Unrequited Bliss

by SanityCheck8080

Warm Puppy

Chrysalis was happy. She couldn't be more happy. She couldn't stop being happy. It was a method of reformation that was being tested out on the worst of the worst, the scummiest bunch in all of Equestria, and Chrysalis happened to fall in to that category. There was nothing that she could do about it.

Not that she was complaining. Not that she was unhappy. This was the happiest she'd ever been! For the first time in a long time, everything seemed right. No plans of domination to be worried about. No hive to control. All her life she had been at war with the reptilian part of her brain, the one that demanded survival, control of everything, and she was winning. It felt so good.

She wanted to get up and sing and dance and simply move, but that wasn't really an option right now, considering she was strapped to a table. That's okay, she decided. It was a nice table after all. Comfy. Plus, at the angle her head was tilted, out of the corner of her eye, she could see the little poster with the kitten, the one that said "Hang In There!". She liked that poster. It made her smile.

Sometimes her lips began to hurt from smiling. It wasn't terrible, just a dull throbbing. The pain went away usually after she took a nap. She wasn't sure why, but her favorite time of the day was when she was asleep. When she was asleep, she could dream she was somewhere else, being happy and doing happy things. When she woke up, she was still happy, but also kind of sad. This puzzled her, and puzzles are fun, so everything was as it should be.

Being strapped down, she had very little space to move around, but what little space she had, she took advantage of. She let her eyes wander across the blue wall. There looked to be darker patches where other posters might have at one time hung, or the same poster, the one that made her smile, had been moved from. If she really strained her eyes to look far enough to what she believed to be the north-north-east, she could just barely make out the crack where the door opened, also painted blue. She had never received a visitor, and that was fine. She was fine being happy by herself.

She made up jokes in her spare time, which was all the time. Some of them were pretty funny. She memorized every joke until she knew them by heart. She practiced her delivery until it was perfect. Having nopony to tell the jokes to she ended up just telling them to herself, and cracking up every time. "That was a good one," she would say "but you need to work on the punchline."

She never got hungry or thirsty. She had a sneaking suspicion that it was because of how happy she was. She believed that, no matter what your problems are, if you enjoy yourself enough, they'll just go away! That's how it worked for her anyway. Whenever she was feeling sad, she just decided to become happy, and nothing was ever wrong. Or maybe that was backwards. She gave up on that train of thought and continued being content, except more than content.

Sometimes, if she angled her right forehoof just right, she could slide it out on one of the indents, and tickle herself. This made her giggle, but not laugh, 'cause everyone knows you can't tickle yourself. That would just be silly. Sometimes she would tickle herself all day. One day she woke up and found her restraints to have been tightened ever so slightly. She could no longer fit her hoof out. At this point she remembered she had magic and tried to use it, to no avail. Oh well. She could tickle herself in her brain. Everything was perfect.

Every so often she would think of her past. She didn't know why, as she didn't think she was really happy back then, and she was happy now, so why bother even thinking about it, but she did anyway. She thought of all the buggies she played Simon-says with, except she was always Simon and she always said "Simon says". The buggies were really good. They never lost. She remembered having a giant pillow fight, the buggies against the non-buggies, except they weren't using pillows. She remembered watching her team win. It was like watching with thousands of eyes, which she thought must of made her look funny. If you had thousands of eyes on your face, you would fall over forward! If she remembered right, she didn't end up winning the pillow fight. That's okay though, 'cause there was a light show, and it looked really cool! Then she was skydiving. Then she was put in a bag. She didn't remember what happened after that though, 'cause for whatever reason she decided to take a nap. Then she woke up and saw the poster and was happy.

Occasionally, she would sing songs. They didn't always rhyme, or even make sense, but she liked them. Some of them were ones she didn't make up, but had heard somewhere before. In addition to those, she periodically heard bits and pieces of happy sounding songs as she woke up. They would always cut off before she could truly listen, and she enjoyed what she heard nonetheless. Every so often, she wouldn't worry about the words, just "La la la, doo dee da, wheeeeee!". She sang these kinds of songs really loudly.

She wondered if she would ever stop being happy. She knew that being happy was good, but she also knew too much of a good thing was a bad thing. Not that being happy was a bad thing. Being happy was a good thing. She knew because it made her happy. This puzzled her, but that's okay because she liked puzzles, and...

---

Employee # 15572 monitored her vital signs. It had been smooth sailing thus far. Whenever the machines detected a drop in dopamine or serotonin, they would automatically, by means of both magic and chemicals, working together, spike them back up. She was kept nourished by an I.V. Employee # 15572 thought it was a little bit messed up, the entire process, but as long as they were using criminals and not him for testing, he wasn't complaining. He was getting paid too well to complain.

He had watched this place being built from the beginning. The building itself was no secret. It was a regular lab on the outskirts of Canterlot. Celestia was determined to refrain from keeping secrets from her people, and had been successful so far. Security to get into the building itself was very minimal, and with permission, anypony could inquire as to what kind of research went on in the labs. Very few did.

When it came to leaving the building, things got a bit more complicated. Obviously, they couldn't allow their test subjects- err, the criminals to just up and leave, so they kept them heavily restrained. Suppressors were used to prevent the unicorns from using magic. A single elevator was used to get to the floor which held the criminals (B7), which could be turned off by the flip of a switch. Despite security measures,it was very unlikely there would be any escape attempts, considering the state the criminals were in. Who would want to leave when they're having the time of their lives? It was paradise. Kinda.

Employee # 15572 was one of several in charge of keeping track of their most important "resident": Queen Chrysalis. The decision to try out the experiment on her was made relatively quickly. After her shenanigans, she had been left incapacitated, leaving her, unlike many of the evil forces that had been thwarted, alive and mortal. Ripe for testing.

So they tested. While without the constant intake of drug- err, chemicals, she might have been destructive and seething, she seemed to always be calm and contemplative. She appeared to be on the path to reformation. The higher ups were glad she was reacting similarly to the rest of the facility's occupants. Less trouble for them.

Now and then there was some maintenance that needed to be done from inside the room, such as tightening a clasp that might have been slipped out of to escape, or wiping the drool off her face when too much had built up. Employee # 15572 and his coworker buddies drew straws, and on one particular occasion, he got the short straw.

They waited till she was asleep. When he got into the room, he wasted no time finding the correct tools and tightening the clasp. He had planned on exiting the room as fast as possible, but on the way out, he got a glimpse of her face. He was terrified. She no longer looked alive, just a hunk of flesh, or whatever it was changelings were made out of. He barely managed to not lose his lunch, and went back to work, manning the machines.

It would be a while before they could risk letting her free of her restraints. Maybe never. Until then, she would just go on, being happy. What else could anypony want?

Comments

[kenzia117]

Well this is a curious little story, I'm not sure how I feel about this. But it appears well written.

[Karna]

And thus when they finally let their test subjects out, they were broken. The parts of their brains meant to produce reward chemicals no longer functioned. No matter what, they would always feel miserable. Forever.

[EdBecerra]

Urgh.Talk about seriously creepy... Yet at the same time, seriously engrossing. You've actually managed to make me feel sorry for Chrysalis.

[SanityCheck8080]

2931157
Wow. Way to put a sad twist on a happy story.

[Moon_Dew]

I can think of worst things, but that is still a worst kind of hell.

[Alondro]

Neuroscientist here!

Artificial dopaminergic and serotonergic upregulation/supplementation triggers a chronic alcoholism and/or heroin-like dependency. The brain downregulates its own production of the neurotransmitters and eventually the neurotransmitter receptors to compensate for the high levels.

Cutting it off suddenly would be fatal, just as going cold-turkey is for people with severe forms of dopaminergic agonist addictions.

[SanityCheck8080]

3114760
Wut.
(Handwaves by saying it's a combination of magic and science, chuckles nervously, hides behind childrens science book.)

[Alondro]

3115157 Combining magic and science!!

NO YOU FOOL!!!

*KABOOOOOOOOOM!!!!! Equestria asplodes.*

[SanityCheck8080]

3119563
Oops.

[Alondro]

3119822 It's like what happens in "Ghost Busters" when ya cross the streams.

[deletingthisaccount]

Wow! Very 1984-style mindfuck in a way. Excellent! It's a bit creepy how happiness can at some point become a moral issue. Neat little study, I love it!

[ObabScribbler]

Hi there. I hope you don't mind, but I liked this fic so much I have put together an audio version on YouTube.

[Von Voctavia]

I like it.

As others have said, brains strive for equilibrium. If there's too much of a chemical, the brain reduced output - which doesn't succeed if the input is artificial. (injected etc) When the brain notices the level of chemical is still too high it then starts to close off that chemicals receptors causing a spike in chemical usage in order to get the same effect.

Even something like coffee can cause caffeine immunity, meaning you have to drink more and more to get the same buzz.

In this story, I don't know if their goal is safer life time storage or long term rehabilitation, but making it so she can only be happy if she follows the rules and laws is a heck of a way to do it!

I'd love a sequel to this story.

[Villain84]

I just finished listening to Orabscribbler reading this (she's great). Loved it!

In the first half, you did a great job first telling it from Chrysalis' perspective. Showing how happy she was, and how insane her situation had left her. It's also great that the audience is left to interpret what was going on at first, rather than you spoon-feeding us where she was and what she was going through. I also love how this half, in Scribbler's reading, had cheerful music with it, really underlined how while Chrysie was happy, the reader could tell there was something wrong with her.

And then you got the second half in which you got the whole experiment from Employee # 15572's perspective, where we finally see what the whole situation is, and what it's like from his point of view. There really were some chilling moments in the whole story he gave. I like the music Scribbler chose for this one as well. And then that laugh at the end! Chills!

So yeah! Great story! Loved it!

[JerryQWERTY]

This is a cool response for the writing prompt. A 'reformed' Queen. Short and interesting. Greenthumbed.

[Storm-Chaser]

At first, I thought you forgot the comedy category in here, but, man, was I dead wrong.

[forsaken tendencies]

I wish you would have done more this is a nice fic though I like it

[Autum Breeze]

*shivers* man. i listened to scribbler's reading of this and... *shivers again* man, this is creepy. good, but damn creepy

[Raichu]

Have you seen the batman movies? In one of the movies, it mentions a Arkham insane asylum where the criminals go for psychiatric treatment. Only they're not getting treated there. They're being experimented on. Is it sort of based off that? If so cool idea. If not cool idea.

[iamli3]

reminds me of this....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Md3EfBgqs&t=5m53s

[Twiggy Vampony]

So chrysalis just turned into pinkie pie... Kinda?

[Lord Sergal]

Umm, this was put under grimdark. Why exactly? I read the other comments, but as the author said, magic is involved. If he really wanted to take the time, he'd just have to add a line mentioning a spell that prevents the closing of receptors as well as one that shuts down all natural production as long as there are artificial hormones in the system to prevent overload. I imagine it less as 'reformation' and more as a form of stasis. She's learning nothing from her time here and the drugs would either be temporary or damaging as was already mentioned. My worry would be if someone with recently developed homicidal thoughts starts associating his new happiness with those new thoughts. Particularly if he/she can use magic without a focus (horn).

[Carrara]

Congratulations, Sanity. You've written a marvelous piece of pants-soiling terror. Have a fave. Oh, and personal opinion? Whoever downvoted should be... converted to our way of thinking.

6137828
It's grimdark in the same way that We Happy Few, 1984, and Brave New World are grimdark - in that a character is deprived of their sensibilities and can't help but be content and accept whatever is done to them. I'm being tortured and experimented on? Who cares?! I'm happy! And mentally incapable of resisting. It's basically free will deprivation. It's not as scary, though, as in We Happy Few/Brave New World/1984, as in these pieces, this happens to the whole population.

[ObabScribbler]

6461253

You clearly have excellent taste.

[shadowminded]

2934026
The sad truth of psychology and the biology of the brain.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

You might never read this... but I loved this story.