Previous Chapters Next
Close
Friends Together3,924 words
Even when it Rains4,403 words
Arguing will get you Nowhere Fast4,209 words
There's no use in Worrying when Things start going Wrong4,029 words
You Really Should be Doing as You're Told4,098 words
Happy or Sad we'll Stick by Your Side4,696 words
Whenever you Need a Hand3,978 words
Don't Judge a Book by its Cover4,001 words
If you Don't Concentrate on the Thing that you're Doing4,185 words
Winter Wonderland3,683 words
Credits109 words
List of references and allusions878 words

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity walked down the corridor, their heads down. The last few weeks had not been kind to them, not least the bullying that had been going on, nor the apparent revelation that it had been their own siblings. That had been an effective slap in the face to them, and the fact the Crusaders had denied it vehemently and loudly simply proceeded to make it hurt even more to them. And here they were now, going to pick them up from detention with Mr Cranky Doodle. It wasn't a fun task, and they would be doing it until they graduated from Canterlot High School.

Rainbow Dash spoke up to the others. "You know, I'm not too sure about it anymore."

"Seriously, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity asked. "How can you not be certain it was them? The evidence on their phones and the account information proves it was those three detestable swine!"

Applejack sighed. "Ah still can't believe it were mah own family. Mah own flesh and blood betrayed me."

"Do you think that because you think it's the truth, or because it's the easiest thing to believe?"

Rarity looked confused at her prismatic haired friend. "What do you mean?"

"Remember what Sunset said!" Rainbow Dash began, looking into the eyes of her friends as best she could. "This cyerbully has been impossible to trace for days, then all of a sudden those three try to log onto the account in the school library and take secrets in on their phones! That's sloppy!"

"Well, clearly, they were just being careless," Rarity replied.

"Furthermore," Rainbow Dash continued, "I'm pretty certain that if Sweetie Belle had snuck into your room, taken Sunset's phone, and then uploaded the pictures onto her PC, then onto the account, wouldn't we have heard her?"

"We were all asleep," Applejack sighed. "We wouldn't have heard a thin'."

"Also, look at them the past few days!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "They all look depressed and miserable, not to mention malnourished. They've been attacked, apparently, and they are not in great shape at all! Would a hardened cyberbully who had just been exposed really be like this during their day to day life?"

"Ah think ya just don't want ta accept that Scoots is a traitor," Applejack snarled.

"Indeed," Rarity sighed. "Look, I get you were close to Scootaloo, but now may be the time to just accept the truth and move on with your life, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders. "AJ, maybe they should just call you the 'Element of jumping to conclusions'."

"What da ya mean?" The farm girl looked over, an angry glint in her eyes.

"Remember the bake sale? Where you assumed I'd intentionally chosen to leave you in the lurch? You never bothered to ask for my side of the story, and admittedly I failed to ask for yours, but it still stands that we seem to go at each other's throats far too easily."

"Honestly, Rainbow Dash," Rarity sighed. "Just accept the situation as it is and let it go. Besides, we are here, and I have so many wonderful and lovely outfits to try on my dear modelling assistant!"

They knocked on the door. "Come in!" came the gruff voice of Cranky Doodle. Rainbow Dash pushed the door open to see the session concluding and the students inside prepping to be let out.

"Beggin' yer pardon, sir," Applejack asked, "but we're here ta pick up Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle."

"Then you're looking in the wrong place, I'm afraid," Cranky replied. "Miss Cheerilee took them to the library. I'd advise heading there and seeing if Miss Cheerilee's still around at this hour."

"Thank ya sir," Applejack said, and shut the door behind her. "C'mon, y'all! Time ta go!"

They headed off through the corridors, taking a number of different twists and turns, before finally arriving at the library door to find the janitor outside with his mop and bucket, already brushing the floor with water to ensure it was properly cleaned for tomorrow.

"Excuse me," Rarity asked, "but is the library open, good sir?"

"I'm afraid not," the Janitor replied. "Miss Cheerilee locked the place up right after the end of school, I'm afraid, and headed for home."

This realisation dawned on the three girls. "Then where are our sisters?" Applejack asked, her eyes full of concern that had previously been lacking.

"Oh, you mean Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle?" the janitor asked in return, answering a question with a question.

"That's them," Rainbow Dash answered.

"Oh, I last saw them with Miss Cheerilee and Sunset Shimmer, headed for the staff car park," the janitor replied, taking his mop out again and getting to work once more. "Now, if you ladies could please excuse me, I need to continue mopping the floor. It needs to be ready for tomorrow, and it won't be cleaning itself, unless the magic in this school somehow brings all the mops to life like in that Disney film." He headed off down the corridor, the mop continuing to slap into the floor and spread water everywhere.

Rarity's jaw dropped on. "But if Sweetie Belle isn't in the library, then where in the world is she?"

A mounting look of horror built on Applejack's face. "Oh, no, no, no..." she whispered. "Please no, it cannot be true!"

"The only conclusion I can come to is that they ran away from home to avoid us," Rainbow Dash said sadly. "I knew something wasn't right!"

"What kind of siblings have we been?" Rarity asked. "Oh, poor Sweetie Belle, out there in the snow on her own with naught to keep her warm!"

"Mah own sis hates me," Applejack said. "Yer right Dash, Ah was too pigheaded ta see it. There's somethin' else goin' on here, and we need ta establish exactly what is goin' on."

"What are we waiting for?" Rainbow Dash called, her voice full of urgency. "Let's get to the streetcar stop and to Cheerilee's house!"

Meanwhile, at Cheerilee's home, dinner had just concluded, the girls having had their fill. Actually, that is something of an understatement, as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were clearly glad to see something filling. It never ceased to amaze Cheerilee how much young kids could eat, but then again it probably had something to due with their age. Kids on the cusp of puberty usually had heavy appetites, if Scootaloo was anything to go by, but it was clear the trio had appreciated the food they had been given, if the looks on their faces were anything to go by.

"Thanks fer the meal, Miss Cheerilee," Apple Bloom said, whiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"The pizza was delicious," Sweetie Belle added. "Not to mention it made for a welcome change from nonstop soup and bread."

"I'd like to second that," Sunset added. "Your cooking is excellent. I usually survive on ready meals or stuff I can throw together quickly in the morning or evening."

"Thank you," Cheerilee replied. "I'm glad to hear you all enjoyed it. Is anybody up for desert?"

"Oh no," Scootaloo groaned. "I don't think I could eat any more!"

"They'd be bouncing off the ceiling if we weren't careful," Sunset added. "So it's probably not advisable to do so."

There were two groans of disappointment, which were hastily hushed by Sunset, who then resumed speaking. "Besides, haven't we got some stuff to do with regards to the account?"

Sweetie Belle immediately forgot to be disappointed. "Of course!" she exclaimed. "Let's go!" And she was out of her seat and flying down the corridor toward the spare room before anybody could say 'Harry picked a dozen hands of pickled pepper bullseyes'. Which made little to no sense, but anyway, that wasn't the point. Sunset jumped up after her and headed into the room as well, which left Cheerilee, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom in the kitchen, the two girls around the kitchen table and the adult over by the sink.

"So, back to the layout?" Scootaloo asked.

Apple Bloom nodded. "Sounds good ta me."

Meanwhile, in the spare room, Sweetie Belle was pearing over the long lines of code on the screen before her. "So, how do you think we should go about this?" she asked Sunset.

"Back in the old days, I found a good way of blackmailing somebody was to create a security hack to allow me to access the account behind a page," Sunset admitted. "Not exactly legal, but then again I never got caught."

"Would it reveal the account behind the original Anon-a-Miss?" Sweetie Belle asked, her face growing more determined.

"It would allow us to access it, yes," Sunset said. "First things first, we need to navigate to the very first post, namely 'piggly-wiggly'.

Sweetie Belle did some typing, and flicked over to a section of information that gave the code for the very first post. "Here we are. The very first post, uploaded about two weeks ago."

"Excellent," Sunset said, popping her knuckles. "Now then, we need to use my old trick. The fake login."

The code dissolved, and the page shifted back in, revealing the original Anon-a-Miss page. The one that had caused so much havoc in the first place, and left Canterlot High a warzone. Sunset had already built a fake account to attract them (SunShim@GMail.om), so this next stage of the operation would be easy. Sweetie Belle moved the mouse, and clicked on the 'friend request' button.

A ping came back a moment later.

Anon-a-Miss: Hi there! Got some dirt you need uploading? Well, that's what I'm here for!

Sunset smiled. Now for the difficult part. "Send message 2-7," she said.

Sweetie Belle hit the send button on message 2-7, and the following appeared on the screen.

SunShim@GMail.om: Congrats on winning a free TV! Click the link below to claim it! https://www.prizes.com/competition/TV.

Anon-a-Miss: Thanks for that! Time to go claim it!

Sweetie Belle looked in confusion. "Either this guy knows nothing about scams on the internet, or this is some sort of trap we're walking into."

It seemed the latter was the case, as suddenly a stream of new code appeared, going to a login page. Some details were already inputted in the display, presumably the host account for the Anon-a-Miss account.

Username: Halford.n@outlook.com
Password: Locker

Sunset blinked. "Who's this Halford guy? I've never heard of them. It could be a boy or a girl, for all we know."

Sweetie Belle looked concerned. "Should we log into their account? I don't feel too good about this now."

Sunset looked at her. "Hey, if we bring this person down, the one who tried to wreck not only my life, but yours, our actions will be more than justified. Are you ready to go?"

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Well, here goes nothing." She pressed the login button, and almost immediately they were brought onto a MyStable page of somebody Sunset didn't even know, but some of the secret information clearly showed their opinion.

Private log: I hate Sunset Shimmer. That bitch ruined my life and terrorised the school for years! She bullied, tormented, and abused us, and all she gets is a slap on the wrist? Fucking ridiculous!

Well, this sheep isn't going to lie down with the wolf. That she-demon deserves to go down. Everybody seems to think that she's changed, but I know she hasn't! She has everybody fooled, but I know the truth! She's still the abusive monster she always was, and will one day rise again to take control!

Not on my watch. Sunset is going down, and Anon-a-Miss is more than the tool I need. The entire world shall see the truth. Sunset isn't getting away with her crimes, not on my watch. Once I am done, I shall shift the blame onto those idiot Crusaders, who do nothing but make our school a living annoyance factory!

Sweetie Belle covered her mouth in shock. "Who is this person? And why do they hate us so much?"

Later that evening, Cheerilee was on the phone to the police.

"Yes sir. We have information on Anon-a-Miss and who they may be. Yes, we can assist. Sorry? You'll send an officer round to see us? Got it. Thank you, sir. Of course sir. Goodbye!"

She put the phone down. "The police are sending an officer over to liason with us, and help us bring this Anon-a-Miss down," she told the others.

"What do we know about this guy?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Apart from the fact that he really hates us and wants to drag me down, we know next to nothing," Sunset admitted. "It could be anyone, guy or girl."

"But at least we can contact them now, and bring them down!" Scootaloo said, pumping her fist.

"Are you OK, Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Remember this person must be a nasty piece of work to be able to do this."

"They ruined our lives, so I figured as much," Sunset butted in. "Hopefully we can do this without it turning into too much of a mess."

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Cheerilee got up to answer it, and opened the door. When she did open the door, a policeman was standing on the other side of the door, wearing a coat appropriate for the weather, and a fedorah hat favoured by detectives.

"May I come in?" he asked.

"Yes sir, you may," Cheerilee replied, nervously stepping back upon seeing the gun on his belt, a revolver of some sort. Her husband had given her some basic weapon training and marksmanship, but guns still unnerved her nontheless. "Would you like a drink of something?"

"No thank you, I'm on duty," the policeman replied, stepping in and hanging up his coat. Cheerilee shut the door behind him as he stepped into the living room to see Sunset and the Crusaders sitting on one of the chairs and the sofa. They couldn't all be sitting on a chair, it would be far too squashed and awkward for that to be possible.

He stepped over to the wall with the fireplace, and addressed the four of them. "Good evening, you four. My name is Trick Shot, inspector and marksman for the CCPD. It has been brought to my attention that you have actionable intel on the Anon-a-Miss case, is that correct?"

"Yes sir, it is," Scootaloo replied.

"And you are, ma'am?" Trick Shot asked.

"Scootaloo Collins, sir. The woman's my mom."

He nodded, and took a seat. "Well then, let me run you down the case so far. Correct me if anything I say is wrong."

There was a pause, before he continued. "Two weeks ago or so, a mysterious page appears on the MyStable website called 'Anon-a-Miss'. It posts a message about a Canterlot High School studen, the contents of which are clearly personal to the user. The account continues to post rumours and personal information of a hurtful nature for a week or so, until a message appears that looks like a confession. A confession from you three," he said, pointing to the Crusaders.

"If ya'll were seein' this," Apple Bloom asked, "why didn't ya do somethin' about it."

"That's strictly classified," Trick Shot replied. "What I can tell you is that this case has moved beyond cyberbullying, itself a hurtful and vile crime that hurts people and destroys lives, not to mention carries extremely severe penalties. This case has turned into identity theft. That's where somebody steals somebody else's identity in order to commit crime and pin it on somebody else. It's not only rude, it's illegal and carries serious consequences. I'm talking the $10,000 fine and three years behind bars kind of serious."

Cheerilee walked in, and sat down on the sofa alongside the Crusaders, all of whom looked distressed. "This person as dragged our names thoroughly through the mud, no doubt about that," Sunset sighed.

"I'm certain the police can handle it from here," Cheerilee said reassuringly.

"That's partly why I came around," Trick Shot said to them, his expression unmoving. "We have a plan for a SWAT team to bring him down. However, we need to lure him into a trap in order to get him. And this is where you come in."

"What do you want us to do, sir?" asked Sweetie Belle, who looked a little nervous.

"You are all in the right age range to lure this person in. You will contact them and say you have new secrets to give to them to be uploaded onto the account. Then, we shall meet at a suitable location that will allow us to swoop in and arrest them the second we identify them. You know who the account is linked to, so you can send the message."

"I know just the place for a suitable ambush," Sunset said. "Sweetie Belle, can you send off the message whilst I run the officer over the location?"

"Sure thing," Sweetie Belle replied, getting up and heading into the other room. Whilst in there, she went onto the account and began typing.

SunShim@GMail.om: Hello Anon-a-Miss. I have some information for you that will be extremely useful in your bid to bring down Sunset Shimmer.

Anon-a-Miss: Excellent! Where shall we meet to affect the handover of materials?

There was a pause, which seemed to last for all eternity as Sweetie Belle went back to ask Sunset the ambush location.

"The old carriage shops to the north of town," the bacon haired girl replied.

Sweetie Belle went back through to the other room, and resumed typing.

SunShim@GMail.om: The old California Coast Railroad carriage shops. Nobody's been in the place for years, so it's the perfect place for a handover.

Anon-a-Miss: Excellent. I look forward to seeing you there. May Sunset Shimmer suffer for her crimes!

Sweetie Belle typed a quick response, and then logged off from the bogus account. She felt that, somewhere, something was deeply wrong somehow.

When the California Coast Railroad had begun operations in the Canterlot region back at the dawn of the 20th Century, it had needed a location to service the colossal numbers of carriages and wagons it had on its stockbooks. As a result, it had established its carriage and wagon works on the north end of the city, on the left hand side of what would eventually become the main north-south highway. This facility had serviced the rolling stock for approximately 70 years, before it was moved south to be next to the main roundhouse and therefore more convenient for locomotive maintenance crews. Now the old building, which for some reason had never been demolished, was in a state of decay, the structure slowly collapsing around the old coaches and trucks that had been abandoned inside it. This was also a perfect place to hide, and it was in here, next to the offices, control tower, and a flight of stairs, next to the remains of a decaying P70 coach, that Sunset Shimmer, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom stood, with Cheerilee not too far away.

"So, how do you know this place?" Scootaloo asked Sunset.

"When I first came to the human world," Sunset replied, "I had nowhere to live. As a result, I found this abandoned factory and lived here for three whole years."

"Ya lived here?" Apple Bloom said, in shock. "Ya shoulda asked us! We'd have happily taken ya in!"

"Yep," Sunset answered, her voice emotionless. "And I don't think that Applejack would have wanted to be associated with me back then. I was the one who broke friendships and generally made people's lives awful. It all changed for me after Celestia discovered my circumstances following the Fall Formal. Although she was obviously very upset at my actions, she took pity nontheless, and gave me an apartment to live in. She would pay rent and upkeep in return for me securing a job, which as you know I got on the railroad as a conductor."

That made the other girls look sad. "The California Coast Railroad fired us over Anon-a-Miss," Sweetie Belle said sadly. "I loved working there."

"Ah were told Ah'd never drive a train again," Apple Bloom sighed. "At least not on their line."

"Hopefully we can put this right," Scootaloo added. "But I've always found places with worn out and abandoned rolling stock and engines disturbing."

"Same here," Sweetie Belle noted. "I once had a nightmare about Newport scrapyard."

"Ah ain't suprised," Apple Bloom commented. "That place was an effective train graveyard."

"Pipe down!" said the voice of Trick Shot over the radio. "Potential target is approaching."

Approaching them was a young man, about 15, with tan skin and brown hair, wearing grey sneakers and pants, as well as a striped white and green shirt and red jacket. He walked toward them, and spoke up. "Hey! You there?"

Scootaloo stepped around the back of the carriage, followed by her friends. "Ready for secret transfer," she said, holding a piece of paper in her hand.

"You know, you've got a lot of confidence meeting me out here," he said. "At least this helps me bring down Sunset, after that time she trapped me in a locker on campus."

Sunset gasped. So it was that guy. Now she remembered! After she had argued with Twilight in the corridor shortly before the Fall Formal, she had shut a boy her age in the locker on her way to another part of the school. She then remembered his name, and it all made sense.

"Norman Halford. Halford.n. Of course."

The police radioed Scootaloo through her ear mike. "Keep him talking, over."

"Yeah, seems she was a real mean bitch back then," Scootaloo said, trying to sustain the conversation.

"And now she'll pay," Norman smiled. "Well, thanks for that, I'd best be on my way."

"Sunset, is that the target?" the radio asked, or rather the voice of Trick Shot on the other end of the radio asked.

"Yes," Sunset replied. "That is the target. Norman Halford."

"All teams, we are go on ambush."

Just then, a set of floodlights came up on Halford, blinding him. And then the SWAT team moved in.

"HALT!" shouted the lead officer, his voice echoing and reverberating around the building. "THIS IS THE POLICE! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR CYBERBULLING AND IDENTITY THEFT! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"

Halford looked around him. "You bastard!" he snarled. "You sold me out!" He then began to run across the railroad tracks, pulling a pistol out of his pocket and firing upon the SWAT team, who responded in kind with rubber bullets. Halford sprinted over to a waiting steam engine, which was somehow in steam, released the brakes, and opened up the regulator. The engine pulled away, smashing through an open door as bullets bounced off the ceiling and through parts of the wheels and tender. The loud puffing could be heard as the train roared away into the night.

"Shit!" Trick Shot exclaimed. "He got away! Do we have any means of pursuing?"

"No locos in the area are available," Sunset growled in frustration. "Cars couldn't easily pursue either. Look at the size of that thing!"

"It's a Great Western Railway King Class 4-6-0," Sweetie Belle explained. "Top speed of 100 miles an hour. There's very little that could actually keep up with that engine, let alone bring it to a stop."

"I'll get some helicopters to keep an eye on it," Trick Shot said. "Swift Order isn't gonna like this one bit. We've got a crook and a stolen engine rolling into Canterlot on the streetcar lines, which'll cause havoc with existing traffic."

Cheerilee came forward. "Is there really nothing that can chase?" she asked.

"We have something that may help," said a female voice. Walking toward them were three teenage girls, with hoods up and varying skin colours. The Dazzlings.

"She's outside," Adagio Dazzle told them. "I think you'll like it very much."

Author's Note:

Almost to the end of the tale.

This chapter takes loose inspiration from both HCLegends 'Not Very Anon-a-Miss', and the Dainn story which effectively launched this genre.

3,715 views

109

Previous Chapters Next

Comments ( 70 )

Viewing 1 - 50 of 70
- Newest First
- Oldest First

Golden Fang Ryu Shenron

Golden Fang Ryu Shenron #1 · May 29th, 2019 · · ·

9649813
Oh it!!!

diablo4000

diablo4000 #2 · May 29th, 2019 · 1 · ·

Wait wait wait. He started all this because she stuffed him in a locker?!!! WTF! What a lunatic!

"The only conclusion I can come to is that they ran away from home to avoid us," Rainbow Dash said sadly. "I knew something wasn't right!"

yes and no Dash.

"What kind of siblings have we been?" Rarity asked. "Oh, poor Sweetie Belle, out there in the snow on her own with naught to keep her warm!"

Let's see Abusive, neglectful, a slave master, I say pretty awful sisters.

"Mah own sis hates me," Applejack said. "Yer right Dash, Ah was too pigheaded ta see it. There's somethin' else goin' on here, and we need ta establish exactly what is goin' on."

Well your a utter morn and stupid as shit, and you must have brain damage!

Sighs while i do like the chapter i hate those last bits it so sudden and too fast.
The changes in their beliefs and thoughts.

I really hoping you do the karma that coming in the correct way. No everyone forgives them and they all run thru he fields singing LALALALALALALA WE WERE TORTURED AND BEATEN AND STARVED, BUT WE FORGIVE EVERYONE EVEN THOSE THAT TRIED TO MURDER US BECAUSE WE'RE STUPID BYEON A BRAIN DEAD MUSKRAT.

Anon-a-Miss Remastered - The Blue EM2

Stats

FIMFiction

Follow & Support Us