The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 17: The Beginning of the End
Twilight raced through the crowd, trailing just behind Aquamarine. They were trying their hardest to stay inconspicuous, but the fate of their plan rested on them getting to the Committee’s headquarters as fast as possible.
Twilight veered her head to the side, grazing another person in the chaos. All of the colors of the populace blended together into a messy blur. Her mind was in a similar disarray; the fear and the adrenaline of the situation shut off her thinking capabilities completely. Her only conscious action was following Aquamarine.
Her eyes turned upward, the tip of the headquarters standing tall and proud above the city. She could see it drawing closer and closer with each step. Her hooves hit the ground hard and each impact would send a ripple of dull pain up her leg. She was already short of breath, but she was determined to push onward. The crowd was thinning, and soon enough they were free of the masses.
Twilight gasped for air and skidded to a halt when she saw that Aquamarine had stopped, her gaze turned upward. Twilight traced her line of vision, her eyes widening, and the two ponies stopped to take in the sight of the grand Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee headquarters looming above them. Its architecture was both high tech and elegant, its walls a sheer silver with emerald accents. The foreboding establishment sent a shockwave of excitement and dread through the young unicorn’s body. She could only assume that Aquamarine felt the same way.
After a moment or two that felt like an eternity, the two members of the Rebellion Bureau turned to each other, then nodded. They continued onward, their steps synchronizing. Twilight glanced over and smiled when she saw that Rarity had disabled the keypad, as evidenced by its keys lighting up in a random pattern as its system was overridden, leaving the front doors defenseless. The mission was going just as planned.
Aquamarine pushed the two grand front doors open, and a flood of sunlight gushed into the darkened hallways. It had a sort of melancholic feel, with all of the empty rooms and corridors.
“Alright,” the blue haired unicorn started under her breath, “we’ll continue as planned. You go find Rarity, and I’ll go disable the rest of this building’s security. If you can’t find her, just look for Emerald’s throne room. The speech has been over long enough, so she should be there by now.” Without a moment of hesitation, Aquamarine turned and dashed down one of the hallways. Twilight flinched and watched her leave, then continued down the main corridor.
“Where did Rarity say she would meet up with us?” she mumbled to herself. Her mind was so full of everything that it was becoming difficult to remember the little details. She resorted to walking hastily and stopping for only a moment to peer through doors, trying to find either Rarity or Emerald Joy, or maybe even something else of interest that could help. She sighed from her multiple failures. Even though they had planned so much, they couldn’t help that Rarity was the only one who knew her way around.
A sudden crash shook her whole body. It seemed distant, but she was still jolted. Had they been found out? Her pace quickened to a sprint, and she began running through many unknown hallways to find the source. If one of her friends was hurt…
Twilight began to slow her pace a little, her breath and energy running out. She took a moment to lean against a wall and tend to the aching cramp in her side, but she only had a moment’s pause before she heard movement in the room next to her. From what she gathered, neither Aquamarine nor Rarity could have been in that room to cause that noise. She held her breath, hoping that it was just nothing. The dull sound of footsteps reached her heightened hearing, and she froze. No, she couldn’t just stand there and wait to be found out! She had to move, and fast! With a gasp she hit the ground running, forcing her lungs to pump harder than she would have liked.
Corridor after corridor she sprinted, the adrenaline heightening her senses. All of the rooms and hallways seemed to mesh into one as she ran. She could still hear the sound of footsteps behind her. She needed to stop; her entire body was cramping and pleading for rest, but she had to keep running as fast as possible. Tears started falling from her eyes as she tore desperately through the maze of rooms, not even paying attention to where she was running to anymore.
She cried out in pain and agony with each slamming footstep, each one less steady than the last. She was losing her footing, her sheer terror clouding her mind and sending her into a state where her actions were based purely on fear and instinct. Her limbs flew about wildly, her sobbing not helping, and the flaming repetition of smacking her hooves against the ground to propel herself forward was taxing. She just had to get away from the footsteps, to get safe, but no matter how hard she tried they wouldn’t leave. In a last ditch effort she tried to perform a spell to ward them off, but in her state of panic all that came out was a few sparks of pure energy. Her mind wasn’t focused enough to do anything helpful.
Finally her legs couldn’t handle any more and gave out under her. She fell to the hard marble ground with a sickening thud, but that kind of pain was the last thing she was worrying about. The entity would catch up with her in no time, and it would all be over.
Twilight clenched her teeth and shut her eyes tight. She was defenseless, her body unable to move and her mind too wildly upset to focus. She tried again fruitlessly to cast a spell; it didn't even matter what spell it was at this point. This was how it was going to end? She curled up on the ground, waiting for the inevitable. The only sounds she could hear where her ragged breathing and her heart beating rapidly against her chest.
Wait, that couldn’t be right.
Twilight opened her eyes timidly, slowly uncurling herself. She was alone, in an unrecognizable corridor. She could only hear the sounds of her panic, and there was no trace of the ghostly footsteps. Had she just imagined it? She clutched her hoof against her chest to try and calm down, her eyes weakly turning towards the floor. This wasn’t good.
After taking a moment to come back to her senses, Twilight stood back up and surveyed her surroundings. The matter of the footprints still unnerved her, but there were more practical questions that needed answering. Where was she? She seemed to be deep in the maze of what was essentially a castle. Twilight gulped. But maybe this could be a good thing? After all, the entrance to Emerald Joy’s private throne room was probably hidden in a series of labyrinths anyway.
What would be the best next course of action? That was the question that was plaguing her mind. Should she look around and try to find out if there was anything useful around her? Should she try to backtrack to where she was before, or maybe call out to her friends? Besides, since all of the guard was off duty, the only thing that was stopping her was the nonsentient security measures.
“Speaking of security,” Twilight mumbled to herself, “why haven’t I run into any of it? There’s no way Aquamarine found the control room so fast, much less figured out how to disarm the system…”
She continued on warily, her steps quiet and cautious so she wouldn’t attract any attention should someone be nearby. There were too many unoccupied rooms in the building, and it was wearing away at Twilight’s confidence. There were no ways to indicate where anything of importance was. Maybe she could try a spell…?
She stopped walking, the gears in her head turning as she tried to recall something useful. After a moment or two, she lifted her head upward and shut her eyes tight in concentration. Focusing her energy into her horn in such a way, she slowly opened her eyes to see it glowing lightly with a bit of a purple tint. If the spell was done right, it should glow more intensely as she drew closer to someone else. It might not be the most useful thing, but it would do fine for now. Happy with herself, she took a step forward.
Immediately, a surge of power shot through her body, throwing her backward violently. It felt like her horn was on fire, but the pain didn’t dull, even though it was so intense. Twilight clutched her head with a scream, shutting off her magic. The moment she did, the sensation stopped as fast as it had come. She heaved a few deep breaths before she was able to think again, her death grip on her horn slowly loosening.
“You can’t be serious…” she mumbled once she got her voice back, still trying to rub the pain away. “I haven’t seen an enchantment like this in ages! I didn’t know they still had publicly accessible records on it…!” To be fair, the only time she heard of this type of magic nullification spell was when she was learning about ancient methods of torture, to put it simply. Back when the three factions of ponykind were severely divided…
Wait, how did she remember that?
“That… isn’t important right now,” she mumbled, picking herself back up. It pained her to ignore her budding curiosity, but investigation was for another time. Pushing her thoughts aside, Twilight took account of her surroundings. Another corridor, the same as any other. She sighed.
But no, there was something inherently different about this one hallway. She had no idea what it was, but she sensed an inconsistency. She was about to do a magic detection spell on instinct, but quickly caught herself.
“This isn’t a simple physical difference, either. It has to be magical! But, how is that possible?” she reasoned to herself. She tapped her chin in thought. Suddenly something caught her attention in the corner of her eye. Something was glowing. She quickly whipped her head around to see it in her full vision, but the moment she did, the soft green light flickered away. Should she chase after it? Was it just a trap. In all logical senses she knew she shouldn’t go after it, and logic was her greatest strength. However, something in her heart knew that she wouldn’t get anywhere if she didn’t. Her friends taught her that sometimes belief is more important than reason.
“Friendship hasn’t misguided me before, after all…” she mumbled. Though it was a bit of a stretch in reasoning, there was still some truth in her words of reassurance. After hesitating for a moment, Twilight warily chased after the direction of the glow.
She turned the corner, backtracking to a corridor she was in when she was bolting around in a panic. At the time she noticed nothing strange about it, and at the time there probably was nothing strange about it. The feeling that something was off--something magical--only intensified.
Twilight's eyes widened as the light green glow reappeared on the wall. It broke into segments, then etched the shape of a door that wasn't there before. Slowly the illuminated outline filled in with color, and right before her she saw a real door materialize. She approached it slowly, her eyes widening in awe.
"This is really it, huh?" she asked breathlessly. She laughed wearily. "I guess this is where it ends. Just beyond this door..." She extended her arm and grazed the ornate handle with her hoof. There was no mistaking it. The only thing standing between Twilight and Emerald Joy’s throne room, the arena of her final battle, was the grand wooden doors before her. They stood in stark contrast with the metallic accents of the rest of the building, and yet they didn’t seem out of place at all.
Her hoof slid into place on the golden handle and she firmed her grip. Ever so slowly, her muscles tensed and she began to pull.
“I can’t let you do that, Twilight Sparkle.”