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.
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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.
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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.