Third Division. A chase.
July.
‘Nehalennia. Where are you?’
The Summer Sun Festival marked a breath of fresh air for Ponyville.
That wasn’t to say the town had forgotten Applejack: a portrait of the steadfast mare sat by the central table, and a seat on the stage was left empty in her honor. The motion did little to quench the feelings threatening to devour Cheerilee alive, however, as they served as hollow reminders that the mare she loved was gone.
“Hiya, Cheerilee.” Cheerilee looked up to see Pinkie Pie beside her table. “Are you and your cousin having fun?”
Cheerilee glanced at the far table, where Jasmine was striking up pleasant conversation with the Cakes. “I think Jasmine’s enjoying herself.”
“Awesome possum! But… What about you?”
“I’m fine, Pinkie. This is a great party.” Cheerilee gave her her best smile.
Pinkie deflated slightly. “Hey, uh… Can I ask you how you’re doing? Like, for real for real?”
Cheerilee was quiet.
“I… know it isn’t easy, and that I’m not really the best pony for the job, but… I’m worried.” Pinkie seated herself in the empty chair beside her. “And I know I don’t have the skills to really help like any of the other girls, but… Well, nobody’s really been acting themselves lately.”
Cheerilee glanced at the stage, where Twilight and her friends were sitting. It almost looked normal, save for the distinct lack of Applejack, but she could feel an unusual tension amongst them. Rarity looked exhausted, Twilight barely moved or spoke, Fluttershy was hunched over and tense, and Rainbow…
Rainbow Dash looked like a blank slate. She didn’t speak, didn’t eat… She barely moved. It was like she was a ghost. Ponyville didn’t see much of her nowadays: she seemed to lurk on the outskirts, though some thought she hung around Sweet Apple Acres.
Pinkie was still: something unnerving for a mare like her. Her mane was still wild and her posture relaxed, but she seemed thoughtful. Relaxed, even.
“I’m getting by,” she said. “I think we all are.”
“Maybe. I just wish things would go back to the way they were,” Pinkie said sadly. “No party I throw can get us back to that.”
Cheerilee shifted in her seat, very unused to this version of Pinkie: a version that still knew her friends incredibly well, but also knew that she herself wasn’t equipped to handle these sorts of situations. “I’m sure they appreciate your support,” Cheerilee said. “It’s a hard time for all of us and we have to find solace in each other.”
“Mm-hm.” Pinkie smiled slightly. “That goes for you too, you know? Jackie never said it but we all know she’s a bad liar. She cared about you lots.”
Cheerilee laughed quietly. “I care about her too.”
Pinkie leaned over to give her a quick hug. “Hey, uh… I also heard that you guys found the Mirror Pool.”
“The… Mirror Pool?”
“Yeah. You remember that one day when there were hundreds of extra Pinkie’s all over the place?”
Cheerilee’s eyes widened. “That was from the lake?”
“Mm-hm! Twilight sealed it off, but…” she shrugged sheepishly.
“It was open when we found it, I guess Applejack must have…” Cheerilee shook her head, trying to gather her thoughts. “But that’s impossible, I didn’t notice any copies of her around Ponyville.”
Pinkie shrugged. “Twilight said there’s a lot of ways you could have used it. The way I did was just one. But it’s still really really dangerous.” She paused to lock eyes with Cheerilee. “And if something Applejack was doing with it got her hurt… It might be best to just leave it alone.”
Cheerilee considered this. “I know it is,” she whispered. “But I can’t. I’m sorry, but… I need to do this. For her.”
Pinkie dipped her head in understanding. “Okay,” she said quietly. “Just… Be careful. I don’t want to lose you too.”
“I can’t believe this.”
Cheerilee turned around to find her old friend leaning against a tree. “I thought you weren’t interested in this, Yearly.”
Daring Do rolled her eyes. “You didn’t leave me a choice. You’ve set off every single magic watchdog on this side of Equestria and my sources won’t stop telling me about this stupidity!”
“Stupidity?” Cheerilee huffed. “I would’ve thought that you of all ponies would understand.” She flicked her tail and descended deeper into the cave, Daring following close behind.
“Understand what? That this is suicidal? These things take preparation and precision. You can’t just charge headfirst into something like this, arcane arts tend to throw a hissy fit when something tries to intervene.” Daring’s voice bounced off the walls, amplifying her aggression. “You’re better than this.”
Cheerilee hesitated, but only for a second.
“Please don’t tell me you’ve actually done anything with this yet.”
“Not yet,” Cheerilee muttered. “We’re still trying to figure out what exactly Applejack did with this lake.”
“Good. Who knows what sort of monstrosities are waiting for us,” Daring grunted as they entered the wide cavern.
“Hello!”
“Speaking of monstrosities. Great. It’s you.”
Night Glider laughed good-naturedly. “The mythical Daring Do. It’s nice to see you again!”
Daring just sighed dejectedly.
“I take it you two know each other?” Cheerilee asked.
“Don’t,” snapped Daring.
“You could say that,” said Night Glider. “Glad to have you on board, Miss Do!”
“Don’t mention it.” Daring stalked over to the water’s edge and looked inside. “Really? The Mirror Pool?”
Night Glider shrugged.
“I suppose it makes sense. Legends of the Western variety often mention a lake as a central theme…” Daring trailed off, quickly losing herself in thought.
…A face.
“Hm?”
Night Glider glanced at her. “What?”
“I… thought you said something,” Cheerilee said.
“No?”
A place.
Cheerilee looked around the cave. There was no noise save for the dripping of water echoing around the cavern. Nothing moved: even Daring herself stood stock still. “Then what was…”
A chase.
“There! You didn’t hear that?”
Daring blinked, snapping out of her calculations. “Huh?”
A waste.
Cheerilee took a half step backwards, eyes flicking from wall to wall. “Something’s… I hear a voice.”
A face. A place. A chase. A waste.
Night Glider stood, immediately alert. “What’s it saying?”
A face. A place. A chase. A waste.
“I… It’s not making sense.” Cheerilee spun around again. “Where is it coming from?”
“I knew this was a bad idea,” Daring said. “It could be anything, a curse, some fumes or gasses maybe… We need to get out of here.”
A face. A place. A chase. A waste.
Cheerilee backed up again as the voices swirled around her, growing louder and louder with each passing second.
Daring shouted something, but Cheerilee couldn’t hear it amidst the noise.
A FACE. A PLACE. A CHASE. A WASTE. A FACE. A PLACE. A CHASE. A WASTE. A FACE. A PLACE. A CHASE. A WASTE.
Staggering back, Cheerilee made out a hoof reaching towards her. Suddenly it lunged forwards and seized her, and Cheerilee found herself dragged below the depths .
Cheerilee broke through the water’s surface, gasping for air. She quickly paddled to the shore and hauled herself onto the grass, coughing and gasping for air. As she rubbed the water from her eyes, she quickly realized that something was wrong: the warmth of the sun was dancing across her back.
As her vision began to return, she found herself in a massive, sprawling forest, with the lake lapping at her hooves behind her. Trembling, she stood and looked around her. “Where… What is this place?”
It looked nothing like the Everfree. Plants and flowers covered nearly every surface of the ground, and strange looming trees thrust upward into the air. “The berries!” Cheerilee trotted over to a nearby bush, finding it rich with the very same berries Applejack had given her.
She was half-tempted to pop a few into her mouth but decided against it. “So she really did find it,” she whispered. “The Hidden Garden. Then… That means the legends are true?”
“A face.” A soft whisper came from nearby. Cherilee froze as a tall, earthy brown pony emerged from the brush, staring listlessly in her direction. “A place. A chase, a waste.”
Cheerilee’s heart began to pound as fear rooted her to the spot.
The pony turned away, but their voice still echoed as if she was right next to her.
Captivated, Cheerilee abandoned her precaution and began to follow them. A dirt path meandered through the brush, which seemed to bend and bow as she passed. A light breeze dipped in between the bushes, running through her mane.
All along, the figure never turned around to acknowledge her, repeating her mantra at an unusual cadence. “A face, a place, a chase, a waste. A face, a place, a chase, a waste.”
“Who are you?” Cheerilee whispered.
They didn’t reply.
As she continued to wander along the forest, Cheerilee began to feel a strange sense of warmth overtake her. It was a strange, twisted sense that she belonged here: that somehow, this was the place that she was meant to be. It made her heart flutter, but out of excitement rather than fear.
But that all decayed within a second.
“Where are you?” Cheerilee shuddered when a new voice echoed through the forest. “Where are you? Where are you?!”
The beautiful mare did not reply. If anything, she started trotting faster.
Cheerilee did the same.
The two tore through the forest, jumping over logs and dodging low-hanging branches. “Where are you? Where are you?” the question echoed constantly through the trees, drawing closer and closer.
She glanced behind her, but saw nothing. When she turned around to face the front she found that the mare she was following had vanished. Cheerilee came crashing to a halt as panic began to fill her.
“WHERE ARE YOU?!”
Cheerilee raced away in a full-blown sprint. The trees and flowers all looked the same, blurring past as she galloped through the woodland. Twice she nearly tripped, and each time the voice boomed a little closer to her.
With nowhere else to go but forwards, she crashed through the brush like an out of control locomotive. “Cheerilee!” Something slammed into her side, and she went tumbling to the ground, landing on her back in a field of grass.
She blinked a few times, dazed, as another pony on her right groaned. “What. Is. WRONG with you?!” Daring Do demanded through pants. “Didn’t you hear me telling you to stop?”
Cheerilee sat up as a laughing Night Glider sauntered over. “Didn’t think we’d have to tackle you! You were flying like a bugbear out of Tartarus.”
Cheerilee sat up, taking in the field of grass and flowers around them.
“This is the most brazen thing I’ve ever seen,” Daring complained. “We have no idea where we are or what the rules are.”
“It’s beautiful though,” Night Glider said in awe as she stared up at the wispy clouds above them.
“Deadly things often are.” Daring dusted herself off and glared at Cheerilee. “On your hooves, Cheer. We are leaving.”
Cheerilee didn’t respond, staring at the flower field despondently.
“Cheerilee?”
“Look.” She raised a hoof and pointed.
Every flower in the field had the shape of a stetson hat.
Traditional Mexicolt Folk Tales, collected and translated by Arcane Venture. Page 211, La Mareona.
Once upon a time there was a beautiful gardener who grew the best flowers in the world. But she often was upset that when the weather grew cold she was unable to grow her beautiful flowers.
“It is such a shame!” she lamented. “How can I support my daughter if I cannot grow in the winter?”
One night, she devised a plan: making a sacrifice of meat and incense, she made a prayer to El Bosque. “What is it that you so desire?” asked El Bosque.
“Honorable El Bosque, I seek a way to plant and grow in the cold,” said the gardener. “I want to grow my beautiful flowers whenever, and not be a victim to the sun and its whims.”
“You seek the gift of making life,” mused El Bosque. “That is a gift which commands a great sacrifice. Are you prepared to offer?”
“I am.”
“Very well. A life, for life. Grant me the body of your daughter, and I will give you the gift of life.”
The gardener was taken aback by this. She had been prepared to offer anything, save the beautiful face of her daughter, her one bright joy in the world. But as she considered El Bosque’s proposal, she began to realize that there was perhaps a way to outsmart him. “Very well,” she said. “I accept.”
El Bosque laughed and consumed the gardener in a plume of thick black smoke. When she emerged, she felt an unfamiliar sensation running through her hooves: like she could feel every little piece of the earth beneath her.
The gardener rushed to her daughter’s bed and found her lying still. She sobbed for only a second, but ran to her garden to test her idea. She raised a hoof and immediately, a bush full of roses sprouted from the ground.
With a cry of joy, she returned to her daughter and began to grow. When she put a hoof to her chest, she found that the tangles of life within were different. She began to pull and tug nonetheless, and was soon able to coax life from the shell beneath her.
But her joy faded to terror when her daughter sat up and began to scream. Her eyes were blank and listless, and their body writhed violently. They stood and left the hut, screaming and clawing at their own eyes.
The gardener attempted to give chase but quickly lost her daughter in the arriving fog. She wailed in pain as she realized what El Bosque had done and how he had tricked her. With tears trailing down her cheeks she stood and began to wander the land, searching for her daughter.
Some say that if you hear a wail in the rain tonight it is merely the gardener, hoping to reunite with her long lost love.