“Come on, just try it once. I know you’re gonna love it,” Sunset spoke in a husky voice, leaning in close to Twilight who was blushing furiously.
“I… I really shouldn’t…” Twilight said hesitantly, biting her lip nervously.
“Come on Twilight, you just gotta… Experiment a little,” Sunset said lifting her hand up. “Don’t you trust me?”
“Mmmm… I… I mean... It really is tempting…” Twilight smiled hesitantly, her hands squeezing into fists.
“Here, just… Open your mouth, and let me do. All. The. Work.” Sunset whispered huskily, licking her own lips in return.
“Aa… Aaaaa…” Twilight moaned softly opening her mouth wide enough for Sunset. The sensation hit her tongue first, a burst of flavor swirling around as her mind began to melt. “Mmmmmm…”
The gooey pizza melted against Twilight’s tongue, followed by the spicy taste of pepperoni. A delicious blend of flavors she hadn’t expected to taste nearly half as good as it actually was.
“See? I knew you’d like it.” Sunset grinned deviously, placing the rest of the pizza slice in Twilight’s hands.
“I mean… I knew I was going to like it, but I was trying to avoid it.” Twilight chuckled softly, wiping a napkin against her mouth. “On my first day in the human world I accidentally ate a hamburger not knowing what it was. I was just grabbing whatever I saw that looked good in the cafeteria, and it wasn’t until after that I found out it was meat. I was a little mortified.”
“Yeah, I understand what you mean. It was kind of hard to adjust to eating meat at first for me too.” Sunset smiled, taking a bite of her own slice of pizza. “But in the end I was won over for two reasons. The first being that it's awfully expensive to live a ‘purely vegetarian’ diet over here for whatever reason. The second being that… Well, meat just tastes good, ya know?” Sunset swallowed her bit of pizza and licked her lips, looking over at Twilight. “Humans are naturally omnivores as well, so it's easier for them to get certain nutrients from meat anyway. I ended up doing a lot of research on the subject, if for no other reason than to clear my conscious from eating meat.”
“It certainly would get you a few strange looks in Equestria,” Twilight said with a smile, helping herself to another bite of the pizza.
“Good thing we’re not in in Equestria then.” That earned a round of giggles from both of the girls.
A gentle breeze wafted through Sunset’s highrise apartment, her heater working overtime now that it had more than one guest to keep warm on a cold winter’s night. Sunset and Twilight were both dressed comfortably in their warm pajamas and having a fun conversation over a box of warm pizza that Sunset had ordered. Combining all of that with the gentle snowfall outside the window, and it created the perfect atmosphere for a fun sleepover with friends.
Even if Twilight was the only friend Sunset had at the moment.
“You know… I never really noticed how much quieter it is without the girls around.” Twilight murmured softly, pulling her knees up to wrap her arms around them. Her eyes fell to the snowflakes falling outside the window, just enraptured by their slow descent. “It used to always be like this before Celestia sent me to Ponyville. Long, lonely nights in my tower just… Studying. I used to think friends were such a waste of time because, ‘why socialize when I can study?’” Twilight shook her head with a sigh.
“It’s funny the kind of situations you find yourself adapting to.” Sunset shook her head, leaning against her couch. “When I was first stuck here in this world, the first thing I had to do was find shelter. Of course, I stayed in the library for a bit, but, for someone trying to be the true ruler of Equestria, not only was that rather humiliating, but it was easy to get caught sleeping there every night.”
The memories of her early days were not happy ones. Days of misery and being uncomfortable with the reality she found herself in… It really didn’t do anything but help fuel the bitterness and anger she had felt back then.
“So once I had my footing, I started searching for a place to stay. Homeless shelters and soup kitchens were an okay start, but having lived in Canterlot I was never satisfied with their conditions. So I ended up getting whatever job I could get to save up enough money for a real place to live.”
“Sounds like it wasn’t easy.” Twilight said, turning her attention back to Sunset.
“That’s especially true when you’re still getting used to a new body.” Sunset said, lifting up her hand and twiddling her fingers. “I swear I can still feel the grease burns from working fast food.” That elicited a small giggle from Twilight, which made Sunset smile.
“I got fired from plenty of those jobs, while I also just straight up quit others. Like hell I was going to keep working for a guy who thought I’d look better all dolled up, you know? I was there to do a job, not be his eye candy.” Sunset rolled her eyes. “But that was sort of the problem with the kinds of jobs I could afford to get, you know? Without any proper documentation everything I did was technically under the table, and so not only was the job pool limited for me, but anytime something went wrong, I was the first to get cut.”
“I couldn’t imagine having to deal with all of that…” Twilight murmured, trying to imagine herself in that situation. “How did you manage?”
“I eventually found a stable job at this sushi place in the mall. Half of the workers there are on expired visas, and at least two others are there just as undocumented as I am. They let me work part time when I’m not busy with school, and the pay is surprisingly good.” Sunset chuckled a little, brushing her hair behind her ear. “It was just sort of one of those things where people with similar hardships found each other and wanted to help each other, you know? They even helped me find this place for rather dirt cheap and helped me spruce it up a little.”
“Did they help you get the motorcycle as well?” Twilight chuckled.
“A little. They took me to a good used-vehicle dealership and I managed to get a good deal on that. It also helped that I was a ‘cute girl looking to buy a hog’ as well.” Sunset chuckled at that. “Humans can be surprisingly gullible if you give them a cute wink.”
“I do believe that’s a lesson Rarity has tried to impart several times.” Twilight giggled.
“What can I say? Men are slaves to their hormones.” Sunset said a little smugly, eliciting more giggles from them both. “But yeah, that was pretty much how I spent the first year or so of my life in this world. Once I had a stable living situation, I set my eyes on making myself the Queen of the school. I figured it would be good practice for when I finally took over Equestria, and of course that led to many lonely nights over the years focusing only on that one goal.” Sunset turned to look out her window.
“And honestly, I was just starting to get kind of used to the idea of actually having friends to hang out with at night… But I suppose things are just back to the way they were before the Battle of the Bands.”
Silence hung in the air after that, Twilight watching Sunset from her spot. The redhead seemed so distant, so lost in thought. She didn’t like it when she saw Sunset this way…
“What are you going to do once this is all over?” Twilight asked, scooting closer to Sunset.
“Huh?” Sunset broke from her thoughts, turning to look at Twilight.
“Are you going to be able to forgive the girls for leaving you like this? I know I’m not exactly happy with the way they’ve been acting myself…”
“What are you talking about Twi?” Sunset asked with a smirk. “I’ve already forgiven them.”
“You…” Twilight blinked at that. “You have?”
“Of course. I mean, yeah, it hurts like hell to have them accuse me of betraying them, but like… I also get it, you know?” Sunset lifted her hand and twirled it around. “I spent years destroying their friendships. Years of me stuffing Fluttershy in a locker, of making Pinkie think no one liked her parties, of calling AJ southern stereotypes to her face, of making Dash toxic to the people around her, of humiliating Rarity in front of the entire school. All of those memories are still fresh in their minds, as its only been like, two month since the Fall Formal. And everything Anon-a-Miss is doing is basically the same type of thing I did to them back when I ruled the school.” Sunset shook her head.
“So if I was in their shoes, seeing all of our embarrassing secrets being spread around to humiliate us, in the exact same way I had for years? I’d assume I’d have reverted to my old ways as well, unless there was some honest to goodness proof otherwise.” Sunset sighed leaning back against her couch. “It’s not an easy pill to swallow, but I get it. Trust once lost isn’t easily regained.”
“That’s… Surprisingly mature of you Sunset.” Twilight said, a little impressed.
“I wouldn’t call it that.” Sunset chuckled. “More like ‘realistically pragmatic.’ I just thought about it from their perspective and I pretty much would have reached the same conclusions. The only reason I wouldn’t is because I have the knowledge to know that I’m not actually Anon-a-Miss, something they don’t have outside of me just saying I’m not. Which is just, really flimsy evidence given our past. At the end of the day, we really haven’t been friends for all that long…”
Twilight was quiet at that, unsure of what to say in response to that. Other than the hum of the heater, the only sounds that could be heard was the winds outside. The two sat in silence for a little longer, before Twilight let out another sigh.
“I really should just try talking to the girls at least. I’m sure if given the chance, I could get them to see reason…”
“Well, we already talked about that earlier today, didn’t we?” Sunset sighed, sitting up on the couch and leaning over, lacing her fingers as she stared out at nothing in particular. “Besides, I’ve already announced to the whole school that I was Anon-a-Miss. At this point, trying to convince them is only going to make them think I’m somehow threatening you into cooperating with me. Not that I would even know where to begin to make that work.”
“Hey! That video you made almost worked!” Twilight countered.
“Hardly!” Sunset laughed. “You immediately talked to the girls about it and got them working together. A video that would’ve devastated a normal teenage girl had you using it as momentum to unite the entire school together in a single day. You underestimate how little blackmail works on you Twilight.”
“What if we filled them in on your plan?” Twilight tried again. “What if we told them this was all part of your ploy to catch the real Anon-a-Miss? I could show them the journal and everything! They’d have to believe that!”
“Even I can already feel a headache starting to form just from trying to explain that without any proof.” Sunset groaned, rubbing her temple. “No, the easiest thing to do right now is to just continue on the path I’ve chosen. You already know how everything ends if the plan works, it’s just a matter of actually catching Anon-a-Miss.”
“And if the plan doesn’t work?” Twilight asked seriously. “If you go through all of this, make yourself school enemy number one, and you never find out who Anon-a-Miss is? What then?”
“Then…” Sunset paused as she thought about it. “Then… I guess I just move back to Equestria.” She shook her head, looking at Twilight. “I mean, I’m not exactly ready to face Celestia again, but you’d be willing to offer me a place to stay in your castle, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course!” Twilight said, practically jumping at the offer. “I have like, a MILLION empty rooms with only Spike living with me! I could probably house half of CHS if I wanted to!”
“And I bet you would too.” Sunset laughed at that. She let out a sigh as she looked up at the ceiling. “I know I’ve said this before but… I’m glad you’re here Twilight. I can’t imagine dealing with all of this on my own. I probably could’ve, but… I’m glad that at least one person believes me.”
“You’re not the person you were when we first met Sunset.” Twilight smiled comfortingly, placing her hand on top of Sunset’s and gently squeezing it. “I admit, I wasn’t here for the years you were bullying the girls, but even I can see how much you’ve changed. The Battle of the Bands made that abundantly clear. The magic of friendship wouldn’t have worked if you didn’t believe in it yourself.”
“...Thanks Twi. I needed to hear that,” Sunset said with a smile, gently squeezing Twilight’s hand back.
The next morning of CHS came all too soon, and though Sunset dreaded heading back to school that day, she knew it was necessary. The previous night had been one that Sunset hadn’t realized how much she’d needed it until she was standing in front of CHS once again. Spending time with Twilight had given her the reassurance that what she was doing was the right thing, and that she was going to make everything better for everyone.
Plus, it had just been nice to spend time with a friend again. Something she hadn’t realized she had missed as much as she had until it was gone.
Sunset now stood in front of the school, just preparing herself for what was about to happen inside. She needed to prepare herself for another volley of angry glares, hurtful comments, playing it off as if she was the baddest girl in the whole school…
The thought of it all upset her stomach, but she knew it was necessary.
“Hey.” Twilight’s voice broke Sunset’s concentration, Sunset turning to look at her best friend. “I’m here if you need me.”
Twilight’s voice was so genuine, coupled with that soft smile of hers, it was nearly enough for Sunset to want to forget the entire stupid plan and just do whatever Twilight wanted to do next.
“I appreciate it Twilight, but we need to stick to the plan, alright?” Sunset forced a smile to her face, adjusting her scarf for emphasis. “We spend the day investigating and we smoke out Anon-a-Miss. That’s what we agreed on.”
“Yeah, I did agree to that… Though I still don’t like having to lie to the girls like this. It just feels… Wrong…” Twilight shook her head.
“Well… I guess just… Think of it this way,” Sunset said comfortingly, placing a hand on Twilight’s shoulder and offering her a smile, “once I walk inside, I’m going back to being the Sunset you knew when you first met me. It won’t really be a lie if you’re upset with seeing how much I’ve regressed.”
“...You were pretty awful back then.” Twilight winced a little, not wanting to offend Sunset with the comment.
“Exactly, I was,” Sunset said with a nod, “just pretend you’re here to try and stop that Sunset Shimmer from ruining the lives of the school again, and you’ll be alright.”
Twilight’s face showed that she wasn’t exactly happy with that plan, and it tore Sunset up a little inside to see her friend that way, but what other choice did they have? Sunset was in too deep to turn back now, and the sooner they could solve this, the sooner they could put this all behind them.
“Alright Twilight, game face on.” Sunset spoke up, not wanting to linger on the moment anymore than she had to. She turned away from her friend and gave her cheeks a quick slap, feeling the tingle in her flesh waking her up some. Her eyes drooped a little and a smug smirk fell onto her face. As she walked into CHS, she felt exactly the same way that she used to when she ran this school.
She immediately found her strut, her hips moving side to side like she owned the place, head held high, and her eyes scanning for weakness amongst her prey. Students in the hallway turned to look at her in surprise, going quiet as she walked by. They cowed away from her to their small social circles, or what was left of them, and most made way for her so she had no reason to stop and interact with them.
It was almost sad how easily the school had fallen back into the same song and dance routine that had plagued it for so long. Her years as Queen Bee really never had faded from the halls, had they?
“What are you looking at?” Sunset growled at a freshman. The young boy yelped before jumping into his locker, slamming it shut on himself.
She forced the smirk back onto her face as she kept walking. She wasn’t even sure why she’d done that, just that it fit with who she remembered herself being. She hated every moment of being the walking bully again, but what else was she to do?
Right now all she needed to do was wait for Twilight to make her move. The waiting was probably the hardest part, knowing full well what was about to happen. She simply tried to distract herself by making her way to her locker, and just keep herself distracted by ‘looking’ for something inside of it. She didn’t have anything she needed in there, it was just something to keep her mind occupied.
“GUYS!” A students voice cried out in the distance. “TWILIGHT’S BACK!”
And there it was.
Instantly the student body began to rush their way towards the entrance of the school, ready for their walking savior to save them from this mess that Sunset Shimmer had brought down upon their heads.
Sunset took a deep breath and let it out slowly, closing her locker as she stood there staring at it. She knew it was coming, she knew what she needed to do next, she knew exactly how this would all play out.
It didn’t make the next part any easier though.
“Sunset Shimmer.” Twilight’s voice spoke up from behind her, sounding none-too-happy. A stark contrast from the voice she’d talked all night with, the one who had been hopeful and optimistic that everything would work out.
That was exactly what Sunset had told her to do, and yet there was an awful wrenching in her gut that hated hearing Twilight of all people sound that way to her. It was one thing when it was the girls hating her, it was another entirely when it was Twilight.
Sunset turned to face the girl, noting that behind her stood her five former friends, and behind them was the rest of the gathered student body.
Gathered together to fight a common enemy, but still hiding behind Twilight.
How terribly noble.
“Well well, Twilight Sparkle! To what does this humble school owe to see your presence again?”
“You know very well why I’m here Sunset!” Twilight spoke up, doing her best to sound intimidating. To her credit, if it wasn’t for the slight crack in her voice, Sunset might’ve actually believed it.
But Twilight was playing her part just as Sunset had asked, so Sunset would play her role in turn.
“I have no idea what you’re on about, Princess! I’ve been a perfect little angel since you left!” Sunset said with a flick of her hair and an evil glint in her eye.
“Playing with everyone’s trust and secrets isn’t what friendship is about Sunset!” Twilight said, stomping her foot for emphasis. “What happened to the bond you girls had during the Battle of the Bands? The one that let you defeat the Dazzlings? Why give that all up for… For whatever this is!?”
Twilight sounded just as bewildered as she should, since what she was saying was rather ludicrous, and that should have been obvious to anyone watching the scene. Why would Sunset give up her friendships and bonds, the people she was starting to see as family, just to humiliate them in turn and isolate herself? What possible reason would she have to make the whole school hate her again?
She had none, because it had never been her doing it in the first place.
But here they were, stuck in this ridiculous situation anyway.
And so Sunset just stuck to her plan, playing off like this was her evil scheme all along.
“You really DON’T get how things work around here, do you?” Sunset chuckled, leaning forward mockingly. “You’d think after two trips to the human world, you’d at least have some understanding by now!”
Twilight’s eyes widened at that, almost as if she hadn’t been expecting Sunset to clap back like that. Sunset couldn’t help but wonder if she was laying it on a little thick? She didn’t want to insult Twilight, but if she didn’t make this sound good, people were going to think she’d lost her touch as a bully. And if they weren’t afraid of her, then everything would just devolve back into anarchy.
She couldn’t let that happen.
“Let me lay it out for you Twilight. Humans are simple, pathetic creatures that are run by their emotions. You dangle a piece of meat in front of them, then they start chomping at it like rabid dogs.” Sunset shook her head as she spoke.
“I ruled this school, and then you united everyone against me. You made a plea to their emotions and they answered you. Then, within just a few days, I appealed to their emotions in the opposite way, and they completely fell apart. So in the end, what did we gain from booting me out of the top spot? Absolutely nothing.” Sunset snickered as she tucked her hair behind her ear.
“So, I simply showed everyone who the real ruler of this school was, and one that won’t simply ‘abandon’ them when it seems convenient. They had all forgotten what they were, and so I simply reminded them. If no one had submitted a single secret to that website, none of this would be happening.”
There was an undeniable truth to what Sunset was saying, but even she didn’t believe the dribble coming out of her mouth. She just needed them to believe it.
“So what now Princess? You come at me with a big ‘friendship speech’ and we put this all behind us?”
“I’d certainly like that…” Twilight said, a little too genuinely. Sunset felt a pang in her heart, hating how miserable Twilight sounded. She hated putting her friend through this, and she needed to end it before either of them broke character.
“Well, I’m afraid that won’t be happening this time.” Sunset turned her head away, crossing her arms. “I haven’t updated the webpage in two days now, and as long as everyone is following my rules, it will stay that way.” She turned her back to the crowd as she finished speaking. “So stay as long as you like this time, it won’t make a difference. Perhaps then you’ll see why I am the way I am.”
And with that, Sunset walked away from the group, already starting to hear the whispering murmurs of the crowd about the altercation.
Sunset quickly turned a corner, making sure she was out of sight, before running down the hall for the bathroom. She slammed her way inside, before grabbing hold of a sink, running the tap, and splashing cold water onto her face.
She gripped the sides of the sink, breathing heavily as she forced herself to calm down.
That had been a lot harder than she had thought it would be. She was but moments away from breaking down while talking to Twilight that way, and the whole plan would’ve gone up in smoke.
It had been one thing to deceive her friends, they already thought she was a bad person so it wasn’t much more to twist the knife a little more into her own back.
It was another thing entirely to see Twilight like that, looking at her like she was evil, like she was betraying every lesson of friendship Twilight had tried to impart upon her. Even if it had simply been acting, it had been rough.
Sunset wiped at her eyes, taking another deep breath as she lifted her head, looking at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were a little more red than she would have liked, and she looked like she had just ran a marathon. The cracks in her mask were already starting to form and she had to put a stop to them before her mask crumbled into dust.
She wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep up this facade. When she had thought up this plan she was certain she could handle it, but being in the thick of it now, she wasn’t nearly as sure. She just wanted everything to be over with, to go hang out with her friends again and simply enjoy the holidays together like they’d originally planned to. Not fuss about with trying to keep the school from tearing itself apart, or solve the mystery of who was framing her for dumping everyone’s secrets.
She desperately, desperately needed a clue…
At that exact moment, her phone pinged with a notification, and her brain almost refused to process it.
She reached into her pocket and pulled it out, quickly unlocking the front screen and staring in disbelief at the updated Anon-a-Miss site.
Twilight Sparkle FAILS to stand up to Anon-a-Miss!
Attached to the post was a video of the argument in the hallway that had just happened. The angle of the video was clearly from behind Twilight, but Sunset couldn’t remember for the life of her who had been standing there. She could see limbs of two of her friends in the shot, meaning it had been part of the student body, but with the way the camera zoomed in on Sunset, there was little chance of determining who had taken the video.
One thing was clear though, whoever had taken the video was Anon-a-Miss themself. There hadn’t been any time to process and send the video to someone else, so it could have only been directly uploaded from the user’s phone.
“Ugh… Why didn’t I pay more attention to who was standing behind Twilight…” Sunset groaned, letting her forehead hit the mirror and just hold herself there, feeling like a complete idiot for missing that.
Obviously it hadn’t been one of the girls, as none of them had had their phones out at the time. Plus the likelihood of them calling out Twilight for her failure was just abysmally low.
There was just enough doubt in who took the video to let people think that Sunset had gotten one of her ‘minions’ to take the video, and that she had orchestrated the whole thing. This wasn’t about to convince anyone that she wasn’t Anon-a-Miss.
This was, however, a chance. It wasn’t much, but Anon-a-Miss had let their hand slip and show that they were still interested in the website, and still uploading to it. So she still had a chance to catch them in the act.
She vowed to the girls, and especially to Twilight, that she was going to catch Anon-a-Miss.