The Horror of Happiness

by CrackedInkWell

Prologue

In some places in the world and with many ponies lives, their day it seems to run on clockwork. With a force that turns the gears from the moment they awake, eat, work, play and go back to sleep again – only to repeat themselves over and over. This idea of routine is especially true in a tiny, tucked away village of a few houses, and the ponies that reside in them.

Inside one of these houses, an earth pony mare known was Lilly was waking up from the light that was shining into her humble bedroom. Like a mechanical toy, she awoke refreshed and got out of bed with her usual day that she had done the day before. She got up, went to the bathroom to use the toilet, brush her teeth, and combs her once bright white mane that has turned into a ghostly gray. Nevertheless, she still has that permanent grin on her face that reminded her that she is still better off than ever before.

Soon enough, she was out into the only street in the village for her to get her usual breakfast from the only baker within miles: Sugar Belle.

“C’mon, hurry!” it was the only warning she gotten before suddenly shoved over by two colts. “Sorry!” they said in unison as they immediately helped her back up.

“What’s the rush you two?” she inquired.

“We’re really sorry,” the youngest, a charcoal black pegasus with a combed-back sandy mane apologized.

“It’s our turn at the gardens,” the slightly eldest replied. He was a light brown with a dulled mane that, like the other colt, had his mane pulled back in the same way. “Mom wanted to make baked potatoes for lunch so we figured that if we hurried, we could make it back before noon.”

“You know, Start and Finishing,” Lilly replied. “You two don’t have to run over there like that. Starlight did say that it’s at walking distance so why not do just that and walk?”

“Because it takes a while to get back here on hoof,” Finishing pointed out. “Even flying over there takes a while if we just walked over there.”

“It’s just so that you won’t be faster or slower as him when you do.” She let the two of them go, hearing them grumbling under their breath of being so restricted. Even for Lilly, she admits to herself that her time in the village is a rather challenging one. Sure, her life was now simple and she had to live without luxuries of the outside world. But it’s for her own happiness after all.

She continued on towards the lonely bakery until she reached one of the wooden tables in which the baker was serving two ponies that she knew: Double Diamond and Party Favor.

“Hey Lilly,” Sugar Belle smiled politely, “Here for the usual?”

The mare nodded and waited at her seat while the baker disappeared into her kitchen.

“You know,” the snow-white stallion across from her said. “It has been a while since anyone new has come to town.”

Party Favor nodded in agreement. “It’s been about four months now. You’d think that we might get some lost soul to wonder in any day now. I do want to see some new faces around here.”

“I admit, I want to know how much Equestria has changed. Who isn’t curious nowadays about how bad the outside world has gotten.”

“But we don’t know that.” Party pointed out. “For me, I just want someone to stay here that might help replace that doctor that passed away last year. You know it’s amazing that nopony has gotten sick or anything.”

“Guess we’re that lucky,” Diamond shrugged and ate his deflated, flavorless muffin.

Lilly however, thought that while all of this was true, she did wonder how long their luck would last. Sure, there have been a few colds here and there, but even then they could just rest it off until they were better. But on the other hoof, who do they turn to if something serious happens like a broken bone for example?

“Morning Lilly,” she has pulled away from her thoughts as a gray stallion with a black mane sat down across from here.

“Hey Checkmate,” the mare smiled politely. “Glad to see you again, did you just got released this morning?”

He nodded. “I’m thankful that Starlight was merciful this time, only four days this time around. Hopefully, I’ll be good enough not to be sent back into the Equalization House.”

“You are good now, are you?” Lilly reached out to pat one of his hooves in sympathy.

“Uh-huh,” he nodded and smiled. “I did promise Starlight that I’ll be better than before.”

“Here’s your muffins,” Sugar Belle reappeared with a tray of gray pastry in her aura. After thanking her and splitting one of the muffins to Checkmate, Lilly began happily eating her flavorless breakfast.

_*_

After breakfast, Lilly heads off towards the underground gardens in which she checks to see which of her personal crops were ready to be harvested. On that day, she managed to pluck up small potatoes, some radishes and onions to be in her basket to be taken back home. To her, this was her most favorite time of day, when it was just her and her little garden. Sure, it wasn’t the same when she was planting flowers. ‘They might have been pretty,’ she thought to herself. ‘But they were unnecessary. Starlight says so herself. This is much more practical.’

But even as she toiled in the soil, underneath the light of the solar stones, she knew in the back of her mind that it wasn’t all true. Of course, she had a love of gardening. Ever since she was a foal, she once had a passion for planting brightly colored flowers. However, she has needed to satisfy over her wants, and that was to be sure that she could eat that day.

After she filled up her basket with what she needed and replaced the empty spots with seeds, she returned back to the surface. Back in the sun, she began her trek towards the village. Letting her thoughts fill the silence of the desert.

“Happiness can only be obtained through sacrifice.” She recalled what Starlight Glimmer once told her. “And I know how hard it is to just give up what you’ve been attached to for so long. But trust me, if you give in, I promise you that you’ll be happier than you’ve ever been in your life.”

Of course, in her heat, she knew that such philosophy was true. How could she doubt it? She remembered the pain of having too big of a dream and a large an ambition. ‘In hindsight, I didn’t know how difficult it was to sell flours in the first place. Just to maintain and taking care of all those flours outside of their season was too difficult and I should have just had not done it at all. Plus, I wasn’t any good at business anyway so I was already doomed to fail from the start.’

Then, from the corner of her eye, she spotted something moving along the hot sand. After squinting her eyes, she saw that it was the same colts that had ran into her that morning. They were again in a rush from one boulder to the other. One was flying through the air while the other was in a gallop. However, as she noticed, they were going at the same pace so it was to no surprise that by the time they got to the other rock that they reached it at the same time.

She could hear shouting while they were at a distance from her.

“Ugh! Again! How are we keep ending up in a tie?” Finishing Line flew up in frustration. “How are we supposed to play if we keep ending up in a tie?”

While Lilly couldn’t hear what his brother’s reply was, she didn’t have to guess as the younger colt snapped back at him.

“This has nothing to do with luck Starting! I tell you that this place is cursed! Ever since we’ve moved here, we can’t ever win at anything! Not at racing, cards, or even throwing dice. Dice! Just for once, can one of us loose every once in a while?”

This she saw had started to make his older brother cry. Despite how upset the younger colt was, he stepped back from his temper tantrum to hug him. Lilly felt sympathetic and was compelled to change course towards the boys. By the time she got there, she heard Finishing trying to apologize for lashing out at him like that. “Hey, are you guys okay?”

She knew that they weren’t, the older colt sniffled and said. “Yeah, we’re fine. We were just playing.”

“Nothing’s wrong ma’am,” Finishing gave a lying smile.

“You sure?” Lilly questioned. “It looked like your brother was in tears just a moment ago.”

Both colts gave a nervous glance. “Uhh…” the young pegasus’s eyes shifted back and forth. “Don’t tell Starlight. We don’t want to get into trouble.”

“Y-Yeah,” Starting said. “It was just an accident. You’re not going to tell because we just made a mistake, would you?”

Lilly glanced around to make sure that nopony was listening. “I’ll tell you both this – I’m going to let you off the hook just this once. However, if I do see something like this again, then I just have to tell Starlight that you’re not playing nice. Are we clear?” They nodded. “Why don’t you two head back into town? I’m sure that your parents have chores for you to do.”

“But we don’t-” Finishing was interrupted when his older brother pulled on his wing.

“You know what; we should start heading back home.” Starting told him as he dragged his younger sibling towards the village.

That was the end of it as far as Lilly was concerned. After all, she needed to head back home herself to wash and prepare the vegetables she’d collected. Reminding herself to get back to her routine that after lunch, she needed to catch up on her chores around her house such as sweeping the floors and getting the dirty dishes put away. That and she must get back to her readings of Starlight’s books on Equality in her free time.

After all, her routine was like clockwork. She didn’t want one second, or one incident to make her skip a second of her time.