Lily and somepony else

by Hyper44

Chapter 3

With perfect poise the two fillies from up the road neared the little town of Whinny’s-Dale. With strong determination Lily followed after them. Her legs were beginning to ache from struggling trying to mime the perfect trotting strides of the ponies up ahead but she pressed on. She had tripped over her clumsy hooves many times and had dirt stains on her coat to prove it. Still she kept on.

As the two fillies walked into town a few ponies waived to them. Then they turned curious looks to the smaller foal prancing serval yards behind. Lily hardly noticed through her focus on keeping the same perfect stride. However, her two role models, who in keeping the perfect poise, hadn’t really looked around soon noticed the eyes staring at something behind them. They stopped and looked back to see Lily coming towards them still mimicking their poise and stride. She wasn’t doing too bad a job either though it was obviously not her natural stride.

“Awww, look. It’s the little filly from the Longsocks family,” One of them said.

“Yeah, I know her. Her dad sometimes brings her along when my dad hires him for a custom suit,” Her companion replied. “She’s a silly little pony. I wonder what’s she doing?” She giggled.

“Let’s find out. Hey Lily,” The first foal called. Lily quickened her pace, while still trying to keep up the same poise and hurried over to them.

The foals giggled as she pranced up and sat down in the road. “I didn’t know that your parents let you come up here by yourself. What are you doing?”

Lily poked self-consciously at the dust, “I want be like you.”

“Awww,” The two fillies responded.

“That’s so awesome.”

“You know what they say, mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery.”

“Well come on, Lily, we can teach you how,” One of the foals beckoned her to follow and together the three fillies walked through town. As they went the two older fillies instructed her on how to walk with style and praised her for her efforts. Lily was picking it up rather quickly. By the time they reached their destination, the local bakery, Lily almost looked as if she had been one of them for a long while.

Her two new friends led her inside the bakery and headed for a table by the window that had three other fillies sitting at it.

“Hey girls, look we brought a new friend,” one of them announced as they sat at the table. “She wants to be just like us.”

Lily blushed as a chorus of “Awww,” echoed back.

“That’s cute.”

“I think it’s awesome!”

“Good for her!”

“She almost has the walk down.”

“She’s going to need some makeup.”

“We’ll have to teach her how to put it on.”

“And we have to fix up her hair.”

“How about braids,”

“I like curls better.”

“I think that she would look better with braids.”

“Well what does Lily want?”

Lily shrugged and replied, “Both?” The five fillies laughed at her answer.

Soon one of the bakers brought a tray of cookies and glasses of milk to their table. Lily sat happily munching on her cookie and sipping the milk with contentment. She had finally done it. She was somepony else now. Once they fixed her up she would truly be one of them. She already was of them and she wouldn’t be sad anymore. How could she? She wouldn’t be plain, clumsy little Lily anymore, the young mare thought as she picked up her glass of milk. Then she accidently spilled half of it on the floor. Lily frowned at the mess. Maybe it was because she hadn’t been fixed up with makeup and stuff.

After the snack the group of fillies sat outside the bakery as they fussed over Lily’s hair and dug in their little purses for ruse and blush. The two working on her hair tried many different types of braids, curling and buns. Lily wasn’t much help because she stated that she like everything regardless of the style that they put her mane in. She really didn’t care as long as she was one of them.

Across the street Lily spotted one of her classmates walking up to a shop with his mom. He sat down outside to wait as she went in.

“Hi Mulberry,” Lilly called as she waived to him. “I not be Lily anymore.” Mulberry’s face scrunched up as he tried to process what she had just said. Instead of coming over he just sat next to the store and stared as her new friends tried different hair styles and oohed and awed over each look.

“Hew don’t forget we have to go try on our new dresses today.” One of the fillies stated suddenly.

“Oh, yeah. That’s why we came to town in the first place. If we don’t make sure that they fit right today, they might not be ready in time for Red Bloom’s birthday party.”

“We have an excuse for getting distracted though,” One filly said ruffling Lily’s newly braided hair.

“We’ll be back later, Lily,” They called as they headed off to pick up their order. Lily waived back as they headed off. After they were gone Lily hopped off the bench and trotted across the street to where Mulberry was sitting. She sat proudly showing off her makeup and braided mane. “See, I be somepony else,” she stated.

Mulberry blinked at her a few moments. “How you do that?” He finally asked.

“I be one of them,” Lily replied and pointed in the direction that they had gone. “I learn to put on makeup and fix hair, they teach me how to walk and talk like them cause’ I’m them now and not Lily.” She paraded back and forth in front of him in her new style of walking.

Mulberry closed his eyes a moment as he pondered this. Then he opened then with a confused expression on his face. “But how do those things make you them? It’s just stuff on you.”

Lily scratched her head, shrugged and then headed back to the bench. She looked at her reflection in a pocket mirror that one of the fillies had left for her. She saw a face fixed up just like them and never like it was when she was Lily. She could walk like them, talk like them, she felt like one of them and she did not want to be that plain clumsy little Lily. She didn’t know how it all worked but she was not Lily anymore. She reached over to the plate of cookies left but clumsily fumbled with it and it fell to the ground. She stared down at the scattered sweets pondering how that had happened for a while. After all, she wasn’t Lily any more. Then as she sat there, she began to feel the warmth of the sun on her back and head. For a moment her mind took her back to sitting on the little porch in front of her house where she could feel the rays of the sun but could find no joy because of the sadness inside. Lily looked back at the mirror. Her makeup covered face was like the sun shining down on her. It was there, but it didn’t fix it. She had simply been distracted by it all else. Lily glanced down at the plate of cookies laying on the ground. With a sigh she hopped to the ground and trotted off down the street.

She didn’t know where she was going but she was headed there. She found a barrel of rainwater at the corner of a house and washed her face off in it. She pulled and ruffled all the braids out of her mane and her hair fell in a mess around her face. Then she continued on walking aimlessly as she pondered what to do next. She walked around a few blocks still with no idea where she was going when her ears twitched at the sound of a gathering crowd up ahead. A moment later a few ponies hurried past her. Lily lifted her head slightly but building blocked her view. A few more ponies galloped past her as one called out to the mare in the lead.

“I hope that this isn’t just a waste of time.”

“it isn’t,” the mare called back, “He can help you become the toughest, coolest pony that you’ve ever dreamed of becoming.”

Lily’s ears stood up straight as she watched the receding figures. A moment later she was galloping after them towards the murmur of the crowd.