The brown grass crunched underhoof as Twilight Sparkle slowly walked up the small hill on the outskirts of Ponyville that led to the home of Ponyville's resident schoolmare. The plain, one-room cottage almost seemed to be cast in shadow, despite the sunny day. The normally impeccably well-kept garden was in disrepair, and long weeds had begun to creep up between the bunches of dulled flowers.

Overall, a feeling of gloom had completely overtaken the cottage.

Twilight sighed and reached the cottage door. She raised a hoof and knocked three times.

A few seconds of silence passed before a quiet creaking sound came from the other side of the door. The creaking noise stopped, and the door slowly cracked open revealing a single green, bloodshot eye staring at her. Twilight flashed the eye her best smile.

"Hello, Cheerilee."

The eye blinked once, but the door opened a little more, allowing Cheerilee to poke her muzzle out of the door. "Hello, Twilight."

Twilight kept up her smile, despite the fact that the unkempt looks of the schoolteacher almost made her jaw drop. While Cheerilee hadn't exactly strived to make herself look flawless, she had always looked at the very least presentable. Her mane and tail were always brushed and her coat was always very well kept. But now her mane stuck up in a bunch of different directions, and it looked to Twilight like Cheerilee hadn't bushed her coat in a few days now.

Twilight cleared her throat. "I just came by to say hi and to see how you were doing after..." Twilight's smile flickered for a moment. "Er... last week."

Cheerilee's ear twitched and the door closed a half-inch as though she wanted to slam it in Twilight's face. She instead took a deep breath and opened the door a little more. "Oh I'm doing... as well as I can," said Cheerilee quietly. "That was a rough day for all of us, I think."

Twilight nodded. "Yeah, it was." Twilight uneasily scratched the back of her neck. "Look... I've come by because Applejack told me that you've sent a substitute to class for the past week and, well, we're all worried about you."

Cheerilee chuckled weakly. "It's nothing too bad, Twilight. I just think that I came down with some sort of bug."

Twilight scoffed. "Look, Cheerilee, I may not be Applejack, but I know when somepony is lying to me." Twilight's face turned sympathetic and she put her hoof on the door. "It's about last week, isn't it? When Discord came?"

Cheerilee squeaked in fear at Discord's name, and actually did slam the door in Twilight's face. Twilight opened her mouth to get Cheerilee to open up again, but the door cracked open again after a second.

"Sorry, Twilight," Cheerilee whispered. "It's just..."

"You're scared of what he did to you," Twilight finished. Her warm smile returned. "Cheerilee, he did stuff to all of us. Just let me come in and we'll talk about it. You know that Princess Celestia and I have been coordinating relief efforts to help ponies that have been hurt by what he did, right?"

"Yeah," Cheerilee squeaked. "I heard something about it when Fluttershy came by a few days ago."

"We want to help ponies that got hurt by him," said Twilight. "We all got hurt by him. I know whatever he did to you must be terrible, but you can't hide in here forever." Twilight put her hoof through the crack and gently placed it on Cheerilee's foreleg. "If you feel up to it, I just want to talk to you. You don't have to tell me what he did, but I know that it helps to just get your feelings out there."

Cheerilee's gaze flickered between the door and Twilight's foreleg, almost as if she was deciding whether or not to push Twilight's hoof away and slam the door in her face again. Despite that, she took a deep breath and completely opened the door. She squinted as the bright sunlight hit her face, but she gave Twilight the smallest of smiles.

"I know I've been kind of out of it lately, but..." Cheerilee's left ear twitched and her smile fell completely and her voice dropped to a low whisper. "You wouldn't believe what he did to me."

"Like I said, he did bad stuff to all of us," said Twilight gently. "But you're free of his influence now. We all are." Twilight's soft smile returned, and she put her hoof on Cheerilee's shoulder. "I know that your students would love to see you again. Just let me help you."

Cheerilee's lower lip quivered, and tears rolled down her face. She collapsed onto her haunches and began softly sobbing. Twilight sat next to her and wrapped her forelegs over Cheerilee's shoulder. "It's okay," she said softly. "Just let it out."

"It was terrible," Cheerilee squeaked. "It was like having the worst nightmare I could imagine, but I couldn't wake up."

"Do you want to tell me about it?" Twilight asked. "You don't have to if you don't want to, but it might make you feel a little better."

Cheerilee took a deep breath and wiped her eyes with a foreleg. "I don't know if I can," she whispered. "I live with the memory of what he did every waking moment."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Twilight reassured her. "Just know that I'm here to help you however I can."

Cheerilee slowly nodded as her gaze trailed over to the familiar schoolhouse she had grown to love so many years ago. "I think I can, Twilight." Cheerilee sniffled and leaned her head against the door frame, her eyes never leaving the schoolhouse.

Author's Notes:

Really short chapter, I know. Just a little something to get the brain flowing again. I hope to have a new Gwenwyn chapter out tomorrow or the next day on top of finishing this up. No, this isn't going to go super dark like "Discord made Cheerilee read Cheerilee's Garden then forced her to act it out over and over again." It'll be more on par with what he did to Pinkie Pie in the show, which was still pretty sadistic if you think about it.