Written by: aKaPinkiePie
Rated Everyone
It was a calm day at the stand. The sun was shining bright and it was soon time to close. A couple dozen ponies had visited. She earned enough money to live a fine life in the small town she had come to love over the decades she had lived there.
She was, however, looking forward to be able to close up. Today was her day out with Roseluck and Daisy. Maybe she should close early today? Lily figured she could give it a couple more minutes. Completely lost in thought she never noticed the pony trotting up to her stand.
“Hey Lily!” It was Lyra standing before her.
“Lyra!” Lily’s face brightened up in an instant as she was snapped back to reality. “What can I do for you?”
“I was thinking about making something nice for Bon Bon and I know your lilies are her favorite. How much for a bouquet?” Lyra asked with a friendly smile.
“That would be four bits. Would you want a little taste? It’s on me.” Lily knew that Lyra loved these flowers as much as her marefriend did and that she would never turn down a free taste.
“That does sound tempting. Thank you,” Lyra said and grabbed a lily in her magic aura. Lily recognised that flower--it was the last one she had picked before leaving for the market. Looking at the flower, one thought came to her head. What would the life of a lily be like?
Starting out as a little seed trapped in the ground. A cold and dark place. Claustrophobia must come pretty quick as you struggle to break free and get back into the sun again. It would probably feel like a never ending strife for freedom. That is, until you break free from the prison. Out from the soil you’ve come to know as the hell you were born in.
Now you feel the cool breeze mixed with the heat from the sun. You see the scenery unfold around you. Finally in the sun you can enjoy your life. Blooming into a beautiful flower ponies enjoy looking at. Mares with years of experience tend to your every need. Watering you and making sure you can grow.
Being a flower had to be very relaxing, though very boring as well. Is there any excitement in being unable to move? Probably not, but that did not mean you could not have an adventure did it? Just watching the town of Ponyville during its busy hours was an adventure itself. After the return of Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony almost everyday became an adventure. What did those adventures look like to a flower?
Did flowers feel fear? Being rooted in one place at all times doesn't make it easy to escape stampedes or eager fillies. Being trampled must really hurt. Not to talk about incineration or dehydration. Ponies just move away from where the flames are. Just grab a drink if they get thirsty, but flowers? Flowers can only just sit there and pray. On the other hoof, the helplessness also leaves you without responsibilities. A life without responsibilities has to be relaxing.
What about the winter? Flowers all over die during the winter. Some lucky ones survive, true, but that is barely. Do they know their life is just six months long? Is their sole purpose to leave behind new seeds before the winter comes? How do the flowers in the greenhouses react to this? Are they glad they get to live another summer, or do they even care after they’ve left the next generation seeds?
Maybe I’ve approached this the wrong way. Maybe being equines, we are able to contemplate the value and meaning of our temporary existence in this plane of the living. Other living entities with a much more limited intellect as opposed to us will spend all of its days preoccupied with the never ending objective to continue thriving in their lives in terms of nutrition, but they will never stop and ask themselves, "To what cause?"
A lily. Something so delicate, the filigree of which some ponies have sworn their lives to taking care of, is it not the same? Having no eyes, no sense of smell, no senses like we have at all, does it make them less of a creature than us? And who are we to say we are superior? We cultivate these flowers, but what if their way of life is but another conundrum waiting to be unraveled by a unicorn? No, no. It will not come to that. If there is a secret that it is concealing, it is best to let it be and just appreciate the beauty of its existence, an existence by which may be unfathomable by me, but who am I to question the intricate tapestry of the living?
Would a flower be similar to living in a black nothingness, having no way to discern and perceive the world around it? Perhaps sensitive to intensities of light, chloroplasts perpetually sensing it and synthesizing glucose to continue its rather pointless existence on our world? Having no hearing, an everlasting hum in pitch black darkness, maybe not knowing whether it's alive or if it's dead, always being less than a pawn in the grand scheme of things.
All of these thoughts raced through Lily’s mind as she watched Lyra levitate the flower towards her mouth. That helpless flower slowly being forced towards its final destination. Never again to see the light. Never again feel the breeze. Never again feel the sensation of being watered. It’s last sight would be white teeth chewing their way through it’s life.
This exact moment in Lily’s life made her realise why she loved her life as much as she did. It made her realise why she would never want to be a flower or a fruit. This was the life she had been given by her parents. And she was going to appreciate it the for the rest of her life!