//------------------------------// // Chapter 15: Flipped Ideology // Story: The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee // by FlanChan //------------------------------// The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee Chapter 15: Flipped Ideology Rarity awoke to the sound of her television crackling to life. Most citizens would have gotten a message informing them to quickly gather at the town square, and they would have gotten their announcement quite a bit later in the morning. Instead Rarity got a recording every day summoning her to The Committee's headquarters building, seeing how she worked there as Emerald Joy's personal dressmaker and makeup artist, along with being Emerald's overall consultant. Rarity knew when to keep her mouth shut, which made Emerald take quite a liking to her. Rarity changed out of her nightgown into some more business-like attire and pulled her hair up in an official looking bun. Emerald had said that she needed to have a meeting with her after the daily speech, and she didn’t want to look like she didn’t take Emerald Joy’s orders seriously. She hurried to the building, her hooves clicking against the hard pavement with every step. She slowed as she neared the entrance and peered upward. Calling it a mere ‘building’ or ‘headquarters’ seemed quite of an understatement. The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee’s office building was more reminiscent of a castle than anything else, and Emerald Joy was the princess who owned it. She pampered herself with all of the luxury that she could ransack from the original Canterlot Castle, destroying anything that symbolized Celestia and Luna and favoring all of the emeralds, jades, and any other precious green stones she could find. This resulted in a haunting vision of the past, a display of what a great world they used to live in and how Emerald had ruined it. But Rarity had to block out all of the hate she had for her employer for the time being, lest she let her emotions get the best of her, and she would meet a similar fate as most of her friends. She composed herself, then approached one of the guards. She flashed him her I.D. and, upon recognition, he grunted and entered the passcode. It was the same routine as every other day, but for some reason she felt a foreboding feel in the air as she entered through the large and elegant double doors. A loud echo ran out as the front doors closed behind her. She paused to survey her surroundings, even though they weren’t any different from usual, then proceeded down the marble hallway, a rich clicking noise ringing out with every step. It made her feel so small, like she was the only one alive. Her only source of light was the slanted rays of sun streaming in through the giant windows lined high along the wall. That didn’t mean that she couldn’t see, though, as the sunlight was always intense enough that it lit up the whole corridor, but the lack of any indoor artificial light gave the room a subtle grey tint. She pushed onward towards her destination, and after a few minutes of turning down multiple corridors she made it to the makeup room. Emerald Joy had already gotten her dress on and was finicking with her hairbow. Rarity smiled and offered to take the bow, and Emerald submitted sheepishly. It was times of humiliation like these that Rarity really wondered if Emerald really was as bad as she seemed. After the bow was secured in place on Emerald’s head, Rarity quickly checked the clock. She had about ten minutes before the speech was supposed to begin. She applied some mascara onto Emerald’s already long eyelashes and with the remaining time decorated the rest of her eyes with some shades of green and blue. She took a step back to be sure she was satisfied, then ushered Emerald Joy onstage. Rarity waited until she heard the first few words of the speech ring out across town to finally sit down in relief. She couldn’t figure out for the life of her why she was so anxious about the meeting that she would be attending in just a few short minutes. She fiddled with her necklace, sliding it back and forth along the chain. What did Emerald want? Had she found out about The Rebellion Bureau? Her mind played out all of the horrible ways the conversation could go, until the familiar sound of Emerald’s hooves clinking against the floor snapped her back to the present. Rarity quickly applied a fresh coat of lipstick and then stood to greet her again. “You said we needed to talk after the assembly?” Rarity asked, hoping in the back of her mind that she had misheard Emerald Joy earlier. “Yes! Come, let’s bring this into another room,” Emerald replied. Rarity’s heart sunk, the millions of horrible scenarios flashing through her mind. Emerald led her down a few more hallways before they turned into their destination. “Erm… the salon?” Rarity questioned. “What could we possibly need to be in here for?” The teal haired unicorn fiddled with her long locks with a serious expression. “Well, you see,” she began, struggling to form her words, “I’ve been thinking. My hair has always had this sort of simple, elegant look which, let’s be honest, is extremely gorgeous on me. However, I’ve been observing the trends lately, you included, and I’ve come to the conclusion that curly hair is favorable over straight.” Rarity sighed in relief, and thankfully Emerald was too absorbed in her hair to take notice. “So you want me to curl your hair?” Rarity asked. “I can do that, easy as can be!” “Ah, but you see,” Emerald continued, “I don’t just want it to be any kind of curly, I need to still keep my unique image up, after all.” Rarity smirked. She had quite the unique image, all right. “Was there anything specific you had in mind?” she asked as professionally as she could. “For starters, by curly, could you possibly mean wavy? Curly hair by definition is the type where there is a definite S shape in each strand, and I doubt you want to go into kinky hair territory. There’s also the question of how you’d like it styled. If I may make a recommendation, I think that a slightly longer than shoulder length cut with wavy hair tied up with a sort of halo accessory wrapped around the head would look positively smashing on you! But perhaps you want to keep your signature long hair? In that case, I would suggest simply putting some loose curls near the ends to really accentuate your hair length. It would come out in a sort of ringlet fashion because of the sheer volume but I really think it would look nice. Thoughts?” Rarity paused and looked expectantly towards Emerald, who was utterly lost in the designer’s rambling. “Actually,” she said awkwardly after a short pause, which was a rare sight to see when it came to Emerald Joy, “I was thinking of having it where I would have two curled locks of hair down the side of my face, you know? It’s a sign of status in some cultures after all, so I really wanted to run with that idea! Therefore, I came to the conclusion that I should make all of my hair that way! So my hair would be straight until shoulder length or so, and then turn into really robust regal ringlets! Ha, would you look at that, accidental alliteration!” Rarity gulped. “So, giant… ringlets…” she repeated, her voice filled with dread. Emerald nodded, beaming. Rarity swallowed. She understood the appeal of the little curls on the side of the face, but to make them the basis of the whole hairstyle…? Not only would it not look nearly as good as Emerald probably envisioned, but it would be a pain to get to work. Nonetheless, Rarity was the best in the business. Since her duty wasn’t to be happy like everyone else, her duty was to make Emerald Joy beautiful—at least, in her eyes. And if anyone didn’t fulfill their duty… “Alright, then!” Rarity said finally, dabbing at her forehead a little so it wouldn’t get an oily sheen from her sweat. “Why don’t we head on in and I can see what I can do?” Emerald smiled wide, her snow white teeth glimmering, and she all but bounded inside in excitement. Even though she was an evil dictator, it was times like these that Rarity thought Emerald was just a bit misunderstood. She was almost like a child that Rarity had to care for. She sighed, and turned to her most difficult task yet: Making an impossible hairdo possible with the least amount of hair tearing on her part. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Finally, after lots of brainstorming, theorizing, and a bit of math and science, Rarity had deduced that the only way she could make two giant curls out of Emerald’s two pigtails was to make two giant hair curlers. It sounded like a simple solution, but actually obtaining two giant hair curlers that could fit all of Emerald’s long hair in it proved to be quite the task. The two unicorns worked together to magically enlarge two of the biggest curlers they could find, and even then they could easily hold both of them in one hoof, so a good amount of magic was necessary. Once both curlers were the right size, Rarity set out on her arduous quest of wrapping all of the hair evenly in them. Luckily she had her magic for that part, otherwise she would have no doubt gotten tangled up in the heaps of hair. She sat Emerald in a salon chair while she sat in an adjacent chair, and worked in silence save for the sound of hair being magically manipulated. “Rarity?” Emerald spoke up after a minute or two of silence. “Hm?” Rarity responded, too wrapped up in her work to think much of it. “I always thought that at salons the stylist would have conversations with their customers. Obviously if we were to do that we wouldn’t partake in any of that mindless gossiping, which is essentially an over glorified form of talking behind someone’s back, because that would make someone really unhappy if they found out they were being gossiped about,” Emerald said. Hearing her talk about happiness made Rarity realize how different she acted when she wasn’t in an environment that hinged on happiness and unhappiness, which was pretty much only when she was backstage with Rarity. “Well, is there anything exciting going on with the staff of The Committee? Are you planning on adding any new members any time soon so it isn’t just you?” Rarity knew that she was treading on thin ice with that question, but also knew that she was greatly favored by Emerald, so her sense of endangerment wasn’t so great. “What a silly thing to ask! You know what they say: The only way to get a job done right is to do it yourself. Besides, if I ever have any questions, I can always ask you for your opinion!” Rarity blushed a little. She didn’t know why being essentially complemented by someone who made her and her friend’s lives so horrible made her so happy. “Anything else exciting going on in your life right now?” Rarity asked. Could lives even be exciting in this kind of society? “Well, nothing really outstanding is happening. I’ve decided to let the guards have Spring Break off to make up for the lack of shifts that they get. Turns out they get a little finicky when I have them stand guard twenty four seven. Do they not care about my safety or something? It’s quite outrageous,” Emerald explained. “Ah! I promised that I wouldn’t gossip! Don’t worry, if I do it again, I promise I’ll execute myself!” “Eeh?! Isn’t that a bit extreme?” Rarity responded, her eyes widening. And did she seriously just say that her guards never took breaks? When did they eat or sleep? “Hm, maybe if I gossip about myself and make me feel sad it will serve as an adequate punishment?” Emerald wondered aloud. “What could there possibly be about yourself that could make you feel bad?” Rarity inquired, genuinely curious. She finished rolling Emerald’s hair into the first curler and, after securing it, moved on to the second. “How about… Ooh, maybe if I tell you my whole origin story I’ll happen upon something? I had my fair share of ups and downs too, you know,” she suggested. Rarity perked up. This conversation was unraveling perfectly! “I suppose if you see fit, but I really wouldn’t want to trouble you,” she answered, falsely trying to discourage her. She held her breath until she heard Emerald’s answer, hoping her mock attempt wouldn’t actually work. “You’re too kind and forgiving for your own good, Rarity,” Emerald stated. “But I suppose that is why you chose your path to be one of a dressmaker and designer as opposed to that of a ruler such as I have.” She removed her silk black gloves and investigated her perfectly manicured hooves intently. “However, one of these days you’ll have to learn such as I have that punishment is the sole basis of any society. If there is no punishment, then no rules can be enforced. If no rules can be enforced, then everything will slowly deteriorate into madness. Do I make myself clear? I have to follow all of the rules I set, otherwise, by extension, I myself will plunge into the depths of madness. Therefore, I will torture myself by retelling to you my life and rise to power, and call up every single terribly painful memory that I possibly can.” “Do we really have enough time to go through everything?” Rarity asked, fussing with the curler to make sure that it could still close with all of the hair that was wrapped around it. “I mean, I’m already almost done with this second one, and then we’ll just have to wait and spray on a lot of hairspray.” “Perhaps I can just summarize, but that unfortunately means that I must spare you the details.” “Shall you begin then?” “I have prepared my resolve. Let’s begin.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Once there was a little filly with pretty teal hair who was very good at magic. This is myself, of course. I attended a prestigious school among other fellow young unicorns who had similar goals. There I learned of many different branches of magic, but I soon grew bored studying of levitation and transmogrification. I wanted something more out of my scholarly experience, and that’s when I discovered the wonderful concept of exploratory classes! “While many of my classmates wanted to learn battle magic or summoning magic and enrolled in those respective classes, I was the only who was excited to learn about psychological magic. ‘A pretty little pony like you wouldn’t want to learn about boring philosophical stuff,’ they would say. ‘Why don’t you choose something like appearance manipulation or fine tuned levitation?’ But wasn’t the answer to that obvious? I had no need for such frivolous things! “And so I went into the class, and unsurprisingly I was the only one there. Didn’t anyone understand how powerful that kind of magic could be? Who would need the power to throw fire at someone, which they could easily put out, when you could hardwire their brain and have them kill themselves? Not only is it more effective, but there’s also a lot less cleanup involved. The possibilities with mind manipulation magic were endless, and for some reason I was the only one that saw that. “Either way, throughout my essentially private mentoring I learned all there was to learn and became one of the best in the business. Everyone thought that I took the class so I could be some sort of psychiatrist, but anyone who would do that for such a reason would need a psychiatrist themselves, don’t you think? No, at the time I wasn’t so sure why I was so drawn to the subject. You could say that it was my fate or my destiny, but I’m not going to start any religious debates here! I just wanted to learn the inner workings of a pony’s mind, and how easily it can be rewired. “After a few years I had graduated and found my life once again boring and without any excitement. I worked jobs that I could care less about, until finally I had saved up enough money to go on a vacation by myself. I was heading through the Gifu Prefecture in Neighpon, walking along one of the mountain paths when I happened upon another traveler. She was a strange one, but we struck up a conversation and talked for quite a while about our ambitions. She suggested for me to use my magical capabilities to help others, and that’s when I got the sudden idea to form The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee and to make the whole of the world blissfully happy! Of course I’ve scaled down my original plan, but the sentiment still remains. “Eventually we parted, but promised to keep in touch as much as possible. I didn’t think much of my idea at first, but over the next few months it fermented and grew in the back of my mind until I just knew that I had to do it. The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee was on my mind constantly. I was even thinking about it when I wasn’t thinking about it. It was maddening! I needed to put my thoughts into action before my head would burst! “I did a bit more research in the Royal Archives of the capital under the warrant that I was looking up information for a medical breakthrough. It wasn’t completely incorrect! There I found the final piece to the puzzle I needed: the emotional override spell. In my classes at the academy I had only learned spells strong enough to only influence others to feel better or worse, but this spell was strong enough to force the subject it was cast upon to feel a certain way, no questions asked. “I practiced the spell for about, how long was it, a year or two? I needed it to be perfect when I revealed my new and improved version of it to the world. Now it was much easier to control and manage, and it could be casted on multiple people at once. Considering I had a whole country to enchant, well, I had my work cut out for me! “Then I only had one more job left to do, and that was to talk the two princesses into letting me set my plan into motion, without them realizing, of course. I couldn’t just waltz up to them and ask them, though. They needed to be in dire need of my services, and I knew just the buttons to push to get them backed into that corner! “So I went around, simply a whisper on the street, planting deep within the minds of the populace that maybe Princess Luna was still a little dangerous after her whole affair, and maybe that Princess Celestia showed a bit too much favoritism, and maybe that someone else would be able to lead them better. I already knew that my words would spread like wildfire. That’s how the mind works, after all. The grass is always greener, is it not? “Once the populace had caused enough ruckus, I decided it was time for me to step in and help the poor royal sisters earn back the love that they had so unrightfully lost. I offered them the deal that they couldn’t refuse: promoting me as their personal consultant along with a few other royal perks in exchange for all of their subjects’ happiness. They thought little of the consequences, and essentially just shrugged and said, ‘Sure, whatever.’ “I believe you were there to witness the grand event for yourself, were you not? Of course you probably can’t recall it right now since it was such a long time ago, but allow me to paraphrase. I was introduced so gracefully by Princess Celestia herself before sending out an awe striking ripple of the happiness enchantment across the whole country, and that was the very moment that I had been working towards my whole life. “That wondrous feeling was soon followed up by an even better one when a week or so later I marched the whole populace down to Canterlot Castle and took down Princess Celestia and Princess Luna using only my own magical capabilities. It was actually rather easy! After all of the talk of the common folk, how they put them up on a pedestal with every word, made me think that there would be a bit more effort involved in defeating them. “Nonetheless, with the two princesses out of the picture, and with me as the one who bested them, it was only natural that I would inherit their throne and shape the country into my vision. I finally was able to found The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee, but whenever I sought out to recruit new members, they always either never saw eye to eye with me on my ideas, or they just outright tried to kill me! The nerve of some people! After too much trial and error, I decided that it was just best for me to handle everything myself. But you already know all of this, because that’s how life is right now!” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Hah, that really is quite the story you have there, Emerald Joy,” Rarity admitted after her long bout of silence, absorbed in both working with Emerald’s hair and listening to her story. “It really is quite remarkable.” “So it is, but it still didn’t solve what I set out to accomplish,” Emerald sighed. “I don’t feel horrible at all! But I suppose not accomplishing feeling horrible after telling you my story is making me feel horrible now, and I therefore have accomplished my goal of feeling horrible?” “Are you really still so upset about that?” Rarity asked. “It really isn’t that big of a deal. You should seriously let it go.” “Very well then…” Emerald gave in. She started batting at one of the curlers in front of her ears, and Rarity sternly smacked her hoof away. Emerald blushed and timidly placed her hoof back down on her lap. “There is still one thing that I don’t understand, if you don’t mind me asking,” Rarity spoke up. “And what would that be?” Emerald asked, rubbing one of her gloves between her hooves. The material it was made of was very smooth and pleasant to touch, which was one of her main motivations for keeping them on all the time. “Why did you do it all, anyway? Why did you want to make everyone happy through such an enchantment and then rule over them? I mean, it’s not like they do any work for you, they just sort of exist and go about the menial tasks of life.” Rarity tensed as she said the very words that she knew she really shouldn’t say around Emerald, or anywhere within earshot of someone who wasn’t a member of The Rebellion Bureau. After the silence between the two stretched for more than a few seconds needed for pondering, Rarity risked turning to see Emerald’s expression. Emerald was smiling pleasantly, but Rarity could tell perfectly well that she was using all of her self restraint not to lash out at her. “What a good question, Rarity…” she said after an awkward spell of silence, her voice carrying a very forced calmness. “What a good question indeed.” “I’m terribly sorry! You don’t have to answer, I just thought…” Rarity trailed off as she realized that her words weren’t doing any good. “No no, I shall grace such a question with an answer,” she replied, her face and voice eerily unreadable. Rarity felt her skin crawl a little, and cautiously went back to spritzing hair spray onto the wrapped up locks. “A—alright then,” she said, her voice faltering a little. “You see,” Emerald began, seeming to have regained her composure, “At first I wasn’t sure why I was so passionate with the idea. I hadn’t really thought the whole thing through until I finally put my plan into action. When I was strewing the seeds of discord among the masses, it hit me. If people can easily become so upset, why must it be so difficult to make most people happy again? Wouldn’t it just be easier if nobody had to be upset in the first place? Therefore, eternal happiness for everyone is the best gift I could bestow upon the world.” Rarity blinked. Was it all really that simple? “But, what about progress? What about ambitions? Even love isn’t allowed; doesn’t that clearly contradict what you’re trying to say?” Rarity asked. “Who cares about making things better when you’re already content with how things are? Who would want to put in the work to accomplish a goal when they would feel just the same amount of happiness if they hadn’t achieved it at all? Who would want to cast aside everything just to cling to another, and then have to go through the drama that starting and maintaining a relationship calls for? These are the things that you need to think about, Rarity,” Emerald countered, her voice rising with every word. “Why must we continue the endless struggle to make things better? Why can’t the pony race just be content with where they are right now? If someone happened upon Atlantis, they would soon gripe about how it isn’t their favorite color! Don’t you see? I’m simply cutting out that sense of wanting something more, therefore gifting everyone the contentment that they were so blind to before! That is how the spell works!” “I… I think I understand now, Miss Emerald,” Rarity replied, her state of shock causing her to revert back to her polite way of speaking that she would typically use with a customer or any other sort of person she wasn’t particularly close to. A tense silence settled over the room for the next few minutes. The only noises that could be heard were either Rarity fiddling with some of the curlers or spraying more hairspray. She tested the curls a little, then gingerly pulled the foam rollers out of the little locks of hair next to Emerald’s face. They weren’t very tight, so they only curled once or twice near the bottoms, but they did turn out quite lovely. Once she had gazed at the smaller ringlets, she turned her attention to the far larger ones, which were still rolled up, and much tighter than their smaller counterparts. Rarity swallowed a little, wiped her brow, and moved towards one of the massive curlers. Working with extremely fine hooves, as she didn’t exactly trust her magical capabilities with this kind of project, she tenderly dislodged the roller from the mass of hair that was wrapped around it. Once all of the stray hairs were unwrapped from it and it was completely free, Rarity took a step back to observe her handiwork. She was pleased to see that she had pulled off exactly what she was attempting, the hair staying straight until the shoulders and then curling into one giant ringlet. Confident in her abilities, she moved on to the second roller and repeated the process of untangling the ridiculous amount of hair from the second ridiculously sized curler. The results were similarly impeccable, and she knew that with the tons of hairspray she put in it would be staying in for quite a while, but she strengthened both of the huge ringlets with magic just to be on the safe side. “And your new hair style is complete!” Rarity announced, gesturing towards a mirror for Emerald Joy to make her final decision. “What do you think? Is it just as you had imagined?” Emerald scrutinized her image for a moment or two. “It’s positively wonderful! It’s filling me with such happiness!” she answered, her face brightening. It was almost as if the discussion they had previously held had never happened. “Very well then, Rarity, you are free to go off as you wish. And thank you once again!” “You’re more than welcome, Miss Emerald Joy,” Rarity responded. She gathered her few things and left the salon room, taking an immediate right and going down some more corridors, emerging back in the main hallway that led to the entrance. Just as the giant front doors came into her line of vision, something gleamed in the corner of Rarity’s eye. She stopped and turned to the source of light, and after a bit of shifting she got the light to catch on to the reflective surface again. Whatever it was, it was located somewhere deep in an easily overlooked dark room. Intrigued, she decided to get to the bottom of whatever the reflective surface was. It wasn’t as if she had anything more noteworthy to do with her time now that she was done tending to Emerald Joy’s hair needs. She turned and stood at the opening of the dark room. Other than the light shining off of whatever it was that caught her eye in the first place that appeared to be deep within the recesses of the room, there was absolutely no light to be spoken of. She struggled a little to remember the illumination spell that Twilight had used before, and replicated it to the best of her ability. Sure enough, a little ball of light materialized out of thin air, and it floated along by her side as she descended into the depths of the unknown room. Rarity descended into the murky depths of the dank room, only able to see what was immediately in front of her. The light from her ball of illumination only reached so far. The fear of the unknown took over her mind and shook her very being, and she was tempted to turn back and leave it all a mystery. No, she needed to stay strong, even if things looked terrifying. Why was she even here? It wasn’t like she needed to be. She sighed. She didn’t want to overthink things. Besides, the deeper she got in the mysterious room, the more she felt like there was something important that she needed to find. She did a check for magic. There was definitely something abnormally powerful in there, and she was now determined to track it. Soon she found herself in the back of the room, and noticed that hanging from the wall was a torch. She lit it with a spark of magic, and the room illuminated itself. It didn’t seem all that notable after all. Rarity scanned the room for what she had originally came in to find, and came to the conclusion that the reflective object she had seen was one of the many candlesticks littered across the room. She inspected it closely, her mind brimming with curiosity. Why had she felt such magical reserves in something like this? She picked up the candlestick to investigate it further, but just as the base lifted off of the ground, the wall next to her turned ninety degrees, revealing a secret passage. Intrigued as ever, she called upon her little ball of light and stepped cautiously towards it. Peering down, she could make out a long spiraling staircase, the bottom nowhere in sight. Thinking on her hooves, Rarity picked up a loose rock that was lying around. She leaned back over the staircase and dropped it, opening her ears wide to hear when it hit the bottom. She waited expectantly for it only to take a second or so, but as every millisecond passed her heart dropped more and more, until after a good five seconds of waiting the sound of stone against stone finally reached her ears. She sighed wearily, but decided to go on nonetheless. She needed to get to the bottom of this magic business, even if it meant subjecting herself to far more walking and darkness than she would’ve liked. She tested the first couple steps to be sure they could sustain her wait, then began her descent into the depths of the hidden passageway that led to who knows where. She contemplated many times to turn back, but quickly reminded herself that whatever was down there, this was the only chance she would have to see it. Every step echoed off of the stone walls, and soon she could neither see the top of the stairs nor the bottom. Still she pressed on. After a good minute of walking, Rarity checked the magical levels of her surroundings again, discovering that they were much stronger than before. She hurried forward with renewed confidence, and finally the spiral staircase came to an end. Finding a torch hung on the wall and lighting it, Rarity stopped for a moment to take in her surroundings. There were jewels embedded in the walls that danced with the light of the fire, and not a single one of them was green. There were sun and moon decorations everywhere, and Rarity didn’t have to think very hard to figure out why. But why was there such a hidden room in this castle? Why hadn’t Emerald just destroyed all of the memorabilia of the royal sisters? She searched the room and noticed that it extended farther than the torch’s light reached. However, a purple illumination lit up the continuation of the passage just enough that she could make out her surroundings. Finding no need to bring the fire with, Rarity followed the violet lights deeper into the tunnel. After following the tunnel for a minute or two, the passage widened to reveal the final chamber, which was positively aglow with the lavender lights, which she now realized were luminescent gemstones embedded into the walls. In the middle of the room stood six pillars arranged in a circle. Inside the circle stood two marble statues. Rarity approached them slowly, and it soon became evident that the statues were of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. “This is some of the most remarkable craftsmanship I’ve ever seen in my whole life...” Rarity remarked under her breath with awe, running her hooves across the smooth carvings that almost seemed like the real thing. After feeling the statues and admiring their beauty, she turned to face the rest of the room. Why would Emerald have such a chamber built? Rarity leaned on one of the pillars nonchalantly as she took in the sights of the breathtaking sculptures again, but jolted back as a sudden burst of energy flowed through her upon contact. She inspected her hooves for a moment, her eyes widening. What had just happened? Cautiously, she extended a hoof towards the pillar and tensed as she felt the stone against her skin. However, much to her surprise, there wasn’t a sudden surge in power. “Ah, so we’ve been discovered at last,” a voice said, echoing out of nowhere. Rarity froze. Was that voice coming from her head? “W...Who’s there?” she called out, trying her best to sound brave even though she was anything but at the moment. “What a pity,” a different voice responded, more to the first voice than to Rarity, “it appears that whoever found this room isn’t someone of consequence.” Rarity puffed out her cheeks. “And what is that supposed to mean?!” she shouted into the nothingness, starting to question her sanity a little for talking to voices whose owners she couldn’t see. “What are you going on about? Show yourselves!” “But we have already, you’re looking right at us,” the second voice responded. “Are you really so blind that you cannot see it?” “What are you talking about?” Rarity shot back, her voice filled with venom. “All I see are these pillars and those… two… statues…” Her eyes widened. “Oh my goodness! Don’t tell me that you’re…” She brought her hoof to her mouth to stifle her gasp. “Please, the time that we can actually communicate with you is limited, so use your words at every possible convenience,” the first voice cut in, a playful undertone imminent. “The two princesses…” Rarity whispered in awe. “You’re the two princesses! The royal sisters!” “Indeed we are, or at least, we were,” the first voice responded. “Allow me to introduce us. My name is Princess Celestia, controller of the sun, and beside me stands Princess Luna, controller of the moon and the stars.” Rarity couldn’t speak, her pupils small as needleheads and her whole body shuddering. After standing frozen for a few moments, she screamed and turned on her hooves, fleeing up the spiral staircase as fast as her legs could carry her. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “This, er, unusual meeting of The Rebellion Bureau shall hereby come to order,” Twilight announced, her voice shaking a little. “Rarity, can you remind us again why exactly you needed us to have a meeting? Nothing’s happened to any of us.” “It’s just… I stumbled upon something while I was talking with Emerald Joy yesterday,” Rarity spoke up, fidgeting a little. “Was it so important that we needed a whole early meeting for it?” Aquamarine asked. “What could it possibly be?” “Erm, well… What’s the one reason why we haven’t rebelled yet?” Rarity said, deciding to answer by posing a question. “Huh? It’s because there are guards everywhere important, isn’t it?” Rainbow asked. “It was also because we didn’t know the code to get in, but you seem to have handled that one, didn’t you?” “Yes, exactly,” Rarity replied. “We weren’t going in because we didn’t want to be caught by guards. However, Emerald Joy let me in on a little something: the guards are going to have Spring Break off!” She decided to hold her tongue about the manner of finding the hidden room with the two statues. Now wasn’t the time for that. “Are you serious?!” Twilight shouted, getting up excitedly. “You all realize that the day that Spring Break starts is tomorrow, right?” “Oh my God!” Aquamarine shouted, her eyes widening. “Could this really mean…?” “It means that we’re going to get some serious butt kicking done!” Rainbow answered enthusiastically, smashing one of her hooves into the other. “I can’t believe it! This is almost too good to be true!” “That’s why we have to be extremely careful when carrying this out,” Twilight reiterated. “We don’t want any more casualties than is necessary.” “This is just… incredible,” Rarity said breathlessly. “After so long… we’re finally going to be free?” “We’re going to have to put a lot in, but yes,” Twilight replied with a smile, “I suppose we are going to be free.” “Well in that case,” Rainbow cut in, “we’re gonna need a plan of action!” “Rarity,” Twilight said, “you’re going to be a very valuable asset when we plan out how we move throughout the castle. You’re the only one that’s been in there, so without you we’re essentially lost as to navigation.” Rarity nodded. “Let’s get down to business, then.” After many hours of plotting, mapping, assigning roles, and predicting the outcome to every possible situation, the four remaining members of The Rebellion Bureau finally knew how they were going to take their lives and their destinies back.