The Se7en

A steady rain falls upon the landscape, dampening the tracks upon which a train rolls along.

Seated in a booth, Sweetie Belle gazes out the window and watches the grey-skied scenery. The melancholy atmosphere helps her reflect on the previous 16 hours.

The seeming eternity she embraced her fellow CMCs on that dirt path, having avoided a certain death that she knew she would have caused. Catching a train to Canterlot and meeting with Princess Celestia, explaining to her directly how Starlight Glimmer was innocent of all crimes. The warm embrace Starlight gave her and her friends upon her release, grateful to be free again yet saddened at the loss of everyone who helped her become the pony she now was.

She thought about her sister while put up for the night in the same room Rarity had once occupied during a stay in Canterlot … but then, everyone and everything around her would offer some flashback to a happier time. She got little sleep that night; when morning came, she could tell that she was not alone in her feelings or drowsiness and sorrow.

Celestia’s morning address to the masses was short and sad; she simply informed the crowd about the tragic loss of the Elements of Harmony, adding that the killer had taken her own life but careful not to specify who that killer was. Soon, Sweetie Belle thought, everypony in Equestria would be aware of the loss of Twilight and the others … including her sister …

It was Celestia’s decree that the weather reflect the mood of the land. Appropriate, Sweetie Belle thought as continued gazing out the window.

She sighs to herself and turns from the passing scenery back to her fellow CMCs and Starlight. The foursome ride along in silence, their train car reserved by Celestia herself so that they would have privacy during the trip back to Ponyville.

“So what was it like, being … put up, like that?” she asks Starlight, unsure if it was too soon to ask such a question.

“It’s strange,” Starlight begins as the others turn their head to hear. “My time as Twilight’s student gave me a lot of time to reflect upon all I’d done … enslaving an entire village, nearly destroying the history of Equestria itself … and it occurred to me that I had never really been held accountable for those actions. For a while, I felt like I needed to turn myself in, to be incarcerated for a period … perhaps even banishment. Every time I brought these thoughts to Twilight, she would just assure me that my time was better spent learning friendship than being holed up in isolation. And now … having spent a day in such an isolation, everypony passing by my cell giving me sinister looks, asking themselves how I could do something I was truly not guilty of doing … I know more than ever how right she was.”

Starlight turns from Sweetie Belle to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo and back. “I owe all of you my life, just as I owe Twilight and the others for everything they taught me.”

Sweetie Belle frowns. “I owe Scootaloo my life,” she responds repentantly.

“No, we owe you an apology,” Apple Bloom replies. “We should never had isolated you … it was our fault you got to that point.”

“Nopony owes anypony anything,” Starlight states to the others. “Nopony could be in a rational state of mind after going through everything you three have been through. What’s important is you’re still here … you still have each other, and you still have many ponies in your life who care for you. The worst is over; all we can do now is reflect on the past, honor their lives in the present, and carry on towards the future.”

The CMCs turn to each other and to Starlight and bow in acceptance as the train rolls on ...