"Girls, I'm worried about Silver." Fluttershy said as she sat down. She and everypony else are in sugar cube corner, sipping their drinks and eating the crunchy goodness that is a pastry. They looked at her with consern.

"Darling, no offence but her best friend died in her arms a week ago, of course she going to act strange." Rarity said as she placed a hand on her shoulder. Fluttershy sighed before looking down, depressed.

"That's not the only thing though. She barely leaves her room, barely eats and hardly washed. It's like she doesn't care about anything anymore. And when I walked passed her room earlier today, it smelled distinctly of a coppery/metallic tinge." That made the girls stop what they were doing and made them look at Fluttershy with shock and horror, especially Rainbow Dash.

"Girls, you don't think that she..." Twilight didn't even have to finish her sentence. Judging by the look that the other five were giving, they all thought the same thing. "Uh-oh, we better get to Fluttershy's. I'll teleport us there." As everypony nodded, Twilight charged up her magic. The tip of her horn glowed a beautiful amethyst before flashing a bright white. As everyone adjusted to their surroundings, they all looked at the staircase before walking up it.

As they stood in front of Silvers door, true to her word, the stench of rusted metal seeped through underneath the door. Twilight gave a quick glance to her friends before knocking on her door. "Hello, Silver? Can you hear me?" A weak groan was all that she replied. Twilight jiggled the handle of the door, quickly finding out that it was locked. "Okay I'm going to unlock the door now."

The keyhole adopted a amethyst colour before disappearing, signalling to the ponies that it unlocked. The first thing that greeted them was a much stronger stench of blood, causing some of the ponies to recoil in disgust as they tried to hold in there vomit. The second thing was the figure of Silver sitting hunched over in the corner, blood streaming from the cuts on her wrist, pieces of glass scattered over he floor and the longest ones was the closest to silver. Those shards of glass had blood stains, as does the floor and some of the walls. All of them leading from the bathroom.

"Oh my Celestia!" All of them said in union as they looked on at the horror scene before them. Fluttershy rushed over to Silver and grabbed her by the shoulders and proceeded to shake her violently. After she didn't respond, fluttershy's heart stoped for a moment as she looked at the blood flowing from he cuts. She took notice of he dried up blood on her clothes.

"Twlilght! You have to teleport us to the hospital, she isn't responding to anything." She begged her friend as she lifted Silvers limp form, an arm around her shoulder and blood staining her fur and clothes. She nodded and charged up her teleportation spell and in a flash of light, they appeared in the main hall of the hospital. "We need help!" Fluttershy cried. A mare known as nurse RedHeart quickly rushed up to them.

"Oh dear, not again." Nurse RedHeart took Silver in her arms and rushed into the emergency ward. "We may need some blood, can somepony go to the storage and retrieve a pack of AB!"

"On it!" Another doctor shouted as he rushed away somewhere.

"Wait, 'not again'? You mean she's done this before?!" Rainbow shouted as the doctors began to stitch up Silvers wounds.

"Yeah, she cut herself before. No three days ago she arrived with light cuts on her wrists. When I asked her why she did it, all she did was look down. The cuts themselves weren't all that deep as well, like she didn't want to do it anymore." The doctors rubbed the now stitched cuts with liquid antibody's and wrapped the bandages around them. Blood lightly stained the wrappings. Not enough to be worried about at the moment. However, the doctors had to remove shards of glass from her left fist and wrap that hand completely, leaving only the fingers so at she could move them easily.

"I have the bag." The doctor returned with a packet containing the blood.

"Thanks." RedHeart hooked the bag onto the stand, connected a tube onto the bag that ended with a thin needle. "The reason we didn't say anything," she started explain as she stuck the needle into one of Silvers visible veins, "was because she asked us not to. She even threatened to kill us if we did." Fluttershy sat down in the chair next to Silvers bed, tears streaming down her face. "With this much blood loss, she might not make it through the night." Fluttershy buried her face into Silvers clothes as she sobbed and cried into her.

"Why?" She choked. "Why did you do it Silver?" She sniffled and buried her face in more. "Why didn't you talk to us or....or something!?" She pleaded as she struck the bed with her fist. "Why!?" She lifted her head slightly when a hand was placed on her shoulder. As she looked to her left, she spotted Rainbow, tears trickling down her face.

"Maybe becuse she felt that she couldn't talk to us about it. Thinking that she had to face it alone and not knowing that she had friends that cared about her. The whole 'lone wolf' thing." She said as she wiped away her tears. "The only way we can get our answers is to wait until she wakes." They all nodded and walked out into the reception, exept for Fluttershy. She placed her head on Silvers leg and looked up at her.

Hours passed and fluttershy fell asleep while still on Silvers leg. The sun was mid-way and rays of sunlight crept into the room. As the rays cascaded onto Silvers face that woke her up slightly. "Huh?"

[silvers pov]

I didn't know where I was. I felt the heat and weight of something on my leg. Looking down I saw Fluttershy laying her head over said leg. Her eyes were red and puffy. Fur was matted down around her eyes and cheeks and blood was caked onto her clothing and fur. Her mane messy and strands lying everywhere. I was curious was to what was happening, but suddenly memories rushed into my brain.

{flashback}

I was in the bathroom crying. I was kneeling on the ground with my head pressed against the edge of he sink. Tears fell freely from my eyes and onto the floor with no signs of stoping. "I'm useless." I banged my head on the sink, over and over again. "I'm weak." I stood up and looked at my reflection on the mirror. "I couldn't even save my friend. So what use am I?"

You should kill yourself.

"I should just kill myself, end my life so no one else suffers because of me." I looked into my own eyes. "But I tried it before and I couldn't go through with it."

But why live in a world where you are week. Where you cause others pain and where you will accomplish nothing?

"Shut up." I said to no one as I clutched my head. "Just, shut up!"

You scream and scream, but no one can hear you. No one cares about you. I looked back up and saw not only my reflection, but my father. My first every father other that Peter at the orphanage. I don't care about you.

"SHUT YOUR GODDAMN MOUTH!" I shouted to the heavens as I punched the he mirror with my left fist, sending shards of glass everywhere. "Just......shut up." Picking up a long shard of glass, I placed it onto my wrist and slit it. Blood poured from the wound like a fountain. I placed that same pice of glass onto my other wrist and did the same with the same results. I reached up and grabbed the edge of the sink and pulled my self up. "There you....happy?" My face was already pale. I began to sake slightly and fell to the ground, blood pooling around me.

I could barely keep my eyes open. I started to crawl on the ground, leavening streaks of blood along the floor. Shards of glass clung to my clothes and dug into me. As I reached the door frame, I grabbed it and pulled myself back up, leavening bloody hand prints as I went. The same happened along the walls as I leaned on them to aid me in walking.

I once again fell to my to the ground and I crawled over to a corner and turned around until I could sit down. I leaned in the crevasse of the corner and watched as my blood poured onto my leg. I felt my eyes getting heavy. "Maybe...........I could close my eyes.........just for.....a.......while." Then, the world grew dark.

[End of flashback]

Blinking, I lifted up my hand from the back of Fluttershy's head and looked at the wrappings stained with my blood. The sudden heat that was taken away from fluttershy's head must of woken her up because she moved her head to the side and cracked open an eye. Her eye slowly dragged it's up to look at my body, eventually it landed on my face.

"Silver!" She shouted as she pulled me into a hug, tears streaming down her face. I jumped in surprise at the sudden contact of her. "Why?! Why did you try and kill yourself?!" She grabed the collar of my shirt and looked into my eyes.

All I did was look to the ground. The door opened and my other friends walked in, wonderng what all the shouting was about. As soon as the looked at me though, their eyes widened and they rushed over to me. "Silver, why did you cut yourself?" Rainbow asked as fluttershy's grip loosened. I was silent, not looking a single one of them in the eyes. "Can everypony leave. I have something to say to Silver." They were confused, but walked out none the less.

"I know how you feel." She began, provoking a gasp from me. "I know how, your gonna hate me for saying this, how you feel weak. Useless. That everypony would feel better if you'd just die." I tilted my head down. It was the truth. "But your wrong. Your not weak. Your not useless! Everypony wants you to live, not die. You nearly broke Shy's heart because of the little stunt you pulled." I looked at her in surprise. "And I know because I did the exact thing you did." 'She cut her self before?'

"And that's why I, we are getting therapy for you. And you can't say a damn thing you hear? You're not gonna back down." knowing my defeat, I sighed and nodded. I pulled out the needle and got out of bed. Wordlessly, I pulled on my hoodie and walked out with Skittles. All eyes were on me as I walked down the hall. My friends formed up behind me. Some doctors told us where to go and we walked down a corridor before stoping at a large door. My friends walked into a different door next to the big one.

As I entered the room I noticed that it was all white walls, a wooden floor, flowers on the window sills. There was three chairs all together, one was behind a large mahogany desk, a long one meant for someone to lie down on and one In front of that. So, I lied down on the long one and awaited who ever was going to 'help' me.

{in the room next door}

Everypony was gathered in a grey room. A one-way mirror was overlooking the room that currently held Silver. The door re-opened and a brown stallion unicorn stepped in before re-closing the door. "Hello everypony, names Dr. Ironmind. And I see that my patient is already lying down so I'll keep it brief. I'm going to try and, well, break her mind. Make her open up to me and release her emotions." He began. "Now, this might take a bit of time so if you want to leave you can." Nopony decided to leave. "Very well, I'll go in and see her now."

{back with silver}

The door opened and I sat back up. "No need to get up Silver. You can lie back down if you wish." The unicorn said. He walked over to his desk, removed his white coat and hooked it on a peg. "Sorry I was late, had a few errands to do."

"It's alright doctor." I said solemnly as I laid back down, starring at the bright white celling above me with barely any emotion showing. He walked over to the chair across from me and sat down. "Can we just get this over with?"

"Alright then. And you can call me Ironmind if you wish." He scratched the back of his head before continuing. "Well then, when your friends found you in Fluttershy's house bleeding, and after you recovered, they decided to contact me about the way you where acting." He lifted up a clipboard. "Now it says you've been here before from cutting yourself from, depression was it?" I nodded my head. "What where you suffering from? What happened."

"Wouldn't you like to know." I said bitterly as I looked away from him.

"Now, now. There's no need to be like that, just tell me what happened." I sighed and got up and walked to the window, viewing ponyville. "Just take me to the beginning."

"The beginning..." I said to my self while I looked down. "It was sixteen years ago when I first met him, my friend that died. I was walking back to the orphanage after I found out that my...father," I strained my voice when I spoke of that pig, "my first father was murdered. A total of fifteen stab wounds all over his body. I didn't know who did it, but I couldn't care. I hated that bastard till he day he died. Anyways I was walking back to the orphanage when three big teens stepped up to me."

It was as though I was there again, a little girl again. "Well, well, well. Look what he have here boys." One of the teens said. They were all dressed up in hoodies that hid there faces. The one that spoke wore a red hoodie, while the two boys had blue ones. I held my arm out of nervousness as they came closer.

"Mmmmm, your right what do we have? A nice young girl just begging to be touched." My eyes widened. Was he? Oh god, he is! My eyes shrunk to pinpricks as I backed away slightly. I could barely see their faces, but I could see their evil smiles as they stepped closer to me.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" I heard a boy shout from a distance. Suddenly, the same boy stood I front of me. Arms stretched out protectively. The boy wore a small stripy shirt and blue jeans.

"Well well looks like we have a tough guy. Let's show him a few things." The teens suddenly lunged at him, arms blazing. I couldn't believe it, not only did he challenge others bigger that him, but is winning against them. It wasn't long before the others made a break for it. "Shit! Let's get out of here!"

The boy then turned to me with a smile and bruises on his body. "Hi! I'm Steve, nice to meet you." He said as he smiled and stuck out his hand. I was taken back, but I accepted it and we shook hands.

"Silver."

I smiled at the memory, but I then frowned later on. "He protected me even though he didn't know who I was, but I couldn't protect him. It was my fault. My fault that he died." I pressed my head against the glass. "After he died, my own thoughts started to turn on me. Telling me to kill myself, to end it then and now. But I wouldn't listen. Then earlier today, I finally gave in. And the last thing I saw before smashing that mirror in my room was my father."

"Silver, your lying about something." He said.

"Huh?"

"You didn't find your father dead, did you?" I didn't answer. "In fact you where there the day he was killed." How did he know? Tears started to form under my eyes as I suddenly started to remember what he did to me. 'Where are all these memory's coming from?!'

"What? You think that I wanted to witness that?" I asked him as I wiped away my tears.

"No, I don't think that. I know that." I gasped slightly and looked at him from the corner of my eye. "I know that you killed him." That's it, the dam broke.

"It.....it WASN'T MY CHOICE!" I shouted at him as I turned. "You don't know what he put me through! The beatings, the loneliness I felt as I was locked away in my room with absolutely nothing to do! The things he did to me. That shouldn't have happened to anyone! Not me, not you, no one!" I sniffled as I wiped away my tears.

"I'm not blaming you, Silver. But maybe the reason you saw your 'father' is because that's the part of you that you hate. It's the part of you that was given form of him because of your doubts. It's the part of your self that you fear, the part that you locked deep down in your subconscious. It's the hatred that you built up for yourself when you were weak."

"What are you saying doc?" I asked

"Silver, you need that hatred. Otherwise, your just going to end up here again. I guess you need to accept your farther. Because that's the part of you that you need to drive your self."

"So your saying that I'm.....that I have to..be..my father?" Memories flashed through my head. "Gah!" I fell to one knee.

"Silver!" The doc said as he rushed to my side.

"No! I won't, I won't believe that! Your just a lier!" I pushed him away with a punch.

"You wanted to protect your friends, to protect yourself." He started.

"No." I said disbelievingly.

"But he pushed you down and made a fool out of you. He told you that you were too weak, that you where nothing."

"No, just....just shut up." I backed away from him.

"Don't you see? That part of you. Your father, your hatred, is the part of you that was, and still is, trying to do good for the rest of the world. The part of you that is willing to sacrifice yourself for others. That part that makes you what you are today. Because, what I see is a person that has so much hatred and anger in you that could explode at any moment and yet, you hold it back. You hold your self back."

"But that part is what caused my best friend to die. It was because of me. It was that, that.."

"It was that part that is in us all. That survival instinct. You can still be a protector." He took a step closer to me.

"No, I can't. If I try, then others will just get hurt because of me."

"If you can save Steve from drowning, then isn't anything possible?"

"Stop it!"

"Silver, it wasn't your fault." He took another step closer to me.

"It was!"

"No Silver you don't understand, it wasn't your fault." He took another step.

"It was."

"Silver," I started to cry, "it's not your fault." He stepped closer.

"Stop it."

He stepped closer and closer. "It's not your fault."

"I said stop it! Get away from me!" I shouted, knowing at he was mere inches away from me.

"Silver, it's not your fault." I finally caved in and fell onto his shoulders.

"I tried so hard! And yet he died in my arms!"

"It's okay Silver." He comforted me as he hugged me. Rubbing my back in circular motions.

"Oh, god! Wwwhhyyy!" I held him with all my strength, being mindful not to crush him.

"It's okay, it's alright now. It's over, for good." I continued to cry in his shoulders as I became limp in his hold, not wanting to move. "There's nothing to be afraid of, shh, shh, it okay now."

Author's Notes:

I kept thinking the song Demons by Imagine Dragons while writing this chapter. Don't know why though. I'm not surprised if you found some parts confusing, it was just a thing in my head that I wanted to get out.