“…And that’s pretty much everything.”
Sunset took a sip from her drink, then looked around among her gathered friends. Getting them together this morning at Sugar Cube Corner had been easy, especially with their newest addition to the collective secret, but telling them everything that had been revealed to her yesterday hadn’t been easy, even with the things that she’d already surmised and shared with some of them. And what she’d just learned had made it even worse.
Rainbow Dash had a foul expression on her face as she stewed over what she’d learned. “Sunset, is there some Equestrian equivalent to the F-bomb?”
“The word you’re looking for is ‘rut’.”
“Thanks.” She groaned. “This rutting sucks.” She looked back to Scootaloo, who was peering over her shoulder alongside the rest of the Crusaders. “And don’t you start using that language yourself.”
“I jinxed it.” Flash already felt like the odd man out, being the only man present, but this made it even worse. “It’s like the universe just enjoys jerking my chain.”
“Flash, you jinxed nothing.” Rarity considered her tea as she noted, “We already knew thanks to Pinkie Pie that our world’s version of Twilight Sparkle lived in the city. I’m uncertain how many high schools there are in the greater metropolitan area…”
“Twenty-nine, spread among four districts with Crystal Prep right in the middle.” Heads turned to Sunset as she explained, “Part of my research for Princess Twilight. And that includes middle schools that were turned into high schools after the redistricting a few years ago.”
“Well, my point remains.” Rarity took a brief sip, then continued, “Her being enrolled at Crystal Prep was always a possibility, even if it was an unpleasant one. And given Princess Twilight grew up in the Equestrian equivalent of the upper middle class and had close contact with the nobility herself, it’s not improbable that her human counterpart is rather well off.” She sighed. “But I’m still not happy about it.”
“I don’t blame any of you for how you feel, but I figured telling you now was smarter than keeping it from you until it became a bigger deal.” Sunset glanced at all of them and noted, “And given what’s coming this fall…”
“The Friendship Games, plus their old ritual with the Wondercolt statue.” Applejack looked to the flame-haired girl and admitted, “The one good thing everyone had to say about you ‘fore the Fall Formal was the fact that you were always the first one out there cleanin’ it up. ‘Course now things’re in a different light, but still.”
“No kidding.” Vinyl gestured with her cup and noted, “I remember the stories my brother told me about what happened with the Games when he was at CHS. Those Crystal Prep guys are jerks.”
“Well, it’s not all bad, right?” Fluttershy looked to Pinkie and asked, “The local Twilight didn’t seem mean, did she?”
The party girl shook her head. “Nope. I didn’t talk to her, just saw her playing with her Spike and hanging out with a buncha people that she seemed happy to be with.” At the others’ questioning looks, she elaborated, “Two couples, one a middle-aged man and woman and the other more like they were in their twenties.”
“Probably the local versions of her parents, Shining Armor and Cadance,” Sunset surmised.
“If that’s true, then Rarity’s right. Shining Armor is a hunk.”
The fashionista choked in embarrassment. “Yes, well, we’re getting off-topic. Assuming the trend of similarities between counterparts holds and our world’s Twilight is of similar temperament to Princess Twilight, then there’s a chance that she isn’t of similar ilk to her classmates. But what do we do, attempt to contact her?”
“We shouldn’t.” Sunset’s gaze swept over everyone as she explained, “A bunch of students from another school, one known for having a strong rivalry with the one you attend, suddenly show up and try to be social. Even if she isn’t aware of what happened at the Fall Formal, that’d raise several red flags. And that’s assuming she even wants to be social; Twilight wasn’t a jerk by any means, but she didn’t go out of her way to socialize before she moved to Ponyville. As far as she was concerned, her circle was big enough with just her, Spike, Shining Armor and Cadance. If she comes to us, it’s a different matter, but us going to her is a bad idea for the time being.”
“Yeah, but we’re going to run into her eventually.” Flash looked decidedly mixed on that subject. “Us knowing about her in advance’ll save us some embarrassment, but still, what do we do?”
“The only thing we can, and take things as they come.” Sunset grinned and offered, “But maybe it’d be a good idea to let her give her name first.”
“Yeah, us knowin’ her name might creep her out a touch.” Various murmurs of agreement answered Applejack’s remark before she moved onto other topics. “So, now that we’ve dealt with that elephant in the room, Ah think we still gotta deal with the other one.”
Sunset gave a sad nod. “I guess all of you saw the video then?”
“Yes, unfortunately.” Rarity laid a comforting hand upon that of her friend and said, “Sunset, I’m truly sorry that you went through that experience. Hearing about it from you and Sweetie Belle was one thing, but actually seeing it…” A sad sigh. “And I’m ashamed to say that, had I been there, I’m not sure I would have sprung to your defense. I like to think I would have, but…”
“You would have.” Sunset looked to the Crusaders and noted, “Or at least you would have followed me into the bridge realm.”
Apple Bloom bowed her head in shame. “Yeah, I think seeing that really got the sick feelin’ goin’ in our stomachs.” She looked up and said, “But if’n we’d known it was bein’ recorded, if’n we’d gotten it…”
“And you can bet someone would’ve sent it into Anon-A-Miss, just on the off-chance that it wasn’t you,” Scootaloo noted bitterly.
“Girls, relax, I know you would’ve shown it to Principal Celestia.” Sunset turned grim as she continued, “And she’s promised to do something about this.”
“Good.” There was an angry tone to Flash’s voice as he remarked, “I can let go of Cherry’s contribution to Anon-A-Miss, but I’m not getting over her being a hypocrite anytime soon. I’m not sure if I should thank the guy who posted the video or…” He sighed. “Okay, so there’s nothing serious behind that ‘or’.”
“I dunno, the day that ‘or’ becomes something real is gonna be a scary one for me.” Rainbow turned nervous as she admitted, “You confronting me was actually kinda intimidating. Kinda.” She regained her composure and continued, “Still, I’d go with the ‘or’. If he cared about getting justice, he wouldn’t have put that video up on MyStable. He’d have gone to Principal Celestia with it, like Vinyl did.” A grin went to the musician among them. “Thanks again for that, and for helping Apple Bloom with Pinkie.”
She got a grin in return. “Like I keep saying, I don’t hold grudges. Too much hurt in the world as it is.”
“Well we’re still glad that you did. Now Principal Celestia definitely knows about it, along with the rest of the school.” Flash looked to his ex with concern. “You going to be okay, Sunset?”
“Eventually, yeah, but compared to everything else that’s happened?” She shrugged. “So the student body’s seen me vulnerable again. Some of them probably got some sick enjoyment out of it.”
“And by some, you mean a certain someone whose name rhymes with ‘Dixie’.”
“Dash.” The athlete caught her friend’s warning tone before Sunset continued, “The point is that I can live with it. They want to see me knocked down, then fine. But I’m not going to stay knocked down.” She smiled and declared, “If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s getting back up on my feet.”
“And yer on better footin’ every time,” Applejack declared with a grin. “But what’re ya gonna do about the folks that mobbed ya? Ah mean, you ain’t gonna give ‘em payback, are you?”
Sunset laughed. “That’s not me anymore, AJ. They’ll be getting something a little different.”
-
The conference room door creaked open, and Cherry Crash stepped inside. She paused as she recognized a number of those already waiting for her. “Kicks? Goldie? What’s going on?”
“No clue.” As the rocker settled into a seat beside her, Cloudy Kicks shrugged and explained, “All of us just got pulled aside in homeroom and told to come here right away.”
“I heard something about there being a therapist here yesterday,” Teddy offered. “Maybe that’s why we’re all here?”
Captain Planet shook his head. “Dude, no way. My vibes are fine; no need for me to get psychoanalyzed.”
Before any more discussion could be done, one of the doors leading into the conference room opened. “Hello everyone.” Principal Celestia entered, and all of them quickly took note of her unpleasant expression as she strode towards a monitor and turned to address them. “Seems we’re missing a student.”
Golden Hazel raised a hand and asked, “Principal Celestia? Why are we all here?”
A frown formed on the principal’s face as if she were weighing options in her head, before she took a breath. “Well, I’d rather we have everyone here while we discuss this, but…”
The door swung open, and before anyone could look to see who their apparent last arrival was, their question was answered as a voice drawled, “Hey, how y’all doin’?” Every student present, despite not wanting to, turned to look upon their addressor, and inwardly groaned at the sight.
“Leading Rose. How nice of you to join us.”
“Had to take a detour.” The male student strode in and left the door to swing shut behind him. He was of average height, but noticeably pudgy compared to most other male students. He cast a quick look at Sweet Leaf and gave her a leering grin as he greeted her, “How you doin’?” before finding a seat, the two students on his right and left scooting to one side to give him a wide berth.
For her part, Sweet Leaf looked paler than normal.
“Oh hey, Principal Celestia!” Seemingly unaware of her glare, he remarked with his face still fixed on a grin, “Yer doin’ a great job!”
Celestia, for her part, didn’t seem to hold his sentiment. “If I may?” She looked over the gathered students to make sure she had their attention and then folded her arms. “I doubt that I need to remind any of you of the recent Anon-A-Miss incident.” Her eyes quickly darted to Cherry Crash, who made a clear effort to not meet her gaze and had a clearly worried expression on her face. “Well, this is related to how it ended.”
“Kinda wish it hadn’t.” Leading Rose looked to the boy at his left. “Good times, huh? Hey, any of you know what that final secret was? I missed out on that last day…”
Celestia loudly cleared her throat before she continued. “As everyone should know by now, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo came forward and admitted to being the ones behind the Anon-A-Miss account. They admitted to purposely framing Sunset Shimmer, and provided a list of e-mails for everyone who contributed to their postings. Everyone who did so is currently serving their punishments.”
Cherry looked as though she wanted to sink into her seat at that point, having been among those to contribute to the postings. Her parents had seen fit to revoke a number of her privileges for her part in the incident, which included limiting her access to the Internet and shutting down her social media accounts. The rest of the students each looked similarly downcast at the thought of what had happened, with the only exception being Leading Rose as he maintained his leering grin. Clearly, he was the only one to not suffer such punishment.
“Uh, Principal Celestia?” Fido raised a greyish hand and asked, “What’s that got to do with all of us?”
“That’s a very good question.” Celestia pulled a remote from her pocket and explained, “When they explained themselves, the Crusaders mentioned witnessing an incident involving Sunset Shimmer being accosted by a number of students before running off somewhere in the school. I asked Sunset about this, and she was able to confirm their story, and even provided the names of the students who took part.” She studied the remote for a moment before admitting, “Of course, I didn’t do anything about it at the time. This was just a story, after all, and there wasn’t any clear proof of their claims. And then this was pointed out to me yesterday afternoon.” She pressed a button on the remote to turn on the monitor, with another to start a video that had been cued up and waiting for them.
“Augh!”
Aside from Leading Rose, all of the students watched the video in horror as they recognized their faces and voices (“Secret stealer.” “Monster.” “She-Demon.” “Way to go, thief.” “You’re getting off too easy.” “Why don’t you just die?!”) and all of them surrounded the familiar, cowering form of Sunset Shimmer on the ground. And aside from Leading Rose, all of them had exactly one question on their minds – where had this video come from?
“Hey! That’s my video!” Several terrified eyes turned to the pudgy teen with dull yellow hair as he remarked, “Would’ve sent it to Anon-A-Miss to post, but I got sick over the holidays. Finally got it up myself on MyStable yesterday.” Oblivious to the other students, he looked to his right to find Captain Planet staring at him in shock and said, “I thought it was funny.”
“Are you BRAINDEAD?!” Cherry jumped to her feet and screamed at the boy, “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’VE DONE?! HASN’T ANYONE TOLD YOU WHAT HAPPENED?!”
“I’m guessing the answer’s no.” Heads turned to find Sunset standing in the same doorway that Celestia had entered through. She entered and allowed the door to slowly close behind her, an angry glare unlike any of them had seen since before the Fall Formal upon her face.
Leading Rose, for his part, remained oblivious. “Hey, Sunset Shimmer! How you –!”
“Leading Rose, don’t finish that sentence.” Celestia’s order brought him to instant silence before she amended, “And kindly refrain from speaking unless asked to do so.” She groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose before addressing her students again. “Do any of you remember the assembly we had during the week after the Fall Formal? How I asked all of you to act upon your better natures and not seek reprisal against Sunset? Looking at this video, I can’t help but think you forgot it.” She crossed her arms again and noted, “I remember the Fall Formal just like all of you, and I’m not the only one who does. Believe me, many of us carry scars from that night.” She turned to Sunset and noted, “And some run deeper than others.”
“I’m not about to defend what I did then, or all the time leading up to it. And I’m not about to justify it either. I was a monster before I put that crown on my head, and if there’s anyone here who won’t forget what happened that night, it’s me.” Sunset tapped the side of her head and explained, “Eidetic memory. I can’t forget anything. I remember all of that energy surging into me, my skin searing, my body being torn apart and put back together again. I remember the rush of power and feeling like there was nothing stopping me from using it. And I remember what it was like to almost kill six people.” She sighed. “I felt like I deserved to die after that. And thanks to Anon-A-Miss, well, think about it. No one left to support me, beaten down, pushed to my lowest point, and months of seeing the same monster that all of you saw every time I looked in the mirror.” Her gaze went over all of them as she asked, “What do you think I did, after I fell, and all of you decided to get your revenge against Sunset Satan?”
A gasp escaped Golden Hazel’s lips, and very shortly, every student present except for Leading Rose suddenly felt a sinking feeling in the pit of their stomach. At once, all of them realized exactly who it was that had almost died as a result of the Anon-A-Miss incident. “It was you?”
“Not that it makes it easier, but what all of you did was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Sunset tipped her head towards the monitor and noted, “I don’t think you knew you were being recorded, but that doesn’t really help you out any. All this proves is that all of you in that video decided to take a pound of flesh out of someone at their weakest, and have spent the last couple weeks feeling like you got away with it.” She scowled at all of them and declared, “I’ve regretted everything I’ve done up to the Fall Formal, just like the Crusaders regretted setting up that account and my friends regretted abandoning me. But all of you? I don’t see regret for your actions here.”
“If there had been, one of you would have come forward and admitted to this before now.” Celestia’s tone was cold as she declared, “All of you, save for Leading Rose, are suspended from school for the remainder of the week, and will be serving detention for an additional two weeks upon the completion of your suspensions. And that’s in addition to whatever punishments you face for your participation in the Anon-A-Miss incident. Don’t bother asking to call your parents – they’ve already been contacted. Main foyer, now.” All of them rose to depart, but the principal quickly amended, “Leading Rose? You’re staying.”
The named student promptly sat back down as the rest left, his grin having shrunken down by a small amount. The rest slowly made their way to the door, only for Sweet Leaf to look back and protest, “But we really thought…”
“You thought wrong.” Sunset’s glare was fixed upon them as she recounted, “I’ve learned two things from my friends. One, that monsters don’t see monsters when they look in the mirror. Two, that actions speak louder than words. I forgave them because I believed they were sorry, but all of you? Whatever the hell I did to all of you in the past – and I remember everything I did to each of you – it doesn’t mean that I deserved to get mobbed by all of you. You want to apologize? You want my forgiveness? Do what I did and grow the rut up.”
The group of students at least had the decency to look ashamed of themselves as they made their exit. Both Celestia and Sunset then turned their attention to the last student remaining as the former asked, “You thought it was funny?”
The grin returned as he admitted, “Well, yeah.”
Another click of her remote, and Celestia showed a different bit of footage. This time it wasn’t Sunset depicted, but instead it was Sweetie Belle as she opened her locker and found herself deluged with fake vermin. “I suppose that was funny too.” Her glare only seemed to intensify as she continued, “This footage went up just this morning, long after I contacted the police about the incident depicted and we confirmed the other surprises left in Apple Bloom and Scootaloo’s lockers. They had a forensics team in here, and found, among other things, tiny cameras put in place to record the events, signs of their locks having been tampered with, and what were probably your fingerprints upon their locker doors.”
“Pretty sure that’s a vandalism charge, minimum.”
“Among other things, punishable by immediate expulsion.” Leading Rose’s eyes finally took on an expression of shock at this statement as Celestia noted, “Do excuse us, but I believe my sister can take things from here.” She led Sunset to the door leading into the hall and opened it to find the vice principal waiting for them. “Luna.”
“Celestia.” The younger of the two sisters entered, her gaze fixed upon the soon-to-be former student as her sibling and Sunset departed. “Now then, as for punishments outside of school…”
The door closed behind them as Celestia sighed. “I am not going to enjoy the paperwork for all of this.” She turned to Sunset and asked, “Are you alright?”
A nod. “Better, anyway. And I’m sorry about my language there.”
“Oh? I didn’t hear anything offensive.” The bell rang, and as students began to pour out of nearby classrooms, the principal offered, “Go on, you’ve got class to get to.”
“Yes ma’am.” Sunset then went on her way down the halls, still feeling the odd stare upon her back but now finding herself caring a lot less. Granted, they probably wouldn’t talk to her, but…
“Sunset!” She turned to find a familiar pair on the approach as the minty green girl in the lead asked, “Are you okay? We didn’t see you at the shop last night, and then we saw the video…”
“Lyra, I’m fine! But thanks for asking.” She caught sight of Vinyl coming down the hall and shared a fist-bump with the girl before she continued. “Yesterday was just kinda draining for me is all. But things are settled now.”
“Still, all that?” Sweetie Drops looked down briefly, then looked back up at Sunset as she admitted, “Look, for all my issues with you, I don’t think you deserved that. Especially considering you weren’t Anon-A-Miss in the end.”
“Not that we thought you were,” Lyra quickly added.
“No, we didn’t.” A sigh, and she admitted, “But it was pretty easy to look at you and remember what you’d done. I hope you understand that.”
Sunset smiled. “I do. I’ve done the same thing for months.” She caught a faint reflection in the window to a nearby classroom and smiled just a little bigger. “But I’ve got other things to remember too.”
“I figured.” Sweetie Drops then did the one thing that Sunset didn’t expect, and suddenly rushed forward and took her into a tight embrace. “So you remember this, alright? Don’t you ever try and kill yourself again. Nothing is worth taking your own life. You count.”
Sunset’s surprise quickly turned to a smile as she hugged the girl back. “Thanks.” The embrace ended, and she then rushed off with a wave, leaving the two alone.
Lyra smiled proudly at her friend. “I hope you didn’t have an ulterior motive for that, Bonnie.”
A sigh and a shake of her head. “No. I just thought about how I could’ve ended up feeling like that, if circumstances were different.” She grinned and admitted, “Thankfully, I’ve got you.”
“Awww!” The two then went on their way to class. “So, we gonna ask her to hang out with us?”
“Eh, maybe. Someday.”
-
The day continued to pass without incident for Sunset until her free period came. She swiftly found herself in the library with an optimistic smile on her face, one mirrored by the first person she saw. “Morning, Miss Cheerilee.”
“Sunset, good morning!” The young teacher smiled back at her, clearly pleased. “You look like you’re in a good mood. Ready for your first day as a tutor?”
“CHS might not be ready for me, but yes.” She shrugged and noted, “And if no one wants my help, well, I’ve got homework I can take care of.”
An encouraging grin answered her. “Well, don’t give up on tutoring just yet. Anyway, go ahead and find a table. People will be coming in soon enough.”
Sunset did as suggested and found a place in the first floor of the CHS library, making sure that it was out in the open. If someone did decide to come to her for help, then she’d make it as easy for them to find her as possible. She couldn’t force them to come to her, nor did she want to, but she wasn’t going to discourage them either.
“Hey. I was hoping no one would snap you up before I got here.”
Sunset had barely settled into her seat when one of her friends had joined her. “Dash?”
“Yeah, turns out my GPA’s starting to get a little on the low side. I gotta bring things up, or Coach Spitfire’ll drop me from every team I’m on.” A desperate look was in the athlete’s eyes as she added, “And I really don’t want that. Think you can help?”
“Depends.” A smirk crossed her face. “You think you can keep up with all the egghead talk?”
Dash smirked right back. “You put it like that…” The two chuckled. “I’m glad you’re back, Sunset.”
“Back and better than ever.” The smirk faded as she asked, “So, you had a chance to talk to your mom yet?”
“No, but she calls on Saturdays. I’ll talk to her then, with my dad.” A hopeful smile crossed her face as she added, “Here’s hoping I can tell her some really good news.” At Sunset’s curious expression, she explained, “You heard the announcement this morning about the Musical Showcase in March, right?”
“Yeah, a little bit before Spring Break. What about it?”
“Well, I wanna do something for it! Put together a band! Magic or no magic, I know we’d be awesome at it!” Dash raised a hand and counted off her fingers as she continued, “I play guitar, AJ’s got her bass, Pinkie plays like a bazillion instruments, Rarity’s had piano lessons, and Fluttershy’s a great singer. It’s practically made already!” Her tone dropped with hesitation as she added, “And I’m kinda hoping that you’d be a part of it. Don’t want to leave any of my friends out if I can avoid it.”
Sunset considered that for a moment, and managed a small smile. “Well, it sounds like a great idea. But, I’ll have to pass on being in the band.”
Dash frowned with disappointment, but gave a small nod. “I get you. Still a little worried just in case something comes up with your magic?” At Sunset’s nod, she laughed. “Hey, no big. But you’re cool with coming to practice with us, right? Someone’s gotta be there to record it in case we pony up again.”
A grin answered her. “That, I’m happy to do.” The bell rang, and attention turned elsewhere. “So, where do we start? Physics?”
“Good a place as any.” Dash opened her textbook to their lesson earlier today. “Hey, who knows? Maybe if I improve, it’ll get other folks to come to you for help.”
Sunset shrugged. “We’ll see. It all depends on them.”