//------------------------------// // 6 - Special Holidays - Sunset - Anon-a-miss // Story: Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart // by Babroniedad //------------------------------// Sunset - Anon-a-miss Hearth’s Warming was supposed to be a special day in her life. When she was younger, just a filly, she felt its magic. She would lose herself in the holiday’s moments, taken away to a magical place where friendship could heal all hurts, and all wrongs were righted. She would dream of gifts, joy lighting up the faces of friends and family as gifts were exchanged and opened. She glowed with the heart-warming magic of friendship, with the comforting bond between those embracing its warmth in each other’s hearts. It was joyful. It was triumphant. It was a child's dream. It was a cherished illusion. One she learned to put aside as she grew older. She found through life’s disappointments that friendships rarely survived the sadly equine, and later human, imperfect souls that inevitably failed its embrace. She learned instead to trust her studies, her innately gifted magic, her own skills, and intellect. Determined to set her own path, she refused to be swayed by the insistent pull of others, their friendships, their needs, their dreams. She was the star pupil of her idol. Her mentor. Her dream. Her goal. The one mare she dared to dream loved her. Wanted her. The mare she wanted to be like more than anything. To spend eternity with. The mare she dreamed of, as a mother, a guide, a friend. Her princess. Celestia. More than life itself, she wanted her love, her respect, her attention. To be at her side, to be her helpmate, her little soul, her friend. Her equal. Her princess. For eternity. She learned the secret of the ancient magic in the forbidden archives. From then on, she knew. That was what she wanted. More than life. More than anything. She wanted to sit forever by her mentor. As her equal. Her friend. Co-rulers, shouldering the burden of eternity with her forever. More precious to her than life, to spend it with her. It was not meant to be. She was found out. Caught in the forbidden archives, in the very act of studying the ancient magics. In her frustration, she had called her mentor out, begging her, demanding her to perform the ancient magic, to complete her. To allow her to claim her place at her mentors' side. Denied, she had railed in anger, insisting she could replace her mentor! Her rage was met with anger. Banished from her studies, from her mentor, her castle, she was cast out. Her life. In rage and desperation, she ran, escaping the guards sent to enforce her banishment. She had only a moment, grabbing the barest of essentials, then she escaped through the very portal that had revealed to her the secret of the ancient magic. Her destiny. Her dream. Princess. She was not followed. She was so sure she would be. Each time, when the season came for the portal’s opening, she would scry, with worried plans, looking for those who might remove her. Remove her once again from her plans. Her right. Her dream. Her destiny. Alicorn. Nothing else mattered. Everything was subsumed by that goal. In her heart, there was only room for one love. One goal. One dream. One day, someday, she would see her destiny fulfilled. Alicorn. Princess. Co-ruler. And her mentor, whom she loved, the only mare she could ever think of as a mother. Her guide. Together, forever. Friends. Never to be alone again, sharing the burdens of eternity, of rule. Friendship. It was a curse. It was an enemy. There was only room for one Friendship. One love. One life shared - hers, and her mentors. Anything else was an obstacle placed by others, by fate, by harmony, by who knows whom or who cares! She would sweep them all away, anything that stood between her and her goal. Her destiny. She plotted. She schemed. She was cunning. She crafted plans, with guile and skill. She wormed her way into the lives of those she would depose. She destroyed. She subverted. She broke friendships. She poisoned hearts. She left distrust, disharmony, darkened souls, darkened hearts. And all the while, she planned for the day when she would return, showing her mentor how wrong she was. Then she would claim, with self-righteous joy, her place by her mentor's side. When the time was right, she stole back to the land of her birth and claimed the key to her birthright, the element of magic. With it, she would ascend to her destiny, and return triumphantly to the joy that awaited her. But it was not to be. Instead of ascending, she was transformed into a creature of hate and desperate need. A damned soul. A demon. And as the demon, she raged. She turned her fellow students into a mind-controlled zombie army. She tried to kill the filly sent to stop her. The princess. Her replacement. The living, breathing proof of her failures. And ultimately, her friend. Her savior. In the act of trying to destroy the princess and her friends, she triggered the harmonious magic of friendship. In a rainbow blast of harmony, she was purged of the corrupted magic that had blackened her heart and burned her soul into demonic form. She was left, powerless, broken, cut, and bleeding, laying at the bottom of a crater. Purged of corrupted magic, stripped of her dreams, at her lowest, she was broken. In her anguish, her surrender was absolute and complete. She crawled to the edge of the crater. In tears, she reached out to the very girl she had just tried to kill. She had no right to nor expectation of mercy. In her heart, she knew she had no reason to hope. But hope she did. And in that hope, in that moment of light in the very pit of her darkest hour, she reached out. In hope. In faith. In Friendship. Against all odds, unexpectedly, the newest princess bent down, looked her in her eyes, and with a gentle smile, took her hand. She helped her up from the crater. She left her in the care of her friends, with a gentle admonition to look after each other, to learn the magic of friendship. She returned to her home with her crown, the stolen element of magic. It was not an easy road. At first, her new friends did not trust her. She did not trust herself. She feared they only cared because they were asked to care. They feared she only changed because she had to change. There were slips. There were tears. But there were moments of true friendship too, and over time, the moments of friendship began to outweigh the moments of doubt and fear. She was given hope. She would be accepted, loved, and needed. She would be a friend. Hope that she would be family, with a place forever in their hearts. Then it came. Hearth's Warming. The season of friendship. Or Christmas, as it was known this side of the portal. Her friends called her family. They invited her into their homes. Their lives. Their hearts. She was loved. She belonged. Her heart soared! She had friends! She belonged! But before it could even begin, it was stilborn. The quicked life of her newfound friendship was snuffed out, like a smokey candle in a bitterly chilling wind. Anonymous. Anon-a-miss. Three little words. One little lie. Everything she did, but would never do. The blame, the pain, the betrayal, and wretched heartbreak. She would never betray her friends! Her life. Her family. Her loves. They were her life, her hope. And now? Now… Now they were gone. Part of the angry swarm, the throng. That faceless, nameless group who blamed her, hated her, bullied her. Family no more. Friendships forgotten. She would never! But that mattered little. They knew. They were certain. And certainty had no room for little bothersome details. Like facts. Or doubts. Or even the simple decency of giving a friend a chance to speak. A chance to defend herself. She was judged, punished and lost. So lost. Her heart was rent, broken, shattered. Her tears spilled like anguished blood, pouring from her eyes instead of the torn shards of her broken heart. How could they? But they did, they knew. They knew; they were wrong, but no matter. They knew, and that was the end of it. She tried. She begged. She cried. She blamed. Trixie, though not blameless, was without blame. She didn’t know who anon-a-miss was, though she thought she knew. They all thought they knew. They were all wrong. Twilight, through the journal, assumed and assured her that friendship would win the day. Just hold out. Hold on. She held nothing, her lonely hands empty. Friendship had failed, had died, expired, leaving only mourning in its wake. Nothing was left but tears, torment, and a shattered, broken heart. At last, at her lowest, all hope lost, a lifeline came- a message from a former friend. A chance to be heard! A chance someone would listen. Like a starving animal, with her last bit of strength, she latched onto hope. She made her way to meet an old friend. It did not go well. Not only was her friend not there, but those that were there did not come to listen. No. No, they came with another purpose in mind. They came to judge. They came to exact retribution. They were the Jury. Judge. Executioner. The sentence, preordained, decided long before she arrived, was handed down. And the girl, in the end, was left to drag herself away, mocked, punished, and broken. There was mercy, finally. Someone called for help.