Chapter 9: Starting With a Notion and Dropping Preconceptions
The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 9: Starting With A Notion and Dropping Preconceptions
Twilight abruptly woke from her dreamless sleep. She glanced at the digital clock on her nightstand. It was still an hour or so before she had to be up for the speech, so she considered just going back to sleep. However, something in the back of her mind kept her from slipping back into her blank state of mind, so she decided instead to sit up in her bed and think about something. She wasn’t exactly sure what, but right then seemed a good time as ever to think, what with the cool atmosphere and the dark room that was just light enough to see her surroundings as the sun began peeking over the horizon.
She adjusted her sheets and pillows and sat up, her back laying up against the wall. She let her mind wander for a little bit to find a topic of pondering, and the first thing it went to was how two of her friends were already gone in such a short period of time. What was it about recently that made such things happen? They had been doing so well for such a long time, so why all the sudden was the group breaking apart?
She fiddled with her hair a bit as she pondered further. What were they going to do now? Fluttershy and Applejack were such good friends to them all, so there was always a sort of incomplete feel at the meetings nowadays. They didn’t feel like they were all there during their meetups, or at any point in their lives really. At least, that was how Twilight felt. She wasn’t positive about the others, although they probably also felt that way.
It was so uncanny suddenly not having someone be around anymore, though. One day Fluttershy was there and seemed to be pulling through pretty well, and then the next day she was jarringly yanked from existence. Applejack had a similar situation, only it was even stranger because she was still physically there, she just wasn’t Applejack anymore. She was just a lifeless happiness zombie that blindly obeyed all of Emerald Joy’s wishes, which is a lot more painful to deal with. At least when someone dies you don’t have to see them every day. Twilight had to physically hold herself back from running up to the brainwashed Applejack and talking to her, constantly reminding herself that it wasn’t actually Applejack she was talking to.
Now that Twilight thought more about it, about the time that everyone started getting killed off was in correlation with when they decided to get serious about figuring out some way to rebel against The Committee. Was it just a coincidence, or was some higher up watching over the group and trying to halt their progress?
And on that same line of thinking, Twilight realized that since the New Era began, none of them really decided to take on rebelling against The Committee. Everyone saw it as too daunting a task, and either wrote it off as too difficult, that they couldn’t do it with their current resources, or that they would just stumble upon something someday that would give them all of the answers. So, in a way, none of them were really doing anything to help their cause. Everyone was all talk and no action, planning everything without actually doing it. It hurt a little to come to that conclusion, but it was the truth, no matter how much she felt she was insulting herself and her friends.
“That’s it,” she thought aloud, “from this day onward, we’re going to push forward through this mess and figure out the way. No more sitting around and doing nothing, it’s time to take action!” She jumped out of her bed with renewed spirit, then turned as her alarm clock went off. Now would have been the time that she would get up and write her diary entry, but her mind was already swimming with too many thoughts to sit down and focus on writing. She planned her course of action for a few minutes longer, until she was halted by her television.
“Good morning, everybody!” Emerald Joy chimed with a sickeningly sweet voice, matched with a smile. “I hope you all slept wonderfully, but now it’s time to come meet with your friends for the speech of the day!” With a flourish of her gown, the screen darkened and Twilight was met again with silence. She cleaned up her living space, tidied up a bit, then walked out the door, her hopes high and her confidence up to eleven. She was ready to end this nonsense, through any means possible.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hey, Rarity?” Twilight said, catching up to her friend as the crowd began to disperse. “Do you have a minute?”
“I don’t see why not,” Rarity replied, brushing some hair away from her face, using her magic to fix any potential tangles. “What is it, darling?”
“Well, actually, I think we should have this conversation in private…” Twilight whispered, gesturing her eyes towards one of the security androids buzzing around. Rarity nodded in understanding, then wordlessly led Twilight back to her home.
Upon arrival, Twilight was a little stunned at how beautifully the house was decorated. There was soft velvet furniture and intricate designs on the wallpaper, to name the first things that caught her eye. Rarity drew up a couple chairs and offered Twilight one of the seats.
"So what is it that we need to talk about?” Rarity asked, sipping at some herbal tea she had brewed. She offered Twilight some, but Twilight declined.
“Well, I was thinking this morning about how we weren’t exactly doing much regarding rebelling, and I figured now was a good day as ever to get our act together and actually get some work done,” Twilight explained. Rarity lowered the cup from her mouth.
"Why do you bring this up with me? Aquamarine or even Rainbow Dash would seem a lot better fit for you to talk to about such matters,” Rarity responded skeptically.
“Actually,” Twilight continued, “you are the best option for me to talk to right now. You work for The Committee after all, so you’re already inside the system. There’s no need for you to break in to get anything, within reason of course.” Rarity raised an eyebrow.
“What exactly are you getting at?”
“What I’m saying is that I want you to try and wiggle some sort of information out of Emerald. You said it quite a while ago, didn’t you? She’s quite an open book.” Rarity shifted uncomfortably and set her cup onto the table.
“Yes, I did say that, but she is only an open book when it comes to pretty unimportant matters. You saw how messed up she was when she talked to me at Apple Bloom’s execution, didn’t you? That’s the way she acts all the time, speaking with flawed and stretched logic. There’s no way that I can get anything coherent out of her, much less anything helpful,” she denied. Twilight sighed and layed back in her chair a bit.
“When I said that we needed to get serious about finding a way to rebel, I didn’t say it was going to be easy,” Twilight pointed out. “And the way you’re thinking right now is the very flawed mindset we’ve had this whole ordeal. We right things off as too difficult or not possible for the time being and then never attempt it. That is why we need to actually get our heads in the game and do the work that it takes to get things done!”
“I suppose you’re quite right…” Rarity mumbled, a bit hurt. There was a moment of silence. “That last sentence you said, about getting things done…”
“Yes?” Twilight inquired.
“I—it’s the kind of thing that Applejack would have said in this sort of situation…” Rarity stammered, trying to keep her cool. She dabbed at her eyes, trying not to smear her makeup. Twilight flinched.
“Yes, I—I suppose you’re right…” she agreed awkwardly. Applejack was a bit of a touchy subject at the moment for obvious reasons. There was a longer stretch of silence as the two struggled to find a way to move things along.
“Well, if that’s all that there is to say,” Rarity said, breaking the silence, “I think that we should go our separate ways. I’m sure you have a lot of work that has to be done regarding investigation, and I don’t want to hold you.” The mares shook hooves, and Twilight exited Rarity’s home without another word.
Once the door closed behind her, Twilight realized that she had no course of action for the rest of the day. She stood in front of Rarity’s front door for a stretch of time before she decided that the best thing to do would be to head back to her house and read over the book she had found the day before about The Elements of Harmony. It was the only book in a language that she could read that she had seen in a long time, and she wanted to savor every moment of reading it that she could.
Twilight took a left and headed home, an unnaturally large smile plastered upon her face to pass by the androids undetected. She casually entered her house, and the very second that she was positive she was alone she dropped the ridiculous act.
After sitting down in a chair and getting situated, Twilight flipped to the first page in the book again to see the table of contents. She had rushed through it when she first discovered the book because she was being quick to summarize what the actual content was about, but now she could actually take some time and take a look at the book’s finer details.
She surveyed the table of contents, and one particular section caught her eye. It spoke about what seemed to be the origins of The Elements of Harmony. She turned to the indicated page number to get some more insight.
Long, long ago, there lived two regal sisters who ruled together, and created harmony throughout all the land, it began. Twilight was already skeptical. What was this, a children’s book? Nonetheless, she continued reading.
To do this, the eldest sister used her magic to raise the sun at dawn. The younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained a balance in their kingdom and among their subjects.
However, one day the younger sister grew resentful, as everyone frolicked and played in her sister’s day, but were afraid of and shunned her beautiful night. On one fateful day, she refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one’s heart made it impossible for her to see reason. She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal darkness.
Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponykind: The Elements of Harmony. Using their power, she defeated her younger sister and banished her permanently in the moon.
The elder sister took on responsibility of both sun and moon, and harmony has been maintained for generations since.
Twilight blinked. Was that really it? Was that the story between the two goddesses who used to rule over the land before Emerald Joy took over? Granted it wasn’t very useful information at the moment, so she really shouldn’t have been as awestruck as she was. The book must’ve been very old, since from a quick skimming she found that it had no information about the younger sister, who’s name was Luna, returning after her banishment in the moon.
She turned to the next chapter, which apparently dealt with The Element of Magic. Why did that particular element need its own chapter? Well, she knew that it was important, but was it really so great that it warranted a whole chapter to itself?
The sixth, The Element of Magic, is the most elusive of them all. It is only revealed when the other five are present, and only then can they all band together to unleash their power. And even if the five others are present, only with a spark will The Element of Magic reveal itself.
Twilight scratched her head. She was going to question how The Element of Magic would apparently go away, but she knew better than to question the basic nature of how magic worked. She sighed and flipped a few pages forward.
The Elements of Harmony can only be used to their full power when they have six bearers to channel their magic through. However, the means in which to harness their power is unknown, as the only times they have been used was when Celestia and Luna activated their power. They could use three elements each as they had the power of a unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony, but in any other instance six bearers would need to be present.
Twilight scoffed. Even if she were to figure out how to get to The Element of Harmony and somehow got enough people to use them, she would still have absolutely no idea how to go about actually tapping into their magic reserves and using them. She sighed again, snapped the book shut, and set it back on her night stand.
She went about a few more menial tasks to occupy her time, sometimes stopping to look through the book again to see if there was anything she had missed (which ended up being a fruitless effort), and eventually the hours whittled away and the day came to a close. Twilight slipped under her covers, flicked the light off, and fell asleep in a matter of minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Good morning, everybody!” Twilight turned in her bed as she heard the announcement. Had she really slept through her alarm? “I hope you all slept wonderfully, but now it’s time to come meet with your friends for the speech of the day!” Twilight sat up in a huff, begrudgingly moving herself out of bed. She wanted to fall back asleep. Couldn’t she sleep a few more minutes? Of course, with her luck, she would probably sleep through the late alarm, too.
She sleepily got ready for the day, knowing full well that she was probably going to be late. It didn’t matter, though. She had heard that speech so many times she could recite it perfectly in her sleep. Man she wanted to go back to sleep.
She opened the door, and noticed through the smiles of all the others that she wasn’t the only one that would much rather be in bed instead of trudging down the pavement towards the town square. Maybe it was just one of those gloomy days? But Emerald controlled everything in the town, so why would she let this kind of thing happen?
Twilight reached the center of town, and even though it was quite a few minutes after the speech should have started, Emerald Joy was just sitting in a chair and smiling patiently for everyone to gather. Twilight perked up a little at the abnormality of the situation, but she was still quite drowsy. After another minute, Emerald raised the microphone to her lips and began speaking.
“Hello, everyone!” she cheered. The crowd wasn’t nearly as energetic as usual, but she seemed ignorant towards their lack of motivation. “We’re all feeling a bit sleepy today, huh? I bet you’re wondering why, huh? Well let me explain it, all of it, to all of you!” Twilight perked up again. So there was a reason to everyone being so tired all of the sudden? And Emerald was the one behind it? She tensed. This couldn’t be good.
“You all have been forgetting stuff lately, aren’t you all? Your memories are getting foggy and your passions hazy?” She paused and pouted sympathetically, then brightened. “That’s no good, now is it? How can you be happy when you can’t remember stuff? Sometimes I get all the way to work and then I remember that I forgot to get dressed! It’s such a simple oversight, but it really puts a damper on my day!”
Is she for real? That’s a lot more than a simple oversight! Twilight thought.
“Anyway, I had this really big idea that I wanted to tell all of you! Unfortunately, the first stages of this idea makes people really sleepy! At least I know it’s working, right?” Emerald explained, though it still wasn’t very much of an explanation.
“What’s that? You want to know what my idea is? I’m so ecstatic that you asked! It fills me with happiness that you asked! You see, all of your memories, I’m going to return them to you!”
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Huh.
You'd think Emerald Joy would WANT them to forget everything. Maybe in some sick way, she really does want everyone to be happy.
Really loving this story so far, by the way!
3580313
Exactly, tis the mystery behind it all
3580326
The suspense is killing me... 
But I wanna know all the answers NOW!
3580338
Ehehe, suspense makes me happy
Means I must be doing a pretty good job
3580347 You're doing a whoreable job and nobody loves you.
jk this is pretty good lol
...licks thumb and looks through notes on the discord attack...................
from what the show displayed with Perception Alteration magic......... returning the memories would break the spell. twilight broke Discord's magic, the magic of a chaos beast of all thigns, but telepathically communicating her memories and emotions into her friends. used the question why this would work until magicalm ystery cure, where the concept of the equstrian soul was brought up.
True Self is seemingly unalterable, even discord has no sway over it. it seems like it is the core of theri being, a protection against magics such as the happy spell and discord's twisted hypnosis. the only case of true self being altered was because of magic design to work with the Elements of Harmony, and it only affected those who were hooked up to the elements to begin with. which is revealed to be a power beyond the regals sisters or discord.
even if this does nto break the spell completely for all the ponies ,it would weaken it without doubt............ worse yet Emerald is handing Twilight back the ability to remember how to reverse this magic, and giving the eperiences of arguably the msot powerful unicorn in equstria back to her................ and the xperiences of her friends of being able to fight off hordes of predatorial bug ponies, diamond dogs, and falle gods.
............ kay i am hoping the princesses aren't dead because that would form a rather big plot hole for emerald even sparing any of the mane six. only way that could work is with the........... strange, strange perception of some reason no one knowing the mane six are the elements of harmony..........
.......usin computers terms the True Self is the master copy of a pony. if anything ahppens to perception and memories, the true self keeps them from beign lost.
3583207
Hm, I thought you didn't like the story? Still you keep reading?
I find that a bit flattering, really...
Maybe one day I can sway you enough to get you to repeal that downvote, once the story progresses more and plotholes are filled (because trust me, they are, and it's not just because you brought them up now)
3583815 observing mostly. it does have an interesting concept but some odd choices and characterization. though largely i cannot understand what she is doing. either she truly has gone batshit at some point, which weakens believablity that she overthrew the pricnesses, or she was unaware that the mane six existed. cause if she is murdering fillies she would kill the mane six without question...................
i can guess this is her trying to weed out anyone who is aware, but this has even GREATER risks. not to mention that the memories of how much applejack and fluttershy meant to them would probably motivate the mane six remaining in so many ways, ranging from hatred to remembering that they ahve overcome far more deadly things than emerald........................
was she even aware that the mane six existed? not only does it make no sense to let them live at all, considering they can use the elements and even showed that, as individuals, they are dangerous. and she killed a filly, someone who was no actual threat to begin with. and reminding the individauls hwo managed to cobmat an entire horde of changelings without any professional martial training is likely a BAAAAD idea.
3584061
Actually, as it was mentioned in the Prologue (not that anyone probably remembers) Emerald has a tight hold on the Elements, so there's no way they'll be any help to the Mane 6
And don't you pull an Equestria Girls on me and say that they don't need the actual Elements, they just need friendships and rainbows
3584144 i am not even talking about the elements here...... and that was because of the element of magic entering a different world, different ruls and such. had to act indepdendently to its bretheren.
thoguh of course friendship IS an actual force in equistria, the elements are but one method fo channeling it.
considering on their way to get the elements during the changeling invasion, though it failed, they managed to fight through a horde of fangs, flying, magic shootin shpe changers. all without previous martial training. basically somethign with the three basic attributes of pony species with fangs, and they kicked their assess along the way.
even without the elements the mane six are a threat to be considered. untrained prowess and cunning........ twilight is the biggest threat for sheer potential of just going right up to emerald and ending her life. twilight is normal a benign presence, but if she remembers just how much she lost, how much did fluttershy and applejack MEAN to her, her experiences with them, and them now being gone.............. once upon a time she had an emotional breakdown, and hatched a baby dragon and made him grow. that was when she was a filly. what would happen if she had another, darker break down as an adult now?
is emerald strong enough to fight someone becoming the embodiment of grief and malice?
3587227
Gosh darnit
That should be Fluttershy
Gaaaaah!
Now I have to wait!
Please update quickly! (And also update The Generation Time Forgot. 
)
3587694
Wow I haven't updated Generation since February I'm so pro at time management
3588249 Lol I haven't even read that one yet. Also dis storeh. 's good. Screw dose 9 guise
.....random thought....... could Emerald defend against a changeling invasion?
from the sounds of it half her population could be taken without knowing, considering that imitating endorphin high mentally surpressed beings would be easy for a changeling, not to mention that when you lack suffering you lack survival impulses that could prevent a pony from just being snatched. they could be snatched and replaced without effort.
worse yet is if a changeling queen was behind it all. invididually changelings do not seem that powerful. true that they technically have a triple advantage when exposed of fangs, magic blasts, and flight, but they seems somewhat weaker than ponies. yet a changeling queen is definitely up there in the level of dangerous creatures in equistria. while not more powerful than alicorns, short of the luck of finding one very love struck and powerful unicorn to feed on, they would probably be a few bars above a unicorn. one problem that emerald created when she took over is that, whatever method she somehow used to remove the princesses, left equistria with the help of powerful beings of any kind nor equistria super weapon, which would never work for her anyway.
perhaps not a factor of your story but I still find it that what emerald did was make equistria incredibly vulnerable and not just to changeling infiltration. I doubt her tech could really create anything that would singificanltly deter what lurks in the dark corners of equistria. hell the changeling invasion itself was doomed from the start in the show. cause shortly thereafter, Sombra would have awakened. without the magic of cadence to use, chrysalis would have been incapable of keeping him from the crystal heart or from taking over the crystal ponies. then there would be war between the changelings and the tyrant king. one that I do not think the changelings could hold out against.
difference here being that the changeligns have their queen to help deter the super powerful sauron unicorn to make it a war rather than a one sided massacre for Sombra. with emerald she lacks any being of significant power or strength to call ally. if anything of chrysalis's level of power came alaong, or at least her normal level of power, she would be hard pressed if not helpless to keep it from simply killing her and taking over.
Oh shizzle
There's gotta be a twist to this
The suspense is killing me
Which memories....