From birth, Lilac was always a serious young filly. Tempest would sometimes joke that when she was born she didn’t cry, she just gave her two mothers a stern look as if to demand an explanation for the change in scenery.
A potent combination of her two mothers, she’s incredibly inquisitive and motivated by self-improvement. She’s also strong and ambitious, inheriting Tempest’s physical strength as well as Twilight’s powerful magic. Lilac had always taken her position as the next leader of Equestria seriously, more seriously than either of her mothers did. After Celestia ed her role as leader of Equestria onto Twilight, she had given her the option to change her title if she chose to. Twilight decided to keep her title as “princess”, stating that she had no wish to rule over Equestria with even as strong a hoof as her predecessors. She hoped the title would make Equestria’s citizens see her as a leader rather than a ruler. Even after hearing her explanation, Lilac disliked the title of princess despite embracing her “royal duties” as she called them, and thought her mother’s reasoning for not changing her title to match her new status and power was rather foolish...though she’d never dare to say that out loud.
As she reached her teenage years, Lilac was a confident and happy young mare despite still not getting her mark. The vast majority of her peers had gotten theirs years ago, but Lilac saw it as a sign that her mark would be something really special and important, possibly the result of an important life lesson or a daring quest to save Equestria like her mother used to do. She diligently continued on the path she saw before her, training day and night with her adopted sister Ruby and studying every ancient Equestrian text on knighthood and arcane magic she could find.
While Twilight was slightly concerned that her daughter might be following a path too similar to her own in of forgoing friendship for duty, that feeling was often overwhelmed by the pride she had in her. She fully ed Lilac embracing her role and as she got older Twilight began to delegate some of her daily errands and duties to her. Lilac enjoyed some more than others but performed all with the same level of dedication and effort, even tasks she considered pointless or menial. Such tasks included most public appearances, but the ones she disliked the most were ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Even with her stellar work ethic and ultimate respect for her position, she detested having to show up and waste half her day just so some pony could say they had royalty open their store. While Twilight tried to explain the importance of keeping their constituents happy however they could, Lilac saw the events as insulting wastes of time and would often arrive late and leave early.
One day, however, Twilight told her she needed to do an opening for a particularly finicky and powerful family who wouldn’t tolerate any cut corners. Begrudgingly, she arrived at the opening of the Barnyard Bargains Superstore ten minutes early and cut that red ribbon with surgical accuracy. She tried to make polite conversation at the garden party that followed but after a few awkward moments, she decided it was better for her to just stand off to the side quietly until the party ended.
As the party neared its end, she was approached by another pony who looked around her age, a lanky unicorn with long, unkempt red hair. His expression was a direct reflection of how Lilac felt about the whole event, he looked like he was out of place and uncomfortable aware of that fact. He gave her a quick look over before pausing for a moment, pointing to her flank and telling her he didn’t her having that when she walked in. Lilac was confused before she glanced at her flank and her confusion turned to shock, and then to horror and disgust as realization sunk in. Distraught, she ran from the party, any concern for how the hosts would feel about it gone from her mind.
When Lilac arrived home she was inconsolable. Her mothers were at a loss for what to do. Both were well aware that their daughter’s mark seemed at odds with everything else about her. Any possible interpretation of the symbol seemed to reflect a “special purpose” that was the opposite of anything Lilac wanted her life to be. The weeks and months to follow were dark for the family, with Lilac abandoning the duties she had once taken such pride in and falling into a deep depressive episode. Twilight took this particularly hard, blaming herself for encouraging her daughter to put so much of her self worth into her work. How could she have let her repeat the same mistake she had? Tempest had a hard time keeping them both together but eventually, the clouds began to clear as Twilight realized that yes, maybe her daughter had repeated her mistakes, but like her she still had the rest of her life to learn and grow as she had.
Lilac’s recovery went slightly differently. One day, Twilight had been trying to comfort her as she sobbed. She didn’t what Twilight had said or why she had even started crying, so lost in the haze of her own depression. All she knew was that Twilight had said something that hit something in her wrong and it turned her deep sadness to raging anger. She broke away from her mother’s arms and started screaming at her, blaming her for everything and demanding through hot tears how she could have done this to her and made her like this. Twilight was shocked and at a loss for words, tears forming in her own eyes. Luckily, Tempest had overheard the commotion. She yelled Lilac’s name over her crying and she suddenly stopped, looking up at her. Tempest told her to follow her to the yard, where the two had often spent long hours sparring and training. Tempest told her to pick up the old wooden sword and start warming up. After a few minutes, tears started streaming down her face again, though this time Lilac was crying out of pain and loss rather than anger and disappointment. Tempest stopped her and took her into her arms, and the two cried together for a few minutes.
Afterward, Tempest told Lilac that even if she didn’t want her role and her duties, she should still keep up her training regiment as a way to relieve her pent up anger. Lilac smiled for what felt like the first time in months. She slowly began to reenter her own life, taking on more of the duties and responsibilities she once had. Her feelings towards her cutie mark never sweetened, but she learned to deal with it as well as she could. However, despite what Twilight might have hoped, the experience didn’t push her any closer to the path of friendship and instead drove her to dedicate herself even more strongly to her studies and duties, hoping she could make up for what she saw as a permanent handicap with hard work and determination.
Notes:
Technically, this is the 3rd version of her character, but V2 just sounds better
I'm retconning some of the story ideas i introduced in her old bio because I realized they're totally out of place with the other stories I like/want to do more
Lilac's sister Ruby is mentioned briefly, she's a red dragon Lilac found abandoned in the Everfree Forest when she was young. I just like the idea of Twilight's kid finding a dragon sibling for themselves like she did idk I've had this character's ref drawn for like a year now and the story is almost completely written but it feels too old to post and I still have to change it around a little to fit new Lilac
Lilac probably has the least personality of any of my characters, she's like the character you play in a video game if that makes sense. The leader of the group, the Lionblaze, the Fred from Scooby-Doo, Jake from Animorphs...god I hope everyone understands at least one of those three references and it doesn't just look like I'm calling my own OC boring