Life at Canterlot High School after holiday break went by as normally as it could, given that Anon-a-Miss was still at large and posting everyone's secrets and embarrassing stories. But now, it wasn't just the high school students that were being targeted; the students as Canterlot Junior High were having their secrets posted as well.
Now more than ever, the students were sure that Sunset Shimmer was behind the Anon-a-Miss account. After all, who else but the school's queen bee bully would humiliate junior high kids like that?
And if Sunset was Public Enemy Number One for being Anon-a-Miss, then Danielle Ratigan was Public Enemy Number Two for preventing Anon-a-Miss from getting what was coming to her.
Danielle made good on her promise to the group of students that had tried to gang up on Sunset before holiday break. She stood by Sunset, acting as her sole friend and somewhat bodyguard, preventing anyone from trying anything on the reformed bully. She arranged with Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna to have her class schedule shifted so it matched Sunset's, and she would walk the girl to and from school every day to make sure no one tried anything off campus.
If any student tried something, they were met with swift punishment from the tall girl. Soon after school reconvened, when the students were playing volleyball in gym class, Bulk Biceps "accidentally" served the ball so it would make a direct hit with Sunset's face. Fortunately for her, Danielle noticed that and spiked the ball before it could hit its target, making it hit the opposite side of the net so hard it bounced back and hit Bulk in a very sensitive area. While the other students laughed at the sight of the buff boy lying on the floor in a whimpering fetal position, they were less than thrilled that Danielle had kept Sunset from getting hit.
The volleyball incident was the last time any student tried a physical assault on Sunset. Or really, any kind of assault. Now, the worst either girl got were looks of disgust and anger as they walked down the hallway together, but they were met with equally venomous lapis glares from Danielle.
Yes, Canterlot High School went back to as close to normal as it could, given the circumstances.
"There we go, nice and shiny."
Danielle had invited Sunset over to her home for a sleepover one weekend in mid January. At the moment, the raven-haired lass was giving the redhead a manicure and had opted to go with glittering gold nail polish.
Sunset beamed as she observed her newly painted nails. "Nice. Good choice of color, too. I bet Rarity would approve." Suddenly, her smile turned to a sad frown as she sighed.
"Hey now, don't let those idiots get you down," Danielle tried to cheer her up. "They chose to not believe you, after all you've done together. That's their problem, not yours."
"It's not that," Sunset assured her. "I just feel really bad for you. You're the only student at Canterlot High who's stood with me through this Anon-a-Miss crap, and you're being punished for it. Everyone hates you now almost as much as they hate me. You had to quit your extracurricular activities to act as my bodyguard. If Gilda and her thugs weren't convinced that you'd wallop them, they'd probably try to beat you into a pulp!" The orange girl closed her eyes, tears welling up in them. "I'm the first to admit that I'm no angel, I did horrible things in the past, and this is probably the universe's way of punishing me for them, but you've never done anything to warrant being so mistreated other than being a good friend!" She started to cry.
Danielle wrapped her arms around her friend. "It's OK, Sunny, it's OK. I wouldn't change a thing I've done for you, and you know why?" Sunset shook her head. "Because I know you're a good girl. The other students may be convinced that you're Anon-a-Miss, but when you were telling your "friends" that you were innocent, I could tell you were telling the truth. My father always called me a living polygraph. I can always tell whenever someone's telling the truth or not."
"You can?" Sunset smiled a little. "That's pretty cool." Just then, her teal eyes widened as a thought came to her. "Hey, Dani, can you help me with a project? I think I might know who Anon-a-Miss really is."
The next day, on the campus of Canterlot Junior High, three eighth-grade students were on their way from the cafeteria to their next classes. These were Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, often referred to as the Crusaders. Bloom was the younger sister of Applejack, Sweetie was the younger sister of Rarity, and Scootaloo was the fangirl of Rainbow Dash.
Suffice it to say, they were close to Sunset's former group of friends.
Just then, the three young girls were stopped in the hallway by a tall high school girl with magenta skin. "Excuse me, girls, but I'm going to need a word with you."
"Uh, OK," Bloom spoke up, a bit intimidated by the older girl. "What can we do fer ya?"
The girl looked to her left, where a familiar orange girl with red and yellow hair was standing. "I believe you girls know my good friend Sunset Shimmer here?"
"Y-Yeah, we do," Sweetie agreed. "Hi, Sunset."
Sunset gave the three younger girls a wuthering gaze. "I'm sure you girls are aware of the whole Anon-a-Miss scandal that's been tearing through the school as of late, yes?"
"Who ISN'T aware of that?" Scootaloo asked. "I haven't seen the school in this much chaos since the Dazzlings were here!"
"And you're also aware that this all started because of some little secrets that were brought up during the sleepovers at Pinkie Pie's and Rarity's houses?" Sunset continued.
"Yeah, we know," Sweetie admitted. "I was at the house when you were over."
"And I called AJ durin' Pinkie's party," Bloom confirmed.
"So, how is it that Anon-a-Miss knew about both Applejack's embarrassing nickname AND Rarity's closet of shame?" Sunset asked. "As far as I know, the only people who knew about "Piggly Wiggly" before that scandal were me, AJ, the other girls and AJ's family."
Scootaloo realized where the older girl was going with this. "Hey, you don't think WE have anything to do with Anon-a-Miss, do ya?"
"As a matter of fact, you three are on the top of the suspects list," Sunset responded. The Crusaders looked like they had been stricken with triple heart attacks. "Fact: Apple Bloom, being Applejack's sister, would more than likely know about "Piggly Wiggly." Fact: Sweetie Belle was at Rarity's house when Rarity was showing her closet of shame. Fact: neither of you girls seemed very happy that you were being shut out of the festivities. Fact: if two of you were in on something like this, there's a good chance that Scootaloo, being the third Crusader, would get sucked into it too." Sunset arched an eyebrow at the younger girls. "Am I correct so far?"
Just then, the three younger girls collapsed onto their knees, shaking and near tears. "Please, stop, I beg of you," Scootaloo whimpered.
"We swear, we have nothing to do with Anon-a-Miss!" Sweetie cried.
"I...you what?" Sunset asked, clearly taken aback.
"It's true, Sweetie an' I were both steamed that our sisters were spendin' more time with ya than with us," Bloom admitted. "But I promise ya, we ain't behind the Anon-a-Miss thing!"
Sunset was still skeptical of this. "Dani, you're the living polygraph. What do you make of this?"
Danielle knelt down before the three young ones, huddled together in a hug. She looked hard into each girl's eyes. "You swear you three aren't behind Anon-a-Miss? You solemnly swear?"
"Yes, we solemnly swear," Sweetie replied.
"As solemnly as possible," Bloom added.
"We would never go that low!" Scootaloo assured her.
Danielle nodded. "Yep, they're telling the truth. They're not the ones behind Anon-a-Miss."
Sunset felt a bit relieved that the younger sisters of her once best friends weren't the petty little witches she had feared they'd be. Then, the relief was replaced by sickness when she saw how terrified the Crusaders looked. "Oh sweet sundrops; I'm sorry, girls, for the scare tactics. I guess the inner bully came out for a bit."
"Can't say that we blame ya for thinkin' it might be us," Bloom sighed as Danielle helped her onto her feet, then helped the other two up. "If I was in your shoes, I'd probably think it was us too."
"Yeah, the whole thing IS pretty convincing against us," Sweetie agreed. "What with Bloom knowing about AJ's nickname, and me being at the house when you found out about Rarity's fashion mishaps."
"And me being the only one of the three of us having a MyStable account," Scootaloo added. "But like we said, we're not Anon-a-Miss...but we know who is."