Christmas time has come, but some people aren't really in the spirit. While Sunset Shimmer tries to enjoy sleepovers with her friends, a blogger under the name 'Anon-A-Miss' has begun posting secrets.
Unfortunately for her, they have a Secret Weapon. After all, isn't Miscommunication the real evil?
I know everyone and their cat has rewritten Anon-A-Miss, but I wanted to do a version that was, well, different than most. And how it would fit in with other stories I've made.
Part of the Rewritten Project
Part of the Cornerverse-MLP Universe
Rated Teen for swearing.
Oh my stars! Featured the day it went up!
Chapters (1)
After all the cynical stories about this particular subject, nice to see something that takes an entirely different route with this, frankly, old and tired story genre and actually makes it a kinda Christmasy story, or at least one that feels happy.
You could write a sequel. Someone from Crystal Prep finds one of the flash drives and manages to break the password on it.
I want to see a version where the girls never believe sunset ever did it
Edit: And I must say thank you for giving me just that
8464200
That was exactly the whole point in writing this. While I appreciate the darker takes, I love cheerful stuff that makes people feel all fuzzy. And I don't think I've read an Anon-A-Miss story that has such a cheerful attitude overall. And for a Christmas Special, even the original comic had very little of the cheesy Christmas Spirit.
And I thought I had a current monopoly on "different" Anon-A-Miss stories.
Good work, though. Keep it up!
Overall a nice story with sloppy execution. The concept was nice, but the lie detector Applejack felt like a complete cop out (using debunked season one fanon without any lead in or build up as the main conflict resolver) and part of the resolution ignored that Sunset was actively reaching out in Rainbow Rocks (CMC in the beginning, volunteering to show new students around, and the credits). Other parts were handled rather clunky as well, mainly the part with Celestia and Luna. Still, it was nice.
8464391
The lie detector thing is less 'debunked' and more 'never used', and considering half of my fics is 'me being salty about things', I like making the Elements something more than just a magical laser beam. And Sunset doesn't really 'reach out' much in RR. She tried once with the CMC, and yes she did help the new students, but these were both safe options. The Crusaders are her friends' sisters(who should have more of a reason to trust her because of said association), and new students are people who don't know about her past and she doesn't have to make any amends with. The Comic implies that the Humane 5 are her only friends still, and that the school in general still believes she'd be Anon-A-Miss, so it seems doubtful that she's worked to apologize to anyone else by this point. By Friendship Games people actually seem to like her, so something happened in between Anon-A-Miss and that movie.
(Still upset that they waited until LoE to give her a scene with Flash though, and it was short and about Twilight and ugh I have more fics to write on that.)I'll admit some of it's a bit sloppy, but I'll also admit I'm not the best writer, especially when sick.
8464428
The lie detector thing definitely was debunked, as Applejack is one of the easier characters to lie to. She’s been tricked many times and there have been very few (if any) cases where she’s the only one to notice a lie. It also clashes with the first two movies, as she was easily lied to multiple times in the first and didn’t catch Twilight’s lies or that Sunset was honest that she didn’t sabotage them in a fit of jealous rage. As for Rainbow Rocks, after the first two scenes with Sunset trying to reach out, everyone was under the Dazzlings’ influence until the end, and during the credits you see Sunset getting along with more people.
Finally one that isn't mean-spirited, has everyone NOT be borderline sociopath jack asses to Sunset, has Sunset not be suicidal/homicidal/bitchy about the entire thing, has the CMC PROPERLY punished and not have half the school threaten their lives, and the best part is that it doesn't feel like it's an accusation fic. It's a feels good fic.
8464490
There's a difference between hearing someone lie to you and actually using lie detector powers to check when you think you're being lied to.
As for Rainbow Rocks, 1. the Dazzlings aren't to blame for everything. They upped the Desire, but how the others went about doing that was up to the individual. 2. I'm trying to merge the continuity of both Rainbow Rocks and the Anon-A-Miss comic, which is difficult due to the, well, differences between the setups. Like, the credits scene for RR has the CMC liking Sunset and being her friend, yet by the time Anon-A-Miss happens after that, where they hate her? It really makes no sense, and I'm trying to fix it as best I can, which involves ignoring parts of Canon.
This series can't even handle the continuity within a 22 minute episode. And as I'll readily admit, about half of me writing fics is be being salty about how things happened or how they were written and trying to fix it into something that works coherently in my brain, or just striaght up clinging to old Headcanons that make more sense to me
*CoughcoughSombraandAlicornsandImmortalscough*. I use Canon as a springboard to work off of, but I adjust things as I like because that's the whole point of Transformitive Works. While I do this with most fics, this one is the first 'Adjustment Fic' in my Rewritten Project which is supposed to do exactly this.Very good read! It actually fits better the spirit of the show than the original comic!
8464523
Can you give an example of the lie detector ability? To my knowledge, Applejack has never shown anything of the sort and there are plenty of counter examples.
I never blamed the Dazzlings, just saying it would be pointless for Sunset to try and reach out to people who don’t like her when they’re all fighting with people they do like while constantly trying when the influence wasn’t there.
As for the comic itself, it was apparently supposed to take place between the first two movies but the writer forgot the journal was introduced in RR, so it was moved there... Then again, the comics are completely irrelevant to the series.
8464540
Okay, I see you are not listening to about half of my comment, so I'm just going to not continue this back-and-forth.
8464559
Not listening to which part? That the show has crap continuity (which is irrelevant)? That this was written to change things up? My initial point was that the key changes need to be established and worked in when they contradict canon. I found my immersion breaking whenever the arguments and key ability in the story directly contradict canon but have no setup (the lack of setup is the problem). The changes to the Anon-A-Miss scenario only work because the lead in was changed, but we don’t know what the lead in is. You try to handwave the lie detector ability as canon and try to argue against Sunset reaching out, treating both of those as canon. You didn’t just wave them away as changes (in which case it would still be clunky for the same reason, no setup) but tried to argue them as canon...
8464594
Pray tell, how are you supposed to say 'this is what was changed from canon' without outright saying 'this was changed from canon' in the actual fic and breaking immersion even more? Actually, I have the answer: Mention it in the summary of the fic or the Author's note. The summary of this fic mentions that not only is this fic within my own Continuity that has made these changes, but it is part of a project where I am specifically changing things I don't like and admit that there will be differences because of this.
When I read 'Part of my X Continuity' in someone's summary, I already know that there will be extra things that won't be addressed properly unless I read all their fics(and even then, not all headcanons get a direct fic because they don't need one). For example, I'm not going to read Samey90's "Moonwing" and go 'Hey, Diamond Tiara wasn't a serial killer in the show! Why don't they explain that?'. I'm going to say 'okay, they have a set of stories where Diamond killed a few ponies.' and read from there. Or how about another example from my own works? I already used Grogar in my continuity. If the show uses him now, that's not going to effect my story. And if I use him again within that continuity, I will make a note of it and say that it is a separate canon. If you read past that, it's 'signing the contract' to recognize this is happening.
The series lack of continuity is a bit relevant due to, you know, everyone other than Trixie likes Sunset at the end of Rainbow Rocks, but suddenly everyone hates her in Anon-A-Miss. And considering half of your problem with the writing is how I fixed this error, well, I'd consider that relevant. And you know what? Considering a lot of the Anon-A-Miss end with a handful of deaths, the friend group still being broken, or even Celestia and Luna losing their jobs for allowing it to happen, obviously they're not adhering to canon as, you know, the series continues?
Same for all fics in general? Fanfiction isn't canon. It's a place for people to write stories based off Canon or change Canon as needed. that's the whole point of fanfiction. I'm not saying whether the lie detector thing is canon or not, only that it is a possibility that could have been used in the show but wasn't, and I used it because I like the idea. So it is Canon to this world, but not every single world.
I think what the critics are trying to say is that Applejack lie detector powers are so at odds with canon that this work should have an AU tag, so we know what we're getting into.
Still, I normally detest Anon-A-Miss stories because they arbitrarily change thing just to make things darker, despite the whole problem with the comic being that it was too dark for the resolution it offered. That this story actually caught my interest is something special. Great work. Especially appreciate the bold step of giving the CMC better reasons for their antagonism or having the whole fic exist just as an excuse to punish them.
Am I the only one who finds it objectionable that these fics find it necessary to further punish the only characters form the comic to actually own up to their mistakes (even if it was only because they were about to be exposed, it still better than anyone else) and accepted the harshest punishment any redeemed antagonist has faced (six months detention, which per the popular months=moons fanon, equal to what Sunset for her far, far larger list of transgressions)?
8464523
"This series can't even handle the continuity within a 22 minute episode." That can be easily rationalized within canon. It's officially stated Applejack's parents were on "couple's vacation". Assuming Applejack was 13 and Apple Bloom was conceived around this time, born when AJ was 14, and AB being 8 at present, this would make AJ 22. A small enough difference from her human selfs 17 to explain their identical personalities, but makes way more sense since the pony counterparts have full time careers. Remember the EG 'verse aged down Celestia and Luna by around 1000 years.
Shoot! I wanted to write an Anon-A-Miss story like this but I never got the time. Still, this was pretty good.
8465197
Here's the thing about the 'AU' tag: what qualifies as an Alternate Universe varies vastly between users. If I used the AU tag for everything that was pure speculation/headcanon but not directly Canon, then every story would be an AU. Personally, if I'm working mostly on the Canon material, but have made adjustments for some headcanons and/or things established in other parts of the Continuity of stories(For example, if the show uses Grogar before I use him again, or anything about Alicorns and the Immortal/Royal's history), then I don't qualify it as an AU. However, if I'm changing a large part of the story, I will. (The example here is my story In Another World, which while based in Canon happens very differently and changes the universe far more than adjusting the Lore/History/Worldbuilding.). Or if I just went ahead with, like, dropping the characters into the Little Mermaid, or something like what Earthsong9405 does, that would qualify as an AU.
Like, by technicality, a Fanfic, especially a Rewrite, is an AU, but it doesn't necessarily need a tag because, well, people know going in. But as I pointed out, I do warn people that this is not only part of a Continuity, which implies established worldbuilding/lore that may be different due to being written before episodes that change Canon, but it is also part of a project of rewriting episodes so it will definitely have a different path. Therefore, 'Alternate Universe' isn't exactly right in this. I guess a better term would be 'Universe Alteration', which implies minor shifts in Canon, but not a full different world.
And yeah, I definitely agree that a lot of the fics go too far with the punishment on the characters. Like, while we know Sunset was innocent the whole time, there is the fact that she's the only single person who could have done it, so their reaction in the comic is understandable. As for the CMC, oh my stars do they get worse. Like, yeah, cyberbullying is bad and they should get some detention for that, but sometimes... wow. But people always focus on the 'you did all this because you weren't invited to a slumber party?!' bit, even though in the actual comic, they say they weren't getting to spend time with their sisters, not 'I wanted to have a sleepover but you said no'. So I ran with that and just elaborated what was implied.
As for my thing about the ages, well, okay, this might get long but screw it this is my story I can comment/rant as long as I want.
1. 'Word of God' tweets don't count as canon. Honestly, Comics barely count as Canon. that's all Limbo Canon and up to the fans until otherwise stated in-show. That said, it doesn't explain why Granny would be the one to give AJ or Big Mac the farm, since their father would be the one to choose and Granny would be dead by then, which implies he's not around to do so. But even if they were:
2. As Applejack is the size of an adult, a few years older than Cutie Mark Age, and out of school, she's in what should be the 17-19 range, but as Ponies age differently I estimate that they're 'born two years old', so she'd be 15-17 in the flashback.
3. Listen, Cutie Marks definitely have puberty vibes. 'becoming an adult' and all. Puberty age is technically 9-16, but 11-15 is much more common. As the CMC are the last of their class to get their Marks, and the fact that Apples in general are late bloomers, plus the fact that they're allowed to run around town unchecked(something no parent would allow anyone under 12 to do), they're put at what would usually be 15, but adjusted for the 'born two years old' makes them 13.
4. even if Applebloom were conceived off-screen during this very episode, it would still be about a year before she was born(Humans take 9-10 months and horses are 11-12, and that 'born at two years' leans more toward the 11-12). So 13 + 1=14, and then add that to AJ's age makes 29-31
5. Even if you were right and AJ was 22, it still makes the rest of the Mane 6 in their twenties, which still really makes Equestria Girls creepy as FUCK, since you have 22-ish Twilight with possibly underage Flash, not to mention Sunset being older than Twilight and also being with Flash when he was DEFINITELY underage, and now shipped with possibly underage Sci-Twi.
6. Other than the errors in this episode, you can use that 'born at two years old' thing to explain why the Mane 6 are adults with careers but their Human Counterparts are still in school. The answer being that Ponies are legally adults at a younger age
(whether or not they reach physical/mental maturity at that age is a whole other can of worms, but some real humans don't mature until early twenties). That way, you can have them be in their late teens but still be 'adults'. High School students are typically 14-18, but they can be 13-19 for various reasons. 13 already fits what I put the Crusaders at from other episodes, and while the Mane 6 seem 18-21 life wise, the two year adjustment puts them at 16-19, which happens to be the age of High School Seniors, which the Human Counterparts happen to be. The Immortals are the only ones to get an age adjustment due to a lack of Immortality.7. All of this is wild speculation and until we get actual confirmation in-show.... well..... I'll probably still ignore it due to my established universe(and possibly sake of mind because STARS I can't stop thinking about the potential pedophilia EQG might accidently imply.)
8465294
Trust me, I know the feeling. I get story-blocked by Canon a lot
(which is half the reason I'm salty and created my own Continuity of stories). Still, go ahead with your version! Even if it's similar, it'll still be it's own thing,Yeah, just like every business that ever existed, am I right?
8465384
Fair point. I'm a huge Halloween fan, but I'm not good at writing horror. That said, you should see my place around Christmas because we love the holiday spirit. We have at least three full-size, fully decorated and lit trees(One is your typical green with sentimental/weird ornaments and colored lights, one's green with purple lights and glittery pink and purple ornaments, and one is white with gold ornaments), several half-size trees, lights all around the edge of the roof and the plants in the yard, themed pool floaties, signs, fairies, multiple nativity scenes(ranging in elaborateness), light up yard decor, lights around lampposts and on the fence, a portrait of Santa(that's honestly pretty cool), and I think last year I counted 37 Santas in my bathroom alone. All while the carols blast out of every speaker. Even if we didn't want to, we have to start decorating November 1 because it takes so long to set up.
8465392 Holy crap, I just have one litttle fibre optic tree... that's been sitting on the mantle for the last three yeears cause I could never be bothered putting it away.
8465533
Whoops, sorry for rambling there I haven't slept in a while. But yeah, I live with my mom and grandparents, and they have a lot of stuff, and are very social people so they like to host Christmas parties. You know what's a bad idea? Jello shots next to a fire pit and a pool. And a lake.
8465543
I don't know, sounds like a good set up to me. That way, if you set yourself on fire while drunk, you have several large bodies of water to drown in, for a less painfull death.
I really loved the story!
8465567
Touché.
8465370
About the ages.
1. Granny was not dead by the time they came of age (present), so her being the one to make the call is viable. It's easy to assume the parents would have deferred to her judgment as long as she was around.
2. Applejack, while as tall as adults, still has a different, smaller frame than adults (every age between teens and seniors), so she younger than adult by a significant margin. It's also the same build as filly Fluttershy when she got her mark, so it make way more sense that they were young teens at most, and the CMC are clearly younger than that. I speculate that biological puberty and "cutie mark puberty" are distinct things.
3. I find it hard to believe that the Crusaders are teenagers when they are less mature then the borderline-teenage at most Spike (he had a crush and a full time job long before the Crusaders got their marks). Differences in dragon aging are ignored since I'm basing it off his being raised long enough to have a roughly 12 year old mindset. If ponies view getting a mark as coming of age when it's so different from what we humans would consider such (reach X year age), letting children wander is easy to dismiss as values dissonance.
4. Duration of pregnancy is pure speculation at this point, but I'd say it learns to shorter since Cadance's happened completely offscreen.
5. Given the dissonance between how ponies and humans determine age, it easy to assume Twilight never considered the age gap (Is that really more disconcerting then the species gap? Wait I just realized given how Spike x Rarity is treated as harmless in-series, what little evidence there is on the matter suggests species gap is not an issue for ponies.), especially with all the other things going on at the times. Maybe it's once she had time to think about it is why she's dropped the crush by "Friendship Games".
finally a version that has the girls NOT think its sunset this is what it should be them trusting her despite there doubts
8466091
1. I'm not saying Granny's dead by the time they're 'adults'. I'm saying that she'd be dead by the time ownership of the farm should pass to them from their parents. Because, like, Granny still owns the farm and runs things. Yeah, AJ and Big Mac do most of the work, but it's because they physically can. Granny can still manage the business side of things, and helps out as much as she can during major events like Zap Apple and Cider seasons. But usually, by this time, she would have handed off ownership/leadership to her son, because as I said she can't do everything like she used to. So, let's use my family as an example. I'm 21, my mom's 50, and my grandma's 69. Now, as I am an only child, I'll be using Big Mac as a reference instead of AJ here. Let's put Mac at 21, their parents at 50-ish, and Granny at 70-ish. 70 is a good retirement age. So she passes the farm down, and her son runs it for twenty years and is now at 70-ish and ready to retire and give the farm to a 40-ish Big Mac or AJ. Granny would be 90-ish. While not impossible to live to 90, it's unlikely. So the fact that Granny gets a say in who gets the farm, and the fact that AJ and Mac are fighting about which one of them gets it a few decades to early, it implies the farm's going directly to them, skipping their parents. Which only makes sense if they're dead.
2. You have to remember that this is animation, not reality. The animators needed to get across the message 'she's younger than now, but older than her Cutie Mark flashback'. So, as I said, she's as tall as the adults, but has the gangly teen look which gets the message across. And that does fit 15-17 year olds pretty well. I reached adult height about early Sophmore year, but I still looked very 'teen'. And while Fluttershy looked gangly in her Cutie Mark story, she wasn't really taller than the other foals. Also, we've seen Cutie Mark Age AJ, and she smaller than this episode's AJ, she was actually CMC sized. So she's grown a few years since then. As for whether or not 'Cutie Mark Puberty' and 'Actual Puberty' are different things, well, like, probably? You get your Cutie Mark when you find your Talent, which can happen any time, but considering everyone we've seen to get it has been the same age, it typically happens at a specific age range. And just... just listen to the way they talk about Cutie Marks when they're first introduced. It really sounds like 'the talk', and kids wondering 'when am I gonna grow up and be an adult?"
(You'll regret adulthood later, kid!). Only thing that doesn't fit the metaphor is the 'Blank Flank bullying'.3. I think the difference between Spike and the CMC can be put more to environmental differences rather than age. Spike was raised in Canterlot with Twilight, probably homeschooled, most likely taught how to behave around stuck-up Nobility, and his 'job' is less of a 'job' and more 'helping family'. Compare that to the three fillies who went to public school in a small town and never had anyone to impress(Especially because of the species differences!). They're going to be a bit more immature. That said, Spike is still plenty immature and makes kid-like mistakes. Like eating far too much ice cream because 'that's Future Spike's problem!'. Also, I never said they consider Cutie Marks a 'you're an adult now' thing. They still have a 'you're a legal adult at X years old' system, it's just younger because of that 'born at two' thing, so say 15? and for the 'running around' thing, yeah, that's still normal. If they're 13, but Pony 13 is our 15, then yeah, I was allowed to go around with my friends as long as I told my mom where I was. But when I was 10? Only if it was in eye-sight of the front door.
4. Kid, I don't know how to break it to you, but all of this is pure speculation. We're trying to figure out the aging and culture of cartoon technicolor horses. Unless the show itself sits down and says 'I'm Applejack and I'm turning 22 today', any of this will be speculation. And as speculation, it's up to each fan's interpretation. So, yeah, this whole thing is speculative and opinion based, nothing's really going to happen. That said, with the pregnancy, we have no idea how much time passed between seasons. We haven't even seen the model for a pregnant pony? Like, Mrs. Cake was pregnant during season 1 and half of season 2, but she didn't look pregnant. That said... it is confusing on how much time has passed in this series. Like, okay, the first three seasons was one year. Then we have Equestria girls happen. Cadence gets pregnant at the end of season 5 and has her child at the beginning of season 6, but over in EQG world, they're still in their Senior year of High School, been though at least two years should have passed. I'm going to sigh and brush it off as Hasbro being Hasbro and saying 'we need to push a baby toy now!', so they shove in the pregnancy announcement episode so that the sudden baby is less of a surprise. I'm not going to hold Time against the show, at least not in figuring out the timeline. I mean, how many things happened 1000 years ago? " It’s actually 962 years, but 1000 sounds more ominous."
5. Twilight probably would've been a little concerned about the age gap. Like, she would've noticed that the others are still in school while she's not. Since her friends' Counterparts are also in that school, she'd probably assume it's just cultural differences more than an age gap. Especially if she asked after explaining the 'I'm a magic pony from another dimension' thing. As for the species difference, like, we as Humans don't have to think about that because we're the only fully sapient beings we know. For Equestria, they have many sapient creatures(it's debatable in the fandom which creatures are actually sapient and which are just animals that happen to talk(like parrots), but that's a whole other debate). So, I feel like Equestria would have a mindset of 'as long as it is a sapient creature of legal age it's cool'. So a species difference like a Dragon and a Pony would be okay as both are sapient creatures that can properly consent. Humans are sapient, so Twilight would be okay with the difference.
The fact that the conflict of the story could've been dealt with THIS easily makes me die a little inside.
Great job, man, this is brilliant! Thumbs up! 10/10!
Honestly I thought scrotal brought up a good point about rainbow dash being upfront and telling her about everything and she would had said that she had other plans but to ask to hang out a different time. I feel that it was never properly solved on scootalo's end, even a " sunset told us this right before we had a sleepover and it was a last minute thrown together event so I could have not possibly known about it until the end so I didn't know about this when we were talking" would have been fine
8466274
1. I understand and agree it doesn't make sense, but assuming Granny would make the call the parents would (be inclined to) stick to makes more sense then Apple Bloom being born after her parents deaths.
2. Never noticed the size thing before, Thanks for pointing that out. That actually may effect my headcanons on their ages. 17 seems viable now. I'd still say she's younger than her 17-18 EG self, since teen Applejack had only just underwent the character development into EG and pony selves present personality.
8468410
Fair enough, I just like pointing it out because it confuses me when I try to work it into my headcanons, established fics and even NextGens that mention these facts, and sometimes I end up having to toss out the contradiction I can't use, even if it's the 'Canon' one. For example, in this episode where it has near-adult AJ and not-born-yet Applebloom. I've already written that they're 13 and 19, so I kept that and disregarded the episode entirely(I also disregarded the name Spoiled Milk, but to be honest...). It's the hazard of writing a solid universe based off an ongoing series, but I try my best to say 'keep in mind that this is Canon-Divergent, and might have major changes'.
8465371
Cool,
This definitely feels like a better version of whatever it was Mr. Anderson (FAR less cool than the Matrix one) gave us. The opening felt a bit rough, but those are rarely easy to do. I really liked the idea that Sunset had a ridiculous amount of backup black-mail sources "just in case"
The rest felt much more in line with what a 'proper' way to do it would have been without making any of the characters look bad.
Truthfully, I'm a little iffy on Anon-a-miss redoes, but I felt this would work very well as all around better version that could slot in in place of the comic without taking things off the rail (E.G. Sunset goes back to Equestria. I mean, that story has it's appeal, sure but it kind of tramples on a lot of movie goodness).
8478580
Yeah, the opening was kind of rough, but tbh I was just trying to skip all the first chunk of the comic. Like, if you're here you've read the comic and know the story, but I feel like I needed to recap it without going fully into 'writing a storybook version of the comic' as some people do. Honestly that probably would have doubled my wordcount.
And as for the other thing, when it comes to rewrites, unless the point of the rewrite is to derail the story and diverge from Canon completely, they should always end with everything staying to the Canon's 'Status Quo'. So many Anon-A-Miss stories have everything skewed sideways, to the point where Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree can't happen properly, either because of deaths, expulsions, Tia and Luna getting fired, or even just the friend group being broken up, but they rarely expand on how these events go down in their universes. Here, everything happens differently, but everyone is now in a better place than they were. I have a handful of Episodes that are on my Rewrite list, but all of them will end pretty much the same way as they did in the show except for the changes that make it, in my opinion, better, because it's leading to the same future as other episodes.
8478649
I can agree that that's a good goal to shoot for. Improving without forcing an AU of the whole thing. And yeah. Taken in the context that the opening is more or less something everyone is familiar with that needs to be skipped over is familiar to me as well. It's pretty hard to find joy in simply recounting a thing that's a text version of something you figure your readers are already familiar with.
I love this take on Anon-A-Miss. I enjoy the depressing one but this one was very refreshing.
This is made with win.
It seems Sunset and I have a similar problem in life.
I find that this story makes 10x more logical sense than the actual comic. This is now canon in my head. Thank you for your work.
Exactly; what would she stand to gain from this? Extreme notoriety and lost friendships, friendships that were hard-won in the first place. Doesn't sound like a great prize. Furthermore, this isn't even close to her old M.O.; when she was a bitch, she did her best to hide it from anyone not titled 'victim'. This "Anon-A-Miss" thing is so far removed from that, it might as well be in China - in that it all but states "THIS IS SUNSET SHIMMER".
If anyone were to take a moment to compare and contrast old-Sunset with Anon-A-Miss, they'd realise this - and instantly know Shimmer was being set-up. Furthermore, if one were to check the page's linked email (like what hackers or the site administrators could do, if it isn't publicly listed), it'd be easy to see if it was connected to Sunset or not; send an email (the more genuine-seeming, the better, as it lowers the risk of the owner/s deleting it) to the address, for example. If Sunset gets it, it's her. If someone else gets it, it's highly likely it's that person who's behind Anon-A-Miss.
Or, if it's a school email address, go through the email server's database to cross-reference the address with the person who created it, or check the account's previous emails - there should be more than enough information there to both discredit the "It's Sunset Shimmer" theory and uncover the true culprit.
Or, if the Anon-A-Miss owner logs in while connected to the school's LAN, just get the IT Department to check the logs, and trace the IP or MAC addresses back to the source. Or have them outright block MyStable on the school LAN; sure, this would do nothing about the possibility of Anon-A-Miss usage in other areas, but if Sunset's at school when a new post goes up, she'd have an alibi - and it'd make all students not currently on school grounds (if they were sick, for example) look suspicious. Also, this would lower the post's impact, since there would be a day's gap (or three day's, if one was posted on Friday afternoon) between the post and school reconvening.
Lastly, there's always the simple method: Sunset gives her phone, laptop and any other Internet-capable device to Principal Celestia or other trustworthy staff member, and she herself is watched closely; if a new post goes up despite this, there can be no way it's Sunset. Boom - page's motive is instantly obvious, and all suspicion can be lifted from the not-quite-human's shoulders. Which would also get the owners to stop posting, since continuing would be pointless.
So in summary: there's no point to Sunset doing it, and there's several different ways to uncover both a) if Sunset's truly the culprit, and b) who the real culprit actually is.
8859753
Oddly enough, while I agree... I also somewhat disagree. I brought it up in the fic, but the girls are well aware of Sunset's lack of motive, and defended her before. Then pictures only Sunset should have had access to were posted. "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.". True, they're wrong. But with the evidence given, that's the only explanation. That said, your methods for uncovering who it is likely wouldn't work.
It's difficult to upload from the school computers. Not only are you in the open for everyone to see, but to do that you'd need to bring the pictures in on a flash drive or your phone and hook that up to the computer to upload. It's far easier to upload from either a home computer or a smartphone. And really, phones don't like school wifi. The website blockers are built in, and make your phone run so slow. I couldn't even run my game apps on school wifi. If you want to use your phone's internet at school, time to upgrade your data plan and go without.
The email thing wouldn't work because emails are free. You can create as many accounts as you want, and it can't be traced back to you. Unless you know how to attach a virus to the email that will hack the webcam of the computer that opens it to take and send pictures. Which is illegal on several levels. And while Principal Celestia likely has the authority to scan school computers(which I already pointed out are likely not being used for uploads), she can't just track down someone's home computer/phone. Again, at least not legally. She'd need the cops to get a warrant, which they won't do until there's a significant crime(It's technically cyberbullying/harassment, but so far it's on a small-scale that most cops wouldn't deal with. Hell, real-world principals wouldn't even care!).
Making Sunset hand over all electronics and be watched wouldn't work either, because you can queue posts or set them to upload at a certain time. She doesn't have to have to actually be there for a post to go up. It doesn't eliminate her.
MLP in a human setting sure is weird.
8860305
Good points. Nice to see you gave this a positive ending that doesn't end with character bashing.
That was incredibly cheesy. I don't think I've read that much cheese in... who knows how long. But if I ignore the maximum cheese parts, the rest was pretty alright.
9385924
Cheese isn't inherently a bad thing; I quite like cheese. Sure, this story's got a bit of cheese - “I mean, come on,” Rainbow said. “Imagine if we did ‘yell and kick you out’, and then we find out later it wasn’t you. We’d be major assholes.” - but it's not overdoing it, like I once did with halloumi. It's still an enjoyable story - unless you're lactose-intolerant and can't have any cheese, that is.
9468878
To be fair, every lactose intolerant person I know says 'I know I'm gonna suffer for it, but I'm totally gonna eat all of the dairy I can'.
I actually appreciated this alternative take on this story. Thank you for sharing!
A Anon a Miss story where the motivations for the CMC aren't just 'My sister didn't let me go to a sleepover with her
guess I'm going to ruin one of her friends lives now
' those are rare. I like how their motivation for doing what they did makes sense because of course they would think Sunset is to blame for taking their sisters like sunset said it's easier to believe she's to blame then believe their sisters aren't perfect does that excuse their actions 
hell no but you can understand why they did it also love the fact they use AppleJack's element against Sunset to make sure she's innocent instead of just assuming she is without listening to her because like Pinkie said there was evidence against Sunset that they needed to address that's what pissed me off in the comic not that they accused Sunset but the fact that they never let her try to plead her case before they abandoned her (that and the lousy as fuck consequences for the CMC but we aren't gonna talk about that) great story hope to see more from you