The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Happiness Committee and the Rebellion Bureau
Chapter 2: Friendship and Happiness, Love and Deceit
Chapter 3: Hope and Hopelessness
Chapter 4: For Better or For Worse
Chapter 5: Slipping Away to Happiness
Chapter 6: Be Careful What You Wish For
Chapter 7: Because You Just Might Get It
Chapter 8: Two's A Crowd
Chapter 10: Remembrance
Chapter 11: Heading Back
Chapter 12: Logic Against Instinct
Chapter 13: Even If It's One Second Ago
Chapter 14: Forgetfulness
Chapter 15: Flipped Ideology
Chapter 17: The Beginning of the End
Chapter 18: A Thread Unravels
Chapter 19: Reopening
Chapter 20: Clinging to the Past
Chapter 21: Shattered Mirrors
Chapter 22: Grudge Bow
Chapter 23: Clinging to Vengeance
Chapter 24: Polygraph of a Shadow
Chapter 25: Water of the Womb
Chapter 26: Sweet Paranoia
Chapter 27: Blood of the Covenant
Prologue: Recollection
Chapter 9: Starting With a Notion and Dropping Preconceptions
Chapter 16: The Calm Before the Storm

Chapter 1: The Happiness Committee and the Rebellion Bureau

Chapter 1: The Happiness Committee and the Rebellion Bureau

Twilight’s quill was released from her magical grasp and clinked on the marble tabletop. She reread her work a few times, taking special care with reminding herself the precious memories of her friends. Satisfied, she turned to the light bulb blazing on the other side of her desk, and, with a good amount of effort, managed to teleport the charge to her entry. The parchment quickly went up in flames. It was too risky to keep the kind of information in her diary lying around, and if anybody of importance found out about it...

Before long, the paper was just a pile of ash on the table. She swept it into a trash bin, then gave a startled jump as the television embedded into the wall behind her crackled to life. She turned and watched the image of an all too familiar mare appear.

Finding no reason to arrive to the event late, considering she didn’t have any say in the matter anyway, Twilight absently ran a brush through her mane and trotted towards the door. Before exiting, she turned towards a mirror mounted on the adjacent wall. Twilight closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again, this time wide and joyful. She plastered a smile on her face to complete the charade, although it had been such a long time since she was actually as happy as her expression suggested.

After inspecting her face for a moment or two, she opened her door and walked out onto the city’s main street. Other ponies were also emerging from their houses, and the road was soon filled with ponies of all different hues, but with the same matching grins. When she first started going out in public, she was very conscious of making sure her smile matched the others for fear of getting caught, but now she had done it so many times she could easily pull it off in her sleep.

After a few minutes of trotting down the pavement, Twilight arrived at the center of town, which she couldn’t deny was absolutely elegant. A large fountain gushed in the center, and she could make out a few fillies tossing coins into it. The water arced high in the air before cascading down the intricate gold-leaf designs carved into the sides. Behind it stood a raised metal platform that had latches holding it in place, with wires and cords underneath. On the platform was a microphone and multiple cameras at every angle. Giant monitors were mounted high in the air, so everybody in the densely packed crowd could see what was going on on the stage.

Twilight scanned the crowd for her friends so they could meet up before the event started, but with all of the bustling about it was hard to tell anybody apart. The mare got a sudden jolt when a pony tapped on her shoulder. She spun around to see Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

“Thank goodness,” Twilight sighed, relaxing a little. Just because all of the other ponies were brain dead, didn’t mean that nopony could talk. Of course, most of the daily conversation was about gardening or the weather. Both were controlled by Emerald to keep the populace in good spirits, so nothing ever changed.

“Sorry if I startled you,” Applejack apologized. “I just wanted to double-check, are we still having a meeting afterwards?” The gears in Twilight’s head spun.

“Oh! Yes, yes we are. Yup.” She spoke quickly and darted her eyes around to make sure nobody of interest heard.

“Great! Oh I’m so excited, today we might finally figure out something big!” Pinkie exclaimed. Even under the circumstances, she could still be upbeat every once and awhile.

“Well I’m going to head back to the family. See you then.” Applejack turned and disappeared back into the sea of ponies. Pinkie lagged behind for a moment.

“Wow, we haven’t met up in like forever!” the pink mare exclaimed. “Maybe...” Twilight waited a few moments for Pinkie to finish, but it didn’t seem like she was going to.

“...Maybe?”

“It’s just...” Pinkie studied the pavement for a moment, then brought her eye’s level to her friend’s. “...Maybe we’ll actually find a way out.” Twilight was taken aback for a moment, as she could’ve sworn she saw the earth pony’s hair inflate slightly. Before she could say anything, though, Pinkie also disappeared deep into the crowd.

Twilight’s mind kicked into overdrive, which happened quite often when something piqued her interest. Pinkie’s mane hadn’t gotten anywhere close to being poofy in seemingly forever. What triggers it? What happens if her mane goes back to the way it was before all of this?

She wanted to pursue the questions further, but her thought process was cut short by the ear splitting sound of microphone feedback. She tried her hardest not to wince. Her gaze shifted to the metal platform before her, where a mint green unicorn in an emerald dress was standing, her white teeth glistening.

“Why good morning, everybody!” Emerald Joy chimed. Her words were met with a roar of approval from the crowd. “Alrighty, let me explain to you! About all those problems you worry about, those problems you’re thinking about. All of it, I’ll explain it for you!” The way she was wording things made it sound like she was helping, like everybody still had a free will and could even have problems.

“Eh, everybody... being happy...” She stumbled over her words for a moment. “Well, it’s your duty! Now then, aren’t you happy?” Thousands of ponies roared with approval again as if they were at a famous musician’s concert. “You know it’s your duty, right? Are you doing as expected?”

Without waiting for any specific response, Emerald shifted to face another good chunk of the crowd, her gown flowing with every movement. “Here at the Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee, our wish is for your absolute happiness, and we’ll do anything in our power to support you!”

With her last few words, steam began rolling out from underneath the platform, the giant latches holding it in place unhooking to allow the stage to rise up far above the populace. Meanwhile, the enormous speakers surrounding the whole town square repeatedly droned the sentence: “Always being happy is your duty.” Twilight would have suspected it as brainwashing, but at this late in the game, that wouldn’t be necessary.

“Therefore, we hope you stay at peace, have the happiest of days, and fulfill your duty, ” the unicorn continued. “Just remember, your happiness is also our happiness! Doesn’t that make you just so happy? Since it’s your duty, you know. Are you doing your duty?” She paused. For the whole speech up to this point her voice and expression were overly optimistic. Now, however, her smile faltered and now seemed more sinister.

“Because, if you aren’t...” She turned to one of the giant screens.

“Hanging, decapitation, fire squad, boiling, drowning, electrocution, buried alive, burning, poisoning, stoning, dismemberment, crucifixion, pick whichever you like~!” With every example, a picture flashed on the screen of a pony dying of said method. It wasn’t exactly easy stomaching a picture of an offending filly being shot at by ten full grown stallions, but after going through this speech day after day, Twilight and her friends were at the very least used to it. Fluttershy still had to cover her eyes though.

“But, y’know, I’m always open to suggestions!” Emerald Joy chimed, as if nothing had happened. “Alrighty! Come now, everybody, you should only be filled with complete happiness! Worries and dissatisfaction, of course you don’t have any of those, right?” Oh how Twilight knew Rainbow Dash would have spoken up if she wouldn’t be killed for it.

With another burst of steam, the platform was lowered and latched back into place. “That will be all everybody! Don’t let me down, alright? Ta ta!” Emerald Joy flashed her teeth one final time before turning and trotting back into The Committee’s headquarters building, her elegant gown billowing out behind her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Is everybody here yet?” Rarity asked, sneaking cautiously into the empty warehouse office. The room’s entrance was located in an out of the way part of the city, where nobody ever ventured, but they could never be too careful.

“Not everybody,” Rainbow Dash sighed, moving her multicolored mane out of her eyes to see how Twilight was coming along lighting the hundreds of candles around the room. “We’re still waiting on Applejack and Fluttershy.”

“Eck, remind me again why we have to use candles.” Rarity clenched a hoof over her snout as she opened the door to let some air in. “The smoke makes it hard to breathe and smells absolutely dreadful.”

“The reason we use candles instead of light bulbs,” Aquamarine interjected, slamming the door shut again so fast that her deep blue hair nearly hit Rarity in the face, “is because where there’s light bulbs, there’s electricity. Where there’s electricity, there’s androids. Where there’s androids, there’s security. And where there’s security, there’s trouble.” She turned and sat back down in her seat. “And hopefully the reason why we can’t leave the door open is self-explanatory.”

Rarity sighed, unable to argue, and took a seat herself. “Even though androids being able to charge on any stray electricity is supposed to be helpful, it really isn’t.”

“Well maybe to us, but not everypony is in a secret organization that’s trying to stay under the radar,” Twilight giggled. The exchange was suddenly cut short by a certain orange mare’s entrance.

“Sorry I’m late, guys. Just a couple of family matters.” Applejack waved it aside. “Now then, should we get started?”

“We’re still waiting on Fluttershy, though,” Pinkie said.

“Really? Honestly, she’s been late to every meeting we’ve had this past month!”

“So let’s just start the meeting without her,” Rainbow suggested. “Might as well, right?” The others nodded in agreement.

“Alright then,” the yellow unicorn announced. “This meeting of the Rebellion Bureau has officially come to order. Would anybody like to start?” Twilight contemplated bringing up what she saw earlier when Pinkie became happy enough to illicit slight poofing in her hair, but the others probably wouldn’t see the significance of it. Especially Aquamarine, since she hadn’t seen Pinkie before when her hair was always frizzed up beyond control, and how it correlated with her attitude.

“Well, the queerest thing happened while I was at the headquarters today,” Rarity piped up. Rarity was an interesting case within their circle of friends, as she actually worked in the system, and therefore didn’t have to keep up the whole brainwashed act. She worked as Emerald Joy’s private dressmaker and makeup artist. When Emerald learned of her abilities when the city was still new, she cast the cure for the curse on the seamstress and hired her, trusting she would stay faithful to the cause and wouldn’t cause any trouble. Of course Rarity’s job wasn’t very important, so she didn’t directly get told anything big, but being able to go in the headquarters at all made finding inside information that much easier.

But before Rarity could continue, there was a faint knocking on the door. The group turned their heads to see Fluttershy entering, her face flustered.

“Um, sorry, I hope I’m not interrupting,” she whispered.

“For goodness sake, Fluttershy, where have you been? You’ve been late to the last five meetings!” Rainbow scolded. The yellow pegasus recoiled.

“I’m sorry, um, something... came up.”

“Every time?”

“Uh... yes.”

“But Fluttershy,” Aquamarine exclaimed, “what could possibly be so important that you’ve had to miss out on a good chunk of five meetings? Things don’t just ‘come up’ like that.”

“Well, erm...” Fluttershy shrank into a corner. “Well, you see, there’s this stallion who always goes to the market after every daily speech...”

“But how’s that important?” Twilight interrupted. “He’s just another brain dead pony like all of the others.”

“Well, that’s the thing.” Fluttershy toyed with her hair nervously. “One day, I was on my way to our meeting, and I accidentally bumped into him and we both fell over. He got up and apologized, but the thing was, it wasn’t the same as any of the other times I’ve bumped into ponies.”

“Wait, you can’t possibly be implying...” Pinkie whispered. Fluttershy nodded.

“I’m saying that he’s not brainwashed either.” The six other ponies gasped.

“But, surely just that one occurrence can’t prove anything. And why did that make you late all those other times?” Twilight reasoned.

“Well, he noticed that I wasn’t exactly like the others either, and, well, one thing led to another, and now we’re friends.” Fluttershy explained.

“Are you serious?” Applejack asked. The pegasus nodded meekly.

“He’s real nice, too. He even has his own plans of escape and rebellion, so I thought maybe he could help us. That’s why I always go to the market after the daily speech every day to talk to him, and, uh, see if he has any... new information.” This seemed to satisfy most of the group’s curiosity, although a few of them still couldn’t get over the shock of another pony getting past the brainwashing.

“Oh no, Fluttershy, this is horrible!” Rarity exclaimed.

“W—why?” Fluttershy stammered.

“You know exactly why! That kind of thing could completely ruin any chances we have of escaping!” Rarity frowned disappointedly. “Even if you say that he’s also planning a rebellion and might have information we don’t, there’s obviously something else there.”

“Rarity, what in Equestria are you talking about?” Aquamarine inquired, raising an eyebrow. The alabaster unicorn scoffed.

“Maybe none of you can see it because you’re all amateurs when it comes to this sort of thing, but a mare doesn’t just know where a stallion goes and then meet him there every day, even at the risk of running late for something extremely urgent,” she explained.

“Where are you going with this?” Rainbow asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Rarity pointed an accusatory hoof at the yellow pegasus who was still pressed up against the wall, and at this point was starting to cry in embarrassment. “Fluttershy is in love with this stallion!”

Chapter 2: Friendship and Happiness, Love and Deceit

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 2: Friendship and Happiness, Love and Deceit

After lots of calming, muttering, explaining, and negotiating, the meeting ended with the conclusion that they wouldn’t allow Fluttershy to meet with this stallion without supervision, or previous approval. Fluttershy was devastated, but she agreed weakly. They couldn’t take any chances, since one overstepped line could draw an end to all of them.

The next few days carried on as usual, with nothing particularly eventful occurring. The others eyed Fluttershy carefully, making absolutely certain that she wasn’t slipping away from their sight after daily speeches to meet up with the stallion who they still knew nothing about. They hadn’t even seen him, and Fluttershy hadn’t asked yet if she could meet with him, so they found no reason to seek him out and draw any suspicion.

The week lagged on, and finally it was once again time for the group to reassemble in the abandoned warehouse in the backstreets of the city. Rainbow dragged Fluttershy to the meeting straight away, so as to be positive that she wouldn’t be late again, even though she had been very good so far with obeying the rules placed upon her.

“And now the next gathering of the Rebellion Bureau shall be brought to order,” Twilight announced in an official matter, though it came off as a bit pompous. Since she was so scholarly before, she would still on occasion tap into her previous nature of talking with big words. “As you all know, these meetings are typically biweekly, but due to the recent events concerning Fluttershy, this extra meeting is being held. As it has always been, when something of significance occurs, if the week immediately after it is not a week of gathering, a meeting will still be held. Have I made myself clear?” The others nodded in agreement, even though her means of explanation were anything but clear.

“Perfect,” she said, taking her seat and dropping the officiality a bit. “In that case, who would like to begin?” Looks were exchanged, and after a few moments, Rarity stood.

“While I’m not sure just how important such information will be, I have been promoted to not only make dresses, but also to be Emerald’s personal stylist. I’m unsure as to how much I could get out of her, but I know from experience that she is a very talkative pony, and she may just slip one of these days.” There was an excited chatter among the group, and Rarity sat back down. Aquamarine brought her report next.

“I’ve been investigating some of the more out of the way places in the city, and in one of the offices was a file with a return address that belongs to what appears to be a library. I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but as far as I’ve seen, there isn’t any sort of library here, so either it’s hidden somewhere, or it’s outside of the city. In that case, there has to be some sort of way we can contact the outside world, because how else could that letter have been sent?” She paused, the others contemplating her words. “Either way, whatever is in that library must be something we aren’t supposed to know about.”

“While there is a way to get out of the city,” Pinkie interjected, “it’s located in The Committee’s headquarters. I could shoot confetti at Emerald as a distraction, but the guards would catch up eventually.” Twilight rolled her eyes. Even now, almost everything that came out of Pinkie’s mouth was something party related.

“Um, actually,” Fluttershy piped up, “there is a library in the city, it’s just hidden underground.”

“Oh?” Aquamarine inquired, raising an eyebrow. “And how might you know this?”

“Um… lucky guess?” Fluttershy smiled sheepishly, her wings fluttering nervously. Rainbow’s face burned red with anger.

“You have been meeting with that guy, haven’t you?!” she shouted, slamming a hoof on the table. Fluttershy recoiled instinctively, hiding her face behind her long pink hair. Her wings snapped shut on her back, and she quivered a little.

“I—I didn’t mean to, I just—”

“You just what? You went against us, that’s what you did!” Rainbow’s wings flared out, making her appear bigger and more threatening.

“Rainbow, calm down!” Applejack shouted. “There’s no need to make such a fuss about something like this! We got new information, didn’t we?”

“I’m not going to calm down! Do you know what would’ve happened if she got caught? Heck, for all we know, he could be a spy for The Committee who’s trying to seek out anyone who could be trying to stop them! I’ve never heard of him before, and don’t you think we would’ve known if there was anyone else who made it past the brainwashing?” Rainbow was making solid points, and even though they stung, nobody could argue against them. “I don’t trust any potential information he’s giving us, and you shouldn’t trust it either.”

Fluttershy was silently weeping behind her shelter of hair, trying her best to stay away from the conflict even though she was the whole cause of it. She wanted to disappear, so everyone would stop criticizing her, even though she also hated how selfish she was being by going against her word.

Full of despair, Fluttershy jumped out of her seat, knocking it into the corner of the room as she ran out crying. The rest of the group listened to her wallowing outside, stunned at the sudden turn of events.

“I’ll go comfort her,” Rarity said quietly, slowly getting out of her chair and walking toward the exit. She stole a glance at Rainbow, who did nothing but cross her forelegs and scoff. After a few moments Fluttershy’s wailing decreased, and they could hear Rarity’s soft voice comforting the trembling mare outside.

“This meeting of the Rebellion Bureau is adjourned,” Twilight declared, trying her best to keep a neutral expression even though her voice was a bit shaky. The rest nodded and pushed in their seats, leaving with an uncomfortable air among them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the days following that meeting, Fluttershy stayed cooped up in her house, only leaving to go to the speech of the day, and even then she always hurried back when it was over. She was too ashamed to be around her friends, but at least it made it easier for them to confirm that she wasn’t meeting up with him anymore.

On her way back from the speech a few days after the meeting, Twilight noticed Aquamarine heading off in a different direction than usual. Curious, she followed.

“Where are you going?” she asked, using her magic to lightly tug on Aquamarine’s hair.

“Nowhere of your concern,” she stated flatly, pressing onward faster than before to shake off the other unicorn.

“Well in that case, you won’t mind if I follow you,” Twilight added, jogging back up to her side. Aquamarine sighed, and Twilight giggled mischievously. The pair traveled for a few more minutes before the blue haired mare stopped abruptly, sending Twilight crashing into her.

“Ow! What are you doing?” she asked. “You shouldn’t just stop like that! Give me some warning!” Aquamarine rolled her eyes, then bent down to inspect a sewer cover in the middle of the road. She tapped it a few times cautiously. Her horn lit up as she used her magic to unscrew the metal and revealed the sewer underneath. At least, Twilight assumed it was a sewer, considering it was too dark to see to the bottom.

“You coming?” Aquamarine asked, turning to face her partner. Twilight quickly agreed, even though she still had no idea where they were going, and the two unicorns descended into the manhole’s murky depths. They climbed down the cold metal latter for a few minutes, which seemed more like eternities, before they finally hit the bottom. It was dank and musty, but it wasn’t wet like a sewer should be. Aquamarine continued on before Twilight could inspect their location any further.

Twilight lagged behind Aquamarine in the dark tunnel, her only guide as to where she was going being the pony in front of her’s footsteps. She was met with surprise when the tunnel brightened and the room at the end of the passage came into view. Books and scrolls of all kinds were lit with a golden glow, along with a wooden desk with fresh paper atop it. To the side was some quills and ink, and it looked like nobody had been there for a very long time.

Twilight was ecstatic. There weren’t many things that she loved more than books and knowledge, and for the first time in so long she finally had both before her. She wanted to lock herself in this room for forever and read everything in it many times over, but she knew that there was no time for that.

“How did you know about this?” she inquired, still wonderstruck.

“The same way you knew. Fluttershy said so,” Aquamarine replied simply, her azure eyes flicking back and forth across the room.

“But didn’t you hear what Rainbow said about not trusting what that stallion has to say? What if this was some sort of trap?” Aquamarine turned to her.

“Twilight, one of these days you have to learn that it doesn’t matter where you get information. Facts are facts, no matter where they come from. Besides, do you really think we’re going to figure out anything if we don’t take risks? Not everything is going to be handed to you on a silver platter and tied with a nice little bow. If everything was that easy, then we would’ve figured the way to put an end to this a long time ago.” Twilight flinched, and Aquamarine turned back to observing the literature before her. She pulled a book out and started flipping through it. A few minutes passed, and Twilight wasn’t exactly sure what to do.

“You should probably go,” Aquamarine said finally.

“Don’t you need help with this? Before The Committee took over I was very scholarly and even lived in a library,” Twilight explained. Aquamarine walked over and handed the book she was previously inspecting to Twilight. Twilight opened to a random page, and on the paper were symbols beyond her comprehension.

“And before The Committee took over, I was a major in ancient languages. I think I’m going to be fine on my own.” Aquamarine smirked, trying to lighten things a little. Twilight smiled a little and nodded, then turned and exited the room. She somehow managed to find her way back out of the faux-sewer, then cautiously made her way back home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I hereby call this meeting of the Rebellion Bureau to order,” Twilight announced. “Aquamarine, you have made quite the discovery. Why don’t you start?” The others turned their eyes expectantly towards her. She explained how she and Twilight had gone down in what appeared to be a sewer a few days ago and that she’s been visiting there ever since.

“I’ve gone through most of the documents down there, and there really is a lot of new information at our disposal.”

“Like what? Are there cake recipes there?” Pinkie asked excitedly. Aquamarine lowered her head a little, her gaze set on the table before her.

“Well? What have you found?” Applejack tried to coax her to bring whatever information she had forward. She could tell that something was a bit off.

Aquamarine lifted her head again, her eyes cold and distant and her expression unreadable.

“The Path to Eternal Happiness,” she exclaimed, “I found it.”

Chapter 3: Hope and Hopelessness

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 3: Hope and Hopelessness

“What in Equestria are you talking about, Aquamarine?” Rainbow asked, shaking her shoulders urgently. She hadn’t been responding to their last couple attempts to get her to explain. “What is The Path to Eternal Happiness?!”

“Is there anything else we can do to shake it out of her?” Rarity inquired, a hoof over her mouth in worry. Twilight was at a loss, until a sudden idea flashed through her mind.

“Ondine, what do you mean by ‘The Path to Eternal Happiness’?” she asked. Something about her name snapped Aquamarine back to the present.

“Waah? What happened?” She rubbed her head as if she had just woken up.
“You said something about The Path to Eternal Happiness’ and then shut down on all of us,” Pinkie explained. Aquamarine shook her head to help regain her senses.

“Can you explain to us what you were talking about?” Applejack asked in a coaxing voice. Aquamarine nodded and adjusted her seating in her chair.

“The Path to Eternal Happiness…” she began, taking a deep breath, “There is a fabled paradise in the south, a city of hope, that I have heard of before. Wishes are said to come true in such a place.”

“Ah! I’ve heard of that before!” Twilight piped up. “It’s just an old mare's tale though, there’s no way it could help us now.”

“See, that’s the thing,” Aquamarine said. “It’s a fable because nobody knows how to get there. But in that old library, I stumbled across an old tome, and inside was the same story I had read many times before… along with the way to travel there.”

“Does this mean… we can go there and wish for everything to be the way it was again?!” Fluttershy asked incredulously, her eyes widening. The others had a similar realization, and a few of them started smiling and laughing in joy. They just needed to travel to such a place, and everything would be back to normal!

“Now I hate to burst your bubble everyone,” Twilight interjected, “but not only is there no way to leave the city, making it inherently impossible to go there, but the way that wishes are granted in that town are… less than ideal.”

“Less than ideal…?” Rainbow inquired. Twilight nodded.

“I’m talking about voodoo magic, more commonly known as black magic, which if you’re unaware is extremely risky to use. One would have to perform some sort of ritual, and it’s almost always a long and finicky one, and if it gets messed up at any point then horrible side effects will be wrought upon the user.” The room deflated a little, their small glimmer of hope fizzling out.

“But shouldn’t we be taking risks?” Rainbow asked. “Isn’t this the same as when you and Aquamarine went to the library? It doesn’t matter how we stop Emerald, as long as we do it, right?”

“Rainbow,” Rarity said, “one of these days you have to learn that there is a difference between taking risks and being careless. Dabbling in that kind of unnatural magic is not only extremely dangerous, but also extremely disgusting! Do you know what kind of garish things you have to do to get that stuff to work?” She shivered at the thought. “Eck, I’m going to need some hand sanitizer just thinking about it.”

Applejack nodded her head in agreement. “Rarity does have a point, even without her germophobic comments. I would only cross that line if we were down to the wire and hanging on by the skin of our teeth.”

“Our teeth have skin?” Pinkie asked innocently.

“...I think you’re missing the bigger picture here, Pinkie.”

“Alrighty then,” Aquamarine announced, “let’s agree that none of us will even attempt to venture The Path to Eternal Happiness unless we agree upon it in the future, for let’s not forget that it is always an option if absolutely necessary.”

After everyone agreed, and once it was confirmed that all topics thus far had been discussed, the meeting adjourned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight awoke again, the same time as usual, in the same comfortable bed as usual. That was one of the problems with everyone being brainwashed, nothing changed, and she was the type of pony that itched for change. She started rewriting her normal diary entry, adding a few tidbits about the library and about Fluttershy’s affection towards another pony who might also be free from the spell. They could never be certain though, which was also the problem with starting a rebellion.

After she had finished and destroyed all evidence of the paper, the screen on her wall again crackled to life and urged her to get ready and go to the speech of the day. Sighing, Twilight got herself ready, practiced being brainwashed for a second or two, then headed out the door.

She ended up getting to the speech a bit later than usual, which wasn’t that big of a deal. Emerald was already on stage, and was a few lines in to her normal preaching.

Ignoring the words that had been pounded into her head so many times she had practically memorized them, Twilight weaved her way through the crowd to try and find one of her friends. She soon stumbled across Fluttershy, and decided to stick with her for the time being.

“Alrighty! Come now, everybody, you should only be filled with complete happiness! Worries and dissatisfaction, of course you don’t have any of those, right?” Emerald asked, her smile projected across the whole city by means of the giant monitors. “Except for this distraught young fellow over here, of course!”

Wait, what did she just say?

To her dismay, Twilight watched as out of the platform rose a young stallion, probably only in his late 20’s, who was chained to a pole and struggling for dear life.

Executions these days were rare, so nobody was prepared for someone to be caught out of the blue. He had survived for so long while staying under the radar, so it wasn't as if he didn’t know how to keep quiet, so what could he have done to be captured?

Twilight turned to Fluttershy, and she could instantly tell his identity, for Fluttershy’s face was devoid of color and she was shuddering as if she was locked in an ice chamber. This could only be the supposed stallion who wasn’t put under the happiness spell, and had helped them find the library.

“Now then, everyone! What should his execution be, I wonder?” Emerald Joy tapped her chin thoughtfully, and the tied up stallion started screaming in agony. “I know! How about we rip his heart out? That seems fitting, right?” The crowd roared in agreement, and she turned towards him with an innocent smile. Twilight couldn’t bear to look over and see what Fluttershy’s reaction to the sudden and drastic turn of events was. This was even painful for Twilight to watch, and she had never met him before, much less held an emotional attachment to him.

“Hm… but how should I go about it?” Emerald wondered. She was clearly enjoying herself with torturing him by talking so lightly about his imminent doom, savoring every last moment of his despair.

She stroked her chin, and soon after her face lit up in excitement.

“Alright, alright, everyone! Let’s get things underway!” The crowd roared in anticipation, the man still struggling against his holds.

She turned to him with a look of wicked determination and malice. She placed one of her smooth and delicate gloved hooves on his sculpted chest.

“What a shame, dying in happiness is such a collective dream, but you decided to throw away any chance of that happening to you.” Emerald Joy’s horn lit up, sprouting magical claws out of her hoof Before there was any time to think, her hoof, along with its magically created claws, was already thrusted deep inside his chest. She held it there for a moment, taking a moment to appreciate the look of horror etched on her victim’s face. His eyes were as small as needleheads and he almost seemed neither dead or alive.

In one swift movement, she stepped back and withdrew her arm, her long hair flowing as his knees locked and he fell to the ground with a thud.

“I’m disappointed. I really am disappointed,” Emerald sighed, turning back to the crowd with the magical appendages still digging deep into his heart. Blood was beginning to pool around the dead body. “Why would he trade away happiness for pain? What sense is there in that? Oh well, if you would like to make the same decision, please line up here! Everyone else, please continue your life of happiness with the rest of us! I expect nothing less!” Her smile faltered a little as she looked down with disinterest at the still slightly pounding organ on her hoof. She let it roll off of the tangents of magic half-heartedly, and it plopped unceremoniously on to the ground next to her. The claws on her hoof fizzled away into the air.

Horrified, Twilight turned to Fluttershy, who she discovered was in a much worse state. Fluttershy was clutching her head in her hooves and her trembling body conveyed the agony she was feeling. She wailed silently to herself, but she couldn’t scream no matter how much she wanted to, couldn’t fight back, or her cover would be blown. Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground, flapping her wings a little to break her fall and make her landing as silent as possible. She couldn’t have saved him. This was all her fault, and she knew it.

“If I hadn’t been so insistent on being with him...” she lamented quietly to herself, sniffing and trying to wipe away the guilt-ridden streams cascading down her cheeks. “If only I hadn’t bumped into him in the first place…”

Twilight patted her friend’s head sympathetically, but she felt a bit cynical for keeping up the charade and smiling through Fluttershy’s pain. Fluttershy was the type to cry over something as little as someone looking at her funny, so Twilight was astonished at how she had been handling herself relatively well considering the circumstances.

The crowd was starting to disperse, as Emerald had taken her leave and the blood onstage was starting to get cleaned up, so Twilight helped her trembling companion up off of the pavement and wiped her face a little, encouraging her to ignore her feelings for just a short bit longer.

“I know it sounds cold and heartless for me to say,” Twilight whispered in her ear, “but you just have to shut your heart for now until I get you home. You can lock yourself in your bathroom and mourn his death to your heart’s content, but for now I have to ask you to stay strong and keep up the act. I don’t want to be in the same situation as you are if you get caught.” Fluttershy nodded and sniffed, cleaning her face with her foreleg and letting the unicorn lead her back home.

The others must had figured out the identity of the victim, for they were starting to flock towards the sobbing mare one by one. They flooded her with questions, but Twilight insisted they held back until Fluttershy had had a good cry. They agreed, although they were slightly disappointed, then went their separate ways back to their assigned houses.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack returned to her large, majestic home. Others would admire it for its size, but the only reason such a grand estate was bestowed upon her was because of her insanely large family. She had uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, nieces, nephews, brothers, and sisters, all packed under one roof. Taking all that into account, she probably had even less space than the others.

She was of the youngest generation, along with both her brother and her sister. Of course, with her being the only one in her family who made it passed the brainwashing, Applejack had a pretty lonely life at home even though she was surrounded by so many loved ones, since they were all essentially just hollow shells that looked like ponies she knew.

Yet she carried on, for she was not only physically the strongest of her group of friends, but she was very skilled in keeping a level head in a dire situation. She was the metaphorical glue that kept the group from falling apart through conflict.

She trudged to her room, which was the only place where she could be alone with her thoughts and with no worry of someone barging in on her and dragging her away for not being happy all the time. She locked her door and sat down on her chair, leaning back with a sigh of relief. It was stressful having to deal with witnessing an execution after having gone so long without seeing one, especially with it being as grotesque as it was. Someone having their heart ripped out was not the kind of thing Applejack wanted burned in her head at the moment.

Her relaxation was interrupted by a knock at her door. She went to answer it and found her little sister Apple Bloom staring back up at her with big eyes.

“Why did that stallion have to die?” Apple Bloom asked, clutching one of her toys to her chest. “He looked nice, what could he have done wrong that would make her do something so mean to him?” Apple Bloom was too young to have remembered the last execution, so it was natural that she was a bit confused.

“Well, you see—” Applejack started, but was interrupted by a sudden shocking realization:

Apple Bloom wasn’t happy!

Applejack took her sister by the shoulders and shook her a few times to see if she was just dreaming. Could this really be happening?

“Apple Bloom, tell me and tell me now, have you been free from the spell this whole time?” she asked, her tone serious and foreboding.

The little filly nodded furiously, tossing her bright red hair around wildly. “I dunno why, but I think I remember when I was really little seeing that Emerald Joy lady, but right before that Mommy prayed really hard and kissed my forehead and when Emerald used her magic it didn’t really do anything,” Apple Bloom explained, furrowing her brow as she tried to remember everything she could. “How come nothing happened?”

Applejack paused for a moment, reflecting on everything her little sister had told her.

“It’s a special gift that some earth ponies have, where they can momentarily convert all of their magical connections that make them an earth pony into the kind of magic that unicorns use. The thing is, once that magic is used, that pony is sapped of all of their magic and can never use it again.

“Mom must have decided to use this technique on you, creating a sort of anti-spell barrier on you that was just strong enough to get you passed the happiness spell unaffected. She was very intune to nature, so she had easily enough power to protect you, but not enough to help anyone else. She must have figured that you of all of us should be saved, since you’re the youngest and still have a life to live, so she sacrificed everything she had to give you a chance.” Applejack paused for a bit to let Apple Bloom soak up the information before continuing her interrogation.

“How haven’t you been caught, then?” Applejack asked. “How did you know that you had to pretend to be happy all of the time?” Apple Bloom shrugged.

“I just did whatever you were doing, but I kinda thought that if I did anything else that I would get in trouble.” She paused. “After seeing what they did to that nice looking guy, I know I’ll get in trouble.”

“But why didn’t you tell me that you were free? I was so upset that I was alone!” Applejack asked insistently. Apple Bloom started to tear up.

“I thought that I was alone, too!” she whined. “I wasn’t sure if you were just different or if you weren’t all happy-fied too, but I was too scared to ask!” Tears started rolling down the little filly’s cheeks, so Applejack took her in her arms to calm her down.

“Come now, Apple Bloom, it’s alright, we’re all together now. It’s alright…” she cooed. Apple Bloom sniffed and wiped away some tears. “Everything’ll be alright. We’ll figure out a way to make everybody normal again. Everything will be fine…” She let her sister go and took her by the shoulders. “How about, from now on, you come with me to the meetings I have with my friends?” Apple Bloom smiled and nodded, and the two sisters again embraced.

A tear of happiness rolled down Applejack’s cheek. She had her sister back, and at that moment, that was the only thing that mattered.

Chapter 4: For Better or For Worse

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee

Chapter 4: For Better or For Worse

The group of friends reconvened the following day, though it wasn’t an official meeting. They all met at Fluttershy’s house, for they had decided to attempt to interrogate her about the victim of the execution the day before to attempt to conclude what he could have possibly done to get caught, and to just know more about him in general.

Once they had all gathered, Twilight gently knocked on Fluttershy’s door. Some sniffling and hoofsteps were audible for a few moments, and then their shy friend answered the door. Her eyes were puffy and her nose was red. Her hair looked unkempt, and the feathers on her wings were ruffled and had obviously not been groomed in a while. They could tell that she had just wiped her face clean probably moments before greeting them.

“Oh… hello, everyone…” she responded, her voice a bit shaky and quieter than usual. She sniffed.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Pinkie said. “She looks really upset…” Fluttershy’s eyes widened.

“Ah, what is it?” she asked timidly, flapping her wings nervously. Twilight and Pinkie exchanged glances.

“Well, we were wondering if you wouldn’t mind telling us a little bit about this stallion who you had been meeting with, considering… recent events.” Twilight tried to beat around the bush a little, but Fluttershy obviously saw through it.

“I understand,” Fluttershy whispered, tears welling along the rims of her eyes. “Y-you all can come in. I’ll try my best…” She stepped to the side to allow room to enter, and the group streamed into the small house. She lived alone, so she didn’t need very much space.

“Hey,” Rainbow said, pulling Fluttershy aside for a moment. She placed a comforting wing over her friend’s shoulder. “Thanks for this, and thanks for being so strong for all of us.” Fluttershy smiled a small, sad smile and nodded in acknowledgement. After a few moments, Rainbow walked over to join the others at the kitchen table, with Fluttershy quickly following suit.

“So what kinda stuff do you want to know?” she asked, taking a seat and poking her hooves together. The six others glanced back and forth amongst themselves, unsure about where to start.

“Well,” Pinkie offered, “why don’t we start with why you liked him?” Fluttershy’s face suddenly turned crimson red.

“B-because,” she stammered, fidgeting awkwardly. “Well, it wasn’t really anything out of the norm. He was nice, strong, cute…” She started to tear up a little at the memories.

“Well the point is, why did you decide to meet up with him again? Was he really that open with sharing stuff with you?” Rainbow interjected. She wanted to move the conversation as far away from this romantic stuff as possible, and she wanted to call up as little depressing memories as she could. Fluttershy nodded in understanding.

“Well, he seemed really grateful for bumping into me, too, since he thought that he was the only one that was fighting back. He was really enthusiastic with telling me things, but he said so much I’m not sure I can remember it all right now. I’m sorry...” She hung her head a little, but everyone reassured her that it was alright, because a little information was far better than none at all. Fluttershy insisted that she’d try later to remember what he had said, though. They decided to move to a different topic.

“Now that I think about it,” Rarity piped up, “we know hardly anything about him. We don’t even know what his name is!” The others had a similar realization and turned to Fluttershy for an answer.

“Erm… his name was Ike, and he was an earth pony who had a keen detective skill. He could figure anything out, no matter how difficult, if given the time. He almost never spoke of his family, but from what I gathered he lost all relatives in the early days of the New Age, when executions happened almost every day, for one way or another people were able to get around the spell and most would protest on the streets. He knew to keep quiet though, and had to witness all those he loved be torn from him in front of the whole city…” Tears started rolling down her cheeks, and Applejack passed her a box of tissues that was sitting on the counter. Fluttershy received them gratefully and took a moment to dab her eyes and blow her nose.

“I didn’t mean to let things get so out of hand. He only got caught when we started meeting with each other. It’s all my fault he’s gone. I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry…” She cradled her head in her hooves and wept. Applejack and Pinkie rushed comfortingly to her side, assuring her that none of this was her fault, and that there was no way she could’ve known what would happen. After a few minutes she lifted her head and wiped the hair away that was stuck to her face with her tears.

“I’m sorry, okay…” she said, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. “You can keep going, I’ll stop crying…”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Rarity inquired, petting Fluttershy’s hair to calm her down. Fluttershy nodded insistently.

“Well, alright…” Twilight said, stopping a moment to think. “Were you planning on meeting with him today? Maybe yesterday?” Fluttershy’s eyes shot open, and new tears flowed forth.

“Oh my God!” she shouted. “He didn’t meet with me yesterday! I thought he must’ve forgotten or something, but now… now…” She collapsed, sobbing uncontrollably on the kitchen table. Nobody knew how to console her, because if they tried assuring her that nothing was her fault, they knew she wouldn’t believe them. The six friends exchanged glances.

“I really think we should go…” Aquamarine suggested. The others agreed wordlessly and filed silently out the door, a few of them giving Fluttershy one last hug of support before leaving her to the will of her emotions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight blew out her match after successfully lighting the final candle in the room. She turned to make sure that everyone was present, but stopped when she noticed a few absences.

“Where are Fluttershy and Applejack?” she inquired. Rainbow put her hind legs up on the table and laid back with her front hooves behind her head.

“It’s still a little early, Twilight. Relax a little,” she replied. Twilight was still a bit tense.

“I dunno, after everything that happened… I’m a bit worried about Fluttershy.”

“Well, if Applejack is gone, too, she’s probably just checking in on her. They should be here soon enough,” Rarity offered. Twilight nodded nervously.

“That makes sense…” she agreed, still a little apprehensive. “Let’s just wait a little bit longer, then.” Everyone took their seats if they hadn’t already and waited anxiously for the others to arrive.

After a tense silence, the door opened a crack and in inched Applejack, along with her little sister. Twilight didn’t understand why Applejack would bring a brainwashed family member with her, but waited to see if she would explain it herself. Twilight glanced around and noticed that the others had similar awkward expressions, but also kept quiet.

Applejack, however, seemed content to wait until everyone was present before explaining her motive. Therefore, an unsettling silence fell over the room. Fluttershy didn’t seem to be coming anytime soon, so Rainbow decided to speak up.

“Erm, who do you have there?” she asked, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly.

“This is my little sister Apple Bloom, and I’ve decided to bring her to our meetings from now on. It seemed kinda fitting,” Applejack explained. Rainbow rolled her magenta colored eyes.

“If you find bringing some random brainwashed kid to a meeting ‘fitting’, then I totally agree with you,” she scoffed. Apple Bloom recoiled.

“Hey! I’m not all happy-fied, stupid!” she shouted in retaliation. The others were taken aback.

“Are all of the twists here just going to be that someone turns out not to be cursed?” Pinkie asked. “Because that would be pretty crummy.” Rarity shushed her, then turned to the young filly.

“Are you positive that it isn’t a trick? A spy?” Rarity asked, a little bit suspicious as she investigated Apple Bloom.

“Rarity,” Applejack said. “I’ve known Apple Bloom for her whole life, I’m pretty positive I can figure out for myself whether she’s working for The Committee or not.” Rarity raised an eyebrow, but took a step back and sat back down in her seat.

“Though I am boundlessly happy for you Applejack,” Aquamarine said, fiddling with a lock of hair, “these recent developments still don’t bring anything exceedingly helpful to the table. In fact, it may have complicated things a little bit. Small children are hard to keep a hold on, so she could get caught a lot easier than we can and would blow our whole cover.” Applejack clenched her teeth.

“You can’t just go around insulting my little sister, alright? She can be very mature when needs be. Just look! She’s survived all this time alone and never got caught!” she shouted. Aquamarine crossed her forelegs and huffed.

“It’s easier to keep a secret quiet when you don’t have anyone to discuss it with. Suppose she gets cocky once we figure out some way to overtake Emerald and she taunts her before we carry it out? What will happen then?” she retorted cooly. Applejack’s face burned red with anger, but Apple Bloom was content with fiddling with one of the candles and ignoring the conflict at hand.

“Hey, guys…” Twilight interrupted before the argument would get any worse. “Is anyone else here worried about Fluttershy not being here? Earlier we wrote it off as her coming with Applejack, but now it’s glaringly obvious that that isn’t the case.”

“Now that you mention it,” Applejack said, still eying Aquamarine a little, “I did stop at Fluttershy’s house on my way here, but she wouldn’t answer the door. I figured she would be on her way here or she was still crying and didn’t hear me knock. Maybe she’s out doing investigating of her own? Either way, she isn’t here.”

“Maybe we should go check on her and see what’s up,” Rainbow offered. After a few mumbles of agreement, everyone pushed in their chairs and filed out the door, trying their best to be as conspicuous as possible. Twilight lagged behind for a moment to put out all of the candles, then rushed to catch up with the rest of the group.

It was the middle of the day, so the marketplace was in full swing. Ponies filled the streets, bustling about to receive breads and many sweet baked goods. Pinkie was extremely tempted to get some, but Applejack pulled her along by the nape of her neck. They had more important things to attend to.

Once they had wormed their way through the packed crowd the center of town had to offer, they ventured towards the part of town for housing citizens. They quickly located Fluttershy's home and Twilight knocked in the door.

"Fluttershy, are you in there? It's just us, you can open up." She waited for a response, and received none, so she pounded on the door a few more times. When Fluttershy still didn't come to the door, she opted to enter herself. She jiggled the knob a few times, only to discover that the door was locked. She let a tangent of magic weave out of her horn and into the lock, and after the faint clicking sound reached her ears, she pushed the door open.

"Fluttershy! Where are you?" Applejack called, pulling Apple Bloom in with her. Aside from their calling and frantic footsteps, the house was silent.

"Hey, guys?" Pinkie said. "I think you might want to check this out." She pointed to a stack of paper sitting on the counter. The others rushed to her side, eying the papers. Everyone was too nervous to be the one to pick them up, so after a few uncomfortable glances, Twilight decided to take charge and read them.

"’My friends’," she read, "’if you are reading this then you must be searching for me, since you went so far as to break into my house. I don't mind, though, since you deemed it the best thing to do, and I’m definitely not in the best position to question your judgement. But on to more important matter.

"’It has come to my attention that my actions lately have not been favorable. It pains me to recount all of the selfish things I’ve done as of late. Not only have I gone out of my way to meet with a potentially dangerous pony, but I’ve also caused his untimely death. I apologize for everything that’s happened. If it weren’t for me that stallion would still have a chance at rebelling, and could also have banded together with you to strengthen your forces. Yet I got in the way, and in acting so carelessly I have destroyed any chances of you meeting him and learning what could have possibly saved us all. I am a fool, and I’m sorry.

“‘I carried out my promise and thought of what he had said to me, but in doing so called up far more depressing memories than I would have liked. Thinking about everything we did together influenced my decision, but I don’t want any of you to feel guilty. I’m the one that should feel guilty, since I’ve caused so much damage to you all.

“‘It is here that I bid you farewell. I will be cheering you on from the sidelines, but I don’t want to cause any more harm to anybody. Please respect my wishes, and don’t grieve for me. I don’t deserve any of your weeping, and I don’t want to trouble you with making tears run down your cheeks for my sake.

“‘The last thing I will see will be my bathroom. That seems rather fitting, doesn’t it? I hope you all carry on well without me. I wish you all the best of luck. P.S. I wrote this letter in as formal as a voice I could. Have I made you proud, Twilight? Have I made up for my mistakes this way?’” Twilight flipped through the pages, seeing if there was anything else. There were a few scribbles on the next page, but they were obscured with tears.

“So what does that mean?” Pinkie asked. “Is she leaving? Are we not gonna be friends anymore?” She frowned. “I thought we were best friends!”

“Hold on…” Rarity interjected, peering over Twilight’s shoulder to see the letter. “Did that say that the last thing she’ll see is her bathroom?” The gears whirred in everyone’s heads.

“Oh my God, Fluttershy!” Rainbow shouted, sprinting as fast as her legs would carry her over to the bathroom. She threw the door open desperately. It couldn’t be… it couldn’t be!

Fluttershy was before her, her back leaning against the wall and her limbs splayed every which way. A hoof rested on the kitchen knife protruding from her gut, and blood was splattered across the room, staining the shower curtains crimson.

“Oh my God, Fluttershy, what have you done?!” she shouted in despair. The others had finally caught up to her, and had the same shock she did, most of them breaking down crying. Applejack averted Apple Bloom’s gaze, so as not to scar her anymore than she was from seeing Fluttershy’s friend get his heart ripped out.

“Why did you do this, Fluttershy?!” Rainbow cried in agony, vocalizing the thoughts that everyone else had. “Why did you leave us? We needed you!” She kicked at the ground, then huffed, sliding to the floor in defeat. “Why? Why?!”

Pinkie and Rarity went to the side, excusing themselves to wail in sorrow for their deceased companion. Applejack seemed rather unaffected, neither crying or shouting, but instead placed her hat over her heart and prayed for Fluttershy, then placed it back on her head. Twilight didn’t know whether to be sad or angry or guilty, so she kneeled down and pet Fluttershy’s hair, cradling her head on her shoulder.

With a small burst of magic, she brought Fluttershy’s eyelids down, letting her rest in peace, a single tear rolling down the unicorn’s face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The smell of smoke wafted off of the candles around the room and filled the air. Everyone sat at the Rebellion Bureau meeting in silence, dazed and uncomfortable. There was nothing to talk about, aside from the giant elephant in the room. And nobody wanted to be the first to touch that subject, as it was so uncomfortable to talk about.

“It’s all my fault…” Rainbow spoke, hanging her head and clenching her teeth. “I shouldn’t have yelled at her the way I did before. I made her feel like we hated her...”

“Don’t say that, Rainbow,” Applejack said. “There was nothing we could do to predict her actions.”

“It doesn’t matter if we couldn’t predict it or not!” Rainbow shot back. “I was the one that triggered everything in the first place! If we had just gently told her that we thought she shouldn’t be seeing that Ike guy, Fluttershy would be sitting here right now!”

“Please, Rainbow, her judgement was clouded by her emotions. I’m sure she was mostly shocked by witnessing his death and then making the assumption that it was her fault that he was caught,” Twilight explained. “Anything that we did would’ve made little to no impact on her final decision.”

“You don’t understand Fluttershy like I do, Twilight,” Rainbow said. “I grew up with her, and she takes others’ opinions of her very seriously. She must’ve thought that we hated her the way I blew up at her like that. Even if what you say is true about that not being a big deal in her decision, it’s still probably what tipped her over the edge after all of the guilt of causing his death.”

“Don’t be so quick to point the blame at yourself, Rainbow,” Pinkie piped up. “All of us could have been more supportive of her. In fact, maybe we could’ve let her keep visiting him, and then we could’ve made her happy along with finding out some possibly groundbreaking information.”

“That just makes me feel even more guilty, since I was the one most defensive about letting her see him!” she moaned. She slammed her head on the table aggravatedly.

“On the flip side,” Rarity interjected, “I don’t think we should be blaming any of ourselves. We did what any rational group of friends would do: we tried to protect our friend. It just turned out that some unfortunate events led our helping to unintentional harming. And who knows? Maybe if we did let her go with Ike, then she would be caught along with him and we would have lost her in a much worse way. We might’ve also been found out because of that, so try to be thankful of what didn’t happen rather than dwelling on what did.” Rarity wasn’t usually the one to keep everyone levelheaded—that was usually Applejack, but she was also very traumatized by Fluttershy’s death and wouldn't have been able to form her ideas into words as well.

“If you need to point fingers at someone to make yourself feel better,” Aquamarine said, “then the person you should ultimately be blaming for everything is Emerald Joy. She’s the one that ripped his heart out, anyway. Heck, she’s the whole reason our lives are this way in the first place!” She leaned back against the wall. “Keep focus on the big picture as opposed to the little details, and you’ll feel a lot better about yourself.”

“But enough about trying to make ourselves feel better,” Twilight said. “We should be worrying about a more important matter. What do we do now? We’re a person short, but we also have Applejack’s little sister Apple Bloom. Both of these things bring about advantages and disadvantages to our situation, so how should we utilize the positive things to get the upper hand?”

“Well, the glaringly obvious advantage of having Apple Bloom is that she is ideal for slipping past people or into tight spaces since she’s so small. She could definitely help us with investigating the town, since there’s bound to be small cracks that we’ve missed that she could fit in,” Aquamarine offered. Everyone nodded in agreement, and Apple Bloom’s face brightened with pride.

“However,” Aquamarine added, “there’s also the fact that she isn’t going to be able to interpret information as well as any of us could, so one of us would probably have to go with her, anyway.” Apple Bloom’s shoulders slumped. Applejack was a little ticked, but couldn’t disagree with Aquamarine’s words, so she kept quiet.

“Is there anything else?” Twilight asked, surveying the room. Everyone shook their heads or averted their gaze, fiddling with their hair uncomfortably. “Very well then, this meeting is dismissed.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apple Bloom’s hooves pounded against the pavement with every step as she sprinted her way to the arranged meeting place. Her letter was clutched tightly in her mouth. Was a letter really the best way to break the news, after what had just happened? It didn’t matter, it was what Applejack had told her to do, and she wasn’t about to question her big sister’s judgement.

Her heart was racing as she picked up speed, nearing her destination. Her breaths were short and her physical strain audible as the impact of every step pushed the wind out of her. Her red hair flowed out behind her, and occasionally whipped in her face. She couldn’t blow the hair away since the letter was in her mouth, and her breathing was too labored to let air out through her nostrils, so she instead resorting to flinging her head about for a second or two to throw the stray hairs to the side.

Finally her destination was in sight, and she let herself slow down a little. She could make out the five older mares looking at her with questioning stares. They would probably ask what this whole meeting was about. To be honest, Apple Bloom didn’t completely know, either. She just knew she had to deliver the letter to them for Applejack, since for some reason her big sister couldn’t deliver it herself. She wasn’t about to question her big sister’s judgement.

“What is it, Apple Bloom?” Pinkie asked. Apple Bloom tried to speak, but everything came out instead as garbled heaving. After a couple failed attempts at talking, she decided to just hand the paper to her as she caught her breath. Pinkie received it cautiously, and glanced to the others. Nervously, she opened it up and began to read the contents.

“‘My good friends, I realize that just receiving this letter must be a bit jarring, considering Fluttershy’s suicide. Let me assure you, this isn’t a suicide note. I am still very much alive. This paper is regarding something different. I suppose you all remember a little bit ago about The Path to Eternal Happiness, right? I have decided that I need something, and I can only obtain such a thing in that place.’” Pinkie paused and gasped. “You guys! She’s going to go and do black magic! We have to do something!”

“Wait,” Aquamarine interjected, “keep reading.” Pinkie turned back to the paper clutched in her hooves and picked up from where she left off.

“‘Now before you all start throwing a fuss, hear me out! The whole reason why I need to go there is for my little sister, Apple Bloom. I love her more than life itself, and therefore am willing to risk my own life to save hers. I’m going to go there and wish for none of her loved ones to fall under the happiness curse. I don’t want her to feel alone in this world like she did before she found out that I wasn’t cursed, either. I’m afraid she’ll crack and choose a similar route that Fluttershy did to relieve the pain. I don’t want her to waste the gift that her mom—our mom— gave her, so I’m going to the paradise in the south to make a wish for her. If I screw it up… know that I love you all, and none of this is your fault. You’ll find a way to make it in this crazy world without me, I promise.’” Pinkie turned the paper over a few times. “That’s all there is.”

“Is she crazy?!” Twilight shouted, grabbing the note and rereading a few lines, desperately hoping that Pinkie had misread something or that she had interpreted it wrong. “She couldn’t have just left us! Not now! And definitely not after we agreed upon not going there unless it was our only hope!”

“I think that’s the thing, Twilight,” Pinkie said, gingerly taking the paper back. “This is her only hope. There’s no way that she can guarantee Apple Bloom’s safety except for bending the laws of nature by using black magic.”

“But to go to such lengths! Why?!” she asked, groping the air for some sort of answer.

“Have you forgotten just how important family is to her?” Rarity asked. “It’s not much of a surprise that the reason she’s going is for one of her family members.”

“It doesn’t matter why she’s going,” Aquamarine said, “it’s the fact that she’s going at all! We have to stop her!”

“But how?” Pinkie asked. “We don’t know when she left, so she could be anywhere by now!”

“Am I the only one wondering how she’s even going to leave the city in the first place?” Rainbow spoke up. “I mean, if leaving was that easy, we would’ve definitely found the way by now. Once she realizes there’s no way out, she’ll be back in no time.” The group relaxed a little, so much so that you could actually see it. Relief swept over all of their faces.

“In that case, I think it’s safe to say that we can go home now. All of this excitement lately has left me exhausted…” Rarity sighed. The rest of the group agreed, and after a short bout of goodbyes, they trotted their separate ways back home.

Chapter 5: Slipping Away to Happiness

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee

Chapter 5: Slipping Away to Happiness

My name is Applejack. I’m an earth pony who is venturing on my own to The Path of Eternal Happiness for my little sister Apple Bloom. The reason why is a bit of a long story, so I’ll spare you the details and get right to the action.

It was early in the morning, before sunrise, when I woke up and wrote a letter to my five friends—there were six, but one of them is no longer with us—informing them of my departure. I roused Apple Bloom from her slumber and instructed her to give it to them the next morning, then kissed her forehead and let her get back to sleep.

I left home and slipped from corner to corner of the buildings around town, trying to melt in the shadows so as not to be spotted by any of the security androids buzzing around town. There usually weren’t very many around this early in the morning, but I could never be too sure.

I racked my brain to remember the street that Aquamarine had said the manhole had been. There weren’t very many around the city, since the sewer system was pretty advanced and needed minimal maintenance, so it couldn’t be too hard to miss. I just didn’t want to be scampering down every road looking for it, since doing something like that would be a guaranteed capture.

A few minutes later I was standing over the very manhole that Twilight and Aquamarine had discovered a few weeks before. I kneeled and placed my hoof over it. It was still a bit loose from when they had opened it, so I had no difficulty at moving it out of the way. I probably wouldn’t have had any problems either way, considering that I’m the strongest out of the group, but at least I wouldn’t have to put any unnecessary strain on my muscles.

I descended into the murky depths of the sewer, or at least what appeared to be a sewer, and after a minute or two of climbing downward I hopped off of the ladder, landing on the cold tunnel floor. The sound reverberated off of the dank walls, and after taking a moment to compose myself I pushed forward. Soon enough I was in the library, which was bathed in a ghostly orange light that must never go out, since nobody had been down there in quite a while. The candles were probably enchanted to continuously keep burning, but not to catch fire to any of the ancient documents the room held.

Before me lay my first challenge: identifying the paper that held the directions to The Path to Eternal Happiness, and then figuring out a way to read it, since Aquamarine had said that all of the documents in this library were in an ancient arcane language. I decided that the smartest thing to do would be to investigate the writing desk a few feet away, which had a couple papers laying on it along with a couple bottles of ink and some quills. It appeared to be the place that Aquamarine had been investigating the scrolls for any new information.

My assumption that starting there was the best course of action was correct, as the words ‘The Path to Eternal Happiness’ was scrawled on an envelope, which was yellowed with age. A few foreign words that I didn’t understand were written under the title, but they couldn’t have been anything important. I turned the envelope over and noticed that the seal wasn’t broken. Why hadn’t Aquamarine looked inside?

I didn’t have time to dwell on the small details. The problem I had with that tidbit, though, is that that meant that whatever lied inside remained untranslated. I sighed. Maybe this would be a lot harder than I thought. I tore open the envelope and unraveled the crumpled paper inside.

To my surprise and great luck, the contents of the paper didn’t need translating at all. In fact, it was just some pictures. It wasn’t exactly a map; I wasn’t sure what it was. I sat down in the desk chair, and was both surprised and delighted to found out that it could sustain my weight without breaking. I held a candle closer to the page so I could make out the images better, but made sure not to let the flame lick at the edges of the document.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that what I had taken for pictures were actually a writing form that was far past my comprehension. Under it were the same words repeated over and over again in countless different languages, so I assumed they were the translations of the archaic text into something more modern. One thing was for sure: whoever wrote it must have really wanted the one to find it to understand what was written.

After a good bout of skimming I reached the English translation. Even then it didn’t seem to make that much sense. I read the words aloud to see if in doing so I could gather more meaning from them.

“‘Hey, hey, have you heard about it, I wonder?’” I recited. “‘The paradise to the south, a city of hopes.’” I stopped. Were my eyes playing tricks on me? I could’ve sworn I saw some words etch into the page that weren’t there before. I repeated the line and could make out a word or two. The Forbidden Rites, they read. Through all eternity… There was something else, but I couldn’t quite catch it in time. I was taken aback. I almost considered going back. But I couldn’t now, not after how far I was.

“‘Wishes come true in that place.’” I stopped again, a few more unsettling images flashing before my eyes. I started to sweat, then took a nervous gulp. There was only one more line.

“‘I’ve found a way to go there!’”

In a matter of seconds, my vision swirled and reduced to static. This couldn’t be right! What was going on? I couldn’t get control of my body, so there was nothing I could do but fall to the floor with a thud. However, I never felt nor heard the impact, and soon I was completely taken over by the static. Nooses and X’s flashed by my vision, and I wasn’t sure if I was really there or if it was all just a dream. I was just a consciousness floating around through a void with no body. I felt like I was falling, but I also felt stationary. It was as if I was in the balance between life and death.

The moments I was in such a state grew infinite, and it felt like an eternity before I was back in my own body. My senses still hadn’t returned completely, but I could hear someone talking through my hazy mind.

“Yes, thank you! Hello everyone!” a lady cheered, a roaring crowd greeting her presence. “I will be your host today!” My eyes flew open, hoping that they wouldn’t confirm the worst. I’ve been caught, right when I felt so close to helping Apple Bloom. I hope Emerald’s punishment is quick…

But the picture that swimmed to my vision was not that of any place I knew. It seemed like a dark void, with television screens displaying nothing but static swirling around the room. Though I heard a crowd, I couldn’t see one, so we might as well have been alone.

That brings me to the mare standing before me. She had hair and complexion that closely resembled Emerald’s. They both sported long teal hair, except that whereas Emerald had her’s tied in twintails, the mare before me had hers all down, except for some sort of bow tied loosely, so it hung down and gave her a larger presence.

Even though they seemed so similar, their outfits were wildly different. The pony before me was wearing a black dress with gold trimmings, and her hoop skirt was cut out down the front to reveal the wires underneath. I detached collar encircled her neck, and everything about her outfit screamed witchcraft. She held a golden speaker in her hoof, and a decorative sword in the other. At least, I hoped it was just for decoration…

I tried to push myself up, but when I looked down I noticed that my front hooves were held together with golden handcuffs. I instead used just my back legs to get myself standing. When I was back on all fours, the mare turned to me.

“I know it’s sudden, but allow me the pleasure of granting your wish!” She beamed.

“Wait, hold on!” I interrupted. “You don’t seem like the type to explain things, but how did I get here?”

“What a silly question! You know perfectly well how you got here!” She grinned and prepared to continue her usual speech. She would be hopeless to try and get an explanation from, so I didn’t bother argue with her any further.

“Can I at the very least know your name, then?” I shouted. She turned to me with a gleam in her eye, trying not to show how peeved she was that I kept stopping her. Nonetheless, she smiled wide and answered.

“My name is Siren! That’s all you need to know!” she replied. “I know, it’s strange isn’t it? Voodoo is clearly Hindu, and yet I have a name based on Greek mythology! Haha, isn’t that just something?” Even though she had said that I didn’t need to know more, she still seemed content with rattling on about her name after the fact. Our little conversation over, she readdressed the invisible audience.

“Everyone! You’ve been waiting, haven’t you?” I couldn’t imagine that this kind of thing happened often, so ‘waiting’ seemed to me a bit of an understatement. “The Original Sin Game, let’s give it a whirl!” The static screens briefly flashed a logo of some sort. Heavenly Prison and Time Prison, Heart Pounding Game! What was this, a game show? I shot her a look, and she continued innocently.

“The rules are simple! Every single word in the right sequence, recite them flawlessly if you will!” I started to sweat. Even if the words weren’t difficult, my nerves would probably get the better of me and I would slip up. Why was I even doing what she was telling me? Something in the back of my mind told me just to go along with it. I didn’t know where I was, so it probably was best to follow her instructions, lest I get trapped in this weird limbo state forever.

“Are you ready? Is your resolve ready? If you mess up… well, you understand right?” She talked non stop, bombarding me with a rapidfire of words. This was all going too fast! She was hardly taking time to breathe. Was this Siren girl even real? She had an otherworldly quality to her. Nonetheless, I swallowed nervously and nodded.

She got up closer to me, her face only a foot away from mine, and her voice gained a sort of demonic undertone. Her very figure seemed to become static as she spoke, her image jittering a little.

“They’re secret words after all,” she droned forebodingly, her knew voice giving the words an even more supernatural feel. As though she was sending subliminal messages into my brain, before my mind’s eye flashed not the most settling phrases. God of crossroads. Blood-colored wine of sacrifice. Voodoo goddess. My skin crawled unnervingly.

“You really…”

That wished for tranquility.

“Really…”

Death. AMeN. A punishment called eternal life.

“Really don’t want to mess this up.”

Ritual. Zombie. Punishment. Absolutely no mistakes.

She took a step back and her mental assault paused for the time being. It wasn’t pleasant feeling like someone is invading your mind and placing such unsettling things inside of it, so I was more than glad that it was over. However, I knew that the hardest part of my task was just on the horizon.

The static screens swirling around the room were finally put to good use, as they displayed the ancient words that I would be reciting. I had no idea what sort of language they were in, but what I was saying wouldn’t matter as long as I could keep Apple Bloom safe. That was the biggest thing on my mind the whole time.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru,” she chanted, her tone robotic. Suddenly the spotlight that I hadn’t even noticed was there turned to me, and in a panic I realized that I had to repeat her words.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru,” I recited, concentrating all of my willpower to recall exactly how they were pronounced.

“Confess to all of your sins,” Siren droned in the same voice. If I had to guess, I would have inferred that she had been taken over by some sort of voodoo spirit at this point. I clenched my fists and hoped this ritual wouldn’t do the same to me.

“I haven’t committed any!” I replied, breaking out in a cold sweat. She seemed to be satisfied with my answer, because she continued.

“As Lady Marie Laveau, one of the greatest practitioners of voodoo, commands, you must come up with one single answer!” With great surprise, I realized that now was the moment this whole preamble had been leading up to. I repeated the lines of magic words to the best of my ability, keeping my pronunciation as precise as possible.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru. Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru. Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru…” The screens also counted how many times I had chanted the lines of text, but I had little idea how many times was necessary before the ritual was complete. Sometimes ‘Boost!’ would come up, and I’d have to recite everything faster and faster. Would it eventually get so fast that I would have no choice but to slip up? Was this ritual even humanly possible?

As the number of times I had spoken droned on and on, my thoughts started to wander, and then I’d have to snap back to reality before I carelessly messed something up. Then again, could I even call this reality? I wasn’t sure if this was just a dream, or if I had really been teleported by some sort of supernatural means to this unknown location.

After about five minutes of repeating the same line over and over, Siren started to invade my mind again with disturbing words, but I had no choice but to ignore them and press forward. Why was she even doing this? Was it part of the ritual, or was she just tormenting me? So many questions swam in my head, but I knew that when tampering with this sort of magic, it was better to leave those questions unanswered.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

Zombie. Punishment.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

Absolute love and submission.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

Divinity of love, Erzulie.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

Pleasure. Bondage. Mind-blowing power.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

Kind-hearted. Extreme jealousy.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

A treacherous love ritual cannot be forgiven.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

A chaos of Black and White. The end of resistance. What is being waited for, an untimely death.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

The Path to Eternal Happiness… I found it.

The assault of visuals increased as I went on, but finally the reciting counter hit one thousand and I was ordered to stop. I collapsed to the ground in a huff. The ritual was finally over, and nothing had went wrong! I was so relieved, I just wanted to go to sleep I was so exhausted. Siren wasn’t quite done with me yet, though.

“Well you’re certainly different, aren’t you?” she asked light heartedly. I would have shot her a stern look, but I knew that she probably had the power to curse me if she wanted to.

“What do you mean?” I replied instead.

“Why, almost everyone who’s ever come here has wished for immortality! But no, you just wanted to protect your little sister. How sweet!” She laughed and waved her hoof a little in her hysterics.

“Is that what all of that stuff about zombies and eternal life was about?” I asked, my voice quivering a little. If her interpretation of eternal life was making someone a zombie, then what had I just done…?

“Mhmm!”

“How did you know what my wish was, though? I never said that I had wanted none of Apple Bloom’s loved ones to fall under that curse for as long as she lives…”

“Ah, I’d love to stay and chat, but I should send you back before your consciousness completely tears from your body. Wouldn’t want all your efforts to go to waste, would we? Ta-ta!” Before I could object, I was again plummeted into limbo, with similar images as before. Bloodstains filled my vision, but the process of getting back into my body seemed to take a lot less time than getting out of it.

I snapped back to the real world, and found myself not in the library as I had been, but instead tucked into my bed. I wrote it off as the black magic, too tired to question it further. According to my clock, it was already evening. Was I really there that long?

Finding no reason to get up, I decided to fall back asleep for the night. Tomorrow I would confront my friends, and they would understand. I was prepared for an onslaught of questions, but they would see things from my point of view eventually.

I sighed and closed my eyes, falling into a dreamless sleep.

Chapter 6: Be Careful What You Wish For

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 6: Be Careful What You Wish For

“This meeting of the Rebellion Bureau will hereby come to ord——”

“What the hell were you thinking, Applejack?!” Rainbow shouted, her face red with anger. She slammed her hooves down on the table and stood over the blonde earth pony, appearing as if she was ready to pounce on her at a moment’s notice. Applejack sat calmly in her chair.

“I don’t know what you mean——”

“Like hell you don’t know what I mean!”

“C’mon you guys, there’s a little filly standing a few feet away from you…” Twilight pointed out. Rainbow glared at Applejack, but sat back down reluctantly. Twilight smiled.

“This doesn’t mean we aren’t still extremely upset with you,” Rarity brought up. “We’re simply resorting to a more civilized form of argument. There’s no need for such barbaric language, after all.” Rainbow shot Rarity a dirty look, then slumped down in her chair.

“Alright you guys, it’s not a big deal, really——”

“We agreed to never go there unless we had ran bone dry on options! What were you thinking?” Twilight cried.

“That black magic is dangerous, you know! Do you even know how fond voodoo practitioners are of loopholes?” Rarity added.

“What if you got hurt? I still wanna be super best friends with you!” Pinkie chimed in.

“Please! Please! Just let me explain!” Applejack shouted. Everyone quieted down, their faces tense and their minds bursting with things to say. Applejack took a deep breath.

“You received the letter I had Apple Bloom give to you all, right?” she asked. Apple Bloom perked up to the mention of her name. “I’m pretty sure that explained the main question, so why are we all still wondering about it?”

“Because it makes no sense!” Twilight cried. “Why would you go against everything that we have said just so you can make a wish for your little sister? It sounds mean when I say it like this, but the stakes were far too high for you to risk something like that! Heck, we still don’t know if you’ve come away from that experience a winner! How do we know something horrible hasn’t happened to you?”

“Oh Twilight,” Applejack sighed heavily, “I knew that you out of all of us wouldn’t understand. Your brain is too technical and calculating. You have to understand at some point that if you don’t take into account the way that people think, and how their virtues play into their decisions, then the rug is going to be pulled out from under you.
“It’s no secret that the one thing I care about above everything else is my family. I just learned that my little sister is still alive, in the mental sense. Do you think that I’m going to let her be torn away from me again? I needed to do everything in my power to protect her, even if it meant going behind you guys’ backs.” Applejack laid back in her chair to let the information sink in a little, when she felt a tug at the end of her mane. She turned and saw Apple Bloom looking up at her with big eyes.

“So you’re saying that the whole reason you disobeyed your friends and did something extremely dangerous like that was all for me?” she asked.

“Of course, Apple Bloom. You mean the world to me.” Applejack ruffled Apple Bloom’s mane affectionately. Apple Bloom seemed to zone out, lost in thought.

“Nevermind that,” Pinkie piped up, “how did you get out of the city? The only door through is in The Committee’s headquarters. You couldn’t have possibly snuck in there and back and stayed in one piece!”

“Yeah, and how did you know where to go once you figured out a way out?” Aquamarine added. Applejack shifted forward in her chair.

“Well,” she started, pondering where to begin. “I’ll spare you all the details, but I went into that library that Aquamarine and Twilight talked about a few weeks back and where The Path to Eternal Happiness originally came up. I found an envelope, which was unopened for whatever strange reason, and inside was some sort of spell or something. I read the sentences out loud, and the next thing I knew, I was in some sort of alternate dimension. So, in a way, I never left town at all. I know it wasn’t a dream, though, because it was far too vivid.”

“Well…” Rainbow tried to think of some sort of comeback, something else to prove that whatever Applejack did was wrong. “Are you positive that you didn’t screw anything up? Did the ritual go exactly as it was supposed to?”

“I swear on my life that nothing bad is going to come of this, and if anything bad does happen, it won’t be anything to worry about,” Applejack assured, making an X over her heart.

“Alright then, I suppose it’s fine. I mean, I’ve already been bitten in the butt over denying one of my friends something that they wanted, and I definitely don’t want to do something stupid like that again…”

“Wait,” Twilight interjected. “We can’t write this off as fine yet. What exactly did you wish for? Word for word?”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Applejack replied, rubbing the back of her neck a little. “I never directly told her what it was that I was wishing for, but she still knew what it was. Is there a way for her to find a loophole in words that I never said?” The group pondered the possibility, but ultimately none of them could come up with any sort of explanation.

“I guess if we don’t know for sure, and if there’s no way to figure it out, we should put it aside for now…” Twilight sighed. She hated not being able to figure out no matter how much she tried. Not being able to figure out a method of rebellion was really driving her nuts.

“So, nothing else is really up for discussion right now, huh?” Pinkie asked. Everyone exchanged glances, then shook their heads.

“Hold on, there is one thing I need to say,” Aquamarine interjected. “Lately all of these meetings have been focused on nothing but our friends. Shouldn’t we be investigating more? I feel like we’re on the verge of something, but I’m the only one that actually takes time to investigate. While there is a time for grieving, there is also a time when we need to learn to move on.”

“I suppose you’re right…” Twilight mumbled. “Moping all of the time isn’t going to get us anywhere, will it? I’m sure Fluttershy would much rather we find a way to figure everything out as opposed to crying over our loss.”

“So is that everything?” Applejack inquired. Twilight nodded.

“This meeting of the Rebellion Bureau is hereby dismissed.” The group of friends pushed in their chairs and left the building, taking no notice to the sparkling tears running down the little filly’s face as they filed out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aquamarine slipped from street corner to street corner, keeping herself as inconspicuous as possible. If nobody else was going to investigate, then she would just have to do it on her own. She needed to find a lead somewhere, but so far none of the places she deducted there would be clues proved fruitful.

She turned a corner. At least she tried to, but she was pulled back by her tail. She figured it had just been caught on something, but then she felt something alive against her skin. She broke into a cold sweat. Her time had finally come. She spun around to confirm her fears.

“My God, Twilight, you scared the life out of me!” Aquamarine scolded.

“Sorry,” Twilight apologized, laughing a little. “You were right, though, we really should be taking this whole investigation thing more seriously. I don’t know why I wasn’t, I feel like normally I would’ve jumped at any opportunity to learn, but for some reason I just don’t have that passion anymore…”

“Well, at least you’re helping, right?” Aquamarine affirmed. Twilight nodded.

“So where are we headed?” she asked.

“To be completely honest? I have no idea.”

“The library?”

“I’ve checked every single square inch of that room. If there’s anything else there of interest, I would’ve found it.” The two pondered their next course of action, weighing both how likely a location would help them find something and how likely it would be that they would get caught. In most cases if one of the things were true, the other one was also. Twilight sighed. Now she knew why Aquamarine was so frustrated that nobody was helping.

“Well, do you think we could——gyah!” Twilight was cut off when she tripped over a loose stone on the ground mid sentence. She flailed, then grabbed onto a nearby building wall for support. The brick that she grabbed hold of slide right out of the wall, failing to catch her fall, so she fell face-first on the pavement. “...Ouch.”

Aquamarine didn’t respond, instead studying the wall intently. Twilight stood back up and dusted herself off, using a little spark of magic to keep the blood in her nose at bay.

“Not even an ‘are you ok’?” she asked. She stopped when she noticed the whole in the wall. “Hey, what’s that?”

“It’s the hole that the brick fell out of. I’m not positive, but I think there might be something in it of importance.” Aquamarine studied the gap in the wall a bit longer.

“Are you kidding? That’s awesome!” Twilight cried in excitement. She slapped a hoof over her mouth. She didn’t need to be caught now over something like being too loud.

“...False alarm. It’s nothing,” Aquamarine confirmed, sweeping her sapphire blue hair out of her eyes. Twilight’s shoulders drooped.

“Well, in that case, we should probably put this brick back in,” she suggested. She kneeled down and picked up the brick, but it seemed a bit lighter than a brick should be. She peered down at it, and noticed that it was hollowed out. She turned the opening to her other hoof and shook it a little, and into her palm fell a little key.

“What do you suppose it could be for?” she asked, her eyes filled with wonder at their discovery. Aquamarine bent down to get a better look.

“I’m not entirely sure…” she replied.

“Maybe it goes to one of those little lock boxes? It’s really overly intricate, and usually that’s how those kind of keys are,” Twilight inferred. Aquamarine nodded, then stood back up.

“Should we go try and figure out what it could go to?” she asked, helping Twilight back up.

“It’s getting kinda dark. I think we’ve done well enough that we can call it a night…” The two said their farewells and went back to their assigned homes, perhaps one step closer to solving the puzzle.

Chapter 7: Because You Just Might Get It

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 7: Because You Just Might Get It

“C’mon Apple Bloom, it’s time to get up,” Applejack said, rousing Apple Bloom from her slumber. The little filly got up with a yawn.

“What time is it?” she asked wearily, rubbing the sleep out of one of her eyes.

“The speech starts in half an hour, if that’s what you’re asking.” Applejack ran a brush through her mane, and Apple Bloom tied her pink bow to her head. They finished getting ready, had a bit of fun making faces in the mirror for a minute or two, then left the house. The rest of their family was still asleep, waiting to be awoken by the television urging them to attend the speech. The two wanted a head start, though, so they could still be themselves without any hypnotized family members reporting them to The Committee.

They waited until the recorded message of Emerald Joy prompted them, and then left their house. They walked side by side, but didn’t display too much sisterly affection, since there was a strict rule on public displays of affection. In fact, there was a strict rule about any display of affection. Otherwise ponies might feel lonely or left out, which was a really ridiculous notion. If everyone was brainwashed, what was the need for that kind of thing?

The duo wordlessly made it to the town square, which was already tightly packed even though they had gotten a head start. Applejack cleared a path through the crowd for Apple Bloom to follow, but when she turned around her little sister was nowhere to be found. She went into a silent panic, but knew that she couldn’t shout for Apple Bloom to get back to her side. She would just have to wait until the speech was over to relocate her, since there was hardly enough room to move.

She sighed, still keeping up her fake smile, and surveyed the crowd for her friends. None of them seemed to be in sight, and Emerald was just walking out on stage, so Applejack decided to turn her attention to the boring daily speech. Unsettling maybe, but after all this time it was boring.

“Here I am!” she announced, the crowd roaring as she made her grand appearance. She was dragging something along with her, but Applejack was too far back to make out what it was. “Allow me to skip the theatrics just for today, please! We’ve got a reeeeally big doozy here!” Applejack twitched. What could she mean by a doozy?

A similar thought ran through Twilight’s mind. Maybe the town was under attack? Maybe the other countries caught wind of the goings on and was deciding to help! For a moment her smile was genuine, and then Emerald raised her arm.

“This rotten little one came up to me just now. I hadn’t even had anything like this planned for today! Here I thought I was able to spend another blissful day with all of you, and then this little girl came up to me and started complaining! ‘Oh, it’s all your fault that my big sister betrayed her friends! How could you? How could you?’ I mean, if you’re going to confide your last words with me, at least make your last words make sense!” A ripple of shocking realization washed over the six mares that had evaded the happiness spell.

“And so, I present to you, this little filly named Apple Bloom!” Emerald announced. The brainwashed citizens were ecstatic as always as the unknown object that Emerald Joy had been dragging around revealed itself to be the perky redhead pony with a pink bow in her mane. Tears and snot streaked her face as she wept bitterly in front of the audience.

“I see that she really isn’t in the mood for talking right now, so let’s get right down to business! Everyone, you’ve been waiting, haven’t you?” Emerald cheered,eliciting an outcry of excitement from the citizens. Apple Bloom cried louder, squeezing her eyelids shut. Applejack was too shell shocked to question the familiarity of the phrase, but somewhere in the back of her mind she realized that she had heard it before.

Emerald Joy made a flourishing turn towards the little girl, putting a black gloved hoof under Apple Bloom’s chin and lifting her face upward. She studied her face for a moment, then stepped back.

“You’ve been involved with black magic lately, haven’t you? Everyone! Here it is: our very first witch!” she announced. Apple Bloom recoiled.

“A witch? I’m not a witch!” she replied.

“Of course you are! Now, should we burn you at the stake?” The crowd agreed, chanting ‘burn her, burn her!’ Apple Bloom was devastated.

“I’m telling you, I’m not a witch!” she shouted. Emerald gave her a cold stare.

“I’ll prove it to you, then! I’m going to need my personal consultant… Rarity! Would you be a dear and come on out?” Rarity stopped cold at the mention of her name. She was backstage, since she had been doing Emerald’s daily makeup, so she never needed to attend the speeches. It was jarring hearing her name called out before all of the citizens. She hesitated, but then slowly rose from her chair and walked onto the stage.

“What do you need, Emerald Joy?” she asked, trying to keep her eyes from drifting towards Apple Bloom’s grief-stricken face.

“Tell me, Rarity, what do you do when you find a witch?” Emerald asked, glancing indifferently at her hooficure for a moment.

“Erm… you burn them?” Rarity guessed.

“Correct! And what do you also burn along with the witch?”

“Wood?”

“Right again! So why do you think witches burn?”

“Uh… I—I’m not sure…” Rarity answered truthfully. She would have just said that it made no difference whether someone was a witch or not, because they would die anyway, but this was Emerald Joy she was talking to, so she kept her mouth shut.

“You’ve been good up until this point, so let me give you the answer! Witches burn like wood because they themselves are made out of wood! So how do we tell if she’s made of wood or not?”

“Eh… build a house out of her?” Rarity guessed. Emerald was messed up in the brain, so Rarity countered her with an equally messed up answer. Apple Bloom’s face turned to that of desperation. They were going to saw her apart and make her into a building?

“But can’t you also make a house out of brick or stone or metal or hay?” Emerald responded.

“O—oh, r—right…”

“Tell me this: Does wood sink in water?”

“No, I suppose not…”

“So there’s only one way to tell if Apple Bloom is made of wood or not! Stick her in a vat of water! If she floats, she is indeed a witch, and we shall burn her at the stake! But if she sinks to the bottom and drowns, we’ve made quite a horrible mistake haven’t we?”

Before Apple Bloom knew it, she was pushed off of the platform that was quite a few stories above the ground. She fell, but had no energy to scream. She saw nothing but pavement below her. What happened to the water idea?

Right before she would have impacted and became nothing more but a bloody stain on the ground, the cement cracked and opened to reveal a large pool of water. She made a humongous splash on impact, and she was going so fast that it left a red mark on her.

“Don’t worry!” Emerald called. “Normally there are sharks and electric eels and piranhas in there, but I’ve cleaned them out for our little experiment. I mean, I’m pretty sure I got most of them…” Apple Bloom’s face turned blue with fear, and tried her best to keep afloat. She knew that the best way would be to spread out her limbs and keep still, but then she would definitely be burned at the stake. At least with this she might be able to hold her breath long enough to both live and make it through this inhuman experiment.
However, even though she was an earth pony, she hadn’t yet honed her skills enough to save herself. She also lacked the muscles that her big sister had, and her energy was lacking from the pressure of the situation. She flailed about wildly, trying desperately to keep from falling into the water’s depths.

She started feeling her body get heavier and heavier, and soon was struggling to keep her head above the water. With her last ounce of strength she propelled herself upward a little, caught a good amount of breath in her lungs, then went limp. The cold water pulled her in, and she snapped her eyes shut to avoid stinging them. She curled herself into a ball so she would sink over and get this over with. She felt that maybe, if she could live through this experiment long enough, she would be able to live and go back to her family. To see her sister one last time.

Why had she gone up to Emerald? Did she really think that something good would come out of it? She couldn’t ponder it now, her mind was getting foggy. Maybe she should’ve just kept her mouth shut.

No, this was no time for regrets. She clung on to the last bit of breath that was still in her lungs. She could feel herself blacking out. Maybe she could look into the crowd and see Applejack again. Maybe she could say that she was sorry. She opened her eyes wearily and surveyed the crowd before her, black spots forming in her field of vision. Soon it was too hard to see. Her eyes hurt, so she stopped looking. Or maybe it was the black spots that had been growing bigger and bigger. She didn’t want to think too hard. Her mind was hurting and her eyes were hurting and her heart was hurting and her lungs were hurting.

She released her final breath, unable to sap any more resources from it. Her mind shut down, and she felt herself go limp. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t think.

She didn’t catch a final glimpse of her sister.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack couldn’t believe the event that was unfolding before her. There was her sister, who she had just gone on a potentially life-threatening journey to save, struggling to breathe in a giant fish tank in front of a countless amount of spectators. It had all been brought upon by the words of Emerald Joy and her own friend Rarity. She felt like blaming the purple haired unicorn who she had been friends with for so long, but now was not the time to be pointing fingers. Now was the time to experience the horrors unfolding before her, without any mental distractions.

She watched as the filly sunk to the bottom. She could tell that she was still alive, but she could tell that she wouldn’t be for long. Applejack wanted to shout, to dive in and save her, but she knew that attempting anything like that would be far too reckless. She clenched her teeth so hard that her gums started to bleed from the pressure. Blood seeped through her mouth and dropped onto the pavement, but she didn’t care.

She turned to leave as soon as possible. She didn’t want to watch her sister die, the one she had fought so much to keep alive. She pushed her way out of the front of the crowd, borderline running back home. She should have met up with her friends for comfort, but right now all she wanted was to be alone.

She made it back home, and her house was empty. Her family would be back soon, since the speech was almost done when she had left. Once she was sure she was alone, Applejack kicked a nearby trash can against the wall with an aggravated yell. Did the universe really have the nerve to send her on such a difficult quest and then yank away her prize? She slammed her hooves against a table. Her sister was gone, her sister was gone…!

She felt her hooves get wet. It wasn’t the warm and thick kind of wet that the blood felt like, but the thin and fragile wet that her tears felt like. She wanted to fling herself to the floor and cry bitterly, but she didn’t want to be found like that when everyone got home. Instead she flung herself upstairs, slammed her bedroom door shut, and collapsed on her bed. What had she done to deserve this?

She pushed her face into her pillow, not sure whether to cry or to scream. She dug her teeth into the fabric of the cover and let out a muffled shout, a damp spot already forming on it from her tears. She allowed herself to toss about in a fit of sadness and rage and grief all at once. Overwhelmed with emotions, Applejack burst out crying at any little provocation by her mind.

After a few minutes she felt stable enough to stand back up and walk to her mirror to cover up any signs of crying before the rest of the occupants of the house got back. That was all she thought of them as at that point, just other occupants of her house. The only true family she had was just ripped right from her. Her attempts to hide any signs of crying went to waste as an invisible dam behind her eyes broke forth again. No, she needed to calm down, to get a hold of herself.

“Maybe if I talk to myself and reason through everything I’ll feel a bit better,” she whispered quiet enough that only she could hear. The only problem was that she had no idea what she could say to herself that would make her feel any better, so she just decided to let her brain run loose and say whatever came to mind.

“Hey, hey,” she said, her subconscious taking hold, “do you know about it, I wonder? The paradise to the south, a city of despair.” Her eyes widened, yet she couldn’t stop talking. It felt like some sort of alien force was violating her brain and forcing her to continue.

“Wishes come true in that place, and I’ve found a way to go there!” She squeezed her eyes shut. The out-of-body feeling took over her again, static creeping into and quickly overtaking her vision. Her knees locked and she fell over, but her consciousness was already too far away to feel the impact.

She was met with the familiar yet still unnerving imagery of nooses and other obscure images that made her skin crawl. The Forbidden Rights. Through all eternity, immortality.

“Yes, thank you! Hello everyone! I will be your host today!”

Applejack felt herself come back to her senses a little, and it was just as she had feared. There she was in the black void, hooves cuffed, static screens swirling around her, and a deranged witch addressing a crowd that might as well be nonexistent. Siren prepared herself to continue her normal speech, but stopped suddenly.

“Huh? Isn’t it you again?” she asked, eying Applejack. “Did you cut your hair? You didn’t?” She gave absolutely no time to breathe, much less let Applejack answer. Her face dropped its characteristic grin for a moment. “Oh, I see.”

“W—what is this?” Applejack asked breathlessly. Siren either ignored her, or at least didn’t hear.

“Everyone, you’ve been waiting, haven’t you? The Game of Guilt, let’s give it a whirl!” The screens flashed the logo again, which Applejack had hope she would ever see another time in her life. Heavenly Prison and Time Prison. Heart Pounding Game.

Siren already skipped to the theatrics, Applejack’s mind filling with more alien phrases. Zombie. Punishment. Failure. Absolutely no mistakes.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.” At least the words were the same. If she did it once, she could do it again.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru,” Applejack repeated, a confident smile on her face.

“Confess to your sins,” Siren ordered.

“I have committed sin,” Applejack replied. She clamped her hooves over her mouth. What was she saying? Was her subconscious speaking for her now? No, she hadn’t done anything wrong… right? Nonetheless, Siren continued.

“As Lady Marie Laveau, one of the greatest practitioners of voodoo, commands, you must come up with one single answer!” Applejack took a deep breath, then began the ritual.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

The last resistance. Those who wait will surely die.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

Zombie. Punishment. Eternal love and obedience.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

Death. AmEN. The punishment called immortality.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

The Path to Eternal Happiness… I found it.

Eventually the counter hit 1000, but it kept going. Applejack started to sweat. What was going on? More importantly, why was she even doing this? Why was she here? She wasn’t wishing for anything, so what could this ritual possibly be for?
She continued on, and the counter eventually broke 2000. Then 3000. Was she ever going to stop?

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

Eternal Happiness.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

Zombie. Death. AmEN.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

Peace.

“Regubaru kuriyan. Zandasuatibon. Regatoruaruban. Zandoraimouru.”

The Path to Eternal Happiness… I found it.

Finally, after repeating the same phrase 5000 times to seemingly no end, the counter maxed out and Siren prompted her to stop.

“You did it! Congratulations!” Siren cheered.

“Did what?” Applejack inquired.

“Why, you fulfilled your ritual, of course! You thought, and I quote: ‘For as long as she lives, may none of Apple Bloom’s loved ones go under that spell.’ And, uh, last I checked…” She paused and looked to her wrist, eying an invisible wristwatch. “She died about half an hour ago! We’re overdue!”

“Wait, you don’t mean…” Applejack replied hoarsely. She swallowed, her heart beating rapidly.

“Of course! Congratulations!” Siren answered innocently. Applejack fell to the ground in shock, her vision going hazy. Her very consciousness seemed to be reducing to static. This couldn’t be right? What was happening?!

She struggled to get to her feet, to run away, to get as far away from this place as possible. She cried out and fell limply on the floor. She tried to think, to figure out some way out of this, but it was either by black magic or just her massive hysteria that she couldn’t come up with anything. It was like her own memories were being burned before her. The very virtues and basic knowledge she held close to her heart became difficult to recall. She reached out desperately, groping at the air as if to catch everything that was leaving her mind.

Peace. Eternal Happiness.

Her subconscious even felt wiped clean, and her thoughts became one dimensional. All negativity was swept from her being, alleviating even her fear for the situation. She stopped hyperventilating. What was there left to worry about? She was in no sort of danger. She was just getting some positive vibes! That was all!

Her name was Applejack. She lived happily in a city, ruled over the benevolent Emerald Joy without a care in the world! Of course, that was always how it had been! What was she fretting about? Everything was fine!

The Path to Eternal Happiness… I found it.

“You did it! Congratulations! From today onwards, a zombie!”

Chapter 8: Two's A Crowd

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 8: Two’s A Crowd

“Twilight!” Pinkie shouted, pounding on her friend’s door as if her life depended on it. “Twilight! You need to open up! I’m serious!”

“I’m coming Pinkie, calm down!” she cried from inside her house. She half-heartedly opened the door. “What is it?”

“It’s Applejack! I went to her house after the speech yesterday to see if she was alright, and she was passed out on her floor! Then, when I turned to leave and she woke up, she was… different.” Pinkie’s face hardened.

“W—what do you mean?” Twilight stammered, furrowing her brow.

“I mean, she was smiling like crazy, and she just kept talking about happiness! Twilight, I think…” Pinkie choked on her last word, unable to bring herself to say it.

“I get it,” Twilight assured, her face frozen in shock. “Get the others, I think this calls for an emergency meeting.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It’s about Applejack, isn’t it?” Rainbow inferred. “Even besides the obvious fact that she isn’t here right now, I could just tell that something was off with that whole voodoo black magic thing.”

“Erm, I’m afraid you’re right about it being about Applejack, Rainbow,” Twilight confirmed. She raised her voice to be heard by the whole group. “Everyone! I want to make one thing clear: Applejack is not dead. Well, in a way she is, but she’s still technically alive…”

“What does that even mean?” Rainbow retorted.

“I mean, she’s physically still moving, but she’s not all mentally here,” Twilight explained.

“Ugh, now I think we’re even more confused…” Aquamarine sighed.

“What she’s trying to say,” Pinkie cut in, “is that Applejack, after seeing Apple Bloom get executed in front of everybody in the whole entire city, is now cursed with the happiness spell!” She was met with silence from everyone.

“Erm… come again, please?” Rarity asked.

“Sure! But I’m not sure why you’d want to hear it twice,” Pinkie replied. “Applejack is happy-fied. She’s no longer part of the Rebellion Bureau. She’s one of them now.”

“What in the world could have caused something like that to happen?” Rarity inquired, standing up from her chair in a mixture of shock and confusion.

“Personally, I think it had something to do with her following The Path to Eternal Happiness, and I’m still not even completely sure what that is,” Twilight said. “I mean, we all know that there is a voodoo practitioner there who granted her wish, and that those who do black magic have a way with finding and taking advantages of loopholes. The question is, what kind of loophole could it have been?”

“But there’s a flaw in that string of logic, Twilight,” Aquamarine interjected. “She said herself that she never explicitly said out loud what her wish was, so there’s no way that her wish could have been misinterpreted.”

“Ah, but that’s another perk of doing black magic, you have the power to invade someone’s mind. You can plant thoughts in there, both subtly through dreams and outright while they’re awake. There aren’t really any boundaries when it comes to that kind of thing, which is why it’s called black magic in the first place.”

“Just for the sake of comprehension, are you suggesting that she just hacked into Applejack’s mind and saw what it was that she was wishing for?” Rarity asked. “That’s awfully uncouth of someone. Then again, dabbling in the black arts is uncouth in and of itself, so it’s no surprise that such a devilish pony would do something like that.” The others waved off her complaining through a short silence.

“I think it’s safe to say that we know how she got there, too. The same way as last time, right? She just said some stuff and poof! There she was!” Pinkie continued.

“But that’s the problem,” Twilight said. “Why would she go back? She had nothing left to wish for, so what was the point?”

“Didn’t you say that that witch chick could mess with ponies’ minds and stuff?” Rainbow spoke up. “Couldn’t she have, like, forced Applejack to say that stuff so that she would be brought to the weird voodoo place?”

“It’s not out of the realm of possibility…” Twilight pondered. She was silent for a few moments. “Yes, I think that’s the most probable explanation.”

“But back to what we were talking about earlier,” Aquamarine cut in. “What caused her to get brainwashed? I mean, I know that it was something to do with that voodoo black magic business, but what about it specifically? That is the most important question right now, after all…”

“Actually, the most important question right now is how we’re going to function as a group without our strongest member,” Twilight corrected.

“Hey, you got me on your side. I think we’ll be just fine,” Rainbow replied. Twilight rolled her eyes.

“But you’re right Aquamarine, we really should be wondering what prompted her brainwashing,” she agreed. She brushed a few strands of her purple hair out of her face, then surveyed the room with her violet colored eyes. “Any ideas? Anyone?” The room took on a thoughtful silence.

“Do you think,” Pinkie piped up, “that maybe she said what it was at some point? Did she ever tell us what the wish was?”

“Wasn’t it something along the lines of ‘I hope that Apple Bloom, for as long as she lives, never loses a loved one to that curse’? It’s probably not word for word, but that was the general idea,” Rarity said. Twilight gasped.

“There’s the loophole right there,” she pointed out. “She said that for as long as Apple Bloom lives may she never lose another loved one to the curse. But Apple Bloom died, so she lost her loved ones to the curse, and her only loved one that still hadn’t succumbed to the happiness spell just so happened to be Applejack.”

“I don’t know, I might have remembered wrong. She might have said something different,” Rarity suggested, but Twilight shook her head.

“That is the only possible reason. It just makes too much sense to be a false alarm,” Twilight reasoned. Aquamarine nodded in agreement.

“Whoever fulfilled her wish probably could have just sent her under the happiness spell at any time, but it was much more theatric to force her back and make her perform another ritual. It would be the kind of thing that would really make it seem like it was her fault that she was put under the spell,” Aquamarine added. “If you’re going to ruin someone’s life like that, you might as well make it fun for yourself.”

“Well, that certainly clears up the mystery about how and why she was brainwashed,” Rainbow said, “but what do we do now? We’ve lost two ponies in such a short time span, and that’s two too many!”

“That is a bit of a problem…” Aquamarine admitted.

“A bit of a problem? That’s a super duper humongous problem!” Pinkie retorted. “Now if we need someone super strong to move something for us, we’re fresh out of luck! And she was such a good friend and emotional support for all of us, so now we might break apart or something! I don’t wanna break apart!” Pinkie pouted.

“Calm down, we’re going to be fine,” Twilight insisted. “Magic will probably be able to mostly make up for our loss of her strength, but as for the psychological repercussions…” She paused. “Well, we were going to have to learn to fend for ourselves at some point, and now more than ever.”

“I’m scared you guys…” Pinkie whispered, shuddering. “I’m really, really scared…” Rarity patted the pink haired earth pony on the back comfortingly.

“We’ll be fine, Pinkie,” she ensured soothingly. “We just have to be even more careful how we handle ourselves.” Pinkie sniffled a little.

“Alright…” she replied. “I just want all of this over, though! When will we get to be free again?”

“Which very conveniently brings me to my next point,” Twilight continued. “We’ve kind of been slacking in the investigative department lately, and if we don’t figure a way out of this mess soon, the more likely we’re going to lose more of our friends. I’m not saying that someone else is definitely going to die, but we have to keep in mind that there’s always a chance of it happening.”

“So what are you saying?” Rainbow asked. “Are we supposed to go investigate right now, or are you just talking about in general?”

“Well, I was kind of hoping that some of you might want to join Aquamarine and me and go figure out what this key that we found is for.” Twilight retrieved the little silver key that she had brought with her.

“Ooh! Ooh! I’ll go with you!” Pinkie said, her eyes wide. She jabbed her arm high in the air and waved her hoof around excitedly. “Pick me! Pick me!”

“A—alright,” Twilight agreed, stammering through her laughter. “Calm down a little! You’re going to need to save your energy, you know!” Pinkie immediately froze, hardly even breathing.

“Sure thing, Twilight,” she replied. Twilight laughed a little again, then grabbed the only remaining earth pony’s hoof.

“Come on, Pinkie. You too, Aquamarine,” she urged. “Alright then, this meeting of the Rebellion Bureau is hereby dismissed.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So where do you suppose we look first?” Pinkie asked, kicking a few stray rocks on the pavement. “How about that library place?”

“As I said before, I already checked every square inch of that room. There’s no way that there can be something more,” Aquamarine replied. Twilight raised her eyebrow.

“Oh? Well there’s no harm in being sure, right?” she countered. Aquamarine blew some hairs out of her face indifferently.

“Well, if you feel like wasting some more time, then I’m all for it,” she answered sarcastically.

“Great, then let’s go!” Pinkie cheered, skipping in the direction of their destination with Twilight running to catch up. Aquamarine rolled her eyes and trudged along after them.

The group made their way through the hole and climbed down into the sewer. Pinkie stopped to take in the sights, as it was her first time being down there.

“...Did you investigate this tunnel?” she asked suddenly, catching the two unicorns off guard.

“I suppose not, but it’s just a tunnel, isn’t it?” Aquamarine answered.

“What happened to getting serious about investigating?” Pinkie replied, peering closely at the stone walls, jiggling all of the rocks to see if they had any alternative purpose. “Besides, we don’t really have a deadline to figure this stuff out, right? It doesn’t matter if this ends up being a huge waste of time!” Aquamarine couldn’t think of a good response, so she just scoffed and turned to the wall to do the same, with Twilight following suit.

“Maybe a bit of light might help out,” Twilight offered, answering the question that was burning in the others’ heads. She swirled her horn around a bit, little wisps of magic flowing out to form a floating blue orb of light in the air. The light danced off of the stone walls, casting shadows every which way.

The group was taken aback with a gasp when patterns began to emerge in the shadows. The way that the rocks were cut made it so that when the light hit them the image of six circles connecting together formed in the shadows. Twilight reached out and rested a hoof on one of the orbs, and the stones located there were pushed into the wall. She jerked her hoof back. Cautiously, she did the same for the other five. When they were all concave, the point where they all connected began to glow a brilliant shade of violet. She reached out a cautious hoof, and the moment the two made contact, the whole wall seemed to twist, and out popped a little drawer.

Twilight inspected the compartment, but found that it had to be unlocked with a key before she could retrieve the contents. She fetched the little silver key she had found earlier and stuck it in the lock, then twisted. It made a small clicking noise, then opened.

She peered into it and inside rested a leatherbound book. She gingerly picked it up and dusted off the cover. There were no words on it, just a picture of six jewels inlaid with gold. Slowly opening the book, taking special care to not rip the aged pages, she flipped to the first page. It spoke of the Elements of Harmony, the source of all of the world’s magic.

“But the actual stones are currently embedded in Emerald Joy’s throne room. Of what help could this information be to us?” Aquamarine inquired. Twilight flipped through a few more pages.

“Don’t be so quick to write it off,” she responded. “You never know what unlikely places we might get help from.”

“So what does it say?” Pinkie asked, peering over Twilight’s shoulder.

“Well, basically…” Twilight answered, leafing through the ancient tome a bit more. “The Elements of Harmony all represent the six basic foundations for the strongest form of magic, which is harmony, if you hadn’t guessed. One is for honesty, one for laughter, and one for loyalty. There’s also one for generosity, kindness, and the strongest one, magic. Of course, the last one mostly just serves as a focusing point for all of the other stones, but when the rest are present, the Element of Magic is quite a force to be reckoned with.”

“How do they work, though?” Aquamarine asked, also now intrigued.

“Actually, maybe it won’t be of much help…” Twilight sighed, reading further. “It says here that it needs six bearers that represent the themes of each of the Elements to be able to work. And since there’s only the five of us…” They heaved a collective sigh, then Twilight shut the book.

“It was worth a shot,” Pinkie offered. “Who knows? Maybe it will help eventually.”

“Doubt it,” Aquamarine said. “You heard her, there needs to be six bearers. But on the bright side, that also means that Emerald can’t use them either, since any Committee members she may have previously had overstepped their boundaries at some point and were executed.”

“Should we head back then?” Twilight asked, tucking the old volume into her saddlebag. Aquamarine nodded, and after extinguishing the orb of light, they exited the underground sewer and returned to their respective homes.

Twilight entered her bedroom, setting the dusty leatherbound book on her nightstand. Perhaps she would have more time later to read it, but time had slipped away so quickly that it was already time for bed. She changed into her nightgown and brushed her purple hair out, going through the daily routine of getting ready for bed.

She slipped under her covers and switched her lamp off, taking a moment to rest her hoof on their new discovery. It really was remarkable that they had found it.

She was too weary to notice her horn glow violet as she brushed her hoof by the ancient tome, rolling over to fall asleep.

Chapter 10: Remembrance

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee

Chapter 10: Remembrance

“‘But Emerald Joy, our kind and benevolent ruler,’ you may be thinking, ‘there must be some kind of hitch! There must be some strings attached!’ And to that I say: you are wrong, little ones! I am going to return them free of charge! Aren’t I so nice?” She took a moment to appreciate the reenergized applause coming from the audience. “You’re welcome, really! It was nothing!”

She paused and waited for the roar of the crowd to calm down. “Now now, I’ll give you some time to think about it, but if you decide that you do want to accept my gracious gift, then please meet back here tonight! I hope to see all of you!”

The speech came to a close, and Emerald Joy retired to The Committee headquarters building. The crowd dispersed, and there was a buzz of chatter among the populace. The brainwashed ponies weren’t normally allowed to make a decision of their own, and the stimulation was exciting for them. They conversed giddily, but Twilight wasn’t about to get her hopes up until she could talk with her friends and get her mind straight about this whole ordeal. Emerald must be trying to pull something. But what if she isn’t…?

Twilight was suddenly yanked to the side out of the steady stream of people headed back home by whom she quickly found out to be Pinkie Pie.

“Huh? What’s going on?” Twilight asked.

“We’re having a meeting. Right now. No time to lose.” Pinkie’s face was serious, with not a glint of humor, which was unlike her. Twilight nodded blankly, then let Pinkie lead her back to the others, who had grouped up at an out-of-the-way part of the road.

“Shall we be on our way to the usual place?” Rarity asked once Twilight and Pinkie had joined them. Everyone nodded in unison, and they headed off towards the abandoned office building where they had held so many Rebellion Bureau meetings. This one could possibly end up being the most important out of any of the others so far.

They passed as inconspicuously as possible into the alleyway leading towards the back door. It was a path less traveled, to say the least, since there was no need for anyone to go back there. That was why it was the perfect place to hold their meetings.

The group all took their seats at the table, and they were all reminded about how much emptier the room felt now that there were three of their members gone. Twilight didn’t take the time to light a lot of candles, but the daylight streaming through the hastily boarded up windows made up for it.

“So, just to start…” Aquamarine began a little uncomfortably, “what do all you girls think? Should we go?”

“I think we should definitely go!” Pinkie cheered. “It’s hard for me to remember anything that happened before everything, and I really really want to know what went on back when everything was normal.”

“Are you crazy?” Rainbow retorted. “This is Emerald Joy we’re talking about here. She’s the one we can thank for causing this whole mess. Do you really think she’s going to let us remember this stuff? And by the way she was saying it, it made it sound like she was taking memories before, and now decided to give them back.”

“It’s not out of the realm of possibility,” Twilight pondered, tapping a hoof against her chin in thought. “But… no, I don’t think it’s possible for her to cast a spell like that without us actively knowing about it. How do you think we avoided the happiness spell in the first place? If she could just cast that over everyone without them knowing, she would. But when it’s a spell like that that alters someone’s mind, trust me, they would know.”

“Forgive me if the subject is still a bit taboo,” Rarity cut in, “but what about with Applejack? I can hardly imagine that she was put under that spell without a fight.”

“Remember, she was the one that performed the ritual for that, albeit unaware as to what the ritual was for. So, in a really cruel way, Applejack was casting the spell on herself,” Twilight explained. The room quieted for a moment.

“So… that still brings us back to our main question: do we go?” Aquamarine repeated, trying to keep the conversation on track. “I’m pretty neutral about the whole thing, so I’ll just go with whatever you guys decide.”

“Is that really okay?” Pinkie asked. Aquamarine nodded.

“I can understand both arguments, and I don’t really have anything worth remembering, so I don’t have anything to lose by not going,” she explained. Everyone nodded in understanding.

“I still think that this could be a trap…” Rainbow huffed, crossing her forelegs.

“But it’s not like she could pass any sort of spell that you wouldn’t want without you knowing, right?” Pinkie reasoned. “And she’s not just doing it to us, she’s also casting the spell on the people who are already happy all of the time and are perfectly peachy keen not knowing about their pasts.”

“While I agree, I have one correction to make,” Twilight cut in. “While she can’t cast a mind altering spell without us knowing, that doesn’t mean that we know what mind altering spell she’s casting. It’s a gamble, no matter what.”

“Should we take a vote then?” Aquamarine asked. “All in favor?” Pinkie raised her hoof immediately, and after a moment of hesitation Rarity and Twilight followed suit.

“Majority rules,” Twilight declared, lowering her hoof to continue. Rainbow sighed.

“Whatever, if you guys think it’s fine, I guess I don’t have a choice, now do I?” she said. Pinkie patted her on the back.

“Aw, cheer up, Dashie!” she exclaimed. “You gotta stop dwelling on all the what ifs!”

“But those what ifs could cost me my life,” Rainbow mumbled. Pinkie didn’t hear her, and plopped back into her seat.

“When exactly are we supposed to go to the town square for the occasion, anyway?” Rarity asked. In perfect timing, Emerald’s voice resounded throughout the town, urging citizens to gather. Twilight turned to her.

“Well, I guess that answers that,” she responded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Thank you for coming, everyone!” Emerald Joy began. Almost the whole town was in attendance, if not all of it. “Now we have a lot to get done today, so let’s not spend too much time on the introductions and skip right to the main event!” She gestured towards a white tent that was set up nearby. “Please line up to the left and I’ll assist you one by one!”

Twilight’s shoulders dropped. Going through everyone one by one was going to take forever, but she knew that there wasn’t any other way to do it. She dragged herself in line, probably a thousand ponies in front of her. She sighed. This was going to take a while.

She watched as the sun went down and made way for twilight. It didn’t seem much later that night time fell and stars began peeking out of the blackness. Just as Twilight felt she was going to fall asleep where she was standing, the tent’s entrance was finally in sight. After a few more minutes of waiting she was up next. Had any of her friends gone in yet? She wasn’t sure where they were, since there was a a lot of chaos when everyone rushed to get in line, so they had gotten separated.

She entered the tent when she saw someone else enter out the back, and she soon realized that it was a lot more private than it looked. The walls weren’t flimsy and didn’t flap in the wind, and they were almost completely sound proof, blocking out noise enough that you could only hear in from the outside if you had your ear pressed up against the fabric, and at that point you would just tumble into the tent.

“Hello, Twilight Sparkle!” Emerald Joy greeted a bit too enthusiastically. “Please take a seat!” Twilight sat in the chair adjacent to the beautifully dressed mare, trying as hard as she could to keep her fake smile top notch so Emerald wouldn’t suspect anything. “Now hold still, this will only take a moment.”

Emerald swirled her horn around in little circles, and little strings of green magic wafted off of it. They danced in the air for a little bit, forming into one long strand, and then glided through the air to Twilight. The purple unicorn stared intently at it, admiring its ethereal quality, then got a sudden jolt as the magic abruptly jammed into her ear. She shivered at the sensation of it weaving through her skull. It took a great effort to keep her smiling charade up. Finally she felt it seep into her brain and the spell was complete.

“I don’t… feel any different?” she said cautiously, unsure whether such speech was allowed. Emerald Joy giggled.

“Of course not, silly!” she responded amusedly. “It takes a while for this sort of thing to take effect!” Twilight nodded in acknowledgement, then got up to leave. She pulled up the tent flap, but then felt a hoof on her shoulder as Emerald lightly pulled her back.

“And you can drop the act, Twilight,” she whispered into her ear at a level hardly audible. Twilight spun around to face her. Had she really heard her correctly?

“I’m sorry? I didn’t catch that…” she replied, trying to act casual.

“I simply reminded you to keep being happy. It’s your duty, you know!” Emerald replied innocently, though there was a sinister gleam in her eye that suggested otherwise. In a sudden rush, Twilight turned and fled the tent as fast as her legs could carry her.

Once she had left, she realized that she didn’t know where to go, but she didn’t want to stop running and break momentum. She hadn’t exactly said if she was going to meet up with the others after the fact, did she? No, she didn’t remember that, so she took a right and sprinted towards the housing. Others quickly dodged out of her path, but she didn’t mind that she was making a disturbance. Her mind was hurting and racing a million miles an hour along with her legs. She needed to think. She needed to get home and think.

She didn’t slow down when she came to her door. She flung it open and collapsed full speed on her bed. The comforter was soft and relaxing, and it was everything that she needed to calm down. However, now was no time for calming down. She needed to sort through everything running through her head before it drove her crazy, and before all of her memories came back to her and she had even more to think about.

Speaking of the memories coming back, what was that whole deal about? Why did Emerald suddenly decide to give everyone their memories back? What kind of reasoning would she have behind that kind of move? Wouldn’t something like that only hurt her, or at the very least be a wasted effort? Twilight laid her head back against her pillow, her hair falling haphazardly all over the bed. There was no understanding Emerald Joy, it was just a fact of life that she’d maybe one day learn to accept.

Something was bothering Twilight, though. Everyone seemed to really hastily dismiss Rainbow’s valid claims during the meeting before the event. Should they have given the possibilities more consideration? What if Emerald really did mess with everyone’s minds instead of bringing memories back? Had Twilight just made a really careless mistake? Her head was spinning, and she broke out in a cold sweat. Something was up, she just knew it.

Twilight instinctively threw one of her pillows against the wall. Why was this so confusing? Why couldn’t at least one thing in her life be easy? What had she done to deserve this kind of punishment? Always a fugitive, always dodging around corners and sneaking behind backs, not knowing the future or how to move forward. It would be easier just to have been brainwashed… She sunk to her knees in defeat. Her head hurt, she needed to lie down for a bit.

She fell asleep suddenly on the spot, and as she slept her mind filled up with the memories she was sure she had long forgotten.

Chapter 11: Heading Back

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee

Chapter 11: Heading Back

“Attention, my loyal subjects!” Princess Celestia announced over the raging crowds storming into Canterlot. She was as graceful as a swan and she shone like the sun. To her side was her younger sister Luna, who had the beauty and mystery of the night sky, her coat the color of a starless night.

“This is an outrage!” cried out an anonymous stallion. “Do you really expect us to listen to you at a time like this? You’ve ruled us for over a thousand years, and we’re tired of your favoritism and overall unfairness! We need a republic, not this monarchy!” Princess Celestia closed her eyes and her face became sullen.

“I hate to say so outright and risk staining my public image, but I see at this point that doing so would have little effect. You all already think lowly of me and my sister, so I can speak freely,” she replied. Luna stayed silent, since she was never good with public speaking, instead trusting her older sister’s judgement. “You all are in no place to protest. You know nothing of running a government, and once you overthrow us for your idealistic form of power, you will come to realize that no matter how good it sounds on paper, it is impossible for you to carry it out exactly how you plan. Most of ponykind has its flaws, and therefore if you want a government led by common ponies, it will also be flawed.”

“However,” Princess Luna spoke up. Everyone was a bit startled considering they had only heard her speak on very few occasions. “My sister is not claiming that we are perfect. Even as alicorns, we also have our faults. Just take my actions so many years ago into account, though many of you were most definitely not alive to remember. I let petty jealousy cloud my judgement, and that ultimately led to my downfall. But my sister is benevolent and forgave me, but it appears some of you haven’t done the same for me.”

“But that’s just the problem!” another stallion shouted. “You can’t forgive someone for that! If she wasn’t your sister, you would have blown her to smithereens!”

“And what makes you think she’d do something like that? I bet if you looked, for as long as she lived, my sister Celestia has never—” Luna snapped, but Princess Celestia raised a calming hoof.

“We are not going to argue,” Princess Celestia instructed. “It is not worth both the time nor the effort. Some ponies will always be stubborn, that is their nature.” Luna stared back incredulously, then nodded. The sisters turned unanimously and walked back inside Canterlot Castle. There were cries and hollers as the crowd realized that the two rulers they were so furious with had just up and left the conversation. They shouted, but no matter what they did the sisters did not return. The audience dispersed in a huff, their anger brewing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hm? We’ve been summoned to Canterlot?” Rarity questioned, looking at the letter Twilight levitated before them.

“Yeah, I don’t get it either. But look! It’s signed by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna! What do you think it could be?” The group of friends exchanged worried glances.

“Oh! Oh! Maybe they’re having a party!” Pinkie shouted excitedly, her poofy hair bouncing wildly as she hopped up and down.

“Um… why?” Fluttershy asked. “There isn’t any occasion…”

“Maybe it’s a ‘The whole country hates us’ party?” Rainbow Dash offered sarcastically.

“Ooh! That sounds fun!” Pinkie giggled. “Wait, no it doesn’t! That sounds super duper politics-y boring!”

“Rainbow does kind of have a point…” Applejack admitted. “That’s probably the reason why we’re going.”

“Aww…” Pinkie pouted. “Can’t we just stay here? Why don’t we throw a ‘Politics Are Boring’ party instead?”

“Sorry to say,” Twilight interjected, “but according to the letter we have to leave for Canterlot as soon as we receive the letter.”

“What? We have to hurry to catch the train in time, then!” Rarity exclaimed. The six wordlessly sprinted towards the train station, and boarded without question since they were going under royal summon. The train ride was short, but as they neared the capital the streets were getting progressively flooded with more and more protesters. Was the riot really as bad as the news had said?

They were quickly in the heart of town, right by the Grand Castle when they left the train. They had to wiggle through the crowds at every moment to make their way to the entrance, but by the time they had gotten there the two princesses were already out addressing the audience. Whatever they were summoned for must have been put on hold for the time being.

“Fillies and gentlecolts,” Princess Celestia began. “I know that we are not on the best of terms, and that you are here not because of what I have to say, but because you want to burn this castle to the ground. Nevertheless, I bid you lend me your ears. Over the past couple of days I have been talking with a Miss Emerald Joy, and she has proposed quite an offer. She has agreed to cast a spell over the country to put your minds at ease and let you listen to reason, so you may not let your fury get in the way of what is right. And now, Miss Emerald Joy?”

“Yes, thank you, Princess Celestia. It is an honor.” A young mare that could only have been in her mid-twenties took the microphone from the princess who in contrast was centuries old. Emerald was quite beautiful, with a nice green colored business dress to match her coat and her teal hair tied up in a professional yet still flattering matter, the stray hairs fluttering in the summer afternoon breeze.

“Everyone! I understand how you must be feeling right now, I really do!” The crowd kept silent for the young lady, but still clenched their teeth in anger at the prospect of having a spell put on them to ‘let them see reason.’ Were they suggesting that the only reason they were like this was because their emotions were getting in the way? That was just an outright insult!

“But please! Suppress anything you might be thinking to the very back of your head for just a few more minutes and listen to me with an open mind! I have been studying a type of magic that releases certain chemicals in the brain to make an individual as happy as they can be, with absolutely no negative thoughts! Impossible, you might say? I say otherwise! I’m going to cast it on all of you, alright?”

While the others seemed to have loosened up a bit to the idea, Twilight got even more tense at the prospect. She turned to her friends.

“Girls. We need to leave. Now,” she instructed, her tone as serious as she could be. Her friends immediately understood, and hastily followed after their friend. They pushed their way desperately through the crowd, then snuck into an alleyway. Twilight shifted her eyes back and forth, then pointed her horn towards the sky. Out shot a large plume of magic, and a glistening pink force field surrounded the six ponies.

"What's going on, Twilight?" Fluttershy cried.

"No matter what happens, we can't get that spell casted on us!" Twilight warned.

"Why not?" Rarity asked. "Being happy sounds really lovely right about now..."

"You don't understand," Twilight replied. "That spell isn't just a simple one that manipulates the endorphins in your mind like she explained. To simplify, it's more akin to mind control than anything else."

"Why are they putting everyone under such a wretched curse, then?" Rarity lamented, pressing her hooves against her flawless cheeks in shock. But there was no time to answer, as the group looked on in wonder as a ripple of magic flowed out from the center of city, affecting all that it reached. It didn’t seem to be losing momentum as it wafted off into the distance, likely affecting all of the ponies in the country.

Once the spell seemed well away from them, Twilight recalled her forcefield. They sprinted back towards the heart of the city to see what the devastating effects were. Even before they got there, they could tell that the enchantment had worked it’s magic. Everyone they passed was smiling ear to ear, relaxing their bodies so they slumped over like zombies. It was unnerving to say the very least.

There was only one question that was currently running through Twilight’s head: what were the princesses thinking? Surely after their thousands of years of experience they would know about how the spell works, so why were they letting this ameteur enchant the whole country that they were running, and in this pivotal point of the rebellion against them?

By extension, what was this Emerald Joy character thinking? Why would she approach them with such an outrageous proposition? Did she think that it would give her some sort of political position? Twilight scoffed. She know that Princess Celestia would never appoint a unicorns like her as any sort of political figure. But considering that she decided to let Emerald Joy brainwash all of the ignorant citizens, Twilight found herself questioning the judgement of Princess Celestia. She felt filthy for doubting her own princess, but she could hardly suppress the voice in her head telling her to shout out all of her grievances.

The six mares pushed their way to the heart of the city, tired and out of breath. Emerald Joy was standing before the crowd with an overjoyed grin on her face, but it almost came off as manic. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stood behind her, their heads hung slightly and their faces sullen. Maybe they did understand the gravity of the situation that they had gotten themselves in? But why were they forced to go to such lengths?

Princess Luna’s cold blue eyes lifted to survey the crowd filled with all of their subjects, lifeless smiles plastered on their faces. When they came to rest upon six members of the audience that were not sharing identical expressions with the rest, and those six being Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity no less, her eyes dilated and she inhaled steeply, but caught herself from shouting. Instead she brushed a hoof past one of her sister’s to get her attention.

Princess Celestia lifted her head slightly and looked over questioningly to Luna, who directed her vision to the crowd with a nod of her head. Princess Celestia followed her gesture and also caught sight of the small group of friends. Her face softened, and a small smile danced on her lips.

Twilight noticed the silent communication going on between the two rulers, her eyes dilating in response as she saw them look straight at her. What could possibly be going on? Twilight’s mind swam with questions and utter confusion.

Princess Celestia turned to re-enter the castle, and she nodded her head for Luna to do the same. She was facing away from the crowd, so nobody was able to see the tear roll down the sun goddess’s divine face.

Chapter 12: Logic Against Instinct

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 12: Logic Against Instinct

Twilight awoke with a jolt, suddenly snapping out of her dream. She thought hard. No, it wasn’t just a dream. It was memories resurfacing, things she had so long forgotten about. Was that really how things were? Was that really how simple it was for Emerald to completely ruin her life? All she had to do was go up to Celestia and Luna and ask…?

She kicked the side of her mattress. All of this! Everything was their fault! She thought that she could trust her rulers all those years ago, revering them at every moment she could, and yet they were the cause for all of her pain and loss and suffering! She felt utterly betrayed. No, she had to be rational about this. Maybe there was something out of their control? Maybe they were forced to…?

But why hadn’t they explained it to her?! She used to be so close to Princess Celestia, yet she hadn’t heard a lick of an explanation! She seethed, but caught herself. She needed to keep level headed. She sat down and took calming, deep breaths, extending her foreleg out from her chest with every exhale. She just needed to clear her head. Surely there was something in the puzzle that she was missing…?

“Twiliiight!”

Twilight turned just in time to see Pinkie throw her door open, her face covered with tears and fresh ones freely flowing out as if her very life depended on her continuous sobbing. The unicorn stood up and took the distressed mare in her arms.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, patting Pinkie’s back comfortingly. She already felt her shoulder getting damp from a combination of her friend’s snot and tears.

“I...I remember everything!” she cried. “All of my friends! All of the parties! All of the fun!” She wailed and buried her head in Twilight’s chest. “I miss it! Now every time I see someone on the streets, I remember all of the fun that I used to have with them…” She continued, but her sobbing reduced the words to nonsensical blabbering. Twilight combed some strands of magic through her friend’s straight pink hair, shushing her calmingly.

“Don’t worry, it’s all in the past now, there’s no need to dwell on something like that…” Twilight reassured. Pinkie lifted her head and looked Twilight straight in the eyes.

“You don’t understand!” she cried, her eyes brimming with more tears than she thought she had. “My whole life, my whole being was centered around my friends and making other ponies happy! Now I know that I’ll never be able to do something like that again for as long as this whole situation goes on. And I’m positive that it will go on for longer than our lifetimes, Twilight.”

“Don’t say that!” Twilight shouted back. “Don’t give up hope so easily! Can you try and think of the positives? You used to cheer ponies up, and if you are plunged into sadness—you, the very epitome of laughter—then everyone will become discouraged, knowing that all hope must be lost!” Pinkie sniffed and wiped her eyes, which were puffy and red. She stood up with determination.

“I promise that I’ll make things right! I’ll fix everything!” she affirmed with renewed determination. She turned on her hooves and dashed out the door, her hair poofing a little. Twilight smiled with relief. That was one crisis averted.

Then her grin dropped, as now another problem faced her. Why couldn’t she remember everything before the New Era? According to Pinkie’s testimony, the others were able to remember a lot more than what she could. All she knew was about the actual events and politics leading up to Emerald’s rise to power. However, her actual daily life was a mystery to her. Was Emerald Joy picking and choosing what they were allowed to remember?

Twilight sighed. There is always a catch, even when they say that there isn’t one. In fact, the time to be extra weary is when they say that there aren’t any strings attached. But did she follow her own advice? Of course not. Desperate times may call for desperate measures, but her carelessness lately was reaching inexcusable levels.

Maybe talking to her friends would keep herself sane. Not enough interaction always seemed to mess with her brain. But just as she rested her hoof on her doorknob to leave her house, another thought flashed through her mind. Why could she not remember the very beginning of the New Era? Her hoof slipped away from the knob as more questions assaulted her mind. Where was Aquamarine during all of this? Why did she not have any memories of meeting her? She grabbed her head as her mind started whirling, using the door as support as she collapsed to the floor. What was this? What in the world was going on?

Her vision became spotty as her mind kicked into overdrive. Everything became a haze. She felt hot and started to sweat, putting a hoof over her forehead to calm her sudden flash of discomfort. What could this be…?

That was the last thought that ran through Twilight’s mind before she blacked out completely in front of the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ah! She’s waking up!”

“Wha… What’s going on…?” Twilight asked, her mind blurry along with her vision. She opened her eyes lazily and a few colorful blobs stood leaning over her. After a moments of her eyes adjusting, the blobs turned into the faces of Rainbow, Pinkie, Rarity, and Aquamarine.

“You passed out back at your house! Rainbow went over there to talk to you, but you were collapsed against the door so it wouldn’t open, so she resorted instead to bashing one of your windows in. We all thought that you might be dead!” Rarity informed. Rainbow laughed nervously.

“Yeah, um, I hope you don’t mind that one of your windows are broken…” she said, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

“At a time like this, I wouldn’t care if my whole house was burned down,” Twilight replied with a little laugh, but she stopped quickly. Laughing hurt her chest, and she didn’t need any more suffering after experiencing a possibly fatal black out.

“What happened, though? Why did you faint?” Pinkie asked worriedly, pushing the other three aside to obtain direct eye contact with Twilight.

“Well… erm…” Twilight pondered, racking her brain to remember what she experienced last. She was just thinking about her memories, and then started wondering about Aquamarine. Her eyes widened.

“Actually, I can’t remember why…” she fibbed. She didn’t know if the cause for her unconsciousness was dangerous or magical or what, but she didn’t need to take any chances at this point. Pinkie investigated her face worriedly for a few seconds, then backed off a little.

“Are you sure that you’re going to be alright?” Rarity asked with heavy concern in her voice. Twilight nodded.

“I’m fine, really! Just…” She sat up and groaned, then fell back down into a laying position. “Just… give me a moment…” After a few rounds of trial and error, Twilight made it upright, holding a hoof to her forehead. “Ugh…”

“If you’re really going to be fine, then let us continue the meeting,” Aquamarine said. Twilight’s eyes widened as she realized she was in the abandoned office where Rebellion Bureau meetings were usually held.

“Okay…” she agreed. “What were we talking about before I came to?”

“The returning memories. What else could it possibly be?” Aquamarine replied.

“That makes sense…” Twilight laughed nervously. “What did I miss?”

“Well, in all honesty, we were just beginning our conversation when you woke up, so you didn’t miss out on very much of anything,” Rarity explained. Twilight nodded, and decided to seize the opportunity to get the answers for some of the questions she had earlier.

“So, how much did all of you guys remember?” she asked, sweeping her eyes across the four friends before her. Pinkie’s eyes started watering.

“D...Do I have to tell you mine again?” she asked.

“For the sake of the others, I think you better,” Twilight replied, noticing the puzzled looks on the faces of the others. Pinkie sighed.

“I don’t really remember anything important, per se, just a bunch of me having fun with my friends and making cakes and eating cupcakes and living in a bakery…” she explained, listing off each thing as it popped into her head. She paused for a moment, catching herself before she rambled for too long. “But yeah, nothing besides day-to-day stuff…”

“It’s the same with me!” Rarity replied, shock eminent in her voice. “I just remember my boutique and making dresses, but that isn’t exactly any different from what I do right now…”

“I’m kinda the same as you guys,” Rainbow added. “I mean, I mostly just remember working on weather duty and being the best flyer around, but there’s also something else there. Something that I feel I’m just on the brink on, but I still can’t quite reach…”

“Hm?” Aquamarine spoke up. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I’m remembering bits and pieces of something, but it doesn’t even seem real…” Rainbow said, fumbling with her words to try and form them in a sensical way.

“Can you describe the bits and pieces to us?” Twilight asked. “You never know how something seemingly unhelpful could actually be the last piece of the puzzle, yet it still gets overlooked because of its seeming insignificance.” Rainbow swallowed and nodded.

“Don’t put all of this pressure on me, Twilight…” she mumbled. Twilight blushed.

“Sorry…” she responded. Rainbow nodded in acknowledgement of her apology, then began.

“Well, basically, it’s the six of us—Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rarity, and me—and we’re all together in this creepy looking castle that must be like a zillion years old. Then there’s also this evil chick who we’re attacking or something…” She trailed off. “But that couldn’t have happened in real life, right?” she added hastily. “It must just be some sorta crazy dream.”

“I don’t see how it could be anything else,” Rarity piped up. “Something like that is too outrageous to be real.”

“Yeah! That would be, like, cuh-razy!” Pinkie chimed in.

“Maybe it really is nothing after all…” Twilight finished, her mind still not completely agreeing with her words. Maybe it really was something, just not something real. Maybe a sign…? Her thoughts were lagging behind as the conversation moved forward, so she pushed her suspicions aside for the time being.

“What about you, Aquamarine?” Pinkie asked, leaning forward in her chair in anticipation. Aquamarine shifted her eyes to the floor and crossed her arms.

“Nothing really, just some daily stuff like the rest of you…” she mumbled.

“You did go get your memories back, right?” Rarity inquired.

“She had to! She was right in front of me in line!” Rainbow added.

“Look, it’s nothing important, alright? It’s just some stuff about my past that I’d rather not talk about, and wish that I hadn’t remembered…” she insisted, shifting uncomfortably.

“I don’t really trust that kind of attitude,” Rainbow replied coldly.

“Oh?” Aquamarine lifted her head and looked directly into Rainbow’s eyes. “And why not?”

“Do you think I’m going to let you slide by, possibly concealing some sort of important clues. Now start talking, Aquamarine! If that even is your real name!” Rainbow caught herself. “Well… I know that’s not your real name, but you get the point.” Aquamarine smirked and leaned back against the wall, brushing her sapphire blue hair out of her similarly colored eyes.

“Fine then, I’ll indulge you in my little sob story,” she caved, although still keeping her cool. “I was a little girl, studying magic in the libraries. But of course as every tragic back story goes, I had lost my parents, but was adopted by a kind mare who had very powerful magical experience. She took me in as one of her own, and she became both my teacher and my mother. She taught me everything I know.

“However, when I became old enough to enter the school system, some nasty rumors circulated around the schoolyard about her. Therefore, it was only natural that I was also shunned along with her. All of my friends, however, knew nothing about my connections with her. Therefore, I had to go through the torment of them saying such horrible things about my own adoptive mother and professor, without having the guts to do anything but play along with them. Finally I was withdrawn from the public schools and continued my training by my mother’s hoof, and became the great unicorn that I am today.” She lifted her horn to the air and blasted a light show of colorful magic as demonstration. The others observed in awe until the last tangent flickered and died out.

“Erm…” Rainbow started.

“And those are the memories I recalled. Are you happy now?” Aquamarine ended coldly. Rainbow looked a little guilty and hurt at the same time.

“S-sorry…” the pegasus apologized after a moment of silence, her wings snapped shut against her back.

“It’s fine,” Aquamarine replied, her gaze distant. “Dwelling on my past is just a sign of weakness. I don’t let it bother me too much anymore.”

Everyone glanced around the room, unsure how to move the conversation past the rough patch they brought upon themselves. They didn’t want to just end the meeting, but there seemed nothing left to discuss.

“Wait!” Pinkie spoke up after the long stretch of silence. “Twilight! You never told us what you remembered, did you?” Twilight’s faced burned red and her stomach started to flip and churn. Her head even got a little dizzy and she wanted to faint just to get out of the situation. Should she just make something up? Did she really want to worry them with something so big?

“Erm… I just remember studying really hard and practicing magic. I don’t remember what it was that I was learning, though, so I’m not of any help either…” she lied again. She was hoping that nobody would notice her fibs, and according to everyone’s expressions, no one did.

“Is there anything else that’s up for discussion right now?” Rarity asked after everyone had enough time to go over the information in their minds.

“I don’t think so…” Twilight said, thinking if there was anything she was willing to talk about at the moment. Emerald Joy’s words in the tent lingered in the back of her mind. She didn’t want to worry anyone with it, not until she knew for sure what it meant, so she kept her mouth shut for the time being. “Are you getting anything out of Emerald?”

“I’m trying my hardest, I swear!” Rarity answered defensively. “I know that I said that she’s essentially an open book, but when it comes to things that she doesn’t want anyone to know, she’s awful good at keeping her mouth shut. She’ll be a really tough nut to crack. I mean, I didn’t expect her to spill the beans right away, but I was kind of hoping that it would be a bit easier than she’s currently making it…”

“So, nothing?” Aquamarine asked.

“Not unless you’re interested on her preferences for dress ruffles, no,” Rarity confirmed. She sighed and balanced her head in her hooves, her elbows resting on the meeting table. It seemed so small before, but their numbers had been dwindling so much lately it just seemed to be getting bigger and bigger.

“Very well,” Twilight breathed with disappointment. “This meeting of the Rebellion Bureau, which I unfortunately didn’t have to pleasure to begin today, is dismissed.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight stared at her newly busted back window. She hoped that it would be fixed by the androids soon. Did androids even fix windows? She shrugged. Having a broken window didn’t bother her much anyway.

She let her mind wander for a moment as she traced her hoof along the cracks. The memory of Pinkie breaking into her house and sobbing earlier resurfaced first. Was Pinkie really alright after all of that fuss? There’s no way that Twilight’s few sentences of reassurance could make her feel much better. Maybe I should go check on her? Make sure she’s really feeling better?

Twilight pricked her hoof on one of the broken shards, and a few drops of blood leaked out. She had made up her mind. Without a second thought, she grabbed her coat and put it on hastily as she headed out the door, turning in the direction of Pinkie’s house.

She arrived quickly, knocking on the door diligently. She stepped back and waited for a response for a few moments, but when none came, she decided to just enter instead of knocking again. She knew that Pinkie wouldn’t mind.

“Hey, Pinkie!” Twilight called casually. “You feeling better?”

“Ah, Twilight…” Pinkie answered from another room. “How unexpected. But I’m glad you came…” Twilight hesitated for a moment. This wasn’t the attitude or way of speaking that Pinkie usually used. Maybe it was a good thing that she came over to check on her…

“Yeah… Are you alright, Pinkie?” Twilight asked, still trying to locate the origin of the voice. Pinkie’s house was a tad hard to navigate, Twilight soon found out. There were lots of twists and turns and bright colors.

“Are any of us alright, Twilight?” Pinkie responded, her melancholy filled voice echoing off of the walls eerily. Twilight shuddered.

“Pinkie, where are you? What’s going on?” she said, her voice rising in fear. She heard Pinkie sigh.

“I wish I knew the answer myself…”

Twilight rounded a corner and found herself in a long hallway, a single door at the end. The walls were painted a dark blue. The lights were dim and the windows covered. She could just make out Pinkie’s silhouette standing atop a chair, and a streamer dangled out of place from the ceiling.

“Pinkie...” Twilight said. “What are you doing...?” She approached the room and could make things out more clearly. That wasn't just a streamer hanging from the ceiling...

“Hello, Twilight,” Pinkie greeted. “Glad you could make it to the party.”

“My God, Pinkie!” Twilight shouted. “What are you doing? This isn't a party in any way, shape, or form! It's me walking in on a suicide attempt!”

“But don't you understand? It is a party, Twilight,” Pinkie corrected. “I even went out of my way to get a piñata...”

“Pinkie, stop talking nonsense! Get that rope off of your neck!” Twilight demanded, stomping closer. She was prepared to take it off, but Pinkie raised her leg, silently threatening to kick the chair aside and let gravity do the rest. Twilight stepped back obediently, and Pinkie slowly placed her hoof back on the chair.

“Don't be a party pooper, Twilight,” Pinkie warned. “If there's something you want to say before closing ceremonies, I'm all for it. You might want to make it quick, though. The guests are getting antsy.” Twilight turned and saw resting against the wall a bag of flour, a stack of rocks, and a bucket of turnips. All were wearing matching party hats.

“Honestly, Pinkie! Drop this deranged act and talk straight with me! Why are you going to hang yourself?” Twilight cried, trying to get through to her friend. Why was she acting this way all of the sudden? She seemed perfectly fine earlier...

“Aw, fine...” Pinkie frowned. “Party pooper.” She sat down on the back of the chair, the noose still loosely tied around her neck. “Now it's gonna be all sad...”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, cautiously inching closer to her friend as if she was a dangerous animal.

“Well, I tried to tell you earlier when I came to your house, but you seemed kind of busy or disinterested or something. You acted like I could just forget all about everything, but I don't think you understand...” Pinkie sighed. “I think it has to do with me being an earth pony. I was never that good with plants, but I'm really good with other ponies. I think I'm more in tune with others than a normal pony, and that's how I'm an earth pony. Hah, there are different divisions of divisions of ponies. Isn't that something?”

“But what do you mean, exactly?” Twilight asked. “What drove you to do this all of the sudden?”

“After going so long without the memories of all of the fun I had, and then suddenly getting them back, it made me remember my purpose in life,” Pinkie continued. “My destiny is to make others happy, so when I make other ponies happy, it makes me feel happy. But now that everyone has this sort of 'artificial' happy, it really bums me out. I can't make anyone happy anymore! And what with this whole rebellion business, I can't make any of you guys happy, either. I mean, sure, I can crack a joke here and there, but that hardly counts.

“I'm also hardly any help for you guys, so you are essentially better off without me. I just feel worthless without being able to make you all happy...” She paused. “Heh, nowadays I'm even a little jealous of the brainwashed ponies. At least they never have to experience this kind of feeling...”

“Oh, Pinkie, you shouldn't resort to something this severe! You know that a stunt like this will make us feel even worse!”

“I know, I'm such a selfish pony...” Pinkie replied, a tear rolling down her cheek. “The last thing I do in my life is make you all depressed. I'm so horrible at being the life of the party...”

“Snap out of it! This can't be the final option! There has to be another way for you to feel better!” Twilight cried, finding her own eyes starting to water. Suddenly Pinkie's eyes dilated.

“...You're right!” Pinkie replied in shock. “I don't have to die to feel better!” She slipped the noose off of her neck and hopped off of the chair. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. That was one crisis averted...

“Hey, where are you going?” Twilight asked, noticing that Pinkie had already bolted out of the room and around the corner. She quickly chased after her through the twists and turns of the rooms, until finally she reached the entryway where Pinkie had already put her coat on and was heading out the front door. She paused and turned back to Twilight.

“I want to feel happy again, Twilight, through any means possible,” she stated simply, before taking off into the night. Twilight raced after her, but knew that if she ran too fast on the roads she would draw suspicion. It was only normal for little kids to run around, and if anyone else did it they would surely be caught. Didn't Pinkie know that? Why wasn't she slowing down...?

With horror, the reality of the situation dawned on her. Twilight didn't know what to do. Should she race after her and risk getting caught too? No, that definitely wasn't the best thing to do, but her mind was in such a mess that it seemed like a pretty valid idea at the time. She was able to dismiss it, though. Just as Aquamarine would always say: letting emotions cloud your judgment was almost never a good idea. Instead she walked casually, yet still briskly, out of Pinkie's house. She needed to protect her friend and put a stop to this.

After about five minutes, Twilight reached the town square. It was night time, so everything was illuminated with an eerie orange glow from the streetlights. She stopped. She heard voices. She jumped into the shadows, fearing her capture. She peeked out cautiously and spotted two female figures. She held up a hoof to her mouth to catch the gasp that escaped her lips.

Pinkie was talking with Emerald Joy.

Twilight wanted to scream, run away, and try and save her, all at the same time. Was this really happening? Everything went by so fast...

She tensed as Pinkie started walking back the way she came, which happened to pass by right where Twilight was hiding. The earth pony skipped over cheerfully, her curly pink hair bouncing, then stopped as she noticed Twilight crouched down.

“Hello there!” she greeted, as if Twilight was a stranger. Her grin was unnaturally wide. “You don't seem very happy. You know that it's your duty, right? You wanna fulfill your duty, got it?”

Chapter 13: Even If It's One Second Ago

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 13: Even If It’s One Second Ago

Twilight Sparkle looked with distaste at her new home. It was her first day in—what had Emerald Joy called it? The New Era? She scoffed. Just because it was new didn’t mean it was any better. She climbed onto the strangely comfortable mattress and under the plush covers. Even though they were so luxurious, they weren’t comfortable to Twilight. They didn’t feel like home.

She sank under the covers, pulling them up to her nose. She supposed now was a good time as any to reflect on the current events. Everything had gone by so fast the few couple days, she had no time to sit down and get her thoughts in order about the whole ordeal. However, now that she was able to, she hesitated. There was so much that had happened, trying to sort through it all felt like such a daunting task.

She shivered as she recalled the riots on the streets of the brainwashed citizens. Calling it a riot didn’t seem fitting, since everyone had a grin plastered on their face, but they had similar intentions to a riot. Over the course of a day or two, Emerald had convinced them that she would make a much better ruler, and they all blindly went along with her nonsense. She planted the idea in their mind that they should band together under her and overthrow Celestia and Luna, and there they were, throwing random debris at the windows of Canterlot Castle.

Of course, the two princesses could have easily vaporized any threat that came their way, but they didn’t want to do anything to harm their subjects that were doing nothing wrong by their own will. Emerald knew this, so she brought the masses of people up to the doors of the castle, then bade they stay there while she went in to confront the regal sisters.

There was a tense wait before she came back out, declaring her victory. Why did she need to march that whole army down to the castle if she was going to take them down by herself? And how was she even able to take down not one, but two immortal goddesses? Was that even humanly possible? Emerald didn’t seem the most capable pony in the world, either, so if she could defeat the sisters, then it seemed to Twilight that anyone could.

She turned over. She was glad that she had protected herself and her friends from the spell, though. Seeing how ponies that she used to know acted now, she knew that it would’ve been devastating to everyone if just one of her friends met the same fate. She wondered, did anyone else recognize the spell and shield themselves from it?

She shuddered as she remembered that she already knew the answer to that question. A couple ponies who had gotten around the spell had shouted at Emerald earlier in the day, and they got quite the crafty execution. She took them all up on this stage and took all of their heads off with one swing, then stitched the heads back on the necks, but she switched the heads around. The result was the stuff of nightmares. How was Twilight going to keep her sanity if other people got executed in front of her? Was this going to become a regular sort of thing?

She stuffed her face into her pillow. Was this really her life now? Did she have to waste her days away in this prison, where magic is limited and flying is outright not allowed? Where all of her acquaintances are just brainwashed zombies? She didn’t see a library around town anywhere. She hadn’t even seen a single book to comfort herself, even if it was only a little. Even a little filly’s picture book would calm her down a bit at a time like this, but there was nothing resembling a story of any sort throughout the whole city.

Was this her life? Going through grueling routines, never making any progress in life or society or anything? She was being denied everything that she enjoyed in life, and it was starting to make her brain spin. This had to be a dream. Everything must be a dream. She would wake up soon, she was sure of it.

She pushed her face deeper into the pillow and screamed. She cried until her eyes had run dry, and when she was finally out of energy and her mind was weary, she fell into a sleep filled with dreams of better days, and when she woke up she would be reminded of the harsh realities.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight woke from her restless sleep with a start as her television came to life all on its own. On it was the image of Emerald Joy, a mare who she had only known for a few days but already hated with a burning passion more than anything else in existence.

She begrudgingly threw off her covers, slowly sliding out of bed. She wanted to savor every moment of comfort she could before she had to go out and face whatever atrocities the day held. She splashed some water on her face to wake herself up more and then made some breakfast. She hoped that just some toast would be adequate for the day. Maybe once she got more accustomed to her living space she could make a real breakfast, but she followed up the thought with another. She didn’t want to get accustomed to the way she was living now; she wanted to break free and make things the way they were. Or, at least, as close to the way things were as possible.

She caught herself before she left her new house for the first time. Considering everyone else had obnoxiously large grins all of the time, it would probably be a good idea if she did the same, even though she wasn’t under that spell. Emerald would probably be a bit nasty towards other people who defied her and didn’t succumb to the spell, and Twilight didn’t want to take any chances. She went up to a mirror and practiced her smile, trying her best to fine tune it to be exactly the same as how she remembered the others looked. She did feel a little silly smiling like an idiot in front of a mirror like a little filly practicing for picture day, but she had to manage.

Once she was completely satisfied, she left her house and entered the crowded and a little chaotic and confused streets. Nobody knew exactly where they were going. They just knew that they had to go to the center of town, but none of them had any idea where that was, or at the very least they forgot how to get there. After a bit of trial and error, Twilight eventually located the her destination. Emerald Joy was standing regally on the same stage she was on a couple days earlier when she executed the rebels. It was cleaned so well that you could hardly tell how covered in blood it was before.

“Why good morning, everybody!” she began, her voice reverberating throughout the whole city. All of the enchanted ponies in the crowd seemed overjoyed by her appearance, as they instantly made a deafening roar as if she was the most famous celebrity in the world. “Alrighty, let me explain to you! About all those problems you worry about, those problems you’re thinking about. All of it, I’ll explain it for you!” Twilight scratched her head a little. Could these people even think enough to have problems now that their minds were this way? Nonetheless, she was open to getting answers, no matter where they came from.

“Eh, everybody... being happy...” She stumbled over her words for a moment. She may have practiced this speech a bit earlier, but this being her first one must have made her a bit uneasy. “Well, it’s your duty! Now then, aren’t you happy?” Everyone under her spell agreed, and Twilight had to fight the urge to cover her ears. She needed to keep this brainwashed act up, for the sake of herself and all of her friends. “You know it’s your duty, right? Are you doing as expected?”

While she again got a surge of approval, she paid no attention to it and instead turned to another section of the massive audience. “Here at the Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee, our wish is for your absolute happiness, and we’ll do anything in our power to support you!”

Twilight was taken aback as she realized the stage wasn’t directly connected to the ground, or at least not in the way that she thought it was. Steam billowed out from the stage, ruffling Emerald’s exquisite dress. Giant latches that she hadn’t even noticed were there unhooked, and with another burst of smoke the stage rose high above the masses, so the ponies in the far back didn’t have to rely just on the huge monitors to see the goings on on the stage. As all of this was occurring, giant speakers placed all around the town square repeated the same sentence over and over: Always being happy is your duty. Was she trying to brainwash everyone even more? Was she just trying to get into the heads of the ponies that got around her spell, because she knew that there were more? Twilight was doubting that Emerald was even smart enough to use classic brainwashing like that, so it was unlikely.

“Therefore, we hope you stay at peace, have the happiest of days, and fulfill your duty,” the beautiful young unicorn continued, pacing to another part of the stage. “Just remember, your happiness is also our happiness! Doesn’t that make you just so happy? Since it’s your duty, you know. Are you doing your duty?” She paused in both her speech and her pacing abruptly. Her face suddenly darkened, her smile faltering and taking on an almost manic feel, giving the same sort of sinister air to her speech.

“Because, if you aren’t...” She turned to one of the giant screens, her jade gown flourishing.

“Hanging, decapitation, fire squad, boiling, drowning, electrocution, buried alive, burning, poisoning, stoning, dismemberment, crucifixion, pick whichever you like!” With every example, a picture flashed on the screen of a person dying of said method. Twilight could hardly bare to keep up the act when she had to witness all of the horrible executions, but watching an offending little girl being shot at by ten full grown men was particularly terrifying. Where had she gotten this footage? Twilight hoped that she would never have to sit through this slideshow again for as long as she lived, or at the very least get very desensitized to it. She already felt scarred looking at it this one time.

“But, y’know, I’m always open to suggestions!” Emerald Joy chimed, as if nothing disturbing or out of the ordinary had happened. “Alrighty! Come now, everybody, you should only be filled with complete happiness! Worries and dissatisfaction, of course you don’t have any of those, right?” Twilight clenched her teeth, but kept up her happy act. She wanted to punch this Emerald Joy lady square in the face right now. What was her deal?

With another burst of smoke, the platform was lowered and latched back into place. “That will be all everybody! Don’t let me down, alright? Ta ta!” Emerald Joy flashed her pearly white teeth one final time before turning and strutting back into The Committee’s headquarters building, her elegant gown billowing out behind her.

Twilight blinked. Was that Emerald Joy’s idea of an explanation? She came out of that speech feeling even more confused than when she went in! Emerald had promised answers, but all she gave Twilight was even more questions. What was with that mare and happiness? What was that stuff about ‘doing your duty’?

Twilight couldn’t move. She had expected answers. Now how was she going to figure any of this out, without any idea what was going on in the first place? The crowd was slowly whittling away as everyone trotted along to do their business, be it going back home or shopping at the market, everyone was doing something. Twilight, however, just stood there, petrified by her racing mind. She paid no attention to anything that was outside of her own head, until she was very suddenly yanked to her right and into an alleyway.

“Sweet Celestia, what are you—” she shouted, but was cut off with a shush by her kidnapper. It took a few minutes for Twilight’s eyes to adjust to the shadows, but once they did she saw before her a pale yellow mare about her age with sapphire blue eyes and mane, which was styled to hang in her face a little. Twilight shifted up her gaze a little and saw a distinct horn protruding out of the unknown pony’s forehead.

“Who are you?” Twilight asked, her voice soft after the other pony indicated her to keep quiet.

“My name is Aquamarine. Well, technically it’s Ondine, but I like to go by Aquamarine,” she explained. Twilight raised an eyebrow. The pony rolled her eyes. “Look, having a pompous family has its downsides too, you know.” Twilight stifled a laugh, then got back to the problem at hoof.

“Wait, you got around the spell, too?” she asked. Aquamarine seemed a bit young to know about that kind of spell, and the only reason Twilight knew it is because she was one of the most advanced in her class, if not Equestria.

“I happen to specialize in ancient magic, so I know my mind control spells pretty well,” Aquamarine replied cooly. Her horn began to glow a radiant jade color for emphasis.

“And you yanked me over here because…?” Twilight asked, even though she already knew the answer in the back of her mind.

“Because we need to team up. We’re both smart and powerful enough that we got around the spell, so obviously we’re both capable to face the giant task ahead of us,” Aquamarine explained enthusiastically. Twilight gulped.

“Giant task…?” she asked, her voice wavering. Aquamarine nodded confidently.

“We gotta rebel, Twilight! We gotta overthrow Emerald and bring this ‘New Era’ to its knees!” she said excitedly, shaking Twilight enthusiastically and almost forgetting that she needed to keep quiet. “We gotta break free!”

“While I completely agree with you,” Twilight started, pushing Aquamarine’s hooves away, “doesn’t rebellion seem like a pretty dangerous idea? I mean, just saying something bad to Emerald will get you your head cut off, so actually acting upon your words sounds like an all-expenses-paid ticket to an execution.”

“But those ponies only got executed because they didn’t know what they were doing,” Aquamarine pointed out. “They didn’t know when they should keep their mouth shut, so they ended up paying the price for their stupidity. However, if we lay low until we have this whole mess figured out, we can just slip in and quietly do what needs to be done.” Twilight pondered her words. “Come on, Twilight! We have to do this!”

“...Alright then, let’s do it.” Aquamarine’s face brightened. “But just so you know, all five of my friends got protected from the spell, too, so you’re going to have to let them help.”

“Of course! The more the merrier!” she confirmed. They talked excitedly for a few moments longer, and then went their separate ways.

How strange, Twilight didn’t recall ever telling Aquamarine what her name was.

Chapter 14: Forgetfulness

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 14: Forgetfulness

The group of friends sat in silence around the table. There was only four of them left, and the whole room felt much emptier. They had lost Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie over the past couple months, but really it only felt like a couple days.

They knew that it was pointless to go through their normal fit of anger, guilt, blame, and sorrow for the third time in a row over Pinkie. Even though Twilight felt awful, she knew that she saved Pinkie’s life. If they succeeded in overthrowing Emerald, they would be able to get Applejack and Pinkie back. Fluttershy, however, was a different story…

“You know,” Rarity spoke up, “I’ve been thinking. When Applejack went to dabble in black magic, why couldn’t she wish for something more practical? Why couldn’t she wish Fluttershy back to life, or Emerald dead, or that none of this ever happened?”

“Love is weird,” Rainbow replied simply. She didn’t need to say anything else to get her point across. The others nodded their heads.

“Sorry, I just felt like it needed asking…” Rarity apologized, although she knew that everyone was grateful that they could talk about something that wasn’t related to Pinkie’s suicide attempt.

“So, I suppose that we really need to get our rears in gear if we want any chance in getting this rebellion underway,” Aquamarine said. “I don’t want our numbers to dwindle any more than they already have…”

“What’s stopping us from storming in the castle, anyway?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, finding magical old books is cool and all, but we don’t have time to carefully plan this stuff out. If we want freedom, we have to take it with brute force!”

“While I don’t completely agree with you there,” Twilight said, “you do have a point. What exactly is holding us back?”

“I have been in that building,” Rarity stated, “and I can assure you that getting in without Emerald wanting you there is nearly impossible. There are myriads of guards guarding every door, so even if you get past the ones guarding the front entrance, you’ll still have to get through even more if you want to actually get anywhere.” The others contemplated her words as she paused. “Also, there’s some sort of passcode that the guards have to enter to let you inside the building, and I have absolutely no idea what that code could be.”

“So we just need to focus our efforts on how to get inside?” Aquamarine asked for confirmation.

“But wait, how will we know what to do once we get in?” Twilight inquired. “I don’t know my way around there, and how will we defeat Emerald?”

“I can help you with getting around the vicinity,” Rarity offered. “As for fighting… I won’t be as much help to you there.”

“I can totally beat that Emerald Joy to a pulp!” Rainbow shouted excitedly, smashing one hoof into the other. “She won’t even know what hit her!”

“And I’m sure that Twilight and I can use our magic against her,” Aquamarine added.

“Will she give up once she’s down, though?” Twilight asked. “She doesn’t seem to be the type that would surrender when pushed into a corner.”

“But if we threaten to kill her if she doesn’t restore things back to the way they were and she declines, then we can just kill her and restore everything ourselves,” Rainbow pointed out. Rarity fidgeted awkwardly. She didn’t like this conversation about killing people, considering her ladylike, civil upbringing.

“Well, I suppose,” Twilight said. “I’m just worried about fighting her, but I guess we shouldn’t worry about that until the time comes…”

“May I propose a change in subject?” Rarity spoke up. “We all have our memories back completely, right? I mean, last night I seemed able to remember a bit more than I could earlier in the day. Is there anything to discuss that could help us in figuring something out?” Everyone turned their gaze to Rainbow, still intrigued with what she had to say before about them defeating someone.

“Look, if you’re asking for a continuation on my story from yesterday, I can’t help you. Everything that I remembered more of had nothing to do with that,” Rainbow explained. Everyone deflated a little and sighed.

“Still, is there anything important that we can speak of?” Rarity asked hopefully.

“Well, I did remember something earlier,” Aquamarine spoke up. “It was…” She trailed off. “That’s strange, I can’t seem remember what it is…” Twilight quickly tried to remember something about her past also, but had a similar experience. All of her new memories seemed to disappear.

“Ah? It’s happening to me, too,” Rarity added.

“Me too!” Rainbow chimed in.

“What could this mean?” Twilight asked worriedly. “Why are we all experiencing collective amnesia?” Everyone seemed to come to the same conclusion.

“It was all… her doing,” Rainbow cried. “I can’t seem to remember her name, though. Was it even a girl? Suddenly I’m not so sure…”

“Who are you talking about?” Rarity asked. “More importantly, why are we all in this dusty room? Why don’t we go outside for some fresh air?”

“Yeah, I agree…” Twilight said. She tried to flap her wings to stand up, then realized that she didn’t have any. “Huh? I could’ve sworn I was a pegasus…”

The room began to swirl as her memories scattered around throughout her head, until she blacked out entirely, along with the others.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Gyah! Who are you ponies?!” Twilight shouted once she woke. She found herself in a dusty old room lit only with a couple dozen candles, and sleeping on the floor were three other mares about her age that she had never seen in her whole life. She couldn’t remember how she got there, or anything, really. One of them woke up. She had rainbow colored hair and wings on her back. Wait, she had wings?! Twilight screeched at the sight, and the other mare screamed as well once they made eye contact.

“Who the hell are you, and where the hell did you take me?!” the mare insisted. “I expect answers, missy!” She grabbed Twilight by the throat and raised a hoof, aiming towards her face.

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, frightened now more than ever. “You’re the one who kidnapped me! Unless it was one of those other two who did it!” Twilight pointed towards the purple haired mare and the blue haired one, who were still out cold. Neither had wings—they had horns, just like Twilight—but she didn’t doubt that one of them must have kidnapped her. Maybe this winged pony was just playing dumb?

“It’s possible…” the girl said, slowly lowering Twilight and letting go of her. Twilight gasped for air. “My name is Rainbow Dash, by the way. Might as well know each others’ names, huh?”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight responded, not breaking eye contact with the unmoving girls on the floor. She wanted to be sure that neither of them got up suddenly and attacked.

“Yo! You two!” Rainbow shouted, much to Twilight’s dismay. “Get up before I break you so much you won’t be able to!” Twilight took a step away from Rainbow. This girl seemed violent, and she definitely didn’t want to get on her bad side.

The two who were unconscious on the floor got up with a start at Rainbow’s loud voice. Confusingly, both seemed just as lost as Twilight and Rainbow were when they woke up.

“Gyah! Who are you? Where am I?” they both cried in unison. Twilight smacked her forehead. So much for them being the kidnappers.

“So wait,” Twilight interjected. “You weren’t the ones who kidnapped us and brought us here?”

“What are you talking about?” the purple haired unicorn asked. “Aren't you the ones who kidnapped us?”

“Well, one of us here is a filthy liar, then. And it isn’t me,” Rainbow said.

“Maybe it isn’t any of us, though,” the blue haired pony observed. “I mean, maybe we all just fainted or something?”

“Either way, I’m going to go out there and try and figure out where we are,” Twilight stated, scooting around the table and chairs and towards the door. She exited the building and waited for the others to follow.

“Where should we go, though?” Rainbow asked. “I have no idea where we are right now.”
“Well, we should start—” Twilight was cut off as she suddenly fazed through the ground along with the other three mares. It wasn’t like falling into a hole, it literally felt like being transported through the stone of the pavement and the earth and deep underground. It was totally surreal, but she had no choice but to believe it right then. There was no other explanation for how she suddenly appeared in an underground cavern.

“Where on Earth are we?” the purple haired unicorn wailed.

“I think a more appropriate question would be ‘Where in Earth are we?’ Don’t you agree?” The voice didn’t have any host that the group of girls could see, and it instead felt like it was coming from everywhere at once as if the room was alive. Everyone tensed at the sound of the disembodied voice.

“Goodness, are you scared of me already?” the voice asked, its owner coming into view. Before them stood a white unicorn pony with short purple hair—which was almost a pink color—and matching purple eyes. Her messy hair had a black headband in it with a lone yellow heart on it, but the band did little to keep the hair out of her face. She wore a blue shirt with yellow buttons shaped to match the yellow heart on her headband, and she sported a pink skirt with a faint floral pattern. As for shoes, she just wore some pink slippers. However, her most striking asset was the red eye positioned over her heart, which was connected to her wrists and headband with red and yellow cords. “Usually I have to tell people of my abilities before they’re terrified of me.”

“Who… what are you?” Twilight asked. “How did we get here? We were just on the street a moment ago…” The strange mare raised a hoof asking for her silence.

“Let me explain,” she started. “First of all, the reason you are here is because I have summoned you, of course. I need you just as much as you need me, but none of you know that yet. I teleported you using magic, as I am a unicorn along with the rest of you, not counting Rainbow, who is a pegasus.”

“Hey! How did you—” Rainbow shouted, but she was cut off quickly.

“The reason I know your name brings me to my next point. I have the ability to read one’s conscious and subconscious. This has driven me to be outcased by my people, as nobody wants to be friends with someone who can easily access their darkest secrets.”

“How does this concern any of us?” the blue haired pony cut in.

“You’re lucky that I am benevolent enough to let you speak as opposed to just reading your thoughts and knowing what you have to say, Aquamarine, therefore constantly cutting you off. This concerns you all because, as I have the power to read minds, I am also capable of retrieving the memories that none of you know that you lost.”

“What even is your name?” Twilight spoke up.

“I don’t have one, nor do I need one, but since your kind loves to label things, I will let you refer to me as Satori, as that is my species. Not to be confused with the Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment, although considering it can also be interpreted as looking into one’s nature, even if you interpreted my name as that way you wouldn’t be very far from the truth.”

“Whatever, just explain what you mean. What lost memories?” Rainbow asked, getting more agitated as she lost her patience with every passing second.

“Perhaps it would make more sense if I demonstrated my abilities first?” Satori proposed. The others exchanged glances. “Excellent! Now, if I can have a volunteer?” She surveyed the small group for a moment. “Rarity, how about you?”

The long, purple-blue haired pony stepped forward reluctantly to meet Satori. The psychic pony took Rarity by the shoulders and stared deeply into her eyes. Suddenly Satori’s eyes glowed brightly, along with the third eye over her heart, and Rarity’s did the same. After a few moments, their eyes lost their illumination and Rarity blinked a few times. She turned to the others and her face brightened.

“Twilight! Rainbow! Aquamarine!” she shouted gleefully. “You’re alright!” She ran up to them and hugged them all at once, dropping her usual civil manner. The three all gave her looks suggesting that they thought that she was crazy. Satori placed a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder, and another mental connection occurred between the two.

“...I’m sorry?” Aquamarine asked. “What kind of memories are these that she’s getting?”

“Oh, I see.” Rarity deflated a little. “We lost our memories, and now only I have them…” Satori nodded.

“Now, if you can let me help restore the rest of your memories, this conversation might be a bit easier,” Satori said, moving things along.

“Hold on,” Twilight cut in. “I thought that you said that you have the power to read minds, and I suppose by extension communicate telepathically, and I suppose even plant ideas in our heads without us knowing, but how are you able to restore memories that we’ve lost?” Satori nodded, processing the inquiry.

“An excellent question,” Satori affirmed. “Even without your memories of your past self, you’re very observant, and therefore I will grace you with an answer.” She turned, paced back a few steps, then abruptly spun around to face the group again.

“When someone loses their memories, they are not actually lost at all. The memory just gets blocked off from the conscious. However, the subconscious cannot be restricted at all, and therefore can access everything, even if magic is obstructing the conscious. However, as the subconscious can rarely be tapped into on purpose, the memories might as well be lost. The same rule applies for any memory loss, really, whether it’s natural or brought upon by magic.

“I have the power to tap into both the conscious and the subconscious, so I can duplicate the memories I find in the subconscious and bring them to the conscious. Essentially I’m just copying and pasting any memories that I find in the subconscious, so I probably gave you even more than you lost due to the spell. The original memory is still blocked off in the conscious, but now you also have a duplicate memory that isn’t corrupted by magic.” Twilight was amazed at how much sense the explanation made, considering she knew next to nothing about psychology.

“Alright, then, I trust you. You can restore my memories,” Twilight decided, stepping forward towards the psychic pony.

“Are you crazy?” Aquamarine asked, yanking her back a little. “Even though her explanation makes sense, how do we know that she isn’t just giving us false memories so we can fulfill any duties that she wants us to? I mean, she did say that we need her just as she needs us, right?”

“I can understand your hesitation,” Satori answered, “but really, can you not trust me? Just ask your friend Rarity, who I’m sure you don’t even remember is your friend, if I have done something as immoral as giving her false memories.”

“She really is telling the truth!” Rarity insisted. “I felt a great sense of deja vu when she restored my memories, as if they really were there the whole time! You have to trust her! Don’t be so impertinent now!” There was a tense silence as the three others exchanged glances holding varying degrees of acceptance.

“Well, I don’t know what you all think, but I’m going to trust her,” Twilight announced confidently, stepping forward once again. The corners Satori’s lips didn’t curl into a smile, but Twilight could tell that there was a glimmer of appreciation in her soul piercing eyes.

“Very well then,” Satori said, grabbing Twilight by the shoulders as she did with Rarity. Twilight felt a sudden jolt as they made contact, and the feeling didn’t get any more pleasant as Satori stared straight into her eyes. Twilight lost the ability to see for a moment, so her full focus was on her thoughts, but she could tell that both of their eyes must have been glowing at this point.

After a moment or two of random meaningless images appearing in her mind’s eye as a result of Satori poking around in her subconscious, at least that’s what she figured, she suddenly felt another presence. It was like she was no longer able to control her own mind, which was probably because she couldn’t. The one who had full control of Twilight’s mind was a mysterious pony who Twilight had only known for a few minutes now.

After another few moments, which dragged on for forever, she abruptly got a sudden rush of memories. The magic, her friends, her personality, her hardships, her accomplishments, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Emerald Joy, the Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee…

She wanted to shout and cry and laugh all at the same time, but Satori had thought ahead and locked all of her motor skills for the time being, allowing her only the ability to keep herself upright. The vast amount of information being flown at her all at once was overwhelming, but it wasn’t like she was learning something new extremely fast. It was more like a major sense of nostalgia, as if she couldn’t believe that she really forgot everything.

She turned to her friends and saw them all in a new light. Rainbow wasn’t just the mare with wings who had low self control and a tendency for violence, but instead the loyal friend who was headstrong and would give up her own hopes and dreams for them. Twilight had to fight the urge to run up and hug them the same way that Rarity did, and it was made even more difficult to resist when Satori restored her ability to move. Instead she walked up to the two who remained—Rainbow and Aquamarine—and urged that they believe Satori and let her override the spell. After lots of convincing, they finally agreed, and eventually all of the group members were free from the enchantment’s clutches.

“So when you said that you needed us just as much as we needed you…” Twilight began once everyone was situated, “you were referring to us needing to rebel, right? We needed you to get our memories back and you needed us to rebel because…?”

“As I was saying earlier,” Satori responded, “the satori species is one of the most feared. It’s not because we are hostile towards ponies. In fact, in theory we could easily coexist together peacefully, but what works in theory doesn’t always work in practice. We are outcasted for our ability to lay bare the hearts of others at a moment’s notice. When it comes to ponies, death is not the scariest thing in the world, but instead having their secrets accessed so easily. And I must admit, some of the satori are well deserving of such a reputation, but making it a stereotype that all use their powers for evil is completely unjust. However, if you overthrow this tyranny with the help of a satori, then word will get out that my species isn’t all bad.” Out of thin air formed a glass of tea, which she took a minute to sip calmly. She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts and then continued.

“My sister longed for friends, so she decided, foolish she was, to permanently close her third eye and relieve herself of her powers so others would trust her. However, in doing so, she closed her own heart, so not only is she unable to read the hearts of others, but she also made it unable for others to read her own heart.” Satori sipped her tea tentatively again.

“Ah, um…” Twilight mumbled. There really was no way to effectively follow up any depressing tale of that sort. Satori ignored her.

“But now is not the time to dwell on the past,” the psychic unicorn announced, setting her tea aside and straightening confidently with renewed spirit. “Now is the time for everyone to push forward! While I cherish your company, it seems that it is the time for your departure.”

“Ah! Thank you for your company, Miss Satori,” Twilight said, with Rarity following suit in a similar manner. Satori turned to show them the exit, but Twilight was sure she could see the nearly emotionless pony’s face redden.

“I hope that you all succeed in your ventures! I wish the best of luck to you!” Satori exclaimed as the four exited, climbing the stairs back to the surface. She shot Aquamarine and Rarity a shady look before finally closing the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Erm, guys? Can I ask something?” Rainbow spoke up suddenly, breaking the silence of the group. “That whole memory gaining and then suddenly losing thing… What was that all about? I mean, she said she would give us our memories back, which she did, but how did she take them away right after we got them all? Didn’t Twilight say that that kind of spell couldn’t be casted on us without us knowing?” The three unicorns tapped their chins for a moment in thought.

“I think… that spell she casted… it was all one big spell…” Aquamarine said, still trying to form her thoughts into coherent sentences as she spoke. “I mean, I know there are spells that can restore memory and I know there are spells that can take it away, and both are immensely difficult, but to make a spell that does both in a certain amount of time? That takes massive amounts of skill to pull off.”

“Well that doesn’t make things any more reassuring for when we actually have to fight her…” Twilight sighed. “But there is something that I’ve been thinking about for a bit that I would like to address.”

“Oh? What would that be?” Rarity asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Well,” Twilight explained, “do you remember how Satori said that her memory restoration was likely to give us more memories than we had lost from that spell? Doesn’t that mean that we now have memories that were either taken away from us through other mind loss spells, or we had just downright forgotten?” Rainbow’s face brightened with realization.

“Oh my gosh, Twilight, you’re right!” she cried with glee. This is great! Now we’ll definitely find out something new!”

“Mind you,” Aquamarine spoke up, “it’s unlikely that we can remember literally everything about our past like we have photographic memory.”

“A start is a start,” Rainbow affirmed. “Now we just have to think, try to remember, and pick up the shattered shards of our past and paste them back together to fit in the final piece of the puzzle.”

“That was awful poetic for someone like you, Rainbow,” Rarity complimented. Rainbow folded her forelegs in a huff.

“Whatever. Let’s just get to work, already!” she responded, raising her voice a little. The room fell into a tense and excited silence as everyone shoveled through the piles of resurfaced memories for something, anything that could be even remotely helpful. The four remaining members of The Rebellion Bureau felt, no, they knew that they were just on the verge of something.

“I have a confession to make…” Rarity mumbled suddenly. The other three snapped out of their concentration and turned to her expectantly. She fidgeted a little and tensed up even more than she was before. “Well… you see…”

“What is it, Rarity?” Rainbow asked. Rarity flinched at the interruption in her stuttering.

“I… I think I know the code to get inside The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee’s headquarters building.”

“Are you serious?!” Twilight shouted in giddy excitement, slamming her hooves on the table as she abruptly leaned in towards Rarity. “How do you know it? I thought you said that only the guards knew!” Rarity swallowed.

“This is true…” she agreed, still a little hesitant, “but apparently one day Emerald asked me to go out and fetch something while the guards were off who knows where, and she told me the code. But once she got back she wiped it clean out of my mind.”

“But now that Satori performed that spell on you…” Aquamarine started incredulously.

“...You remember the code!” Twilight finished. She threw her forelegs around her friend. “This is amazing! Now we can finally get inside! I mean, we still have to figure out that whole getting around the guards business and how we’re actually going to take down Emerald, but…” She paused, at a lost for words. She opted instead to fling herself onto Rarity again, overwhelmed with glee.

Author's Note

Satori may be shamefully ripped off of Satori Komeiji... (and by that I mean she's the exact same character with a few alterations)

Chapter 15: Flipped Ideology

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 15: Flipped Ideology

Rarity awoke to the sound of her television crackling to life. Most citizens would have gotten a message informing them to quickly gather at the town square, and they would have gotten their announcement quite a bit later in the morning. Instead Rarity got a recording every day summoning her to The Committee's headquarters building, seeing how she worked there as Emerald Joy's personal dressmaker and makeup artist, along with being Emerald's overall consultant. Rarity knew when to keep her mouth shut, which made Emerald take quite a liking to her.

Rarity changed out of her nightgown into some more business-like attire and pulled her hair up in an official looking bun. Emerald had said that she needed to have a meeting with her after the daily speech, and she didn’t want to look like she didn’t take Emerald Joy’s orders seriously.

She hurried to the building, her hooves clicking against the hard pavement with every step.
She slowed as she neared the entrance and peered upward.

Calling it a mere ‘building’ or ‘headquarters’ seemed quite of an understatement. The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee’s office building was more reminiscent of a castle than anything else, and Emerald Joy was the princess who owned it. She pampered herself with all of the luxury that she could ransack from the original Canterlot Castle, destroying anything that symbolized Celestia and Luna and favoring all of the emeralds, jades, and any other precious green stones she could find. This resulted in a haunting vision of the past, a display of what a great world they used to live in and how Emerald had ruined it.

But Rarity had to block out all of the hate she had for her employer for the time being, lest she let her emotions get the best of her, and she would meet a similar fate as most of her friends. She composed herself, then approached one of the guards. She flashed him her I.D. and, upon recognition, he grunted and entered the passcode. It was the same routine as every other day, but for some reason she felt a foreboding feel in the air as she entered through the large and elegant double doors.

A loud echo ran out as the front doors closed behind her. She paused to survey her surroundings, even though they weren’t any different from usual, then proceeded down the marble hallway, a rich clicking noise ringing out with every step. It made her feel so small, like she was the only one alive.

Her only source of light was the slanted rays of sun streaming in through the giant windows lined high along the wall. That didn’t mean that she couldn’t see, though, as the sunlight was always intense enough that it lit up the whole corridor, but the lack of any indoor artificial light gave the room a subtle grey tint.

She pushed onward towards her destination, and after a few minutes of turning down multiple corridors she made it to the makeup room. Emerald Joy had already gotten her dress on and was finicking with her hairbow. Rarity smiled and offered to take the bow, and Emerald submitted sheepishly. It was times of humiliation like these that Rarity really wondered if Emerald really was as bad as she seemed.

After the bow was secured in place on Emerald’s head, Rarity quickly checked the clock. She had about ten minutes before the speech was supposed to begin. She applied some mascara onto Emerald’s already long eyelashes and with the remaining time decorated the rest of her eyes with some shades of green and blue. She took a step back to be sure she was satisfied, then ushered Emerald Joy onstage.

Rarity waited until she heard the first few words of the speech ring out across town to finally sit down in relief. She couldn’t figure out for the life of her why she was so anxious about the meeting that she would be attending in just a few short minutes. She fiddled with her necklace, sliding it back and forth along the chain. What did Emerald want? Had she found out about The Rebellion Bureau? Her mind played out all of the horrible ways the conversation could go, until the familiar sound of Emerald’s hooves clinking against the floor snapped her back to the present. Rarity quickly applied a fresh coat of lipstick and then stood to greet her again.

“You said we needed to talk after the assembly?” Rarity asked, hoping in the back of her mind that she had misheard Emerald Joy earlier.

“Yes! Come, let’s bring this into another room,” Emerald replied. Rarity’s heart sunk, the millions of horrible scenarios flashing through her mind. Emerald led her down a few more hallways before they turned into their destination.

“Erm… the salon?” Rarity questioned. “What could we possibly need to be in here for?” The teal haired unicorn fiddled with her long locks with a serious expression.

“Well, you see,” she began, struggling to form her words, “I’ve been thinking. My hair has always had this sort of simple, elegant look which, let’s be honest, is extremely gorgeous on me. However, I’ve been observing the trends lately, you included, and I’ve come to the conclusion that curly hair is favorable over straight.” Rarity sighed in relief, and thankfully Emerald was too absorbed in her hair to take notice.

“So you want me to curl your hair?” Rarity asked. “I can do that, easy as can be!”

“Ah, but you see,” Emerald continued, “I don’t just want it to be any kind of curly, I need to still keep my unique image up, after all.” Rarity smirked. She had quite the unique image, all right.

“Was there anything specific you had in mind?” she asked as professionally as she could. “For starters, by curly, could you possibly mean wavy? Curly hair by definition is the type where there is a definite S shape in each strand, and I doubt you want to go into kinky hair territory. There’s also the question of how you’d like it styled. If I may make a recommendation, I think that a slightly longer than shoulder length cut with wavy hair tied up with a sort of halo accessory wrapped around the head would look positively smashing on you! But perhaps you want to keep your signature long hair? In that case, I would suggest simply putting some loose curls near the ends to really accentuate your hair length. It would come out in a sort of ringlet fashion because of the sheer volume but I really think it would look nice. Thoughts?” Rarity paused and looked expectantly towards Emerald, who was utterly lost in the designer’s rambling.

“Actually,” she said awkwardly after a short pause, which was a rare sight to see when it came to Emerald Joy, “I was thinking of having it where I would have two curled locks of hair down the side of my face, you know? It’s a sign of status in some cultures after all, so I really wanted to run with that idea! Therefore, I came to the conclusion that I should make all of my hair that way! So my hair would be straight until shoulder length or so, and then turn into really robust regal ringlets! Ha, would you look at that, accidental alliteration!” Rarity gulped.

“So, giant… ringlets…” she repeated, her voice filled with dread. Emerald nodded, beaming. Rarity swallowed. She understood the appeal of the little curls on the side of the face, but to make them the basis of the whole hairstyle…? Not only would it not look nearly as good as Emerald probably envisioned, but it would be a pain to get to work. Nonetheless, Rarity was the best in the business. Since her duty wasn’t to be happy like everyone else, her duty was to make Emerald Joy beautiful—at least, in her eyes. And if anyone didn’t fulfill their duty…

“Alright, then!” Rarity said finally, dabbing at her forehead a little so it wouldn’t get an oily sheen from her sweat. “Why don’t we head on in and I can see what I can do?” Emerald smiled wide, her snow white teeth glimmering, and she all but bounded inside in excitement. Even though she was an evil dictator, it was times like these that Rarity thought Emerald was just a bit misunderstood. She was almost like a child that Rarity had to care for. She sighed, and turned to her most difficult task yet: Making an impossible hairdo possible with the least amount of hair tearing on her part.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, after lots of brainstorming, theorizing, and a bit of math and science, Rarity had deduced that the only way she could make two giant curls out of Emerald’s two pigtails was to make two giant hair curlers. It sounded like a simple solution, but actually obtaining two giant hair curlers that could fit all of Emerald’s long hair in it proved to be quite the task. The two unicorns worked together to magically enlarge two of the biggest curlers they could find, and even then they could easily hold both of them in one hoof, so a good amount of magic was necessary.

Once both curlers were the right size, Rarity set out on her arduous quest of wrapping all of the hair evenly in them. Luckily she had her magic for that part, otherwise she would have no doubt gotten tangled up in the heaps of hair. She sat Emerald in a salon chair while she sat in an adjacent chair, and worked in silence save for the sound of hair being magically manipulated.

“Rarity?” Emerald spoke up after a minute or two of silence.

“Hm?” Rarity responded, too wrapped up in her work to think much of it.

“I always thought that at salons the stylist would have conversations with their customers. Obviously if we were to do that we wouldn’t partake in any of that mindless gossiping, which is essentially an over glorified form of talking behind someone’s back, because that would make someone really unhappy if they found out they were being gossiped about,” Emerald said. Hearing her talk about happiness made Rarity realize how different she acted when she wasn’t in an environment that hinged on happiness and unhappiness, which was pretty much only when she was backstage with Rarity.

“Well, is there anything exciting going on with the staff of The Committee? Are you planning on adding any new members any time soon so it isn’t just you?” Rarity knew that she was treading on thin ice with that question, but also knew that she was greatly favored by Emerald, so her sense of endangerment wasn’t so great.

“What a silly thing to ask! You know what they say: The only way to get a job done right is to do it yourself. Besides, if I ever have any questions, I can always ask you for your opinion!” Rarity blushed a little. She didn’t know why being essentially complemented by someone who made her and her friend’s lives so horrible made her so happy.

“Anything else exciting going on in your life right now?” Rarity asked. Could lives even be exciting in this kind of society?

“Well, nothing really outstanding is happening. I’ve decided to let the guards have Spring Break off to make up for the lack of shifts that they get. Turns out they get a little finicky when I have them stand guard twenty four seven. Do they not care about my safety or something? It’s quite outrageous,” Emerald explained. “Ah! I promised that I wouldn’t gossip! Don’t worry, if I do it again, I promise I’ll execute myself!”

“Eeh?! Isn’t that a bit extreme?” Rarity responded, her eyes widening. And did she seriously just say that her guards never took breaks? When did they eat or sleep?

“Hm, maybe if I gossip about myself and make me feel sad it will serve as an adequate punishment?” Emerald wondered aloud.

“What could there possibly be about yourself that could make you feel bad?” Rarity inquired, genuinely curious. She finished rolling Emerald’s hair into the first curler and, after securing it, moved on to the second.

“How about… Ooh, maybe if I tell you my whole origin story I’ll happen upon something? I had my fair share of ups and downs too, you know,” she suggested. Rarity perked up. This conversation was unraveling perfectly!

“I suppose if you see fit, but I really wouldn’t want to trouble you,” she answered, falsely trying to discourage her. She held her breath until she heard Emerald’s answer, hoping her mock attempt wouldn’t actually work.

“You’re too kind and forgiving for your own good, Rarity,” Emerald stated. “But I suppose that is why you chose your path to be one of a dressmaker and designer as opposed to that of a ruler such as I have.” She removed her silk black gloves and investigated her perfectly manicured hooves intently. “However, one of these days you’ll have to learn such as I have that punishment is the sole basis of any society. If there is no punishment, then no rules can be enforced. If no rules can be enforced, then everything will slowly deteriorate into madness. Do I make myself clear? I have to follow all of the rules I set, otherwise, by extension, I myself will plunge into the depths of madness. Therefore, I will torture myself by retelling to you my life and rise to power, and call up every single terribly painful memory that I possibly can.”

“Do we really have enough time to go through everything?” Rarity asked, fussing with the curler to make sure that it could still close with all of the hair that was wrapped around it. “I mean, I’m already almost done with this second one, and then we’ll just have to wait and spray on a lot of hairspray.”

“Perhaps I can just summarize, but that unfortunately means that I must spare you the details.”

“Shall you begin then?”

“I have prepared my resolve. Let’s begin.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Once there was a little filly with pretty teal hair who was very good at magic. This is myself, of course. I attended a prestigious school among other fellow young unicorns who had similar goals. There I learned of many different branches of magic, but I soon grew bored studying of levitation and transmogrification. I wanted something more out of my scholarly experience, and that’s when I discovered the wonderful concept of exploratory classes!

“While many of my classmates wanted to learn battle magic or summoning magic and enrolled in those respective classes, I was the only who was excited to learn about psychological magic. ‘A pretty little pony like you wouldn’t want to learn about boring philosophical stuff,’ they would say. ‘Why don’t you choose something like appearance manipulation or fine tuned levitation?’ But wasn’t the answer to that obvious? I had no need for such frivolous things!

“And so I went into the class, and unsurprisingly I was the only one there. Didn’t anyone understand how powerful that kind of magic could be? Who would need the power to throw fire at someone, which they could easily put out, when you could hardwire their brain and have them kill themselves? Not only is it more effective, but there’s also a lot less cleanup involved. The possibilities with mind manipulation magic were endless, and for some reason I was the only one that saw that.

“Either way, throughout my essentially private mentoring I learned all there was to learn and became one of the best in the business. Everyone thought that I took the class so I could be some sort of psychiatrist, but anyone who would do that for such a reason would need a psychiatrist themselves, don’t you think? No, at the time I wasn’t so sure why I was so drawn to the subject. You could say that it was my fate or my destiny, but I’m not going to start any religious debates here! I just wanted to learn the inner workings of a pony’s mind, and how easily it can be rewired.

“After a few years I had graduated and found my life once again boring and without any excitement. I worked jobs that I could care less about, until finally I had saved up enough money to go on a vacation by myself. I was heading through the Gifu Prefecture in Neighpon, walking along one of the mountain paths when I happened upon another traveler. She was a strange one, but we struck up a conversation and talked for quite a while about our ambitions. She suggested for me to use my magical capabilities to help others, and that’s when I got the sudden idea to form The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee and to make the whole of the world blissfully happy! Of course I’ve scaled down my original plan, but the sentiment still remains.

“Eventually we parted, but promised to keep in touch as much as possible. I didn’t think much of my idea at first, but over the next few months it fermented and grew in the back of my mind until I just knew that I had to do it. The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee was on my mind constantly. I was even thinking about it when I wasn’t thinking about it. It was maddening! I needed to put my thoughts into action before my head would burst!

“I did a bit more research in the Royal Archives of the capital under the warrant that I was looking up information for a medical breakthrough. It wasn’t completely incorrect! There I found the final piece to the puzzle I needed: the emotional override spell. In my classes at the academy I had only learned spells strong enough to only influence others to feel better or worse, but this spell was strong enough to force the subject it was cast upon to feel a certain way, no questions asked.

“I practiced the spell for about, how long was it, a year or two? I needed it to be perfect when I revealed my new and improved version of it to the world. Now it was much easier to control and manage, and it could be casted on multiple people at once. Considering I had a whole country to enchant, well, I had my work cut out for me!

“Then I only had one more job left to do, and that was to talk the two princesses into letting me set my plan into motion, without them realizing, of course. I couldn’t just waltz up to them and ask them, though. They needed to be in dire need of my services, and I knew just the buttons to push to get them backed into that corner!

“So I went around, simply a whisper on the street, planting deep within the minds of the populace that maybe Princess Luna was still a little dangerous after her whole affair, and maybe that Princess Celestia showed a bit too much favoritism, and maybe that someone else would be able to lead them better. I already knew that my words would spread like wildfire. That’s how the mind works, after all. The grass is always greener, is it not?

“Once the populace had caused enough ruckus, I decided it was time for me to step in and help the poor royal sisters earn back the love that they had so unrightfully lost. I offered them the deal that they couldn’t refuse: promoting me as their personal consultant along with a few other royal perks in exchange for all of their subjects’ happiness. They thought little of the consequences, and essentially just shrugged and said, ‘Sure, whatever.’

“I believe you were there to witness the grand event for yourself, were you not? Of course you probably can’t recall it right now since it was such a long time ago, but allow me to paraphrase. I was introduced so gracefully by Princess Celestia herself before sending out an awe striking ripple of the happiness enchantment across the whole country, and that was the very moment that I had been working towards my whole life.

“That wondrous feeling was soon followed up by an even better one when a week or so later I marched the whole populace down to Canterlot Castle and took down Princess Celestia and Princess Luna using only my own magical capabilities. It was actually rather easy! After all of the talk of the common folk, how they put them up on a pedestal with every word, made me think that there would be a bit more effort involved in defeating them.

“Nonetheless, with the two princesses out of the picture, and with me as the one who bested them, it was only natural that I would inherit their throne and shape the country into my vision. I finally was able to found The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee, but whenever I sought out to recruit new members, they always either never saw eye to eye with me on my ideas, or they just outright tried to kill me! The nerve of some people! After too much trial and error, I decided that it was just best for me to handle everything myself. But you already know all of this, because that’s how life is right now!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hah, that really is quite the story you have there, Emerald Joy,” Rarity admitted after her long bout of silence, absorbed in both working with Emerald’s hair and listening to her story. “It really is quite remarkable.”

“So it is, but it still didn’t solve what I set out to accomplish,” Emerald sighed. “I don’t feel horrible at all! But I suppose not accomplishing feeling horrible after telling you my story is making me feel horrible now, and I therefore have accomplished my goal of feeling horrible?”

“Are you really still so upset about that?” Rarity asked. “It really isn’t that big of a deal. You should seriously let it go.”

“Very well then…” Emerald gave in. She started batting at one of the curlers in front of her ears, and Rarity sternly smacked her hoof away. Emerald blushed and timidly placed her hoof back down on her lap.

“There is still one thing that I don’t understand, if you don’t mind me asking,” Rarity spoke up.

“And what would that be?” Emerald asked, rubbing one of her gloves between her hooves. The material it was made of was very smooth and pleasant to touch, which was one of her main motivations for keeping them on all the time.

“Why did you do it all, anyway? Why did you want to make everyone happy through such an enchantment and then rule over them? I mean, it’s not like they do any work for you, they just sort of exist and go about the menial tasks of life.” Rarity tensed as she said the very words that she knew she really shouldn’t say around Emerald, or anywhere within earshot of someone who wasn’t a member of The Rebellion Bureau.

After the silence between the two stretched for more than a few seconds needed for pondering, Rarity risked turning to see Emerald’s expression. Emerald was smiling pleasantly, but Rarity could tell perfectly well that she was using all of her self restraint not to lash out at her.

“What a good question, Rarity…” she said after an awkward spell of silence, her voice carrying a very forced calmness. “What a good question indeed.”

“I’m terribly sorry! You don’t have to answer, I just thought…” Rarity trailed off as she realized that her words weren’t doing any good.

“No no, I shall grace such a question with an answer,” she replied, her face and voice eerily unreadable. Rarity felt her skin crawl a little, and cautiously went back to spritzing hair spray onto the wrapped up locks.

“A—alright then,” she said, her voice faltering a little.

“You see,” Emerald began, seeming to have regained her composure, “At first I wasn’t sure why I was so passionate with the idea. I hadn’t really thought the whole thing through until I finally put my plan into action. When I was strewing the seeds of discord among the masses, it hit me. If people can easily become so upset, why must it be so difficult to make most people happy again? Wouldn’t it just be easier if nobody had to be upset in the first place? Therefore, eternal happiness for everyone is the best gift I could bestow upon the world.” Rarity blinked. Was it all really that simple?

“But, what about progress? What about ambitions? Even love isn’t allowed; doesn’t that clearly contradict what you’re trying to say?” Rarity asked.

“Who cares about making things better when you’re already content with how things are? Who would want to put in the work to accomplish a goal when they would feel just the same amount of happiness if they hadn’t achieved it at all? Who would want to cast aside everything just to cling to another, and then have to go through the drama that starting and maintaining a relationship calls for? These are the things that you need to think about, Rarity,” Emerald countered, her voice rising with every word. “Why must we continue the endless struggle to make things better? Why can’t the pony race just be content with where they are right now? If someone happened upon Atlantis, they would soon gripe about how it isn’t their favorite color! Don’t you see? I’m simply cutting out that sense of wanting something more, therefore gifting everyone the contentment that they were so blind to before! That is how the spell works!”

“I… I think I understand now, Miss Emerald,” Rarity replied, her state of shock causing her to revert back to her polite way of speaking that she would typically use with a customer or any other sort of person she wasn’t particularly close to.

A tense silence settled over the room for the next few minutes. The only noises that could be heard were either Rarity fiddling with some of the curlers or spraying more hairspray. She tested the curls a little, then gingerly pulled the foam rollers out of the little locks of hair next to Emerald’s face. They weren’t very tight, so they only curled once or twice near the bottoms, but they did turn out quite lovely.

Once she had gazed at the smaller ringlets, she turned her attention to the far larger ones, which were still rolled up, and much tighter than their smaller counterparts. Rarity swallowed a little, wiped her brow, and moved towards one of the massive curlers. Working with extremely fine hooves, as she didn’t exactly trust her magical capabilities with this kind of project, she tenderly dislodged the roller from the mass of hair that was wrapped around it. Once all of the stray hairs were unwrapped from it and it was completely free, Rarity took a step back to observe her handiwork. She was pleased to see that she had pulled off exactly what she was attempting, the hair staying straight until the shoulders and then curling into one giant ringlet.

Confident in her abilities, she moved on to the second roller and repeated the process of untangling the ridiculous amount of hair from the second ridiculously sized curler. The results were similarly impeccable, and she knew that with the tons of hairspray she put in it would be staying in for quite a while, but she strengthened both of the huge ringlets with magic just to be on the safe side.

“And your new hair style is complete!” Rarity announced, gesturing towards a mirror for Emerald Joy to make her final decision. “What do you think? Is it just as you had imagined?” Emerald scrutinized her image for a moment or two.

“It’s positively wonderful! It’s filling me with such happiness!” she answered, her face brightening. It was almost as if the discussion they had previously held had never happened. “Very well then, Rarity, you are free to go off as you wish. And thank you once again!”

“You’re more than welcome, Miss Emerald Joy,” Rarity responded. She gathered her few things and left the salon room, taking an immediate right and going down some more corridors, emerging back in the main hallway that led to the entrance.

Just as the giant front doors came into her line of vision, something gleamed in the corner of Rarity’s eye. She stopped and turned to the source of light, and after a bit of shifting she got the light to catch on to the reflective surface again. Whatever it was, it was located somewhere deep in an easily overlooked dark room. Intrigued, she decided to get to the bottom of whatever the reflective surface was. It wasn’t as if she had anything more noteworthy to do with her time now that she was done tending to Emerald Joy’s hair needs.

She turned and stood at the opening of the dark room. Other than the light shining off of whatever it was that caught her eye in the first place that appeared to be deep within the recesses of the room, there was absolutely no light to be spoken of. She struggled a little to remember the illumination spell that Twilight had used before, and replicated it to the best of her ability. Sure enough, a little ball of light materialized out of thin air, and it floated along by her side as she descended into the depths of the unknown room.

Rarity descended into the murky depths of the dank room, only able to see what was immediately in front of her. The light from her ball of illumination only reached so far. The fear of the unknown took over her mind and shook her very being, and she was tempted to turn back and leave it all a mystery.

No, she needed to stay strong, even if things looked terrifying. Why was she even here? It wasn’t like she needed to be. She sighed. She didn’t want to overthink things. Besides, the deeper she got in the mysterious room, the more she felt like there was something important that she needed to find. She did a check for magic. There was definitely something abnormally powerful in there, and she was now determined to track it.

Soon she found herself in the back of the room, and noticed that hanging from the wall was a torch. She lit it with a spark of magic, and the room illuminated itself. It didn’t seem all that notable after all. Rarity scanned the room for what she had originally came in to find, and came to the conclusion that the reflective object she had seen was one of the many candlesticks littered across the room. She inspected it closely, her mind brimming with curiosity. Why had she felt such magical reserves in something like this?

She picked up the candlestick to investigate it further, but just as the base lifted off of the ground, the wall next to her turned ninety degrees, revealing a secret passage. Intrigued as ever, she called upon her little ball of light and stepped cautiously towards it. Peering down, she could make out a long spiraling staircase, the bottom nowhere in sight. Thinking on her hooves, Rarity picked up a loose rock that was lying around. She leaned back over the staircase and dropped it, opening her ears wide to hear when it hit the bottom. She waited expectantly for it only to take a second or so, but as every millisecond passed her heart dropped more and more, until after a good five seconds of waiting the sound of stone against stone finally reached her ears. She sighed wearily, but decided to go on nonetheless. She needed to get to the bottom of this magic business, even if it meant subjecting herself to far more walking and darkness than she would’ve liked.

She tested the first couple steps to be sure they could sustain her wait, then began her descent into the depths of the hidden passageway that led to who knows where. She contemplated many times to turn back, but quickly reminded herself that whatever was down there, this was the only chance she would have to see it. Every step echoed off of the stone walls, and soon she could neither see the top of the stairs nor the bottom. Still she pressed on.

After a good minute of walking, Rarity checked the magical levels of her surroundings again, discovering that they were much stronger than before. She hurried forward with renewed confidence, and finally the spiral staircase came to an end. Finding a torch hung on the wall and lighting it, Rarity stopped for a moment to take in her surroundings. There were jewels embedded in the walls that danced with the light of the fire, and not a single one of them was green. There were sun and moon decorations everywhere, and Rarity didn’t have to think very hard to figure out why. But why was there such a hidden room in this castle? Why hadn’t Emerald just destroyed all of the memorabilia of the royal sisters?

She searched the room and noticed that it extended farther than the torch’s light reached. However, a purple illumination lit up the continuation of the passage just enough that she could make out her surroundings. Finding no need to bring the fire with, Rarity followed the violet lights deeper into the tunnel.

After following the tunnel for a minute or two, the passage widened to reveal the final chamber, which was positively aglow with the lavender lights, which she now realized were luminescent gemstones embedded into the walls. In the middle of the room stood six pillars arranged in a circle. Inside the circle stood two marble statues. Rarity approached them slowly, and it soon became evident that the statues were of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

“This is some of the most remarkable craftsmanship I’ve ever seen in my whole life...” Rarity remarked under her breath with awe, running her hooves across the smooth carvings that almost seemed like the real thing. After feeling the statues and admiring their beauty, she turned to face the rest of the room. Why would Emerald have such a chamber built?

Rarity leaned on one of the pillars nonchalantly as she took in the sights of the breathtaking sculptures again, but jolted back as a sudden burst of energy flowed through her upon contact. She inspected her hooves for a moment, her eyes widening. What had just happened? Cautiously, she extended a hoof towards the pillar and tensed as she felt the stone against her skin. However, much to her surprise, there wasn’t a sudden surge in power.

“Ah, so we’ve been discovered at last,” a voice said, echoing out of nowhere. Rarity froze. Was that voice coming from her head?

“W...Who’s there?” she called out, trying her best to sound brave even though she was anything but at the moment.

“What a pity,” a different voice responded, more to the first voice than to Rarity, “it appears that whoever found this room isn’t someone of consequence.” Rarity puffed out her cheeks.

“And what is that supposed to mean?!” she shouted into the nothingness, starting to question her sanity a little for talking to voices whose owners she couldn’t see. “What are you going on about? Show yourselves!”

“But we have already, you’re looking right at us,” the second voice responded. “Are you really so blind that you cannot see it?”

“What are you talking about?” Rarity shot back, her voice filled with venom. “All I see are these pillars and those… two… statues…” Her eyes widened. “Oh my goodness! Don’t tell me that you’re…” She brought her hoof to her mouth to stifle her gasp.

“Please, the time that we can actually communicate with you is limited, so use your words at every possible convenience,” the first voice cut in, a playful undertone imminent.

“The two princesses…” Rarity whispered in awe. “You’re the two princesses! The royal sisters!”

“Indeed we are, or at least, we were,” the first voice responded. “Allow me to introduce us. My name is Princess Celestia, controller of the sun, and beside me stands Princess Luna, controller of the moon and the stars.”

Rarity couldn’t speak, her pupils small as needleheads and her whole body shuddering. After standing frozen for a few moments, she screamed and turned on her hooves, fleeing up the spiral staircase as fast as her legs could carry her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This, er, unusual meeting of The Rebellion Bureau shall hereby come to order,” Twilight announced, her voice shaking a little. “Rarity, can you remind us again why exactly you needed us to have a meeting? Nothing’s happened to any of us.”

“It’s just… I stumbled upon something while I was talking with Emerald Joy yesterday,” Rarity spoke up, fidgeting a little.

“Was it so important that we needed a whole early meeting for it?” Aquamarine asked. “What could it possibly be?”

“Erm, well… What’s the one reason why we haven’t rebelled yet?” Rarity said, deciding to answer by posing a question.

“Huh? It’s because there are guards everywhere important, isn’t it?” Rainbow asked. “It was also because we didn’t know the code to get in, but you seem to have handled that one, didn’t you?”

“Yes, exactly,” Rarity replied. “We weren’t going in because we didn’t want to be caught by guards. However, Emerald Joy let me in on a little something: the guards are going to have Spring Break off!” She decided to hold her tongue about the manner of finding the hidden room with the two statues. Now wasn’t the time for that.

“Are you serious?!” Twilight shouted, getting up excitedly. “You all realize that the day that Spring Break starts is tomorrow, right?”

“Oh my God!” Aquamarine shouted, her eyes widening. “Could this really mean…?”

“It means that we’re going to get some serious butt kicking done!” Rainbow answered enthusiastically, smashing one of her hooves into the other. “I can’t believe it! This is almost too good to be true!”

“That’s why we have to be extremely careful when carrying this out,” Twilight reiterated. “We don’t want any more casualties than is necessary.”

“This is just… incredible,” Rarity said breathlessly. “After so long… we’re finally going to be free?”

“We’re going to have to put a lot in, but yes,” Twilight replied with a smile, “I suppose we are going to be free.”

“Well in that case,” Rainbow cut in, “we’re gonna need a plan of action!”

“Rarity,” Twilight said, “you’re going to be a very valuable asset when we plan out how we move throughout the castle. You’re the only one that’s been in there, so without you we’re essentially lost as to navigation.” Rarity nodded.

“Let’s get down to business, then.”

After many hours of plotting, mapping, assigning roles, and predicting the outcome to every possible situation, the four remaining members of The Rebellion Bureau finally knew how they were going to take their lives and their destinies back.

Chapter 17: The Beginning of the End

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 17: The Beginning of the End

Twilight raced through the crowd, trailing just behind Aquamarine. They were trying their hardest to stay inconspicuous, but the fate of their plan rested on them getting to the Committee’s headquarters as fast as possible.

Twilight veered her head to the side, grazing another person in the chaos. All of the colors of the populace blended together into a messy blur. Her mind was in a similar disarray; the fear and the adrenaline of the situation shut off her thinking capabilities completely. Her only conscious action was following Aquamarine.

Her eyes turned upward, the tip of the headquarters standing tall and proud above the city. She could see it drawing closer and closer with each step. Her hooves hit the ground hard and each impact would send a ripple of dull pain up her leg. She was already short of breath, but she was determined to push onward. The crowd was thinning, and soon enough they were free of the masses.

Twilight gasped for air and skidded to a halt when she saw that Aquamarine had stopped, her gaze turned upward. Twilight traced her line of vision, her eyes widening, and the two ponies stopped to take in the sight of the grand Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee headquarters looming above them. Its architecture was both high tech and elegant, its walls a sheer silver with emerald accents. The foreboding establishment sent a shockwave of excitement and dread through the young unicorn’s body. She could only assume that Aquamarine felt the same way.

After a moment or two that felt like an eternity, the two members of the Rebellion Bureau turned to each other, then nodded. They continued onward, their steps synchronizing. Twilight glanced over and smiled when she saw that Rarity had disabled the keypad, as evidenced by its keys lighting up in a random pattern as its system was overridden, leaving the front doors defenseless. The mission was going just as planned.

Aquamarine pushed the two grand front doors open, and a flood of sunlight gushed into the darkened hallways. It had a sort of melancholic feel, with all of the empty rooms and corridors.

“Alright,” the blue haired unicorn started under her breath, “we’ll continue as planned. You go find Rarity, and I’ll go disable the rest of this building’s security. If you can’t find her, just look for Emerald’s throne room. The speech has been over long enough, so she should be there by now.” Without a moment of hesitation, Aquamarine turned and dashed down one of the hallways. Twilight flinched and watched her leave, then continued down the main corridor.

“Where did Rarity say she would meet up with us?” she mumbled to herself. Her mind was so full of everything that it was becoming difficult to remember the little details. She resorted to walking hastily and stopping for only a moment to peer through doors, trying to find either Rarity or Emerald Joy, or maybe even something else of interest that could help. She sighed from her multiple failures. Even though they had planned so much, they couldn’t help that Rarity was the only one who knew her way around.

A sudden crash shook her whole body. It seemed distant, but she was still jolted. Had they been found out? Her pace quickened to a sprint, and she began running through many unknown hallways to find the source. If one of her friends was hurt…

Twilight began to slow her pace a little, her breath and energy running out. She took a moment to lean against a wall and tend to the aching cramp in her side, but she only had a moment’s pause before she heard movement in the room next to her. From what she gathered, neither Aquamarine nor Rarity could have been in that room to cause that noise. She held her breath, hoping that it was just nothing. The dull sound of footsteps reached her heightened hearing, and she froze. No, she couldn’t just stand there and wait to be found out! She had to move, and fast! With a gasp she hit the ground running, forcing her lungs to pump harder than she would have liked.

Corridor after corridor she sprinted, the adrenaline heightening her senses. All of the rooms and hallways seemed to mesh into one as she ran. She could still hear the sound of footsteps behind her. She needed to stop; her entire body was cramping and pleading for rest, but she had to keep running as fast as possible. Tears started falling from her eyes as she tore desperately through the maze of rooms, not even paying attention to where she was running to anymore.

She cried out in pain and agony with each slamming footstep, each one less steady than the last. She was losing her footing, her sheer terror clouding her mind and sending her into a state where her actions were based purely on fear and instinct. Her limbs flew about wildly, her sobbing not helping, and the flaming repetition of smacking her hooves against the ground to propel herself forward was taxing. She just had to get away from the footsteps, to get safe, but no matter how hard she tried they wouldn’t leave. In a last ditch effort she tried to perform a spell to ward them off, but in her state of panic all that came out was a few sparks of pure energy. Her mind wasn’t focused enough to do anything helpful.

Finally her legs couldn’t handle any more and gave out under her. She fell to the hard marble ground with a sickening thud, but that kind of pain was the last thing she was worrying about. The entity would catch up with her in no time, and it would all be over.

Twilight clenched her teeth and shut her eyes tight. She was defenseless, her body unable to move and her mind too wildly upset to focus. She tried again fruitlessly to cast a spell; it didn't even matter what spell it was at this point. This was how it was going to end? She curled up on the ground, waiting for the inevitable. The only sounds she could hear where her ragged breathing and her heart beating rapidly against her chest.

Wait, that couldn’t be right.

Twilight opened her eyes timidly, slowly uncurling herself. She was alone, in an unrecognizable corridor. She could only hear the sounds of her panic, and there was no trace of the ghostly footsteps. Had she just imagined it? She clutched her hoof against her chest to try and calm down, her eyes weakly turning towards the floor. This wasn’t good.

After taking a moment to come back to her senses, Twilight stood back up and surveyed her surroundings. The matter of the footprints still unnerved her, but there were more practical questions that needed answering. Where was she? She seemed to be deep in the maze of what was essentially a castle. Twilight gulped. But maybe this could be a good thing? After all, the entrance to Emerald Joy’s private throne room was probably hidden in a series of labyrinths anyway.

What would be the best next course of action? That was the question that was plaguing her mind. Should she look around and try to find out if there was anything useful around her? Should she try to backtrack to where she was before, or maybe call out to her friends? Besides, since all of the guard was off duty, the only thing that was stopping her was the nonsentient security measures.

“Speaking of security,” Twilight mumbled to herself, “why haven’t I run into any of it? There’s no way Aquamarine found the control room so fast, much less figured out how to disarm the system…”

She continued on warily, her steps quiet and cautious so she wouldn’t attract any attention should someone be nearby. There were too many unoccupied rooms in the building, and it was wearing away at Twilight’s confidence. There were no ways to indicate where anything of importance was. Maybe she could try a spell…?

She stopped walking, the gears in her head turning as she tried to recall something useful. After a moment or two, she lifted her head upward and shut her eyes tight in concentration. Focusing her energy into her horn in such a way, she slowly opened her eyes to see it glowing lightly with a bit of a purple tint. If the spell was done right, it should glow more intensely as she drew closer to someone else. It might not be the most useful thing, but it would do fine for now. Happy with herself, she took a step forward.

Immediately, a surge of power shot through her body, throwing her backward violently. It felt like her horn was on fire, but the pain didn’t dull, even though it was so intense. Twilight clutched her head with a scream, shutting off her magic. The moment she did, the sensation stopped as fast as it had come. She heaved a few deep breaths before she was able to think again, her death grip on her horn slowly loosening.

“You can’t be serious…” she mumbled once she got her voice back, still trying to rub the pain away. “I haven’t seen an enchantment like this in ages! I didn’t know they still had publicly accessible records on it…!” To be fair, the only time she heard of this type of magic nullification spell was when she was learning about ancient methods of torture, to put it simply. Back when the three factions of ponykind were severely divided…

Wait, how did she remember that?

“That… isn’t important right now,” she mumbled, picking herself back up. It pained her to ignore her budding curiosity, but investigation was for another time. Pushing her thoughts aside, Twilight took account of her surroundings. Another corridor, the same as any other. She sighed.

But no, there was something inherently different about this one hallway. She had no idea what it was, but she sensed an inconsistency. She was about to do a magic detection spell on instinct, but quickly caught herself.

“This isn’t a simple physical difference, either. It has to be magical! But, how is that possible?” she reasoned to herself. She tapped her chin in thought. Suddenly something caught her attention in the corner of her eye. Something was glowing. She quickly whipped her head around to see it in her full vision, but the moment she did, the soft green light flickered away. Should she chase after it? Was it just a trap. In all logical senses she knew she shouldn’t go after it, and logic was her greatest strength. However, something in her heart knew that she wouldn’t get anywhere if she didn’t. Her friends taught her that sometimes belief is more important than reason.

“Friendship hasn’t misguided me before, after all…” she mumbled. Though it was a bit of a stretch in reasoning, there was still some truth in her words of reassurance. After hesitating for a moment, Twilight warily chased after the direction of the glow.

She turned the corner, backtracking to a corridor she was in when she was bolting around in a panic. At the time she noticed nothing strange about it, and at the time there probably was nothing strange about it. The feeling that something was off--something magical--only intensified.

Twilight's eyes widened as the light green glow reappeared on the wall. It broke into segments, then etched the shape of a door that wasn't there before. Slowly the illuminated outline filled in with color, and right before her she saw a real door materialize. She approached it slowly, her eyes widening in awe.

"This is really it, huh?" she asked breathlessly. She laughed wearily. "I guess this is where it ends. Just beyond this door..." She extended her arm and grazed the ornate handle with her hoof. There was no mistaking it. The only thing standing between Twilight and Emerald Joy’s throne room, the arena of her final battle, was the grand wooden doors before her. They stood in stark contrast with the metallic accents of the rest of the building, and yet they didn’t seem out of place at all.

Her hoof slid into place on the golden handle and she firmed her grip. Ever so slowly, her muscles tensed and she began to pull.

“I can’t let you do that, Twilight Sparkle.”

Chapter 18: A Thread Unravels

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 18: A Thread Unravels

Twilight hardly had enough time to process what she had heard behind her before she felt her body forced to the ground. She turned her head to see who was restraining her. Their head was turned the other way—probably checking for any others that might be nearby—but Twilight could catch that they had a distinctly female build and sapphire blue hair. She relaxed her muscles a bit in confusion.

“Aquamarine…?”

Her head whipped back around as soon as she spoke, and suddenly Twilight felt Aquamarine smack her in the face. Twilight flinched, but once she regained her senses she lunged back at her. Her mind wasn’t focusing on who was attacking her, rather what they were stopping her from doing. Once she wiggled her hoof free from her restraint, Twilight returned the attack, hitting Aquamarine square in the face. She didn’t look all too fazed by it, but whether it was because she was a weak puncher or not was beyond Twilight, but that possibility was quite likely. Magic and other mental powers were her strong suit after all.

Aquamarine sent her hoof straight into Twilight’s face again, though much harder this time, and sent a bit of blood splattering on the floor next to them. She could feel her nose bruise up, but she wasn’t very concerned about it for the time being.

She struggled to gain movement in her leg, then kicked Aquamarine in the stomach, temporarily knocking her off. Twilight could tell that her attack didn’t do very much damage, but it gave her enough time to pounce on top of her and gain the upper hand. She forced the other mare’s arms to the floor. If only she was able to use magic it would be a whole lot easier to win the fight, but she had to make do with the circumstances.

With her eyes clenched shut, Aquamarine struggled to fight back. At least, that’s what Twilight assumed she was trying to do. After a few moments, her eyes opened, and Twilight was taken aback to see that her irises, the ones that used to be a deep blue, were now a bright crimson red. In that same instant, Twilight’s hooves started stinging as if they were being injected with a thousand tiny needles. She looked down and saw that they were in a matching scarlet aura of magic. But that was impossible, since they were fighting in a magic negation field, which prevented unicorns from using magic. But, that’s just for unicorns…

Twilight felt her body being lifted off of the ground, a similar pricking sensation completely engulfing her. She lifted her eyes up from her hooves to look Aquamarine in the face.

“What are you?” Twilight asked. Aquamarine smirked, and it wasn’t long before Twilight was hurled into the wall on the other side of the hallway. Perhaps if Twilight had better physical stamina she would have been able to recover faster, but having been reduced to a mess of blood after denting the cement wall, there was no way she could overtake Aquamarine in the fight. She groaned, blood bubbling in the back of her throat, as she saw her attacker slowly draw closer with malicious intent in her eyes. Twilight cleared her throat, spitting out an unhealthy amount of blood onto the floor and on her coat.

“Wh-why?” she asked weakly. “Why would… you do this? Aquamarine?” The blue haired mare kneeled down, grabbing Twilight’s chin in magic and forcing it upward.

“Didn’t I already tell you? I can’t let you stick your nose into places that you aren’t supposed to.” She snapped Twilight’s head upward, then stood back up. “Now do everyone a favor and stop trying to be the hero that we all know you aren’t.” She ended her statement with a knee to Twilight’s chin, smashing her against the wall. Twilight clenched her teeth and prepared for a beating to her death.

“Come now, Ondine. Just because you have to go stop her doesn’t mean you have to be so barbaric about it.” Twilight looked out of the corner of her eye and saw, accompanied with the clicking of newly polished hooves against the smooth floor, the distinctive image of Emerald Joy, giant curls and all. She scowled, but due to her current condition, she didn’t dare attack.

“Wh-what’s going on?” Twilight sputtered angrily, attempting to prop herself up on her elbows. Emerald giggled lightheartedly.

“You really did quite a number on her, didn’t you?” she asked. “Now that won’t do at all. Clean yourself up, dear. I don’t want you staining anything more than you already have.” With a clap of her gloved hooves, a clarity that Twilight never noticed was absent returned. She struggled to focus her energy, then tested her magic. Sure enough, her horn glowed weakly. She started busying herself with several low level healing spells.

“Oh, and don’t try anything silly, Twilight Sparkle,” Aquamarine added, looking down at her. “Just because you have your magic back doesn’t mean I can’t still beat you.” There was a tense pause, the only noise coming from Twilight's magic hard at work.

“So why didn’t you stop me earlier, Aquamarine? Why didn’t you come along or tell me to do something else?” Twilight muttered.

“First of all, I needed to make the act believable. I don’t know how you found the throne room, though, considering how deeply hidden it is and how well the door is guarded by magic, but one way or another you did. That’s when I decided I needed to intervene,” she explained matter-of-factly. Twilight kept her mouth shut, focusing her efforts instead on patching herself up.

“Well, while you’re busy with that, I have something I have to tell you,” Emerald Joy said after staring with dismay at the huge dent in the wall and the bloodstains for a while. Twilight perked up slightly with curiosity, but didn’t turn her way. “It seems there’s a traitor in your midst! Or have you figured that out yet? I wouldn’t put it past you!”

“What do you mean, ‘have I figured it out’? It’s pretty obvious since she just attacked me and beat the crap out of me for touching a door,” Twilight answered, her words laced with venom. Emerald Joy giggled amusedly, with Aquamarine standing to the side, her expression rather unreadable.

“Oh my, you think that Ondine is the traitor? That’s adorable!” she answered, her hoof on her cheek and the other waving in amusement.

“What else would she be?” Twilight shot back angrily. “She pretended that she was friends with me but was actually working with you!”

“Hmm, I wouldn’t exactly call that a ‘traitor’ per se. More like a ‘double agent’ or something of that variety.” Twilight tensed at the implications.

“Wait, that doesn’t mean that—”

“Oh, so you really haven’t figured it out!” Emerald said in amazement. “And I thought you would’ve noticed! No, there’s another friend of yours feeding me information! Or, at least, she was feeding me information.” She sighed. “But alas, all wells run dry sooner or later.”

“What are you talking about?!” Twilight shouted. “I’ve known my friends for years, and I know that none of them would do something like that!”

“Do you really know them as well as you say?” Emerald retorted. She smirked. “Well, that’s a question for another time. Answer me something right now: Out of all of your friends, which ones are supposed to be helping you with this little ‘mission’?” Twilight paused.

“Well, Rainbow Dash would have been helping if…” she trailed off.

“Yes yes, I’m strictly speaking of ponies who are alive right now.”

“I mean, you could say that Pinkie Pie and Applejack are still alive, but they’re not really in any condition to help right now…” Twilight added. “So I suppose that just leaves Aquamarine and... Rarity.”

“You’ve reached your answer! Bravo!” Emerald clapped, and Twilight shot her a sour look. “Rarity is the traitor amongst you! And in case you’re wondering where she is right now, don’t worry! She came to me just a short while ago asking me to put her under the spell now that her task was over! That’s why it took me a while to get here. So sorry about that.”

Twilight was numb. She couldn’t move. No, she just had to think this through, it couldn’t be as bad as she thought. The plan was still going to work!

But it was as bad as she thought. Now that Aquamarine—no, Ondine—was revealed to be on Emerald’s side for whatever reason, and now that Rarity was under the happiness spell…

That meant that she was the only one left to oppose Emerald Joy. The only pony in the city. The only pony in the world. Emerald ruled everything with what was essentially an iron fist now.

“Hm, and while we’re talking about traitors, I suppose I should tell you one other thing. I mean, it’s not too important, but do you remember that one fellow from way back when? Ike, I believe his name was?” Emerald Joy continued. “Well, your friend Rainbow Dash was right! He was just used to trick Fluttershy! But I wasn’t expecting her to react that much to his death! She really lives up to that shy personality, doesn’t she?” She laughed, knowing how much she was riling up Twilight’s emotions. “In fact, he wasn’t even a real person! It’s amazing what magic can do these days, isn’t it? Oh, but don’t worry, I didn’t make any other people to trick you. That would just be lazy.”

Twilight’s blood boiled within her veins. Talking so lightly about how unfairly she manipulated all of them was unbearable to listen to. She wanted to lash out, to take her out then and there. And before she knew it, that’s exactly what she was attempting. She kicked herself off the ground, throwing her whole body’s power into the strongest punch she had ever attempted, fueling it with all of the pent up anger towards Emerald. She aimed and swung.

“You bitch!”

She felt the punch connect, but not in the way she had expected. Emerald had grabbed her hoof, completely stopping the momentum, then forcefully grabbed Twilight’s face in her cloud of green magic, bringing it up to her eye level.

“Now that’s no good, is it?” she asked sweetly, looking into Twilight’s eyes which were twitching in anger. “This isn’t our battlefield.” She dropped Twilight and directed her vision towards the still-glowing door.

“You didn’t expect we’d let you heal up for nothing, did you?” Aquamarine added. With a sickeningly elegant flourish of her gown, Emerald Joy turned and entered her throne room, with Aquamarine tagging along behind her.

Chapter 19: Reopening

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 19: Reopening

Twilight stood back up, glaring at the now-closed throne room door. That sense of finality from the first time she tried to open the door returned, but this time it was mixed with boiling anger and vengeance. It was a dangerous mix of emotions that she didn’t usually have. No matter how upset she was, it wasn’t until just then that she truly realized who she was up against. Emerald Joy, the conqueror of two immortal princesses. Boy, what had she gotten herself into?

Nonetheless, she moved towards the wooden doors, moving much quicker than the first time. She didn’t have the luxury of time on her side this time. She clutched the golden handle tightly, then cast a few last minute spells to be sure she was in top condition. Luckily, when given the time, unicorns could easily recover fully even from being smashed against a wall. She directed her attention back on her hoof, now resting on the only thing keeping her from the final battle. She took a deep breath, gathered her resolve, and pushed the door open.

The throne room was just as grand as she was anticipating. It was a large circular room, which was befitting an arena. The walls were made up of silver pillars with green accents, which was to be expected considering the rest of the building. Even still, it was a lot less gaudy from the other rooms. She drew her attention to the large throne on the other end of the room in which Emerald Joy was seated, which was shaped like a large silver tree. It branched off into six branches above her head, and on each one was embedded a large colored gem: one pink, one red, one orange, one blue, one purple, and the very middle one was a deep pink not unlike the color of Twilight’s own magical aura.

“Oh, this would’ve been so much cooler if we had met in here first instead of out there,” Emerald sighed, her voice reverberating off of the walls. “Now I can’t say something fitting like “I’ve been waiting for you” because I just saw you not a minute ago! That’d sound totally cheesy and rehearsed! I also can’t make a really big reveal about Ondine, either! Oh, this is a disaster!”

“Spare me the details, Emerald,” Twilight replied. “I’m here to take back my world, not to make friendly conversation.”

“Wow, getting feisty and confrontational already? Fine, fine. I suppose I can call back Ondine and tell her not to make the tea.” Emerald Joy stood up from her throne and walked down the couple steps to get on the same level as Twilight. “Why so hasty to die, though?”

“If I wanted to die I’d have given up at the beginning and gone under your stupid spell like the rest of them,” Twilight shot back.

“I’m still kinda mad about that, you know.” Emerald pouted, her curls bouncing as she drew slowly closer. “I put a lot of work into that, too.”

“As if something like that matters at this point when I’m about to duel with the great Emerald Joy herself.” Twilight replied sarcastically. Finally Emerald stopped, the two standing at a comfortable distance, which was definitely in attacking range of each other. Still, neither moved.

“I know, right?” Emerald answered to the silence. “You’ve anticipated this moment so long that now that you’re here, it’s kind of surreal, and you’re not sure what to do!”

“Sh-shut up!” Twilight retorted, her face rather flustered. She didn’t usually have this sort of temper, but this was Emerald Joy she was dealing with, and she was getting on her nerves a lot more than she was expecting.

But even then, she was at least a little bit right. At least, she didn’t want to start the battle, but she knew it had to be done. She didn’t notice it before, but her breath was shaky. Why was she so nervous after all of the preparation? Emerald giggled when she saw how tense Twilight was.

“Come on, you’ve gotten this far and you still don’t want to attack me? That’s terrible! After all, all of your friends left with the notion that you were going to spark this huge rebellion, but it looks like they were all wrong! Their lives really were worthless, huh? They didn’t even know their own friend!” Emerald Joy jeered, egging Twilight on again.

“I said, shut up!”

Twilight thrust her horn forward, and it glowed brightly. A magic circle formed around her feet, and four others similar to it appeared around them. Her hair fluttered with power, and her eyes were shut tight in concentration.

“Ah, see! I knew you had it in you!” Emerald praised. She made no effort to dodge or counter attack, instead waiting to see the full potential of her spell. Twilight had no intention of disappointing.

Her eyes shot open, a bright pink light bursting from them. She jerked her head to the side, and out from the four arcane circles burst pillars of magic, which arched down towards their target. Their size and speed made it so no ordinary pony could dodge them. Emerald Joy, however, was no ordinary pony.

“Shiny, but not much else,” she commented, lifting her own horn to blast an equally powerful light green ray which crashed into Twilight’s magic, canceling the two out in a light blue burst. It was to be expected that the first attack wouldn’t be the last, but Twilight was still taken aback at how much power Emerald easily produced. Nevertheless, she moved in closer, shooting a flurry of sparks into the air above them. Immediately afterward, she shot multiple beams at the unicorn before her. Emerald nimbly dodged out of the way of the barrage of lasers, shooting back a few of her own. When the sparks finally fell to the ground, they went off like firecrackers. However, Emerald was able to anticipate that as well. She flaunted her dress, and the bottom half came off, extinguishing the attack in an instant.

“It really is quite amazing what materials your friend Rarity could work with. You really need to appreciate them more, before those talents no longer become available to you,” Emerald Joy said. She cast the magical fabric to the side, her clothing now far more maneuverable.

“I sure appreciated them a lot more than you did! You just used them for your own selfish needs!” Twilight shouted back, sending another barrage of magic her way. Emerald responded in kind, but both unicorns were quite skilled in their craft.

“You wouldn’t be able to tell your ‘friends’ apart from a cardboard cutout of them! As long as they look the same, you don’t bat an eye! What kind of friend are you that you don’t notice when something is amiss?” Emerald answered, her tone less carefree than usual.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Twilight yelled, her attacks growing brighter as she welled up with fury.

“I mean, that’s precisely what happened,” Emerald Joy replied calmly. She waved her hoof, and all of the magical bullets froze. It was as if time was suspended for the whole world around them.

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, preparing to move forward but finding herself unable to.

“Don’t make any hasty decisions when time is stopped, please,” Emerald added. “But haven’t you noticed something strange? How Applejack didn’t go after her sister? How much Fluttershy reacted to her little friend’s death? How suddenly suicidal Pinkie Pie got? How completely irrational Rainbow Dash was in attacking me? And in all of that, how quickly and easily you were able to get over them all?” Twilight stopped. She could have owned all of her friends’ odd behavior up to Emerald’s mind games, but why was she so distant towards them all of the sudden? These were her best friends, who she had known since forever, through thick and thin…

But if that was to be true, then why didn’t she care so much?

From a technical standpoint she cared, because that was one less person in their ranks, but why didn’t she care on an emotional level? Thinking back on it, the only ones who didn’t seem all that reactive towards the news of others dying were both herself and Aquamarine, which made much more sense in hindsight.

“Now, I don’t want to make your head explode and just leave you dangling there! I’ll tell you, so thank me sometime!” Emerald assured after giving Twilight a moment to think. “Now let me take you on a ride in the mind of a young Emerald Joy. I’m putting my grand plan of happiness in its final stages, and it’s come time to accommodate the Bearers of The Elements of Harmony. Now golly, I’m not just gonna be able to clap my hooves together and call it a day, no! Annoyingly enough, the Bearers have a lot more power than that, so I have to come up with a separate plan.

“Conveniently enough, however, Ondine over there has a special little power called Ondine’s Curse. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the term, but essentially she can put anyone she chooses into an eternal sleep. Now, isn’t that just handy! So right away I decide to go and incapacitate you and your friends. It was all going nice and fine until we got to you, my dear! It seems that The Element of Magic is a feisty one whose mind isn’t easily persuaded. It’s terribly inconvenient for me, but if it’s just one of you roaming around, it should be fine.”

“But that still doesn’t explain anything! There’s no way that all of my friends were asleep that whole time! That doesn’t even make any sense!” Twilight yelled. She wasn’t even sure why she was listening to Emerald, since there was no way to validate what she was saying to be the truth.

“Hush, you’re too impatient. I was just getting to the important part,” the unicorn replied. “You see, even when they’re so heavily restrained here in my throne room, The Elements of Harmony still have a tendency to try and reach out and do something with their power. Now mind you I’ve learned to take better care of them over time, but this was right when I was first starting out as a budding young ruler. The Elements knew what had happened to your friends, and tried to compensate.” Twilight’s eyes widened.

“There’s no way they could’ve…”

“Don’t question the lengths that natural, original sources of magic can go to when they want to, because they did indeed, against my wishes, create manifestations of themselves in the forms of your friends,” Emerald answered with dismay. “Each Element reformed a part of itself as their respective Bearers. Honesty became Applejack, Laughter became Pinkie Pie, Loyalty became Rainbow Dash, Generosity became Rarity, and Kindness became Fluttershy. Magic simply offered its power to help the rest of them. Of course, these new versions were none the wiser. They had hardly any memories.” Emerald Joy turned, her hair fluttering as she did so.

“However, when I did the same to make Ike, I realized that it took a great deal of power just to make that unbelievable character. In order to remake a fully complex pony, I can’t even begin to imagine how much magic would have to be exhumed, but for our convenience I can assure you it’s more than The Elements hold. That’s why their personalities are really just boiled down to a few noteworthy traits that each Bearer had, and they were usually amplified to cover up for the rest that they were missing. This produced two-dimensional copies that apparently resembled your friends enough for you to be fooled.”

Twilight never noticed at what moment she had started crying, but the realization that she hadn’t suspected something amiss with everyone ate away at her soul. She was the Bearer of Magic, the one who was supposed to tie them all together, so why did she even fail at doing that? She fell to her knees, clutching her head in her hooves, everything just too much to handle. With all of the work that The Elements of Harmony had done to bring her this far, only for her to fail like this...?

“How can I even know that what you’re saying is true? For all I know you’re making this up just to make me lose hope,” Twilight countered. Emerald looked back with interest, since Twilight hadn’t spoken up in a while.

“Oh, do you want to see them, then? I can do that, if you want to.” The branches on the silver tree that was Emerald’s throne opened just under the Elements, revealing five encasings that resembled test tubes. Inside floated the unconscious bodies of Twilight’s five friends, the liquid around them presumably for preserving purposes.

“Of course, I couldn’t just go and kill off embodiments of The Elements of Harmony, so I had to improvise,” Emerald continued after a long pause, though Twilight wasn’t paying much attention at that point. “Instead, I triggered them and killed off everything around them that they loved. Ike I had to go out of my way to plant, sure, but it was easy enough to capture Applejack’s stupid little sister and get her out of the way under the guise that she confronted me. The masses these days will believe anything.

“I hadn’t anticipated Applejack would be the one to take the bait about black magic. I planted that library with the ancient books I had left over for Pinkie Pie to wish for happiness or something silly, or maybe even for you to be courageous and do something about the situation yourself! Luckily for me, I didn’t have to go set up anything else, as Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash then conveniently took care of themselves! Not necessarily the most fun, but beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose.”

“...I’ve heard enough out of you,” Twilight muttered.

“Hm? But I was just about to explain how I was able to kill Rainbow Dash just a bit ago. I can admit, I was worried I’d have to do it now!”

“I said…” Emerald looked down and saw that her body was halfway engulfed with a thick purple aura, and it was slowly rising upward. Her horn had also been wrapped in a similar magic. Twilight raised her horn to confirm the ruler’s suspicions. She tilted it downward, and in a sudden mess of blood, the magic surrounding her transformed into daggers that thrusted into Emerald Joy’s body

“...shut up.”

Chapter 20: Clinging to the Past

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 20: Clinging to the Past

With Emerald Joy’s body now a mangled, hole-ridden mess, Twilight felt a wave of relief run over her. Finally, she was freed of the binding of the stupid happiness curse. All that was left to do was rebuild society and make things as they once were. That shouldn’t be too hard…

But now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. She turned to investigate the encasings of her friends. They were suspended in tubes, with some sort of glowing liquid keeping them pristine. Their Elements probably were helping to preserve them, but she wasn’t sure for what purpose Emerald would be letting them live, even if it was in this suspended state. Just how fatal was Ondine’s Curse, anyway? Were they even alive anymore?

Speaking of Ondine, Twilight supposed that she would have to be dealt with whenever she turned up again. Where had she gone off to anyway? Twilight sighed. There really was a lot more that had to be done. But still, it was a bit startling how easily she was able to kill off Emerald.

“Oh, you really thought that a weak attack like that was enough to kill me?”

Shivers went up Twilight’s spine as she turned, and sure enough, Emerald Joy was standing upright behind her, the holes in her body now gone, though blood splatters showed where they once were. “Really, do you have to stain every piece of clothing you see? It’s getting annoying.”

“B-but…” Twilight choked out, backing up against the wall encasing her unconscious friends.

“Honestly, you have to give me more credit here,” Emerald sighed. “If I could be taken out that easily, we wouldn’t be where we are right now.” There was a pause as Twilight gaped incredulously at Emerald, who was acting as if nothing was wrong. She was just dead a minute ago, so how could she possibly be just standing there like that?

“How…?” she murmured, not able to tear her eyes away.

“Can’t you ask a question worth asking during this lull in the battle? Even though I do enjoy indulging my genius before killing you, I might lose my patience at any minute now,” Emerald replied. Twilight turned, having completely forgotten that time was suspended around them. That would at least explain why Ondine hadn’t returned. She paused for a few moments, then turned back to face Emerald.

“You said that the copies had no memories, but that can’t be true. Rainbow Dash remembered us fighting before all of this, and if I’m to understand correctly, we were using The Elements of Harmony. I hardly knew anything about them before a few weeks ago! Explain to me how that’s possible!” Twilight demanded.

“Hm? Really? It seems those Elements are smarter than I thought…” Emerald muttered amusedly. “If I were to guess, I would say they attempted to give their copies some memories from before, but they only knew of the times when you all were using them. I suppose they were trying to make them remember something about them being the Bearers, but that little effort went to waste as well.”

“Wait, you mean to say that we used to fight things with The Elements? On a regular basis?” Twilight asked, her eyes widening. She didn’t even know how she would have tapped their energy, much less fight with it.

“Do you want me to show you, is that it?” Emerald asked with a sly grin. “Alright then, let’s go on a quick journey.” Twilight recoiled when she felt a slight pressure on her forehead, but Emerald grabbed hold of her so she couldn’t run off. In a flash of light, the silver and green colors of the throne room melted away, mixing and transforming into dark blues and weathered grays.

The abstract colors reformed into the shape of ruins. The stars in the night sky now above them shined brightly. Twilight drew attention to who was standing in the middle of the room. It was her, albeit slightly younger, along with Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack. They all faced someone who she didn’t recognize, though from the mare’s dark armor she could tell that she wasn’t anyone to be messed with. Twilight perked up, suddenly hearing the sound of her own voice.

“...because the spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here!”

Twilight watched with awe as the six ponies were lifted into the air, their bodies glowing white, and with a sudden burst of energy a rainbow spiraled out of the blinding light. It twirled in the air for a few moments, then cascaded down onto the dark figure, effectively defeating it.

Emerald glanced over and smiled at Twilight’s expression of disbelief. Once the scene was over, she clapped her gloved hooves together and the image swirled away again. The throne room rushed back into their vision, and Emerald resumed her previous stance as if nothing had ever happened. With a flourish she continued the flow of time.

“But I’ve grown bored of all of this talk,” Emerald Joy said, but Twilight paid her little attention. As soon as she regained her bearings, she rushed towards the wall, climbing up on Emerald’s throne to better reach The Elements.

“Hey, what are you meddling in?” Emerald shouted. “Don’t you know that it’s not nice to stand on someone else’s chair? And what good will that do you, anyway?”

“I think you know perfectly well what good it’ll do me,” Twilight responded, reaching The Element of Magic. She rested her hoof on its surface and instantly felt a rush of power.

“I see. Playing dirty now, are we?” Emerald asked, her tone darker than usual. “Fine, then I’ll do the same.” As soon as the words left her mouth, three blasts exploded out of the wall. Twilight stood firm, shooting back a few times, though she was trying to focus her energy on activating The Elements. She quickly put up a barrier to hide herself from any moderate sized attacks.

“That’s not going to work, you know,” Emerald exclaimed, maneuvering herself around to be able to get around the barrier. “You’re not going to be able to use the rest of The Elements when they’re under Ondine’s Curse. They can’t think right now, so they can’t have the emotions that it takes to access The Elements’ power.”

“That’s what you would think, what with all of your psychological studies, but I know that something like friendship is more powerful than any curse,” Twilight responded confidently, her body glowing with power as she spoke. “Even subconsciously, we still share the same emotional bonds, because the ties of friendship run deeper than anything you could ever imagine!” She turned around towards Emerald, but was taken by surprise when she saw that the normally calm leader had now broken through her barrier, and was lunging straight towards her, a hoof raised above her head. Twilight knew that she didn’t have what it took to deflect or dodge, so she did nothing but cover her face and wait for the blow.

It was like time was going in slow motion. Slowly Emerald advanced, and once she drew close enough, she threw her hoof forward, aiming to knock Twilight off of the throne. Soon she was only inches away from her face, and Twilight remembered just how much her nose already stung from earlier. She saw everything get brighter and brighter. Was this her life flashing before her eyes? No, it couldn’t be something like that, but for what other reason would everything be so blindingly bright now?

Then the sickening crack came. Though, for some reason, Twilight didn’t feel any pain to go with it. She looked harder, and saw that Emerald had been thrown back as if she hit an invisible barrier. Was that what this was? Twilight struggled to move her head to glance behind her. The Elements of Harmony were glowing brighter than she ever saw before. Was that it? Yes, that had to be it!

“That’s right, because the souls of The Elements of Harmony are right here!”

Chapter 21: Shattered Mirrors

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 21: Shattered Mirrors

The feeling of channeling so much magical energy was euphoric to say the least. It was so refreshing, and it almost felt like Twilight was temporarily shifting to a higher plane of existence. All she could see was the white light, and it was so calming. It was just her and her friends in this new world. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was aware that the effect would wear off, but for now this magic called friendship was all that mattered.

To imagine that she had gone on so long without something like this was almost unbelievable. Its power was so rejuvenating that it was a miracle that she didn’t lose hope earlier from not having access to it. Was this really how strong her bond with her friends was? It was almost surreal. It felt as if all of their minds and souls were one. One pool of magic made of their individual springs. The harmony and serenity that resulted was a thing of beauty, and surely it could banish any darkness from the world.

The light eventually came to pass, although it was much quicker than she would’ve liked. However, she was lowered to the floor with a sense of completeness, and her spirit and body were both completely refreshed. The room dimmed again, and everything was once again visible. She looked up at The Elements with a smile. Everything felt as it should be, now that she aligned herself with the rest of her friends, even though they were unconscious at the time.

At least, everything should have felt as it should be. She sensed a presence that definitely shouldn’t be there. She turned, the color draining from her face. All sense of purity and harmony she once had was gone.

“N-no, it can’t be,” Twilight stammered, reaching behind her to find something for support. “The Elements… my friends… so, it can’t be…!” Emerald Joy, though a bit tattered and unkempt, stood a few feet away as good as new.

"Nice little light show you had going there,” she commented. “It’s a shame that you really can’t connect with your friends enough to actually do anything with all that magic, though.”

“No, I felt it! I know I did…!” Twilight insisted, shaking her head in wild disbelief. She backed up further, tripped on a step, and fell to the ground. Still, she kept her eyes locked in horror at Emerald Joy.

“I can’t deny you accessed the field of magic, but I can deny that you failed to do anything useful with it. Maybe some healing and conditioning, but other than that?” Emerald scoffed, flipping some hair out of the way. “It’s quite pitiful, really.”

“I-I don’t understand…” Twilight choked breathlessly. She whipped her head around to face the wall again, wishing that her sleeping friends could offer some answers.

“Oh, don’t you see, Twilight? No matter how nice your little speeches sound, you still can’t change the reality of it. Even if your friends could bear their Elements in this state, I have The Elements of Harmony restrained so much that what you just attempted is most likely the limit of their power right now. Did you really expect me to go around with The Elements completely free to do as they pleased? With enough power, you can hold down even the most powerful forces of nature.” Emerald advanced slowly towards Twilight, who in return quickly scrambled away. But it was no use; she quickly felt the cold wall on her back.

“No matter how much you run away, you can’t run away from the reality that your only hope of defeating me is gone!” Emerald hovered her hoof above Twilight’s, who was able to move away in time to save it from being stomped mercilessly into the ground. Emerald Joy lit up her horn and picked Twilight up by the neck.

“In fact, why don’t I take away your Element, hm? Your only talent: magic.” Emerald used a separate cloud of magic to take hold of Twilight’s horn, squeezing it in such a way so that at the smallest provocation it could easily snap it off. Twilight’s eyes widened, but she didn’t give in. In a few critical moments, she focused every fiber of her being into her magic, and her horn soon burned white hot. The pain was incredible, but she knew that Emerald felt it as well. With a shout, the jade-clad empress pivoted and threw Twilight as hard as she could in the opposite direction. With a sickening thud, she landed in the middle of the room, which was still a good fifteen feet away. Her body wasn’t in nearly as much pain as she was expecting, which she probably could thank The Elements for, but it still took her a moment to recover. Emerald Joy’s physical and magical power was supernatural to say the least.

The attack didn’t seem to hurt Emerald in any way, however, but the shock gave Twilight enough time to stand back up and resume the battle. With a wave of her hoof, a landslide of tumbling rocks appeared out of thin air, with the large boulders aimed directly at Emerald, who was still recovering from the heat. She quickly noticed, however, and erected out of the ground great slates of emerald crystal.

“The walls of an emerald city are impenetrable, so don’t think your dirt can do anything to them! Crystals were once dirt that strove to be greater, and emerged as something more beautiful and powerful than you can even dream to become!” Emerald Joy shouted back, a storm of razor sharp leaves shooting down at Twilight as her words echoed on the walls.

The attack swiftly closing in, Twilight thrusted her head downward, creating a magical flurry of wind. She concentrated it for a few moments, balancing it around her body, then shot it outward to send the magical leaves off course. They fell to the ground with a clinking noise not unlike metal, then disappeared in wisps of magic.

Conjuring up another burst of wind, Twilight increased its intensity, then combined it with fire magic. The result was a whirlwind of fireballs, which she spun into a tornado and released, with a course set towards Emerald’s impenetrable crystal fortress. The smell of ash filled the air as it engulfed the structure, though Twilight didn’t have time to rest. Once the magical emeralds were destroyed, the fiery winds were suddenly engulfed and extinguished by a much larger cyclone. After a few moments, the power driving the pillar of water subsided and its walls crashed down onto the floor, whitecapping as it rushed towards Twilight.

With no time to act, the waves overtook her, tossing her around for a moment before smashing her onto the adjacent wall. The water then subsided, draining away to some unknown location. Her vision was cloudy and her breath ragged from the impact, but she was still able to fight. Not that she had much of a choice at this point, because when she looked back towards where Emerald Joy should’ve been standing, she saw instead something that resembled a dragon made of metal flying towards her at alarming speeds. Almost its entire surface was covered in metal spikes, and there was absolutely no way that she could withstand taking its force head-on. That meant she either had to escape or counter-attack, and with her current condition, neither options seemed viable.
She was losing time fast. The dragon began expelling magical fire. She could already feel it burning her. Was a spell this complicated even feasible? That wasn’t important. She needed to act. Nowhere to go left. Nowhere to go right. Look up. Any way out that way? Look forward. Look down. Sweat dripped where her vision touched. This plan was crazy. Crazy enough to work really isn’t assuring when it’s used.

The dragon lunged its head downward, aiming straight towards her. There was her chance. Kicking her legs as hard as she could, Twilight sprang up. She grabbed onto one of the metal spikes on its head. Pulling on it, she flipped over and landed on its back. Her face was headed straight towards a nasty looking spike, but with an instinctual flick of her horn, she caught herself midair, her nose touching the very tip. She quickly redirected herself, then stood up to regain her bearings. She quickly had to kneel down again, though, as the magical dragon took to the air. It spun around to try and shake her off, but she wasn’t quite so willing to let go.

The dragon shifted gears and instead rose higher. Twilight could spot Emerald from the ground controlling the magical beast, though she wasn’t sure what she was trying to accomplish by bringing her up so high. She didn’t have to wonder for long, though, because a few moments later her head scraped along the ceiling, and the dragon showed no signs of slowing its ascent. Thinking fast, Twilight slid down the side, grabbing onto spikes occasionally to keep herself from falling to the ground far below her.

Eventually she was sitting on the side of a particularly big spike, giving herself a good view of Emerald Joy’s actions, along with a good shot at her. Emerald seemed to notice Twilight’s plan, as her hooves that were glowing green began busying themselves again. However, much to Twilight’s confusion, she didn’t feel the dragon moving. She tensed up, clutching at the spike that she was sitting on, only to feel a moment or so later that there was no spike.

And then she was in freefall, the ground approaching fast. There was no way she could conjure up something to cushion her fall under the conditions, so she improvised. Thrusting her horn forward, she shot out of it a long string of magic. She whipped it to the side, wrapping it around Emerald, and swung it back under her just in time to save her from meeting the hard floor. Not only was she able to use her opponent to break her fall, but she also effectively brought her into range with no easy way to escape.

Twilight coughed, expelling some blood from her throat and dirtying Emerald’s face at the same time. A bit of it landed in her eye, temporarily blinding her. With a sickening screech, Emerald flailed around to try and throw Twilight off of her. Twilight, however, had used the time to make magical holds to keep Emerald tethered to the ground. Assured that there was no way she could escape, Twilight slowly stood up and thrusted her hoof against Emerald’s forehead. She looked at it with disgust, but since she was unable to move, she did nothing.

“I don’t care what you are, and I don’t care how powerful you are,” Twilight started, charging up power within herself. “If I blast you from this range, you die.” She felt the pressure build, along with Emerald’s quickened pulse, and finally the moment came.
With a sudden burst, Twilight was knocked away from the empress. Two ramps of ice formed on either side of her, one of which lifted Emerald Joy off of the ground and out of her reach. She turned to see where the two ramps lead to, and was promptly hit with another surge of water, pushing her backwards against the wall on the other side of the room for a second time.

Once the water flowed away again and Twilight could clearly see, she saw the two ice ramps melt away into nothing. She looked up, and there stood Emerald Joy, standing with an aura just as condescending as ever even though she was just about to be killed but a moment ago. To her side stood Ondine, her eyes still blazing red. She was the only one that could’ve cast that spell.
“I’m glad you finally arrived, my sweet Ondine!” Emerald Joy greeted with her usual saccharine voice. “We’ve been waiting for you, and now the party can finally begin!”

Chapter 22: Grudge Bow

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 22: Grudge Bow

“You know, I’ve been thinking about what you tried pulling earlier, Twilight,” Emerald Joy said, her magic running through her hair as she tried fruitlessly to brush out the tangles. “That was kind of rude, wasn’t it? Breaking into someone’s house and trying to kill them with their own stuff, then thinking you can walk off scot free?”

“The Elements of Harmony don’t belong to anyone!” Twilight shot back. “Just because you’re holding onto them doesn’t mean that you can keep them under lock and key and expect nothing to happen!”

“But you’re missing the point, dear,” Emerald said. “I’m saying that you need to be punished at least a little bit for that. Especially since you made a fool of yourself by not using them correctly. It’s only fair, after all.”

“As if almost falling to my death just now wasn’t punishment enough?” Twilight shouted, gesturing towards the high ceiling.

“Well, that was a bit unfortunate, I’ll hand that to you,” Emerald admitted, “but I think the punishment should be equal to the crime, don’t you agree? That’s why I’ve decided that I’m going to attack you with The Elements of Harmony! Wouldn’t it be right of me to say that the greatest bravery is to use the weapon you fear most, after all?

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked. “Only the Bearers of The Elements of Harmony can use them! How are you going to do it?”

“You said it yourself, didn’t you?” Emerald replied slyly. “The spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here.” She directed her attention towards her friends, who were still encased securely in the wall.

“As if I’m going to let you use them, though,” Twilight scoffed. “The Element of Magic is the most important, remember? The one that channels the rest of them together?”

“Hmm, yes, that may be true,” Emerald replied, nodding as if she was deep in thought. “I suppose you’ll see once we get there.” She started moving towards her throne, and at the same time Ondine left her side to move closer to Twilight, who immediately moved back defensively. But Ondine didn’t move too close to her, which was curious.

Emerald sat down in her throne, then sent a beam upwards to ignite The Element of Magic. Twilight wasn’t too worried, since there was absolutely no way this shoddy attempt at making an attack could work. The very antithesis of harmony trying to use something primarily based on it? It was just ridiculous.

A few sparks shot out of The Elements, and they began to shine with energy. The tubes preserving the five other Bearers started glowing, and after a few moments The Elements shot out colored lasers. These beams all connected with Ondine’s body at the same time, though she seemed to show little to no resistance. Were The Elements attacking her? No, she didn’t seem to be in pain…

But there was no way that Ondine could be a substitute for the Bearer of The Element of Magic. If any ordinary pony other than a Bearer attempted it, they would surely overheat and die within seconds from the huge amounts of magic that would be flowing through their body that they would have to make into a concentrated, multi-colored blast.

Ondine, however, was no ordinary pony, which Twilight had only moments to realize before the prismatic arch blasted out of the blinding white light Ondine was floating in. There was no time to think, and absolutely no way to run away. She could do nothing but stare at the rainbow moving towards her. Though, it didn’t have the colors that a normal rainbow would have. It was mostly a mix of yellow and green, with multiple shades of blue in between. A strand of black outlined the edges, which were quickly closing in around her. Twilight fell to her knees, her hooves over her head to try and do something in means of defending herself, but she knew the effort was useless. She sensed the rainbow spiral around her, forming a sort of domed cage that was getting tighter by the moment.

It was in that moment of life and death that Twilight could truly reflect on the sickening irony of her situation. She was about to be killed from the power of her and her friends, and the one using the attack was the one that drove them all apart. She wondered, if Ondine’s Curse really was a way to kill them, would she be able to see everyone again shortly? She could just leave this wretched world behind and be with everyone she cared about again. That would be wonderful…

Tears stained what little space there was of the floor in her confinement. She squeezed her legs tighter to her chest, trying to minimize the amount of the area she took up. Even though her mind wanted to die as soon as possible, her body wanted to somehow live, and somehow keep fighting. She felt the walls graze against her skin, and then fully cover it. She could feel that energy again, the encouraging feeling of all of her friends, only this time it would be her undoing. It was so painful to think about, but luckily for her she wouldn’t have to be thinking for much longer.

With a final surge of energy, the rainbow formed to her figure and then flurried away, the magic breaking down and returning to The Elements of Harmony. Twilight looked up. She felt exhausted for some reason, even though her health had been restored from the contact with the power of The Elements. The light still made it hard to see, but she could make out that Ondine’s figure was shaky. Even she, whatever she was, was taxed from the effort it took.

Twilight heard Emerald Joy’s laughter, so she could be certain that neither of them knew that she was fine, though in Ondine’s case it was probably because she had better things to worry about. She got up and used the sound of Emerald’s voice to guide her. Using the blinding light as a cover, Twilight tackled Emerald from behind and forced her to the ground, once again restraining her with magic. Ondine was too out of it to do anything to interfere, anyway.

“Wh-what?!” Emerald shouted as soon as her attacker came into view. However, she regained her composure as quickly as she had lost it. “I see, so that’s how they work…”

“So you figured it out too, then?” Twilight asked, her horn forced up against the dictator’s forehead. “The Elements of Harmony only use their power to wipe out evil. That’s why they were the weapon of choice when we were fighting back then. Using them against someone like me is quite a foolish oversight on your part.”

“Do you think it matters?” Emerald sneered. “Even now I can beat you, though the leftover magic from The Elements inside of you is killing my head with you jamming your horn at me like you are.” Upon hearing that, Twilight only forced her horn onto her forehead further.

“How did you use The Elements of Harmony?” she shouted, her face hot with anger. “Tell me!” Emerald smirked at Twilight’s reaction, but answered nonetheless.

“I’ll tell you only for the sake of indulging my genius to you,” she began simply. “Besides, I’d be glad to waste some time talking. My voice sounds nice, and I don’t want to put it to waste.”

“Yeah, sure.” Twilight snorted, but allowed her to continue. Emerald weakly turned her head to spot Ondine, who was still struggling to recover after concentrating the power from The Elements of Harmony.

“You see poor Ondine over there? The pony you knew to be Aquamarine who appeared out of nowhere and suddenly joined your ranks? That alone sounds quite fishy, when you think about it,” Emerald Joy said. “But I guess it’s no surprise at this point that she was planted in your group by me. That’s the express purpose that she was created for, after all.”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘created’? How could you make someone as capable as her? Weren’t you the one that said that it was almost impossible to make a complex living being?” Twilight asked. “Besides, she told me herself about her life growing up!”

“Hm, yes, what better way to make it so I don’t have to come up with an elaborate backstory than by making it one the character doesn’t want to talk about? That was some genius on my part,” Emerald explained, giggling a little to herself. “But now I must be serious and confess that I may have skipped a little part when I was explaining the copies of your friends. Though you didn’t have to be cloned, The Element of Magic did still try to make another of you. Now I may have persuaded its image while it was still forming, but at its core it really is a shoddy bootleg of you. And that’s exactly who Ondine is! Through some poking and prodding, I made it so Ondine is essentially my vision of how things should be, but manifested into a pony! If that makes any sense, of course.” She laughed nervously. “Though I guess I can’t really call her a Bearer for The Element of Magic. What do you think it would be? Element of Instinct, maybe?”

“That’s not important!” Twilight shouted, knocking Emerald’s head back against the ground. “You still haven’t explained how she’s able to function on a more complex level than the rest of them!”

“Oh, that,” Emerald muttered, letting her head fall to the side. “I guess you could say it’s because she hardly has her own personality at all. I mean, she’s a bit feisty, but other than that…” She paused, rolling her head back upward. “But there’s a reason for that, I promise! It’s because I’m controlling her constantly, you know?”

“Be quiet…!”

“So we are really good friends then, aren’t we? Every conversation you’ve had with her, every plan you’ve devised with her, you were really doing that with me, Twilight!”

Chapter 23: Clinging to Vengeance

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 23: Clinging to Vengeance

Twilight wasn’t even sure how she was supposed to react to hearing that she had been indirectly friendly towards the dictator that had ruined her life. Emerald Joy was someone that didn’t deserve the wonders of friendship, and yet she was the one that gave it to her. What kind of Bearer of The Element of Magic was she?

She reacted the only way she knew how at that point, which Emerald didn’t enjoy too much. Being angrily slapped across the face was really taking its toll on her.

“C’mon, is it really that big of a deal?” Emerald giggled. Twilight slowly stood up, jabbing her horn right between the ruler’s teal eyes.

“...I’ll kill you.”

“Well we can’t have that, now can we?” Emerald answered, her hooves easily breaking through the magical ties Twilight had restrained her with. With her freed hoof, she grabbed Twilight’s horn and flung it out of the way, bringing her own forward to shoot a burst of magic. Twilight quickly ducked, retaliating with her own spray of beams. Both proved to be quite skilled in dodging and firing, which Twilight quickly noticed, and after leaving behind a few more shots she stepped back to give her more room to fire larger scale spells.

Emerald Joy took advantage of Twilight’s decision, and once her horn was laced with a pale green aura, the floor began to give way. Shards of emeralds shot out through the ground, accompanied by the cracking of the cement and metal. Twilight fell back out of their range, but not before she got uppercut by a few of them, knocking her head backwards. The moment she regained control, Twilight conjured up a whip composed of fire, using it to quickly clear the air of any remaining attacks. She managed to knock Emerald over with it before it fizzled out, but she couldn’t yet assume that she had the upper hand.

However, Emerald’s previous spell was still in effect, with thicker gems now floating out of the ground. These stayed behind much longer, and after failing to hit Twilight, shot out a cascade of smaller gemstones. After a few moments of being pelted with them, she formed a makeshift shield above her to reflect the stones off of. Emerald’s magic was stronger than she anticipated, however, so by the time the shower of emeralds was over, her magic barrier was riddled with cracks. With a sweep of her hoof she retracted her magic, giving her space to attack.

What she didn’t expect was the sudden geyser of water that suddenly burst from the ground under her hooves. The pressure was strong enough to carry her body upward, and not long after her body was forced against the ceiling. The water pushed her into it for a few seconds, then receded. Now gravity was the force controlling her, pulling her back down to the floor. She was aimed to crash right by Emerald’s hooves, and she could make out a green magical circle waiting for her. Instead of letting the forces do as they pleased, Twilight manipulated the air to create a wind tunnel underneath her. This not only slowed her descent and cushioned her fall, but it also gave her a clear target in the middle to fire. The concentrated tornado threw off Emerald’s balance, effectively canceling any magic she was planning.

But Twilight wasn’t the only one who now had a clear target, which she quickly realized when she found herself face to face with a sudden barrage of magical daggers flying up towards her. Quickly using the resistance the wind gave her as a springboard, Twilight threw herself off to the side, landing a few feet away from where she would’ve met certain death.

The impact was more taxing than she was expecting, and it took her a few moments to recover. It also only took a few moments for Emerald to walk over and overtake her, grabbing her by the throat and forcing her to stand. Twilight clawed at her hoof, trying to loosen it so she could breathe, but Emerald only tightened her grip, which made her dig in further.

Giving up on trying to free herself that way and quickly losing air, Twilight flung her forelegs outward and shot a gust of wind directly in Emerald’s face. The pressure shot the two away from each other, flinging them at opposite walls.

Emerald Joy got to her hooves the fastest, and judging by the size of the magic circle she created while charging, she was preparing to unleash another large scale attack. Her hair fluttered with power, and in one huge burst, a teal colored river erupted from behind Emerald. It forked once it reached her, but rejoined shortly after passing her, forming again into a giant raging rapids, with some unknown force keeping it from spilling out at the edges. Twilight tried to run out of its path, but the water shifted its course to accommodate her every move. Not only that, but large jade gemstones shot out of the ground around her, keeping her from moving around sporadically to try and throw it off.

The coursing river tumbled ever closer, constantly whitecapping as one wave attempted to overtake another. Twilight shot a burst of magic into the frontlines, but the amount of magic she needed to actually do anything to stop it was too much to maintain for very long. She gasped, the rapids now on her. Once she was completely submerged, the river began shifting directions, dragging her along the circumference of the throne room. Emerald stood in the center of the raging chaos, giggling with delight as Twilight struggled to keep the little breath she had in her lungs.

The pulsating of the waves pushed more and more wind out of her body, and she had to hurry before the last of it was forced out. Finding a moment of relative calm in between waves, Twilight seized the opportunity and released the last burst of air she had in her. Taking the air bubble in her magical aura, she expanded its size to hold her whole body. She also magically reinforced its edges to not pop so easily to give it the power to withstand the horrid river and giant jades pointing out of the ground every which way.

She had hoped that she could rise to the top of the river and ride along it to ambush Emerald Joy, but her weight kept that from being possible, so she would have to ride along the current underwater until the attack subsided, which would probably be whenever Emerald believed she had drowned. That was probably for the best, since the moment she saw the bubble she could no doubt attack even harder to pop it. Just because it was reinforced didn’t mean that it was invincible.

The waves continued pelting at the bubble’s edges, which wavered, but thankfully never gave. After a few more moments, the water redirected itself again, this time bringing her to the wall that she recognized as the one holding The Elements of Harmony along with her best friends, who remained unconscious and unaware of the chaos going on outside of their preservative tubes. She looked up at them longingly, wishing that they could be awake and fighting there by her side…

Her thoughts were interrupted when she turned back around, the walls of the bubble slowly shrinking around her. She looked up, and found with dismay that a good portion of the bubble was showing. Twilight could only assume that Emerald had saw, and increased her firepower, going all out to diminish any source of air she had.

Twilight shot out as much magic as she could to try and push back, but quickly found that it was no use. She gulped, climbing onto the throne to try and get out of the water, but the rapids were too high up. She pushed her body against the wall, inhaling as much as she could before the walls of the bubble were pushed to their limit and burst.

That was it. She was out of plans, out of last-minute attacks. The stronger pummeling of water made it impossible to focus enough to cast any sort of spell, and it also knocked the breath out of her at an even faster rate. Considering how many near-death experiences she had that day, she was surprised how real this one felt. She was completely at the whim of Emerald, and she knew for a fact that she wouldn’t let up for any reason.

Twilight gripped the wall as if her life depended on it, her back being pummeled with wave after wave. Her breath started trickling away, and she could feel her life going with it. If only The Elements could work. If only she could do something. If only she could do anything. If only it could all end.

Why couldn’t she be stronger? Why couldn’t she have made The Elements work in the first place so none of this would have happened? Water ran down her face, and she couldn’t tell whether it was from the river or from her own tears. Eventually everything faded away, and she couldn’t feel anything anymore. Her physical exhaustion was gone. A light erupted in her vision, blocking out everything else. Did that mean she had failed?

But wait, she didn’t feel like she was out of her physical form yet. Her eyes flew open, though she didn’t remember ever shutting them, and she saw all of the water below her, though it was a bit hard to make out through the multicolored light emanating from behind her. No, there was no way that this was happening. There was no way that she could have accessed The Elements of Harmony for a second time.

And yet, that was the only answer to how she felt. Though it was different this time. She didn’t feel the same rush of energy channeling through her. She just felt the same magic that had always been within her, along with the magic her friends held within them…

No, she wasn’t using The Elements of Harmony, she was using the power that was solely from her friendship. It was strange how different the two felt, and she couldn’t exactly describe how so. This feeling was warmer and more personal, and probably more encouraging, as opposed to the grand, cosmic feeling she had before. Saying she was using the magic of friendship seemed so arbitrary and cliché, but that’s exactly what it was, and it made her heart swell with happiness.

And with a giant blast that shocked her with its grandeur, a rainbow of her own emerged from her light. It raced against the magical current, effectively evaporating all of the water it touched. It was too far away to be able to make out Emerald’s expression, but Twilight could only assume that it wasn’t a very happy one.

The rainbow closed in, spiraling around and compressing Emerald’s body the same way it did to Twilight before, only this time she could tell that it was showing her no mercy. The calming sound of the phantasm Twilight was in blocked out any noises of distress, so she couldn’t be completely sure if it was working as hoped until the rainbow swirled away and dissipated.

And as the light cleared, lowering Twilight down onto the dried ground, she saw that’s what it did.

And in that moment, Emerald Joy was no more.

Chapter 24: Polygraph of a Shadow

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 24: Polygraph of a Shadow

Twilight took a few moments to steady herself, her mind still racing from everything that happened all at once. She won the battle in the most hopeless situation, quite literally taking life from the fangs of death. She really was quite luckier than usual.

She turned, expecting to see Emerald Joy’s lifeless—or at least near lifeless—body in the middle of the room, but instead there was just a black smudge on the ground. Twilight kneeled down to investigate it further, cocking her head to the side in confusion. From what she understood, the magic she used only drove away evil, leaving anything good or neutral behind. At the very most, she should have only died. It couldn’t be that her body was simply a manifestation as well, corrupted just like Ondine?

Speaking of her, where had she gone off to? Twilight remembered seeing her struggle to regain her composure after channeling The Elements of Harmony, but once she started fighting Emerald, Ondine just up and disappeared. Had she walked off in the chaos of the fight? Somehow she found that sort of thing unlikely. But considering she was made of magic and was controlled by Emerald, perhaps she had dissipated once she was killed?

The more she thought, the more questions arose, but with Emerald unable to monologue more about how everything worked, she found thinking about them right now to be futile. Could she even truly believe what she had said? Her explanations made sense, so Twilight supposed she would have to believe her words, at least for now.

She stood back up, scanning the room for any possible signs of life. What should she do now? Would the populace be cured of their curses by now? Surely they would be in an uproar sooner or later. However, when she looked at her five friends still asleep, she wasn’t so sure. Even with them dead the curse didn’t break? She sighed. Maybe she should try and get them down.

She began slowly walking towards Emerald’s throne, her body not wanting to make any sudden movements. Even with all of the magic used to heal her, she still felt weary from the action.

She stopped. Something wasn’t right. Upon closer inspection, there was a flurry of dark wisps materializing in front of the throne. She took a defensive stance. Even with the little knowledge she had on the subject, there was no doubt black magic at play. Of course the battle wasn’t over yet.

The darkness increased in size and density, swirling together to form one solid form. Starting from the bottom, the black gave way to color, and the image of Ondine broke out of the shadows. After a second or two after her reformation was complete, her eyes opened, though they didn’t seem to be fixated on anything. Rather, she was just staring blankly forward. Twilight took a cautious step closer, relaxing her tense pose. Ondine was completely unresponsive. It was eerie how dead she looked, but she was most definitely alive. Perhaps that was because Emerald wasn’t alive to control her anymore, so she was nothing more but a useless puppet?

Why was she even there, anyway? If she was linked to Emerald as she had said, then why hadn’t she disintegrated? Twilight slowly stepped closer, more intrigued than ever. She was about to take another step, but jerked back in surprise when she saw movement in Ondine’s eyes. They were still glazed over and distant, but there was a small ripple along her top waterline. Twilight moved closer to get a better look, but kept a safe distance away.

The strange movement continued, and it looked like some sort of black ooze was making its way down Ondine’s eyes. She stayed completely motionless otherwise, and that perhaps made it even creepier. Soon her eyes were completely black, and the seepage started flowing out, leaving a few streaks down her face, before stopping. There was no further movement. Twilight raised her hoof to draw closer.

With a jolt, Ondine turned her head towards her at lightning speed, and even though there was no visible pupil to indicate it, Twilight could sense that she was staring right at her. The rest of her face was still blank, but her eyes were wide open. Twilight realized that she hadn’t seen her blink the whole time after she had teleported in a minute ago. A chill went up her spine.

On instinct, Twilight shot a blast of magic at her opponent, who did nothing to retaliate. The burst hit Ondine full force, but instead of being pushed backwards, she stood firm. As the magic cleared away, Twilight could clearly make out a hole in Ondine’s body, but instead of blood, or even any normal sort of magic trying to repair the wound, there was a sea of black and purple sparks crackling inside of her. Twilight stepped back, completely baffled, as she witnessed a blob of dark magic exit out of the gap, engulf any remaining wisps of the purple magic still in the air, and then return back from whence it came. Once it did, the hole patched itself up as if nothing had happened.

Twilight stood there, her mouth dropped and her eyes wide with horror, as Ondine instantly produced a blast of magic about five times larger than the original. Even knowing what she was, Twilight couldn’t help but ask herself what kind of monster she had just started a fight with.

Sparing no time, Ondine unleashed the huge orb of black magic, following it up with many others of the same kind. Twilight turned and fled, trying to dodge as many as she could, hurriedly throwing up a barrier whenever necessary. This kind of tactic was useful against Emerald, who couldn’t be too bothered to run around when it wasn’t necessary, but Ondine was a different story. Once realizing that her prey was making a run for it, she dashed after her, her speed much greater than should’ve been possible. Twilight knew that zapping her again to get her off her trail was no use, so instead she moved in and punched the side of her face to stall her for a bit.

But Ondine was no pushover when it came to physical attacks, either. She aimed for Twilight’s temple and swung, throwing Twilight to the ground and halting her getaway. Unable to get up in ample time, she resorted to swinging her leg out to kick Ondine’s shin, making her lose her balance as well.

She grabbed at Twilight’s leg to drag her underneath to cushion her fall, but Twilight refused, kicking her attacker in the face instead. Ondine didn’t seem fazed by the blow, and required no time to recover. She released another blast right where Twilight was laying, knocking her over a few paces. Twilight let out a yell, then quickly freed her hoof out from under her when she heard Ondine drawing closer. She took a deep breath, then shot out a long strand of light, which attached itself to the high ceiling. It retracted not a moment too soon, carrying Twilight many meters above the ground.

She began charging immediately, the magic circle beneath her stopping her from falling even though the line was gone. Ondine couldn’t stop her from that high up, so she would be safe to prepare one of the largest scale spells she could think of. There was no way that it would be able to be absorbed, since its force was so strong that it would blow anyone apart into nothing but a mist of atoms. However, its preparation was so tedious and noticeable that using it in a surprise attack was essentially out of the question, not to mention the fact that she wasn’t even sure if it was safe to use or not.

“But the only way to beat someone that copies your moves is by being reckless, I suppose,” Twilight muttered under her breath. Her every muscle strained to gather enough energy. By the time she did, she had no way to possibly dodge Ondine, who had kicked off the wall a number of times to bring herself up to her level, since she lacked the ability to do the same as Twilight.

She felt the spell getting to its climax and finally released it, but not before Ondine landed a kick right in her gut, throwing her off balance and disrupting her concentration. The magic circle keeping her up flickered, then disappeared, but her spell still carried through. In freefall, she let out the largest beam of magic she had ever attempted, a magical cannon of sorts that completely annihilated anything in its path. The room shook with its power, and yet the ceiling miraculously stayed together.

The spell ended before she reached the ground, but she still didn’t have enough time to cushion her fall by very much. She landed with a sickening thud, coupled with a burst of pain shooting up her spine. Clenching her teeth, Twilight opened her eyes to see whether her efforts were in vain or not. She squinted, and was able to make out shadowy clouds floating about, chasing after the rapidly disappearing sparks from the laser. Once one of the clouds caught one, it blackened, then slowly lowered to the ground. Twilight assumed that they were going to burst and dissipate once they landed. Instead, they all clumped together and reformed into the shape of a pony.

She gasped, scrambling to get to her feet despite the pain in her back. Ondine quickly reformed, only now a purple aura wavered out of the edges of her blackened eyes. Twilight gulped, scampering away as fast as she could, but she knew it was useless. If Ondine survived something that was theoretically impossible to live through under almost any circumstances, there was absolutely no way that she would be able to defeat her with her own power, especially since she had just fed her a great amount of magic. There was nothing left she could do now but endure her attacks or die trying.

Ondine didn’t have her wait for too long before unleashing her next attack. With a wave of her hoof, the ceiling was covered by a quickly forming black cloud, electricity crackling out of it. Only a few moments after it appeared, a sudden pillar of fire shot down out of it, hitting the ground with such force that the whole room shook. Ondine stood unwavering, observing emotionlessly as Twilight was scorched by the flames.

Twilight screamed, the scorching heat unbearable and the power keeping the flames intact unthinkably strong. Any barriers or other defensive spells she attempted were quickly extinguished. Her only choice was to withstand it.

Thankfully, the blazing flames didn’t last long, but the attack was immediately followed up with another. A forceful tidal wave broke through the flames, pushing Twilight out of them and extinguishing her in the process, but also smacking her against the wall much harder than any other time. She felt the taste of blood in her throat, and her body ached, but she knew that the battle wasn’t over yet, no matter how much she wished it was.

She suddenly felt small pricks pushing on her back. She turned her head and saw that emerald spikes were beginning to jut out of the wall. Two particularly large ones came out against her sides, forcing her arms upward, where a few more spikes were waiting for them. Twilight cried out, the newly forming spikes pushing into her skin. Her back, arms, and legs were effectively skewered, keeping her from moving at all.

The sickening noise of tendons breaking and bones cracking were all she could hear, her tears flowing out of her as if her life depended on it. Screaming, she looked over to see that a few of the spikes had made their way completely through her arms and wrists, and her legs were soon to meet the same fate.

She threw her head to the side to see The Elements of Harmony and her friends. If only she could’ve managed to get to them, she might’ve been able to stand a chance still. There was no way that Ondine’s composition could have withstood an attack like that, but even then...

Pain was the only thought Twilight had after that. It was the only thing that she knew. Her vision started flashing white, blood trickling out of her ever-expanding wounds. She could hardly perceive anything anymore. She couldn’t even hear her own screaming. White sparks flashed out of her horn on instinct, but the main lines connecting the tip to her magic stores had been cut.

She managed to tilt her head forward to vaguely see Ondine slowly walking closer. Her horn formed into one long spike, aimed straight for her heart. Of course, that would explain why the rest of them had stayed away from her vital organs. She wanted the pleasure of doing the honors herself.

Her vision flashed white, gradually growing spotty. The blood in her throat rose to a high enough level to flow out of her mouth without her help. Eventually she went unconscious. The last thing she saw was Ondine’s head drawing back, then thrusting forward at full force towards her.

Chapter 25: Water of the Womb

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 25: Water of the Womb

Everything was black

Twilight found herself in a featureless room, devoid of all feeling. She couldn’t tell how long she had been there. She tried to move, but the effort proved to be too much for her. She gave up trying.

Everything flashed white a few times. Was this what death felt like? It was surprisingly lonely. Not sad, just lonely. And empty.

She tried to look around, but stopped soon after. Even moving her eyes was hard. From what she could gather, though, she was just in a black void, with no definite start or end. She was too tired to have any opinion about it, though. She was just so tired…

There was a flash of white again, and a loud pounding noise. It was slow and steady, and it bothered her. No, she didn’t feel anything towards it. It was just there, just like everything else.

It soon morphed into a sort of pulsing noise, keeping the same steady beat. She would’ve wondered what it was, but she didn’t care much for that right then.

She realized she was floating. She was in a dark sea of water. But at the same time she was sitting in a room. Both places were dark, and there wasn’t anything to see. It didn’t matter, and she didn’t care either way.

Suddenly, the room or sea or wherever she was shook violently. The strain from trying to float or sit upright became too much and she decided it would be a good time to fall asleep. The pulsing grew slower, but louder.

She opened her eyes, her mind already half asleep. Suddenly there was a bright light shining through the water or through the ceiling. The top of the void broke open, shattering suddenly like a thousand mirrors. She was too numb to shield herself from the debris. Sleep tightened its grip further, but something else tightened its grip as well. A hand was coming through the bright gap, but she was too tired to grab on. The hand took her by the head and pulled her out of the sea and off of the floor.

With an alarmed jolt, Twilight found herself back in the throne room. She felt alive again, but still a bit weary. Had it all been a dream? But she looked up, the feeling of a hand grabbing her head still there.

It took her mind a moment, but she most definitely remembered the mare standing above her from somewhere, although nothing came to mind. Her pinkish-purple hair seemed so familiar, from somewhere…

“S-Satori?” she asked weakly, her voice muffled by the blood that she forgot was still in her throat, though there wasn’t nearly as much as before. The pony turned, surprised to hear her speak.

“Are you really conscious already?” she asked incredulously. “Your mind was shutting down, and even if it had come back so fast, I figured your physical state would slow you down for at least an hour longer.” She looked down at the wounds on Twilight’s body, and Twilight followed her gaze. A pink colored magic—which was no doubt Satori’s—seemed to be slowly patching them up, though judging by their size it would take a while before she was fully healed.

“What… happened? Why are you here?” Twilight asked, attempting to sit up but immediately cringing. Satori hurriedly stopped her, then helped her back down. Suddenly Twilight’s eyes widened. “Where’s Ondine?”

“She…” Satori trailed off, looking at the ground. “Well, I came in a few moments before you went unconscious. I managed to stop her from killing you, but the moment she got a good look at who I was, she apparated away.” She lifted her head, surveying the room. “That only strengthens my suspicions further…”

“So, you mean…” Twilight started, pausing a moment to wince in pain. “Do you mean she just up and ran away?” She shot upwards angrily, but Satori caught her and gently laid her back down again.

“If you fear that she’s gone for good, believe me, she’ll be back,” she reassured.

“But what even is she?” Twilight shouted. “Ondine should have died after Emerald did! Why is she still alive, and more powerful than ever?” Satori looked down solemnly.

“Perhaps I’m not the best one to ask about that,” she admitted. “Don’t worry, the answers to all of those thoughts floating in your head will be answered soon, if I know her correctly. Now come on. Now that you’re awake, we have to connect you to The Elements of Harmony while there’s still time.” Satori lifted Twilight up in her cloud of magic, taking special care not to rock her around too much on the journey. Twilight’s limbs hung limply in the air, offering no resistance to being suspended, as Satori walked carefully yet briskly towards the wall with The Elements embedded inside of it.

The way Satori was acting now gave a totally different impression than the Satori Twilight knew before. Usually the mind reader was as cold and distant as her power would suggest, but she supposed that, once things got drastic, Satori really was the caring type.

They reached the wall in a short time, and Twilight was gently placed back on the ground. With physical contact necessary to activate them properly, Twilight could do nothing but stare longingly at The Element of Magic from her position on the ground.

“Don’t worry, I can help,” Satori said, noticing Twilight’s forlorn expression. The yellow cords that ended on the ends of her legs, the ones that were tied to her third eye, came undone. They uncoiled on either end, one reaching out and hooking onto The Element of Magic, and the other coming down and planting itself on Twilight’s horn. After a few moments, the cords started to glow white, as did The Elements of Harmony. At first Twilight didn't feel any different, but then she watched as the color of the light the cords emanated changed from white to the multiple colors of the rainbow.

Then she felt herself go under the effects of the vast magical reserves. It was a bit strange, though, since this time she wasn’t trying to attack anything with their power. She just floated through the endless multi colored ocean that that plane seemed to be. It was so soothing that she wished she could just stay there forever.

Amazing, isn’t it? she heard Satori’s voice say, echoing out of nowhere. She shot upright almost immediately.

How are you here? Twilight asked, although she only had to think to hear the words come out of her mouth.

Sorry, I shouldn’t have taken you by surprise like that. Hold on. Out of the sea of colors, Satori’s image shimmered into view next to her, a serene look on her face. Twilight moved backwards in surprise, but soon remembered she had nothing to be defensive about, and relaxed again. Normally another pony wouldn’t be able to do something like this, but being a mind reader has its perks. It was weird, since her mouth never moved when she spoke. Twilight assumed that she was able to talk by thinking as well.

What do you mean? Twilight wondered.

Well, when you allow this much magic to come into your body, your mind starts to float between the conscious and the subconscious, though usually it doesn’t last for very long, since you’re just trying to attack and then be done, Satori explained. You’re in a sort of limbo phase right now while you’re healing up, and I just decided to join you a bit. It helps that I’m linking you to The Element of Magic, anyway. Twilight nodded, smiling a little, and then the two were quiet again, neither wanting to break the calm silence for too long. Even though the experience wasn’t as powerful as the previous few times, the cleansing feel of the magic was still powerfully rejuvenating.

Hey, hey! Can I join, too? a sudden voice asked, cutting through the tranquility like a dagger. The plane was affected by the sudden tenseness and unease, and the calming colors started to sour just a bit.

You better not be here already, Satori replied. Twilight had no recollection of ever hearing the voice before, so she wasn’t sure why she was so upset about it.

Aw, but I wanna play, too! the voice insisted. It was high pitched and childish, but carried a sinister undertone that Twilight couldn’t shake.

Twilight, don’t let her get in here, Satori warned, her tone grave.

Oh c’mon, I don’t need something silly like permission! I can go wherever I want, whenever I want! The air rippled on Twilight’s other side, and she backed away instinctively. A few moments later, another pony shimmered into view. She greatly resembled Satori in that she also had a third eye, although this one was closed, and instead of Satori’s, this mare was entirely a light green.

Hello, hello! And because it’ll get annoying not knowing names later, I’m Koishi! she announced happily, her pale green—almost grey—hair bouncing under her black hat tied with a yellow ribbon as she turned to greet Twilight and Satori. Satori drew back in revulsion almost instantly.

Koishi, what are you trying to pull? she asked, her tone indicating that this wasn’t the first time they had met.

What do you mean? I just wanted to relax a bit… Koishi pouted. From where she sat, the rainbow colors darkened into sinister shades of green and purple. The world around them seemed to flicker a bit.

What’s going on?! Twilight finally brought herself to ask. Who are you? How are you here? Why are you here?

I just told you that, didn’t I? Koishi responded, muddying the colors more as she swept her hooves across the floor. I’m Koishi! And I got here the same way that Satori did! She’s not the only satori in the world, after all, even if she’s too lazy to be bothered to have a creative name.

I’m sorry, but I don’t think Twilight is to be concerned in this, Satori said as she stood up, her image faltering. May we please take this somewhere else? I’m the one that you’re upset with, aren’t I?

Actually, with all the meddling she’s been doing, I would say that she definitely is to be concerned with this. But fine, we can leave, but only because I’m starting to not like this place so much. Koishi glanced around as she finished talking, observing the now quite corrupted landscape. She stood up, and with a flash she left along with Satori.

Twilight sat, completely baffled at the scene that just took place. She needed to take a moment to figure out everything. This Koishi girl just showed up, whom just so happened to also have the power to read minds, and just decided to break in for no reason? Not only that, but Satori seemed to know her, but it would make sense for others of her kind to associate with one another. However, the confrontational attitude she had towards her was quite concerning. What did this Koishi do that was so terrible? And why would she be after Satori?

Another thing that worried her was how the magic reacted to her presence. Was it just because it didn’t want a stranger in Twilight’s mind, or was it something worse than that? The more Twilight fretted, the more her little place of calm in her mind started to crack and shatter.

Why are you doing this, Koishi? Twilight tensed as she suddenly heard Satori’s muffled voice. Maybe since her limbo state was breaking, she was able to hear their conversation?

Geez, why do you keep trying to pin something useless like meaning onto everything I do? Koishi responded, her carefree tone starting to wear on Twilight’s nerves already. Didn’t I tell you before that I only do stuff to have fun? She suddenly stopped, and her voice filled with melancholy. But maybe, perhaps, I did it to draw attention to myself, so someone could stop me from ruining the world with my dark deeds. She paused, and Twilight could definitely hear the faint sound of her sniffing back tears.

I mean, if I said that, I’d at least get a little pity, right? She immediately brightened back up, her cheery—and quite detestable—personality returning.

It’s because your eye is closed, isn’t it? Not only did your emotions close off, but even your conscious mind shut down?

Mmm, maybe. Koishi started sounding a tad upset. But why do you care what I do to them? They’re just ponies, after all. There are enough of them around that surely a few won’t be missed.

But still, to go to such lengths just for the fun of it? Even for you, that seems a bit silly. Do you mean to tell me that you just decided to control that young girl’s mind, then have her do all of this? You helped her devise this whole world just for your own amusement?

I wouldn’t say I controlled her, exactly. I just planted an idea in her subconscious. I didn’t really care about who did it, but I saw she had the potential to do great things! Koishi giggled. That’s my job after all, you know? I rule over the subconscious, and you rule the conscious. I thought that was clear from the start!

Twilight’s blood froze. Surely they couldn’t be talking about herself? Had she been acting against her will to do something horrible? Koishi had said that she was quite involved in the situation after all…

You disgust me. Whatever pity I had for you before has been effectively annihilated with one fell swoop thanks to this scheme of yours, so thank you for letting me stop wasting my time worrying about you. I’ll make sure you’re annihilated as well if you so much as lay another hoof on her.

Gosh, big sis! You’re really scary when you’re serious! Koishi gasped in mock fear. Even still, it’s really sad how soft you’ve gotten since I’ve left. Caring for some silly pony more than your own sister? I’m hurt!

Did that mean that Koishi was the foolish sister Satori had mentioned when they first met? The one who closed off her heart so she would be liked, but in the process closed off her own emotions? It would explain why Satori knew her so well and why she of all people came in to help her. But why would Koishi be in The Committee headquarters?

Don’t pretend to be the innocent one here. You’re the one that made things the way they are. If my estimations are correct, you not only infected the young Emerald Joy’s mind with your ridiculous scheme of happiness, but you then made a puppet for her out of dark magic? I would assume that the reason she was as powerful as she was, being able to essentially win in a battle against the Bearer of The Element of Magic, was because you strengthened Emerald with dark magic as well?

Yup yup! In fact, she started wanting so much dark magic that I wouldn’t be surprised if her body was totally made of it towards the end! It’s no wonder nothing was left of her when she was destroyed!

I didn’t think you would stoop to such a low that you’d use something like that. Then again, considering you practically enslaved humanity, I guess I have to learn not to put things past you anymore.

Twilight’s heart stopped. The one behind The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee, the one who made Emerald Joy the unstoppable tyrant she was, the one who made Ondine, the one who took her friends away from her and locked them in a chamber of eternal slumber…

...it was this pony, Koishi. The satori who closed her heart for fear of hate. The one who lost her vision of the conscious and gained the manipulation of the subconscious. The one unable to feel any sort of regret for her actions.

Twilight’s blood started to boil, her face turning red. The environment around her turned angry shades of scarlet and white to reflect her emotions. She didn’t know what she was doing, but she felt something surging through her. Her eyes began to glow white. Her mind was able to detect her body rising up into the air. Usually she would feel amazing and triumphant, but right now her only thought was how much she wanted Koishi dead. She wanted the life back that she unrightfully stole from her, and by god she was going to get it.

There was a loud crack not unlike that of thunder, and she could feel it. The rainbow erupting out of her, each ribbon of power an extension of her emotions. She could feel it connect, slowly crushing the dark energy that Koishi was no doubt made of.

And that feeling was the most euphoric feeling she had ever had.

A short while later she felt herself touch back down to the ground, and her mind finally snapped back into reality. The light still fading, she felt Satori’s cord still on her forehead and carefully took it off. By the time she did, it was dim enough to see again.

Satori stared at her, her eyes wide. She didn’t move, though it looked like she tried to form words, but she quickly gave up. All that came out was a few choking noises. Twilight sheepishly handed the cord back, which Satori took, still never breaking eye contact.

She moved her head suddenly, as if just remembering something, and looked back to where Koishi had been standing, which was currently still a cloud of dust and rubble. Twilight followed her gaze, waiting tensely for the fog to clear. A few moments later it did just that, but not in the slow fading way that the two were expecting.

“Gosh, that’s no way to make friends!” Koishi exclaimed, whipping her hoof around to try and clear the air. “Unless you were trying to kill me, in which case you’ll have to do better than that!” The dust settled completely to reveal that Koishi’s body was cut into multiple fragments, but were still being kept together somehow. In fact, one gash ran completely down the middle of her face.

“You’re one to talk!” Twilight shouted. “You’re practically dead as you are!” Koishi looked down to investigate herself.

“Hm, maybe you’re right.” She experimentally tried to summon some magic to fix herself, but her horn did little more than fizzle and throw sparks. She looked at her horn with dismay.

“Poopy, looks like I can’t do anything now,” Koishi whined. Suddenly her eyes brightened. “Oh wait, I have an idea!” With a smile and a wave of her hoof, a black cloud appeared at her side, and out of it materialized Ondine.

“You…!” Twilight shouted, immediately taking a defensive stance.

“Isn’t she cool? Emerald did an okay job controlling her, but I think her creator would do a much nicer job!” Twilight began charging her magic up instantly, but Satori put her foreleg in front of her.

“That won’t be necessary. I can deal with this,” she replied calmly. Twilight eyed her, but dropped her spell. Satori waved her hoof in front of her third eye, and instantly a gust of wind flowed out of it from the sheer amount of power. A pink aura encased Satori’s whole body, and Twilight couldn’t help but watch with awe.

“Actually, that won’t be necessary, either,” Koishi said, detaching one of the purple cords leading to her third eye and throwing it into the magic field, instantly disrupting it and shutting off whatever spell Satori was about to use. “You see, Ondine is perfectly capable of doing things, herself!” She turned to her creation, then forcefully thrusted her hoof onto Ondine’s forehead.

“Satori, we have to get out of here!” Twilight shouted, but Satori’s impression of the situation was much different than the one Twilight was getting.

“Now then,” Koishi said, her voice lowering to a much more sinister tone, “Ondine, sacrifice yourself, please.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped. Ondine’s hooves morphed into blades without hesitation, and in one smooth movement she crossed the blades through her neck, cleanly cutting it loose of the rest of her body. She showed no signs of pain, and Koishi giggled as the pure dark magic that Ondine’s body was composed of flowed into the cuts in her body, restoring her to full health in an instant.

“Now I only have one of her, so don’t go doing that again, okay?” Koishi said. She flexed her neck a few times. “Actually, I’m pretty sure if you did actually shoot me again, it wouldn’t do very much.”

“Y-you vile excuse for a little sister,” Satori mumbled darkly. “You’re a disgrace to the satori species, and any and all punishment you’re about to get is going to be completely and utterly deserved.” With a fury on her face that Twilight never knew she could have, Satori detached multiple cords on her third eye. The hovered freely for a few moments, and with a sudden burst they shot out towards Koishi, aiming at her closed third eye.

“Hm, that’s no good!” Koishi announced with a smile. She grabbed the yellow cords in midair and pulled, upsetting Satori’s balance. Satori yelled in pain as Koishi yanked harder, forcing the red eye on Satori’s chest farther and farther away from her body. Eventually the force made her fall, hitting the ground face first with a sickening crack. She shouted on impact, blood flying out of her nose, but still she got back up.

Having been standing around doing nothing for far too long, Twilight aimed her hooffinger at Koishi’s third eye, assuming that there must be some sort of power in it. She shot a beam straight towards it, but the moment the energy left her, Koishi spun her head around to face her. With a wave of her free hoof, the other one still holding tightly onto Satori’s cords, the magic immediately lost all momentum and dissipated. With Twilight busy processing what she saw, Koishi took the opportunity to grab onto her.

“Please don’t interrupt, kay?” she instructed. She placed two tiny clouds of magic on Twilight’s hoof with strength that shouldn’t have been humanly possible. “Hup!”

Twilight felt the pain before she realized what had happened. She felt daggers shoot up her nerves, her legs giving out under her as she fell to the floor. Her brain overloaded with too many sensations for her to scream. Her magic spewed about uselessly, and once she had regained control of herself she grabbed her horn to try and stop the flow.

But even with her horn terribly mangled and her magic totally out of the question, there were more important things going on around her. She turned, struggling to move her eyes, and saw Satori collapsed on the floor with no signs of life. Above her stood Koishi, her bright green eyes staring manically at the red eye in her hoof, yellow cords hanging limply down its sides.

After taking a moment longer to appreciate her prize, Koishi turned back to Twilight, her unsettlingly happy gaze fixating on her. She walked over slowly, then bent down slightly above her.

“You’re really getting on my nerves, you know?” Koishi said, her eyes wide and unblinking. “I suppose getting rid of you now instead of later would be the smart thing to do. So let’s do it, shall we?” She extended her neck, bending over further until the tip of her horn touched Twilight’s forehead. The unicorn crumpled on the floor screamed.

“Send my regards to your friends, would you?”

And then everything went black.

Author's Note

Koishi may be shamefully ripped off of Koishi Komeiji... (and by that I mean she's basically the same character but with quite a few alterations)

Chapter 26: Sweet Paranoia

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 26: Sweet Paranoia

Sunlight streamed through the glass window overlooking the town, landing on dark blue covers lazily. The blankets shifted around, the bed’s occupant unwilling to rouse from her slumber despite how high the sun was in the sky. Her fumbling around only made matters worse, however, because her new position forced sunlight straight into her eyes. With a huff, she threw the covers off of her, sitting upright and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

She opened her eyes lazily, giving her mind a moment to adjust. Around her were bookcases lining the walls. The wooden posts on her bed framed the door a few feet away, and she could just see her stairs leading down to the main level of her house. She turned her head and eyed the window, wishing that the curtains would close so she wouldn’t be so bombarded by the sudden brightness. Other than that, everything was just as she had left it.

Twilight’s eyes flew open, any trace of sleep still wrapping her mind disappearing instantly. She surveyed the room again with her more alert perspective. This room wasn’t alien to her. Quite the opposite was true. She knew her bedroom like the back of her hoof. The eerie thing was, things were exactly as she had left them. The knot of dread in her stomach grew tighter, her eyes flicking over to the wall calendar she had hanging beside her bed. But there was no way…

Although she thought she had forgotten everything from before, now that she was in it she remembered instantly. And this day’s date wasn’t one that was about to slip her mind anytime soon. She had just awoken on the same day that Emerald Joy cast the happiness spell on the rioting citizens. Maybe time had gone back somehow, she could stop everything before it started? It sounded like something that would happen to her at this point.

Her mind wrapped up in her racing thoughts, Twilight’s attempt to climb out of bed proved difficult. However, she did succeed in falling out of bed. She landed with a dull thud which, after all she had been through, hardly felt like anything. After lifting her head off of the floor and regaining her bearings, she peered down at a piece of paper underneath her. It appeared to be a newspaper marked for yesterday’s date. She eyed it questioningly, pulling it out from underneath her.

The cover article in particular grabbed her attention, not because of what it was about, but because of what it implied. Apparently the day before had been the summer solstice, and they threw a big party for Princess Celestia, which was only natural since she was the Princess of the Sun. But why would they throw a party for her? Didn’t everyone despise her leading them along with Princess Luna? Twilight could only guess that something like that was also Koishi’s doing, or at least Emerald Joy’s. But that wasn’t the main question at hand. Something else tugged at her attention.

Did this mean that all of that conflict was just a dream?

Everything pointed to that answer, and the more she thought about it, the more she began to accept it. After all, didn’t it go that whenever you died in a dream, you woke up? Dreams always were able to seem quite long, after all. Still, something in the back of her mind told her that it must have happened. She could find evidence for both theories, really, but considering she had only been awake for ten minutes, there were a lot more places she needed to look at before she could decide which theory was the truth. At the current moment, she wanted the dream theory to be true. Just so she could be with everyone again, it would be wonderful…

But she needed evidence first, which she would only be able to find if she got outside and could talk to ponies. She moved through her house on instinct, retracing the path to the front door like she had done so many times in the past that it felt like yesterday. Maybe it was because it was just yesterday? Of course, she was also formulating a new theory that she had gone insane and could very well actually be in a mental hospital right then, but that one was more to humor herself than anything else. Even though she knew she had to consider every possibility, something like that was just ridiculous. Wasn’t it?

She opened her front door, finding that her magic now worked completely fine, only to hear an unexpected thud as the wood swung into something. Or rather, someone. Twilight gasped and looked down to see Pinkie Pie lying on the ground, her forehead a bit red.

“Hey, Twilight! That’s no way to treat your friends!” she whined, though there was a hint of humor in her voice.

“O-oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” Twilight stammered, offering to help her up with an extension of her hoof.

“It’s fine, it’s fine! You worry too much!” she replied, following her sentence up with a good natured laugh. Twilight smiled, her face softening for a moment, but then she remembered her situation and stood alert again.

“How is everyone?” she said with a sudden urgency in her voice, grabbing Pinkie’s hooves in her own to draw her in closer.

“You mean the girls? They’re awesome!”

“No, I mean everyone! Like, all of the citizens! Are they alright?” She shook her friend for emphasis.

“Gee, I may be friends with everypony in town, but I’m not a mind reader!” Pinkie laughed that cheerful, casual laugh of hers again. “But since when were you the type to worry about everyponyin the universe? I mean, I know that you worry a lot, but you’re really taking things to the next level today!”

“How are the princesses? Are they fine, too?”

“Did you just get out of a thousand year coma or something? Of course they’re alright! Are you gonna ask me what year you’re in next, or how technology works?” Pinkie seemed suddenly fixated on the thought that Twilight was a time traveler, and rattled off a few more things. Twilight was so happy to see her again that she almost kept from spacing out. Almost.

“...and that’s what sour cream is for! And—hey, are you listening?” Twilight snapped to attention.

“Huh? Yeah, I was just… thinking,” she admitted, her gaze drifting downwards.

“Ooh, what about? Is it something science related? Is it the reason ice is slippery?” Pinkie asked. Twilight laughed wearily. She really missed Pinkie Pie’s hyperactive nature, even though she used to get increasingly annoyed with it.

“No, nothing like that. I’m just… happy that I can be with you here is all.” Twilight smiled knowingly, her eyes glittering with the formation of tears that she tried her hardest to suppress. She hoped that Pinkie didn’t notice.

“There you go again, being all mysterious, huh?” she giggled. “That’s Twilight for you!” She poked Twilight on the end of her nose and laughed. “Oh! That’s right, I came here to ask you something! Well, not really ask, more like chaperone. Or maybe escort?”

“What’s this about?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“We’re having a picnic today, remember? All six of us!”

“Oh! Right, sorry, it totally slipped my mind!” Twilight laughed. She decided just to roll with everything so she could slowly readjust to her normal life, without causing any sort of unrest with her talk of what she had been through. Or imagined she had been through. Either way.

“Well, come on! The girls probably have everything set up by now!” Pinkie urged. She bolted away suddenly, and Twilight could assume that she was supposed to go after her. There wasn’t any chance that she was going to follow at the same breakneck speed, though. Rather, she walked at a fairly casual pace, taking in the sights of her hometown that felt so strangely nostalgic.

The smell of flowers and fresh produce wafted through the midday air, the streets busy with people going about their daily business. The cobblestone underfoot felt so natural, and Twilight couldn’t believe how much she missed feeling it. The market wasn’t terribly busy, just a few customers flowing between the stalls. She knew that things always seemed more valuable once they were gone, but she never thought that even a walk could become invaluable.

“Alright, fine, we can stop and smell the roses,” Pinkie huffed, falling back into pace with her friend. She did literally that as they passed by a flower cart, much to Twilight’s amusement.

They passed through undisturbed, and soon the crowd and pavement faded into a grassy knoll. She could make out Rainbow Dash and Applejack laying out the blanket over the grass, Rarity unloading silverware, and Fluttershy arranging a bouquet of flowers into a little glass vase to use as a centerpiece. A few baskets of food lay to the side, with presumably the usual picnic foodstuffs inside.

Pinkie Pie ran ahead excitedly, waving her hooves and shouting to draw the others’ attention, but Twilight stayed behind for a bit. She took in the smell of the grass and the ambient noise of nature around her. A gentle breeze wafted by, sweeping some stray hairs out of her face.

A few tears fell down her cheeks. The friends that she had been fighting for, the life that she had been fighting for, the hope that she had been fighting for, was all finally there. There was no more fighting.

Surely, that was true happiness.

Chapter 27: Blood of the Covenant

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 27: Blood of the Covenant

The picnic went as well as Twilight would’ve expected. She still silently reveled in how amazing it was that she could be with all of her friends again, their personalities so bright and happy. She tried to hold back any signs of her overwhelming emotions, which it wouldn’t have made sense for her to have them in any normal situation.

It was still a bit jarring how her life went from total despair to total hope in less than a day, but she chose to enjoy that fact instead of digging too deep into it. She usually didn’t let a chance for research pass, but she decided to make an exception. Just this once.

Soon the group of friends found it time to end the picnic. Twilight wanted to beg to have it go on longer, but she knew that they could always have one again tomorrow. She stood up to allow Applejack and Rainbow Dash to fold up the checkered red and white sheet.

With a gasp, she soon found herself overtaken with a sudden dizziness. She clutched her forehead, looking down at the ground wearily. The grass beneath her morphed into a mixture of black and purple nothingness. The color rippled outwards in all directions, engulfing everything in its path. With tears vaguely clouding her vision, Twilight reached outwards to her friends, but by the time her eyes had readjusted they had already disappeared. The beautiful and lively atmosphere was crushed by the new desolate landscape.

So all the time she had spent with her friends, it really wasn’t them? It was nothing but a pleasant illusion? An idealized dream world that someone made up? Maybe she was the one that made it up, to save herself from the pain of death in her final moments. But did that mean that this that she was now witnessing was her departure from all existence?

Her eyes shot open. She felt herself in her body again, lying on a cold marble floor. The vague aching all over her body confirmed that she truly was still alive, but she couldn’t be sure yet if that was a relief or not. Cautiously, Twilight raised her head to survey the area.

Her eyes widened. It wasn’t the building that she was surprised to be in, rather the room. If she recalled the area correctly, she somehow had wound up in the entry hall of The Committee headquarters building. The silence was a bit unsettling, considering the size of the room, but she didn’t let that get to her.

Twilight sat up uncertainly, trying to piece together what had happened. Everything seemed to blur together in her mind, and her head soon started to ache. Getting up completely, she decided that her next course of action should be to relocate the throne room. Her thoughts were jarringly interrupted by the faint sound of microphone feedback and speakers crackling to life.

“Hello, hello!” the dreadfully familiar voice of Koishi flowed out of the speakers, echoing throughout the entire building. The speakers seemed to be everywhere, so there was no getting away from it. “Looks like you’ve woken up, so the show can really begin! Well, I guess it’s not much of a show since all you can do is listen, but it’ll be fun just the same!” Twilight clenched her teeth, her vision turning downcast as she listened further, though the constant echoing made it difficult to decipher most of her words.

"I bet you’re curious what the show is, huh? That’s the very basis of human nature, it seems! Well, let me tell you the rules of this little game show! Your goal is simple: to try and find the throne room again before all of your friends are dead!”

“Keep your filthy hooves off of my friends, you bitch!” Twilight shouted, even though she knew Koishi was too far away to hear. Her blood boiled more than ever before, and she took off running down one of the many hallways frantically. She slowed a few moments, then came to a complete stop, realizing that she had absolutely no idea where to go.

“Oh, and I’m not gonna help you this time by making you see and hear things subconsciously! That was really frustrating, you know? Even with my magic guiding the way the whole time. I should’ve just put up a neon sign pointing to the door,” Koishi commented. “Also, I can hear you. You should be nicer.”

Twilight groaned. As much as she loved her intellectual puzzles, she was really sick of having to solve one every three seconds. She backtracked to the main hallway, deciding to survey each one to determine which one she followed before. Why was it so hard to remember all of the sudden?

“I’ll just check for magic and follow down whichever has the highest feedback…” she mumbled to herself. There was no time just to go down each and every path, so a bit of cutting corners was necessary.

“Oh! I promised a live stream of the action, didn’t I? And don’t worry, I upgraded so there’s instant streaming from every room in the castle! Isn’t that awesome?” Koishi added. Twilight waved her off, focusing back on her spell.

Her horn emanated the slightly violet hue she was familiar with, which increased and decreased slightly as she waved it in front of the different passages. Her courage wavered as she moved down the line of hallways, none of them resulting in any spectacular result. So it looked like that plan didn’t work. She sighed, moving her head down in defeat.

What she wasn’t expecting was that the incantation didn’t cancel completely before she lowered her head. There was a sudden surge in the magic flow that was almost enough to make her lose her balance. She raised her head cautiously a second time, and once her horn moved over a rather uninteresting room the reading spiked again. She pursued the direction of the high magical concentrations, even though she was fairly certain that it wouldn’t lead her to her friends.

“Well, there is the possibility that she rearranged everything while I was unconscious,” Twilight observed, moving further into the room. She cast an illumination spell to get a better view. Nothing in the room seemed noteworthy, but she was still drawn deeper into it by some unknown force.

“Oopsie!” Koishi said, though the sound seemed more distant. Twilight supposed that she had no need to put speakers in such an out of the way place. “I keep forgetting to leave the microphone on! Looks like that whole scene was a waste. Let’s get another extra for refilming, then?” There were muffled cries of unrest in the background which were undeniably coming from the other five. Twilight’s sweat ran cold. She needed to hurry, or at least get as far away from earshot as possible.

The room drew her in further, its darkness still vaguely unsettling. She felt something important within it somewhere. A few moments later, Twilight made the most curious discovery. One chunk of the wall was swung outward. The gap leftover looked to be the beginning of a spiral staircase, which led downward to whatever lied in the basements of The Committee building. It seemed to her to be a good place to hide undetected and not be heard, so she gingerly took a few steps downward.

Not a moment later, the most blood curdling screech Twilight had heard in her life forced its way onto her eardrums. Throwing away all sense of caution, she sprinted down the narrow staircase. She was positive that she heard some form of talking even down there, upon closer inspection.

After a few minutes of panicked running and a good deal of tripping, Twilight arrived at the foot of the staircase. The room she found herself in gave off a totally different vibe from the rest of the building. In fact, it gave off a different vibe from the rest of the entire town. It resembled something akin to an underground cavern, and there were in fact crystals embedded into the walls. They softly glowed and illuminated the rest of the tunnel’s darkness. It had a certain serene feeling to it, and having the speakers far enough back to be inaudible was definitely a plus.

She proceeded onwards, not sure what to make of the whole place. Her footsteps echoed off of the polished walls. Why would something like this have been built? Better yet, who else had been down there recently? The entrance at the top of the stairs was definitely an attempt at a secret passage.

Twilight found herself at the end of the tunnel, and the walls opened up to a small circular room. Six lavender gemstones stood poised in the middle, encircling two well crafted statues. She didn’t need to inspect them very much to recognize the figures as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. But why would they even be there? It was exceedingly obvious how much Emerald Joy hated them, after all. Twilight could only assume the same to be true for Koishi. Did that girl even have the ability to hate people?

Waving those thoughts aside, Twilight stepped closer. She instantly could feel the increase in magical concentration. Had this area been enchanted or something? But why? Hopefully the centerpieces held some answer. Wasting no time, she approached the nearest crystal and scanned it for traces of magic. At first her horn only emitted a moderate shade of violet, but then blues and pinks mixed in with it. She canceled the spell immediately. As far as she knew, magic only changed color when it was corrupted by black magic and turned the appropriate color. Unless... she had just absorbed another unicorn’s magic.

She looked up at her horn again, which was now flickering with multiple colors of magic. Her eyes wandered upward towards the two statues towering above her.

“I trust you know what to do with that, young Twilight Sparkle,” a voice out of nowhere stated simply. It sounded familiar, but it wasn’t one whose owner she could place off the top of her head.

“Yes, we hope you shall prevail,” another voice added.

“I-I will, I promise,” Twilight responded, though she wasn’t sure why she did. She felt something floating alongside her, and turned to see her hair suspended in the air, waving as if she was moving in water. It sparkled slightly. So that was the true power of that much magic…

“For my friends, and for everyone, I will.”

With a spectacular burst of energy that she hardly knew she summoned, Twilight felt herself propelling through time and space. A transportation spell so easily cast was unimaginable, even to someone such as herself.

With another crackle, she reappeared in an unremarkable hallway, which resembled all of the others. She knew its secrets perfectly well, though. She slowly extended her neck, her hair and clothes already rippling from the power of her charged magic. The whole hall lit up a brilliant violet, and in one swift movement the door appeared and burst open, flying into the throne room and effectively startling its occupants.

“Oh, you made it! That’s good,” Koishi greeted optimistically upon spotting Twilight in the doorway. “That whole show was a bluff, I didn’t actually hurt them. I mean, yeah, psychological torture aside.”

“Step away from my friends,” Twilight commanded, her voice slow and steady. When Koishi didn’t immediately comply, she moved forward into the throne room. Or at least, that’s what the plan was. The moment she went past the door frame she was blown backwards and dented the adjacent wall.

“Oh, right!” Koishi added. “I put up an impenetrable field around this entire room. That means that you can’t come in and save your friends. So sad…” She paused, then grabbed Fluttershy off of the ground by her long pink hair. “Let’s begin, then! You didn’t make it inside in time, so as punishment, I get to slaughter all of your friends! Try not to be a sore loser, please?”

Prologue: Recollection

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee

Prologue: Recollection

Dear Diary,

My name is Twilight Sparkle. I am a purple unicorn that has an abnormally strong connection with magic. I vaguely remember the steps I took to get so powerful, but it’s been so long that I can’t remember them fully. I probably used to know so many useful spells, something that could stop all of this, but they’ve been lost to time.

I used to write the date in my entries, but I can’t seem to keep track anymore. All I can say is that it’s Spring, and I’m not even positive about that. Not that it matters, since weather doesn’t affect this place.

I’ve been starting to forget why I bother to keep writing, considering that nothing ever changes here. I guess I just want to keep everything in my mind straight, but every day each memory gets a bit foggier. I think I used to have a pet, something reptilian, but it was taken away the moment the New Era began. They thought it was ‘too dangerous’. I remember being furious, but now I can’t recall why.

I’ve been going on this whole entry so far talking about things I don’t remember. Now I’ll relay the facts I do know. I have six friends: Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Aquamarine. They’re the only ones left who I can trust.

Applejack is an orange earth pony with a Southern accent. I don’t know why it’s called a Southern accent, but that little tidbit is trivial. Back before this whole mess, she was the Element of Honesty. Some members of her large family haven’t been converted, but they’re too scared to go against the system. I can’t blame them.

Rainbow Dash is a blue pegasus pony, and she’s one of the fastest fliers I’ve ever seen. That doesn’t matter now, though; all of the pegasi are banned from flying. She used to be the Element of Loyalty, even though out of all of my friends she’d be the last you would think to represent that. She’s tied with Applejack for being the strongest mare, but she still thinks she’s the best. She can also have a bit of a thick head. No offense to her.

Rarity is a white unicorn, and she used to represent the Element of Generosity. Luckily for her, she’s the only one of us that kept their original jobs from before the New Era. Unfortunately, she works for the system. Mind you, she doesn’t do any of the politics business. She just designs dresses for all of the important ponies, but there’s only one of those. But I’ll get to that later.

Fluttershy is a yellow pegasus, but she never really engaged in flying during her lifetime. Honestly, I’m not sure how she managed to handle the stress of going against the system, but she acts like it doesn’t bother her. She would care for many animals, but now all life besides ponies has been removed. She used to represent the Element of Kindness, and I think that she holds up to her element very well considering what we’ve been put through.

Pinkie Pie is a pink earth pony who used to love throwing parties. Her hair is straight, but I vaguely remember it being poofy back when she was always happy. As the Element of Laughter, she went through a bout of depression when she realized that she could no longer entertain any ponies but us seven. It just had to be that way.

Aquamarine is a yellow unicorn, and we only became friends after the New Era began. She managed to fight back like the rest of us, but she did it alone. We decided that it would be best for us to stick together, and that’s how it’s been. Her real name is Ondine, but she doesn’t like to be called that because she thinks it sounds too formal and intimidating.

Now that I’ve written about all of my friends, it’s now time to talk about the main problem: The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee. For sake of space, I will just refer to them as The Committee.

It all started many, many years ago, when we were still ruled by two alicorns—Celestia and Luna, I think their names were—and our government was collapsing. Ponies were rioting on the streets for reasons that fail to resurface in my memory, and the princesses said that they would give anything for all of the ponies to be happy just one more day. A certain pony took them up on the offer.

Emerald Joy, a young unicorn and aspiring politician, suggested that they let her try her new happiness technique out on the ponies. She was very vague about it, but she smooth talked the princesses into agreeing. After a few months, she had carried out her experiment with hundreds of thousands of ponies, and marched them into Canterlot Castle to overthrow the princesses under the motivation that she would make a much better ruler for them. Nobody thought that defeating alicorns was possible, but I suppose all power has its limits.

When nothing else stood in her way, Emerald Joy rounded up the rest of the ponies in Equestria and put them all under her spell. Only a few of us were brave enough to slip away after seeing what the spell did to our loved ones.

When she was done, she shunned all of the natural things in Equestria and chose instead to remake the world into a technologically advanced empire. Machinery now helps with the most mundane tasks, and has rendered schools obsolete. She thinks it for the best, because nopony is happy at school.

I suppose that so far I haven’t been very clear on what her ‘happiness technique’ is. I’m sure that before I would be able to scientifically identify all of the components in the spell, but now I can only say that it makes a pony happy. Not just ‘brighter mood’ happy, though. She literally brainwashes ponies into being happy all of the time. This means that they have absolutely no personalities, because when personalities clash, there are arguments, and at least one pony walks away from an argument upset.

Emerald took into account all facets of pony life and pinpointed all scenarios that could make a pony unhappy. For example, when she realized that some ponies might be jealous that some ponies can fly and some can do magic, she officially banned all pegasi from flying and limited the amount of magic a unicorn can use. She doesn’t allow competition for fear of disappointment, no friendships for fear of loneliness, no love for fear of heartbreak.

But I should be saying more about The Committee itself. Emerald decided that she needed a Committee to converse with and decide on the laws. Previously there were many ponies on The Committee, but after a few years the numbers dwindled down until she was again the only pony governing the empire. The reason why she’s alone so quickly is simple: she executed all of the other ponies on The Committee.

Did I forget to add that part? Whenever the system (that’s a word that my friends use to describe anypony that works for The Committee) finds that a pony isn’t happy, she executes them in front of a raging crowd of brainwashed ponies. She can be a bit... creative with her methods, but no matter how grotesque, all ponies are called to watch the large monitors that are showing the action live. Even the fillies. Even the pony’s family.

Luckily for us, the main reason why we get summoned to the capital of the empire is for Emerald Joy’s daily speech. It’s always the same talk, every day, about why we have to have all of these laws and how it’s the best for us all, but I still don’t feel like all of my questions are answered.

You may be wondering why we haven’t already revolted. The answer is, well, we can’t exactly figure out how to. Emerald Joy embedded the Elements of Harmony into the walls of her palace, and she has taken many security precautions to make sure nopony gets inside. There’s also an extremely slim chance that we can actually get out to seek help from other civilizations like the griffons or dragons, but they would probably be reluctant to help anyway. I suppose we’ll just have to wait for a glimmer of opportunity, but seven ponies overthrowing an empire composed of thousands is unlikely.

I’m sorry if I’ve left you unsatisfied, and there is a very large chance that I forgot something, but hopefully you understand by now what I’ve been going through.

Nonetheless, I live to see another day.

Fondly,

Twilight Sparkle

Chapter 9: Starting With a Notion and Dropping Preconceptions

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 9: Starting With A Notion and Dropping Preconceptions

Twilight abruptly woke from her dreamless sleep. She glanced at the digital clock on her nightstand. It was still an hour or so before she had to be up for the speech, so she considered just going back to sleep. However, something in the back of her mind kept her from slipping back into her blank state of mind, so she decided instead to sit up in her bed and think about something. She wasn’t exactly sure what, but right then seemed a good time as ever to think, what with the cool atmosphere and the dark room that was just light enough to see her surroundings as the sun began peeking over the horizon.

She adjusted her sheets and pillows and sat up, her back laying up against the wall. She let her mind wander for a little bit to find a topic of pondering, and the first thing it went to was how two of her friends were already gone in such a short period of time. What was it about recently that made such things happen? They had been doing so well for such a long time, so why all the sudden was the group breaking apart?

She fiddled with her hair a bit as she pondered further. What were they going to do now? Fluttershy and Applejack were such good friends to them all, so there was always a sort of incomplete feel at the meetings nowadays. They didn’t feel like they were all there during their meetups, or at any point in their lives really. At least, that was how Twilight felt. She wasn’t positive about the others, although they probably also felt that way.

It was so uncanny suddenly not having someone be around anymore, though. One day Fluttershy was there and seemed to be pulling through pretty well, and then the next day she was jarringly yanked from existence. Applejack had a similar situation, only it was even stranger because she was still physically there, she just wasn’t Applejack anymore. She was just a lifeless happiness zombie that blindly obeyed all of Emerald Joy’s wishes, which is a lot more painful to deal with. At least when someone dies you don’t have to see them every day. Twilight had to physically hold herself back from running up to the brainwashed Applejack and talking to her, constantly reminding herself that it wasn’t actually Applejack she was talking to.

Now that Twilight thought more about it, about the time that everyone started getting killed off was in correlation with when they decided to get serious about figuring out some way to rebel against The Committee. Was it just a coincidence, or was some higher up watching over the group and trying to halt their progress?

And on that same line of thinking, Twilight realized that since the New Era began, none of them really decided to take on rebelling against The Committee. Everyone saw it as too daunting a task, and either wrote it off as too difficult, that they couldn’t do it with their current resources, or that they would just stumble upon something someday that would give them all of the answers. So, in a way, none of them were really doing anything to help their cause. Everyone was all talk and no action, planning everything without actually doing it. It hurt a little to come to that conclusion, but it was the truth, no matter how much she felt she was insulting herself and her friends.

“That’s it,” she thought aloud, “from this day onward, we’re going to push forward through this mess and figure out the way. No more sitting around and doing nothing, it’s time to take action!” She jumped out of her bed with renewed spirit, then turned as her alarm clock went off. Now would have been the time that she would get up and write her diary entry, but her mind was already swimming with too many thoughts to sit down and focus on writing. She planned her course of action for a few minutes longer, until she was halted by her television.

“Good morning, everybody!” Emerald Joy chimed with a sickeningly sweet voice, matched with a smile. “I hope you all slept wonderfully, but now it’s time to come meet with your friends for the speech of the day!” With a flourish of her gown, the screen darkened and Twilight was met again with silence. She cleaned up her living space, tidied up a bit, then walked out the door, her hopes high and her confidence up to eleven. She was ready to end this nonsense, through any means possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, Rarity?” Twilight said, catching up to her friend as the crowd began to disperse. “Do you have a minute?”

“I don’t see why not,” Rarity replied, brushing some hair away from her face, using her magic to fix any potential tangles. “What is it, darling?”

“Well, actually, I think we should have this conversation in private…” Twilight whispered, gesturing her eyes towards one of the security androids buzzing around. Rarity nodded in understanding, then wordlessly led Twilight back to her home.
Upon arrival, Twilight was a little stunned at how beautifully the house was decorated. There was soft velvet furniture and intricate designs on the wallpaper, to name the first things that caught her eye. Rarity drew up a couple chairs and offered Twilight one of the seats.

"So what is it that we need to talk about?” Rarity asked, sipping at some herbal tea she had brewed. She offered Twilight some, but Twilight declined.

“Well, I was thinking this morning about how we weren’t exactly doing much regarding rebelling, and I figured now was a good day as ever to get our act together and actually get some work done,” Twilight explained. Rarity lowered the cup from her mouth.

"Why do you bring this up with me? Aquamarine or even Rainbow Dash would seem a lot better fit for you to talk to about such matters,” Rarity responded skeptically.

“Actually,” Twilight continued, “you are the best option for me to talk to right now. You work for The Committee after all, so you’re already inside the system. There’s no need for you to break in to get anything, within reason of course.” Rarity raised an eyebrow.

“What exactly are you getting at?”

“What I’m saying is that I want you to try and wiggle some sort of information out of Emerald. You said it quite a while ago, didn’t you? She’s quite an open book.” Rarity shifted uncomfortably and set her cup onto the table.

“Yes, I did say that, but she is only an open book when it comes to pretty unimportant matters. You saw how messed up she was when she talked to me at Apple Bloom’s execution, didn’t you? That’s the way she acts all the time, speaking with flawed and stretched logic. There’s no way that I can get anything coherent out of her, much less anything helpful,” she denied. Twilight sighed and layed back in her chair a bit.

“When I said that we needed to get serious about finding a way to rebel, I didn’t say it was going to be easy,” Twilight pointed out. “And the way you’re thinking right now is the very flawed mindset we’ve had this whole ordeal. We right things off as too difficult or not possible for the time being and then never attempt it. That is why we need to actually get our heads in the game and do the work that it takes to get things done!”

“I suppose you’re quite right…” Rarity mumbled, a bit hurt. There was a moment of silence. “That last sentence you said, about getting things done…”

“Yes?” Twilight inquired.

“I—it’s the kind of thing that Applejack would have said in this sort of situation…” Rarity stammered, trying to keep her cool. She dabbed at her eyes, trying not to smear her makeup. Twilight flinched.

“Yes, I—I suppose you’re right…” she agreed awkwardly. Applejack was a bit of a touchy subject at the moment for obvious reasons. There was a longer stretch of silence as the two struggled to find a way to move things along.

“Well, if that’s all that there is to say,” Rarity said, breaking the silence, “I think that we should go our separate ways. I’m sure you have a lot of work that has to be done regarding investigation, and I don’t want to hold you.” The mares shook hooves, and Twilight exited Rarity’s home without another word.

Once the door closed behind her, Twilight realized that she had no course of action for the rest of the day. She stood in front of Rarity’s front door for a stretch of time before she decided that the best thing to do would be to head back to her house and read over the book she had found the day before about The Elements of Harmony. It was the only book in a language that she could read that she had seen in a long time, and she wanted to savor every moment of reading it that she could.

Twilight took a left and headed home, an unnaturally large smile plastered upon her face to pass by the androids undetected. She casually entered her house, and the very second that she was positive she was alone she dropped the ridiculous act.

After sitting down in a chair and getting situated, Twilight flipped to the first page in the book again to see the table of contents. She had rushed through it when she first discovered the book because she was being quick to summarize what the actual content was about, but now she could actually take some time and take a look at the book’s finer details.

She surveyed the table of contents, and one particular section caught her eye. It spoke about what seemed to be the origins of The Elements of Harmony. She turned to the indicated page number to get some more insight.

Long, long ago, there lived two regal sisters who ruled together, and created harmony throughout all the land, it began. Twilight was already skeptical. What was this, a children’s book? Nonetheless, she continued reading.

To do this, the eldest sister used her magic to raise the sun at dawn. The younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained a balance in their kingdom and among their subjects.

However, one day the younger sister grew resentful, as everyone frolicked and played in her sister’s day, but were afraid of and shunned her beautiful night. On one fateful day, she refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one’s heart made it impossible for her to see reason. She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal darkness.

Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponykind: The Elements of Harmony. Using their power, she defeated her younger sister and banished her permanently in the moon.

The elder sister took on responsibility of both sun and moon, and harmony has been maintained for generations since.

Twilight blinked. Was that really it? Was that the story between the two goddesses who used to rule over the land before Emerald Joy took over? Granted it wasn’t very useful information at the moment, so she really shouldn’t have been as awestruck as she was. The book must’ve been very old, since from a quick skimming she found that it had no information about the younger sister, who’s name was Luna, returning after her banishment in the moon.

She turned to the next chapter, which apparently dealt with The Element of Magic. Why did that particular element need its own chapter? Well, she knew that it was important, but was it really so great that it warranted a whole chapter to itself?

The sixth, The Element of Magic, is the most elusive of them all. It is only revealed when the other five are present, and only then can they all band together to unleash their power. And even if the five others are present, only with a spark will The Element of Magic reveal itself.

Twilight scratched her head. She was going to question how The Element of Magic would apparently go away, but she knew better than to question the basic nature of how magic worked. She sighed and flipped a few pages forward.

The Elements of Harmony can only be used to their full power when they have six bearers to channel their magic through. However, the means in which to harness their power is unknown, as the only times they have been used was when Celestia and Luna activated their power. They could use three elements each as they had the power of a unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony, but in any other instance six bearers would need to be present.

Twilight scoffed. Even if she were to figure out how to get to The Element of Harmony and somehow got enough people to use them, she would still have absolutely no idea how to go about actually tapping into their magic reserves and using them. She sighed again, snapped the book shut, and set it back on her night stand.
She went about a few more menial tasks to occupy her time, sometimes stopping to look through the book again to see if there was anything she had missed (which ended up being a fruitless effort), and eventually the hours whittled away and the day came to a close. Twilight slipped under her covers, flicked the light off, and fell asleep in a matter of minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Good morning, everybody!” Twilight turned in her bed as she heard the announcement. Had she really slept through her alarm? “I hope you all slept wonderfully, but now it’s time to come meet with your friends for the speech of the day!” Twilight sat up in a huff, begrudgingly moving herself out of bed. She wanted to fall back asleep. Couldn’t she sleep a few more minutes? Of course, with her luck, she would probably sleep through the late alarm, too.

She sleepily got ready for the day, knowing full well that she was probably going to be late. It didn’t matter, though. She had heard that speech so many times she could recite it perfectly in her sleep. Man she wanted to go back to sleep.
She opened the door, and noticed through the smiles of all the others that she wasn’t the only one that would much rather be in bed instead of trudging down the pavement towards the town square. Maybe it was just one of those gloomy days? But Emerald controlled everything in the town, so why would she let this kind of thing happen?

Twilight reached the center of town, and even though it was quite a few minutes after the speech should have started, Emerald Joy was just sitting in a chair and smiling patiently for everyone to gather. Twilight perked up a little at the abnormality of the situation, but she was still quite drowsy. After another minute, Emerald raised the microphone to her lips and began speaking.

“Hello, everyone!” she cheered. The crowd wasn’t nearly as energetic as usual, but she seemed ignorant towards their lack of motivation. “We’re all feeling a bit sleepy today, huh? I bet you’re wondering why, huh? Well let me explain it, all of it, to all of you!” Twilight perked up again. So there was a reason to everyone being so tired all of the sudden? And Emerald was the one behind it? She tensed. This couldn’t be good.

“You all have been forgetting stuff lately, aren’t you all? Your memories are getting foggy and your passions hazy?” She paused and pouted sympathetically, then brightened. “That’s no good, now is it? How can you be happy when you can’t remember stuff? Sometimes I get all the way to work and then I remember that I forgot to get dressed! It’s such a simple oversight, but it really puts a damper on my day!”

Is she for real? That’s a lot more than a simple oversight! Twilight thought.

“Anyway, I had this really big idea that I wanted to tell all of you! Unfortunately, the first stages of this idea makes people really sleepy! At least I know it’s working, right?” Emerald explained, though it still wasn’t very much of an explanation.

“What’s that? You want to know what my idea is? I’m so ecstatic that you asked! It fills me with happiness that you asked! You see, all of your memories, I’m going to return them to you!”

Chapter 16: The Calm Before the Storm

The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 16: The Calm Before the Storm

Twilight awoke that morning with her mind already going a million miles an hour. She had butterflies in her stomach as if she was going on her first date, a mixture of both happiness and dread. Today was the day to bring everything crashing down.

She got ready for the day like clockwork, contemplating what she should bring with her. She would have no time to go back to her house as they were going to begin the operation right after the speech was over, with Rarity already starting in the middle as she didn’t need to be in attendance.

Twilight glanced over at her clock. It was half an hour before she needed to be up, but she needed some extra time to prepare for the day, both physically and mentally. She made herself a final breakfast, nothing too fancy, and changed out of her night gown. Out of things to do and still with a few more minutes to spare, she decided to read more out of the book she found with Aquamarine and Pinkie Pie so many nights ago. She already knew all there was to be found in the book, but reading it over again couldn’t hurt.

She flipped through the pages and reread the tale of the two princesses, more so for enjoyment than for looking for any valuable information. After a couple minutes or so passed she turned to another page, but stopped as one page seemed thicker and stiffer than the others. Gently she tore apart the edge of the page, revealing one that was stuck to it. Her eyes widened with interest.

“Good morning, everybody!” Twilight flinched at the noise coming from her television. No, it couldn’t be time to leave! Not when she had just found a page that could possibly simplify their whole plan! She tore herself away from the book, but looked at it longingly until she reached her door.

She stopped herself before leaving and turned to the mirror mounted at a perfect height that her face was exactly centered in it. She studied her face for a while. It seemed different than it was a few months ago, before something was set in motion that started killing off all of her friends. It looked more worn and mature, like a weathered rock that was standing the tests of time yet still remaining beautiful in its own natural way. In front of the mirror she checked her happy expression for the last time before everything was changed. Everything she did now had a sense of finality, and this was no exception.

Satisfied, she headed out into the massive crowd, already a little late from taking the time to silently bid farewell to her life as she knew it. She looked at the faces about her, which were completely clueless as to the feat that four mares were about to attempt. She wanted to pull someone aside and excitedly whisper them everything, for them to marvel at what she had been through, but she knew perfectly well what a horrible idea that would be.

“Why good morning, everybody!” Emerald Joy exclaimed from the stage, starting before Twilight could get to a good place in the crowd to scout out her friends. Twilight sighed, it wasn’t very important right then.

“Alrighty, let me explain to you! About all those problems you worry about, those problems you’re thinking about. All of it, I’ll explain it for you!” She paused to allow the crowd to do its part and hype everyone up. “Eh, everybody... being happy… Well, it’s your duty! Now then, aren’t you happy? You know it’s your duty, right? Are you doing as expected?” Twilight sighed and shifted through the crowd a little. Her mind was too focused on what was going to take place after the speech to care about the actual speech.

“Here at the Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee, our wish is for your absolute happiness, and we’ll do anything in our power to support you!” Twilight yawned a little as the usual theatrics of the steam rolling out and the stage rising into the air played out. Maybe getting up early wasn’t the best idea, but it was probably just the predictability of the speech that was getting to her.

“Therefore, we hope you stay at peace, have the happiest of days, and fulfill your duty. Just remember, your happiness is also our happiness! Doesn’t that make you just so happy? Since it’s your duty, you know. Are you doing your duty? Because, if you aren’t...” Emerald turned, the same slideshow of executions being displayed. Twilight was a bit taken aback that they added Apple Bloom’s death to the gallery of images, but she didn’t put such cruel behavior past Emerald Joy.

“Alrighty! Come now, everybody, you should only be filled with complete happiness! Worries and dissatisfaction, of course you don’t have any of those, right?”

“You’ve got that wrong!”

Twilight froze as the voice rang out throughout the town square. She had to have misheard it though. It couldn’t have been…

A rainbow colored blur shot out of the crowd and stopped around the same level as Emerald Joy. Twilight’s heart sank as her fears were confirmed.

“Rainbow, my god…” she whispered to herself. “What are you doing…?”

“You better just give it all up now, Emerald Joy!” Rainbow taunted. Emerald raised an eyebrow quizzically.

“Hm? What do we have here?” she asked like she was addressing a smudge on the bottom of her shoes as opposed to a pegasus opposing her. Rainbow titled a little and turned towards the citizens, which looked like nothing more than blobs of color from her height, and she was sure that she probably looked the same way from the ground.

“My friends, you will have to suffer no longer,” she began, catching herself. “Well, you can’t really suffer in the first place, but you know what I mean!”

“Rainbow, this is seriously compromising the plan!” Twilight whispered, wishing that her words would carry to the pegasus’s ears while staying unheard by everyone else.

“I’m sorry to cut short what is promising to be such a great motivational speech,” Emerald spoke up, “but I really don’t think anyone here wants to hear it! There are rules that have to be followed, my dear, and you just broke almost all of them! Please fly down here to the stage and receive your punishment without a fight, or I’ll have to do it by force! Take your pick.” Rainbow scoffed.

“Do you honestly think that I would reveal myself now just so I could say a few words to everyone? I’m throwing my life away here! Might as well take you down with me!” Before anyone had any time to react, Rainbow flew downwards at supersonic speeds and delivered a kick square in Emerald Joy’s chest, sending them both flying off of the stage. Emerald caught herself in her magic, and Rainbow swooped back upwards.

“And do you honestly think that I would let a stupid little mare beat me with the amount of magic that I possess?” Emerald replied once the two composed themselves, and evil gleam in her eye. “What a daft child you are!”

Rainbow lunged back down at Emerald, aiming to knock her off the platform to meet her imminent doom. Just before she was about to make contact, Rainbow’s whole body was engulfed in a magical green aura, which she soon discovered belonged to Emerald. She felt a lurch as the magic field flung her body into the air. Flapping her wings wildly, after a few seconds she regained control.

Deciding it was a good time to retreat for a while, she turned and began to flee, but was caught in the magical aura once again, this time pulling her towards the stage. She flailed desperately, but to no avail. Emerald wasn’t joking when she said her magical abilities were among the best.

“Now then, let’s get down to business, shall we?” Emerald said directly into Rainbow’s ear. The pegasus’s heartbeat quickened.

“W—what are you gonna do?” she asked, trying to keep up her confidence the best she could, but still unable to hide the quivering in her voice. Emerald stroked the feathers on one of Rainbow’s wings. Rainbow broke out into a cold sweat.

“You seem to have an affinity for these wings of yours, no?” she suggested. “That seems to be a good place to start.” Before Rainbow could process what Emerald was trying to say, she felt a sharp pain shoot up her nerves from her wings. Emerald had grabbed onto them both and yanked with a surprising amount of strength, simultaneously kicking the rest of Rainbow away with her foot. Her heels felt like daggers digging into Rainbow’s back. She was in too much pain to scream; everything came out as a high pitched squeaking noise.

After a straight minute of pure, raw pain, the final tendons of her wings snapped and Emerald dropped the mass of feathers already caked with blood to the floor. Even more blood and gore leaked out onto Rainbow’s back and splattered the ground around her feet.

“Now that that’s out of the way, we can get things over with,” Emerald stated simply. “I’m too tired to think of something too theatrical, so we’ll have to settle for less. Terribly sorry about that.” She grabbed Rainbow by the waist and hauled her toward the edge of the metallic stage, the mare’s feet dragging limply and leaving a trail in the blood spatters. She held her right up against the edge, the only thing keeping her from falling being Emerald’s support.

In a final act of defiance, Rainbow turned and punched Emerald Joy square in the jaw with the last ounce of strength she had. The shock of the impact loosened Emerald’s grip and Rainbow fell, plummeting towards the ground.

Twilight averted her gaze, but could still hear the sickening splattering noise her friend made as she made impact with the hard cement.

Another friend gone, and at such a crucial stage. A few tears started to trickle out of her eyes. No, she needed to power through. Twilight surveyed the crowd and caught Aquamarine’s vision. They made eye contact, and Aquamarine nodded. Rarity has already started inside, she seemed to say. There’s no going back now. Twilight swallowed and nodded back.

“That should be all for today, everyone!” Emerald Joy finished after the moment of tense silence from watching Rainbow’s gory death. “Remember to stay smiling and fulfill your duty to the world!” With a sickeningly elegant flourish of her gown, the magician returned to the inside of the building.

The crowd slowly began to disperse, which wasn’t nearly as fast as Twilight would have liked. She pushed her way through the discord of the audience and finally reached Aquamarine. The two stepped aside, stopping for a moment of awed silence.

It was time to end it all.