Lily Mare Do Well

by Hyper44

Aftermath

As the sun rose the following morning it found the residents of Ponyville cleaning up the aftermath of the night before. Despite the damage all of them were in pretty high spirits. They had faced destruction in their little town more than once before and the damage this time around was far from the worst. It was different this time though, this time it was them who had saved the day.

Local construction workers made their rounds, creating a list of all damaged buildings. Stout stallions pulled carts loaded with debris to and fro while others gathered up the next load. Nurses took turns monitoring the two unconscious villains who would be turned over to Canterlot authorities as soon as Princess Twilight returned. Ponies who were too elderly to manage any heavy duties worked to help coordinate, or managed refreshments for the workers. Even the foals did their part, sweeping up scattered twigs and smaller bits of debris.

All the while both the adults and the foals couldn’t help but chatter about their exploits against the monsters. Fillies and colts acted out their ventures (with some extra grandeur) for many of the adults, while others begged for their parents to tell them about their part in rescuing Lily over and over. Derpy, a very proud parent, flew up and down the streets with Dinky riding her back as she told anypony and everypony that she was going to apply her daughter to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. For some ponies it took some insisting from the foals that the little filly, known for her inhibition in magic had conjured up such a spell. When asked Dinky just replied with a shrug. Derpy was not the only proud parent. Both Diamond Tiara's and Pips’ parents strode about with their offspring unable to keep from swelling with pride on how they took charge to make sure every foal was safe.

Lily Longsocks found herself much in demand during the cleanup. With her gifted super strength, she was asked to hold up sections of wall so that they could be fixed or remove things such as a full grown tree that the tatzelwurm had burrowed under. She also walked alongside construction crews easily carrying boxes that often took two stallions to move. The other half of her time was taken up by signing autographs. Instead of Little Mare Do Well they now wanted Lily Mare Do Well. Mrs. Cheerilee, her dad, her mother (after scolding her for doing such dangerous things) as well as many other ponies would not stop praising her. This made Lily blush to no end. It wasn’t too hard to be the hero when behind a mask but now, with everypony knowing who she was, her little pink cheeks were bright red as she kept trying excuses to hide. Prickles was no help at all. He stood on her head constantly striking muscle flexing poses everything she lifted something. Mayor Mare finally came to her rescue and shooed everypony off.

“Why don’t you take a rest and hang out with Mrs. Crumpet for a while,” The mayor said as she escorted Lily towards one of the refreshment tables.

“Phew,” said Lily.

Granny Crumpet was sitting near Town Hall watching a group of ponies rebuilding the shape of the roof that would soon be lifted to the top of the building by pegasus. Lily trotted over and sat beside her elderly friend in front of the table.

“Hello Great Lily Mare Do Well,” Granny Crumpet said with a smile.

“Not you too!” Lily groaned making Granny Crumpet laugh.

“I’m just teasing but never forget Lily, you did well and deserve a little recognition,” Granny Crumpet put a hoof around her shoulders. “Didn’t you enjoy being the hero?”

Lily shrugged. “It was certainly awesome as an idea but once there it was scary. I quickly found out how dangerous it was and wished that I didn’t have to be a hero.”

“Would you do it again if you had to?” Granny Crumpet asked.

Lilt blushed and shifted her hooves before replying. “Yeah.”

Granny crumpet laughed and ruffled her mane. “You are a little hero.”

* * *

Across town Mayor Mare trotted through the streets checking up on every project. She had stopped to check the list of all damages that had been collected when Shoeshine tapped her on the shoulder.

“Do you hear that?”

Mayor Mare and the other ponies tipped back their heads and listened. A distant sound echoed faintly from the sky. It sounded so much like rolling thunder that some ponies started home to fetch an umbrella. Then they realized that it was too constant to be thunder. Soon the whole town noticed it as the sound grew steadily louder.

“There is no storm scheduled this week,” Blossomforth stated before flying into the air with serval other pegasi.

“What do you see?” Mayor Mare called up to them.

“It’s an army!... An army from The Crystal Empire led by Princess Twilight!” Sassaflash called down.

“Huh, I guess one of our messages got through after all,” A unicorn stated. As he did the army of crystal guards closed in on Ponyville with their wings pounding furiously. Nearly every Pegasi was part of a team pulling a chariot. All of them were packed with crystal earth ponies and unicorns. In the lead was their Crystal Princess and Twilight surrounded by her friends. Soon the massive cacophony of pounding wings turned into that of hooves and churning wheels as the army landed in and around Ponyville. Those that couldn’t land in the streets landed on top of buildings where the guards leapt out of the chariots and stood ready. The Ponyville residents simply stood staring in aw at the crystal army.

Twilight bolted out of her chariot the moment that it landed and dashed towards Mayor Mare. Her five friends quickly followed. Twilight skidded to a stop in front of the Mayor with her friends barley avoiding crashing into her.

“We got your message!” The princess stated. “It was weak but it came through!”

“Yeah, it was just two words,” Pinkie pie added. “All it said was HELP!!!! PONYVILLE!!!! But we knew what you meant.”

“Don’t worry,” Twilight said. “You're safe now. We’ll stop whatever did this to Ponyville!”

The ponies simply stared back a moment, then they collapsed with laughter.

Twilight along with pretty much the entire Crystal Empire Army blinked back in profound bewilderment.

“Hey!” Twilight called, “What… What is going on and what happened here!”

Mayor Mare managed to compose herself and replied. “Well Princess Twilight, it is quite a story but first do you think that we could send a letter to Princess Celestia like you used to?”

“What?” Was all Twilight could say.

Applejack trotted up beside her. “I think what she tryin’ to say Twilight, is that we’re a might late.”

* * *

Dear Princess Celestia,

We, the citizens of Ponyville have learned some very important lessons. We now know to remember that we are always more than one thing and capable of more than we realized. Whatever the circumstances the biggest thing that holds us back is ourselves. With this we also realized that we should never neglect learning how to take care of ourselves. This doesn’t mean to never accept help but that you can’t simply depend on somepony else to step in and fix everything that goes wrong. It is a terribly self-destructive thing to always want somepony else to fix your troubles. If you wont help yourself then nopony can. No matter how awesome they may be they will never be able to do everything for you nor able to always be there.

Besides, sooner or later somepony that you care about may need your help one day.

* * *

Away from the village the Everfree Forest stood silent and as mysterious as it always had. Its thick trees created a dense canopy blocking off view of the forest floor from any creature that might fly above. Under the shade of those thick branches four clawed feet padded lightly on the damp earth. A dark red tail swayed behind the creature and delicate looking wings rested on his back. The creature, a small dragon stopped at the base of a particularly tall tree. He stood up on his hind legs, which made him about as tall as a regular sized stallion and looked up at the branches. He spread his thin leathery wings and with a few flaps his deceptively light frame was lifted into the air. Reaching the branches, he climbed upwards until he was above the tops of the surrounding trees.

Once up as high as he could go the dragon sat down on a limb and looked out across the forest at the little town beyond. His keen eyes could make out the damaged buildings and the teeny-tiny figures that were ponies. It looked like there was quite a crowd in the streets today.

The dragon sat there a while watching, wondering a little what had happened but mostly pondering about something else. There was no doubt about it, he needed help. While he couldn’t say why, he just knew that the only one who could help him was a little filly of whom he did not even know her name. He wishe he had asked now but when he met her she was just a pony and why should he want to know one? Now she was the only pony in the world that he wouldn’t mind being around but its wasn’t like he could count on her coming into the Everfree Forest again. His only hope of contacting her again was to fly into the village and look for her. He gaged at the thought. Would HE, a mini dragon, really go into a village full of PONIES? Well that is another story.

Author's Note:

One more little bonus chapter to follow. Stay tuned.

Comments

[Nox Knock Jokes]

Oh Twilight.

[bronyvamp]

i loved the letter/report part