Broken and Rebuilt

After Starlight Glimmer brought up Twilight knowing the truth when it came to the human world, his curiosity had increased significantly. He wasn't quite sure about how Twilight would react to him wanting to see if it was true but decided to give her a call to see if he could pay her a visit. He looked up her number and decided to take the chance of calling her, hoping she would answer. After a couple of rings somepony picked up,

"Hello this is Princess Twilight Sparkle, who is this?"

"This is Doctor Clear Mind at The Manehattan Behavioral Health Institute and I have some questions regarding Starlight Glimmer."

"Oh, and what are those"

"While I was talking to Starlight so that I could properly diagnose her, she brought up this world of humans. Now I think that she is living in an alternate reality, she brought you up and how you could prove to me that she is telling the truth."

"I figured she would and for you to learn the truth, you will need to travel to Ponyville."

"That is what I was thinking. I am wondering if I could come and see if she is speaking the truth."

"Yes you can and I would advise you come right away. I don't want my friend being locked up there any longer than necessary."

"Alright, I will get on the next train to Ponyville."

"Very well. Come to the castle when you arrive."

"Alright, you have a good day Princess."

"Likewise"

*CLICK*

After getting off the phone with Clear Mind, Twilight figured she would let Sunset know. She was in the throne room when Twilight addressed her, "Well Sunset, we will be having company later."

"Oh and who is that?" Sunset questioned.

"It is Dr. Clear Mind. He apparently wants to see if what Starlight is telling him is true. He said something about getting ready to diagnose Starlight but needs to know if what she is saying is true."

This caused Sunset to become a bit optimistic, "So when he finds out that she isn't lying about the humans, do you think he will let her go? Do you think we will get to go home?"

Twilight replied, "Sunset, she has a lot of things going on so I highly doubt he will just release her." She gave her a more stern look and continued, "And what did I say about Starlight going back to the human world? I know that she won't want to and I don't think it would be in her best interests. Going back and being without her magic could cause her to break entirely if it isn't too late already."

Sunset began to sob quietly, "I know, I know. It is just that I miss her a lot, I miss us holding each other close, I miss her companionship and I miss us....."

"You don't need to go into that Sunset. As a pony, Starlight may not have that love for you. She was extremely close with Trixie and if Trixie would still want to be friends with her, she could go back to being the one she wants to spend time with the most."

Hearing the name Trixie made Sunset sigh in frustration. She knew how close they were as ponies and deep down she knew that Twilight was right. She sighed, "You might be right but if she still wants to be with me, I'd be willing to come visit her on a regular basis."

Twilight shook her head, "Sunset, I can't help but wonder if being with you won't cause all those memories to stay with her and she'll never heal and even if that wasn't the case and the love was still there, she would probably want you to move to Equestria and return to being a pony full time. I don't know if you truly want that because I know how accustomed you are to being a human."

Sunset took what Twilight said into consideration and realized she was right, "Twilight, chances are you are right. I have nothing here in Equestria and so much in the human world. I love Starlight but if us not being together is what will be best, I will accept that."

Sunset then headed upstairs to her room to seek some solitude. She knew Twilight spoke the truth but she then began to think about what it would be like staying in Equestria. She sat there for several hours contemplating the good and the bad of each. She then changed her mind, "If Starlight still loves me, I'll stay here in Equestria. If not, I'll go home."

Eight hours after Twilight's conversation with Dr. Clear Mind, there was a knock on the castle door. Twilight answered it and saw a unicorn in a white lab coat. She gave him a slight frown and asked, "Dr. Clear Mind I take it?"

"Yes," he replied "Starlight brought up how you could prove the existence of this human world." His voice became more snide as he continued, "I don't know how you'll do it but we shall see."

Twilight began to head up the stairs and ordered, "Follow me."

Once they got upstairs Twilight knocked on Sunset's door and said, "We have company, I need you right now."

Sunset came out and noticed the unicorn that was with Twilight. Given his name badge and the way he was dressed, she figured that he was likely the psychiatrist that was "caring" for Starlight. She grunted, "So you're the one holding my girlfriend captive against her will?"

Clear Mind replied, "I'm not holding her against her will. She is a threat to herself, she is a threat to everypony else and until I see this human world, I will be convinced she is living in an alternate reality."

Twilight motioned for the two to follow her into her chambers. When they arrived, Clear Mind was the first thing to say anything, "What is that thing?"

Twilight activated it, pointed her wing towards it and ordered, "Follow us and you'll see what it is."

He followed the two and was wondering what was going on as they flew through a portal of swirling colors. When they came out on the other side, he could hardly believe his eyes. Rather than having hooves, he had hands and feet. Before trying to get up he gasped, "Wait a minute, this place IS real? Starlight isn't living in an alternate reality?"

Sunset replied, "No she isn't now I think you should release her now that you know this."

Clear Mind asked, "I do want to know other things though. I want to know if her cutting herself here is legit. I want to know if this relationship she spoke about is real."

Sunset replied, "Follow me to my house and you'll see that she isn't lying about anything, then you'll have to free her."

Sunset led the other two to her house. Sunset was not very happy that the psychiatrist was wanting to see everything. She knew it would be hard enough on her returning to the place where her and Starlight had made so many wonderful, bonding memories but to show a complete stranger the blood stains, it made it all the harder on her.

When they arrived at Sunset's house, she unlocked the door and they headed in. Sunset wanted to hurry up and get it over and done with. Once they got to their bedroom, she picked up the scissors she had thrown out and saw that they were stained with blood. Clear Mind saw them and asked, "Can I take a look at those?"

Sunset sighed as she handed them to him. He saw that the blades were covered in blood. She then lead him into the bathroom where there were blood stains all over the place. Seeing it was too much for Sunset though as she soon rushed into their bedroom, plopped down on the bed her and Starlight shared and began crying loudly. She knew why Starlight did what she did but then began to question herself. She began to wonder if maybe she hadn't done enough to prevent Starlight from breaking.

As Clear Mind was looking around in the bathroom at all the blood stains, things began to become much clearer for him. Seeing that amount of blood caused him to realize that outside of the human thing being real, that Starlight was in much worse shape than he had initially thought. He didn't realize that the number of cuts she had would release that much blood. When he left the bathroom he began, "Twilight, Sunset, this is not good. This is not good at all."

Sunset was crying in agony while Twilight did her best to keep her composure. She asked, "Oh?"

Clear Mind replied, "Judging by the amount of her own blood she spilled, she is a bigger threat to herself than I thought." He paused for a moment and continued, "And chances are she is a bigger threat to others than I initially thought as well."

Twilight asked, "So what now?"

Clear Mind replied, "Well I would like to see some evidence of this relationship. Anypony could just cut themselves up like that for no real reason."

Sunset had calmed down somewhat and first showed him pictures of them together hanging on the wall, with them clinging together in every single one of them. She then pulled out a photo album with a heart on it that read Sunset + Starlight = TLA Forever.

Much to Sunset's displeasure, he grabbed it from her and began to look at it. She tried to grab it back and yelled, "Give that back now! There are pictures in there that no one should be seeing, especially not some stranger."

Clear Mind held it up out of her reach before resuming looking at it. The first images were completely benign, ones of them at a sweets' shop with their friends. Then he ran across some where they were at the beach in revealing bikinis, holding one another close and kissing. He then ran across ones of them modeling lingerie while groping one another and kissing. In the very middle of the album he ran across ones that caused him to wonder what kind of relationship the two truly had. Some of them were of them completely nude with their bodies pressed together and they were kissing. The last ones he was able to see were of them doing unspeakable things together, ones that made him think that Sunset may need mental help as well.

When Sunset was finally able to grab the album away from him, he looked like he had seen a ghost. Sunset started pointing in his face and yelled, "You bastard, how could you just think you have the right to look at my most private pictures."

Clear Mind snapped out of it and replied, "Look, I'm sorry but now I think I can more properly diagnose Starlight but I do want to ask you this, "Do you two have some sort of fetish of being watched while you're doing things like this?"

Sunset shoved him and yelled, "That is none of your fucking business. You're nothing more than a sick pervert."

Despite being shoved, Clear Mind couldn't help but throw in a snide comment, "I'm guessing you two are probably on video too."

Sunset slapped him and yelled, "You bastard, you sick bastard." She pointed towards the door and continued, "Twilight, I can't handle being around him anymore. Could you take him back to Equestria?"

Twilight replied, "Yes I can but what about you? Don't you want to come back too in the event he will let you see Starlight?"

Sunset replied, "Yeah....."

Clear Mind interrupted, "Well given the danger she poses to everypony I doubt she'll be allowed to leave any time soon and right now, it is too dangerous for her to have visitors. Until she is no longer a threat, she will remain in our care."

This frustrated Sunset and Twilight a lot, Sunset especially though. She turned to Twilight and asked, "So with that being the case, do you still want me to come back?"

Twilight replied, "Of course I do. I know how hard being here alone is going to be on you."

Clear Mind suggested, "Now how about we go back so I can get back to Manehattan and make my diagnoses for Starlight."

The two sighed in frustration and the three headed back towards the portal, once they had crossed through it and were back in Equestria, Clear Mind knew that he had better not make any kind of comments or do anything that may upset either one of the ponies that were with him. As he began to head towards the exit Twilight asked, "So are you going to let us know about what her diagnosis will be?"

Clear Mind replied, "Whatever her diagnoses will be, that is classified information that can only be shared with her and that won't be until we are completely sure that is the right one."

He knew that the two were likely going to try and hold him up so he quickly rushed out of the castle and headed to the train station. So many things were running through his mind over what he saw in the human world but given the pictures he had seen, he knew that Starlight had some sort of serious problem that simply doesn't happen with ponies, a problem that would have to be addressed.