Twilight's Tough Decisions

Starlight woke up from her bed in Twilight's castle to the sight of the sun rising. She had a very restful sleep so she could better plan for today.

After laying in bed for a while longer, she finally got up to head to the bathroom. She took a shower and brushed her teeth before heading downstairs to start making herself breakfast. She decided to make some pancakes because it was pretty simple and wouldn't take too long. As soon as she plated her finished pancakes, she filled herself a glass of water to accompany it. She then sat down to enjoy her breakfast while thinking about how she was going to handle today.

Hopefully, Rainbow comes back soon with Twilight's approval to letting me use the machine. I really need Sunset to come over. Ever since that one time that we've met, it was an amazing experience. She was always a great pony to talk to whenever you needed help with something. I guess in the otherworld, they would be something else. What about Trixie? I need her to be here as well. Her past with Twilight wasn't a very pleasant experience, but I'm sure she would be perfectly fine helping Twilight since it's been years since that incident. Trixie and Twilight are good friends now after all.

Once Starlight got finished with her breakfast, she bought both finished items over to the sink. She then decided to go head to the front door and see if Rainbow would be near. She opened the door to look for a flying pegasus, but there was none to be seen.

After a few minutes of waiting, she went back inside and shut the door, letting out a sigh. Well, maybe she'll come later. It is still morning after all, and I know Rainbow isn't a morning pony.

She went back to her room and decided to leave the door open just incase she heard a knock.

She chose to rest some more and continued to make her plan. How should she start talking? When would be a good time? How would they handle this?

She let out another big sigh and waited for the pegasus to arrive with the good news, hopefully.

Rainbow Dash slowly woke up from a restful night of sleep, only to find that she wasn't holding anypony. She opened her eyes to find that she was the only pony in the bed. She looked around for her marefriend and saw that Twilight happened to be sitting on the floor next to her bed, meditating. Rainbow smiled at how eager she was to get up and start the meditating session. Rainbow just stayed silent and watched. She didn't want to interrupt her meditating session with the noise of getting up or talking.

Twilight then opened her eyes and started to move to get up. As she turned around, she saw Rainbow looking at her with a smiling face. "Hey, Twilight," Rainbow said when she was spotted.

Twilight smiled that her marefriend had just woken up. "Good morning, Rainbow. I just finished my meditation. I had no nightmares last night. I feel very calm right now. I had another really amazing sleep last night. I think the meditating helped."

Rainbow then remembered to ask Twilight if Starlight could use the portal. She had forgotten to ask her last night. "Well, I'm glad to be hearing that. By the way, Starlight wanted to ask me if she could use the portal in your castle. She said she wanted to call over a friend from the other world to help give more advice."

Twilight smiled at the request. More help? Of course she would allow it. "Sure thing. Starlight can use the portal whenever she wants, as long as nothing bad happens to it."

Rainbow quickly got up after hearing what she needed to hear. The sooner she gave this information to the unicorn, the faster everything will go. "Thanks, Twi. I'll go tell her right away. Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back," Rainbow finished with a wink towards her marefriend before heading out to tell the needed information.

Twilight was a little confused. Wait, what was the wink for? Twilight then brushed it aside, not thinking it was a huge deal and went to get some food and maybe get some reading done before her marefriend came back.

Starlight was still lying on her bed while reading one of Twilight's random books that she found in her library. As soon as she was about to close the book out of boredom, she heard several knocks coming from the front door. She quickly got up to walk over to the door and open it, seeing Rainbow. "Hi, Rainbow," Starlight happily said.

"Hey, Star. I asked Twilight this morning if you could use the portal and she said yes."

The news made Starlight happy. "Wow, that's great. Is there anything else?"

Rainbow just shook her head.

"Alright then. I'm going to go ahead and get started. Thanks for telling me, Rainbow."

The cyan pegasus just gave a thanks before taking off again. It was now time for Starlight to finally get started.

She had planned to call over Trixie first. Once she was here, she would write in Twilight's book to Sunset. If she was available to come over, great. If not, then it will just have to be either talking alone with Trixie, or talking with Sunset through the book. She really wasn't a fan of doing that.

Starlight headed out to Ponyville in search for her magician friend. After a while of searching, she found her ordering some cinnamon nuts. The memories of bottling up her anger weren't pleasant.

She walked up to her friend with a smile. "Hey, Trixie. Are you available today?"

Trixie looked back at the pony talking to her and smiled immediately upon a glance at her best friend. "Oh, Starlight! I didn't expect to see you looking for me. And yes, I am available today. What do you need me for?"

Starlight just chuckled a little at her friends enthusiasm. Trixie was definitely a different kind of pony than her other friends, but she loved her a lot. "It's something about Twilight. It's really important."

Trixie nodded with a smile. "Okay, Starlight. Let's go fix whatever problem Twilight might have and go on our way. It shouldn't be too difficult that the great and powerful Trixie can't do."

Starlight rolled her eyes sarcastically at her friend's words as they both started to walk back to the castle. "I'm sure you're going to have to put in a lot more effort than you might think. Trust me, Twilight is going to thank you."

Once they both got into the castle, they headed their way towards Twilight's room where Starlight found the book she needed. She picked it up with her magic and began to write on an empty page with a quill that she dipped in ink.

Dear Sunset Shimmer,

I am writing this message to you in need of extra help for our friend, Twilight, and really need some advice and help for her. She's been going through some hard times recently. I really hope you can make it. If not, that's okay. But if possible, please do so. It would really mean the world to Twilight.

Sincerely, Starlight Glimmer

As she closed the book, Trixie was curious as to was Starlight was doing and asked. "Um, Starlight? Why are you writing in a book? I thought we were going to discuss something about Twilight."

Starlight looked over to her friend and gave her a warm smile. "We are. Writing in this book allows communication to the other world that goes through this portal."

Trixie was now really confused by this point. "What do you mean the other world that goes through this portal? How can you communicate with this book?"

Starlight realized that she was going to have to a lot of explaining to do since Trixie has never seen this before.

"In the other world, they are different creatures. Going though that portal to their world changes your body entirely. Going through that portal to this world makes you a pony. The creature I'm trying to communicate to using this book is called, Sunset Shimmer. She's really good at giving advice. I'm calling her in to help us with Twilight."

Trixie seemed to get the idea. She was still a little confused since this was strange to her. Having two different worlds and two different creatures passing through the portal and changing your body shape was very strange.

"Well, okay Starlight. I'll take your word on it. I'll just have to see for myself when she comes through."

Starlight then saw the light from the book glowing and quickly opened it to the page that she saw was being written in.

Dear Starlight Glimmer,

I am very pleased that you asked me for help. I don't really have anything to do at the moment and would be honored to come over to give advice. Twilight has done a lot for both of us and the least we could do is help her out with whatever is going on. I'll be there in about four minutes. See you soon.

Sincerely, Sunset Shimmer

Starlight smiled to the fact that Sunset was actually able to come over. It looked like everything was going well from the start. Twilight okayed for her to use the portal. Her best friend was over to help Twilight and spend time with. Sunset was available to come over. This was nothing short of perfect.

A couple of minutes later after the two unicorns were having small talk, the portal in the room started to glow brightly, indicating that a pony was just about to come through. A few seconds later, a fiery-maned pony appeared through the portal standing on her hind hooves before falling over and landed on all fours. Starlight saw this and finally took the opportunity to greet the unicorn while Trixie was just staring in shock.

"Hey, Sunset!" Starlight said before running over to embrace the pony in a tight hug.

Sunset took the moment to get settled in. "Hello, Starlight. It's good to see you here. We haven't seen each other in a while, ever since that one time you came over," Sunset said as she returned the hug. Starlight's hug was a little tight, but she didn't mind.

As they stood there hugging for a bit, Sunset looked around the room and her eyes stumbled upon the shocked pony looking at her and smiled. "Oh, Starlight. Who's this?"

Starlight unwrapped herself from Sunset to turn back and see her looking at Trixie. "Oh, that's another one of my friends from this world. Her name is Trixie. I told her about you from the other world. She was shocked when I explained everything to her and it looks like she's still in shock just by seeing you."

Starlight smirked before leaning into Sunset and said with a whisper, "I've always knew you were an attractive pony."

Sunset's eyes went wide before smirking back to her friend and gave small whisper. "What can I say? I'm good at what I do. I think this Trixie might be similar to the Trixie in the other world. I can already see it right now from her face."

Both unicorns laughed it off before making their way towards the center of the library to greet Trixie.

"Hello there. Trixie, was it? I'm Sunset Shimmer." The fiery-pony held a hoof out for the blue shaded unicorn to shake.

Trixie snapped out of what she was doing and returned to what was happening right in front of her. She held out her hoof to accept the hoof shake. "Oh hello, Sunset. It's so nice to meet you. My friend, Starlight, over here has been telling me how amazing you are. But the real question is, are you better than the great and powerful Trixie?"

Trixie finished by raising her other hoof and throwing down one of her smoke bombs. The ponies ended up in a coughing fit for a few seconds before Starlight spoke again. "Don't worry, Sunset. Trixie tends to do that a lot. You'll get used to it."

Sunset just smiled lovingly back at her friend before remember why she came back to Equestria in the first place."Well anyways, you called me over to talk about Twilight?"

Starlight then got back into the mode. "Oh, that's right. We should get started right now. Let's go sit down at seats."

They soon made their way over to the seats in the library. After they each had one, Starlight started the serious conversation.

"Okay, so I bought both of you here to talk about something that's been going on with Twilight. I was walking by to the kitchen to grab a snack. As I was walking by the throne room, I heard a conversation going on with the five other ponies that were Twilight's closest friends. There wasn't much I heard before they got finished and started to walk out, but I heard Rainbow say that Twilight was having nightmares recently. Starting from Sunday, she was feeling down when Rainbow came over to talk to her. There were a lot of moments that she was crying and Rainbow had to be there. They were giving advice on how to calm her down and cope with this. I asked Rainbow if I could bring in some extra ponies to help talk about this with and she agreed. So this is where we are right now."

Hearing this made Trixie put on a sad face. "Well, that does does seem pretty serious," Trixie said softly with worry in her voice.

Sunset on the other hand had a completely different expression. Starlight noticed this and immediately got worried. "Um, Sunset? Is there something you'd like to tell us?"

Trixie looked over at Sunset as well and got just as scared at Starlight. Sunset was having the facial expression you would have when you know something is going to happen that is anything but good. She was in complete shock and couldn't think correctly. "I-I-I c-can't. No w-way."

This worried Trixie and Starlight to the bones. "Um, Sunset? What is it?" Sunset took off from her seat and started running out of the room while shouting at the two other unicorns. "I'll be back! I just need a second to absorb all of this information!"

As the door closed behind her, she stayed out in the hall for a few minutes to collect her thoughts and take deep breaths.

The two other unicorns the stared at each other in silence before Trixie spoke up with a worried expression. "What w-was that?"

The other unicorn just looked down and quietly responded. "I-I don't know. I think we should wait until she comes back before continuing." The blue unicorn just nodded in agreement and they both waited.

Meanwhile, Sunset was having racing thoughts.

Please don't say this is heading where I think it's heading. Started from last Sunday. Crying a lot. Having constant nightmares. No. This, this can't be happening. Please don't be real. I remember last time I went evil and almost took over Canterlot High. After those friends defeated me, I couldn't stop getting hate. I would always have nightmares, depression, and crying moments. I wanted t-to just die. Please don't say Twilight wants to die. Does, does she want t-to kill herself?

After thinking things over with the comparison of what she was having to what Twilight was having, this could only end badly if they did not quickly think of a plan to prevent it from happening.

She took one last deep breath before opening the door and heading back inside towards the two other ponies in the room. They stared at her with scared expressions while she sat down and looked up at them with a sad face. "Well, I think I've calmed down enough to start talking," she said in a Fluttershy-like voice.

Starlight and Trixie looked back at each other before deciding it would be best to move on. "So, do you have any tips on how we could help Twilight," said Starlight.

There was no response. The room was just dead silent. Trixie looked worried as she glanced her eyes back and fourth between Starlight and Sunset before calmly talking. "Um, Sunset? Are you okay?" Trixie asked with a lot of concern towards the mare that looked and seemed down. Sunset looked back at the magician and found it difficult to find the right words to say. "I-I don't know," Sunset sadly responded.

There were several minutes of silence. None of the unicorns knew how to get a conversation going as they were all staring at each other in shock. This is not what was expected when Sunset came over. Did she and Twilight have some sort of extreme connection with each other?

Starlight walked over to her sad friend and wrapped her hooves around her, pulling her in to hug her. Sunset just accepted it while not doing anything but lay her head down on her friend's shoulder. Starlight took this opportunity to whisper a few words into the mare's ears. "Sunset, what's going on?" Starlight asked with worry that her friend was more sad than happy since coming over.

Sunset tried to come up with something to say before whispering back. "I-I've known Twilight for a while now. I just can't stand to hear what you said she was going through?"

Trixie was feeling uneasy at the two unicorns and decided it would be best to leave them alone. "I'm going to go head to Twilight's room now. I'll leave you two alone," Trixie said before heading off.

Both unicorns just waved at the magician before continuing their talk. "What do you mean you can't stand to hear what I said she was going through?" Sunset just sighed and thought about talking through it slowly with her.

"In my past, I was an evil villain wanting to take over the world and then take over Equestria. After Twilight and her friend's in the other world defeated me, it left a bad image on me. I was getting talked about behind my back. I was being constantly talked bad about. I kept crying every day and night. I had nightmares about being bullied and dying." Explaining this made Sunset start to cry, but the next part made her cry harder.

"I even had a v-vision about killing myself. I took that vision and a-almost made it a r-reality. I woke u-up one morning. I-I took a k-knife and s-slit my t-throat. I failed at the suicide attempt and couldn't bring myself to slit my throat again. I lived on with a painful throat until it healed." At the end of Sunset's explanation, she calmed down completely.

The words being said almost made Starlight cry on the inside. She never knew how much backstory her friend had in the past that was similar to Twilight's present. "I'm so sorry to hear that, Sunset. So you actually might know what is going on with Twilight?" Sunset just sighed before giving a very quick response. "Yes."

Trixie stepped hoof in Twilight's room. She decided it would be nice to stay in here until they finished their conversation. After admiring all of the materials Twilight had, she headed towards the restroom. She cleaned her hooves and thought about ways she could help. What advice could I give that would really serve it's purpose? After all that Twilight and I have been through, I need to be there for her. It's the right thing to do.

After taking some time to wash her hooves and not being able to think of anything, she stepped back into Twilight's room. She sat on her bed and just looked around to try to get her brain thinking. This was when her eyes glanced upon the calendar with writing on it. She wanted to take a look out of curiosity, but tried to side against it since it was none of her business. After a few more seconds of trying to get her mind off of looking, she gave up. "Oh well. It's not like it will be that bad. A quick sneak peak wouldn't hurt, right?"

She got up from the bed and walked forward until she could see the words on the calendar very clearly. She read the two phrases that were written on the Sunday of this week and the Sunday of next week. The start of no more.

Her brain was in confusion. What does that mean? The start of no more what? Is it something that I should be worrying about?

Her eyes then moved on to the Sunday of next week. The time has come.

This left an even more confused Trixie. The time has come? What about time that came? Is something going to happen on that day? What do these two things mean? The start of no more. The time has come.

After taking some time to try to understand what these words meant, she brushed it aside. She went back to lay on Twilight's bed for a while longer to get her mind off of things.

A few minutes later, two other unicorns came into the room. Trixie heard the noises of two pair of hooves stepping inside the room and decided to ask them to see if they could find out what those words mean.

"Hey, do you two have any idea what those words on the calendar means?" She asked the pair of unicorns while pointing to the calendar.

They both looked over to it and approached it. Upon first glance, Sunset's face dropped again.

"No," Sunset very softly whispered to herself. Starlight looked over at her reaction. "What do you mean no?"

Sunset looked back at Starlight. "Read those words out loud to yourself."

Starlight looked back at the calendar and read. "The start of no more. The time has come."

Starlight had to think about what those words meant after she read them. Sunset waited patiently before talking again. "Do you know what this means? Do you have any ideas? I want to try to see if you have any ideas before I say what I think these words mean. Or worse, know what these words mean."

Starlight took a few extra seconds to think, but like Trixie, she couldn't figure it out. Sunset sighed that she couldn't come up with anything. It would've made it a lot easier if she had an idea, but now, she was going to have to explain what she thought these words meant. She would have to risk making these two ponies sad.

"These words," the two other unicorns gave their entire attention to Sunset. "These words might be the start of Twilight's final words," Sunset sadly said.

This scared both Trixie and Starlight. "What? What do you mean these might be the start of Twilight's final words?" Trixie asked nervously.

Sunset was going to have to just say it. "Okay, I'll make it simple for you two to understand. These are suicide words. The start of no more means that it's the beginning of when she is going to kill herself. The time has come is the day that she plans on killing herself. Does that make sense?" By the time she was finished explaining, the two mares looked devastated. Would Twilight really consider doing that?

"I'm so sorry, Sunset. I had no idea this was all happening," Starlight said brokenly.

"It's okay. I'm just glad you called me over before it was too late."

After a few more seconds of silence, Sunset wanted to find Twilight. She needed to know that there were ponies out there to help her.

"Do you know where Twilight is?" Sunset asked Starlight which nodded.

"She's over at Rainbow's house up in Cloudsdale. Only pegasi and alicorns can land on the clouds without falling through. You would have to use advanced magic to stay up without falling. It would probably be best if they came over here so we could talk to them." Sunset nodded. She just hoped it wouldn't be Sunday that Twilight would be coming over to end it.

"Well, if there's nothing else, I think I might just go ahead and get going. I'm going to let this all sink in when I sleep," Sunset said as she started to head towards the library with the portal.

"Okay. I hope to see you again soon," Starlight shouted.

Sunset gave a warm smile back. "Don't worry about it. I'll be back soon. Bye, Starlight and Trixie. It was nice meeting you." Trixie just waved her hoof a goodbye before the unicorn left the room and left Starlight and Trixie alone.

"Well, I'm going to bed. We have a long few days ahead of us and it's getting pretty late."

Trixie smiled at her friend. "Hey, is it okay if I sleep here tonight?"

Starlight smiled at the idea of sleeping over at the castle. "Sure. I don't think Twilight will mind. Where do you want to sleep?"

Trixie gave a small blush before responding. "Can I choose to sleep with you?" Trixie said almost in a voice like Fluttershy.

It was really an awkward request. This request also ended up making Starlight blush. "Um, why with me?"

Trixie didn't want to admit it, but she's always liked Starlight since the first day they encountered each other at the spa. Starlight started to pick up on where this was going. She liked Trixie but didn't really think that she would like her like the way she did. She ended up just finishing up the conversation. She wanted to get some sleep. "You can sleep with me. I don't mind cuddling up with cute ponies in bed with me," she said with a wink at the end.

"Well, in that case," the magician pony started as they both walked towards Starlight's room. "Why don't we do it then?" Trixie said with a smirk.

After a while of walking, they both brushed their teeth with new paste and brushes before heading off to sleep. And for the very first time, they both cuddled up in each other's embrace and drifted off into a blissful night of sleep.