Broken and Rebuilt

Upon returning to Manehattan, Dr. Clear Mind decided that he would approach Starlight over everything that he had learned when he visited the human world, especially the behavior that was unheard of in Equestria. He wanted to see if the behavior was just something she was into or if it was a general human thing.

When he arrived in her room, she gave him a scowl. He approached her but was careful not to touch her. "Well Starlight," he began "I have some good news! Princess Twilight proved to me that you are not living in an alternate reality that you created in your mind."

Starlight asked, "Oh?"

Clear Mind began, "Yes. She, this pony named Sunset Shimmer and Twilight took me through this mirror to the world of humans. I also saw the scene of where you cut yourself and I do have concerns that you may attempt to harm yourself further if I released you or if you may try to harm others."

Starlight began to struggle to get out of her bonds and yelled, "Oh I'll hurt somepony if I get free and he certainly won't like it!" She then attempted to blow the horn cap off and added, "And if I can blow this off, somepony will have an equals sign cutie mark."

Clear Mind knew who Starlight was talking about and continued, "And that is why I don't think you are anywhere near being ready to be released, despite you not living in an alternate reality." He gave her a slight smile and added, "I don't know if it is just a human thing or you are even worse off than I thought but I discovered things that even surprised me."

"Oh?" Starlight asked again.

"I wanted proof of this relationship that you and Sunset had so she let me see pictures in the photo album you two had and sweet mother of Faust, both of you need serious help!"

This sent Starlight into a fury. Her eyes began to shine white as she yelled, "What? She let you look at our most private pictures?"

Clear Mind knew that he should not have looked at the pictures in the middle of the album but given that Sunset got the album out, he figured that he could tell a lie and cause her anger to go from being directed at him to being directed at Sunset. He replied, "Yes, she handed me this photo album that had your names on it and had no issues with me looking at them."

Starlight began trying to blow the horn cap off again and yelled, "Ugh, when I get my hooves on her, I'm breaking her horn off and shoving it up her ass!"

Given the amount of sparks that were flying out of the base of her horn, the doctor was actually afraid that she might actually succeed. He yelled, "Bring in a horn cap! We're going to need it."

The very fact that he was calling out for that send Starlight into a fury. She began yanking on the bonds harder and harder until she broke free. While she was furious at Sunset, she was furious with Clear Mind for actually looking at the photos. Once she broke free, she launched herself at him and began slamming him up against the wall face first in an attempt to break his horn off.

As she continued to slam him into the wall she yelled, "When I break that off, I'll do to you what I plan on doing to Sunset."

Clear Mind again yelled, "I need somepony in here, this patient must be restrained!"

That was enough to cause Starlight's rage to build enough that with one burst of energy, she blew the horn cap to pieces. She then ripped the doctor's cutie mark off of him. Just as she was getting ready to teleport out of the hospital, she found herself grabbed in multiple auras. Despite her struggling, Clear Mind was able to get a stronger cap put on her horn. Starlight continued to struggle trying to get out of the others' auras but couldn't do enough to get out of them. Finally they had no choice but to sedate her.

The whole experience terrified not just Clear Mind, but the whole staff. They knew that Starlight was stronger than other unicorns given that she was able to shatter a horn cap. The horn caps they had there were stronger than the ones that general hospitals have so he could only hope that this one would be enough.

Twenty-four hours had passed and Starlight was finally starting to come to. When Clear Mind was notified of this, he decided that he would attempt to get more information out of her. He was pretty sure on one diagnosis but he wanted to know other things, things that may aid him in at least a second diagnosis. When he went into her room, despite her still being a bit woozy, a hateful glare formed on her face.

"Well Starlight," he began "I think I am able to diagnose you with one thing but there is more than I must do."

A growl formed in Starlight's voice, "Ugh, what is that?"

Clear Mind asked, "Ok, about those pictures I saw. Is that a human thing or did you ever do that as a pony or did you ever have any desires to do that as a pony?"

Starlight began to struggle but noticed that she had been secured more than she was before. When the doctor saw this he continued, "Starlight, if you will simply cooperate with us and lose this rage and desire to harm others, you might not be deemed a threat anymore. You might not have to be secured like this anymore."

Despite wanting nothing more than to make Clear Mind wish he had never been born, Starlight realized that cooperating would be in her best interests. She replied, "It has to be a human thing because before I went over there, I didn't know such activities existed."

Clear Mind then decided to try and go into things further, "I do have a question, did these activities ever become stressful for you?"

Starlight replied, "Actually yes, they did. A couple weeks before it was the one year anniversary of me going to the human world, I grew to dread the intimacy. I grew to where I hated it and it became harder and harder to pretend that I loved it."

Clear Mind knew about how Starlight had been yelling at ponies for touching her, "Is that part of the reason that you don't want ponies touching you? Is it because any kind of touch brings back memories of that much touching."

Starlight's mood changed suddenly. She began to sob, "Yes. I got to where I hated being touched when I finally cut myself and that carried over to when I came back and became a unicorn again. I'm so afraid somepony is going to force me into something like that."

He then decided to bring something else up, things that would help him further. He said, "What would you do if I was to tell you that you that Twilight was going to force you to go back to the human world with Sunset?"

Starlight's facial expression changed and her mood changed again. She began to scream, "No, no, no! I won't do it! I refuse to do it! I don't want that again! Twilight can't force me to do that!" Her yell became even more fearful, "I'd choose Tartarus over that! Anything but going with Sunset, anything!"

One thing that did not really surprise Clear Mind was that the sexual side of things was solely a human activity since he had never heard of ponies engaging in such activities but it was clear that physical touch did bring back unpleasant memories and the very thoughts of having to go with Sunset terrified her.

He could tell that the very idea of that was filling her with traumatizing fear. He then wanted to know more about what else may have been going on in the human world, particularly in the time leading up to the cutting event. He asked, "Were there any changes in your behavior leading up to the cutting incident?"

Starlight replied, "Yes, I didn't enjoy activities that I used to love. I didn't interact with others as much. When Sunset and I would go to see our friends, I wasn't as talkative. I didn't want to even cuddle with Sunset and often times we didn't during the day. I tried to keep my skin covered so I wouldn't feel her touching me as much unless she guilt tripped me. Long story short, I went from loving life to despising it. There were times I just wanted to hide and with the cutting episode, I did it to replace the emotional pain with the physical pain."

Clear Mind said, "Well I would like to thank you for providing me with this. There is another thing that I need you to do, I need you to do an ink blot test so that I can be completely sure."

Starlight was not thrilled over having to do this as she had already answered a lot of questions but figured that if she did this, that maybe she would at least not be restrained so much. She sighed, "Very well."

Clear Mind left her room for a few minutes and would then return with the cards. He placed them in a stack in front of Starlight and asked, "Alright, I want you to tell me what you see here."

Starlight looked at the card for roughly twenty seconds and then replied, "I see two unicorns standing triumphantly over a human they had killed. The unicorn on the left has planted a spear into the human's chest and it is bleeding."

Dr. Clear Mind began to write down what she said and then moved on to the next one, "And what do you see here?"

Starlight again looked at the card for not too long and replied, "I see a unicorn impaling a human with its horn." She pointed her hoof to the right of the card and continued, "And this is blood pouring out of the human."

Clear Mind wrote that down and moved on to the next one and asked, "What about this one?"

Starlight replied, "In this one a unicorn is leaning down and is biting the neck of a human open to eat it."

Clear Mind wrote that down and presented her with one more, "What do you see here?"

Starlight took a look at it and replied, "This one shows a unicorn blasting Twilight's mirror apart with its magic."

Clear Mind wrote that down and then took the cards. He said, "Thank you Starlight, this will help me in not only diagnosing you but coming up with a treatment plan for you."

Starlight grunted, "Whatever."

Clear Mind then headed to his office to make his diagnoses but didn't want them to be based off of just a few days of being around her, especially given that she had to be sedated once for a full day. He did know though that Starlight likely wouldn't be able to be released right away. He knew that her reaching a point where she would be ready was a ways away and even then, that being around ponies from her immediate past may be detrimental to her recovery.