As it happened, one day there came another pony into Ponyville—one that would change Lingual Rose's life forever. Whether grand or ill fortune would result, it was hard to say. One particular day in the summer there came a unicorn sent by Princess Celestia herself from Canterlot. From the town square, Lingual Rose had seen a purple unicorn in the company of a baby dragon. At first, the green pegasus thought nothing of it—after all many ponies came to Ponyville, though granted none of them were sent by the Princess herself. When Lingual Rose heard, in passing for no one would ever speak directly to her, that the unicorn was staying in the library, she had to see for herself.
Though the pegasus was more proficient in oral languages, after all the roses spoke to her every day, it was still quite interesting to learn the written languages as well. For this reason, Lingual Rose was curious to see if this "scholarly" pony taking residence in the library would be able to help her in this area. Though, the pony thought dejectedly, it would be complicated. No one ever paid any thought to her, why would this one be any different? Still, forming something of a resolve, the pegasus elected to go.
By wing, the pony flew over to the Golden Oak Library at the center of town. Tonight was the first night that the unicorn would be spending in Ponyville and, for this, there was to be a sort of "surprise" party for her. The real surprise was that everypony was already away of the party. Needing no sort of invite, Lingual Rose felt somewhat confident that she would be able to enter without any sort of problem and, in this respect, she was correct. Without anypony saying a word to her, she entered the library and was consumed by the mass of ponies within. During all the commotion, she was not quite able to approach the unicorn. From the other side of the room, she saw the purple unicorn, her lovely streaked mane brilliant in the low-lighting, sipping on punch and talking with some other residents of the town. How badly she wanted to approach this pony called Twilight! But sadly, the room was simply too full for Lingual Rose to move more than a hoof in any direction.
Throughout the night, the pegasus continued her efforts to advance towards this Twilight pony, but her hard-work was often foiled by a pony simply standing in her way and refusing to move. Well, refusing to move or ignoring her. Sometimes it was hard to tell which ponies were doing—or whether it was a conscious effort or not. Finally, when it was approaching daylight hours, Lingual Rose managed to squeeze her way through the crowd and found herself muzzle to muzzle with the famous Twilight from Canterlot, the protégée of the Princess Celestia. Smiling weakly, the green pony opened her mouth to speak but found that no words could come. Thinking quickly, she made a supreme exertion to say "hello" and only "hello" but the words would not form—in any language! Tears sprang to her dark eyes and she grew frustrated with her inability to communicate. Twilight, directly in front of her, looked at her—yes, really looked at her! But, after a few moments of silence, must have decided that the pony was not going to speak at all and moved along. Crushed, the pegasus ran out of the room weeping and flew quickly home.
Utterly defeated, utterly crushed, and utterly humiliated, Lingual Rose sat in her rose garden. Her tears fell quickly to the soft soil beneath her hooves, quite literally fueling the roses around her. In the darkness, she could only see the faint outlines of the vines. The swirled in intricate circles and the thorns scraping past each other sounded as snickers and jeers. Sobbing, the pony heard them but payed them no mind. Finally, with her own voice, her very own voice, she spoke to them:
"あなたは正しかった。私は皆さん以外の友達はいません."
The roses laughed, or so it seemed, and a song of jeers and derisive chuckling played out in the night air. Even the wind seemed to mock her in the moment as she continued to weep. After all, who would want to even be her friend but the roses she tended so carefully? There was nothing to be friends with; she was nothing to be friends with. The roses, not directly to her face but rather to the night air, responded:
"Persze, hülye póni. Ki szeretlek, de nekünk?"
Confronted with this statement the weak pony had no choice but to accept it as the legitimate truth. Nopony would be her friend. The roses began to wrap themselves around her hooves tightly so that even the slightest move would result in great pain from the thorns so close to piercing her hide. The vines trailed up to her neck, wrapping around it as a lover would—gently but with a dangerous intention behind the gentility. Defeated, Lingual Rose did not resist. The vines held her as she wept, feeding and feeding them until there was nothing left inside her.
The following week did not aid in the recovery of her confidence whatsoever. After finding out that Twilight and her "new" friends saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon and her Eternal Night, Lingual Rose was more put down than ever. It was obvious now that this wonderful unicorn did not need her as a friend when she had such perfect ones already—heroines no less. Sighing became her new past time and she became discontented in her clean-up of the public gardens. In fact, they began to wither and decay in front of her, even as she worked. The sight of death around her did not move the pony and she simply sighed the matter away.
It wasn't until one particular day, as Lingual Rose was trimming the hedges around the public plaza that she began to change her attitude. As a form of miracle, somepony approached her.
"Hey, you!" came a voice, high-pitched and almost nasally sounding.
Lingual Rose did not look up. She was not used to someone calling for her at all. So, in keeping with her usual routine, she continued on with her work and ignored the call. Her ears, instead, were focused on the snip-snip of the clippers that she held in her hooves. However, the pink mare did not cease and continued to call in her direction. With a confused look upon her face, the green pony turned to the pink one, with a lovely yellow mane, and paused. The air was empty for a moment, void of both emotions and words. Lingual Rose was about to return to her work when the pink pony spoke once more.
"What are you doing?"
Blinking, the green pegasus could think of nothing to say to this earth pony. In the absence of dialogue, Lingual Rose instead turned her attention to the physical appearance of this mare. There was a pure white lily in her mane and her cutiemark was, as well, three white lilies. Sighing gently, the pegasus thought of her own cutiemark of the rose vine with thorns. How ironic that this pure lily should speak to such a thorny and insignificant pony such as her.
"I mean, normally the gardens look wonderful but they have been awful lately. I know you are the pony that cares for them."
Lingual Rose shrank back, aware that she was being scolded. Still, she could not bring herself to speak and, in doing so, defend herself. Seeing this, the pink mare changed her attitude and smiled gently.
"I'm sorry, how rude I am! My name is Lily Valley and I live in Ponyville too. I think I've seen you around before."
The green pony could only bring herself to nod slightly. She had seen this pretty pony in the square before. She sold flowers in town along with some other mares. Really, since they were both so interested in plants—and specifically flowers—they should have been friends long ago. Laughing internally, Lingual Rose noted the irony and reminded herself exactly why she could not ever have friends anyway.
"Well, and I'm so sorry about this, I seem to have forgotten your name. What is it?"
Finally, an opportunity to speak in which she felt confident. Making eye-contact, Lingual Rose looked up into the wonderful golden eyes of this Lily Valley to whom she was now acquainted. In her own voice, though strained, she managed to whisper:
"Lingual Rose."
It hurt to speak. This effort seemed to please the other as she smiled widely. It seemed, momentarily, that she was going to say something else but then she—for some reason—did not. With a gentle grin, she took the lily from her mane and placed it in the bloody-red mane of the other mare.
"Hey, I'll see you around, okay?"
Lingual Rose watched the other walk away before picking up the clippers and returning to her work. Inside, though she knew the interaction had not been by any means perfect, she was smiling.