Princess Twilight Sparkle stepped out of the portal and stretched both her arms and legs. She then took a moment to wiggle her fingers in front of her.
“Still so weird,” she observed. She had been studying the portal, but it was a mystery even to this day. But enough pondering. She came here to help Sunset Shimmer. She just hoped she was able to. Looking up at the school, Twilight stepped towards it, hoping to meet this world’s equivalent of her friends.
XXX
“Why?” Applejack asked her sister. Applebloom was silent, staring down at the floor, filled with guilt. “Why did you do it, Applebloom?”
“I...” Applebloom started.
“Do you girls have any ideas what you put us through? What you put the school through?” Rarity demanded.
“I’m sorry,” Sweetie Belle apologized.
“What were you thinking!?” Rainbow Dash demanded angrily.
“We just...we just wanted you to spend more time with us!” Scootaloo confessed.
“What do you mean?” Applejack asked.
“Ever since you all became friends with Sunset Shimmer, it’s like you forgot how bad a person she used to be! She did terrible things, and yet you forgave her and made her your friend! And then you started spending more time with her instead of...instead of us...” Applebloom said.
“We didn’t forget what she did, but she’s earned our forgiveness a long time ago. Or have you all conveniently forgotten about the time she saved everyone from the Dazzlings?” Rarity asked.
“Saved our friendship too,” added Rainbow Dash as she blew a lock of hair out of her face. “Believe it or not.”
“So, how did you do it?” Applejack asked.
“I stole Sunset’s phone and took the pictures from it,” Applebloom admitted.
“I took Raritiy’s phone too and downloaded all the photos from it too,” confessed Sweetie Belle.
“I helped them to set up the Anon-A-Miss account and make it look like Sunset did it,” Scootaloo finished. “We thought that if we made it look like Sunset was Anon-A-Miss, we could drive her away.”
“Well, it didn’t work,” Pinkie Pie crossed her arms.
“You know, we were so angry and embarrassed that we wanted to confront Sunset Shimmer about anonymous. When we managed to find her, well, she kinda threw us off guard,” said Applejack. The confusion caused the anger to evaporate and allowed them to talk calmly. Also, none of them could just yell at a unicorn pony. It just felt weird.
“How did Sunset convince you of her innocence anyway?” Celestia asked, curious.
“We actually believed she was Anon-A-Miss, until we stopped to think. I mean, until the Fall Formal, Sunset was able to make sure she never got caught. This Anon-A-Miss just seemed too obvious to be her. It was too convenient. It just didn’t feel like it was her doing if it made her our main suspect. Targeting us immediately would’ve been too obvious as well. She could’ve just started slow with students she wasn’t close with and then include us at some point. Unless she got sloppy, which Sunset rarely does, this just didn’t seem like her work at all,” Rarity said.
“Yeah, Sunset was too smart to get caught doing anything, even when she was mean to everybody,” agreed Pinkie Pie.
The Crusaders kept silent. Figures that Sunset Shimmer would be able to get herself out of this mess. She always did.
“Now that we’ve managed to expose Anon-A-Miss, we gotta fix the school,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Fix the school?” Scootaloo asked.
“Do you have any idea what you put everyone through?” Applejack asked as the Crusaders wilted under her gaze. “You’ve got everyone at each other’s throats and they’re all using Sunset as a scapegoat. You three are just as bad as a Dazzlings, maybe even worse than Sunset Shimmer ever was!”
To be compared to the Dazzlings and Sunset Shimmer when she was bad felt like a punch in the gut.
“So, what do we do?” Scootaloo asked.
“Come clean,” Rainbow Dash concluded. “Come clean and clear Sunset Shimmer’s name.”
The Crusaders cried out.
“We can’t do that!” Applebloom shouted.
“Everyone will kill us!” Scootaloo cried.
“They won’t forgive us!” Sweetie Belle yelled.
“So, you’re just going to let an innocent girl take the blame for your actions, is that it?” Vice-Principal Luna asked.
“If the three of you won’t confess, we’ll have to inform the students,” Celestia said. “And then administer punishment. But you have a chance to make things right. Don’t make another mistake that will ruin someone’s life.”
The Crusaders looked at each other. They were hesitant. They looked up to their older sisters who looked down at them, cross and expectantly.
“...Fine, we’ll confess,” sighed Applebloom.
“...Besides, this has gone far enough,” said Sweetie Belle.
“...Ditto. It’s just not as fun as we thought it would be,” added Scootaloo.
“I’ll make an announcement to have an assembly held. You will then confess and make a public apology. Is that understood?” Celestia asked.
The Crusaders silently nodded.
“Well, now that that’s taken care of, we should really call Sunset and tell her the good news!” Pinkie Pie smiled.
There was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” Celestia permitted.
The door opened and Twilight poked her head in, “Um, excuse me?”