Lilac hooves trotted at a carefree pace through the halls of the School of Friendship as it bustled with activity. Class was in session, a lot was going on, and it was music to her ears as the new headmistress. After all the chaos and insanity that had happened recently (some of which may or may not have been her fault) it was nice to see life moving on like normal.
Her hooves carried her past the office of a certain guidance counselor and for just a moment she took a peek inside-
“The Understanding and Helpful Trixie wants you to know she hears you. She knows this is not your first time having problems here at school, would you like to share what troubles you? You are quite a bit older than our typical student but be aware that it’s never too late to learn about friendship! All are welcome here. Trixie should know best,” Trixie said with a smile to the creature sitting before her desk.
He was large, large enough where the chair he was sitting in strained under his weight and even sitting down he towered over Trixie and her desk completely. He was a bipedal creature, with black and white fur, beady eyes, and wearing a pair of khaki pants.
“It’s not just that I’m older, it’s that I’m the only one of my kind here. It makes me stand out even more,” Berten the Troll confided as he nervously wrung his hands. “And as much as I’m trying to fix it I know I have a scary countenance and aura about myself… when I see young ponies, griffons, and kirin shy away from me it makes me upset… and I’m worried about lashing out.”
“The Caring and Understanding Trixie-”
“Did you just change your title?”
“-Understands what you’re going through on a deeply personal level,” Trixie nodded along to what Berten was saying. “She faced many of the same issues when she returned to Ponyville after briefly enslaving it previously.”
“What did you do?” Berten asked, genuinely curious and hopeful.
Trixie smiled. “I was lucky enough to make a great friend who helped me through it—and so much more. You may have not made that great friend yet, but you have me and plenty of others who will always be here to help you out. Find someone who’s also nervous and doesn’t seem like they have many friends either. Find some common ground. As long as you’re genuine and earnest about becoming friends it will definitely happen someday.”
Berten considered her words for a moment before a small smile graced his face. “Thank you, guidance counselor. I do have a friend here, but I didn’t want to just rely on her. But perhaps I’m just being silly. I’ll remember your words.”
“You’re welcome!” Trixie proudly sat back and smugly grinned. “And another job well done by the Great and Powerful Trixie!”
She left Trixie’s office behind and her hooves soon carried her past an open window that looked out over some of the school’s expansive grounds. Taking a look out the window she saw two ponies surrounded by a number of tweeting and colorful birds.
“Oh, they absolutely love you!” Fluttershy said as she watched her companion feed her warblers. The birds happily ate the seed right out of his hoof and thanked him with a song.
“I never thought I’d get to do something like this...” the orange stallion with a bag of overflowing seed as his Cutie Mark said. “I had given up on ever actually getting to experience what I got my Cutie Mark for.”
“I’m so happy for you—Applejack will be happy too. And it’s great to know there’s another set of caring hooves around to help take care of all my birds,” Fluttershy smiled at him.
“Caring...” Birdseed whispered. “That’s not something I ever would’ve used to describe me.”
Fluttershy patted him on the shoulder. “Some of us just take a little time before we find ourselves.” Before she could say anything else though, she suddenly remembered something important. “Oh no! I completely forgot I was supposed to visit the Moles and Magman today! I need to go now or I’ll be late! Birdseed, can you take over feeding the rest for me?”
“You can count on me,” Birdseed happily replied with a smile.
“Thank you so much! I’ll see you tomorrow!” Fluttershy said and flew away with a wave.
She walked away from the window but had barely traveled down the hallway at all before she heard two other ponies walking and talking down another hallway to her right. Taking a look she saw the familiar face of Rarity walking with a pegasus stallion she didn’t recognize. He was fit, with a trimmed mane, and carried himself in a very precise manner. Between the two of them Rarity was levitating a heavy winter coat in her magic—with built in wing holes for pegasus use.
She decided to take a step back so as not to get in their way as they walked by, becoming privy to their conversation at the same time.
“It’s a shame you have to leave so soon after touring Equestria, Mr. Crescent Moon, but I understand you really need to get back to your home,” Rarity said to the pegasus.
“It’s not like I can’t ever come back—and I had a really great time here at the very least. Your country is just as magical as I expected,” Crescent Moon said. “And thank you for the coats by the way.”
“Well when I heard how dreadfully cold it is where you live I figured I needed to give you and your friends a gift,” Rarity smiled. “You do like it, don’t you? I designed them myself.”
Crescent Moon nodded. “Yes, the box you gave us is already with my companion. And I can guarantee you they’ll be a hit back home, we don’t have anything like this. It’ll make the flight back a lot easier to endure as well.”
“Wonderful! And please keep in touch if you can, darling,” Rarity said.
“Of course, I’ll try and keep in touch with all of you,” Crescent Moon smiled.
They walked on by, still talking for a while as she watched them go with a smile on her face. Humming to herself now she started walking again until she passed one of the many staff rooms. This one was a favorite of Rainbow Dash’s since it had a skylight she could use to zip in and out of the building whenever she wanted. In fact right now she thought she heard Rainbow Dash talking from inside it-
“It’s seriously so cool that you could make it here, Gilbert,” Rainbow Dash said as she hugged a mustachioed griffon.
“Haha! Did you ever doubt that I would come?” Gilbert smiled widely.
“Knowing you I wouldn’t have been surprised if you got lost or stuck somewhere,” Rainbow let him go and shrugged.
“Fair enough—but I did still make it here and saw your show. Just as promised!” Gilbert proudly puffed out his chest.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes but a good-natured smile was still on her face. “Yeah, thanks for coming by the way. I’ve hardly gotten the chance to join any big Wonderbolts shows lately so you’re lucky you got to see such a good one. Before you leave again do you want to go see a magic show? My other friend Valentine is here and she invited me to go see one put on by someone called Vahar in Ponyville later today.”
“I suppose so. It’ll be a fun way to end my trip to Equestria before I fly back east,” Gilbert said.
“Yeah… and you’ll make sure my letter to Wish gets delivered, right?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Absolutely,” Gilbert nodded. “I’m going to stop in East Glade—Senax’s old home—first and then I’ll be back over the ocean heading to Vissidia.”
“Alright. And when you do see Wish again, tell her that the letter’s not all. I’m gonna be coming out again to see her soon. Definitely,” Rainbow Dash said.
“I promise I’ll let her know,” Gilbert saluted.
“Cool,” Rainbow nodded. “Then let’s get out there and have some fun before you leave!” She said and immediately jetted up through the open window in the ceiling.
“Right behind you!” Gilbert said and swiftly followed her out.
She giggled and trotted away from the staff room, now going back down the hall closer to several classrooms. Along the way she met several ponies, hippogriffs, changelings, dragons, and kirin going down the halls as well. More students who usually gave her a smile and wave along with a short greeting that was readily returned. It warmed her heart—this was the kind of thing she loved working for, to see so many young happy ponies and creatures who would hopefully never gave to go through anything bad like she did. Certainly not anything bad that was caused by her either.
One of the classrooms she was walking by had its door open so she decided to stop just out of view of anybody in the room and stood up against the wall to listen in on the class.
“Now remember, class. Don’t ever feel down just because other creatures might be leading a more exciting life than you. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being one of the normal ones,” Amethyst Star said as she wrote on her chalkboard in front of several rows of students. “It’s perfectly okay to just be a teacher, or a salespony, or a construction worker. Not everyone is going to have a life like Twilight Sparkle and her friends and that’s a good thing. It’s perfectly good to not be important and still take both pride and satisfaction in what you do. The rock at the top of the mountain can only be up there thanks to all the ones at the bottom holding it up. A nice, quiet, normal life is something that should be envied.”
The unicorn smiled widely to her class. “Any questions? I’m more than willing to talk about how I almost ruined my own life out of stupid decisions and not understanding what I just told you.”
At the back of the classroom another unicorn, teacher’s assistant Daylight Gleam, busy organizing books along the back wall, hesitantly raised an eyebrow in Amethyst Star’s direction as she listened to her lesson. “Is it really okay for a class like this to be held here?”
The class seemed to be okay with it though as many hooves and other appendages were raised and questions started to bounce back and forth between teacher and students…
When she left the classroom behind she didn’t walked much further before she heard a door open up and looked over to see Applejack walking out of it with a red filly with a bushy green mane by her side. Curiously enough, the filly wore the exact same kind of hat Applejack was wearing. It was a little big on her head but she still wore it well.
“Wow, Applejack! This whole place is so cool!” The little filly said.
“I figured you wouldn’t have really been to a place like this before. You want to see Twilight’s castle next?” Applejack asked.
“Is that really okay?”
“Of course! Specially when Twilight hears how far you’ve traveled and all the things you’ve seen, she’ll want to talk to you too about all that. Uh, just a head’s up but she might end up talking your ear off,” Applejack said.
The filly shook her head and grinned. “I don’t mind one bit! Getting to talk to a real life Princess? Wow!”
“Gonna have more fun than you did visiting my farm?” Applejack asked her with a teasing smile.
“What?” The filly looked up at her in shock. “No way! No way! Nothing is gonna beat getting to see your farm, Applejack. Your family was all so nice too, you gotta tell Apple Bloom I’m gonna miss her.”
“I will, sugarcube,” Applejack tussled the filly’s mane.
“And I know you aint gonna plant the strawberry seeds I gave you in your farm exactly but you’ll find a place for them, right? Even if you just grow em indoors somewhere,” the filly expectantly looked up at Applejack.
“Don’t worry about that, I promise I’ll find a place for them. In the past I never would have… but I promise I’ll grow the best tasting strawberry bush in Ponyville just for you, Wild Strawberry.”
“Thanks, Applejack,” Wild Strawberry hugged her. “And when I leave Ponyville you can bet I’ll be spreading word about how Sweet Apple Acres grows the best apples in the whole world.”
“Have a good time once you’re back out there. I get the feeling there’s still a lot of the world for you to see,” Applejack said.
The two of them walked down a hallway in the opposite direction from which she was going, so for a moment she just stood there and watched them go until they disappeared around a corner. For a while she continued to just stand there with a happy feeling in her head, like flowers blooming. Everything did just seem perfect today. Not just a nice day where she could see the sun and the blue sky whenever she looked out the window, but one where all her friends were around and clearly having just as good a time as she was.
Speaking of friends… another glance down in the courtyard showed her a certain purple dragon talking to a group of students at the school…
“-and so that’s how I saved the day! Once Discord used the last of his magic to turn me back to normal it was easy. All I had to do was snap my friends out of it too. And I know them all way more than good enough to help them if something like that ever happens again,” Spike proudly stated to the assorted ponies, griffons, and others listening to him.
“Wow… you’re a real hero, Spike!” A particularly sparkly-eyed griffon said as she gazed at him.
“I know, I know, it’s not a big deal though,” Spike yawned and folded his arms over his chest—his smile and behavior saying the exact opposite. “But hey, if you want some more stories have you ever heard about the time I saved the Crystal Empire too?”
The crowd of students almost trampled each other as they exuberantly shouted in the affirmative. Seemed like Spike would be there for a while longer telling them all about his many heroic exploits.
A giggle escaped her lips and she shook her head before walking on—now not far away from her office. Along the way she still saw the occasional students and other teachers going about their business, not wanting to interrupt—all she did was keep on walking until she reached a familiar door. Her magic pulled it open and she stepped inside, closing it back up and finding herself alone in the office.
Starlight Glimmer looked around at the numerous pictures and plaques, at Phyllis on her desk, all the scrolls in their shelves, the windows right behind her desk that allowed sunlight to pour in. She exhaled slowly, sighing in contentment, and walked over to her desk. Her home away from home, one of her favorite places to be—especially when Trixie, Sunburst, Spike and everybody else was around. All the insanity she had been through recently really made her appreciate it a lot more.
Starlight sat down in her chair and relaxed before her eyes settled on a particular photograph she had framed and sitting on her desk. It was different than the other ones she had—a stranger would’ve thought Starlight had quite the unusual family. It could’ve been mistaken for a photo of a set of quadruplets, or clones, or changelings, no one would’ve guessed that it was really four different Starlight Glimmer’s from different worlds. That would’ve just sounded silly.
They were sitting together in front of the Castle of Friendship, herself, the former Empress, the moody her who was now quite a bet better-adjusted, and the Starlight from the human world. The differences between them were obvious if you looked hard enough—the way they styled their manes, the hat her human self wore even as a pony, the slight difference in expression and way they smiled, the more demure and shy look of the former Empress, the ever so slight smirk from her twin-tailed version. And yet they were all still her—and all still friends. Despite the fact they probably weren’t supposed to visit or see each other that much what with the whole chaotic space-time continuum thing, they still met up to at least take this picture together. Each of them had a copy that they took with them when it was done. Starlight wondered how often the others looked at theirs and just what kind of feelings the picture brought up in them.
For her it was nothing but happiness.
Starlight Glimmer sat back with a smile. “In the end, if it meant making friends like you, it was all worth it.”