Six mares and a dragon sat in a circle in Applejack's barn.
"What did you girls want to see me about?" Twilight Sparkle asked her friends.
The other mares looked around at each other.
"See, here's the thing, darling," Rarity said once all eyes turned to her. "Yes, we accepted Starlight's apology. Yes, we worked with her to repair all the damage she caused. Yes, we've patched things over. It's just, well..." She trailed off, looking to the others for support.
"She's kind of a psychopath," Pinkie said, her ears flopping down against her skull.
"She seems to have a hard time learning from her mistakes," Fluttershy said gently.
Applejack cleared her throat. "Thing is...we let you talk us inta lettin' that hind end of a horseapple stay in Ponyville after all she's done when her rump oughtta be in Tartarus. An' we're stickin' to that. Fer now."
"But she's used up her get out of jerk free card," Rainbow said, crossing her hooves. "If she slips up again, you've got three choices."
Twilight blinked. "I do?"
"You do," Applejack said. "One: You ship 'er off to the Crystal Empire an' make 'er Sunburst's problem."
"Two," Rarity put in firmly. "You encourage her to go on the road with Trixie. Permanently."
"And...three?" Twilight asked, taking a step back.
Rainbow pounded her hooves together. "The five of us drag her to Tartarus ourselves like we should've done in the first place."
Twilight's ears pinned back. "Girls? Aren't...aren't you overreacting just a little—"
"No," Fluttershy said, stepping forward. Her voice was soft but stern. "We're willing to deal with a lot. We've reformed Discord. We've forgiven you for turning Ponyville upside-down with your magic in the past. We've accepted Trixie. We even managed to get my lazy brother to turn his life around. But Starlight...she's damaged, Twilight. She's unstable. She needs professional help. And she's not getting it."
Twilight frowned, biting her lip.
"So that's how it is," Rainbow said. "I'm sorry it has to be that way, but either you get her the help she needs and fix her, or the next time she pulls a stunt like this, she leaves Ponyville."
Spike sighed. "I gotta go with the girls on this one, Twilight," he said. "Me and you, we know Starlight better than any of them, and I'd hate to see anything bad happen to her, but honestly? She's kind of a mess, and we haven't really tried anything except friendship and trust." He toed at the dirt floor of the barn. "Sometimes...sometimes that just isn't enough."
Twilight bowed her head. "You're right," she said. "Starlight...does need more help than I can give her just by trying to teach her. I'll...I'll see what I can do." She looked around at her friends, tears in her eyes. "But don't talk about dragging her off to Tartarus. Please? There are...there are better ways."
The girls looked at each other, then back at Twilight.
"We don't want to do that," Rarity said. "So please, find a way to make her stable. Because we know forcing you to send her away will hurt you as much as it will hurt her, and that's the last thing we want to do."
Twilight turned away, tears spilling on the ground. "I need to be alone for a little while," she said roughly. "I'll...I'll see you girls later." With that, she teleported away.
The remaining mares and Spike looked at one another, faces sad.
"It...it had to be done," Rainbow said. "Right?"
"Right," Fluttershy agreed, her tone uncertain.
"I think I'm gonna go cry for a few hours," Pinkie said, her hair drooping. "Bye, girls."
As the friends went their separate ways, they reflected on the friendship lesson they'd all learned from this experience:
Sometimes, you end up hurting your friends even though it's the last thing you want to do. And when that happens...it hurts you just as deeply.
This...this was very well done. Bravo.
They aren't wrong. Starlight definitely needs to talk to a therapist or something.
...is Dr. Wolf still seeing patients?
Deep, though valid.
Very true. As I said in the comment of your review, Starlight either doesn't listen or doesn't learn her lessons.
It was a hard thing to say for all of them, but they are cases that are hopeless and must do what must be done despite how hard and painful it will be.
Deeply true on all levels. This was... I've never actually been glad I missed an episode before.
You're kind of assuming professional help exists.
I'm kind of assuming it's in its rudimentary stages at this point in Equestria.
7591771 Given his history, her therapy session is coming... eventually.
...It's entirely fair.
Yeah, good chapter, I know the show isn't that deep, but I wish we could have had a scene like this. Even Discord, he causes trouble, but despite everything he's more a jerk than actually crazy (which is ironic, chaos and all, but yeah). Starlight... she just still doesn't really get it. I almost worry that instead of being angry about Sunburst's cutie mark, now she's obsessing over her role as Twilight's student. They all want to help Starlight, but almost seems like its time for an intervention or more serious therapy than just friendship lessons.
i like the third option
Sigh.
I want to like her. I really do. Then they go having her mind control her 'friends'. Ugh. Thanks for writing this at least. It's pretty good.
This...kinda needs to actually happen in the show. And before anyone decides to jump in with 'Well Twilight once brainwashed half the town!', what happened with Smarty Pants was mostly an ACCIDENT. It'd rather clear that Twi didn't intend for the spell to be as powerful as it was, whereas Starlight has used mind altering magic on ponies deliberately at least twice now. The full on mind whammy on the mane 5 this ep, and what she did to Big Mac during No Second Prances.
It rather says something that through all the stunts he's pulled since his reformation, DISCORD hasn't actually mind whammied anyone.
And the three alternative solutions you suggest consist of handing her off to a boyfriend too busy with royal duties, a girlfriend with her own crippling issues and no permanent residence, or locking her up in Hell. Based on those suggestions, professional therapy doesn't exist in this universe. So at best, you just made Fluttershy look like an idiot because there's no such thing as therapists.
At worst, you just made everyone else look like horrible people because they considered every option except the healthy one.
7591836 Because fixfics definitely give you an accurate impression of the episode.
7592117 Equal rights for all redeemed villains! Glimglam fans unite!
7592103
I've seen the episode. What I meant was that I was happier when I hadn't. This was downright horrifying.
7592128 Ah. I see. I misunderstood your phrasing. Humblest apologies.
Aww. As much as I didn't enjoy this little postscript, it was necessary. The episode may have played up the comedy and brushed it all off at the end, but this was something that'll leave a mark on them all.
I think I'm with Pinkie on this. Can I go cry a little?
I do agree with this to some extent, Starlight's kind of like the Jason Todd of the show. And she DOES need professional help. But I don't know if Sunburst or Trixie could fix her, they're not the professional help Starlight would need. And dragging her off to Tartarus would only cause her to revert to her old ways. What she needs is a certified therapist, someone can truly help her to realize how messed up she can be.
7592206 Yeah, the reason the ultimatum includes those as options is basically "we want her out of Ponyville if she's not getting help and we honestly don't care where she goes".
7592310 Meaning they'll esentially be unleashing a dangerous pyscopath on some other unfortunate town, unless they're going to have the decency to warn Celestia or somepony of authoirty to imprison Starlight if she tries anything.
7592320 Yeah, it's not really intended as a solution, so much as a way of telling Twilight "fix this or else".
This was more uncomfortable to read than the episode was to watch.
I dunno...I think they might be being a little too harsh on Starlight here.
This does raise a question I've been meaning to ask: are there any therapists in Equestria according to canon? Because there's a good amount of characters in the show that need it!
7592415
Not really, no. This isn't the first time that she's used magic on other characters without their consent for her own benefit. And I'm not even counting the whole enslaving-a-village thing. Someone needs to have a sit-down with her about boundaries.
Great episode, though.
Honestly, the episode completely lost me when Twilight laughed off mind-controlling all of her friends with "They'll be feeling THAT in the morning!" And then all of them forgiving her instantly. I think it would've been a lot better if Twilight hadn't laughed it off, and instead told her to try talking with Discord. Let Discord deliver the "This is how you ex-villain" lesson and it can be a lot stronger - especially if he emphasizes that step one is STOP MIND-WOOGYING THE PONIES. Then she could go back, deliver her apology to them all, with an admission to THEM that she was afraid of failure. They can express that she hurt their trust, but Dash suggests they take it one day at a time... and she can start by learning about chillaxing, and move on to try some other stuff after learning how to do that.
Aye.
She's right. She needs therapy. Extensive therapy. Anyone have Doctor Wolf's number?
I wouldn't say she so much mind controlled the 5 so much as she made them hyper-suggestible. Still, that's about equivalent to "I think my friends would be more manageable if I laced their water with barbituates," which is all kinds of fucked up.
66.media.tumblr.com/784c7107e7258ac39a2535d74f4ea3a6/tumblr_mfx5ma2uZh1s1jujwo1_500.gif
7592416
To be fair, the way storytelling works, most characters would appear to need therapy. Stories rely on conflict in order to be interesting, and the only way to have conflict is to have characters with flaws. Furthermore, those flaws must manifest in order to generate or deepen the conflict, and are usually resolved (or at least addressed) at the climax. If you told a story where none of the characters manifested their flaws, it would be a rather boring story.
Think about it this way; each episode represents maybe a couple of hours (on average) out of a character's typical day. During any other period of time during that day, their behavior is most likely what is considered normal. Furthermore, each episode is not necessarily linked in consecutive days; they may have periods of several days where they don't do anything out of the ordinary. However, the "camera" is only focused on them when their flaws are showing, so that's all that we, the readers, ever see.
That being said, I'm rather certain that mind altering magic is at bare minimum a massive faux pas, especially given that Celestia herself chewed out Twilight for it the one time she used it. Starlight is definitely a sociopath. A couch therapist wouldn't quite do the trick; what she needs is for Twilight (or Spike) to receive some basic psychiatric therapy training and stick close to her during social endeavors to ensure she doesn't do anything grossly inappropriate.
7592614
Would have been a much better episode.
7592888
Sorry, but I can't agree. When you get to the point of "I think whatever you want me to think" and "I didn't do X because you didn't explicitly tell me to," you've passed beyond suggestion and straight into mind control.
7592016 what?
buddy...sleepcasting such a spell would be an accident.
Twilight did that ON PURPOSE. same as starlight. not as bad as starlight, Celestia only had to do a small counterspell to fix it not slowly unravel three different mind control spells. But all the same, she forgave Starlight out of experience.
7592310 and that's inappropriate for these heroes to want
7592325 or else what? Unless they can offer a solution they need to shut up
I may not like what Starlight did but after this I'm not happy with those five either. I hope they continue to feel lousy for quite a while
7594901 wasn't only one fo them a mind control spell?
7592117 I'm afraid I don't get what you mean
7594968 when a spell is meant to fuck with your head, its mind control. these seemed to be varying levels of them, from outright to subtle.
7594959
Yeah, agreed on that - what Starlight did was all kinds of horrible and she's obviously messed up in the head, but this just made the lot of them look like irresponsible fools as well given their offered "solutions" - which basically says they don't give a damn what happens to Starlight, when the likes of Discord have been forgiven far, far worse things.
Not to mention I wanted to laugh at the "or else" or "we don't want to make you do this" - news flash, you guys have no authority to force anyone to do anything, least of all Twilight, so it's kinda laughable to see them present their silly solutions as some sort of mandate that they expect Twilight to follow by default simply because they said so
I think this is the first chapter where this otherwise good "fix fic" jumped the shark a tad too much.
7598864 well, it's not the authority thing for me, because to me they do. They can cut Twilight out of their lives or they can go over her head to Celestia. That's all the power they need
My problem is they're essentially threatening to punish Twilight for Starlight's actions and they hurt her terribly by doing so
7592743 He's a youtuber...finding contact info for him might not be as hard as you think...convincing rarity to not kill him on site due to his physiology on the other hand/hoof.
7599384
Why would Rarity kill him? She's had a therapy session with him before.
7599616 He looks like a diamond dog but better groomed...also didn't know about the session...will file that for future reference...
Wow, that was nothing like your previous chapters.
Is it wrong that I really want to see them have this talk on the show?
What they basically say is that if Starlight makes one mistake she can no longer be treated as a person with rights but merely as an inconvenience. They are not coming over as sympathetic at all.
7617595 No, what they're saying is that she's already used up what forgiveness they have for her after she did something REALLY WRONG to all of them. You know, after everything ELSE wrong she's done that should have landed her in a dungeon but didn't.
7591770 No. This was the worst one, as pointed out here: 7592103
7660224
If you think about it. That's pretty on point for how ponies treat things. I mean it's either it fits with the herd and life goes well for it. Or life deficates all over the pony and noone specifically cares.
But yeah, even though I can see them doing that. I can side with Twilight in that there are other ways ... if it didn't make her look like a massive hypocrite (and yes I'm still salty on how she treated Trixie after earlier forgiving her). But I'm thinking that the M6 are overlooking the fact that Starlight Glimmer is Alicorn Tiered, and her magic is at it's best when using it for Super Villiany ... so either of those 3 choices are doomed to backfire.
I mean ... she went full Super Villain on a town for a friend forgetting to write her. And destroyed Equestria several times over with her weaponized time spell, just for her toys being taken away from her. So her getting rejected from the Princess of Friendship is going to end horribly. Punting her to Trixie and exile her (again rejection) is likely to end with her doing something even more drastic ... and I doubt Hell can hold her. At least not for long before she takes over and leads an army of monsters to raze Equestria (Seeing as how she's inherently unstable, does magic that can stand toe to toe with an Alicorn, and she creates spells that are fitting for a Supervillian (mind control, speed clones, fate/power theft, weaponized time travel, etc.).
looking back on this I'd almost like to see a full fic based on what would happen if Starlight screwed up again while under this ultimatum, which is Twilight and Starlight both leave town
8068222 ...so, basically, "Grief Is the Price We Pay 2: There Are No Therapists"?
Does no one care how ABSOLUTELY COOL what Starlight did was? A mass mind control spell, AT A DISTANCE? Just from slapping together a few spell found in Twilight's spell book? Even Discord and Chrysalis didn't pull that off! That deserves a moment of awesome!
7591836
I thought it was really cool, the only thing missing was the mane six wearing maid costumes. Everything working perfectly. And Starlight then having to fess up she doesn't know HOW to remove the spell, and having to come crawling to Twilight with her mistake.
7591974
That actually made this episode a favorite.