"Yer sure you saw Sunset?" Applejack asked as Fluttershy finished talking.
"Y-yes!" Fluttershy squeaked as her friends eyed her suspiciously. "She was in the car with some stranger...and she was laughing."
"Sounds shady," Rainbow Dash said before looking to her friends. "Think she has a partner in crime for all this?"
"Or she might be trying to screw with this other person. She knows we're all onto her so she probably just gave up and started with this new guy," Applejack said as she tipped her hat over her eyes. "Ugh, makes me sick."
"If she wants to ruin someone else's day, we should stop her!" Rainbow Dash said. "Someone has to make sure she isn't trying to ruin more friendships out there!"
"And what do you suppose we should do?" Rarity asked, pocketing her pocket mirror. "I'm not sure if we should even"
"We should all follow Sunset after school. Maybe Fluttershy can identify the guy or his car or whatever, then we can put a stop to Sunset for good," Rainbow Dash said.
"I...I don't know. It seemed like she and this man were really close," Fluttershy said. "I think it's best if we leave her alone..."
The other girls stared at Fluttershy before Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Fluttershy, you know our whole gig, right?" she said. "I wanna move past this as much as you do, but I'd feel like crap if I knew I was letting Sunset ruin more people!"
"Yeah. We gotta make sure nobody else gets hurt," Applejack said.
"I..." Fluttershy said nervously before Rarity spoke up, holding Fluttershy's hand gently. "Fluttershy doesn't have to come with us. If she changes her mind, she can call us. But we shouldn't be forcing her," she soothed.
Applejack sighed. "Yer right, Rarity. Sorry Flutters..." she muttered. Rainbow Dash looked like she was about to protest, only to fall silent a second later.
"Yeah...sorry," Rainbow Dash said. "So, when should we get going?"
"After school tomorrow. We should see where exactly she goes after classes," Rarity said. "We don't even know where she lives."
The group fell silent after that little fact was officially brought out and in the air. That silence even lasted several seconds, all of which felt like several minutes.
"Wow...we weren't very good friends to her before all this Anon-a-miss stuff came up, huh?" Pinkie Pie said sadly.
"Don't say that!" Rainbow Dash said. "Besides, we don't have time to dwell on this, especially when that Sunset Shimmer is up no good! We follow her after school, and we put an end to this."
Unfortunately, Sunset Shimmer was nowhere to be seen in class the next day. None of the girls could find Sunset Shimmer, nor could they get anyone else to find her. Anyone they asked either couldn't find her or refused to care.
At the end of the day, the five reconvened to start on a new plan of action. "We're gonna have ta search for them the old fashioned way," Applejack said. "We should head to the city, split up and cover more ground."
"We see her, we call the others at once, got it?" Rainbow Dash said.
"You don't have to if you don't want to, but we could really use your help, Fluttershy," Rarity said kindly. Fluttershy looked down, clearly deep in disturbed thought before slowly looking up. Nodding, she gave her answer.
"Alright then," Rainbow Dash said. "Let's move."
And so they did, searching the city left and right, asking shop owners they knew left and right if they'd seen her. This provided some more results, being told that they'd seen her around during school hours, though she never entered their establishments so they didn't ask.
After a few hours of searching, the girls finally met at the nearby warehouses across the city to go over what they found. None of them officially found Sunset Shimmer nor did they receive any hints at all over where she could be or potential leads on where she could be.
"We can't just stop. We must keep searching before we lose track of her for good," Rarity said.
"What are some places we haven't looked yet? Or places that we know Sunset Shimmer would go to?" Rainbow Dash asked. "The Sweet Shoppe?"
"No, she wouldn't go back there, not after we ousted her earlier," Rarity said. "There must be somewhere else we haven't looked yet..."
Fluttershy looked like she was about to speak up before turning. "Umm, girls?" she said meekly, though her words went unnoticed upon the deep discussion between the four girls.
"Where else would that meanie pants go? The mall?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Maybe...but a lot of students go to the mall," Rainbow Dash said. "Kinda obvious."
"How about the movies?" Applejack asked.
"Girls? I think...umm..." Fluttershy tried again just a bit louder this time, but again she went unnoticed due to their relatively louder talking.
"Maybe. What kinds of movies would she watch?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"I don't know! We shouldn't raid the theaters to look for her. Maybe we should call this off and see if she comes back tomorrow," Rarity suggested.
"Girls!" Fluttershy shouted. By shouted, she more or less spoke up at the same volume of a normal voice. Nonetheless, this successfully captured the attentions of the other girls. "Umm...they're over there," she said.
The four turned to see a black SUV with its trunk compartment open parked outside a warehouse a few blocks down, near the apartments. A young man was walking out of the warehouse with a cardboard box in his hands. He wore black jeans, a green hoodie, and a black beanie with a visor. The girls watched as he loaded up the car with the box, pushing it in place with about three other boxes that were already in the vehicle.
"Why? What's with that guy?" Rainbow Dash said as she peered closer. He had his head tilted at a rather awkward angle, and it was revealed he was speaking with a smartphone pressed between his ear and his shoulder. "Spot a cute guy in the middle or our search or something?"
Fluttershy squeaked. "N-no! That's the man I saw Sunset with earlier! And that's his car!" she said, trying her best not to stutter in embarrassment. The statements however made the girls' visages darken significantly.
"Oh no...don't tell me he's a criminal?" Rarity gasped, watching this man 'rob' the warehouse. At least, it looked like that. The man spoke on his phone a bit longer before hanging up, pocketing it and shutting his SUV trunk. "What do we do?" she asked.
"You said that was the guy who was with Sunset, right?" Rainbow Dash asked as the figure entered the driver's seat of his vehicle. Fluttershy nodded, and the rainbow haired athlete got up. "Then we'd best get going!"
She waved to a nearby taxi, which stopped next to them. As Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy were crammed in the back seat of the car, Rarity gracefully took the front passenger seat and buckled up as if nothing strange were happening. "Hello dear," she said to the driver, a young freckled man. "Please do us a favor and tail that SUV?"
The driver raised an eyebrow in both curiosity and concern at the four girls behind him before sighing. "Sure," he said as the taxi pulled after the SUV, all while muttering something along the lines of "I don't get paid enough for this."
The tailing went on for about twenty minutes, mainly about 3/4ths of the wait time being because of traffic. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were bickering over space, Pinkie Pie was singing some song at the top of her lungs, and Fluttershy was trying everything humanly possible to turn completely invisible.
Meanwhile, Rarity was waiting patiently and quietly, checking her makeup in the mirror occasionally. Though, she seemed to be more stressed than actually concerned over her appearance. The driver as hunched over in his seat as he followed the SUV, his patience slowly dwindling over the cacophony in his vehicle.
When the SUV finally slowed down after pulling into a neighborhood, Rarity ordered the driver to stop a few blocks ahead to avoid suspicion. As the girls peered out the back, they watched the vehicle reverse up the driveway so the trunk was facing the house.
"This your stop?" the absolutely done with everyone driver asked tiredly.
"Yes, dearie," Rarity said with a kind smile. As the other four crashed outside the taxi, Rarity reached into her purse and pulled out a wad of bills, easily three times the taxi fare needed to get here. "I apologize for my friends," she said briefly as she placed the money in his hand before closing the car door behind her.
The driver looked down at the money in his hand before sighing. "Guess it ain't all bad," he mumbled before driving off. As the taxi left, the girls dusted themselves off and looked up to see the man enter the house with the first box in his hands.
"Well, how should we do this?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Ah'd say we go up there and demand our answers," Applejack said, cracking her knuckles. Luckily, Rarity was able to speak up before Rainbow Dash could agree.
"Too forward, darling," Rarity said. "I say we be diplomatic over it. Forcing answers out of anybody has never been right, and we don't want to stoop to Sunset's level, do we?"
Applejack backed down with that statement, and Rarity cleared her throat. "I say we talk to him nicely. Leave it to me."
"Fine," Rainbow Dash said as she peered at the guy still moving boxes. "I still don't like this..."
"Or...maybe Fluttershy can do it! Even a meanie pants won't be mean enough to hurt Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie said, startling the aforementioned girl. "Well, except Sunset Shimmer."
"Yeah, Flutters here can do it," Rainbow Dash said as she gently elbowed Fluttershy, though that was still enough to jolt her forward. "Element of Kindness here, eh?"
"I-I mean...if you want me to..." Fluttershy whispered as the guy shut the trunk and locked the car with the last box in one hand and his car keys in the other. It wasn't until he entered the house and locked the door behind him that she moved towards the driveway.
She walked up the porch and slowly knocked on the door, two simple taps. The four girls hid behind the black vehicle on the driveway as Fluttershy waited patiently and nervously for the door to open up. Luckily, her knocks were heard as she jolted when the locks clicked.
When the door opened, Fluttershy let out an 'eep' as a young man with short black hair and some growing sideburns answered. He was relatively handsome, though his hair was sort of messy and sticking up: no doubt from wearing the beanie earlier. "Hello?"
"U-Umm..." she whispered. "H-hi?"
"...hi," the man said, a bit confused to say the least. He looked to be at least one or two years older than her and the girls. "Can I help you with something?"
Fluttershy stuttered and blushed for about a minute straight before she panicked and pushed the door shut with a slam, a small "Ow!" barely being heard over the thud. Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash all face palmed in exasperation as Fluttershy feebly apologized through the door.
- inside the house -
Coral groaned as he rubbed his nose. It wasn't broken by any means, but it absolutely hurt like hell. “Goddamn it…” he groaned. “Ow…”
“What was that?” Sunset Shimmer asked as she entered the living room, hair semi-soaked with a towel around her neck. She wore a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt.
“A weird girl knocked, stammered for a minute before slamming my own door in my face,” Coral said. “And it hurts.”
“Oh. Uhh, that’s kind of weird,” Sunset Shimmer said, raising an eyebrow. “Do you need an ice pack or something?”
“Sure. Just a piece of ice in a napkin works,” Coral said as he leaned on the wall. As Sunset Shimmer went to the kitchen, Coral sighed and rubbed his face awkwardly. Seriously, the door was a dangerous object, why don't people understand that?
He instantly tensed up when he heard muffled talking outside. It sounded a lot like the voices of several girls either arguing or discussing. Peering out the semi-open window, he frowned upon seeing four more girls with the one who slammed the door in his face out on the porch.
"Great. She brought friends," Coral mumbled in exasperation as Sunset came over with three chunks of ice wrapped in a napkin. "Thanks. Hold on, I just gotta deal with this for a second."
He opened the door to reveal all five girls outside on his porch. "Can you all explain what exactly you're doing here?" he asked crossly while holding up the wrapped ice to his nose. He heard a gasp behind him, and the girls turned to look at him.
They then turned to see Sunset Shimmer, and they immediately pushed past Coral to get to her. Before he knew it, he was watching four girls he'd never seen before verbally attacking Sunset Shimmer, shouting questions and demands at the frightened teen girl. The fifth girl, the one who slammed the door in his face, was still at the door, hands against her mouth in what was presumed to be horror.
"Whoa whoa whoa, what the fuck is going on?!" Coral shouted over all the noise. The voices stopped and one of the girls, a blonde with a Stetson, spoke up.
"This girl's done a lotta bad things, Mister! I dunno why yer harborin' her here, but she's gotta answer for everythin' she's done!" she said.
"Yeah!" a rainbow haired girl agreed. "She's gotta fix the mess she made!"
There was silence as the girls waited for Coral's reaction. Sighing, Coral rubbed his face with his free hand, the other still holding up Sunset Shimmer's makeshift ice pack to his nose.
"That doesn't answer my question. Again, what the fuck is going on?" Coral said. The four girls immediately explained Sunset Shimmer's "actions" over Anon-A-Miss, how she was breaking a lot of friendships, hurting lots of people, and pretending as if it were not even her. The blonde haired cowgirl and the rainbow haired athlete were the most vocal about it, with the cotton candy haired pink girl and the fancy pale curly haired girl seemed to be on the sidelines.
All the while, Sunset Shimmer was curled up against the couch, on the brink of sobbing as everything she was accused of came out into the light. She may have told Coral about it, but every detail of how Sunset Shimmer was a horrible person in both the present and past term did nothing but tear her heart out and crush it over and over.
When they were done, Coral set down the half melted ice in the soaked napkin on the nearby coffee table and sighed. "So that's what's happening, right?" he said, and Sunset Shimmer's heart leapt into her throat.
"Well?" the rainbow haired girl asked promptly.
"Yeah, what do you think of this whole mess she created?" the blonde haired cowgirl said.
Coral cleared his throat and frowned darkly at the girls. "I think you five need to quit being jackasses and get the fuck out of my house before I call the cops on all of you," he said.