Two days before the events of “Crusaders of the Lost Mark”
Lily paced nervously in place, biting her lip. Where was it? If she didn’t have that science homework, who knew what would happen? She didn’t even want to think of the consequences!
Not that they would have been terrible, as Miss Cheerilee was very nice, but still!
She glanced over at her pet hedgehog in his habitat in the corner, but Hedgy was still sleeping. He couldn’t help her, anyway, even if he had been awake. He couldn’t read.
She looked over and brightened. Maybe it had fallen under her bed! She darted over and lifted it over her head.
There, back in the corner! There it was! She sighed in relief as she balanced her bed on one hoof and reached over and grabbed the elusive sheet with the other. She had been so worried!
She gently set her bed down and gave it a little bump with her hips to get it back to its original position. Perfect. She slid her homework into her saddlebag and went to brush her teeth. Every morning, ever since that dental hygiene presentation, she’d made sure to not skip at all, not even a single day. She’d even tried brushing Hedgy’s teeth once or twice; but for some reason, he didn’t seem to appreciate that. So, in the interest of him remaining happy (and her hooves remaining quill-free), she stayed with brushing her own teeth.
At least, until an unexpected shout from downstairs made her jump.
“Lily! Breakfast is ready!”
Lily froze and winced, realizing what she had inadvertently done. She pulled the toothbrush out of her mouth. Most of it, anyway; when she had jumped, she had snapped off the handle while the head of the toothbrush had remained between her teeth. She exhaled irritably through her nose as she spat it out into the trash can, quickly following it with the handle. She’d need to get another toothbrush, pronto.
This was the main problem she had with her body. Some fillies developed quickly. Some took longer. Some got their cutie marks early; some, like those three friends in her class, took longer. Some had talents that were more hidden and subtle; others couldn’t hide theirs.
She just so happened to be born with super freaky strength.
Lily lived in constant fear of this being discovered. Making friends was kinda complicated, and was hard even for normal fillies, and Lily certainly wasn’t normal. She’d accidentally broken her desk in two with her forehead her very first day of first grade playing heads-up-seven-up, and every day after that, it was a life of ponies staring at her and flinching whenever she approached.
She hated the flinching.
After a couple years and a lot of pleading, she had finally convinced her parents to let her change schools. This had helped things. Nopony knew her here in Ponyville. Nopony made excuses or slid down to another table when she sat down with her lunch. She was starting fresh, nopony knew about her freaky strength. Nopony was afraid of her.
And if she had anything to do with it, she’d keep it that way.
Her eyes landed on the clock and they widened. She was going to be late! She picked up her toast, tossed her empty plate into the sink, yanked her saddlebag onto her back (wincing as she heard a few of the stitches on the straps snap in protest—she’d have to ask her mother to mend that later), and she darted out the door.
Lily chewed on her salad distractedly. Convection and conduction sounded a lot alike, but they were so different. How would she do on this test if she couldn’t figure this dumb worksheet out? At least radiation made sense. Heat radiated everywhere. Like when you put down stinky cheese and the smell just kinda radiated out.
Or Hedgy’s habitat, when she forgot to clean it.
She cracked a weak smile at that thought, then scooped up more salad and bit down on… her empty fork. She pulled it out of her mouth, scowled at the teeth indentations she’d made in the metal, and then dug it back into the salad bowl a bit more carefully this time.
She became aware of somepony else nearby. “Hiya,” she started. “Do you mind if I thit here?”
Lily nodded and shifted aside, nonverbally assenting.
A cream-colored filly with a curly red mane slid into the seat next to her. “Hi, I’m Twitht.”
Lily nodded. “Lily,” she returned.
Twist looked down at the worksheet Lily was reading. “Oh, the thience worktheet?” she said as she pulled out her lunch. “That’th not tho tough.”
Lily exhaled through her nose. “News to me,” she said bitterly.
Twist explained. “At our kitchen, we have a convection oven. It’th got a fan in it. So that’th how I remember the differenth.”
Lily looked down. Now that she’d said that, that could make sense. She looked over her worksheet again, and realized that she’d put down some incorrect answers. She quickly retrieved her pencil and began making the needed corrections.
Twist smiled and dug into her lunchbox. She squinted as she pulled out a small rectangle of something dark. She looked down mournfully. “Thith wath thuppothed to be caramel. I usually offer to thare, but…”
Distracted by this new revelation and only half-hearing Twist, Lily reached down and picked it up. “Thanks,” she said absentmindedly.
Twist waved her hooves. “No, wait! It’th burnt-”
Twist’s voice trailed off. Lily crunched through her burnt caramel as if it were nothing. She looked through the worksheet once more, checking over it. She took another bite, her teeth grinding through it easily.
Twist stared. That caramel had been hard as a rock, but Lily had eaten it like it was nothing. Out of morbid curiosity, she grabbed a second square and held it out again.
Lily, still distracted by filling out answers, thought it was being offered to her, so she leaned over and took a bite out of it.
Twist stared.
“Alright,” Lily said, looking at her sheet as a smile spread across her face. “I think I got it. Thanks so much!” And she gently bumped Twist.
In her excitement, she bumped a bit too hard, and the burnt caramel went flying as Twist was nearly knocked right off her chair. She let out a nervous chuckle as she righted herself and fixed her glasses.
“Sorry!” Lily quickly apologized. “Guess I’m just... really excited for science class now!” She gave her what she hoped passed for a winning smile, but she could tell it was shaky and her ears had pinned.
Thankfully, Twist seemed to buy this. She waved down her apology and returned to her lunch.
She wasn’t out of the Everfree yet. Lily looked around fearfully, checking to see if anypony else was giving her a weird look.
Behind her, Diamond Tiara was watching her. She was talking to Silver Spoon, but her eyes were focused on her.
Lily shivered. She didn’t like the feeling she got from her.
Thankfully, the bell rang to signal the end of lunch, and they all hurried back inside.
At home, Lily pinned the worksheet with a large, red 100% written proudly in Cheerilee’s mouthwriting on her corkboard. Gleefully, she retrieved Hedgy and held him up so he could see it. It had been a good day! She’d gotten a perfect score on her worksheet and made a friend! She gently rubbed noses with Hedgy. This was fantastic.
But eventually she had to return to reality, and the homework that was due tomorrow. Setting Hedgy in a safe place, she pulled her notebook out of her saddlebag.
Oh, that’s right. Their class election day was coming up. Hence her social studies homework on different styles of government. She shrugged. This shouldn’t be too bad. After all, she wasn’t running for anything, so all she’d have to do is vote. It wasn’t like she was going to be the center of attention or have her freaky strength outed or anything.
Everything would be just fine.
After the events of “Crusaders of the Lost Mark”
The next morning, Lily trotted down the street towards the schoolhouse. Her heart was pounding, but she tried to remain calm. Having had her freaky strength outed hadn’t nearly been as bad as she’d thought it would be, and she’d even got to help out in cleaning up the playground for their new equipment; but now everything was over, the musical number had ended, and things were back to normal. She couldn’t shake that feeling of apprehension.
But she didn’t need to worry. Maybe it was just because Ponyville was home to strange occurrences. Maybe it just hadn’t been as big a deal as she’d feared it would be. Either way, nopony looked at her like she was crazy, nopony was scrambling to stay away from her as if she were some sort of monster; she was, for the most part, still being treated like any other filly.
“Hey, Lily!”
For the most part. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. “Yes, Snips?”
“So, so, so me and Snails, we were playing soccer, and we, we got our ball stuck.” He shifted his hooves. “In the tree,” he clarified.
Lily looked up and sighed. Sure enough, there was a soccer ball stuck in the branches of a nearby tree.
“Can you get it down?” Snips asked eagerly.
“What, you can’t just use your magic?”
“Nah,” Snails said. “Our horns are, uh… broken.” He smiled widely, like he had just spun a delightfully convincing story.
Of course, he had not. “Both of them?” Lily asked dryly.
“Yeah,” Snails said. “Completely broken. No magic in here.”
Must not be any brains in there, either, Lily thought.
Seeing that Lily remained far from convinced, Snips decided to jump in and help. “But we don’t mind. We want to see you do something cool, like, rip up the tree and drop out the soccer ball!” Sparks flew from the tip of Snips’ horn in excitement. Realizing he’d just exposed magic, he let out a nervous little giggle and crossed his forelegs.
Lily’s eyes narrowed. So, they wanted to see some super strength, did they?
And thus it was that Snips was one of the first airborne unicorn colts to come from Miss Cheerilee’s class.
He landed on the branch, bouncing the soccer ball off. He snickered. “Awesome!” He raised up on his hind legs. “Look, Snails! I’m flying!” He moved his forelegs like he was swimming through the air.
“Yeah!” Snails cheered.
Lily rolled her eyes and headed inside. Colts. She’d never understand.
“Uh, wait.” He fell to his stomach, his hooves slipping against the bark. “H- how do I get down? Lily? Lily!” He switched targets when it became apparent that she was not coming back. “Snails!” he shouted, flailing all four hooves. “Snails, do something!”
Aside from those two, though, Lily had a fairly normal day. By the time lunchtime rolled around, nopony had really said much of anything to her. This was a good thing, but not a great thing. It was possible she’d scared everypony off, just like she’d thought she would.
Then again, due to her fear, she hadn’t really gone out of her way to make friends here. It was also possible that her classmates were just keeping things business as usual.
Her breath caught as she saw Twist exit the schoolhouse with her lunch in mouth. Well, she’d find out soon enough.
Twist slowed to a stop. She looked at her strangely.
Oh, no. Lily looked down. It had happened. She’d ruined their friendship without even trying.
But then Twist neared and sat down. She started eating, but didn’t say anything to start with, and Lily wasn’t sure what to say, either. That was a bad thing, right?
“Ith everything thtrong?” Twist finally asked.
“Is what?”
“Ith all of you-” she rolled her hoof in a circle, indicating her whole body, “thtrong?”
Lily squinted. “What do you mean?”
“A couple dayth ago, you ate my burnt caramel. It wath a rock. But you ate it anywayth.”
“Oh.” Honestly, she hadn’t even noticed. It had tasted fine to her. “Kinda?” she said sheepishly.
Twist nodded thoughtfully. Then she brightened and pulled out a wax-wrapped ball from her lunchbox. “I brought thome thaltwater taffy today. Nithe and thoft. You want thome?”
Lily smiled, feeling a weight lift off her withers. “Yes. Yes, I would.”
Twist twisted off a chunk. “It’th not a lot, because it hath to be made in thmall batcheth.”
“Oh? Why?” Lily asked as she started chewing. Her eyes brightened. This was delicious.
“It’th hoof-pulled,” Twist explained.
Lily cocked her head, not making the connection.
Twist adjusted her seat and leaned in, her smile widening as she got to discuss something she loved. “Taffy can be made a couple wayth, but bathically, you boil a thugar mithture, and then pull it until it’th aerated.” She demonstrated this with her hooves. “We have a taffy puller mathine, but hoof-pulled taffy ith very popular, jutht becauth. We get thpethial orderth for it all the time. Problem ith, it taketh a lot of pulling to get good taffy, tho we’re thtuck with thmaller batcheth when we do the hoof-made thtuff.”
“Well, it’s delicious,” Lily said, taking another bite. “You’ve really got a talent for this.”
Twist’s cheeks colored slightly, and she batted at her mane. “Thuckth,” she muttered.
“I wish there was some way I could help.”
There was a brief pause.
Both fillies looked up.
Lily grinned as she threw the rope of taffy over the hook and pulled again. Her super strength meant she could pull almost as much as the taffy machine all by herself.
Like most stores in Ponyville, this kitchen had large, open windows, so everything was visible to any passers-by or visitors; but for once, she didn’t feel self-conscious about her strength at all. She was doing something important.
Important, and delicious.
Twist rolled out the previous batch in preparation for cutting, her tail waggling with excitement. With Lily pulling, she had more time to do more of what she liked best. “You’re tho thuper, Lily,” she said.
And for the first time in a long time, Lily believed her.
