When Sunset Shimmer awoke the next morning, she felt...weird. Her bed felt softer than usual and the light from the windows seemed to be coming from the wrong direction. And for some reason her fingers felt incredibly stiff, liked she had clenched a fist so hard they got stuck that way. Also, her throat was dry. Groaning, Sunset tried to reach for the glass of water she usually kept on her nightstand, only to find nothing there. Frowning, Sunset opened one bleary eye and looked at the empty space next to her hoof. Where had her nightstand gone? Wait a moment. Her hoof?
“Oh right, back in Equestria.” Sunset mumbled to herself as the memories of the previous night came back to her. After the usual stomach churning trip through the portal and about a minute of stumbling around, until Twilight managed to remind her that she was a quadruped again, Sunset had been led to one of the many empty bedrooms in Twilight’s quite absurdly spacious castle.
With a sigh, Sunset rolled onto her back and stared up at the purple ceiling. She frowned, shifting slightly, as she tried to get more comfortable. This position worked a lot better as a human. Adjusting back to her old body would probably take a while, but then again, it was not like she didn’t have a lifetime as a pony ahead of her now.
“A lifetime to do what exactly?” She mused. Any plans she might have had for the human world were shot to hell now and after her plans for rulership had been beaten out of her by Twilight she hadn’t bothered making new ones for Equestria.
“Sunset? Are you awake yet?” A gentle knock on the door interrupted any further musings.
“Um, yes!” Sunset called out, unsure of who was calling for her there “Come in?”
The door opened and a small, purple and green coloured lizard entered the room.
“Spike?” Sunset looked the little dragon over. His colouration matched the puppy Twilight had brought along for her visits.
“In all my dragony glory.” He chuckled, before looking at Sunset “Good morning Sunset, or rather good noon. Twilight said to let you sleep in, she said you had a rough day yesterday.”
“That’s one way to put it…” Sunset chuckled bitterly.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Came Spike’s gentle question, the dragon stepping closer to Sunset’s bed.
“I dunno…” Sunset sighed, looking to the side.
"Come on Sunset, you can confide in Spike the dragon." Spike said, hopping onto the edge of her bed. "I've been listening to Twilight's problems since pretty much the day she hatched me. I've gotten pretty good at it."
Sunset gave an amused snort; she could just imagine a little Twilight venting her problems to a dragon hatchling, who had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.
“Alright, stay awhile and listen.” Sunset smiled. If nothing else, talking to Spike might help her sort things out.
“Uh, yeah, that’s what I was planning to.” Spike replied, giving Sunset an odd look.
“All my pop culture references, worthless now…” Sunset let out a melodramatic sigh. “Shame too, after all that time hanging out with Rainbow and Pinkie I’ve gotten pretty good at it.
“Anyway,” Sunset took a deep breath “it all really started last friday when I was talking with Applejack about the holidays...”
“So I guess they don’t have the same holidays in Equestria?” Applejack asked, as they were stoving away their bags.
“Well, not exactly the same,” Sunset replied, taking of her scarf “the story behind it is different, but it’s the same spirit; everyone coming together with their families, exchanging gifts and so on…” She sighed “Of course I didn’t exactly have much in the way of family even before I ended up here and here no one wanted to hang out with me for the holidays, because I was a massive bitch.”
“So you’ve been alone for the holidays this whole time?” Applejack asked incredulously.
“Yep.” Sunset simply nodded.
“That… that’s awful.” Applejack’s voice was full of sympathy. The idea of anyone spending the holidays alone must’ve been anathema for someone, who put as much stock on family, as the Apple Family did.
“Well, that is pretty awful.” Spike said “Spending Hearth’s Warming Eve all by yourself…”
“Believe me, it was.” Sunset sighed deeply, as she remembered all those winter evenings she had spent, bitterly cursing Celestia’s name for her predicament. “In hindsight, I think a big part of my general attitude back then just stemmed from me being lonely and miserable, in a world where my special talent wasn’t worth a damn. And I wanted to make everyone else just as miserable, so I could feel better about myself.
“Of course,” she amended, “ the other part was my insane desire to become a princess…”
“Why did you want to be Princess so badly anyhow?” Spike asked, sounding genuinely interested.
“That is a whole ‘nother story to get into.” Sunset sighed “Anyway, later that day I was just putting my stuff away, when Pinkie showed up out of nowhere next to my locker and whisked me away to a slumber party at her house.
“And at first everything went great.” Sunset smiled a little, as she remembered that evening. “We had pizza, I utterly kicked Dash’s ass in Street Fighter, Rarity even managed to talk Applejack into letting her paint her nails. “She sighed. “Then Applejack told us the story behind her embarrassing childhood nickname, and by monday that nickname was plastered all over MyStable.”
“If it was so embarrassing, why did she tell you about it?” Spike asked.
“Hm…” Sunset frowned, thinking back to exact order of events. “Why did she do that again?” Her frown deepened. “Because Apple Bloom called her by that name on the phone, during the evening. Then we all got curious and she said that it was a family nickname, that Apple Bloom liked to use as a dig on her.”
“And on Monday it was on MyStable?”
“Yup.” Sunset sighed. “And like half the school used the opportunity to mock Applejack for it. Even with me out of the game, that place has a serious bullying problem…”
“So what happened next?”
“On Monday we had a sleepover at Rarity’s place,” Sunset continued her tale, “where Pinkie got into Rarity’s stash of outlandish fashion failures. We spend the rest of the evening playing dress up and making photos.”
“And then those photos got onto MyStable too,” Spike concludes dryly.
“My photos.” Sunset sighs, closing her eyes. “And only mine. None of the photos the other’s took and not a single photo with me in it. And when I got to school on Tuesday...”
“Hey guys!” Sunset waved cheerfully as she walked towards her friends, who had gathered near her locker. Her smile faltered as she saw the serious looks in their eyes. They looked almost... suspicious of her.
“Is something wrong?” Sunset asked as she got closer, a bad feeling making itself known in the pit of her stomach.
“Sunset,” Applejack said, her voice sounding tense, “have ya lost yer phone lately?”
“Um, no?” Sunset pulled her phone out of her pocket. “It’s right here.” She gave Applejack a confused look.
“Then ya need ta explain this.” Applejack held out her phone, her brow furrowed with barely suppressed anger.
“Oh no…” Sunset whispered, her face turning pale. “Oh no no no no! How did she get our pictures!?”
“Not our pictures,” Applejack didn’t even try to keep the anger out of her voice anymore, “your pictures! These are all the ones that you took!”
“But I don’t understand!” Sunset looked at her phone, panic spreading through her body. “I had my phone with me the whole time, how could she have gotten her hands on those photos?”
Sunset looked up and saw the expressions of her friends, the furrowed brows, the narrowed eyes. A stab went through her heart. She knew those looks, she knew what they meant. ‘They- They’re blaming me for this?’ The panic in Sunset was smothered under a sudden numbness that permeated her entire being. Of course they blamed her. It looked like she had done it, so of course she must’ve done it. She was Sunset Shimmer, demon bitch extraordinaire, why wouldn’t they suspect her? Sunset fought those thoughts down. No, damn it! These girls were her friends, they had forgiven her for what she had done.
“You don’t think I did this, do you?” She then asked, her voice trembling slightly.
“They did,” Sunset concluded, her voice flat, staring blankly up at the ceiling. “They accused me, called me a secret stealer, Fluttershy even yelled at me that I wasn’t their friend.” She sighed. “And that whole time I just felt numb, I still feel numb, like I had moments where I was angry since then but mostly I was just numb.”
“What did you do then?” Spike gently asked.
“I… I told them that, if everything I did to show that I’ve changed wasn’t enough to convince them, then I had just wasted my time staying at CHS in the first place.”
“Do you really believe that though?”
“I dunno…” Sunset shrugged. “We had some good times, I admit, and it was fun while it lasted, but in the end it just didn’t matter to them. Not enough to trust me, at any rate. So was it really worth all the pain it took me to get there? Maybe I would’ve been better off, if I had just gone back to Equestria in the first place.”
“What did you do afterwards?”
“I told the Principal that I wanted to transfer, because if my own friends publicly accused me, then everyone else wasn’t gonna hold back either and I was not going through another months long trip as Public Enemy Number One. And after that….”
Sunset recounted the events of the previous day, the harrassment from the other students, the fights she had gotten into, which resulted in Celestia giving her detention.
“And after that I just stormed off…” Sunset sighed “I wrote to Twilight that she open the portal that evening. As far as I was concerned, I was done with this place and this world in general. But I was also pissed beyond measure and I refused to go out like the punching bag everyone wanted to treat me as. So I threatened to post all my old blackmail material.”
“ ‘If I’m going to be hated, at least it’ll be for something I actually did.’ That was my thought process at the time,” Sunset took a deep breath, “but in the end I decided to just put up the stuff that they deserved to have exposed. Even the stuff that implicated me.”
“So, why did you change your mind?” Spike asked.
“To be honest, I’m not even sure myself anymore.” Sunset sighed. “I felt and still feel betrayed by everyone I trusted, but I also felt like I was betraying myself. My best guess is, that I wanted to spite the Daemon in my mirror.”
Sunset flinched slightly, as she saw the grinning demon face in her bathroom mirror.
“Hey there, Sunnybun!” It greeted with it’s usual disturbing cheerfulness.
“What do you want?” Sunset frowned at her mirror
“I just wanted to congratulate you.” The demon cackled. “Those beatdowns you handed out today, the blackmail you’re about to publish…” It wiped a tear from it’s eye. “The Elements may have knocked me out of the driver’s seat, but looks like we’re finally getting back to normal.”
“Oh shut up, will you?” Sunset sneered disdainfully at her mirror. “You’re not even real, you’re just a visualisation of my issues.”
“Your point?” The Daemon raised an eyebrow. “Just because I’m in your head, doesn’t mean that I’m not real.”
“Yes it does!” Sunset snapped, her anger flaring up again. “You’re just a figment of my imagination, everything that I hate about myself given the form the thing that I hate the most! And I thought that I’d finally gotten rid of you after the Battle!”
“Well, if that’s true,” The Daemon leaned towards her, its grin widening, “then what does that say about you right now?”
What did it say about her? Sunset realized that she had been slipping back into old patterns, the disdain for her classmates, the gleeful brutality on her attackers and now she was planning on anon-a-missing practically the entire school. She really was letting the old Her back in the driver’s seat wasn’t she?
“That thing actually talks to you?” Spiked asked, genuinely worried for Sunset.
“Nah, it’s just a projection of my issues.” Sunset waved her hoof dismissively. “All the parts of myself that I hate, given a shape that I hate even more, to help me remember why I wanted to change in the first place. The Elements purged the dark magic from by body, remember? That demon isn’t actually a thing that’s talking to me.”
“Hm…” Spike frowned, unconvinced. He’d have to talk to Twilight about that one later, or better yet Princess Celestia.
“So yeah, I posted everyone’s crimes to take them down with me, send a copy of everything to the Principal and legged it to Equestria.” Sunset shrugged “And now, I guess I’ll just have to get a new life started around here, make some new friends. Twilight offered to help me with that. Where is Twilight anyway?”
“She’s upstairs in the throne room,” Spike said “explaining the whole situation to the girls.”
“So yeah, that’s basically what happened.” Twilight concluded her report, looking expectantly at her friends. Doubtful faces greeted her.
“Ah dunno, Twi…” Applejack broke the silence. “Are ya sure that Sunset is actually reformed? Cause it sounds like she went back to how she was when she stole your crown. Ya know, beatin’ up folks and puttin’ up blackmail.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow nodded, “shouldn’t the Elements have turned her good permanently, like they did with Princess Luna?”
“What? No! That’s not what the Elements of Harmony do.” Twilight shook her head in exasperation. “Come on guys, we talked about this.”
“Yeah, um.. no offense Twi, but your lecture on that was kinda sleep inducing…” Rainbow said, awkwardly scratching the back of her head.
“Ugh!” Twilight groaned, once again frustrated at her friend’s lack of academic interest. How could a little five-hour seminar on the Elements of Harmony possibly be sleep inducing? Their mysterious history alone was one of the most fascinating things Princess Celestia had ever taught her. “Fine. The abridged version then.
“The Elements of Harmony did two things to Sunset Shimmer that night,” Twilight said, immediately falling into her ‘lecturing voice’. “One: They cleansed her of the dark magic that had infested her body and turned her into an insane demon.” Insane enough, to think that she could conquer Equestria with an army of teenagers, at the very least.
“Two: They stripped away the lies she had been telling herself and forced her to confront the truth.” Which was the truly painful part in being cleansed by the Elements of Harmony. “Sunset Shimmer saw herself, truly saw herself, for what she had become. The Elements did not ‘turn her good’, or scrubbed the bad parts of her away. They merely forced her to confront herself and showed her a better path.
“The decision to take that path, the decision to change and reform, was entirely her own and the fact that she partook in the Magic of Friendship during the battle against the Sirens, is proof of how far she had come in that regard.” Twilight smiled, proud of Sunset’s progress in the few months between the Formal and the Battle. “What she did yesterday was a stumble, yes, but she caught herself before she could fall back completely. I have every confidence that she will only continue to grow into a better pony, as long as she has somepony to support her along the way.”
“Fair enough,” Applejack nodded. You couldn’t argue with the Magic of Friendship on that one. Even Discord had fixed his act after that business with Tirek. If he could change for the better, then pretty much anypony could. “So what do we do about her?”
“She’s in a very bad place right now,” Twilight said, “being abandoned by her friends, because of this whole Anon-A-Miss mess, hurt her deeply.”
“You mean Anon-A-Mess!” Pinkie Pie quipped.
“Yes, Pinkie,” Twilight chuckled. “So while I go over to the other side tomorrow, to hopefully straighten things out, I’d like for you all to show her around Ponyville. Right now, Sunset needs to feel that she is welcome and among friends here. That there are still ponies who care for her.”
Sunset had made it quite clear she was not yet ready to face Princess Celestia again, and Twilight was not going force the issue. Right now, Sunset needed time to heal. Potentially emotionally taxing reunions with her old mentor could wait.
“Um, wouldn’t we kinda make her uncomfortable?” Applejack asked, looking a bit doubtful. “Ya know, the whole thing with those friends being our counterparts?”
“It might be a bit shaky at first, but I’m sure that Sunset can keep you and them seperate in her mind.” Twilight replied with a confident smile. After all, despite her mixed feelings towards the Princess, Sunset had called Principal Celestia one of her closest confidants at CHS.
“Well, you can count on us, Twilight! We’ll show Sunset what real friends are like!” Rainbow Dash boasted, puffing out her chest and pounding it with a hoof.
“I am counting on you, Dash.” Twilight smiled. “I promised Sunset that I would help her make some true friends here and if her life in the human world can’t be fixed, then I will make sure that she has a better one in Equestria.”
“Won’t they miss her over there?” Fluttershy asked.
“That’s another reason why I’m going,” Twilight nodded, “because I don’t think that her friends would actually want her gone. They’re impulsive and tend to act before they think, but during my first visit they were just as quick to apologize, when they realised that they were wrong about each other. I’m sure they’ll try to make amends once they know that Sunset is innocent.”
“Are you sure you’ll be able to convince them, Twilight?” Rarity asked.
“I have every confidence.” Twilight puffed her chest out a little. “I know they’ll see reason.”
“Can I come too, Twilight?” Pinkie requested, raising her hoof and waving it enthusiastically. “I wanna give the other me a piece of my mind! If she’s a Pinkie Pie, she should know better than to make somepony cry!”
“Right now I need you here, to make Sunset smile, Pinkie.” Twilight chuckled “You can chew your counterpart out after I’m back.”
Pinkie Pie gave a salute and blew a party horn.
“Don’t you worry, Twilight! I’ll make sure Sunset Shimmer feels welcome with a genuine, 100-percent certified Pinkie Party!”
“Good soldier.” Twilight nodded and returned the salute, just like she had learned from her BBBFF. “Alright girls, meeting adjourned. I’ll go check up on Sunset and tomorrow, we start getting her back on her hooves!”
When Principal Celestia entered her office that morning, she found a surprise waiting for her on her desk. A large, leather bound tome, wearing the red and gold sun that Sunset Shimmer had always been so fond of on its cover. Next to the book sat a folded letter with the words “To Celestia” written on the cover. Frowning at the realisation that someone, possibly Sunset, had broken into her office after hours, Celestia opened the letter.
“Dear Principal Celestia,” it read, in Sunset’s neat, flowing handwriting.
“By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be back in Equestria. Please do not worry about me, Princess Twilight is here and she’ll help me get situated. After everything that happened yesterday I decided that it would be better for everyone, myself included, if I just went home. I doubt that I’ll be coming back any time soon, if ever, as I didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms with pretty much everyone I knew around here. I would however like to entrust my journal to you. If there’s ever any magical trouble at CHS again, you can use it to contact Princess Twilight for help. Just write your message in it and it will appear in its counterpart in Equestria. Just, please don’t ask me to come back here again.
And I wanted tell you that I’m sorry for how I acted yesterday. Our discussion… It reminded me of a fight I had with your counterpart many years ago and I overreacted. I know this doesn’t excuse or justify anything, I just wanted you to know why I reacted like that. It wasn’t your fault and you were right in what you said, I did go overboard in beating up my attackers and for what it’s worth I’m sorry for causing so much trouble for you with it.”
The writing turned a bit shaky now, small stains smudging the ink and paper. Had Sunset been crying as she wrote those lines?
“I’m sorry for everything. I spend my years at this school causing nothing but trouble and when I finally tried to turn things around I couldn’t even managed that! I failed you as a student both then and now and I’m so, so sorry for it! And I’m sorry for the trouble I’m about to cause you even now.”
Celestia felt a pang in her heart as she read those lines. Despite her unfortunate past, Sunset had been one of the best and brightest students Celestia had seen in all her years as an educator. She had been overjoyed, witnessing Sunset finally using her gifts for the benefit of others and growing into a better person as a result and she had done everything she could to encourage that growth. Seeing it all undone because of some student’s grudge and feeling the sheer anguish in Sunset’s words made her all the more determined to find Anon-A-Miss and clear her name. Even if Sunset was never coming back to CHS, this was the least she could do for her. But what did she mean with ‘even now’? In search of an answer, Celestia kept reading.
“I don’t know if you’ve checked your emails yet,” the next line read, the writing becoming less shaky as it went on, “but there’s one from me in it, with a with a number of files and some explanations. I decided that since I was going to leave anyway, I might as well clean house and this way, I’ll at least be hated for something I actually did. So I wrote a post on my MyStable that I was gonna publish all of my old blackmail material.
“No…” Celestia groaned as she read those words. “Sunset please tell me you didn’t actually go through with that.” Booting up her computer to check, Celestia read the rest of the letter.
“But after a rather uncomfortable look in the mirror I realized that I couldn’t go through with it. Because I realized that I was going back to the demon that I used to be and I didn’t want to be that person again. So I compromised to posting everything that was genuinely the wrong thing to do. I know you’re probably going to say that I should’ve just given that stuff to you to handle, but having my evil exposed to everyone, helped me turn my life around. I just ask that you give them a chance to do the same.
Plus if I’m entirely honest, this is a bit of vindication too. They brought this upon themselves, just like I did.
In case you were wondering how I got into your locked office, well, I may have blackmailed the janitor into giving me a copy of the master key a couple years ago, after I caught him on tape coming drunk to work that one time. I included that in the files I sent you too, by the way.
And lastly, I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done for me, for being there for me after the Fall Formal and for helping me, when I came to you yesterday.
Oh, and please give Mr. Cranky my thanks too, for standing up for me in class today.
I guess this is everything I have to say…
I hope you’ll be having a better time being a principal, now that I’m no longer here to cause trouble for you. Please keep the journal safe and away from the other students, I’m afraid they’d probably burn it if they found it.
Farewell, Principal Celestia.
Love
Your student
Sunset Shimmer.”
“Damn it, Sunset...” Celestia sighed as she opened MyStable on her browser and confirmed Sunset’s words. “You really should have just let me handle this.” Now it was going to become a mess, not just the legal troubles that would follow some of those things, but also the angry parents and the resulting search for Sunset Shimmer. Not to mention the hit to the schools reputation. Celestia could practically see Cinch’s smug face before her inner eye; smirking as she heard about these things happening at CHS.
With another sigh, she hit the intercom. “Luna? Call a staff meeting please, the situation just got from bad to worse.”
By the time lunch hour rolled around, CHS was abuzz with talk of Sunset’s blackmail post. Even the newest reveals about the Rainbooms from Anon-A-Miss had been ignored in favor of the much bigger and juicier pieces of gossip.
Sitting at their usual table, the Rainbooms were conflicted at this new development.
“Ah’m just sayin’ that this don’t seem right to me.” Applejack said, a deep frown on her face.
“Come on, AJ,” Rainbow Dash, sitting opposite of her, replied. “She said it herself.”
“Ah know what she said, Dash.” Applejack grimaced irritatedly. “But still…”
“But still what?” Dash rolled her eyes. “She said that she didn’t lose her phone after the sleepover and we were the only one’s at the sleepover. It had to be her; there are no other suspects!”
“Ah know!” Applejack replied forcefully, before letting out a deep sigh. “Ah know, but still... this doesn’t feel right. Why bother with the Anon-A-Miss thing in the first place, if she was gonna publish all of that stuff on her own profile anyway? And why keep pretendin’ that she was innocent, if everyone had already figured that it was her?”
“Uh...because she wanted people to think that she wasn’t the one posting it?” Dash omitted the ‘duh’ everyone could hear at the end of that sentence.
“Read her last message again, Dash.” Applejack pushed her phone towards Rainbow. “This is the stuff she used ta blackmail folks with. Everyone would’ve known that this was her the moment she had put any of that up as Anon-A-Miss. Sunset would’ve known that everyone would’ve known. And everyone already thought that she was Anon-A-Miss anyhow. So why bother pretendin’ that it wasn’t her and then put up somethin’ even worse on her own blog?”
“Uhm…” Rainbow read Sunset’s last message again. Applejack had a point, just like with the pictures, everyone would’ve known that this stuff could’ve only come from Sunset. So why hide behind a useless facade? “Hm.”
“And more importantly,” Applejack pressed on, “what’s in it fer her? Ah mean, if anything, this post makes her look even worse, if not an accomplice ta half the stuff in it. Why would she admit ta all that?”
“I have to agree with Applejack on this, darling,” Rarity now said. “Sunset Shimmer did some truly dreadful things in her day…” humiliating memories of running half naked through the crowd of students at the Spring Fling flashed through Rarity’s mind, “...but there was always something for her to gain in it. Now, all she has accomplished is to paint a target on her back. I’m fairly certain even the police will want a word with her about some of these things.”
“Well, okay…” Rainbow frowned, the more she thought about this, the more confusing and fishy this whole thing became. “But this still leaves the pictures that only Sunset could’ve put up there.”
“Ah know…” Applejack sighed. “Ah’ve been tyin’ mah brain into knots, tryin’ ta figure out if this might’ve been some kinda scheme o’ hers gone wrong, but Ah can’t even imagine, what kinda scheme that could’a been.”
“Quite so…” Rarity said, tapping her chin in contemplation. “The more I think about it, the less this whole Anon-A-Miss business fits her old modus operandi…”
“What if she didn’t do it?” Fluttershy, who was sitting next to Rainbow Dash, whispered almost inaudibly from behind her hair.
“Pardon me, darling?” Rarity leaned towards her. “What did you say?”
“What if she didn’t do it?” Fluttershy repeated, her voice trembling. “What...what if she really is innocent?” Her body began to shake in quiet sobs. “I said...those awful things to her...because I didn’t want her to hurt me again...and now…” She looked at Rarity, tears brimming in her eyes. “Now I’ve been the one who hurt her!”
The other girls shared a glance. It was unpleasant to contemplate, but the more they thought about the whole thing, the less likely it seemed that Anon-A-Miss had been one of Sunset’s old tricks. Maybe they had been wrong.
“There there, Flutters.” Rainbow Dash pulled the crying girl into a hug. “We’ll figure this out, okay? And if Sunset is innocent…” she looked towards her friends, “then we’ll set things right.”
“If there is anythin’ left ta set right with her,” Applejack sighed. “Ah mean, even if she isn’t Anon-A-Miss, she still hospitalized Dumbbell and Gilda and she posted every scrap o’ dirt she had as revenge on the school. This whole thing might’ve just driven her back to the Dark Side.”
“Well…” Rarity grabbed Applejack’s phone and looked through the list of files. “Maybe not completely.” At Applejack’s questioning look she elaborated “We all know that Sunset had dirt on pretty much everyone, right?” Nods all around. “And she had reason to be angry with pretty much everyone, right? But when I look through that list I don’t see any of the embarrassing secrets, or pictures, or rumors, that we know she had. For some reason, Sunset limited herself to material about illegal activities, school code violations and otherwise amoral dealings. The old Sunset wouldn’t have had that kind of restraint.” She smiled. “Our friend might be a bit lost right now, but I don’t think she’s completely gone.”
“Sooo…” Pinkie, who had been sitting quietly absorbed into her own little world throughout the exchange, perked up. “Where is Sunny anyway? I haven’t seen her all day.”
“Considerin’ that everybody and their grandmother oughta be out for her blood right now, Ah don’t think she bothered comin’ ta school today,” Applejack answered with a shrug.
“Agreed.” Rarity nodded. “You have all heard about what happened to her yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Trixie, Gilda, Lightning Dust and Dumbbell,” Dash counted down on her fingers, “all attacked her yesterday. Dumbbell twice.”
“And that was just with the things Anon-A-Miss had posted about us.” Rarity shuddered “I don’t think I want to imagine the kind reaction Sunset would get, if she walked into the cafeteria right now.”
“And it’s all our fault.” Fluttershy sniffed. “They all believed that she was guilty because we accused her.”
“Alright,” Rainbow nodded, soothingly rubbing Fluttershy’s shoulders, “first thing after school, we go to Sunset’s apartment and talk to her.”
‘And pray to the great rainbow Alicorn in the sky that she’s in a forgiving enough mood to hear us out,’ She thought.
Why do I get the feeling that things are screwed no matter what?
Too late.
oh Rainbow Dash always the false-optimist
kinda meh after the previous chapters. But that's imao, as usual.
8804269
To be honest, part of the reason this chapter ended up the way it did, was because I wanted to put all of those arguments to rest you've all been having in my comment section. Apparantly I was not clear enough, in how I portrayed my Sunset and her relationships.
The actual story will pick up in the next chapter.
Don´t forget Lightning and Trixie. I don´t think that Sunset has a future at Canterlot High School. Too many enemies.
In your dreams, Dashie.
I'm somewhat disappointed she didn't throw everything on that post. Sure, there's plenty of logic here for it, but the emotional struggle and self-exploration that would have come with those actions would've been very interesting to see, rather than just... this. In the end though, I guess it does have a way for things to be somewhat sorted out, but it does take away a little bit of the "oomph" from the last chapter.
Ooh!
and i pray to anyone who listens that if sunset ever see's them again she proceeds to break each nose individually and then tell them all where to go and how to get there.
Screw it, this story is may bring up some poor memories of my past, but it's following worthy.
well, i think i have a clue on how thats gonna turn out.
I'm pretty disappointed. Last chapter put an interesting twist on a tired concept, and this one walks it all back, because it turns out she's only "relapsed" in the most superficial and toothless manner that no one actually cares about.
Already the story seems to be right back on track to be just-another-Anon-a-Miss story. I can practically play Anon-A-Miss bingo with this chapter alone.
Oh so now you all decided to go talk to Sunset about the Anon-A-Miss issue!
Too little too late Dash!
When they get to her apartment and find out she’s not there, who knows what their reactions will be like
The Rainbooms are regretting everything they did to Sunset, but boy are they in for a big surprise.
8804278
*shrugs* I tend to be more than a little bit aggravating and/or nonchalant with my comments these days. So, I do apologize to You if My comments look petty, pointless or particularly obnoxious.
Previous chapter has build a lot of tension. And didn't even take any of the usual shortcuts that the majority of the anon-a-miss stories use. And then it all just.. went away. To me it's disappointing and looks like an opportunity lost. It also looks a bit disjointed, like a completely different story.
There are a bunch of my personal headcanon pet peeves, like the effects of elements on Sunset and her inner daemon reinterpretations, but those are very minor in comparison and pretty much ignorable.
Nice to see the revelation dawning on the Human girls that they might, just might, have been in the wrong. I find myself curious about how the reunion with Princess Twilight will go. I can easily see her setting them down for a lecture.
Also, the bit where Sunset imagined Twilight doing that to Spike as a baby was pretty cute. Thanks for the mental image.
First things first:
Demon = Evil spirit.
Daemon = good or benevolent spirit. (No I don't know why FF15 uses this word).
Other than that a little disappointed that Sunset didn't actually post everything. I was honestly really excited about the fallout from that but this kind of lessens the whole impact of what she did. I still look forward to seeing what happens but it sucks the story lost one of its most interesting hooks.
8804296
I'm the opposite and actually glad she didn't. I like that Sunset isn't changed for the better because her friends are constantly putting her right, but rather she remembers how she was and uses that to help curve her impulsive nature and anger issues. It shows growth and that she is trying to be better for her own sake also. She still fails sometimes, as she should have just given it to Celestia, but she at least can reflect and recognize her shortcomings which is an important quality. It's also nice that she is willing to go to a friend for help, twilight, despite the recent hurt which shows that it hasn't completely ruined her perspective of friendship again, while also knowing when to walk away from people who were never really her friends showing that she is strong enough to stand on her own rather than be dependent on friends.
8804328
Your free to feel that way.
Relapsing completely was never the point though. My plan for Sunset was always, that she actually has learned some of the good sense and the agency by now, to stop herself from doing something stupid. The point is that she's actually improving as a person, because she wants to improve.
If you were hoping for revenge porn, or something along those lines with Sunset becoming a fullblown villain again, then I'm afraid you're going to continue being disappointed.
Boy are they in for a surprise after school.
8804328
Might I ask what’s on one of these Anon-a-Miss bingo cards?
8804383 Fair enough, that's how you feel about it, however as a writer... this twist does make it look like it will pretty much follow the same story rule-book as other stories where thing turn out like this: Sunset leaves, they realize they were wrong, but nothing truly difficult in their relationship happens other than basically admitting that they were wrong to not believe her.
There's less conflicting emotions and issues to deal with, because what she limited herself to posting clearly was "only for those that deserved it", and the actual emotional impact of what she did differently in this story is lessened. It's fine if you just want to read another anon-a-miss story with no character growth beyond the basic "I need to trust my friends more" lesson, but those are all over the place. It's what makes the anon-a-miss incident so annoying to read constantly on fics.
It's like reheating the same meal you had for the last six weeks. At some point, it completely loses its appeal. Last chapter, however, was different. It took Sunset, made her really human, and she reacted as a lot of people in her position would... and then she ran away and let them deal with the fallout. It was intense. It was jaw-dropping-out-of-the-left-field. Unexpected in an anon-a-miss story. But this chapter is kind of... two steps back.
Sunset stops being the one from the cover-art; the one that's giving you that look that says: "F*ck it. I'm done with this s*it" and replaces it with your average sad cover. Just look at the bar next to the story. This one was different, and this chapter suddenly grapples it back into the same old tread road everyone else uses.
I'm not going to outright say that the author made a mistake—I have to trust the author in that they have a plan. But it really cheapened the previous impact and it really misses an amazing, unique (so far) chance to really grapple the full weight of what her actions would have entailed and how she would have not only gotten past that, but dealt with the consequences and push forward. And worse, it some what feels like it was done for the sake of placating the "my (headcanon) Sunset would never do such a thing, how could you not agree with me on this?!" crew.
Why is AJ and the Rainbooms questioning things NOW, instead of earlier? I mean yes, Sunset made a worse post now on her own page, but AJ and Rarity were ignoring it as evidence and pointing out that the Anon-a-miss posts were the ones not making sense, not using the new post to justify that Sunset couldn't be Anon-a-miss.
So why the change of heart now, when just the day before they were 100% set on Sunset being an evil demonic bitch that couldn't ever be redeemed? It's too fast of a 180. Especially for teenagers who are usually very stubborn and don't like being wrong.
Everyone realized too late and now the rainbow alicorn in the sky is already displeased with them.
From the looks of it, it's going to take more than a miracle for that to happen. But nonetheless, this chapter looks promising enough to know what happens next!
8804390
You misunderstand. There's too much revenge-porn on this site as it is, IMO. Especially when it comes to AaM stories.
My issue is that your fairly-novel characterization of Sunset doesn't keep the story from following the same beats as half the AaM stories on the site. You went to great lengths to emphasize that what Sunset did last chapter represented a step back for her. And yet, at this point the story is still only paying lip-service to the idea that it will actually matter. Right now, except for the Applejacks (who bring it up once and immediately drop the subject) everyone is acting the same way they would have if she had done nothing.
8804416
I believe the idea is that they were angry when they accused her but now that they've calmed down they are starting to think things through more rationally.
8804416
Because sometimes people are actually reasonable once they stop acting on hurt feelings alone.
Sunset's post shook them out of their anger induced stupidity and made them wonder "Why did Sunset do that? Why would Sunset do any of that?"
As for why they didn't use the post as evidence, is because it doesn't actually prove that Sunset couldn't have been Anon-A-Miss. The fact that she was already gone, before the last time Anon-A-Miss was online, is gonna do that.
As for resulting realisation of "There's no reason why she would do that, and we might have fucked up royally." coming so quickly, is because the Rainbooms also improved a bit as people since the Fall Formal.
8804456
Wonder why Russia did that.
Also, you mean that Anon-a-miss account posted something after Sunset went to ponyworld? Yes, that can be used as a piece of evidence. Except Sunset might have scheduled the post button to be pressed later. So, still not so solid as one would think.
What is really cliched here in my opinion - is that most fics are either revenge porn either Rainboom bashing with Saint Sunset, and this starts leaning to second.
8804439
Let me assure you, that it isn't just paying lipservice.
The consequences just take a bit longer than just till lunchhour to actually develope.
Even with photo evidence, any actual investigation into what Sunset posted is gonna require a few days worth of in-universe time to get started properly.
Sunset isn't just gonna waltz back into CHS like nothing has ever happened by the end of the story.
The point for me was while it was a step back for Sunset, ultimately she is also a person with actual agency whose decisions don't just depend on how everyone else is pushing her at the moment. She doesn't stop wanting to be a better person and fighting her old impulses, just because her friends stopped cheering at her from the sidelines. They were the support that kept her from making that step back in the first place, but ultimately the steps forward were her decision and she decided to stick with it.
8804472
I was actually refering to the "Last Time Online" feature, or what it is called, that apps like Facebook, Whatsapp, or even FimFic have where they show the last time a user was active. Sunset could've scheduled the post, but she would have had a hard time being online that morning.
I don't really see what's so saintly for her to stick to her convictions and not turn back into the worst possible version of herself the moment things turn bad for her. She was reforming for her own sake and not just because Twilight, or the Rainbooms, wanted her to.
Nice chapter, good work.
I'm really hoping Sunset decides to actually stay in Equestria, and not let Twilight or any of the others talk her into going back to CHS just to give the others a chance.
8804477
and overuse of commas in a bunch of places. I love this fic but that's pretty distracting at times tbh
8804405
I think when I'm done with this one, I'll go for an alternate take where Sunset actually goes all the way through with it and see where that leads.
It just kind of clashed with my point that Sunset ought to have more agency, than just to behave in the way people expect her to.
8804550 Well, it's not like the chapter made me ragequit your story or anything . Tbh, I never saw the possibility of her acting rashly (if wrongly) as anything but human. A good person can, if push-comes-to-shove, act in and angry, petty, and vengeful way... and later regret it. It doesn't make them a bad person, just... flawed.
That's what I thought you were going for, but in the end, as I said in the other comment below, I trust you to take the story where it needs to go. I've been on the receiving end of way too many "I'm out" moments because people never let the story evolve past a current issue the character is suffering.
So, if you do the other one, that'd be awesome as well, but I'll keep reading to see where this one ends.
A little disappointed about that bait-and-switch with Sunset's last post, but... well, I'm still interested. Like some people were saying, this chapter is kind of treading familiar ground in a lot of ways, but that's pretty much unavoidable for an Anon-A-Miss story. There are so many out there, it's pretty much impossible to avoid the common tropes completely, but it's not like you can just cut them out completely. The story has to be able to stand on it's own, so these details need to be in there.
Honestly, what I'm looking forward to in this one is the fallout from Sunset implicating herself criminally. A lot of AaM stories paint her as a martyr, who didn't really do anything wrong before the Fall Formal and who deserves for all her crimes to be forgotten. But in this, people are still acknowledging that they remember how bad she was, and on top of that, the police are going to be looking for her. Also, I'm really happy that, so far, Princess Twilight is actually acting rationally for once. She is acknowledging Sunset's failures, and unlike most stories I feel like she is going to handle CHS fairly rationally, rather than just busting through the portal and yelling at everyone about how much they suck.
I hope the Rainbooms continue to get an evenhanded treatment going forward Sure, they screwed up this time, but it's not like they didn't have decent reason to suspect Sunset. And people are idiots when they're angry.
OK, first of all...
THANK you!
So. With that out of the way...
I like this. The compromise she made in posting "only" the criminal stuff was, in a very real sense, also a moral compromise in the worst way. Nothing is going to be coming easy for her, and the actions of herself and Anon-A-Miss are going to have long-lasting repercussions.
The letter she left for the Principal was excellent. That was obviously not easy for her.
There is also the fact that the Rainbooms are going to find that she is already gone. "Wow... we really suck." Yes, oh multichromatic ones, you kind of do. But you can also learn from it and try to be better. Congrats, now you have a small taste of what Sunset had to face down (a very small one). And guilting yourselves will make exactly nothing better. Live it down and create a history that will, over the course of years, vindicate you.
Too little and too late to salvage the friendship? Maybe.
I like that you are showing both the strengths of Sunset (which I was really hoping for) and her weaknesses (which make her more real as a character). There are plenty of grey areas, and I am glad you are exploring them.
And, as another reader already pointed out: the Rainbooms are not the Mane Six. Not only are their personalities a bit different in how they express themselves, they have different experiences by which they inform themselves. And, without the extreme experiences of the M6 plus the years of influence of Twilight and Twilight's journeys... yeah, stupid and destructive mistakes can happen. With the Rainbooms, the stakes just aren't generally as high. Their decision making abilities reflect that.
At the same time, no sympathy for them. Sorry, but they are old enough to know better than to exile a friend without examining the situation, especially after they've fought and grown together as they have. An understandable error? Perhaps. But not necessarily a forgivable one. We'll see as the story unfolds.
I am looking forward to seeing how Sunset responds to their eventual confession. It isn't a matter of taking her back, it's a matter of whether she ever takes them back. And I can see that going both ways. After all, they not only cast her out, they abandoned her, and left her to fend for her life and health against a series of assailants alone. They may not have seen it like that at the time, but I suspect Sunset did.
Needless to say, I am really enjoying this. Not that you need this, but just to be a voice against the flak: you continue writing whatever is right for your story, and it'll continue to be good, I'm sure.
(On a minor note: seriously, it was only a five-hour lesson on the most essential set of magical artifacts in their world, which the M6 happen to be bonded to... what is wrong with Rainbow Dash? )
8804499
For the record: to me, that is one of the elements of your story thus far that is most vital. Because it isn't just the "Magic of Friendship" that shapes her. Sunset also shapes herself. And she knows it.
8804416
It might be as simple as having had time to calm down and think. No offense to the Rainbooms, but they aren't the most introspective people in the multiverse.
8804512
Pressing a button is simple enough to be scripted yet definitely updates "Last Online" counter. Even if it's not quite enough, Sunset is clever. Anyway, this is really not a relevant thing there.
8804622
On the other side, one could read that like "without support, she would have crashed down". And it's quite fortunate for her that she did hold for the railing instead of going straight down.
8804653
True enough. She's off-balance, and sought out a friend and an environment where she can regain her footing. I will still credit her with the intelligence and will to do so, however.
8804499
It sounds interesting, but it also sounds like it's tangential to the primary story thread. I really don't care how "the school" reacts to Sunset's actions, but we've already seen how her friends have reacted: a resounding "meh." That undercuts a lot of the drama; Sunset still has things to work out, but everyone else seems to have made up their minds in her favor. It's going to take a very large and obvious wrench thrown into things in order to inject tension into the storyline.
Very nice. Glad to see Sunset’s moral compass is mostly still true. Also anyone else really hoping she chooses to stay in Equestria?
8804416
Sunset managed to break them up and make them hate each other with extremely half-assed prodding. They never really sat down and thought about it, and they were content to go on hating each other until Princess Twilight came in and fixed everything.
The Rainbooms aren't exactly the brightest of people when it comes to social situations. They only really get by because pretty much everyone else in the school are just as bad as them.
This is completely believable behavior from them.
8804679
You kinda supported my claim. They are, in canon, not very bright. The breakup before EqG1, and what happens in Forgotten Friendship shows that as well.
They don't question things, they don't look into things. Seeing this worse post on her my stable, logically, would just make them turn on Sunset even more without questioning anything about her being good.
They wouldn't see Sunset as possibly being innocent from Anon-a-miss. In fact, isn't that also canon for the comic as well, if I remember right? It took the CMC coming out and saying they were Anon-a-miss, and proving it, for anyone to believe that Sunset wasn't the one posting stuff, if I remember the ending right. Been years since I read it.
8804692
She shows them her journal and tries to convince them, so they give her a shot but still don't trust her. She was about to reveal who it is when the cmc confess.
The CMC are the ones that are going to get screwed when the school and their sisters find out about them we are going to find out about them right?