//------------------------------//
// Anon-a-Miss Unmasked 
// Story: I'll Stand By You (Anon-a-Miss AU Story) 
// by BelleofdaBall 
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Babs Seed walked through the halls of Canterlot Junior High, keeping quietly to herself. The girl held her head down, not wanting to make eye contact with any of the other students. 

Unfortunately, by keeping her head down, she didn't notice she was walking right into Diamond Tiara. The rich girl sneered as the Manehattanite bumped into her. "Watch where you're going, loser! You almost made me spill my chai latte!"

"Sorry..." Babs whimpered.

"You SHOULD be sorry," Silver Spoon, Diamond's best friend and number two, smirked. "Wandering around with those hand-me-down clothes and shoddy haircut. You're besmirching us just by standing next to us! Now scram, we don't want any of your fugly rubbing onto us." The two rich girls giggled as Babs walked away shamefully, then did their secret handshake. "Bump, bump, sugar lump, rump!"

Babs blew a strand of magenta hair out of her face as her sad gait turned into an angry stomp. Once she was out of sight of the two bullies, she pulled out her phone and signed onto her MyStable account. "Let's see what we've got on Diamond Twerp and Slutty Spoon..."

"Hello, Babs."

Babs yelped and nearly dropped her phone at the sudden greeting. She turned to see Sunset Shimmer, the former bully of Canterlot High and the alleged guilty party of Anon-a-Miss, and Danielle Ratigan, her new bodyguard, standing there. "Uh...hey, hey, Sunset, Danielle."

Danielle frowned. "Or should I say, Anon-a-Miss?"

Babs glowered. "What're you talking about? Everyone KNOWS Sunset is Anon-a-Miss!"

Sunset shook her head. "No, what they KNOW is that I was at the two sleepovers where the first two secrets were unfolded. Everyone then jumped to the conclusion that I was Anon-a-Miss. But I KNOW that you're Anon-a-Miss for three big reasons." She held up a finger. "One: as Applejack and Apple Bloom's cousin, you would know about Piggly Wiggly." She held up a second finger. "Two: you were at Rarity and Sweetie Belle's house having your own mini-sleepover when Rarity showed us her closet of shame." She then held up a third finger. "And three: Bloom, Sweetie and Scootaloo TOLD us you were Anon-a-Miss."

As Sunset mentioned their names, the three Crusaders came out from behind the two older girls. Babs growled. "You little traitors! I oughta..."

"Stuff it, Babs, we ain't afraid of you no more," Bloom replied.

"Yeah, we're done keeping your secret," Scootaloo agreed. She turned to the older girls. "We're really sorry this got so out-of-hand, Sunset."

"Yeah, we never meant for it to go this far," Sweetie added.

"It's gonna go THIS far," Babs snarled. The girl charged at Sweetie, looking ready to clobber her. Thankfully, Danielle grabbed the much smaller girl and wrapped her in a bear hug, her back pressed against her chest. "I think someone just earned herself a visit to Principal Celestia."



The six Rainbooms were asleep in Rarity's room. It had been a long evening of partying, fun and laughter, but they were all bushed. They knew that tomorrow would be quite fun as well.

As the high schoolers slept, the door to Rarity's room openly quietly. A small figure crept in, snuck over to Sunset Shimmer, carefully picked up her phone and searched through the photos Sunset had taken. A wicked smile was illuminated by the phone's screen as the culprit used her own phone to hack into Sunset's, make copies of the most embarrassing pictures, then carefully set Sunset's phone back where it was and snuck out of the room, silently shutting the door behind her.

"Babs?"

The culprit jumped slightly when she saw Sweetie Belle standing by her. "Uh, hey, Sweetie."

"What were you doing in my sister's bedroom?"

"I was, uh, looking for the bathroom?" Babs lied.

"If you were gonna use the bathroom, then why do you have your phone out?" Sweetie noted. She then saw what was on the screen. "Hey, that's Rarity's closet of shame! Why do you have a picture of it on your phone?" 

Babs slapped a hand over Sweetie's mouth, trying to keep her from waking anyone in the high schooler's room. "Shut up!" She dragged Sweetie back into her room, where Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were half-asleep in their own mini-sleepover. 

Sweetie gasped when she realized what was going on. "YOU'RE Anon-a-Miss, aren't you?"

"So what if I am?" Babs asked, crossing her arms over her chest. 

"I can't BELIEVE this! I invited a cyberbully over to sleep over! This is awful!" Sweetie started for the door. "I'm telling Rarity!"

Babs grabbed Sweetie by the arm. "No you're not!"

"And why not?" Sweetie demanded.

"For two reasons. One: if you don't tell anyone that I'm Anon-a-Miss, who do you think WILL be blamed for it? The former bully who was at BOTH sleepovers! If the girls think Sunset is Anon-a-Miss, they'll stop hanging out with her, and Rarity will start hanging out with you again, just like you wanted."

Sweetie paused, thinking that over. She DID want Rarity to spend time again with her, just like she had before she became friends with Sunset. But that thought was quickly shoved aside by the girl's moral conscience. "This isn't right! I'm not gonna let Sunset take the fall just to hang out with Rarity again!"

"What in tarnation are you two jabbin' about?" Bloom asked, groggily sitting up in her sleeping bag. Scootaloo soon followed suit.

"Babs is Anon-a-Miss!" Sweetie told her friends.

"WHAT?!" both Bloom and Scootaloo yelped, fully awake now. 

"YOU'RE Anon-a-Miss?!" Bloom asked her cousin incredulously.

"This is crazy!" Scootaloo cried out. "We need to tell the older girls!"

"I was just about to," Sweetie confirmed. "You two coming with me?"

"You bet," Bloom agreed. She and Scootaloo joined Sweetie to go tell their sisters about Babs, when Babs blocked their way out. 

"You didn't let me tell you the SECOND reason you ain't gonna tell nobody that I'm Anon-a-Miss," the Manehattanite spoke up. "The reason being, if you breathe a word of this to ANYONE, I'll wail on you so hard that your GRANDCHILDREN will feel it. Got it?" She clenched her fists at the three girls. "Got it?"

The Crusaders looked uneasily to each other, then nodded. "Got it."



"And that's the whole story."

Sunset, Danielle, Babs, the Crusaders and the five Rainbooms, who had been called over by their sisters, were in Principal Celestia's office. Celestia was seated at her desk, and Superintendent Discord, the head of Canterlot City public schools, was next to her, having been called in when the Crusaders told her they knew who Anon-a-Miss was.

The Crusaders had just finished telling about how Babs had threatened them to keep her secret quiet. Fluttershy and Rarity were in tears, Pinkie Pie looked down at her feet guiltily, and Applejack and Rainbow Dash were casting angry glares at Babs, who looked defiant. 

Celestia sighed. "Well, I must say, I AM disappointed in you three girls for not coming to me about this whole ordeal before it exploded the way it has." She looked at Babs crossly. "Though not NEARLY as disappointed as I am in YOU, Barbara. I don't know what's worse, to be honest; that you would create the Anon-a-Miss account in the first place, or that you'd let poor Sunset take the fall for it." 

"I can't believe one of my own kin would do something this heinous!" Applejack blurted. "I have never, NEVER been ashamed to be related to someone before, but I REALLY can't look at ya right now, Babs." Babs looked like she didn't give a flip. Applejack then turned to Apple Bloom, her tone and face softened considerably. "Bloom, when Piggly Wiggly first surfaced online, you told me it was probably Sunset. Why would you say that?"

"Because at that point, I honestly DID think it was her," Bloom responded. "If I had known Babs was really behind it...I'm so sorry, Sunset." Sunset nodded sadly at the girl. 

Celestia drew in a breath. "I'm afraid these actions warrant some punishments. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, I want each of you girls to write me a three-page essay on why you should always go to an authority figure when you find out something this serious. You will each also be given two weeks' worth of detentions, and you are barred from all extracurricular activities for the rest of the school year. Does that sound fair to you?"

"Yes, ma'am," Bloom agreed.

"Totally," Scootaloo added.

"We deserve it," Sweetie piped up.

Babs smirked at the Crusaders. "That's what you get for bein' tattle tales."

"Oh, if you liked THEIR punishment, you're going to LOVE yours," Discord announced. "As of this moment, Barbara Jean Seed, you are expelled from all Canterlot City public schools."

"WHAT?!" Babs nearly fell out of her chair. "But that ain't fair!"

"Oh isn't it?" Celestia asked. "Not only did you start a cyberbullying account online, but you got another student falsely accused, causing her to be bullied mentally, emotionally and almost physically at least twice." 

"But before you clean out your locker, you are going to be the center of the assembly I'm going to call this afternoon, where you will confess to being Anon-a-Miss, making a public apology to both Sunset and the school, and publicly deleting both the Anon-a-Miss account AND your personal account." Discord got closer to Babs's face as he finished, "And if you fail to comply, I WILL be calling the Canterlot City Police Department to have some words with you." 

"And you can bet your sweet bippy that I'll be havin' words with your folks about this," Applejack added. "I'm sure they'll have a few additional punishments for ya. Not only that, but you ain't allowed back on Sweet Apple Acres EVER again; not for family reunions, not for holidays, not for ANYTHING. Because as far as I'm concerned, you and I ain't family." 

Babs glared silently at her older cousin, but you could tell she had tears welling up in her eyes. "You can't ban me from Sweet Apple Acres! You ain't in charge of it, Granny Smith is!"

"You're right, she IS; an' once I explain to her what you did, I'm sure she'll agree with me to ban you."

Babs pointed an accusing finger at the Crusaders. "Oh yeah? And what about Apple Butt, Shitty Belle and Scumaloo here? Aren't you gonna punish THEM for keepin' the secret this whole time?"

Applejack frowned and knelt down next to her younger sister. "Apple Bloom, your punishment for this whole thing is to make me this promise: promise me that the next time someone threatens you to keep a secret, you'll come to me, or Big Macintosh, or Granny Smith, or some other older person to tell us about it."

"Same goes for you, Sweetie Belle," Rarity spoke up. "You will tell me or Mother and Father about if anyone is threatening you."

"You too, squirt," Rainbow told Scootaloo.

"You girls promise to never, never, NEVER keep something like this a secret again?" Applejack asked.

"We promise," all three Crusaders replied at once. 

"YOU GOTTA BE SHITTING ME!" Babs exploded. "I GET ALL THIS CRAP HEAPED ON ME, AND THEY GET OFF WITH A SLAP ON THE WRIST! HOW THE HOLY FUCK IS THAT FAIR?!"

"If you REALLY can't see why that is fair, then I've failed you as a principal," Celestia sighed. "Now go get ready for the assembly, Barbara. Danielle, go with her to make sure she doesn't try to escape."

"Yes, ma'am," Danielle agreed. She turned angrily to Babs. "Let's go, Anon-a-Miss." Babs got up from her seat and stormed over to the door, flipping off the Crusaders and older girls before she left. 

Once Babs and Danielle were gone, the Rainbooms looked over at Sunset. "Sunset, we are so sorry that we didn't listen to you," Applejack apologized.

"We should have given you the benefit of the doubt," Fluttershy wept. "After all you've done for us, that would've been the least we could've done."

"Instead we acted like savages," Rarity sighed. "We were cruel to you."

"We're gonna make it up to you," Pinkie promised. "I'm gonna throw you the biggest "I'm sorry" party I can."

"Can you ever forgive us?" Rainbow asked.

Sunset looked sadly at her former friends. "Before I answer that question, let me ask you one of my own; are you TRULY sorry, or are you just saying that because I'm innocent?"

The Rainbooms looked shocked at the question. "Whatever do you mean, darling?" Rarity asked.

"Let's say I WAS Anon-a-Miss for real," Sunset hypothesized. "Would you still be apologizing right now for the way I was treated?"

"Sugar cube, that don't matter, because you ain't..." Applejack began, but she was cut off.

"Would. You. Still. Be. Apologizing?" Sunset repeated. The guilty and sad looks on the other girls' faces told her what she wanted to know. "I didn't think so. You told me that I was your friend, that I was your FAMILY, for pity's sake. Well, last time I checked, neither friends nor family would jump to conclusions about something as serious as cyberbullying before they got hard evidence." She shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, girls. I want to forgive you, truly I do, and I hope that one day I CAN, but for right now, I'm afraid I don't want anything to do with any of you anymore." 

Sunset headed for the door, but stopped, chuckling sadly. "You know, in a way, I guess I should thank Babs for starting this whole Anon-a-Miss thing. Because thanks to that, I learned who my TRUE friends are. I have two; one in Equestria, and one here at school. In Equestria, I have Princess Twilight Sparkle, who has listened to my story this whole time through my journal, and who offered her condolences and wanting to come over and talk. And here at school, I have Danielle Ratigan, who didn't judge me based on what I did in the past, who stayed by my side and protected me from getting my flank handed to me by Gilda and her cronies, who gave up her time and her reputation to be with me. And really, those two are all the friends I really need." 

With that, Sunset Shimmer opened the door and walked away from her former friends to find her true friend.



Dear Princess Twilight,

I'm pleased to report that things have gotten a lot better since the last time I wrote to you. I'm still not friends with Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash, but this time it's because of my own choices. Because through this whole ordeal, I've learned an important lesson. 

A TRUE friend is someone who doesn't judge you based on what you did in the past. A TRUE friend is able to look past those things and see you for who you are at the present. A TRUE friend is someone who, if you're standing at the gates of Tartarus, is next to you with fireproof boots and s'mores makings at the ready. 

I realize now that I have two TRUE friends; you and Dani. Next time you come over, I hope we three can get together, I know you'll like her. And really, I'd much rather have only two true friends, than a thousand false ones.

Yours truly,
Sunset Shimmer