Christmas Day(Rainbooms)
Rainbow groaned as the two left the shop, and slide down into the usual table before slamming her head down hard. The rest of the group following suit, minus the head smashing, and the CMC shifted silently, sitting by their respective sisters, not once gazing up.
Worst Christmas ever.
But in the end, they did this to themselves. They pushed her away and would never get her back. The only thing came out of this was losing Sunset to the Shadowbolts, losing their friendship with her, and never to have a good Christmas again. At least, not for a good while. What made matters worse was their sisters had done this. They pulled a wall up to mask their identity and placed the blame on Sunset. They deleted the account, of course, right after Rarity's phone call.
Now the freshmens lost their phones, any internet connection unless it was for homework, and they would have to prove themselves they were trustworthy. Applebloom would help out in the fields everyday after school, of course she would finish her homework first and chores; Sweetie Bell would help Rarity, do extra chores, do her homework, and whatever needed to be done in the house; Scootaloo would do the same two things with chores and homework, but would have to help her aunts in the garden, and do whatever it took to prove herself.
Not mention they were all grounded.
"She's dating a Shadowbolt," Rainbow mumbled. "Of all people, a Shadowbolt!"
"Ah don't think that's the problem right now, RD!" Applejack snapped, having to be more on the edge than ever. "She ain't gonna forgive us and she's at Crystal Prep now. Thanks to three certain someone's." She glared at the CMC, who shrank down in their seats.
"She'll be better there," Rarity replied. "She looks much more happy now."
Scootaloo nodded sadly. "At least... she's got friends to help her right? And she's in a happy relationship." Rainbow huffed and looked away.
"Shut it, Scoots," Rainbow growled. "If it weren't for you three, we wouldn't have lost her!"
Fluttershy shifted. "Can we not talk about this?" She looked heartbroken. "Please?"
Rarity moved a hair out of Fluttershy's face and gave her friend a sadden look. But it was filled with love either way, showing she showed concern for her. "Darling, what's the matter?"
"Nothing," whimpered Fluttershy.
"Don't seem like nothin'," Applejack huffed. "What's eatin' at ya?"
"I'm already missing Sunset, I wish she didn't transfer to Crystal Prep. How are we going to explain this to everyone who's expecting to apologize to her?"
Pinkie looked down, her hair fell flat. "We can't," She whimpered. "She's not going to accept any apologies. Especially not ours."
"Shit... how are we going to explain this to Twilight?" Rainbow asked, biting her thumb.
"Yes, how are you going to explain this to me?"
All of them jumped at the sudden entrance of the princess and gazed at her. Her eyes full of hate and anger, it made the Rainbooms and the CMC shrink at the sight. Applebloom grabbed a hold of AJ, who held her tightly despite being mad. Sweetie was pulled into Rarity's side, and Scootaloo shrank further down, knowing Rainbow wouldn't hold her.
Twilight crossed her arms, and huffed before storming over and slamming her book down, showing off all her and Sunset's conversations, including the last one of last week. The Rainbooms read them and gulped before giving shaky smiles but wiped them off when Twilight growled lowly.
"I trusted all of you," Twilight growled. "But you throw her away the second you thought it was her!"
"We thought she turned on us again..." Rainbow weakly protested. "We thought she was up to her old ways because it seemed so much like her. We weren't thinking, Twilight! It's what humans do! We don't think when we're angry, and yeah, we fucked up!"
"No, you didn't 'fuck up'," Twilight sighed, sitting down. "You very much fucked up! You screwed up a girl's life! Someone who trusted all of you and saved your behinds at the Battle of the Bands! How do you think she felt when you suddenly kicked her away? I'll give you a hint, it's what your feeling right now. Loneliness. Hurt." She turned to the CMC, and growled.
She didn't even bother with them, not yet.
Rarity nodded. "I understand, Twilight." Twilight gazed at her friend, allowing her to speak. "We did throw her away the moment we thought it was her. No chances to explain, but... she'll be much more happy at Crystal Prep with her new girlfriend and friends. Ones who'll actually show her friendship."
"Sunset's got a girlfriend?" asked Twilight. "Since when?"
"As of today," Applejack explained, "We tried saying sorry, but she didn't accept it, which ah understand, and she told us the only other good thing comin' out of this mess was meetin' her girlfriend, Sugarcoat."
"Only other?"
Pinkie nodded. "Yup! The other good thing is her new friends, the Shadowbolts!"
Twilight pinched her nose and took a few deep breaths. As much as she hated the Rainbooms right now, she wanted to see Sunset and speak with her. As well as meet her new girlfriend and friends. She had to make sure Sunset would be alright with them.
"Where is Sunset?" asked Twilight. "I need to know."
"We don't know," Fluttershy admitted. "But I think she left in the direction of the park."
"Ya want one of us to go with you?" Applejack asked slowly.
"No. I'll find her on my own," Twilight replied. "I'm sure I'll be able to find her."
The Rainbooms sighed as they walked around the block, trying to push their minds off of Sunset and Twilight's sudden arrival here. They knew it was to be expected if Sunset reached out for the princess, but they didn't think it would actually happen. But what else could they expect anyways?
Pinkie didn't even seem to add the usual jump to her walk as she was feeling just as sad as the others did. If only she had listen to her friend, then none of this would've happened. Sunset wouldn't be at Crystal Prep, and would still be a Wondercolt with them.
Not a Shadowbolt, and she wouldn't be dating Sugarcoat.
Maybe if they stuck with her, then she would be dating someone else, and she would be happier with them, like she was with the Shadowbolts. But it couldn't be.
It would never be.
"What do we do?" Pinkie asked. "We can't leave things like this!"
"We gotta," Applejack sighed heavily, shaking her head, "Sunset ain't gonna talk with us. She told us to leave her alone. She saw who it was online like everyone else."
"How'd you figure it out anyways, Rarity?" asked Rainbow Dash. "You were on top of it after... thinking she might be innocent."
Rarity smiled weakly. "It was easy," she admitted, "I went back on the account, and checked everyone's secrets. Yes, she knew Applejack's nickname like we did, yes she knew your grade because you share a class with her, and she knows ours because she was our friend. But it made no sense with some of the others. She barely knew them."
"At the time, it looked like she had her old ways back," Fluttershy added.
"Of course, darling, but some of them, she didn't even know," Rarity answered. "Yes, she could've asked about them, but why would she want to go back to her old self? At the time, we didn't think, but the more it went on, the more I think I began to slowly realize it couldn't be her. The post on her account on Mystable timed with the Anon-A-Miss account made the nail come into place."
Rainbow slowly nodded, crossing her arms. "What hit the nail on the head?"
"Sweetie's little makeup fail secret," Rarity explained. "At the time, it was cute to see. But... the picture made me think. Sunset didn't know that, and I certainly didn't tell her, nor did I email it to her. Not even Sweetie's friends knew. That hit the nail on the head, but when I spoke to her about it, the nail went deeper."
"And we all know how the phone call went," Applejack sighed, hating that memory.
"Oh, we do." Pinkie agreed.
Back during Christmas Eve, the phone call went like this;
"Now where to start..."
The trio stayed quiet as Rarity thought before dilvering the first blow of the call, and they all winced. This was it. Their undoing because they saw no way out of this.
"Applejack's nickname," Rarity began, "Only her friends and family knew. But, we didn't know about it until you, Applebloom, revealed it to us. At first, it was funny, yes, and we teased her about it. But it was friendly. Sunset wouldn't think about putting online unless she phrased it differently, and she wouldn't reveal the nickname."
"How do ya know?" Applebloom asked.
Rarity was frowning. "Because whenever she teases us, she's never does reveal it. She always puts, 'just learned something new about...' and an laughing emoji. Never did she reveal what it was learned. The picture was of us laughing, along with the person she was posting about."
The trio shifted nervously, sharing looks.
"And yet, Anon-A-Miss posted what nickname it was," Rarity finished. "Secondly... Rainbow's failing grade."
Scootaloo bite her lip. "She's in a class with Rainbow."
"But she helped Rainbow study," Rarity countered. Rainbow backed it up with a nod, and a few words of agreement. Rarity went on, "However, she didn't know about Rainbow's failing grade in that class."
"What do you mean? Of course she did!"
"No," Rainbow sighed. "She didn't sport. I never told her. That makes no sense on how she got it without me knowing."
Rarity then went through their secrets, labeling what Sunset knew and what she didn't. And when she finally got to the CMC, she was biting her lip hard. She didn't want to do this, and she prayed she was wrong, but the way those answers they were giving her got more and more nervous, told her everything.
She was right.
Now to finally place down the nail into the coffin for good.
"Then there's you three..." Rarity trailed. "Applebloom and Scootaloo, you're secrets were never revealed, which gave me the impression that Sunset didn't want to hurt you, but then I realized, she knew nothing about your secrets. No one does expect for your families... Sweetie... your secret isn't bad at all...."
No answers.
"Tell me... are you the ones behind it?" Rarity asked softly. "Did you frame Sunset...? For whatever reason you might have, and do not give me because you think she didn't change and faked it."
"The truth, gals," Applejack sighed. "Nothin' but the truth."
The trio shared a look before shifting began shaking and cried silently, Applebloom gulped, and Scootaloo didn't look upwards, her hair falling into her face.
It was Scootaloo who answered the dreadful question.
"Yes..." She whispered out, loud enough for the Rainbooms to hear her. "We did it all..."