful green coat, with a red mane and a four leaf clover for a cutie mark. My dad, Rose Thorn, was a gardener for some of the most famous ponies that stayed in manehattan as well as a groundskeeper at Canter Park.

This information that I had previously not known, was now readily available to me and the speed at which it hit me left me dazed. While I was stumbling a bit, trying to stay upright while I fumbled, Lily had run over to me and placed a hoof around me, holding me still.

“Th-thanks, Lily.” I said, smiling at her, but still embarrassed by my clumsiness.

“What was that about?”

“I just… I just remembered my parents. My real parents!” I said, smiling widely.

I jumped as I heard something drop to the soil behind us. I swung around to see my mum gasping, tears in her eyes.

“M-mum, wait!” I called out to her as she ran from me as fast as she could.