//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: Even If It's One Second Ago // Story: The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee // by FlanChan //------------------------------// The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee Chapter 13: Even If It’s One Second Ago Twilight Sparkle looked with distaste at her new home. It was her first day in—what had Emerald Joy called it? The New Era? She scoffed. Just because it was new didn’t mean it was any better. She climbed onto the strangely comfortable mattress and under the plush covers. Even though they were so luxurious, they weren’t comfortable to Twilight. They didn’t feel like home. She sank under the covers, pulling them up to her nose. She supposed now was a good time as any to reflect on the current events. Everything had gone by so fast the few couple days, she had no time to sit down and get her thoughts in order about the whole ordeal. However, now that she was able to, she hesitated. There was so much that had happened, trying to sort through it all felt like such a daunting task. She shivered as she recalled the riots on the streets of the brainwashed citizens. Calling it a riot didn’t seem fitting, since everyone had a grin plastered on their face, but they had similar intentions to a riot. Over the course of a day or two, Emerald had convinced them that she would make a much better ruler, and they all blindly went along with her nonsense. She planted the idea in their mind that they should band together under her and overthrow Celestia and Luna, and there they were, throwing random debris at the windows of Canterlot Castle. Of course, the two princesses could have easily vaporized any threat that came their way, but they didn’t want to do anything to harm their subjects that were doing nothing wrong by their own will. Emerald knew this, so she brought the masses of people up to the doors of the castle, then bade they stay there while she went in to confront the regal sisters. There was a tense wait before she came back out, declaring her victory. Why did she need to march that whole army down to the castle if she was going to take them down by herself? And how was she even able to take down not one, but two immortal goddesses? Was that even humanly possible? Emerald didn’t seem the most capable pony in the world, either, so if she could defeat the sisters, then it seemed to Twilight that anyone could. She turned over. She was glad that she had protected herself and her friends from the spell, though. Seeing how ponies that she used to know acted now, she knew that it would’ve been devastating to everyone if just one of her friends met the same fate. She wondered, did anyone else recognize the spell and shield themselves from it? She shuddered as she remembered that she already knew the answer to that question. A couple ponies who had gotten around the spell had shouted at Emerald earlier in the day, and they got quite the crafty execution. She took them all up on this stage and took all of their heads off with one swing, then stitched the heads back on the necks, but she switched the heads around. The result was the stuff of nightmares. How was Twilight going to keep her sanity if other people got executed in front of her? Was this going to become a regular sort of thing? She stuffed her face into her pillow. Was this really her life now? Did she have to waste her days away in this prison, where magic is limited and flying is outright not allowed? Where all of her acquaintances are just brainwashed zombies? She didn’t see a library around town anywhere. She hadn’t even seen a single book to comfort herself, even if it was only a little. Even a little filly’s picture book would calm her down a bit at a time like this, but there was nothing resembling a story of any sort throughout the whole city. Was this her life? Going through grueling routines, never making any progress in life or society or anything? She was being denied everything that she enjoyed in life, and it was starting to make her brain spin. This had to be a dream. Everything must be a dream. She would wake up soon, she was sure of it. She pushed her face deeper into the pillow and screamed. She cried until her eyes had run dry, and when she was finally out of energy and her mind was weary, she fell into a sleep filled with dreams of better days, and when she woke up she would be reminded of the harsh realities. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Twilight woke from her restless sleep with a start as her television came to life all on its own. On it was the image of Emerald Joy, a mare who she had only known for a few days but already hated with a burning passion more than anything else in existence. “Good morning, everybody!” Emerald Joy chimed with a sickeningly sweet voice, matched with a smile. “I hope you all slept wonderfully, but now it’s time to come meet with your friends for the speech of the day!” With a flourish of her gown, the screen darkened and Twilight was met with an empty silence. She begrudgingly threw off her covers, slowly sliding out of bed. She wanted to savor every moment of comfort she could before she had to go out and face whatever atrocities the day held. She splashed some water on her face to wake herself up more and then made some breakfast. She hoped that just some toast would be adequate for the day. Maybe once she got more accustomed to her living space she could make a real breakfast, but she followed up the thought with another. She didn’t want to get accustomed to the way she was living now; she wanted to break free and make things the way they were. Or, at least, as close to the way things were as possible. She caught herself before she left her new house for the first time. Considering everyone else had obnoxiously large grins all of the time, it would probably be a good idea if she did the same, even though she wasn’t under that spell. Emerald would probably be a bit nasty towards other people who defied her and didn’t succumb to the spell, and Twilight didn’t want to take any chances. She went up to a mirror and practiced her smile, trying her best to fine tune it to be exactly the same as how she remembered the others looked. She did feel a little silly smiling like an idiot in front of a mirror like a little filly practicing for picture day, but she had to manage. Once she was completely satisfied, she left her house and entered the crowded and a little chaotic and confused streets. Nobody knew exactly where they were going. They just knew that they had to go to the center of town, but none of them had any idea where that was, or at the very least they forgot how to get there. After a bit of trial and error, Twilight eventually located the her destination. Emerald Joy was standing regally on the same stage she was on a couple days earlier when she executed the rebels. It was cleaned so well that you could hardly tell how covered in blood it was before. “Why good morning, everybody!” she began, her voice reverberating throughout the whole city. All of the enchanted ponies in the crowd seemed overjoyed by her appearance, as they instantly made a deafening roar as if she was the most famous celebrity in the world. “Alrighty, let me explain to you! About all those problems you worry about, those problems you’re thinking about. All of it, I’ll explain it for you!” Twilight scratched her head a little. Could these people even think enough to have problems now that their minds were this way? Nonetheless, she was open to getting answers, no matter where they came from. “Eh, everybody... being happy...” She stumbled over her words for a moment. She may have practiced this speech a bit earlier, but this being her first one must have made her a bit uneasy. “Well, it’s your duty! Now then, aren’t you happy?” Everyone under her spell agreed, and Twilight had to fight the urge to cover her ears. She needed to keep this brainwashed act up, for the sake of herself and all of her friends. “You know it’s your duty, right? Are you doing as expected?” While she again got a surge of approval, she paid no attention to it and instead turned to another section of the massive audience. “Here at the Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee, our wish is for your absolute happiness, and we’ll do anything in our power to support you!” Twilight was taken aback as she realized the stage wasn’t directly connected to the ground, or at least not in the way that she thought it was. Steam billowed out from the stage, ruffling Emerald’s exquisite dress. Giant latches that she hadn’t even noticed were there unhooked, and with another burst of smoke the stage rose high above the masses, so the ponies in the far back didn’t have to rely just on the huge monitors to see the goings on on the stage. As all of this was occurring, giant speakers placed all around the town square repeated the same sentence over and over: Always being happy is your duty. Was she trying to brainwash everyone even more? Was she just trying to get into the heads of the ponies that got around her spell, because she knew that there were more? Twilight was doubting that Emerald was even smart enough to use classic brainwashing like that, so it was unlikely. “Therefore, we hope you stay at peace, have the happiest of days, and fulfill your duty,” the beautiful young unicorn continued, pacing to another part of the stage. “Just remember, your happiness is also our happiness! Doesn’t that make you just so happy? Since it’s your duty, you know. Are you doing your duty?” She paused in both her speech and her pacing abruptly. Her face suddenly darkened, her smile faltering and taking on an almost manic feel, giving the same sort of sinister air to her speech. “Because, if you aren’t...” She turned to one of the giant screens, her jade gown flourishing. “Hanging, decapitation, fire squad, boiling, drowning, electrocution, buried alive, burning, poisoning, stoning, dismemberment, crucifixion, pick whichever you like!” With every example, a picture flashed on the screen of a person dying of said method. Twilight could hardly bare to keep up the act when she had to witness all of the horrible executions, but watching an offending little girl being shot at by ten full grown men was particularly terrifying. Where had she gotten this footage? Twilight hoped that she would never have to sit through this slideshow again for as long as she lived, or at the very least get very desensitized to it. She already felt scarred looking at it this one time. “But, y’know, I’m always open to suggestions!” Emerald Joy chimed, as if nothing disturbing or out of the ordinary had happened. “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?” Twilight clenched her teeth, but kept up her happy act. She wanted to punch this Emerald Joy lady square in the face right now. What was her deal? With another burst of smoke, the platform was lowered and latched back into place. “That will be all everybody! Don’t let me down, alright? Ta ta!” Emerald Joy flashed her pearly white teeth one final time before turning and strutting back into The Committee’s headquarters building, her elegant gown billowing out behind her. Twilight blinked. Was that Emerald Joy’s idea of an explanation? She came out of that speech feeling even more confused than when she went in! Emerald had promised answers, but all she gave Twilight was even more questions. What was with that mare and happiness? What was that stuff about ‘doing your duty’? Twilight couldn’t move. She had expected answers. Now how was she going to figure any of this out, without any idea what was going on in the first place? The crowd was slowly whittling away as everyone trotted along to do their business, be it going back home or shopping at the market, everyone was doing something. Twilight, however, just stood there, petrified by her racing mind. She paid no attention to anything that was outside of her own head, until she was very suddenly yanked to her right and into an alleyway. “Sweet Celestia, what are you—” she shouted, but was cut off with a shush by her kidnapper. It took a few minutes for Twilight’s eyes to adjust to the shadows, but once they did she saw before her a pale yellow mare about her age with sapphire blue eyes and mane, which was styled to hang in her face a little. Twilight shifted up her gaze a little and saw a distinct horn protruding out of the unknown pony’s forehead. “Who are you?” Twilight asked, her voice soft after the other pony indicated her to keep quiet. “My name is Aquamarine. Well, technically it’s Ondine, but I like to go by Aquamarine,” she explained. Twilight raised an eyebrow. The pony rolled her eyes. “Look, having a pompous family has its downsides too, you know.” Twilight stifled a laugh, then got back to the problem at hoof. “Wait, you got around the spell, too?” she asked. Aquamarine seemed a bit young to know about that kind of spell, and the only reason Twilight knew it is because she was one of the most advanced in her class, if not Equestria. “I happen to specialize in ancient magic, so I know my mind control spells pretty well,” Aquamarine replied cooly. Her horn began to glow a radiant jade color for emphasis. “And you yanked me over here because…?” Twilight asked, even though she already knew the answer in the back of her mind. “Because we need to team up. We’re both smart and powerful enough that we got around the spell, so obviously we’re both capable to face the giant task ahead of us,” Aquamarine explained enthusiastically. Twilight gulped. “Giant task…?” she asked, her voice wavering. Aquamarine nodded confidently. “We gotta rebel, Twilight! We gotta overthrow Emerald and bring this ‘New Era’ to its knees!” she said excitedly, shaking Twilight enthusiastically and almost forgetting that she needed to keep quiet. “We gotta break free!” “While I completely agree with you,” Twilight started, pushing Aquamarine’s hooves away, “doesn’t rebellion seem like a pretty dangerous idea? I mean, just saying something bad to Emerald will get you your head cut off, so actually acting upon your words sounds like an all-expenses-paid ticket to an execution.” “But those ponies only got executed because they didn’t know what they were doing,” Aquamarine pointed out. “They didn’t know when they should keep their mouth shut, so they ended up paying the price for their stupidity. However, if we lay low until we have this whole mess figured out, we can just slip in and quietly do what needs to be done.” Twilight pondered her words. “Come on, Twilight! We have to do this!” “...Alright then, let’s do it.” Aquamarine’s face brightened. “But just so you know, all five of my friends got protected from the spell, too, so you’re going to have to let them help.” “Of course! The more the merrier!” she confirmed. They talked excitedly for a few moments longer, and then went their separate ways. How strange, Twilight didn’t recall ever telling Aquamarine what her name was.