The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 20: Clinging to the Past
With Emerald Joy’s body now a mangled, hole-ridden mess, Twilight felt a wave of relief run over her. Finally, she was freed of the binding of the stupid happiness curse. All that was left to do was rebuild society and make things as they once were. That shouldn’t be too hard…
But now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. She turned to investigate the encasings of her friends. They were suspended in tubes, with some sort of glowing liquid keeping them pristine. Their Elements probably were helping to preserve them, but she wasn’t sure for what purpose Emerald would be letting them live, even if it was in this suspended state. Just how fatal was Ondine’s Curse, anyway? Were they even alive anymore?
Speaking of Ondine, Twilight supposed that she would have to be dealt with whenever she turned up again. Where had she gone off to anyway? Twilight sighed. There really was a lot more that had to be done. But still, it was a bit startling how easily she was able to kill off Emerald.
“Oh, you really thought that a weak attack like that was enough to kill me?”
Shivers went up Twilight’s spine as she turned, and sure enough, Emerald Joy was standing upright behind her, the holes in her body now gone, though blood splatters showed where they once were. “Really, do you have to stain every piece of clothing you see? It’s getting annoying.”
“B-but…” Twilight choked out, backing up against the wall encasing her unconscious friends.
“Honestly, you have to give me more credit here,” Emerald sighed. “If I could be taken out that easily, we wouldn’t be where we are right now.” There was a pause as Twilight gaped incredulously at Emerald, who was acting as if nothing was wrong. She was just dead a minute ago, so how could she possibly be just standing there like that?
“How…?” she murmured, not able to tear her eyes away.
“Can’t you ask a question worth asking during this lull in the battle? Even though I do enjoy indulging my genius before killing you, I might lose my patience at any minute now,” Emerald replied. Twilight turned, having completely forgotten that time was suspended around them. That would at least explain why Ondine hadn’t returned. She paused for a few moments, then turned back to face Emerald.
“You said that the copies had no memories, but that can’t be true. Rainbow Dash remembered us fighting before all of this, and if I’m to understand correctly, we were using The Elements of Harmony. I hardly knew anything about them before a few weeks ago! Explain to me how that’s possible!” Twilight demanded.
“Hm? Really? It seems those Elements are smarter than I thought…” Emerald muttered amusedly. “If I were to guess, I would say they attempted to give their copies some memories from before, but they only knew of the times when you all were using them. I suppose they were trying to make them remember something about them being the Bearers, but that little effort went to waste as well.”
“Wait, you mean to say that we used to fight things with The Elements? On a regular basis?” Twilight asked, her eyes widening. She didn’t even know how she would have tapped their energy, much less fight with it.
“Do you want me to show you, is that it?” Emerald asked with a sly grin. “Alright then, let’s go on a quick journey.” Twilight recoiled when she felt a slight pressure on her forehead, but Emerald grabbed hold of her so she couldn’t run off. In a flash of light, the silver and green colors of the throne room melted away, mixing and transforming into dark blues and weathered grays.
The abstract colors reformed into the shape of ruins. The stars in the night sky now above them shined brightly. Twilight drew attention to who was standing in the middle of the room. It was her, albeit slightly younger, along with Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack. They all faced someone who she didn’t recognize, though from the mare’s dark armor she could tell that she wasn’t anyone to be messed with. Twilight perked up, suddenly hearing the sound of her own voice.
“...because the spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here!”
Twilight watched with awe as the six ponies were lifted into the air, their bodies glowing white, and with a sudden burst of energy a rainbow spiraled out of the blinding light. It twirled in the air for a few moments, then cascaded down onto the dark figure, effectively defeating it.
Emerald glanced over and smiled at Twilight’s expression of disbelief. Once the scene was over, she clapped her gloved hooves together and the image swirled away again. The throne room rushed back into their vision, and Emerald resumed her previous stance as if nothing had ever happened. With a flourish she continued the flow of time.
“But I’ve grown bored of all of this talk,” Emerald Joy said, but Twilight paid her little attention. As soon as she regained her bearings, she rushed towards the wall, climbing up on Emerald’s throne to better reach The Elements.
“Hey, what are you meddling in?” Emerald shouted. “Don’t you know that it’s not nice to stand on someone else’s chair? And what good will that do you, anyway?”
“I think you know perfectly well what good it’ll do me,” Twilight responded, reaching The Element of Magic. She rested her hoof on its surface and instantly felt a rush of power.
“I see. Playing dirty now, are we?” Emerald asked, her tone darker than usual. “Fine, then I’ll do the same.” As soon as the words left her mouth, three blasts exploded out of the wall. Twilight stood firm, shooting back a few times, though she was trying to focus her energy on activating The Elements. She quickly put up a barrier to hide herself from any moderate sized attacks.
“That’s not going to work, you know,” Emerald exclaimed, maneuvering herself around to be able to get around the barrier. “You’re not going to be able to use the rest of The Elements when they’re under Ondine’s Curse. They can’t think right now, so they can’t have the emotions that it takes to access The Elements’ power.”
“That’s what you would think, what with all of your psychological studies, but I know that something like friendship is more powerful than any curse,” Twilight responded confidently, her body glowing with power as she spoke. “Even subconsciously, we still share the same emotional bonds, because the ties of friendship run deeper than anything you could ever imagine!” She turned around towards Emerald, but was taken by surprise when she saw that the normally calm leader had now broken through her barrier, and was lunging straight towards her, a hoof raised above her head. Twilight knew that she didn’t have what it took to deflect or dodge, so she did nothing but cover her face and wait for the blow.
It was like time was going in slow motion. Slowly Emerald advanced, and once she drew close enough, she threw her hoof forward, aiming to knock Twilight off of the throne. Soon she was only inches away from her face, and Twilight remembered just how much her nose already stung from earlier. She saw everything get brighter and brighter. Was this her life flashing before her eyes? No, it couldn’t be something like that, but for what other reason would everything be so blindingly bright now?
Then the sickening crack came. Though, for some reason, Twilight didn’t feel any pain to go with it. She looked harder, and saw that Emerald had been thrown back as if she hit an invisible barrier. Was that what this was? Twilight struggled to move her head to glance behind her. The Elements of Harmony were glowing brighter than she ever saw before. Was that it? Yes, that had to be it!
“That’s right, because the souls of The Elements of Harmony are right here!”