//------------------------------//
// Prompt #219: Forever Closed 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
//------------------------------//

It was the last step, the only way to absolutely ensure that there was no way that the portal could ever open again. The statue had to be destroyed. Twilight Sparkle had already deactivated the mirror, and unravelled the spell linking the two worlds from her end, so all that remained was for Sunset Shimmer to destroy the statue.

And despite Principal Celestia’s offer to get a proper demolition crew in to do it, Sunset had insisted. The whole mess was her fault, and she would clean it up, and that included the destruction of the portal.

When Twilight had told Sunset that the bridge between Equestria and Canterlot High School was becoming unstable, Sunset had asked about reinforcing the portal. There are really only two options when confronted with a dangerous bridge, after all: make it stronger, or destroy it before it does any damage. Sunset had immediately gone to the first option. She wasn’t quite ready to let go of her final link to Equestria just yet, the last thing that reminded her that she was not originally from the world that she inhabited. 

But Sunset was sitting on the steps of CHS, a heavy-duty sledgehammer resting by her side, and a hard hat on top of her head. She knew that it was nothing more than stone now. Twilight had already diffused the inter-dimensional spell, closed the tunnel, and probably destroyed the mirror by now. Sunset’s book would buzz no more, completely cut off from its twin in Equestria.

Beside her book, her phone vibrated. With a swipe of her finger, Sunset looked at the message.

‘Whats taking you so long? – RD,’ read Sunset.

“I’d like to see you completely cut yourself off from your home forever, Rainbow Dash,” grumbled Sunset, switching her phone off, and picking up the hammer and hard hat. She walked up the the statue, and ran her hand over the face one more time. Usually, she could feel the faint tingle of waiting magic just under the stone, waiting for the right time to activate, but this time there was nothing. It was just stone to Sunset’s senses now.

“Well, I guess this is it,” said Sunset, sliding the hard hat onto her head, “no more statue, no more portal, no more magic. No more visiting Equestria ever again.”

Sunset gripped the handle of the hammer, and pulled it back and over her shoulder. She looked at the statue one last time. Memories of Celestia, her Celestia, teaching her magic. Those would be things that would now only ever exist in her memories. She was already alone in this world since Twilight had cut off the portal. This was just a formality for Sunset.

With one final sigh, Sunset set her footing, and swung the hammer as hard as she could. Despite its appearance, the base of the statue wasn’t a single solid block. A large part of it was actually hollow, and Sunset’s first strike drove the head of the hammer straight through the face and into the cavity behind it.

Sunset pulled back, and took another swing. The head of the hammer punched another hole into the stonework. Peices of stone flew out when the hammer impacted against the stone. Again and again hammer struck against stone, until eventually only rubble remained. Sunset’s shoulders heaved as her breathing began to calm back down from the exertion. She was covered in dust and debris, but she was now forever free from Equestria, and magic, and all that came with it.

Unable to do anything else, Sunset dropped the hammer and hard hat, walked back over to the main steps of CHS, and sobbed to herself. That had felt like she’d permanently cut off her own horn. As much as she had grown to love CHS, and the friends that she had made here, with the help of Princess Twilight, she had still liked going back to Equestria ever now and again, just to remember what having real, actual magic felt like.

There was no chance of that now. Likely, all of the powers she had developed would be gone now, with the portal being closed and no longer able to provide some of Equestria’s magic to fuel their own ‘magic’.

Sunset switched her phone on, and sent a text to her friends that she was done. She gathered everything up, and walked away from the shattered statue, and to her new, permanent life.