//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Fine // by Tungul //------------------------------// “Fine.” The five girls looked at Sunset in disbelief. They had just accused Sunset of being Anon-A-Miss, a MyStable blogger who just had, on this very day, published a series of embarrassing pictures from their last sleepover. Voices had been raised, tears had flown, and yet Sunset seemed unperturbed. After an initial expression of shock and surprise, the fiery haired teenager had become almost eerily calm. “What?” Applejack asked. After everything they had just thrown at Sunset, this was not the kind of reaction she had expected. “I said ‘fine’,” Sunset replied evenly, crossing her arms before her chest. “If everything I have done for you, if saving all of you from the Sirens, wasn’t enough to convince you I have changed, then I suppose trying to turn over a new leaf in this place was a waste of time to begin with.” She fixated the Rainbooms with a cold look. It had hurt, when they had accused her. It had hurt every time they had brought up her past, or made a crack at her expense over it. At the time, she had just taken it as the price to pay for her crimes, and it was not as if she didn’t deserve punishment for her actions. But this? This was crossing the line. Just two days ago, these girls had called themselves her family, and now they were casting her out at the first suspicion of wrongdoing. Granted, the pictures were the ones she had taken, but there was supposed to be some trust by now, damnit! Not one of them was even doubting her guilt in this. It was… it was like back in the day, almost a year ago now, when she had turned them against each other. A few text messages, some minor disagreements, and they had just abandoned each other. For six months, they had refused to so much as look at each other, until Princess Twilight came and pointed out the inconsistencies they had never bothered to question. Was a friendship that could break so easily even genuine? “I really thought we were friends,” Sunset said slowly. “When you invited me to the sleepovers, I was happier than I had ever been before in this world.” “And now…” anger creeped into her voice. “Now you throw all of that away, like it doesn’t mean anything.” “We’re throwing it away?!” Dash echoed. “You did this to yourself, Shimmer! You’re the one who decided to go back to your old ways,” she sneered. “If you ever even left them to begin with.” “I didn’t…” Sunset reared up for an irritated rebuttal, but only let out a deep sigh. “You know what? Forget it. If you don’t want to believe that I’ve changed then I can’t force you to.” She gave the Rainbooms a sorrowful look. “I’m not Anon-A-Miss, girls. I didn’t do this. But if this is the extent of your trust in me, then there is no point in arguing this further.” With cold glares being all the answer she received, Sunset turned around and walked away from her former friends. Glares. Glares all around her. It wasn’t a new experience to Sunset Shimmer. When you’re the number one most hated student of CHS, you get used to everyone giving you dirty looks. The sheer amount of glares Sunset received as she walked the halls of the school was unusual, though. Ever since the Battle of the Bands, the other students had warmed up to her considerably, and some had even started to smile when they saw her. Now though? Now it was like during the early days after the Fall Formal. The students were glaring and whispering to each other as she passed, and her ears picked up the word ‘Anon-A-Miss’ several times. Had the word traveled so quickly, or was she just the obvious suspect? Probably the latter. Sure, the Rainbooms had accused her in the middle of a crowded hallway, but that seemed excessively fast, even for the school’s grapevine. So she walked, ignoring the looks and the voices with no clear goal in mind, just trying to put some distance between herself and the girls who had tossed her away so casually. On an intellectual level, Sunset could understand where the Rainbooms were coming from with this. Rainbow Dash valued loyalty to her friends above all else. She believed that Sunset had betrayed her and the others and reacted accordingly. “But on the other hand,” Sunset thought to herself, “shouldn’t her loyalty compel her to trust in a friend’s innocence, until proven guilty beyond doubt?” That is, if she actually was as loyal as she claimed to be. It had only taken one text message, one perceived betrayal by Applejack, to make Rainbow break ties with her best friend. She hadn’t even tried to ask Applejack why she hadn’t been there at the appointed time of the bake sale. She had just assumed the worst and stuck with it. Looking back, Applejack hadn’t been much better. She too had assumed the worst of her best friend because… Why had they even done this? These girls had been friends since they were freshmen. How had she even managed to break an old friendship like that apart with a few texts? Everything Sunset had learned about friendship in these past few months, told her that it should’ve been harder and yet... Sunset shook her head as she rounded a corner. In hindsight, it made no sense that her plan had worked at all, much less had such a profound effect on those girls. Unless, of course, they and their friendship weren’t as genuine as she had thought. Considering that Anon-A-Miss had effectively just made them fall for the same trick, with the same level of success, it didn’t seem that far off. Anon-A-Miss… That was the second conundrum. Who was behind the account? Who had made it their mission to ruin her friendship? And most importantly: Did it even matter? The glares everyone was still sending her way told Sunset everything she needed to know about how little she had actually accomplished in her attempts to redeem herself. And if saving the entire school wasn’t enough to change their minds, then being wrong about Sunset Shimmer wasn’t gonna tip the scales either. Even if Anon-A-Miss was caught, it was only a matter of time before the next incident was pinned on her. Ultimately, what was she to do? Stay at CHS and endure the scorn of the student body? No, she wasn’t gonna subject herself to that treatment again. She had deserved it after the Fall Formal, but with saving them from the Sirens, she considered that debt paid. Transferring to a different school then? That was certainly an option. Somewhere far away from CHS, where no one had ever heard of Sunset Shimmer, she could build a new life. With a determined nod, Sunset started marching towards the Principal’s office. “You wish to transfer, Miss Shimmer?” Principal Celestia asked, looking at the fiery haired teenager in front of her. Sure, Sunset had had her... problems with the school, but ever since the Battle of the Bands she had seemed happy. “Yes, Principal Celestia.” Sunset nodded, shifting slightly in her seat. “I know this must be a bit of a surprise.” “Putting it mildly,” Celestia chuckled. “If I may ask, what brings this on? You have been doing well, both academically and socially, since the Battle of the Bands.” “Yeah…” Sunset sighed. “About that… I suppose you haven’t heard of Anon-A-Miss yet?” “Who?” Celestia tilted her head. She usually liked to be well informed about everything concerning her student body. Whatever this Anon-A-Miss thing was, it must’ve been something very new. With another sigh, Sunset pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened up MyStable before handing the device over to Celestia. “I’m not quite sure I understand,” Celestia said slowly, after studying the posts for a minute. This Anon-A-Miss seemed to have posted a number of embarrassing pictures of Sunset’s friends, and while it undoubtedly humiliating for them, it didn’t seem like something to transfer over. “Everyone thinks it’s me,” Sunset replied glumly. “And if they don’t, then they will soon. My friends just got done accusing me of posting these pictures, in the middle of a hallway. By tomorrow, everyone will know that Sunset Shimmer is a bully again.” “I see.” Celestia nodded, her tone even as she handed the phone back to Sunset. On the inside though she felt a stab in her heart. After everything Sunset had gone through to redeem herself, it hurt her to see it all undone with but a few pictures. “In that case, I only ask that you wait out the rest of the week while I prepare the paperwork for an emergency transfer. In the meantime, you should take a look around for where to transfer to and, we can finalise everything over Winter Break.” “Thank you, Principal Celestia,” Sunset said, giving her a genuine smile. “You’re more than welcome, Sunset.” The least she could do now was to ensure that Sunset had a smooth transition into a better environment. After Sunset had left, Principal Celestia let out a deep sigh and pushed a button on the intercom. “Luna, could you come to my office please? There’s something I need to show you.” Leaning back in her chair, Celestia considered the situation. A student, or possibly several students, were out to ruin Sunset Shimmer’s reputation and by all means, seemed to have succeeded already. Enough for Sunset to jump ship preemptively, at the very least. But who would had done this? With Sunset’s history being what it was, there were more than enough students with reasons to hold a grudge. A knock on the door pulled Celestia out of her musings, closely followed by her sister, Luna, entering the office. “You wanted to show me something, Tia?” she asked, closing the door behind her. “Yes, Luna,” Celestia nodded. “Sunset Shimmer was here a few minutes ago with some rather worrying news. Take a look at this.” Opening MyStable on her computer, Celestia quickly found the Anon-A-Miss account, and worryingly enough, the account seemed to have attracted a rather large following already. “Alright, what am I looking at?” Luna asked as she rounded around the large desk and leaned against her sister’s chair. “Miss Shimmer informed me of this account. It seems that it went up yesterday on MyStable and published an embarrassing childhood nickname of Miss Applejack.” Celestia explained as she scrolled down to the first post. “And today, it released several photos of her friends in rather outlandish costumes. Look at the profile picture.” Spotting the red and yellow silhouette, Luna leaned a little closer to the screen. “That does look remarkably like Sunset Shimmer, doesn’t it?” “That’s what her friends thought as well, it seems,” Celestia sighed. “Miss Shimmer said that they publicly accused her of being this ‘Anon-A-Miss’.” “And you don’t believe that she is?” “Please, Luna.” Celestia gave an amused snort. “I know you love playing the Devil’s Advocate, but what possible reason could Sunset possess to turn herself into a social pariah again?” Luna chuckled at that “I admit, sister, you got me there. Even if Sunset was responsible for this, I don’t believe that she would’ve done it in a way that painted such an obvious target on her back. This begs the question: Who did this and why?” “The why seems pretty obvious,” Celestia replied, rooting in her desk for the emergency transfer papers. “Whoever is behind this wants to destroy her reputation. Why else would they go to such lengths to make it look like her? And they seem to be successful; Miss Shimmer already requested to be transferred to a different school.” “Given her unique situation, that is probably a sensible option, yes. I can’t imagine that the student body will take very kindly to this apparent relapse.” Luna said. “And I have the bad feeling that this is only going to get worse.” Celestia sighed. Teenagers being what they were, it was likely only a matter of time before Anon-A-Miss started targeting the rest of the student body as well. “Which is why I want you to inform the rest of the staff to be on the lookout. We have to keep this situation under control and catch whoever is hiding behind this account. The last thing we need, is a bullying spree fueled by whatever secrets Anon-A-Miss is going to reveal.” “Understood.” Luna nodded and made her way back to the door “And it wouldn’t be a bad idea, to call the Rainbooms in for some questions. I imagine there can’t have been a lot of people who had access to that nickname or those photos.” “True enough…” Celestia murmured thoughtfully, as the door closed behind her sister. With an exhausted sigh, Sunset threw herself down onto her mattress. The rest of the school day had been about as unpleasant as the initial round of glares had promised her. Wherever she had stepped, heads had turned and hushed voices had whispered venomous words in her general direction. As such, Sunset was more than happy to finally be back in her apartment. True, it wasn’t the most luxurious apartment. When you were an illegal alien, in the most literal of senses, you couldn’t exactly afford upscale living. Still though, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears had gone into making her little studio apartment into something homey. Her queen sized bed, the only genuinely new piece of furniture, occupied the upper left corner of the room. On the opposite side stood her work desk and a comfortable upholstered chair, from which she did most of her work. The lower left corner of the room held her kitchenette next to an old, but wonderfully cushy, couch she had gotten for a bargain in front of a coffee table. Her bed aside, the furniture was old, second hand, and utterly mismatched, but Sunset loved it all nonetheless. It was hers. She had earned it with her own two hands, and that made it all the more satisfying to have. Speaking of earning, if she was gonna move out of Canterlot soon, she needed some extra money, and that meant doing some additional work. With a groan, Sunset rolled out of her bed and and sat herself down at her desk. If there was one good thing about this world, it was certainly the internet. A small smile appeared on Sunset’s face as she booted up her computer. Opening up her email, Sunset found that she had received a couple lucrative requests since yesterday, all of them from regular customers. A few essays for college courses, a book report, and one particular pervert who wanted yet another piece of erotic art featuring his favorite character. Rolling her eyes, Sunset looked around the room. The formerly bare white walls were covered in a plethora of pictures and paintings. As it behooved a student of Princess Celestia, Sunset Shimmer was a true Renaissance Mare skilled in magic, science, and art alike. And while drawing weird pictures for even weirder folks on the internet didn’t exactly compare to the dignified oil paintings she was used to, it still beat sitting part time behind the counter of a random store. As such, Sunset reached for her graphic tablet and reviewed the specifics of the commission. With no friends left to hang out with, she had a lot of time on her hands to prepare for the transfer. “It’ll be fine,” she told herself. “I’ll make new friends, better friends, friends without all of this… baggage. I’ve started my life over once, and I can do it again.” With those reassuring thoughts in mind, Sunset began her work.