The lunchroom was abuzz of activity upon the return of Twilight Sparkle, a spark of hope having returned to most of the students. Though they were sure to give their hero the space she needed, there was undoubtedly some electricity in the air surrounding her.
All eyes were on her and her next move as she sat and discussed what came next with the girls.
“Ah’m real sorry you had to come back just to see all of this,” Applejack explained gloomily, “Ah was hopin’ the next time ya got to visit it would just be for fun, not dealing with more high school drama problems. Least this one ain’t involvin’ any kind of dark magic.”
“It’s okay girls, really,” Twilight said with a reassuring smile. “I’m glad you’ve informed me of what’s been going on. Though it’s hard to believe that Sunset really has gone back to her old ways. Something about it just doesn’t feel right…”
“We didn’t want to believe it at first either, darling,” Rarity sighed forlornly, a hand dramatically resting atop her breast. “But after the evidence from the sleepover, it was undeniable! She’s even admitted it to the whole school at this point! What else are we supposed to do?”
“I still don’t fully understand what happened,” Twilight said, turning to the girls, “could you tell me exactly what happened from the beginning?”
“Well, we were all having a sleepover one day, where we learned that AJ used to have the nickname ‘Piggly Wiggly’ as a kid!” Pinkie began.
“It’s a plum embarrassin’ nickname, but ah trusted my friends with that secret.” AJ sighed. “But by the next mornin’, it had been posted to that site.”
“Who else knew about the name though? Isn’t it possible someone else posted about it?” Twilight asked, looking around.
“The only ones who knew about it was my kin.” Applejack said, placing an arm on the table. “Apple Bloom was the one who blurted it out over the phone, which led to me havin’ to explain it to everyone.”
“Keep in mind it really was just us at the sleepover too.” Rarity added. “No one else should have been able to hear it, yet it got posted onto that website anyway.”
“And that was enough for you guys to believe it was her?” Twilight asked.
“That wasn’t enough on its own,” Fluttershy added this time, “it was the second sleepover that convinced us.”
“It was at my house, and we were putting on clothes from my closet of shame,” Rarity explained, grimacing at the memory, “At this point Anon-a-Miss wasn’t a household name, but that changed when Sunset uploaded those photos of us in my outfits from her phone. We double-checked and verified all of the photos we took, and we know for absolute certain that they could have only come from Sunset’s phone.”
“She wasn’t in any of the photos either,” Dash growled, her arms crossed, “she only humiliated us with her posts, never herself. If that isn’t telling, I don’t know what is.”
“And there was no one else in the house at all?” Twilight asked, trying to get more information. “No one could have tampered with her phone while you were asleep?”
“It was just us, my parents, and Sweetie Belle, Twilight,” Rarity explained, “Who else could it be?”
“And why do y'all keep talking like Sunset might still be innocent?” Applejack asked, confused, “She plum admitted to being Anon-a-Miss in front of everyone! Case closed!”
“That’s just it, Applejack, something feels off about that,” Twilight said with a shake of her head, “If she was trying to keep it a secret, why just go and tell everyone that it was her all along? Why make it so obvious that it was her to begin with?”
“Like we’d know!” Dash grunted. “Why does anyone become a bully? To feel like they’re better than others! And I feel like I should understand that better than anyone!” She pointed a thumb at herself. “If I hadn’t seen just how Gilda was hurting people, I might’ve become one myself! I know I’m awesome, and I know I’m better than a lot of people, but hurting people over it isn’t cool! And that’s what Sunset did back then, and it’s what she’s doing now!”
“And I understand that, but… Hear me out on this. What if Sunset is faking it?” She looked around at the girls as she thought about how to word this. She didn’t want to give away that she was on Sunset’s side, but she had to at least try and give Sunset another chance in their eyes. “What if Sunset admitted to being Anon-a-Miss to get the person who is Anon-a-Miss to stop posting?”
“I don’t follow…” Fluttershy said, very confused.
“You all told me that the site pretty much stopped updating once Sunset announced that she was Anon-a-Miss… What if that was her goal? If she wanted the school to stop fighting with itself, what better way to do that then to unite them against her?”
“I dunno, Twilight,” Pinkie said, appearing next to her in thought. “That theory is pretty crazy, and I would know. I’m pretty loco in the coco myself!”
“Nor does it explain how our secrets got leaked originally,” Rarity offered next.
“Look, ah know you wanna believe that Sunset changed, we all did,” Applejack said, placing a hand on Twilight’s shoulder, “we’re not the kind of people to go throwin’ these accusations around lightly. We thought Sunset was our friend, that after all the years of tormentin’ us that we could put that all behind us and start something new! And she was the one who threw that all away.”
“Plus there’s kind of the whole, she’s admitted it was her, thing,” Dash said with a twirl of her hand, “kind of hard to overlook that.”
“I just… I want to cover all possibilities, including the possibility that Sunset is innocent,” Twilight said with a dejected sigh, “I know Sunset bullied you girls for a long time, but I’d also like to think that none of you would purposefully set her up as well. Which, would likely mean Sunset did do it.” She put her arm on the table, resting her head against her hand in troubled thought. “Unless it was Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle that did it.”
“Don’t be preposterous darling,” Rarity tittered. “Sweetie Belle is an innocent angel and would never do such a thing! Plus she didn’t know about AJ’s nickname, so it couldn’t be her!”
“And Apple Bloom knows better than to go around spreading family secrets like that,” Applejack said with a shake of her head, “Nor did she have any way of accessing Sunset’s phone. So it couldn’t have been either of them.”
“Right, of course…” Twilight groaned.
Interrogating the girls had given her a better understanding of the situation, but hadn’t exactly gotten her any closer to answers. She hoped Sunset was doing better with her half of the interrogations…
Sunset’s hand slammed down against the locker, causing Micro Chips to jump in place, pressing his back against the hard metal as the redhead loomed over him.
“So, Micro Chips,” Sunset said cooly, giving him her best evil smirk. “Got a thing for spreading secrets, do ya?”
“I-I, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” He defended himself terribly, the guilt clear in his voice.
“Oh, of COURSE not! You NEVER uploaded to Anon-a-Miss!” Sunset chuckled, holding up her phone. On the screen was a clear shot of one of Micro Chips’s best friends caught graffiting the side of a building. “And your best friend just happened to be caught doing something illegal, and from an angle that looks a lot like you wanting to remember the occasion!”
Sunset didn’t actually know this for a fact, but she was very good at making educated guesses. She knew Chips’s friend had gone tagging before, and she knew she had seen Chips with him before. So really it was just a matter of putting two and two together.
“OKAY! OKAY! I DID IT! I’M SORRY!” Micro Chips confessed, cowering against the lockers.
“Good! That’s what I was hoping to hear,” Sunset said with a smile. “But I was curious, why backstab your friend like that, hm? That’s pretty cold coming from you.”
“H-He owed me money!” Chips cried out, “We’d been fighting about it and he refused to accept my feelings on the matter! So I thought I would get back at him by posting to Anon-a-Miss! I was angry and stupid and I didn’t mean to! Please don’t tell him I did that! I still want him as my friend!”
“Oh, poor Micro Chips,” Sunset said sweetly, lifting her hand up and patting him on the cheek with a smile, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell anyone.”
“R-Really?” Chips asked, confused and scared.
“Mmmhmm. I’ll just keep it as ammunition for when I need it.” Sunset chuckled darkly, pulling back. “You’re free to go now.”
Micro Chips didn’t need to be told twice, quickly scooping up his things and rushing away. Sunset watched him leave before turning and squeezing the bridge of her nose with a sigh.
That was the twelfth student she had interrogated that she knew had posted to the site, but each and every one of them couldn’t have been Anon-a-Miss. Not only were they too skittish or scared about the repercussions, but they only ever admitted to the things they had posted and swore it wouldn’t happen again.
Sunset believed them. Anon-a-Miss had been craftier than that, not to mention they’d had access to things before the school masses started posting secrets to the page. If any of the students she had interrogated were the culprits, then there would be more evidence, more signs, more hesitation in their responses.
She was at least cutting names from the potential suspects list, but she’d already been having a feeling they weren’t the culprits to begin with. She was short of ideas and was just eliminating possibilities to ensure they weren’t Anon-a-Miss.
Scrolling through the site again, she started to think that perhaps she was going about it the wrong way. The people that had posted after the initial secrets got out weren’t likely to be Anon-a-Miss themselves, and anyone who’d had their secrets revealed likely weren’t going to be Anon-a-Miss either.
It was always possible they had revealed a secret about themselves to throw her off their tracks, but she’d cross that bridge once she’d crossed off the other possibilities.
At the very least, the site still hadn’t updated again since the video of her confronting Twilight, so the plan was still working. She was at least a small step closer to figuring out who had caused this whole mess and fixing everything, but she was still missing the largest clues.
She just hoped that Twilight had been more successful than her.
“Nothing concrete?” Sunset asked.
“Nothing that jumped out, no,” Twilight sighed, sitting down at Sunset’s computer desk. She tapped a pencil against the desk in thought, “I know that none of the girls are Anon-a-Miss, and spending time with them only reinforced that.”
“I kind of figured that was the case myself, but it’s nice to have confirmation it wasn’t any of them,” Sunset sighed herself, shaking her head. She was currently laying on her couch, kicking her foot off the side repeatedly in thought. “Which leaves us with our next option of just… Figuring out who hasn’t been targeted by Anon-a-Miss at this point.”
“I do think you’re onto something with that.” Twilight said with a nod, turning back to Sunset’s computer and scrolling through the page. “A lot got posted onto Anon-a-Miss in such a short period of time, and it really does cover almost every student in CHS. If we can just narrow down who hasn’t been targeted, we might be able to figure out who Anon-a-Miss is. I just wish I had more time to get to know everyone...”
“Certainly would be handy to have Pinkie on our side right now. She’d make that part a lot easier.” Sunset groaned, sitting up properly on the couch. “But I have a fairly decent memory of student names at CHS, plus I’ve got last year’s yearbook. On top of that, most of the secrets have the students directly tagged anyway. It shouldn’t be too hard to make a list.”
Twilight was quiet at that, not even scrolling through the site anymore. She turned around, looking over at Sunset.
“...I tried, Sunset, I really did.” Twilight sighed regretfully. “I proposed the idea that you were innocent and even explained my logic, but… They were just convinced it was you. Nothing I said could change that…”
“I really wasn’t expecting it to go any other way, no offense, Twilight.” Sunset chuckled a little, smiling softly at Twilight. “I kind of dug my own grave here, so I wasn’t exactly expecting to win them over with a letter of recommendation.” Sunset leaned forward and smiled. “Thank you for trying though. It means a lot to me.”
“I still feel awful for failing to convince them.” Twilight sighed, rubbing her face. “I should’ve been able to do so much more for you, Sunset…”
“Let’s not focus on that right now, Twilight.” Sunset said, standing up from the couch and walking over to the computer. “Let’s just focus on finding out who Anon-a-Miss is for now, okay?”
“Okay.” Twilight nodded, turning back to the computer. “We do have all night. I told the girls I had something to attend to in Equestria and would be back in the morning, so we shouldn’t be interrupted.”
Sunset couldn’t help but smile, looking down at Twilight and feeling a small bit of warmth in her chest.
“Thank you, Twilight… I know I keep saying that, but I genuinely don’t know how I’m going to repay you for all of this kindness.”
“Hey, what else are friends for, Sunset?” Twilight said with a big, genuine smile. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than right here helping you.”
Sunset felt her heart beat again and she brought a hand up to her chest. She had to swallow a little at that. She was just moved in a way she hadn’t been before. Her tongue was tied, and she felt hot. It was just…
“A-Alright, let’s get started then,” Sunset said, turning to focus on the screen. “I’ll make sure the tags are correct with who is who. You write the names down.”
“Got it.” Twilight said with a chipper nod as they began to go down the list.
Sunset didn’t know what she was feeling, but it made her insides feel warm and gooey, and they were definitely a distraction from what they were supposed to be doing. She did her best to shove them down and focus on the topic at hand at least.
Proving her innocence with her best friend.
Nice.
Awesome, keep up the good work!
Doing good so far
Going back to Equestria for a while might help.
9782477
Well, it may be annoying to you. But, to me, the part with the Rainbooms learning to truth, realizing they screwed up and emotionally break down is always satisfying to me. Like, drinking water from an actual lake in the middle of a desert satisfying. It's always nice; to me, to see the girls realize their muck up. Especially from the Ashleigh Pair. Those two are mainly headstrong and stubborn.
"Girls, you know how I'm best friends with your pony analogues? And how our worlds have some truly eerie parallels at times? Let me tell you about Gabby Gums..."
This is the problem with reading a mystery when you already know the solution. Watching the sleuth come so close to the solution gets especially frustrating. And the yearbook may not help if the CMC are freshmen. Hopefully Twilight will still bear her suspicions in mind. After all, they're literally the only possible remaining suspects. Honestly, I find myself wishing she just broke the facade then and there.
"Okay, look, at the Fall Formal, we hit Sunset with 1.21 gigathaums of harmonious magic. Speaking from experience, that's enough power to petrify a god of chaos or cure the magically augmented insanity of a mare who can move the moon. Get it through your thick monkey skulls: Sunset is no longer emotionally capable of this kind of betrayal. It isn't. Scientifically. Possible."
Of course, then we'd going back to much more heavily trodden ground in terms of Anon-a-Miss fics, so there we are.
Also, were the "what's this strange gooeyness?" romance flags really necessary? I'm not against Sunlight, anything but, but that's one of the more hackneyed ways to signal romantic attraction in fiction. Just have Sunset appreciate the emotional connection without finding herself flummoxed by her own infatuation. Maybe lean her head into Twilight's shoulder, just because she's worn out from the Queen Bitch act.
Maybe have Twilight nuzzle her a little until they catch themselves.
Despite my gripes, I am enjoying this. Looking forward to more.
9784469
It is indeed refreshing to see an author do that while yes horses(and ponies and such) are herbivores they can and have eaten meat not much or very often mind you but they can take Iceland for example they will feed dried fish to their horses during the winter for extra protein and its something authors tend to over look when world building in their story for example your writing about the crystal empire it's a cold region so you could add in that the crystal ponies partake in some meat for that extra protein and energy when traveling out of the protected area of the city.
The ignorance of all this is just so delicious. I think some of the catharsis of Anon-a-Miss centric stories is when the characters who made these assertions realize that they're wrong. Now, it doesn't need to happen, depending on the story itself, but when the story is focused on the incident and not using it as an catalytic event, yea, there's catharsis in the eventual reveal.
I still hold out that my prediction will prove true. Sunny either figures it out, or the CMC will get annoyed later on and admit to something in emotional rage and sabotage themselves.
Family should be the one source you can always trust, so Rarity and AJ not wanting to even entertain the notion that it was them makes sense. But really, if the shoe fits.
At the very least, Twilight has planted the idea in their heads, and like it or not, it should stick there, a festering doubt.
9784907
With Gabby Gums they were blackmailed into it. They would have stopped straight away when they saw what was happening were it not for Diamond Tiara. Here they are doing it by their own free will.
9784886
Keep in mind I'm not saying these tropes are bad its just that there are only so many times people should be allowed to repeat them while still pretending they are actually writing something original and not just riding someone else's coattails.
9785003
True, but also the way the girls turned on Sunset should probably help her to note that while many things are the same there are also differences, and even then it’s not like it wouldn’t make sense to assume that Diamond in this world is blackmailing the CMC into doing the same thing.
Still very refreshing to see an Anon-a-Miss fic that's doesn't fall into one of two categories that pretty much every dingle other one does.
Looking forward to next chapter.
9785003
Unless I missed something, we (readers) don't know their motive yet - they could well be being blackmailed into doing it by an as-yet unseen third party... which, given the scale of the negativity, is pretty likely - unless EQG!Crusaders are significantly dumber than their pony counterparts, they should've realized that they're hurting their own family and friends for no good reason. And therefore, it's likely that their motivation is external.
9785139
All Anon-a-miss stories are based off of a comic. Spoilers for the comic. In the comic the CMC are jealous of Sunset because she is (in their minds) stealing their sisters away, since they spend so much time with her. They didn't do that before they became friends with Sunset, so they thought if they could break that friendship up, things would go back to how they were. They purposefully posted those secrets and framed Sunset for this reason.
So unless the author is seriously shaking things up, they aren't being coerced or blackmailed by anyone.
The comic itself is generally regarded as pretty bad since the motivations and reactions of everyone is not very realistic, bu the premise itself is so interesting it's spawned countless stories.
9785218
I always considered Anon-A-Miss to be a wasted story. What would be interesting is seeing someone trying to get back at Sunset for a legitimate grievance. Instead, we have Sunset being targeted for a very petty reason.
Beyond the interesting gimmick and avoidance of the standard revenge fic tropes, this story is turning out to not be very interesting. The investigative parts feel like the author is just going through the motions, its all very standard with nothing new being brought to the table. While I am a fan of SunLight the romance feels like it's only here because it's expected, it's not all that interesting.
Hopefully, the story picks up as it continues.
I like it. I am quite curious to find out if Twilight, after the whole mess is dealt with, will realize that the CMC being the culprits was obvious because they did the same thing in Ponyville. Even if she doesn't think of it now, she'd certainly be angry at herself for not realizing it.
9785282
Except that in Equestria, the CMC were essentially being blackmailed into doing it by Diamond Tiara; here, the girls did it on their own initiative and for an incredibly petty and selfish reason.
The fillies also tried their best to redeem themselves after they realised how shitty Gabby Gums had become; the girls here have no intention of doing that without being forced to by being discovered.
9785332
Very true; the situations here and in Equestria are very different. Even so, Twilight is a smart pony and she prides herself on that. Even if these situations aren't the same, she'll probably still blame herself to a degree for not seeing it. Additionally, as you said the CMC here have a far worse reason for doing what they did here than they had in Equestria, and it would be interesting to see how Twilight would react here. She doesn't actually know these versions of the girls that well, but she was very disappointed in them when they were blackmailed in Equestria, so I imagine here she'd be a little angrier because they were acting of their own volition.
I don't wanna nitpick and this likely has more to do with my own foreknowledge, but hearing Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle's names come up during the explanation would've set off some red flags if it were me, assurances or not. Especially after Gabby Gums...
That being said, it's nice to see a smart and calm Sunset for a change as opposed to an emotionally-broken one. Although, I kinda wanna see FOME's version of events play out sometime
...
Apple Bloom could've told Sweetie Belle about AJ's nickname because they're best friends and Sweetie Belle was at Rarity's home during the Rainbooms sleepover, potentially have accessed to Sunset's phone!
I can understand that they would think that their own sisters wouldn't do something so cruel to them because they're family (which that and itself was a major irony), but their ignorance just amazes me!
Sunset's complete acceptance of the way her friends are treating her is the only sore spot this story has given me. I'm not even saying that I want her to ditch them or get violent or screamy or anything, since there's nothing wrong with choosing forgiveness. However, the fact that she doesn't harbor any hard feelings over it? Like, there's the high road, but then there's being a complacent doormat. Just seems unrealistic, especially considering Sunset in canon.
It might've worked better for me if Twilight had helped her overcome some of her bitterness instead of having her automatically decide to forgive the same people that left her crying on the floor in front of everyone else.
I just noticed the ‘romance’ tag on this fic. I squeed myself.
9785534
I figure the story just started after Sunset was done being angsty and instead starts with her accepting the situation and deciding to do something about.
9784907
Yep. I'm fine with the romance, but a first hint needs to be subtle. We don't need to be hit over the head with a brick.
(I mean, I like pretty much the rest of this. I would have appreciated Twilight at least considering Apple Bloom or Sweetie, even if she quickly dismisses it in her mind.)
considering how sunset broke the girls up by text alone the first time falling for the same thing isn't too far fetched just really sad.
This is the first Anon-a-Miss Story I've read more than a single chapter of...
Great job!
Shouldn't the obvious follow up to this statement be who was with Apple Bloom when she blurted it out over the phone? Am I the only one wondering this? I have read quite a few Anon-a-miss stories here and not once was this question asked. I do understand that in the comics, it shows Apple Bloom as being alone in her room but none of the characters know this (and that's assuming that the author isn't doing something different).
Just a minor stray thought that popped into my head. Either way, liking the story so far and looking forward to reading more in the hopefully near future.
All right, time for Sunset and Twilight to take off the kiddie gloves and really put their nose to the Grind on their investigation
9785761
Eww
JUST KISS ALREADY!
"Proving her innocence with her best friend."
Like Lyra and Bon Bon are "best friends", eh?^_^
9787817
The best kind of friends. The kind that come with benefits.
*Sighs and shakes head* Twilight you stupid girl. You didn't think to mention WHY the girls thought Sunset was bad? REALLY?? Ugh. C'mon Twilight, you should be smarter than that!
Though yeah this DEFINITELY proves by point that "Oh well the CMC as just these darling angels who know better. Despite the fact that every single one of them had the opportunity..."
Do they really? Applejack and Rarity are extremely quick to dismiss the obvious culprits when to many stories operates on the cartoon logic and Sunset doesn't keep her phone locked with any type of security options available to keep her phone secure.
Wait? Cómo supuestamente se contactaron con Twi? No era Sunset la del libro mágico de otra dimensión? Jajajs
Hahahahah solo me reiré
There was a romance tag? Wow. How did I miss that?
No Twilight!! Stick to the plan!!!