Anon-A-Fix

by Soufriere

Epilogue: Happy Holiday

The last days of school passed. Final exams came and went, then suddenly CHS and its partner across the street CJHS were thrust headlong into the holiday break. Teens and adults alike relished the eleven-day vacation, especially with the several inches of snow still on the ground, all the better for playing, though not for driving.

Eventually, the time came for the long-planned get-together at the Apple Family’s farm. Rarity and Sweetie Belle were, as usual, running late. Also contributing to this was that their mother had needed an extra several minutes to warm up the station-wagon that she had left parked outside and thus had to defrost.

Rarity hastily typed out a status update on MyStable to send out to her 2,624 contacts, a number that had jumped since the Anon-A-Miss incident, mostly from boys in neighbouring districts who harboured open crushes on her, as well as a couple of design majors from the city university who felt she would be a good addition to their program. It said, simply, «The holidays are here at last! My most favourite time of the year!»

Once she’d hit ‘Post’, she called out to her little sister, “Sweetie Belle! Are you ready to head out?”

“Yeah!” said Sweetie from the other room with a bit of impatience. “Let’s go!”

As the walked to their mother’s no-longer-frozen car, Sweetie spoke again. “Thanks for inviting me and Scootaloo along with you all even after… what we did.”

“Well, you’ve tried to fix it as best you can,” Rarity said as they got in the car.

Once they were well into the several-mile trip out to the Apples’ farm, Rarity spoke again. “You took down Anon-A-Miss’s profile, you confessed your actions to Principal Celestia, you apologized to the other students you hurt…”

“…and we’re banned from the internet, being moved to separate classes, and we all have detention for the rest of the year!” Sweetie said sadly.

“Sweetie, you should consider yourself lucky the punishment wasn’t worse. The three of you could easily have been expelled over this. I don’t know how or why Sunset has such pull with the faculty, but she spoke to them for just five minutes and kept you all in school. You owe her a lot.”

“Yeah, I know. But… all the stuff that Anon-A-Miss put out there is still out there. We can’t take that back.”

“No, you can’t. But you’ve tried, and put in your best effort to do so, and that’s what counts in this sort of situation. I think we’ll be okay, even if a few of our secrets are out,” Rarity said as she put her hand on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder.

“I guess…”

“And I suppose Applejack and I owe our little sisters an apology as well. We never meant to make either of you or Scootaloo feel left out. We shouldn’t have made you feel alone. It took Anon-A-Miss for us to understand how you all felt… and how Sunset felt before she met us.”

They finally reached the Apples’ main residence, close to the road but surrounded on three sides by a hundred acres or more of (snow covered) fields and orchards. In the driveway sat an old beat-up green truck, multiple sets of tire tracks from where the other girls had already been dropped off by their families, and a purple moped. Applejack and Apple Bloom had the front door open and greeted them, handing them hot chocolate with marshmallows as soon as they crossed the threshold. Inside, everyone else had already gathered and were chatting amongst themselves, having a grand old time. Granny Smith had baked a massive platter of cookies and applesauce muffins, which all her young guests happily devoured. Even the health-conscious Fluttershy helped herself to a couple of treats.

Sweetie Belle quickly joined her best friends, all of them knowing it was probably the last time they would be allowed to see each other for at least five months.

After saying her greetings and peace with everyone, Sunset broke off from the rest of the group and sat alone by an out-of-the-way window facing the pasture as she watched the snow fall. Rarity approached her, followed quickly by Applejack.

“I just… really want to thank you two for making all this happen,” Sunset said with a slight catch in her throat.

“And I need to thank you for saving our sisters,” said Rarity.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Sunset retorted. “I want to believe any of you would do the same for me. At least now that you know I never lied.”

“Sugarplum,” Applejack said as she placed her hand on Sunset’s shoulder, “Of course we would. After all, you’re part of our (non-kin) family now. And y’know what I love about family?”

“What’s that?” Sunset and Rarity both asked.

Applejack smiled as big as she could as she answered. “No matter how big it gets, there’s always room for more!”

Sunset nodded slowly. “I think I’m starting to understand.”

“Good,” Rarity said. “Now come on, dear. Let’s go back and join the others. After all, the night is still young, and it’s much warmer by the hearth.”

“Fair enough,” said Sunset as she pulled herself away from the window.

The three girls joined the gaggle in the living room in front of the fire just as Granny Smith began to tell one of the traditional Apple Family legends.

Author's Note:

Please Read Me

Comments

[Arkonfleight]

You get an upvote for being honest about it, at least.

[diablo4000]

I dislike this fic. It's just the comic in every detail but only some extra stuff added in and is boring and super dull.
Nothing is really orginal much at all.

[Soufriere]

9802696
I accept your extraordinarily well-reasoned and well-written critique.
Let's ignore that I made it clear from the outset that that was this story's POINT.

9802694
Honesty is always the best policy. I do my best to deliver on what I promise, for better and worse. I just hope my version flows better than the original.

[the frank]

This is set between the first two EQG movies

I have yet to read it, but first and last: Yes. Thank you. This is one of the things that would have made the original 50% better.

[Scampy]

This is a really unfortunate case of a story not being given a chance. By all accounts, it's a perfectly fine fic, certainly better than most Anon-a-miss SufferingSunset fics where Dash/Gilda etc. kick down the door to Sunset's apartment and vaporize her with a flamethrower or whatever, or those awful revengeporn ones where Twilight shows up and has everyone executed by firing squad.

But because it doesn't go down those ever-so-popular extreme routes, the revengeporn and SufferingSunset crowds aren't happy with it, despite the story being invariably good. It's not groundbreaking or insane or stupidly sad, but it's not supposed to be. All those downvotes are almost certainly from people who never even read the dang thing, which is a kinda backwards case where those people lost the trees for the forest. It is taking a break from the ludicrous drama Anon-a-miss fics are known for, so they dislike it not for what it is, but for what it isn't.

Really sucks to see this kind of thing happen. For what it's worth, you did a good job and I enjoyed it.

[Blazeblast4]

9803551
I really doubt it’s the revengeporn or Sunset abuse fans that are downvoting this. Every time a new “different” take comes out, usually talking about how different it is, as long as it’s legible, it stays at an 80%+ rating. I do wonder where all the downvoting came from, especially with the lack of comments.

[Soufriere]

9803781
I have my theories, but I'm not going to bring them into the comment thread, as I think that's bad form. I'll talk about it in my next blog post. I hope you'll read it.

9803551
Thank you so much for the compliment! Even though I was down on myself about this story's existence, I still tried my best.

[Blazeblast4]

Edit: Overall enjoyed this one, though had some gripes. Not a fan of the super retelly style and some of the details didn’t seem to fit too well. Apple Bloom and Rarity also felt a bit forced (both how Apple Bloom was on the phone and Rarity’s treatment of Sweetie Belle and Sunset). Flash felt a bit off as well. Otherwise, it was a fun story. Going to take me awhile to get used to all the names though.

Also, didn’t see the most recent comment when I posted this.

9803551
Finally read this one, here’s my speculation on the downvotes.

First, iirc, there was a non-con tag on this story before. I could be misremembering, but I’m pretty sure it was there. If it was, an Anon-A-Miss story with non-con will almost certainly get automatic downvotes (and this story had 3 in the first minute according to the blog post).

Second, it’s an Anon-A-Miss story that’s part of an established fic universe. Plenty of people can’t stand Anon-A-Miss at all and suddenly slapping it into a multi fic long universe is probably going to ruffle some feathers.

Third, it does the whole thing where it’s an almost exact retelling of the original content, with little extra stuff added, none of which affects the plot (at least in this fic). That particular style, especially with a lot of the fic describing the visuals in detail and directly ripping much of the dialogue (with little explanations and expansions), may attract some downvotes as well.

Combine those with a rough start on an Anon-A-Miss story that’s several fics into the series, and plenty of people would just skip it (especially with a 50% ratio which it was at one point), so it slowed down in upvotes.

Edit: Forgot to mention the Trump joke, that may have triggered a downvote or more.

[KittyrinnAiko]

10071918
I will have to agree on this one. It either needed to be expanded on or left out entirely in favor of Trixie's canonical motivations. Trixie is a show hog, someone who wants to be in the spotlight all the time and envious and bitter towards anyone who comes between her and the center of attention. The sexual stuff didn't need to be there. You want sexual tension, do it without the groping.