A Shattered Crystal Heart

With slight reluctance, Rosella entered the lobby to the therapist's office. She plopped down in an upholstered chair and sighed. Fidgeting slightly with the scarf around her neck, she yanked it down to cover a questionable scar on her chest before putting her head in her hooves and crying.

There was something seriously wrong with the crystal mare. A usually bright and bubbly pony, Rose had a dark past. As one of the former slaves of King Sombra's rule, her life had a depressing backstory already, but it was enhanced by the simple fact that Rosie's façade had tumbled down around her. In an attempt to hide the pain, the mare had become the most hyper pony in the empire, and her goal was to always try and bring a smile to everypony she met. As an optimistic entrepreneur, Rosie was in the process of creating crystal coat dye, but her work had been put on hold when the mare had taken a rejection very, very badly.

A crystal stallion by the name of Recurve had been Rosie's romantic interest since the moment the mare had popped up in the formerly sullen stallion's yard. She fell apart when she found out the stallion had fallen in love with another, and her world fell apart. It was not something to make a huge deal out of--after all, they had met only once--but the damaged mare had gone insane, pulling her mane out and attempting to cut out her heart with a chisel, only to be thwarted by her former housemate, the Saddle Arabian Amina Abbasi. It resulted in a heart-shaped scar that had not healed, one that the mare had taken to wearing a scarf to attempt to cover it up. Reconciling with the stallion in question, her attempt to discard the past by leaving Ponyville forever had gone awry, and the mare was never the same happy pony again.

Now, with a slightly hopeful mindset, Rose had returned to the-place-that-shall-not-be-named, in hopes that the revered Dr. Lorenza Counsel could help her move on with her life. Or, at least, to slather some disinfectant on her unhealing wounds.

Lorenza heard a pony enter her waiting area and took a bite of her chocolate covered pastries before getting up from her desk. It was also an opportunity for her to get some coffee from the coffee machine he put in the waiting room. Upon entering she smiled and opened her mouth to greet her only to see her in tears.

"Oh my dear. You poor thing. Come here. Come here." She quickly moved aside her and put a hoof onto her shoulder. "Hurt no more. You are in a place of healing. Come. Let's sit on the nicer couch through the door. You can talk to me and eat some sweets."

Lori was fortunate today. She usually didn't have any sweets to share save some chocolate kisses, but she had a package of doughnuts of all sorts today....to share of course.

"Thank you," Rose sniffed, being led into the office. She desperately tried to pull Rosie back out, but she was too far in her alternate personality to go back without a catalyst. Stuck in a pessimistic and sad state of mind, Rose was the opposite of the normally cheerful Rosie.

She sat carefully on the couch and watched the doctor warily.

"Can you help me?" she asked quietly, in an almost inaudible whisper. "Most ponies have tried, but they can't do anything but drive me further into the ground. I'm willing to pay whatever's needed. I just need to stop hurting."