The School of Friendship, like all schools in Equestria, was prone to occasionally shutting down for prolonged holidays. The summer vacation was the longest of these, though some students maintained contact with friends made during the year, both amongst the student body and the faculty. That did not, however, mean that the school was entirely inactive. While the teachers and students might be attending to other duties, Starlight had decided it would be good to keep herself in practice by reaching out to the locals in Ponyville and see if any of them needed her services as a counselor!

A move which would eventually be referred to in the annals of Ponyville history as “Mistake #437.”

The fact that Mistakes #1 through #436 were already taken may have been considered as indicators that this would happen, but nocreature ever claimed that Starlight Glimmer wasn’t willing to dive into a pool of crazy lemons and try to come out with a tall, cool glass of lemonade.

Plus, this particular mistake only really impacted Starlight, not the rest of the town, so they were generally happy to let her make it on her own.

Currently, she was leaning back in her seat, watching her clock, and reviewing her notes for her upcoming sessions. Sessions which, if they worked out, would be her crowning achievements of the summer!

Lily, Daisy, and Roseluck. The three sisters were Ponyville’s third most beloved neurotics, behind Princess Twilight and Rarity (Pinkie Pie being the town’s most beloved psychotic, naturally). It didn’t take much to set any of them off, especially not when they were together to feed off of each other’s anxieties, but they were working on it! They’d been Starlight’s first three patients of the summer, and she was confident that before school started again, she’d have helped them overcome at least one of their major stumbling blocks.

The clock ticked over to one o’clock, and Starlight flashed out of her seat and over to the door of her office, opening it before the schoolbell could finish sounding the hour.

There, outside her office Lily was sitting in one of her waiting-room seats, across from Roseluck and Daisy. Each of the ponies turned away from their awkward stares at each other when the door opened, seemingly grateful for the opportunity to stop focusing on the fact that they were all in the waiting room at the same time.

“Come on in!” Starlight said cheerfully. “I hope you weren’t waiting long.”

“Actually,” Roseluck started to say, only for Starlight to keep talking right over her.

“I was just reviewing your notes, and I’m sure that today’s exercise is going to be extremely helpful. Lily, why don’t you take the chair, and the two of you can take my couch.” Starlight teleported herself back into her seat, and smiled broadly at all three.

“Now, would anyone like anything before we start? Glass of water? Cocoa? Chocolates?”

“Cyanide capsule?” Daisy asked weakly.

“Sorry, fresh out. So! Lily, whenever you’re ready, why don’t you get started? For the first time through, just try and get out what you want to say. We’ll work on your confidence after that.”

Roseluck and Daisy looked at each other, then turned towards their sister, cocking their heads towards each other as they tried to figure out what Lily was going to say.

The pink pony across from them opened her mouth, but nothing came out beyond a high-pitched squeak.

“Okaaaaaay.” Starlight rubbed her hooves together, trying to think of how to encourage the earth pony.

”This would be so much easier if you just used your magic,” Starlight’s logical, straightforward, and utterly sociopathic side reminded her. Old Starlight, as she thought of her.

”No, Starlight, fixing your problems with mind control is wrong,” her conscience, a much smaller, squeakier, more plaintive presence in her mind reminded her.

”Oh come on, she wants to talk! It’s not like with Big Mac!”

Starlight opened her drawer and floated a chocolate up to her mouth, chewing on the candy and letting its empathy-cocoa-laced filling soak into her senses. Starlight’s conscience grew to twice the size of the Old Starlight in her mind. Old Starlight looked up as Starlight’s conscience cricked her neck.

”Not again!”

“Okay,” Starlight repeated after she’d swallowed. “Maybe if we tried using our words?”

“R-right. D-daisy? Rosie? I… I need to tell you both something.” Lily said after a few more abortive attempts. “I just hope you won’t think I’m disgusting after I tell you.” She tipped her head down, doing a remarkable impression of Fluttershy behind her blonde mane. Roseluck and Daisy looked at each other, and each nodded, leaning to put their hooves over Lily’s.

“It’s okay, sis,” Roseluck told her.

“I mean, as long as you’re not about to tell us you’re secretly a rabbit,” Daisy joked. “The horror!”

“The horror,” Lily joked back. “I… I’m sorry, Starlight, I can’t do this!”

Starlight smiled reassuringly and floated a piece of paper over to Lily.

“You didn’t think you could do this, either,” she said gently.

Lily took the page, and reread it for what was probably the thousandth time. She sniffed, wiping her teary eyes, and took a deep breath.

“I’ve gotta be able to say this,” she muttered to herself. “I can’t… it’s not fair to just give them a letter.”

“You are a rabbit, aren’t you?” Daisy deadpanned. Lily giggled, and looked up at her sisters.

“You two are really good. You’re just like them.”

All three earth ponies swallowed hard, and Lily sat up straight.

“Rosie, Daisy, I love you,” Lily said, occasionally glancing at her page to try and keep the words in her head that tried to hide from her. “Both of you, and I… I don’t just mean like sisters. You’re smart, you’re funny, you’re beautiful, and the three of us have been through everything together. Growing up, losing Mom and Dad, starting the flower stand? We’ve been through everything couples are supposed to do together, just the three of us, and somewhere….” Lily’s voice cracked as she shrugged helplessly. “Somewhere in there, I stopped ever wanting to be in one with anypony except the two of you. I-I’m sorry I’m so messed up, but I h-had to tell you, it’s driving me crazy wanting to say something, but I’ve been so scared you’d throw me out! I get that I’m sick and-”

“No, you’re not!” Roseluck interrupted fiercely, wiping her own eyes. “Oh Celestia… y-you’ve wanted to tell us this for how long?”

“A-about… uhm… six years,” Lily admitted, scuffing her hoof in the carpet before she suddenly realized what Roseluck was saying.

It clicked for Starlight just a few moments before, but she was too busy trying to stare a hole through her office door with her jaw practically on her desk to have stopped Lily if she’d wanted to.

Lily started trembling physically as what she’d done and said finally sank in.

“You’re… not really my sisters… are you?” She squeaked, shrinking down as small as she could in her seat.

Author's Note

Oh Starlight - this is why we make sure that the changelings we've hired actually are changelings first!