The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee

by FlanChan

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.