//------------------------------//
// Chaotic Therapy  
// Story: Summer Sunset 
// by RobRoyale 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 8

Failure. That’s what Sunset felt. She hadn’t felt this way since the Fall Formal incident. During that time, she not only failed at destroying Twilight and taking control of Equestria, she also failed herself. She had become a monster and tried to take another pony’s life. That power and control she desired had corrupted her mind and driven her to the point of committing homicide. Worst of all, it had been to a pony like Twilight. At the time, she was a merely a thorn in Sunset’s side, but she had been more than that in the grand scheme of things. She was everything Sunset could never be and at the time she hated her for it. However, Twilight offered her forgiveness, and most importantly: friendship. 
That night, Sunset swore she wouldn’t fall to those desires again, that she would never lash out or try to hurt others. But now, she sat against the stone statue outside Canterlot High, curled up with her knees tucked in, sobbing.  She had relapsed and attempted to hurt another pony. Granted, that pony was Flash Sentry, but she knew what he said didn’t justify death. Twilight had seen it though, she saw Sunset trying to collapse Flash’s windpipe with her magic. Twilight had yelled at her to get out. 
Failing once is normal for humans and ponies. The feeling of it passes in time and they move on. But the worst feeling is re-experiencing that failure. Sunset mentally kicked herself over and over as her mind replayed Twilight yelling at her. She had just upset, disturbed, and most likely lost her best friend. The wind swept across her face and made her shiver. She had her jacket back but it was still cold in the dead of night.  Now she just wanted to step back through the portal and cuddle up next to Twilight by the fireplace.  
Sunset looked up to the starry sky and wiped her tears. Why, she thought. Why did I lash out so badly? She didn’t regret punching Flash in the face he deserved that much. But there was more to it than that because she didn’t stop there, she kept going. 
She shivered as the wind continued to blow. Dark clouds were rolling in over the sky covering up the night. Wiping the rest of her tears back she stood up pulling her jacket in closer around her body. She started in the direction for her apartment and began walking. The first drops of rain began to fall from the sky. Sunset frowned quickening her pace. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a grey umbrella lying on the grass next to the sidewalk. Looking around and seeing no one else near by she picked it up and opened it thankful she wouldn’t be drenched when she got home.





Twilight sat in her study with her hooves resting against the sides of her head. Her eyes were closed and she was leaning over a sheet of parchment. On it was the beginnings of a letter to Princess Cadence. Derpy had already agreed to take the trip up North to deliver it, though when Twilight had inquired how she just said something about a magic blue box. Though vaguely fascinated and confused that thought was in the back of Twilight’s mind as she rubbed her temples. 
Her mind was on a loop of the events from earlier. Sunset tried to kill Flash Sentry. Twilight personally couldn’t fathom that and she thought Sunset had changed. After inquiring Flash about what happened he claimed that Sunset lashed out do to her jealousy. Twilight found that highly plausible, but it still was no excuse to go to that degree to kill a pony. However, a tiny voice at the back of her head reminded her that she could not understand what Sunset felt in the moment because she had never been through that same experience to any degree. 
Sunset’s actions were still inexcusable. The guilt Twilight felt for yelling was overshadowed by that fact. She still wanted to talk to Cadence about this and gain clarity to the situation. She sipped from a large cup of coffee on her desk and levitated the quill down onto the paper and began writing:

Dear Cadence, 

I’m sorry to bother you right now, but I will be in Canterlot two days from now and I need to speak with you about a difficult situation that has me out of my depth here. It has to do with two of my friends and there are elements to the situation that only you are familiar with. I hope to see you there Cadence. I really need help now, and I don’t want to loose my friends over this. Also, don’t let Celestia know you’re coming, the situation is… delicate and I would rather not trouble her. 

Love,
your sister-in-law,
Twilight Sparkle

Twilight put the quill down and read over her work. It was doable for the moment. She wrapped it up into a scroll and stamped it with her royal seal. Giving a slight sigh, she got up from her seat and walked out of the study. The windows that lined the hall gave a perfect view of the sun setting off behind the mountains. Celestia was at work painting the sky with her magic while bringing the sun down and Luna was dotting the falling dark sky with sparkling stars. 
It was the late evening and Twilight hadn’t had the stomach to eat earlier. She stopped by the library and looked at the portal still aglow with magic. When she had told Sunset to get out, she meant leave the castle. She didn’t expect her to return to the human world. Twilight considered going after her, but the guards would have followed her. 
“Hello princess.” Flash Sentry said, walking up next to her.
Speaking of which. Twilight mentally sighed. “Hello, Flash. How are you doing?”
“I’ve been worse.” He coughed a little. His throat sounded sore from the damage he sustained earlier. “But I’m better knowing you’re safe and okay.” 
Twilight rolled her eyes, but still blushed. “Right…” Her gaze rested on the portal again. 
“Also seeing Shimmy leave made my day a whole lot better.” Flash chuckled, nudging Twilight.
Twilight scowled. “That’s not funny, Flash.”
Flash shrugged. “What, it was a joke. You’re the one who told her to get out.”
“That’s not the point…” Twilight turned back to the portal.
“Well, with her gone, that means you’re less distracted,” Flash moved in front of her, blocking her view from the portal. “It’s early in the night, how about we go to dinner?” He gave a confident smirk and a wink.
Twilight’s ears perked up and her blush increased. “I…” She started but then shook her head clearing her throat. “No thank you, Flash, I’m not hungry.”
Flash looked taken aback for a moment but quickly regained his confidence. “Well, we don’t have to go to dinner, we could fly up to the clouds and watch Luna paint the night sky?” He moved closer to her. 
Twilight bit her lip, hesitating a moment, but then shook her head. “I’m… really tired Flash, and I have more work to do, so maybe some other time.” She turned around and darted for her room. Slamming the door behind her, she latched it closed with magic. 
“That was weird…” She breathed slowly trotting over to the fireplace and sitting down. She pulled Starswirl's book from the shelf and put it down in front of her. As she began to read, there was a cold feeling in her side. Twilight readjusted herself in front of the fireplace, but the cold feeling remained. Sunset wasn’t there. Twilight shook off the feeling and tried to focus on her reading. She was still mad at Sunset but the cold from her absence did not go away. 





Sunset hit her head against the door to her apartment. Locked. She had given her keys to the landlord, but it was Friday and he was out for the whole night. Even with the umbrella, she still managed to get unfavorably soaked. He boots squished when she walked and her shirt was almost see through. The umbrella had only helped so much, but was still pretty useless. During her walk home, she noticed it had holes in it and was made of flimsy material. 
Sunset shivered as she slumped against the door and slid down. Dropping the umbrella at her side, she breathed into her hands to trying to warm them up. Sleeping outside until morning in soaked clothes was not pleasing. She needed to get out of the clothes soon, but she cringed at the thought of taking them out while in the open. Sighing, she leaning back against the door. 
Suddenly, it opened and she fell in hitting her head. Sunset sat up slowly rubbing the back of her head slightly confused. She took the umbrella up and treaded into the apartment slowly. Her boots still squished under her, so it wasn’t the sneakiest approach. There was no one around the small living room and kitchen area. She closed the door behind her and quietly slipped out of her boots leaving them by the door. Lifting the umbrella over her head, she crept into the narrow hallway that led to her room. The door was closed as she had left it, charging forward she brought her leg up into a sidekick blowing the door back. 
The room was void of any life and only housed the inanimate objects that it always did. Sunset lowered the umbrella with a confused look. 
“You know, being around those ponies I thought you would have learned how to say thank you.” A voice called out. 
Sunset whirled around raising the umbrella again but saw no one. “Show yourself.”
“Show? You’re holding my handle, very rude you know.” Sunset looked up under the umbrella and saw two yellow eyes with red pupils staring at her. Sunset screamed and threw the umbrella but it stopped in the center of the room. “Oh, now that’s just mean.” 
“What in Tartarus are you?!” Sunset backed up through the door frame.
“Oh calm down, I’m not here to hurt you.” The umbrella spoke. It twisted around and grew taking a larger shape. At first it looked like a snake body but then a two mismatching arms and legs sprouted out. The eyes shifted to the head and a mischievous smile appeared on the creature's face. With a final flash the being took full form and towered over Sunset. “Hello, Sunset Shimmer.”
Sunset gawked and stared up in shock. “W-wait… I know you, you’re Discord!” 
“Correct!” Snapping his fingers various treasure chests filled with gems and gold materialized behind him. “Come on down and claim your prize.” 
Sunset frowned not amused. “Why are you here…. Actually no, how are you here?! Shouldn’t you be a human… or something along those lines?”
“Ah, well, yes.” With a chalk board appeared with graphs and charts on it and Discord was wearing a lab coat, bow tie, and a pair of glasses. “You see, normally when one of you ponies passes through the portal, you enter this universe as an unknown entity therefore the universe changes your form to fix that.”
“That doesn’t explain why you’re still a draconequus.” 
There was a flash and the board was gone, a flashing neon sign appeared over Discord. “I’m the Lord of Chaos!” He laughed. 
“That still doesn’t make sense.” Sunset frowned.
“Exactly!” Discord smiled. “Now then let's get you cleaned up.” He snapped his fingers and Sunset was rid of her clothes and just in her underwear. 
She screamed. “Discord!” She tried to cover herself. “Give me my clothes back!”
“Oh calm down, I was getting to that.” He snapped his fingers again and a fresh set of Sunset’s apparel appeared on her. 
Sunset sighed and patted the new clothes down. “Never. Do that. Again.” She shivered in disgust. “That just feels weird.”
“Well, you’re no fun!” Discord stuck his tongue out. 
“Regardless, why are you here?”	
Discord’s smile turned to a frown and he looked down solemnly. “Ah yes, that… I’m sorry Sunset but…” He appeared by her shoulder blowing into a handkerchief. “Sherlock has been cancelled.” 
“What!?” Sunset gasped in horror.  
Discord broke into laughter. “Ah, you should see the look on your face! Priceless!” He cackled.
“You’re just here to tease me about my favorite show?”  Sunset glared at him. Discord composed himself and coughed. 
“No, but you have to admit, that was funny!” A row of copies appeared behind him and emitted a laugh track. “In all seriousness, though.” He snapped his fingers and they were in her living room, Sunset was lying on the couch and Discord was sitting in a floating armchair. “I’m here to help you!”
Sunset glared. “Help with what?”
“Why, your fanfic!”
“My what?”
Discord flipped through a clipboard in his hands. “Oops, wrong patient! Ah, here we go.” He cleared his throat. “I’m here to help you with your romantic feelings and anger management issues.”
Sunset bolted up. “I don’t have anger management issues!” 
“Oh contraire my condiment colored friend. According to this, your anger is off the charts, also you didn’t deny having any romantic feelings.” Discord smiled slyly.
Sunset blushed. “I don’t and give me that!” She grabbed the clipboard; on it was a drawing of Discord. 
The drawing stood off the page and spoke. “Denial isn’t just a ocean in Manehattan.” 
“Saddle Arabia!” Sunset growled.
“Ha!” Drawing Discord laughed. “Not when I ruled Equestria.” The drawing went flat and the clipboard appeared back in Discord’s hands. 
“How do you know about all this, anyway?” Sunset asked.
“A certain yellow Pegasus may have let me know.” 
She frowned. “That’s a betrayal of trust.”
Discord looked shocked. “But is it really? Is using information told in confidence to help a potential friend really a betrayal of trust?” 
“Yes.” 
“Oh well, you’ll thank me anyway.” With a flick of his wrist, the television facing the couch flicked on. The image was a replay of Sunset choking Flash. A knot formed in Sunset’s stomach. She grabbed the remote and flicked the power, but the television remained on looping the scene. 
“How… do you know?” Sunset glared at him.
“Magic.” Discord smiled innocently a halo appearing over his head. Sunset’s glare didn’t let up. “Okay, fine, I may or may not have been Flash Sentry’s sword.”
Sunset froze. “Wait… if you were there, why didn’t you stop me?”
“Well for one, it was the best seat in the house!” Discord laughed. “Wow, girl where did you learn how to fight? Yowza! Plus, I don’t really like that Flash Sentry guy.” 
“That makes two of us.” Sunset leaned back on the couch, resting her hand against her cheek. 
“So tell me where it all began.” Discord leaned in his chair and took up his clipboard. 
“Where what began?”
“Your romantic feelings.” 
“If I hear one more comment about romantic feelings for Flash, there’s going to be one less Lord of Chaos in two universes!” She jumped up grabbing Discord’s beard and yanking him to meet her eye level.
Discord blinked a couple times. “First, this is what I mean by anger management.” His reeled back and his beard popped off. Sunset jumped back and threw it however it stuck to her hand and crawled up wrapping around her wrist turning into over sized meter displaying Sunset’s anger was in the yellow, approaching the red. “Wow, that’s pretty super… just saying.” A Discord copy played a drum and cymbal behind him.
Sunset glared and tried to pry the device off her arm, but it didn’t budge. “Get this thing off me!” 
“Nope, not until that meter is in the green.” Discord rubbed his bare chin. “Second, I wasn’t talking about romantic feelings for Flash, I was talking about a certain purple princess.”
Sunset looked up at him. “Twilight?”
“No, Lumpy Space Princess, of course I mean Twilight!” A cane with a disturbing wide eye Twilight head appeared in his hand.  “Miss Element of Magic, Princess of Friendship, and book obsessed pony.”
“What about her?”
Discord slapped his forehead. “Ugh, you ponies can be so dense! I’m talking about your romantic feelings for Twilight.”
Sunset’s cheeks lit up. “Um…”
“Oh, don’t give me that dumbfounded look.” He waved a magnifying glass over her chest and it showed an arrow stuck through her heart. “It’s as obvious as Celestia’s flank.” 
Sunset flailed knocking the magnifying glass away. “Cut that out! I don’t have romantic feelings for Twilight!”
Discord raised an eyebrow. “Really…. Twilight wearing socks.” Sunset’s face flushed deep red.  “Point exactly.” 
“That’s just basic attraction!” Sunset shot back.  “Besides socks are cute on anypony.”
“Fair point. Fine, you and Twilight curled up with a book by the fireplace.” He held up an echo recorder and it picked up the increased beating of Sunset’s heart. 	Sunset drew back and glared at Discord. “That proves nothing.” 
“Alright, I’m done having fun.”  Discord leaned back and blew into a pipe blowing out bubbles. “But look at your wrist.”
Sunset looked down and the gauge had shrunk into the yellow bordering the green. She looked up glaring at Discord again. “Proves. Nothing.” She sighed and leaned back against the couch. “I don’t have feelings for Twilight. She’s just my friend.”
“That she is, my little pony, but have you found yourself taking extra long looks at her?” Discord asked.
Sunset hesitated and blushed. “Yes…”  
“Do you find your heart rate increasing when you think about her?”
“Yes…” She grew quieter. 
“At night, do you enjoy cuddling up with her by the fire place with a good book?”
“Ye—wait how did you know about that?” Sunset raised an eyebrow.
Discord chuckled. “Well, I do enjoy warming up by a fire, listening to a good story.” 
“What were you?”
“A log.” 
Sunset smacked her forehead and sighed. “Of course you were.” She yawned and laid down against the sofa. “What’s your point though?”
Discord flipped through a few pages on the clipboard. “Well, based on what I’ve observed, you have all the symptoms: Long stares, excited in the others presence, honey glow, and jealousy.”
“I’m not jealous.” Sunset grumbled.	
“Ah, but you are, you’re not jealous that Flash is putting the moves on somepony else. You’re jealous that somepony is putting the moves on Twilight. The fact that it’s Flash makes no difference.” Discord snapped and the living room changed into a hospital room with Sunset on a medical bed. Discord was dressed as a doctor and had a glum expression. “I’m so sorry, Miss Shimmer… the condition is far worse than we imagined. There is nothing we can do for you. You’re in love.” In another flash the living room was back to normal.
Sunset frowned. “I don’t know if I’m in love with Twilight…” 
“But you can at least admit you like her, yes?” Discord pressed.
She hesitated for a moment. “Well… I mean, she’s fun to be around… I can have intelligent conversations with her… she’s been kind to me and… aw, buck!” She threw her head back covering her face with her hands.  “She’s always kind to me! She knows me completely! We get each other’s humor! She is freaking adorable as a pony and cute as a human! When I’m around her, I never want that time to end! Buck, she even lied to Celestia for me! Twilight Sparkle lied to Celestia! For me!”
Discord was staring at her with a sly grin. “Now we’re getting somewhere.” He nodded to Sunset’s wrist. The meter was no longer in the yellow or green, a secondary meter popped up displaying a giant glowing heart. Sunset blushed. The meter popped off her wrist and turned into Discord’s beard reattaching to his face. 
“Why do you care about this, anyway?” Sunset raised an eyebrow.
“Isn’t playing matchmaker what a good friend does?” Discord asked with false bafflement. Sunset just stared at him. “Oh, fine.” He sighed. “Look I’ve been alive for well over one thousand years and frankly, I’ve seen this situation enough times to write novels about it. I’ve seen so many mares and stallions in this situation, I can’t stand it anymore. Before, I was encased in stone so I couldn’t really do much about it.”
Sunset nodded and looked down. “So what should I do?”
“Do I have to spell this out for you?” Discord deadpanned. He traced his lion finger through the air making words appear.
Tell her how you feel.
“But what if—” Sunset was cut off by Discord shoving the text in her face. “Alright, I get it!” 
“Good, now let's get you back to Equestria.” He snapped his fingers and they were outside Canterlot High. It was still raining, but Discord covered them in an invisible field that sent the rain back up as it fell.
Sunset stared at the rain then glared at him. “Couldn’t you have done that the first time?”
“I gave you an umbrella, what more do you want?” Discord shrugged. Sunset rolled her eyes and faced the portal. 
“Okay…” She took a deep breath. “Twilight… you gave me everything I have… now let me give something back.” Stepping forward her forehead connected with the marble surface of the statue with the rest of her body following. She was stunned for a moment but fell back on her butt. “Huh?”
“Oh dear…” Discord tapped the statues surface but it stayed solid. “Hm… well that’s anti-climactic...”