The Long Year

by The Red Parade

December

December.

‘Applejack.’

Cheerilee stood at the lakeside, alone. A paper bag full of berries sat in her hooves. All around her, the Garden was completely still. There were no signs of life from anywhere other than her.

Slowly, she turned the bag upside down. The berries tumbled down and splashed into the water, bobbing up and down. With a deep breath, she looked up at the sky, where plumes of smoke were spiraling up into the air.

Someone gasped as they rose from the water beside her. “Didn’t think you’d come back,” Strawberry said, shaking herself like a dog to air out her mane.

“I didn’t want to.”

“What, scared Rainbow’s going to attack you again?” Strawberry snorted. “I don’t think you have to worry about her. Twilight gave her an earful.”

Cheerilee began walking towards the forest. “It’s not her I’m worried about.”

“Mm. Those two have been at war ever since we left,” Strawberry said.

A vision of Daring lying in a hospital bed flashed through her mind. “Then we have to stop them.”

“How?”

“You tell me. You’re the ‘expert’ here,” Cheerilee replied.

Strawberry shook her head. “I don’t know what we can do about any of this. Ingenue isn’t going to let the Gardener get what she wants.”

Cheerilee didn’t answer, and slowly began to walk.

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But we’ve got to try something.”

---

“Where are you? Where are you? Malum, Malum, Malum.”

Cheerilee paused, watching as the Elder trembled against a tree.

“Malum, Malum, Malum,” they muttered, hacking and coughing.

“Your daughter.”

The Elder looked up.

“Ingenue. You sacrifice her for magic,” Cheerilee whispered. “Why?”

The Elder shook their head. “A mistake. A lie… My fault. We needed to live, to survive. I never thought… I never thought that life from death is no better than death itself.” They trembled again.

“This magic… It is beautiful,” Cheerilee said. “But what the Gardener did… What she’s trying to do…” She shuddered and shook her head. “I can see why your daughter wants to stop her.”

“Malum,” whispered the Elder. “Too late. Nothing can.”

“It isn’t,” Cheerilee insisted. “It hasn’t crossed through the lake yet.”

The Elder considered her carefully. “The things that grow here… They encompass all. This is the magic, raw and untapped. Do you understand?”

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”

The Elder pointed towards the bush. “It consumes. It replaces. It grows. Do you understand?”

Cheerilee followed their hoof and realized he was pointing at one of the stetson-shaped flowers, resting on top of a pony-like tree trunk. “...Growing a pony?”

“Ingenue,” pressed the Elder. “Malum.” They drew three circles in the sand. “Malum.” They said again.

Cheerilee sighed, looking up at the sky. She heard the Gardener scream in the distance. “It isn’t too late to make it up to her,” she said.

The Elder was still for a few seconds more, but eventually they began to move. Swiftly, they picked their way through the forest, with Cheerilee following close behind.

Soon they reached a clearing, charred and burned. The Elder drew to a halt. “Ingenue!” they cried.

“Leave,” came a bellowed reply, as Ingenue came crashing through the forest.

“It’s too late for you,” said another voice, as the Gardener emerged from across them. “They will know. They will all know.”

Cheerilee watched as the Elder slowly removed their hood, staring at the Gardener. “Malum, Malum, Malum,” they whispered, as their body began to glow.

Shielding her eyes with the back of her foreleg, Cheerilee slowly began to back away. There was a massive burst of light, throwing her to the ground. Scrambling to her hooves she darted away, a pained scream echoing from behind her.

When she reached the lake, Night Glider was waiting for her. “We need to seal this off, now,” she instructed. “Nothing from here can cross over to Equestria.”

“Yes, I know…” she trailed off, thinking on what the Elder had said. “Oh… Oh no.”

“What?”

Cheerilee shoved past her and charged into the water, quickly submerging herself.

She tore through the cave and out of the Everfree, charging through the streets and past the schoolhouse. She began to hear it as she drew closer to her house: a dull, echoing scream that was drawing a crowd.

Cheerilee ran through her house and into the backyard, feeling her heart drop.

The sapling she was growing was gone now: in its place was a shivering, pony-like mass made of wood and flower. Something that looked almost like Applejack.

It looked up with hollow yellow eyes and locked its gaze onto her.

Slowly, it opened its mouth. And once more, it screamed.