//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: For Better or For Worse // Story: The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee // by FlanChan //------------------------------// 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.