//------------------------------// // Lilly // Story: Portal to Another World // by Backburner //------------------------------// Twilight couldn’t sleep, or she didn’t want to. Pinkie had gone to bed with minimal chatter and now Twilight was alone with only the sound of the pink pony’s breathing. All in all, telling the truth to her friends had gone over easier then she had expected, Rainbow Dash having caused the most fuss. Twilight had heard the verbal exchange between her and Applejack before a string of sobs from Fluttershy quieted them. Twilight quietly got up and walked to the door that had been left open by Pinkie when she had followed her to bed. There was no point in lying awake all night, so Twilight decided a quick walk followed by a glass of water might help her ease into sleep. Twilight rounded the corner of the hall and started to descend the stairs when she noticed a light on in the room she had left her saddlebag. As far as she knew everypony had gone to bed hours ago, so it was probably just left on by mistake. Upon reaching the ground floor and just prior to the lighted room, Twilight was abruptly halted by a small but familiar noise. Curious, she walked lightly over to the door and peered in. She saw Roger sitting on the couch looking through one of the many books that had lined his shelves, paying careful attention to each page. He wasn’t spending enough time on each page to actually read them, as the book was huge, but the kind of far away look he had made Twilight abandon her pretense of caution and walk unhindered over to him. “What book is that?” She asked. Roger looked up and Twilight could tell by the look in his eyes that he had been awake as long as she had. “It’s an old photo album, my wife used to keep them until Lilly started to become too much of a handful. This one is kind of a scrapbook, anything that didn’t fit in the others ended up here. I was just looking through it before Lilly arrives, hard to believe some of these were taken just a few months before she moved out.” Twilight walked over to Roger and joined him on the couch, looking at the book, she noticed the open page was full of family portraits. Roger looked a lot younger in the pictures than he did now. The pictures showed him with short black hair that was now starting to show the faintest shade of gray, and he was considerably tanner in the photo than he was now. Beside him was a woman who’s playful smile seemed to be stifling a laugh in every photo she was in. Curly red hair reminiscent of Pinkie Pie’s style came down to her shoulders and her tall thin body was a nice contrast to the younger looking Roger. Between the two was a young blond girl who gave a huge grin revealing a missing tooth. “What happened to you wife?” Twilight asked, she looked even younger than Roger in the pictures, it was hard to believe something had happened to her. Roger looked at the pictures for a moment collecting his thoughts before responding. “She was in town for something, groceries of one kind or another. She was getting out of the car when a stranger came up to her and demanded the keys. My wife was a trusting sort; she didn’t believe what was happening. She tried to ignore him but he pulled a gun on her.” That was another word Twilight had never heard before. “Why did he do that? I don’t know much about your technology but the gun couldn’t hurt her could it?” Roger said nothing as Twilight let her mind run through everything the dictionary had told her. After a long silence, she spoke again. “Why would you make something that could hurt you like that?” Roger looked at her with the saddest expression Twilight had ever seen. “Not everyone is kind to everybody else, and sometimes that means they put themselves before others. This man decided he needed our car more then my wife needed to come back to Lilly and me, so he acted accordingly.” “I’m sorry.” Twilight said, unable to grasp what it must feel like to lose somepony so suddenly. “Lilly took it harder than I did, she left the farm right after the funeral and I barely ever see her. It’s a miracle I got her to come back here on such short notice.” “Why didn’t you go with her?” “Well, for a number of reasons. I’m a farmer, that’s what I’ve been doing most of my life and we had invested too much in this farm for me to get up and leave. Plus I found ways to get around the grief that I don’t think Lilly had the benefit of.” “Like what?” “My wife had certain hobbies I could never understand when she was still alive, one of them was your show. Ponies aren’t something grown men and women watch, no offense. When she started to get interested I thought she was joking with me, but after asking me to look at it countless times I came to think of it as just a quirk in her personality and shoved off her attempts to get me to watch it. When she passed away I decided I’d give it a chance if for no other reason then to see why she had loved it so much, long story short I found out.” This was a lot for Twilight to take in. She was glad she had been able to help Roger get through his period of mourning but she still didn’t know how she felt about the show or this new revelation that his wife’s death was caused by another of his own kind. It was almost as if there was a rumbling in her head. Twilight shook her head to clear the noise but it wouldn’t go away. “Do you hear that?” Roger asked. Twilight looked up at Roger as two sharp horn blasts rang out. “Shoot, Lilly’s here! I wanted her to arrive before dawn so I could get a chance to talk to her before you ponies woke up. Quick, maybe we can sneak past her if we-” But as Roger stood and headed for the main door a car door slammed and a loud voice floated in. “Dad, I’m here!” “Shoot!” Roger hid near the door to the room and turned to Twilight. “Stay in here, I’m going to go talk to her.” Before Twilight could say anything Roger walked through the door and disappeared from Twilight’s view. Twilight heard the door open, and then Roger’s voice, “Lilly, it’s so good to see you come out all this way for your old man on such short notice.” Lilly’s voice was slightly rough in tone despite its sweet sound and expressed only faint joy at seeing her father. “Dad I only live twenty minutes away,” she said. “What are you doing downstairs? I thought you would be asleep.” Twilight tried not to move as the conversation played out, hopefully Roger could figure out what to say. “Oh I was just, sleeping on the couch.” “Again? I don’t know what you do out here to get you so tired, but whatever it is you do that way more often than you probably should. I still have no idea why you told me to get here so early.” “Well I actually have something to tell you.” Roger sounded nervous, Twilight just hoped Lilly couldn’t tell. “Well we can talk in the morning, I’m going to bed.” “NO!” Roger shouted making Twilight jump back into the coffee table, accidentally knocking the book onto the floor. The carpet muffled the thud it made but a thin sound escaped to Lilly and Roger’s ears. “Did you hear that?” Lilly said. “Is someone in the living room?” “No.” Roger said, “Listen honey I need to talk to you.” “Dad you know you’re a horrible liar, now who’s in there?” “Honey listen you have to understand that-” “Dad, tell me who’s in there or I’ll go check for myself.” Lilly’s response was plain and matter of fact, the consequences of what it could mean, however, made Twilight tense. “Lilly you have to listen, just let me explain and soon you’ll be on your way back home.” Lilly had taken a small, friendly pleasure in cutting through her father’s terrible ability to lie, but she was growing worried now that he was getting rather defensive. “Ok now I have to see, if you’re going to go through all this trouble to bring me here and hide something just to send me back.” Twilight panicked; desperately searching for a place to hide she dove under the sofa and tried not to make a sound. “Lilly as your father I’m asking you to please listen before you go in there, this is important.” “Dad, that’s not going to work.” Twilight heard rushed footsteps coming toward her and could see Roger’s feet in the doorway facing outward from under the couch. “Lilly just hold on a second, I promise I’ll show you in a second just please let me speak first.” Lilly made small, quiet steeps until she was standing directly in front of Roger. Twilight noticed how skinny her legs where compared to her fathers. “Let me explain, and then you can see.” “Alright dad you’ve blocked me, but you forgot something.” Roger stood motionless as Lilly, bolted from the doorway in the opposite direction. After a moment of confusion, Twilight figured out why. “She’s going for the other door.” Twilight half whispered. Roger realized she was right and tried to make it to the pantry door, bounding across the room. Roger arrived just as the door swung open and Lilly burst in. “Ha, caught you!” Lilly said as she slammed the door behind her to prevent Roger from pushing her back out. Seeing nothing there Lilly made a move to search the room only to be stopped by Roger. “Young lady you listen to your father. It’s crucial I get a word in with you right now.” Roger’s voice was harsher than Twilight had ever heard it before, but the adrenaline flowing through her veins numbed her response to the heavy sound. “Alright dad, I’ll just take a seat and you can tell me why it was so urgent I come today.” Lilly walked to, and sat down on the couch. Twilight had to press her head against the floor to avoid tipping off Lilly she was there. “Alright, spill the beans.” “Lilly,” Roger began, “do you remember what your mother liked to do before she passed away.” “Shop online, talk to me and my boyfriend, loiter around the house, am I getting warm?” “Well, do you know what type of shows she was interested in?” Lilly paused momentarily as if trying to remember. “Anything comedy really, South Park, Big Bang Theory, My Little Pony...” “Stop right there, that’s the one” Roger said as he approached to sit on the couch next to Lilly, much to Twilight’s dismay. “What, My Little Pony? What about it?” Lilly adjusted in her seat, causing a lose spring to quickly jab itself in the back of Twilight’s neck. On impulse, Twilight cringed and bumped the couch above her. Lilly shrieked, and stood up abruptly. “What was that?” she said “What was what?” Roger said, but before he could stand Lilly had dropped to all fours and looked under the couch, locking eyes with Twilight.” Lilly shrieked again, louder this time. Cats out of the bag now, Twilight thought. Lilly tried to stand but knocked into the coffee table toppling it. Scuttling behind it, she created a kind of shield between herself and Twilight. “WHAT IS THAT?” Lilly screamed. “Shh, don’t be so loud you’re going to wake the others.” Roger said standing up. “OTHERS?” Lilly screamed. “WHAT IS THAT THING?” Twilight wanted to say something or come out from under the couch, but anything she did would only result in Lilly unleashing another scream. “Lilly just listen, Twilight isn’t going to hurt you.” “Twilight? Twilight is a book dad, whatever’s under there isn’t a book it’s some sort of weird purple… it’s not a book.” Twilight could see Lilly putting a small bag onto the ground and ruffling around for something, before she found it however a new voice made itself known. “My word, what in Equestria happened in here?” Lilly whipped around to the doorway where Twilight could see Rarity was clearly standing. Lilly screamed again causing Rarity to wince. “Dad, please tell me this thing is as harmless as it looks or that I’m hallucinating, this can’t be real!” Twilight decided there was no point in hiding anymore now that Rarity was in plain view anyway. Crawling out from under the couch to the shocked and surprisingly silent Lilly and the desperately helpless Roger, Twilight tried to put on a smile and spoke softly, “Lilly it’s ok, everything is going to be fine.” “That one speaks,” Lilly said pointing to Twilight. “I mean the other one speaks to but I can understand that one. What do you want, why are you in my dad’s house!?” Lilly slowly scooted away as she said this never, letting Rarity or Twilight out of her sight. “KEEP IT QUIET DOWN THERE, SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!” Rainbow Dash called from upstairs. Lilly was a bundle of nerves darting her head around the room, Twilight was unsure if she was looking for a way to escape, or searching for another place a pony could be hiding. Twilight turned to Rarity, “Rarity, could you go talk to Rainbow and the others, tell them what’s happening and that they should stay upstairs for now.” Rarity nodded and disappeared through the doorway. Turning back to Lilly Twilight saw she was trying hard to compose herself. “This could have gone better.” Roger scoffed. “Lilly, I know you’re a little shocked, but I’m not here to hurt you.” Twilight tried to step closer and Lilly shifted slightly with every step. “I know,” she said with a defeated sigh. With the heat of the moment cooling and a sudden sense of familiarity coming from the purple being in front of her, Lilly was quickly able to connect the dots between her father and the situation before her. “Mom watched your show all the time before she passed away, but... how do you know who I am?” “Roger told us about you, we need your help.” “My help, oh nononononono NO, I, am not helping you with anything until I get some answers. How did you get here?” Twilight told a condensed story about the portal and how Roger found her group of friends. A moment or two after she finished Lilly spoke. “That’s a wonderful story but what does it have to do with me?” “We need your help getting back home, Roger has helped us form a plan and you’re a part in it. I know this is confusing and scary for you but please try and understand we mean you no harm.” Roger made his way over to Lilly and helped her to her feet. This allowed Twilight her first decent look at Lilly’s form, as unflattering as this ordeal had made it. She was far skinnier than Roger and much less covered. Her shirt exposed a large amount of her mid section and her pants barely made it to her knees. In her left hand she held a purple bag about as big as Twilight’s head. “So, you keep saying us and we, where is this we?” “You want to see the others?” Twilight said a little surprised after her initial reaction. “Sure, why not, if I’m going to help you, which I haven’t decided on yet, I might as well know who I’m helping.” Twilight turned and led the way up the stairs where five pony faces anxiously waited, none more so than Pinkie Pie who began signing all sorts of things to Roger and Twilight. “What’s she doing?” Lilly asked. “Being Pinkie pie.” Roger responded. This answer was obviously not enough for Lilly but there was no time for her to say anything before they reached the top step. Pinkie rushed up to Lilly and hopped from hoof to hoof as best she could. “Hello there! My names Pinkie Pie although some ponies call me Pinkie Or Pie or even Pinkamena Diane Pie or any number of other things, anyway what’s your name, bet I can guess it, don’t believe me, I can, you ready, ready, Lilly! Did I get it right, did I, I bet I did, you know besides Roger you’re the first human I ever met ever and you know what that calls for!” “Pinkie I don’t think…” Twilight began. “A PARTY!” Pinkie said standing on her back hooves for a second or so before losing balance and falling backward to be caught by Applejack. “Oh, forgot I can’t do that.” Pinkie said. “Lilly,” Twilight said, “This is Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and…” “Pinkie Pie.” Lilly said. “She was the only character from the show I ever learned the name of. How long have you guys been here?” Twilight thought for a second. “We’ve been here three days, tomorrow makes four.” “What have you tried in the way of getting back?” Twilight once again ran through a section of her story. When she finished Lilly turned to the faces of the other ponies, “I don’t know… uh…” “Twilight.” Roger said “Twilight,” Lilly repeated, “what can I do that my dad hasn’t? I’m not going to lie to you I never watched the show like he did, does, or…I’m not the right choice for this, why me?” “We can’t trust just anypony to keep the secret that we’re here. Applejack and I know from personal experience that not all humans are friendly and with only Roger able to contact someone you’re the only hope we’ve got to make this work.” “I… This is a lot to take in… I know you want my help but I’ve been driving all night and I’m really tired. Can we talk about this in the morning when I have my head on straight?” Twilight didn’t want to let her go so quickly, but it would be more damaging to force her to make the choice now. “Of course Lilly.” Roger said. Roger made a quick series of signs at Rarity who nodded. “I’ll show you to your room.” When Roger and Lilly disappeared into Lilly’s room the ponies stood for a moment before speaking. “Well that was eventful,” Rainbow Dash said. “You got to teach me how to speak like that so I don’t have to keep asking what’s going on.” “She didn’t look too willing to help us.” Fluttershy said. “She wasn’t” Twilight replied. “Well, I’d like to say I’m going back to bed but I have no idea where I’d be going to.” Rarity said. “Y’all can take my spot, I got to get some more fixins’ for tomorrow’s breakfast.” Applejack said. “Hopefully that fancy room with all the vittles has daisies, or at least some ferns.” “I hate ferns.” Rainbow Dash mumbled, heading back to her room.