Every Friday, from five in the afternoon to eleven at night, Pinkie Pie does volunteer work. She doesn't have to do it, the world won't stop if she doesn't, but she chooses to do it anyway. Even if it's doing seemingly insignificant little things.

It is a matter of life and death, after all. Literally.

When Dash went to the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse to see if anypony was around she found something she wasn't expecting at all. It was a note from Scootaloo, detailing some of her past and her inner anguish. Scootaloo had been holding back far more pain than anypony knew and one way or another, she was going to end it at Ghastly Gorge.

My first attempt at a sadfic, inspired by my own feelings of depression and worthlessness. I decided to write my feelings out instead of wallowing in self pity. It was also written at 2AM so forgive any mistakes. I did proof read it but you can never be too careful. Decided to rate it teen for the suicidal subject matter.

Sequel can be found here!

Sunset Shimmer is in her apartment, alone, because it’s for the best. That’s why it’s good that she didn’t go to that party. It’s good that no-one knows what she does to herself.

But it’s fine. She knows what she’s doing.

She knows that she deserves this.

This story is a sequel to Highs and Lows

Years of guilt and hatred and jealousy have gotten to Sunset Shimmer. She simply cannot take it anymore. She wants to find some way, any way, to alleviate or redirect her anguish, regardless of whether it's constructive or not.

The second instalment of Sunset's Recovery Arc.

Rated "T" for detailed description of self-harm and some cursing.

Luna has tried, really has tried, to live once again among other ponies. So far, all her efforts have failed. Does Equestria really need another princess?

Now with two different sequels:
Will you let her fall or will you save her?

Twilight calls for help. Unfortunately, it comes.

Note that this story deals heavily with depression and suicide. There's no shame in deciding not to read.
Thanks to Quill Scratch for prereading.

Most ponies do not want to be replaced by a changeling.
Most ponies find that prospect, frankly, rather unnerving.
Most ponies want to be something other than changeling food.
Most ponies who feed changelings willingly, though few, still want a normal life.
Most ponies would rather not spend the rest of their lives suspended in a cocoon.

Most.

• Featured on Equestria Daily on 2025-07-03!
• Featured on FiMFiction on November 4–11 and December 10 of 2024, plus January 7 and February 14 of 2025!
• Recommended by abrony-mouse!
• Recommended for Twilight's Library by CasualBrony84!

Cover art uses atnezau's cocoon vectors, GeneralZoi's creator, and MLP:FiM screencaps.

If I tagged the genre wrong, feel free to suggest changes.

Status Updates:

• 2024 Nov 4: I'm also unsure whether to continue, so the current status is "incomplete if you want more."
• 2024 Nov 7: Whoa! Did not expect this much interest, thank y'all so much! Yeah, I'll continue this. Right now I'm thinking around 4 chapters, but that might change.
• 2025 Jan 7: I want to add the Mystery tag, but I'm not sure which other genre tag it should replace. Comedy, maybe? And I now expect this story to be at least 6 chapters long, probably longer. My current pace is 1 chapter per month, but that may change.
• 2025 Jun 29: ...Well, that changed. Sorry. Writing chapter 5 is taking way longer than I expected, but I plan to post it in late July. In other news, I cleaned up some grammar/PoV issues in the first four chapters for the EqD submission. I also swapped a genre tag from Dark to Drama.

It's a morning like any other, and it will be from now until forever.

For Vinyl, anyway.

Prereading provided by the wonderful Chepa, ChudoJogurt, a_moving_castle, and Math Spook!

Twilight is not okay. That much is certain. She hasn't been okay for a very long time. It's been so long since she's felt anything but numbness and apathy...

Trigger Warnings: Suicidal thoughts and actions, depression, eating-disorder, and anxiety.

Everything seemed to be going better for Sunset Shimmer since getting blasted by the rainbow of light. She was learning about friendship and how to be a friend. Then Anon-A-Miss struck.

Thinking she had gone back to her old ways, Sunset's new friends walked away from her, leaving her alone.

Now Sunset cannot find neither the strength nor the will to get out of bed.

This is a first foray into attempting to tell a story from a first person perspective from Sunset's point of view.

This story is inspired in part by my own past struggles with depression.

The suicide/self harm tag is for thoughts of self harm, and Sunset's inability to eat or do anything other than lie in bed as she sinks deeper and deeper into depression.

Featured 01-13-2023!