• Member Since 12th Aug, 2017
  • offline last seen February 22nd

chris the cynic


Someone who doesn't know how to describe herself, is always struggling with debilitating depression, and won't stop hanging onto the hope that happy endings are possible.

T

This story is a sequel to Anon-a-Miss


So much has happened, and most people are still focused on the debacle. They aren't asking "What now?" or "What next?" but it's not mistakes, tragedies, and trauma that define people, it's what comes after them.

Before winter break, three little sisters framed Sunset Shimmer for spreading everyone's secrets across the internet under the name Anon-a-Miss. Sunset didn't figure out who was behind the account in time. The sirens were incorrectly suspected. Rainbow Dash felt a betrayer went unpunished. Gilda served up misdirected vengeance and called it justice.

When Sunset was left to die, two people she thought wanted nothing to do with her, Snips and Snails, were the ones to help her. Then the truth came out, punishment was doled out, and injuries slowly healed.

That's all come and gone.

Winter break will soon be over and the only certainty is that whatever comes next will be nothing like it would have been if the Anon-a-Miss incident hadn't taken place.


At the end of Dainn's version of the Anon-a-Miss story, adapted from the execrable Equestria Girls Holiday Special, Dainn gave permission anyone who wanted to do "spin-offs, alternate endings, or whatever" provided credit was given.

This takes as canon Dainn's story all the way through the last chapter proper but not the epilogue. I wanted to include the epilogue but a detail I'd forgotten means that it doesn't fit my timeline, so I'm going to have to rewrite it to fit with my story. It'll flow better this way anyway.

It should be possible to read this on its own, but you're a Hell of a lot less likely to feel like you've jumped in the deep end before learning how to swim if you go and read all 13 regular chapters of Dainn's story, and if you're doing that you might as well read Dainn's epilogue chapter as well even though it's not canon for this. So, you know, go and read that story.

Chapters (2)
Comments ( 44 )

I hope Sunset becomes friends with sci twi, and helps her thru socailing with others welll...not the CHS theyc an go BUCK themselves.

I also hope to see certain details on the CMC and the students who attack Sunset suffer, I mean all the events prom dances and other activities are canceled now.
Due to what happened, sure they be just as hated as the CMC will be, and really hope the CMC get harsh punishments from thier parents and families i do mean harsh!

8396348

Or the CMC get sent to other cities, separate, to avoid getting attacked outside of school.

I love this story already!
Keep it up!
I really enjoyed that astrology scene too.

I forgot to add this.

i love the fact this is a aftermath story, not many of them really, while i know the mine five and CMC are not the main base of the story do hope theya re mention or a few scenes with them.
Like to see how bad things are for them now, will Apple Jack and Rarity families get sued, or more problems, how the parents for the ones that attacked Susnet reacted, sure happy their kids not going to jail, and greatful for the second chance.
But bet they really letting thier kids have it, and how bad Rainbow screwed things up for herself with her sin.

Does she quit the sport teams she part of or kicked out, and how the others act around her.

This has been wonderful to read so far. It doesn't feel rushed, it doesn't feel forced, and most of all it doesn't feel like a sequel just for the sake of doing a sequel and getting some easy Likes. There is world-building, there are new developments and there isn't every loose end of the previous story crammed into the first chapter.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of this and I certainly hope you will keep writing on it.

Please go on, I wanna see what happens next.

And maybe Princess Twilight calling out the Mane 5, if not to drag them to Tartarus.

Seems like Sunset missed out on the best strategy in the first movie, throwing an astronomy book at Twilight. She'd get curious and read it which would lead to either her getting too interested in the subject to pursue Sunset or hit her with a massive wave of cosmic horror, making her realize just how insignificant she and Equestria are on a cosmic scale and shut down for awhile.

Very fun start. I'll eagerly await the next.

8396348
One of my preferred punishments has always been let the unwrap their presents before returning them the next day.

One thing I wanna see? Twilight ripping the Rainbooms for what they did.

You know what I don't remember seeing in any Anon-A-Miss story yet?

One where a breakup between them didn't lead to some form of cosmic punishment for Sunset's former friends. One where they might feel bad for a time, but in the end, they had years of hating each other due to Sunset manipulating them all. Sunset can live without them, but so can they live without her.

Life goes on.

8421628
We don't know how long they were broken up because of Sunset, or even how long she's been at the school. All we know is that they were friends freshman year and were broken up by the first movie, which is sophomore or junior year. Also, Sunset broke most of them up with a single message (onky Rarity took longer) and none of them even attempted to talk it out or even talk to their other friends about it and have them figure out what happened. It took Sunset telling them they were being assholes at the end of Rainbow Rocks for them to realize that they were kind of shitty friends that never talk anything out (though they did learn from this in canon, in the comic they completely forgot).

It's actually pretty rare for anything that could be considered cosmic punishment showing up in these fics. Heck, in Dainn's, which this is a sequel to, it ended basically with what you wanted to see. Also, there's a fic called Life Goes On which is basically that as well.

8434929
On the contrary. Most have them berated and humiliated in front of Celestia and Luna, or even the entire school. Moreover, no, the fic this is based on did not end that way. Sunset was shown to move forward. We have no idea about the others.

8434944
Applejack made it pretty clear they were moving on, only Rainbow was left in the air, but she was responsible for Sunset being tortured and nearly killed. Also, they are pretty much almost never humiliated (Celestia and Luna are all over the place if they're even included, and definitely not in front of the whole school). Besides, them feeling bad for completely driving away someone they called family without even giving Sunset a chance to defend herself, sometimes driving her to attempt suicide, and hating her for at least a week, isn't cosmic punishment, it's a normal reaction.

8434982
We seem to have read very different stories, you and I.

8421628
8434929
I, personally, am not up for stories that end badly. Real life provides me all the downers I could need. So I haven't read the ones where Sunset goes full demon and there's a reckoning of that sort, since they tend to come with a disclaimer along the lines of, "No happy ending here; move along." In the ones I have read the consequences range from forgiveness to harsh language. I think the absolute worst I've seen befall the human five is expulsion in one ending of a story that had three endings to pick from.

That's not to discount a story I read where Celestia comes to earth and pulls an enraged sun goddess, but it must be remembered that in that one divine wrath was meted out to supernatural forces who were simply taking advantage of the Anon-a-Miss debacle and the humans were merely scared. That's what I tend to see befall them from external forces: intimidation. Or, if their consequences are internal, self loathing.

There is an ongoing (thus incomplete) one where it looks like they might have to face an angry Celestia who may intend to use god-powers to drag them to Equestria (since there are no extradition treaties in place.)

So far, though, I personally haven't read them getting cosmic comeuppance no matter how many cosmic powers they may piss off.


I'm interested in which stories both of you have read, if you'd care to share them.


For this story the focus is going to be very much on Sunset. It's not going to be about the human five (five because human-Twilight isn't part of their group) or the CMC. It's about what happens to and around Sunset moving forward.

8435100
Not quite what I meant with the "cosmic" part. Think more them losing any and all magic abilities for how they treated Sunset, for example, or the Dazzlings parading in out of nowhere just to jeer how much worse they (the Mane Five) are than them. Punishment where it's not clear if it happens for narrative purposes or because the author thinks they should get some.

I'll try to see if I can find the names of those stories again. Truth be told, at some point, I stopped reading Anon-A-Miss stories because they seemed to all come in the mold of the accusation or revenge fic.

8435160
In that case, yup, seen that. Less than an hour ago I looked back at one where Twilight strips them of their connection to the Elements of Harmony, because that's totally a power Twilight has. (Especially outside her native plane of existence while inhabiting a body with no innate magic.)

And I'm definitely there with you on things seeming to be more of the same. Part of why Hell and High Water has my attention is that it's manifestly different. It doesn't start off all that different as it's unashamedly part of the Dainn multiverse, so it seems like it's following the same rails (with a leaning toward Silent Night by cerealkiller78) other than Rainbow siding with Sunset, then it hits chapter five and it's so far from on a rail with the others that you're not even sure you're on a train anymore.

I think a big part of why I decided to actually start writing here is that the whole reason I ended up reading more and more of the Anon-a-Miss stories was because I wanted to a story that answered the question, "And then what?" (Or several stories that gave different answers.) You don't find a lot of that.

Almost, though not quite, everything ends in the same place. Sunset's innocence is established, people who ought to feel bad about what they did do, story stops. Sometimes there's basically no consequences for anyone other than the crusaders (see the original comic for the founding example) sometimes there's disproportionate consequences, but the story runs out regardless.

My interest in the story, however, has only just begun. (This is actually a common problem for me, when I'm fully invested and ready for more tends to be when most story tellers stop telling the story. Half the time I feel like it would have been beneficial to skip much of the actual content to reach that point where I'm engaged sooner.)

For the human five there's a support structure built in. They have each other. Their relationships might not be particularly healthy (one text and they're up in smoke) but they're there. No matter what, you can be pretty sure they'll, at the very least, muddle on together. Probably they'll do better than that. For Sunset, if you don't go with "Instant reconciliation, just add water", that's not there. Things need to change, but apparently very few people are interested in telling the story of that change.

I mean, I get the desire to tread the same territory with a thousand "what if"s. It's fun to change one thing and watch the cascade of alteration. Whether it's suited for storytelling instead of navel gazing is something I won't touch, but I see the appeal. I do it in my own head.

Taking Dainn's version alone, what if Sunset made it to the portal? What if, in a version where at least one friend stuck with her, a friend made it to the portal but she didn't? What if when she woke up in the factory she immediately willed herself to sleep and started screaming for Princess Luna in the resulting dream? What if someone in the angry mob tried to stop the escalation (it's not like any of them set out to commit murder.) What if Twilight were worried about Sunset not getting back in touch with her and crossed the portal to look for Sunset? What if . . .

I've put thought into these things and more, but it's ultimately more of the same and it doesn't answer the question of, "Then what?"

This story, hopefully, will.

8435005
8435100
Rocket To Insanity, EqG Showcase #1, Shut Up and Dance, Pony Polka Power, Where are You Christmas?, An Anon-A-Miss Tale, Submissive, The Tale of Team SASA, Sunset After Dark, The Phoenix's Guardian, Let's Rock 'n' Roll, Zodiac Destroyer, Return of the Dazzlings, A Bittersweet Life, Pain on Christmas, Road Towards Redemption, New Family Bond, Circus of Pretending, Crooked, Fate/sunet, HATRED special, and Sunrise are the ones I haven't read (some I used shorter names for). I've read everything else in the group (though I did drop a a few of them, I've read almost all of them fully).

8437055
Thanks for sharing. It looks like you and I have similar tastes in what we don't read. As for what we do read . . . you've definitely read more of these than I have if those are the only ones you haven't.

8435364
Thanks for the compliment. Glad to have your attention. I'm at work right now, so can't read this just yet, but I'll be sure to as soon as I get out. :heart:

Kay is the laziness going to be put aside and this thing finally updated?

So, how are the Rainbooms dealing with the holiday season?

"After the most recent ancient threat that everyone had conveniently forgotten about in spite of it being critically important to understanding the early years of Equestria," Twilight said, "the original Revised Edition was made obsolete. By this time next year they'll doubtless need to make a New New Revised Edition."

"Probably," Sunset said.

Hoho! Shots f*cking fired! :rainbowlaugh:

It's good to see Sunset having a good talk with Twilight, to chat and banter like friends do. And even managed to learn some new things as a result.

All I know is none of them are having much of a Merry Christmas as they are drowning in guilt.

8507012
Not even sure they be mention all that much.
Hope they are, and yeah,,,,,Even if Sunset forgives them, it doesn't mean she wants to be friends with them.
Maybe they are going thru the same thing like in tht other short fics based on the aftermath.

Love the is story
Hope to see more of it especially interactions with the sirens lol

Oh, glad to see another update!
Part of me was starting to worry.

“You're sure you're alright?” Twilight asked for the eleventy-first time.

What is dis? the 11'th the 1'st the 111'th im confused...

I collect quotations, not sure why, I just do. Even really bad fic often has some good lines, and good fic tends to have oodles.

I used to do that. Don't remember what happened to my collection.

8594604
Technically the one hundred and eleventh, but here used figuratively so it just means that Twilight has already asked the question a lot.

"Eleventy" is a term that many children come up with on their own by using the pattern of forty (four-ty), Sixty, Seventy, Eighty, and Ninety and applying it to eleven. The most prestigious use of "eleventy" is probably Bilbo leaving the the shire (and leaving the ring to Frodo) on his eleventy-first birthday in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

8595659

ah ok thx 4 clearing that up.

You know what has a great headstart? Your story (I mean it in a good way don't worry, your story your rules right?).

Only with 2 chapters, I'm concinced so far that you will make something good for the next chapters, as the talks with Luna and Twilight are fine.
Also I hope you'll get some recognition from Dainn or the people here.

So keep going, as waiting is worth for me ^^.

Is this getting an update any time soon? This is really good!

9880836
I hope it will. The fact that it's something I hope rather than something that I know doesn't exactly inspire confidence, though.

The next chapter should be ridiculously easy to write, since it's simply this universe's version of Dainn's epilogue. That hasn't helped me get it written. Beyond the depression that's been throwing a wrench in everything for years on end, there are a couple other things working against getting the story updated.

One is that my mind tends to want to jump ahead (for example, I've had the start of chapter five written for . . . I'm not even sure at this point. A year and a half? Two years? Longer?), which doesn't get me any closer to releasing the next chapter, the other is that, at the moment, I seem to be afflicted with bronchitis. (I'm finding that, while it's not as obvious about it as some things, a chest cold can definitely screw up cognition enough to impair writing.)

Do you plan to continue this?

10082013
Yes. My depression has been very bad for a very long time, hence the lack of progress on my stories, but I haven't abandoned this (or any of the others.)

10082313
Good to know and I hope it gets better soon.

10082313
Salut!!! here a French fan 🇨🇵!!! I sincerely hope you are feeling better!!! I can't wait to see the sequel! especially the character of Luna!!!! a nugget!!! gold eh no chickens 😅 I just saw that the Translation of nuggets 1 is nuggets 2 whereas in French they are two different words! 1=something valuable. 2 = a piece of breaded chicken 🤣🤣

I wish this would be finished.

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