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// (8-3) What I Choose 
// Story: The Ruler of Ponies and Men 
// by Boopy Doopy 
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“...so from there,” Twilight explained to the pink alicorn in front of her, “I cast a spell on the doll, and it caused the town to- well, actually, let’s just say, it was a mess. It wasn’t easy trying to get that fixed, and even harder given out all of those apologies.”
“That’s crazy,” Cadance said flatly, doing the best she could to not roll her eyes as she listened to a story she heard before, making a half hearted attempt to appear interested.
The two and Starlight were there for Cadance’s weekly friendship lesson, Twilight teleporting in from Galloping Gorge where she was looking for Amore’s pieces with her friends to take part. Cadance tried to convince her that they could skip it, with even Starlight telling her that she could handle it by herself this week, but to no avail. Twilight’s response was that Cadance’s reformation was too important, and that it was no trouble teleporting to Canterlot and back to see her, even if it was a hassle. As well, her friends signed off on it, deciding as well that friendship lessons for the pink mare were vital and that they shouldn’t be passed on.
 “But the lesson I learned,” the mare continued, “was that I shouldn’t overreact, even if a situation seems just plain awful. It’s always better to talk to somepony about your problems and get help from them than to take matters into your own hooves.”
“Wow. I think I get it.” Most ponies would’ve been able to pick up that she really didn’t care, but Starlight and Twilight seemed oblivious to the social cues she was sending their way. At the very least, they were intentionally ignoring them. But it made sense to Cadance, she guessed. They were probably afraid to confront her about it, not that she cared one way or the other. She just wanted this ‘friendship lesson’ to be over with already.
“I can say I’ve had a few situations like that,” Starlight laughed lightly, “but I wouldn’t want to bore you with those stories. You look like you’ve had about enough of that already for the day. How about we start to wrap up by asking you if you have any stories like that you’d want to tell us?”
“Nope,” she answered quickly, flicking her mane out of her face with a brief shake of her head. “None that I can think of; Sorry.”
“Haha, that’s what you always say,” Starlight continued. “I’m sure you can think of something. Somepony as old as you must have a dozen stories, and Twilight and I would love it if you shared.”
She put a hoof to her chin, making a show of mulling over her memories for a moment before saying again, “Nothing. I can’t think of anything. Oh well.”
“Well, how about what happened between you and Princess Celestia?” Starlight asked, Twilight still smiling but looking at her friend nervously. “Would you say that’s in some ways similar to what happened between Twilight and her teacher?”
“Play along,” Cadance told herself, closing her eyes to take a breath to avoid getting riled up. “Just play along. Before you know it, you’ll have this ring off and then that’ll be it. You just have to play along until then.”
“Huh, I guess it is,” she replied, trying to convey in her voice that it was the first time she considered that. “I never thought of it that way.”
“Exactly!” Twilight jumped in enthusiastically, happy to see what she thought was finally progress being made. “Even if things aren’t going your way, it’s best to always talk to a friend about it, instead of keeping it bottled up. That’s how bad things start to happen. I can’t tell you how many times my friends and I have had a small issue become something big because we kept our feelings bottled up. It’s not healthy to do.”
“Heh, I… think I can speak from my own experience that Twilight is right. Keeping your feelings bottled up isn’t good.”
“Wow, I guess you’re right,” Cadance pretended to agree, watching as they just missed the point of her reasons. She specifically told Celestia that she was being treated unfairly, more than once at that. She made well sure her concerns were known, except Celestia didn’t seem to particularly care about that, so she took matters into her own hooves. But she couldn’t say that, so instead, she left it at that, finishing, “I never thought of it that way.”
“That’s okay. Not everypony-”
“Actually, Twilight, we’re going to have to end this early. I’m afraid we have a bit of a scheduling conflict right now. It's about time for me to go see Alex and Hope.”
“Huh? Oh! Sorry, Cadance. She’s right. Besides, I do have to teleport back to Galloping Gorge now. I told my friends I’d only be an hour, and it’s been almost three. We’ll have to discuss more next time.”
"I can't wait," the mare replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.



“So… how are you feeling Alex?” Starlight asked me, moving with what looked like a pep in her step. “Have you decided what you want to do? Not that you have to right now. It’s fine if you need more time.”
“I… I don’t know. I know that Sombra wants to have us like this and… I don’t know. I almost want to say I want to go back to how we were before.”
“How could you possibly want that?!” the stallion I spoke of suddenly yelled in our head, loudly and clearly enough that I had to remind myself that Starlight couldn’t hear him. “What is wrong with you? You’re acting completely foolish!”
“It’s just… I’ve been stuck like this so long, it feels like this is how I’m supposed to be,” I said aloud, wanting both Starlight and Sombra to hear what I said. “I’m probably being completely crazy, but it’s just how I feel.”
“It’s okay. You can take your time to think it over if you need to,” Starlight assured me, a calm smile on her face.
“How can you possibly feel that way?” Sombra asked. “I don’t understand it at all! You can’t do this to yourself, to me!”
“I mean, it might be hurting myself- well, part of me anyway- if I do get fused with Sombra again, but it’s his and Cadance’s fault that I’m like this, so…”
“So I don’t see how you can possibly pull the ‘you can’t do this to me’ card on me,” I finished in my head. “I could say the very same thing to you, but it won’t change anything for me.”
“Please…” the stallion practically begged. “Don’t do this to me. Or even if not for me, don’t do this to Hope. She doesn’t deserve this. At least keep us like this for her.”
I sighed, telling both of them, “As much as I don’t want to, I guess I’ll stay like this to appease everyone.”
“You- you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to, Alex,” Starlight tried to tell me, frowning now. “I know Sombra's in there trying to tell you what to do, I’ll do whatever you think is best for you. You don’t have to look out for anypony else.”
“It’s fine. I’ll stay like this. But if I change my mind I’ll tell you, alright?”
“Alright, but… you really don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” she said.
“I know, I get that,” I told her, saying in my head for only Sombra to hear, “But it’s not like I had much of a choice it seems, not that I ever did. All you ponies do is string me along like a puppet, but it is what it is.”
With that, I turned to leave, but before I could take a step, a question came to mind.
“Hey, you don’t have any sort of counseling service, do you, since I’m staying like this?” I asked. "I feel like it's something I need at this point."