//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Apologies Aren't Always Enough // by SadisticFluttershy //------------------------------// Apologies Aren’t Always Enough Chapter 3 by Sadistic Fluttershy and Rated Ponystar Edited by: Roker12 Also with the help of FreeHomeBrew ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunset felt her entire body roasting from an intense heat as she slowly got up. Groaning, she looked around, her vision trying to see past the flames and debris that surrounded her. A gasp escaped from her mouth upon seeing the statue outside of her school turned to rubble. Further iconic ruins surrounding her made her realize where she was, and the burning building behind her made Sunset’s worst fears come true. She was at Canterlot High and it seemed Hell itself had unleashed itself. Sunset felt her bones turn to ice, despite the fires surrounding her as she called out for help. There was only groaning as a response which made her turn around and shriek. There were seven corpses, horribly burned and mangled before her. Each of them were her five friends,  Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Spike. Immediately did she rush towards them, eyes filling with tears as she gazed upon each of their horrible burned bodies. “Girls! Twilight! Everyone! Wake up!” None of them move.  Not a single eye opened as they lay there as if... as if... “No...” whispered Sunset as she fell on her rear, scooting back in horror. “They... they can’t be...” “...ugh...” Sunset quickly turned to where the sound was coming from and hurried over to the bleeding body of Princess Twilight. Lifting her up with her arms, Sunset nearly lost her lunch upon seeing the deep claw marks on the princess’s stomach. “Twilight! Hang in there! Everything’s going to be okay.” Lifting her shaking hand, Twilight raised her finger at Sunset and whispered only one word. “Monster.” The hand went limp as she stopped breathing, joining the others in their untimely demise. “No... No...” whispered Sunset, holding Twilight close to her chest. “I’m not a monster... please Twilight, get up... don’t die...” “Aw, I think it’s far too late for miss princess of friendship, don’t you think?” Sunset’s heart nearly stopped upon hearing the voice and turned around. Flying above her was none other then the demon she had turned into when she tried to use the Element of Magic all those months ago. With it’s black eyes, it stared at the horrified Sunset before her, laughing with such a screech that it made the girl’s spine tingle. “W-what did you do?!” shouted Sunset Shimmer. “Me?” asked the demon, faking surprise before she grinned with her terribly sharp teeth. “Don’t you mean ‘we’, Sunset? After all, I am you. And you are me.” “No! I’m nothing like you! I wouldn’t... I would never do this!” shouted Sunset, but it only made the demon laugh louder. “Fool! You will always have me in your shadow! This is what could have happened if Twilight and her friends didn’t stop you! And it can still happen now! All of your loved ones have betrayed you and the whole school thinks you're a monster! So why not show them the real monster that you are and unleash your rage against them all!” “Stop it!” shouted Sunset, covering her ears. “You’re not real! Just stop it and leave me alone!” “Accept who you are, Sunset Shimmer! Accept it!” *** “No! No, I won’t! I won’t!” “Sunset, honey, wake up! wake up!” Sunset Shimmer shot out of her bed and gasped, sweat covering her entire body as she felt a set of arms embrace her. It took her a few seconds to realize that she was in her room, the lights were on and her mother was holding her. It was just a dream... just a dream... “Are you okay?” asked Fleur as she comforted her child. “I could hear you screaming all the way from inside my room.” “It... it was horrible...” whimpered Sunset as she cuddled into her mother’s embrace. She could still smell the ash and feel the blood on her fingers. “I saw... I saw the demon me... it killed my friends... destroyed the school.... it... I was a monster...” “You are not a monster, Sunset,” whispered Fleur as she kissed her daughter’s temple. “It was just a bad dream, honey. Don’t look into it like some sort of message or warning. It was nothing more than a dream.” “But what if it’s right?” asked Sunset, sobbing even harder. “What if no matter how much I try I’ll be seen as nothing more than a monster.” “Monsters don’t cry and worry about being one,” whispered Fleur, stroking her daughter’s hair. “The fact that you cry in regret shows that you are no monster. You are a my little girl who has been through enough.” Sunset didn’t say anything. She just let her mother rock her back and forth all night, but she never fell asleep. Everytime she tried she heard that evil demon’s laugh. *** Besides Sunset, the five other girls never got much sleep that night either. Their dreams were filled with nothing but memories of seeing how the friend they had abandoned became a social outcast with nobody to defend her. They had tried their hardest to stop it, but they couldn’t do anything to stop it. Needless to say, when the five met up at the barn the next morning they all had bags under their eyes and their hair messed up. Even Rarity was less perfect than she usually was with her appearance. “Ah take it y’all didn’t get much sleep either,” said Applejack as her friends came in one by one. “Last night was the absolute worst,” whispered Rarity, rubbing her head. “I haven’t had such a horrible nightmare since Rainbow Dash took us to see The Ring that one year.’” “Were all your dreams about Sunset too?” asked Fluttershy, getting nods in return. “Oh, this is terrible. What can we do?” “Well, Sunset’s mother isn’t going to let us see her daughter and quite frankly, I can’t blame her,” responded Rarity, huffing as she crossed her arms. “I just wish we knew who that Anon-A-Miss really was so I can kick her teeth in,” growled Rainbow Dash, kicking a barrel nearby. “Get in line,” whispered Rarity, growling. “What we need to do is figure out just who this troublemaker is,” said Applejack, rubbing her chin. “Okay, the only way that Anon-A-Miss could have gotten all this information is if she knew it first hand, right?” “It has to be somebody who can get information easily. Maybe somebody unnoticed?” suggested Pinkie Pie. “And for some reason she really wants to make it look like Sunset Shimmer is behind it all, so that means somebody has a grudge,” said Rarity. “I guess it must be from one of the people she previously bullied.” “Oh, great. That means the entire school,” pointed out Rainbow Dash. “Well, she could have also hacked our computers too,” pointed out Fluttershy. “I mean, she has dirt on everyone. Even the teachers.” “Ah thought that, but there is one problem,” said Applejack, scratching her head. “The story Ah told ya at the slumber party? Ah never posted that anywhere online. The only folks who knew that before the five of y’all was me, and mah fam-” Applejack’s eyes widened as she slowly turned to Rarity and asked, “Did ya ever put your embarrassing secret on the internet, Rarity?” “No, the only ones who knew we’re me and my fam...ily...” Rarity’s eyes widened before rage began to appear in her glare. Fluttershy realized where Applejack was going with this and gasped much to Pinkie and Dash’s confusion. “You can’t mean...” “And Sweetie Belle’s good at computers, right?” growled Applejack as she clenched her fist. Rainbow Dash scratched her head “I fail to see how that’s-” Before she could finish, Applejack was storming out of the barn with Rarity right behind her, the two of them looking like they were ready to tear someone apart. The other three followed them as Applejack kicked the back door so hard it nearly fell of its hinges. She stormed the stairs until she reached Apple Bloom’s room and slammed it open, where her sister looked up from her bed. For a whole minute, there was a thick silence between the two sisters before Applejack took a deep breath. “Apple Bloom. Ah want the truth from ya and, so help me, if yer lyin’ yer ass is grass.” Apple Bloom gulped. Nostrils flaring, Applejack asked, “Are you, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo the real Anon-A-Miss?” For a long time, Apple Bloom didn’t answer. She then lowered her head, and whispered one word. “Yes.” *** To Applejack’s credit, she didn’t start yelling at her sister. Instead she called her family, Rarity’s parents, Principal Celestia, and Vice Principal Luna. Scootaloo’s parents were out on a business trip, but they made sure to tell their daughter on the phone she was in deep trouble as soon as they got back. Once everybody had been informed, they all met at Principal Celestia’s office where the three girls were looking at the ground in shame. Everyone else was glaring at them with a look that could kill. “We... we...” Sweetie Belle was about to say, but her father interrupted her. “How dare you! How dare you three go around spilling everyone’s secrets, and then making an innocent girl take the fall! What do you have to say for yourselves!” he shouted, turning red in the face. “We’re sorry! We didn’t mean for this to go as far as it did!” shouted Apple Bloom, getting teary eyed. “But ya intended to make Sunset go through a livin’ hell is that it!” shouted Applejack, rubbing her forehead. “Ah can’t believe mah own flesh and blood did somethin’ so horrible! Do ya have any idea what kind of problems you’ve caused!” “Eeyup,” said Big Macintosh, crossing his arms. “Seriously, Scootaloo, this is not cool,” said Rainbow Dash, making her little sister figure whimper. “No, this is beyond not cool. This is just wrong! What did Sunset ever do to make you hate her so much!” “She took you away from us, okay!” shouted Scootaloo. The girls looked at each other in confusion before Rarity asked, “Took us away how?” “Ever...” whispered Sweetie Belle, “ever since you all became friends with her, you never spend any time with us. You’re always hanging out with her or talking about her like she’s the most important person in your life.” “But we’re yer sisters! We wanted ya to look at us like we was important again! We just... we just wanted our big sisters back!” shouted Apple Bloom, but she sighed and shook her head. “But we didn’t want it to go this far. Ah don’t know why we kept goin’, but... but...” “So you did all this because you were jealous?” asked Rarity’s mother in disbelief. “You exposed people’s secrets and made that innocent girl suffer because of that?! Why not just tell your sisters?!” The girls looked at each other nervously. “We thought... we also thought you were under her spell.” “Spell?” asked Fluttershy. “Ya, she’s from that magical world, right? She was a unicorn and all, so we thought she was back to her old ways and mind controlled ya or somethin’.” Apple Bloom shivered. “Ah mean, y’all do remember when she turned into that demon, right? It felt like a possibility.” “And yet you also forgot that Sunset helped stopped the sirens from mind controlling you three along with the other students at school too,” pointed out Vice Principal Luna in a cold tone. “It seems you knew this was a wrong thing to do, but you deluded yourselves into thinking Sunset was doing something bad so you felt justified in your actions.” “But... we don’t...” Sweetie Belle muttered, before lowering her head in shame. “We realized we went to far, but we just couldn’t stop it... we didn’t know how! And we didn’t want to get in trouble!” “You shouldn’t have done it in the first place,” said Principal Celestia with a rare glare. “Because of you, personal secrets were exposed and many students were embarrassed. Not to mention Sunset Shimmer has been verbally and physically abused because you helped make people believe it was her doing this crime.” “We’re sorry! We really are! We didn’t want this to go so far, honest!” shouted Scootaloo. She turned to Rainbow Dash, “You believe me, don’t you Rainbow?!” Rainbow Dash just looked away without an answer. “Rarity?” asked Sweetie Belle, biting her lip. “I think, Sweetie Belle, you should be prepared to face the consequences of what you have not just done to Sunset, but us as well,” scolded Rarity. “Sis?” asked Apple Bloom, looking at her sister with pleading eyes. “Please don’t hate me.” For a long time, Applejack looked at her sister and sighed. “Apple Bloom, y’all are my sister. Ah will love ya until the day Ah die, but right now Ah’m not ready to forgive ya or believe ya. Not until you at least make some effort to make this right.” Apple Bloom finally burst into tears which made the others start crying as well. They muttered apology after apology and while some looked at them with sympathy, others just stood there and watched. Granny Smith and Rarity’s parents eventually held their respective kin and let them cry in their chests while Scootaloo had to be held by Fluttershy. She kept looking at Rainbow Dash who didn’t once glance back at her. “You okay?” whispered Pinkie Pie, holding her friend’s hand. “No, I want anything to do with her anymore,” whispered Rainbow Dash. “You know that’s not true,” said Pinkie Pie, shaking her head with a small smile. “The Rainbow Dash I know isn’t going to drop her little sister even with this.” Rainbow Dash carefully looked at the crying Scootaloo before turning away and closing her eyes. “Just... just for now then...” The sister’s allowed the three to continue to weep their tears of regret until they finally began to calm down. Clearing her throat, Principal Celestia spoke, “Because you are under the age, the cyber laws will not allow you to be prosecuted for your hacking actions, but I will have to notify the police nonetheless. However, because of what you have done to this school, I will give you a two weeks suspension and seven months of detention when you come back. I am also personally going to forbid you from using the school’s computers unless you are supervised, and you are not allowed to bring any electronics to school for the rest of the year. If you need to call home, you can use the school’s phone. Fair?” The three nodded. “I also think it would be best that you admit your actions in front of the school, first thing tomorrow,” said Luna. “Ah’ll do it. It was mah idea in the first place,” said Apple Bloom standing up. “No, I did the hacking. I’ll confess,” said Sweetie Belle also standing up. Scootaloo stood up as well and shook her head. “If you two are going to confess I’m doing it too. We all did this, we should face our actions together.” “Enough. The three of you will confess tomorrow in the morning,” said Principal Celestia as she shook her head. “I advise that your families talk to you about this situation and that you learn from this experience. I don’t believe you are bad girls, but you have done a foolish mistake out of envy and you must learn from it.” “Yes, ma’am,” answered the three girls in usion. “Ah suppose we’re also gonna be punished at home, huh?” asked Apple Bloom, looking at her family. “Ya bet yer butt, missy. But we’ll discuss such matters at home. Now let’s go,” said Granny Smith as she lead Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom out. Rarity’s family soon left as did Scootaloo when they offered to drive her home. Before the girls could leave though, Principal Celestia said, “Girls, have you tried to get in contact with Sunset Shimmer?” “We tried, but her mother didn’t let us see her,” said Pinkie Pie. “I’ll contact her and let her know we found Anon-A-Miss. I will also relay your message to speak with her as well.” The five girls thanked her and left. When they did, Celestia sighed and leaned back in her chair. Tilting her head, Luna asked, “Sister? What is wrong? Surely, this is over now that Anon-A-Miss has been exposed?” “No, Luna. It’s not over. Not yet...” *** Sunset Shimmer slowly got up from her bed when she started hearing her mother arguing with somebody over the phone. She was taking a nap when the yelling started, but as she made her way down the staircase it was starting to die down. “Yes, Principal Celestia. I understand... that depends on Sunset... I see... I will tell her the message. Thank you... And please give my thanks to the girls?... Yes, thank you. Goodbye.” When she saw her mother hang up the phone, Sunset asked, “Who was that? Principal Celestia?” Fleur nodded and gave her a smile. “Yes, and she has good news. Sunset, it’s over. They found Anon-A-Miss. They just came forward and confessed to the whole thing.” Upon hearing this, Sunset had to double her grip on the staircase railing just so she didn’t fall down. “Th-they caught her? The real Anon-A-Miss?” Fleur rushed to her daughter and held her tight, letting her head rest on her shoulder. “Yes, sweetie. It’s all over. By tomorrow, the entire school will know and it will all finally be over.” Without hesitating for a second, Sunset dived into her mother’s embrace and sobbed. Relief entered her as both sorrowful tears mixed with those of joy. It was finally over. The nightmarish hell she had to put up with for weeks was now over. She was free. Sunset had given up all hope of finding out who this Anon-A-Miss was but whatever deity that was out there had listened to her prayers. But... things won’t go back to normal... thought Sunset, bitterly. How can it with all that’s happened to me because of this? What would the school do when they learned that they had harassed and misjudged an innocent student? Could she even go to that school again, despite all that happened? What if it repeated itself and the next disaster she was blamed for? And then there were her friends. What... what are they going to do? “Who was it?” asked Sunset, looking into the mother’s eye. “Who was it that did all this, and why? “It was Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle,” answered Fleur with disdain in her tone. Sunset’s eyes widen with shock upon hearing the three. “And as for why they did it? Apparently they were jealous about you hanging out with their sisters so much that they decided to try and cause some friction between you all. They also assumed that you had them under a spell or something.” “... I... I never knew... I never meant them to think they were being replaced...” whispered Sunset, clenching her her hand close to her chest. “Sunset, don’t you dare blame yourself for their actions. They made the mistake and they will be punished for it,” answered Fleur with a growl. “I have half a mind to press charges on them, even sue them if you want, but only if you say the word.” “No!” shouted Sunset, quickly. “Don’t do that! I don’t want to put their families through that, and it’s only going to hurt Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash more when they learned this happened.” “They already have,” said Fleur, shaking her head with pity. “They were the ones who figured it out and got them to confess.” “They... they did that? Why?” asked Sunset, as she felt her heart skip a beat. It was the last thing she thought they would do for her since they denounced their friendship. She noticed her mother avoiding her gaze which made her narrow her eyes. “Mother, do you know something?” “They... they came by yesterday to talk to you... and apologize,” confessed Fleur. “What?! Why didn’t you tell me?!” shouted Sunset, stomping her foot. “Because I blamed them, okay!” shouted Fleur, taking her daughter’s hand and holding it tight. “I blamed them for making you like this. If they had stood by you when it mattered, if they just listened to you out then maybe you wouldn’t be going through this nightmare alone.” Fleur sighed. “They... did seem genuine about talking to you... but you were in such a terrible mood that I feared it would only make it worse.” Sunset took a deep breath and counted to ten before she calmly said, “It’s okay, Mom. You were only trying to protect me.” She then opened her eyes with a serious look in them. “But I think me and my friends need to talk.” *** After a few texts, it was agreed that the group would meet at their favorite spot at Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie had already explained to the Cakes what had happened and they offered their most sincere apologies. They even offered to have Sunset come to their store and order anything for free. Sunset said their apologies were enough, and just asked for a small ice coffee while she waited. She didn’t have to wait long as her five friends came into the establishment in silence. Sunset could see that some of them, like Rarity and Fluttershy, had been crying upon seeing their puffy eyes. For a long time, the two groups said nothing. “So,” Rainbow Dash started, “we screwed up big time didn’t we?” Sunset looked at Rainbow but not with an angry stare, but soft, forgiving eyes. She softly nodded her head. “You guys sure did screw up, but that doesn’t matter anymore.” There was another pause. Finally, Sunset continued. “I understand from the very beginning why you all thought I was Anon-A-Miss, everything I’ve done in the past seemed to linger on your minds even after I was reformed and you five accepted me as your friend. At the beginning I was shocked and utterly heartbroken at the fact that you thought I was her telling not only your secrets, but everyone else’s secrets too.” Applejack looked up from her hands and held hers on Sunsets. “Listen Sunset, Ah’ know we screwed up big time and ah’m so ashamed for the way that I acted. Ah’ wish I wudda known that it was my family that also knew my secret and ah’ just didn’t think straight when I came to realize that you were innocent.” “Applejack is right darling” Rarity began “I too am sorry for what I did. I wish I realized sooner that I should have thought twice before putting the blame on you. I simply wish to ask for your forgiveness Sunset, but if you don’t want to forgive me or anyone else here, I completely understand. We don’t deserve it.” The rest of them related their own apologies with nods. Sunset was quiet as she tried to think about what she was going to do. She wanted to forgive them, she really did. But doubt was still fresh in her mind. Sunset sighed as she whispered, “I... accept your apologies. I do, and I know you mean them... but apologies aren't always enough.” She got up from her seat and started to make for the exit. “You girls... you really hurt me... and I need more than just a plain old sorry if I’m going to fully trust you all again.” “Do you hate us?” asked Pinkie Pie, her hair deflating. “...No, and I don’t hate your sisters too much either...” whispered Sunset, hugging herself. “I’ve seen what hatred does to people... I’ve seen what it does to myself. But until you can prove to me I can trust you... we can’t be friends again.” She opened the door, but stopped. “Please also find it heart to forgive your sisters someday. Don’t let this one incident ruin your love of them.” And with that she left.