//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: Family Junction Dilemma Part 1 // Story: Tiger Lily's Friendship Adventures // by Pinkie Pie Sweets //------------------------------// Tiger Lily is tending to her garden one afternoon, and it's a very nice and sunny day for gardening. Tiger Lily is pulling out some veggies, picking some fruits and berries, and taking out all the weeds. She also make sure the plants get food, water, sunshine, and lots of love. Her garden is always open to everypony in Ponyville, and she loves to be around everypony in town. Tiger Lily sighs happily, and says, "It sure is a nice day to be tending my garden. I also love the nice weather. Nothing can't make this day even better." Tiger Lily then uses her magic to help put the berries in her basket. Just then, Tiger Lily starts to feel a bit funny. She turns to her flank to see that it's flashing and glowing. "That's strange, my cutie mark never happened before. But… I felt like I have seen it before," Tiger Lily replies as she tries to remember where she has seen this mark patten. Tiger Lily thinks very hard to remember where she seen a glowing cutie mark before. She gasps as she remembers where she's seen it. Fluttershy's cutie mark has glow and flashed when she is summoned to the castle. And she and Twilight have been called for a friendship problem one day. Realizing this, Tiger Lily says to herself, "I need to get to the castle, and fast." Tiger Lily then quickly put the baskets with her fruits, vegetables, and berries into the house, lock the door, and flies off to Twilight's castle. Tiger Lily needs to hurry, and in a way very excited about it. She is being summoned by the map at Twilight's castle to solve a friendship problem that only she can do, but think one of the girls might join her. At Twilight's castle, she, Starlight, and Spike are reading their books at the balcony. Since it's a nice say, they decide to ready in the nice warm sun. Starlight sghs, and says, "It sure is nice to read a good book." "I know. I can catch up on the Power Ponies' comic," Spike agrees. Twilight nods her head as she reads her book. Then all three continue to read their books, and comic book. Just then, they hear Tiger Lily's voice screaming, "Hey guys!?" The three look to see Tiger Lily is flying this way. From the looks of it, she is excited and flying here pretty fast. When Tiger Lily, reaches the balcony, she stops and camly lands on the ground, not like how Rainbow Dash lands. Happy to see her cousin, Starlight says, "Hey Tiger Lily, what brings your here?" "Take a look at my cutie mark. It's glowing," TigerLily says excitedly and showing her flank. The three gasp to see that Tiger Lily's cutie mark is glowing and shimmering. Starlight and Spike are showing smiles on their faces, while Twilight is speechless. Breaking the silence, Twilight happily cheers, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! You're going to get your first friendship mission. This is so exciting." "Maybe we should find out where Tiger Lily is going for her friendship mission," Starlight replies. Twilight blushes a bit, and says, "Right." The four go to the throne room to see where Tiger Lily will be going for her friendship mission. They look to see Tiger Lily's cutie mark is at a place somewhere in the desert. Tiger Lily is rather confused because she has never been to a desert like land. "What's that place?" Tiger Lily asks. "That's Dodge Junction. That's across from Appleloosa," Twilight answers. "And that's where my friendship problem that I need to be solved is at," Tiger Lily says. "Looks like it. Although, it shows that you need to go a little bit away from there," Starlight answers. "You're right," Spike arees, looking at the map. "I wonder what friendship problem that I will be solving?" Tiger Lily asks. "The only way for you to find out is to head over there," Twilight answers. Tiger Lily looks at the map, wondering what kind of friendship Problem that she needs to solve. Tiger Lily catches the bus to Dodge Junction and is on the train o find the friendship problem. As she wait in the car, Tiger Lily feels nervous about this. She has never solved a friendship problem before, and has to do it all by herself. She really hopes she can do it. Sometime later, the train is riding the rails through the desert. Tiger Lily looked outside to see a small yet busy town. She then hear the conductor calls out, "Next stop, Dodge Junction!" Tiger Lily looks to see the train is stopping so she knows that he needs to get off. Tiger Lily uses her magic to grab her saddle bag with a few other things, and walk out of the train. She uses her magic to take the map, and look to see where her destination is at. Sadly, she is no sure where she really needs to go, so she decides to ask somepony for help. She sees a light green earth pony mare wearing a white cowgirl hat and decides to ask her. She comes up on the pony, and asks, "Um excuse me, do you know where I can find this place?" "I know where it is, but you shouldn't go there," The mare worriedly answer. "Why not?" Tiger Lily asks. The mare becomes a bit concrn and explains, "Well, the family at that house is going through one of their, um, squabbles, so you might not want to go there." "Really?" Tiger Lily asks. "Yeah. So take my advice and stay away from that house until things are cool down," The mare advise. The mare then walks away going to do her business. Tier ily wonders if that's where the problem will be. She decides to at least check out to see what is going on, and see if she can help. Tiger Lily arrives at the house to see that it's big, and blue. It has two floors with four windows on the front, a red roof, and a mailbox down on a dirt road. Tiger Lily walks over to the front door so she can knock, but stops when she hears multiple voices who are shouting and yelling at each other. Tiger Lily becomes a bit scared about knocking on the door, and wondering what the ponies are arguing about. Taking a bit of courage, Tiger Lily slowly knocks on the door, but make her to knock it hard so somepony will hear. The doors open and a light orange old earth pony mare walks out. She has light green man in a bun, and wears small glasses and a scarf. Her cutie mark is a yarn ball with knitting needles on it. The mare smiles and says, "Oh, hello dearie! What can I do for you?" "Um well, I think the real question is, um, what can… I do for you?" Tiger Lily shyly asks. "I don't think we need anything," The old mare says. Just then, she hears shouting and arguing, and it sounds like three stallions yelling at each other. The old mare rolls her eyes in response. Tiger Lily takes a deep breath and explains, "My name is Tiger Lily, and I'm sent here to solve a friendship problem that happens to be right here. So I think whoever is yelling is the one with the friendship problem." "It's more of a family problem than a friendship problem," The old mare says. "Maybe I can help you," Tiger Lily says with a calm smile. "I don't know if you can help, but you can hear out what happened," The old mare says. Then she says, "My name is Woolen Yarn." "It's nice to meet you," Tiger Lily replies. Woolen Yarn leads Tiger Lily into the house to see two grown stallions and a old stallion arguing with each other. The old pegasus stallion is greenish yellow color, white less curly mane, hazel eyes, and his cutie mark is cloud with raindrops under it and he is wearing a light tan shirt, and is rocking on a chair. The two adult stallions are arguing each other. One is white pegasus with dark green hooves, curly light red hair, green eyes, and his cuite make is a yellow thunderbolt. The other one blue earth pony, with black curly hair, green eyes, and his cutie mark is a plow digging the earth. The two stallions continue arguing while the stallion is yelling at them to stop. Tiger Lily is starting to feel a bit scared to see all this arguing, and don't know if she should do something. Woolen Yarn angrily shouts, "Will you two stop all this nonsense, we have a guest here?" The two grown stallions look to see Tiger Lily and wonder who she is and why she's here. The old stallion sees the girl and asks, "Who is this nice young mare who is paying us a visit?" Woolen Yarn says, "Tiger Lily this is my husband. Rain Storm." "Hello," Tiger Lily shyly replies. "And these are my sons, The one with the plow is my son Earth Plow. The one with the thunderbolt is Lighting Strike." Woolen Yarn says. "Hey," Lighting Strike mutters in anger. "Please to meet you," Earth Plow replies. "It's nice to meet you too," Tiger Lily shyly replies. Then Rain Storm asks, "So what's a nice lady doing here off all places?" "Well I was sent here to solve a friendship problem, and it lead me to all of you. I like to know what the problem is s that can help you fix," TigerLily explains with a calm smile. Lightning brushes her off as he says, "Please, we don't need fixing because this problem doesn't involve you." "Lighting you're being rude to her," Earth Plow disapproves. "Why? It's none of her business!" Lightning resents. "Now boys, don't go arguing in front of this sweet girl who come to help us," Rain Storm says. Tiger Lily turns to Woolen Yarn and asks, "How long have those two been like this?" "Let's talk somewhere a little more private, okay," Woolen Yarn replies. Tiger Lily simply nods her head agreeing to the idea. The two grown stallions begin to argue while Rain Storm tries to get them to stop. Woolen Yarn leads Tiger Lily to the attic of her home. Once the two are in the attic, Woolen Yarn closes the door so the can talk in private. Woolen Yarn then brings out a picture as she explains, "It started years ago when they were young foals. Back then, they were actually triplets, and they all used to be so happy." "Something bad happened, didn't it?" Tiger Lily sadly asks. Woolen looks away with a sad look and shows her the picture. It's the picture of her and her family in a younger age. The two stallions are young foals in this picture and there's another one. The colt is yellow greenish fur, hazelnut eyes, bright orange curly mane, tail, hoofs are a dark green color, and his cutie mark is a silhouette of a sparrow doing a sonic boom. Tiger Lily gasps to see that the young colt looks familiar to her. "W-what is the colt's name?" Tiger Lily asks. Woolen Yarn sadly explains, "His name was Sonic Boom. When he was young he always wanted to be a Wonderbolt, and got a cutie mark to show for it. Sadly, my husband and my son Lightning disapprove it while Earth Plow and I want him to follow his dream." "One night, we all go into a terrible fight involving with his future. About having enough of our screaming and yelling about his life, Sonic decides to move out and leave. I don't blame him for not leaving, but I wish I could at last see him one last time. Ever since he left, our family haven't been the same, and the boys are always arguing almost everyday and my husband and I kept trying to break them up," Woolen Yard adds as she begin to shed tears. Tiger lily is shocked to hear all of this, and understand the problem among this family. Problem is, is that the there is one member of the family that is not around… not anymore. Tiger Lily hugs Woolen Yarn and tries her best to confront her. TigerLily sadly says, "I'm sorry about what happened. I wish there is a way I can solve this problem. I don't know what, but I'm willing to do my best to help get your family together." "Thank you dearie," Woolen Yarn happily says, ad wiping the tear from her face. Tiger lily asks, "Have you ever heard from him again?" "Well, I've been secretly keeping letters from him and it shows that he is married to a wonderful unicorn named Teacakes. Sadly I haven't heard from him for years after he was married other than he was living in White Tail Woods with her, but that's about it. I sometime wonder why," Woolen Yarn answers. Woolen Yarn begins to make her way to the door as she says, "I'll go get you a snack and something to drink." "Thank you," Tiger Lily replies with a sad smile. Woolen Yarn then opens the door and head downstairs to bring Tiger Lily something to at. Tiger Lily looks at the photo agan to see the happy family that end up with a terrible event. Se is very stunned to see who is in the picture. Still stunned, Tiger Lily sadly says, "The young colt in the picture… is… is my dad!" Tiger Lily realizes the pony family she supposed to help with friendship problem is the family from her father side of the family. What's more, her family doesn't seem to know her at all so this is going to make it hard for her because the family doesn't know that her dad is gone and will never seen him again. Tiger Lily worriedly asks herself, "What am I going to do now?"