The Punishment Is What? ***Warning contains induction script***
We grabbed a projector that Twilight uses to give presentations, then gutted it until there was just a hollow casing. At first Starlights hypnosis doohickey didn’t seem to fit inside the projector casing, and I thought we’d done all this for nothing. Dot figured out that we could reposition the egg beater, and still have the machine work the same way.
“Remember Rainbow Dash, you have to be wearing polarized lenses when you use the machine. Normal sunglasses won’t keep you from getting hypnotized.”
“I know, I know.”
Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy all agreed to meet us in one of the school auditoriums. I told them I had an awesome presentation that would totally convince them not to expel Gallus. Which I guess is true.
“I don’t see why you couldn’t a’ done your presentation in the teachers lounge.” Applejack complained.
“Darling, I think I know what you’re attempting, and I’m sorry to tell you it will not work.”
Gotta admit, when she said that, I sweated a bit. “What do you think I’m trying to do Rarity?”
“Well, it’s obvious, making a slideshow presentation to appeal against Gallus being expelled. You’re trying to use sentimentality as a defence.”
I did not know how to respond to that, (mostly because Rarity was completely wrong).
Rarity, who was usually very well spoken, seemed to have trouble finding the right words. “I know it’s quite easy to think of Applejack as the villain in this situation, and her defence to that would be that she’s only following the rules, which I know you also hate. Remember, Gallus is our student too, and she will not be happy if he is expelled.”
This was getting real. I didn’t know if I could go through with it. I asked for one more minute.
“Take all the time you need, sugar-cube.”
I stood outside the auditorium, and waited. In a moment Dot appeared before me. It wasn’t the usual flash she’s there, her appearance was more of a slow fade in.
“You still want to go through with it?” Dotty asked.
Dot sounded scared. I guess this was getting real for her to. Or maybe I was just talking to myself after all.
I thought for a moment. I didn’t even talk to Dot. She probably knows what I think anyway, though I’m not entirely clear on that. Wouldn’t it be better if everyone just forgot this whole mess. What Galus did wasn’t worth him getting expelled over, it was just a prank. Ponies weren’t so uptight when I was a filly. If what Rarity said was true then AJ’s gonna feel bad whether he’s expelled or not. Maybe I should just make her feel better.
I opened the door to the auditorium. I walked down the stairs, put on my polarized lenses, and I turned on the projector.
A kaleidoscope of colors appeared on a screen.
Of course it wasn’t as simple as flip a switch and everyone’s hypnotized, though maybe Fluttershy was. AJ saw the screen and spoke out during my presentation.
“What in tarnation is this supposed to be. Are you seriously trying to hypnotize us?”
I motioned for Dot to step in, and she took control of my body.
“Of course not Applejack. Even if I knew how to do that, you’re all way too smart to be hypnotized.”
“Darn tootin.” Applejack confirmed.
”If you say so master.” Fluttershy added.
“Think of this as a meditation, to help prevent cognitive dissonance, and let you consider the idea’s I’ll be presenting a little more objectively.”
“Rainbow Dash, since when do you use fancy words like cog-native dissonance. Just skip past this nonsense, and get to your presentation.”
“It is not nonsense. They call it a… uh…. mental palette cleanse.” Dot turned to Rarity. “Surely you’ve heard of it Rarity. It’s supposed to be the new big thing in Canterlot.”
It took Rarity a moment to respond. “Of course darling. I hear they’re going to start doing this at all the big modern art exhibitions. Now hush up Applejack, I want to see this part.”
Thank you Rarity. The two of them just watched it without any further complaint. Soon even stubborn Applejack had her eyes fixed on the kaleidoscope of colours.
Actually, us ponies are hypnotized a little too easily. I should probably talk to Twilight about that, before some mind controlling villain gets the better of all of us.
I shook my own head, as the polarized lenses were only so helpful, then started reading our induction script.
“Make yourselves comfy.
Place your hind hooves flat on the floor.
Focus on the colors.
Breath in - 1, 2, 3, 4.
Breath out- 4, 3, 2, 1.
Breath in - 1, 2, 3, 4.
Breath out- 4, 3, 2, 1.
Keep focussing on the colors.
Think of how beautiful they are.
Think of how much they relax you.
Your minds are in a peaceful, relaxing, happy place.
When you’re here you have no worries.
When you’re here you have clarity.
Clarity is good.
This place, of the mind, is special.
There is no conflict here.
There is no doubt.
What you decide here, is decided without conflict.
What you decide here, is decided without doubt.
Here you can access all your memories, and all your knowledge.
Here you can choose to forget, or remember.
What you decide here will be decided with certainty.
The only catch is that you will be suggestible in this place.
You will not be able to say no, when given instruction.
You will follow instructions with certainty.
You will follow instructions without doubt.
You will take that certainty with you when you leave this place.
Relax.
Breath in - 1, 2, 3, 4.
Breath out- 4, 3, 2, 1.
Breath in - 1, 2, 3, 4.
Breath out- 4, 3, 2, 1.
”Is this next part really necessary,” I asked Dotty.
“Uh… you don’t have to, but we should keep it as a fail safe incase anything goes wrong.”
This place is wonderful.
This place is amazing.
This place is peaceful.
So you’ll be happy to know that you can come back here.
You can come back here all thanks to your good friend Rainbow Dash.
Whenever Rainbow Dash says the words:
“Be an Egghead” you will find yourselves here.
Whenever Rainbow Dash says the words:
“Don’t be an Egghead” you will return to your normal state of mind.
Normal except you will keep with you what was decided in this special place.
You will not remember being hypnotized, though the certainty and peace will remain.
Raise your right front hoof if you understand.
Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie all raised their hooves.
We were almost done. All that was left was the important part.
I thought for a moment how to do this. We had a script ready, but I wondered if it was really the way to go.
This whole mess started because Gallus broke into the girls lockers, and handled their personal things while the girls were doing ballet.
Okay, actually it sounds pretty bad when I put it that way, but there’s a good non pervy reason. We were having a prank war. That’s not pervy, it’s downright wholesome. There’s no reason to expel the kid, and I just need to make my friends see that.
I was going to erase their memories of the whole incident, but now I wasn’t sure. I hate when a story ends with everyones memories getting erased, so they can ‘go back to normal.’ That’s not a happy ending, as far as I’m concerned.
I looked at Dot. She gave me this kinda knowing nod. I thought it meant that she knew I was gonna go off script a bit. Maybe she didn’t.
Okay everypony, when you wake you’ll think that Rainbow Dash gave a totally convincing and awesome presentation. You’ll think of some way to keep Gallus from getting expelled. You’ll have like this super sharp focus and clarity to help you figure it out, and you’ll do it, because working together, you guys can do anything.
I turned off the projector, then turned to the girls in the room.
Now: “Don’t be an Egghead.”
For a moment they remained in a daze, and I wondered if we had done something wrong. Actually, that’s not the only reason I wondered if we had done something wrong.
A few seconds later they started to move again.
Applejack was the first to face me. There was a tear in her eye.
“That was an incredible presentation.”
Rarity was now wiping her eyes with a tissue. “I was so moved.”
“Now I know we can’t expel Gallus.”
“Yes, Darling, it’s clear now that we can’t expel Gallus. However we still need a way to get around the school policy.”
“I can check past cases at the Celestia school for precedent on the matter.” Applejack offered.
“I’ll go over the rulebook, top to bottom for loopholes.” Fluttershy added.
I was so proud of my friends.
“And of none of that works, then I’ll come up with a plan to overthrow the princesses, so we can make our own rules.”
“We’ll keep that as a last resort Rarity.”
The girls all left the auditorium eager to pull an all nighter. Pinkie lingered behind, until the others were gone. She motioned that she wanted to talk to me.
“That was a great presentation Rainbow Dash.”
“Thanks Pinkie.”
“Just one question.”
“Oh, what’s that?”
“Since you had them all hypnotized, why didn’t you just make everyone forget Gallus ever raided the lockers?”
I was stunned silent. With a shrug, Pinkie started to skip off.
“Wait, Pinkie, how were you not hypnotized.”
Pinkie furrowed her brow in thought. “Well, every time the bright lights started to work on me, I felt this slap on the face. I think it was Harvey.”
Harvey! Didn’t Twilight say something about Pinkie having a Tulpa of her own. Just like with Dot, there was some sort of mental companion acting independently inside her head; a giant rabbit named Harvey. Maybe not ‘just like Dot.’
Pinkie skipped off.
For the next couple of ours, I mostly did coffee runs, as my friends dropped everything, and spent their time, looking for an up and up way to keep Gallus from being expelled.
Fluttershy dressed in one of those outfits she wore that one time she covered for the sales ponies in one of Rarity’s boutiques. Her hair was tied back in a bun so tight that her eyebrows curved upwards. It was the outfit that made her look stern and overly serious.
Around ten, nurse Red Heart dropped by. Everyone was focused on what they were doing, and hardly noticed she was there.
She looked over at Fluttershy, apparently needing a minute to be sure it was actually her. Flutters paid her no mind.
“Fluttershy, is that you? You didn’t feed your pets tonight. I was worried.”
Fluttershy just barked “I’m busy, you do it.” And that was that.
Starlights hypnosis machine is a scary thing.
Applejack barely noticed, before returning to her own reading.
Rarity had cloths pins, to keep her from blinking, as she guzzled coffee straight from a pot and scribbled on a blackboard.
Nurse Redheart was turning to leave, when Fluttershy cried “Eureka!”
She and I turned to see what it was. The others didn’t bother until Fluttershy said, “I know how to keep Gallus from getting expelled.”
We all piled up to look at what she was reading.
“Hey,” I cried, “what language is this written in?”
“It’s ancient Ponish. There are some very old laws in Equestria, that were never officially taken off the books.”
“Since when can you read Ponish?”
“I took a few classes when I was a filly, but I’m surprised I retained so much.”
Fluttershy’s voice was soft and gentle, once again. Even her hair had somehow broken free of the tight bun.
“It says:
The theft of clothing will be considered an act of sexual deviance, so long as either the aggrieved party or the culprit hails from a race that normally wears clothing.
“Ha, I get it. Griffins, Changeling, Hippogriffs, and Dragons, hardly ever wear any clothes. So Gallus doesn’t have to be expelled.”
Nurse Red Heart chimed in. Apparently she could read ancient ponish, as most scientific names are derived from the language.
“It says, it’s a lesser offence, but there is still a punishment.”
“Good, Gallus will learn his lesson.”
“So what’s the punishment?” Applejack asked.
“The punishment is 16 lashes with a,” she double checked before reading the last part, “cat of nine tails.”
“Do we have a cat with nine tails?”
“Maybe they’re extinct.”
“I have over nine cats with one tail each.”
“I’m sure that’ll be fine Fluttershy.”
“Great everyone, problem solved.”
And that was that. I guess those ancient ponies were pretty wise. The girls returned to normal. Gallus’s punishment was scheduled for a public exhibition, as the law book recommended, and after a while, I almost forgot about the hypnotism incident.
Dot danced across the auditorium. She was full sized now, while I, Rainbow Dash, was tiny. She spun and twirled on her ballet shoes. Ponies watched in quiet awe.
When it was finished, she took a bow. Thousands applauded her, as roses were tossed upon the stage. I cheered louder then any of them. Then I awoke.
I wiped the sleep from my eyes.
“I had that weird dream again.”
Dot appeared next to me. “I had that wonderful dream again.”
We got up. Both of us stood in front of the bathroom mirror, brushing our teeth.
“So what do you want for breakfast?” Dot asked, her voice mumbled due to the brush in her mouth.
“I dunno, I want french toast, but I always burn it.” This was my, slightly shameless, way of asking Dot to make it for me.
“I can cook it for you, she offered.”
RING - RING - RING
KNOCK - KNOCK - KNOCK
Who could be pounding on my door this early?
I opened up the door, and there was Pinkie. She was in the basket of her hot air ballon, as my home is in Cloudsdale.
“Pinkie, what’s up.”
“Come with me, I’ll explain on the way.”
I tossed off my robe, and flew after her.
“Pinkie, what’s going on? What’s this about?”
“There was an accident on the farm.”
“Applejacks farm!”
“Yes.”
“Well don’t keep me in suspense, what happened?”
“They were loading up cider in a cart. The barrels are like a gazillion pound each, give or take.”
“Big Mac was lifting barrels from the pile and tossing them to Apple bloom.”
“He tossed a 60 pound barrel at a little filly.”
“Yeah, and then Apple Bloom tossed it to Granny.”
“So is it Granny that was hurt?”
“No, Granny tossed it to Applejack.”
“Oh well that wouldn’t hurt Applejack at all.”
“Finally, Applejack tossed it to Rarity.”
“Rarity! That’s worse then tossing it to Granny.”
“Yeah, Rarity was supposed to catch it with horn magic, and load it into the cart, but I guess she wasn’t ready, or was busy checking her hooficure.”
I wanted to ask why they didn’t just use magic to move the barrels from the start, but AJ was pretty stubborn about doing things the way the Apple family has always done them. If Rarity’s hurt, then I bet she feels pretty bad about it.
Pinkie took us to the Carousel Boutique. I rushed through the door, then looked around. Rarity was on a couch napping. Except for a little green ribbon on her horn she looked normal.
“Horn sprain,” Pinkie explained. “Nurse says she can’t use magic for three days.”
That sucked for her, but it wasn’t serious and now I was wondering why Pinkie brought me here. She pointed to the other side of the room, and there I saw Applejack.
Applejack was a wreck. Her hair was frizzled. Her eyes were bloodshot, with bags under them. She had three sewing needles in her mouth, and was struggling to operate a sewing machine with hooves. AJ never had any magic.
“They’re working in shifts,” Pinkie explained. “Rarity can’t work as fast because she’s used to doing things with her magic. Applejack knows how to sew by mouth and hoof, unfortunately she’s not a seamstress. The most she’s done is patching clothes and darning socks because things get ripped up a lot on the farm. Also, despite wanting to make it up to Rarity, she lacks passion for this sort of work, and thinks too practically to follow instructions on these poofy frilly dresses. She’s made all kinds of mistakes. At the rate they’re going, Rarity can’t complete her orders, including making costumes for the ballet club that you teach.”
“You don’t have to rub it in.” Applejack bellowed.
I’d almost forgotten that I teach ballet. At this point I was used to napping while Dot borrowed my body for that class. “So what can I do? I don’t know how to sew.”
Dot twirled around, chanting: “I can, I can.” I pretended I didn’t hear her.
“Well,” said Pinkie, “remember that really inspiring presentation you gave a while back.” Pinkie winked at me. “The presentation which got us all really motivated, and passionate about keeping Gallus from being expelled.” She winked again.
“That was the best speech ever.” Applejack declared.
“It moved me to tears.” Rarity added.
“So what did she say?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Everyone just looked at Sweetie Belle, like her being there was an odd thing. Eventually she took a hint and left.
“Yeah, Princess Celestia never gave so fine a speech as that one.”
“I was thinking,” said Pinkie, “maybe you can use your presentation skills,” wink-wink, “to inspire Applejack, and help her find her inner Rarity.”
I turned to Dot. She was shaking her head, as to say, ‘No way, Absolutely not, don’t do it!!!’
Her comically over the top objection, made me grin. After all, I was totally going to do it.
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This chapter was definitely worth the wait :)
Oh hold on! I went into this chapter expecting some sort of hypnosis on Gallus, to see what a counter tupla would be like.
And, yes, we've have real hypnosis in-canon, so we can't even say that's too far fetched.
But ... Hypnotizing the rest of the staff without permission? Didn't her tupla warn ... oh, right, this was the tupla's idea.
Err ... good job with mind control Starlight? :=-)
Ok, if you have to have non-consensual hypnosis, this is ... probably the least harmful? Lets face it, they did not want to expel him before, now they're just working to find a way to keep him in. But ... leaving a deep trigger implanted? In fairness, I don't really know how effective triggers like that actually are in reality after just one session, especially when a person isn't in agreement with it.
===
Hours
10340899
My point was that the story is implying that because RD stoped paying attention she didnt catch everything Twilight said meaning that not all of what twilight said went into her head, resulting in the hypnosis not working as intended. While It is normal for somone not to remember some or all of the trance, the idea of her getting bored during the trance and that causeing not all of the hypnotic sygestions to go in is less believable. Again though it is still a really interesting concept.
oh, no, no, no, no.
Pinkie, what are you doing?
Rarity, listen to your inner voice of reason.
Starlight ... why are you smiling with a hoof pointed up?
This story is like a train wreck in progress. I can't not read what comes next just to see how much worse things will get.
What will Twilight say when she finds out what's happening?
10340918
You're not wrong.
Stories tend to overpower hypnosis. It just works, and when things do go wrong, it's usually a case of characters taking their programming too literally. In my opionion your arguments only support fictional hypnosis, which we've seen so much of, that yes I bucked the convention.
Have you ever looked into recovered memories; UFO's, past lives, that sort of thing. There's some eerie stuff out there, but most subjects either can't be hypnotized, or they'll tell a story even when they should have nothing to tell.
10341210
Hmm. Interesting. Ill have to look more into this.
10340904
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Tupla_suklaapatukka.jpg/1200px-Tupla_suklaapatukka.jpg
10341210
Last I checked the research, it was pretty much "Close to everyone can be hypnotized". The researchers didn't want to claim 100%, but there was no evidence of a non-hypnotizable person.
Now, not every induction method works on everyone. And people can be hypnotized without realizing it (there are indirect methods, no I'm not skilled with them).
I think the biggest problem is that people don't know what hypnosis is; what we see in stories is not accurate for most (well over 66% :-) of real people.
It's always harsh to discover how things were done centuries ago...
It was a dark and dreary times.
I think you did an excellent job with the induction text! it would have been wonderful to read about how Dash chose to influence any given character, but I understand leaving it up to their own imagination as well.
Hope to see more!
Hope this updates some time. Im very curious to see what happens next.