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.
............shakes head. seems emerald strongly suspects that twilight still has her emotions................ soooooo she murders a filly who simply showed resistance, yet does not immediately kill twilight for even thinking she is resisting?
that just doesn't add up at all. she murders a little filly fro the thing that she is letting tiwlight go on with. why? it makes no sense. a filly is defenseless and harmless. an adult mare could actually be a threat............ it simply has to be that she had no idea who twilight is.
also she just unsealed (short of her holding the memories in her own head she could not actually TAKE them), the memories of arguably the most powerful unicorn in equistria. one who has feats including outsmaritng draconiquis and defeating a changeling queen mono e mono under her belt.......... What does emerald expect to happen here? she basically awoke the one being in equistria that still retain unnatural power! someone who is liekly FAR stronger than her. hell someone who could figure out how to defeat whatever is dampening her power, if it can even affect her if she remembers just how strong she really is.
though it would be a great way to have Twilight say a World of Cardboard speech..................
world of cardboard speech is trope where a character of considerable power has been limiting themselves for some reason. could be personal trauma, could be some promise, or it could simply be the fear of hurting someone. yet they are then faced with a situation where they realize holding back has either been limiting them or they have no choice but to truly cut loose.
3701326
would this be considered complaining or speculating? I'm not sure whether I should provide counter-arguments or just let you think
3701997 shrugs. be honest i am not sure myself. Emerald is making a lot of illogical decisions and her behavior is utterly erratic, one moment murdering children and the next moment not murdering someone much older despite having the same reason to. it is very inconsistent. why would she murder applebloom, a harmless child who might have answers of how she was not affected, and not murder twilight when she clearly suspects, practically knows, she is not affected by the spell and, as an adult, is an actual threat to some degree? there is no sensiblity to her bheavior.
...........and it is more likely the inevitable outcome than speculation with twilight. she IS unnaturally powerful. we only got a glimpse of what she can really do once, and that was when she was only a filly. as i understand twilight, having her memories back will only make her dangerous and unstoppable. whatever pain and loss she feels from losing applejack and fluttershy, which you know my opninion on her fate, would be amplified once her memories return............. considering what she did when she had a breakdown as a filly, as an adult mare with murder on the mind she would we unstoppable by anything Emerald possess.
and it is rather innaccurate to say taht she would not want to murder Emerald. it is one thing for her to grieve for the fates of fltutershy and applejack and applebloom, without remembering them truly. by truly remembering them however, by recalling the times she had with them and how close she was................... the two are incomparable. heads will roll. for the greatest of love can become blackest hatred.
the mane six's innert actions make some sense. they do not truly remember their pasts and selves. however they have faced far greater threats than Emerald could ever dare be compared to. her luck was that she came as a surprise alone. she is sitll only a unicorn, one with questionable intelligence since her actions are all over the place. the mane six fought demons, tamed chaos itself, and fought legions of vampiric monsters.
............if they remembered themselves during appleblom's murder, that would have been it for emerald. for if rarity truly remembered who she was, and what applejack and applebloom where, she would make sure death came to Emerald even if it meant her own. sacrificing herself for applebloom would be no different than saving her own sister.
3702086
While it is worded as complaining, I'll take it as speculation...
Besides, hearing what you have to say makes what I have planned even better in my mind, and hopefully the explanations will satisfy you, too
(Why yes, the seeming plotholes are actually setups for later events as opposed to sloppy writing! )
3702143 that or they are sitll plot holes and make no sense. if this Emerlad had any clue she would have killed the mane six. even ignoring the element connections they are the most capable of ponies, and tiwlight herself is far more pwoerful than her, perhaps powerful enough to directly kill her.
and that all STILL does not excuse characterizing fluttershy as so weak as to kill herself. all six of them were chosen by the elements. if she was so weak and cowardly as to kill herself she would never have b een chosen. what she did went compeltely against her element. there is not kindness in killing yourself, as it brings pain to those left behind.
as i said, itnentional or not, you simply killed fluttershy to remove her and place someone else in her slot.
3702198
Eh...?
I don't understand?
3702214 how i reason it. the elements bearers are six ponies. you have seven characters that resist the magic. the only one of them to actually die is one of the mane six, the one who had the lowest opinion of and obviously understood the least.
3702289
well I can see that that makes sense where the story is now, but it just sort of was up to chance that Fluttershy is the only one who's truly dead at this point...
It's not that I didn't like her or that I didn't understand how to handle her, and Aquamarine definitely isn't going to take her place or anything. It's just that one of the characters had to go first, and it just sort of worked out that Fluttershy would be the one.
Wow that sounds really cruel when put in such simple terms...
But honestly, there isn't really any realistic scenario where Applejack would outright die, so she didn't.
Also, Fluttershy didn't go against her element or anything when dying. She was pretty much responsible for the death of one of her (possibly more than) friends, and being the Element of Kindness, that kind of thing made her feel super horrible, and at the time she wasn't thinking about the outcome (as most suicides seem to go).
I feel like I already explained that one, though...
Gah, I promised myself I wouldn't try to reason with people in the comments, yet look what I just did...
3702369 ..........yes it did. she abandoned her friends and she probably knew it. there is no kindness in murdering yourself. and they had to clean her up after the fact. she betrayed all she stood for by truly giving up.
it is often the misconception that for something to be seriuos, someone has to die. in fact that is not the case. fluttershy did not have to die, and shouldn't have died, and wouldn't have committed suicide if she truly had others that needed her still.
for example, and a good one, Immortal Game. in that story it allows the evironment to show how dark things have become. Twilight becomes demonically possessed, Celestia is struck down, rainbow dash is tortured to madness, and other horrors. yet not at a single point does the author just up an kill a character. he does not even kill some relation to the mane six either. he knows he does not have to.
but it is not like they all get out unscathed. by the end of that story, everyone bears a scar.
3702479
...When you are going to commit suicide, you don't have your head completely straight. You don't think about everyone you're going to hurt, you just think about everything that is horrible in life and that's why you go through with it. That's why suicide happens. If everyone who considered committing it thought about everyone they would be hurting, then hardly any of them would go through with it. But that's not what happens, and it's not what happened with Flutters.
In fact, it doesn't even matter if it goes against her element. The bearers always go against their elements at some point or another. Applejack lied to Pinkie in Party of One, Rarity behaved selfishly in Sweet and Elite, I hardly need to bring up that Pinkie isn't always happy and laughter-filled. And these are just a few examples.
But I'm done reasoning about how Fluttershy's mind works, and any other seeming plot-holes. If you're going to disagree, then fine. I'm sorry that my story isn't what some of your preconceived notions are making it out to be. Feel free not to like it, but at the very least dust up on your grammar for your arguments. It's a bit... unbearable at times...
3702532 what in the world is with everyone responding about grammar in the comment section? seriously, the only place it matters is in the stories themselves.
..............no, Aj didn't go against her element. the cool thing about the elements is that they go deeper than the typical description. Her honesty is less actual truth and lies and is in fact about her intention. No matter what she does, she never means ill and is straight with her efforts. rarity and the rest struggle with their elements, but they are not unaware when they go against them. not to mention they are deeper than merely their elements. just as they are not entirely defined on their cutie marks and they can have far more meaning.
unfortunately fluttershy is the kind of person who would take into account if her death would hurt others. she is just that kind of person.
put simply, fluttershy had no reason to die. besides, as i said, death is useless in storytelling. true it ultimately can be a powerful tool, but only if it brings something into motion. fluttershy's demise brought absolutely nothing into motion. they were still just sitting around negotiating when the death of such a close friend should have had them revving the engine. perhaps awake some tinkle of........... something in them, the force that drove them to defeat chaos beasts and demons. yet non of that happened. the story just continued on the same pace. her death served NO purpose in the plot. and if it does, it is still not well implemented. when she died things should have begun to move. nothing moved.
Emerald Joy simply SCARES me! I always love those types of villains that always seem ten steps ahead of the protagonist... The more I think of the idea of everypony getting their memories back, the less I like it. This reeks of bad mojo...
GREAT chapter, by the way.
3702907
Well, I said I would stop arguing about the story, but I said nothing about the grammar, so...
Grammar ALWAYS matters, since without it the English language is a huge mess. Using the excuse of it being the comments section is lazy, and so is not taking the effort to use good grammar. It makes you come across as if you don't care (since you're not caring enough to make it good) which makes it harder for you to be taken seriously.
Also, I kind of expected you to stop trying to reason when I said that I would stop. Would it satisfy you if I agreed with you? Do you want me to say something along the lines of "Yes, I killed off Fluttershy simply because she didn't need to be in the story."? I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish, and that's why I was figuring you were just posting your speculation, but you were only able to word it as some sort of harsh critique. I'm sorry that you're getting so uptight about Fluttershy's seemingly meaningless death that it's impacting the rest of your reading experience in such a way that every time the story is updated you feel a need to draw attention to it again, even if the chapter speaks little to nothing about it at all.
I mean, the issues you're finding can't possibly be too glaring since you're the only one who is voicing your problems with the story (besides the one or two who didn't like how I handled the prologue, but that was mostly because the story was just beginning and some where under the impression the story would be told completely in diary format).
And although I promised not to keep arguing, I'll indulge myself one last time: the reason Emerald Joy's behavior is 'inconsistent' or 'unreasonable' is the whole point of her character. She's crazy and unpredictable, and she's always ten steps ahead of the ponies, so what seems a foolish move quickly becomes brilliant once she lets her plans become known.
And so I wish you adieu and hope you have a wonderful day.
3703048 will just leave it at this. from what i have seen, emerald does not come off as someone that intelligent by any stretch. smart, yes, but far from someone intelligent enough to be ten steps ahead........... and even if she is, that is only because the mane six are not even on the steps yet. they have no battle plan even yet.
basically some grand manipulator has to have the right presence. they have to make to think and feel that even a random action os part of some grander plan. problem is that we have no idea what plan emerald could possibly have or need. the mane six are too busy fondling darkness to have gotten any major attention. they have yet to cause any harm to emerald. nor is there any purpose for her beating around the bush if she suspects some ponies are walking around without being affected by the magic.
emerald lacks the right presence.
the reason it affects it is because the death was so empty and has so little effect on the narrative. if a character must die, then make it change something. all that changed with this story is that they have an empty seat and nothing more. they were neither motivated, unmotivated, enraged, or crushed. it just happens and they move on despite someone that close dying.
so i am left wondering why she needed to die if all it did was make them slightly more miserable?
It was a trap.
The situation is most dire. I fear victory is far-off and may never be grasped without further cost.
Awaiting further releases.
3701326 True, but Emerald Joy could just be playing with her like a certain draconequus we know of. Apple Bloom, from what I can see, was just a pawn that could be used to help break them.
On a side note, they didn't defeat Chrysalis. Shining Armor and Cadence did.
3703277 And dude. Seriously. You need a grammar book. And to your comment about Emerald Joy: the Joker.
Remember in The Dark Knight when the Joker did everything he did in the entire movie? That's Emerald Joy. Why so serious?
3705820
do you know how much I love you right now for this
like
a lot
3705880 He's whining about the characterization of someone clearly insanely brilliant by someone who needs a positive outlet for her
future schemesdark side. And who happens to be an internet friend of mine, so they should either shut up about how you write it or juat stop reading because you don't need to deal with crap that's not even critique, it's just nitpicking about things they don't know will happen and complaining about collateral damage.3705820 nmo the joker has the presence. you know he is up to something no matter what he does. i do not get the feeling emerald is up to something other than having a fit of madness.
i was referencing the idw comics with that one. she overpowers chrysalis with supeirior magical skill. chrysalis had sought to brainwash twilight and force her ot teach her magic. twilight would have non o dat.
3705939
ilu
in a totally not creepy way
3705956 Really. You had no part of you screaming at the ponies "NO IT'S A TRAP YOU IDIOTS"? So basically you're saying Emerald is not up to anything in giving memories back and knowing Twilight's not ubder the spell?
I think I know what that spell did, but I'm not going to say until next release.
3705972 lol ilu bff
in a totally creepy way
3706022 ............ what do you think would happne if the most powerful being, at the moment, is reminded that they are he most powerful being remaining and also how much those that have been hurt actually MEAN to her?
it is obviously a trap of some form, and one that could violently backfire so very easily. twilight right now does not realize who and what she was................. even fi this fully exposes twilight, it would make twilight something Emerald cannot contain nor defeat.
3706215 You do realize it might not actually bring their memories back, right? And it might not actually bring their memories back, per se
3706534 well wouldn't it be obvious to twilight if they are not her memories? and what purpose would that even serve to put alien memories into someone's head? and wouldn't putting alien memories risk whatever is restraining her own memories to break?
we had a very similar thing happen in canon. twilight forced her memories into the heads of her friends telepathically, and broke a chaos beast's magic.
3706669 ...
If she doesn't even KNOW her past memories- ugh. I'm just going to stop.
3706669
you wouldn't know if the memories you got are yours or not because you don't remember :I
And as for the point... I think that there would be a HUGE point for that. If you put in the memories that Emerald was a good person, then they wouldn't find any need to hate her
Also, Twilight didn't put in her own memories, she just reminded the others of their own memories that they weren't thinking about
If that makes sense
3706711 memories are recorded events. if twilight has a memory of emerald being a good person, then she might notice if her body did not feel right........... not to mention she has overwhelming evidence that the memories would be entirely fake. any memories of her being good would violently clash with memories of her impaling that stallion through, not to mention murdering a filly............ and if she had this capacity, why wouldn't she use it on applebloom and not murder her senselessly?
3706711 i do hope that is not what is happening though. cause that would mean all is laready lost with twilight having her memories scrwed up........ not to mention that scene with her horn glowing after reading the book on the elements would mean nothing.
3707003
no worries, that's not what happens, I'm just using it as an example.
(Also, this story's headcanon when it comes to memories is different from what you're saying, but it's explained in a few chapters.)
3707104 show does have a bit of lore for that concept. magical mystery cure largely. seems to hint that while memories and point of view can be affected, the true self is something of a hard copy of themselves. so long as it is not affected, all that harms the mind can be reversed.
as an example of exactly how difficult affecting the true self is. discord, a chaos beast, chaos made flesh, is incapable of affecting a pony at its core.