7DSJ Question · 5:23pm Aug 7th, 2015
This question came from Trooper28, but I thought it was interesting enough that I’d share it here, along with the answer:
So after reading the Equestrian Girls 2014 Holiday Special I couldn’t help but start to wonder while I was re-reading 7DSJ: How do you think the 7DSJ version of the characters have tackled the “Anon-a-Miss” situation? (Note the Human Crusaders don’t have to be the ones behind it, Sunset isn’t exactly popular at her school after all)
Well, for starters, this wouldn’t work in the 7DSJ world, because Sunset has a family to turn to, which canon Sunset really didn’t (fortunately for her, she had a magic book to talk to Twilight, something 7DSJ Sunset didn’t.) But let’s just say that we’re going to work this into the 7DSJ world, somewhere in Book I, somewhere around chapter five (the week of December 14).
The “cloth marker catastrophes”, as Rainbow once referred to them as, likely would not be the culprits. For starters, they’re much younger than the EqG canon versions (remember that they’re eighth graders in 7DSJ, while the Eightmazing Eight are high school sophomores/tenth graders.) Even though the school they attend, Central Junior High shares the same campus as Canterlot High School, descriptions indicate CJHS and CHS have different buildings. I used the real-life Parsons Junior High/Rother Elementary School in Redding, CA (you can see it here) as a rough guideline for this (Hartnell Ave or its equivalent wouldn’t exist in Canterlot, CA, obviously.) As you can see, though they would be on the same campus, there wouldn't be much intermingling, and Bloomie, Sweetie and Scoots would probably only hear of what happened through their sisters.
That being said, there’s likely one student at CHS who would be capable of doing that - and even further - amounts of damage: Derpy Hooves. 7DSJ’s Derpy is a certified genius, and like 7DSJ Twilight Sparkle is likely still in high school because the parents want them acclimated towards their peers and not recluses (like EqG Twilight likely is.) Derpy also has resources at her disposal that Sunset didn’t (remember that Sunset says in Book II that Princess Twilight was lucky that she didn’t have a copy of Photoshop; Derpy likely has a lifetime subscription to all Adobe products), and has avenues that could be frightening (after all, remember that most people still consider her the school retard even though many know just how damn smart she is.) Now, while I’ve portrayed Derpy as (mostly) morally honest and kind (if snarky and jaded), let’s just say for this example she was willing to cross the line to hurt others to get at Sunset. That means she would not only be Anon-a-Miss, the secrets would be much more damning:
+ She’d probably expose Applejack’s mother's affair and miscarriage, possibly even hinting that Apple Bloom was a result of infidelity on Cornflower’s part
+ She’d expose Fluttershy’s father as Discord (truthfully, it wasn’t impossible to find, as birth records in California are public documents)
+ She’d expose Scootaloo’s background (how she was found, etc.) in order to embarrass Rainbow
+ She’d likely expose Pinkie’s childhood disease and while Pinkie was cured of it, it’s not hard to play the genki girl off as a heavily-medicated basket case
+ Rarity would likely be the one to escape scot-free, as her “dark secret” (that her parents were briefly unemployed) isn’t that big of a deal, but the damage done to her friends would have definitely affected her
Keep in mind these are Sunset’s closest friends. Someone as thorough as Derpy probably would have dug up information on others, up to and possibly even including Carrot Top (though Carrot and Derpy are best friends, we’re making Derpy implicit here and this would all be believed to have come from Sunset anyway.)
If Derpy was successful in framing Sunset, one of three scenarios would have happened, in my opinion, and none would have been suicide, as I’ve seen a bunch of Anon-a-Miss-based stories suggest. What I think would have happened is one of the following:
1. Twily and Tavi to the Rescue: Twilight and Octavia are Sunset’s family and thus would know that Sunset wouldn’t - couldn’t - be guilty. They would have likely gone to bat for Sunset with their friends and convinced them that it wasn’t Sunset. After making up, the E8 would probably likely hunt down the perpetrator and most likely, Derpy would have been caught; even the best slip up. Likely the result would have been Derpy’s suspension from school and ruination of her life (like Noteworthy in Protection), while the rest of the storyline would have continued on. As to how Sunset would disable ECMAH’s security system in order to get to Cavalcanti’s mirror? She likely would have asked Pencil Code instead.
2. Twily/Tavi Fail: Assuming that Twilight and Octavia weren’t able to convince her friends, but that her family still believed her, Velvet and Night likely would have pulled Sunset from CHS and likely sent her to San Palomino High (remember she’s only attending CHS still by an agreement with Celestia and her grades aren’t good enough to get her into Zacherle.) Likely she would have met new friends and had a different experience, but then there’s the Vibe situation. She might not have been able to stop The Club, because she wouldn’t have Minuette’s phone as the key. Octavia and Twilight would have been victimized, and assuming The Club was caught, Sunset likely wouldn’t have anyone to really turn to in order to help her cousin and her sister. This would ultimately lead to Twilight’s death as Raspberry’s spell crosses the dimensional divide, because Sunset would have no reason to be at Sugarcube Corner Cafe when Twilight makes the fateful approach to run into traffic. I should also mention that this scenario would likely strain the friendships of Luna, Celestia and Velvet as well; it’s possible the formers would tell the latter the truth - but would Velvet believe an outlandish story like that?
3. Worst Case Scenario: Assuming that Sunset’s completely screwed, and with Equestria (in her mind) completely a wash, she would likely run away and leave town. In this scenario, there’s nobody to stop The Club or Twilight’s death. Worse, no one would know where the only mage in the world is when Divine Right starts his plans (and believe me, he will.) Additionally, if she did somehow confront him, she wouldn't have received her full power back, because she never returned to Equestria.
Now in scenarios 2 and 3, how would the Human Five react if they found out afterwards that Sunset was telling the truth? Probably in scenario 2, they would try to make amends with her, but it wouldn’t be until after The Club affected everyone (because Carrot’s suffering would likely guilt trip Derpy into confessing.) Likely Sunset wouldn’t forgive them. In scenario 3, it would be impossible for them to get a hold of Sunset to apologize, and I think the guilt would likely permanently rupture the friendship between the Human Five. I also think that in this case, because she has no one to turn to, it’s possible that Rarity would end her life once she realized that she was violated.
Yeah, heavy stuff - but this is the world we live in, and I try to reflect that in 7DSJ.
Why do I have this feeling I really should have been reading the series?
...myabe it would give me ideas to smooth out my own take on EqG
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Not too late to catch up.
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I can archive binge with the best of them.
Dang, you're right, this is heavy stuff. Also I had to look up exactly what "Anon-a-miss" was, but thankfully the MLP wiki enlightened me.
The world is friggin' scary, man.
Just to put in my two cents - there's no reason for the Anon-a-miss thing to happen. In the comic, it's almost literally ripping off the plot of South Park when they parodied the Wikileaks scandal and everybody blamed Cartman for leaking personal secrets online, only for it to turn out to be a rat with a video camera taped to its head working independently and Cartman is found (mostly) innocent. Then the rat Wikileaks is revealed to be Lemmiwinks's (as in the rat that got shoved into Mr. Slave from a few seasons before) brother and the two subsequently fight to the death but that's besides the point here.
Anyway, in the comic, Apple Bloom lies to AJ, saying it was Sunset Shimmer who revealed the embarrassing nickname as Anon-A-Miss. And AJ doesn't think twice about how Apple Bloom not only doesn't seem surprised in the least that something as private as AJ's family-only nickname is now public information, but that she also automatically knows precisely the source and cites the "secret" identity of said source. Or how Sunset, who after getting her ass kicked for being a total evil bitch and is now trying to reform, literally has no reason to go and stab AJ in the back upon getting one new bit of private information that's little more than just an embarrassment. So like a dumbass, she - and quickly the equally stupid acting rest of the gang - turn against Sunset without bothering to even entertain the idea she's innocent, and it isn't until Sunset gets Princess Twilight's support in literal writing that she even gets the others to realize that Sunset literally has no reason to be Anon-A-Miss. The plot then conviniently wraps up purely by providence as the human CMC then show up and finally admit they kind of willingly incriminated Sunset from the start with every implication that if Sunset hadn't been a factor, they still would have pinned the blame on one of the others instead because the whole matter was jealousy of their older sisters not spending enough time with them and seemingly all their time with their friends.
Which makes no sense because somehow, the CMC are relatively let off scott free even though not once is it ever acknowledged they literally sold out the secrets of their own sisters to indirectly attack Sunset Shimmer. And what makes this even more shocking is that they destroyed the lives and reputations of dozens of people for utterly petty revenge - in Ponyville Confidential, the CMC know what they're doing isn't exactly the moral high ground, but they're also blackmailed by Diamond Tiara when they initially refuse to keep writing Gabby Gums articles. The comic EqG CMC never comprehend that they are guilty of causing harm to anybody else other than Sunset Shimmer despite committing the harm they framed Sunset for in the first place.
In truth, the EqG Holiday special is actually pretty awful because the plot just doesn't work without the entire cast being totally oblivious to everything around them at one point or another and the CMC getting off easy for having committed at least a misdemeanor for stealing Sunset's photos and posting them online without her consent - they technically stole personal property from another student with explicit intent to attack her indirectly, no school would let that fly with anything less than immediate suspension in reality.
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Explained much better than I could have.
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Note this happens after Rainbow Rocks. So add "saved them from the Sirens" to the reasons why the Human 5 believing Sunset to be Anon-A-Miss makes no sense. Also the students being a bunch of jerkass lemmings of their own volition is pretty messed up. They gladly laughed at one another till it was their dirty secrets that were exposed. Never quite understood why the rest of the students were dragged into it anyways. The CMC didn't have to post what people were sending them, but they did. The objective was to break up the Rainbooms. They succeeded with Sunset so why didn't they move onto the others?
Also IIRC the only non-Humane 5 secret we learned about in detail is the "Silver Spoon stole Diamond Tiara's necklace" one. That's not cyber bullying that's exposing a crime! What is the message there?
Anyways, aside from AJ's nickname. What was so bad about Sunset's photos? The girls were singing a song (one they sang in the cafeteria months ago) and they're a band its what they do. The costumes they wore? No one ever hear of "costumes parties" or Halloween for that matter? Why are these things a target of teasing and ridicule? They're just photos of friends having fun at a party they're hardly something to be humiliated about.
I don't acknowledge the comics.
The show and movies are it as far as cannon is concerned now.
3. Worst Case Scenario: If she runs away because Equestria and Canterlot(human) are no-go, she has other options. There are other worlds and I'm sure she could find her way to them also. Maybe she would even wind up on Earth Bet. I wonder if Sunset would befriend Taylor?
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There's no indication that the human/pony mirror (from EqG) and the pony/? mirror (from the comics) are the same thing. Given that they were in different locations in the castle, that's most likely the case. Plus, the time period that this would theoretically take place in is during the time she was terrified of Celestia's wrath, so she wouldn't dare go near the mirror. No, the safest option for her would have been to run away and start off somewhere else.
3894671 There are other ways to travel other worlds besides the mirrors.
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Presuming she knows them and can access them.