Twilight and the others sat around the map table in her castle enjoying their weekly pancake breakfast. She smiled as she watched Pinkie attempt to break her own record of most pancakes eaten in a minute.
“So how was your trip to Canterlot, Twi?” Applejack asked.
“It was great,” Twilight said, “We got a lot done, though I’m sorry my trip had to happen at the same time as your party at Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Party? What party?” Applejack said in confusion.
“The one you had last Thursday night,” Twilight said, “I decided to practice my night flying and flew to Canterlot. I passed right over Sweet Apple Acres. The barnyard was full of ponies. I was a little high up to see who they where, but there were dozens of them.”
“Sorry, Twi, but it sounds like you were seeing things,” Applejack said, “There was no late night party at Sweet Apple Acres. Trust me, if there was we would’ve woken up and given our uninvited guests a very special Apple Family greeting.”
“Yeah, if you’re not used to night flying, you might see something that’s not there,” Rainbow Dash said.
“I guess that makes sense,” Twilight said, becoming more and more unsure of herself as she nibbled on her pancake.
Later that night she was pacing back and forth in front of Spike.
“What if they’re right?” Spike said, “What if there was no party and you were just seeing things?”
“I’ve thought about that Spike,” Twilight said, “I know I saw ponies down there, the light was on in the barn. It was one of the most well lit areas I passed over that night.”
“Didn’t Applejack say if there had been a party, she and the other Apples would’ve kicked everyone off the property?” Spike asked.
“Yes, but what if they couldn’t wake up? What if those party goers were an unscrupulous bunch? All it would take to let them party unnoticed is a sleep spell cast on Applejack and others.”
“You’re over thinking things, Twilight,” Spike said, trying to talk Twilight back from her paranoia.
“Well, if I’m not maybe they’ll return to the scene of the crime,” Twilight said, “If they’ve pulled off a party once, they might try it again. They could’ve made it a weekly thing, and if they have they’ll be there again tonight. Do you want to come with me?”
“Sorry, but I think I’d better get some sleep,” Spike said, “If you’re going to be up all night, I need to be awake enough to keep you awake tomorrow.”
“Alright then, suit yourself.” Twilight said, as she turned and left.
She approached Sweet Apple Acres as quietly as she could, lest she reveal herself to any illicit party goers too soon.
Hmmm, there’s no pony here. But there are tons of fresh hoof prints. So there was definitely a gathering of some sort here, she thought, as she examined the barnyard, Where could they have all gone though? Wait the light’s on in the barn.
She cautiously approached the barn and looked in. What she saw made her gasp. Inside was a standing room only crowd of ponies, all facing forward. A unicorn mare was standing in front of them.
What…what in the world is going on here? Twilight thought, her confusion turning into a sense of dread, There’s Pinkie, and Rarity, And Applejack. There’s the mayor. Wait that pony at the front. I’ve seen her before. She’s the new psychologist in town.
“Hello, my hypnotized slaves,” Dr. Spiral Swirl said, “It’s so nice to see all of you here tonight.”
“Thank you, Mistress,” the enslaved ponies replied.
Mistress?! Hypnotized slaves?!! Twilight thought in horror.
“I just wanted to say, your suggestions from the last meeting were a huge success,” Spiral Swirl said happily, “In just a week, I’ve gone from having sixty five percent of Ponyville under my hypnotic spell to ninety five percent.”
Ninety five percent!? Twilight thought, her horror growing by the second, How is that possible? Almost the whole town hypnotized? How did she manage to do something like this without anypony finding out?
“That’s why I’m happy to announce that this will be our last Slave Meeting,” Spiral Swirl said, “Unlike last time, whenever I say the meeting is over, you won’t go home and go to bed with no memory of what happened while you were in your trances, you will instead scour the town and bring any non-hypnotized pony to me. Your friends, your family, or any random pony you find. If they haven’t been hypnotized by me, you will bring them to me by any means necessary. Do you understand my slaves?”
“Yes, Mistress,” the hypnotized ponies said in unison.
No! I can’t let her do that? Twilight thought, I’m outnumbered, but if I leave to go get help, helpless ponies will be grabbed up by their friends and loved ones. What should I do?
She mulled over her options for a few seconds, before letting out a deep breath. She stepped into the barn.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t allow that to happen,” Twilight said in a forceful tone.
“My, my, Princess Twilight, I’m humbled you honored my little Slave Meeting with your presence.”
“Release these ponies from your control at once,” Twilight demanded.
“Hmmm, revealing yourself even though you’re outnumbered and had the element of surprise,” Spiral Swirl said, ignoring her, “You’re either very brave, or very stupid. Let’s find out which one it is. Get her!”
“Yes, Mistress,” the hypnotized ponies replied, as they turned and glared at Twilight.
“Uh oh,” Twilight said, before she turned and ran.
She ran across the barnyard, but was stopped in her tracks when a figured literally jumped out of the shadows, growling, and latched onto her face.
“Let go of me, Ebony Darkness,” she shouted, as she rapidly shook her head back and forth, causing Ebony Darkness to go flying.
Recovering from Ebony’s assault, she barely had time to sidestep the Cutie Mark Crusaders as they came at her at full speed on Scootaloo’s scooter.
“You missed her! Turn back around,” Sweetie Belle called out.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let her get away,” Scootaloo said.
“Mistress Spiral Swirl will be so proud of us,” Applebloom said.
“Yeeesh,” Twilight muttered, upon hearing how far their minds had been warped. A sound caught her attention and she dived to avoid being hit by and arrow.
Derpy was hovering above her, with Dinky sticking out of her saddlebag. Dinky had activated her magic bow and was loading up another arrow.
Since when did Dinky become such a good shot? And what mad pony gave her real arrows? Twilight thought. She quickly dodged another arrow, It’s dangerous on the ground, better take to the skies.
She took off and began flying away from Sweet Apple Acres, when Fluttershy stealthily flew up beside her.
“Um, Twilight, could you please turn back around and let Mistress Spiral Swirl hypnotize you? If it’s not too much trouble?” she asked quietly.
Twilight ignored her, and increased her speed.
“That’s not how you get her to stop,” Rainbow Dash said, as she flew up next to Fluttershy, “Let me show you how it’s done.”
Twilight flinched, as Rainbow Dash flew by her at a high rate of speed. She watched as Rainbow Dash flew further and further away, only for her to swing back around.
As a result of Rainbow Dash’s super sonic U-turn, a massive shockwave struck Twilight, knocking her out of the air.
No! No! No! Twilight thought, as she fell to ground in a crash landing.
“Owwww,” she moaned, as she got up and shook off the effects of the crash. She turned to run; only to find herself face to face with a spiral eyed Pinkie Pie.
“Hi, Twilight!” Pinkie said happily, before pulling out her party cannon.
“Pinkie, wait I….” Twilight started to protest, but Pinkie fired off the cannon sending the poor Alicorn flying.
“Bye, Twilight!” Pinkie said happily.
Her injuries becoming more and more numerous, Twilight took a little longer to shake off the effects of Pinkie’s party attack.
“What am I going to do?” she said aloud.
“You can do this the easy way, or the hard way, Twi,” Applejack said, as she emerged from behind a tree.
Twilight immediately put up a magic shield around herself.
“Hard way it is then,” Applejack said, as she ran over and began bucking the shield.
“Guys, please! I don’t want to fight you!” Twilight shouted.
Applejack’s assault on the shield eventually caused it to fail.
“We don’t want to fight you either,” Rarity said, as she came upon the scene, “Which is why I’m going to end this barbaric display as quickly as possible, by quoting you. Look out, here comes Tom?”
“Here comes Tom?” Twilight said in confusion, before the realization hit her, “Oh no!”
She didn’t have time to react, as Rarity had used her magic to fling a large boulder at her. Upon impact, Twilight’s world went black.
She didn’t know how long she had been out, but when her eyes opened she found herself in a nightmare.
Spiral Swirl was standing in front of her, smiling. Behind her, stood all the other ponies she had hypnotized.
“Welcome back,” Spiral Swirl said mockingly.
“I won’t let you get away with this. I…I…I can’t move!” Twilight said in horror.
“Don’t worry; it’s just a small dose of cockatrice venom. A small precaution until we’ve had a little therapy session, princess.”
“Why are you doing this?” Twilight asked.
“Hmmmm, you know what, you’re the first pony to ask me that,” Spiral Swirl said, slightly surprised, “It’s usually, ‘I won’t let you do this,’ or ‘Please don’t hypnotize me.’ That is, if I give them a chance to.”
Twilight glared at her, angry over her mockery of her victims.
“Alright, since you’re the first, I’ll be happy to answer you,” Spiral Swirl said, as she began pacing back and forth in front of Twilight, “You’re a well read pony. Let’s see how well you know your lesser known Canterlot crimes. Have you ever heard of an attempted theft of something called an Eclipse Bomb?”
“Yes, I read about that. Four criminals attempted to steal a magic super weapon created by Nightmare Moon. They were all caught and punished. That was over fifty years ago, what has that got anything to do with you?”
“Well first of all, your sources are wrong. Very wrong,” Spiral Swirl said, anger building in her voice, “It wasn’t four criminals. It was three, and one innocent unicorn that had been duped into helping the others under the assumption she was helping test the security of the royal vault.”
“So you mean an innocent unicorn had to have her horn shattered?” Twilight said, shuddering despite the paralysis.
“Yes, that was my grandmother, Fine Detail. Now tell me, did your source tell you what happened to the ponies involved with the crime after they were punished, especially the innocent ones?”
“No…it didn’t,” Twilight said, not liking where things were going.
“Then allow me to enlighten you,” Spiral Swirl said, her anger growing, “After spending four years of her ‘lenient sentence’ in the Canterlot dungeons, my grandmother returned home. Only instead of finding her husband happy to see her return to him, she found him with another mare. They wanted nothing to do with a unicorn that would be looked upon as the worst criminal element with her broken horn, so they handed my mother off to her and kicked her to curb.”
“Oh Mistress, that’s so sad,” Pinkie said, tearing up.
“Don’t interrupt,” Spiral Swirl commanded.
“Yes, Mistress. I’m sorry, Mistress,” Pinkie said, kneeling before her.
“Now then, where was I? Oh yes, with no place to call home and a four year old filly to watch over, my grandmother began her long journey to her sister’s home in Las Pegasus. Because of her broken horn, no carriage or train would take her on as a passenger and inns charged her exorbitant amounts of money. The small stipend she had received from Celestia upon her release as ‘compensation’ quickly ran out. Now bitless, she depended on the kindness of strangers to help her get by. It was easier in big cities, as they were more sympathetic to her plight. However she couldn’t stay long, since sympathy only went so far, before fear of being associated with a ‘broken horn’ outweighed it. So she and my mom moved further and further along, until they came to a small town call: Ponyville.”
Twilight gulped.
“She found no sympathy there,” Spiral Swirl said, practically hissing with each word, “They were all too concerned about maintaining their perfect ‘nice small town’ identity. There was no place for a ‘criminal element’ there. On top of that, the Pegai in charge of Ponyville’s weather decided to beat out Canterlot for coldest winter that year. So my mother and grandmother were forced to walk through the area with nopony offering them shelter in that extreme cold. That was the end of their journey. That cold killed my grandmother.”
Spiral Swirl paused momentarily to breath heavily, trying to rein in her anger some. Twilight remained stunned, while a few of the hypnotized ponies began crying over their Mistress’ family’s plight.
“Of course once the so called ‘criminal’ unicorn was gone, ponies were more then happy to offer up shelter to my mother, but by that time the cold had given her some bad frostbite, and she lost her leg. Despite her hardships though, she went on to become a celebrated ornithologist, met a nice stallion and had two fillies. One of whom, went on to go to school and get a degree in psychology to help supplement the hypno magic she had developed. That filly then went on to start her own practice, before she moved it to little old ‘nice small town’ Ponyville. Now you know the rest of the story.”
“I’m sorry about what all your mother and grandmother had to go through,” Twilight said, hoping she could now try and talk some sense into Spiral Swirl, “But that was almost fifty years ago. A lot of ponies that lived in Ponyville back then are no longer living here or…uh living. Why take out your revenge on the ones living here today?”
“Oh it’s not just the ponies, it’s the town. It’s that small town mentality that I’m worried about. Sure they say things have changed over the years, but they haven’t. I know deep down they’d still reject a unicorn with a broken horn in a second. That’s why even the ponies that live here now must pay. By turning every pony in Ponyville into my hypnotized slave, I’ll create a heaven where no member of my family will be denied anything by them ever again, and as far as the rest of the world goes, the hypnotized citizens of Ponyville will serve as the most extreme reminder ever, to never judge a book by its cover.”
“You’re insane,” Twilight said, realizing that there would be no reasoning with Spiral Swirl.
“No I’m not,” Spiral Swirl said in offended tone.
“Then you’re a sociopath.”
“I’m not that either, but points for having a good backup insult.”
“I won’t let you get away with this, and neither will the princesses.”
“Oh, I think they will,” Spiral Swirl said, as she flashed a wicked grin, “Especially once I utter Princess Luna’s hypnotic trigger. The war she’ll have with Celestia will make their fight when she was Nightmare Moon look like child’s play.”
“You’ve hypnotized Luna?” Twilight said in shock.
“Of course, you didn’t think I’d forget one of the root causes of my grandmother’s misery? It was quite simple; all I had to do was dream about having a therapy session with Princess Luna, every night. Once she dream walked into that dream her curiosity got the better of her and she played along. Let’s just say having a hypnotherapy session with her was very cathartic,” Spiral Swirl said, chuckling slightly.
I can’t believe this is happening! The fact that she has my friends and almost all of Ponyville under her control is bad enough, but Luna’s been enslaved by her too! Twilight thought, her despair growing.
“And even if I didn’t have Luna under my control, the Princesses wouldn’t be able to stop me, especially since I’d have all of the Elements of Harmony acting as my hypnotized protectors. Speaking of which, I think it’s high time we began our therapy session, Princess Twilight,” Spiral Swirl said, as she directed her magic at her saddle bag. She levitated her pocket watch out of it and let it dangle in front of Twilight’s eyes, “Now just relax and watch the watch.”
“No,” Twilight whispered.
“Just relax and watch the watch. Watch it swing back and forth. Back and forth. Let your eyes follow the movement of the shiny gold pocket watch,” Spiral Swirl said, as she began her induction.
No, I won’t let her hypnotize me, Twilight thought, as her eyes locked on the watch, I’m exausted and used up so much magic trying to get away from my friends. I just need a little more time.
“Watch the watch. Relax. Relax. Relax, and listen to my voice. Let my voice calm you. You’ve had a stressful day, Princess Twilight. Let that stress melt away, as my voice and the swinging watch relaxes you.”
Her voice is pretty relaxing to listen to. No! And her watch. It’s so pretty.
“You’re doing very well, focusing only on the watch and listening to my voice. Your eyes are glued to the watch, as you relax more and more for me. So relaxed. Your legs are relaxing. Your stomach and chest are relaxing.”
She’s right. This is so wrong, but it feels so good, Twilight thought, as waves of relaxation spread through her.
“Now your wings are nice and relaxed. Now your neck and head are relaxed. Your whole body is the picture of relaxation. All your muscles are relaxed. All your stresses and tensions are fading away.”
Yessss…they are…it’s so nice to let go of all the stress of finding out my friends were made into her hypnotized slaves and fighting with them, Twilight thought, as a blissful smile formed on her face.
“That’s right, you’re enjoying our hypnosis session, Twilight. You love this feeling of relaxation. You love watching my watch. You’re so relaxed now. You’re starting to feel sleepy. And the constant swinging motion of my watch is making your eyes feel heavy.”
She’s right…I do feel sleepy, Twilight thought, fighting the urge to yawn.
“I’m going to count from five to zero. At zero your heavy eyes will lock shut and you will fall into a deep hypnotized sleep for me. Five…you’re doing so very well. Four…you’ve been a good patient, following all my instructions.”
I…I feel it… I’m so sleepy…can’t fight much…longer.
“Three…your eyelids feel like they’re made of lead.
Yes…they’re so heavy, Twilight thought, as her eyes started to droop.
“Two…so ready to be hypnotized.”
I…Can’t believe it. I’ve let everyone down. My friends. The princesses. I’m not ready…but I feel like I don’t have much of a choice.
“One…Feel the hypnosis start to wash over you.”
No! No! No! No! No! NO!! Twilight thought, as the fog of hypnosis started to consume her mind.
“Zer….”
“No! NO! NO! NO! NO!” Twilight shouted, as her thoughts manifested themselves into screams.
Her outburst caused Spiral Swirl to halt the induction. As she stepped back in shock, the pocket watch clattered to the ground due to her lapse in concentration.
Twilight stood there breathing heavily, as she regained her bearings for a split second. Her horn then glowed and she vanished in a flash.
Spiral Swirl stared at the spot Twilight had stood at, before she turned to face her hypnotized slaves.
“Why didn’t anypony tell me she could teleport?!!” she demanded.
The enslaved ponies backed away slightly at their Mistress’ anger.
“Well, we kinda thought you knew, Mistress,” Pinkie Pie said, “It’s kinda her thing.”
Spiral Swirl face hoofed.
“Alright, listen up,” she commanded, “She probably didn’t go far. She probably didn’t want to abandon the town after knowing what I have planned for it. She also is probably paranoid about my story of triggering Luna, so she most likely didn’t go to Canterlot. That being said, your orders are as follows. One, go into Ponyville and bring me back any pony that isn’t hypnotize. Two, while hunting for non-hypnotized ponies, Princess Twilight is your primary target. Three, I want a few of you to stay here in case she comes back. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mistress. I hear and I obey,” the hypnotized ponies said in unison.
“Good. Now go!”
She watched as a few ponies took their positions guarding the barn, while the others marched towards Ponyville.
This is but a minor setback. All of Ponyville will be under my hypnotic control tonight, she thought.