Chapter 8: Two's A Crowd
The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee
Chapter 8: Two’s A Crowd
“Twilight!” Pinkie shouted, pounding on her friend’s door as if her life depended on it. “Twilight! You need to open up! I’m serious!”
“I’m coming Pinkie, calm down!” she cried from inside her house. She half-heartedly opened the door. “What is it?”
“It’s Applejack! I went to her house after the speech yesterday to see if she was alright, and she was passed out on her floor! Then, when I turned to leave and she woke up, she was… different.” Pinkie’s face hardened.
“W—what do you mean?” Twilight stammered, furrowing her brow.
“I mean, she was smiling like crazy, and she just kept talking about happiness! Twilight, I think…” Pinkie choked on her last word, unable to bring herself to say it.
“I get it,” Twilight assured, her face frozen in shock. “Get the others, I think this calls for an emergency meeting.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“It’s about Applejack, isn’t it?” Rainbow inferred. “Even besides the obvious fact that she isn’t here right now, I could just tell that something was off with that whole voodoo black magic thing.”
“Erm, I’m afraid you’re right about it being about Applejack, Rainbow,” Twilight confirmed. She raised her voice to be heard by the whole group. “Everyone! I want to make one thing clear: Applejack is not dead. Well, in a way she is, but she’s still technically alive…”
“What does that even mean?” Rainbow retorted.
“I mean, she’s physically still moving, but she’s not all mentally here,” Twilight explained.
“Ugh, now I think we’re even more confused…” Aquamarine sighed.
“What she’s trying to say,” Pinkie cut in, “is that Applejack, after seeing Apple Bloom get executed in front of everybody in the whole entire city, is now cursed with the happiness spell!” She was met with silence from everyone.
“Erm… come again, please?” Rarity asked.
“Sure! But I’m not sure why you’d want to hear it twice,” Pinkie replied. “Applejack is happy-fied. She’s no longer part of the Rebellion Bureau. She’s one of them now.”
“What in the world could have caused something like that to happen?” Rarity inquired, standing up from her chair in a mixture of shock and confusion.
“Personally, I think it had something to do with her following The Path to Eternal Happiness, and I’m still not even completely sure what that is,” Twilight said. “I mean, we all know that there is a voodoo practitioner there who granted her wish, and that those who do black magic have a way with finding and taking advantages of loopholes. The question is, what kind of loophole could it have been?”
“But there’s a flaw in that string of logic, Twilight,” Aquamarine interjected. “She said herself that she never explicitly said out loud what her wish was, so there’s no way that her wish could have been misinterpreted.”
“Ah, but that’s another perk of doing black magic, you have the power to invade someone’s mind. You can plant thoughts in there, both subtly through dreams and outright while they’re awake. There aren’t really any boundaries when it comes to that kind of thing, which is why it’s called black magic in the first place.”
“Just for the sake of comprehension, are you suggesting that she just hacked into Applejack’s mind and saw what it was that she was wishing for?” Rarity asked. “That’s awfully uncouth of someone. Then again, dabbling in the black arts is uncouth in and of itself, so it’s no surprise that such a devilish pony would do something like that.” The others waved off her complaining through a short silence.
“I think it’s safe to say that we know how she got there, too. The same way as last time, right? She just said some stuff and poof! There she was!” Pinkie continued.
“But that’s the problem,” Twilight said. “Why would she go back? She had nothing left to wish for, so what was the point?”
“Didn’t you say that that witch chick could mess with ponies’ minds and stuff?” Rainbow spoke up. “Couldn’t she have, like, forced Applejack to say that stuff so that she would be brought to the weird voodoo place?”
“It’s not out of the realm of possibility…” Twilight pondered. She was silent for a few moments. “Yes, I think that’s the most probable explanation.”
“But back to what we were talking about earlier,” Aquamarine cut in. “What caused her to get brainwashed? I mean, I know that it was something to do with that voodoo black magic business, but what about it specifically? That is the most important question right now, after all…”
“Actually, the most important question right now is how we’re going to function as a group without our strongest member,” Twilight corrected.
“Hey, you got me on your side. I think we’ll be just fine,” Rainbow replied. Twilight rolled her eyes.
“But you’re right Aquamarine, we really should be wondering what prompted her brainwashing,” she agreed. She brushed a few strands of her purple hair out of her face, then surveyed the room with her violet colored eyes. “Any ideas? Anyone?” The room took on a thoughtful silence.
“Do you think,” Pinkie piped up, “that maybe she said what it was at some point? Did she ever tell us what the wish was?”
“Wasn’t it something along the lines of ‘I hope that Apple Bloom, for as long as she lives, never loses a loved one to that curse’? It’s probably not word for word, but that was the general idea,” Rarity said. Twilight gasped.
“There’s the loophole right there,” she pointed out. “She said that for as long as Apple Bloom lives may she never lose another loved one to the curse. But Apple Bloom died, so she lost her loved ones to the curse, and her only loved one that still hadn’t succumbed to the happiness spell just so happened to be Applejack.”
“I don’t know, I might have remembered wrong. She might have said something different,” Rarity suggested, but Twilight shook her head.
“That is the only possible reason. It just makes too much sense to be a false alarm,” Twilight reasoned. Aquamarine nodded in agreement.
“Whoever fulfilled her wish probably could have just sent her under the happiness spell at any time, but it was much more theatric to force her back and make her perform another ritual. It would be the kind of thing that would really make it seem like it was her fault that she was put under the spell,” Aquamarine added. “If you’re going to ruin someone’s life like that, you might as well make it fun for yourself.”
“Well, that certainly clears up the mystery about how and why she was brainwashed,” Rainbow said, “but what do we do now? We’ve lost two ponies in such a short time span, and that’s two too many!”
“That is a bit of a problem…” Aquamarine admitted.
“A bit of a problem? That’s a super duper humongous problem!” Pinkie retorted. “Now if we need someone super strong to move something for us, we’re fresh out of luck! And she was such a good friend and emotional support for all of us, so now we might break apart or something! I don’t wanna break apart!” Pinkie pouted.
“Calm down, we’re going to be fine,” Twilight insisted. “Magic will probably be able to mostly make up for our loss of her strength, but as for the psychological repercussions…” She paused. “Well, we were going to have to learn to fend for ourselves at some point, and now more than ever.”
“I’m scared you guys…” Pinkie whispered, shuddering. “I’m really, really scared…” Rarity patted the pink haired earth pony on the back comfortingly.
“We’ll be fine, Pinkie,” she ensured soothingly. “We just have to be even more careful how we handle ourselves.” Pinkie sniffled a little.
“Alright…” she replied. “I just want all of this over, though! When will we get to be free again?”
“Which very conveniently brings me to my next point,” Twilight continued. “We’ve kind of been slacking in the investigative department lately, and if we don’t figure a way out of this mess soon, the more likely we’re going to lose more of our friends. I’m not saying that someone else is definitely going to die, but we have to keep in mind that there’s always a chance of it happening.”
“So what are you saying?” Rainbow asked. “Are we supposed to go investigate right now, or are you just talking about in general?”
“Well, I was kind of hoping that some of you might want to join Aquamarine and me and go figure out what this key that we found is for.” Twilight retrieved the little silver key that she had brought with her.
“Ooh! Ooh! I’ll go with you!” Pinkie said, her eyes wide. She jabbed her arm high in the air and waved her hoof around excitedly. “Pick me! Pick me!”
“A—alright,” Twilight agreed, stammering through her laughter. “Calm down a little! You’re going to need to save your energy, you know!” Pinkie immediately froze, hardly even breathing.
“Sure thing, Twilight,” she replied. Twilight laughed a little again, then grabbed the only remaining earth pony’s hoof.
“Come on, Pinkie. You too, Aquamarine,” she urged. “Alright then, this meeting of the Rebellion Bureau is hereby dismissed.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“So where do you suppose we look first?” Pinkie asked, kicking a few stray rocks on the pavement. “How about that library place?”
“As I said before, I already checked every square inch of that room. There’s no way that there can be something more,” Aquamarine replied. Twilight raised her eyebrow.
“Oh? Well there’s no harm in being sure, right?” she countered. Aquamarine blew some hairs out of her face indifferently.
“Well, if you feel like wasting some more time, then I’m all for it,” she answered sarcastically.
“Great, then let’s go!” Pinkie cheered, skipping in the direction of their destination with Twilight running to catch up. Aquamarine rolled her eyes and trudged along after them.
The group made their way through the hole and climbed down into the sewer. Pinkie stopped to take in the sights, as it was her first time being down there.
“...Did you investigate this tunnel?” she asked suddenly, catching the two unicorns off guard.
“I suppose not, but it’s just a tunnel, isn’t it?” Aquamarine answered.
“What happened to getting serious about investigating?” Pinkie replied, peering closely at the stone walls, jiggling all of the rocks to see if they had any alternative purpose. “Besides, we don’t really have a deadline to figure this stuff out, right? It doesn’t matter if this ends up being a huge waste of time!” Aquamarine couldn’t think of a good response, so she just scoffed and turned to the wall to do the same, with Twilight following suit.
“Maybe a bit of light might help out,” Twilight offered, answering the question that was burning in the others’ heads. She swirled her horn around a bit, little wisps of magic flowing out to form a floating blue orb of light in the air. The light danced off of the stone walls, casting shadows every which way.
The group was taken aback with a gasp when patterns began to emerge in the shadows. The way that the rocks were cut made it so that when the light hit them the image of six circles connecting together formed in the shadows. Twilight reached out and rested a hoof on one of the orbs, and the stones located there were pushed into the wall. She jerked her hoof back. Cautiously, she did the same for the other five. When they were all concave, the point where they all connected began to glow a brilliant shade of violet. She reached out a cautious hoof, and the moment the two made contact, the whole wall seemed to twist, and out popped a little drawer.
Twilight inspected the compartment, but found that it had to be unlocked with a key before she could retrieve the contents. She fetched the little silver key she had found earlier and stuck it in the lock, then twisted. It made a small clicking noise, then opened.
She peered into it and inside rested a leatherbound book. She gingerly picked it up and dusted off the cover. There were no words on it, just a picture of six jewels inlaid with gold. Slowly opening the book, taking special care to not rip the aged pages, she flipped to the first page. It spoke of the Elements of Harmony, the source of all of the world’s magic.
“But the actual stones are currently embedded in Emerald Joy’s throne room. Of what help could this information be to us?” Aquamarine inquired. Twilight flipped through a few more pages.
“Don’t be so quick to write it off,” she responded. “You never know what unlikely places we might get help from.”
“So what does it say?” Pinkie asked, peering over Twilight’s shoulder.
“Well, basically…” Twilight answered, leafing through the ancient tome a bit more. “The Elements of Harmony all represent the six basic foundations for the strongest form of magic, which is harmony, if you hadn’t guessed. One is for honesty, one for laughter, and one for loyalty. There’s also one for generosity, kindness, and the strongest one, magic. Of course, the last one mostly just serves as a focusing point for all of the other stones, but when the rest are present, the Element of Magic is quite a force to be reckoned with.”
“How do they work, though?” Aquamarine asked, also now intrigued.
“Actually, maybe it won’t be of much help…” Twilight sighed, reading further. “It says here that it needs six bearers that represent the themes of each of the Elements to be able to work. And since there’s only the five of us…” They heaved a collective sigh, then Twilight shut the book.
“It was worth a shot,” Pinkie offered. “Who knows? Maybe it will help eventually.”
“Doubt it,” Aquamarine said. “You heard her, there needs to be six bearers. But on the bright side, that also means that Emerald can’t use them either, since any Committee members she may have previously had overstepped their boundaries at some point and were executed.”
“Should we head back then?” Twilight asked, tucking the old volume into her saddlebag. Aquamarine nodded, and after extinguishing the orb of light, they exited the underground sewer and returned to their respective homes.
Twilight entered her bedroom, setting the dusty leatherbound book on her nightstand. Perhaps she would have more time later to read it, but time had slipped away so quickly that it was already time for bed. She changed into her nightgown and brushed her purple hair out, going through the daily routine of getting ready for bed.
She slipped under her covers and switched her lamp off, taking a moment to rest her hoof on their new discovery. It really was remarkable that they had found it.
She was too weary to notice her horn glow violet as she brushed her hoof by the ancient tome, rolling over to fall asleep.
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3565158
Ehh, I hope that that doesn't mean you don't like it, Sakura-chan
3565200
No way! I am LOVING the story so far! 
W-what?
Just felt a little bad for the Apples, is all...
3565644
Ehehe, thanks
I got a bit worried after the comment before yours is all
...sighs, just gonna say this. you do not need character to die to make a tale dark. if anything forced drama and deaths ruin a story............. fltutershy being dead is meaningless otehr than emptying a seat and applebloom did not have the die for applejack to get brainwashed. a breakdown in their relationship would have done that by how the loophole worked. not to mention since obviously their love was so weak that applejack would do nothing, that is a likelyhood............ and she had to act like an idiot to end up in that situation. there is no excuse for her suddenly beign stupid enough to yell at a homicidal dictator......... shakes head........
is this even a story wehre anything happened before it was taken over? cause with applejack lacking the heart to risk her life, fltutershy killing herself, and no one shaking an eyelash at applebloom dying or even trying to do anything to prevent it, and applebloom being a total idiot, this does not seem to take place in the same world they defeated fallen gods, chaos demons, vampires, and dark kings.
3566520
There's more explanation towards what happens leading up to The Committee taking over in a few future chapters, and I don't feel like repeating the reasoning with Applejack (which I'm not sure why you aren't understanding), and I don't feel like you're grasping what it would be like to be in that kind of situation. Considering Fluttershy cries over the littlest things, feeling responsible for the death of a loved one would completely destroy her, so I didn't think that was forced at all...
And I'm not making characters die for the sake of a dark story, I'm making them die to loosen (and then down the road strengthen) the ties of friendship the ponies hold.
And the grammar in your comments is a little irritating, but I won't gripe about that too much...
And could you please stop deleting your comments? It's really aggravating...
3566558 again characterization. you are only taking face value, and anyone who seen more of fluttershy knows that she is far more than that. she is the pony that faced down a dragon and won, who more than once has shown that she has an iron will hidden beneath her delicate nature. she is the one that has the potential to tame a draconequs. does that sound like someone weak enough to kill them-self?
and yes i know she would have likely died should she have done anything. could have left with emerald suspicious of the potential of others like applejack. just that it would not matter to applejack i would think. everything she loved was in applebloom. everything else did not matter.
not saying you do it on purpose, but there are far more itneresting things you could ahve done to remove fluttershy than simply suiciding her away. it is too simple, too direct. it gives them no fear. but if she vanished suddenly, with little ot no evidence of what happened, that has far more potential; paranoia that htey were discovered, fear of her ultimate fate. basically killing her you robbed yourself of a potential and strong narrative tool.
......either way, its your work. go for it. just not my cup of tea and i find a lot fo flaws with the narrative and charaterization, especially the parts that get them killed. not bad just......... hard to swallow. not to mention i can;t help but think that without the regal sisters, this whole new equstria would have long since been conquered. jsut far too many scenarios, and far too little super strong allies on Emerald's side.
3566815
I could make a point that the only times Fluttershy has been brave/assertive/whatever is when she's facing against animals, which she is extremely talented at doing, but I'm pretty sure that me defending my story is getting a bit old
(And I really wish I could make points about the story that happen later that go along with what you say wish would happen, but it would kinda spoil things for the people who are just going through the comments.)
3568170 simply stating things that could ahve made the stroy better. just...... general things. killing characters should have more personal impact on characters. it did not with the mane six or even applejack when ity came to applebloom and lfuttershy. applejack left, out of character even if for the factor of not being there till her sister's lsot moments. she just left........... that ain't applejack. not by a long shot.
even applebloom dying makes no sense. the happiness spell, which ironically prevents enough emotoinal depth for happiness, is meant to control ponies by superimposing a personality on them applebloom being able to openly insult emerald should have terrified the tyrant in a different way. someone was immune to the magic, and she could not get any evidence on how, why, or if it was spreading by killing applebloom. perhaps a typical mistake for a tyrant, but she is also supposed to be a scientist, and would know this had to be investigated to make sure it is not common.
just makes no sense and makes the death seem more forced. there were other, more creative, ways of using that loophole that just killing appebloom. and her manner of death seems to contradict Emerald as a threat if she is unable to see applebloom's significance as being immune to her magic.
3568431
I'm itching to spill stuff from later in the story that makes everything make sense, and I know that's a horrible excuse, but everything really is explained later
I'm sorry I can't say anything any more satisfying than that
Another great chapter, I look forward to the next one.
3569360 sighs. just does not make sense. like kicking a patient out just because they grew immunity to medication. you just try to figure out why and set up a new medicine to take.
only other thing I can think of is her trying to draw out anyone who is also immune and likely to be free. however that makes no sense as she would have no real evidence that any of the immune would risk themselves. and considering her psychology, she would not expect ponies to be selfless enough to do that............
not to mention the risk of actually getting a reaction from the immune, and they being close enough or organized enough to harm her.... there was, if she had chosen to act or had a plan for this.
shrugs. we may see if there is good reason here....... harder to imagine emerald is able to keep a lid on things and the gryphons or others have not heard that the ponies are all veggified. let alone that without the intimidating presence of the regal ones and the elements, it seems the creeping dark of equstria would realize that all standing between them and domination is a singular unicorn...... unless she is somehow as powerful as Sombra or something, she would not last against a direct attack.
3556438 MY PARENTAL CONTROL PASSWORD IS A MYSTERY