Starlight Glimmer dream team · 7:02am Apr 30th, 2017
I am on team Starry Glimglam. It's been a year and a half since I did much of anything in the pony world, but Starlight's got that magic touch of cynicism that attracted me to Sunset back in the day, and the fact that her evils were in Equestria and therefore accessible to random ponies is a decent justification for using her instead of Sunset for this role. But more importantly, Starlight is building a friendship squad! She's halfway done, in fact, so it's time to decide who her remaining friends--one earth pony and two pegasususeses, if history is anything to go by--should be. And since Maud isn't a reformed villain, we don't have to worry about doing this Cap's Kooky Quartet style or anything.
(I am assuming everyone's a pony, though, perhaps inaccurately. Discord doesn't get along with her very well, and Thorax doesn't live in Ponyville, and Ember was teased too hard in the opener for her to show up. Having Little Strongheart for an ersatz earth pony would be great, but she has family ties to worry about...)
Earth Pony #2: Spoiled Rich
Dream big, right? Starlight's friends seem to be allowed to have varied backgrounds, and a married mother would be a good way to continue that, plus finally some more followup on that dangling Diamond-Tiara-is-totally-nice-now plot thread from season 5. Maybe Spoiled Rich goes to Jewel Castle for advice on how to handle her daughter's new hobbies, but only Starlight is there to talk to her. They could have interesting talks about responsibility and expectations and the passage of time.
Pegasus #1: Fleetfoot
Not such an out-there choice, but plausible. Spitfire's too high-profile, and most of the other Wonderbolts are too minor, but Fleetfoot is somewhat in-between and has some fun IDW characterization they could possibly draw on. We've repeatedly gotten the impression that the 'Bolts aren't the superclean hypermoral champions Rainbow Dash always envisioned them to be, and Starlight's the best-positioned character to deal with somepony with that kind of ambiguity. Plus, her hair is fabulous.
Pegasus #2: A.K. Yearling
Come on, this would be fun! Daring Do hears about a supervillain living in Ponyville, comes to kick some butt, and makes a friend instead. Starlight can probably help her lighten up a little, and she can talk with Trixie about various distant parts of the world they've visited. The subplot of Spoiled Rich wanting to get her autograph writes itself. Daring Do has been constrained to one particular kind of story more than just about anypony else, and this is her chance to make some new memories... with friends who can also respect her sometimes needing time to herself, which Starlight should be able to understand.
(Rejected: Coco Pommel for being too entrenched in her career, Lightning Dust for being in some legal quagmire or something, Vapor Trail for being another wonderbolt-related character, Cheerilee for not being exciting enough, Photo Finish for being too exciting.)
See, Coco was my first guess. She's a very "You're the new Rainbow Dash, Spike" kind of guess, however. :B
Eh, if we ignore her, I'll just spit out names: Cheese Sandwich, Angel Wings and Lightning Dust. It's been long enough that the latter's likely worked through any issues, and the other two I say without regard to the feasibility of returning guest VAs. :V
4514507 Angel Wings would be cool but yeah I can't see it happening. My other concern with Coco is that everyone already likes her. She may be Rarity's supporting character more than anyone else's, but she's still fully capable of becoming friends with Twilight And The Gang, which might disqualify her from going Starlight.
4514507 A related note... Angel Wings is now a character in the Gameloft game, so it looks like someone was at least available for legal talks about her; either that or the initial agreement for putting her in the show explicitly extended to related merchandise/etc.