As the school day ended and students filed out into the hallway to the exit, Celestia made her way to Canterlot High's conference room. A circular table stood in the middle of the room, where most of the teachers were seated already. Celestia made her way to her own preferred seat, watching as the last teachers arrived, Cranky Doodle making up the rear and closing the door behind him.
"Thank you all for coming" Celestia began after Cranky took his seat. "Especially on such short notice. I know you all have plans, but Luna and I feel that this problem needs to be taken care of sooner rather than later."
"Is this about this Anon-a-Miss?" Cheerilee asked.
Celestia nodded "It is."
"Not that I'm complaining about finally doing something about this, but why so suddenly?" Cranky asked.
"Because Sunset Shimmer has left CHS because of it."
That got a reaction. Every teacher at the table bolted upright, various signs of shock or concerns on their faces.
"What happened?" Cheerilee asked.
"She has gone back to Equestria for the time being. According to Flash Sentry, the pressure of being falsely accused of being Anon-a-Miss became too much for her" Celestia answered.
"So it wasn't her after all" Cranky grumbled through a sigh, though Celestia knew him long enough to hear the relief in it.
Miss Harshwhinny tapped a finger on the table. "Are we sure about that? While I hate to be the devil's advocate, this girl had all of us fooled for at least four years. Which is impressive in its own way, she has a flair with words and a presence that's hard to deny." Miss Harshwinny sighed and shook her head. "I swear, if that young lady ever goes into politics I weep for her opposition."
Celestia shook her head as well, even though she smiled at the compliment. "According to Flash Sentry she was sneaking away in the late evening, when all students should have been gone. There was no public spectacle, just a girl who wanted to get away from her problems."
Miss Harshwhinny didn't respond, but nodded, seemingly satisfied with the explanation.
Cheerilee fidgeted in her seat, worry dancing in her eyes. "Do we know if she plans to come back? Even after the Fall Formal revealed her identity Sunset Shimmer has never gone back to her home before."
Celestia smiled at the worried teacher. "Flash Sentry told her to consider this an early holiday, so I'm hoping we'll see her back by the new year."
"That's a big 'maybe'" the PE teacher, Mr. Longstride, noted.
"It is" Celestia agreed. "Which is why we need to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible. We've already failed our students by letting things go this far already. First things first, how bad has the tension among the students gotten?"
"Eeehh, dem students have been causin' a mighty big ruckus in the cafeteria 'n the hallways, but it's all been peacocks 'n hissin' cats. Ain't none of them decided to introduce the other to a knuckle sandwich yet" the elderly voice of Granny Smith answered, and the table chorused with sighs of relief. With Granny not a teacher and charge of the cafeteria, students often let their guard down around Granny. Not to mention the old lady had a hawk's eyes for trouble. If the Apple family matriarch hadn't seen anything escalate yet, they were safe. At least for the moment.
"That at least is something we can be proud of our students about" Celestia noted, a small smile tugging on her lips despite the situation. She had heard plenty of horror stories of bullying gone terribly wrong from her colleagues, and knowing that her students still restrained themselves despite their obvious grudges and ire was definitely a relief. "And what about the Anon-a-Miss account itself? What do we know about that so far?"
"Little, I'm afraid" miss Harshwhinny spoke up with a harumph. "It was created on the same day as the first post about miss Applejack and the e-mail linked to the account it is not one we know linked to any of our students."
"And what about the reaction of Mystable itself?" Luna asked, but miss Harshwhinny shook her head.
"We've attempted to contact MyStable, but their response was disappointing at best." The brown woman sniffed. "Apparently they're of the opinion that a couple of posts revealing embarrassing but otherwise harmless secrets is at worst just average gossip. Unless there is an actual physical threat to someone's health or one particular student gets targeted repeatedly, they don't believe it qualifies as cyberbullying. At best we can report the individual posts as breaches of privacy and get them removed, maybe get the account banned."
"Which will solve nothing" Luna added. "Once something is posted on the internet, someone somewhere is going to have it archived and ready to put it back up again. All removing it does is make the original poster more credible."
"But if we can at least get the account banned-" Cheerilee began, but was cut off by, surprisingly, Cranky.
"That'll be even worse for Sunset Shimmer" the cranky teacher rumbled as he tapped a finger on the desk. "I may not know a lot about these newfangled social media things those kids are using, but I do know frustrated kids. If something popular but controversial disappears right at the same time as its author? The kids are going to put things together and conclude that the one who disappeared has to be the one responsible."
"So you're saying we have to let Anon-a-Miss continue to rule this school?" Celestia countered archly.
Cranky grunted in disapproval. "No, but unless we want to throw Sunset Shimmer under the bus we can't just shut it down. Angry teenagers will latch on to a conclusion like that because it's all they can get. They're already out there looking for answers. They just want one, doesn't really matter which. The kids will see the account shutting down and Sunset Shimmer disappearing as connected, and celebrate that they chased her off."
"And there is no way we can get MyStable to give up the account data?" Celestia pressed to miss Harshwhinny.
"We've tried, but all we got was a long multi-page legal letter that was filled to the brim with legal language but could be summed up as 'no, do your own jobs.' The only way we might get access to the data is if we take it to court." Miss Harshwhinny folded her hands, her face stern but unyielding. "And I don't believe that is much of an option."
Celestia grimaced. No, it wasn't much of an option at all. Taking this to court meant the account's main suspect and victim would be central in the court procedure. While Sunset had to this day played how she had wormed her way into human society close to her chest, Celestia was sure part of the reason it had worked was a lack of scrutiny. But a court case would mean a lot of scrutiny would focus on Sunset Shimmer. Celestia groaned and reached up to rub her temples. "So what can we do so far?"
"At the very least we are keeping a close look on the account itself" Luna said, leaning back into her seat. "We might not be able to get the information from MyStable directly, but we can see who is posting reactions to the page, and every student who has been posting on the Anon-a-Miss page has done so with their own account. We will be able to make a list of which students are enjoying the spectacle, which students are criticizing it and which students aren't posting at all."
Celestia blinked in confusion. "How does the last one matter?"
The question was aimed at Luna, but miss Harshwhinny was the one who answered. "The only students who wouldn't respond to posts on the Anon-a-Miss page are either those who have no interest in Anon-a-Miss, or are the ones who put up the post in the first place."
"It's not a fool-proof plan" Luna admitted. "There are plenty of students who don't post on the page, and Anon-a-Miss could just make a few replies with his or her real account to cover up, but it's a start. Maybe in combination with the posts themselves we can figure out which of our students could manage to get a hold of so many secrets."
Not for the first time today Celestia sighed. "Alright, let's do that for now. But in the meantime, I want ideas on how we can stem the influence of Anon-a-Miss."
Hesitantly, Luna spoke up. "This... may sound like a roundabout method, since we're once again having someone else solve a problem for us, but what if we asked Princess Twilight for help?"
"We can't, Luna." Celestia shook her head. "I'm pretty sure that a Princess, even one as young as her, has enough on her mind to leave much to worry about a little high school on a different world."
"She almost single-handedly united our school the last time she was here," Luna reminded her. "And this time we don't even need that much. We just need her to calm the students enough that we can get a word in between their squabbling."
“Wait wait wait" Cranky waved his hands wildly in front of him as he interrupted the arguing Principals, "you mean Twilight is actually royalty?”
"Oh yes" Luna nodded. "And part of an actually ruling monarchy as well, according to Sunset Shimmer."
"And I've been treating her like an average high school student" Celestia groaned as she let her head sink into her hands.
"At least you just treated her like a student" Luna remarked dryly. "I almost kicked her out of the Fall Formal over a badly doctored picture."
The obvious self jab brought a smile back to Celestia's face and she leaned onto one of her palms as she turned to face her sister. "I do keep telling you you keep your office too dark."
"I like dark," Luna said defensively "and we should probably get back to topic."
Her smile grew at the obvious dodge, but she yielded. "Yes, at any rate I'm not sure if we should bother Princess Twilight over this. Not unless it becomes truly necessary for Sunset's safety."
"Agreed" the teachers voiced, almost as one.
"We should still contact her" Luna pressed. "Even if it's only to keep her in the loop on what we've found here. According to Sunset she is the only friend in Equestria she has, so she is going to find out Sunset has returned one way or another. It would probably be best if we let her know that we are on Sunset's side and are working on a solution."
"Alright, alright!" Celestia groaned and let her head fall into her hands again. "We'll let Princess Twilight know what happened, but only to let her know what happened. No sneaky requests for help."
Luna's grin made Celestia realize who won the argument today. It wasn't as if they'd need to ask the girl who jumped at the chance to help their school the moment she set foot in it for her help directly. From what little Celestia had seen of the otherworldy Princess, she just was the kind of girl who would do all she could to help someone when she noticed they needed it.
Cranky cleared his throat, catching the sister's attention back to the table. "Not that I disagree with either of you, but how are we going to keep contact with Sunset Shimmer, much less Princess Twilight? I'll be the first to say that I don't know much about magical worlds beyond portals, but that doesn't exactly scream 'working cellphone reception.'"
Celestia nodded. "Oh, yes. The girls informed me that after Princess Twilight visited last time around she has found a way to open the portal whenever she wants. Though if we want to stay in contact in the mean time..." she trailed of and glanced at Luna.
“We do have this” Luna said as she produced Sunset’s diary and put it on the table. “Sunset Shimmer has apparently been in regular contact with Princess Twilight ever since the Fall Formal.”
“With a book?” Cranky asked incredulously.
“A magical book” Luna emphasized. “It seems to work like a smartphone, except in book form. If you write something in this book, it appears on the pages of another book that Princess Twilight has”
“It certainly looks like a magical book right out of a fairy tale” Cheerilee said, observing the thick brown hardcovered tome.
Miss Harshwhinny hummed. “At the risk of intruding on a student’s privacy, do their conversations have any chance of helping us solve this mess?”
“Well…” Luna hesitated, but flipped the journal open and turned it to face the other teachers.
The teachers cautiously leaned forward, curiosity battling with an urge to respect their student's privacy.
"...What is that?" one of the teachers asked.
"It looks like... symbols? Is this some sort of code?" Cheerilee observed.
"We believe that it is the language of Sunset's home" Luna explained. Then added dryly "we might have gotten a bit too used to Sunset's near-perfect English."
"So this is... an alien language?" the pink haired teacher asked and sat back as her eyes widened. "Wow, I... don't think it really has really sank in just what we are dealing with here. This is an entirely new language, from another world."
"A logographic writing system." Miss Harshwhinny's eyes almost seemed to twinkle as the language teacher's eyes scanned the page "The language of an entirely different world... To think that it can be so similar vocally but be so different in writing..."
"And we have no idea what either is saying" Celestia sighed in disappointment. Of course, finding a simple solution in a magic diary didn't happen. That would have been too easy.
Cranky grumbled "Well it's not as if a book that belonged to Sunset Shimmer would have been convincing evidence anyway. Anyone could just claim she forged the whole thing."
"One problem at a time, people. How are we going to talk to Princess Twilight if we don't know how to write in her language?" Celestia asked.
Cheerilee was undeterred. "Well, we might not know how to read or write theirs, but Sunset knows how to read and write ours. Even if we can't reach Princess Twilight directly, she can always translate for us." The teacher shrugged sheepishly. "Which is probably for the best, given how we shouldn't be trying to talk to Princess Twilight behind her back."
"Better to address the both of them then" Luna agreed as she grabbed a pen and clicked it ready, she hovered the pen over an open page and looked at the teachers around the table. "So what do we tell her?"
"Start with a greeting, we'll figure out the rest as we write" Celestia said.
"Talking to a magical student living in an entirely different universe by writing in a magic book in the hopes of contacting a Princess of said universe, and we're winging our first talk." Cranky sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Do any of us even know what we're getting into?"
"We'll worry about that bridge when we get to it." Luna said as she put the pen to paper, and the entire table edged closer to the Vice Principal as the pen's trail was followed by a multi-coloured trail of light.
To her Royal Highness Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Sunset Shimmer,