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// Krampus Is Coming to Town 
// Story: Equestria Girls Holiday Special: Wrath of the Krampus 
// by EquineAvenger 
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	Sunset Shimmer burst through the front doors of Canterlot High and ran toward the tall horse statue that stood in the snowy front lawn of the school. The outside air was cold and she had left her winter coat in her locker, but she dared not go back in there. She had just escaped from an angry mob of students who ganged up on her to shout their hateful words and rants. In the past week, a mysterious internet blogger called “Anon-a-Miss” had been posting all sorts of embarrassing secrets of people at CHS. Soon everyone, including her five best friends, started believing her to be Anon-a-Miss and shunned her. Despite her desperate pleas of innocence not a single person would listen to her, they believed she had returned to being the cruel and manipulative bully she was in the past. Sunset had been working so hard to get people to see her as a new good person but it was no use. The only one who truly believed she was innocent was her one-time rival from Equestria turned friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Unfortunately Twilight was too busy with her duties in Equestria to come and help out, so she wrote to her in a magic journal “Sometimes, all you can do is stay strong. Stay yourself. And find your family.” But at this point it was too late; Sunset had already lost all hope. 
After a few minutes of crying Sunset reached into her bag, pulled out her journal, and began writing an entry:
Dear Princess Twilight,
I’m sorry, but I’m afraid it’s no use. I tried to follow your suggestions but I’m afraid there isn’t a single soul who will believe that I am innocent, or have changed at all for that matter. I could save this world hundreds of times and they still wouldn’t see me as anything but a monster. Whoever my family is they’re not here. I’d ask if I could return to Equestria but I doubt any pony would want me there either. I don’t understand why this had to happen. It’s not fair. All this pain, hatred, this holiday season, and Anon-a-Miss. I JUST WISH IT WOULD ALL GO AWAY! Sorry for that. I think the best thing to do right now is leave. I’m sure everything will be better without me; no one will probably notice I’m gone. Please don’t worry about me; you have more important things to worry about. And so with my last entry: I thank you and the others for showing me how good it is to have friends; it was fun while it lasted.
Your Friend,
Sunset Shimmer
With that, Sunset closed the journal and placed it on the statue base. She then began walking away from the school vowing never to return. She failed to notice that the sky had quickly changed from clear and bright to cloudy and dark, perhaps she was too sad and hurt to notice. However, she did notice the air suddenly got windy and colder and wrapped her arms around her body to protect herself from the cold. 

Back in Equestria, Twilight had just read Sunset’s recent entry and was shocked and disturbed. “Spike! Get the portal ready, it’s an emergency!” the purple alicorn called to her young dragon assistant. There was no time to waste. 
A half hour later, Twilight and Spike emerged from the statue base (which serves as the portal from that world to Equestria), the former in human form and the latter in puppy form.
“I hope we’re not too late.” Twilight said to her assistant.
“I’m afraid we might be, look!” Spike responded pointing his paw to the book sitting on top of the portal. 
Twilight gasped in horror when she saw the journal. She grabbed it and stared at it with worry in her eyes. “It can’t be!” she exclaimed in fear. She knew the first thing to do was to clear Sunset’s name. She had to find the Humane Five and she had a good idea where they were at this time. “Come on, Spike!” she called to her pup companion as they started running down the sidewalk away from the school. Unbeknownst to them, three young girls with guilty looking faces had watched Twilight’s arrival and they knew where she was going and why.

The Humane Five: Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were all sitting at a table at the Sugarcube Café. They were all depressed over how bad the Anon-a-Miss issue had gotten, they still very convinced that their former friend, Sunset Shimmer, was the true culprit. Suddenly, someone they didn’t expect to see burst into the café huffing and puffing with exhaustion from running so much.
“Twilight?!” they all gasped together.
“What are you doing here?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“I know about Anon-a-Miss. Sunset told me everything. What have you all done?!” Twilight yelled at them.
“What do you mean ‘what have WE done’? Sunset’s the one responsible for this.” Rainbow Dash responded angrily.
“You’re wrong! Sunset is innocent, she’s been writing to me about her problems.” Twilight handed them Sunset’s journal. Fluttershy took the journal and began reading its contents. “Please ask yourselves: After all the time you’ve been together, why would the Sunset Shimmer you know, the REAL Sunset Shimmer, do something like this?” Twilight continued.
As the five read the sad entries Sunset had written they began to doubt themselves for thinking Sunset was Anon-a-Miss. 
“Well if it wasn’t her, then who was it?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“It was us.” said a voice from behind Twilight. The six girls turned to see the Crusaders; Apple Bloom, Applejack’s younger sister, Sweetie Belle, Rarity’s younger sister, and Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash’s biggest fan; staring at them with extremely guilty looks on their faces.
“WHAT?!” the five older girls gasped when they heard this.
“Apple Bloom, how could you?!” AJ cried.
“We never wanted it to go this far.” Apple Bloom said.
“Then what did you want?” Twilight asked.
“Well ya see, ever since ya’ll became friends with Sunset, we’ve been seein’ our sisters less and less. Ah was jealous, so ah created Anon-a-Miss, posted that story about Applejack, and made it look like Sunset Shimmer did it.”
“Apple Bloom told me about it and I felt the same way.” Sweetie Belle confessed. “At Rarity’s, while you all were asleep, I downloaded the pictures on Sunset’s phone and posted them on the internet.”
Scootaloo was next. “Things got out of hand. People started sending other secrets to her, we posted everything.” Tears started forming in Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle’s eyes.
“Did any of you even think about how this would affect anyone? Why didn’t you just talk to your sisters about how you felt?” Twilight asked.
The three younger girls thought for moment. Then a mixture of shame and anxiety spread over their faces. “Ah… ah don’t know.” Apple Bloom answered softly and tearfully.
“Well now Sunset is gone. In her last entry, she told me that she had lost hope and decided to run away.” Twilight showed them the entry in the journal. “I came to stop her but I was too late.”
Horror and regret swept over the eight girls, particularly the five. They were wrong about Sunset Shimmer, she was innocent.
“Sunset was telling the truth all along!” Fluttershy said visibly disturbed.
“WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!” Pinkie cried and whipped out her cellphone and dialed Sunset’s number. “Oh please answer, please answer, please ANSWER!” But the sudden change in weather had made it impossible to reach her. “Something’s wrong, I can’t get through!”
“What are we going to do?” Rarity asked, she looked like she was about to panic.
“We need help.” Twilight told everyone and she knew where to get it.

Later that day, the school auditorium was filled with students all chanting with one another wondering why they were all called there. Finally Principal Celestia walked onto the stage with her sister, Vice Principal Luna, at her side and everyone quieted down and gave them their full attention.
“I know a lot of you are wondering why you were all called here.” Celestia began, “It’s because a few students have something important they would like to tell you all.” Celestia stepped back and motioned to the Crusaders who were standing in the back of the stage that it was their turn to come forward and speak. The three walked nervously to the microphone. Apple Bloom was the one who took the mike and began to speak.
“Now ah know some of you have had your most darkest secrets posted on the internet by Anon-a-Miss. A lot of you have come to believe that it is Sunset Shimmer who’s been doin’ that.” She paused for a moment then continued. “Well it’s not her it’s us, it’s always been us.”
A few students chuckled and laughed when they heard this. They didn’t believe them.
“Yeah right, Trixie doubts even you could pull this off.” Trixie said smugly.
Sweetie Belle took out her phone, held it up so she could get the other two in the picture, took the picture, tinkered with it for a minute, and then put her phone away. The audience started checking their phones and to everyone’s shock there was a new post for Anon-a-Miss’s blog which contained the picture Sweetie Belle had taken of herself and her friends with the words It was us in the message box.
Now the students believed them and they were very angry.
“You little troublemakers!” shouted an angry techie boy.
“How could you do this to us?” yelled an angry rocker girl.
“Wait, this means-“ Lyra Heartstrings said nervously to her friend Bon-Bon.
“Sunset was innocent all along!” Bon-Bon finish Lyra’s sentence, she looked just as nervous as her friend.
“Oh my god! I regret so much now!” an athlete boy said remorsefully.
Twilight and the other five were standing at the right side of the stage; the five girls were looking extremely remorseful for what they did to their friend. Then Twilight stepped on stage, she had something to say now. Apple Bloom handed Twilight the mike and she and the other two Crusaders walked off stage.
“So now you know the truth.” Twilight began. “I want you all to know that this isn’t just their fault. Some of you thought this was cool and contributed to this mess by sending secrets to Anon-a-Miss. Then you ruthlessly blamed Sunset Shimmer for everything even though she apologized for her past deeds, worked so hard to atone for them, and saved the entire school from the Dazzlings. Don’t you think this grudge against her has gone on long enough? Don’t you think it’s time to let it go? I’ve found it in my heart to forgive Sunset for her mistakes and she is one of my best friends, why can’t you?”
Twilight’s speech moved everyone in the room. They felt so ashamed of the way they had treated Sunset. She truly hadn’t done a single bad thing since the Fall Formal; in fact, she’s tried to do some rather nice things for people. A few students began to cry from the guilt they felt. 
“Well, I believe each and every one of you owes Sunset Shimmer an apology!” Vice Principal Luna sternly told the crowd.
“Slight problem.” Rainbow Dash told Luna nervously. 
“SHE’S RUN AWAY!” Pinkie said so loud that the entire audience heard it and gasped.
“WHAT?!” said Celestia.
“Is she nuts?! With this sudden change in weather it’s dangerous!” one of the techie boys, Micro Chips, said.
“Then we can’t waste any time.” Twilight announced. “We should gather whatever supplies we need and begin searching for her.”
“You heard her, let’s go!” Celestia told everyone.
Soon all the students started scrambling to their lockers grabbing coats, mittens, hats, scarves, and flashlights. Principal Celestia made her way to her office to grab her winter gear, she wasn’t going to sit by and leave everything to her students this time. Soon several groups of students were leaving the school to begin their search for Sunset. Twilight, Spike, the Humane Five, and the Crusaders were the last ones out.
“I’m gonna go to my house to tell Maud about this.” Pinkie said. “We may need her help.”
“Apple Bloom and ah will head home to tell Big Mac and Granny Smith.” AJ replied. “We may need all the help we can get.”
With that, the three girls headed in their own directions. The rest of the group stayed together. 
“We should probably search the town. Odds are Sunset may be there.” Rarity suggested.
“You’re probably right.” Rainbow agreed.
“Come on girls, let’s go.” Twilight said leading the group in the direction of the town. 
While they were walking, Fluttershy was still weeping pretty hard. She remembered the last time she spoke to Sunset she accused her of pretending to be their friend the whole time. Now that she knew the truth, she was consumed with regret over saying those cruel words. “Even if we find Sunset, it’ll be a miracle if she forgives us.” She tearfully said to herself.

Little did anyone know, was that they were all being watched. An image of them walking toward the town appeared in what looked like a crystal ball in a dark unknown place. Only it wasn’t a crystal ball, it was a snow globe. Then a large skinny grey-skinned hand with bony claw-like fingers and sharp fingernails emerged from the darkness and touched the snow globe. 
“Oh, it will be a miracle my dear child.” said an ominous and threatening voice as it watched the girls through the globe. “If any of you survive what I have in store for YOU!” and the hand ran its sharp tipped fingers across the globe scratching the glass.