For about the past week, Sunset Shimmer had simply been going through the motions. She got up in the morning, went to school, hung out with her friends, went home, and went to sleep at night. None of these activities were unusual in any way, but there simply wasn’t any meaning in them anymore for Sunset. She felt that she no longer had a place in the world. She felt as though she existed outside of the world she lived in, like a ghost.
Perhaps the worst part of it all was that Sunset felt as though she was okay with dying. That’s not to say that she wanted to die, she simply felt that dying wouldn’t be so bad. She’d never given death much thought before, but now she thought about it a lot.
At this particular moment Sunset was sitting in her 4th period English class. She wasn’t paying attention to the teacher’s lesson however. No, she was once again locked within her own mind, contemplating her current state of being.
‘Why do I feel this way?’ Sunset thought. This was a question she’d been asking herself quite a bit lately. As of yet, she had no answer.
‘What could have caused this?’ Sunset continued to ask herself.
She’d gone over the events of the past few weeks over and over in the head, trying to pinpoint how and when these feelings first manifested. Alas, there was nothing she could think of that gave her any clear answer.
The bell rang as class ended and lunch began. Sunset made her way to the cafeteria and sat with her friends and their usual table. By all accounts, it was a fairly normal lunch period.
“And then, Daring Do swoops down and grabs the amulet from Caballeron’s hand just before he places it on the statue. It was so awesome!” Rainbow Dash was said, recounting the events of the Daring Do movie she had watched last night.
“We know Dash, you’ve only told us about it three times already.” Applejack commented in a deadpan voice.
“Well maybe if you guys showed some enthusiasm I wouldn’t have to keep telling you about it.” Rainbow replied.
“Well maybe if you had something of actual interest to say we’d be more enthused.” AJ quipped.
“Ooooohhhh, burn!” Pinkie Pie chimed in.
All he girls at the table started laughing, except for Sunset. Sunset simply gave a small smile and what could be construed as a light giggle at best. Only Twilight Sparkle seemed to notice this.
This wasn’t the first time Twilight had noticed Sunset acting strange. She’d first pick on it about a week ago, when Sunset came to school on Thursday morning. Upon inquiry, Sunset denied that anything was wrong, and Twilight dismissed her concerns. However, Sunset’s continued unusual state only raised them again.
After lunch had ended, Twilight caught up with Sunset in the hallway before their next classes.
“Sunset, is something wrong?” she asked her friend.
As Sunset heard Twilight’s question, her mind began to reel. On the one hand, she knew that she wasn’t feeling herself and wanted to tell someone. One the other hand, she didn’t want to burden her friend with her issues.
“Uh, no, not really,” Sunset answered, “Why do you ask, Twilight?”
“It’s just, you haven’t seemed yourself lately,” Twilight replied, “You don’t seem to want to hangout much anymore, and whenever we do hang out it’s like you’re not really there.”
It was obvious Twilight was aware, at least to some degree, of Sunset’s depressed state, but she continued to keep up the charade of normality.
“I fine, Twilight, I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately.” Sunset said. A not entirely untrue statement, but one Sunset delivered nonchalantly and with a plastic smile.
Twilight could tell there was more weight to Sunset’s words than she was letting on.
“Sunset, I know you. I know whatever’s going on is bigger than your telling me,” Twilight pressed. “Please Sunset, just talk to me.” She continued as she placed her hand on her friend’s shoulder.
Sunset flinched involuntarily at the physical contact. Twilight pulled her hand back and a look of genuine concern crossed her face.
“I have to go.” Sunset said as she ran down the hallway before Twilight could say anything further.
Twilight didn’t run after Sunset. She simply stood in the hallway trying to wrap her head around what had just happened. Sunset had never acted this way around her before.
Not knowing what else to do, Twilight took out her phone and texted the rest of her friends to meet her at Sugarcube Corner after school, without Sunset.
After school had ended, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie were all gathered at Sugarcube Corner.
“So, what’s this about Twilight?” Applejack inquired.
“I’d rather not say until we’re all here.” Twilight replied, somewhat sheepishly.
Just then, Rainbow Dash entered the sweetshop and took a seat next to Fluttershy.
“Sorry I’m late. What’s this all about?” Rainbow asked.
“And why didn’t you want Sunset to be here?” Rarity added.
Twilight took a deep breath before answering. She didn’t like talking about her friends behind their backs like this, but she didn’t feel she had any other choice if she wanted to help Sunset.
“I’m not sure if you’ve all noticed, but Sunset has been acting like herself the last few days,” Twilight began, “She seems very distant, even when she’s with us.”
The group of girls thought back to the various events of the last week, trying to focus on Sunset. Fluttershy remembered noticing Sunset zoning out during History class, believing at the time it to be simple daydreaming. Pinkie remembered Sunset declining an offer to bake cookies without giving any reason why. All of them could pinpoint at least one moment when Sunset had acted peculiar.
“Okay, so Sunset’s been a little off recently. It doesn’t mean anything is necessarily wrong with her.” Rainbow commented.
“I thought that too,” Twilight responded, “but when I asked Sunset after lunch if she was alright she backed away from me and ran off.”
All the others looked at Twilight with expressions of both awe and confusion, almost as if they didn’t believe what Twilight had just said.
“That doesn’t sound like Sunset at all.” Pinkie finally said.
“That’s what I’m saying. Something’s wrong with Sunset and she won’t say what,” Twilight went on, “I’m not sure what to do though. How do you help someone when they won’t even tell you what the problem is?”
The group sat in silence for about a minute. They all understood what Twilight was saying and wanted to help their friend, but this was a tricky and difficult situation.
“Maybe…” Fluttershy began to say.
“Yes, Fluttershy?” Rarity said.
“Maybe Sunset is depressed.” Fluttershy finished.
“Depressed? Come on, depression just a fancy psychological term for feeling sad.” Rainbow retorted.
“No, it’s not,” Twilight replied, “Depression is a very real mental illness. It affects how a person thinks, feels, and even behaves. Some people with depression just feel sad, but some can become angry, loss interest in normal, everyday activities, or even attempt suicide.”
Everyone at the table gave an audible gasp when Twilight mentioned suicide.
“Sunset is exhibiting many of the symptoms of depression. How did I not realize it sooner?” Twilight said, a twinge of guilt in her voice.
“It’s alright, Twi,” Applejack reassured her friend, “The important thing is that we know what’s got Sunset all a flutter.”
“But how can we help her?” Rarity chimed in, “It seems like anytime someone tries to confront her about this she just runs away from it.”
“We could throw her a party!” Pinkie suggested.
“I don’t think that’ll work Pinkie,” Applejack said, “Sunset probably wouldn’t even accept the invitation.”
“Aw.” Pinkie dejected.
“I say we just make her talk to us,” Rainbow brazenly suggested, “Get her in a place she can’t run away from and make her.”
“No, we have to be careful in dealing with this.” Twilight stressed, “We can’t just force her talk to us, that could make things worse.”
“So what do we do?” Fluttershy asked.
Silence returned once more to the table.
“I think,” Twilight began to say about a minute, “I think the best thing we can do is just talk to her. Not corner her,” she continued as she looked over at Rainbow, “but just talk to her. Let her know that we think we know what’s bothering her and that we’re here for her.”
“Do you really think that will work?” Rarity asked.
“I don’t know, but I think it’s worth a shot if we all do it together.” Twilight answered.
All the girls gave a nod in agreement.
“Okay,” Twilight said “We should do this as soon as possible. Sunset’s probably at home right now, I say we go to her apartment and try to talk to her.”
Again, all the girls nodded in agreement and got up from their table to head to Sunset’s apartment.
Sunset was once again just sitting in her living room doing nothing. There were plenty of things she could have been doing, like playing video games or practicing her guitar, but she didn’t feel like doing anything.
It had been like this for about the past week. Sunset just spent her days just passing the time, not really doing anything of value or importance. She mostly just absentmindedly watched TV or some cat videos on the internet. She knew that this wasn’t what anyone would consider living, but she didn’t feel much alive at all these days. She just found various, mundane ways to kill time until it was time for bed.
Right now, Sunset was watching a show about a slightly annoying know-it-all who went around ruining things for people. It was educational and mildly entertaining, but to Sunset all it was was something to whittle away the hours. She was in the middle of an episode where the know-it-all host was explaining how the suburbs aren’t all that great when she heard a knock on her front door.
“Sunset?” Came Twilight Sparkle’s voice from the other side.
Sunset didn’t really want to talk to anymore at the moment, but she didn’t want to be rude and ignore her friend either.
“I’m kind of busy right now, Twilight.” She lied, “Can whatever this is wait until tomorrow?”
“Sunset? It’s all of us.” The voice now belonging to Applejack.
With the realization that all of her friends were at her door, sunset turned the TV off and made her way to the front door but didn’t open it.
“What are you all doing her?” she asked.
“We’re worried about you, darling.” Rarity spoke up.
“We know you’re hurting inside and we want to help.” Pinkie then said.
Sunset could feel her chest clenching up.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She said.
“I think you do,” Twilight said, “I think you know that something’s wrong but you don’t want to admit it.”
The tenseness in Sunset’s chest only got tighter, so much so that she sat down on the floor with her back against the door.
“I…I don’t want to talk about this.” She pleaded.
Despite Sunset’s words, Twilight could sense reluctance in them. Deep down, Sunset did want to talk about it, or at the very least, she wanted someone to reach out a hand and help her.
“Okay, then just listen.” Twilight said softly, “We want to help you. We care about you, Sunset. We don’t want to see you feeling this way. We don’t know what exactly it is your feeling or why you’re feeling it, but we know it isn’t good to just let it continue.” Tears started to form in the corners of her eyes as she continued, “Please Sunset, let us help you. We don’t want to see this turn into something that will make you hurt yourself.”
“We’re here for you, Sunset.” Fluttershy interjected, tears beginning to form in her eyes as well.
Sunset simply sat on the floor as she listened to her friend’s words. She felt so sad, so hopeless. She wanted to get up, open the door, and throw herself into the supportive arms of her friends, but she simply couldn’t find the strength to do so. Soon enough, tears of her own started to flow.
“Sunset!” Rainbow Dash practically yelled, “Whatever’s going on with you, you can beat it. You know why? Because you’re awesome! You’re the most awesome person I know,” She continued, trying to keep her composure as tears flowed down her cheeks, “And the Sunset I know wouldn’t give up so easily. She’d fight, and she’d have to courage to admit when she needed help.”
At this point, Rainbow was almost a complete mess as Twilight put her hand on her shoulder to calm her down.
“You’re not alone Sunset, and you never will be.” Rainbow managed to finish saying.
Everyone had tears in their eyes after hearing Rainbow’s speech, some to choked up to say anything further.
The silence that followed felt like an eternity. No one knew what to say or do.
That is, until, the sound a door knob unlocking was heard and Sunset’s front door slowly opened. As soon as the group of girls saw their friend standing in the doorway with tears in her eyes, they rushed over and gave Sunset the biggest hug they could.
“I…I don’t k-know what’s wrong w-with me,” Sunset managed to say between her sobs, “b-but I need help.”
“It’s okay, Sunset.” Twilight softly spoke, “It’s okay.”
About two week later, Sunset Shimmer was walking through the halls of Canterlot High on a bright and sunny morning. She went to her locker to collect her books for morning classes when Twilight Sparkle came up to her.
“Morning, Sunset.” Twilight greeted.
“Morning, Twilight.” Sunset replied.
“How are you feeling today?” Twilight asked.
Sunset was about to answer with ‘Okay, I guess’ but paused for a moment.
“To be honest, not too great.” She said instead with a quiet yet solemn tone, “I had another episode last night and it kind of shook me up a bit.”
Twilight immediately pulled Sunset into a warm and supportive hug.
“I’m so sorry, Sunset. Is there anything I can do to help?” she inquired.
“Thanks, Twi, but it’s alright. I called Dr. Loomis and he was able to help me calm down. I’m just still a little rattled from it is all.” Sunset answered as she returned the hug, a small smile beginning to form on her face. Dr. Loomis was the psychologist Sunset had started seeing to address her issues.
“I’m proud of you, Sunset.” Twilight said as she broke the hug, “I’m glad you’re getting the help you need.”
Sunset’s smile only grew bigger after hearing Twilight’s words.
“I couldn’t have done it without my friends.” Sunset admitted.
And with that the bell for first period rang. The girls headed to their classes, and Sunset went about her day with hope in her heart.
Author's Note
If you ever feel depressed, don't be afraid to reach out to your friends. I can tell you from experience, it does help.
Thank you for reading.
