A/N: I know it's a little out of season, but I had the idea now and I don't feel like waiting. Inspired by how awesome my mom is, here is the beginning of a silly little mother/daughter adventure with Amy and River. :)
Amy Pond was bored. Painfully, maddeningly, excruciatingly bored. She knew, of course, that she had no right to complain; she had a beautiful house, a great job, and, of course, her wonderful husband. But she couldn't help but miss the amazing adventures she'd had with the Doctor and the rest of her intergalactic, temporally dysfunctional family. It was all too normal here, too simple and quiet, never with any impending disasters to avert or terrible monsters to escape, and Amy was growing more and more bored with it.
She had just finished up at work, if you could call posing in front of a camera in a short skirt work. There was nothing challenging, nothing dangerous or life-threatening, about being a model. At least Rory had the occasional excitement of some minor disaster bringing lots of patients in.
No, she caught herself, that's a horrible way to think. You shouldn't want horrible things to happen to innocent people. And she didn't, not really. She wanted horrible things to happen to her, so she could find her way out of them.
She didn't want Rory to know how bored she was. He might think she didn't appreciate him, or how good their life was, or something. As far as he knew, or at least as far as she knew he knew, Rory thought Amy was the happiest woman alive, and most of the time she was. But there were some days where she just needed to be miserable.
This was why Amy Pond could be found one fall day sitting on the back porch of her beautiful house, staring into a glass of whine and lamenting her terribly good fortune while she waited for her wonderful husband to return home. And that was why she was quite pleasantly surprised when a strange flash of light and a strange noise appeared in her backyard, then vanished, and were replaced with a grinning woman with curly blonde hair.
"Hello, Mum," said River Song cheerfully.
Amy jumped to her feet, as well as her mildly inebriated reflexes could, and ran to give her daughter a hug.
"River!" she exclaimed with delight, "I haven't seen you in so long!"
"Neither have I, as it were," River said, laughing. "How have you been?" she asked, stepping back from their enthusiastic embrace.
"Oh," Amy said, surprised to be discussing her life, seeing as River's was probably far more interesting. "Great," she said, though her heart wasn't really in it. "Yeah, absolutely fantastic. I've got a new job, modeling, it's all a bit silly, but it's good, and…" she trailed off. River was raising an eyebrow at her knowingly.
"Oh, it's so frightfully dull!" she finally gave in, laughing hysterically to herself, and River joined her. Eventually she calmed down.
"How's Dad?" River asked conversationally.
"Oh, he's wonderful, as always," Amy said "But never mind him, what's that no-good husband of yours been up to?"
River rolled her eyes dramatically. "Oh, he treats me so terribly," she said with ridiculously transparent feigned misery, "Gets me into all sorts of trouble, we barely escape, then he just leaves me behind again."
"I told you he was nothing but trouble from the start" Amy said, adopting a silly voice mimicking a cranky old woman and wagging her finger ridiculously.
"You will never understand our love, Mum!" River exclaimed, impersonating a bratty teenager. Both women burst into hysterical laughter once more.
"Seriously, though," Amy said, regaining her composure, "What brings you here now, all of a sudden?"
"What do you think?" River replied, laughing, "It's Mother's Day, of course I had to stop in for a visit!"
Amy paused, fairly certain this was incorrect, and tried to remember what the date was. Then she realized what was wrong. "It's…November, River," she said skeptically, "Mother's Day is in May, I think?"
River's eyes widened and she looked at the vortex manipulator on her wrist in confusion. "So it is. It was Mother's Day where I was, I assure you. I'm so sorry, this thing's been absolute rubbish lately…" She flicked the manipulator with irritation. "Must need to charge…"
"Well, I don't mind," Amy declared. "It can be Mother's Day here, too, if you like."
"Oh, we won't be spending it here!" River exclaimed, as though the mere suggestion of an Earth Mother's Day was ridiculous, "That wouldn't be exciting at all!"
Amy narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Then where are we going?"
River raised her eyebrows with a mysterious grin. "Somewhere there's real fun to be had." She turned on the vortex manipulator and began to type in some information. "Here," she gestured for Amy to come closer, "Hang onto me." Amy looked over her shoulder nervously.
"What, aren't we going to wait for Rory?" she asked, a bit surprised by River's sudden summons.
River crinkled her nose in disdain. "What, bring Dad along for a girl's night out? Don't be ridiculous. I'll take him on a trip when Father's Day comes around. Come along!" When Amy hesitated a moment longer, she added "Unless you'd rather I just got you a lousy card and some chocolates…"
At the threat of this, Amy threw her arms around River's shoulder's with a delighted smile. She hung on for dear life as the world went funny around her. It felt as though she was being sucked into a vaccum and shot out of a cannon all at once. She knew better than to open her eyes while shifting through time.
When she felt her feet on solid ground, she let go of River and took in the amazing atmosphere around her.
They were standing on a platform built into an immense tree, over an even more immense forest. All around them, people—well, aliens—of all shapes and sizes coated the trees, standing on similar platforms that appeared to be part of the trees themselves. All of the people appeared to be in families, smiling and hugging and kissing. It was like a magnificient city all made of trees—and by the look of it, the city was ready for a party. Below them, four huge rivers met at a cross, and in the center of that junction stood a very bizarre structure. It was a tree, shooting up out of the water that looked almost to have grown into a specific shape, specifically that of a rather curvy woman. Around it were many, many smaller trees that looked like dozens of little children. It was beautiful.
"Where are we?" Amy asked, drawn in by the beauty of it all. River smiled at her, absolutely beaming.
"This is the Festival of the Forest Mother: The greatest celebration of motherhood in the universe."
Amy whipped her head around to gaze at River in astonishment.
"Happy Mother's Day, Amy."