Apple Bloom carefully set the table, wanting everything to be perfect for her sister and Sunset. She had been sneaking glances toward them for an hour, and it seemed the two had been getting along.
The fact no one stormed off or yelled at each other indicated that Phase five had succeeded, now she needed to capitalize on her success.
Phase six would probably be the easiest to implement, all it required was for the two older girls to sit and eat together. If they didn’t start talking of their own accord, Apple Bloom would get the ball rolling.
She turned her head as the door opened and two pairs of footsteps stomped to the kitchen. “AJ, Sunset, yer just in time.” The two girls stood at the entrance of the kitchen, looking at Apple Bloom. “Now, Ah remember Sunset sayin’ she was vegetarian, so Ah made sure Granny didn’t give her any-”
“Apple Bloom.” Apple Blooms body seized up at Applejacks tone. “Do yah mind explaining why Sunset told me yah asked her to help around the farm today?”
“Or why Applejack told me you said I volunteered?” Sunset crossed her arms over her chest, her glare hardening at the ore teen.
‘Oh shit.’ Apple Bloom thought. “O-oh! D-did Ah say t-that? W-well Ah must’ve gotten c-confused is all-”
“Apple Bloom.” The pre teen immediately shut her mouth. “Tell us the truth... Now.”
Apple Bloom stood there blankly for a few seconds, wilting at the glares the girls were giving her. “A-Ah just wanted y-yah to be f-friends again.”
“And yah thought lying, manipulating us, and sneaking behind our backs was the way to do it?” Applejacks frown deepened.
“It’s like you learned nothing from Anon-A-Miss.” sunset shook angrily.
Apple Bloom reeled at the accusation. “Ah have! Ah learned my lesson!”
“Have you?” Sunset challenged walking closer. “Cause unless I misunderstand, you made a secretive plot, lied, manipulated us to push our friendship in a direction you wanted, and refused to talk to either of us.”
Apple Blooms defiance fell. “Yah wouldn’t have listened…”
“That’s what you said last time!” Both Applejack And Apple Bloom were taken aback by Sunset's sudden anger. “Do I seem so unreasonable that you can’t talk to me!? That you can’t talk to Applejack!? How have you not learned a single thing!?”
Applejack noticed her sister's eyes water. “Hey, Sunset, maybe lay off-”
“And you!” Sunset turned to Applejack. “You’re the element of Honesty, why is it so easy for your sister to lie to you?!”
Applejack stammered for a response as Sunset got in her face.
“Do you take everything she says at face value? How can you not be suspicious of her after Anon-A-Miss?” She growled. “Does being the Element of Honesty just mean you suck at knowing when someone’s lying? Cause it sure as hell doesn’t stop you from being dishonest!”
“Y-yah leave her alone!” Apple Bloom shouted, gaining Sunset's attention. “I-it’s me yah want! Ah’m the one who lied, not AJ!”
There was a long pause between the three of them, Apple Bloom shaking as tears threatened to spill from her eyes.
“... You said you did this because you wanted me and Applejack to be friends again, right?” Sunset asked in an angry tone.
Apple Bloom nodded quickly, hoping it might win Sunset over.
Sunset looked Apple Bloom dead in the eye. “You failed.”
Apple Bloom's breath hitched at that and tears started falling down her face. Sunset turned to leave, stomping out the house before slamming the front door behind her.
Applejack stood there quietly, ruminating on Sunset's words, snapping out of it when Apple Bloom started sniffling.
Applejack ran forward and wrapped her arms around Apple Bloom. She was mad at her, but admonishing and punishment would come later. Apple Bloom could only meekly grab onto her sister as she cried, thinking she had permanently ruined any chance Applejack had to reconnect with Sunset.
“What in tarnation is goin’ on in here?” Both Apple sisters looked over to see Granny Smith standing in the doorway, looking over the scene. “Where’s that Sunset gal?”
Both sisters looked at eachother, not sure how to explain to her what happened.
Rarity was finishing up the seam of her latest creation. She stopped her sewing machine and lifted the garment up, looking it over for any flaws before fitting it on a mannequin.
One might expect Rarity, out of all her friends, to be the most melodramatic about Anon-A-Miss. But surprisingly she had handled everything with a surprising amount of grace, as befitting of a lady she’d tell you.
She was least vocal when protesting Princess Twilight's decision, had the least complicated relationship with her sister, and felt she was on better standing with Sunset (not that it meant much) than the other girls, barring Fluttershy of course.
Speaking of her sister, Rarity hadn’t seen her all day today. While Sweetie Belle couldn’t do much during her punishment, she could still come outside. But Sweetie had opted to stay in her room all day every day, only coming out for school (which she dreaded) and dinner.
Rarity sighed. Poor girl had taken it the hardest of her friends since they all fessed up, and from the sound of it, she was the least antagonistic during Anon-A-Miss. Her stealing Sunsets photos was the worst thing she did, and it was mostly just to spite Rarity for snubbing her earlier that day.
‘Not that it makes it ok or anything.’ Rarity stubbornly thought. ‘She still revealed everybody’s secrets, ruined my friendship with Sunset, and didn’t do anything to stop Anon-A-Miss before they all confessed.’
But still, it might be nice to have a conversation with her sister that lasted longer than three words. She bit her bottom lip nervously, getting up and walking out her room, making her way to Sweetie Belle's room.
She knocked softly. “Sweetie? Are you in there?” No response. “Sweetie Belle, I know you’re upset, but you can’t stay cooped up in your room all day.” Still no response.
Rarity sighed and knocked again, stopping when there was a loud bang on the other side of the door. “Go away, Rarity.” Sweetie's muffled voice said.
“Sweetie please.” Rarity tried opening the door only to find it locked. “It isn’t healthy to be in there all the time. I just want to talk.”
“Go away Rarity I’ll… I’ll just hurt you again.”
“Darling, you revealing my closet of shame wasn’t that bad. I’m still angry about it, yes, but I’ve barely seen you since you and your friends came clean.” She was quiet for a few seconds. “I miss you.” Still no response.
The irony was not lost on Rarity. Sweetie joined Anon-A-Miss because Rarity didn’t want to spend time with her; now Rarity would give anything just to talk to her sister for even a few minutes.
She sighed after another minute. “Alright Sweetie. I’ll be here if you ever want to talk.” Rarity then turned and walked away.
‘Why should I care whether we talk or not? She betrayed my trust! She hurt my friends!’ Rarity thought in an attempt to make herself feel better. ‘She hurt Sunset!’ Rarity started marching down the stars.
‘But I hurt her more.’ Rarity suddenly stopped halfway down. “... I’m a terrible friend and an even worse sister.”
She gave a small sigh and sat down, pulling her legs up to her chest and relaxing her body. “What am I going to do?”
Yup, Bloom's plan blew up in their faces. Sorry little apple, you can't force people to make up until they're ready.
Sighs i knew this was going to blow up, and it did.
Whelp Appleblooms bomb of a plan blew up in her face and made have burned the bridge between Sunset and Applejack for good. As for Rarity, Sweetie wallowing in her guilty is something we've seen her do before and I very much doubt she'll bounce back from this anytime soon. Rarity being more understanding is certainly a little easier to buy since generosity includes compassion and second chances. Yet we do see she's also very conflicted, which again understandable.
I can't even begin to imagine what Fluttershy and Pinkie are like.
Hooooo boy...
That went as I sort of expected once AJ and Sunset realized they were tricked. Apple Bloom's "plan" really blew up in her face.
And Poor Rarity and Sweetie...
Now I'm even more worried about how the Friendship Games will play out if Sunset's relationship with the other girls (or even the whole School in general) doesn't improve even the slightest. Especially once Sci-Twi eventually starts snooping around CHS to do her investigation.
11072175
Yeah... I was totally thinking that far ahead, it was allll planned, ha ha.
Ouch, Apple Bloom's scheming just made it even harder for Applejack to make amends with Sunset as well as earn back her sister's trust since in their eyes it appears like she didn't learn anything from Anon-A-Miss.
Great chapter. Called it! XD
11072186
Something you'd like to confess to? I mean after all Anon-A-Miss proves the downfalls of lying.
Yeah that checks out. The "tricking two ex-friends to meet in a room and they'll work out their problems" trope doesn't really work when deceiving people is what broke up the friendship in the first place. It's actually refreshing that this wasn't resolved immediately.
Welp... it went as well as I expected.
I'm actually torn by this. On the one hand, Sunset had the right to be angry at both Apple Bloom and AJ. With the former using that same lying and manipulative tactic like last time and the latter for easily falling for her sister’s lie again, despite everything that happened with Anon-a-Miss.
On the other hand, even though what Apple Bloom did was wrong, her heart was in a right place by trying to get her sister and Sunset to be friends again. And again, while I don't blame Sunset for being angry, she was pretty harsh on Apple Bloom, even though Apple Bloom was trying to undo her mistake as Anon-a-Miss.
Either way, it doesn't look like Sunset wanted anything to do with the Apples anytime soon after that stunt.
And poor Rarity and Sweetie Belle.
11072245
I think that may be part of the issue, Apple Bloom can't undo Anon-A-Miss and even if she could the status quo before Anon-A-Miss wasn't healthy either.
Sunset knows what the girls really thought of her rather than what they've told her, that even without Anon-A-Miss the girls would be resentful and suspicious of Sunset.
11072278
Yes, I know that was part of the issue. I'm just saying while Apple Bloom reasoning was noble, it takes more than that for Sunset and AJ to be friends again, even if Apple Bloom succeeded to get them to talk.
Unfortunately, after that moment, it's less likely that Sunset want to be friends, let alone talk to AJ again anytime soon.
Yeah figured as much. Trying to put out a fire by starting a second fire, not the most ideal of plans.
11072278
Yeah unfortunately whatever made them be able to lose faith so easily isn't something that going to be undone with anything simple. They are going to have face why they didn't want to give her a chance after the first 2 post and how can she be expected to trust them again when they threw it away so easily last time. They could have refused in the first place and now it looks like twilight was the only reason they were friends.
What's that? Dousing gasoline on the fire made the fire worse? Who knew?
11072346
🤷♂️
My thoughts exactly.
(Well, pretty much anyone who wasn't Applebloom could have told her that scheming and lying to get two people together, when scheming and lying was previously used to tear them apart, was a really, REALLY bad idea. Heck, scheming and lying is usually a bad idea it's pretty rare that it actually works out alright.
In any case, yeah... things have gotten worse now, big surprise. And Sweetie Belle's punishing herself through isolation... sad to see, however... yeah. Yeah, you screwed up hard there. The guilt and pain will be staying for a while.)
11072236
Would that ever work out? It seems as long as people compare notes, the whole thing would most likely go awry, unless they found out that they liked each other's company before the big reveal.
Which is kind of the irony here. Applejack and Sunset naturally get along, but Sunset's in a place where she really doesn't trust anyone. The fact that Apple Bloom is still a sore spot for her, proberbly doesn't help.
11072561
Well the problem is why she had so little faith in sunset that the first time she looked guilty she doesn't get any belief in her possible innocence and considering she was supposed to be forgiven until that issue is cleared nothing will change. Because if it was easy enough for Apple Bloom to frame her then what happens the next time trouble starts and she looks bad. The girls have to figure out why they didn't want to trust her and how to prove that they are truly sorry and just not wanting to feel better which doesn't change how badly sunset was hurt in her heart.
Dont you mean stairs?
11072829
True. She's in a pretty terrible situation, all things considered. But if she didn't even want to consider at least trying to mend her relationship with the Apples, then I doubt she would have showed up at all.
There are some people who are so untrustworthy, that it makes sense from a isolationist perspective to either oppose them, or try to ignore them.
The fact that Sunset did neither, tells me that (deep down) she does want that connection with the girls, she's just not convinced they really want one with her (at least not for the right reasons).
11074295
I don't blame her. It was pretty bad after the formal with everyone but the girls hating on her and the dumb no offenses comments had to hurt even if she didn't act like it. I wonder sometimes if they ever 100% before the battle even accepted her because it seemed like she was more of a sidekick for them than actually their friend.
11074435
Or maybe she was just an obligation for Twilight since the latter helped them when Sunset was evil, and was still an enemy that never changed, nor they believe that she COULD change.
11080154
Personally I always thought if they didn't want to do it they should have said so. Twilight would have been disappointed but understood. She probably would have taken her back with her otherwise. Pretending to be friends doesn't do anyone any good because sooner or later the pretense is up and everyone is upset.
When the next part? This is too good to stop.
11084110
I couldn’t tell you honestly, I’ve been a bit burnt out and busy lately, and trying to write a desperately needed talk between Sunset and AJ that will hopefully be satisfying enough to the fans so they don’t Lynch me.
11084281
Well considering how you done so far I doubt you could get worse. I seen barely okay ones and ones that really bring into the story and make you feel for the characters and those are the good ones. I read every anonymous story because I need the inspiration for my story and I'm having writers block but I take any ideas anyone has on what they think happens next. Ps this so far is one of the good ones.
F*** I thought this wouldn’t blow up in their faces but of course it did I shouldn’t have doubt my own theories
I like how Sweetie Belle's isolating herself. I've been where she is.
In "We are Legion" she's the one who cuts. I've been there too.
And I'll certainly be hitting a certain Apple with a broomstick.
Yes thank you that's exactly what I was saying
crap.....😞
OOC Sunset is OOC. She would not have taken Apple Bloom helping her rebuild her friendships that badly, Anon-A-Miss be damned.
Ok, I straight up laughed at Apple Bloom here. Sunset’s right, that was the worst makeup apology ever. 😂
Thank you for the read!