As Pinkie and Spinel walked through Ponyville, not paying any mind to the odd looks they where getting, they soon arrived at the School of Friendship. As they entered the doors Pinkie suddenly felt her breakfast catch up to as she walked up to one of the public restrooms and said, "OK Spinel, I just gotta use the potty real quick and then we can get the games."
Spinel then turned to her confused as she said, "What's potty?"
Pinkie then blushed slightly as she said, "Um well... it's something ponies need to do after they eat."
Spinel went starry eyed as she said, "OH! IS IT AS FUN AS EATING!? CAN YOU SHOW ME HOW TO DO IT SO I CAN TRY IT!?"
Pinkie's blush only increased as she said, "Um I'm sorry Spinel, I'm happy to show some of the other fun things ponies do but this one is kind of a solo activity."
"Oh... I see," said Spinel as while her Gem told her it was perfectly normal and fine for her friend to apart from her from time to time, that odd feeling crept back up again at the prospect.
Pinkie mistook this for disappointment at being denied knowledge as she sighed, and smiled saying, "Sorry... I'll tell you about it some time if you want, though Twilight might be better to ask since can give you books and stuff talking about metabolism and stuff, in the mean time just wait here and I'll be back in a minute." She then gestured her hoof to a bench next to the bathroom door as Spinel nodded and sat down before Pinkie walked through the door.
Spinel sat down and attempted to wait patiently for Pinkie... for about three seconds before her strange thoughts and emotions stirred up again. She closed and began mumbling, "Pinkie will be right back, Pinkie will be right back," over and over again as emotions stirred in her and images she also didn't understand started to creep into her mind. The tall pink lady from her dream and... a boy with curly hair?
"Hey, are you OK?"
Before she could dwell on these images an emotions further a voice snapped her back to reality as she looked up to see a mare standing before her looking concerned.
"Oh, um... just waiting for Pinkie," said Spinel still not fully herself.
"That's cool, you mind with I wait with you," said the mare as she gestured to the empty seat next to Spinel.
She shrugged saying, "I guess so."
The mare smiled as she sat next to her saying, "My name's Starlight Glimmer," as she reached out her hoof.
Spinel took it with a smile as being talking to people seemed to help take her mind off whatever odd things she kept feeling. "My name's Spinel."
"I figured, Twilight told me all about your grand entrance to Pinkie's party last night," said Starlight.
Spinel smiled even further as she said, "Yup, I was so happy to meet Pinkie and that party was a blast!"
Starlight giggled as she said, "I bet it was. Soooo, I noticed you had abit of funny look on your face while you where waiting there."
Spinel grew tense as she said, "Um... was I?"
"It's OK if you did their's absolutely nothing wrong with it... I was just wondering if that happens every time Pinkie leaves," said Starlight placing her hoof on the Gems lap, as she had from several concealing sessions how to talk to a young filly or colt with problems, and despite her large size the girl before her seemed to be very much a child.
The technique seemed to work as while Spinel looked reluctant she did say, "Well.... yeah. I don't know why but I feel weird whenever Pinkie leaves like.... I don't know, I'm not supposed to have feelings like this I'm supposed to help others who have these feelings."
"I see," said Starlight as she thought about what was said. "Say Spinel, how would you like to play a game with me."
Spinel became excited as she clapped and said, "OH YES PLEASE! What's it called?"
"Uhhh, Therapy Session," said Starlight as she smiled awkwardly and mentally kicked herself for not thinking on her hooves better.
Thankfully Spinel didn't know what those words where as she simply said, "Sounds like fun, I'll tell Pinkie."
"NO.... I mean, it's only a two player game and since I need to teach you how to play to play it, what do you say we leave Pinkie out of it this time," said Starlight.
"Oh," said Spinel as she thought this over, unsure of what to say as while learning new games from other creatures to play with her best friend was, again, something her Gem said was OK it still didn't feel right for some reason.
"I'm sure Pinkie would be happy for you to learn more games," said Starlight with a smile as she thought, "I do feel a little bad about this, but this isn't the first time I've had to trick someone into my office to talk about their issues. Sometimes a creature just needs a push."
"Well OK then," said Spinel as she got up and did her best to restore her smile.
"Great," said Starlight as she gave her a gentle smile back and said, "My office is the last door on the left their, just head in and I'll tell Pinkie what happened, OK."
Spinel nodded as she shakily walked away and entered the office. It was at that moment Pinkie came out of the bathroom and looked around as she said, "Oh hey Starlight, have you seen Spinel?"
"Yeah... about that. Pinkie have you noticed any odd behavior from her when you leave her alone, or try to?" asked Starlight.
"Hmmm," said Pinkie as she began thinking back to the short time she had known her. "Weeellll, she did seem to get a little angry when I tried to leave her at Sugarcube Corner and... I didn't say anything at the time but while I was making pancakes I saw her looking kinda panicky before she came in the kitchen. But I just chalked both up to her maybe being weird when she first wakes up."
"I thought so, well unfortunately it might be more then that as I saw her panic while you where in the bathroom and it looked more like separation anxiety, and trust me I know what that looks like," said Starlight as she briefly thought back to how she was after Sunburst first left.
"Oh no," said Pinkie as she became concerned for her new friend. "Is their anything I can do to help?"
"Well that all depends on how bad it is, for now you can have a seat outside my office while I talk to her," said Starlight.
"Well OK," said Pinkie as she shakily followed Starlight.
Starlight noticed this as she looked back with a slight smile saying, "Don't worry, Pinkie no matter how bad this we can help her get through it." She then turned forward as said, "Besides, how bad could it be?"
Meanwhile in a nearby classroom
"Since when is Headmare Twilight late?" asked Silverstream in concern.
"Seriously, doesn't she have a super tight schedule and freaks out if she's so much as a second off?" said Gallus flatly as he leaned back in his chair.
"Actually, she hasn't freaked about schedules since she went back in time to tell her younger self not to worry so much.... which ironically only made her worry more," said Occelus as she flipped through her notes to try and find this page.
Before Gallus could point out he was being sarcastic the swung open as Twilight entered saying, "Sorry I'm late class," before she then let out a yawn. "I was up late last night looking up information about a new resident of Ponyville whom you'll all probably meet soon." She then reached into her bag and pulled out what her tired mind believed was her usual laser pointer as she gestured it to board saying, "Now today we'll be looking at the feud between the Hooffield's and the McColt's and how a small disagreement, if left unchecked, can turn into a long time grudge."
She then pushed the button on it to point to the board, only to then be greeted by a new weight in her magic field and several gasps from her students. Unsure what was going on, she glanced over to see that she was now holding a scythe with a glowing blade as she gasped and shuck into her desk in shock, thankfully the blade simply seemed to phase through the desk without cutting it. After shuddering at the thought that she could have damaged her new imported mahogany desk, Twilight instinctively pushed the button again causing the scythe to retract back into the small rod as she nervously looked at the students saying, "Alright class, I ahhh... gotta figure out what this is so let's just call this a free day so finish up outstanding work you have, or read, or.... I don't know just talk I guess, build friendships and all." Twiilght then ran out the room and into the hall.
The students simply sat confused for a moment before Gallus decided the lighten the mood by sarcastically saying, "So pony teachers carry scythe's, and I thought Grandpa Gruff's discipline stick was bad."
As Twilight stood in the hall and turned the odd rod over in her magic saying, "What in Equestria is this? It didn't cut my desk so it most have some sort of safety function or something." She then reactived the scythe as said, "It doesn't seem to be magical in nature and technology like this is WAY more advanced then anything I've seen. So where did it come from?" Twilight thought for a moment before realization struck her as she said, "Oh that's right, I found this in the Everfree Forest next to..." that realization turned to worry as she said, "Oh no," remembering the strange creature that had been next to this. She then trotted towards the nearest exit saying, "I gotta check on Pinkie."
Meanwhile back in Starlight's office.
As Starlight sat across from Spinel she thought about offering her empathy coco or a security blanket, but decided against it for now as it might break the allusion that she was teaching her a game.
That seemed to be the right call as Spinel looked to her eagerly asking, "So how we play Therapy Session?"
"Well, it's simple. One player talks about their feelings or any weird thing that is going on, completely unfiltered without fear of judgement, and the other listens and gives them advice helps them figure out why the're feeling that," said Staright with a nervous smile.
"Oh," said Spinel slightly confused as that didn't fully sound like a game, but simply shrugged at off as she said, "Well alright, as long as you say it will be fun."
"Oh, don't worry it will be," said Starlight as her smile grew wider, and a bit awkward.
"So you want to go first?" asked Spinel, eager to play.
"Oh um..." said Starlight nervously as she was not expecting this and struggling to come up with something to say. Before honing in on something she had planned to discuss later anyway as she said, "Well I was probably going to talk about this with Rarity since she's a bit of an expert on this subject but last night I had a dream where I was kissing my best friend Trixie and I'm not sure if it means anything or it's just a dream because I mean, sure she's a great friend and certainly not an unattractive mare, but I'd just never thought of her that way." Sarlight then looked to Spinel blushing, curious about the strange girl would say.
Spinel simply smiled as she repeated back Starlight's early statement saying, "I see," thinking it might be part of the game. "I just have some questions."
"OK," said Starlight nervous.
"What's kissing, and what way where you not thinking of her? Are either of them fun?" asked Spinel in confusion and curiosity.
Starlight's blush increased as she said, "MOVING ON! So have you had any odd dreams lately?"
"Well I actually had my first dream EVER last night," said Spinel excited to relay the good parts of it, forgetting the bad parts for a second.
"Really?" said Starlight in confusion.
"Well the first one I can remember anyway, I don't have any memories from before I formed in front of Pinkie so I figured that must the first time I formed which is weird because it should have happened in a Kindergarten," said Spinel as she for the first time realized that this didn't fully make sense as she should at least have memories of walking around the Kindergarten and meeting other Spinel's before she Poofed for transport to her new best friend.
"I see," said Starlight as she levitated a pencil and notepad in front of herself, "So tell me about this dream of yours."
Spinel smiled excitedly as she said, "Well, Pinkie was a giant and I was riding her through the super sky super fast and it was so AMAZING AND FUN AND-" She paused as her mind turned to what happened next.
"And then," said Starlight as she placed a supportive hoof on Spinel's lap
"Then it got... weird," said Spinel
"Weird how?" asked Starlight.
"Well... I was suddenly in a garden, but one where all the plants where dieing, like whoever was supposed to care for it hadn't been their in a long time. And there was this tall pink women there and," suddenly the tension came into her chest and tears formed in her eyes as she continued saying, "And... she said Pinkie would leave me... just like she did, but I don't know who she is, she was all foggy and had her back turned to me but... why do I get like this talking about her?" Spinel then looked at Starlight as the tears flowed further, "I don't know this women and I trust Pinkie and.. and."
Spinel's stammering was suddenly interrupted as she suddenly found a blanket wrapped herself and a mug of coco in her hands as Starlight grabbed her shoulders and said, "Listen to me Spine, Pinkie will NEVER LEAVE YOU! Atleast not forever, and when she ever does go out I'm here for you if you don't want to be alone."
"Ohh, OK," said Spinel as she dried her tears, still unsure about what all this was.
Starlight then shied as she sat down saying, "OK, I think I know why you feel this way Spinel."
"YOU DO!" said Spinel suddenly excited. "So does not mean you can help me be a normal Spinel?"
"First off don't call yourself not normal, it's perfectly normal to have feelings like this secondly... I think the woman in your dreams may have done something to you that... something that wasn't fun," said Starlight trying to put it a way Spinel would understand. "And your mind is trying to make you forget it but it can't, at least not completely."
"Oh... then what can we do?" asked Spinel
"Well, if we play more rounds of Therapy Session, maybe every Monday at 8am, you should be able to remember eventually and deal with it," said Starlight.
"Oh... isn't there a way you can make me remember now, I would like to the BEST friend for Pinkie as soon as possible?" asked Spinel.
"Welll," said Starlight as she levitated a book of memory spells over to herself. "Recalling repressed memories magically isn't easy since it's you trying to block them out and not an outside force." She then flipped through the spells until she found one that looked promising as she said, "I could try this spell here, it will copy any memories you have hidden away in your subconscious into my mind so that I can then transfer them into your conscious mind."
Spinel then got out from under the blanket excitedly as she said, "I'm not sure what that means, but you think it will help then let's do it!"
"Alright, but remember it might not work," said Starlight as she moved to Spinel and gestured for her to lean down before touching her horn to her forehead. She probed deep withing preparing for the worst as she didn't know what kind of trauma Spinel might have gone through, but what she saw was.... nothing.
"Hmm," she commented, before remembering she was dealing with a foreign species as she said, "Hey Spinel, where are your memories and thoughts stored?"
"Oh that would be in my Gem," she said as she pointed towards it.
Starlight nodded before touching her horn to that and was finally greeted to some stimulus though. She thought to herself, "What the... this feel more like electronic signals? Wait is she come of sentient machine... no. Scientific questions later, physiological help now." She then focused more and went deeper in trying to understand it, but just as she thought she was getting the hang of it and caught a glimpse of the tall pink woman Spinel had been talking about, a surge suddenly struck her knocking her back against the wall.
"OH MY GOSH! Are you OK Starlight?" said Spinel.
Starlight couldn't hear her though as vision went blurry and hearing went out as her mind was assaulted by strange images of the girl she was just talking too.
The images soon cleared though, leaving only a splitting headache as Starlight saw the concerned girl before and said, "Yeah, I'm OK."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I pushed you to try that magic thing," said Spinel still concerned.
"It's fine, I probably would have tried it myself after the first week or so, at least now we know it doesn't work and can just focus on our game," said Starlight as she moved to the door. "I just need to tell Pinkie something real quick and then you and her can go off and play like you planned."
"OK," said Spinel excitedly. "Oh and thanks for playing Therapy Session with me it was weird, but now I don't feel so weird about myself anymore so that means it's kind of fun," said Spinel as she gave a warm innocent smile.
"No problem, and don't just think we can play on Mondays, anytime you think you feel funny again feel free to stop by so we can play again," said Starlight returning Spinel's smile.
Starlight then stepped out of the room and looked the concerned Pinkie as she sighed saying, "Well, unfortunately Spinel's anxiety was more like mine then I thought. It looks like she was abandoned by someone before you found her and is struggling with the repress the memory of it. Judging by what little she does remember it sounds like it was her mother."
"Oh dear," said Pinkie as she looked down in sadness, "What can we do to help her?"
"Well, I already got her to agree to a weekly session so we can talk about it more, f.w.i. she thinks this is some kind of game so don't ruin that. As for you just... be yourself," said Starlight.
"Hmm?" said Pinkie as she looked her confused.
"Right now, what she needs is a warm ball of positively who will always stick by her, and I can't think of anyone better qualified for that then you," said Starlight as she placed a hoof on her. "Just be careful about leaving her alone, at least for now."
"Well OK," said Pinkie as she opened the door and greeted the girl on the other with a hug and laugh as she said, "OK, I got the board games, you want to head back home so we can play them?"
"Can we play here so Starlight can join?" asked Spinel.
"Oh, I'm flattered but I got a lot of paperwork to catch up, you two enjoy yourselves," said Starlight as she sat back down in her desk.
"OK, bye Starlight," said Pinkie as she approached the exit.
"Bye, Starlight, and again thanks for the games," said Spinel as she followed after her.
"No prob, what are friends for," said Starlight with a smile.
Spinel then suddenly turned back around saying, "Oh and good luck with the kissing Trixie thing."
This resulted in Pinkie saying, "HAH! I KNOW YOU TWO WHERE MORE THEN JUST FRIENDS!"
"Wait, Pinkie I-" started Starlight only to see that the two had already left as she sighed and got to work on her paperwork. She began thinking to herself, "It's good for those two to hang out.... though yeah I do wish I could join them, but Twilight needs these reports by this afternoon." As she worked though she heard the faintest whisper from the back her mind say, "They'd rather hang out with their other friends anyway."