It was a miserable day for the Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy at Canterlot High. Each girl was in a great state of depression. Applejack refused to tell anyone what was bothering her, in fact, she hardly talked to anyone. Rainbow Dash couldn’t concentrate and wasn’t doing as good as she was supposed to be when she practiced sports. Rarity had been designing outfits that didn’t look as magnificent as she was well-known for making. Pinkie Pie was in no mood for anything fun and just walked around with limp hair and an emotionless expression on her face, some could say she almost resembled her sister, Maud. Fluttershy had kept to herself for almost the entire day, not even talking with animals. Ever since Sunset Shimmer left CHS and broke up with them, they had become the saddest group of girls in the entire school. They all sat around the horse statue located right outside the front entrance of the school.
“Hey, how’s everyone doin’?” asked a concerned voice. The five girls turned to see three younger girls come out of the school entrance. The voice was revealed to be Apple Bloom, Applejack’s younger sister, who was accompanied by her two friends: Sweetie Belle, Rarity’s younger sister, and Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash’s biggest fan.
“A little slow today,” AJ said trying to hide how miserable she really was. “But other than that, everthin’s okay, sugarcube.”
“Applejack, we both know you’re not a good liar,” Apple Bloom said sadly unconvinced.
“It’s about Sunset isn’t it?” Scootaloo guessed.
The five older girls all nodded their heads ‘yes’.
“Ah’ know life here hasn’t been easy for Sunset,” Apple Bloom said sadly. “But ah’ just can’t believe it got this bad that she felt she had to leave.”
“It’s all our fault,” Sweetie Belle said tearfully. “We were the ones responsible for Anon-a-Miss.”
In the end, the true identities of Anon-a-Miss were none other than these three girls. They had gotten so jealous of their older sisters spending more time with Sunset that they created Anon-a-Miss and began posting everyone’s secrets in order to make her look bad so their sisters would spend more time with them and less time with her. Unfortunately, things went way out of control, the results of their plan were a lot harsher and damaging than they expected. With their jealousy replaced by guilt, the three Crusaders confessed to their crime. But by the time they finally decided to come forward, it was too late. The damage had already been done.
“No, it’s not entirely your fault,” Fluttershy said in a comforting tone.
“But it is!” Apple Bloom tearfully argued. “Anon-a-Miss was our idea!”
“We were the ones posting everyone’s secrets and blaming it on Sunset!” Sweetie Belle sobbed.
“We should’ve quit and came clean when we had the chance!” Scootaloo cried. “I mean, there’s still some people who still hate us for what we’ve done.”
“We’re the worst!” a tearful Sweetie Belle said.
“And now because of us, y’all lost your best friend!” Apple Bloom sobbed. “Probably forever!”
“No Apple Bloom,” AJ said with seriousness in her voice and gently grabbed her sister’s shoulders. “What happened with Sunset was just as much our fault as it was yours.”
“You may have been the ones behind Anon-a-Miss and post all those secrets,” Fluttershy told them. “But turning our backs on Sunset was our own choice.”
“But we tricked you all into thinking it was her,” Scootaloo insisted.
“But remember this was all after she helped save the entire school from the Dazzlings,” Rarity reminded them.
“Despite no one, even us, not trusting her,” Rainbow added. Then the regretful expression on her face became even greater. “Come to think of it, we treated her pretty unfairly back then too.”
“Yeah,” Pinkie sadly agreed. “We didn’t invite her to be part of our band, we didn’t defend her when everyone still thought she was evil, and we all ganged up on and antagonized her when she tried to help. We were horrible friends to her.”
“Twilight asked us to look out for her,” Rarity tearfully reminded everyone. “So not only did we fail Sunset Shimmer, we failed her as well.”
“Let’s face it,” Rainbow miserably said. “We’re horrible friends and horrible people.”
“No better than the villains we’ve fought,” AJ sadly added.
“If Twilight were here, she’d be so disappointed in us,” Fluttershy also added shedding a few tears.
“I can’t even make one poor innocent girl smile anymore,” a teary-eyed Pinkie said. “So what good am I?”
“It looks like the Dazzlings had the last laugh after all,” Rarity sadly concluded.
All eight girls stood and sat there quietly and miserably lamenting over the terrible decisions they’ve made that led to this tragic loss in their lives.
Later that night, in a small row house that stood alone somewhere in town, a certain amber skinned teenage girl with crimson and yellow hair sadly sat on her bed in her pajamas all alone in this world. Ever since she had dropped out of CHS and broke up with her friends, Sunset Shimmer had all but isolated herself from the most of the world. Ever since the traumatic and heartbreaking experiences she had during the Anon-a-Miss fiasco, she had become a lot less trusting of people. That being said, it did not stop her from being a good person and helping others out whenever she could. Despite losing a lot of trust in humanity, she couldn’t bring herself to hate them. It was like any part of her old self had been completely deleted from her DNA and all that was left was a sad lonely girl who just wanted to make friends. She often wrote messages in her magic journal to Twilight Sparkle (her former rival, friend back in Equestria, and Princess of Friendship) in hopes that she may give her some helpful advice and as a way of coping with her loneliness.
Dear Princess Twilight,
I’m sorry I have to tell you this, but I’m afraid things aren’t working out very well for me here in this world. I’ve tried everything to show everyone I’ve changed but in the end nothing works. I could save this world over and over again and it wouldn’t truly make a difference. No matter how much good I do, they’ll never forget all the bad I’ve done. Even the girls we both called friends will never let go of my past. The Anon-a-Miss incident showed me that. I’m afraid the Magic of Friendship doesn’t quite work in this world like it does in Equestria. I don’t think I can do this anymore. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful or impatient, I know you told me to stay strong and be myself, but this is taking way to long. I know you must be busy being Princess of Friendship, but I don’t know how much longer I can stand being in this world. Please give me a reply as soon as you can.
Your Friend,
Sunset Shimmer
Once she was done with her message, Sunset closed her book and put it away.
“I just wish I could meet at least one person in this world that understands me,” Sunset said to herself as she got ready for bed. “Someone I can relate to. Someone I can truly call my friend.” With that, she turned off the light in her room and fell asleep.
Meanwhile right outside the row house Sunset lived in, a small white-haired boy wearing an orange polo shirt, blue jeans, and a backpack was sitting on the steps leading up to the front door heavily breathing. Lincoln Loud had been walking for a long time and was exhausted. He was determined to get as far away from the madhouse he used to call home.
“I wonder where I am,” the 11 year old boy said to himself, then he turned to the readers. “Nice to see you again. As you can see, I haven’t quite found the perfect place to live yet. At least I’m away from all the crazies. Unfortunately, I doubt there’s anyone around here willing to let a random kid sleep in their home for the night.” Then he got to his feet and started walking around the row house for a place to sleep. Then he noticed a trash can sitting on the right side of the house. Curiously, he walked over to it, opened the lid, and looked inside. Luckily, there was no garbage in it. However, the inside was still a little dirty and had a foul smell. As much as he didn’t want to spend the night in a trash can, Lincoln knew that with his luck he should take whatever he could get. So he put his backpack inside and climbed in. “It’s not like I’m not used to this kind of thing,” he said to the readers before putting the lid back on the container and calling it a night. Little did he know was that the house he was sleeping next to housed someone who had more in common with him than he thought.