//------------------------------// // 5 - Rose // Story: Gilded Lily // by Cosmic Cowboy //------------------------------// Three Months Later Applejack sported an unusually worried frown as she trotted through Ponyville on her way to Twilight’s castle. After losing a night’s sleep, she had decided that her time today was best used looking for answers. Ponies gave her concerned looks as she passed, but if she noticed it she didn’t show it; she was too busy replaying yesterday’s incident in her mind. Applebloom had come home right after school, just like she had been doing for the past couple months. Applejack was worried that her sister wasn’t spending as much time with her friends as she used to, and she decided it was high time to find out why. Things had taken an unexpected turn. “Come on, Applebloom! You can’t give up on yer Cutie Mark huntin’!” “What’s the point? Nothin’ works. It’s not comin’! Ah might as well start getting used t’livin’ life as a blank flank.” “Shucks, Applebloom! You know better than that! You’ll get your Cutie Mark eventually, just like everypony else! That’s the way it is! Ah promise!” “No! That’s not true, sis! Ah met a pony who never got her Cutie Mark! What if Ah’m like her? What if mine never comes?” Applejack had to admit, she hadn’t been expecting that, and she also had to admit she didn’t really believe her sister. But when she pressed her for an explanation, Applebloom looked spooked for some reason, and ran straight up to her room, a guilty look on her face. She hadn’t spoken a word to her sister since. Applebloom’s claim kept Applejack up all night. Could there really be a pony out there who never received a Cutie Mark, like she said? Wasn’t it more likely that there had been some sort of mix-up? But even the thought that such a thing was possible was quickly poisoning Applebloom’s hope of ever finding her own. So, for her sister’s sake more than anything else, Applejack had to know for sure. So, she was headed to Twilight’s. “You’re sure that’s what she said? A pony who never got her Cutie Mark?” “Yep. Those were her exact words, near as ah can remember. So what d’ya think? Could she be right?” Twilight scrunched her face in thought. “Hmm. I’ve never heard of such a thing, but who knows? I wonder where they would keep records of something like that.” Applejack looked incredibly anxious. “So, you think she’s right? You think she really did meet a pony like that?” “Oh, I doubt it,” Twilight said, stepping over to a bookshelf and scanning the titles. “It’s far more likely there was some misunderstanding. Maybe she met an actor in makeup or something. The troupe that staged Blueblood VIII here a while ago does that, to paint on new Cutie Marks as part of their costumes. It might have even been a prank.” She took down a sharp-looking arcane medical journal, then paused in thought. “That’d be a pretty mean-spirited prank to pull, though. I hope no one we know was behind it.” “Ah don’t know if that’s a comfortin’ thought or not. Please, Twilight. Could you find out fer me if this is really possible or not? Applebloom needs some help, and ah can’t give it to her ‘til ah know fer sure.” Twilight smiled and began flipping through the book. “I understand completely. Of course I’ll help. I’ll let you know as soon as I find anything. But don’t worry too much. I’ve done a bit of reading about this sort of thing before,” she said with a smirk, “and I’ve never found anything that suggests a pony can reach adulthood without ever receiving a Cutie Mark.” Applejack sighed and turned to go. “Ah trust you, Twilight. But ah also wanna trust mah sister.” Twilight smiled more warmly as she watched her friend leave the library, then focused all her attention on her research. “That’s my Applejack.” Over the course of the next month, Twilight’s research didn’t turn up any results aside from a lot of respectable scholars testifying that Cutie Marks are a magic inherent in the species, without exception, and neither Applebloom nor her friends would say anything more on the matter. Sweetie Belle mimed zipping her lips when she was asked about it, and answered in unintelligible mumbles. Applejack stopped asking about it three weeks in, and gave the former Crusaders a stern lecture about not letting this get in the way of their friendship, Mark-less pony or not. The trio began to be seen together again, and even though there was less method to their madness, they continued to get into considerably more trouble than the average young pony. It was a remarkably sunny Wednesday, but it was an unusually slow one for Applejack's market stand. “Horsefeathers.” Applejack looked up from counting her stock to see Twilight Sparkle scowling in the direction of the Everfree Forest. “What’s wrong, sugarcube?” “Zecora got away again. I’ve been meaning to ask her something for months, but she’s always too busy for some reason or another. This time she has to run back to add an ingredient she bought to a brew, before it burns down her hut.” “Yeah, ah can imagine how that might be kinda important. What’d you wanna ask her about?” Twilight suddenly looked sheepish. “Oh, just something silly. I hope.” “What’s that?” “Apparently she knows of some Wereponies in the Everfree Forest. I want to make sure they aren’t going to be a problem. I’ve read that they can be very unpredictable.” “Are you guys talkin’ about Equiwolves?” Applebloom asked, rounding the corner of a building with her two best friends. “Echo-what now?” Applejack asked, confused. “Don’t ask,” Twilight said with a flat look. “The girls were actually the ones who brought it to my attention in the first place.” “Yep! Twilight and Spike helped us find books about them! We still haven’t met one yet, though.” Scootaloo added. “Ah should hope not! Ah don’t want any’a y’all going near a Werepony!” Applejack scolded. “You stay away from the Forest, and quit gettin’ these ideas in yer heads about looking for ways to get yourselves eaten by monsters!” “Okay,” the fillies sighed in unison. Twilight brightened as she remembered something. “Hey, did you girls ever find the author of Aurea Lillium? I never asked how that turned out.” “Aurea Lillium?” Applejack asked. “Ain’t that that advice column in the paper? Granny’s always askin’ for it as soon as the paper gets delivered. Ah didn’t know you three were lookin’ fer the author.” “Yeah, we found her”, Sweetie Belle began, “But she-” She was cut off as her comrades smacked her hard in the back of the head and gave her warning looks. Twilight and Applejack looked on with raised eyebrows. “Uh, girls? Y’mind tellin’ us what’s goin’ on?” Scootaloo hurriedly spoke up. “It’s nothing. Sweetie Belle must be confused. We gave up looking for her ages ago.” Twilight and Applejack looked at each other, then back at the fillies. “Are you sure that-” “Well, bigplans, gottago, bye!” Sweetie Belle interrupted, and the trio ran off in a small stampede. The older mares watched them go, then looked at each other again. Applejack chuckled. “A big part of me hopes they never grow up.” Twilight still looked concerned. “What was that about? For a whole week, Aurea Lillium was all they could talk about. Now it sounds like they met her, but really don’t want to talk it. I wonder what happened?” Applejack snorted. “Shoot, Twilight. There ain’t nothin’ wrong with fillyhood secrets. It ain’t hurtin’ nopony.” “I guess…” Twilight said, still looking skeptical. “But still, I have a strange feeling about this. I think I might look into Aurea Lillium myself.” Twilight was getting very frustrated. Remembering the steps of the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ search for Lillium, she had started with Pinkie Pie, to see if she could anything useful out of her. It had gone about as well as she expected. She should have known that Pinkie would never go even slightly against the promise she had named after herself. Then she had gone to the Post Office, hoping to find clues as to where the Ponyville Express sent Lillium's mail. The staff there were downright uncooperative, and Twilight was very tempted to exercise her new authority and order them to help her. In the end, her rational self prevailed, and she did what she could with what she had to work with. She found nothing helpful at the Post Office, and so decided to ask at the Express itself. The receptionist at the Express had turned out to be one of those ponies - the ones that got all grovel-ey when they saw her wings and horn. She had been happy to do whatever she could to help, but it turned out she didn’t have any information on the author of Lillium. She quickly sent Twilight up to meet the Lifestyle Editor, Ink Blot. He had been sympathetic to her search, but steadfastly refused to reveal anything about the columnist. Princess Twilight Sparkle was starting to get really annoyed. Princess Celestia, at this point, probably would have gotten an investigator of some sort to continue the search for her. The thought never crossed Twilight’s mind. Her thoughts weren’t on the Crusaders anymore, they were entirely focused on this mystery mare. It was starting to become personal, and Spike was getting worried. Twilight spent most of her time shut up in her study, poring over old articles, a map of Ponyville and the surrounding area, spellbooks for tracking and location, and especially over drafts and drafts of a very special letter. After days of revision, she was finally satisfied with it, and had enchanted it to lead her right to that slippery columnist as soon as it reached its destination. “Foolproof!” she declared to herself as she dropped the purple envelope into the mailbox. Spike looked over her disheveled, manic appearance and privately disagreed with her conclusion. A prod to the nose woke Rainbow Dash from one of the best afternoon naps she had had in weeks. She sputtered and brushed away the offending hoof, and looked up to identify the target of her wrath as Cloudchaser, hovering next to her napping cloud. “What do you want, Cloudchaser?” “Sorry, Miss Dash. But wasn’t somepony supposed to put those Froggy Bottom Bog rainclouds by the dam for the shower yesterday?” Rainbow Dash groaned. “Aw jeez, I forgot we missed that one. That was… Ditzy’s job.” Neither of the pegasi looked surprised. Rainbow jumped up from her napping cloud, outraged. “What is up with that mare lately? Those clouds were supposed to be there last week! They were supposed to get loaded up from the spray of the dam! Now there’s no way we’ll make rain quota this month.” “Well, um, actually,” Cloudchaser began meekly, “we could still make it with one big storm. There are a bunch of wild clouds over the Everfree we could use. We could have it ready by tomorrow night.” “Ah, I hate makeup storms,” Rainbow complained. “But I guess that’s our only way out of this, or else the Earth Ponies won’t give me any peace for the next month. I’ll get the weather team together and start wrangling those wild clouds, you round up all the reserve members and spread the word around town to get ready, we’ll spring this thing tomorrow night at seven. I don’t want any disasters this time.” Lily worked her jaw after setting down her groceries. She wondered briefly if it was worth being a minotaur, just to have hands. It wasn’t the first time she had that thought. The delivery this morning was made by a different colt than she usually got. She was surprised he knew the way to her house. This one actually stayed to chat after dropping off the groceries on her porch, about how his dad got called away from work to do something for the weather team today. Then he went on gushing about Blueblood VIII of all things. Poor kid had seen the show three months ago and was still going on about it. Lily had forgotten that was in town, and felt a pang of disappointment that she had missed it. She didn’t let it show to the fanboy, though. It had been a long time since she had gone into town for anything like a play, and she kind of missed it. She really hadn’t been in the mood for social interaction or, Celestia forbid, effort in recent weeks. She was busier than ever now that her column was being printed across the country. But strangely, she felt more and more reluctant to do much of anything. Just getting out of bed in the morning was getting to be an uphill battle. She put everything away, then sat around and did pretty much nothing for most of the day. She tried rereading one of her old favorite stories, but put it down half an hour later to sprawl on the couch and wallow in her boredom. She looked up at the clock; six fifteen. Where in Equestria was Ditzy Doo? Lily got up and began pacing. Ditzy had never been this late before. She peeked out a window; it looked like there was going to be a storm tonight. Lily shivered. This would be the first big storm since she had moved into this cloud cottage. She wasn’t looking forward to the experience. Ditzy’s characteristic pattern of clops sounding from the front door startled her out of her thoughts. She flew to the door and swept it aside, relieved that Ditzy had shown up and angry with her for being late. “Hey there, Miss Lily! Got your mail!” “Where have you been, Ditzy? Should you be flying around this late with that storm brewing?” “Rain or shine, Miss Lily!” “Wait, aren’t you in the weather team reserves, Ditzy? Shouldn’t you be helping with the storm instead of delivering mail? You’re not the only pegasus at the Post Office, you know.” Ditzy didn’t respond, unsurprisingly. She just rummaged through her bag to hand Lily her usual hefty wad of envelopes. Lily flipped through them. Mostly letters for the column, from as far away as Las Pegasus today. One purple envelope caught her eye especially, from “Your Closest Follower”. Creepy. Lily sighed. Another party invitation from Pinkie Pie. That one she tossed off the porch without a second glance. Pausing, she looked up to regard Ditzy Doo. “Say Ditzy, does anyone on the weather team know I live here, aside from you?” she asked, tentatively. Ditzy just stared at her, swaying slightly in the growing breeze. Something about her expression seemed a little out of focus. Dreamy, almost. “Are you okay, Ditzy? You seem more distracted than usual.” No response. Lily bit her lip. “I’m the last stop on your route, right?” Ditzy nodded animatedly. “Why don’t you stay here for a while? I’ve got some muffins I wasn’t planning to eat all myself.” “Okay!” Lily stepped aside for her mailmare to come inside, then looked up at the rumbling stormclouds overhead. A stray raindrop hit her on the nose, and she ducked back inside and began closing windows wherever she could, while Ditzy went on and on breathily about some doctor she had been seeing for the past two weeks. Rainbow Dash sat at the head of a table in Twilight’s castle, surrounded by her storm team, looking over a large map of Ponyville. “Cloudchaser, you’re sure the whole town’s ready?” Cloudchaser nodded. “Trees are ready, everypony’s inside. We’re good to go.” “Animals?” “Ready,” Fluttershy said meekly. “Lightning rods?” “Check!” Twilight said happily, ecstatic to be part of the storm team. “Cloud houses?” Cloudchaser rolled her eyes. “There’s just yours, ma’am. Like always. We moved it out of the storm’s range.” “Thank goodness. I’m not taking any chances with a storm this big, so we’re going through the whole checklist just to be sure.” “Ma’am, I already did. Twice. With help from Princess Twilight. We’re ready to go.” Rainbow held her breath and stared hard at the map. “What’s wrong, Dash?” Thunderlane asked nervously. “You’re not afraid, are you?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “No! Of course not! It’s just… we’ve never pulled off a storm this big before, and I’ve got a weird feeling about it.” Cloudchaser draped a wing comfortingly over her captain’s back. “That’s only because we’ve never tried.” Rainbow Dash sighed, then looked around the table again. “Okay, send Stormwalker the signal. Let’s rock.”