Wheat Field Under Discord's Skies
Strange she found herself in a garden. No--it wasn't strange; what was strange was the way the garden was. The scene wasn't anything like the way the others were done. Instead of harmonious motion, everything seemed to be... falling apart. Strokes ran into, on, over, and through each other in a patchy, near chaotic way; organized just enough to hold the image. It all appeared, in stark contrast to the powerful, vital images before, very fragile.
The garden was filled with many flowering pale-green plants--roses, chrysanthemums, poppies, small chestnut trees--their trunks and branches sky-blue. On a white stone stand were a few colorful pots with plants; one plant, in a particularly tall blue pot, had red flowers. There was a strange ivy on the ground in varying greens, but not too many, and black, shadowed with some strokes of light blues. At her right appeared to be some small, bare orange bush. The bushes further away, near the edge of the garden, twisted and crashed, bringing to her mind the tumultuous clouds of some terrible storm. There was a small railed path in the garden around which orange heart-shaped flowers appeared and rose without really rising. This corner of the garden lay in the wake of two grand pairs of dark, thick, towering cypresses that flowed into the sky, pale and clouded with violet clouds. Beyond the garden she could see the red and blue roofs of a lonely crowd of homes. And, further in the distance, she could see her house!
"No, Cherry Garden. I've already posed for you once; for what reason could you possibly need me again? I won't pose for you again no matter how many times you ask. I just can't."
Twilight heard a soft, but severe voice behind her. She turned around to see, not her own home, but a small cottage. Fluttershy's cottage!
"Fluttershy! Is that you? Where are you?"
Behind her again the same words were repeated, again in the same suppressed severity. She sharply spun about, glad to hear a familiar voice. And there she was: in the midst of the garden, among those orange flowers, picking some white roses; she held an air of impatience about her.
Twilight, so happy to see a familiar face, and elated at finding one of her friends so soon, ran towards Fluttershy with the intention of hugging her. To her surprise. however, Fluttershy jumped back, making a motion as though wishing to run away, and threw a look of complete disdain. Twilight stopped in her tracks some distance back.
"Fluttersh--"
"I think Angel is calling me, Cherry Garden." She tried to move behind some bushes. "Um... No! Cherry Garden. I can't--I won't pose for you again! You frighten me and, what's more, you even frighten Rainbow Dash!" Tears came to her eyes.
"Fluttershy, it's me: Twilight Sparkle!" She assured her. "Why do you keep calling me Cherry Garden? And what do you have against her, anyway?"
As Twilight attempted to move closer, Fluttershy slowly, but attempting to show some sort of boldness, standing taller, backed away further and further. "Well, really, Cherry Garden. I have nothing against you--" She froze up, her face contorted in the self-same look that Applejack falls into when she is lying. "I..I.." a little more nervous; she shot a look of malice!
"Fluttershy..." Twilight whispered, tears beginning to form in her eyes. Why would her kindest friend, the kindest and most gentle pony she knew, look at her like that?
"Just go! Go, before I say something terrible."
"But... Discord--!"
"You're just a bad dream!" Fluttershy shouted angerly.
Twilight couldn't stand it any longer. She needed to bring together her friends in this dream one way or the other so she could defeat Discord. She galloped head long straight for Fluttershy. The same memory spell should do the trick!
"Eeeek! What are you--?!"
Fluttershy tried to scurry away, but it was no use. Before she could even dig her hooves into the ground and dart, Twilight was on her, pressing her forehead--no horn!
Twilight looked up at her new pale lime-green mane. No horn. No magic!
"No! No, how is this possible? Even here, I should still be able to use my magic. Even if Discord changed my form, that shouldn't change me!"
Fluttershy, very shaken up from the sudden attack, squirmed to get away, tears in her eyes. But before Fluttershy could get anywhere, Twilight was pulling Fluttershy's Element of Harmony from the saddle-bag. This was the only other thing she could think of that could possibly help. Almost as soon as the glitter shone from out the bag, Fluttershy stopped her struggling and became mad.
"Cherry Garden!" She gasped.
Twilight thrust the Element on her before she was promptly bucked off and Fluttershy flew away. The Element sat her feet where Fluttershy had dropped it.
"I don't understand," she said, picking up and putting the Element back into the saddle-bag with her hoof. "That should've worked."
"Cherry Garden!"
Twilight looked up, and there in the cloudy sky, cerulean blue strokes of the sky seeming to fall on top, was Rainbow Dash.
"Cherry Garden! What have you done to Fluttershy this time?" Rainbow seemed a bit anxious, but put on a bravado as if to stave the feeling. "She just flew past me crying and said you attacked her! I swear--I've been kind to you for your own sake so far--but this has gone too far!" She shot down like a bullet, stopping just in time to press her face aggressively close to Twilight's. "One more slip," she struck Twilight hard in the chest with her hoof at every word, "and I can't be responsible for what happens to you. Got that?" Her voice quivered as though afraid, but her tone was sharp and threatening. Rainbow Dash spun around and slapped Twilight with her tail before flying off in the direction Fluttershy had flown, muttering, "Nopony makes Fluttershy cry and gets away with it..."
Twilight, without realizing, starting walking as she thought on what had just happened.
"What could Cherry Garden possibly have done to frighten not only Fluttershy--but Rainbow Dash?!"
She didn't have time to delve any deeper however, before she found herself in Ponyvillle on a little street that passed through some houses. The sky struck her first: a ghastly white with cerulean-blue strokes laid over it--a broken mass of fallen blue. Turning her head this way and that, the blue strokes moved, fell, rose, appeared and disappeared on the white. It seemed a serene poison infecting the scene. At her feet, on either side of the path, patched strokes of grass, bursts of yellow set in several clusters against them--is that blood? The walls of the buildings were shaded a sickly off-white and green. They seemed to be falling apart. Green strokes appeared harshly contrasted against the orange roofs in front and to the left of her. The trees quivered in a breeze that wasn't there. Twilight felt distanced and alone.
Somepony walked down the stairs at the end of the turn in the small road and followed it. Twilight followed, wary of the strange mass of green on a building that moved as though it were an animal.
The street opened up onto a scene full of a strange new motion. Flat slabs of color--like stain-glass--but, unlike glass, moved almost as though the whole were a living thing, though all distinctly its own. With the smallest of strokes, powerful motion and life was expressed. And yet, everything felt so fragile; Twilight felt the whole thing would fall apart if there were too many ponies. That yellow staircase rolled in a torrent. The red tiled roofs of some buildings above those stairs stood strong and defiant under the deep indigo sky--a day scene under a night sky! She froze when a small number of ponies, a pair of white figures next to her, a pair of dark figures ahead of her, and one shadowy, melting figure of an old pony gliding down the stairs, came walking heavily and vanished like phantoms.
She had not noticed it before, but all the dream must have been supremely quiet. A bell rung, and a door by the stairs shut on a tail that looked awfully like Rarity's.
Twilight walked to the door, and peeped inside. A great feeling of anxiety began whelling itself up within her, climbing up the strings of her heart like a lost soul from beyond.... Rarity was looking at a picture on the wall with a look of great disgust. A door opened inside and Pinkie Pie came out into the room Rarity was in.
"Who is the pig that did that?" Rarity caricaturely--Twilight first thought--gagged, pointing to the painting as though it were contagious and would ruin her if she looked at it any longer.
"I believe Derpy said it's one of Cherry Garden's paintings."
"That ghastly new painter in town, of whom I have heard somewhat about from Fluttershy? I am so glad I've been able to successfully avoid her!"
Pinkie roughly took down the painting and threw it face down on a table. Rarity crept away from it as though it could infect her.
Pinkie stuck her tongue out. "I don't know why Derpy would put that up! It gives me the creeps." She shivered and turned away from the painting sharply. "I've met Cherry Garden on more than one occasion."
"Really? What do you know of her?"
"She's a dangerous fool! When I'd talk to her--if somepony came up and passed by, she'd turn her whole head and follow them, staring; if a bird flew by, instead of glancing, she'd raise her whole head to see the bird. It wasn't normal kinda staring, though--even for me! It gives her eyes a fixed... mechanical look." She shuddered. "I've tried to be her friend, like I do with all ponies, but with Cherry Garden--" she winced at the name; "it's impossible! She's like a scarecrow. I catch her incessantly muttering to herself after she talks with some pony: 'It's impossible, impossible!' If I happen to pass her while she paints, and she doesn't notice me, I catch her, after putting some of her little strokes on the canvas, leaning her head back to look up with half-closed eyes--she seems deranged when she paints. In moments of frustration, or if somepony disturbs her while she's painting, she can get quite violent! But the worst is not her strange behavior, violence, or creepy paintings, but that mutilated ear of hers! Like a gorilla's!"
"What?! Ewww! What happened to it?" Even under the clear uneasiness, she smiled, evidently finding this image she made of a pony with a gorilla ear very amusing.
"I heard she cut it off and gave it to somepony she liked..."
They both shuddered and burst out laughing at the thought of this crazy pony with half an ear. They made their way to the door Twilight was behind. She jumped behind a near bush. Rarity and Pinkie opened the door, still laughing at the ghostie, and disappeared.
"Cherry Garden cut--cut off her ear?" Shakily, she reached up to feel her left ear still whole. Trembling, she felt her right. Her heart sank: most of the ear was gone! A piercing nauseous feeling overcame her. She stood up, holding the ear, and fell against the wall. What could possibly impel a pony to cut off half their own ear! Was Cherry Garden really as crazy as they made her out to be? The evidence was surely mounting up: Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and even Pinkie Pie (who Twilight had thought would be the most understanding)--all feared her and her... insanity. But Twilight hadn't seen anything that could make her seem crazy, herself. Cherry Garden only seemed no more than an eccentric painter--no pony dangerous. She thought back about when Cherry Garden first came to her door. Was her ear mutilated? Did she display any sort of undertone of possible violence? Any insanity? Grotesque paintings? She couldn't say much for the ear--it was too dark, and she never really looked. For the rest, Cherry Garden seemed to not show any significant sign.
"The painting! What were they looking at?" Out of some need to comfort herself that these accusations were false, she had to see it. She convinced herself if this painting was beautiful and full of life like she's seen up to now in her dreams, all that said against her must be lies crafted by Discord.
She peeped inside to make sure the coast was clear, and stumbled inside. The painting was twice as long as it was high. It felt heavy and still somewhat wet. She turned it over.
The painting wasn't moving like the rest of the world, but it still appeared it was tearing itself apart. Rows of violet pillar-trunks of poplars, like lightening, shot up from the stormy, flowery forest floor, disappearing into a black-indigo horizon like the edge of a dark sea. A dark figure, like the reaper from the yellow field, and another, a lighter figure that beared little resmbelnce to Cherry Garden, stood in that forest's interior. A vague anxiety came to her when the dark figure seemed to be moving and staring at her. She took one last, long look at the painting all at once, then turned it back down on the table.
This painting, for all its unsettling, fragile nature, expressed a pungent emotional intensity that was at once beautiful and frightening. It was almost sad. Thick strokes that she could actually feel in the weight and by gazing at it were layed down like bricks, heavy with raw emotion. The way Cherry Garden painted seemed more than a stylistic choice; there was a certain life in it that met her.
No! She knew Cherry Garden was not insane, as Discord would have her believe!
"It's impossible that somepony to paint like her could be crazy and dangerous!"
She was more determined than ever to gather her friends and stop Discord--save Cherry Garden from his torture.
She opened the door onto a muddy scene. Pinkie Pie and Rarity were frozen still in the middle of the road.
"Strange. Cherry Garden should've woken by now..." Discord's voice floated up behind her. Twilight spun around to meet Discord floating inside, holding that long painting, tracing the brush strokes with his eagle claw. "No matter..."
"I know what you're trying to do Discord! And it won't work!"
"Oh, do you?" He perked up, slightly raising an eyebrow.
"Yes! You've been trying to make Cherry Garden look insane so I won't want to help her. You've manipulated my friends' true selves in this dream so we can't stop you. But it won't work! If they are in this dream with me and the Elements, it must mean that either Princess Luna helped bring them here, or that they are projections of my memory of them--which means, in either case," her face lit up in sudden realization, in confidence of certain victory and having out-smarted Discord, "I can change them back by reminding myself of who they are! And even if I don't change back into myself, staying looking like Cherry Garden, by knowing who they are, we can still unite as friends and use the Elements of Harmony to defeat you!"
Discord stifled his mouth the entire of her little rant; but she was too much, and he burst out into a roaring fit of laughter!
"Is that what you think?" he hardly managed.
He fell on the ground, rolling in laughter, and fell into the painting.
"Why are you laughing?" Twilight demanded.
The painting floated up to face Twilight. Discord took on the body of that dark pony, and swung the other, lighter one, around as though in a dance. He pulled it close and stoked the mane.
"Don't you remember what I said?" taking off his head and replacing it on the other pony, letting the latter's fall into the flowery forest floor; "That I needn't go out of my way to make chaos here?"
That lighter pony's figure, head and all, transformed seamlessly into the exact image of Cherry Garden; the shadowy pony's headless body dropped into the flowers like a puppet whose strings have been suddenly cut.
Discord's voice slowly become overshadowed then mixed with Cherry Garden's warm, indeterminate voice. "Everything you have seen has been Cherry Garden's memories. Your friends really do despise and fear poor Cherry Garden. It's Beautiful: this chaos grows without any interference!" Twilight couldn't tell if Discord's voice overshadowed Cherry Garden's, or the other way around.
"Look at this, Twilight Sparkle." He leapt out from the painting, flying past Twilight, and winded behind Rarity and Pinkie. "Look at them closely." He turned their faces so Twilight could see.
Though Discord brought them closer to her, she felt she fell toward them.
"See how they look not like Cherry Garden's dream, but as they were in real life?" His hooves melted around their necks as he slipped next to Twilight. "That's because they are memories. I made none of it up!" He pinched Pinkie's and Rarity's little cheeks with fingers that grew out from his hoofs. "They fear her and create chaos for me to use! Your friends are the best, Twilight Sparkle--they easily believe lies disguised as truth..." He laughed sinisterly.
"But I can still get rid of that fear and unite them! It happened with Zecora and it can happen again."
"Oh, you would think that, wouldn't you? They feared Zecora because of what they didn't know; but they fear Cherry Garden because of what they think they know--and she re-enforces their fears every time they see her. Quiet different--"
"No!" Twilight knocked Discord away and he floated up in to the air. "I--"
"Enough!" cutting her off with a quick swipe, smearing some of the image of the dream. "I haven't time for this 'explaining to the reader' nonsense!" He swooped down over Twilight and knocked Pinkie and Rarity into the bushes along the road. "If you don't believe me--I think you still have a little time to see Applejack; surely Cherry Garden's most recent memory of her can convince you, eh?" And as though the scene were an actual painting, he tore open the canvas, and disappeared behind it before sewing it back together.
"What is he playing at? Again and again he shows up, explains a little bit of something, and then leaves. It makes no sense. Is he still trying to corrupt Cherry Garden? If he were, why bother with me? He doesn't need me here... if anything, I am the last pony he wants running around Cherry Garden's dreamscapes..."
She pondered over, turning in her head, this little riddle, trying to figure it out. She walked through the muddy scene of Ponyville toward Sweet Apple Acres, the streets empty and the scene eerie in its lack of motion, until she came near the edge of town when she stopped and looked back.
The colors, so bright and cheery, but the strokes and composition expressed something delicate falling apart.
Much of the canvas showed. The under painting, like a drawing, showed in places like bones revealed under flesh. Great places were left unfinished: sky, fields, roofs, walls, windows. Most looked merely suggested, as though crippled by despair before it could be finished: walls had noticible strokes like shrunken skin; heavily laid but gently lifted strokes of yellow fell almost too simply on flat green bushes; twisting plants and trees rose like a gentle fire invading the fragile held image and were fuller than anything else; the fields beyond seemed fading, their nearness or farness indeterminate; the broken dark blue hills gave the impression of a sky, but the sky was bare canvas.
A knot built in her chest that chocked her throat. Here was an image of internal decay; the image of a pony who has been suffering long. There were no ponies in the streets. There were no sounds of laughter or animals. There was just this. The silence roared.
As she walked on, some fillies laughed distantly, cutting the air. Twilight winced; the laughs were mocking. The sounds fell away like tears.
The longer she looked the the scene, the more she felt the touch of Cherry Garden in it; painted with hot and bitter tears; painted with a hoary sadness.
Upon a sudden the image brightened; the grasses dried at her feet and burned a high yellow. The once deep, full green bushes beside her blanched, outlined with quick green strokes; long yellow bricks of wheat rushed into them and disappeared. Looking around her, all the fields around Ponyville had became a bright, high yellow, all the brighter juxtaposed against the gray-blue sky and the depressed blue color Ponyville had become. Then the rain poured down in a tremendous deluge, like needles. Strokes of the ground contorted, as though in death-throws, transforming from yellow to a silvery-blue. The rain was warm.
She couldn't explain it, but she felt somehow fathomlessly isolated from that warm, happy town. Everywhere she went in that town, there were always ponies, happy ponies, with smiles on their faces and kindness on their tongues. To think that these same warm hearted and caring ponies--even her closest friends--could abuse a suffering soul, in need of help most of all, was unthinkable. It was painful. Her breathing became heavy and it became hard to walk. Just outside Sweet Apple Acres, she collapsed and allowed the tears to fall.
The rain lifted and Celestia's sun shone bright over head--oppressively hot!
Sheaves of wheat stood just off the road, behind a tiny fence. They seemed to stand like those ponies who, overworked in the hot sun, die standing. They stood too still, cut by the reaper, a vague dark pony she saw still cutting away in the distance, working like Discord himself in the blistering heat to finish the task. The image of death, with ponies as the wheat he is reaping. The sheaves seemed to wilt under the heat; almost brown yellow strokes, and violet strokes that flashed in the yellow of the wheat, flowed endlessly off and into a strange pool that became a shadow.
The dark reaper faced Twilight. Twilight was so lost in the bizarre lines now she didn't react, merely blinking.
"Go on, Twilight Sparkle. Applejack and the rest of your friends are just a little further. They are slandering Cherry Garden. They are speaking mean things, and are lying to themselves. Do you think you can stop them?" The reaper was Discord.
"My friends would never...."
"Cherry Garden!" Applejack shouted.
She somehow appeared in front of the Apple's barn. Inside stood, in a circle, her friends. When Applejack spoke up, they all turned towards Twilight.
"Cherry Garden." Applejack heavily trotted up to her. "What's this I hear about you attackin' Fluttershy?"
Twilight tensed. They weren't like the rest of the dream: they weren't painted. They were real.
"Is it true?" Twilight looked intensely into her friends' eyes, growing sick of Discord's games.
It's all a lie. It's all a lie. It's all a lie. A lie!
"Is what true?" She took a threatening step closer.
"Do you... hate Cher--me?"
"Listen! We've tried bein' nice to y'all, but you've done nothin' but scare us and terrorize us!"
Rainbow Dash zoomed over and saved Applejack the trouble of talking.
"She knows darn well what she's done! There's no need to suffer talking about it!"
"But what have I done?" Twilight pleaded.
"You'd best just get goin', girl."
"Yeah!" the rest of her friends agreed.
"But--please! Girls!"
"Ya see these legs? They tend to go off on their own sometimes..." Applejack turned her broad side to Twilight and flexed her hind legs.
What is this?
"Friends--!"
"Friends?! Get this in your head, Cherie Gardoin: we aren't your friends!" Rainbow Dash spat.
Twilight tripped over something and fell on to the ground. Pinkie Pie laughed at Cherry Garden's gorilla ear getting muddy. "That ear sure is scary, but just like I tell ya girls," she pointed out gaily, "nothing drives away fear like laughter. Now just look: that ear really does look like a gorilla's when it's all dirty!" She fell into a fit of giggles that her friends happily joined.
"Come now, deary, laugh. Share this moment with us," Rarity added ironically. "All that time alone really isn't good for you. You really aught to be more social and amiable."
Twilight got up and tried to walk closer. She had to convince them.
The ground imperceptively shook and her friends, for a moment, flashed like smeared paint.
"Don't come any closer!" Rainbow Dash threatened, stepping in front of a cowering Fluttershy who was mumbling something about not letting Cherry Garden hurt her.
Twilight stopped and reached for her saddle-bag.
"We're warnin' ya!"
She took it off and dropped it; the Elements fell out.
Suddenly she couldn't breathe; the ground rose up to meet her. She couldn't focus her eyes right. And then overwhelming, numbing pain infected her chest. She gasped for breath and shook violently. She could vaguely see her friends, for a moment flashing like smeared paint, walking away without looking back. She struggled to get up on her legs and limp out of the barn to somewhere safe.
Her body felt heavy and she fell painfully. The sky darkened. Overcome by deep melancholy, she fixed her gaze on the distant fields--to be away from all this torture, all these lies, all this... emptiness. She was alone, and it was more than she could bear. Everypony she had called friend had abandoned her and despised her. She heard screaming, muffled screaming as though from behind a wall. It tore through the air. It was messy. The pain in her chest--from her injury and from her heart--was suffocating. With great pains she drug herself toward the fields. She stopped and couldn't breathe for the pain. She violently hiccoughed. Hot tears ran down and muddied her face, mixing with the soil. Her breath was fast and shallow.
It began to thunder in the distance, and a black-blue cloud overspread half the sky.
The screams turned to moans. She drug herself into the almost too serene fields, fields that would appear calm even in the catastrophe. Winds blew across and beat in waves the great expanse of high-yellow wheat.
The clouds spread over the whole sky; lightning flashed vividly, showing a lead white cloud violently tearing across the troubled sky, and vast flat fields of green wheat expanding endlessly into the infinite horizon. No ponies, no houses, no animals, no sun, no moon, no stars, no open sky, no comforting features. Only complete solitude.
The fields seemed to express the sadness and extreme loneliness words could never. The screaming as though from behind a wall pealed. There was no echo. The screams drifted and faded quickly. The screams turned to wails and then to sobs. Her eyes burned terribly and a nauseous feeling heaved in her stomach. She tried to stand again. Her legs shook and she almost fell. Her head reeled. The screams built up into a crescendo. She fixed her gaze on a small haystack down in the fields.
There... there she could lay down in peace and wish for it all to end... to attempt to escape this agony.
She had been betrayed. Her friends--they beat her and laughed at her--at Cherry Garden! That most recent memory, if it was true...
No...
Twilight vividly remembered Cherry Garden's face when she came to her home... It wasn't just great sleeplessness she saw there, but suffering and loneliness. What pony cared for her? Who would miss her if she left? No, she wouldn't leave loudly, but just slip out... like a pony who wakes up early, while everypony else is asleep, and slips out the door without a sound. No one would notice. No pony would miss her. They'd wake up in the morning, eat and laugh, and be happy that that pony who only disturbed and troubled them was gone. They'd be relieved. That expression of complete sadness and helplessness had expressed itself in Cherry Garden's sleep-deprived face--deprived of all the kindness and comfort of friends.
Cherry Garden's face had been dirty. That day her friends had abused Cherry Garden just as they had abused her. The reality struck her to her heart.
Breathing became painful, like daggers in her chest. She limped in the direction of the haystack. She coughed and something red came out. Her whole body trembled. The pain in the mutilated ear suddenly tore through her with the pain and intense suffering of exposed nerves. She screamed in agony. The haystack thrust at her and held her. She gazed at the cloudy skies. There was a loud crash and her eyes closed.
What is this? It's impossible! Impossible! I wish they would only accept me as I am. I wish it were all over now...
Fearful laughter sounded overhead and spread pealing through the heavens.
A shock of panic that became mixed with a nauseous feeling of dread shot through her, like a pony who meant to commit suicide but then makes for the bank because she finds the water 'too cold.'
"My friends...."
Don't accuse anypony... it is I who wanted to kill myself.
I want to die like this...
Cherry Garden's voice cried from her mouth.
The screaming pealed and pealed and pealed again; she knew the screaming had not been from behind some wall or in the distance--she was screaming! She screamed in anguish. All the loneliness, all the agony, all the helpless isolation, all the abuse and rejection, all the extreme depression, flooded into her with a roar.
No friends, no family. Just her alone in nature.
Something sharp struck her head. She opened her eyes. She lay in the middle of a fork in a dirt path that cut through terrifyingly yellow wheat fields. She heard careful rustling in the fields. There were some green grasses that ran along the paths that gave the impression that very few ponies provide these fields company.
Impassioned strokes attacked the scene in tremendous intensity. Every stroke burned with emotion. This was the work of a possessed pony.... Lines ran into, on, over, through each other in volleys--complete wet-on-wet strokes of savagely thick paint. The dirt paths shot out like blind but precise attacks with incredible speed out to either side of her, dark grass and dark dirt painted in bold painful strokes, only to vanish into the troubled sea of wheat. The path before her, running into the fields, twisted and then shot out like a coiled band just before plunging unhesitatingly into the wheat fields. At the two corners where these violent paths met, stalks of wheat erupted and plummeted like lava from a volcano; some strokes mixed with the dirt to become a brighter brown. The fields lived.
If Twilight could see Cherry Garden there before her, she would see Cherry Garden painted on even though she could barely hold the brush, but knowing exactly what she wanted to paint, worked at the painting with all her strength, not even bothering to lay down an under-drawing.
The fields shook and bent. Twilight's sense of perspective vanished the longer she gazed. Thick, raw, heavy strokes of paint: it was as though Cherry Garden beat at it in despair. To her right were some smeared black strokes over which were some lighter lemon-yellow strokes--nightmarish teeth in a grand, grinning smile. Strokes flowed and crashed--lemon-yellow into brownish-light-cadmium; some black strokes; and floating over the fields, like a spirit of death, a brown like the path on which she stood.
The sky was dark but not stormy, though the sky thrashed about in constant motion. The horizon glowed in the sky like an eerie mist. The ultramarine blue, lead white, and ivory black sky flowed like a great roaring fire. No stroke repeated.
Again great waves of sadness and loss crashed down on her and pulled her down.
"All the happy times with my friends... all the kindness and love for each other; all we accomplished and conquered and learned together; all the laughter, all the tender moments; coming closer as friends; always there for each other; all the ponies we helped...." That that may all be lost in an instant--that it was all thrown away in an instant; that their friendship and happiness could just end....
She poked at the ground, driving in her despair. Her poking turned into strokes, and then into slashes, and then strikes. She kicked up so much dirt and made so much noise wailing, that a murder of crows that had been eating in the fields burst out of the field in a confusing myriad of caws and wings beating violently as though they were being attacked.
The crows fled off into the indeterminate horizon. For a moment the glow in the edge of the sky seemed to emanate only from two spots above the field. The roads, the field, and the two glowing spots like nightmarish eyes--it made a strangely smiling face, the kind a starving foal might make on its sinewy, bony face, sickly morose and rather pale, as it suffers the anguish of sickness and malnutrition, so far that it no longer has the strength to even cry for food or comfort from its mother, and can only contort its little mouth into a strange smile of suffering, and weakly move its little legs no thicker than worms.
She couldn't cry, only chocking and coughing pathetically, drooling in anguish.
Suddenly the scene imperceptibly shook violently. She lay in a vast plain of empty canvas.
"It's over!" Discord's voice, mixed with Night Mare Moon's and Cherry Garden's voices, boomed like thunder all around. "You lost, Twilight Sparkle!" His hysterical, sinister laughter sent Twilight's heart rumbling. It was all the more terrible that Cherry Garden's laughter predominated. "You couldn't get the Elements of Harmony to unite and defeat me--you played perfectly. And now, with you here, I can escape Cherry Garden's dreams with you when she wakes."
Yellow flashes spun in her vision.
Discord fell out of the blankness of the canvas, laughing and rolling around. "Twilight, I'm so glad we got to spend this time together," he wiped a tear from his eye; "I'm even more glad you were able to see your friends for who they really are, and how in what they think they know, so convinced of it, they would drive a poor suffering soul so far to contemplate killing herself." He flashed like smeared paint. "It's beautiful! The Chaos here is frightening!"
A sharp pain shot through her chest. Something wet and warm came from there... Was she bleeding?
"Look, look! Look at this! Look what Cherry Garden has taught me! Look at what I now can do!" And he drug his lion's paw along the canvas, leaving in its wake a myriad of colored strokes of paint. It rose and twisted higher and higher, strokes climbing up and up, and filling the canvas in nightmarish blacks and greens and yellows. A great cypress, like a dark obelisk, towered before her. The strokes flowed. In the strokes she could see ponies' faces, and then nightmarish faces like death.
Twilight's hooves shook and twitched; she couldn't stop them. The strokes, the faces, appeared more and more sharp and threatening.
"They're going to kill me!" She tried to scream, but only a hoarse breath came out. A terror overtook her, like a pony falling off a high cliff, knowing that they will die.
Discord continued to drag his paw, and now his eagle claw as well, across the canvas, dancing and laughing madly. He flashed again and again like smeared paint.
Was the dream breaking-up? Was Cherry Garden waking up?
The scene built up stroke by stroke in rapid succession.
A fire, a fire! That Cypress: a living nightmare! Voices wailed and screamed and cried out.
Nopony comes by to warm themselves... only passing by...
I wish they would only accept me as I am.
I want to die, but I cannot bring myself to kill myself.
The beams, holding up this house so it will not fall on me, they are like guillotines above my head--not unlike those ponies whom I've called my friends.
I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.
I wish it would all end now.
I've been in such anguish and loneliness, I cannot cry.
It is I who wanted to kill myself.
Two very large and weighty cypresses, dark immortal obelisks, of a difficult bottle-green hue; in the foreground, and around her, is low growth, with brambles and brushwood, in thick layers of heavy paint of yellow, violet and green, which gave a sense of firmness. Violet hills, a green and pink sky and a moon, without radiance, the slender crescent barely emerging from the opaque shadows. The very tall, very straight, very somber cypresses blackened, shooting up their nightmarish silhouettes of flames.
"Look what I have achieved with that poor soul's help!" Discord slithered out the top of the shorter cypress, his voice still blended with Night Mare Moon's and Cherry Garden's voices, though Cherry Garden's overshadowed both. Again he flashed like smeared paint, and remained so before vanishing and appearing behind Twilight, his paw on her shoulder. "Oh, shh, shh, shh," he coxed soothingly, "Twilight Sparkle. Are you sad your friends betrayed you?" A malicious smile played on his lips, fighting against a fake frown of pity. "But, dear, it is only natural. Your friends, in their own hearts, are justified. Cherry Garden scared them. They have to protect themselves and their friends against any threat, no? That's all any pony wants: a nice, happy life with little suffering." And now that smile that had been struggling to shine, broke through the clouds and burned brilliantly. "And therein lies the chaos. Therein lies all the lonely anguish. Those fields of wheat you passed through just before," another face appeared from the back of his head as he spoke and spat a small spark which lit a few blades of dry wheat in the small field beside the cypresses; the fire was started and now he need only let the wind feed it; "Those fields were among Cherry Garden's most recent paintings. Her doctor told her 'put yourself into you work; only then do you seem calm and your attacks lessen.' So she did--began painting on larger double-square canvases to lose herself in--and only into these wheat fields could she entirely express her sorrow in paint." He paused for a moment to smile to himself. "I know," he brought his mouths next to Twilight's ears and whispered with special stress, "because I was with her."
Twilight, who until now had not really been listening, partly because she was still deep in the sorrow and horror and pain she felt and partly because she was lost in the scene's bizarre lines, suddenly bucked Discord, but her hooves only passed straight through him, leaving his smug looked unchanged.
"YOU MONSTER!" She shouted with horse voice and hot and bitter tears streaming from her red eyes. She stubbled stlightly from the pain growing in her chest. "YOU did this to her! YOU made my friends hate her! YOU put her through all that suffering! YOU tormented her with nightmares! YOU used her like a stepping-stone to try take Equestria! YOU filled her head and heart with lies!"
"I only did two--"
"NO!" She roared, almost falling over. "NO MORE LIES!" She bucked the taller cypress with all her might, sending strange shivers up and down its whole length. "With or with out my friends I'm going to defeat you!" She shook uncontrollably.
She caught Discord glance nervously at her back. She turned and saw she still had the saddle-bag on. She dug inside and drug out the first thing she laid her mouth on. It was that painting Cherry Garden had done of Discord. Why had she not looked at it before? Discord's portrait was missing from it. She could guess (and she was pretty sure she was right) why it was blank; however she didn't know how she could go trapping Discord in the blank painting without her friends wielding the Elements.
Discord shifted his gaze nervously and rung his hands as though washing them clean. Certainly something wasn't going as planned.
"Why is Cherry Garden not waking up?" He whispered harshly.
The fire--the fire that would wake Cherry Garden--still hadn't caught going yet in the fields, and that also set Discord on edge. His plans to escape with Twilight were going fine until now. He could hear Cherry Garden in the cypresses talking to Twilight.
The emotions that grip me in front of nature make me lose consciousness....
For all the suffering I've endured in this world, I want to leave something beautiful for it... as a thank you for giving me life...
The sympathy an artist feels for certain lines and for certain colors will cause her soul to reflect in them.
The more I think about it, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love others...
His face grew pale and he brought his legs and arms closer together, as though trying to hide behind a thin tree, with these last words Cherry Garden spoke. He struggled to retain an air of confidence in this cowering expression.
Twilight, who at first nearly bucked the cypress and screamed "lies" again when she at first heard Cherry Garden's voice, now became slowly more confident, and then, letting it fade, grow calm and slumped down hearing what Cherry Garden was telling her. Her tears of pain, anger, and sorrow slowly turned to tears of sorrowful happiness under Cherry Garden's soft voice:
"What am I in the eyes of most ponies—a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant pony—somepony who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then—even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nopony, has in her heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum."
Her vision blurred with tears, Twilight took in the landscape anew: everything was alive! Everything moved, not in chaos, but in harmony. Every small little brushstroke came together and made something beautiful: a big thing made from a series of small things uniting. Every stroke held in it an emotion, a life, straight from Cherry Garden's soul. She painted not for any style, nor fame, nor to divert ponies from their lives for a moment, but to share with them her heart, so full of love for everything; her "style" was no style at all, but really her raw emotion on the canvas that could infect a pony simply and directly with what was in her heart: a blazing fire and an open door for anypony who passes by in the cold to come in and warm themselves and leave with their own blazing fire to share and give to others. She felt Cherry Garden's love despite all her suffering in this. There was no barrier between her and her art, and her art and the ponies that gazed at it with an exposed heart.
"And there is no barrier between me and my friends. My love for them... though they maybe mean to you, we have the same soul within us all--even within all living things. Every little thing is connected. The Elements are within me--Love is within me!" Her eyes sparkled with sudden realization. "Discord is defeated by Love."
Slowly, she took out the Elements of Harmony one by one and put them on. It still hurt to look at these Elements and remember what had been done to her--to Cherry Garden--by their wielders. Though she realized the Love within her and the connection of life, she still couldn't understand what it meant, and it left a strange pit, almost of hopelessness, in her heart.
She couldn't think deeply about it now. Discord had to be sealed back into the painting and be rid from Cherry Garden.
Discord knew it was over, but he still had one last trick up his sleeve to draw this out until Cherry Garden woke.
As soon as Twilight began to float and glow with the power of the Elements, Discord threw doubt at her. Doubt about her friends and about Cherry Garden. Doubt about Equestria and the Princesses. Doubt in her ability. Doubt in this Love in everything. Doubt that ponies could all possibly live together completely peacefully. He showed her the worst in every pony, their suffering, and selfish, often very clever methods they use to keep their own idleness and contentment. This rushed into her from all sides.
Discord was afraid and wanted Twilight to be more afraid than he so he would not lose. He was afraid because he had never experienced kindness like Twilight had--never had friends... He was scared and wanted to rule Equestria because--whether he knew it or not--he was alone.
He did not succeed in stopping Twilight, but the seeds had been planted. In a radiant rainbow that poured from the Elements of Harmony, he melted back into the painting with a pitiable cry. Twilight swooned and fell asleep after a very long night.
Weeyuu, that was a significantly longer chapter than the previous two, but there it is: the "last" part.... So why the "incomplete?"
Why, kind reader, there is still the scene after they wake. Now you get to see a happy, cheery, easy-going, uncorrupted Cherry Garden as her true self, right?
Of course you do!
(P.S. I'm gunna go through the entire story when I write the last "half-part" and edit it all as well as I can--then: to EQD!!!)
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2625469Okay. Now the really last part.... later
This part made me feel a mixture of emotions.
2626841Thanks.
Hopefully they were good.... well, i mean, good as in they were the intended feels the story was meant to make
Edited some words just after the "because I was with her" concerning Twi's pain in her chest
2628614 I'm sure they were.
I like how you portrayed exactly how the Mane six would react in this exact situation: alienating anything that doesn't conform to the normal, exactly as Tia taught them.
2628999Good and thanks
Excellent
2629636 somehow... I would imagine Cherry getting along with Luna better...
2629659Wanna spoiler on who she gets along with? Well, it's kinda explained mostly in the group description of her, but she also gets along well with Diamond Tiara of all ponies!
You'll find out why when I get there in a new story. Or if you're eager, you can just look up van Gogh's life in Auvers-Sur-Oise and find a kid that gets along with him well.
That's probably TMI
But, yes, Luna and her get along once Luna finds out more about her
2629679 I knew it.
2629690Ya did? How?
2629704 I'm good at guessing.
2629715Wait... the Luna part or the Diamond Tiara part?
Good at guessing... can you guess what happens in the final scene by all my "
"
2629720 the Luna part. I could have guessed the DT part by your user page, though.
and unfortunately, I can't, or don't want to. (it would ruin the surprise!)
2629778I don't even know what's gunna happen for sure
(I've had a vague idea. But, as I said, it's Twilight and Cherry Garden writing this story, not me.)
Twi and CG better start letting me know soon
2662494(weird: NONE of the emoticons are working on my side... Hopefully they are working for you)
*jumps up and down so full of giddy energy like Pinkie!*
It's absolutley GREAT to hear from you
(I assume you were the Nick I met, right?... I can't remember... were you the quiet one or the loud interested one.... uhh... sorry, so many names
)--but, anywhooo!
This is FANTASIC!
Thank you so much for you insight there! Very interesting.
(Also, concerning Doctor Who's portrayal of Vincent... Personally, as a an who loves van Gogh dearly, from what I saw of the episode, they did him little justice, but well enough for their purpose, I suppose(for example: they had him living in a hut, and living in at least 3 places--Arles, Saint Remy, Auvers-sur-Oise--at once without really living anywhere, which annoyed me so much!)
But that's just touching on sensitive ground with me, mayhaps
Sorry
)
Concerning Cherry Garden herself, in relation to van Gogh, though she is very similar to him in many, many ways, she lived a life uniquely her own. She goes through many of the same stages of life as him, perhaps (e.g. she cuts off part of her, something I will be writing about in another story which should prove to be fun and well influenced--not just by van Gogh, but also by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
) About her personality as well: it's a mix of what I can gather to have been van Gogh's and also my own
Love this
This is interesting....
Thank you so much for this pre-review, then, my friend
I look forward to the full. I wish I could like your comment twice
By the way, currently in the process of editing (cleaning-up) the entire story
(P.S. I know I had said that the third part would be the last, but Twilight and Cherry Garden have showed me up.. again. They need it to be longer! So, there will be one last part in which the reader gets to see Cherry Garden, for the first time, completely free from sleeplessness and Discord....
)
2662494I appologize for my rather rough and quick reply there.
It really is great hearing from you--and not because you are reading my fic and commenting on it, but because I love hearing from my friends
I thank you again with a big hug for that exhaustive comment, and for the time you took to write it and time you are taking to read and seriously consider this story.
I'm happy to hear I have helped inspire you. I love that feeling of being inspired by something
Oh, something I forgot to mention:
Might I ask of you to explain a bit more. I think I'm missing something
By the way: fun art you do!
Well, I eagerly await to hear from you, my friend
2672726Sorry it's taken me like a time and a half to reply
Anyway, thanks again for this!
Your reviews have been the most helpful I have ever yet recieved
Don't be shy pointing things out to fix if you see them in a chapter--it really helps if you do. So do please
I', really glad you love that first scene. Actually, the pictures came a while later, so the descriptions were first, so I tried my best to paint them without adding them. Then I thought "wait, most pony's won't know the paintings I'm talking about, no matter how well I describe them." So the pics became added by the time the second part was done.
Concerning the pics in the third part, when you get there, I took a little more liberty on some of the descriptions in terms of not fully painting them, to give a sense of something falling apart, to contrast against the before vivid descriptions. Dividing them up, the first and second parts are like twins, and the third is their eccentric sister. The fourth... well it hasn't been started yet, actually
I'll figure out that scene with Twi alone in the library... and at the asylum... hmmm....
Let me know when you finish the third part
Also, for all you've done, I'll give you a little treat--or about as much as I can give online on a site dedicated to MLP fan fiction: a peak at a new story involving Cherry Garden! Not too many people read this story (most of the views it has received have been because of myself viewing it, editing it), so I have no worries giving the link and viewing password here:
Here is the link, and here is the viewing password:
Gauguin
2672726You know, this is probably REALLY weird and out of place to ask, as well as quite vain, but, based on your own opinion, how would you rate this story so far... it's promise, it's handling of the subject, theme, emotions, characters, etc., though the last part is not write yet. How does it stand as a story? Out of a hundred?
I'm sorry, I just really don't get the opportunity to get real insight on my work from others
2685199 Oh my goodness! I am SO sorry! For the last two weeks and a half, I've been working on my second video for my youtube channel. I focused on it 24/7. Though I have not made any real progress in reading your story since June 3rd, reviewing "Discord Van Gogh" will be my number one priority this week. I hope you will forgive me.
Thank you for allowing me to read the preview of your new Cherry Garden story as well. That really meant a lot to me. I'll make a review of that too! As for the rating of your story (out of a hundred), I don't believe I can give a number yet. It's been two weeks since I read chapter 2 and I want to reread it and possibly even chapter 1 before moving to chapter 3. I'm also not really comfortable of giving a piece of art a number of any sort. I'm better at just giving my opinion and introspection of the piece.
And finally, my explanation to the "materials" and "middle ground" argument.
First, I'm going to put up my own quote just for reference.
Let's look at a background pony who does have material from the show, Derpy Hooves.
Over the three and a half years that she has existed, there have been many takes on her character. Fans have debated on if she is mentally handicapped or if she is only has a form of strabismus. There has also been questions about if she has been or continues to be teased and abused for her disability, leading to speculations on how Equestria might deal with issues like these. Some fans have even suggested that Ditzy Doo is her real name and "Derpy Hooves" is derogatory. Then there's the question about her relationship with Doctor Whooves which opens up a whole new can of worms. Despite all of these questions, there is material from the show that creates a middle ground on some aspects of her character to which many fans agree on. We know she can be clumsy from "Feeling Pinkie Keen." We know she likes muffins from "Applebuck Season." And at the very least, we know she is "different" from other ponies since the episode "Friendship is Magic, Pat 1."
On the contrary, say I want to make a fanfic about Archer that says that she's related to Scootaloo. Some fans may completely agree with that notion while others might have some issues on why Scootaloo hasn't even mention her until my story. (Though that hasn't stop the show form doing so.) While on one hand Archer hasn't been seen in Applebloom's class since "Call of the Cutie," she still remains in Ponyville because she's is at one of the arcade machines in "Hearts and Hooves Day." And someone could write a in-depth fanfic about her living in Manehatten with no relation to Scootaloo. Then, the writer and I might engage in a fight to find out who is "correct" about Archer until the show actually develops some material for her, thus creating a middle ground.
Hope I explained this well. Truth be told, I'm not even sure what I just said.
Once again, I hope you can forgive me for my absence. If it's worth anything, here is the video I've been working on.
It's about me confronting my conflicting opinions about "Magical Mystery Cure." It's only has 3 views as I'm typing this and I'm pretty sure they're all mine.
So you will be the first person to officially see it. Be forewarned, I do poke fun at some of the pre-viewing Equestria Girls drama by being a parody of it. It's all for fun. I haven't seen Equestria Girls yet and I'm trying to avoid as many spoilers as possible but I believe EQG is going to be just fine. ( Just as long as Twilight DOESN'T fall in love with "Brad" and has a bittersweet goodbye only to find a pony version of him staring her right in the face but is completely unaware of the events that transpired and the question of Twilight pursuing a romantic relationship in the actual series is drowned out by the rapid conclusion of the film flashing before our eyes to the point that many fans won't realize this until they are out of the theaters once again leaving them cold, confused and apprehensive of what's to come. But that would be ridiculous, RIGHT?!?!?
......... right?) I would appreciate any comments or critique you may have about my video. Anyway, hope you like it! Bye for now! 
2772528Bleh, we take our time
Now concerning your video, I have one MAJOR complaint:
NEEDS MORE SUNSET SHIMMER!!!!!
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By the way, have you seen EQG since you posted this comment? Some like it, some don't... I loved it!
Anywhooo.... In all seriousness...
I liked your video! It did remind me of those two you threw up there somewhere in the middle of it. Some things, e.g. those links on the video for those two, were rather fast. There was a bit of repetition in the video that didn't take away anything from what you were saying, but to me seemed like it might be sloppy--but I'm a writer, chiefly, not a youtuber
The overall quality and sounds and whatever those fancy-shmancy ligno means this and means that, was well done, I thought myself.
I'm not sure how much more I can critique it
It explained what it meant, and that was good.
Much much better than I can do in a video
Alas, I digress.
Hope you're having fun in whatever it is you are doing now!!!
And I look forward to hearing from you soon!
