On Ponies and Suicide

To taint this pure, unspoiled pony blog with my personal problems, I have been feeling suicidal as of late. And honestly, MLP seems like one of the few bright spots in the dark room that is my life.

"So," I thought to myself, "why not make Fluttershy kill herself?"

In a fanfiction idea I have rattling around my head (details here), I want to make Fluttershy commit suicide, have the rest of the Mane 6 fall apart in the aftermath, and then pull themselves together in a life-affirming (if pretentious) story.

And, as sometimes happens with ideas, this idea gave me another idea. I think that out of the Mane 6, the most likely ponies to commit suicide are Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle. (To be clear, I know none of this is likely, because Equestria is a sugary, sunshine-filled land of happiness. But this is what fanfiction is for, folks.)

I would say Fluttershy is the most likely to kill herself because it's well-established in the show that she is emotionally fragile and anxious. In the world of psychology, depression often co-occurs with anxiety. And what segment of the population often offs themselves? Depressed people. I really don't think it would take much to set Fluttershy on a downward spiral that would end in suicide. Heck, maybe this is just my own depressed brain talking, but sometimes it even seems like she's already on that spiral in the show.

As for Twilight Sparkle, the kind of depression I project on her is more like the type I'm dealing with. I think that Twilight is smart enough to see the pointlessness of life. (Read "A Clean Well-Lighted Place" if you need further explanation.)  We can try and try to make ourselves happy, to distract ourselves from the nothingness, but in the end, it's all just a Band-Aid. So depressed brain says, "Why go through it? Why not just end it now, on your terms?" And that option looks pretty attractive.

Friendship may be magic, but is magic really enough?