Lost Lily of the Valley

She awoke to the ringing sound of the front door. It was still early in the morning, earlier than Fish Head usually woke her up, and the fire was still going, though it was small. She looked toward the front door and saw Fish Head entering the building. She saw Lily looking and shook her head.

“I apologize. I didn’t mean to wake you, girl.”

“It’s okay,” Lily said blearily. “Where did you go so early?”

“Private business, girl. Never you mind.”

Accustomed to such brush-offs, Lily obeyed, and dropped another log on the fire before returning to sleep.

In the morning, Lily and Fish Head had breakfast and performed what Lily would eventually know as their routine. They would first see if the Griffin (who Lily learned was named Captain Daniel) had any fish heads for them. Then they would usually return home and check her other supplies. If everything was fine and they had fish heads, they would spend the day grinding those and turning them into fertilizer. Not as many came for bone meal, and blood meal was almost never needed by anypony, so that was out. Then they would do whatever they wanted, which Fish Head demanded Lily spend growing plants.

She started out with a lily, like usual. She hadn’t gotten so far as putting the seed in the pot before Fish Head cuffed her upside the head. She’d fallen back on her old habits and hadn’t checked the soil at all. Fish Head ordered her to dump it and start from scratch, so she did.

The second time she did a lot better. She checked the soil, then added in fish meal, just to be safe, but Fish Head cuffed her again.

“Don’t do it ‘just to be safe’, girl! You’re better than that. The plants deserve better than that! KNOW what they need. Don’t guess.”

“Ow, okay, okay!” She dumped that out and started again.

She checked the soil, tested it, then determined that what he plants needed was bonemeal. She hesitantly poured in some of it and mixed the soil together, then looked at Fish Head before planting the seed.

“Was that right?”

Fish Head shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Lily gaped. “But how do you know if I did it right?”

“I don’t. Your lily will grow well, or it won’t.”

“Then what was the rest of that smacking for? I thought I was doing it wrong!”

“You were! You were guessing! Don’t guess! Don’t choose the safest option. That’s more than likely not the best choice, and makes you think you’re doing them a service when you’re actually pushing it too far one way or the other. You can do better than the safest option.” She leaned in and jabbed Lily with a hoof. “Don’t. Guess.”

Lily nodded sullenly. Her first lily was planted, and she could only wait to see how it would grow.

As days went by, she watched her lily and paid attention to it while it grew. She planted several more, with mixtures of soil presented to her by Fish Head. These were balanced differently than her own choice, and Fish Head expected her to figure out which type of fertilizer she needed to use to make it grow the best. She tried her hardest to make the right choices, and only got a few hits for her trouble. As time went on, however, the soil requirements got stranger and stranger. Some seemed out of place, and Lily wondered how she even got them or why she thought they would be a requirement.

“What is this?”

“It’s sand.”

“Why am I trying to grow anything in sand?”

“Do you not want to?’

“Not… really? I could do better.”

“You could, but are you giving up?”

“I guess I shouldn’t?”

“Attagirl. Show me what you got.”

Lily tried her best, but she had to wonder if maybe Fish Head wasn’t losing it a little bit. It seemed a strange thing to do, to grow something in sand.

When her attempt failed miserably at growing anything in the fine grit, Lily presented her wilted and dead plant to Fish Head. Fish Head took one look at the sand and dead plant and cuffed her upside the head.

“You left it as normal beach sand?”

“Well… yes! You told me to!”

“I told you to grow something in it! I didn’t say anything about leaving it as plain beach sand! Where’s the silt? The clay? Something for the plant to grab hold of?” She dug a hoof through the loose grit and scowled.

“I didn’t have any. The fertilizer just went through it.”

“Ugh…” Fish Head put a hoof to her face. “You’re too honest, Lily. You didn’t even try to cheat. Come with me.” She waved a hoof and walked off through the shop to a large clay pot at the back of the shop with a small tree growing out of it. “What do you see?”

Lily looked. It was growing in sandy soil, but the soil was different, somehow. It had a sandy surface, but where her sand was pure and soft, this was flat and oddly-colored. “It’s sand, but there’s something… different about it?”

“Yes, yes. Good eye. Let’s finish up the day’s work, and I’ll show you what I mean. This old girl can be transplanted, I’d say.”

At the end of the day, Fish Head had Lily carry the pot, and they walked to the edge of town. It was foggy yet again, and it clung to her fur, getting her damp despite her best efforts. Fish Head didn’t really seem affected, but her clothes did. They hung, wet and dripping from her outfit. They went out, and Lily recognized the area as not being too far from the bluff where Fish Head’s husband was laid to rest. There were many other trees in the area, all at different stages of growth.

“These were all your doing?” Lily asked.

Fish Head pulled the shovel off her back and looked around. “Aye. Every single one. It’s my promise to my late husband, and my promise to the town. I’ll keep doing it until I die.”

“But why?” Lily dropped the pot carefully to the ground, then took the shovel and started digging.

“Do you think you’re ready to know, girl?”

“I would very much like to.”

Fish Head looked at her, her old eyes boring into Lily’s own. “You want to know how I grew a tree is sand?”

“Yes.”

“How badly do you want to know?”

“…really badly?”

“Would you kill somepony for the knowledge to grow plants better than anypony else?”

“I…”

“This is important, girl. How much are you willing to give up to be the best at your craft?”

Lily was at a loss, but she looked at the tree that Fish Head had grown—apparently out of sand—and thought back to her time in Ponyville. She’d put out flowers, but they were just flowers. There was nothing special about them, and they certainly didn’t stand out. They just… were. More than anything she would love to be able to return to Ponyville with some of the best damn lilies anypony had ever seen, and with the best possible tips and tricks to share with everypony she chose. She could be great! She could be the best!

But she didn’t know what Fish Head was asking of her. Could she abandon the possible knowledge now, when she was scared of what the implications were? She thought about it and realized the choice was made for her. The moment she knew there was a choice, her decision was made. She nodded.

“Almost anything,” she finally answered.

“Good girl.” Fish Head looked around. The fog was thick, and they could see nopony else this time of day, nor hear anything save for the waves breaking on the shore. She walked over to the clay pot the tree was sitting in and kicked it with a hoof. It shattered. Lily’s breath caught.

Inside the pot she could see soil, hidden under a thin veneer of sand that was now trickling off the top. Fish Head smirked.

“You just made it look like it was growing out of sand?”

“Mostly. But there’s more.” She leaned down and scraped away at the dirt. As the soil came away, her hoof hit something white and cracked. She scraped away at the dirt around it, until a chunk of it came off. She picked it up and held it out to Lily.

“What is this?”

“What do you think it is?”

“Bone?”

“Good girl! It is bone. What have I taught you so far about growing things?”

“Fishmeal, bonemeal, bloodmeal, and other fertilizers can be used to improve the soil. Why didn’t you crush this bone, though?”

“Asking the pertinent questions! Good!” She lifted up the compacted dirt and dropped it. More soil shook off, revealing a full pony’s skull. It had been a unicorn, with the stub of a horn sticking out the bottom. The tree’s roots had grown out of the base of the skull, and cracked through the eye sockets and other portions, grasping around the bone as it reached out for more soil.

“Wh-what purpose does leaving the bone intact serve?” Lily swallowed hard.

“Girl, I don’t think you fully understand. I use EVERYTHING. I didn’t just leave the bone intact.”

“Wh-wh-wh…” The implications rushed at her all at once, and Lily never finished. She fainted.