Team Star

As Celestia careened through the literal glass ceiling, the impact and flame took two lives. Or, so the story went.

The changeling army had done irreparable damage to the structural integrity of the building. Any pony, or changeling, for that matter still inside when the floors fell… one after another, well… it wasn’t likely that they would ever be found.

Shining Armor stood at the base of the rubble, his sister had only moments prior run inside… how could she have known that Celestia’s dive would be the last push to send the four-story building to ruin.

She couldn’t have.

Pinkie Pie fell as her body seemed to fragment through time and space, pressing the once weightless statue with all of her strain.

Chaos was an addiction, a drug that left you feeling wore out with every use.

Starlight traced the statue with her hoof. “She’s… gone?” The tears in her eyes wouldn’t even threaten to fall, no, they had no use in threatening the inevitable.

Sunset stood back, too afraid to touch the stone remains of her friend. “Why would we do that.”

“Because she knew Chrysalis wasn’t strong enough to break the stone and take the power.” Cadence said, breaking away only momentarily from her grieving fiancé. “Trixie was a calculated pony… smarter than everypony gave her credit for.”

“So… is she…” Apple Jack asked.

Cadence looked over the statue. “No. I mean, not in the way you mean when you say somepony’s dead.” They all swallowed mournfully at the mention of the word. Cadence looked over at Shining Armor, he was inconsolable… “Maybe she’ll be free someday.”

“She’s not gone.” Shining repeated, as the tears covered his face and hooves. “I was supposed to protect her.”

Cadence breathed out a calm sigh. “You’re right… she’s not gone.”

And there, emerged the resilient young mare. Covered in rubble, just barely alive… but not gone.

Rarity set the crown on her desk. Enveloping herself in the blanket her younger sister had spent all semester learning to knit for her.

She was grateful and warm. Ponyville was a bit far from Canterlot… surely Princess Celestia would come looking for her crown any day…

Sunset returned home with her brother, and though she wasn’t exactly fond of her parents or their sexist beliefs… for a moment they were a family again. Away from the torment of changeling attacks and magical relics… far, far away.

Starlight sat in her new Canterlot apartment. It wasn’t much, but the Canterlot Department of Education was putting students up while the school was being rebuilt.

So, she, and her new Winter Maiden statue could remain cozy. Until they could get back to their training.

Shining Armor and Cadence decided to split the new vacant responsibilities. Cadence, as the Spring Maiden and royally crowned Princess, would take over leadership in Canterlot. While, once the school was completed, Shining Armor would become the new headmaster.

Apple Jack returned home to the farm. And while she missed her team, sparring, and lifting up full tables of student just for the fun of it… she couldn’t say she was disappointed to be home with her family… in one piece of course.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy returned to Cloudsdale. To much fanfare, the duo became micro-celebrities. After the Fall of the School For Gifted Unicorns, everypony wanted to ask them what had happened.

Rainbow Dash, being a mild show-boater herself, was more than willing to talk all about it. So long as it kept the attention on her.

Fluttershy, on the other hand, was not so fond of her new found popularity. From the market, to the coffee shop, she was always hounded as being ‘that pony from Celestia’s school’.

So, she simply stopped going out all together.

Pinkie Pie, left. And nopony has heard from her since.

“Oh and wasn’t that a fabulous fable, Starswirl?” He said, smiling as contently as somepony who’d just won a first-prize trophy.

“What? You say they both died?” Starswirl asked, “how could you possibly know.”

“Oh you know nothing of me and your ‘Princess’, do you?” He laughed, serpent tongue slithering out of his mouth like the devil. “I know everytime that pony has died, 57, 58. Oh you know, she had really thought she’d bested me this time, oh a thousand years… quite impressive. Though, nothing compared to the life I’ve lead.” Starswirl raised an eyebrow, scrunching up his cheek. “And that changeling, a shame, she’s never read the one about the man and all of his hubris. Oh there are quite a number of novels on that, aren’t there.”

“What more could you want, you have the element of loyalty, if the school is destroyed just take the three elements for yourself.” Starswirl insisted.

“I had no one to retrieve it… the changeling was such an incompetent excuse of a living being, she had forgot why I wanted the Winter Maiden’s power in the first place. To take the elements, but in all her monologuing and wasting time… they got away with them.” He huffed out a hot breath like a bull ready to charge. “Generosity, Magic, Laughter. Gone.”

“There are still Honesty and Kindness.” Starswirl replied, as if that made up for their failures.

“Honesty and Kindness… are you being serious?” He began to laugh, as this measly pony must have been joking. “I need magic, without magic, the other elements DON’T WORK.”