//------------------------------// // 7 - Dandelion // Story: Gilded Lily // by Cosmic Cowboy //------------------------------// Lily turned away from looking out the window as a knock came from her door. Oh please be the mail, she pleaded silently. The first thing she had done, after settling in to her new accommodations, was send a letter to Glow News informing them of her change in address. Then she had sent instructions to the Post Office to forward any mail that was already headed for her old home to her new, temporary one. Her first deadline since the big storm was coming up in two days. Since all of her mail had been lost along with the house, she had no questions to answer in her column this week and she was starting to feel some pressure about getting it in on time. Thus, she was getting pretty near desperate for something to answer. She made it to the door a bit faster than she normally might have, and opened it eagerly... only to be disappointed by finding a Princess of Equestria on the other side. “Did you bring me any mail?” Lily asked before Twilight could so much as open her mouth. Twilight blinked at her, then shook her head apologetically. Lily groaned and made as if to close the door. “Hold on,” Twilight said, sticking a hoof in the door’s path, “I wanted to talk to you, Lily. I’m worried about you!” Lily gave her a long-suffering look and said nothing. “Are you doing okay? You’ve barely left your room since the storm.” “I’m fine,” Lily said, looking to finish the conversation quickly. “Are you sure? That was quite the ordeal you and Ditzy Doo went through... I can only imagine how you must be feeling right now.” Lily gave Twilight a look that said her time was being wasted. “Is that all you wanted? To ask me how I’m feeling?” Twilight looked unsure. “Well, I was kinda hoping we could just… you know, talk.” Lily raised an eyebrow. “Talk?” “Yeah.” “About what?” “Well,” Twilight said, looking around the guestroom, “did you get a chance to read any of the books I sent you?” Lily looked over to her bookshelf, packed tight with novels of all sizes. “Yeah, I read that I Am Demon one, about Clover the Clever. That was pretty good. Though, I’ve never read much historical fiction before.” “Ooh, that’s one of my favorites! Didn’t you love the way the author talks about emotions and colors?” To Lily’s surprise, and Twilight’s relief, they actually shared a pleasant conversation about their favorite works of fiction. Lily was actually smiling. Twilight was delighted to discover that Lily was an avid reader, though she hadn’t read nearly as much material as Twilight had. It  made sense considering that one of them had had unrestricted access to the Royal Library for most of her life while the other was a decided homebody. That thought led Twilight to a realization. “Wait, you’re the one that always requested books by mail!” Lily looked puzzled. “How would you know that?” Twilight smiled. “I was the Golden Oaks librarian for a few years, before it was destroyed and I got this castle instead. Spike or Owloysius always handled the library mail, but I remember Spike mentioning a pony who had a weird address and wrote in for certain books and recommendations every week or so. He used to ask me what books you might like.” Lily smirked. “Yeah, that was probably me. I… kinda stopped coming into town for anything after I moved into my cloud cottage. After the parasprite thing, I figured the trip wasn’t worth it.” “Parasprites?” “Yeah, they completely demolished my old house on the ground. I... didn’t have a lot of money then, so I built my own house out of clouds instead. I’ve never seen them act like they did that day. I wonder what got into them?” Twilight chuckled nervously. “Yeah, who knows?” “You know, you’d be surprised at all the stuff you can do through the mail. The only time I had to come to Ponyville in the last year was to take the train to Manehatten to figure out my syndication.” Twilight pursed her lips, debating with herself for a second before she spoke. “Hey Lily, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” Lily looked up expectantly. “Yeah?” “If you don’t mind me asking… ‘cause I know this must be kinda sensitive for you…” Lily’s face fell a little with every word Twilight uttered. “Do you… you know… know what your special talent is?” There it was. Lily looked down as she thought of her answer, then she snorted. “Well, it’s definitely not column-writing, if that’s what you’re thinking.” “No?” Lily shook her head. “No, anypony could do it. All you have to do is answer questions. I’m not an expert or anything. There are no qualifications, you just think about things objectively and write whatever makes the most sense. I just got to thinking about it one day, so I submitted the idea to the Express, and they put it in, set it all up for me. I’ve just been sort of doing it ever since. No epiphany, no passion, nothing like you’d get from a special talent. It’s a job.” By the end of her speech she looked, if not glum, at least resigned to her life. Twilight was disappointed that there wasn’t anything more interesting to Lily’s story, but she felt sorry for the mare all the same. “It hurts a lot, doesn’t it?” Lily sucked in a deep breath. Their eyes met, and suddenly Twilight had an inexplicable feeling that whatever they had just gained, she had just lost a little, somehow. “Really, I’m okay. You don’t need to worry about me. The house is gone, but I have a place to stay until I get around to building a new one. I got over the Cutie Mark thing a long time ago. Honestly, my biggest worry right now is my deadline. If I don’t get some mail to answer soon, I’ll have to write the syndicate and tell them to reprint some older letters for this week.” She sighed and turned back to the window. “Along with an apology to everyone who already wrote in this week.” Huh, another lumber delivery. Lily thought to herself as she looked down at the streets of Ponyville below. I wonder where it’s all going? Something was telling Twilight that the friendly conversation was over, and her welcome had worn out. With a pained grimace, she decided that ‘something’ was right. “Well, Lily, it was nice to talk to you. Do you want to come down to join us for dinner tonight? I’m sure Spike would love to finally meet his pen pal.” “We’ll see,” Lily answered without looking back at her. “Depends on whether or not I get any mail today or not.” “Alright. Would you like me to get you some more books to read?” “That would be great, thanks.” “Alright. Goodbye, Lily.” “Goodbye, Twilight.” Twilight closed the door and turned to walk away, feeling worse now than she had before trying to cheer Lily up. Lily received some letters the next day, but didn’t have time to write up a column for that week, so she saved them for later and had Glow News reprint an older one with her apology. Most of Twilight’s friends stopped by throughout the next week, except for Applejack, who was too busy helping to coordinating things at the farm. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy both tried twice. None of them made as much progress with Lily as Twilight had, and with each attempt she seemed more and more closed off to them. Rarity reflected that perhaps they weren’t as subtle about it as maybe they should have been. Pinkie Pie had never applied the word ‘subtle’ to herself in her life or allowed anyone to in her hearing (“Subtle parties are boring! Remember the Gala? So much fun when it got un-subtle!”), and she hadn’t given up yet. She assured her friends that she and Applejack had been working on an ace in the hole, and when the plan was laid out, everyone immediately regained all their lost confidence in Operation: Wilted Lily. For a Pinkie Pie plan, it was actually remarkably subtle (not that she would admit that, of course). The only thing that Lily noticed was the confetti the invitation shot in her face, and, suddenly, Pinkie Pie! “HEY, Lily!” Pinkie Pie shouted from an unacceptable lack of distance. “You always seem to misplace my invitations, so I came by personally to invite you!” Lily sighed and braced herself, much like she was used to doing when interacting with Ditzy Doo. “What is it this time, Pinkie?” “A PARTY!” Pinkie Pie shouted predictably, producing party hats for the two of them. “You’ve already invited me personally to two parties this week, Pinkie. My answer’s still the same as it was then.” “Oh, but this one’s different!” Pinkie protested enthusiastically. “More different than the last one was supposed to be?” “Yeah! The first one was Blossomforth’s birthday party, and the second one was Rainbow Dash’s Wonderbolt-Academy-Acceptance-Anniversary Party! Completely different!” Lily had to concede that point. “So what’s different about this one?” “This one’s all for you!” “Me?” That caught Lily off guard. She got an invitation from Pinkie for her own birthday party every year, but her next birthday was still four months away. The thought that Pinkie Pie might have gotten the date of her birthday wrong almost made Lily laugh aloud. “What for?” “It’s a Welcome-Back-To-Ponyville party, since you’re living in town again!” Lily looked at her doubtfully. “Really?” “Yepperooni! It’s going to be great! We’re having it down at Sweet Apple Acres, because there are gonna be tons and tons of ponies there! And we can’t have it without you!” Lily narrowed her eyes. Well played, Miss Pie. But I won’t give in that easily. “And when is this party taking place?” “Friday night at six!” Lily almost grinned smugly, but managed to make it look disappointed and apologetic instead. “Oh, shoot, that’s my busiest night of the week! My deadline is Saturday, so Friday is the night I do the most writing for the column! Looks like I can’t come.” “Oh, don’t worry about that. I brought help!” Pinkie assured her, reaching back out into the hallway and swiftly pulling a dazed-looking Applebloom into the guestroom. “What.” “Applebloom here will help you finish answering all those letters in time for the party! See you Friday!” And with that, Pinkie Pie left without waiting for a response. “Wait, Pinkie!” Lily sighed. Pinkie was long gone. Lily looked down at Applebloom and asked, “So, how did you get roped into this?” “Oh, it was mah idea,” the Earth Pony filly said, walking over to the humongous stack of letters on Lily’s writing desk. “Ah wanted to see what your job is like, and ah figured you could use some help.” Lily watched her, then sighed and followed her with a smile. If she wanted to help... “Well, let’s get started, then. Grab some letters and start skimming.” Applebloom looked at a return address, then tore open the envelope with her teeth and a hoof. “So what sorta letters are we looking for?” Lily was sitting on her stool and comparing two open letters side by side. “Well… two things, I guess. First, we’re looking for problems that are interesting, things that will catch the reader’s eye or that we can make into a cool headline. But just as importantly, it has to be a problem that a lot of readers can relate to. No one cares about your problem if it has nothing to do with anyone else’s life but yours. I guess we want well-written letters, too.” “Hmm…” Applebloom began, rubbing her chin. “What about this pony? He says he has a pet cockatrice that won’t leave his cats alone.” Lily snorted. “Set it in a pile aside there. I won’t answer it in the column, but I’ll write him back to tell him he’s an idiot.” Applebloom looked up at her with wide eyes. “Really?” Lily smiled at her. “No, not really. He is an idiot, but I won’t call him one. I’ll tell him to consider getting rid of the cockatrice, or maybe the cats. I don’t know. Oh, here’s a good one. This mare lives next to a noblestallion in Canterlot, and she wants to know what she should do with such lousy neighbor. That’ll be a fun one for them to read. Let’s put this in the ‘column’ pile.” “How about this? ‘Ah’m worried about mah husband. He-’” She was interrupted by Lily taking the letter from her hooves and flinging it vaguely in the direction of a trash bin. “I get way too many ‘worried wife’ letters.” She explained. “When I first started doing this, I actually got complaints from readers that I was answering too many of them and not enough of anything else, but that was only because I got so many of them. Some weeks that’s all I would get. But now that I’m national, I have to be a lot more picky about what makes it into the column. Unless something in a ‘worried wife’ letter really stands out, just toss it. I usually answer one every week or so, but you can let me worry about those ones. You’re not missing much.” They worked in silence for a while, sorting letters. Lily waited expectantly for the question she knew would come, but Applebloom just sat there patiently, reading through letter after letter. After half an hour of waiting, Lily decided to do some fishing. “So Applebloom, how’s your Crusader club going? I’ve heard a lot about you three since I’ve been here.” “Hm? Oh, it’s okay. We haven’t done any actual Crusadin’ for a while now.” “How come?” Applebloom pondered that for a moment, then answered, “Ah guess we sorta gave up after we met you. We got over it later, but we never really started Crusadin’ again.” Lily was shocked. “Oh, Applebloom, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to discourage you and your friends. I don’t know what I was thinking that day.” Applebloom shrugged. “Weren’t nothin’ you did. Just seein’ a grown-up pony without a Cutie Mark scared us real good, I think. But Twilight told us about you bein’... well, what you are an’ all, and how we can’t end up like you. No offense!” she added quickly. Lily smiled. “Don’t worry. I knew what I was in for since I first understood what a Cutie Mark was. Believe me, if you were like me, you would know. You’ll get your Cutie Mark someday. Someday soon, I bet.” “Y’really think so?” Lily nodded. “I sure do. Every pony gets one eventually. Even me, probably,” she said, looking back at her rump. “What d’ya think your Cutie Mark would look like if you could see it?” Lily chuckled. She had often asked herself that question, when she was younger. “I don’t know. But that’s the great thing about being someone like me. I can make it whatever I want. I used to joke with my friends that I had a special talent in hiding.” Applebloom giggled. When she caught her breath, she asked a more serious question. “So did you and your friends Crusade for Cutie Marks like we do?” “We did, for a while. I tried everything, even though the doctors told me that I would never be able to see the result. If I ever did get it, I don’t remember what I was doing, since we tried so many things. Eventually they all started moving on, getting their own Cutie Marks. We didn’t hang out much after that, even the ones that still hadn’t gotten theirs. I miss them sometimes, they were my best friends. Don’t let that happen to you and your friends!” “Ah won’t, ah promise. But if it happened to your best friends, how do we know it won’t happen to us?” Lily sighed. “Well, I’ve only talked to your friends once, but I think you have something special that me and my friends didn’t, I’m sad to say. Plus, you have another bonus. After my classmates found out what it meant to be someone like me, they all started to leave me out of things. I’m still not sure why they did it, but it… hurt, a lot.” There was half a minute of silence as Lily watched more delivery carts go by, heading out of town. Maybe Pinkie Pie was prepping early for the party. Applebloom decided it was time for a change of subject. “Lily, what does Aurea Lillium mean?” Lily smiled at her. “It’s fancy talk for ‘gilded lily’.” “What does that mean?” “It comes from a saying, ‘to gild a lily’. It means if something’s already beautiful, you don’t need to add anything to it. A lily is pretty enough already without being covered in gold, don’t you think?” “Why did you pick that name?” Lily laughed. “Mostly as a joke, since my name is Lily. But you know, I think now that it was something else, too. When I was in school and I was sad, my teacher would tell me not to worry about gilding my lily. She said I didn’t need a Cutie Mark to be special, that I was already as beautiful and unique as any flower. That helped me a lot.” She smiled fondly and looked off through the window toward Ponyville Elementary. “I think I named my column Gilded Lily because it made me feel special, helping ponies all over town with their problems. No one else was doing anything like it, so it was almost like I was following my passion, just like everypony else.” Applebloom listened raptly, waiting for her to go on. Lily turned back to her and smiled again. “But at the same time, I didn’t really want to see other ponies, because I knew that was I was doing wasn’t all that special, really. I still felt like an outsider whenever I was around others, so I started living far away from everypony else, and I wrote anonymously. But maybe I shouldn’t do that.” “Do what?” “Both. I think I’ll make my new house here in town, or at least at the edge. Peace and quiet is something I don’t want to give up. And I think I’ll start writing Lillium under my own name.” She paused and studied Applebloom thoughtfully for a moment. “You know, while I’m at it, I might take you guys up on your request.” Applebloom looked confused. “What request?” “The one from that first day we met. If you’re still interested, I would love to help you three find your talents.” Applebloom’s eyes widened. “You mean it?” Lily nodded. “I sure do.” Applebloom squee’d. “You can be our Cutie Mark Crusader Counselor! Yay!” Lily laughed, and set down the last letter in the “column” pile. “Well, Applebloom, it was wonderful talking to you. Thank you for your help. I don’t think I could have done this without you,” she said, only half referring to sorting her mail. “Are y’comin’ to the Party at our place on Friday? You could tell Scoots and Sweetie the good news there,” Applebloom pleaded. Lily considered it. “You know, I think I will. I’ll see you there!” “Bye, Miss Lily!” “Bye, Applebloom!” After she left, Lily walked over to her window and leaned on the sill, watching the street until she saw little Applebloom galloping away, taking the same road the deliveries had taken. Lily smiled wide and turned back to her work. Her eyes caught on the first “worried wife” letter she had thrown away, and she picked it up with a shrug. She felt like being extra helpful today.