//------------------------------// // Chapter 19: Framed // Story: The Other Journal // by Ganondorf8 //------------------------------// Day: Wednesday Weather: Cloudy, possible chance of sun later Time: 1:25pm My attempt to blackmail that upstart, Princess Twilight, had mixed results, which I'm not proud of. While I was able to show off her ineptitude before the entire student body by uploading a video onto YouTube, she kept on going instead of withdrawing from the competition. Now she's managed to undo all of the damage I caused to those girls I deemed special when I first came to this school, and they, in turn, have rallied behind her in her bid to beat me for the coveted prize. How did she turn things around so quickly!? Why have my plans failed to hurt her emotionally!? Was it possible that I was going to lose? Me? Sunset Shimmer? No! I wasn't going to allow that upstart to have the satisfaction of beating me and denying me what's mine. I'm fortunate that I came up with a contingency plan just in case blackmail wouldn't work, so now it's time for my minions Snips and Snails to do their thing, while I indulged myself in the art of framing my opponent. Twilight Sparkle has forced my hand, and she would learn what happens when you cross me! The Other Journal By Ganondorf8 November 28, 2015 Chapter 19: Framed. " You were right, Twilight." I began, eating several marshmallows before taking a sip of apple cider to wash it all down. " Taking a break was a really good idea. I've been stressing myself out over recalling all of the bad things I did." Twilight's concerns over my state of mind were well-founded. I was going through a gauntlet of emotions: sadness, anger, self-pity, hatred, empathy, distance, and even fear over the actions I committed before friendship became apparent to me. At the same time, she needed a break from the journal as well, for her own state of mind had been affected, which wasn't my initial intention. I just wanted someone close who could listen to me talk about my troubled life, a sympathetic ear, I suppose, who could take it all in without being overwhelmed. I'll admit that there were doubts in my mind about whether she could handle so much, but she's proven to be rather resilient, much to my pleasure, instead of quivering in a corner somewhere trying to forget about everything she had heard. Yet despite this positive moment, eating marshmallows and relaxing from all that pressure weighing us down, the worst was coming. What was perhaps my greatest mistake was about to be known. " We both needed it, Sunset; you were clearly showing signs of exhaustion from reading non-stop for so long, and I needed to be distracted with something else to take my mind off of what you've been reading to me. No offense, of course." Twilight said. " You know, the others probably wouldn't have lasted as long as you." I said. " What makes you say that?" Twilight asked. " Some of the things I did they're aware of because they saw me commit such actions, yet they don't know the ramifications behind them. I... I was very secluded, in that I wouldn't let anyone else inside to truly understand how I felt, so I created this shell, acting arrogant, egotistical, ambitious, insensitive, and far worse things all because of being insecure with myself. Anyway, the others would have cracked by now. Fluttershy wouldn't have lasted five minutes due to how sensitive she is, Rainbow Dash would have been bored out of her mind within the same time frame, Pinkie Pie would have been too hyper to even know what was going on, so that leaves Applejack and Rarity, both of whom could probably get up to around the conclusion of the Fall Formal before not being able to take anymore." I answered. " You're just like me, then..." Twilight began. " Secluded?" I asked. " I created a shell around myself to protect me from those who picked on me, though I never once lashed out at them. I simply allowed myself to take it all in and just shrug it off later. As I mentioned to you before, Sunset, when I became a demon, I dropped all kinds of inhibitions which I never even thought I had before. It was like... I... I had gained freedom from the person I had shaped myself to be through that shell, freedom to be the real me that was hidden away where no one could see it." Twilight answered. While her answer was an honest one, which did make me feel sorry for her, I would attribute her "lack of inhibitions" as a result of the magic corrupting her mind and twisting it about until she was no longer the sweet innocent girl she once was. I'm sure she knows this is the most logical answer, so her response seemed designed not to make me feel bad about what she's been through, because our meeting here tonight is about my problems. " We took this break to get away from our problems, but it looks like we're still going on about them." I said. " Guess we just can't escape them." Twilight said, lowering her head slightly in defeat. " No we can't, yet we can take solace in looking on the bright side before having to delve back into what makes us miserable. Besides, I needed this break anyway; my throat has been killing me for the last several minutes. All of that talking non-stop as I read my journal really took its toll on my vocals, so I'm glad that we're kicking back." I said. " You were yammering on for a while there." Twilight said. Her choice of the word "yammering" was odd enough that I began laughing, accidentally spitting out the apple cider I drank a few moments ago. It splattered nearby on the floor, and I rushed to clean it up, all while blushing red in embarrassment. My own reaction had Twilight laughing, lying back and kicking her legs in the air while laughing up a storm. I smiled at her antics. To think that before the events of the Friendship Games, she never was this close to people, apart from authority figures and her dog Spike. She never got to experience the magic of friendship and how it can change one's perspective on things, so seeing her so happy leaves me conflicted. On the one hand, my friendship with her has allowed her to turn a page in her life. On the other, what I will eventually tell her could destroy that friendship for good. Twilight eventually regained her composure after laughing for a couple of minutes, but she had to fumble about for her glasses when they fell off her face. Coincidentally, they landed by my feet. I picked them up and handed them back to her, and she placed them on the bridge of her nose before smiling again. " That was a bit too much excitement for me, so why don't we continue where we left off?" Twilight asked. " I agree. We need to continue; there is a lot more to come." I answered. My time in the computer lab was a productive one. I took the footage Snips and Snails provided and produced a thirty-second video showcasing all of that upstart's embarrassing moments in the library. My aim was to show the students that she didn't fit in because of how foreign she was and that voting for her would be nothing short of an insult to this establishment. I made certain to negative the colours during still shots to further extenuate the fact that her mannerisms weren't acceptable, yet the real closer was recording some audio of me describing her in a negative light. Luckily, no one else was in the lab with me, so recording my voice using a microphone built into the monitor wouldn't bring me any unwanted attention. I did have to admit that Snips and Snails did a decent job capturing all of this for me despite their lack of intellect. Still, I planned on exploiting that weakness once the crown became mine. " Since this video is only going to be thirty seconds long, I need to go straight to the point with my explanation. That upstart is going to be humiliated in front of the entire student body by a simple video which I'll post onto YouTube once I'm finished. She'll be beside herself with horror. Everyone will be laughing behind her back, pointing fingers and freak, and she'll withdraw before the end of tomorrow." I said to myself. After spending the next twenty minutes making sure that everything in the video was up to my standards of excellence and nothing had been left out, I clicked on the record voice button below the video and began to speak. " Twilight Sparkle wants to be your Fall Formal Princess. What does it say about our school if we give someone like this such an important honour? We'd be the laughing stock of the entire school district, and she would be nothing more than sheer embarrassment. Voting for her to win the crown is just asking for trouble!" I said before clicking the same button to end the recording, satisfied with my choice of words. Upon saving my work, which took some time due to how slow the computers around school were, I decided to wait until school was finished to upload my masterpiece, as I needed to make sure it becomes available at an appropriate time. The next morning, as I entered the front doors of Canterlot High, I overheard various students talking about the video that got uploaded which portrayed the new student as being too weird for them to consider for Princess of the Fall Formal. Their additional reactions included shock, embarrassment, confusion, worry, but most of all was laughter over seeing a student who acted like an animal. I rubbed my hands with glee as my plan was working; the upstart had been humiliated! Because I knew that someone would attempt to connect this back to me, I made sure to alter my voice after I finished recording it, lowering the pitch to deepen my voice. It wasn't that I was afraid of any kind of retaliation from the upstart, since she wouldn't know the first thing about doing so. It was just a precaution I wanted to take in case my plan didn't bear any fruit. Speaking of plans, I did have something else in mind just in case she didn't withdraw from the competition, but hopefully I wouldn't have to resort to such drastic actions. " Did you see that video?" " Can't believe the new girl had the book in her mouth!" " Such a derpish look!" " A student with any brains would carry only a few books at a time, not an entire stack." " She doesn't even know how to use a copy machine." " That's nothing! She was pounding on a keyboard with her fists like she's never used one before in her life." " We should follow the advice of whoever created this video. The new girl would be nothing but an embarrassment to CHS. I know it means having to vote for Sunset Shimmer, again, but there's no one else aside from her who can be considered worthy to become our princess." Hearing all of this was just music to my ears and a reminder to myself that no one would ever oppose me, otherwise this is what would happen as a result. Thinking that everything was going to work out in the end, I proceeded to class, thinking of the crown that would soon be mine as of tomorrow night and waiting for Twilight Sparkle to withdraw from the competition. " Things didn't go that way, did they?" Twilight asked. " No, and it was due to our friends." I answered. " What did they do?" Twilight asked. " Princess Twilight was an expert on friendship, and she managed to undo the damage I created that split them up in the first place. Because she had proven to them of her intentions and exposed me as the one who broke them apart, they began to rally around her." I answered. I then turned the page of my journal, and immediately felt immense sadness over what I was looking at. When Twilight showed signs of concern, I showed her what it was, rendering her speechless. On this page was a drawing of Princess Twilight attempting to kick something, surrounded by a number of fixtures that looked like they belonged to a party scene. " This isn't what it looks like--" I began before being cut off. " Why is she destroying what I'm guessing are the decorations for the Formal?" Twilight asked. " This was a drawing I made to remind myself of what I did after it became obvious that my attempt at humiliating her failed. You see, I wanted Snips and Snails to get me more footage, which they did later that morning. Believe me when I say that I loved watching Princess Twilight struggle with what she was doing out on the field. In an act of desperation, sabotage, and playing the blame game, I framed her for something she didn't do." I answered. " I can't say that I'm surprised, Sunset; anyone in your position would resort to that. But why did you even need to go that far?" Twilight asked. That was a question I should have asked myself back then, but I didn't, because I was too consumed with wanting to ensure my victory, no matter what. Winning that crown became an unhealthy obsession with the potential to destroy me, as it was like my very life's blood was connected with claiming it. Had my heart not been twisted and filled with jealousy and malice, I could have turned the other cheek and allowed Princess Twilight to win while I humbly accepted defeat. I then thought about punishing myself again with another blow to the stomach, but I decided against that as Twilight would surely stop me. Instead, I went with something a little more direct. Placing a bookmark so as to remember where I had gotten up to, I closed the journal before gripping it firmly with both hands, and slamming it into my face with as much force as possible. " Sunset!" Twilight gasped. She grabbed the journal from my hands. My nose was bleeding, but the rest of my face was fine. " I needed to punish myself again, and punching myself in the stomach would have been a dead giveaway, so I did this instead. Don't worry, Twilight. I'm not going to do it anymore; once was enough." I said. " I would've preferred you not hit yourself at all." Twilight said, reaching into her backpack and pulling out her box of tissues. " Here! Use as many as you need to stop your nose from bleeding, and make sure none of it gets onto your clothes." Her actions, along with the concern she had about me, reminded me a lot of a motherly figure, the kind that I never really had, because my own mother ignored me in favour of my siblings. This felt so unusual to me; no one had ever shown me this type of compassion, despite having experienced compassion on previous occasions. Yet, it also felt right, so I allowed Twilight to continue doing her thing without any protest. At the same time, it was pretty funny seeing her freak out over a mere nosebleed, a reminder that while she was different from Princess Twilight, they did have some things in common, which did make me feel as though she were here, as well. " Okay! You'll have to stuff two wads of tissue, one for each nostril, into your nose until the bleeding stops. It might look embarrassing, Sunset, but it's your own fault for doing that." Twilight said. " You're right." I said, waving my hands about to admit defeat. " You agree with me?" Twilight asked. " I slammed my journal into my face to punish myself for what I did, but I have no regrets about it. It's over and done with, so I'll take my medicine accordingly until the bleeding stops." I answered. Twilight was left speechless for a moment, not knowing what to make of that. Eventually, she sighed, before thrusting two tissue wads up my nose, likely because she didn't think that I was going to do it, opting to just allow the blood to continue flowing. Even though I couldn't see it for myself, I knew I looked ridiculous. I was glad only Twilight could see this; the others would probably laugh at me, except for Fluttershy. She would have been more understanding than poking fun. " How do I sound?" I asked in a high-pitched, nasally voice. " You sound like someone who has consumed a large quantity of helium." Twilight answered, trying her best not to laugh. " It will have to do until my nose stops bleeding. Anyway, my plan to blackmail Princess Twilight did damage her reputation, yet it wasn't enough to make her want to withdraw from the competition, as she only had a short amount of time to succeed in her quest. The portal would only remain open for three nights, and by that point she had already used up one, leaving her with only two. If she failed to get the crown by that time, she would be stuck here until it opened again, naturally or no. Our friends helped her in a manner which actually made a lot of sense given how all of them, including me, formed a music band: They would rely on a song to give her a much-needed boost." I said. " A song!? Are you sure?" Twilight asked. " You could always ask them, but either way it took them the rest of the day to come up with this idea after what could only be described as a 'disastrous' game of soccer that pitted Princess Twilight against Rainbow Dash. She would learn the hard way that trying to win against an athlete like Rainbow, especially on the latter's turf, would be an impossible climb. Snips and Snails, meanwhile, took many photos as they were watching from the sidelines. I should know, because I was there witnessing the spectacle, and these new photos were about to be used to frame Princess Twilight when I began getting desperate." I answered. The next day--the Formal was to be held that night--at around the lunch period, I felt so proud of myself, due to how the video I uploaded had portrayed the upstart. If she thought that she could find a miracle and turn things around, she would merely be deluding herself, as the damage was far too severe to recover from it. I even used the conversation I had with Mrs. Cheerilee to stress that even the staff here at CHS weren't thrilled about how she had been behaving. As I made my way over to the cafeteria, my mind kept on replaying what I had witnessed the previous day when Princess Twilight was schooled by Rainbow Dash in a simple game of soccer. It didn't matter that those girls had all become friends again thanks to the actions of a "new girl"; I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her being humiliated, and humiliating herself, in the span of several minutes. I had downloaded the photos Snips and Snails took on their cellphones onto mine, though I felt at that moment that additional material wasn't needed. Unfortunately, I was about to be proven wrong. Upon reaching the double-doors which lead into the cafeteria, I could hear what sounded like students singing and dancing to music. At first I didn't pay all that much attention to it; I figured it was just them wanting to have some kind of semblance of fun. My interest quickly increased, though, upon hearing the voice of the upstart coming from within, so I peered through the glass to see what was going on in there. The students were indeed singing and dancing, all while wearing fake horse tails and horse ears. They looked ridiculous. Each of the various cliques who had stuck to themselves since I first came were all interacting with one another like my actions never meant a thing, and to top it all off, the upstart and those other girls were the ones leading the way. The same words kept on repeating in a chorus, which gave me mixed emotions: worry, anger, surprise, melancholy, and sadness, though only a tiny margin of that last one. " Jump up! Make a sound! Hey! Stomp your hooves! Turn around! Start now, make a change, gonna come around! Jump up! Make a sound! Hey! Stomp your hooves! Turn around! Canterlot Wondercolts, help her win the crown!" " Jump up! Make a sound! Hey! Stomp your hooves! Turn around! Start now, make a change, gonna come around! Jump up! Make a sound! Hey! Stomp your hooves! Turn around! Canterlot Wondercolts, help her win the crown!" I couldn't believe it! Princess Twilight was starting to bring the students together as friends, and all in an aim to prevent me from winning the crown at the Formal. My perfectly executed plan had failed! While I had damaged her chances, she had somehow eliminated three years of work just by singing one song and was starting to change the outcome into her favour. My heart began beating in a panic, as now I had to rely on one of my contingency plans, and I was hoping not to have relied on any; I thought she would have withdrawn by now. " Curse you, Twilight Sparkle! You've forced my hand!" I said to myself, and that's when I heard something coming from behind me that sounded like shuffling feet. I then turned around and witnessed Snips and Snails dancing to the song coming from the cafeteria, and somehow they had gotten themselves those ears and tails. Words alone couldn't describe how furious I was at seeing them wearing those stupid things, so I began to stare at them with a look that could kill anyone, were they to stare long enough, yet they ignored me and continued dancing. Next I began stomping my foot to get their attention, but this didn't do anything, either, as the music was drowning out my foot. I then decided to just simply berate them, as usual, as that gets their attention quite easily. " Take those off!" I shouted. " Huh?" Snails asked. " What did you say?" Snips asked. " Take those off now!" I shouted, a vein pulsating on the top of head. " How dare you two wear those things and support the likes of her? Have you betrayed me after everything I've done for you? Does this mean that you no longer have an interest in wanting power?" My questions made them think for a few moments, which was a miracle in and of itself, but eventually they both began shaking their heads, their way of showing me that they didn't mean to make me angry. They handed over the ears and tails, and I promptly stomped on them to show my frustration. " That upstart is taking all of my hard work at making everyone at this school hate each other and throwing it out the window!" " What are you going to do about it, Sunset Shimmer?" Snips asked. " I need a plan to bring her crashing down before she can convince the entire student body to vote for her." I answered. " Blackmail didn't work, so maybe something else?" Snips suggested. " Obviously blackmail didn't work. Otherwise, I wouldn't be in this mess, now would I? Gah! Just thinking about that upstart is giving me a headache! There has to be a way to outright ban her from competing without letting anyone know that I was behind it all." I answered. " Snails and I could get more dirt on her." Snips suggested. " We can follow her around some more." Snails added. " No! That isn't going to be enough anymore! She needs to be stopped entirely!" I said, my voice getting more and more insane by the second. It quickly dawned on me that all of this tension was beginning to affect me mentally, so I began calming down, breathing in and out several times. I turned my attention towards what was going on in the cafeteria, in case anyone in there heard me throwing my little temper tantrum. Luckily, they were too busy singing and dancing away, so I went unnoticed. I needed to do something before it was too late. That's when an idea popped into my head, one that was deplorable to no end but had to be done, as she had now forced my hand. Taking out my cellphone, I looked at the photos Snips and Snails took of Princess Twilight during her soccer match with Rainbow Dash, and then I looked at my minions who had blank expressions on their faces. " I have something that I want you two to do." " Name it." Snips said. " We'll get it done easily." Snails added. " Go to the gym and destroy all of those decorations." I announced. " What!?" Snips and Snails exclaimed at the same time. " I don't care how much damage you do, but I want all of it destroyed so that the Fall Formal can be delayed until tomorrow at the earliest." I said. While it sounded like I had completely lost it, there was logic behind my madness, and it came in the form of those photos of the soccer game. " While you two are on your destruction spree, I'll be taking some photos of your work myself. Then, I'll use these photos of Twilight Sparkle that you gave to me and alter them, so that it looks like she was the one who caused the destruction, not you. I'll present these altered photos to Vice Principal Luna, who, in turn, will present them to her sister, and together, they will deny that upstart her chance to compete for the crown." " Okay, but why does the Formal need to be delayed?" Snips asked. " A very good question for a change, and so I'll give you a very good answer. Twilight Sparkle can only stay here until tonight, when she'll have to leave for reasons that are far too complicated for you and anyone else, save for me, to understand. So if, by some miracle, this plan doesn't work, the Formal will be delayed by an extra day. She will have to leave, unless she wants to be stuck here from now on, and were that to happen, I'd make her life so miserable that she would seek a transfer immediately!" I answered. I knew that saying "transfer" was foolish, in theory, yet I didn't want to make the same mistake from before, when I accidentally talked about Equestria. In any case, I was pinning the upstart in-between two sharp corners, and both were closing in on her, limiting her options. " Now go! Make sure nothing can be salvaged!" I ordered, prompting the two boys to salute me yet again, but this time they didn't collide with one another, a sign that maybe they were improving. Slightly. I merely laughed out loud before following after them with my phone at the ready. " That explains the drawing." Twilight said. " I took a photo of Twilight attempting to kick the soccer ball, cropped it, and shopped it on top of a photo of the destroyed decorations. That image remained in my head even after everything was all said and done, so I made a crude drawing as a reminder of how I tried to frame Princess Twilight for a crime she didn't commit." I said. " Despite how horrible you were, at least you were thorough, right?" Twilight. " Not exactly. In my desperation of framing her, I made a mistake which absolved her of the crime, and thinking back on what that mistake was, I can't believe I'd be so stupid as to simply throw the evidence in the garbage like that." I answered. Placing my hand on the drawing, I remembered how convincing I sounded to Vice Principal Luna, and just hearing my past self pretending to act all sweet and innocent made me sick to my stomach. " By the way Twilight, can I take these wads out of my nose now? They're beginning to tickle and I feel like sneezing." " If your nose is still bleeding, I'll give you some new ones." Twilight said. I carefully pulled the wads out of each nostril before looking straight down to determine if blood would trickle down the lower part of my face and onto the journal, but no drops came, meaning my nose had run dry. " Good. Your nose has stopped, but I don't want you to do that again. Otherwise, next time, I'll have to take drastic actions." " That's what I said too..." I began. " What do you mean?" Twilight asked. " After what happened with trying to frame Princess Twilight, I would rely on drastic actions to claim the crown. I wish my plan to frame her had succeeded, as it would have meant avoiding what was about to occur that night at the Formal." I answered.