//------------------------------//
// The truth will set you free 
// Story: Anon a Mystery Case Closed 
// by ALoneWolf 
//------------------------------//

Friday night, the semi last day of the week for school and the start of winter break. Student's and staff officially have the rest of December off to spend time with their friends and family for Christmas ,Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and other festive holidays. However one girl wasn't in the holiday spirit this year as she had her mind on one thing this year...............Anon a Miss.

Ever since she heard that word from the Camp Everfree trip It's been stuck in her head ever since and she's been wondering who this Anon a Miss was. Was she a person, a creature from Equestria that stepped foot in the human world, a legend from school? One thing's for sure she was gonna get her answer's one way or another.

After walking out of the cab and paying the Uber driver she soon found herself near the entrance of the now closed doors of Canterlot High School.

This was Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset stared at the closed door's of the school and surveyed her surroundings. She looked back to the statue in the center of the entrance that brought her to this world three years ago and back to the school. Suddenly her head started hurting and various visions soon clouded her mind.

One showed a girl being mocked, beaten down in the hallway, and having various object's thrown at her. But one of the image's really confused her, there stood her five friends with look's of anger and disappointment. Who was it that they were angry at and why were they not protecting this person? These questions continued to play over and over in her head, she didn't know anyone else in the school who would have pissed off her friends that badly except maybe Trixie or Rarity's ex boyfriend Blueblood.

"Could it be Anon a Miss?" She asked herself. 

Sunset took a seat on one of the outside bleachers and continued to recollect her thought's. This wasn't the first time these visions popped in her head, it's been happening ever since she came back from Camp Everfree but she simply brushed it off thinking it was just a magic migraine. However suspicions soon came to mind as she remembered a page from her journal that was torn out by a wild animal when they found it at Camp Everfree month's ago and the mysterious charred letter's she found in her apartment.

She stared into the night sky as her thought's continued to question the true identity of this Anon a Miss. 

"Who is she?" She thought to herself as her eye's started to go heavy and drowzy.

After a few seconds Sunset found herself resting comfortably on the bleachers and soon went into a deep sleep.

few hours later

Sunset soon awoke to the warm morning sun shining in her eye. After a long stretch and yawn she surveyed her surroundings and realized that she must have dozed off for a few hours, which was bound to happen eventually especially since she snuck out of the girl's slumber party at 11 pm.

"Crap the girl's must be worried sick!" She thought to herself." I better get back, I still need to get answers from them"

However as she was about to walk back to Rarity's place a familiar purple minivan pulled up into the schools driveway and five worried girls immediately walked out.

"Sunset!" One of them cried out.

And immediately sunset found herself brought into a warm embrace by non other than Pinkie Pie, and soon the other girl's followed suit.

"Where in tarnation have ya been girl!?" Applejack questioned.

"We were worried sick!" Fluttershy shouted ( which was a rare thing for her)

"Darling why would you sneak off in the middle of the night like that especially in this weather?!" Rarity said.

"If you needed to go somewhere real quick you should have told us first silly" Pinkie said in her usual tone.

"Why are you in school anyway it's closed remember?" Rainbow dash asked.

However Sunset remained silent throughout the group hug.

"Sunset whats the matter?" Fluttershy asked.

"Are you ok darling?"Rarity said.

"Whatever's wrong Sugarcube just tell us we'll he............."

But before Applejack could finish her statement Sunset quickly backed away from the group hug panting silently with her expression hidden in her bang's. After what seemed like an eternity one of the girl's finally found the courage to continue.

"Sunset what's wrong? Fluttershy questioned. " Please tell us"

"Who............is.................Anon a Miss?" Sunset said in a demanding tone surprising the five girls.

"That word has been stuck in my head ever since camp, I have hidden it for far too long and i am NOT running away from it anymore" She continued." Tell me right now who this Anon a Miss person is and why I keep having these visions of a girl getting bullied physically and verbally, If you guy's lie to me I'm leaving and I'm NEVER coming back"

As she finished her statement the girl's looked at each other with look's of fear and sadness. Deep down they knew this day would come but they weren't expecting it to happen on the one year anniversary of the infamous incident. They stared into Sunset's angry glare which was now visible, a part of them didn't want to say anything as they knew they would go right back to where they were before the memory incident at camp. However Twilight's word's of encouragement from their meeting nine months ago soon began to play in their heads " I want you girls to promise me, the next time you do something to damage your friendship. I want you to solve it the right way by giving a sincere apology or wait for forgiveness don't go using magic to solve all your problems, and if Sunset ever gets her memory back one day I wont help you this time, you have to solve it yourselves GOT IT?" They knew Twilight was right this was their doing and they had to make it right even if it meant losing Sunset forever. After a few minute's Applejack took a deep breath and spoke.

"It was our sister's" She said.

"What?" Sunset replied.

"Our sisters were jealous that we were spending so much time with you and not them that they created an online gossip blog on Mystable known as Anon a miss" Applejack continued.

"The whole school's secret's were spread including the faculty and staff" Rarity said.

"Rumor's started spreading in the hallways, fight's, bullying, breakups, but worst of all suicide attempt's" Pinkie pie said as her puffy hair started to deflate.

"What's worse everyone blamed one person for the whole incident" Fluttershy said.

"Let me quess that girl in my vision was me" Sunset said in a sad tone.

"Yes" Fluttershy answered as Sunset's eyes began to tear up.

"Our sisters designed the profile page to resemble your hair color and immediately everyone pitted you as the prime suspect, us included" Rainbow dash said in a sad tone. " When we saw our secret's posted we immediately blamed you for the incident thinking you were only pretending to be our friend just to know our deepest darkest secret's and ruin our lives, and like the fool's we were we believed it"

"The whole week you were bullied constantly and we just stood there and watched thinking that you deserved it" Rarity said.

"It wasn't until our sisters finally confessed that things partially started to go back to normal" Applejack replied." However you were so furious at everyone that you refused to talk to or approach anyone for four month's, and whenever we or anyone else in the school tried to apologize to you, you got furious and even attacked us and  distanced yourself further from everyone. It wasn't until the trip to Camp Everfree that we made this whole thing go away, after we defeated the corrupted Glorisia you found a weird looking magical stone on the ground that flashed a bright light in your face. When you came to, the entire memory of Anon a Miss  was erased from your memory and we played along with it like a bunch of coward's just to put the entire incident behind us and we even went as far as to toss the stone deep into the lake. After that we played along for the rest of the year pretending Anon a Miss never happened"

As Applejack finished explaining Sunset couldn't hold her tear's in anymore and collapsed on one of the outside bleachers and let out a loud sob. She continued crying not saying a word as the five girls looked at her with sadness and shame. After what felt like an eternity they finally spoke.

"I know we can never make up for this Sugarcube and honestly we deserve any verbal outburst you have planned for us" Applejack said.

"We were complete assholes, We should have known better I should have known better than to accuse you like that no matter how much of a bitch you were back then" Rainbow dash said.

" I should have comforted you, but I guess a part of me was still furious at you after three years of bullying me that I secretly wanted you to get your just dessert's but boy was I wrong" Fluttershy said as her own tears started to form."In the end I ended up being the bully, not you"

"I'm a disgusting bitch! I don't deserve a friend as wonderful as you" Rarity said as her own tears started to form." If you ended up in the hospital or committed suicide from this whole incident I would never forgive myself, I let my emotion's and anger get the better of me and I almost lost one of my best friend's because of my selfishness"

"No amount of parties I would throw right now will make this all go away, I'm terrible and I don't blame you for hating my guts" Pinkie replied sobbing quietly.

"If you don't wanna forgive us or even see us again we understand Sugarcube, what we did was downright horrible my Ma and Pa would be so disappointed at me if they were alive to see this" Applejack said as tear's started to form.

"I'll never forgive myself for hurting you" Fluttershy sobbed.

"If this is goodbye to our friendship, there's only one thing to say and it might not mean much but we wanna say it anyway" Rainbow Dash replied not even bothering to hold back her own tears.

"We're so sorrySunset Shimmer" The five girl's said together.

After the girl's finished their statement Sunset stopped sobbing and slowly wiped away her tears not bothering to look up at them. She thought for a moment at what she was just told, all this happiness these past nine month's ended up being a huge lie and a cover up all because half of her memory was wiped for selfish reasons. However there was a part of her that felt strange and was making her insides hurt. Was it anger, sadness, guilt, or disappointment? After what felt like another eternity she finally mustered up the courage to look the girl's straight in the eye and speak again.

"I forgive you" She said quietly shocking the five girl's.

"What?" Rainbow dash said in a surprising tone.

"I said I forgive you guy's" Sunset answered.

The five girl's stayed quiet trying to process what they've just heard. Sunset just said she's forgiven them FORGIVEN THEM, she wasn't angry, she wasn't shouting, and she wasn't crying or anything she was calm too calm. after what felt like hours Rainbow finally broke the ice.

"ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS???????!!!!!!!!!" Rainbow dash shouted.

"RAINBOW!" Fluttershy shouted back.

"Why would you say that!?" Rainbow questioned." We ruined your life Shimmer! We abandoned you, accused you of spreading our secret's, and worst of all we allowed that magic stone to wipe your memory just to put that incident behind us like a bunch of coward's! You should be yelling at us, telling us what horrible people we are, saying that you never want to see us again but you forgive us..........WHY?????!!!!!!!! "

"Because I cant blame you for all this" Sunset said calmly trying to keep from shouting.

"What?"Dash said calming down from her outburst.

"I wasn't exactly the nicest girl myself three years ago, and after everything I've done to you guy's and everyone at school it's pretty obvious no one's completely forgiven me especially  after the three years of hell I've put all of you guy's through, hell I almost destroyed the school and turned everyone into demon's" Sunset replied.

"I gotta ask ya" Sunset continued."Aside from you guy's does anyone else know half my memories got erased from camp?"

"No" Applejack said."Just our sisters, Flash, and Twilight"

"Wait Twilight knows?" Sunset replied.

"Kinda" Applejack said." When Twilight noticed that you haven't written to her for four month's she got worried and rushed over her demanding answers from us, after we told her what happened at camp she was furious at first but she realized how sorry we were and decided to let us off with a warning after she told us what her friends and family did to her a year ago and realized how we felt whenever we tried apologizing to you"

"I see" Sunset replied slightly chuckling." Twilight was always the forgiving type"

"Wait Sunset, you actually known Twilight for a long time?" Fluttershy asked.

"Oh Guess Twilight didn't fill you guy's in on the whole backstory of me" Sunset answered." Well you see me and Twilight actually go way back......................................................................

11 years ago

Me and Twilight were the best of friends when we were fillies. We always practiced all kind's of magic together, read our favorite literatures, had sleepover's, and even used our magic to get revenge on a few bullies hehe we were practically sister's. Both of us shared the same dream....... to be student's and study under the guidance of Princess Celestia herself. One day our wish came true. During our final year of middle school Twilight decided to wow our entire class by doing the impossible for her final project ...........hatching a dragon egg. At first she struggled as it was practically impossible for a pony or any other creature to hatch a dragon egg, but after what felt like hour's she successfully hatched the egg and her assistant/adopted brother Spike was born. But that's not the end of it Twilight ended up getting her cutiemark after hatching Spike and we even got a surprise visit from Princess Celestia herself who witnessed the whole thing and was impressed that a mare her age was able to pull off the impossible. that's when she offered Twilight a position as her student . Twilight was overjoyed and accepted under one condition that I studied with her as well, and Celestia was quick to accept both of us as her student's. In our highschool year's we officially began studying under the guidance of Celestia three days a week after school. It was amazing she taught us all kind's of magic they didn't show us in school and we even got to have sleepover's in the castle which was so much fun. However all that soon changed, I began to notice that Twilight got the most attention from Celestia and I even overheard her once say that Twilight had a lot of potential. I began to get jealous and tried everything to impress and show Celestia that I was just as good as Twilight but she took no notice of it. I was furious my magic was the same level as Twilight's but yet she's the only one who show's potential? I spent the last four year's trying to impress her but to no avail Twilight was the star pupil and I was just the sidekick, after that I started distancing myself from Twilight and we barely even talked to each other anymore not even when we had our sleepover's at the castle. But one day  when Twilight and Spike moved to Ponyville to continue her studies of friendship and magic, I figured I would finally be able to prove to Celestia that I could be her star pupil as well. When I officially graduated from highschool Celestia offered me to move in with her to continue our studying together and I was overjoyed knowing that this would finally be my shining moment, but boy was I wrong. I was only taught second degree magic which was practically the same as what me and twilight were taught in highschool. Whenever I requested to be taught high level magic she always said that I wasn't ready despite being the same level as Twilight. I was furious but I just hid it away and continued my studies knowing that I would eventually impress her, and one day I found my chance. In the summer time there was to be a parade and a festival to celebrate Celestia's niece Cadance for her royal coronation, Celestia instructed me to use sparkler magic for our float which I found boring and less exciting so I decided to up the ante a little bit.  I decided to "borrow" a spell from the magic archives to wow the crowd and Celestia. Once the parade started that was my chance, I soon began the spell and a large fire bird shaped flame rose into the air, the audience was amazed at the beautiful display of fire magic and I felt really proud of myself, but it all came crashing down. I ended up  losing control of the spell and large amounts of fire soon began to rain down and spread everywhere from the other float's, the buildings, and worst of all the audience. As the smoke cleared all the float's were destroyed along with some of the shop's and buildings in the city, and ten ponies were brought into the hospital with third degree burn's. When Celestia asked to speak with me in her chambers she was absolutely furious, she scolded me from not only disobeying her and stealing a spell from the magic archives,but damaging city property, and almost getting half of the audience members and parade worker's killed. I have never seen her so mad before it was scarier than a horror movie, she even went as far as to call me a reckless pyromaniac, after that she didn't speak to me for a whole week and I was sentenced to clean up the damage from the fire. One night when I went into her chambers to apologize I overheard her talking to my parents whom she invited over for a private conference, she told them about my reckless behavior,  how I almost killed everyone in town, and that I wasn't taking her studies seriously thinking that I deserved better. But what set me off was when she told my parent's that starting tomorrow I would no longer be her student and my parent's even agreed with her. I was beyond furious not even bothering to hold back my tear's, I barged in and screamed "MESSAGE RECEIVED!!!!!" and ran out of the chambers in a flash ignoring Celestia and my parent's pleas to come back, "I tried so hard to impress her and this is how she treat's me?" I thought to myself. after running through the castle I found myself inside an old room, I collapsed on the ground and cried my eye's out for what seemed like hours. I was so upset with the fact that I've failed Celestia and now I would never be able to prove myself. My sadness soon turned to pure fury and I soon swore vengeance on everyone who betrayed me. I soon began jotting down way's to exact my revenge and I soon found it. I noticed a weird looking mirror on the far end of the room I was in and I soon recognized it from one of Celestia's lectures, it was the magic mirror which was said to teleport any creature to a different dimension. I figured that if I wasn't welcome here in the castle then I sure as hell would be better off in another dimension, so I began feeding some of my magic into the mirror which was only enough for one trip as it would an Alicorn's level to be able to travel to multiple dimensions. Once the mirror was full of magic the portal opened, I stepped inside but not before looking back and saying "I'll see you very soon Celestia" and I jumped right into the portal. Once inside I was mesmerized by the dimensional rift's that surrounded me as I flew through the portal, my body began to feel weird as if I was beginning to transform into something, suddenly a bright flash of light shown into my face and then my vision faded to black. When I awoken I found myself on a lush grassy field outside of a large building which read " Canterlot High School" which looked an awful lot like the Canterlot high back in my universe, when I tried to stand up I struggled which I found rather odd but that's not the weirdest part. When I looked down I jumped and noticed that my front hooves have formed weird appendages aka fingers and that I was now standing straight literally. That's when I came to realize that I have transformed into a creature known as a human, and that's not all I ended up aging down to a teenager again. I took a moment to process all of this and reclined near a statue and I felt a weird surge of magic though it, that's when I realized  the portal was hidden inside of the statue. I also still had access to my magic, I soon realized that I could make use of this new form and this world, so I officially plotted my takeover and vowed to one day return to Equestria and take my revenge on both Twilight and Princess Celestia.


Back to the present

"So yeah that's my backstory" Sunset said. " After that I spent the last three year's plotting my revenge and ruling the school with an iron fist, then Twilight found me and my rule and vengeance soon came to an end and my path to redemption began"

As Sunset finished her story the girl's were speechless. They had no Idea Sunset's been through a lot back in her home world, they soon started to fully understand her a lot more than when Twilight instructed them to be her friend instead of befriending her themselves. 

"Sunset I had no idea you went through all that back in Equestria, I'm so sorry" Fluttershy said trying to hold back her tear's.

"Yeah well now you know" Sunset said sadly.

"But you never fully answered our question, why did you forgive us after what we've done to you?"Rainbow dash said.

"Because its my fault Dash" Sunset replied.

"What? How was Anon a Miss your fault sugarcube?" Applejack questioned.

"Well honestly I didn't want to be like that but I guess it was the demon inside me that was taking over" Sunset said" I was so furious with how Celestia betrayed me that I took it out on you guy's especially since the human version of her work's at the school, Whenever I saw her my stomach hurt and her form  reminded me of how much I hated her pony counterpart, I figured taking it out on her and the student's and staff would hold me over until I finally plot my revenge on the real Celestia. I guess I just viewed all of you as living punching bag's to vent out my frustration's but in the end that was stupid and evil of me. I should have known better than to act like that, if I didn't treat people the way I did no one would have accused me of being Anon a Miss and we would have been actual friends instead of Twilight instructing you to be my friends"

The girls stayed silent after she finished her statement. "She was blaming herself?"  they all thought and they soon fought back with her statement.

"Darling we know you weren't the nicest girl in school and we understand the reason why you bullied us and tried to take over the school, but you cant blame yourself for all of this" Rarity said.

"It's too late to try to reason with me Rarity, the damage is done and I don't think it will ever be fixed" Sunset said sadly.

"I hurt so many people over my selfish desires for revenge for three years" sunset continued." It's obvious no one's fully forgiven me after three whole years of hell, I don't really expect everyone to still be mad at me even after I saved them from the siren's, I was pure evil, hell I almost caused a girl to commit suicide and I didn't even care about it I just LAUGHED!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The girl's remained silent after her sudden outburst.

Sunset soon stood up from the bleacher she was sitting on and began to walk away but not before saying.

"For what it's worth girl's I'm sorry for everything I've put you through. I forgive you guy's but I don't think we'll ever be friends after everything I've done and whats been going on these past few year's, and after what happened last christmas" Sunset said as  she began walking away with tears forming.

Sunset trekked away from the group knowing this was the end of their "friendship" However she found herself stopped as a pink hand held her arm preventing her from moving anymore.

"Well too bad silly cause we're not letting that happen!" Pinkie said in her happy tone as hair started to go back to normal.

"Pinkie I..............."

"Listen Sugarcube your right, maybe we aren't destined to be friends or were never meant to be" Applejack jumped in." But listen we're just as much to blame, we should have done the right thing and befriended you instead of being tasked to by Twilight, I guess a part of us were still furious at you for what you've done and maybe we were just keeping an eye on you to ensure you don't try anything funny. But when you saved all of us from the battle of the bands incident we started to actually trust you but still held a little grudge and all that changed when Anon a Miss was born. We should have known better than to have accused you like that, we should have believed that you've actually changed and that your redemption was genuine and not just an act but we didn't believe any of it because we were a bunch of selfish asshole's. Nothing we can do can make  all of this go away but it's never too late to try it together, hell look at Fluttershy and Dash. Dumbbell, Hoop's, and Score constantly bullied them since middle school but you know what happened one day? They apologized and she and Dash forgave them and now they're reformed and Dash is now good friend's with the three of em and Dumbbell and Shy are dating now"

"OOOHHHHHHHH!" Rarity and pinkie said with a slight giggle"

"Uh Applejack I was gonna wait to tell the other's that" fluttershy said with a blush.

"Oh sorry Shy" Applejack apologized."Anyways sugarcube if they believe in redemption that we can as well, and we would like to start over and be actual friend's this time that is if your up for it, If not we completely understand and we'll let you go Sugarcube but no matter what you'll always be our friend"

After finishing her statement Sunset remained silent trying to piece together what to do next. Their friendship was ruined not one but two times and who knows if it will ever happen again or if it's possible to start over. But deep down she knows they regret what they've done to her and after all she's done to them she couldn't blame any of them for still holding a grudge. they were to blame as much as her, after a minute she finally mustered the courage to turn around and look them staright in the eye and spoke.

"I don't wanna be friend's girls" She said.

The girl's remained silent and hung their head's in shame knowing that was the answer they were expecting.

"I wanna be sisters" Sunset said with a smile and tear's of joy.

The girl's lifted their head's up after hearing her new answer. Tears of joy soon formed in their eye's and immediately they collected their friend NO their sister into a group hug which she quickly returned.

"Thank you Sugarcube" Applejack sniffed.

"Were so happy your giving us another chance at being a family" Pinkie said as her puffy hair went back to normal.

"We promise to do it right this time darling" Rarity said.

"If I ever fuck up like this again your welcome to punch me square in the jaw" Dash said not bothering to hide her tear's of joy.

"I love you sis, I promise to never hurt you again" Fluttershy sniffed

"Thank you girl's, thank you" Sunset said with a smile and a sniff.

After a good three minutes the group hug ended and all of them wiped their tear's away together.

"You know we're already in town what do you say we head off to sugarcube cafe for breakfast sis?" Pinkie asked.

"Hmmmmmmmmmm" Sunset thought. "Yeah Sugarcube cafe sound's good to me girl's.

"Awesome!" Dash said excitedly." Last one to the Vans a rotten egg!"

And Dash soon sprinted toward the driveway where the van was parked and the girl's soon followed suit.

"Dagnabbit out of all of us to gain super speed powers why did have to be the star athlete of the school!?" Applejack said slightly annoyed as she and the girl's followed suit trying to catch up to Dash.

However Sunset stayed behind for a sec and looked at them,after all they've been through she couldn't help but smile they messed up but so did she. Friend's fall out all the time and while it seems like it cant be fixed there is such a thing as trying again. No matter what they will get through this together no matter how long it takes. These girls were her friends No her Family and she couldn't be happier.

"Thank you" Sunset said looking up at the sky before joining her friends in the pursuit of Rainbow dash to avoid the rotten egg tag.

Later that day in Equestria

Twilight was in her study relaxing in her warm chamber enjoying a cup of hot cocoa and a good read when she suddenly heard the journal rumbling. She walked over to the pedestal where the journal was and began to read sunset's latest report, after a minute she finished reading the entry sent by sunset and closed the journal with a smile and tears of joy.

"Well done girl's, well done" Twilight said proudly as she headed back to her chamber