Chapter 12
The recording stopped, and the four members of the Rainbooms stood stunned. Pinkie was holding Fluttershy, who was crying into her shoulder, while Applejack and Rarity stared at the phone in disbelief.
"Ah... Ah can't believe it," Applejack whispered. "My own kin..."
"Wh-What have we done?" Rarity said, tears starting to run down her cheeks and ruin her make-up. "She told the truth... Everything she said was the truth. She’s innocent, and we..."
"We tossed her aside," Pinkie finished for her, her hair going limp as she comforted Fluttershy, who only started crying louder.
They remained at their positions, letting what they did to their friend sink in, as the last member of the group arrived.
"Hey, guys! Sorry for the wait. Old Cranky held me up longer than I thought, and..." Finally noticing the state her friends were in, Rainbow Dash’s rambling trailed off. "Hey, what's going on? What happened?" Seeing Applejack still holding her phone, her gaze hardened. "Did Sunset post something again? Why, that little—"
"NO!" Rainbow recoiled in surprise at Fluttershy’s shout and subsequent glare. “Don’t you dare say anything about her, not after everything we… we…” Unable to end her sentence, her tears returned with force, and she returned to crying into Pinkie's shoulder.
Applejack shook her head. "Rainbow, did ya listen to Sunset's message?"
Rainbow huffed and crossed her arms. "No, and I’m not going to. I deleted it yesterday after I went home."
The others stared at Rainbow in surprise, not believing what they heard. True, they didn't listen to it until just now, but they at least tried to and ended up keeping the message. Applejack shook her head again and sighed. "Rainbow, we made a huge mistake. Sunset’s—"
Applejack was interrupted by a commotion around them. Looking around, they soon spotted the source. Near the base of the Wondercolt statue facing the building stood a very familiar girl, one they knew had not been there seconds earlier.
"Twilight!" Rainbow grinned and ran up to the girl, while her friends, unbeknownst to her, shared worried looks before following. Twilight turned in their direction upon hearing Rainbow’s voice, and their worries were confirmed when they saw the scowl on her face. Rainbow, however, was too focused on making her way past their fellow students, who had crowded around to greet their friend and savior, to realize that she was running to her doom.
"Girls," Twilight greeted curtly once the group reached her, the usual kindness missing from her voice. Most of the group remained silent, looking at anything else besides Twilight. Oblivious, Rainbow instead kept talking.
"It's so good to see you, Twi. We could really use your help. Sunset’s gone bad again."
"Rainbow..." Applejack said from behind, trying to stop the girl, but Rainbow continued.
"She went and started spreading secrets about us and tons of other students on the internet. There are fights starting everywhere! The entire school is breaking down again thanks to her."
"Dash, knock it off," Applejack hissed more urgently from behind.
"Not now, AJ. Anyway, I admit I screwed up somewhere, but in the end, all of that is Sunset's fault. She’s been playing us all this time, pretending to be our friend only to betray us!"
"Rainbow!" Applejack grabbed Rainbow’s shoulders from behind. Rainbow had been so caught up in her explanation that she didn't pay attention to Twilight's expression, which grew darker with every word Rainbow said. Applejack and the others did, however, and they slowly took steps back from the infuriated girl.
Rainbow shrugged off Applejack’s arm. "Hold on, AJ! Whatever it is can wait.” Rainbow turned back to Twilight. “So, Twi, do you think you can help us with that traitor, or—"
The student body stared in shocked silence as Twilight slapped Rainbow Dash hard enough to jerk her head to the side, the crack resounding throughout the courtyard.
"Rainbow!" Fluttershy exclaimed, her hands covering her mouth. She and her friends rushed across the short distance to stand beside her friend. Rainbow herself remained still, her eyes wide open in surprise while her mind tried to make sense out of what happened. After several long moments, she moved her left hand to touch her cheek and flinched upon making contact before she turned her head to look at Twilight.
"Talk about her like that one more time, Rainbow Dash, and I will forget that she asked me to go easy on you," Twilight growled.
Rainbow gaped at Twilight with wide eyes, doing her best impression of a fish. “But… why? Why would you defend her after everything she did?”
“I’m aware of everything that happened, or did you forget the journal she uses to keep in contact with me? And what exactly did she do?” Twilight asked sharply, poking Rainbow hard in the chest with her finger. “She did everything she could do to make up for her past mistakes, and she helped to save your sorry asses from the sirens! And you rewarded her by stabbing her in the back and twisting the knife! And don’t even get me started on what’s going on with Gilda!” She shifted her attention to the rest of the group. “And you’re no better, you—”
“Twilight… We know who it is…” Applejack admitted just loud enough for the princess to hear. “We listened to the message Sunset sent us…”
Twilight’s glare softened lightly. "You did?" She received nods from all four girls, neither of them looking her in the eyes. She looked at Rainbow, who was looking from one of her friends to the next, confusion written on her face. "And Rainbow didn't, I suppose?"
Applejack nodded again. "She... deleted it without listening to it. We were just about to tell her when you arrived, and—"
"Stop," Twilight interrupted. She remained silent for several long seconds before she pointed at Rainbow. "You are staying here. The rest are coming with me. And don't even think about following and listening in, Rainbow, or your cheek will be the least of your problems."
Rainbow stared at the princess and gulped before nodding. Twilight walked off to the side, away from any listeners, with the rest of the Rainbooms following her. Once she was far enough away, she turned around.
"Where are they?" she asked. None of the girls needed to ask who she was talking about.
"I saw them going into the auditorium before we met," Pinkie said, her voice quiet and several strands of greyish-pink hair hanging over her face.
"Why would you let them walk inside if you—" Twilight asked, before she stopped and narrowed her eyes. "You only listened to it shortly before I arrived, didn’t you?" Upon receiving several nods, Twilight groaned. "I didn't want to believe it when Sunset told me about it, but you really don't trust her at all! Not even enough to listen to a recording that proved her innocence!
"What would you have done if I hadn’t shown up? Walk in and get them out? Good luck with that, because the faculty know about them and won't let them get away, and if you talk about it in there, someone will hear it.
"You could have stopped them if you had listened to the recording when you had gotten it, but you didn't give Sunset the benefit of the doubt, and now, it's too late." Each of the girls was devastated upon hearing Twilight's words. Pinkie was holding Fluttershy, who went back to crying on her shoulder, while Applejack had pulled her hat down over her face. Tears were streaming down Rarity's cheeks, but soon, she shook her head and stepped forward, her hands folded together.
"Please, Twilight, there must be something we can do!" she begged. "They made a huge mistake, but they are kids. Can't they get one last chance?"
Twilight stood still, her arm crossed with her eyes closed. She did her best to stay strong, but after several long moments, she sighed. "I'm willing to talk to Sunset about giving them one last chance," she began, "but only under two conditions.
"First, you are not allowed to talk to them and tell them to confess before the assembly. If they are confessing, it must be from them realizing they messed up. There will be consequences for them, but at least they will have come forward themselves, which might lighten their punishment."
Rarity looked at Applejack to see her reaction. Since it's their sisters all of this is about, the decision lay with them. Applejack sighed. "Ah guess that's the best we can ask for."
Rarity nodded. "I don't like it, but I agree." She turned back to look at the princess. "And what is that second condition?"
"You are not going to tell Rainbow Dash who Anon-a-Miss is."
All four girls stared at the princess in shock. "Ya can't be serious, Twi. Why should she not know who it is?"
"Oh, she’ll know soon enough," Twilight said. "She has made it clear enough that she doesn't care in the slightest if Sunset might be innocent. From what I learned, she was the most aggressive towards Sunset. She punched her in the face, is at least partly responsible for what happened with Gilda, threatened the other Sunset with violence too when they met the first time, and to top it off, she immediately deleted the proof Sunset gave you all without listening to it, thinking she was up to something, and she bad-mouthed to my face. You four at least didn't get violent and listened to the recording, albeit a bit late, but if that’s how she treats Sunset, then she will learn the truth at the assembly, like the rest of the school, without any forewarning.
“Those are my conditions, and I want you to Pinkie Promise that you will follow them. Keep in mind that I can only promise to talk with Sunset and the others, but not that they will agree." The four girls huddled together to discuss the matter, but soon enough, they agreed and, with the necessary gestures, promised to follow the conditions. "Good. Make sure to not break your promise, or you’ll have to deal with Pinkie Pie."
The group looked at each other in confusion. "No offense, darling, but is it right to expect Pinkie to 'deal' with us and herself?" Rarity asked.
"Who said anything about your Pinkie?"
It didn't take long for the Rainbooms to understand the implication, and they all paled while thinking about the possible consequences.
"L-Let's make sure to keep this promise..." Pinkie said quietly. The others nodded in agreement.
"Twilight!"
All of them turned in the direction of the voice to see one of the Sunsets walking up to them, several bruises visible on her face and dirt clinging to her clothes. Upon arrival, she focused on the princess, totally ignoring the Rainbooms. "It’s good to see you. Let's get inside. Sunset went ahead to see if her parents had arrived yet."
"Alright, but what happened to you?" Twilight asked, looking over her friend in concern.
"Gilda. I’ll explain once we’re all together." Twilight nodded, and together, the two girls started walking towards the school entrance.
Applejack reached out a hand. "Sunset, we—"
"Save it, Applejack! I don't have anything to say to you right now!" Shimmer said coldly without looking at the girl.
Applejack stood in place, her hand still outstretched before she let it fall down. Together with the rest of the Rainbooms, she watched as the two of them entered the school.
~*~
Sunset stepped through the door into Canterlot High, pausing to take it all in. She had been outside of the school several times this week, but this was the first time that she actually set foot inside the halls. She took in every detail, like the Canterlot Wondercolts banners decorating the walls or the glass case with trophies the school had won over time. She also took in how the students walked around, chatting with each other. Sadly, not all of those were friendly conversations, which she had expected from Shimmer's stories. Many students were arguing with each other loudly, probably about something Anon-a-Miss posted about them once again.
The longer she stood around in the entrance area, the more attention she gathered. Several students had already started glaring at her and whispering with each other while looking in her direction.
But Sunset paid them no mind as she started walking again, looking for the principal’s office; she doubted that anyone would do anything drastic while she was inside the school.
"Well, well, well. Look who decided to grace us with her presence after being gone for the whole week."
Sunset sighed. Apparently, there was at least one person who could not leave her alone. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a girl slightly smaller than she was leaning against a locker with a smirk on her face, her arms crossed before her body. She wore a tracksuit, so it was likely that she was an athlete. Her skin was a light turquoise, and her hair was a mix of two shades of yellow.
Sunset looked at her over her shoulder, unimpressed. "No idea what you’re talking about. Could you tell me where I can find the principal's office?"
The smirk fell off the girl’s face, and she stepped up from the locker. "You playing dumb or what? Don't pretend like you don't know where her office is."
Sunset shrugged. "I was just asking, but maybe you’re as clueless as I am."
"As if! You are just trying to change the topic, Anon-a-Miss."
Ignoring her, Sunset walked up to another student who hadn't been paying attention to them. "Excuse me, can you tell me where Principal Celestia's office is?"
The aggressor stared dumbfoundedly after Sunset. "Hey, I'm still talking to you!"
The other student regarded her with a raised eyebrow, but instead of questioning her, he simply pointed down the hallway to an unassuming door near the atrium.
Sunset smiled. "Thank you," she said before taking the first step down the hall.
The girl was clenching her teeth in rage at this point and stomped over to Sunset. "Stop ignoring me, you little—" Her advance was stopped by a hand on her shoulder from behind. "Hey, take your hand off... me..."
Looking over her shoulder, she followed the arm connected to the hand and looked up. And up.
Yes, Desert Sunrise was a huge man, especially to the relatively smaller girl. The man stared down at her. "Young lady, let me offer you some advice before you continue. An unprovoked assault can lead to massive problems for you, ranging from community service to jail time depending on the situation and the severity of injuries you inflict. It would be wise to think about the consequences of your actions before you act."
His gaze hardened, and he looked down with cold eyes, which sent a shiver down the girl’s back. "Of course, even before the police are called, you would need to answer to me if you raise your hand against my daughter."
The girl looked in surprise at Sunset, who was watching them with a smile on her face. "Hi, Mum. Hi, Dad."
Desert smiled at her while her mum waved from behind him. At that moment, he realized someone was missing. "Where is... your friend?" he asked, not sure if the surrounding students should know about the two of them. "And where’s Will?"
"She’s outside. She saw Twilight and went to pick her up while I went ahead," Sunset replied. "Will is with the police. We had a small problem on our way, but everything is taken care of."
"Ah, there you are," a voice called from behind Desert and Star. Turning around, they saw Shimmer entering the building with Twilight by her side. All around them, the students that had been paying attention to the conversation started staring at her and whispering about the two identical girls.
Star gasped and rushed over to Shimmer when she saw her bruised face. Desert turned his attention back to his daughter and raised an eyebrow. "Small problem?"
"Yep, small! You should see what Gilda looks like!"
A moment later, Twilight, Shimmer and Star walked up to them. Shimmer grinned when her eyes fell on the girl on whose shoulder Desert’s hand was still resting, her eyes wide open and looking from her to Sunset and back.
"Hey, Lightning Dust, is everything alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost," Shimmer taunted. Lightning Dust did not respond outside of her still moving eyes. "Huh, looks like we broke her. Oh, well, she’ll go back to normal soon enough, I guess. Should we move on? Principal Celestia is waiting."
"I only have one question," Desert said. "Sunset, was she among those that attacked you?"
Sunset took a moment to look at Lightning Dust before she shook her head. "No, never saw her before."
"Very well. Keep in mind what I told you, young lady," Desert said. He took his hand off of Lightning's shoulder and turned his attention to Shimmer. "Lead the way."
Shimmer nodded and walked past the group down the hallway. The others followed, leaving the whispering students and a shocked Lightning Dust behind.
Soon enough, the group arrived at the principal’s office. Shimmer knocked and, after hearing the welcome, walked inside. Principal Celestia sat behind her desk, with Vice Principal Luna standing behind her. They both gasped upon seeing Shimmer.
"Sunset! What happened to you?" Celestia asked as she stood up and walked around her desk.
"It's not that bad," she said with a wave of her hand. "I had a small run-in with Gilda. I’ll tell you in a few minutes." She stepped aside and let the others walk inside. "For now, we have some introductions to take care of."
Desert Sunrise stepped forward. "Principal Celestia, I'm Desert Sunrise." He motioned behind him. "These are my wife Northern Star and my daughter Sunset Shimmer, but I assume you could tell yourself."
Celestia looked over Sunset for a moment before she offered her hand to Desert, who took it. "It's a pleasure to meet you, even if the circumstances could be better. This is my sister Vice Principal Luna," she said with a wave to her sister, who stared at Sunset.
"Well, I’ll be..." Luna mumbled. "Barely any difference between the two of you."
Sunset and Shimmer looked at each other. "Please, I look much better," they said in unison, blinking afterwards. They and the others shared a laugh, helping to raise everyone’s spirits.
"Alright, so what was that about Gilda?" Celestia asked, but before Shimmer could say anything, Twilight coughed.
"Actually, I would like to bring something else up first. Regarding Anon-a-Miss."
Shimmer looked at Twilight with one raised eyebrow. "Why do I have the feeling it has to do with them and that I won't like it?"
~*~
The auditorium was filled to the max with students waiting for the assembly to begin. The appearance of a second Sunset was the main topic among the students’ conversation, but not many of those that didn't see her believed the stories.
The tension in the room only increased as the minutes approached showtime, until finally, the speaker system came to life, and Principal Celestia's voice echoed through the room.
"Attention, students! The assembly will be postponed for another fifteen minutes. During this time, you are to stay inside the auditorium. If you need to leave for any reason, please talk to one of the faculty members inside.
"We know that you are in this room, Anon-a-Miss. You have the opportunity to come forward to one of the teachers and confess to us.
"This is your last chance!"
I have been looking forward to this chapter for a really long time, just for the 'Twilight slapping Rainbow' moment. And even till the end I was debating with myself if it should be a slap or a punch, but in the end a punch from Twilight felt too out of character, even if it would have been more fun 
As always my biggest thanks go to icecreammac for his help with editing
The moment of truth for the school (and Rainbow) is crawling closer, maybe even more than you think 
Stats
Page generated in 0.023 seconds
Total duration
864 users online
1,286,967 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Rainbow is an idiot, but yeah, I could see her just deleting it because it "has" to be a another trick of Sunset's right?
Eh, don't think Sunset should have to much trouble with Twi's "conditions". She wants the CMC to come forward anyway, and Rainbow finding out the hard way isn't really going to be much skin of her nose. Her human counterpart might have a slight issue, but even then she doesn't know any of these people, it really doesn't matter all that much to her.
I almost want one of them to break the Pinky promise though, just to see what pony Pinky does to them.
Thought it was Trixi not Lightning in the hall. Should have known better, it wasn't bombastic enough for Trixi.
As for the slap over a punch... well if Twi had forgotten she was human for a moment it would have been a rather sloppy punch/slap thing, with a closed hand. She does curl her fingers into a loose fist automatically as she really isn't used to hands even now. That might have hurt Twi though.
I'm sorry, but when I read that last line, all I can think of is something like: "This is your last chance! Come out of the building with your hands on your heads or we will open fire!"
But in all seriousness, I want to know how many more chapters there might be, and I want to state that Rainbow Dash is a massive prick. Dick move, Dashie, dick move.
Of course... Rainbow is the only one who deleted Sunset's text and made an ass of herself.
The next chapter is going to be glorious!
9313686
GOOD! That only tenderizes Rainbow's suffering for me. Because, I like my suffering either medium or medium-well.
I'm on the edge of my seat!
"Who said anything about your Pinkie?"
...now I'm on the floor after falling out of my chair laughing.
You should've want for the punch, it would've been glorious to see Rainbow on her ass!
ohhhhh they're all screwed now - get rekt Dashie
I am working on a story we’re princess Twilight is so steamed that she breaks rainbow arm because sunset is in critical condition because of her betrayal. The only reason she stops the beat down is because scootaloo can’t stand to see her idol in pain.
9313816
that's not very Princess of Friendship of you
bit of an overkill tbh
9313842
It’s going to show that even the most respect character can be motivated to do dark deeds. This Twilight is more like the lesson zero twilight she’s absolutely down right beyond nightmare Moon pissed. Even Celestia is scared of Twilight. That’s right Princess Celestia retreats after seeing the massive anger coming out of Twilight.
Cliffhanger should be banned from this site!
9313911
why are you encouraging Midnight Sparkle
9313911
I was slightly interested in what you were writing, until I actually noticed the grammar of your comments. Hard pass for me.
9313662
yeah, I had a few different approaches to this, but this just spoke to me the most
to be honest, I don't even really remember why exactly I did use Lightning here, wrote that part quite some time ago in advance
but Trixie will come up as well for a short time next chapter
9313683
that means I reached my goal for Rainbow
hmm, I think it will be around 6-7 more chapters, depends on how big they come out in the end and if I split them or put them together if they are shorter than expected
9313730
glad that this small part works so well
9313929
usually I would agree with you, but seeing it now from the author side it's more fun
don't worry, next chapter will be much sooner than you expect
9314010
Can't wait
fingers crossed for no confession, the cmc can be charged for assault here and i want to see them burn for it.
I am absolutely terrified thinking about what Twilight’s Pinkie Pie would do if the girls break their Pinkie Promise
Yay; Twilight's here to fix all your fuck up! Again.
Make that eveywhere even at this very moment. Fucking hell, Rainbow's a bitch.
9314286
You see this and then you're like-
But there's no escaping her.
9314749
9314784
Thank you! Thank you! I'm here all week.
The fallout is going to be glorious!
Better get a good seat... in the back.... remember kids, the first three rows are a splash-zone!
Popcorn? 9313784
9314286
me too
9314294
only IF there is still something that can be fixed...
9314749
something like that XD
9316810
out of him...in this case,Fizzlepop Berrytwists methods seem fully acceptable...
....this isn’t regarding the comment but the video...if I had some idiot in the audience acting like that I would leap out of my seat and beat the
But yeah,I havnt seen someone screw up this bad since Iron will made twilight cry.
Surprised no one has ever made Iron will be the ‘Iron chef’...
Hmm...Tempest needs to show up in Equestria Girls...I imagine she would interesting damage in human form due to her shattered horn. But maybe in that world they can fix that damage,and when she goes back her horn would be fixed?
Here we go.
9317069
Tempest can be a truant officer.
NICE!
Pinkamena will come!!!!