Chapter 1: Set Ablaze
The morning sun brought light to the frozen world that was Canterlot High, indicating to everyone that it was time to start yet another miserable day of school.
There were only three days left of school before it let out for winter break, and at this point the students were just trudging along, hoping to get them out of the way so they could go on Christmas vacation already. The only solace they took was that the last day of break was usually a half-long free day where everyone would be gathered to watch a movie in the gymnasium.
So it was that the students of CHS dragged their feet along towards the school, wanting to get the day over with. However, they found themselves coming to a stop just outside of the school, looking up to see Sunset Shimmer standing firmly atop their proud Wondercolt statue.
One foot resting on the horse’s forehead, knee popped up in defiance, head scanning around at the gathering crowd. Her scarf billowed in the light breeze, seeming to add to the intimidation that she was radiating from her position.
The students had been silent for a while, but the longer she stood there not saying anything, the more they began to murmur amongst themselves. Their confusion was understandable, as even for Sunset Shimmer this was confusing behavior.
Sunset’s eyes continued to scan the growing crowd, keeping an eye out for a specific group of students. The longer she stood there the more students her message would reach, but if too many showed up before she started speaking than she was likely to cause a riot just as easily.
‘Keep things under control, maintain your power, don’t give them an inch.’ Sunset repeated in her mind. Her entire plan would make or break here, and if she lost control of the students then she could say goodbye to it ever working at all.
If the girls didn’t show up soon, she was going to have to start without them-
“What in tarnation is going on here?” Applejack’s voice managed to cut through the murmurs.
Sunset closed her eyes for a moment, a bit of relief washing over her before being replaced with a looming dread. She turned her head and opened her eyes, spotting the five girls, who were the most important to her in all of CHS, standing there staring up at her in confusion the same as everyone else.
That put everyone in place, and it was time for her plan.
She took one last deep breath of the biting winter air, letting it out slowly, before she forced herself back into a mindset she hadn’t been in for some time now. Her face fell into place once more, like slipping into an old glove she hadn’t worn in some time. An evil smirk appeared on her face as her eyes set into a glare onto the student body.
Sunset Shimmer was back.
“Students of CHS!” Sunset declared, the students that had gathered around quieting upon hearing the girl speak, “over the past few days, the school has been being tormented by a MyStable page known as ‘Anon-a-Miss’, with secrets being spread carefree and without regard for your reputation or privacy. And many of you have suspected that this style of malicious secret spreading was done none-other than by me!”
Sunset paused with a smirk, lifting a hand up to her head to curl her hair around her ear, closing her eyes as she spoke.
“And I suppose I could have been a bit more subtle about it, couldn’t I?” She darkly chuckled.
The gathered students’ eyes grew wide, murmurs instantly beginning to spread amongst them at Sunset’s blatant admission. She opened her eyes to see the looks of confusion, disgust, horror, and anger spread out across the student body. She even glanced at her old friends, noting that they all seemed to be reacting with an even bigger level of shock than the others.
Sunset couldn’t help but wonder if the shocked expressions meant they hadn’t fully believed that she was Anon-a-Miss before this moment, and that there had yet been hope that she would either be proven innocent or learn the error of her ways.
A fleeting hope that Sunset was now dashing right before their eyes.
‘Time to burn the rest of the bridges I suppose.’ Sunset internally sighed, before turning back to the rest of the student body.
“I do, however, have some corrections to make,” Sunset spoke loudly above the murmuring, quieting the students down again, “you see, there’s one big mistake that everyone has been making about the website. Because while it is true that I am Anon-a-Miss, the secrets I’ve been sharing? Only the first two were actually obtained by me.
“Every single other secret on the page was submitted to the page by you, my adoring public.”
Utter silence fell over the students of CHS at the reveal. No one dared to say a word now that Sunset had revealed the truth.
“Everyone who has submitted a secret to the page knows I’m telling the truth. And if for some reason you’re not yet convinced, I’d suggest for you to take another look at the source of all of the photos. After all, do you think I’m capable of hacking your phones? Of being in every corner of the school at once? Even with magic that would be quite the feat for someone like me.” Sunset laughed, flipping her hair for effect as she scanned over the crowd.
“And I have the records of every single person who sent in secrets to Anon-a-Miss. Your name, the secrets you submitted, and even your darkest secrets that you think no one else knows about. But I can assure you, I know about them just fine.” Her grin broadened.
“I set up Anon-a-Miss as a test. A test to see if you all would turn on yourselves like a pack of rabid wolves if your secrets were revealed. And I have to say, you have not disappointed! This has been an extremely entertaining experiment, and you all played your roles as lab rats perfectly.” Sunset shook her head, tucking her hair behind her ear again as she spoke.
“So! I hope you all can live with yourselves knowing just how terribly you all betrayed your friends. My little website will remain for the time being, but I’m curious to see how you all will treat it now that you know the truth.” Sunset let out a practiced villainous laugh, one that came straight from the height of her villainy days.
With her announcement finished, Sunset jumped from the Wondercolt statue, landing with a loud crunch into the snow before standing up and dusting herself off. The students around her backed up wearily, not wanting to be near Sunset as she made her way into the school, parting the crowd for her.
No one said a word as she walked away, too stunned by that brash announcements and the reveal behind everything. The girls didn’t know how to take this news or the confirmation of Sunset’s betrayal, and most importantly of all…
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were in the most shock out of anyone.
Word spread fast about the incident that morning at the Wondercolts statue, and soon the entire school was aware about all of the confessions Sunset Shimmer had made. And so it was that she found every student was avoiding her again, just like they had when she was Queen of the school.
Not that any of it made Sunset particularly happy. She’d worked hard to dig herself out of the villain hole she’d gotten herself into and had wanted to stay on everyone’s good side. The fact that things had resulted in her being forced to play the villain role once more left a nasty weight in her gut. Anxiety and guilt frayed at her emotions, but she forced it all to the side to maintain her facade.
Her plan was working. That was the main thing she kept in her mind every time she felt her mask starting to crack or break.
The Anon-a-Miss website hadn’t updated in hours that day, when normally by lunch time there’d be a minimum of 20 new secrets spilled out about the school. Even more if it was a busy day.
Instead, the website had been deadly silent. Either the students had finally wised up and stopped sending in secrets, or Anon-a-Miss knew that they were in hot water and had decided to back off for good.
In either case, it accomplished exactly what Sunset wanted.
Secrets weren’t being spread around anymore, and that was all that mattered.
“Hey, Sunset!” A blue hand slammed against the locker she had been opening. “We need to talk!”
Sunset turned and saw a rather angry Dash glaring at her, turning further to see the rest of the girls looking various levels of upset as well.
‘Knew this was coming.’ Sunset mentally sighed, turning herself around fully and crossing her arms. She’d managed to avoid the girls up until this moment, but she knew she’d eventually be talking to them about this morning. It wasn’t a conversation she was looking forward to, but one that had to be had.
“What has gotten into you, darling?” Rarity spoke up, expressing everyone’s exasperation. “Why on Earth would you turn the whole school against itself like this!?”
“You were doing so well! You were being a good person!” Pinkie added, her eyes wide and puppy-dog like as she spoke. “Why did you turn into such a meanie-pants again!?”
“Well, I could try and explain it to you all, but somehow I get the feeling you wouldn’t believe me even if I did.” Sunset shook her head, a smirk forming on her face. “All that matters is that I’m on top of the school again, where I’ve always belonged. And isn’t that what’s most important?”
“You were supposed to be our friend!” Fluttershy spoke up, hiding behind Applejack and trying to hide the obvious tears forming in her eyes. “We trusted you, and you…! You USED us!”
“The whole school is rowdier than a bull at a rodeo, and what do you have to show for it all? Power? Infamy?” Applejack grunted, glaring daggers at Sunset. “It just ain’t right Sunset.”
“I can assure you, Applejack, that what might seem wrong to you, seems oh-so-right to me.” Sunset chuckled. “And let’s face it, it doesn’t matter whether I’m lying or telling the truth anymore does it? You girls are going to believe what you want about me, and it’s a hole I dug myself. So I’m going to continue to use my power to put myself at the top of this school, and before you realize it, things will be better off than they were before.” She lifted a hand and pointed at the five girls.
“So if you truly know what’s best for all of us, you’ll stay out of my way until this is all over, and no one will be hurt in the end.”
“You’re making a mistake, Sunset.” Applejack said simply, crossing her arms. “You’re going to end up sad and alone from all of this.”
“You make it sound like I don’t prefer it that way.” Sunset shook her head. “Now if you’re quite done giving me the ‘friendship lecture’, I have places to go and people to see.”
“...I miss the Sunset Shimmer that was our friend…” Pinkie said, visibly deflating. “She was fun to be around…”
“Life’s full of disappointments, Pinkie. You just get used to it.” Sunset said simply.
“Come on girls, let’s go.” Dash spoke up, placing a hand on Pinkie’s shoulders as she glared at Sunset. The girls all shared one last glare at Sunset as they began to walk away, until Applejack was the only one left standing.
“Princess Twilight would be ashamed of you.” She said harshly. “I hope one day you’ll see what a fool you’ve been. For your sake.”
‘I’m sure that day will come sooner than you realize Applejack.’ Sunset thought to herself, watching the farmer follow after her friends. It was only once all of the girls were out of sight did turn to the lockers and press her head against them, sighing deeply.
That had hurt her soul a little more than she would have liked.
She didn’t want to be cruel to the girls at all, even after everything that had happened, but she couldn’t let them get caught up in everything she was planning. Besides, what she’d said was absolutely true, even if she had explained to them her plan of taking the fall for Anon-a-Miss, they wouldn’t believe that she wasn’t. The end result would be the exact same, but at least this way there was less pain tossed around.
She could handle the brunt of their pain anyway. As long as they had someone to hate, their wounds would heal with time.
And so would hers. Just once this whole stupid affair was past everyone.
She wiped away the moisture forming at her eyes, pulling herself back and regaining her composure. She’d known this was going to be hard and she’d known that turning the girls away was going to break her heart. She just had to hold her head high and believe in her plan.
Stop the school from turning in on itself. Direct their hate at her and unite them through it.
The secondary goal was uncovering Anon-a-Miss’s true identity, though she didn’t feel like there was much hope on that front. She was going to put her absolute best effort into figuring out that mystery, but once the holidays started there was very little chance of their identity becoming public.
That meant she had two whole days to either uncover Anon-a-Miss’s plot and get them to apologize to the school, or return to school next year and continue the charade of being Queen Bee. And while it wasn’t her favorite option, she would do it if it meant peace for the school.
She pressed a hand against the locker and took in another deep breath, steeling her nerves once more.
She was going to look into it tonight, and she was going to have help doing so. She just had to tough it out and continue on as if this was what she’d wanted all along. Everything was still going according to plan, and as long as she kept it that way, everything would be alright.
Rarely does everything go as planned.
“Well, well, well.” Spoke the tall, angry woman who was cracking her knuckles. “If it isn’t little miss secret spreader.”
“Gilda Griffon,” Sunset sighed, backing up into the bleachers as she spoke, “I wasn’t expecting to find you here… Or Hoops. Or Dumb-Bell. Or Score.”
The three large boys stood at Gilda’s sides, looking just as pissed off as the large woman herself did. Her yellow eyes were certainly piercing through Sunset at that moment, though the smaller girl was doing her best not to appear intimidated.
Gilda had always been one of the people she had left alone during her time as Queen Bee, mostly on account of the woman being a gigantic brute. It wasn’t like Sunset had never dug up dirt on Gilda: she had some fairly juicy secrets on the girl. However, she’d always gotten the distinct feeling that her dirt would’ve been insufficient to prevent her face from getting pummeled in, so she’d never thought to use it.
This very situation was proof-enough that she had been right.
“I think it’s time you and I had a little ‘chat’ about your little ‘Anon-a-Miss’ stunt.” Gilda growled. “You put some pretty nasty stuff up on there about me, and I’d certainly like an apology.”
Sunset remembered Gilda’s particular secret being leaked. A video of her harassing another student that had been recorded from around a corner. Not that her being a bully was exactly a big school secret, but it was actually a little cathartic to see it being posted for everyone to see.
“As I said this morning, Gilda, I wasn’t in control of anything that was posted. Everything was submitted to me by other people. So if you’ve got an issue with that, you should take it up with whoever sent in your video, not me.” Sunset shook her head, hoping it was enough to dissuade the large woman.
“They wouldn’t have been sent in in the first place if you didn’t have your dumb website, dweeb!” Gilda roared, reaching out and grabbing hold of Sunset’s jacket. Her eyes widened in surprise as she was suddenly lifted off her feet and slammed into the back of the bleachers.
She hissed as her head banged against the metal bar, her ears ringing from the impact.
“So, I say you better start apologizing, or me and my boys here are gonna make sure you never have the chance to spread your dirt around again!”
Hoops, Dumb-Bell, and Score all started pounding their fist into their hands, making it clear what their intent was.
Sunset grimaced, finding herself suddenly in a very precarious situation. Gilda wasn’t the type of person to be easily reasoned with, and simply giving her what she wanted rarely meant that you were going to persuade her into not pummeling your face in. The most you’d guarantee was getting it over with quickly, something she imagined wasn’t going to be the case here.
Her entire plan hinged on the school believing she was Anon-a-Miss, and getting pummeled for having been them was certainly a way to solidify that in the school’s memory. Not that she was particularly looking forward to the idea, but it was better than trying to scream and plead that it wasn’t actually her in the end.
An apology would mean nothing, and her other options led to being beaten. So Sunset did the only thing she could think to do, and kept her mouth shut.
“Want to do this the hard way, eh?” Gilda said, an evil smirk forming on her face, “fine by me, we can do this the hard way!”
Gilda pulled her fist back, ready to wail on Sunset, the girl squeezing her eyes shut in return, readying herself for the first strike.
“HEY!” A familiar voice roared from atop the bleachers. Sunset felt her body sag with relief upon hearing it, while the bullies looked up to see a familiar figure of purple and lavender standing there. “Let her go! Right now!”
“Or what?” Gilda laughed. “You gonna sing us a song?”
Twilight jumped from the bleachers, landing in the snow with a soft crunch, before standing up and glaring daggers at the bullies. To anyone outside of the situation, it must have looked like Twilight had a death wish, seeing as she was a few inches shorter than Sunset who herself was towered over by the bullies. On top of that, she was wearing a rather cute, and somewhat frilly, purple winter coat that complimented her hair and wasn’t exactly anything intimidating.
“Let her go now, or I’ll let the rest of the school know you’ve upset me.” Twilight growled. “Or have you forgotten that I’m the one who faced down She-Demon Sunset here and beat her? She was even trying to kill us!”
Twilight paused for a moment as she realized what she’d just said, turning to look at Sunset apologetically.
“Uh… No offense…”
“Hey, you know what? I’ll take it right now.” Sunset couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“I’m not scared of you,” Gilda said, letting go of Sunset, the girl letting out a short cry of surprise as she landed hard on her butt. She hissed again, rubbing her hip at the soreness. “Me and the boys can take care of a prissy little pony princess, can’t we?”
“Uhhh…” Hoops vocalized.
“Yeah, uh, I think I actually have homework that needs finishing,” Dumb-Bell offered.
“Yeah, and I think I see Coach coming, so um, we’re gonna go,” Score offered, before the three boys turned tail and fled.
“Wha-HEY! GET BACK HERE COWARDS!” Gilda roared, seething as her entourage ran away.
“Well, it certainly looks like your cronies know how to pick their battles, maybe you should too,” Sunset spoke up as she stood, dusting herself off as she did.
“Don’t think this is over Sunset!” Gilda growled, pointing at the red head. “I’ll make sure you pay for crossing me!”
With those words lingering in the air, Gilda turned and ran, quickly following after the boys.
“Yeah, you don’t gotta worry about that Gilda. Was always part of the plan,” Sunset said mirthlessly, waving at the girl who was far out of earshot by that point.
“And what was THAT!?” Twilight asked bewildered, holding her hand out in the direction the bullies had run. “THIS is why I was against this plan! I come over to help and find you about to be pummeled into the ground!?”
“Look, it was a complication alright? I knew it was a possibility that could happen, I just hadn’t really expected it to actually happen.” Sunset rubbed the back of her head, feeling the small bruise already starting to form. “Anon-a-Miss really pissed people off, and this was the only way to get people to stop tearing each other apart over it. I thought I’d done enough to prevent people from lynching me, but…”
“But it wasn’t enough, apparently,” Twilight sighed, squeezing the bridge of her nose. “Sunset, you’re putting yourself in danger for no reason! We should’ve just talked to the girls together, make them see that you’re not Anon-a-Miss! They would’ve listened to me!”
Sunset was quiet at that, adjusting the scarf around her neck.
“Yeah… They probably would have.”
“So why didn’t we-”
“Because that’s exactly the problem.” Sunset said seriously, turning to look at her best friend. “They would’ve listened to you, not to me. And even if they had believed I wasn’t Anon-a-Miss because of that, the school would still be tearing itself apart and secrets would still be being dropped.” Sunset turned around to face away from Twilight, squeezing at her scarf.
“At least with this plan I put a stop to all of that, and I have a chance to make up for what I did in the past at the same time. If the girls can forgive me through all of it, then our friendship really was meant to be. If not, then it’s not like it’s the end of the world for me. It’s just High School at the end of the day…”
Twilight was quiet at that, staring at Sunset. She didn’t like this plan at all, but there was something to Sunset’s logic she couldn’t deny. She sighed in defeat, shaking her head.
“This is a big gamble Sunset. And I’m worried that if you lose it, that you’re going to end up even worse off than when I first found you here…”
“I just need you to trust me, Twilight,” Sunset said, turning to face her friend with a sad smile. “No one else in this world trusts me right now, and I just need the support of even a single friend right now. I’m going to fix everything by the end of this, I just… I just need a little reassurance that if I screw up somewhere, that you’ll have my back…”
Twilight stared at Sunset for a moment, letting her words sink in before gently nodded. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Sunset, something she hadn’t been expecting Twilight to do.
“I do trust you Sunset. Maybe more than I should, but… I believe you really have changed, and that you have the school’s best interest in mind.” Twilight shook her head again. “I just don’t want to see you hurt through all of it…”
Sunset wrapped her arms around Twilight in return, closing her eyes as she spoke.
“I know Twilight… We’ll put an end to this as quickly as possible, I promise…”
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Strap in folks, this is a good one!
Oh now this looks very interesting.
If the story's still being updated (chapters are being posted) you should mark it incomplete until it's actually fully posted.
9782249
Oh whoops! It was supposed to be marked incomplete, thank you!
Well, this is a different take on things. I look forward to seeing how this turns out.
Well now, this has me excited and intrigued. Great start. Definitely can't wait for more.
Ah yes the zero requiem, liking it so far.
Interesting start. Let's see how it plays out.
...Y'know, I don't watch Equestria Girls, but... I am intrigued. Will the CMC be convinced to come clean? Or will Sunset's suffering be prolonged further? Find out in the next exciting chapter of Role Reversal!
...Am I good at this, or just delusional?
*sigh*
Yet another Anon-A-Miss fic...
This particular genre is about as tired as ScootAbuse and ScootAdopt fics. Hope it's a good read.
9782356
Yup, I whole heartedly agree with you there. And after recent events, I've ended up reading a couple more of the fics than I was expecting to, and it just made me really, really want something different from the genre.
And so here we are with my fic lol
Very intriguing and enjoyable so far! Also it’s nice to see a change up in the Anon-a-miss fic formula where Sunset slowly shifts the tide in her favor.
I'm definitely enjoying this so far, it's got a good premise and plays with the Anon-A-Miss storyline in a new way, the pacing is good so far and the narrative is tightly contained and focused. I like seeing Sunset as her old scheming self turned to good uses, the anti-hero vibe always worked for me and I like seeing Sunset put it on display here.
I know there's going to be a lot of 'Oh no not another AAM' story but honestly I think some really good stories can come from taking a tired trope and finding a new way to engage with it. I think I'm going to enjoy this one.
Cheers,
I-A-M
A solid start for sure! Let's see where you take it!
9782391
I was fully expecting the "Oh no, not another AAM story" comments too, since I'd probably have the same reaction honestly haha~
Glad this one has caught your interest though! I'm very into deconstructing genres, so hopefully I do well enough here to have it be good all the way through!
I got hooked so hard I'm getting whiplash. I absolutely love this characterization of Sunset.
9782407
I've always been less about deconstructing genres and more about getting into their depth. That's why I used AAM as a springboard to tell a unique story with Featherfall, I like where you're going with this though, I feel like it's got a great start.
So Sunset Shimmer is going to take on the anger and hatred of the school huh? That takes a lot of courage, though I suppose this does make sense. I mean sometimes to do some good for the world (or in this case the school) You might have to be seen as the bad guy to do it. even though you have to suffer, some good could come from it and I'm rambling on aren't I? oops
I very much like the story so far, I look forward to see how it progresses
I will reserve my judgment until this is finished, but bold claims to say your going to make something new with this setting. I've seen a lot of people make this claim and never seen any succeed at making something new, rather then just another variation on the setting.
Hope you have something interesting planned.
Helluva Xanatos Gambit That Sunset is playing here.
9782445
By all means, feel free to call me out if it ends up being more of the same lol
At the very least I wanted to turn a bunch of the tropes on their head and not play them off the same way so many others have. It's also going to be far less dreary, depressing, and antagonist as most of them are, so that right there should hopefully separate it from a lot of the other fics!
this, I feel, is how it really would go instead of the other stories, though instead of the other elements just straight up turning there backs on sunset. they'ed at least get her side of the story, or, spot something off about the whole "this was my plan all along" scheme,
9782448
Not to be nitpicky, but I feel like you might mean the Zero Approval Gambit. I think a Xanatos Gambit only applies when any outcome results in a victory for you. From what I can tell so far, there's no sure guarantee that Sunset will end up with victory no matter what the outcome. Of course, I could be wrong and you may be right. I guess I'll just have to wait and see to be sure. To be fair, she does seem to be playing a bit of Xanatos Speed Chess, so that's something, I think.
Playing that 4D Chess, I see
It's an interesting Idea but I dislike Anon-a-miss stories because despite whatever unique Idea they have they always end up following the same tired formula:
1. Sunset's friends are always demonized and turned into complete jerks, sometime one or two come around but the rest are still made out to be jerks.
2. Sunset gains new friends who are just all-around better people than the humane 6.
3. In the end, someone gives a "why you suck" speech to the school.
4. Sunset will abandon her old friends because they don't deserve her.
Even if the story doesn't hit all these points they will usually hit some of them. Even Dawn a story I really enjoy is guilty of this and is part of the reason I've sworn off Anon-a-miss fics because there is no such thing as a truly original take. To be honest the best take I've seen was Myriad Thoughts and that was mostly because it didn't try to do a "new" take on the story and instead focused on the aftermath of the original comic which I think is the only good way to do it.
Is the Romance Tag for Sunset and Princess Twilight ?
So after reading through it, I'll admit it is different but it does have its own problems. For one Sunset's plan makes no sense, her goal was to get the school to stop tearing itself apart while she found the true culprit... okay I can understand that but then why reveal this:
She just revealed that it was everyone in the school who shared each other's secrets which means they have even more reason to be at each other's throats and everyone still hates Sunset because they believe she's Anon-a-miss which was the case before her confession. So what exactly was the point of doing this?
9782359
So far it is, though it needs some editing work. Not so much spelling issues as grammar.
That being said, it's not the stories I groan at, but the genre. At this point, it's starting to get old.
9782477
Wow, you just listed every single trope I hate about Anon-a-Miss fics, and every single trope I hoped to address in this fic itself.
Kudos to having similar tastes!
9782528
My grammar is never going to be the best, and I've pretty much come to accept this. As long as the story is readable and enjoyable without breaking immersion, then by all means, I've accomplished my goals!
Also yes, the genre is tired and worn out, that's exactly why I wrote this fic. I revel in thinking about genres that are tired and bad and trying to make something fresh and unique in them. You should hear my ideas for Isekai stories! It's a lot of fun to try and take ideas everyone is sick of and flip them in such a way as to either make them unique or enjoyable again lol
9782545
Oops
Nice take. I’m looking forward to seeing how the CMC responds especially.
9782465
A Xanatos Gambit doesn't necessarily need to result in a victory for you, as long as it furthers your goals. In this case, Sunset has two goals: Clear her name, and prevent the school from descending into anarchy from in-fighting. So far, she's at least on track for the second one.
You know even if her plan somehow ends up working I hope the story ends with everyone ragging on her for coming up with such an incredibly stupid and nonsensical plan. I mean seriously how the hell does outing everyone as being responsible for leaking the secrets stop the fighting? There is no way that should have accomplished what she wanted it to.
9782498
Mutually Assured (Social) Destruction. It's actually a rather beautiful plan, if you think about it. You see, before Sunset's announcement, if.. say... a video of Lyra calling Bon Bon fat for eating so many sweets was released, then Bon Bon was free to tear into Lyra about it. After all, it was Sunset (or, for those that still wanted to hope against hope that Sunset was innocent, then it was someone framing Sunset) that had shared the information. Now, with the combo of the admission that Sunset was indeed behind all of this, the assumed knowledge that Sunset has even more dirt on everyone in the school that has not yet been leaked, and the confession that most of the secrets were all supplied by their fellow students, the average student refuses to make any comments. Repeating the previous scenario, Bon Bon is aware of her darker secrets that she doesn't want shed. She cannot tear into Lyra anymore, because Lyra might share one of those secrets she knows or just somehow pay off Sunset to release one of those secrets for her. But, while Bon Bon panics about those possibilities, she's too caught up in herself (horray for high school drama) to take a moment to think about the fact that if Lyra were to seek the release of another secret, Lyra herself would have to be worried about a possible retaliation from Sunset because, well, Sunset absolutely knows that it was Lyra who shared it.
No one is going to share a word anymore, out of fear of what Sunset will do to them. No one is going to retaliate against a friend for the older leaked secrets for fear of what Sunset will post next. But, the whole pot that is Canterlot High is now on HIGH boil, they need an outlet... an outlet Sunset conveniently gave them by confessing. Sure, they might be upset that their friend told Sunset something that they never wanted shared, but Sunset was still the one shared that information with the school.
Interesting take, this seems like it’ll be a fun one. I’m assuming legal action by parents against Sunset or the school isn’t an option here, so having Twilight covers the other two biggest potential holes in her plan. Since she confided in Twilight before starting her plan, once she catches the CMC, she’ll have Twilight acting as a witness that it was the plan all along, and that Sunset isn’t trying to shift the blame or the CMC feeling bad for her and taking the fall. It also gives her a safe contact with Celestia and Luna, with Twilight being able to inform them of the plan before they take action against Sunset (and Sunset wouldn’t have to try and convince them herself).
The one thing she doesn’t seem to have fully considered is how it will affect her in the long run. Sure she’s considering if her plan fails what will happen to her friendships and reputation, but even if it succeeds, she may be becoming too reckless and martyr-y. She might end up making similar self risking plans down the line, or start valuing herself less and less. She might be hurting herself more than she realizes with this plan, even if it goes perfectly.
9782609
I'll admit on paper it's a pretty clever but in practice, it is a seriously flawed plan for a few reasons.
So yeah this is a deeply flawed plan. People often claim Sunset is too smart to be Anon-a-miss, clearly, that is not the case in this story.
It's funny, Hopefully some one is actually looking into who started the account.
Usually
AntiSocial media pages require an Email account to get them started.Whelp, I'm hooked. Damn though, "complete but updates daily"
HISSSSSSS
BINGE BRAIN NO LIKE
seriously though, the suspense is killing me! Looking forward to this developing!
9782477 Here's one: Sunset thinks the entire debacle is just too implausible and starts looking for outside factors, i.e. mind control. The only bullet point that version touches is the first, and it would be made clear that the flanderization isn't natural. They'd be jerks because something was forcing them to be jerks.
9782646
It's really no less flawed than the Mutually Assured Destruction idea played out for decades between the US and the USSR in the Cold War. She's playing a VERY high risk, high reward game here, and banking on her old reputation to make it work. All it's going to take is one person deciding to flinch and the whole thing goes up like the Powder Keg that the Anon-A-Miss situation always is. Hence the comments she's made that this situation needs to be resolved and resolved fast.
There is, however, a bit of a flaw in your second point. As long as Sunset was "acting like she had changed", certain actions wouldn't come out. But, we did get implications that the Sunset of old actively fabricated lies about people. With her "return", the people with no secrets left to have spread do still have to worry about the possibility that Sunset might just make something up on fabricated evidence. I suspect you'd find that many of the people without a dark secret remaining are going to be the more goodie-two-shoes types that are going to feel it's far better to just keep your heads down and let this whole thing blow over than stand up and put a massive target on their back. They'll be the same people that didn't stand up to Sunset during her reign of terror when they didn't have anything to fear. If anything, they might be even MORE afraid to make a move since the rest of the crowd can be dealt with by unreleased rumors.
As one last comment though, there's very little way to deescalate this situation now. She burned the bridges with every friend except for Princess Twilight, and I can pretty much guarantee that once those five find out that Twilight is in town, they're going to make a move to try to get between the two of them. Really, the best exit strategy for Sunset here is going to be find out who did it, find out why, resolve the issue, and let herself be run out of the school. That's the only way I can really see for Twilight to be able to "have her back" in all this and still allow the situation to resolve itself.
9782677
She's still just escalating the situation for no reason, she could still search for the culprit without kicking the hornet's nest and destroying all her relationships, something that may not be possible to fix even if she finds the true culprit. There is also no guarantee this will stop Anon-a-miss from posting further secrets and if they do post more that will just make things worse for Sunset than they already were. People might be afraid initially but everyone has a breaking point.
Also if her goal is to catch the real culprit this plan does not help her do it. If Anon-a-miss' goal is to turn the school against her then Sunset just gave them exactly what they wanted and now there is nothing stopping them from shutting down the account and disappearing.
There is no real benefit to this plan.
9782545
This is a fun idea, but I honestly fear for Sunset's safety. This plan could so easily go horribly wrong.
9782682
She is pulling a Code Grass, she is banking on this escalating and having all that hate being focused on her rather then it being spread out though the whole school's populace. She knows the risk's and is willing to take them if it means she can prevent the school from becoming a battlefield.
She knows that in the end that her actions might not be forgiven, but in the end is that really a bad thing? She said it herself, if they can't forgive her then we're they her friends to begin with? I can't remember WHO said it, but someone said "the true test of friendship, is in the fires of adversity and the act of true forgiveness" if they can't forgive her for playing a role then we're they friends?
9782713
Yeah but the plan only makes sense if her goal is to take the blame then ditch town. If her goal is to catch the real culprit this doesn't help her. In fact she's given Anon-a-miss more than enough reason to just stop and delete the profile and without the profile Sunset has no chance of proving who the true culprit is.
9782682
Not quite, she’s done three main things by shifting the focus onto her. First is the temporary ceasefire among the other students and focusing the hatred onto her. She makes a convenient and easy scapegoat, and the theatrics paint a target on her back. She’s much easier to blame than the friends that sent in the secrets. The ire being focuses on her and her having at least some level of untouchable status calms the school down and makes it easier to investigate, especially with Twilight around.
The second thing is that she threw Anon-A-Miss for a loop. There’s no way the CMC expected that sort of outcome and now they don’t know what to do. The whole test angle muddies things even further, and now the field is in her control. While the situation isn’t good for Sunset, it’s one she knows and one she planned for, meanwhile the CMC need to adapt.
The third thing she did was forced the account to stay up. If the CMC deleted it now, it would be clear it wasn’t Sunset. After her stunt, she’d have no reason to delete it, so it disappearing would essentially clear her for at least a portion of the school.
This plan is risky, no questions asked about that, but there’s a few things to consider. The first is that Sunset already knows a good portion of the school is involved based on how the secrets couldn’t come from one source (things like the pictures taken from different heights and angles and the like). The second is that she’s almost certainly dealing with a high schooler, meaning even if they’re good, Sunset was already better at this kind of thing. The third is that they haven’t posted any particularly bad secrets. Sunset has worse stuff and if other students are sending in things, there’s a good chance that Anon-A-Miss has worse stuff as well, but is mainly sticking to embarrassing stuff. If they really wanted to take Sunset down hard, they could’ve gone for worse secrets. She has enough information about Anon-A-Miss to figure her stunt would not be expected and that they wouldn’t be able to respond quickly.
9782722
It seems that if she can’t find Anon-A-Miss, she plans to keep her position over everyone and use it to defuse future situations. Or if that fails, skipping town is always an option (she did bring Twilight into the plan after all).
9782733
Well like I said the plan only makes sense if her goal is to Martyr herself but her goal here seems to be to catch the culprit which should be impossible now. The next logical step for Anon-a-miss is to delete the profile and get rid of the evidence as there is no further benefit to continuing and the only way this doesn't happen is if the author makes them complete idiots who couldn't plan their way out of a paper bag.
9782746
They can’t delete the account though, as Sunset said she was keeping it up. She has absolutely no reason to delete it, so if it suddenly vanished, that means there’s a good chance Sunset was lying about the account. Some could assume she was trying to play 5D chess by claiming it was her and deleting the account right after she said she won’t to throw suspicion off of her, but at least some would think something fishy is going on.
Plus, she was planning on playing martyr if she failed. She considered that possibility this chapter and thought she’d be okay with not finding Anon-A-Miss if she could stop the other fighting. So even if the CMC deleted the account and everyone still believed it was Sunset, she’d still have at least accomplished stopping the chaos.