> Through the Eyes of Anon-a-Miss
>  by sonicfan05
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: Principal Celestia's Office (CMC)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a cold winter day at Canterlot High. It was very cloudy and the entire school ground and beyond was covered in a white blanket of snow as snow flakes continued to fall, but not enough to cancel the school, much to the students dismay. But that wouldn’t matter because in the next two days, the school will be closed for the holidays, which would’ve excited every students in the school. However, instead of excitement and joy on every students’ faces in the hallway, their expressions were nothing but dull, anger, resentments, sadness and even… guilt.

All because of what happened from almost two weeks ago.

While that was going on, three young students with looks of guilt and fear, were sitting on their chairs within the principal’s office in front of Principal Celestia's desk. The first student had orange eyes and long red hair with a pink bow. She wore a light green shirt, blue jeans, which were rolled up to her knees and orange boots. Her name is Apple Bloom, a young farmer and the youngest sister to Applejack of the Apple Family. The second student had green eyes and a long curly purple-pink hair with a red-violet headband. She wore a white-pink striped shirt with a red-violet coat over it, yellow skirt, purple belt and red-violet boots. Her name is Sweetie Belle a talented singer and the youngest sister to the youngest fashion designer in town, Rarity. The final student had purple eyes and short purple hair. She wore a turquoise shirt with a grey hoodie over it, green cargo shorts and grey boots. Her name is Scootaloo, the youngest daredevil and a young sister figure to Rainbow Dash. 

Together, they are well known as the CMC, The Canterlot Movie Club. They usually hang out and watched movies together (sometimes multiple times for one movie) and talked about trivia's and Easter eggs they found after watching them. Sometimes, they would go around and help out other students by tutoring them for school or solve their life's problem without asking for anything in return. While those three unintentionally caused mishaps sometimes, they are model students in their own right.

But that wasn't the case this time around.

Earlier, they were called in to Principal Celestia's office and they were now sitting in front of Principal Celestia and her sister Vice Principal Luna. 

And neither one of them were happy. 

Celestia herself were staring at the young students with her strained but calm expression on her face, but her eyes were very tired after spending days of dealing the chaos that's been going on in school. Luna on the other hand was glaring angrily at the three as if they had just done the most heinous crime. The five of them were having a silent stare-off for what it seemed like five minutes, but felt like an hour ever since the CMC walked in, until finally Vice Principal Luna spoke up.

“So…” Luna began sharply, nearly startled the younger trio. “It has come to our attention that the three of you are the real Anon-a-Miss.” She then narrowed her eyes at them. “For the past couple of weeks, you all posted private and embarrassing secrets left and right of almost every student of this entire school, including some teachers too!”

“…are you still upset from that image we posted of you on your desk, playing with toys from My Little Dragon show?” Scootaloo asked.

Scootaloo flinched slightly when Luna glared intensely at her direction before slumping slightly from her seat.

“Right… shutting up now.”

Luna lingered her glare at Scootaloo for a moment longer before speaking to the group again.

“Anyway… I also heard from your sisters that you all purposely posted these... hurtful comments… all so you could frame one student? The one student you all brought harm the most? The one student who just recently proved herself, that she’s more than earn our forgiveness? The one student who had finally put her past behind her and felt she had earned her place… only for everything she had worked for was quickly ripped away after your horrible and stupid stunts?” 

Luna then slammed her palm hard on Celestia’s desk, causing all three young preteens to flinch back in fear. 

“What. Were. You. Three. THINKING!?”

“Luna… calm down,” Celestia chided but Luna ignored her.

“Do you three have any idea how many times this student you hurt the most comes into my office after the Fall Formal in her depressed state?”

“Luna—”

“Or how many sessions I had with her until she broke down crying about that she’ll never be forgiven by everyone.”

“Luna—”

“Or how long I encouraged her to start hanging out with your sisters and other people?”

“Lu—

“And then how long it took her to finally let go of her past deeds and then felt truly happy after hanging out with her friends?”

“Lu—”

“Answer me! Why would you three do that to Sunset Shimmer!?”

“LUNA, THAT’S ENOUGH!” Celestia shouted.

Luna stopped, glaring at her sister, while Celestia remained calm.

“Luna… what those three did was terrible, but yelling at them isn’t going to help!”

To demonstrate her point, Celestria gestured to the CMC’s, specifically their emotional states. Apple Bloom looked down towards the floor with deep guilt on her face with tears leaking from her eyes, Scootaloo was shaking violently out of fear and on a verge to crying and Sweetie Belle bawled loudly while burying her face into her hands. Luna expression softened somewhat but still frowned at them.

"I know you cared about Sunset ever since you took her in as her guidance counselor and quite frankly, I cared about her too," Celestia added. "But lets not forget, it not just Sunset who was the victim from this, but pretty much almost every student who was also affected from this ongoing mess as well. Don't get me wrong, what those three did was not right, but they're still just kids."

Luna sighed through her nose. “I'm sorry sister... I was out of line." Luna's eyes narrowed at the young students again. "But that doesn’t excuse them for committing such heinous act to Sunset Shimmer and the entire student body!”

Celestia was about to respond but Apple Bloom interjected.

“We… we weren’t thinking at all Vice Principal Luna!” Apple Bloom finally spoke up while sniffing. “We… we didn’t mean to get this far!”

“From the look of things, it seems that you did.” Luna commented, only to receive a warning glare from Celestia. When Luna got the message, Celestia sighed and spoke to the three miserable girls with a serious yet calm expression.

“Listen girls, we already heard what happened from your families and from Sunset Shimmer herself. And I must say... I’m very disappointed in you three.”

The three Crusaders looked down in shame.

“However,” Celestia added, causing the three girls to look up again. “While you three are still in trouble, we still didn’t get the full picture. We didn’t call you three in here just to berate you, we call you all in here because we wanted to know why. Why and how you three decided to group together and create… Anon-a-Miss and harm the student body? And why you all decided to continue with this unacceptable behavior up until yesterday? I want you three to tell us everything and I do mean 'everything'! If any of you three tell us any more lies at this point, there will be even more consequences coming your way! Am I clear?”

The young girls looked at each other with solemn expressions, silently communicate with each other. Finally they nodded and turned back to the principals with Apple Bloom speaking up for the group.

“A-alright Principal Celestia… we’ll tell ya,” Apple Bloom said sadly. “But... this’ll be a long story.”

Celestia nodded. “That’s fine. We have all the time in the world.”

“Except missing the Christmas special of My Little Dragons,” Luna mumbled.

Celestia gave her sister an irritated side look before focusing back to the Crusaders again. “Now… please start from the very beginning.”

“W-well to begin with… it was mah idea to create Anon-a-Miss,” Apple Bloom confessed nervously.

“You?” Luna exclaimed angrily, causing Apple Bloom to flinch back from her loud voice. “You’re responsible for creating Anon-a-Miss?”

“Y-yes,” Apple Bloom answered nervously. She looked up to see Luna’s eyes narrowing at her, clearly angry after hearing her revelation while Celestia still had a calm serious expression and gestured her to continue. Apple Bloom sighed for a moment before she began her tale.

“It all started about two weeks ago… on a day before Ah created Anon-a-Miss…”
> Chapter 1: How It All Started (Apple Bloom)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Two Weeks Ago. . .


It was early morning at Canterlot High School on a late December, everyone showed up at school despite that there was light snowfall today. Many CHS students were at the halls to their lockers, taking things out of their lockers while talking to their friends about how excited they are for the upcoming Holiday break, including three young pre-teens as Apple Bloom was taking her books out if her locker while Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were having an exciting conversation.

“This is awesome!" Scootaloo cheered. "Just a couple more weeks until our Holiday break!"

"Yeah! And not only that, Christmas is just around the corner!" Sweetie Belle said excitedly. "I can't wait, especially to spend time with my sister!"

"I couldn't wait to get presents!" Scootaloo added, only to smile sheepishly when Sweetie Belle gave her a questioning look. "Oh and uh... spend time with Rainbow Dash this year!"

Sweetie Belle shook her head before facing her other friend. "What about you Apple Bloom?"

Apple Bloom finished taking her stuff out of her locker and then had a thoughtful look. "Well... Ah'm actually doing the things for Christmas already."

Scootaloo cocked her eyebrow. "What do you mean Apple Bloom? How can you have fun now before you get presents?"

"Christmas isn't just about presents Scoots." Sweetie Belle deadpanned.

Before a fight broke out, Apple Bloom quickly spoke up. "Don't get me wrong, Ah'm looking forward to Christmas as much as you guys, but we have a tradition that we do a different fun activity together as a family every day as we're counting down to Christmas!" Apple Bloom smiled as she list off many fun activities to her friends. "One day we get to decorate the house, the next day we get to bake gingerbread, and then watch Christmas movies the day after, and so on and so forth. And on Christmas day, we get to do almost everything we did at once, except we also open our presents together, have hot cocoa as we sit by the fireplace, have our Christmas feast, and then conclude with the Apple Family's Christmas party!"

Sweetie Belle let out a loud whistle, impressed with Apple Bloom's Christmas planning. "Wow! That sounds like fun Apple Bloom! Can we come over to your party too?"

Scootaloo nodded eagerly, hoping to be part of Apple Bloom's party as well. 

"Of course you two can come!" Apple Bloom answered. "Ah just have to ask Applejack first!"

Scootaloo titled head head in confusion. "Why do you have to ask Applejack? I thought Granny Smith was in charge."

"Sort of... but it was Applejack who usually plans the party," Apple Bloom answered as she closed her locker. "In fact, Applejack was the one who started our family tradition when Ah was little." 

"Really?" Sweetie Belle asked, intrigued with Apple Bloom's revelation. "How did it start?"

Just before Apple Bloom could answer as she turned towards the hall, she didn't see someone in front of her. As a result, Apple Bloom accidentally bumped into this mysterious person and they both collapsed to the ground along with their books.

Once Apple Bloom recovered, she heard someone groaning and Apple let out a startled gasp.

"Oh my gosh, Ah'm so sorry!" Apple Bloom cried as she turned to the person she bumped into. "I didn't see where I was–" 

Apple Bloom stopped talking and then immediately frowned the moment she identified the person she was bumping to. That person was an older girl with golden skin, yellow-red hair and cyan eyes. She wore a purple shirt with a black leather jacket over it, long purple pants with an orange skirt with purple and yellow stripes over it and long purple and black boots. This girl was none other than Sunset Shimmer. She used to be a school bully of Canterlot High who ruled the entire school and made all the students fear her so she could get what she wanted. Shimmer was so ruthless, she even made Diamond Tiara a sweetheart in comparison. She even once turned into a She-Demon and took control of the students minds so she can take over her home world, Equestria. But after she was stopped by some magical girl named Twilight Sparkle and her new friends, Shimmer decided to turn over a new leaf and tried to make up with the students she had wronged. After weeks of apologies (and helped stopping the Sirens), most students were willing to forgive her, but there are some who still refused to give her a chance and didn't believe that she changed.

And Apple Bloom was one of them.

While Shimmer never did anything to Apple Bloom personally (except temporary mind controlled from Shimmer's She-Demon form), but Shimmer did bullied her sister many times before. Apple Bloom dislike Shimmer for that, but after hearing that Sunset originally broke up her sister's friends, Apple Bloom flat out despised her. She remembered how Applejack was miserable days after she stopped talking to her friends and sometime she saw her crying in the orchard when she thinks no one was looking. 

After Shimmer nearly crossed a line at the Fall Formal, Apple Bloom thought there was no way someone like Shimmer could ever get a second chance after that, but to her astonishment, Twilight Sparkle, the stranger and hero from another world not only gave her mercy, but also offered her hand of friendship. Even her sister, despite that she was bullied relentlessly from Shimmer, gave her another chance and now became one of the gang. This angered Apple Bloom because all Shimmer was getting from her years of bullying and hurting her sister was a slap on the wrist instead of getting punished. Sure, Shimmer did end up helping the construction crew repairing the school entrance as punishment, but that wasn't good enough punishment in Apple Bloom's eyes. 

What's even worse was ever since the Fall Formal, Applejack and the others began to hang out a lot after school and even bring Shimmer along, leaving her sister to spend less time with her as the days gone by. Despite that Applejack forgave Shimmer and let bygones be bygones, Apple Bloom never bring herself to forgive Shimmer even after hearing Shimmer so-called assistance in defeating the Dazzlings from the Battles of the Band. Even when Shimmer offered to help or gave Apple Bloom her friendly greeting, Apple Bloom would either flat out turned her down or just ignored her with a cold shoulder. Unfortunately for Apple Bloom, today was not her day when fate decided to have her and Shimmer bump into each other, leading her to have the most unpleasant interaction of her lifetime.

"Oh... hey Apple Bloom," Sunset greeted awkwardly.

"Shimmer," Apple Bloom responded coolly.

Despite receiving a cold response from Apple Bloom, Sunset attempted to continue to make a conversation with the younger Apple sibling.

"Well... isn't that a coincidence, I just talked to your sister earlier. She was just talking to me about how she likes to spend the Holidays. You Apples certainly know how to have a fun time, even on Christmas."

"Oh yeah... fun! ...when yer not around!" Apple Bloom mumbled as she began to pick up her items.

Feeling bad from earlier Sunset went over to Apple Bloom to help pick up Apple Bloom's things. "Here, let me help yo–"

"Ah don't need yer help!" Apple Bloom snapped, nearly slapping Sunset's hand away from her stuff. "Ah can do it myself!"

Sunset slowly stood up with a frown. "Um... are you sure Apple Bloom? I'm sure it'll be a lot faster if I–"

"Didn't you hear me the first time Shimmer?" Apple Boom shouted, nearly getting attention from other students. "Ah don't want yer help and I don't want anythin' to do with you! Now buzz off!"

Sunset stood with hurtful expression before she let out a sigh and slowly walked away. "Well... alright. I'll see ya around."

Apple Bloom scoffed at Sunset back before she resumed picking up her things from the floor. As soon as she stood back up, she noticed her friends were staring at her with concerned and stunned expressions.

"...what?" Apple Bloom said bluntly.

"Wasn't that a bit too harsh Apple Bloom?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Apple Bloom scoffed. "To Shimmer? Are ya kidding me? She used to bully everyone including mah sister! Ya'll expect me to be nice with her?"

"I agree with Apple Bloom," Scootaloo added. "After everything she'd done, she doesn't deserve to get off that easily! Why Rainbow Dash and your sisters decided to give her a chance was beyond me!"

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly comfortable with Sunset being around my sister either," said Sweetie Belle with a frown. "But Rarity told me that she's been trying to make amends with everyone that she wronged and that we should give her a chance."

Apple Bloom gave Sweetie Belle her skeptic frown. "Oh yeah? Well how'd she know that Shimmer was actually pretending to be friendly and acted all sorry and then turned around and get us when our defenses are down!"

"You know, she saved us from those Sirens along with your sister a few weeks back," Sweetie Belle pointed out. "Wasn't that enough!"

"Ah still don't believe it!" Apple Bloom replied stubbornly. "Mah memory may be fuzzy, but her as a hero? Yeah right!"

Scootaloo crossed her arms while looking down with a frown. "I hate to say it, but even Rainbow Dash told me that really happened. Heck, she admitted that if Sunset haven't stepped in, the world would've been doomed."

Apple Bloom growled. "Well even if that's true, that's not enough to convince me! As far as Ah know, she's still that same snake who was waiting for an opportunity to strike us all!"

Sweetie Belle looked unsure. "Apple Bloom, I don't think you're being–"

Suddenly, the school bell rang, signaling everyone that classes was about to start. With a loud sigh, Apple Bloom threw her backpack over her shoulder.

"Ah'm heading to class," Apple Bloom said flatly as she turned away from her friends. "Ah'll see you all later!"

Without waiting for her friends response, Apple Bloom walked away from them and down the hall to her first period with a heavy frown on her face.

Shimmer changed her ways? Yeah right! At least our Holiday vacation is getting closer! After dat, Ah can spend time with mah sis fer our traditional Christmas bonding, and Ah don't have to worry about running into or think about that there Shimmer fer a while! Nothing can ruin mah day!





"What do ya mean we can't hang out tonight?!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, shocked to hear her sister's sudden change of plans.

"I'm sorry Sugarcube," Applejack sighed as she was packing up her things in her backpack from within her bedroom. "But Ah'm going to Pinkie's and have a sleepover with the girls fer tonight."

"Well what about tomorrow?" Apple Bloom asked desperately.

"Can't do that either," said Applejack as she place the last of her things in the bag and started to zip it up. "Ah'll be sleeping over at Rarity's the next day. Ah'll be sleeping over at each of mah friend's house everyday until we end at our house before Christmas."

Apple Bloom couldn't believe this. She was looking forward to spend her time with her sister for their Holiday tradition, only for it to be canceled so that Applejack could go have a sleep over with her friends for many days up until Christmas.

"Ah don't get it?" Apple Bloom cried, upset that her plans were up in smoke. "Why are you going around sleeping over at your friend's house for the week instead of spending time with m– your family!?"

There was a slight hesitation from Applejack for a moment, knowing that this will her sister until she finally replied, "We're doing this fer Sunset Shimmer."

By the sound of her name, Apple Bloom suddenly felt a huge amount of anger and bared her teeth so hard it could potentially break.

"WHAT!? WHY HER!?" Apple Bloom screamed in rage.

"Sunset has no one fer the holidays and all alone," Applejack answered calmly, trying to defuse her younger sister's anger. "So the girls and Ah decided to have a sleepover for the week and spend time with her. Ah even invite her to our party fer Christmas."

Apple Bloom shook her head in disbelief. "You can't be serious! You don't seriously believe that she's lonely! She's probably acting all sad and alone just to get to know your weakness and when the moment you drop your guard... she'll stab ya in the back!"

Applejack frowned in annoyance as Apple Bloom spook ill of her friend again like many times before. Despite that she spoke up all the good things what Sunset had done and her efforts to become a better person to her family, Apple Bloom was the only one of her family who still refused to believe she could change and still gave Sunset a hard time whenever those two meet. It hurt her to see her own kin treated her friend so horribly even though Sunset assured her that she was fine.

Despite that Applejack can clearly see the hurt in Sunset's eyes.

She gave her younger sister her hard look. "Apple Bloom, what did Ah tell ya about Sunset? She's a changed person and she will never betray our trust!" 

"How'd do ya know fer sure?" Apple Bloom argued.

"Because Ah know her!" Applejack replied in her sharp tone.

"Well maybe that's what she wanted ya to think! If ya ask me, she doesn't deserve a second chance after what she did!"

"You gave Diamond Tiara a chance and she was a bully to you," Applejack pointed out.

"Diamond's different!" Apple Bloom countered stubbornly. "Sure, she was bully to me and mah friends for a few years, but at least she didn't rule the school like a dictator at one point or go as far as breaking my friendship apart between me, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo!"

Applejack sighed through her nose and crossed her arms while trying not to lose her temper. "Look Apple Bloom, Ah know we had a bad history in the past, but Ah forgave her after we gave her a chance. She is actually a good person once you get to know her. You should probably give her a chance too."

Apple Bloom scoffed. "Yeah right, like I would ever want to be friends with a She-Demon!"

Suddenly, Applejack slammed her fist on her desk with a look of fury on her face, causing Apple Bloom recoiled in fright.

"DON'T YOU EVER CALL SUNSET THAT IN FRONT OF ME AGAIN!?" Applejack yelled angrily, making Apple Bloom shrink away further. "She already had to deal with people who still resent Sunset by calling her dat terrible nickname and Ah don't want you to do that too! Ya understand me?"

There was a long tense silence as Applejack glared at her sister with raw anger while Apple Bloom shook herself in fear. Eventually, Applejack realized what she had done, so she calmed herself down as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Sorry Apple Bloom," Applejack sighed. "Ah didn't mean to lose mah temper, but Ah hate to see one of mah friends get hurt from someone else who deliberately made their life worse, especially from someone ah know." Applejack placed her hand oh her hip as she looked directly at her younger sister's eyes. "You have to understand, Sunset... had a hard life. While what she did in the past wasn't right and she nearly gone too far at the Fall Formal, but at the end of the day, she was just a lonely girl who made some really bad mistakes without anyone guiding her. And ever since we let her into our group, she had come a very long way. You would've seen it too if you give her another chance instead of keep turning her away like a stubborn mule."

Apple Bloom no longer felt frighten from Applejack's sudden anger as she listened to her sister's words. But despite that, she refused to believe that anyone like Sunset could chance as she turned away with a scoff.

"Yeah well... Ah still don't trust her and... Ah'm not making friends with Shimmer!"

Applejack sighed and shook her head in disappointment. "Ah'm sorry to hear that sis, but if that's what you feel... then you don't have to be friends with Sunset." She then gave Apple Bloom her stern expression. "But like it or not, Sunset is my friend and she will be joining us for our Christmas party and Ah expect you to behave while trying not to make her feel like an outcast."

Applejack picked up her backpack and placed it on her back as she made her way out the door into the hallway with Apple Bloom following behind her.

"We'll talk about this some other time! Ah'll be heading over to Pinkie's now! We'll get together some other time," Applejack promised as she made her way down the stairs.

Apple Bloom just stood behind with a scowl on her face as she was glaring at the back of her sister's head. 

"Fine, then you go enjoy your stupid slumber party with your friends and that Shimmer girl instead of your family!" she screamed.

Applejack never responded to her sister as she walked out of the front door. After Applejack was gone, Apple Bloom stormed into her room and slammed the door behind her. She then jumped on her bed and screamed into her pillow in anger, while cursing Sunset for taking her sister away from her yet again.





It has been a couple of hours since Applejack left the house and Apple Bloom was in a sour mood since. After sulking in her bedroom for quite some time, Apple Bloom went downstairs and headed to the living room where their Christmas tree took place. Usually, she loves to admire their beautiful tree with their decorations up and lights on, which gave her the Christmas spirit vibe from it. Tonight however, it didn't help improve her mood at all, especially after her big argument against her sister. It didn't help that she was practically all alone in the house as well. Big Mac was already out of town, dating some girl named Sugar Belle and Granny Smith already went to bed. Apple Bloom would have hang out with her friends, but even her friends have their hands tied. Sweetie Belle couldn't visit because of her curfew from her family and Scootaloo was forced to finish her school project by her aunts. Apple Bloom's only company in this dark house was her Christmas tree, while her sister and her friends and that Shimmer girl were having fun at Pinkie's.

I can’t believe mah sister is having a sleepover at Pinkie Pie with her friends and that girl… and left me here! Apple Bloom thought angrily. Why did she canceled our sister’s night? Why did she leave me behind? How could she picked her over me!? It’s just not fair!

Her eyes then glanced at a picture that was sitting on the table next to the couch. It was a picture of her and Applejack when they were little, baking Christmas cookies while wearing their ugly sweaters with huge smiles on their faces. While their cookies were burnt somewhat, Apple Bloom remembered that she had a lot fun her sister on that day, especially when they spent all night together watching the fireplace to see Santa. 

Her eyes then set on the second picture next to it and her frown deepened and her anger flared.





It was a picture of Applejack, her friends and Princess Twilight in a group hug, which had taken place after the Battle of the Bands. While this photo was nothing new since Applejack likes to have pictures of her friends in her room and some parts of the house as she considered them family. But what really made Apple Bloom's blood boiled was the person who was standing in the middle of photo, who was in the center of a group hug.

Sunset Shimmer.

The girl who bullied everyone at school and made their lives miserable.

The girl who originally tore her sister's friends apart.

The girl who turned into a She-Demon at the Fall Formal.

The girl who was easily forgiven and accepted into Applejack's circle of friendship and acted like nothing had happened from her bullying days.

The girl who took her sister away from her!

With an enraged shout, Apple Bloom picked up the photo and chucked it towards a random shelf. The picture knocked the book from the top of the shelf and both the photo and they both fall to the floor with a loud 'smash' from the picture frame  and the book opened on a random page faced down. Once Apple Bloom calmed down somewhat, her eyes widened once she realized the damage she had done.

"Oh crud!" she exclaimed as she rushed towards the fallen objects.

She first picked up the broken picture frame of her sister's friends and winced from all the cracks on the glass frame, specifically, an almost circle around the center where Shimmer was. No doubt that her sister will be angry at her when she sees her ruined picture of her friends. She placed the broken picture frame aside and then picked up the book from the floor. When she turned the book over, she noticed that many pictures of her family were in the book, most of them when they were younger. She realized that the book she was holding was her Granny's Family Photo Album. This made her worry even more. It was bad enough that Applejack will be angry at her for destroying the picture frame, but having her Granny be mad at her for damaging the family's heirloom would be even worse. Thankfully, the book remained intact and no pages or images have fallen out of the book. She was about to put away the book when one particular photo caught her attention.





It was a photo of her sister when she was just a toddler, happily sitting in a mud and played with the pigs while Granny Smith was laughing in the background.

Oh I remember this story! Apple Bloom thought in amusement with a chuckle. Granny Smith told us this story all the time that when Applejack was little, she loves the pigs so much she once play with them in the pig-pen for hours! We call her “Piggly Wiggly” as a result. I always laughed whenever I see Applejack felt embarrassed from the story. I didn't know someone took a photo of her like that. Apple Bloom frowned and sighed softly. I bet if Shimmer ever get a hold of this information, she would've made my sister's life even worse, but I guess that won't happen since they're... friends now. If she ever does that, then my sister would never speak to her–

Suddenly, an idea struck her as her face slowly morphed into her sinister smirk. She had a plan to get rid of Shimmer for good and have her sister all to herself.





Apple Bloom was back in her bedroom, now in her pajamas. After making sure that Granny was completely asleep, Apple Bloom laid on her bed on her stomach and took out her cell phone. She was now about to start her first phase of her plan. In order for her entire operation to work, she needs to make it look like that it was all coming from Shimmer. In order to do that, she just have to plant a few seeds in a non-obvious way. With her determined look, Apple Bloom dialed her sister's number and the phone rang. After a few moments of waiting, she heard her sister spoke over the phone.

“Whoever this is, you just ruined a real heartwarmin’ moment,” Applejack joked.

“Hey, big sis," said Apple Bloom while trying to act annoyed. "Granny wanted me to call and make sure you’re doin’ all right.”

“’Course Ah’m all right! Applejack replied. Ah’m with all my friends! So tell Granny Smith to quit her worrying!”

“Yeah! AJ’s fine!" Sunset's voice added with a laugh. "She’s wearing nail polish!”

Apple Bloom gripped her phone tightly in anger from the sound of Shimmer's voice but kept herself composed. Since Shimmer could hear her, she figured that Applejack must of set her phone on speaker, which made things much easier for her to execute her plan.

Apple Bloom sighed loudly. “All right, all right, I’m just the messenger. Have a good night… Piggly Wiggly!”

Apple Bloom hanged up her phone. Phase one complete. Now, it's time for phase two!

With a determined frown, Apple Bloom picked up her laptop and turned it on. Once it finished booting up, Apple Bloom connected to the internet and entered MyStable site. Instead of logging in to her own account, Apple Bloom decided to create a whole new account so she can use it for other purposes. As expected, she was in a set up page with basic questions like name of your account, name of your email, your age, etc. The most basic questions were no problem for Apple Bloom since she can just easily make them up, the email however was a little tricky. She can't just put her own email account on there, otherwise she'll be discovered right away. The only sure way to do that without getting caught is to also create a new email account just for this MyStable account in case if her plans went south. The only thing she had to do to create a different email account, is for her to come up with a name for her new MyStable account first.

Now let's see... what should Ah call myself? Apple Bloom pondered. Ah have to make this account look like that it was Shimmer, but at the same time... it can't be too much like Shimmer, otherwise it would be too obvious. It would have to be subtle, yet effective as Ah'm posting new messages like it was posted from an anonymous source.

Suddenly, her eyes were wide as dinner plates as a brilliant idea stuck her mind like thunder.

Anon...a...mous... THAT'S IT!

With a eager smirk, Apple Bloom typed out he name of her new MyStable page. She edited it a few types as she was trying to come up with something cleaver for the name. In the end, she finally settled on the official name of her new MyStable page called, "Anon-a-Miss".

Apple Bloom nodded. Perfect! Now to create a separate email and finished setting up this page...

For the next several hours, Apple Bloom spent all night creating a new email mail for her new MyStable account and then worked on customizing the Anon-a-Miss page. She first created a wallpaper and post boxes with the same colors as Sunset's hair and skirt. Then she took one of Sunset's selfie photos and then edit it with Photoshop to hide Shimmer in a shadow, but keep her figure to make it recognizable. Once she was finished, she posted her edited photo as an avatar. She tweak the bio page a bit to make it almost similar as Shimmer, but wrote it much more nasty to make Shimmer look bad.

By the time the morning sun rose from the horizon, Apple Bloom completed her MyStable page. Apple Bloom admired her work with a sinister smirk.

Alright, the Anon-a-Miss page is finished! Now Ah just need to type this message...

Apple Bloom knew exactly what her first post was going to be. She began to type her message in her MyStable post box, clicking and tapping as her fingers danced all over the laptop's keyboard. By the time she was finished, Apple Bloom read over her handiwork a few times off from her laptop screen:



Did you guys know when AJ was a kid, she loved playing with her pigs? OMG! She sat in the mud for hours! Her whole family calls her “Piggly Wiggly” cause she loves them so much! What a pig!



Apple Bloom smirked. All right, that should do it. Now to post it!

Apple Bloom hovered her cursor over to “submit” button so she can to post her message on MyStable. Just as she was about to click the button, she paused with her finger hovering over the enter key. Both her mind and heart telling her that this wasn't a good idea and that she shouldn't do it. She realized that if she posted this now, this would be the start of incriminating Shimmer of being the culprit, but in the process, her sister will be the laughingstock of the entire school. Should she stop now and take down her MyStable page without hurting her sister despite that she came this far or should she just go through with it and stick with the plan? As she was struggling back and forth with her morals, her thoughts then drifted to her memories from earlier today, further angering her as she reminded herself about Shimmer.

"Well... isn't that a coincidence, I just talked to your sister earlier. She was just talking to me about how she likes to spend the Holidays. You Apples certainly know how to have a fun time, even on Christmas."

"Look Apple Bloom, Ah know we had a bad history in the past, but Ah forgave her after we gave her a chance. She is actually a good person once you get to know her."

"But like it or not, Sunset is my friend and she will be joining us for our Christmas party and Ah expect you to behave while trying not to make her feel like an outcast."

“Yeah! AJ’s fine! She’s wearing nail polish! Ha ha ha!”

Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes. She had made her choice. Without any more hesitation, Apple Bloom clicked the button.
> Intermission 1 (CMC)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was nothing but tense silence within the Principal office minutes after Apple Bloom revealed her part of creating Anon-a-Miss. She didn't dare to look up to either of the adults faces, knowing that they were either disappointed or angry at her for committing such a terrible act. She already went through the pain of seeing the betrayed look from her sister and the rest of her family from a few days prior, she couldn't bear to go through with it again.

As for Celestia and Luna, their minds were still processing from the information the young student just told them. Celestia had an unreadable, yet calm expression while Luna scowled in disapproval, appalled by Apple Bloom's actions. No one said a word for quite a while until Celestia spoke up.

"So let me get this straight Apple Bloom," Celestia said slowly. "The main reason you created Anon-a-Miss... was because you were upset and jealous that your sister... spend more time with Sunset than you... and that she skips your holiday tradition?"

Apple Bloom nodded but still looking at the floor.

Luna groaned and face palmed. "I don't believe this! Not only what you did was petty, it was also the stupidest thing you've ever done!" 

"...I know," Apple Bloom croaked.

"...there's more to this, wasn't it?" said Celestia.

Apple Bloom sighed deeply. There was a deeper meaning to why she did it, as well as letting her jealousy get the best of her. Even after she confessed that she's Anon-a-Miss, she never told anyone of this, not even to her sister or her best friends. This will be the first time that she'll reveal this to everybody. As much as Apple Bloom would rather keep it to herself, she knew that Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna has to know the truth.

With some reluctance, Apple Bloom explained her true reason why she despite Sunset (at the time) and go as far as to make her look bad. By the time she was finished, everyone was at shock. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo then gave their friend their look of sympathy. They had no idea how this affected her so much. While they were somewhat hurt that she never told them, they also understood why she kept it from them. As for the two sisters, Celestia's expression remained neutral but her features soften somewhat while Luna's anger subdue somewhat but her expression remained stoic.

"Okay... I can see why you were upset when Applejack spend more time with Sunset than you," said Luna before crossing her arms. "But that's still no excuse for your actions! And for that matter, why didn't you just talk to your sister about this? And don't tell me that your sister 'won't listen!' From what I've known about Miss Applejack, she would have understand and cared about your feelings!"

"...my sister wouldn't," Sweetie Belle mumbled.

Luna whipped her head at Sweetie's direction. "I beg your pardon?"

Sweetie Belle flinched from Luna's hard tone. "M-my sister wouldn't... a-at the time," she said nervously as she looked down in shame. "B-but that doesn't e-excuse the t-terrible things we've done... what I done!" Her eyes began to water and her body was trembling. "I-it was me who made things worse for S-sun..."

Sweetie then broke down, crying into her hands and unable to speak any more. As Celestia handed Sweetie Belle some tissues, Apple Bloom looked down in shame and guilt for causing so much misery, including one of her best friends. She hated herself for dragging them into her horrible plan for something so petty.

And harming one person who did not deserved it.

Luna sighed loudly and shook her head in disappointment. "It would seems that there's more to this story."

"I agree Luna," Celestia responded with a nod. Once Sweetie Belle calmed down somewhat, Celestia spoke in her with her most softer tone. "Sweetie Belle, please tell me how did you get involved with Apple Bloom and what did you do to hurt Sunset and the girls?"

Both Sweetie and Apple Bloom shared a look with each other, neither speaking for several moments before looking back at their principal. "O-okay..." Sweetie Belle uttered. "But I also want Apple Bloom to tell you what happen the next morning after her first post as Anon-a-Miss."

While still not making eye contact, Apple Bloom nodded, confirming Sweetie's condition.

Celestia nodded as well. "Very well... just please tell us what else has happened."

Sweetie Belle blew her nose again with her tissue and addressed Celestia with her guilt expression.

"W-well..."
> Chapter 2: Anon-a-Miss' First Victim (Apple Bloom)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that morning, Apple Bloom arrived to school after her brother dropped her off by the entrance. As Apple Bloom walked down the halls, she let out a loud yawn. She felt tired for staying up most of the night, setting up the Anon-a-Miss' MyStable account. Her tiredness were almost wiped away when she heard some snickering from other students. When she looked around, she noticed everyone was looking at their phones with amusing smirks on their faces and gossiping with each other involving her sister.

Apple Bloom smirked internally, pleased that her efforts were working. Pretty soon, her sister and her friends will arrive and notice all the teasing towards Applejack. They will soon put put two and two together and will think that it was Shimmer who spread Applejack's secret. Then they will kick Shimmer out to the curve and Apple Bloom will finally have her sister back. 

Her plan was foolproof!

Apple Bloom eventually spotted the Rainbooms in the middle of the hallway with confused expressions, especially Applejack as students were mocking her by saying 'oink' as they walked passed her. It was time to put the final nail in the coffin. Apple Bloom took out her cell phone from her pocket and quickly logged out of Anon-a-Miss account and then logged back into MyStable as her own account. Once she was all set, Apple Bloom put on her most alarmed expression and then ran up to her sister. 

"Sis! SIS!" Apple Bloom shouted, getting their attention. "You gotta see this!" She then shoved her phone towards her sister. "LOOK!"

Applejack took Apple Bloom's phone and read the recent post from Apple Bloom's page. As she read the text, Applejack's expression changed from confusion to shocked.

"'Did you guys know when AJ was a kid, she loved playing with her pigs? OMG! She sat in the mud for hours! Her whole family calls her "Piggly Wiggly" cause she loves them so much! What a PIG!'... WHAT?!?"

"It got posted a couple of hours ago!" said Apple Bloom, answering to Applejack's unspoken question.

As Applejack spluttered in shock, Sunset jumped in with narrowed eyes. "Who's this "Anon-a-Miss"?"

"Her profile was created the same time as th' posts! No clue who she is!" Apple Bloom explained while not looking at Sunset's eyes. "She posted on your page, my page, all of you guys' pages! The whole school probably knows about it now!"

The gang continued to hear a lot of 'oink' noises from other students who walked passed Applejack. Apple Bloom noticed her big sister's hurt expression but ignored the guilt feeling in her stomach. She silently hoped that Applejack will suspect Shimmer to be the one who released Applejack's embarrassing secret. After a minute of silence except for the 'oink' noises in the background, Applejack handed the phone back to Apple Bloom.

"W-well, this ain't gonna bother me," Applejack said with a sigh, much to Apple Bloom's astonishment. "I can handle a little teasing."

"Well fine, but what about this "Anon-a-Miss"?" Rainbow asked with a deep frown. "How did she know about your nickname?"

"And why would she posted online?" Fluttershy added with her sad expression. "T-that's just cruel!"

Suddenly, the school bell rang, signaling everyone that classes were about to start.

Applejack sighed again. "Ah guess the questions are gonna have to wait 'til after school."

Apple Bloom's eyes narrowed when she saw Shimmer placing her hand on Applejack's shoulder with a caring expression. 

"Let us know if we could help AJ," she offered.

"...sure thing Sunset," Applejack replied quietly.

After they each gave Applejack their support, the Rainbooms went their separate ways to their own class, leaving Apple Bloom and Applejack alone in the hallway. Apple Bloom seethed at Shimmer's back. It would seemed that her plan to frame Shimmer wasn't working. In order for her sister to think it was Shimmer, she just needed to give her a gentle push towards that direction.

She quickly dropped her anger expression and then cleared her throat to get her sister's attention.

"So... this "Anon-a-Miss" person," Apple Bloom began casually.

Applejack grunted and gave Apple Bloom her annoyed expression. "What about her?"

"Well... the only people who knew about your nickname was us an' your friends," Apple Bloom pointed out. "You sure you didn't tell anybody else?"

"Positive," Applejack answered with an unsure expression. "What're you getting at, Apple Bloom?"

"Well," Apple Bloom began thoughtfully. "Sunset only heard the story last night... and the colors on Anon-a-Miss's page are the same as Sunset's hair..."

"APPLE BLOOM! How could you!" Applejack snapped angrily before looking away. "Sunset's my friend!"

Apple Bloom raised her hands in defense. "Okay, okay! Just a thought!" Apple Bloom said quickly, before she turned and walked away. "I'll see you after school."

Apple Bloom took a few steps towards the hall and then she stopped and looked over her shoulder. She watched as her oldest sister walking away from her with her back slumped in sadness. Apple Bloom couldn't help but to feel guilty for putting her sister in that position, but her mind kept convincing her that her sister could handle it and that her efforts to frame Shimmer will be all worth it in the end.

...would it?

"Apple Bloom!"

Apple Bloom turned to see her best friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo running towards her. Judging from the looks from their faces, they appeared to be both alarmed and in distress.

"Scoots and I were just on MyStable!" Sweetie cried as soon as she and Scootaloo approached Apple Bloom. "Some person called themselves "Anon-a-Miss" and posted this cruel message about your sister!"

"Yeah! And almost everyone in school were mocking her!" Scootaloo added. "Did you know anything about this?"

Keeping up with her act, Apple Bloom sighed. "Yes... I knew."

Sweetie Belle checked at her phone again and frowned deeply. "That post is awful! Who could've done something so mean?"

Scootaloo furrowed her eyebrows. "Do you think it could've been Sunset?"

Sweetie Belle thought for a moment before she shook her head. "I... don't think so. I know she did a lot of bad things in the past, but this just seems too obvious to be her."

"I guess," Scootaloo relented. "As much as I dislike Sunset, but this just seems too easy to assume it was her. Normally she would've caused trouble without leaving anything that leads back to her. But in this case, the colors and avatar used on this... A-noun-or-Miss or whatever is almost similar to Sunset's as if someone was purposely trying to paint her as the culprit." 

Sweetie held her chin in thought. "Well if that's true, then who's the real culprit?"

As she was watching her friends interacting with each other, Apple Bloom was in deep thought. She was surprised that even her best friends didn't think Sunset was Anon-a-Miss, despite that they didn't like her either, but at the same time she was also proud of them for having such smart friends and giving others the benefit of the doubt and not easily fooled like the other students. However, this still put a damper on her plans. Her post about Applejack wasn't enough to convince most people, including the Rainbooms and her friends that Shimmer was the culprit. She just needs to do one or more embarrassing posts about the Rainbooms in order to finally cast suspicion on Shimmer. But in order to do that, Apple Bloom would have to do something very risky.

She was going to need some help.

"Girls..." Apple Bloom began, getting her friends attention. "There's somethin' Ah have to tell you..."
> Chapter 3: A Dastardly Deed (Sweetie Belle)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"WHAT!? YOU'RE ANON-A-MISS!?!" Sweetie Belle bellowed.

"Sssshhhhh! Quiet Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom shushed hastily. "You'll get everyone's attention!"

Apple Bloom quickly peaked outside the door of an empty classroom to see if anyone was listening in. She chose this empty classroom earlier so she could talk to her friends in private without anyone eavesdropping. Thankfully, there was no one in the hallway to hear Sweetie Belle's outburst. She let out a sigh in relief before she closed the door and then faced her shell-shocked friends.

"Yes... it was me," Apple Bloom confirmed quietly.

Both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo stared at their friend with their stunned expressions and their jaws were hanging open. They couldn't believe that their best friend who was normally a friendly person would do something so horrible. Sweetie Belle in particular was shocked beyond belief that Apple Bloom would ever do something so cruel to her own sister!

After a few moments of tense silence, Sweetie Belle was the first to regain her voice. "Apple Bloom... why? Why did you posted that nasty message about your own sister?"

"Yeah Apple Bloom, why did you do it?" Scootaloo demanded in disbelief. "That's not like you at all! I expected maybe Diamond Tiara or Sunset Shimmer who's behind this but you? I... I don't even know what to think!"

Apple Bloom sighed deeply. "Listen girls... let me explain."

And so Apple Bloom spent a few minutes explaining to her friends what happened after she came home from school yesterday; finding out her sister's plans involving Shimmer, her argument with her sister, how she felt while she was all alone, and finally finding an old photo album which inspired her to create Anon-a-Miss. She also told them how she subtly brought up 'Piggy Wiggly' over her phone call with her sister and then how she set-up the MyStable account to make it look like it was from a mysterious person, yet also subtly looked like it was Shimmer. By the time Apple Bloom was finished, both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo just sat there in shock, not saying a word. After what it seemed like minutes had gone by, Sweetie Belle began to speak.

"So it was because that Applejack hardly spend time with you and she skipped out on her holiday bonding time with you in favor of sleeping over at Pinkie's for Sunset's sake... is what lead you to this!?" Sweetie shook her head. "I can understand why you're jealous at Sunset, I felt the same way for me with Rarity hanging out with Sunset lately, but this... that's...!"

Apple Bloom frowned. "First of all, Ah ain't jealous at Shimmer!" Sweetie Belle wasn't convinced but didn't say anything about it as Apple Bloom continued. "And second... Ah know, what I did to my sister was cruel, but in order to get the others to ditch Shimmer, I had to make it look like that she did it, even if I had to humiliate my sister in the process."

"But that was still an awful thing to do Apple Bloom!" Sweetie Belle argued angrily. "And even so, your dumb plan clearly didn't work because not everyone (us included) thinks it was Sunset!"

"I know that," Apple Bloom snapped, causing Sweetie Belle to flinch away from her. Apple Bloom breathed deeply to calm herself down. "After I met up with them this morning, my sister's "Piggly Wiggly" post wasn't enough to convince them to think that Shimmer is Anon-a-Miss. Applejack still considered her to be her... friend!" Apple Bloom spat the word 'friend' as if the idea of Shimmer was one of her sister's best friend was absurd. Her expression changed to a look of determination. "In order to get them to believe that Shimmer becomes a meanie again, we just need to make another embarrassing post of one or more of the Rainbooms except for Shimmer herself!"

Sweetie Belle gave Apple Bloom her confused look. "We?"

Apple Bloom nodded. "Yes, that's where you come in Sweetie Belle! I got info from Applejack yesterday that today they'll be sleeping over at Rarity's today, a.k.a. your house!"

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened. "You don't mean–"

"Yes," Apple Bloom answered before placing her hand on Sweetie Belle's shoulder. "Sweetie Belle, I want you to find whatever that is consider embarrassing to your sister and then we can use it to post it on MyStable. It can be a hidden secret, an embarrassing photo or anything you can find, as long as it's the same secret that Shimmer already knew about, it will be enough to get others to think that she was the one who posted it."

Sweetie Belle was shocked at the request her friend was telling her to do. Is her friend was really willing to go as far to hurt other people just to take down one person? Would she be willing to do the same at the expense of her sister too? Sweetie Belle quickly shook those nasty thoughts away. With narrowed eyes, Sweetie Belle wrenched her arm away from her friend's grasp.

"No way!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. "As much as I don't like the idea of Sunset spending a lot of time with my sister, but I won't go as far to hurt my own sister to get Sunset to leave!"

"Ah can't promise that your sister won't be ridiculed," Apple Boom said smoothy. "But your sister dealt with some neigh-sayers all the time with the fashion industry right? Ah'm sure she could handle some people teasing her. 'Sides, it'll be worth it once they believe that Shimmer became a bully again. As they say, ya can't make a omelette without breaking a few eggs!"

"NO!" Sweetie cried. "This is wrong! I'm sorry Apple Bloom, but I can't! In fact, I can't let you continue this! I'm gonna report this to Principal Celestia!

Sweetie Belle rushed past Apple Bloom and reached out to the door. As she was about to turn the knob, Apple Bloom spoke up.

"Do you feel lonely without your sister too?"

Sweetie Belle stopped in her place but didn't turn around as Apple Bloom continue to speak.

"Do you also felt left out more than usual ever since Shimmer came into the picture? The girl who bullied and hurt your sister many times before, especially the Spring Fling incident? How long do ya think until you get to spend time with her again? Until she broke free from Shimmer? Until she graduates from this school? Or even after college? Wouldn't you rather have your sister to come back and spend time with you instead of that... meanie and go back to the way things were?" At that point Sweetie Belle turned around to see Apple Bloom reaching out towards her with her hand sticking out. "If you and Scoots join me, we can finally put Shimmer in her place and get our sisters back! What do ya say?"

This is becoming too much for Sweetie Belle. While the things Apple Bloom said about her and Rarity is true, she did not like how she used those facts against her. Plus, the way Apple Bloom was speaking to her kinda sounded like how an evil Con Mane1 villain spoke. Heck, even a Con Mane villain wouldn't go that far! She needed to put to stop to Apple Bloom's crazy plan before it gets any worse!

Just as Sweetie Belle was about to respond, Scootaloo suddenly spoke up.

"Alright, count me in!"

Sweetie Belle gasped and turned to her other friend in shock. "SCOOTS!?"

Scootaloo sighed. "Apple Bloom's right Sweetie Belle! Sunset has been a huge bully in this school for years and all she's getting was a slap on the wrist! And she made our sisters spend way too much time with her and doesn't deserve it!" Her eyes then narrowed. "I say we should give her a taste of her own medicine and get her away from our sisters for good!"

Apple Bloom grinned. "Ah knew you would agree with me!"

Sweetie Belle couldn't believe this! Not only she found out what her friend had done and was trying to get her to get the dirt on her own sister, but her other friend just decided to join in too! She doesn't even know who her friends are anymore! Sweetie Belle shook her head violently.

"This is crazy!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed angrily, hurt from both of her "friends" behaviors. "Do any of you girls realized what you two were saying! This is wrong!"

"Well do you got any better ideas!?" Scootaloo challenged.

"Anything better than this!" Sweetie Belle spat. "I refuse to be part of this!"

"So you're just gonna let Sunset keep our sisters to herself!"

"I didn't say that! Don't you put words into my mouth!"

"You're supposed to be our friend and friends helped each other!"

"Not at the expense of others, including a former bully!"

"Is she really a former bully or is it all just an act?"

"What would Rainbow think when you were taking down a bully!?"

"DON'T YOU DARE BRING RAINBOW DASH INTO THIS!"

"THEN DON'T YOU DARE BRING MY SISTER AS MEANS TO TAKE OUT SUNSET!"

"GIRLS STOP IT!"

Sweetie and Scootaloo ceased their argument after Apple Bloom screamed at them, but their looks of anger still remained on their faces. Neither of them said a word and the room was so tense, you could cut it with a butter knife. Finally it was Sweetie Belle who spoke up.

"You know what? Fine! Do whatever you two want, just leave me out of this!" She turned back to the door with her back facing them. "I won't tell anyone that you're Anon-a-Miss or any of your upcoming plans. But right now... I... I don't want to talk to either of you right now!"

With that, Sweetie Belle opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

"Fine! Then go and let Sunset take your sister away for all I care!" Scootaloo yelled from behind her.

"Fine!" Sweetie Belle yelled back, not looking back as she continued to walk away.

Despite that she had a angry expression, tears were leaking out from her eyes. Finding out one friend who committed such an awful act and another friend deciding to join in really broke her heart. It was like finding out that your friend just committed a crime and now they're inviting her to join in for future heists without thinking of the consequences. While Apple Bloom made some good points, but she also hated how Apple Bloom used this whole Sunset problem against her in hopes to get her to help them destroy Sunset further with this "Anon-a-Miss" thing. And the worst part... Sweetie was actually tempted to join in as well.

And that scared her!

Suddenly she heard some footsteps and someone calling her name. She figured it is one of her 'friends', but whoever it was, she did not want to speak to either of them. She quickly wiped her tears away and then glanced behind her. From the corner of her eye, it was Apple Bloom who was trying to catch up with her. However, rather than waiting for Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle continued to looked ahead and walked at a much faster pace. Despite her efforts, Apple Bloom still managed to catch up to her and then tried to coaxed her out.

"Listen, Sweetie Belle–"

"I said I'm not talking to either of you right now!" Sweetie Belle spat angrily.

"Then don't, just listen!"

Sweetie Belle stopped walking, but refused to look at her "friend". She heard Apple Bloom let out a long sigh. 

"Look... Ah understand what we're– Ah'm doing is terrible and... your right. Ah'm not gonna lie, Ah hate what Ah did to my sister from my post from earlier, but if that's the only way to bring down Shimmer... then Ah'll take it. But that wasn't enough! We can still get the others to think it was Shimmer, but Ah need you and Scoots' help in order for this to work! And since they're going to sleep over at your house tonight, you're the only one who can get close to them!"

Sweetie Belle still couldn't bring herself to look at her, until Apple Bloom stood in front of her with her soft expression.

"Please Sweetie... will you at least consider it?" Apple Bloom pleaded.

Sweetie Belle stared at her for a moment with a dull expression, contemplating on Apple Bloom's words. After a few moments, Sweetie Belle grunted and looked away. 

"I will be there... but I'm not going through with it and that's final!"

Apple Bloom just stood there for a moment until she let out a dejected sigh. "...alright, I won't push ya further." She then began to walk away. "Just... call me if you ever change your mind."

Sweetie just scoffed and walked the opposite direction away from Apple Bloom, heading to her class.





Some time later, her school was done for the day and Sweetie Belle was walking through the snow covered sidewalk towards her home. Usually she'll be walking home with her friends just like any other day, but after what had happened from this morning, Sweetie Belle would rather be heading home alone. She let out a long somber sigh, a small cloud from her own breath escape from her mouth as a result. There was so much to take in at once, the nasty post, Apple Bloom telling her she created Anon-a-Miss, Scootaloo is on board with Apple Bloom's plans, and now Apple Bloom expected her to find something else they can use against Sunset Shimmer. 

She was disappointed and upset at her friends who decided to stoop so low to humiliate someone online just to take down the one person they don't like. She didn't want to be part of this because she was taught at an early age that taking out a bully no matter the reason was not only wrong, but also in doing so, you'll end up stooping at their level. Maybe even worse. And yet, Sunset Shimmer had been the biggest bully in school for years and had been mean to her sister and even herself sometimes. And after everything that happened, her sister and her friends offered Sunset a hand in friendship. While Sunset did get punished by Vice Principal Luna to rebuild the school entrance along side with the construction crew, but was it enough? This confused Sweetie to this day. Why reward someone who done some horrible things in the past? Sure, Sweetie and her friends gave Diamond Tiara and chance, but Diamond was a sweetheart compared to Sunset.

But the one thing she'll agree with Apple Bloom, was the fact that her sister Rarity didn't spend her than what they used to be. Back when Sweetie was little, she loves to spend time with her sister. They used to play in the park together, sing songs together and they even played dress-up together. Well... Rarity usually dressed-up Sweetie Belle as her personal mannequin, but as long as Sweetie is with her sister, she didn't mind. But when Rarity went to high school, that's when things were slowly fall apart. Rarity met each of the Rainbooms for the first time and then spends a lot of time with them. It was also when her sister decided to focus on learning to design clothes, leaving little time with Sweetie Belle. Sweetie would sometimes tried to be part of the group so she can be with her sister, only to get shooed away from her own sister many times. Even when she asked Rarity if they can hang out together for just the two of them, her sister would just brush off and said they will do it another time, even though Sweetie knew it would never happen. Sweetie's loneliness was short lived when Sunset Shimmer first showed up at school one day and caused a lot of trouble. Sweetie was secretly kinda glad that Sunset somehow split Rarity's friends apart from her at one point so she can have time with her sister, but it turn, it made her sister's life miserable. And when they got back together during the Fall Formal and included Sunset Shimmer to the group, Rarity spent less time with Sweetie Belle more than ever as a result. Whenever Sweetie sees Rarity hanging out with Sunset and do the things she used to do with Sweetie, Sweetie couldn't help but to feel jealous towards Sunset. While Sweetie had nothing against Sunset personally (somewhat), she disliked Sunset for not just bulling her sister in the past, but also inadvertently stole her sister from her.

When Sweetie Belle finally reached her home, she noticed two cars sitting on her driveway, but none of them belonged to her parents. She recognized these two cars belonged to two of Rarity's friends: Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Sweetie then remembered that Rarity had their mom to pick up both Rarity and Applejack from school today. Sweetie frowned. She and her sister used to ride in a car together to school and back home everyday, but now, her sister preferred to travel to school and then go out with her friends afterwords. Granted, Sweetie have her own friends to travel with, but it would be nice to travel with her sister once in a while, even if it was only two minutes on the road.

Sweetie Belle shook those thoughts away as she approached the front door. She then used her spare house key to open the door and then stepped inside. She sighed in relief when she felt the warmth from her own home as she removed her winter coat.

"Hello? Anyone here?" Sweetie called out as she hung her coat on a coat rack.

"We're up here in Rarity's room Sweetie Belle!" a voice cried out, belonging to Fluttershy from upstairs.

So Sweetie Belle climbed up the stairs and walked into her sister's bedroom. There, she spotted Rainbow Dash leaning on Rarity's desk and Fluttershy sitting on Rarity's "thinking couch" or as Sweetie liked to call it, Rarity's "fainting couch".

"Hi Fluttershy! Hey Rainbow Dash!" Sweetie Belle greeted.

The two older teens greeted back as response.

"Is Rarity home?" Sweetie asked.

"She's on her way, she'll be here soon," said Fluttershy.

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Okay."

Sweetie Belle stood for a minute before giving the two girls her timid look. "Um... may I hang here... if that's okay?"

Fluttershy smiled warmly. "Of course you can Sweetie."

"Totally!" Rainbow added.

Sweetie smiled as she approached Rarity's bed and and then laid on the bed. As Sweetie situated herself, Fluttershy began to speak to the young girl.

"So how you doing Sweetie Belle?" asked Fluttershy.

Sweetie looked back at Fluttershy, surprised from the sudden conversation from the shy girl. "Oh... I'm fine. Me and my friends were busy, juggling with schoolwork and our club."

"Oh yeah, you three were watching and analyzing movies together!" Rainbow commented. "That sounds awesome!"

Sweetie nodded. "Y-yeah, we usually watch the same movie five times."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Uh... why five times?"

"It's because every time we watch them, we'll notice many new awesome details!" Sweetie explained before her face brightened up. "For example, in Daring Do and the Mummy's Curse when Daring Do explored the Tomb of the Lost–"

"Whoa, don't spoil it! I didn't see the film yet!" Rainbow exclaimed hastily.

Sweetie Belle blushed and chuckled sheepishly. "Whoops, sorry!"

Fluttershy titled her head with an uncertain expression. "Um... shouldn't you be with your friends for your club now?"

Sweetie's smile faltered and fainted from the mention of her friends. "Oh we... decided to cancel it today," she stammered.

"Why's that?" Fluttershy asked.

"Oh we... decided to finish up our school work before the break," she lied, not wanting to get into details about her friends right now.

"Oh I hear ya sister!" said Rainbow Dash as she stretched her limbs. "It's better to get them all out of the way and not worrying about school over the break. Then you'll have plenty of time for exchanging gifts, hot cocoas, eating lots of food and best of all, spending time with your family and friends!"

Fluttershy nodded with a smile. "I agree. There's nothing better than spending time with the people you love."

Sweetie Belle looked down in sadness. Then why isn't Rarity spending any time with me?

Fluttershy noticed the young girl's sudden depressing mood. "Hey... are you okay Sweetie?"

Sweetie Belle looked up to see Fluttershy, giving her a look of concern. Sweetie wondered if she should tell Fluttershy that she felt left out from her sister's activities lately and what her two "friends" had done and planned to do with Anon-a-Miss? Would Fluttershy understand how she felt instead of brushing her off like Rarity? After a brief inner struggle with herself, Sweetie let out a sigh.

"W-well..."

Suddenly, the bedroom door opened and Rarity, along with Applejack, strolled into the room.

"Hello girls!" Rarity greeted.

Both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash greeted back.

Rarity then noticed Sweetie Belle laying on her bed. Just as she was about to ask why her sister was there, Fluttershy beat her to it.

"We were just chatting with Sweetie Belle," Fluttershy explained. "She just telling us what she and her friends have been up to."

Rarity placed her hands on her hips with a strained smile, which made Sweetie internally gulped. She knew that look. It was a look whenever Sweetie does something that annoyed her sister. She had a feeling that her sister did not want her to be around and join in on their sleepover.

"Yes... well! I'm sure you've been lovely Sweetie Belle," said Rarity in her 'sweet' tone as she forced Sweetie Belle to get up from the bed and pushed her towards the door. "But isn't it almost your bedtime?"

"What? Hey!" Sweetie protested. "No it's not!"

"Come along, little sister!" Rarity insisted, ignoring Sweetie's protests. "It's time for your big sister and her friends to spend time together!"

Sweetie Belle tried to plant her feet on the floor to keep herself from moving but her sister was surprisingly too strong to her. Eventually, Rarity managed to get her out the door and into the hallway.

"Aw, c'mon! I can be cool!" Sweetie pleaded, but Rarity ignored her.

Before Sweetie could get back into her sister's bedroom, Pinkie suddenly showed up and accidentally knocked her over. 

"Hi Sweetie, bye Sweetie!~" Pinkie greeted quickly with her cheerful tone, not paying attention to her actions.

Sweetie would have fallen onto the floor but luckily her back bumped into someone else. She looked up just in time to see Sunset Shimmer who held her up by her shoulders.

"Whoops, you alright there Sweetie Belle?" she said with a chuckle as she helped Sweetie stood up. "You have to forgive her, she can be a little too excited when it comes to having fun."  

"Oh there you are Darling!" said Rarity as she hugged and then kissed both Sunset's cheeks in greeting. "You are just in time, please come in!"

Sweetie watched as her sister wrapped her arm around Sunset's shoulder and then led her into the room, closing the door behind them. Sweetie just stood there, staring at the closed door leading to her sister's door. Her sister had kicked her out. While this wasn't the first time that Rarity kicked Sweetie out of the room, but the way her sister did it just now while disregarding her feelings and made her feel unwelcome really hurt her. Worse of all, as soon as Sunset walked in, Rarity welcomed her in open arms and was genuinely happy to see her, more so than her own sister.

It was then that Sweetie had finally convinced herself, that her sister did not care about her anymore.

With a quiet sniff, Sweetie rushed into her bedroom, slammed her door, jumped into her bed and silently cried into her pillow. 





Sweetie Belle sighed sadly as she lied in her bed. While it was still technology too early for bedtime, but after she cried her eyes out for quite sometime, she doesn't have the energy anymore. But even after that and changed into her pajamas, she couldn't fall asleep because she was still thinking about Rarity's sleepover and how her sister flat out refused to let her be part of it, just like how Rarity wouldn't let her join on any fun occasions.

It's not fair! Sweetie thought sadly. I wanted to be part of their slumber party too! I... just wanted to have fun and spend time with my sister, was that too much to ask for?

She suddenly heard a loud music through her beedroom walls. Sweetie realized it was one of her sis's band songs coming from Rarity's room. She moaned loudly in frustration. Her sister kicked her out of her room so she can go to bed, yet they're loud music was keeping her up from sleeping.

She doesn't get Rarity's sense of logic sometimes.

"Hey Rarity, can ya keep it down!" Sweetie Belle shouted.

There was no response except for the loud music.

"Rarity!" Sweetie Belle shouted again in a much louder tone.

Once again, no response.

Sweetie then realized that her sister couldn't hear her because of the loud music. With a frustrated huff, Sweetie Belle got out of bed and headed to Rarity's bedroom so she tell them to keep it down. Just before she was about to barge in, she heard her sister and Sunset talking through the door.

"Are you recording them?" Her sister asked.

"I want to capture the memories!" Sunset responded.

Sweetie stopped as her hand wrapped around the door handle and her eyes widened. Sunset was recording them with her cell phone. Before she could think further, she heard Pinkie let out a loud shout.

"STAGE DIVE!"

Sweetie Belle winced from the sound of a very loud crash, no doubt Pinkie must of break through something. Just as she was about to rush in to help out in case of injuries, she heard Pinkie let out a loud gasp.

"Rarity, what are all these clothes?" Pinkie asked through the door.

"Oh this is the closet of shame," Rarity responded with a sigh. "It's where I put the outfits I make or buy that turn out to look horrible."

Sweetie Belle knew which closet her sister was referring to. Sometimes her sister either bought or designed a lot clothes on the whim when she thought it would look good, only it turned out to be immediately out of style (in Rarity's mind), looked ridiculous or just wasn't a good idea to make at all. Instead of destroying or getting rid of them, Rarity would just store them in a closet and then moved on. She once asked Rarity why she kept all of these clothes and her only response was that she was only keeping them as reference when she's making better outfits and forbid Sweetie for taking them.

Not that Sweetie ever wanted to wear any of those outfits!

"What are you talking about?" Pinkie cried out suddenly. "This stuff is great! It's the perfect material for outrageous selfies... CHEESE!"

Sweetie then heard a snapshot, assuming it was from Pinkie's cell phone. She then heard the others voiced out in agreement and began to take snapshots of their own. She eventually heard Rarity's low sigh.

"Well... feel free to try them on I suppose."

As they were busy taking more pictures of each other from the other side, Sweetie Belle just stood by the door thinking. If they were taking photos and videos of them singing badly and wearing Rarity's ridiculous outfits, that would mean that Sunset also took pictures and videos of them on her own cell phone. Maybe if Sweetie would get a hold of that phone–

Sweetie rapidly shook her head. No, she shouldn't do it. She did not want to be do the same idea as Apple Bloom. She did not want to stoop so low to post anything embarrassing and then pin it on Sunset. And yet... this was the perfect opportunity to do so right in front of her, all gift wrapped on a silver platter. Once Sunset was blamed and out of the picture, Sweetie can finally have her sister back and won't be ignored again. But was that right?

Sweetie Belle had an inner turmoil with herself, weighing pros and cons whether to leave this idea alone or to go through with it. As was debating with herself, she heard both Rarity and Sunset giggled together like they were both having fun, reminding Sweetie further on how she and Rarity used to do together. It was right then and there, Sweetie finally made a decision.





It was later in the middle of the night within Rarity's bedroom. After hours of fun and crazy activities, the girls were fast asleep, drifting into dreamland. Naturally, Rarity slept on her own bed while the others slept on the floor around the room in their own sleeping bags. 

While they were snoring away, no one noticed Rarity's bedroom door slowly creaked open, barely make a sound. Once the door opened far enough, Sweetie peaked around the door, turned on her flashlight and surveyed the room. Satisfied that everyone was asleep, Sweetie slowly entered the room. Even though it was way past her bedtime, Sweetie Belle had been waiting all this time for the others to fall asleep so she can begin her little heist.

Okay... Rarity and the others are sleeping, she thought. Now where's Sunset?

She looked around with her flashlight until she spotted Sunset in her own sleeping bag next to Applejack by her sister's sewing machine. While trying to be quiet as a mouse, Sweetie crawled over to Sunset, using the girl's snores to drown out her movements until she reached Sunset's bag.

Alright... now where did she keep her phone?

She opened up Sunset's bag and rummaged through it, silently hoping that Sunset's phone was there. As she was searching through it, she suddenly heard Pinkie's voice.

"Hold it right there buster!"

Sweetie ceased her actions and hitched her voice, while her heart started pounding like a jackhammer. How did she get so careless? Before she said anything, Pinkie began speaking again.

"That cupcake belonged to Gummy Dashie!" Pinkie mumbled. "He really likes the one with the blue icing with polka-dotted sprinkles..."

Pinkie smacked her lips a few times before she began to snore again, back into her own dreamland.

Sweetie sighed in relief. She realized that Pinkie was only sleep-talking from her dreams, something about cupcakes and... her stuffed animal. She wasn't sure if she should laugh or confused with Pinkie's bizarre antics. In the end, Sweetie just decided that Pinkie was just being Pinkie and went back to searching through Sunset's bag.

A moment later, Sweetie finally found the very item she was looking for, Sunset's cell phone. She took it out of her back and placed her flashlight down. Just as she was about to turn it on, she paused. While Sweetie made it this far, it never occurred to her until now that Sunset might of set up a password to her phone. And considering how careful Sunset was with her tactics in the past, she would most likely secure her phone. If that was the case, then that would made this whole operation much harder for Sweetie to accomplish. She thought about quitting right here and there but she decided to go through with it anyway and then go from there.

As Sunset's phone was booting up, Sweetie took her time to guess some possible passwords that Sunset would most likely used. But once Sunset's phone was fully turned on, she was already on Sunset's phone home menu page without going through the password page, much to Sweetie's surprise2.

...huh. That's... surprisingly easy, Sweetie Belle thought with her stunned expression. 

Not wanting to look at a gift's horse in the mouth, Sweetie decided to take her opportunity and tap into the Image Gallery app on Sunset's phone. To her delight, she found tons of Sunset's images and videos of her friends during their slumber party, including the images of them in their goofy outfits and videos of them singing (judging from the thumbnail images since Sweetie can't play the videos right now). 

Bingo! Sweetie chimed from her mind.

While keeping Sunset's phone on, Sweetie took out her own phone out from her PJ's pocket. After creating a group chat between her and Sunset, she began to sent out all the images and videos that she thought would be the most damaging to the Rainbooms from Sunset's phone to Sweetie's own phone for her to download. After doing that for some time (due to the videos took longer to download) Sweetie deleted the group chat from Sunset's phone and then turned Sunset's phone off. She then placed Sunset's phone back into Sunset's bag where she got it and then put her own phone away into her pocket. She turned on her flashlight again and then silently crawled back towards the door without waking anyone up until she was out of Rarity's room. She turned off her flashlight, stood up, gently closed Rarity's door and then headed back into her own bedroom.

Once she entered and locked her room, she took out her phone to call one someone, hoping that this person is still awake. With her phone rested against her ear, she waited as she heard the dial tone. Eventually, the dial tone stopped, followed by a yawn and a tired groin from someone from the other line.

"S-sweetie Belle? Apple Bloom mumbled, clearly sounded like she was awaken abruptly thanks to Sweetie Belle. W-what is it? Do ya have any idea what time it is?"

"Apple Bloom, I... I just stole some embarrassing photos and videos of their slumber party from Sunset's phone," Sweetie whispered quietly as she eyed her door in hopes that no one was listening.

"Y-you stole pictures from Sunset's phone!? Apple Bloom exclaimed, now suddenly sounded more awake. How did ya managed to do that?"

"I snuck into Rarity's room while they're sleeping... and Sunset's phone doesn't have a password protected screen," Sweetie explained.

There was a long pause before she heard Apple Bloom replied, "Huh... dat's surprisingly easy."

"I know right!" Sweetie cried while keeping her voice down. "It's kinda ironic that a once dictator of our school who uses other peoples weaknesses against them... couldn't lock her own phone to keep others from taking her secrets."

"Still, thanks to your efforts, we can use these to our advantage! Apple Bloom replied. Are they on yer phone?"

Sweetie nodded, despite that Apple Bloom can't see her over the phone. "Yes."

"Okay, Ah'll send ya the password to Anon-a-Miss account by text and then you can post them yourself."

Sweetie's eyes widened in surprise. "Wait, ME!?" she nearly shrieked. "You want me to post these pictures!?"

"Yep," she confirmed. "Since you're the one who got these pictures, Ah figured you should do the honors of posting them."

Sweetie was shocked beyond belief. It was difficult for her to steal goofy pictures from someone's phone enough already in a moral sense, but to actually post them? That's just too much to her! And Sweetie couldn't believe that Apple Bloom was suggesting to have her do the job as if she's wanted her to be the one to pull the trigger. Sweetie did not want to be in this kind of position. She wanted her sister back and get rid of Sunset Shimmer as much as Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, but did she really wanted to go through with it?

Including hurting her sister in the process?

Sweetie shook her head. "I... I don't think I could do it. These... these pictures could destroy my sister!"

She heard Apple Bloom let out a long sigh. "I can't promise ya that your sister won't suffer from ridicule, but once they realized they're the same pictures from Shimmer's phone, they will think it was her who posted them. When that happens, they will ditch her fer sure! After that, we'll lay low and everything will be back the way it was with our sisters at our side. It's going to be fine, you'll see!"

But Sweetie Belle wasn't feeling so assured from Apple Bloom's words and she felt her hand with the phone was shaking from the side of her head. "But... but..."

"Listen Sweetie Belle, would ya rather get your sister back and have her spend time with you or will ya let Shimmer continue to deceive your sister and keep her all to herself... leaving you feel all alone?"

Once again, her morals was having a war within herself, fighting back and forth between right and wrong. Apple Bloom's words didn't help much. She felt this was her final chance to back out of this insane plan, delete all the photos she downloaded and then act like nothing happen and no one will be hurt. But if she did back out, Rarity will continue leave her out, Sunset will continue to have her and worse of all, her friends will think she betrayed them and they might ditch her too...

...and be left all alone.

"...fine. I'll do it," Sweetie croaked.

"Awesome! she heard Apple Bloom cheered. Ah knew ya pull through Sweetie Belle! Ah'll send the password over to ya now! Let me know when yer done."

Sweetie heard Apple Bloom hung up the phone, ending their call. A second later, she heard a notification sound from her group chat. Sure enough, it was from Apple Bloom. She sent the name of the Anon-a-Miss' email and password for MyStable just like she said she would. Sweetie frowned heavily at the thought of what she's about to do, but there's no turning back now. She went on to MyStable, logged in the Anon-a-Miss' account. She was surprised to see how many new followers on Anon-a-Miss' page after a day of her "debut". She decided to put that on the side as she selected some pictures from Rarity's slumber party to post and then wrote a message that she herself came up with:



OMG... what a bunch of dorks! Hahaha



Sweetie felt sick in her stomach for typing that but she needed to make this message as believable as possible so that others will think it was Sunset. Once set was done setting it up, her eyes and finger hovered over the "submit" button but she hesitated. She felt her heart beat faster and faster and her pointer finger was shaking like crazy. She realized once she pushed that little button, she can not take it back and all the stuff about her sister will be up for everyone to see.

Sweetie Belle closed her eyes tightly and felt her finger moved. A second later, she heard a "ding" and then she slowly opened her eyes and saw a message on her phone's screen.



Post Complete!



A second later, her post showed up on Anon-a-Miss's page. The job was done. No doubt that those who followed Anon-a-Miss will know about the post by now.

With a heavily heart, Sweetie switched to her group chat app and sent a text message to Apple Bloom.



StarSong112: it's done

AppleSeed109: ah see it! great job sweetie! :D

AppleSeed109: now go get some rest, cuz tomorrow... 

AppleSeed109: we'll be seeing some fireworks! ;)  



Despite Apple Bloom's praising, Sweetie didn't paid any attention to any of that. For several minutes, she just stood there with her phone over her face, staring off into space. She slowly turned towards her bedroom door where the direction of Rarity's room is. As she slowly comprehended of what she had done, she didn't noticed that she accidentally dropped her cell phone onto the floor with a light thud. Her body felt numb and her eyes were leaking as she continued to stare towards the door with a look of regret and remorse.

Sis... I'm so sorry.
> Intermission 2 (CMC)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the time Sweetie Belle finished her story, she broke down sobbing to the point that she wasn't able to speak anymore. While the two adults were disappointed in Sweetie for going through with the post, despite knowing that it was against her sister, they do feel a little pity towards the young girl. Principal Celestia handed Sweetie Belle a box of tissues for her to use which she gladly accepted.

As Sweetie was blowing her nose, Apple Bloom looked down in shame. After hearing Sweetie's side and everything she went through, Apple Bloom felt even more guilty than she was before. She wished she could go back in time and slapped herself in the face for manipulating and treating her friend like that. She wanted to go over to her friend and hug her, telling her that she's sorry and swore that she'll never abandon her even if she's not on her side, but she felt that she was not worthy to be near Sweetie right now. Not to mention, she noticed that Vice Principal Luna was glaring daggers at her, as if she was daring her to make a move. While she didn't blame Vice Principal Luna for being so angry at her, but dealing with Luna's angry glare only made her feel more awful by the minute.

After Sweetie blew her fifth tissue, Celestia spoke to her in a very caring tone. "Sweetie, you realized that what you did was wrong and that you hurt your sister as well as her friends right?"    

Sweetie nodded despite her tears still rolling on her cheeks. "Y-yes! And I regretted what I've done to them... including to Sunset!" she sniffed. "All I wanted was to spend time with my sister like she used too, but she never wanted me around especially when she hangs out with her friends. I just felt like that she doesn't care about me." Sweetie looked down in shame, while letting some of her tears flowing down her cheeks. "But now that she knows that I'm the one who posted the pictures of her slumber party... she doesn't want me as her sister anymore."

"Sweetie, you know that's not true," Celestia spoke softly as she gave more tissues to Sweetie Belle. "While I think your sister probably should've done differently when she wanted you to leave her room, but I'm sure Rarity didn't mean to make you feel this way. From what you've told us, she just wanted to hang out with her friends with the same age group as her. When you hang out with your friends for your club, did you want to have your sister around you?"

"...no," Sweetie croaked as she wiped her tears away. "I just wanted to hang out with only my friends for the time being."

Celestia nodded. "Exactly. Just because she didn't want you around her then, that doesn't meant she didn't want you around at all. And even what you did was wrong, that doesn't mean that she will hate you. If you talk to her about your feelings, I'm sure she will understand. In fact, I spoke to your sister earlier before you came into my office and do you know what she told me?"

Sweetie shook her head.

"She told me that not only she felt guilty for falsely blaming and abandoning her best friend, but she also felt terrible... for being an awful big sister to you."

"S-she did?" Sweetie asked in awe.

Celestia nodded. "She did. And she wanted to talk to you as soon as we're done talking to the three of you."

Sweetie stared at the floor in thought. She couldn't believe that despite everything that had happened, not only Rarity is willing to talk to her again after their confession, but she also blamed herself for neglecting Sweetie for so long. In hindsight, Sweetie Belle felt silly... and foolish for thinking that her sister didn't want her around anymore. But even after Principal Celestia's revelation about Rarity, Sweetie still felt that she doesn't deserve to be her little sister after what she did. If anything, she was an awful sister, not Rarity. Her thoughts were interrupted when Vice Principal Luna began to speak.

"Speaking of which, there's something in Miss Belle's story that caught my attention."

Celestia turned to her sister with intrigued look. "What is it Lu?"

"At that time when Anon-a-Miss was created and then Miss Belle posted Sunset's pictures, it was already a day since it was first up. And yet, she said there was already a lot of new followers on the site before she posted those pictures," Luna explained and then narrowed her eyes at Sweetie. "Just how many followers were there the night you posted those pictures?"

Sweetie Belle hesitated for a moment before replying, "Um... if you mean at the time... I think it was about... two hundred and fifty?"

Luna's eyes widened. "TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY!?"

"And what do you mean, "at the time"?" Celestia pressed.

When Sweetie doesn't answer, Celestia eyes widened when she realized the implication behind Sweetie's words.

"Did those numbers increased overtime?" she asked.

Unable to speak, Sweetie nodded.

Celestia felt a pit in her stomach. "How much?"

Sweetie was quiet for some time until she answered with an uneasy voice. "Let's just say... about three times that number."

The sisters stared at Sweetie in shock. You don't need to be a mathematician to figure out the amount of people who are following the Anon-a-Miss site now. Luna let out a loud groan and facepalmed herself.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" she exclaimed.

"I was afraid of this," Celestia sighed, already starting to feel a headache from this information. "I bet along with those people of followers were probably students from Crystal Prep... and maybe some people from other towns."

"Nevermind that!" Luna growled and glared at the young trio, making them all flinch. "I demand to know how you girls managed to reach out so many people to follow that cursed site!"

"Um..."

Everyone turned to see Scootaloo, who was fidgeting her seat nervously. "I... may have something to do with it."

Luna sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Why am I not surprised!"

It was a common knowledge at school that Scootaloo was known to be the most daring member of the CMC. She wasn't a bad student by any means, but she likes to do crazy stunts and often get herself and her friends in trouble due to her over eagerness or her hotheadedness, just like that certain Rainbow-haired teen that she often looked up to. Judging from her expression alone when she said that, that would mean that she really did some serious damage this time.

And the two sisters wanted answers!

"What did you do exactly Scootaloo?" Celestia said in her eerie calm voice, while leaving no room for argument.

Feeling uncomfortable with everyone focusing on her, Scootaloo shifted her eyes downward. "Well... it happened after Sweetie and I had that... argument..."
> Chapter 4: Anon-a-Miss' Followers (Scootaloo)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You know what? Fine! Do whatever you two want, just leave me out of this!" Sweetie turned back to the door with her back facing them. "I won't tell anyone that you're Anon-a-Miss or any of your upcoming plans. But right now... I... I don't want to talk to either of you right now!"

As Sweetie Belle stepped out into the hallway, Scootaloo glared at the back of Sweetie's head, burning with rage.

"Fine! Then go and let Sunset take your sister away for all I care!" Scootaloo yelled angrily.

"Fine!" Sweetie Belle yelled back, not looking back as she continued to walk away.

Scootaloo growled loudly in anger. A moment ago, her other friend, Apple Bloom, revealed to her that she's Anon-a-Miss and she's the one who made that post about her sister. At first, Scoots wasn't sure if she should be shocked, angry or disappointed in Apple Bloom for doing something so cruel, but after Apple Bloom explained her reasons and plan to get back at Sunset, Scootaloo immediately went on board with it.

To Scootaloo, there's no way that Sunset Shimmer could ever changed her ways, especially after all the terrible things she had done for a first few years at CHS. After Sunset was finally put to her place at the Fall Formal, the only punishment Sunset received was rebuilding the school's front entrance, but to Scootaloo, that's not enough. She believed that Sunset tricked the Rainbooms to be friends with her. How else did they decided to make Sunset part of the group? Worst yet, Sunset somehow had Rainbow Dash wrapped around her finger and have her all to herself, leaving her sister figure spend less time with Scootaloo. Apple Bloom's idea to post something embarrassing from the Rainbooms and frame Sunset was the perfect opportunity to not only to get her sister-figure back, but also give Sunset a proper punishment for everything she had done in the past.

Unfortunately, her "former" friend disagreed with them and want no part of it. The CMC were supposed to work together and help each other out, but Sweetie refused to help take down a bully. Not only Scootaloo felt betrayed, but also angry at Sweetie for not joining in like a coward.

Scootaloo felt Apple Bloom placed her hand on her shoulder. "Let me talk to her Scoots! Ah'll try to convince her. Just head to your next class."

Scootaloo shrugged Apple Bloom's hand off of her. "Whatever! I'm not even planning on going after that traitor anyway," Scootaloo scoffed. "I'll see you later."

Not waiting for her friends response, Scootaloo turned towards the hallway, opposite where Sweetie Belle went. From the back of her mind, she realized that she had forgotten something but couldn't remember what due to her anger. She decided to not fret about it, figured that it was probably not important, and just focused on getting to her morning class.





Later that day, all the classes at CHS was over, but the after school activities has begun, including sports. Every three days in a week, Scootaloo stayed after school to do soccer practice with her team. CHS has two different teams in every sport: the Junior Team and the Wondercolts team. Junior Teams were played by Junior High students like Scootaloo, while the Wondercolts team are for High School students like Rainbow Dash. Usually both teams shared the same field outside of school to practice, but due to the snow, they used the gym instead. However, the gym was not big enough for both teams so the gym teacher had them take turns for one team to use the gym for a certain amount of time before switching to another team. Each day, the order of teams are different, but today it was the Junior Team to use the gym for practice first.

Despite that it was after school hours, Scootaloo was still mad at Sweetie Belle from this morning. In her anger, she kicked the ball harder than necessary during practice. As a result, she unintentionally hit other players from her kicks and was benched for the rest of the practice. Despite being forced to sit out, she was too angry to care.

As she sat on the bleachers for some time, Scootaloo calmed down somewhat as she thought back to that morning. While she was still mad at Sweetie for backing out on Apple Bloom's plan, but a small part of her (as much as she doesn't want to admit it) was wondering if what they're doing was the right thing. Rainbow Dash did teach her about being loyal and stand up to your friend whenever someone did anything wrong to hurt others. If that's the case, then how come Sunset got off easily by repairing the school entrance and served weeks in detention and then become "friends" with Rainbow Dash like nothing happened? Scootaloo honestly doesn't understand why Rainbow allowed her to be anywhere near her, but there's one thing for sure...

...with Anon-a-Miss on their side, Sunset will finally get what she deserved.

Scootaloo's thoughts were interrupted from the sound of laughter next to her. She turned to her left and then she inwardly groaned when she saw who it was laughing. From the far end of the bleachers, it was the two boys from her classes, Snips and Snails, the biggest idiots in school in her opinion. While she didn't know what these two were saying, but they annoyed her greatly from the way they were laughing like hyenas. With an annoyed huff, Scootaloo stood up from her seat and made her way over to them so can tell them to pipe down. As she was getting closer to them, she was able to make out what Snips was saying to Snips.

"Dude, do you see this post from some user about Applejack on MyStable?" said Snips, making Scootaloo freeze in place.

"Yeah, Piggly Wiggly!" Snails respond with a snicker. "That was sooo funny!" He then had a thoughtful look. "Do you think this Anon-a-Miss person was actually Sunset?"

Snips shrugged nonchalantly. "Who knows? I was wondering if this person is going to do another funny post about someone else like one of the players from the Wondercolts team. Heck, maybe about Rainbow Dash!"

Snails cackled. "Yeah, that'll be funny when that egomaniac is in her place for once!"

Scootaloo felt a surge of anger after hearing the two idiots talk trash about her idol. She was about to give them a piece of her mind and defend Rainbow Dash, but she stopped herself. As much as these two are not as bright as a Christmas tree, they actually brought up an interesting thought. While the plan to frame Sunset by posting the Rainboom's secrets was still on, she wondered if that was enough. Not to mention, posting only about their sisters both helped... and against them.

It was also at that moment that Scootaloo remembered what she had forgotten to tell Apple Bloom. While the post about Applejack was brilliant, but it was also very risky. Even though Apple Bloom set up a way that all the Rainbooms knew about Applejack's story, Apple Bloom didn't realized that she had also inadvertently revealed to them that she knew about Applejack's embarrassing story too. So far, Apple Bloom was very lucky that the Rainbooms overlook this fact, but sooner or later, they will put two and two together. Scoots realized that they can't just keep posting everything about the Rainbooms without a risk of revealing themselves, they just need to throw them off and cover their own tracks so that none of the members of the CMC won't come to any of the Rainboom's minds. To do that, they're gonna have to post about someone else outside of the Rainbooms. 

And Scootaloo knows just where to start.





After soccer practice was over, the Wondercolts team took over the gym while the Junior team headed to the locker room to change back to their normal outfits. While many students went home after changing their outfits, Scootaloo stuck around until she was the only one left in the locker room. Once she was sure that she was alone, she walked over to the far side of the locker room until she approached the door, which leads to her gym teacher's locker room. She quietly opened the door and peaked inside. As she expected, her gym teacher was at his desk, doing his paperwork, not noticing her. Scootaloo knocked on the side of the office door to get his attention.

"Um... excuse me, Coach Will?"

With a grunt, Iron Will looked up from his paperwork. "What? What is it? Iron Will is busy!"

"It's that girl with the eyes! She accidentally knocked over all the sport balls in the storage room and over-flooded the gym!"

Iron Will facepalmed with a groan. "Again!? I swear, that girl is a walking disaster!" He then stood up. "Let Iron Will take care of this!"

Iron Will left his office with a huff, leaving Scootaloo alone. Once she was sure that he was gone, she used this opportunity to search around his office, hoping to find what she was looking for. Her eyes lit up when she finally found the item in question which was hidden in the Coach's desk drawer: a folder with two different lists of all the combinations for each gym locker. One was a list of lockers for the Junior Team and the other list are for the Wondercolts Team. Scootaloo only took out the locker combination list for the Wondercolts Team and held it up so she can take a photo of it so that the Coach won't alert the school that it was stolen. Once she took her picture, she put the list back where she got it, left Coach Will's office and back out into the locker room. With her first task complete, she now decided to began her next step.

Scootaloo headed to the senior's side of the locker room and walked up to Rainbow's locker. After hanging around with her sister figure so many times, she knew where Rainbow's locker is like the back of her hand. Once she reached Rainbow's locker, she made sure that no one was looking before she used the combination from the picture of her phone to open Rainbow's locker. Once she opened up Rainbow's locker, she spotted a gym bag inside Rainbow's locker and decided to search through the bag. There was nothing interesting in the bag at first since it was filled with Rainbow's spare clothes, until she eventually found a piece of paper and took it out of the bag. 

The title of the paper said "How Boohyancy Works" by Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo assumed that it was a Science paper for Rainbow's Science class. However, Rainbow didn't do a good job on her work judging from a huge letter "D" in red from the top left of the paper as Rainbow's grade. There was also a red circle around the "ooh" on Boohyancy due to bad spelling and two phrases in red, which said "very poor" and "See Me".

Scootaloo cringed as she looked over many mistakes throughout Rainbow's paper. Granted, Scoots was not very good with Science either, but even she knew how to spell "Buoyancy". Still, getting a D from Harshwhinny regarding which subject, was never good. And knowing Rainbow Dash, she probably wanted to keep her grade a secret for the sake of her reputation. With that in mind, this was the perfect ammo she can use against Sunset.

With a silent apology to Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo took out her phone, took a picture of Rainbow's paper and then put it back in Rainbow's locker just the way she found it. 

Okay, that's one down! Scootaloo thought as she closed Rainbow's locker. Now...

She surveyed all the other lockers within the room, eager to find more secrets from other students for her to use.

Onto the next one!

With a sly smirk, Scootaloo began to open up the next locker.





After almost an hour of snooping in every single lockers belonging to the Wondercolts Team, Scootaloo left the school and headed home. She knew that Coach Will would probably scold her for lying to him, but she didn't care about that since she got what she came for. After a good fifteen minutes of walking in the snowy sidewalk, she finally reached her two Aunts house.

This house belonged to her Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty. Scootaloo usually lived a bit further down the road, but because both of her parents were never around due to their jobs, she would most often stayed over at her aunts house almost all the time. Even though her aunts were around, Scoots still feel lonely from time to time. When Rainbow took her under her wing as her big sister years ago and promised that she'll always be around when she needs her, Scootaloo was overjoyed. She felt that nothing can come in between her and her big sister.

Until Sunset Shimmer came into the picture.

This gave Scootaloo the motivation to do what she had to do to get her sister-figure back and to finally have Sunset face justice to everything she had done.

As soon as Scootaloo entered the house, she heard one of her Aunts calling her from the kitchen.

"Hey kiddo, how was your day at school?"

"It was... okay Aunt Holiday," said Scootaloo as she hung her coat on the coat rack. "Classes were a little brutal today with the mid-exam coming up and all."

"That's understandable," replied Lofty, Scoot's other Aunt. "With the upcoming Holiday around the corner, the school will throw everything at you before your winter break."

"Unless they'll give you homework for the break," Holiday added.

Scootaloo shuddered at the thought. What school would be cruel enough to give students homework over Christmas break? She heard that Crystal Prep students received homework and projects over every Holiday breaks, even over the summer. Scootaloo was thankful that her Aunts applied her to CHS where her friends are.

Most of her friends.

"Um... speaking of homework, I'm gonna go upstairs and work on them for a while just to get them over and done with," said Scootaloo as she climbed up the stairs.

"Okay sweetie, dinner will be ready in a half-an-hour!" Lofty called out.

Scootaloo kept on climbing the stairs until she reached the top floor and walked into her bedroom (which was originally a guest room before her Aunts made it as her official bedroom). Once she locked the door, Scootaloo immediately went to her laptop and turned it on. As her laptop was booting up, she reached her cell phone to call Apple Bloom. A moment later, she heard her friend's voice from the other end.

"Hello?" said Apple Bloom.

"Apple Bloom, this is Scootaloo," Scootaloo said quietly, not wanting her Aunts to hear her. "Can I ask you a quick favor?"

"Um... sure. What is it?"

"Could you please tell me the password to your Anon-a-Miss account?"

There was a moment of silence until Scootaloo heard Apple Bloom asked, "Why? Do ya got something?"

"I got a picture of Rainbow Dash's bad grade on her science paper," Scootaloo explained. "And let me tell you... it was pretty bad."

"...Ah see." Apple Bloom replied. "So you want to post Rainbow's grade paper on the site?"

"That... and other things," Scootaloo said with some hesitation.

"What do ya mean?" Apple Bloom asked with suspicion.

"You'll see. Trust me Apple Bloom, this'll will help us in a long run," Scootaloo assured.

There was an even longer pause from the other side if the phone until Apple Bloom finally replied.

"Well... okay, if you say so." Apple Bloom said reluctantly. "Here's the password..."

After Apple Bloom gave Scootaloo the password for Anon-a-Miss' MyStable account, as well as Anon-a-Miss' offical email and password, Scootaloo thanked her friend and hung up. She went on to her laptop, now fully turned on, she plugged her phone to her laptop and transferred all the pictures she took from the locker room onto her laptop for safe keeping. She then went to MyStable website and logged in as Anon-A-Miss.

The first thing she noticed was that there were some new followers on Anon-a-Miss' page. It wasn't a lot, but it was definitely more people following now than the amount from this morning and most of them are from her school because Scootaloo recognized some of these people. There were also some new comments underneath the post about Applejack. The messages were... awful to say the least and she couldn't believe how anyone would say things like that from behind the screen just to bring people down. But she set those worries aside for the time being and just focused on her main task.

She began posting one of the Wondercolt team member, specifically about pies. She included all the pictures she found in Soarin's locker of pies either in dresses or with wigs with the phrase "My Darling" in sharpie. There were even some selfie pictures of him with various different pies. When she first found those, Scootaloo wasn't sure if she should laugh or disturbed with Soarin's creepy obsession of pies. Still, she thought it would be a good laugh and a perfect way to start posting things that's not Rainboom's related so that the CMC won't be suspected.

It wasn't even two minutes when she suddenly received an Email from a mysterious person. For a moment, Scootaloo wasn't sure what to do. She didn't know if it was one of the MyStable representatives, catching her in the act or someone posting an angry Email for the nasty post she just did. Preparing for the worst, Scootaloo decided to open the Email to read it. What she saw next not only surprised her, but also caught completely off guard from the message she received just now. 




To Anon-a-Miss,

I just saw your post about Soarin with his disturbing love about pies and it was hilarious! This guy seriously needs a girlfriend instead of being a pie-loving loser! XD

Anyway, if you're looking for some more secrets to post on your page, I know another loser's secret you can use. If you can post it, I'll definitely follow you!

Signed,
A fan.



Scootaloo stared in shock. Someone was willing to share someone else's secret, just for laughs at one person's expense? Before she could reply, she got another Email message for Anon-a-Miss's account. 

Then another.

And another!

Soon, there was a total of twenty different Emails sent for Anon-a-Miss. There was only three threatening Emails if she ever exposed any of their secrets, but the rest of them had the same message.

They loved them and they wanted to see more with a promise of following Anon-a-Miss and willing to give out another student's secrets!

Scootaloo just stared at her laptop screen for some time, weighing her options. On the one hand, she couldn't believe anyone from her school would eagerly wanting to see a post about something embarrassing about another student and willing to share another secret to her. It was not only disrespectful for these people for stabbing someone else in the back, but it was also morally wrong to do that without that other person's consent. But on the other hand, she was practically posting another person's secrets anyway and having more people following them will be a great way to gather more dirt from other students for them to use. She figured they needed all the help they could get to get more suspicion off of the CMC and painted Sunset more as the culprit. And as long as it was enough for Rainbow Dash and the others to think that it was Sunset, Scoots was perfectly okay with it.

Plus, being internet famous sounded... pretty awesome.

With a smirk, Scootaloo updated the bio page of Anon-a-Miss, encouraging anyone who followed to send any information about any student and they will post it for all to see. After she was satisfied with the updated page, Scootaloo cracked her knuckles and began her work on posting one student's secrets after another until it was close to dinnertime.

Little does she realized just how much damage she will cause, which she will soon regret later on.
> Intermission 3 (CMC)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"...unbelievable!" Vice Principal Luna sighed as she shook her head, disgusted from what she had heard. "Just... unbelievable!" She then glared daggers at Scootaloo, which caused the young daredevil to flinch. "Do you have any idea what you stupidly, yet inadvertently done!?"

As Scootaloo was shaking in terror from the Vice Principal's anger, Luna listed off some of Scoots' offenses. "You broke into all the Wondercolts lockers–which that and itself was a violation of our school rules, posted all of their private stuff online without their consent and posted even more private stuff online from your so-called followers online! What do you have to say for yourself?"

Shaken from the Vice Principal's harsh scolding, Scootaloo nearly burst into tears. "I'm... I'm sorry!" Scootaloo cried. "I get it, I screwed up! At the time, I did that just so we can make Sunset even more guilty and get us in the clear without drawing suspicion. I didn't think that this will get this bad!"

"Well that's your problem!" Luna yelled. "You didn't think! Did you ever think that maybe your reason of gunning after Sunset was too petty to do something so drastic instead of just talking to your sister-figure? Did you ever think that by posting all those nasty stuff online would bring huge negative consequences to Sunset, the students you attacked and yourself? Did you ever think at all!?"

When Scootaloo couldn't hold back her tears anymore, Principal Celestia quickly interjected. "Luna, that's enough! The kid felt bad enough as it is!"

Luna turned towards her sister with narrowed eyes. "Well tell that to some students who called in "sick" for the past several days and many angry parents over the phone!" Luna snapped as she pointed to three pre-teens. "Those three had no idea how their shenanigans could damage our students lives!"

"W-what! How?" Sweetie exclaimed nervously, flabbergasted from the revelation.

"Because you were posting their private stuff over the internet!" Luna answered coolly before facing the three pre-teens again. "With their information up on the web–so to speak, it could affect them both professionally and privately outside of our school! Like not being able to get jobs or affect their relationships with their families, friends and even their love ones!"

Apple Bloom eyes widened in horror. She knew what they did to the other students just to get to Sunset was bad, but after hearing possible consequences to these people from their Vice Principal, it was worse than she could ever imagined. This was not her intention at all.

"B-b-but... we c-c-can delete all the p-p-posts or maybe t-t-take down the MyStable page so that it'll be like it was not up there at all!" Apple Bloom suggested desperately, wanting to fix everything she and her friends caused.

"It's not that simple," Celestia sighed as she shook her head. "Once it's up there, it's up there! Even if you deleted those posts, one of your followers could already have their own copies of them and then re-posted them up on their own MyStable account or even on another website! It's like dumping oil in the river. No matter how much you clean the river up, the oil had already spread out into the ocean, making it impossible to get rid of it all!"

"And this situation is the same thing!" Luna added harshly. "MyStable is like a river, the internet is like the ocean..." Her eyes then narrowed. "And each of those nasty posts you've done... were like oil... gallons and gallons of oil carelessly dumped into that river and flowed into the ocean. Just as how you three carelessly posted such sensitive information on the open web where anyone could get a hold of them... and it's too late to clean it all up!"

The CMC lowered their heads in shame and guilt. They already realized that what they did and their reasons behind their actions were stupid and bad enough, but they never imagined that what they done could potentially ruined their lives, especially their sisters and Sunset. The thought that they gave both the students and their sisters so much pain made them feel like the worst group of people on earth. They all wished they had magic powers like their sisters to undo everything they've done for the past couple of weeks so that no one was hurt and everything will go back the way it was. But alas, the damage was done and there was nothing they could do to fix it.

Sweetie Belle looked back up with tears in her eyes and a look huge amount of guilt. "Does that mean... we ruined everyone's lives? I-including Soarin, Sunset... and my sister?"

Luna let out a long sigh, calming herself somewhat. "Aside from making them feel humiliated and caused some low self-esteems from students... we didn't get any reports of students feeling depressed, wanting to drop out of school... or worse." Luna than gave Scootaloo her stern expression. "But I digress. In light of your... appalling actions, you will be severely punished Miss Scootaloo!"

Scootaloo flinched from Luna's tone as if she was slapped in the face. Before Luna could berate her further, Principal Celestia stepped in.

"Now now Lu," Celestia spoke gently. "We'll get to that and Scootaloo's punishment in due time. But right now, we need to stay on track with their story without losing any more cool. Alright?"

Luna wanted to argue, but one stern look from her sister made her relented. "Fine," said Luna before giving Scootaloo her hard look. "But we will discuss your punishment later Miss Scootaloo!"

Celestia nodded her sister with appreciation before facing the CMC again, specifically Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. "Do any of you two knew that Scootaloo planned this?"

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle glanced each other briefly before Apple Bloom answered for the both of them. "No... we didn't. If Ah had known, Ah would've stopped her before that happens."

"When did you found out?" Celestia asked.

"The very next day," Apple Bloom sighed as she rubbed her arm. "She told me about it during lunch. Ah... wasn't happy about dat to say the least..."
> Chapter 5: Victory? (Apple Bloom)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You did WHAT!?" Apple Bloom screamed in disbelief from within the school's cafeteria. "SCOOTS! Why did you do that!?"

Scootaloo shushed her friend to get her to calm down so they won't get attention from the other students, despite that a few were already looking at their way. "Calm down Apple Bloom! Everyone is staring!"

Apple Bloom calmed herself down somewhat, but still had a angry expression on her face. "Don't dodge the question Scoots! What possessed ya to think it was a "good idea" to break into our main soccer team lockers, steal their secrets and then posted them online?"

"I had to!" Scootaloo defended. Before Apple Bloom opened her mouth, Scootaloo spoke again. "Just think for a second! When you subtly brought up "Piggy Wiggly" to your sister and her friends during their sleepover, you also inadvertently revealed that you knew about the story too! If Sunset wasn't around at the sleepover, then who would be the first thing your sister will think was responsible for her nickname to be posted on the site?"

Apple Bloom thought about Scootaloo's words for a moment before her eyes widened in realization. "She would think... it was me."

Scootaloo nodded. "Exactly! And you were lucky that she never thought about that yesterday after her nickname was posted online. But even then, if we posted more things about our sisters and their friends, then things will be suspicious and doubted Sunset being the true culprit. I also noticed that some of the other students were doubting that Sunset was Anon-a-Miss too! That's why I did what I did so that not only to put more suspicion on Sunset, but also covering our own tracks in case if things went downhill."

Apple Bloom paused with a thoughtful look. Even though what Scoots did was extreme and a terrible idea, her friend had a point. Apple Bloom was very lucky that her sister never considered her to be the suspect despite how she subtly dropped that nickname during their phone call with everyone listening. Her friend also had a point that they shouldn't be too obvious either if they keep posting just the Rainbooms secrets. But even with those facts, was it really a good idea to drag in other students into the crossfire to keep up with the act?

"Well... Ah guess that makes sense and helped us in the long run, Ah'll give ya that!" Apple Bloom conceded before her face changed to a worried expression. "But did ya have ta put up some serious private stuff about other students? Ah mean, Soarin's thing for pie–as messed up as it was, seems too personal for anyone to see!"

"And I supposed Applejack's "Piggy Wiggly's" nickname wasn't personal at all?" Scootaloo countered.

Apple Bloom was about to rebuttal Scootaloo's claim, but she was unable to speak. She silently cursed herself, realizing that Scootaloo brought up another point.

"Besides," Scootaloo added. "He's Soarin from the Wondercolts Team! I'm sure he can handle a few laughs."

Apple Bloom shook her head. "Ah don't know Scoots. I saw him a few times outside of the team and he seems to be a very sensitive type. Granted, he's not as sensitive as Fluttershy, but still sensitive in his own right."

"Apple Bloom, he's an athlete!" Scootaloo argued. "Athletes were trained to not get sensitive at all!" 

Apple Bloom gave Scootaloo her deadpanned stare. "Scoots... they were trained to not get sensitive for the sake of the game! It's a whole 'nother ball game when it comes to something personal in their lives! And I can guarantee that Soarin will be very upset when he finds out that his love for... pies... is up on our site!"

Scootaloo scoffed with an annoyed glare. "Okay one, you already posted something about your sister without a second thought! Why do you care about anyone's feelings now? And second, if I haven't done that, then I wouldn't have gathered more material for us to use from our new followers!"

Apple Bloom was about to argue but then she stopped herself with widen eyes.

"Wait... new followers? New material?" Apple Bloom exclaimed in a perplexed tone.

"Yeah!" Scootaloo replied in her cheerful tone. "See, as I posted many secrets on the site, I received more and more Emails from our new followers with dirt from other students for us to use on a silver platter! I even encouraged everyone who followed Anon-a-Miss to send us more material for us to use in the future!"

Apple Bloom stared at her friend in shock. Not only she discovered her friend broke into the lockers to steal the teams secrets, but she also learned that they are getting more secrets from other people who followed their site. And her friend also encouraged them to give them more! 

"...ya kidding me!" Apple Bloom groaned and then lightly facepalmed herself into her hands. "Scoots, I don't like this idea at all! This whole thing has disaster written all over it!"

"Trust me Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo assured, waving off Apple Bloom's concern. "Since I'm always on Email duty, only I can decide which is suitable enough to be posted on that site. I won't put anything up if it's that's too far!" She then put on a huge grin. "Besides, most of the stuff I got was just pure gold!"

Apple Bloom sighed and gave her friend her skeptical look. "Dare Ah ask... what kind of "secrets" did ya get?"

"I'm glad you asked," Scootaloo replied eagerly before she took out a list from her pocket. "We got Bon Bon's fear of bugs and bears, Lyra's obsession with unicorns, Snips and Snails held back a grade–which wasn't really a secret for them if you ask me, Micro Chips had a crush on your sister–"

"Wait!" Apple Bloom interrupted with a look of disbelief. "Micro Chips? THE Micro Chips? The nerdiest kid in the entire school... had a crush on mah sister!?"

"Yeah I'm surprised as well. I guess he had a thing with farmer girls!" Scootaloo said with a shrug, completely oblivious to her friend's bewildered expression. "Anyway," Scootaloo continued, looking back at her list. "Bulk Biceps watched My Little Dragons, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia are secretly dating, Trixie sleeps with her nightlight on and..."

Scootaloo suddenly paused and frowned as if she just discovered something uncomfortable for the first time which only piqued Apple Bloom's curiosity.

"And... what?" Apple Bloom asked with anticipation.

Scootaloo hesitated for a moment before she finally replied. "And a photo of Silver Spoon wearing a necklace and showing it off at some party."

Apple Bloom frowned in confusion. "Dat's it? Ah don't see what's the big deal–"

"Which belonged to Diamond Tiara," Scootaloo finished. "And before you ask, according to the sender, Silver Spoon somehow got a hold of Diamond's necklace without Diamond's knowing!

Apple Bloom had a shocked expression on her face. "No way! Those two are best friends! How could she decided to steal a necklace from Diamond Tiara?"

"What about me?"

The two girls nearly jumped from the sudden third voice from behind them. They turned around and then immediately got nervous when they found out that the their voice was none other than Diamond Tiara. She wore a pink diamond necklace, black shirt with a yellow coat with a white fluff collar, short black shorts that were slightly torn from the bottom with a grey skirt over it, yellow boots with white cuffs and black ribbons with a diamond jewel near the bottom of the boot. She also had a long purple and white striped hair with a tiara hairclip on the side of her head. She was used to be a longtime bully to the CMC way before they enrolled to CHS, teasing a mocking them every time they see each other. But that all changed sometime after the Battle of the Bands when Apple Bloom discovered Diamond Tiara's rough home life, especially when Diamond was alone with her mother. To make a long story short, the CMC was able to lead Diamond Tiara to a much brighter life and her mother no longer controls her life. Now Diamond, along with her best friend Silver Spoon, are friends with the CMC, even if she still acted sassy from time to time.

"D-D-Diamond!" Apple Bloom cried with a forced smile as Scootaloo hastily stuffed her list back into her pocket. "Where did ya come from?"

"I just got here from my previous class," Diamond responded before narrowing her eyes. "Were you two talking about me just now?"

"Oh we're not talking about you!" Apple Bloom quickly lied with a nervous laugh. "Ah was... just asking Scootaloo's opinion if Ah should get Applejack some kind of... diamond accessory for Christmas instead of something related to Apples. A-A-And Scoots was just telling me her thoughts, right Scoots?"

Caught off guard that she was dragged into her friend's lie, she quickly answered Apple Bloom's "question" with a nervous look of her own.

"Oh... um... y-yeah!" Scootaloo stammered with an uneasy grin. "I um... think you should... um... get one of those... belt thingies... for her hat... cause it's a thing to put belts on hats... and your sister always were a hat!"

Apple Bloom resisted the urge to facepalm from Scootaloo's lame "input". "Uh... Scoots? Belts aren't made of diamonds."

"Sure they do!" Scootaloo insisted. "They have diamonds on their belt buckles and sometimes along the belt... that counts... right?"

Diamond Tiara just gave Scootaloo a look as if she had grown a second head. "Uh huh... no offense Scootaloo, but I'm a better person who knew about accessories since I go to the mall ninety percent of the time!" Her eyes then brightened. "Hey I know! Why don't you two and Sweetie come with me and Silver Spoon after school to the mall for Christmas shopping!"

Apple Bloom shook her head. "Oh no! That won't be necessary Diamond! We don't want to impose–"

"Oh I insist!" Diamond pressed, not taking Apple Bloom's refusal. "It's at least I could do! We didn't hang out much after you three helped change my ways and... I want to start making up for all the times I tormented you as a bully! So... will you three hang out with me?"

Apple Bloom was about to refuse again, but paused when stared at Diamond's face. While the rich girl had a look of confidence, but her eyes had a different story. Her eyes had a sad, regretful look, as if she was pleading her to give her a chance. By staring at those eyes, Apple Bloom felt a tinge of guilt. While Apple Bloom did become friends with Diamond Tiara after she helped her and then forgave her for years of bullying, but she never really hang out with Diamond much afterwords. Even if they did bump into each other, Apple Bloom still had her guard up whenever Diamond was around. Maybe some part of her still felt resentful towards Diamond always targeting her for all those years or maybe felt uncertain that Diamond will go back to her old ways despite everything they did to help her. Her voice scolded her for thinking that way about Diamond and telling her that she really is trying to change, but she could not help remembering all the hurtful things Diamond had done towards her in the past, even after finding out about Diamond's tough family life. As they say, time heals all wounds but the scars will never fade.

Yet, there she was, offering Apple Bloom to hang out like she did so many other times before, only for Apple Bloom and the rest of the CMCs to turn her down with an excuse. Even without their "history," Apple Bloom was having a situation right now with Anon-a-Miss no thanks to Scootaloo, which wasn't the best time right now. But unlike before, Apple Bloom just couldn't bring herself to turn her down again, especially when Diamond was really trying to reach out to her.

Not wanting to deny her newly friend's olive branch, Apple Bloom let out a heavy sigh. "Al...alright, we can come."

"R-really!? You will?" Diamond asked with hope.

"Yeah really," said Apple Bloom before frowning. "Except Sweetie Belle wasn't at school today."

Diamond frowned in concern. "Is she okay?"

"She's... not feeling well today due to her cold," Apple Bloom replied while looking away.

While it was true that Sweetie never showed up at school today, but it wasn't due to illness. Apple Bloom received a text from Sweetie early that morning that she doesn't "feel" like going to school today without clarifying what sickness she had. Deep down, Apple Bloom had a feeling that Sweetie Belle felt guilty for what she did to Rarity and her friends last night and didn't want to face her sister today. Apple Bloom felt bad for making Sweetie Belle feel that way, but she assured her and herself that what their doing was for a good cause.

At least, she hoped so.

"Oh that's too bad. I hope she's feeling better," Diamond said with a frown before perking up a bit. "Maybe we can go together another time when she's feeling better, sometime next week maybe?"

Before Scootaloo spoke up, Apple Bloom quickly replied. "Sure, we don't have anything planned, so ah guess next week is fine."

Diamond smiled. "Great! You won't regret it! We can meet up at the front of the mall."

"Right by the fountain, right?" Apple Bloom asked.

Diamond nodded. "Yep. Tell Sweetie to get well soon! See you girls later!"

With that, Diamond waved at them before walking away to her own table. As soon as she was gone, Apple Bloom sighed in relief before facing Scootaloo, who had a look of annoyance on her face.

"Apple Bloom..."

"Ah can't say no to her Scoots!" Apple Bloom defended. "She looked like she really wanted us to hang out with her!"

Scootaloo annoyance melted away somewhat and let out a long sigh. "Hey! I have no problem hanging out with her, but... now's the bad time."

Apple Bloom cocked an eyebrow. "What? With Anon-a-Miss or Sweetie Belle?"

As soon as she said their other friend's name, Scootaloo's expression immediately went soar. To Apple Bloom, she can tell that Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle not only are still mad at each other, but they haven't spoke to each other since yesterday. She hated seeing her two best friends fighting each other, but she also needed their help to keep their act going and continue to frame Shimmer. Having her friends mad at each other was not an option. 

"Look Scoots, what you said to Sweetie Belle yesterday was uncalled for! You two really need to talk it over!" Apple Bloom spoke up. Before Scootaloo could argue, Apple Bloom cut her off. "As for the site, Ah think you should take a break from that site and not post anymore secrets fer the time being!"

"But Apple Bloom–"

"End of discussion!" Apple Bloom stated firmly.

While Scootaloo was peeved at her friend, the school bell rang, signaling everyone that lunchtime was over.

"Well talk more about this later Scoots!" said Apple Bloom as she gathered her things.

Apple Bloom then stood up and left the cafeteria without saying a word to her friend and went on with her day.







It was the following day at CHS. Unlike the usual typical day where everything is bright and full of energy, today however was gloomier, lifeless and and dull. Instead of everyone was casually hanging out in the hallways with their friends, acting all cheerful and excited about their upcoming holiday break, every student body was heading to their own classes with a dull, depressing expressions on their faces, Apple Bloom included. The school wasn't as warm and welcoming than what it used to be. Ever since she showed up, everyone is no longer friendly or trusting with one another and they were each pretending that they didn't notice each other to avoid fights. This of course made Apple Bloom feel depressed because her sister was also affected by all this negativity and that she wasn't the same since.

If only if she have never showed up.

Suddenly, something felt off to Apple Bloom when she realized that everything was quieter than normal. When she looked around, she quickly realized that everyone that was in the hallway had disappeared. Apple Bloom felt very nervous to be out all alone in some eerie hallway with no living soul around her.

"H-hello?" Apple Bloom called out, causing her own voice to echo out into the empty hallway. "W-where did everybody go? Where is everyone?"

Suddenly, all of the lights went out, leaving her all alone in a dark. While Apple Bloom isn't afraid of the dark, but being all alone in the dark by some strange unknown entity with no one else around felt unnerving. After standing in the dark for a moment, which felt like an eternity to Apple Bloom, she heard something which send chills down to her spine.

"Hehehehehe!"

...

"Hehehehehe!"

From what Apple Bloom could make out, it sounded like a bunch of low sinister chuckles, which was creeping her out to no end. It gets worse as chuckles was starting to get louder and louder until it reached to a flow blown horrifying evil laughter.

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

Apple Bloom was shaking in terror now. Whoever it was out there sounded like she came from some kind of horror film, only she was actually experiencing it in person! In fact, whoever was laughing doesn't sound like an actual person at all! What was worse about the whole situation was that whatever it was out there messing with her, Apple Bloom was facing this mysterious entity all alone with no sister, her friends or anyone at all to aid her.

"W-who... who's there!?" Apple Bloom finally called out, using what was left of her courage.

"It's me Apple Bloom," The mysterious voice replied with a chuckle.

"Me... who?" Apple Bloom uttered with confusion but still terrified.

The mysterious voice chuckled again. "Oh you know who I am Apple Bloom! I guess you could say... you've known me for quite some time!"

"Wha- what are ya talking about!" said Apple Bloom. "Ah- Ah don't know you at all!"

"You really don't know?" The voice gasped mockingly before chuckling again out of amusement. "Why Apple Bloom, I'm hurt that you could forget all about me! Perhaps I should... refresh your memory!"

As soon as Apple Bloom heard a sound of snapping fingers, a light came back on in front of her, which relieved her a bit. However, her relief was short lived when she noticed the light revealed a person who was all pale and stood there in a zombie-like trance with glowing eyes. On top of all of that, Apple Bloom knew exactly who that person was.

"A-APPLEJACK!" Apple Bloom screamed as she ran over to her sister. "Applejack! Are you okay!? Please! Talk to me!?"

Apple Bloom tried to snap her sister out of her trance by shaking her sister back in forth by the shoulders. But no matter what she did, she couldn't break her sister free from that trance.

Apple Bloom ceased her actions when another light turned on about a few feet next to her. There was another person who was standing under the light in a zombie-trance. This time, the person Apple Bloom identified was Sweetie Belle's sister, Rarity. As Apple Bloom was processing this, more lights turned on one by one, revealing more people including Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.

Apple Bloom just stood frozen as more people from her school revealed under each light in a similar trance. It was then occurred to her that they were all in the same trance by Shimmer after she transformed herself into a she-demon. But unlike last time, her sister and her friends were also enslaved with mind controlling magic.

And there's no one will be able to stop her!

"What have you done!?" Apple Bloom screamed. "What have you done to mah sister!?"

The only thing Apple Bloom could hear from the darkness was a roar of laughter as if Apple Bloom had said something funny. This only made the young pre-teen angry, barely forgetting her fear of facing this mysterious visitor who was mocking her.

"Where are you!" Apple Bloom shouted, while trying to scope around the dark room to the best of her ability. "Show yerself you... you... DEMON!"

"...behind you."

Apple Bloom quickly turned around to the source of that deep voice from behind her. When she did, her eyes widened in horror. What she saw was a floating, tall creature in front of her while covering in the shadow. While Apple Bloom can not see the creature's features due to the darkness, but she can still make out some of the familiar outline of the creature's body. Tall boots, red skin, some kind of flaming dress as well as flaming tail and hair, and two huge demon wings. 

Suddenly, the demon creature opened up two of its glowing eyes and gave her a huge toothy grin with a wicked glee.

"Nice to see you... Apple Bloom!"





Apple Bloom gasped loudly as she suddenly sat up straight from her bed. Her breathing labored as she looked around her dark bedroom. She then calmed herself as she realized that it was only a dream.

A very... scary dream.

What the heck was that? she thought to herself as her breathing subsided somewhat. Ah have bad dreams before, but nothin' like this!

Her eyes then narrowed as she remembered that certain she-demon creature from her nightmare. 

Even in mah dreams, that Shimmer girl thinks she's all high and mighty and can talk trash like we're nothing! Well, pretty soon with Anon-a-Miss on our side, we can finally bring her down to a peg or two and my sister can ditch her forever!

With that determined thought and attitude, Apple Bloom laid back down to her pillow and tried to get herself back to sleep.

The Keyword being "tried".





The next day (for real this time), the morning routine at CHS appeared to be normal as always with the acceptation of some students were sniggering at the latest posts from Anon-a-Miss with their phones. Apple Bloom didn't paid them any mind as she was slowly walking down the hall like a zombie. There were dark rings around her eyes and were also bloodshot due to lack of sleep. She kept having that same nightmare over and over again. Apple Bloom didn't know why she kept having that same dream, but she hoped that it'll go away either in time or when she'll finally get rid of Shimmer.

"WHAT!?" 

Apple Bloom suddenly stopped in her tracks and she was now high alert. She knew whose voice belonged to and it sounded like something serious going on. She ran towards the source until she approached the corner of the hallway. When she peaked around the corner, she spotted Sunset and the Rainbooms in the middle of the hallway with Sunset looking perplexed at Applejack's phone while the others were either giving her angry of disappointed expressions. There were also a some students stood in the hallway watching them from the sidelines, not caring if they're late for class. Apple Bloom decided to blend in along with the students and watched as the scene unfolds between Sunset and the Rainbooms1.

"How did she get our pictures?" Sunset cried as she was looking through Applejack's phone.

"They're not our pictures Sunset," Rainbow Dash said coolly, causing Sunset to look up at her. "They're yours!" 

"All those pictures were taken by you!" Applejack added.

Apple Bloom realized which photos they were referring to and silently praised Sweetie Belle for a job well done. These pictures definitely incriminated Sunset as the culprit and get her sisters and her friends to ditch her for sure. She continued to watch with eager anticipation for the potential fallout between Sunset and the Rainbooms.

Sunset was taken aback from Applejack's revelation. "Wait, but– I've had my phone all this time! How did she–"

"Yeah, how did she!?" Applejack interrupted Shimmer as she went up to Shimmer's face with narrowed eyes and snatched her phone back from Sunset. "How did she know about my nickname? How did she get the pictures from your phone!" Applejack then pointed accusingly at Sunset, "It was you all along! You're Anon-a-Miss!"

"We trusted you Sunset!" Rainbow Dash said in her anger tone. "We thought you were our friend!"

"How could you do this? After all we've been though together!" Rarity said disappointingly, couldn't bring herself to look at Sunset.

"No wait, you guys– I didn't do this!" Sunset cried desperately. "I could never hurt any of you!"

"But you did!" Pinkie Pie accused in her upset tone. "You must've just been pretending to be our friend, when all along you were just after our secrets! You– you secret stealer!"

"No! NO! I don't know how she got this stuff, but it–it wasn't me!" Sunset pleaded to her friends who clearly did not believe her judging with their hands on their hips with the exception of Applejack who just crossed her arms and Fluttershy just standing there starring at Sunset. "I'm not this person!"

Apple Bloom was staring to feel uncomfortable as things went escalating real fast. She jumped when she saw Fluttershy, the normally quiet person in school, boldly took a few steps towards Sunset and pointed at her.

"No you're not!" Fluttershy exclaimed angrily with tears spilling from her eyes. "You're not the person we thought you were! You're not our friend!"

"No, I... I am! I promise!" Sunset cried.

What Apple Bloom saw next surprised her. As Sunset was pleading to her friends, tears were spilling from her eyes. Apple Bloom had seen Sunset cry before during her time as a bully but they were mostly fake just to get herself out of trouble. However, unlike those times, Apple Bloom noticed that Sunset's sadness was not only real, but her expression was also pained as well.

Pain for about to lose her friends. 

"This is it Sunset!" Applejack declared in her most hard tone Apple Bloom had ever heard as Applejack lowered her hat over her eyes. "You're not going to take advantage of us any more! I'm sorry, but you did this to us!" Applejack then turned away from Sunset. "Tell whatever secrets you want! But we don't have to listen!"

With that, she and the rest of the Rainbooms walked away from Sunset as Sunset collapsed to her knees and cries over the loss of her friends. 

While Sunset was crying in the middle of the hallway, Apple Bloom took in the sight of a sadden former bully. 

She did it. Apple Bloom and her friends actually did it! Their plan to get their sisters and the Rainbooms to ditch Sunset actually became a reality and no longer friends with her! Sunset finally got the punishment she deserved for all the bullying and making other lives miserable in the past. It was a victory for the CMC and for everyone else who was affected by Shimmer's tyranny.

...

But... why did she felt like that it wasn't?
> Intermission 4 (CMC)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apple Bloom bowed her head as she finished telling that particular day. The whole room was in heavy silence with the ashamed expressions on the CMC faces while the two Principals started at them with unreadable expressions. They didn't even have to say anything to them that what they had done was wrong, but also heartbreaking on Sunset's end. While the young pre-teens didn't see it then, but that was probably the worst thing they did which made them all regret deeply.

And at that point, that was their first of many regrets.

Finally, Principal Celestia cleared her throat. "So... I think it's obvious to me that at that moment, you knew deep down what you all did at that time was wrong."

Apple Bloom looked down, didn't say a word. 

Luna's eyes narrowed. "And yet, the three of you still continued to slander the students online? So why didn't you three keep up with this even though you all succeeded in your goals?"

Apple Bloom was still silent, not answering Luna's question.

"Well?" Luna said impatiently.

"It's... complicated," Apple Bloom finally answered.

Celestia raised her brow. "May I ask... how was it so complicated?"

There were heavy silence in the room until Sweetie Belle cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention.

"Let us explain..."
> Chapter 6: Aftermath Pt. 1 (Sweetie Belle)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been some time since the CMC successfully got the Rainbooms to ditch Sunset Shimmer, all thanks to their efforts as Anon-a-Miss. However, despite everything went according to plan, things were pretty grim. They noticed that their respective sisters/mentor were down on the dumps and miserable after they stopped hanging out with Sunset. At first, the CMC figured that they will get over Sunset after a couple days and that they will be themselves again in no time. But as many days go by, the Rainbooms attitudes never changed. In fact, they felt more depressed by the day, much to the CMC's concern. What really didn't help was that the Rainbooms continued to receive consent teasing and bullying from other students due to the posts from Anon-a-Miss.

Speaking of other students, Canterlot High itself wasn't doing so good either. With Anon-a-Miss targeting a bunch of new students every day, the school spirit was plummeting. Gone were the cheerfulness and friendly atmosphere of the school. Instead, the school was filled with nothing but hostile and despair. Whenever students passed by each other, they would either laughed at the victim or openly accused each other for exposing their secrets to Anon-a-Miss. Sometimes on a "good" day, the students would just glared at each other, not saying a word as they pass by. The only time that many students would unite together is give hate and hostile to Sunset Shimmer whenever she showed up. After witnessing the Rainbooms openly accused her as as Anon-a-Miss, almost everyone in school considered her guilty of the crime no matter how many times Sunset pleaded her innocence.

It was lunch time in the school's cafeteria. Instead of eating their meals, everyone yelled and argued with each other as always. Even with the school staff trying to gain control, the atmosphere was as hostile as ever. In the middle of all this chaos, the CMC were sitting at the tables just quietly, not touching their food. Neither of them had any appetite as they silently watched the events around them.

Sweetie Belle didn't even want to come in to school today, especially near her "friends". Unfortunately for her, her family forced her to go back after she skipped several days of school due to her "sickness", so she didn't have a choice. Meeting her friends again was... awkward for all of them. After finding out what happened with Sunset due to the photos of the sleepover that Sweetie posted online, she doesn't even know what to feel about that. Does it feel right to get what you wanted at the expense of someone else, even though she used to be a bully? She and Scootaloo still haven't talked to each other since their fight on the day of Rarity's sleepover and Sweetie couldn't even look at Apple Bloom in the eye, still disappointed in her for the way she behaved. Even when she took a glance at Apple Bloom, Apple Bloom had a blank expression on her face, not revealing her true feelings on the situation. While her expression remained unreadable, Sweetie could've sworn that there was some kind of struggle going on from the look of her eyes but she wasn't really sure. What really baffled Sweetie Belle was that both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo continued to keep up with this whole Anon-a-Miss act even after they succeed in their goal. 

"This is getting out of control," Sweetie Belle spoke up, alerting her two "friends". "Everyday in this school, things are getting worse and worse by the day– scratch that, a minute! Why do you two keep doing this? You both got what you wanted!"

Scootaloo gave Sweetie her angry glare. "You mean we? You're involved in this too!"

Sweetie glared back. "One: I'm talking to Apple Bloom, not you! And second, I was involved because you two made me do it! I never wanted to follow through your terrible plan to begin with!"

"Apple Bloom gave you an option, did she not?" Scootaloo argued. "You didn't even have to do it, you can simply choose to walk away as you claimed you would! But instead, you chose to steal pictures off of Sunset's phone and then chose to upload her pictures from their sleepover!"

"Choose my foot!" Sweetie Belle shouted before pointing accusingly at Apple Bloom. "Apple Bloom made me do it over the phone!"

"And yet you still chose to steal their pics before you called Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo countered as she pointed at Sweetie Belle. "Face it Sweetie Belle, you're just as guilty as us!"

"At least I didn't post my idol's test scores and then posted random hurtful things to other students online like a heartless coward like you!"

"COWARD!? WHY YOU–"

"GIRLS THAT'S ENOUGH!" Both Sweetie and Scootaloo immediately stopped arguing and turned to Apple Bloom, who spoke for the first time today. "Stop this right now! This whole thing is tearin' us apart! We can't tear each other's throat out, not while we still have a job to do!"

Sweetie stared at Apple Bloom in disbelief. "What the heck do you mean, 'we still have a job to do'!? You said we're doing this until we get or sisters to ditch Sunset! But you both keep doing this days after that happened. Why you keep going?"

Apple Bloom looked down and sighed. "Because... it's too soon to stop."

"What do ya mean!?" Sweetie demanded.

"If we were to stop now, people would think it's not Shimmer and then realize she's been framed," Apple Bloom explained. "So we have to keep everyone believing it was her by continuing to posting stuff online."

"But it's been more than a week since our sisters broke ties with Sunset!" Sweetie Belle argued. "Isn't that more than enough!?"

Apple Bloom sighed but still didn't look up. "We have to... keep up with the act in order for our plan to work."

"Bull hockey!" Sweetie Belle cried, banging their table with her fist. "Was 'keeping up with the act' really part of the plan... or did ya do this just to keep making Sunset suffer?"

Apple Bloom didn't answer, angering Sweetie Belle further. She than turn to her other "friend" with a hard look.

"What about you Scootaloo!? Didn't you think Sunset suffered enough as it is?"

Like Apple Bloom, she too didn't answer while not meeting Sweetie's eyes. Whether it was because she was still angry at Sweetie or too ashamed to admit it, Sweetie wasn't certain. What she was certain however, Sweetie felt very disappointed in them.

"...I can't believe you two!" Sweetie shouted as she stood up and grabbed her things.

"HEY! Where you going!?" Scootaloo demanded.

Sweetie Belle gave Scootaloo her angry glare. "Anywhere than here... away from you two!"

With that, Sweetie turned and walked away from her table and out of the cafeteria without looking back.





Sweetie Belle seethed as she was walking down the hallway, angry from her "friends'" behaviors and how they were handling this situation. I can't believe this! Even after we get our sisters to ditch Sunset and it still wasn't enough!? I felt terrible enough as it is, but them!? How can they be so heartless! Don't they realized what they're doing is making things worse then they are already!? I just... I just can't even–

Her thought's were suddenly interrupted when she felt someone bumped into her and rushed pass her without an apology. Sweetie turned to give someone a piece of her mind for being so rude, but stopped herself when she realized who it was.

"R-Rarity?" Sweetie uttered.

While she can only see her back, it was indeed Rarity who walked passed her. She was dressed in a pink trench coat with a deep pink belt around her waist and a large pink hat on her head. Ever since the pictures of Rarity and her friends wearing her badly designed clothes from her closet of shame online, Rarity has been a laughing stock of the entire school. Everyday, Rarity tried to wear different outfits to disguised herself in hopes that she won't be noticed. Unfortunately, that never worked as it only brings more attention upon herself for more teasing from other students. Today was no different as a group of students walked passed Sweetie Belle, while their main focus was on Rarity, heckling her the whole way behind her back.

"Hey Rarity? Where did you get that outfit? Was that from your famous closet of shame?"

"If you were that desperate to sell those outfits, try selling those to the circus!"

"In fact, the way you and your friends dressed and acted at your slumber party... you all belonged at the circus!"

As the students continued to laugh mockingly at Rarity, Sweetie saw Rarity tried to raised her collar up, hiding herself further. Once they disappeared around the corner, Sweetie Belle gritted her teeth and clenched her fist tightly in anger. She hated those jerks for taunting her sister everyday ever since those pictures were up on the web. She hated to see her sister put on a different disguise everyday to hide herself from her tormentors, even though they never really work. Worse of all, she hated herself for causing all of this in the first place.

No way they can laugh at my sister and get away with it! Sweetie thought angrily with a growl.

She quickly took out her phone and started to log in as Anon-a-Miss. She knew the names of these students and was about to give them the humiliation of their lifetime. Once she logged in, she began to type a message on the site so she can post them for all to see. But just before she hit the 'Submit' button, she stopped, slowly realizing what she was about to do.

...what am I doing She thought as she gripped her phone tighter. What does this accomplish of posting something embarrassing about them? Sure, I get back at those creeps for bullying Rarity, but then what? Then someone else will taunt Rarity in their place or they'll blame Sunset. I mean... I don't want her to get in trouble with other students. I just want everyone who is a bully to leave my sister alone... even though she never paid any attention to me. 

Sweetie frowned when she realized that she contradict herself. I mean... she was but... aside from spending time with my sister too much, Sunset didn't do anything bad to her...now I mean. And... she didn't humiliate her like she used to back then than how those jerks are humiliating her now after I... posted those pictures of... her. 

Her eyes widened and her pupils shrunk when something disturbing came to her that she never thought of until now. Usually someone going out of their way to humiliating someone in public makes them a bully. Does... this make me a bully too... even though I'm hiding... behind the screen?

"Sweetie Belle?"

"GAH!"

Sweetie Belle jumped from a sudden voice from behind her. She quickly turned around and realized that the voice belonged to none other than Silver Spoon, another former bully, turned friend and Diamond Tiara's best friend. She had gray hair with a white stripe. She wore purple shirt with white collars, magenta skirt, and purple boots. She was also wearing her light blue pearls around her neck and wrists, her blue glasses over her face and her signature "silver spoon" necklace around her neck.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" said Silver Spoon. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh no it was okay!" Sweetie Belle assured quickly, while trying to calm herself. "I was just reading a, uh... a scary fanfiction." She then cleared her throat. "A-anyway, what's up Silver Spoon?"

Silver Spoon looked away with a frown on her face. "Oh well... I just taking a walk around the school... just to think."

Sweetie Belle titled her head. "To think? About what?"

At first, Silver Spoon didn't respond as all. She was only standing there with a faraway look on her face. Just as Sweetie was about to call her again, Silver Spoon let out a long sigh before facing Sweetie.

"Sweetie... I know we just become friends, but may I ask you a... personal question?"

"Um... yeah, sure," Sweetie slowly responded, not sure where this would lead. "What is it?"

Silver Spoon sighed again before giving Sweetie her serious expression. "Do you and your best friends ever fight each other a lot?

Sweetie Belle raised her eyebrow, not expecting this question. "Well... yeah, we fought sometimes. We don't always agree with each other and get on each other's nerves, but because we have a strong bond, we made up just as quickly and still on each others side."

Silver Spoon sighed. "Let me rephrase that. Do you ever have a bad fight with your friends so badly, that you're mad at them for days?"

Sweetie was stumped. This was not the kind of question she was expecting. She was going to respond that it never happen to her or her friends until she realize this had happened to them for the past week and a half. Ever since Anon-a-Miss was created, she felt her whole group was slowly tearing each other apart. The only exception so far was her fight with Scootaloo and the way Apple Bloom was using her many days back. Her relationship with them have been strained since then, but there was no reason of telling Silver Spoon any of that, even if she wasn't her bully anymore.

Before she could respond Silver spoke again with a sudden darken mood. "And have you ever felt so mad at them... that you did something so horrible that you not only hurt them, but you may also be losing them in the process?"

Sweetie was taken back from Silver's kind of question. Before she could come up with an answer, Silver spoke up hastily.

"Nevermind... sorry to bother you."

Silver was about to walk away but Sweetie stopped her. "Silver... did you and Diamond... had a bad argument?"

Silver paused for a moment before she turned her back on Sweetie.

"...that's nothing for you to be concerned about," she uttered emotionlessly before leaving a very concerned Sweetie behind.





Sometime later, Sweetie Belle was walking down the hallway with books in her arms as she made her way to next class. She still couldn't help but think about her earlier encounter with Silver Spoon. Obliviously, something's going on between her and Diamond Tiara. The way Silver asked her a question, suggests that the two of them were having a potential fall out. Was it because of Anon-a-Miss? Was it because of her?

"Did anyone hear anything from Soarin?"

Sweetie froze in place at someone mentioning their first victim outside of the Rainbooms. Sweetie slowly looked over and spotted two teenaged boys, hanging out by the lockers with solemn expressions. One was an athlete named Curly Winds. He had a curly blue hair, a t-shirt with a white and red jacket over it with a tornado emblem on its side and jeans. The other was Flash Sentry, a popular cool guy of the school and leader of his own band, the Flash Drives. He also had blue hair and was wearing his trademark t-shirt with a blue shield and a lightning bolt emblem on it, a black jacket with red and white stripe and jeans. 

"Naw man, I heard nothing from him," said Flash as he shook his head. "What about you? Didn't you talk to him all the time?"

"Usually I did," said Curly with a look of concern. "But ever since Anon-a-Miss posted something about him, he haven't shown up in school since. I tried texting him but he never responded. This just made me worried about him."

Flash sighed. "Yeah, I wouldn't show my face here again either if someone posted about me." 

Sweetie Belle winced as she was eavesdropping them. She silently cursed at both Scootaloo and herself for letting this happened. She felt awful for humiliated Soarin and chased him away and she hoped that he's okay.

Suddenly, she along with the two boys heard someone crying from down the halls. Sweetie turned towards the source and her heart dropped at the sight of who it was.

No!

The one who was crying was a blonde teen girl with two misaligned yellow eyes. Sweetie knew this girl too well. Next to Fluttershy, she's one of the kindest person in school with a bubbly personality and a love for muffins. She is also very clumsy and caused some unintentional mishaps like accidentally blew up the science lab by mixing the wrong chemistry or let the sports balls overrun the gym after accidentally broke the storage shelves. But despite those mishaps, she would always apologized with a sheepish grin and then continued her day without a care in the world. However, only two things would bother that girl deeply; making people upset because of her and most importantly, her eyes.

It is a common knowledge in school about this person's eyes, yet no one knew the origin about them except for her closest friends. Some say she was in an accident, resulting her eyes to become permanently misaligned. Others say that she was simply born with them. Whatever the reason, her eyes is a sensitive topic to her and no one dared to bring that up. But that wouldn't stop some bullies for teasing about them or her personality. Judging from the state this girl was in now, Sweetie had a sinking suspicion that whatever happened to her now, may be ten times worse.

The blonde girl ran past Sweetie and ran into Flash's chest, sobbing into his chest. Flash held the girl's shoulders while looking at her with great concern.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"...no." She croaked as she looked up at him while tears were running down her cheeks. "Ever since that post about me... everywhere I go... everyone was making fun of me. They've mocked eyes... telling me I'm worthless... and calling me names like "stupid", "idiot" and... and..."

Unable to speak further, the blonde girl buried her face into Flash's shirt and sobbed loudly. Feeling great pity for his friend, he gently hugged around the girl while trying to comfort her.

Oh no... Scoots.... what did you do?

Sweetie continued to watch the sad scene, feeling awful for the poor girl. While she felt terrible enough that they had hurt other people just to pin Sunset, but to see someone else in person, aside from her own sister, was too much. The guilt was really eating her, as if there was something was holding on to her heart in a very tight grip, threatening to break it at any moment. 

Just when Sweetie was about to shed a tear herself, she was startled when Curly banged hard on his locker in anger.

"Sunset Shimmer!" He growled with contempt. "That girl had crossed the line this time! She better prayed that I don't run into her! Otherwise... she will deal with me for hurting my friends!"

Sweetie watched on horror as the gravity of the situation hits her like a locomotive. She and her friends never took in account that the other students will come to harm Sunset for revenge due to their actions. While she admitted that she wanted Sunset to be away from her sister, but she never wanted Sunset to get hurt at all, especially because of them. She wanted to tell the guy not to hurt Sunset and that she was not to blame, but she was scared that if she does so, he will come after her instead. She really didn't know what to do.

Luckily, Flash spoke up before Sweetie could come up with something.

"Hold on man! I don't want you to go around and hurt someone!" Flash said hastily. "Besides... Sunset could be innocent!"

Sweetie widened her eyes, surprised from Flash's words, while Curly starred at him in disbelief. 

"Are you serious? This Anon-a-Miss has Sunset's name all over it! Her profile picture and colors are on the site for pete's sake!"

"Exactly!"

Curly blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

"Don't you think it's odd that a silhouette image of her and her color scheme was used on Anon-a-Miss' profile?" Flash pointed out. "She may be a bad girl back then, but she certainly wasn't stupid. While she almost used similar tactics like this, but the difference between then and now was despite that we all knew it was her, Sunset was able to hid anything that leads to her. But this website... it has everything Sunset all over it. If you ask me, I think she was being framed... while someone else was pulling the strings."

Curly stared at Flash with a skeptic look. "But how can you be sure she's not the one behind it? What if she was just putting on an act just like how she was using you just to get popular?"

Flash sighed as he patted the crying girl's head. "Look... I know that we... had a history and that she had done some terrible things before. But I know Sunset Shimmer! She would never do something as extreme as this! Besides, I've seen her so happy after she befriended the Rainbooms! Unlike how she was pretending to be happy with me when we dated, her happiness with them were genuine! So what was her gain to suddenly throw the very thing that made her so happy away and have the whole school hate her? If you ask me... I think someone who had a grudge against Sunset was the one who did it!"

"I...sniff...agree," the misaligned girl spoke up, surprising the two teenaged boys. She slowly looked up and faced Curly with red tear-filled eyes.

"I seen how she tried to make up for everything she did... a-and that she really wanted to change. She...sniff... really was sorry and even acted more kinder than she used to be. Even to me." She paused for a brief moment with a few sniffs. "But the things that Anon-a-Miss posted... those are too cruel to be her even back when she was a bully."

While Curly felt sympathetic for his friend, he was still a little skeptical about Sunset even after the blonde girl vouched for her. He let out a long sigh before looking at Flash.

"Okay... let's say that I buy that Sunset Shimmer was actually framed. But do you have any proof that it could be someone else? And do you know who is out to get Shimmer, considering that almost the entire school have a grudge against her?"

Flash did not answer right away as he was in a deep thought. Even the misaligned girl had a troubled expression on her face from Curly's question. After a long minute of silence, Flash sighed with a defeated look.

"No... I don't have any proof that it was a different person, nor do I have any idea who it was..." said Flash before giving Curly a hard look. "But if someone really was framing Sunset, then whoever this person was should be ashamed of themselves! The person who was doing these things right now is more of a bully than Sunset Shimmer ever was during her reign."

THUMP

The teens were surprised from the sudden loud sound as if someone dropped something. They all turned to see Sweetie Belle, who had just dropped her books, with a thousand yard stare. Before either of them spoke up to her, Sweetie snapped out of it.

"I... I'm so sorry!" she said guilty as she quickly gathered her things and ran away from them. "I'M SORRY!"

She heard them trying to call out for her, but she ignored them as she continue to ran down the hall. Some people were shouting at her after she bumped into them, but Sweetie doesn't care, she just wanted to get away. She eventually ran to the far side of the school with no students around the area. When she was sure that no one followed her, Sweetie leaned against one of the lockers before she slowly slid down to the floor, burying into her knees.

What she had just seen and heard made her feel lower than dirt. It was bad enough that she saw her sister and Sunset suffering from her own actions, but seeing an innocent bystander in person who also got hurt from her actions, made her feel ten times lower than before. But the worse of all, were hearing those words from Flash in regards to Anon-a-Miss as he defended Sunset Shimmer.

"Whoever this person was should be ashamed of themselves. The person who was doing these things right now is more of a bully than Sunset Shimmer ever was during her reign."

As hurtful as they sound, but Sweetie knew... that it was the truth, no matter how she tried to justified her actions. Her vision began to blur from her tears before started sobbing, while she repeated the same words over and over again.

"I'm a bully... I'm a bully... I'm a bully!"
> Chapter 7: Aftermath Pt. 2 (Scootaloo)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Several Hours Earlier... 


"...I can't believe you two!" Sweetie shouted as she stood up and grabbed her things.

"HEY! Where you going!?" Scootaloo demanded.

Sweetie Belle gave Scootaloo her angry glare. "Anywhere than here... away from you two!"

As Sweetie rushed out of the cafeteria without looking back, Scootaloo sat down and let out a long sigh. When Sweetie Belle asked her that question if she thinks Sunset suffered enough as it is, Scootaloo couldn't answer. But it wasn't because Scootaloo thinks that Sunset should suffer some more. In fact, like Sweetie Belle, she actually felt... bad for doing this to Sunset, but she never wanted to admit it.

Granted, she didn't felt that at first, believing that whatever happened to Sunset was because she deserved it. But as the days go by and seeing Sunset looked more and more miserable from the hallway, Scootaloo was starting to feel guilty and realizing what they were doing was wrong. It didn't help her guilt further as she witnessed many open hostility against Sunset from other students due to the messages that Scootaloo herself posted. She felt even worse as she saw her sister figure who looked just as miserable due to all the torment from others. Quite frankly, she wanted to stopped these postings a long time ago, especially after seeing so many people suffered due to her actions. But there was one major road block that prevented her to do so.

Their followers.

Once news broke out that the Rainbooms ditched Sunset, Scootaloo received more dirty secrets than ever in their Anon-a-Miss' email, especially if it was used against Sunset. However, each new messages Scootaloo received was worse than the other to the point that she wasn't even comfortable to posting them for all to see. If she refused them, she'll get a flood of repeated emails of people either demanding or harassing her until they get her to post the messages. Even if she decided not to log into the email, the new email notifications kept going on almost every five minutes to the point that it nearly made Scootaloo insane.

The worse one was from yesterday when she received a message from her "fan", who followed her ever since she posted about Soarin many days back, wanting her to post something about a CHS student as a "request". This particular student was that certain clumsy blonde student with misaligned eyes, who would never harm a fly. Scootaloo couldn't believe that someone would write something so cruel about this person, especially about someone who is just as sensitive as Fluttershy. Granted, she did post a video of Fluttershy badly singing a song from Rarity's slumber party (which she felt bad about it afterwords), but that was nothing compared to how this so-call "fan" wanted to mock that poor girl's eyes. Naturally, Scootaloo refused this post it at first and even told this user that she won't use it. But when her "fan" responded that he'll find her personally so they can have a better "understanding", Scootaloo was freaked out.

What's worse was that her "fan" believed that Anon-a-Miss was Sunset!

Even though that threat wasn't directly at Scootaloo, but it scared her the way this person said it and that Sunset will get hurt if she doesn't post that message. She wanted to get back at Sunset for taking her sister away, but she never wanted to go as far as getting Sunset hurt because of it. She was stuck for a while, forcing to decide between one of the other while her "fan" impatiently demanded to do it. In the end, Scootaloo posted the message anyway so that Sunset will be spared from harm, while silently begged that muffin loving girl to forgive her.

Scootaloo couldn't even sleep that night due to her guilt and spent the whole night thinking of what led them to that point. She wondered if posting everyone's secrets in school was worth the efforts of putting Sunset in her place. What confused her the most was the fact that she felt guilty for someone who was once a bully. Was she fooled so easily with Sunset's act or was she so wrong about doing things out of justice?

As much as she wanted to tell Sweetie that she agreed with her about Sunset suffered, she couldn't answer because she was still confused with the situation and that she was still a little mad at Sweetie. Even if Scootaloo did admit that what they were doing was wrong, she knew that Sweetie would just scold her afterwards and say things like, "I told you so". Not wanting to deal with it, and admitting the truth, Scootaloo just kept her mouth shut, only to drive a wedge further between her and Sweetie Belle.

She silently cursed herself for being so stubborn and drove her friend away like that.

"Apple Bloom," Scootaloo spoke up quietly. "Do you think that maybe... we should cut back on posting stuff from our followers? I think we done more than enough to convince everyone that it was Sunset."

Apple Bloom looked up towards her with a sharp gaze. "No. It is never enough! We shall keep going as we planned. Use whatever they sent ya!"

Scootaloo eyes widened, surprised how cold her friend sounded to her. "But Apple Bloom, some of the things they want us to post was... too extreme that I'm not comfortable to post."

Apple Bloom raised her brow. "So? You could just skip them."

"I did... but they still send me messages, demanding to post them," said Scootaloo.

"Then just altered them before posting them," Apple Bloom suggested nonchalantly.

Scootaloo shook her head. "I did that too, but that only made them more angry and demand to post them exactly how they sent them! I'm too scared to say no!"

Apple Bloom scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Look, just either altered the messages like you did or ignore them, but don't you ever say "no" to them!"

"But–"

"Just do it!" Apple Bloom ordered as she gathered her things. "Now Ah gotta go!"

Apple Bloom walked away from their table and left the cafeteria, leaving Scootaloo alone with a worried frown.

Why do I get the feeling that this going to get worse?





Sometime after lunch, Scootaloo went to the library to hang out during her free period. Normally, she wouldn't even dream of hanging out in the library and would rather hang with her friends, but due to circumstances and have no where to go, she decided to come here anyway just to think. While Apple Bloom ordered her to continue with the posts, she was still having some doubts. She didn't want to hurt Sunset or anyone else anymore than they already did, but at the same time, she still didn't want Sunset to get off easily after everything she had done. But even with that ideal, her reasoning gets weaker and weaker by the day. Even if Scootaloo decided to stop, she'll only ended up making their followers angry and making things worse for Sunset. She really didn't know what to do and that she have no one to turn to.

Not even her best friends.

"Lyra, wait!"

Scootaloo turned from where she was sitting to see two teenaged girls. One with a minty hair was trying to walk away with a angry look while the other with a blue and pink hair was chasing after her with a pleading expression.

"I'm not talking to you Bon Bon!" said Lyra with her nose up.

"Lyra, you have to believe me!" Bon Bon cried. "I would never revealed your secrets to anyone!"

Lyra turned her head at her with narrowed eyes. "Oh yeah? Then explain to me how the dog incident from way back in kindergarten got on that site!? You were the only one I know who knew that!"

Bon Bon shook her head. "I don't know, I swear!"

Lyra just scoffed and walked away again. "Sure you don't! Consider our friendship over!"

Bon Bon now on the verge of tears and chased after her again. "Lyra, please!"

Scootaloo felt her heart heavy as she watched the crying girl chased after her friend. She remembered receiving a message from one user who overheard their conversation and wanted her to post it. As a result, Lyra was a laughing stock like all the others. But what she didn't expect was that she heard that Lyra accused her best friend of betraying her and broke off with her as a result. She couldn't help but being felt responsible for ruining a friendship that she had caused.

Scootaloo then shifted her eyes to another section of the library and spotted another pair of teenaged girls, sitting near the window at the corner of the library with miserable looks. One girl has a raven hair with a white shirt, purple vest, pink skirt and her signature pink bow-tie. And the other has a spiky blue hair, white coat and skirt, long purple pants and her signature purple sunglasses over her eyes.

"I don't know what to do Vinyl!" The raven haired girl moaned sadly. "Thanks to that horrid Anon-a-Miss, our secret is out! Not only this would affect my social life, but my personal life as well! How am I going to explain this to my parents!? What if they want to separate us!" She then teared up. "What if they decided to... disown me?"

The blue-haired girl with purple sunglasses looked down sadly, as if she was to blame for ruining her girlfriend's life. The raven haired-girl noticed this and she gently grasped her hand while giving her a tiny smile.

"Oh don't blame yourself love, this isn't your fault. We'll figure something out," she assured, comforting to her girlfriend and herself.

Scootaloo frowned deeply. She remembered receiving info about that secret couple from some guy who wanted to expose them as a way to get back at them out of jealously and for being rejected from that raven haired girl. Scootaloo thought it was pathetic of that guy who would do that to them out of jealousy. But then she remembered that she practically did the exact same thing against Sunset.

Does that mean that she's pathetic too?

"Hey Great and Powerful Trixie, are you still afraid of the dark?"

Scootaloo turned towards the direction of an obnoxious voice coming from another section of the library. What she saw this time was three teenaged boys, mocking at that certain silver haired magician girl with an angered and embarrassed expression.

"You could borrow my baby sister's nightlight if you wanted!" One of the boys teased in his baby-like voice, leading the other two boys to laugh.

"S-shut up!" Trixie hollered angrily. "Don't you dare mock Trixie! At least I don't watch cartoons which were made for little girls!"

Trixie stopped talking as soon as she heard a loud whimper from behind him. When she turned around, she realized in horror that the one behind her was none other than Bulk Biceps with a hurt expression and tears in his eyes. He then let out a loud sob as he quickly turned and ran out of the library.

"Oh... shoot! Bulk Biceps wait!" Trixie cried as she chased after him. "Trixie didn't mean that!"

Scootaloo cringed at the sight. While she somewhat felt bad about Trixie (even though she is a jerk to Rainbow Dash and the Rainbooms), she felt terrible for hurting Bulk Biceps. While he looked intimidating with those large muscle of his, he was actually nice and a sensitive guy. He was so nice, everyone called him the gentle giant of the school. Scootaloo never understood why would anyone wanted to hurt such a gentle guy like Bulk. Was it because someone was jealous of his muscles? Who knows? 

Scoots felt more and more guilty as she watched more victims she used for the site. It was bad enough to think about that post she did about that girl from yesterday, but seeing all the other students she hurt in person? That felt worse. She thought that people will recover in time after she posted their silly embarrassing stuff online. But now... she wasn't so sure anymore.

"Hey! Who are ya laughing at?"

Scootaloo was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a familiar voice she knew too well. When she turned towards the source, it was indeed confirmed to her that the voice belonged to her sister figure and mentor, Rainbow Dash. However, she was by the library's computers with a group of students, laughing hysterically as if they just heard a funny joke.

"Why you of course Rainbow Dash!" one of them snickered.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes at that student. "Oh yeah? What about me that's so funny?"

"Your grades!" Another student replied before breaking into another round of laughter.

Determined to see for herself, Rainbow shoved the kid to the side and looked into the monitor. When she did, her eyes widened in shook and disbelief.

"W-what the!? How..."

Her face becomes red and growled in anger before she abruptly turned and walked away, ignoring the roars of laughter from behind her. During the commotion, Scootaloo got up from her table and stealthy walked closer to them and took a peak at the monitor, only to cringe when she saw what was on screen. It was a photo of Rainbow's bad grade on her science paper that Scootaloo herself took from Rainbow's gym locker, now on screen for all to see. She felt a huge amount of regret for doing this to her own mentor and now Rainbow was paying the price.

Seeing that Rainbow was about to exit the library, Scootaloo took off after her. As much as it scared her to see how angry Rainbow looked, she wanted to check up on her to see if she's okay, even though she knew Rainbow was anything but okay. Once she caught up with Rainbow from the hallway, Scootaloo spoke up to her.

"Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow growled and turned towards her aggressively. "If you got something to say to me, then say–" Rainbow then immediately calmed down and relaxed somewhat when she realize that it was Scootaloo. "OH! It's just just you Scoots!"

Scootaloo swallowed with a nervous expression. "Um... is everything okay Rainbow Dash?" she asked timidly.

Rainbow's expression became hard. "Well let's see... I've been a laughing stock all day because I just found out that my grade from my science paper was posted online for everyone to see... WHAT DO YOU THINK I FEEL!? DO I LOOK OKAY TO YOU!?"

Scootaloo recoiled and shook in fright from Rainbow's raw anger. Rainbow realized what she just did and immediate calmed herself and gave Scootaloo her apologetic expression.

"I... I'm sorry Scoots," Rainbow sighed regrettably. "I didn't mean to take it out on you. It has been stressful for me with everything that happened for the past week and a half. Ever since Applejack's "nickname" was posted online and then broke off our friendship with Sunset... things went from bad to worse. I thought it was just me and my friends who are the only victims from all of this, but now... almost everyone in school become targets! Even the ones who were mocking at us were now demanding to bring Anon-a-Miss to justice after she posted stuff about them!" She then scoffed. "Bunch of hypocrites!"

Scootaloo nodded in understanding while keeping her guilt in check. "It's just a bad grade on paper," said Scootaloo, trying to cheer up her hero. "Who cares what they think! You're Rainbow Dash! I'm sure you can recover from this!"

While her words were meant to be encouraging and to lift Rainbow's spirits, it only did an opposite effect as Rainbow looked down somberly and let out a deep sigh.

"Kid... while I appreciate that you think I'm awesome... I don't know if I'll ever recovered from this! People will now treat me differently like I was an idiot for not spelling some dumb word wrong like Boo... Boy...ya..."

"Buoyancy?"

Rainbow had an annoyed look for a moment before she sighed again with a defeated expression. "Yeah... that! Not to mention... this could affect my sporting career if they knew that I failed at that science paper!"

Scootaloo's eyes were as wide as saucers. "You mean... they really wouldn't let you be a part of any team just because a bad grade is up online?"

"You'll be surprised kid," said Rainbow before she turned away with narrowed eyes. "I hope Sunset is proud of herself for ruining everyone's lives!"

Scootaloo winced at that statement, even though it wasn't meant directly at her. She knew that Rainbow will be the target of teasing the moment she posted Rainbow's grades online, but she never considered that this could potentially blew Rainbow's chance of joining any future teams for both in and outside of school. If Rainbow's sports career is ruined forever because of her, Scootaloo would never forgive herself. She was unsure now more than ever if what she did really was worth it, even if it was for justice.

"Um... Rainbow? Can I ask you... a hypothetical question?" Scootaloo asked.

Rainbow turned back towards her, giving Scootaloo her full attention. "Uh, okay. What is it?"

Scootaloo was a little hesitant but decided to push on anyway. "Um... let's just say... you knew someone was a bully for a few years and then turned it around to try to be the "good guy". And yet... you still don't think that this person... didn't get enough punishment for everything they did. So you decided to do some... bad things and then pin the blame on this person so they get their just deserts. Was that considered... justice?"

Rainbow stared at Scootaloo with a stunned expression. "Just where did you get that idea from Scoots?"

"I... picked that up from show I watched once," Scootaloo lied, trying to dodge the question.

Rainbow just stood there, starring at Scootaloo. Scootaloo had a feeling that Rainbow didn't fully believe her lie, but at least she didn't comment about it. After a full minute, Rainbow shook her head. 

"Oooookay... maybe you should stop watching that show, I think it gave you the wrong idea about justice."

Scootaloo blinked. "What do you mean?"

"That wasn't justice, it was petty revenge! There's nothing justice about ruining someone's life, whether that person was bad or not!"

Scootaloo eyes widened in surprise. "It... it wasn't?"

"Of course not!" Rainbow replied. "In fact, it's even worse to do that to a person who was trying to turn over a new leaf even after they got their proper punishment. All that really accomplished was that you'll just stoop to their level, maybe even lower than their level for doing that! And it also wouldn't be fair to give that person a chance to reform if they're accused of the things they didn't do."

"It won't?"

Rainbow shook her head. "No, it wouldn't. Let's say... your friend Diamond Tiara for example. I bet she was trying to make up the things she did to you three, right?" 

Scootaloo nodded.

"I thought so," said Rainbow. "Now let's say while she tried to turn over a new leaf, Snips and Snails decided to frame her before she gets a chance out of spite. Do you think that was fair for her?"

Scootaloo furrowed her brow in thought. Sweetie Belle pointed that fact out before, but both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom shot that idea down, believing that both Sunset and Diamond aren't the same. But now, with a much clearer thought, Scootaloo realized they really are actually similar in a way.

She remembered that both Diamond and Silver Spoon had been bullies to them since way back in kindergarten. Up until her first year in high school, Scootaloo always thought of them, especially Diamond, as a mean person without a heart. But when they found out about her home life, Scootaloo realized that she was just a lonely girl who was greatly pressured from her family, especially from her mother. After the CMC helped Diamond to be the better person, Diamond's demeanor changed drastically and wanted to start over with them.

At first, Scootaloo wasn't sure what to think. Part of her was a little skeptical that Diamond could change into a much nicer person so quickly, believing that it could be another one of Diamond's tricks. But as time goes by, she realized that Diamond really meant it and now considered her as her friend.

Of course, there were some tough moments when some students gave Diamond and Silver Spoon a hard time out of spite, despite their efforts to show them that they truely changed. And when she saw the miserable expressions on their faces afterwards, that was when Scootaloo felt bad for them the most, something she never thought would happen. Her thoughts then changed from Diamond Tiara, to Sunset Shimmer, with that same miserable expression as Diamond. Like Apple Bloom, she pretty much gave Sunset the cold shoulder when even she sees her, believing that a bully like her doesn't deserve another chance. But after realizing that she pretty much gave Diamond a chance who pretty much bullied her longer than anyone, was that really fair of Sunset to not give her the same chance?

"....no... it wasn't," she admitted with a somber sigh before looking up at her idol. "But how can you be sure that this person is truly reformed?"

"You don't," Rainbow replied. "But that's the whole point of giving someone a second chance. If they are truly sorry, they have to work hard for it and earned people's trust. Sunset, for example, worked hard everyday to earn trust not just from me and my friends, but to everyone at school. It was a difficult challenge for her, especially from some students who still had a grudge against her and tried to sabotage her reformation."

Scootaloo eyes widened in shock. "Really!? There were other people who tried to ruined Sunset's chance?" Like me?

Rainbow nodded. "Oh yeah. I remembered during the first week of helping Sunset get back on her feet after the Fall Formal. Rarity tried to do a fashion show as a fundraiser to raise the funds for repairing the school's entrance and we all helped out, including Sunset as her way to start redeeming herself. Things were well at first, but then... there were nasty rumors going around about Sunset, which made people not want to come to the show because of it!"

Scootaloo remembered that event all too well. While she is not a fashion person, but she originally decided to go to that show as a favor from Sweetie Belle to help support her sister. But when she heard that Sunset was there and how she supposedly sabotaging the fundraiser, Scootaloo immediately changed her mind and decided not to go, only to be forced to come along anyway by Sweetie Belle, much to Scootaloo's annoyance. She really thought that Sunset put on some kind of an act, but after hearing this from her idol, was she wrong this whole time?

"Were... any of these rumors about Sunset at the time was true?" Scootaloo asked.

"Oh course it's not true!" Rainbow answered. "You should never believe any of rumors you hear kid unless you heard it from a reliable source. Anyway, as it turned out, it was Trixie who spread those rumors, all because she was jealous that no one is interested to come to her stupid magic shows and still have a grudge against Sunset. Granted, we have beef with Trixie for as long as I can remember, but what she did that day... that was just downright despicable! No one should go out of their way to ruin another person's life all just for jealousy and grudge."

"...Y-yeah... they shouldn't," Scootaloo said timidly, even though she pretty much did just that.

At that moment, Scootaloo felt stupid and ashamed of her actions. The things that she did that she thought was justified was anything but justified. She helped humiliate everyone at school, made her idol miserable and put her sporting career on the line, and made an innocent girl who she thought was a irredeemable bully suffer, all because of her own grudge and pettiness and wanted to have her idol to notice her again.

She really wanted to go to some hole somewhere and hide right about now.

"Well... it doesn't matter now since Sunset has showed us her true colors," Rainbow said bitterly with a huff. "I don't even think I could be loyal to her if she goes that far and used my grade papers against me and come after my friends!" Her angry demeanor suddenly changed to somber and looked down with a defeated sigh. "But the worst thing of all... even after we all thought we did the right thing of breaking ties with Sunset... I couldn't help but feel like that a part of me thinks I just made a terrible mistake of accusing her like that and then left her in the dust without giving her a chance."

Scootaloo was now feeling more guilty after hearing that, especially of how right Rainbow was but she managed to keep herself composed as she looked at her sister figure in the eye.

"Did you... truly think so Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow didn't answer for a long time until she finally let out a long sigh. 

"I don't even know anymore."





Later during the day, Scootaloo was heading to the next class with a somber expression, still thinking about her last encounter with Rainbow Dash. She had been berating herself over and over for doing something that she thought was justified this whole time was nothing more than an vicious attack on not only to someone that she unfairly judged, but to also nearly everyone in school who were caught in a crossfire. Not only that, they were pretty much attacking an innocent person who done nothing wrong aside from spending way too much time with Rainbow Dash. This just makes her situation more complicated than ever with all the messages she kept receiving from her so-call followers. If only she wasn't so stupid to encouraged everyone to send more dirt to her just to get back on someone for something so petty.

"I'm telling you Garble, I didn't do it!"

Scootaloo stopped walking and turned to see the commotion. Her eyes widened when she saw Sunset was being held up against the lockers by some student while some people in the crowd surrounded them. But it was not just any student, it was none other than Garble, one of the biggest and meanest guy in school. He had spiky orange hair, yellow piercing eyes and freckles on his face while wearing a black t-shirt with ripped sleeves, dragon logo on his chest and green camo pants with black boots.

He and his gang are another group of bullies who caused so much trouble in school and will mess with anyone who gets in their way. He was considered the number two worst bully in school until Sunset decided to change her ways. But unlike Sunset, he wasn't exactly the smartest person in school, but when it comes to his physical strength that's a whole nother story. No one wanted to stand up against him or dare enough to laugh at his face.

Until Anon-a-Miss posted a picture of him dancing around in his ballet outfit from a dancing studio downtown.

Since then, Garble became the laughingstock of the entire school. While the picture was hilarious sight to Scootaloo at the time before she posted it, but judging the look on Garble's face, she realized that she just made a huge mistake.

And Sunset was about to be the one to pay the price.

"Quit lying Shimmer!" Garble roared. "We all knew it was you! So you better own up to your deeds!"

"But I'm not lying!" Sunset cried desperately. "I'm not Anon-a-Miss! I know I was terrible in the past, but I'm not that person anymore! I would never hurt my friends or anyone else in that way!"

Garble snorted, clearly not believing her. "Fine! If you're not going to admit it, then I'll just have to make you confess!" 

"Yeah! Give her what for Garble!"

"Teach her a lesson!"

"She had it coming!"

"Put Anon-a-Miss in her place!"

"No please!" Sunset pleaded as she was looking around the crowd. "Someone help me!"

Scootaloo watched on in horror as many people kept encouraging Garble to deliver the "punishment" instead of helping Sunset, while Garble was preparing to deliver the landing blow to a defenseless Sunset.

"No one is going to save you Sunset," Garble said sinisterly as he raised his fist high into the air. "Not even your friends! Now it's time to pay the piper!"

Realizing that no one will come to help her and that she was truly alone, Sunset shut her eyes tightly and let out a single tear. 

Before Garble was about to land a single punch on Sunset's face, he was suddenly shoved aside, letting go of Sunset in the process. Garble's confusion was short lived when he saw a young girl with short purple hair stood in front of Sunset with her arms spread out, much to Sunset and the crowd's surprise.

"Back off!" Scootaloo shouted at him with a glare. "You leave Sunset Shimmer alone!"

Garble growled in disbelief. "Are you serious!? Why are you defending her? She's the cause of everything! Just stay out of my way you twerp!"

"No way!" Scootaloo responded as she stood her ground with a huge amount of courage she didn't know she had. "Even if she is Anon-a-Miss, roughing her up isn't the way solve this! You'll only end up regretting this for the rest of your life!"

Garble scoffed. "Fine then! First you, then her!"

Her courage suddenly left her as she heard the crowd cheered again and telling Garble to take them out. With a cruel smirk, Garble cracked his knuckles and raised his fist up again. With a gulp, Scootaloo shut her eyes tightly, waiting for the inevitable blow.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!?"

Everyone froze in place from the sudden loud angry voice. They all turned around and gasped when they saw the person who interrupted Garble was none other than Vice Principal Luna.

And she did not look happy!

Everyone just stood quietly with nervous faces as Luna made her way towards the tall boy, while Garble himself was sweating profusely at the sight of an angry Vice Principal.

"Gah... Vice Principal Luna!" Garble cried nervously as he quickly bring his fist down and stood up straight. "This– this isn't what it looks like! We were just... messing around! I wasn't going to do anything to them!"

Luna's eyes narrowed at the oversize delinquent. "Nice try. I saw you the moment you shoved Miss Shimmer against her locker and about to raise your hand on her as everyone else was egging you on. If it weren't for Miss Scootaloo, I would have intervened. And I also happen to witnessed you were about to lay harm on her too, despite that she is only a young underclassman!"

Garble gulped nervously, realizing that he just got himself caught like some kid who was in a middle of stuffing his hand in a cookie jar.

"But... but... she's Anon-a-Miss!" Garble defended desperately as he pointed at Sunset. "I was only doing that as a duty of a fellow classmate. So she must be punished, including those who was supporting her!"

Luna raised her eyebrow, unimpressed with Garble's terrible excuse. "Funny, when I last checked that website, weren't you one of Anon-a-Miss' supporters as a user named GarbleRulz221?"

Garble was stunned, slack-jawed that the Vice Principal knew all that info about him.

"And also, where's your proof then?" Luna pressed further. "There's a saying innocent until proven guilty, was it not? You can't just go around accusing people and deliver punishments until you get all the facts!" Before Garble could speak, Luna added, "The MyStable site does not count as the real fact! And even if it is her, it is not up to you or anyone else to decide how to punish her. We'll be the one to decide the proper punishment. Besides, she served her time from the Fall Formal and earned her redemption and became a better person." 

Luna then leaned close to Garble's face, making the teen tense up in fear. "Would coming after our students make you a better person, even if that person turned out to be innocent?" she challenged.

When she received no response from him, Luna leaned back and placed her hands on her hips with an angry expression.

"For that, you'll be serving in detention every day until the beginning of winter break, starting today! Now get to your class or else you will receive a much worse sentence!"

With a loud huff, Garble turned and walked away, grumbling and sulking the whole way. Luna then turned towards the crowd, causing all of them to wince from her very sharp gaze.

"That's goes for the rest of you too!" She said sternly, disappointed in her students from the way they were acting. "You should all be ashamed of yourselves! You should never let one student harm another whether they're guilty or not! Violence should not be tolerated in our school!"

Some of the students in the hallway felt ashamed for their actions, while some others were indifferent from Luna's scolding.

"I know you're all upset from this individual who called themselves "Anon-a-Miss" who posted your personal secrets online," she continued in her understanding tone. "But let me assure you that your Principal and I are on the case to track this person down as quick as we can and then we'll take care of this matter once we catch them." Her eyes then narrowed. "But if I see of hear another incident like this again, then I will personally make sure you will be spending time in detention until the day you graduate! Am I clear?"

The crowd mumbled in response, some out of fear and while some begrudgingly.

"Good! Now get to your classes at once!" Luna ordered.

Not wanting to be told twice, the crowd quickly dispersed, leaving Vice Principal Luna, Sunset and Scootaloo alone in the hallway. Once they're all gone, Vice Principal Luna let out a sigh and then turned towards the girls with a concerned and caring expression.

"Are you two alright?"

"We're fine Vice Principal Luna," said Sunset as she brushed her shirt.

"Yeah, thanks for saving us!" Scootaloo added enthusiastically. "For a moment there, I thought we're about to be creamed!"

"Glad I can be of assistance," said Luna with a small grin before turning to Sunset. "How you're holding up Sunset?"

"Oh the usual. Everyone glared at me, insulted me, practically hated me, the good stuff," Sunset said nonchalantly with a frown.

Luna frowned in concern. "You know, my offer still stands if you want to–"

"It's okay Vice Principal Luna. Really... I'll be fine," Sunset insisted while putting on a smile.

Luna just stared at Sunset for a moment before she let out a long sigh. "Very well Miss Shimmer," she conceded. "But please come to me if there's any trouble. And I promise that my sister and I will get to the bottom of this Anon-a-Miss. And when we find this person, they have a lot to answer for!"

Scootaloo cringed from Vice Principal Luna's declaration as she watched Luna walked away back to her office. While she was thankful that she stopped the fight and that Vice Principal stepped in before things start to escalate, she felt terrible now more than ever after witnessing Sunset nearly pummeled from another student, all because of her and her friends actions. It was one thing to help out make Sunset look bad to the school, but to make someone want to physically harm Sunset was the last thing Scootaloo wanted to happen.

"Hey, Scootaloo?" Sunset called out, snapping Scootaloo out if her thoughts. "Are you alright?"

"I should be asking you that!" Scootaloo responded. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"Oh don't worry about me. I've been through worse," Sunset reassured.

Unfortunately as soon as she said that, she suddenly grasped her right shoulder with a grimace while baring her teeth. Scootaloo noticed Sunset's actions, which made her felt even more concerned.

"Oh my gosh, he DID hurt you!" Scootaloo exclaimed. 

Scootaloo tried to run over to Sunset to help her, only for Sunset to stop her with her palm out towards her. "No no, this is nothing! I'm just a little sore a from earlier."

"...Earlier?" Scootaloo echoed.

Sunset quickly covered her mouth after realizing what she just revealed to the pre-teen, but the damage has already been done. Fearing for the worse, Scootaloo cautiously asked Sunset a certain question, even though she already knew the answer.

"Sunset... did... did other people... aside from Garble... attacked you?"

"...no," Sunset denied.

Scootaloo's eyes narrowed, clearly not buying Sunset's answer. Realizing that the young daredevil won't drop the subject without a truthful answer, Sunset let out a resigned sigh.

"I mean, they didn't attacked me like what he did. That was actually the worse of it... today at least. While everyone else either purposely bumped into me or shoved me aside, which is how my shoulder got so sore, I swear."

Scootaloo had a worried frown. "Why didn't you tell Vice Principal Luna about this?"

Sunset turned her head away from Scootaloo, avoiding the younger girl's gaze. "I just don't want to be a burden. Besides, she and Principal Celestia already have a lot on their plate in dealing with this Anon-a-Miss fiasco."

"Why can't you just go home?" Scootaloo asked.

"I still have classes to go to," Sunset answered.

"No, I mean go and stay home from school to avoid all of this!" Scootaloo clarified.

Sunset closed her eyes. "I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"It's... complicated," Sunset said vaguely before turning her head back to Scootaloo. "Now I have a question for you... why did you save me?"

Scootaloo was caught off guard from Sunset's question. Why did she save her? Just before this whole mess started, she wouldn't even blink in eye towards Sunset despite that she's changed and probably would've just walked away. But now... she couldn't even bring herself to ditch Sunset and let her suffer at the hands of Garble and an angry group of students.

Was it because she felt responsible for letting this happen?

Was it because she couldn't let an innocent person get hurt because of her?

Or was it because... she felt extreamly guilty... and that she couldn't live with herself if anything ever happened to Sunset?

"I... I can't just stand by and... let someone get hurt... it just wasn't right," Scootaloo finally answered while looking down.

"...so it wasn't because you believe I was innocent then?" Sunset said glumly.

Scootaloo was silent. Of course she knew Sunset was innocent. The guilty one was herself! She was the one who deserved to get beat up by Garble. But she couldn't. She was afraid of what Sunset would think of her if she told her the truth. Afraid of what Rainbow Dash would think of her if she found out. What the whole school would think of her when they found out! She was just... afraid to say anything, and then be alone and hated afterwords like how Rainbow and her friends did to Sunset after the CMC framed her.

Sweetie Belle was right. She really was a coward.

"It's alright Scootaloo... you don't have to say anything," Sunset sighed sadly as she placed her backpack over her shoulder. "Anyway, don't worry about me. I'll be alright. I went through the hardship once after the Fall Formal and I can do it again... even though my friends are not on my side this time."

As Sunset walked away with her head down, Scootaloo felt her heart heavy with guilt. She was no longer looking at Sunset as a former bully, she was now looking at her as a sad lonely girl with no friends and everyone hated her guts, all thanks to the CMC's efforts. It was at that moment, Scootaloo considered herself to be the worst person in school.

Even worse, than Sunset herself.

"Sunset!"

Sunset stopped and turned towards her with the same gloomy expression.

Scootaloo swallowed. "I..." 

She wanted to say something. She wanted to confess for what she did. She wanted to fix everything that the CMC had caused. Wanted to say that she was "sorry". 

But instead, she just sighed. "Please be careful."

Sunset simply nodded and then walked away, leaving Scootaloo alone in the hallway while silently berating herself for backing out.

Yep. Definitely a coward.





It was sometime later during the evening as Scootaloo and her two Aunts were having dinner at their dinning room. But Scootaloo didn't feel like eating as she was poking her dinner with her fork, while bearing a solemn expression. Her two Aunts noticed her and exchaged each other with concerned expressions. Finally, it was Holiday who decided to speak to Scootaloo.

"Everything okay kiddo? You didn't even touch your food."

Scootaloo sighed. "I'm... not very hungry Aunt Holiday."

"Tough day at school?' Lofty asked gently.

"...you could say that," Scootaloo responded.

Holiday then frowned. "It's about that Anon-a-Miss character on the web, wasn't it?"

Scootaloo widened her eyes in shock. "You heard about her?"

Holiday scoffed. "Of course! Principal Celestia notified us about it and they're under investigation as we speak. I don't know why they took so long, but I'm glad they're doing something about it!"

"It's not that easy dear," Lofty pointed out. "Tracking someone down from the internet was actually pretty difficult. It's like trying to find a specific fish out at sea." Lofty then frowned deeply. "What I'm wondering was why on earth would anyone be capable to cyber bully almost every student at that school?"

"Who knows," said Holiday with a shrug. "But if you ask me, maybe it was because of some kid who doesn't even know what's right and wrong and did it to bring her- or him- attention to themselves for all the wrong reasons! If you ask me, this person was nothing more than some spineless bully who hides behind the screen!" She then shook her head, making tsking sounds as she does so. "I feel sorry for that kid's parents if they ever found out! I'm just glad we raised Scootaloo right and that she wouldn't do such horrible acts like that!"

Scootaloo felt like she had just been pushed in the gut. While her Aunt doesn't know that it was her, Scootaloo felt like that her Aunt hated her now for doing something so terrible. And worse of all, her Aunt described her as a bully, a bully who used a MyStable account just to take out the bully.

Why does life have to be so ironic?

"May I be excused. I... have to do my homework," Scootaloo said in her depressed tone.

As her Aunts watched on in concern, Scootaloo immediately left the table and headed upstairs to her bedroom. As soon as she entered her room, she closed her door and locked it to avoid her Aunts coming in. She then sat by her desk and sighed deeply.

She silently recapped all the events that transpired today; she drove a wrench further between her and Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom acted a lot colder than usual, witnessed everyone who she humiliated now have their lives potentially ruined, realized how wrong she was about how justice works from her idol, stopped a huge bully from hurting Sunset, realized how wrong she was about Sunset after getting to know her a little, and now she just learned that her own Aunts described Anon-a-Miss as a bully without knowing that it was her.

She highly doubted that everything they done was worth it at this point.

Suddenly, she heard a 'ding' from her phone and she realized that it was another message for Anon-a-Miss. Scootaloo let out a tired sighed before she turned her chair towards her laptop and turned it on so she can log in to the email. Sure enough, it was another "request" from their follower to post something online and it was the same "fan" who got dirt on that girl with misaligned eyes. Scootaloo inwardly groaned and wondered what that creep wanted her to do now. As soon as she opened the message, her heart dropped.

There was an image of the same blonde hair girl with misaligned eyes and a goofy smile, but much more younger like she belonged in second grade. But she was not alone. In her arms was a tiny baby girl with a turf of blonde hair, wrapped around in a pink blanket. Sootaloo recognized that baby and knew who it was. That baby was the goofy girl's sister Dinky from her classes. Dinky is a very nice and polite girl and didn't have any hate bone in her body, not even towards Diamond Tiara when she bullied her at the time. But the image of the two sisters isn't what worried her. What really worried her was the building from the background with the sign that said "Canterlot Orphanage". What's even worse was the message she received from this monster who called themselves her "fan".




To Anon-a-Miss,

I dug some dirt on this freak and it turns out her so-called little sister was not really her true sister. She was adopted from this town's orphanage and from what I heard, this freak's parents told her to keep this a secret from her "sister"! And the kicker was the reason why "Dinky" was at the orphanage was because both of her parents... don't want her!

That's so rich! XD

So I need you to post this picture and then post the words, "Looks like the freak's little sister wasn't really her "sister" at all! But since her original parents don't want that loser of a child, she fits in with the freak's family just fine!"

I can't wait to see their reactions! LOL! XD



Scootaloo couldn't believe what she just read. Not only the fact that the two of them are not real sisters, which was a huge bombshell of itself, but the fact that this "fan" wanted her to post something beyond cruel and potentially ruined the relationships between the two sisters and their family life... all just for kicks!

Scootaloo began to shake violently as she stared at the message from her screen. This can't be real! Is this person serious!? There's no way I'm posting that! It was bad enough that this person made me post some terrible stuff including that girl with misaligned eyes! But to post this about her AND her younger sister!? This is way too far!

Scootaloo felt trapped all over again. If she doesn't posted this, her "fan" will get angry and Sunset will received his wrath like what Garble almost did, but if she did post this, not only this would further damage that girl and her sister, but this would make Sunset more bad than ever and won't be able to recover from this. Scootaloo buried her head under her hands with a distressed groan, not knowing what to do.

Suddenly, Scootaloo recalled that same question Sweetie Belle asked her from earlier today at lunch.

"What about you Scootaloo!? Didn't you think Sunset suffered enough as it is?"

Following after hearing her friend's echoed words, many images of all the miserable faces of her victims she saw earlier today flashed through her mind, including Sunset's. Scootaloo slowly lifted her head and narrowed her eyes with determination.

Sweetie Belle was right! Anon-a-Miss was a terrible idea from the start and we should've never posted everyone's secrets and other mean things just to make Sunset look bad! I'm ending this right now before things gets worse!

Without any hesitation, Scootaloo began to type her reply to her so-called "fan", who she now considered this person a heartless bully.



NO WAY!

I will NEVER post something so cruel for your own amusement! I don't know what kind of beef you have against that girl and her sister, but you leave these two alone! I'm not gonna take any more "requests" from YOU anymore!

And the real loser here... IS YOU! >:(



Once she finished typing it, she send it off and then deleted the original message. Next, she immediately logged in to Anon-a-Miss' MyStable account and typed in a new blog message for her "followers" to see.



As of right now, I will no longer be taking any more requests for future postings due to cruel nature!



Once she was done, Scootaloo immediately posted it and then leaned back with a relived sigh. It was over. She finally have the courage to say no to one of her followers and told everyone to stop sending her any messages. She knew that Apple Bloom would be very upset with her, but she will not continue to add any more fuel to the fire and keep hurting others, including Sunset. Now she can focus on getting herself the courage to go talk to Sweetie Belle.

And apologize to her for being a jerk-faced idiot. 

Suddenly, she heard a 'ding' from her computer, alerting Scootaloo that she just received a message to their Anon-a-Miss's email account.

Then another. 

And another.

And another!

And another!

And ANOTHER!

More and more messages continue to fold the email box, causing Scootaloo heart to beat rapidly in fright. Nervously, she switched back to the email page and checked the messages. Her face went pale as she read one angry email after the other from the followers of Anon-a-Miss.



What do you mean you "no longer taking requests"!? You're not seriously backing out, are you!?






You can't do that! I didn't get to chance to get you to post about someone yet! >:C






Don't you dare backing out Shimmer, or else I'll make your life a living nightmare! D:<






Typical Shimmer! All talk, but no backbone!






This girl is a She-Demon AND a coward!



Scootaloo felt more scared than she was before. She didn't make things better, she ended up make things worse! And while some people from these messages are angry at Anon-a-Miss, most of them are angry directly at Sunset! And she wasn't the one who did it!

Just when things couldn't get any worse, she received another email message. This time, it was from her "Fan" that she just told off. With a gulp and shaky hands, she managed to move her cursor over to the message and then click it to open it. What Scootaloo saw next, made her feel so much terror in her entire life.



You DARE... 

...called ME... 

...a LOSER!?! D:<

You listen here SUNSET SHIMMER! You can't stop what YOU started! We all wanted YOU to keep going for OUR entertainment! If you're not going post the things WE sent you, then me and my buddies will FIND you, DRAG you to the BACK OF THE SCHOOL and then we'll–



Terrified, Scootaloo immediately slammed her laptop shut, not wanting to read it anymore. She stood and slowly stepped away from her laptop and then collapsed on to the floor, shaking back and forth while holding her head tightly.

No no no no no no NO! This is not what I wanted! I originally wanted to give Sunset a taste of her own medicine... not to bring harm to her! And now everyone is determined more than ever to go after Sunset... and it's all because of me!

Tears began to flow out of her eyes and down her cheeks as Scootaloo's let out a muffled sob.

...what have I done!?
> Chapter 8: Fallout (CMC)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apple Bloom found herself to be in the middle of the CHS hallways again, nearly dark and dull. She felt the same cold and sinister atmosphere all around her and there wasn't a single soul in the area. Apple Bloom shivered once she registered where she was and her expression was filled with dread.

"Oh no, not again!" she muttered to herself.

Just then, she heard the same awful sound which have hunted her for so long.

"Heheheheheheh!"

....

....

....

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Scared for her life, Apple Bloom made a beeline towards one of the opened hallway and ran from the voice as far as she can. But no matter how far Apple Bloom ran, the voice was getting louder and louder by the second as if it was getting closer to her. What really didn't help was that the hallway continued to stretched out as if it goes on for the eternity, not a single exit in sight. 

"Leave me alone!" Apple Bloom cried over her shoulder, as she kept running.

The voice chuckled wickedly. "You can run Apple Bloom, but you can't hide!"

Apple Bloom continued to run like there's no tomorrow until she spotted her friends, who were just standing in the middle of the hallway with their backs turned to her.

Apple Bloom reached out to them. "Girls! HELP ME! The She-Demon is after me!"

No matter how loud and desperate her cries were, her friends doesn't appeared to be hearing her. What frighten Apple Bloom further was that despite that her friends were just standing there, they appeared to be moving further and further away, even though Apple Bloom was running towards them.

"Oh Apple Bloom!"

Apple Bloom turned her head and recoiled in terror as the familiar She-Demon figure was flying after her. What was even more horrifying was that the She-Demon was getting closer to her at a very fact pace. Despite the shadow mostly covering it's features, the only thing that was visible to the creature was its glowing eyes and sharp fangs as it gave Apple Bloom its sinister smile.

"Apple Bloom!" It called wickedly.

"Apple Bloom!"

"Apple Bloom!"

"Apple Bloom!"





"APPLE BLOOM!"

From the combination of a loud smack from her desk and from her teacher's shouting, Apple Bloom jolted herself awake from her nightmare. She barely had time to yawn when her eyes widened at the sight of her angry teacher, leering over her with his palm rested on top of her desk.

"You're only in here to learn, not to take a nap!" He scolded.

Apple Bloom blushed in embarrassment as her classmates hollered in laughter at her due to her misfortune. 

"Sorry Mr. Cranky Doodle," Apple Bloom mumbled. "Ah... was feelin' a little tired today."

Cranky Doodle scoffed. "Well maybe you should be in bed at a decent time instead of staying up late little Missy! Now try to stay awake or you else you can spend your time napping in detention!"

Apple Bloom gulped. "Yes sir... won't happen again!"

Cranky Doodle let out of humph and then walked back to the chalkboard while muttering, "Kids today, I swear!"

As he resumed his lesson, Apple Bloom leaned on her desk with a tired sigh.

Stupid Shimmer... haunting mah life and mah dreams! She thought with an annoyed expression.

Apple Bloom had lost count, but ever since the night before she succeed on getting the Rainbooms to leave Shimmer, she kept having nightmares since. Each nightmare was different from the last; sometimes she was being chased, other times she had seen some new students turned into a zombie-like trance. What all her nightmares have in common however, was the fact that the same certain She-Demon was there every single time, just to mock her. While her face was blocked from darkness, it didn't take a genius to figure out who that She-Demon was!

And it was ticking her off!

Because of her lack of sleep, Apple Bloom was now more determined than ever to take down Shimmer until she disappeared from her life and never have to see her again. She had Scootaloo to keep posting more secrets to the site to discriminate Sunset further, and so far it worked as she watched many students treated Sunset badly from the sidelines. Admittedly she also felt another type emotion deep from her heart, but she chose to ignore it for the sake of the mission. 

Today however, Apple Bloom noticed the announcement on Anon-a-Miss page that she "no longer receiving any more requests" from this morning, most likely from Scootaloo. Apple Bloom tried to text or call Scootaloo earlier just to know what was she thinking with making that announcement, but Scootaloo never responded. She even tried contacting Sweetie Belle to see if she knew anything about Scootaloo despite not on speaking terms, but even Sweetie Belle didn't respond. The fact that both her friends are ignoring her made Apple Bloom feel frustrated. She'll have to confront them during lunch later in order to get to the bottom of things.

Suddenly, Apple Bloom felt a vibration and a jingle from her phone, letting her know that someone had send her a text message. Usually Cranky Doodle takes away phones from anyone who would use them for texting or games in the middle of class, but luckily he didn't hear her phone that time. Curious about the message, she waited for her teacher's back to turn, so that he won't notice her, before she silently took out her phone and opened up the text. It was a message from Sweetie Belle from the CMC's group chat. What her message said caught her attention.



StarSong112: Girls... we need to talk!

StarSong112: Meet me at the back of the playground by the basketball court after school!



Apple Bloom raised her eyebrow. She was about to respond but then she quickly put her phone away as her teacher turned around to face the class again. Even though she appeared to be watching Mr. Cranky Doodle, Apple Bloom no longer paid attention to his lesson as her mind wondered about Sweetie's message. What does Sweetie Belle wanted to talk to her and Scootaloo about outside of school? She had a feeling what the topic may be about, but she she does not like it.

Nor was she looking forward to it.





The school bell rang for the final time today, signaling everyone that school was over for the day. Everyone walked outside through the school's entrance with angry and miserable attitudes due to the events, while Apple Bloom came out along with them while wearing her green winter coat and dark green scarf. She didn't paid any attention to the students or how dark and gloomy the cloudy sky was as she made her way to the back of the school towards the playground. Apple Bloom didn't see both Sweetie and Scootaloo all day, not even during lunch time. She never went through the whole day of school without seeing her friends before. Granted, there were times when one or rarely both of them didn't come to school when they're sick, but this was the first time ever that she never saw them around, even after knowing for the fact that they are in school today.

It was almost as if they were trying to avoid her!

The thought of that alone hurt and annoyed her. She didn't know why they were avoiding her today until now and what was the big deal. Whatever it was, Apple Bloom will get her answers from them once and for all.

Apple Bloom finally made it to the back of the school where the playground was. Instead of seeing the usual playground blacktop, Apple Bloom saw the entire area was filed with white snow. If it wasn't for the two tall basketball hoops sticking out from the snow, no one would know where the ball court was. Underneath one of the hoops was Sweetie Bell, standing there with a maroon winter coat, purple scarf and a nervous look on her face. 

With a serious expression, Apple Bloom made her way over to Sweetie Belle, causing the latter to look up at her. Neither greeted or spoke a single word. The two of them just stared at each other in an awkward silence. Finally, it was Apple Bloom who breaks the silence.

"So... what do ya want to talk about?" said Apple Bloom.

Sweetie Belle shifted her eyes away nervously, not wanting to meet Apple Bloom's gaze. "I... rather wait until Scootaloo arrived... if she shows up."

Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes in annoyance after hearing Sweetie's excuse to buy herself some time, but decided to let that go for now. "Have you seen Scootaloo today?"

Sweetie shook her head. "No. I haven't seen her since yesterday during lunch. It's... almost as if she's avoiding us."

"Like how you avoided me today?" Apple Bloom asked bluntly.

Sweetie flinched somewhat, confirming Apple Bloom's suspicion. Before she could berate Sweetie, the sounds of footsteps from the snow interrupted them. They turned to see Scootaloo walking towards them with her black winter coat, light blue scarf and a miserable look on her face until she eventually reached them. 

"Um... hey girls," Scootaloo greeted halfheartedly. She then turned to Apple Bloom with an expressionless look. "So... what are we going to talk about?"

"Well why don't you ask her!" Apple Bloom huffed as she pointed at Sweetie Belle. "She's the one who summoned us!"

Sweetie Belle cringed from Apple Bloom's icy tone. She then grew more nervous as her two friends gave her their full attention with Scootaloo's curious and concerned expression while Apple Bloom had a look of impatience.

"...well?" Apple Bloom snapped.

Realizing that she shouldn't delay this any longer, Sweetie Belle began to speak her mind.

"Listen girls," she sighed before she looked at them with her serous expression. "I think we should stop."

Apple Bloom blinked. "Stop... what?"

Sweetie swallowed. "Stop with the whole... Anon-a-Miss business."

Both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"WAT!? What do ya mean Sweetie Belle?" Apple Bloom exclaimed angrily.

"You know exactly what I mean!" Sweetie cried. "This whole thing is beyond out of control! We hurt all the people with their secrets we exposed, everyone is miserable and they're all openly fighting and accusing each other like it was a war-zone! It's our fault that we caused all of this! What we've done made us bullies. No... worse than bullies!"

Apple Bloom scoffed. "Us!? Bullies!? How can we be bullies!?"

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. "Oh I don't know, how about posting everyone's secrets without their consent while coming off in such a nasty way!"

Apple Bloom shook her head. "Look, while we may have embarrassed them, but those were just harmless jokes! They can get over them!"

Sweetie Belle stared at Apple Bloom in disbelief. "Are you serious Apple Bloom!?" she shouted. "Wake up and take a good look around the school! Does it look like everyone was laughing!? I mean sure, they laughed at first when they saw someone else gets embarrassed, but when they get a turn, it wasn't funny anymore! And those so-called "jokes" upsets a lot of people! Heck, I've seen this poor girl crying her eyes out yesterday after she was antagonized by others... all because of her eyes! Those weren't funny jokes, those were personal attacks! We can't keep continuing like this!"

"...she's right."

Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom turned towards Scootaloo, who was looking down towards the ground as if it was more interesting to look at.

"W-what?" Apple Bloom uttered.

"I said... Sweetie Belle is right," Scootaloo said softly. She slowly looked up towards them who had a guilt expression on her face. "She was right about everything! We shouldn't have started all of this! The things we did brought nothing but harm! Not just Sunset Shimmer... but everyone as well!"

Sweetie Belle just stood there in shock. When she arranged the meeting, she thought she'll be outnumbered again with Scootaloo siding with Apple Bloom just like those other times. But she was not expecting Scootaloo to suddenly be on her side for once. While Sweetie was still upset with Scootaloo, she was actually felt more confused then anything.

"What brought this on Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle asked.

For a moment, Scootaloo said nothing like she was in deep thought. She eventually let out a heavy sigh and then looked at Sweetie Belle with a deep frown. "Things were... worse since our sisters ditched Sunset," Scootaloo began. "Our followers sent me more secrets and requests to post more than ever! They were funny at first and help discriminate Sunset more. But then... the stuff they kept sending me were worse and worse. There's was even this one follower... who had a thing against that girl with those misaligned eyes."

Sweetie Belle growled and pointed at Scootaloo. "I knew it! You were the one who did that to her!"

Scootaloo flinched from Sweetie's accusation and then looked down in shame. "Y-yeah... I'm not very proud of it. But–"

"How could you do that to her?" Sweetie continued angrily. "Or anyone else for that matter? You know how sensitive she is when it comes to her eyes!"

"You think I don't know that!?" Scootaloo snapped. "I don't want to do that to her, but because of that follower's 'promise', I had no choice!"

Sweetie's anger was quickly replaced with confusion. "Promise!? What do you mean!?"

Scootaloo turned away slightly, not responding to Sweetie's question.

"Scoots... what did this person say!?" Sweetie Belle said with nervousness.

Scootaloo sighed before looking at Sweetie again. "He told me– no... threatened me, that if I don't do exactly as this person requested, they'll... 'hunt me down'."

"WHAT!?" Sweetie Belle screeched. "This person knows you're Anon-a-Miss?"

Scootaloo shook her head. "No no. They didn't know it was me!"

Scootaloo's answer only made Sweetie Belle confused again. "I don't understand. Then how–"

"This person who threaten me thinks I'm Sunset!"

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened in horror, realizing the gravity of the situation. If what Scootaloo said was true, then the people who were affected by Anon-a-Miss will come after Sunset as revenge for something she didn't do, just like what Curly Winds was gonna do the other day!

"...oh no," Sweetie Belle whispered, afraid for Sunset. "Is this person... really coming after Sunset?"

"Yeah– I mean... I don't know, I..." Scootaloo struggled, both scared and frustrated with the situation. "The way this person said in his message and what they'll do to Sunset... scares me! While I wanted to get back at Sunset for everything and keep her away from Rainbow Dash... but I never wanted her to get hurt because of me. So... I gave in and posted that secret about that girl. I still hated myself for doing it... but at least no one was hurt."

Sweetie opened her mouth to rebuttal.

"Physically I mean!" Scootaloo added quickly. "But even before that... I felt more and more terrible for everything I've done... including to Sunset. I wanted to stop this... I really do... but I'm scared of how our followers reacted... and Apple Bloom told me to keep going–"

"Wait... Apple Bloom knew!?" Sweetie Belle shrieked before she turned to glare at the farmer girl. "You knew about this!?"

Apple Bloom raised her hands up in defense with a peeved expression. "Hey hey hey! While Scootaloo told me about how uncomfortable she was about postin' these messages, but this is the first I heard about the threats too!"

"Why do you care!" Scootaloo snapped. "Didn't you tell me to just 'do it', despite what I told you the other day?"

"Don't you pin this all on me Scoots!" Apple Bloom shouted angrily. "Let's not forget, you also went along with it from the start!"

Scootaloo growled. "That's because I thought we can take the bully down ourselves and get justice Sunset truly deserves... but I was wrong! Everything we do is worse than any bully could've done!"

Apple Bloom's eyes narrowed. "Even so, it was your dumb idea to encourage everyone to send you other people's secrets! And now, you've got so many people all over you and you have no choice but to do exactly what they said without making them angry!"

"Well I'm afraid we're too late for that!" Scootaloo snapped.

Apple Bloom stared at Scootaloo in confusion while Sweetie Belle had a nervous expression.

"What do you mean?" Sweetie Belle uttered.

Scootaloo once again had an ashamed expression and let out a huge sigh. "Yesterday as I was... reflecting on my actions, I saw Sunset being held up by Garble."

Both Sweetie and Apple Bloom eyes widened in shock.

"Garble!? THE Garble!? The biggest and meanest bully in school after Shimmer stepped down!?" Apple Bloom exclaimed.

Scootaloo nodded. "The very same," she confirmed. "It was bad... really bad! He trapped her by her own locker and was about to attack her while everyone else watched and cheered for him to 'teach her a lesson'!"

Sweetie Belle covered her mouth as she loudly gasped. "Oh my goodness! Did he hurt her!?"

Scootaloo shook her head. "No. I managed to stop him, only I made him even more angry and was about to attack me first. Thankfully, Vice Principal Luna showed up on time and put that jerk and everyone else in place before things get worse." She then looked down with a guilt expression. "Still... Sunset still got hurt somewhat and... I felt terrible! I never wanted to go this far! It got even worse when that same jerk who messaged me to post about that eye girl again... but involving Dinky this time!"

"Dinky!?" Sweetie gasped with frightened eyes. "Oh no no no, please tell me you didn't do it!"

"No, I didn't go through with it," Scootaloo assured. "In fact, that was the final straw for me, which... I may have... made a mistake."

"Mistake!? What mistake?" Apple Bloom demanded.

Scootaloo immediately turned away from them, not wanting to meet their gaze. Scootaloo's silence only made Sweetie Belle feel scared and Apple Bloom's aggravation with anticipation.

"Scoots... what. Did. YOU. DO?" Apple Bloom demanded.

Scootaloo shut her eyes tightly. "I... told that person off... and then I announced we're not taking requests anymore... only I get hundreds of angry emails... including that same guy... saying they'll come after Sunset!"

"WHAT!?" The two crusaders exploded.

The following after Scootaloo's bombshell, both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle angrily berated her for making that "wise" decision.

"SCOOTS! WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?"

"WHAT THE HAY SCOOTS!? AH THOUGHT AH TOLD YOU NOT TO SAY "NO" TO THEM!"

"DID YOU STOP TO THINK ABOUT THAT NOT ONLY PROVOKING THAT PERSON WAS A BAD IDEA, BUT ALSO PROVOKING EVERYONE ELSE TOO!?"

"AND DO YOU REALIZE THAT BY DOING THIS, YOU PRACTICALLY SAID THOSE THINGS WHILE EVERYONE THINKS IT WAS SUNSET WHO POSTED! JUST WHAT WERE YA THINKIN'!?"

"OF ALL THE DUMB THINGS YOU'VE DONE SCOOTS, THIS IS BY FAR THE MOST STUPIDEST THING YOU'VE EVER–"

"I SCREWED UP, OKAY!?" Scootaloo screamed as her tears began to flow from her eyes. She then turned to face Sweetie Belle. "What do you want me to say Sweetie Belle? That you're right!? That I'm an idiot!? That I'm a Dodo head!? If you want to say 'I told you so', then say it! I know now that it was stupid to encouraged all our followers to send everyone's secrets! I know now that this actually hurt Sunset a lot more than we realized! And after seeing that jerk Garble nearly punched the daylights out of her, I wanted to end it, but I ended up making things worse! And now, Sunset is in even more danger than ever and I hate myself for it! I'm sorry that I followed along with this! I'm sorry that I hurt Sunset! I'm sorry that I drove you away! I'm so... SOOORRR-HA-HA-HA-RRRIIIEEEEEEEEE!"

Scootaloo collapsed into the snowy ground, sobbing heavily into her hands.

"Scootaloo..." Sweetie whispered. She was stunned as she watched her friend crying her eyes out in shame. She have seen Scootaloo upset before, but not like this. While she was angry at Scootaloo for being responsible for all those terrible posts and stupidity made things worse, but she couldn't help but to feel sorry for her for carrying all that burden and feeling scared about the situation. She wanted to run up to her and gave her a hug, but a part of her still felt conflicted about comforting her after the way Scootaloo was treating her. She really did not know what to do with the situation. Before she could do anything, Apple Bloom suddenly spoke up.

"Don't worry Scoots... we can fix it!"

Shocked from Apple Bloom's words, Sweetie quickly turned towards her.

"What the heck do you mean!?" Sweetie shouted. "You heard what Scoots said! Everyone's gonna come after Sunset now!"

"That ain't gonna happen!" Apple Bloom insisted. "We'll update the page and lettin' everyone know that we'll be taking requests again and then go back to the way things–"

"NO!"

The two girls turned towards Scootaloo who was still on the snowy cold ground. She looked up at Apple Bloom with a glare despite there was still tears in her eyes.

"No... I don't want to do that again! You think this will make things better!? Do you have any idea of what kind of messages I got from our so-called followers everyday? I rather break my own leg than to post any of these requests again! I don't want to hurt everyone again, including Rainbow Dash!"

"For once, I agree with Scootaloo!" said Sweetie Belle. "This has to stop! I don't want anyone including Sunset to get hurt anymore than it is and make things worse for Sunset!"

Apple Bloom huffed. "Look girls, Ah know you don't want to hurt anyone, but it's the only way to take her down!"

"We don't want to take her down! We want to stop using Anon-a-Miss!" Sweetie shouted.

"And we originally wanted to separate Sunset from our sisters, not to make her into a punching bag for the other students!" Scootaloo added as she stood up.

"We won't and it won't be forever! We just have to keep making Sunset look bad a little longer!" Apple Bloom insisted.

"Until when?" Scootaloo screamed. "When Sunset ended up in the hospital one day after she got hurt from other students!? This is not what I signed up for!"

"Dat won't happen!" Apple Bloom argued. "We have to keep up so that Shimmer will realize that she have no place here and then she'll return back to where she came from!"

Sweetie stared at Apple Bloom in disbelief. She couldn't believe that Apple Bloom would be this stubborn to listen to reason and would rather continue using Anon-a-Miss, all just to bring down one person who doesn't deserve the torment to begin with.

"Have you been listening to yourself!?" Sweetie shouted while giving Apple Bloom her disapproved glare. "You're willing to keep up this stupid and pointless act and risk Sunset's life than to stop this!? What's wrong with you Apple Bloom? Ever since your sister told you that she's having a slumber party at Pinkie's with Sunset... you've changed. And than after the Rainbooms ditched Sunset, you've become much worse despite knowing how wrong this is! Just... why? Why are you insisting on keep torturing Sunset!? Why can't you see that your actions are damaging the school!? Why are you willing to continue this madness!?"

Apple Bloom just glared back at Sweetie while narrowing her eyes. "I don't know what nonsense you were talkin' about with me changin', but if the things I've done to keep that She-Demon away from mah sister... then Ah will do whatever it takes! And Ah won't let you or anyone else to stand in mah way!"

Both Sweetie and Scootaloo stared in shock from Apple Bloom's cold response. Apple Bloom never spoke to them like that before. In fact, they felt like they were talking to a different person. What's worse was that Apple Bloom doesn't seem to care about the damage they caused and the potential danger they put Sunset through. This of course only made Sweetie Belle upset and angry at Apple Bloom's behavior. Heck, she was more angry at Apple Bloom than she was with Scootaloo. It was at that moment, Sweetie doesn't want to just stand by anymore.

"I had enough of this!" Sweetie shouted as she dug into her coat pocket.

"Sweetie Belle! What are you doing?" Scootaloo spoke up.

"Something I should've done a long time ago!" Sweetie responded angrily as she fished her phone out. "I'm going to take this site down and then I'll confess everything I've done to both my family and Principal Celestia!"

Scootaloo eyes widened. "But Sweetie Belle... you'll get in major trouble once you confessed!"

"I don't care Scootaloo!" Sweetie snapped as she opened up her phone. "I'd rather face my consequences than to continue this terrible deed with a so called friend!

Before she could go to MyStable, she felt something slapped on the back her hand really hard, causing her phone to launched off into the air and landed into the snow. Ignoring the pain from her hand, Sweetie looked up in shock to see Apple Bloom's outstretched hand with a hard expression.

"Apple Bloom... why!?" Sweetie Belle squeaked feeling hurt and betrayed from her friend's actions.

"Ah told you why!" Apple Bloom snapped, sounding harsher this time. "I'll do anything to keep that She-Demon away from my sister, even if it means to stop you from ruining mah plans!"

"Well you've failed anyway Apple Bloom!"

Apple Bloom suddenly turned towards Scootaloo who brought her own phone out from her pocket.

"Because you forgot all about me!" Scootaloo declared before she logged herself into the Anon-a-Miss account. Her victory was short lived when Scootaloo suddenly stared at the screen in confusion after the website loaded up. Instead of looking at the Anon-a-Miss' account, she was actually back at the sign-in screen but with bold red letters on the top of the screen.




ACCESS DENIED




"I... I can't get in!" Scootaloo exclaimed in shock. "How is this possible? Wha–"

DING!~

After hearing that loud phone notification, Scootaloo turned towards the source. It was then that she noticed Apple Bloom had her other arm stashed into her coat pocket this whole time. Apple Bloom slowly lifted her arm out of her pocket, revealing her phone with Anon-a-Miss webpage on her screen. There was even some kind of message on Apple Bloom's phone that Scootaloo couldn't quite make out.

"Apple Bloom... what did you do!?" Scootaloo demanded.

"...ah changed the password," Apple Bloom answered emotionlessly as she put away her phone, letting her red bangs covered her eyes in the process. "For now on, Ah'm in charge with Anon-a-Miss' site!"

Both Sweetie and Scootaloo eyes widened in shock as the sound of the thunder boomed from the background. They now realized that Apple Bloom knew what they wanted to do so she was trying to change the password to Anon-a-Miss MyStable account from right under their noses this entire time so they won't get in again. This made Sweetie Belle more upset while Scootaloo was enraged at Apple Bloom.

"Apple Bloom, how could you!" Scootaloo yelled. "You never wanted to stop this from the start!"

"You can't keep doing this Apple Bloom!" Sweetie added desperately. "Stop this right now! I told you over and over that this was a horrible idea! I don't want to stand by and watch you continue going down this dark path that you won't get out from!"

"Like yer the one to talk!"

Sweetie Belle suddenly felt shocked and angry from Apple Bloom's accusation. "What's that supposed to mean!?"

Apple Bloom slowly looked up towards Sweetie with an angry frown. "As Scootaloo said earlier, yer not innocent with this either, especially when you posted Shimmer's pictures from your sister's slumber party!"

Sweetie Belle was about to open her mouth to respond.

"And don't you say, 'Ah made you do it'!" Apple Bloom quickly added before Sweetie could speak. "Ah asked ya to do it the first time and you refused, which Ah'll respect you if ya didn't. Yet you decided to sneak into your sister's room and stole Sunset's pictures, which Ah didn't suggest you to do. Ah'll admit that after you stole 'em, Ah told you to post them since yer the one who stole them. Of course, even with mah suggestion, you don't even have to post them and not humiliate your sister in the process. And yet, ya did anyway! Even afterwords, you could've ratted us out too, but you still let it happen!"

"I didn't say a word because you both are my best friends and I don't want you to get in trouble," Sweetie insisted before looking down. "But now... I'm not so sure anymore! And besides... I never wanted to hurt Sunset from the start!"

"But you are willing to hurt your sister?"

Sweetie's eyes widen and her face went pale, confirming Apple Bloom's claim, while Scootaloo watched on in shock from the revelation. When Sweetie didn't respond, Apple Bloom spoke again.

"Ah'm right, aren't I?" she pressed. "Unlike us, you didn't use your sister to get to Sunset, you used Sunset to get to your sister!" 

"Stop it!" Sweetie croaked but Apple Bloom continued.

"Ah even seen you in the hallways yesterday when those students mocked Rarity in front of you! And yet, you just stood there, not comfortin' your sister while they just kept ridiculing her! While you felt guilty for what you've done, but deep down... you wanted her to continue go through that torture!"

"Please stop!" Sweetie begged, as tears leaked from her eyes.

"Apple Bloom stop! You're upsetting her!" Scootaloo cried, but Apple Bloom ignored her.

"You just let her continue goin' through all that pain... all because she never paid attention to you!"

"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" Sweetie screamed before breaking into a sob.

Apple Bloom just shook her head with a scoff. "This is just rich! A moment ago you lectured me for hurting mah sister for no reason while you hurt your sister deliberately! Ah wonder what your sister and your parents will think of ya once you confess what you did?"

"At least I have parents!" Sweetie snapped.

Apple Bloom suddenly had a blank look on her face while Scootaloo felt slightly nervious that Sweetie may have entered Apple Bloom's most sensitive topic.

"Whoa Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo spoke up with a frighten look. "I think you shouldn't–"

"You know what?" Sweetie continued slowly with a harsh glare despite her tears still flowing down. "Maybe it's for the best that your parents aren't around! At least they won't be disappointed– no, disgusted after they see their own daughter becoming such a cold, heartless, rotten, despicable, manipulating b–"

Before anyone could react, Apple Bloom suddenly shoved Sweetie very aggressively, causing Sweetie to fall down and landed on the ground hard where the basketball court was. After her rough landing with a loud thud, Sweetie burst in tears as she grasp her left arm in pain.

"SWEETIE BELLE!" Scootaloo cried out in concern as she ran over to Sweetie Belle to check on her.

The thunder boomed again from the background and then it began to rain. Not caring about the cold or getting wet, she gently lifted up the crying girl to a seating position and pulled down the left sleeve of Sweetie's winter coat bruise to see the damage. When she saw Sweetie's injury, the sight of it made Scootaloo cringe. There was a long red bruise on Sweetie's arm with some cuts in some areas due to the gravel from the basketball court. Scootaloo then gently pressed around Sweetie's arm to check for any broken bones. Thankfully, there were none, but the damage on the skin alone would still hurt such a sensitive person like Sweetie Belle.

While still holding Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo turned her head at Apple Bloom with an angry look. "What the hay Apple Bloom! That was way over the line!"

"Ah'm over the line!?" Apple Bloom yelled before pointing at the crying girl. "She just insulted me!"

"And yet you pushed her!" Scootaloo shot back. "And now she's hurt!"

Scootaloo then gently took Sweetie's uninjured hand over her shoulder and then she slowly stood up with her. "C'mon Sweetie, let's get you outta here!"

As she slowly walked away with Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom shouted at them.

"HEY! Where you going!?"

Scootaloo looked back at her with a glare. "I'm taking Sweetie home and have someone take care of that wound, which is what you caused!"

Apple Bloom eyes narrowed. "So that's it then? You're siding with her now!?"

"It's not about taking sides Apple Bloom, I'm helping her like a friend should! After this, we will confess to our Principals that we're Anon-a-Miss and ending this whither you like it or not!" Scootaloo shouted before she began walking with Sweetie again.

"You know, I could've easily told our Principals what you did when you broke into the teams lockers and dug up their personal secrets!"

Scootaloo immediately stopped walking and turned her head at Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom's hair was now soaked from the rain and her eyes were fierce, but despite that, she continued to speak.

"Ah imagine what kind of punishments they'll gave ya! Heck, Ah'm sure even Rainbow Dash won't ever wanted to have anything to do with you again when she found out!"

Scootaloo's eyes narrowed. "Did you just... actually threatened me to turn me in or else you'll rat me out?"

"...maybe," Apple Bloom said simply. "What Ah'll do next... is up to you!"

"...unbelievable," Scootaloo spat. "You're a real piece of work Apple Bloom!" 

While she was infuriated with Apple Bloom, her words were actually working as she imaged the disappointing and angry face from her sister figure. She imaged that Rainbow Dash will hate her and disowned her as her sister like she did with Sunset. She didn't want to let Apple Bloom continue to use Anon-a-Miss, but at the same time... she didn't want to lose Rainbow Dash and be alone because of her own stupid actions. After a minute of silence, Scootaloo huffed indignantly.

"Alright... you win Apple Bloom!" she growled bitterly. "We're not gonna mention this to anyone, but we don't want to be part of your Anon-a-Miss scheme anymore! And we will help Sunset from the shadows whenever we can so that no one will hurt her!" Scootaloo then glared daggers at Apple Bloom. "If you rather continue to go on and act like this... then considered our friendship over!"

Apple Bloom growled angrily with a huge scowl on her face. "FINE!" she shouted. "Then go! Both of you! Ah don't need you two! Go and help that monster until she took away your sisters again!"

Scootaloo just scoffed at her and then turned to leave with Sweetie Belle. But before she could make a single step, Sweetie Belle stopped her and spoke up.

"...no Apple Bloom," Sweetie Belle said softly with a sniff as she briefly turned towards Apple Bloom with tears flowing down her cheeks. "You're the monster!"

With that, both Scootaloo and Sweetie slowly left the scene without looking back, leaving Apple Bloom behind. Apple Bloom just stood there, not bothering to chase after them. She doesn't care that she was now all alone. She doesn't care that her body was getting soaked from the pouring rain.

And she doesn't care that her face was also getting soaked from her own tears.
> Intermission 5 (CMC)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Silence. Nothing but dead silence after the young trio concluded what had happened that day by the playground. The CMCs looked down in shame and guilt, but not as much as Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom felt horrible for the way she have acted and treated her friends for the past two weeks, especially for what she did to Sweetie Belle. Aside from what she did to her sister and Sunset Shimmer, hurting Sweetie Belle was Apple Bloom's deepest regret. She cursed herself for letting her temper and stubbornness got the best of her. She was thankful that Sweetie Belle only got a bruise and a few scratches from the fall, but the damage to their friendship was already done. If only she wasn't so stubborn and blinded with hate against Sunset, none of that ever happen. She wouldn't blame her two friends, especially Sweetie Belle if they decided to never speak to her again.

Even if it pains her deeply.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle felt just as awful about their own actions. Scootaloo still blamed herself for her own role with this mess. Stealing Rainbow Dash's and other team's secrets from lockers, accepting other secrets from random users and letting them take control of her and unintentionally started a witch hunt against Sunset... all because of her own stupidity. Sweetie Belle felt like she should've tried harder to stop her friends with their awful plan instead of letting it happen. But she also blamed herself for using Anon-a-Miss to get back at her own sister. Despite the terrible things Apple Bloom had done that night, Sweetie Belle felt guilty for using Apple Bloom's most sensitive topic against her out of anger. And after hearing Apple Bloom's "secret" earlier, Sweetie Belle felt even more guilty for bringing it up.

As for the two adults, the two stared at the trio with a mixture of shock and disappointment. Luna felt a huge amount of anger boiling from within her, but she was doing her best not to lash out at them. Instead, she just silently gave them a look which was as cold as ice. Celestia on the other hand, still had a calm, professional look on her face. However, there was also a small trace of anger and disbelief from within her eyes. What really shocked her the most was hearing how many people contributed sending secrets to Anon-a-Miss, all just for kicks. The scary part of all, she wasn't sure which one are from the students from CHS and which ones are from strangers! She made a mental note to investigate this issue at a later time.

Right now, she was going to focus on the main issue.

"Unbelievable," Celestia muttered, shaking her head in disapproval. "Just... unbelievable! Words cannot describe what I'm feeling right now, but I will say... I'm appalled to hear all the actions from you three... especially you Apple Bloom!"

Apple Bloom winced and shook from Celestia's hard tone. While Apple Bloom didn't blame her Principal for being so angry with her, but seeing a normally cheerful and nice Principal like Celestia acting so angry... scared her. Heck, she was scarier than Vice Principal Luna!

Celestia lingered her glare at Apple Bloom a little longer before she shifted her focus on to Scootaloo. "Where did you take Sweetie Belle after she was injured Scootaloo?"

"I took her back to my Aunts place and I asked them to help patching up her wound," Scootaloo answered.

"Did they asked you how it happened?"

"...yes," Scootaloo replied with some hesitation.

"And what did you say?"

"I... told them that she tripped and hurt herself while we were... playing basketball," Scootaloo responded lamely as she looked down at her lap. "I didn't want to tell them what really happened because I was still scared about the whole thing. I could tell that they don't fully believe me but they didn't push the topic and helped completely healed Sweetie Belle."

"...I see," Celestia said simple before turning to Sweetie Belle. "How is your arm feeling right now Sweetie Belle?"

"Um... my arm is feeling okay now, thank you for asking," Sweetie Belle said quietly.

Celestia nodded, silently relieved about the young girl's medical condition. "Did you mention your injury with anyone else?"

"...no, I didn't," said Sweetie with a sigh. "After Scoots' Aunts fixed my wound, I asked them not to mention this to my family. Up until we confessed to our sisters, I didn't say anything because I didn't want to worry them." She then sadly closed her eyes. "And also... I didn't want to get Apple Bloom in trouble."

The adults raised their eyebrows while Apple Bloom stared at Sweetie in shock. "So even after everything that happened, you still have some faith in your friend?" Celestia pressed.

Sweetie sighed again before opening her eyes and gave the adults her sad look. "I know it doesn't make any sense even after the way she hurts me like that... but I know Apple Bloom. She's not an evil person, she was making a lot of bad decisions while being so blind to everything that happened." She then rubbed her left shoulder where her wound was. "Plus... I deserved that... after saying those awful things to her."

"No Sweetie Belle." 

Sweetie turned towards Apple Bloom, who looked so guilt ridden and was on the verge of tears. "If anythin'... Ah'm the one who deserved all that stuff you said to me about mah parents. If they're here and see me now..." Apple Bloom choked, letting a single tear leaked out from her eye. "...they'll be ashamed of me right now."

As the three crusaders stared at each other in sadness and Celestia watched the three of them with a neutral expression, it was Luna who spoke up.

"While I don't know for sure of how your parents feel if they're... still around," she began carefully, before staring at Apple Bloom with a deep frown. "But I will say that what you did wasn't right! It was bad enough with the things you had done to Sunset Shimmer, your sister and the student body with Anon-a-Miss, but injuring your friend on top of that!? I... have no words!" She then glared angrily at red headed pre-teen. "Just what do you have to say to yourself?"

Apple Bloom sadly bowed her head. "Ah have no excuse. What ah did was awful. Ah've been acting like a rotten apple to everybody, including mah best friends. Ah wouldn't blame them... if they won't be friends with me anymore after this."

Both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo watched their friend with sad expressions. While they were still hurt after what she did for the couple of weeks, but they couldn't help but to be sorry for her too. They just don't know if they should go to comfort the young farmer or not.

After all, Apple Bloom isn't the only one who had hurt their friends.

"Well even so, what you did was unacceptable!" said Celestia with a slight edge in her voice. "Even if it was just a shove, violence is not tolerable at our school ground. But we'll discuss about your punishment later!" She took a moment to breathe through her nose to calm herself somewhat before she spoke to Apple Bloom again. "Now... what happened after your two friends ditched you?"

Apple Bloom let out a long sigh before she slowly looked up to face Principal Celestia. "Well... Ah didn't know it then, but at that moment... it was the beginning of mah wake up call. The next couple of days after our... fallout... things were getting much much worse from there...
> Chapter 9: A Broken Diamond Pt. 1 (Apple Bloom)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was another morning of moody and hostility at CHS. Many students were heading to their own classes from within the hallways with scowls on their faces without a friendly hello each time they passed each other. The only thing they ever spoke to each other was usually rude remarks whenever they bumped into one another. Needless to say, it was a very miserable experience for everyone, including Apple Bloom with dark baggy eyes.

Even after she took over as Anon-a-Miss and resumed posting secrets online, Apple Bloom couldn't stop thinking about her big fight with her now ex-friends from a few days back. Her mind kept replaying the terrible things she had said to them and the moment she pushed Sweetie down at the school's playground over and over like a ViewTube video on a an endless loop without a "Stop" button. She felt awful for what she did to Sweetie and disgusted with herself for threatening Scootaloo, but she had to do what was necessary in order to take down the evil she-demon.

Speaking of Sweetie and Scootaloo, Apple Bloom didn't see her former friends since that day. She suspected that they were avoiding her like the plague, but if they failed to see her reasons, then it's their loss. She also heard a few incidents that her former CMC members were acting very "clumsy" as of late. Two days ago, Scootaloo accidentally bumped into Lightning Dust as she was carrying so many books across the hallway. Then on the day before, Sweetie was carrying her lunch tray and then accidentally crashed into Gilda and spilled food all over the tough girl. Thankfully, neither of them didn't get any major repercussions from the two tough teens except some insults and nasty glares. Apple Bloom suspected that her former friends were doing this on purpose because she knew them well enough that they were never that clumsy. What confirmed her suspicions further was that Shimmer happened to be around when these incidents took place. She concluded that her former friends were doing all of this on purpose, just to protect Shimmer from any vengeful students who wanted to come after her.

Apple Bloom was not sure if she should be admired or annoyed at her former friends' dedication.

Despite her former friends' efforts, and Anon-a-Miss' recent announcement of taking everyone's requests again, it doesn't change the students efforts of making Shimmer's life miserable. Apple Bloom have seen many students gave Shimmer dirty looks whenever she appeared in the hallway or sometimes in classes. The only physical thing they've done to Shimmer was that they would either threw spitballs at the back of her head whenever the teacher was not looking or sometimes they would "accidentally" bumped into her as they walked passed her. As she continued to watch students abusing Shimmer for days from afar, Apple Bloom kept having that same "feeling" again like from the day Shimmer's friends ditched her. She kept ignoring that feeling and tried to convince herself that Shimmer is a heartless bully and doesn't deserve any sympathy, but with each passing day, that feeling was stronger than the last one. And with the memory of her argument with her friends on top of that, those feelings are getting worse.

Her thoughts were put to a halt when she spotted her sister Applejack by her locker. She was looking at a piece of paper which was left on her locker with a deep frown on her face. Apple Bloom had sneaking suspicion that it was probably yet another one of these "notes," contained certain words like "Piggly Wiggly", "Oink" or even a picture of a pig just to tease Applejack from the bullies. Wanting to check up on her sister and keep herself distracted from those events, Apple Bloom decided to approach her sister.

"Um... hey sis!" Apple Bloom greeted gently.

Applejack turned towards Apple Bloom with a glare but then soften up somewhat once she saw her. "Oh... hey Apple Bloom," she replied dejectedly as she opened her locker.

Apple Bloom frowned at her sister's depression demeanor. "People still botherin' ya?"

Applejack sighed heavily. "Yeah... but Ah'm getting less teasing lately... after Anon-a-Miss started targeting everyone else in school!"

Apple Bloom tilted her head quizzically. "Um... isn't dat a good thing that people didn't tease you as much?"

"Not at the cost of everyone else, including mah best friends!" Applejack replied with a scowl. "I swear, she is such a snake! We took her in a show her the ways of friendship, only to stab us in the back as thanks! Ah thought we understand each other and let bygones be bygones... but Ah guess Ah don't really understand her at all!"

Apple Bloom grinned, pleased that her plan worked perfectly. "Ya see Applejack, Ah told ya that Shimmer shouldn't be trust–!"

"And yet," Applejack added with somber expression. "This doesn't add up."

Apple Bloom widened her eyes in disbelief. "WAT?! What do ya mean!?"

Applejack crossed her arms in thought, as if she was trying to figure it out herself. "Everything this Anon-a-Miss had done; the pictures of our slumber party, mah nickname, and all the other stuff that was posted on MyStable seemed like what the old Sunset would do. But at the same time... it didn't make any sense! Sunset could have turned on us shortly after we let her befriended us and get back at us for revenge... but she never did. We became as close as best friends, heck, she became a family to me! But why would she start now of all times, especially after she worked so hard to prove that she's changed. ...It doesn't make sense!"

Apple Bloom felt raw anger as her sister referred to Shimmer as her "family", but she kept her anger in check. "Does it matter?" Apple Bloom growled. "She had her chance and blew it! It just goes fer sure that she wasn't really yer friend and wants to hurt you!"

"But what if she wasn't?" Applejack countered. When Apple Bloom didn't answer, Applejack continued. "When the girls and Ah left her at the hallway that day... Ah thought the worst feeling was over. But instead... Ah felt worse! It hurt me so much to hear her cries as we left her, but Ah kept telling mahself that she was probably trying to trick me again and that it was fer the best. But as days passed and Ah watched her from the sidelines lookin' all miserable and whatnot, Ah couldn't help but to feel... guilty... for abandonin' her, even if she was the culprit." She sighed. "And then... Ah had the most disturbing thought... what if it wasn't her? Were her tears real? Was Ah so quick to blame her because Ah haven't really forgiven her? Or was Ah too stubborn to listen. The more Ah thought about it... the more Ah felt... confused... and scared. Scared... that Ah possibly broke off my friendship to Sunset fer something she didn't do! I don't want to believe it, but if it turned out to be the case... Ah would never fergive mahself!" She groaned miserably as she leaned her head on her hand. "Ah'm just so confused!"

Apple Bloom frowned. While she knew her sister will be upset with everything that happened for almost two weeks, but she never thought this would affect Applejack that much. Despite mostly believing Shimmer to be Anon-a-Miss, not only her sister blamed herself for ditching Shimmer, she also blamed herself for being a terrible friend. This also worried Apple Bloom that her sister was slowly realizing that Shimmer may not be the real culprit after all. While her sister can be super stubborn at times, but she is very smart, especially when it comes to reading people. 

"Um... Applejack?" Apple Bloom uttered nervously with some hesitation. "Um... let's say that Shimmer... theoretically isn't Anon-a-Miss... then who do ya think is the true culprit?"

Applejack thought for a minute before she sighed dejectedly. "Ah don't know Apple Bloom. Ah can't think of anybody else who could've been the one... other than Sunset." Her eyes then narrowed. "But if Ah find out that it really was someone else, than Ah will personally track that varmint down and then Ah'll will make him or her regret that they ever messed with me and mah friends!"

In her anger, Applejack punched another locker next to hers, leaving a huge dent on it. Apple Bloom gulped in fear from the sight. While she knew that Applejack was a pretty tough person, but what she just saw was Applejack barely using her full strength. She didn't want to imagine what her sister's full strength be like when she found out who the real Anon-a-Miss is.

Applejack snapped out of her angered state once she realized what she just did. After calming down, she turned to Apple Bloom with an apologetic expression.

"S-sorry you have to see that Apple Bloom. The thought of Anon-a-Miss alone and the possibly of Sunset being framed really ticked me off!"

"It's... it's no problem Applejack!" Apple Bloom stammered with a gulp. "B-but as it stands now, all the evidence pointed towards Shimmer! There really isn't any proof that it was someone else!"

"...I suppose yer right Apple Bloom," said Applejack with a resigned sigh before shaking her head. "But that doesn't mean that Ah'm happy about it. Even if Ah'm right about Sunset..." Applejack bowed her head to the point that her eyes were hidden from the edges of her stanton hat. "Ah couldn't help but feel... that Ah let her down."

Apple Bloom frowned, feeling bad for her sister. She then quickly put a smile on and then attempted to make Applejack feel better.

"Tell ya what Applejack, how about we bake some Christmas cookies, watched a few Holiday movies and drink hot cocoa together after school like we always do? I bet that would cheer ya–"

Applejack slammed her locker door shut, cutting Apple Bloom off. Without looking back up, Applejack flipped her backpack over her shoulder and let out a sigh.

"Sorry Apple Bloom... Ah'm not in a holiday mood right now. Ah... Ah need to be alone right now," she whispered before moving on to her next class.

Apple Bloom stood sadly as she watched her sister walking away with her head low. She really thought that her sister will bounced back after all the teasing she received from other students and breaking ties from Shimmer. But the fact that her sister didn't bounce back and actually felt worse from all that experience, Apple Bloom couldn't help but to feel guilty. A part of her wanted to stop her plan so she wouldn't continue suffering her sister any longer than she should, but she can't. There was still some doubt left from her sister even after she no longer friends with Shimmer. She needed to keep going until all her sister's doubts disappeared for good.

But why was her heart hurting so much just a thought of it?

Suddenly, she heard a jingle from her pocket, which was coming from her cell phone. Apple Bloom raised her eyebrow. She thought her friends broke off with her, why would they contact her now? Did they come to their senses and decided to text her for an apology? Curious, she took her phone out and unlocked her phone. She was surprised that it wasn't a text from either of her ex-friends at all. It was actually a text from Diamond Tiara! Wondering why she texted her, Apple Bloom opened up her message app and read the text.



DiamondGirl: hey AB! R you and the others free to meet up at the mall today after school?




Apple Bloom let out a small groan. She had completely forgotten that she promised Diamond Tiara last week during lunch that she and the others will go Christmas shopping with her on this date. On one hand, now wasn't a good time after the drama she had with her former friends yesterday. Not to mention, if she just showed up alone without Sweetie or Scootaloo, it could draw suspicion. On top of that, she had been super stressful now that she was flying solo as Anon-a-Miss. She should just tell Diamond that she has other "plans" and that they'll planned to hang out at another date. 

On the other hand, she had already promised Diamond multiple times that they'll hang out ever since Diamond turned a new leaf and Diamond was really looking forward to it. Apple Bloom couldn't bring herself to cancel their plans again and let Diamond down once more. Apple Bloom already lost her two best friends, she didn't want to lose another one. And other than posting some messages on MyStable as Anon-a-Miss... alone, she really didn't have any plans today. She could always come up with an excuse as to why the others not showing up and get herself distracted from all her troubles for a while.

With a sigh, Apple Bloom typed her phone with her fingers and replied the message back to Diamond.



AppleSeed109: the others cant come, but Ah'm available to hang out today



A few seconds later, Diamond responded back with a bunch of new messages.



DiamondGirl: awesome! :D

DiamondGirl: meet me by the fountain near the mall's main entrance

DiamondGirl: see ya later!




Apple Bloom sighed as she put away her phone and then headed to her next class. Hopefully, her little outing with Diamond Tiara will help her get her mind out of all this drama for the time being.





After many hours have passed and school was done for the day, Apple Bloom headed to Canterlot's Mall to meet with Diamond Tiara. As soon as she entered the main entrance, she spotted many people going around from one store to another just to get their Christmas shopping done for the day while a current Holiday themed music was playing in the background. But even after seeing many strangers with cheerful smiles and listening to an upbeat music, Apple Bloom couldn't bring herself to a Holiday mood with all the drama back at CHS continued to weigh on her mind.

Apple Bloom surveyed around the mall with her eyes to locate Diamond Tiara. After a few minutes, she finally found Diamond Tiara, who was standing near the mall's fountain waiting for her. Apple Bloom carefully maneuvered through the crowd and she made her way over to Diamond. As she got closer, Diamond spotted her and waved her over with a huge smile.

"Hey Diamond!" Apple Bloom greeted after she finally reached her friend. "Ah hope Ah didn't make you wait too long!"

"Not at all Apple Bloom!" Diamond replied cheerfully. "I didn't wait that long! I'm just glad that you made it!" Diamond then frowned. "It's too bad that the others couldn't make it."

Apple Bloom frowned from the mention of her two former friends. "...yeah... real shame." She then quickly changed the topic as she looked around. "Where's Silver Spoon?"

Diamond's cheerful attitude was suddenly replaced with a very sour expression. "She's not coming either!"

Apple Bloom blinked. "Why?"

"...I rather not want to talk about it!" Diamond responded quickly before she turned and walked down the mall in a hurry. "Let's just go shopping!"

"H-hey! Wait up Diamond!" Apple Bloom exclaimed before chasing after her.

For the next couple of hours, both Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara spend time shopping from one store to another throughout the mall. They've tried on different outfits, browse through different set of accessories and they even looked around the toy store for the fun of it. Apple Bloom was actually having a good time with Diamond Tiara. She enjoyed seeing the friendly and fun side of Diamond instead of a mean demeanor for once when she was a bully. Apple Bloom almost completely forgotten about the whole Anon-a-Miss drama from school.

Almost.

Eventually, both Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara went to the food court to take a break. Diamond bought the milkshakes for the both of them (Vanilla for Apple Bloom and Chocolate for Diamond) and then they went to one of the booth seats. The two of them took long sips of their shakes and then they let out a sigh of satisfaction.

"So Apple Bloom, enjoying yourself so far?" asked Diamond.

Apple Bloom took a quick sip of her drink with a thoughtful expression. "Well... shopping is a lot of work, but it was also so fun!"

"Especially when you shop with a friend!" Diamond added with a wink. "I'm glad you're having a good time! You looked like you need it!"

Apple Bloom blinked. "Ah do?"

Diamond nodded. "Yeah! I mean granted, you need all the help you could get with Christmas shopping since this is beyond your skills with farming... no offense."

"None taken."

"Plus you looked tired... and stressed for almost the past couple of weeks." Diamond then gave Apple Bloom a concerning frown. "Is everything okay with you?"

Apple Bloom looked down at the table and frowned. She didn't want to think about it, nor wanting to talk about it for many reasons. But after a quick glance at Diamond's concerned expression, she realized she couldn't get herself out of it. And unlike her bullying days, Diamond looked like she was actually worried for her friend and wanted to help. Since Apple Bloom had no one to talk to, maybe talking to someone outside of the CMC and her family would probably help her current issue... without revealing too much of course.

"Ah've... been having a rough time lately," Apple Bloom finally answered vaguely.

Diamond furrowed her brows with a frown. "Was this have anything to do with your sister and Anon-a-Miss?"

"Y-yeah... you could say that," Apple Bloom answered before looking up towards her friend. "This hasn't been so easy on my sister because of her... 'nickname' and then broke off with her... 'friend' because of it."

"It seems that this hasn't been easy on you either," Diamond pointed out gently. "I take that the others were upset that their sisters were victims too?"

They were more than upset, especially that they're involved in this! Apple Bloom thought before nodding. "Yeah..."

"Anon-a-Miss didn't get to you three too, did she?" Diamond pressed. "I can imagined all kinds of embarrassing things she'll post about you... not that I want to see you three humiliated again!"

With me currently in charge, fat chance! Apple Bloom inwardly deadpanned before speaking again. "She didn't... but in a way... she affected us too!"

"What happened?" Diamond asked with a concerned expression.

Apple Bloom let out a depressing sigh as she set her eyes towards her drink as if it was the most interesting thing to look at. "Let's just say... we have 'different opinions' about the Anon-a-Miss situation and... we ended up arguing a lot... and then we ended up saying and doing things to each other that we all end up regretting... that Ah end up regretting. And now... they hated me! And worst of all... Ah think Ah may have lost my friendship with them because of it."

"...just like me and Silver," Diamond muttered.

Apple Bloom quickly looked up to her friend. "Huh?"

Diamond closed her eyes and sighed through her nose. "We... had a really bad argument too... all because she did something so horrible to me that she betrayed my trust!"

Apple Bloom felt her heart drop, knowing that she (aka Anon-a-Miss) had something to do with it. "Did she... revealed your secrets to everyone?"

Diamond shook her head. "No... she did something much worse! She stole something from me... and showed them off like it was hers! When I confronted her about it, you know what she said to me?" 

When Apple Bloom shook her head, Diamond answered while imitating Silver in a mocking voice. 

"I'm just doing you a favor Tiara! This necklace looks better on me anyway!" Diamond scoffed angrily. "Like can you believe that! How selfish can she be!? I just don't know if I can forgive her for that! And would never have known that... if it wasn't for Anon-a-Miss!" 

Suddenly, Apple Bloom had lost her appetite for her milkshake after listening to Diamond's angry rant. "Oh... I see," Apple Bloom commented weakly.

Diamond growled as she slammed her fist on their table and looked down with a hard expression. "What's worse is that I don't know if I should hate Silver for backstabbing me in the back or...

Apple Bloom swallowed. "Or?"

Diamond's expression soften somewhat and sighed. "Or... if I should hate Anon-a-Miss... for single-handedly destroying my friendship... with my best friend."

Apple Bloom suddenly felt a huge twisted knot from her stomach. But it wasn't from her milkshake or some bad food she ate, it was from something else. She suddenly stood up, startling Diamond in the process. 

"Ah... Ah need to use the restroom! Excuse me!"

Before Diamond could say anything, Apple Bloom rushed towards the nearest restroom and locked the door behind her. For the next several minutes, Apple Bloom spent her time splashing water on her face to calm herself down. While the cool water made her feel better somewhat, that twisted feeling in her stomach was still there. 

She slowly looked up and stared herself from the mirror. Her hair was somewhat out of place despite her bow keeping it in place and her eyes were getting darker and baggier. She let out a tired sigh before she leaned towards the sink to splash water on her face again. When she was finished, she slowly stood up again in front of the mirror, only to recoiled in shook.

She didn't see her own reflection anymore. Instead, she saw a dark creature with flaming hair and wings, obscure from the shadows. The only thing that was visible was it's glowing eyes and an evil grin with fangs sticking out, which sends chills down to Apple Bloom's spine. What's even worse was that it was the very same creature who's been hunting in her dreams for days! 

"Boo!" she said tauntingly.

She let out a loud scream and fell backwards on to the floor, landing on her butt. She looked up towards the mirror again with frighten eyes, only to frown in confusion when she saw nothing. Cautiously, she slowly stood up to peak towards the mirror, only to see it was her reflection again instead of that dark creature. 

Wha– What the hay was that!? she exclaimed in thought. Am Ah seein' things? Why is Shimmer decided to torture me now of all times? Was many nights in mah dreams not enough to make me suffer!? She took a moment to breathe in and out through her nose until she calmed herself down. Maybe... I didn't get enough sleep. All that stress and sleep deprived is starting to made me hallucinate!

She sighed as she made her way out the restroom's door. [Ah better go back to Diamond. She's probably wonderin' why Ah took so long.

As soon as she stepped out of the restroom, she suddenly heard a commotion coming from the food court with some familiar voices shouting at each other.

"Give me back my necklace!"

"No!"

"I said give it back!"

"Make me!"

"Then I will!"

"Don't you dare!"

Apple Bloom's eyes widened. "Oh no!"

She quickly ran out towards the food court and towards where she was seating with Diamond. As she got closer, she noticed a big group of people, who were observing the commotion was blocking her way. Apple Bloom quickly shoved a few aside, ignoring their glares and rude remarks and made her way towards the center. When she finally got there, she spotted both Diamond and Silver Spoon yelling at each other while they were doing a tug-of-war on a sliver and sapphire necklace, which was currently on Silver's neck.

"Diamond! Silver! What's going on and why are you two fighting!?" Apple Bloom cried.

Still clutching on the necklace, Diamond turned to Apple Bloom while giving Silver her angry side glare. "I'll tell you what's going on! I had a new and fancy necklace that I got for my Birthday a month ago and it was my most favorite necklace! But then about a few weeks ago, it was missing and I asked my "best friend" over there if she had seen it but she said 'no'! I believed her... until Anon-a-Miss posted a picture of my "best friend", showing off my necklace to people behind my back!"

Apple Bloom inwardly cursed at Scootaloo for posting that image. She told her countless times not to post that due to their friendship with Diamond and Silver Spoon, but that Dodo head still posted it anyway. She'll have a few words to say to her ex-friend the next time she sees her... if she sees her that is.

Apple Bloom turned towards Silver with a disapproved expression. "Is this true Silver?"

Silver scoffed while refusing to let go of the necklace. "Yeah, I took that necklace! But I did her a favor since that necklace looks better on me anyway!"

"You did me a favor, my foot!" Diamond growled, tightening the necklace further. "You were jealous because I got this at the store before you and then you got jealous because of it!"

"Jealous!? You knew I wanted it and you stole it from me!" Silver shouted.

"My mother bought this for me fair and square!" Diamond spat.

"Since when did you do anything fair?" Silver asked with her voice filled with venom. "You always get your way and get everything you wanted by waving your daddy's money at everyone's faces!"

Diamond growled in rage. "You know what? I'm done talking to you! Give. Me. MY. NECKLACE!"

The two of them began to pull on the necklace from each other again. However as the continued to tug it, a crack was formed from the middle of the necklace. Apple noticed this and gasped.

"Girls stop! The necklace is gonna–"

But it was too late as the necklace finally broke into two, causing the two rich girls to fall back and dropped their halves of the necklace. Each half of the necklace was thrown into the air and then crashed to the floor, scattering many pieces of silver and blue jewelry in the process. By the time Diamond and Silver Spoon recovered, Diamond gasped at the site of her once beautiful necklace, now destroyed.

"MY NECKLACE!" Diamond screamed, upset to see her once necklace scattered across floor of the mall. She felt like she was going to cry in sadness over her destroyed necklace but then it was quickly replace with anger. She then pointed accusingly at her supposed best friend.

"Now look what you done! You destroyed it!"

Silver had a look of anger and disbelief on her face. "ME!? You're the one who pulled it too tight! And now it's ruined!"

"It wouldn't been ruined if you haven't stole it!" Diamond yelled.

"No. It wouldn't been ruined if you haven't bought it!" Silver shouted.

"U-um... girls–"

Both Diamond and Silver turned their heads at Apple Bloom with fierce glares. "BUTT OUT!"

Apple Bloom flinched from them in fear but decided to keep her mouth shut to avoid their wrath.

Diamond then turned back to Silver with narrowed eyes. "I just can't believe you Silver Spoon! You knew how much I loved that necklace! Not only you stole it from me from our sleepover a few weeks back, but you also lied to me! Just why? Why did you stole my necklace!?"

Silver faced Diamond with a disbelieving scoff. "Your necklace?"

"Yeah! My necklace! The one that belongs to me!" Diamond screamed.

"That necklace never belonged to you to begin with!" Silver yelled angrily.

Diamond growled. "What do you mean!?"

"You know exactly what I mean!"  Silver spat.

Feeling worried and confused with the situation, Apple Bloom decided to speak up. "Silver... what are you talking about?"

Silver turned to Apple Bloom with angry eyes while pointing at Diamond. "That necklace Diamond always likes to wear... actually belonged to my late grandmother!"

Both Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara widened their eyes in shock. 

"What!?" They both cried in union.

Silver sighed sadly. "My grandmother, bless her soul... used to wear that necklace all the time because it was originally a gift from my late grandfather before they got married. Even after he passed away shortly after my mother was born, she never remove it because she wanted a part of my grandfather with her. But at some point when I was born... we were having... financial problems and we barely made ends meet. So my grandmother... sold that necklace away for huge sums of money to help the family. 

"We eventually become rich, but my grandmother passed away before that happened. She did so much for us, so I wanted to find that necklace again so that I can have a part of my grandmother with me. I eventually found that necklace at the pawn shop of all places and I told Diamond that I'm planning to buy it. But even with some of my parents money... they wanted me to work for it as a way to do honest work. So I took a part time job for a while so that I can make enough money to purchase that necklace." 

Silver than becoming sad and somber as she continued. "When I finally had enough, I immediately headed to the store to buy it... only to find out that it was already purchased! I was so upset that I did all of that for nothing and that I'll never get a chance to get my grandmother's necklace again." 

Her expression then changed to anger and glared daggers at Diamond. "But then the next day of school... I saw her showing off that very same necklace that I worked so hard for to get it back! She knew that I wanted that necklace, so she just swooped in with her father's money and bought it for herself... like a spoiled little diva she truly is!"

Still shocked with the revelation, Apple Bloom turned towards Diamond who had a guilt expression. "Diamond... was that true?"

Diamond didn't hear Apple Bloom and tried to reach out to her best friend. "Silver Spoon... I-I had no-"

"Save it!" Silver spat with tears in he eyes. "I don't want to have anything to do with you anymore! If there's one thing I'll thank Anon-a-Miss for, was that she taught me that a bully like you never changes!"

Silver quickly turned and run away, leaving Apple Bloom and Diamond behind.

"Wait, Silver Spoon!" Apple Bloom shouted. "Come back! Yer being unfair! Ah don't think you know the full story! Maybe she didn't know that was your grandmother's! Isn't dat right Dia-"

Apple Bloom turned around to talk to Diamond Tiara, only to see no one but the crowd surrounding her.

"Diamond? Diamond, where did ya go!?"

She looked around frantically until she spotted Diamond who just broke through the crowd and ran towards the opposite direction of the mall.

"Diamond wait!" Apple Bloom cried and tried to give chance, only to be held in place by a firm grip from someone's hand.

"Hold it right there Missy!"

Apple Bloom looked up to see a female mall cop, who was giving her irritated look and pointed at all the scattered necklace pieces around the area.

"You're not going anywhere until you clean up all this mess that was left from your friends!"

Realizing that she couldn't get herself out of it, Apple Bloom slumped. 

"Aw... fiddlesticks!"
> Chapter 10: A Broken Diamond Pt. 2 (Apple Bloom)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After Apple Bloom finished cleaning up Diamond's and Silver's mess, she quickly went to the upper level of the mall to search for her missing friend. She tried to call and text Diamond earlier, but received no response, which made Apple Bloom more worried. Without a cell phone, it was  usually impossible to find someone in the mall due to the massive size of a building, which was almost the equivalent of a city. But Apple Bloom decided to head over to a certain area of the mall and hoped that her friend will be there. 

Thankfully, her hunch was right when she immediately spotted her friend who was sitting alone by the counter in an ice cream pub. Apple Bloom frowned as she watched Diamond Tiara eating her ice cream from a very large paper bowl with mascara running down her cheeks due to her tears. Apple Bloom had a feeling that Silver's words really affected Diamond greatly and felt terrible bout it since. Wanting to help her friend, Apple Bloom entered the pub and then gently approached Diamond.

"Diamond?" Apple Bloom spoke softly.

Hearing Apple Bloom, Diamond quickly wiped her face vigorously with her sleeve before facing her. "Oh... h-hey Apple Bloom. I-I'm sorry I ran off like that!"

Despite that she was forced to clean up Diamond's mess from earlier, Apple Bloom flashed her gently smile before taking her seat. "It's no biggie Diamond. Ah'm just glad Ah found ya!"

Diamond sniffed. "H-how did you find me?"

Apple Bloom shrugged. "Well... Ah'll admit, it was a wild guess, but Ah knew that you come here because this was yer favorite spot, even when we were younger."

"Y-yeah," said Diamond with a whimsical smile on her face. "My daddy used to take me here whenever he had time off, just to spend time with me... even if it was only a few hours. I would... often ordered as many scoops of ice cream as I can for my cone. I'm sure my daddy's bill was pretty high from all those scoops, but he doesn't care as long as I'm happy."

Apple Bloom nodded with a smile of her own. "Do ya remember how we first met?"

"Yeah and I'll never forget it!" Diamond answered with a chuckle. "It was another day like that with my daddy. But unlike the usual, he told me that he's meeting his business partner there while we're having ice cream. I was annoyed with him that he brought work to our bonding time again, but I also didn't care since I'll be getting ice cream anyway."

"Little did you know that it was mah Granny he was meeting with!" Apple Bloom added. "And she brought me with her, except she told me that she's having a friendly chat with an old friend while Ah can hang out with his daughter as her playdate."

"Y-yeah..." Diamond responded with a sudden frown and a hint of regret from her eyes. "We didn't get along to the point that I knocked your ice cream cone from your hand to the floor and made you cry. My daddy was so mad at me that he made me apologize to you and then punished me by not having any more deserts for a month! Needless to say... I resented you for getting me in trouble at the time, so I decided to name you as my 'enemy'." She then bowed her head in shame. "I must have been so awful to you that you must have hated me since then."

Apple Bloom shook her head. "Ah never hated you Diamond!" said Apple Bloom. "Sure, parts of me was still sore about the things you've done to me and mah f-" Realizing what she was going to say, Apple Bloom quickly corrected herself. "Ah mean... other classmates... I could never bring mahself to hate you!"

Diamond slowly looked up and turned towards Apple Bloom with a serious expression. "Would you hate me if I'm as bad as Sunset?"

Apple Bloom was taken aback by Diamond's question. "What about her?" Apple Bloom asked with a somewhat hard tone. "You're nothing like her!"

"Maybe in some cases like suddenly turned into a She-Demon, but she and I are actually alike!" Diamond pointed out before taking another bite of her ice cream. "I bullied everyone, I used cunning tricks to get ahead of my enemies, I even blackmailed a few just to have my way! But the worse of it was... I looked to Sunset as my idol! Despite all the horrible things she had done, I wanted to be big and untouchable just like her."

Apple Bloom wasn't surprised by this revelation, considering that Diamond used to be a bully herself. She now had another reason why Shimmer should be stopped. With Shimmer out of the picture, she won't influence anyone to do mean things like her again!

"Well... Ah guess she's no longer your idol after the Fall Formal right? Especially now that she made many pathetic attempts to change her ways," Apple Bloom said with a chuckle as if it was a joke.

Diamond looked down. "Actually, what she was doing now... made me admired her even more!"

Apple Bloom widened her eyes in shock. "Huh!?"

Diamond took another bite of her ice cream and sighed. "Sure, I was upset at first that she just threw all that power away just to make friends with people who was beneath her. But after watching her for a while... she actually turned herself around and become a better person despite all the hardships she had to get through." She then smiled. "And when I saw her looking so happy when she hanged out with the Rainbooms, she actually... inspired me. So when you gave me an offer to start over after you three helped me with my... "problem", I decided to accept it and turn over a new leaf... just like her."

Apple Bloom barely kept her jaw from dropping onto the table. All this time, the very reason why Diamond decided to turn over a new leaf and become a her friend, was because of Shimmer of all people. The very girl that Apple Bloom despite so much, turned out to be a positive influence to Diamond? Apple Bloom couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Ya mean... you decided to be nice me... and everyone around you... all because of her?" Apple Bloom asked with disbelief.

Diamond grinned. "Well... not everything from her. You three helped set me straight big time and I owe you guys for that, but seeing her also owning up to her mistakes and becoming a better person, gives me the final push to step out of my mother's shadow and become the person I wanna be. And things went well for me!" Diamond's then frowned and let out a deep sigh. "But then... when Anon-a-Miss showed up and people believing it was Sunset, people were starting to doubt if people changed. So naturally, everyone doubted that I changed too... including my best friend."

Apple Bloom stared at Diamond as if she just grew a second head. "WAT!? That's crazy! You have changed!"

"Am I?" Diamond challenged. "I knew that Silver wanted this necklace so badly and I knew that she worked hard to get this! And yet... I got it before she has the chance to buy it!"

Apple Bloom eyes were now as wide as dinner plates. "So the things Silver had said was true?! Did... did ya knew that it once belonged to her grandmother's?"

"NO! I didn't know that it was her grandmother's, I swear!" Diamond exclaimed, upset from her friend's assumption. After receiving an apologetic expression from Apple Bloom, Diamond looked down with a miserable look on her face. "But even so... I still kept it for myself."

Apple Bloom frowned, still felt confused. "But I don't get it! Why did you buy that necklace even though your friend wanted it?"

Diamond closed her eyes. "Actually... my mother bought it for me."

"Your mother!?" Apple Bloom cried in shock. "How was she involved?"

Diamond sighed. "It's like this..."





It was another boring day at the pawn shop. No customers were around or cared enough to show up to browse or buy whatever junk they have to offer. It was so dull and boring, even the person behind the register was napping with his one arm keeping is head up. That all changed when the bell rang after the store entrance opened, awaking the register person in the process. Immediately, a tall proud woman with long purple hair wearing a golden necklace, a blue dress shirt and a long blue skirt walked into the store with her nose up. That woman was none other than Spoiled Rich, Filthy Rich's wife and Diamond's mother. Following behind her was Diamond Tiara with an annoyed expression on her face, looking around the store with disgust.

"I don't get it mother, why are we here?" Diamond huffed.

Spoiled turned to her daughter with a mocked shocked expression. "Why Diamond, you mean that I, your mother, can't come in here and buy a birthday present for my dear daughter?"

"...my birthday was three months ago!" Diamond deadpanned.

"Details, details!" Spoiled waved off her daughter. "Anyway, even though this store doesn't match my... taste, it is perfect to get you something that has the finest and cheapest things to buy!"

"Gee... thanks mother," said Diamond in a sarcastic tone.

Spoiled looked around the store with judgemental eyes, scanning one item after another. Her eyes lit up the moment her eyes landed on the very item she was looking for.

"Oooh! This one is perfect!"

Diamond turned where her mother was looking and her eyes widened in shock. There, underneath the glass dome was a beautiful silver necklace with a blue sapphire gen in the center. It looked like it has been around for a long time judging from a few marks and maybe a small scratch, and yet it looked brand new! It was so shinny, it nearly blinded her due to the light which was reflected from the ceiling lights. Diamond attitude would've changed drastically and love the idea of her mother buying that necklace just for her, except for one crucial detail of this familiar necklace that she hesitated the idea to suggest her mother to buy it right away.

"Mom, that necklace... it's–"

"The loveliest necklace you've ever seen?" Spoiled cut in with an eager smile of her own. "Oh I knew you'll agree with me! And the price for it is doable... but I think I can fine a way to convince the clerk to make it more manageable."

Just as Spoiled made her way to the register in intent to buy the necklace, Diamond spoke up.

"But Mother... I can't have this necklace!"

Spoiled stopped in her tracks and turned to her daughter with a surprised yet questionable look. "And why not?"

Diamond gulped and answered meekly. "My... best friend wanted that necklace."

Spoiled raised her eyebrow. "Well if she wanted it, then why didn't she buy it?"

"Because her parents made her get a job and chores to make her own money," Diamond replied in defense for her best friend. "She... said something about building character and... learning about honest work."

Spoiled let out an exasperated sigh and shook her head. "Making their own rich daughter work? Where is this world coming to?" She then turned fully around and gave Diamond her stern expression. "Well it looks like it's her lost and your gain. We're getting this necklace!"

"But mom–"

Spoiled glare intensely, silencing Diamond's protests. Spoiled then spoke up with a low no nonsense voice.

"Listen here Diamond, we're living in a dog eat dog world! We Riches have to be on top for our social status and we must do whatever we can to make ourselves look the best and get ahead of our competitors... including from your best friend. Remember that!"





"So typically... I believed her. I knew it wasn't right to take what my best friend wanted, but I ignored my guilt and have to wear this proudly like it was a trophy as mother instructed," she concluded with a look of regret on her face. "But if I have known that it was once belong to Silver's grandmother... I could have give that necklace to her in a heartbeat... reformed or not!"

"But it was not your fault," said Apple Bloom. "You didn't know better because you have been misguided by your mother and she was teaching you the wrong things about being your own person!"

Diamond shook her head. "Even without my mother's involvement or not knowing that the necklace once belonged to Silver's grandmother... that was still no excuse. I should have refused that necklace or just give it to Silver afterwords! But instead... I kept it, like a selfish rich snob I am. And on top of that... the necklace was destroyed because of my actions!" She looked down with a sniff. "Some friend I was!"

Apple Bloom hated seeing her friend for sad and beating herself up from her past actions. In attempt to cheer her up, Apple Bloom placed her hand on Diamond's shoulder, which caught the latter's attention.

"Diamond... believe me when Ah say this, you are not the same person you once were a few months ago! You felt bad for everything you did and you made up to the people you've wronged! Heck, the fact that you felt guilty about keeping your best friend's necklace right now proves that you've have changed for the better!"

"...Apple Bloom," Diamond breathed in awe. She sniffed again while trying to wipe her one side of her face with her sleeve to prevent herself from crying again. "That really means a lot coming from you!" She frowned sadly. "But that doesn't change how the others saw me, even my best friend."

"Ah'm sure if you explained this and apologized to Silver, she'll forgive ya!" Apple Bloom suggested.

"Sunset apologized to everyone but people still hated her!" Diamond pointed out. "And now they blamed her as Anon-a-Miss!"

Apple Bloom inwardly groaned, annoyed from the mention of a certain bacon-haired girl. "Shimmer's different! Of course she's-"

"Don't tell me you've bought that garbage too!" Diamond growled aggressively, surprising Apple Bloom from Diamond's sudden one-eighty from her emotions! "Was it because of her silhouette online? I know the old Sunset was cunning and used to do bad things behind the scenes without having anything traced back to her, but she would never do something this slippery to make people think it was her! The people who bought that were either too stupid or used this opportunity against Sunset all because they still have a grudge against her!" Her eyes then narrowed at Apple Bloom. "What about you Apple Bloom? Are you really that stupid to believe that Sunset was Anon-a-Miss... or did you have some kind of a grudge against Sunset?"

Apple Bloom suddenly felt uncomfortable for being put on the spot. She can't tell Diamond that she's Anon-a-Miss or else she'll be madder than she was already. Apple Bloom desperately tried to come up with a excuse to put the blame on Shimmer.

"W-well she... she used to bully mah sister," Apple Bloom reasoned.

Diamond stared at Apple Bloom for a whole minute before shrugging. "Well okay, I guess I'll give you that! I can understand why you were so quick on thinking it was Sunset." 

Apple Bloom sighed in relief, glad that she got herself off the hook. But her relief was short lived when Diamond was suddenly in her face again. 

"But had she done anything else bad against you or your sister?"

Realizing that she was not completely off the hook, Apple Bloom tried to come up with a reason again. "She... made Applejack spend more time with her!" Than me! she added internally. 

Diamond raised an brow. "Did she really forced your sister to spend time with her or did your sister chose to spend with her? Need I remind you, your sister spent a lot of time with the other Rainbooms, how was this any different?"

Apple Bloom began to sweat as she desperately trying come up with another reason profusely. "Well... Shimmer could've secretly biding her time.. and then take out mah sister and her friends as revenge fer stopping her during the Fall Formal!"

Diamond turned away while she appeared to be in deep thought. "Hmm... I suppose she could have. If the old me was in her shoes, I would feel bitter and angry enough to come up a way to get back at you three for stopping me from taking over the school and another dimension where that princess lived too!"

Apple Bloom stared at Diamond's sudden attitude with her confused expression, wondering what brought this on. She was about to comment about it but Diamond continued.

"I mean, if I really wanted revenge, I guess I shouldn't have decided to befriend you three, despite now that everyone in the school feared and hated me. But then again... I guess you could argue that by befriending you and your friends, it would've given me the opportunity to learn more about you three, especially your "weaknesses" so that I could use them to my advantage. I could let your specific "weakness" slip to another student about you anytime, letting the rumors grow. I could expose your secrets as soon as I heard about it within a week or two, as opposed to months afterwards. Heck, I could've teamed up with those Dazzling girls and helped them take over the school and the world, while taking you three down as a bonus! I could've done all those things... but I didn't." She sighed sadly. "I knew that if I did... nothing good to gain from all of this. People will continue to look at me with great hatred, I'll lose my best friend, no one wanted to have anything to do with me and I'll be alone for the rest of my life... just like my mother."

Apple Bloom stared at her friend in shock. What Diamond just said about the things she'll do if she was still a bully terrified her, but at the same time, it all sounded too extreme and ridiculous. Diamond may have been a mean person back then, but even Apple Bloom knew that Diamond wouldn't be cruel enough to get back at her and her friends. Plus, she can't stand seeing her friend berating herself up for her past mistakes and thinking of becoming a heartless person like her mother.

"Diamond... none of those things you said are true! You're not that kind of person anymore! That would never happen!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, trying to cheer her friend up.

Diamond turned back to face Apple Bloom with an unconvinced expression. "Well... maybe it could've if I continued to go down that dark path without you three! And I'm sure it would happen the same way with Sunset too if she never decided to let those girls befriend her!"

Apple Bloom blinked in surprise. Was this Diamond's way of using herself as an example and list off those so-called "revenge" ideas she would use against the CMCs after being friends for so long with no benefits in doing so afterwords... was just to prove a point how ridiculous Apple Bloom's thoughts were about Shimmer? Before she could spoke up, Diamond leaned closer to her with narrowed eyes.

"Whether you agree with me or not... I still believe she's innocent, despite what others think!"

She sighed as she backed away from Apple Bloom and looked down with a sad expression. "But then again, if people are so quick to blame Sunset easily despite all the efforts she did to change, then what does it say about me? I guess your past will forever hunt you no matter what you did to show others that you're not the same bully anymore. It just makes me wonder... if I should even bother trying."

As Diamond continued to look down dejectedly, Apple Bloom stared at Diamond with a guilt expression. She had no idea how much this affect her rich friend. While she and her friends played their part to help Diamond, it was Shimmer who influenced Diamond to become a better person and part of their group, as much as Apple Bloom hated to admit it. But because of her actions, Apple Bloom inadvertently caused Diamond to doubt herself and potentially broke up her longtime friendship with Silver. Then she thought about all the other things that happened around her because of Anon-a-Miss. Everyone become embarrassed and upset because their secrets were out, they all fought and blamed each other, breaking off friendships left and right, Shimmer was marked as the culprit and suffered for it, her sister and the Rainbooms were miserable, and her two best friends left her... after she herself used and hurt them. She did all of this chaos... was just to get her sister back.

With everything that happened as Anon-a-Miss, only one question came to Apple Bloom's mind.

Was this all really worth it?
> Chapter 11: The She-Demon (Apple Bloom)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was later in the early evening at the suburb area of Canterlot city. After the two talked from the mall, Diamond decided to call the rest of their hangout off, who was still depressed after meeting her ex-best friend. Apple Bloom sighed heavily as she walked down the snowy path towards her home, while carrying her bags full of purchased goods. Her conversation with Diamond was still fresh on her mind. Her actions as Anon-a-Miss really affected her friendship with Silver Spoon. It was so hard to imagine them not being best friends anymore since those two were together for so long like they were sisters, even back when they were bullies. She would feel terrible if their friendship was really beyond repair. She was also starting to think about how many other friendships she destroyed along the way just to get to Shimmer. She usually ignored her guilt just for the sake of her mission, but lately, her guilt was getting harder and harder to ignore. 

She didn't know how long she was walking, but judging from the sun setting out from the horizon suggested that she was out for a long time. Luckily for her, she reached her house on Sweet Apple Acres and entered through the door just in time for dinner. Upon entering her house, she put away her coat and boots by the door and walked down into the hallway and into the kitchen. From there, she spotted her big brother, Big Macintosh on the table with a miserable look. 

Apple Bloom sighed internally from guilt upon seeing her brother. A few days ago, she received an email from one of the students of a recorded video of Sugar Belle, Big Mac's girlfriend. In that video, Sugar Belle was at the mall with her friends, eating lunch while having a conversation, mostly about boys. At some point, she was talking about someone, assuming her big brother. It was hard to make out, but she mentioned the lines of "he doesn't need to visit me anymore" and "he's going to be on his own". The biggest shock of all, Sugar Belle said "we're finished" after one of her friends told her to just be honest, implying that she was going to break up with Big Macintosh. Thinking that this would be another ammo to use against Shimmer, Apple Bloom decided to post that video on Anon-a-Miss's page with a tagline: 



"Look's like she's already bored with her boyfriend!"



Needless to say, her brother broke up with Sugar Belle before she could even explain, leaving him depressed ever since.

Apple Bloom then turned towards her grandmother, Granny Smith, who was just taking out the roast from the oven with her mitts. Upon taking the roast out, Granny Smith finally noticed her young granddaughter.

"Oh... hey Apple Bloom," Granny Smith greeted quietly. "Yer just in time fer dinner. Put yer things down and come join us at the table."

"Yes Granny Smith," said Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom placed her bags down on the counter as instructed and then headed over to the table. She took a chair that was next to her brother and sat down. She glanced at her brother as a silent greeting, who only nodded as response. Granny Smith wordlessly placed the food on the table before taking her own seat.

The three of them began to dig into their meals without saying a word in silence. Apple Bloom hated having a depressing atmosphere during their family dinner. She preferred having a much lively dinner with her family full of laughter and cheerfulness as they talked. But with the circumstances going on in almost the past two weeks, her family's dinner times was never the same, especially for Applejack. 

Speaking of her sister, Apple Bloom finally noticed someone was missing from their dinner when she glanced at an empty seat across from her.

"Um Granny... where's Applejack?" Apple Bloom asked.

Granny Smith paused, swallowing her food and then she let out a sad sigh. 

"Applejack... won't be joining us today."

"Why not?" Apple Bloom pressed.

"...she's not feeling well," her grandmother responded with some hesitation.

Apple Bloom frowned worriedly, already knew what this was about. "It's because of what had been happening at school wasn't it?"

"Eeyep," Big Mac answered with a miserable sigh.

With the cat out of the bag, Granny Smith sighed again and looked up towards the ceiling. "Poor gal... all them rotten kids continued to taunt her with that nickname that she hated so much. But that was the least of her worries!" She looked down again and took a small sip of her drink. "While she suspected that Sunset gal be the culprit, she felt terrible for abandonin' her like that instead of hearing her out. She wanted to go talk to her, but she was too afraid to ask. And on top of that... she and her friends don't talk to each other much anymore ever since they disowned that Shimmer girl."

Apple Bloom stared back at her grandmother in shock. The fact that her sister didn't hang out with her friends much anymore was news to her. Did she really caused so much damage that she unintentionally break up the Rainbooms? And why didn't her sister tell her about this? Was Apple Bloom so focused on getting revenge against Shimmer that she never noticed this or was it simply because Applejack chose not to say anything for some reason?

"But... Ah've seen them sat together at lunch all the time!" Apple Bloom exclaimed.

"Ah said talk, not hanging out," Granny Smith pointed out in a firm tone. "But even so, those girls have become distant from each other since then!"

"But... why?" Apple Bloom asked.

Granny Smith looked down towards her plate with a tired frown. "Ah can't speak for her friends, but with that Anon-a-Miss nonsense going on at the school, Applejack had a hard time trusting people with anything... including her own friends."

Apple Bloom gaped at her grandmother, not believing what she was hearing. "But... I know her friends! They would never do anything to betray AJ's trust!"

"How can you be so sure?" Granny Smith challenged. "Yer sister thought the same thing about Sunset before she found very strong evidence against her! And even if it wasn't Sunset, then how would she know that it was one of her other friends who revealed her secret since they spent the most time with her! Why, she even thinks it could be Rainbow Dash by getting back at her for unfairly break up her friendship over that bake sale incident a while back!"

"WAT! But that's ridiculous!" Apple Bloom cried. "Ah know those two butted heads sometimes, but Rainbow Dash is the most loyal person Ah know! She would never betray her that dat!"

Granny Smith sighed through her nose. "Oh I know that dearie... but that's what yer sister thinks, despite me telling her how ridiculous that sounded. Still, she had a hard time trusting anyone after she stayed at Rarity's the other week." She then frowned and her eyes narrowed. "But if you ask me... Ah think it was more than that."

Apple Bloom tilted her head. "What do you mean Granny?"

Granny Smith was silent for a moment, deep in thought until she finally answered. "Ah think... it was because of the fact that they left Sunset behind... they weren't the same since. Whether they admit it or not... Sunset was a major part of their clan, making them the happiest group of friends they can be with an unbreakable bond. But by leaving that girl behind... they left their heart of their group with them."

Apple Bloom stared back at her grandmother with mixed feelings. On the one hand, her grandmother's explanation makes perfect sense. Ever since the Fall Formal, she had seen her sister and her friends becoming much closer than ever... including Shimmer. Just seeing them getting along, having fun and enjoying each other's company inspired other students to become friends with other people, even outside their own cliques. There were even rumors that the Rainbooms already won "Best Friends" category for the upcoming yearbook. If Apple Bloom really single-handedly destroyed the Rainbooms friendship for going after one person, then she felt even more guilty than ever.

But on the other hand, she hated the idea that Shimmer herself is the "heart" of the group. Apple Bloom went through all that hardship to get rid of Shimmer, in hopes that her sister will come back to her and then realizes that she'll be better off without that equestian girl. But the fact that her sister and her friends will not go back to the way it was without Shimmer would anger Apple Bloom to no end. Shimmer was now starting to become a disease to her that she couldn't get rid of no matter what she does.

Apple Bloom breathed through her nose to calm herself before asking her grandmother this particular question.

"Do you think... that Shimmer is innocent Granny?"

Granny Smith blinked for a moment, processing her granddaughter's question before answering. "If you asked me that months ago, Ah would think that she's as guilty as sin! But after getting to know the gal after the Fall Formal... it's hard to imagined her of being the culprit at all."

Not satisfied with her grandmother's answer, Apple Bloom resumed eating her meal without saying another word.





After dinner, Apple Bloom slowly climbed up the stairs to her bedroom. She told her grandmother that she had some homework to do, but in actuality, she just wanted to just lay on her bed and mope. All that drama from the school, her ex-best friends, Diamond Tiara and her sister was really getting into her and she just wanted to escape from all that stress. As she was walking down the hallway to her bedroom, she stopped when she heard a very quiet sniffle. She turned and then realized that she was standing in front of her sister's bedroom now. And judging from what Apple Bloom was hearing, her sister sounded really upset and was trying to keep herself quiet so that she don't make everyone in the house worry.

Obviously... she failed.

Worried for her sister, Apple Bloom gently knocked on her sister's door to et her attention.

"Um... Applejack?" Apple Bloom said quietly.

"W-what is it Apple Bloom," Applejack replied through the door in a hoarse voice from all the crying.

Apple Bloom swallowed. "Are... you okay in there?"

"Ah'm fine Apple Bloom!" Applejack replied a little too quickly, but Apple Bloom was not buying it.

"Applejack... yer a terrible liar! Ah know yer not fine!"

"Ah said Ah'm fine Apple Bloom!" Applejack said stubbornly.

Apple Bloom sighed. "Ah know what happened with you and yer friends AJ! Ah'm sorry that happened to ya, but hiding in yer room crying all night won't make things better! You need to come out!"

"Ah can come out whenever Ah want!" Applejack shouted. "It's bad enough that Ah was humiliated everyday and lost my friend because of it! Now Ah'm gonna lose the rest of mah friends again just like what happened the first time, but I don't know if Ah could trust any of them! Ah just... Ah just don't know what to do anymore!"

"C'mon Applejack, you know yer friends would never do that to ya!" Apple Bloom pleaded. "And besides, yer in there fer a long time now Applejack! And we're all very worried about you!"

When Applejack didn't respond, Apple Bloom decided to try another approach to get her sister to come out of her bedroom. "Listen, how about you... c'mon out and... we'll watch Rudolph or something while we drink hot cocoa! We can even make some Christmas dolls for the fireplace just like we used to! I bet that'll cheer you up!"

Apple Bloom waited by the door like it felt for an eternity until her sister finally responded. "I'm sorry Apple Bloom... but Ah'm not in the mood right now! Just... leave me alone!"

Apple Bloom felt her heart drop from her sister's cold response. "But Applejack–"

"LEAVE!" Applejack screamed, making Apple Bloom wince.

Apple Bloom just stood like a statue with a frighten look, expecting more shouting from her sister. After a moment of silence, she heard her sister start crying again, but in much louder volume this time. Apple Bloom looked down both in defeat and sadness for failing to coax her sister out. Most of all, she felt extremely guilty for causing her sister to suffer a severe heartbreak. Not just from all the teasing. Not just making her break up Shimmer. But also destroying her sister's friendships with the Rainbooms.

The ones she also considered them... her family.

Apple Bloom let out a somber sigh and placed her palm over her sister's door.

"...Ah'm sorry sis." Apple Bloom whispered quietly before she headed to her own bedroom with her head low.





Apple Bloom blinked and looked around the area with an confused look on her face.

"W-where am Ah?" Apple Bloom asked out loud. "What's going on?"

She noticed that she was in the school's hallway, but much darker due to lack of any light source. She doesn't remember why she was in school or how she got here. Her confusion was short lived when she heard that familiar evil laugh, echoing from the darkness. 

"Heheheheheheh!"

....

....

....

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Apple Bloom's eyes widened. "Oh no... NOT AGAIN!"

She turned just in time to see a shadowy figure with demon wings from the other side of the hall. Frightened from the sight of it, Apple Bloom turned and ran away, hoping to get away from the evil demon. She kept on running like it was in a marathon and desperately made some turns to a different hallway in hopes of losing her pursuer. But no matter how far she ran, the demon was still behind her, laughing mockingly. Eventually, Apple Bloom reached the central hallway of the school and nearly screamed.

The main hallway was filled with students she recognized from CHS. However, their behaviors was anything but normal. Each student was just standing around, swaying slightly with blank expressions on their faces as if they were in a trance. What was even more alarming was that all the students eyes were glowing.

Just like what happened to them from the Fall Formal.

It wasn't just the students who were hypnotised. Apple Bloom also spotted some teachers and staff who were also victims of the She-Demon's magic. Like Mr. Cranky Doodle, Mrs. Harshwhinny, Ms. Cheerilee, and even Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna. She then spotted her two ex-best friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, Granny Smith, her brother Big Macintosh and, to Apple Bloom's horror, her sister Applejack along with the rest of the Rainbooms.

There was no one left... except herself.

Apple Bloom heard the sounds of the Demon's laughter again, but much more louder. However, Apple Bloom no longer was frightened from the demon. Instead, she was annoyed and frustrated. Finally fed up from all the torments from the She-Demon, Apple Bloom turned towards the direction where she ran from.

"Alright, Ah have enough!" Apple Bloom shouted angrily. "You wanna get to me so badly? Then, come out and face me Shimmer!"

"Shimmer?" the voice said in a mock confusion tone before chuckling. "I believe you are either mistaken or in denial, but I can assure you... I'm not her."

"Cut the bull Shimmer!" Apple Bloom growled. "Ah knew it was you! It was bad enough that you bullied everyone including mah sister, took her away from me and pretended to be her friend! And now you took my friends away from me and yer somehow hunting my dreams as revenge for taking you down!" She then pointed her finger towards the darkness. "Just admit it! You were planning to enslave us again and you were upset that Ah foiled everything! You're nothing but an evil She-Demon and you'll always will be!"

"...yep. You are definitely in denial," The voice sighed as if it was coming from a disappointed parent. "It's pathetic that you're so blind with everything you've done, you don't see the truth which was right in front of you the whole time!"

Apple Bloom's eyes narrowed. "What are ya talking about?"

"Look at the crowd again... and look hard!" The voice suggested.

Apple Bloom scoffed as she turned around. "You hypnotized everyone from mah school again! Ah don't see how this is any–"

She stopped when she noticed something that she completely missed the first time she arrived. From behind the Rainbooms, there was something, or rather someone, was hidden from plain sight. Curious, but also nervously, Apple Bloom slowly walked towards the Rainbooms. When she was close enough, she slowly walked around them so that she can get a proper look at the mysterious person. When she did, Apple Bloom was shocked.

There stood the last person that Apple Bloom never thought she would find was none other than Sunset Shimmer. Just like the rest of the people in this room, she just stood there motionless in a hypnotic stance with glowing eyes! However, unlike the others, Sunset Shimmer appearance looked rough, as if she just came out of a fight. Her skin was all pale, her clothes was partly torn and ripped, her hair was all messy, she got bruises and scrapes all over her body. But what really stood out the most to Apple Bloom was that there were tears flowing down Shimmer's cheeks, despite that her eyes were glowing.

Taken aback from the sight of Shimmer, Apple Bloom slowly backed away. "W-what's going on!? Why is Sunset Shimmer part of the zombie group too!?" She lingered her gaze at the sad older girl in front of her for a while, until her eyes narrowed and turned towards the dark hallway again. "Unless this is some kind of trick!"

"Really? You still don't realize it yet?" said voice, who was tsking in the background in disappointment. "Very well... Ah guess it's finally time to make my debut!"

Before Apple Bloom could speak, the glowy eyes suddenly appeared from the darkness, which startled her. Then, the flames from above the eyes ignited, illuminated almost the entire room. Apple Bloom immediately turned away and raised her arm to shield her eyes from the sheer brightness of the flames. When the light died down a bit, Apple Bloom decided to lower her arm and slowly turned back. When she did, Apple Bloom was shocked beyond belief.

For the very first time, Apple Bloom got a good look at the She-Demon without the shadows obscuring her vision. The She-Demon looked almost exactly the same from the Fall Formal: tall boots, red skin, a flaming dress, flaming hair and tail, two huge demon wings on its back and a wicked smile on its face. However, unlike the She-Demon from the Fall Formal, there were also some MAJOR difference to this one. For one thing, the Demon was actually shorter than the previous one. The flames for the Demon's head and tail were two different shades of red instead of red and yellow. The flaming dress the She-Demon was wearing was actually green. The color of its glowing eyes was bright orange instead of teal. The She-Demon even wore a huge red-pink bow at the back of its head. But the most horrifying thing of all was the facial features of the Demon. The Demon's face was not the face of Sunset Shimmer at all.

It was actually her own face!

"Wha- what is this!?" Apple Bloom exclaimed with a tremor from her voice. "Who... who are you!?"

Demon Apple Bloom scoffed. "What are ya, blind? Ah'm you!"

Apple Bloom tilted her head in confusion, but still frightened. "If you are me... then who am I?"

Demon Apple Bloom growled and facepalmed. "UGH! You're so stupid!" She then pointed her red finger at Apple Bloom. "You're you as well!"

Apple Bloom growled. "Enough! You are clearly the same She-Demon from the Fall Formal, but with MY looks instead of Shimmer's! This has to be a trick!"

Demon Apple Bloom shook her head. "Even after you finally have a clear look at me... you're still in denial!" Demon Apple Bloom sighed and then gave Apple Bloom her serious look. "Very well, let me try to... dumb this down for you. I am not Sunset Shimmer OR the She-Demon from the Fall Formal. I am simply... a hidden part of you! Or rather... your darker part."

Apple Bloom's eyes widened. "My... darker part?"

Demon Apple Bloom smirked. "Yes," she chuckled. "I exited deep within from your anger... and your hatred."

"Wat! HATE!? A–ah don't hate anyone!" Apple Bloom cried in disbelief.

Demon Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "From the member of the Apple family, you're a terrible liar! You hated a lot of things! Being left alone, treated like a little kid, bullies, math and most of all... Sunset Shimmer! The one life that you're desperately trying to destroy!"

Apple Bloom stomped her foot. "Hey! If yer me, then you should know the good reason why Ah–"

"Oh don't give me that same excuse that you used on everybody!" Demon Apple Bloom interrupted. "You've done that so many times enough to make me PUKE!"

"But it's da truth!" Apple Bloom shouted. "She is a bully for a long time and caused so much suffering from mah school! And after she was stopped, she wasn't being punished for it! Ah have to do something to put Shimmer in her place until she's out of mah life so that she won't threaten or harm anyone ever again!"

"...ya done?" Demon Apple Bloom asked in a bored tone. "All I'm hearing from you were nothing but petty excuses. You nearly bored me to death!"

Apple Bloom growled. "But that was what she–"

"SILENCE!" Demon Apple Bloom roared, scaring Apple Bloom in the process. "I let you speak! Now it's MY turn!" She then crossed her arms. "While I concede that Shimmer bullied everyone, including your sister ever since she arrived at CHS. But have she done anything bad after the Fall Former? Think back Apple Bloom, what bad things have she done since then?"

Apple Bloom opened her mouth to speak.

"And don't say, "She took your sister away from you"!" Demon Apple Bloom added. "But don't worry, we'll get to THAT topic later!"

Apple Bloom huffed in annoyance but she complied. "Okay fine! She..."

Apple Bloom paused, having a hard time coming up with any recent "bad things" done by Sunset Shimmer. 

"She... she..."

"She... what?" Demon Apple Bloom asked in a mocking tone.

"She... interrupted me and mah friends painting the Musical Showcase banner!" Apple Bloom finally answered.

Demon Apple Bloom was unimpressed with the answer. "If memory served me well, she was asking YOU if she wanted to help you paint."

Apple Bloom frowned but she tried again. "Um... what about when she competed in the Battle of the Bands? E-especially when she knocked Rainbow Dash off the stage during her performance!"

"You were brainwashed at the time!" Demon Apple Bloom pointed out. "And besides, didn't your sister tell you that she was trying to prevent Rainbow Dash from revealing her powers to those evil sirens?"

Apple Bloom nearly cursed out but held back. "W-well... what about when she bumped into me in the hallway almost a couple weeks ago!"

"Okay now you're just grasping straws!" Demon Apple Bloom scoffed. "She bumped into you by accident and offered to help pick your stuff up, only for you to turned her away like she was some kind of trash!" Before Apple Bloom could speak, Demon Apple Bloom flew up to her face. "Just face it! Shimmer didn't do anything wrong and you know it! But you on the other hand... you've done a LOT of bad things!"

"W-wat? NO! You're wrong!" Apple Bloom denied.

"Am I?" Demon Apple Bloom challenged before she flew back away from Apple Bloom and began to list off with her fingers. "Let's go over the things you and your friends did... but mostly you, for the past couple of weeks! You wanted to get back at Shimmer by creating Anon-a-Miss' MyStable account and posted everyone's secrets just to frame Shimmer... hurting everyone at school including your sister in the process! You convinced Sweetie Belle to go through with stealing pictures off from Shimmer's phone during her sister's slumber party and then posted them online! You allowed Scootaloo to be in charge of posting more secrets from other students! You ignored both your friends concerns and treated them like they were nothing, and then stabbed them in the back after trying to stop you! You also pushed one of the on the ground... nearly broke her arm in the process! You even blackmailed one of them to not say anything... caring more about keeping your messed up plan under wraps than helping your injured friend!" Demon Apple Bloom shook her head. "And now... you're all alone... with no friends by your side... and you single-handedly destroyed all the friendships at your school... while your sister meanwhile become even more distant from you and cried herself to sleep every night because of YOUR actions!"

Demon Apple Bloom slowly drifted towards Apple Bloom and glared at her. "And you did all of this... because your sister went to some slumber party for someone you don't like... over not spending any time with you!" She then proceed to slow-clap, just to mock Apple Bloom further. “So congratulations, Apple Bloom... you are now the NEW evil Sunset Shimmer of the school!”

Apple Bloom just stood there like a statue with a petrified look before she slowly shook her head. "Wat... no. NO!" She squeezed her eyes tight. "LIAR! You're trying to trick me!"

"You're the one who's lying... to YOURSELF!" Demon Apple Bloom boomed, causing Apple Bloom to gasp loudly.

Demon Apple Bloom then continued. "You say you did it out of revenge, just to get back at Sunset Shimmer for what she did to your sister and the entire school... which is ironic because you did EXACTLY what she did when she ruled the school... but a HUNDRED times worse!" Demon Apple Bloom then shrugged. "Of course... deep down, you knew what you did was wrong and Shimmer was not the same bully anymore ever since you saw her broke down crying after her friends ditched her. But rather than admitting the truth and stop the madness, you continued to keep going and kept convincing yourself that either Shimmer's "true colors" will reveal in due time, proving yourself right... or she'll flee back to wherever she and Princess Twilight came from. But instead of making things better... you made things worse!" 

Demon Apple Bloom then glared at her trembling look alike. "So tell me Apple Bloom, for someone who despises all bullies like Shimmer and Diamond for humiliating everyone and making everyone lives so miserable... would YOU considered yourself a bully too after everything you done as Anon-a-Miss... WITH THOSE VERY SAME TACTICS THAT YOU DESPITE BULLIES FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE!?"

Apple Bloom was speechless with her mouth agape like a fish out of water. She couldn't find her voice to deny everything what her Demon counterpart was saying to her. As cruel as her Demon counterpart was acting towards her, deep down Apple Bloom knew that she was right.

And it hurts to admit it.

As Apple Bloom lamented with this revelation, she barely noticed her Demon counterpart floated closer to her and trailed her chin with her red finger.

"Like it or not Apple Bloom... YOU are now the monster in everyone's eyes!" Demon Apple Bloom seethed. "Not Sunset Shimmer. Not the people who send you the messages. Just... you!"

With widened eyes, Apple Bloom shook her head and took a huge step back away from her Demon counterpart.

"N-no!" She cried. "Ah... Ah just thought... Ah thought what Ah did was justified! That Ah can punish someone who did wrong in the past!" She looked down and sighed sadly. "But the truth is... Ah'm jealous. Ah'm jealous that mah sis spend more time with her than me! That she became part of my sis's group... despite that she's not worthy to be friends with mah sister! That she got my sis to do all those same Christmas traditions over that slumber party that my sis usually does with me! Ah... Ah just want my sis back! Ah want her to do those fun stuff with me again! Just the two of us! That's all Ah ever wanted! Ah... did not mean to get this far!"

"Well looky here! Looks like someone finally admitted it! This almost brings a tear to my eye!" Demon Apple Bloom sneered before she frowned. "However... you still did not admit the FULL truth! The REAL reason of what lead you to do this!"

"R...r...real reason?" Apple Bloom said nervously as her eyes were frantically moving back and forth. "W-what do ya mean?"

Demon Apple Bloom huffed. "Oh c'mon Apple Bloom! No need to play dumb! Ah already know the truth! After all... AH'M part of you!"

"N-no you don't!" Apple Bloom denied.

"Oh? You want proof?" Demon Apple Bloom asked in an amused tone before forming a huge evil smile. "Very well... it had something to do with your sister. Or rather... the major role your sister played for all your life!"

Apple Bloom's eyes widen in fear. "Stop it!"

"You like having your sister with you because she was usually there for you!" Demon Apple Bloom continued. "Heck, she practically raised you!"

"Please stop!" Apple Bloom begged but the Demon ignored her.

"Heck, she used to do everything with you! Reading bedtime stories, played games with you, taking care of you when you're sick or injured and yes... even doing some Christmas traditions with you... especially after your parents are gone!"

"Stop it!" Apple Bloom cried.

"Heck, you remember your sister's face more than your mother's!"

"Stop it, stop it, STOP IT!" Apple Bloom screamed as she ran up to the Demon Apple Bloom, intending to attack her. But Demon Apple Bloom saw it coming from a mile away and disappeared before Apple Bloom could touch her.

Then she suddenly reappeared from behind Apple Bloom and shoved her to the ground.

Apple Bloom landed face first on the ground and grunted in pain. And just like that, all of her anger and will to fight was gone. She had no strength to get up, nor to talk back. She just lie there on the floor with a heavy heart as the weight of the situation and her past actions finally caught up to her.

Taking advantage of the situation, Demon Apple Bloom floated towards her falling counterpart and leaned toward her ear.

"Just face it Apple Bloom," Her Demon counterpart whispered. "You were not just upset with Shimmer because she took your sister away... you were upset with Shimmer... because she took away who you considered a mother to you as well!"

Not able to deny it anymore, Apple Bloom sniffed and tears began to pour down her cheeks like double waterfall.

Demon Apple Bloom snickered cruelly at the pathetic sight of her sniffling counterpart.

"The truth hurts... doesn't it?"

Demon Apple Bloom then stretched out her arm and her eyes glowed. Black and orange aura suddenly surrounded Apple Bloom and began to lift her up from the ground. While that was happening her skin was slowly changing from yellow to red. Apple Bloom noticed this and began to panic.

"Wait! Wha-what's going on?" Apple Bloom exclaimed as she was struggling to get herself free. "What's happening to me!?"

Demon Apple Bloom chuckled evilly. "We're almost completing the transformation."

"Transformation!?" Apple Bloom cried as her skin changed more and more red by the second. "What do ya mean transformation?"

"Because of your efforts to destroy Shimmer and the entire school in the process, you will become just. Like. ME!" Demon Apple Bloom explained.

"N-n-no!" Apple Bloom shouted desperately. "Ah'm not you! Ah'm not like that anymore! I'm not a monster!"

Demon Apple Bloom gave Apple Bloom her full fanged smile before disappearing. "That's not what your former friends said!"

Before Apple Bloom could ask her Demon counterpart what she meant, she was forced to turn around. To her horror, she watched all the hypnotized victims, slowly walking towards her like a bunch of angry zombies from a horror movie. What really stood out for her was her two (ex?)best friends who were in front of the pact.

"You're a real piece of work Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo shouted.

"You're a monster!" Sweetie Belle added.

"N-no!" Apple Bloom screamed, desperately trying to escape the Demon's magical grip. "Girls, Ah'm sorry! A- Ah'm not a–"

"How could you!"

Apple Bloom turned her head and gasped at the sight of her older hypnotic sister. Despite her glowing orange eyes, AJ's face was full of anger and hurt.

"Why did you do this... to yer own kin Apple Bloom!" Applejack yelled accusingly. "Ah thought we were family!"

Apple Bloom shook her head, tears flowing out from her eyes. "Ah'm sorry Applejack! Ah am! Really! A-ah was trying–"

"Why..."

Apple Bloom turned her head again and froze. There stood Sunset Shimmer, the one that Apple Bloom hurt the most. Unlike Applejack, instead of anger, Shimmer face was full of hurt, anguish and despair.

"What did I ever do to you?" Sunset asked with her voice filled with sorrow. "Why won't you let me have friends? Why won't you let me be happy? Why... did you made me suffer?"

Apple Bloom felt a stab in her heart. It was like seeing Shimmer breaking down from the hallway all over again, but she couldn't suppress her guilt this time. She felt so ashamed, that she wasn't able to answer Shimmer's simple questions.

None of that mattered as Shimmer suddenly turned into stone while bearing the same anguish expression on her face. Shortly after that, her stone body began to crack and crumbled to the ground, leaving piles of pebbles. Then seconds later, the piles instantly turned into sand and was blown into the wind.

Apple Bloom was beyond horrified of what she just witnessed. But her horrors continued to get worse as more hypnotize people were slowly getting closer to her. Their eyes then changed to dark red and their behaviors were getting more aggressive, scaring the young Apple further. Then they began to slowly chant in an accusing tone.

"Demon... Demon... Demon..."

Her transformation was getting worse. Her skin was now completely red and her ears were now pointy. She felt great pain as wings was growing out from her back. Her hair was starting to ablaze and then her tail suddenly appeared from behind her. She continued to struggle through her transformation as the hypnotic people were getting closer to her.

"Demon... Demon... Demon..."

"P-please!?" She begged. "Ah'm not a monster! Ah'm sorry fer what Ah've done! AH'M SORRY! PLEASE!?"

Apple Bloom then heard her Demon counterpart loud cackling, echoing from within her own mind.

"Don't fight it Apple Bloom! EMBRACE your dark side! You shall reap what you sow!"

"Demon... Demon... Demon..."

The Demon continued to laugh maniacally while the chants from the others grew louder. Apple Bloom shut her eyes tightly and tried to ignore them, but it only worked so well. She even tried to keep resisting with the transformation, but it was now a losing battle at this point. Pretty soon, she'll become the very monster that she hated... and feared.

"Demon... Demon... Demon..."

"No... no.... NO!" She shouted as the victims finally reached her.

Just as they were about to grab her, Apple Bloom's eyes flew opened... revealing her glowing dark orange eyes.





"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Apple Bloom screamed as she suddenly sat up from her bed.

Her breathing labored as she quickly looked around her dark bedroom. Once she realized that it was all a dream, she calmed down somewhat. However, unlike her other nightmares from previous nights, the one she just had was worse than all the others combined and shocked her to the very core. She finally saw the She-Demon. She finally saw... herself... and seeing all the consequences of her actions.

She thought back to all the things she had done. Creating the account, posting everyone's secrets and embarrassed everyone, seeing the people she had hurt, including her sister and her friends. And most of all, she thought back to Shimmer, the biggest victim of them all. Seeing Shimmer in the hallway with a miserable and anguished expression from all the torment and suffering that she have to go through. Apple Bloom originally thought that all the things she did was all justified, but now she realized... that she was wrong. So very wrong! Shimmer wasn't the monster.

The real monster... was herself.

With deep shame and remorse, Apple Bloom buried her face into her hands and sobbed loudly for the remainder of the night.
> Chapter 12: An Early Morning Encounter (Apple Bloom)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ever since her latest and most terrifying nightmare, Apple Bloom couldn't get a wink of sleep. At that point, it was five-o' clock in the morning. Her eyes were very red from the mixture of lack of sleep and all that crying from the night before. Since she was unable to go back to sleep, Apple Bloom decided to get up and get dressed. Once she got dressed, she headed downstairs and grabbed herself a piece of toast for a quick breakfast.  

Not want anyone in her family to see her emotional state and to get away from the miserable vibes from her house, she decided to leave and head to school early. After leaving them a note, she grabbed her coat and quietly walked out of the house and headed down on the sidewalk towards CHS. Despite wearing her thick winter jacket, Apple Bloom felt very cold from the early winter's morning. And while it was still semi-dark, she could see the grey clouds above her as if they've matched her depressing state. 

She still felt awful and guilty of everything she done ever since she woke up from her dream. She remembered everyone faces she hurt from her school, including her sister and her two former friends. She was so dead set on her scheme to make Shimmer look bad, she failed to realized that in doing so, she became the bad guy... not Shimmer. Worse of all, all of her actions also ended up hurting and pushing her best friends away. She deeply regretted everything she had done; hurting Shimmer, her sister, her friends, the students, the teachers and single-handedly turning her school into a madhouse.

All because of her stupid jealously... and wanting her sister all to herself.

She wanted to fix this. She wanted to undo everything she'd done. She wanted to apologize and make up with her best friends. She wanted to put an end to this madness.

But... she doesn't know how. And that scared her.

She was scared because she knew that once she announced that she's the real Anon-a-Miss and not Shimmer, all the students anger will go directly to her. She shuddered of what they would do to her like they had done to Shimmer... or worse! Not only that, her sister will be furious with her and may even felt betrayed that her own family member would do this to her. Her sister and the rest of the Apple family will most likely disown her like how Applejack disowned Shimmer from the hallway that day. Apple Bloom wouldn't even know how to handle it when it comes to that! But the real kicker is that because she acted so foolishly and chased her friends away, she is now all alone. They must likely won't come to her aid when she confessed or when she gets harassed by an angry student... not that she could blame them. She would end up being labeled as the most hated student of CHS for the rest of her High School career... assuming if she is going to confess at all. Apple Bloom knew that she couldn't let things go on and have Shimmer take the blame forever, but she also knew the consequences once she brings her confession to light.

She really didn't know what to do.

After about thirty minutes of walking, she eventually reached her school. The school ground was empty and the windows of the building was dark, meaning that the school was still closed. But that doesn't stop Apple Bloom. She walked across the school ground and around the building until she was at a specific window that leads to the school's library.

This wasn't the first time she does this. She and her friends discovered that the lock of this window was broken and have been for the past several months. She and her friends would sometimes sneaked through this window after school hours so they can use the programs from their school's computers a little longer, just so they can edit their videos for their ViewTube channel. However, Apple Bloom just wanted to enter the library just to hang out and to think about the situation further.

And how to possibly fix her mess.

She opened the window and then slowly crawl through it bottom first. But when she was half way in, she was stopped suddenly. Confused, she tried to pushed herself backwards a couple of times in hopes to get herself into the building. When she realized that she was not moving, her eyes widened in horror.

"Oh no!" she uttered as she was wiggling around much more viciously.

She was so deep in thought about her predicament, she failed to realized that by wearing her thick winter coat, her entrance to the window would not only make her entrance much more difficult, but also possibly of getting stuck easily. And now she couldn't move a single inch. She tried to pull herself out, push herself in or even jiggling around. But no matter what she did, she couldn't even budge. She was starting to panic. If anyone shows up and sees her like this, not only she'll be the laughingstock of the school, but she'll also get in some serious trouble for sneaking into the building. She wished her friends were here to help her now.

Suddenly, she felt someone grabbed her legs from the other side. Before she could utter a sound or to get away, she felt someone pulling her in. She was slowly pulled into the window until she was completely inside the building and nearly fell onto the floor.

Apple Bloom turned around to see who was that person who helped her... and also dreaded for whatever punishment coming her way for breaking in. Her eyes widened in shock when she identified her savior, who also had shocked expression of their own.

"S-Sunset Shimmer?" Apple Bloom uttered.

"A-Apple Bloom?" Sunset Shimmer spoke quietly with a stunned expression.

They continued to stare at each other until they both suddenly pointed their fingers at each other.

"What are YOU doing in here!?" They exclaimed in union.

Then they both have indignant looks.

"Hey, I/Ah asked you first!" They both shouted again, annoying each other further.

"Stop copying me!" They both shouted.

"No YOU stop copying me!"

"STOP IT!"

They now had a stare down for a brief moment until they both shouted at the same time.

"Countess Coloratura!"

Both their eyes widened with stunned expressions.

"Wow, that was weird!" They both exclaimed.

Seeing how ridiculous this was going, Sunset immediately put her hand over Apple Bloom's mouth.

"Okay, this is getting us nowhere!" said Sunset. "How about you start first and then I'll go next. Deal?"

Apple Bloom gently pried Sunset's hand off if her mouth and gave her an annoyed frown.

"But why am Ah going first?" she huffed. "If ya asked me, you being here before school hours is pretty suspicious!"

Sunset cocked an eyebrow. "More suspicious than you trying to come in through the window just now?"

"...good point," Apple Bloom mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck with an uncomfortable expression before sighing. 

"Fine... Ah'll start. You see... the school's library have these pre-installed video editing programs that we use them for our videos. Since we don't have them at home and couldn't wait fer the next day, me and my... friends..." Her heart ached at the mention of her friends but quickly moved on. "Would sometimes sneak in here after school so that we can keep using them longer."

"I see," Sunset said simply before looking around. "But I don't see your friends with you this time."

Apple Bloom drooped and frowned sadly. "We... recently have a fallout a few days back... and we haven't talked since."

Sunset frowned. "Was it because of Anon-a-Miss?"

"...you could say that," Apple Bloom responded with a sigh. "Things were pretty bad at home, especially with Applejack. Ah... just want to be away and be by myself for a little while."

Sunset frowned worriedly. "Is... Applejack okay?"

"Ah... Ah don't know," Apple Bloom said with a shaky voice. "She always locked herself into her bedroom! Ah tried talking to her so that Ah can get her to come out but... she won't budge! Ah... ah don't know what to do!" And it's all MAH fault that she's like this! She added in her thought.

Sunset frowned while giving the youngest Apple family member a look of pity. "Oh Apple Bloom. Is there anything I could do to help?"

Apple Bloom was about to tell Sunset that there was nothing she can do, but then she stopped herself. She remembered the main reason why her sister was so upset. Mostly it was because of her guilt about Shimmer. Maybe if she could convince Shimmer to come back to Sweet Apple Acres, not only those two could finally make up and everything will be back to normal, but also that she doesn't have to reveal that she's Anon-a-Miss.

"Well... maybe if you can help me convince her to come out of her room. With you around, we can cheer her up!" Apple Bloom suggested with hope in her eyes.

Sunset frowned deeply as she looked down and sighed heavily. "Apple Bloom, I... I don't think that's a good idea right now."

Apple Bloom's hopes to get Sunset to help Applejack has been diminished.

"WHAT! Why not?" She cried. "Yer her friend!"

Sunset gave Apple Bloom a hard look. "Am I?" She challenged. "She and the others were VERY clear to me that they wanted nothing to do with me anymore!"

"Then try talking to her again! She'll listen!" Apple Bloom suggested desperately.

Sunset scoffed. "You think I haven't tried that already!? She and everyone else refused to listen to me, no matter what I do!"

Apple Bloom gave Sunset her pleading look. "Mah sis was just being stubborn! She may be upset... but the truth is... she misses you... a-and starting to doubt that your... "you-know-who"!"

Sunset then gave Apple Bloom her unreadable expression. "Well if she really doubted that I'm Anon-a-Miss... then why didn't she talk to me?"

Apple Bloom had no answer. She wanted to give Sunset a good excuse for her sister, but she couldn't. While she knew for a fact that Applejack really felt guilty for leaving Sunset, but she also still partly thinks that Sunset's the culprit. She inwardly cursed herself for ever starting this horrible scheme.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Sunset spoke up.

"Listen... I appreciate you wanted me and your sister together again... but I'm afraid that the only way I can get them to listen was to prove it to them somehow that I'm not the one who was spreading secrets."

"How are ya gonna do that?" Apple Bloom asked with interest.

Sunset looked down and sighed. "I... don't know."

There was nothing but silence from within the library. With Sunset feeling rejected at the possibility of finding proof while Apple Bloom felt helpless of not fixing the problem that she caused. It was only a couple of minutes until Apple Bloom spoke up.

"So... what's yer story?" she asked.

Sunset looked at Apple Bloom with a confused expression. "Eh?"

"Ah told you why Ah'm here, now it's yer turn... remember?" Apple Bloom clarified.

"...oh. Right..." Sunset answered with some hesitation before looking away. "I... was hoping that you forgot about that..."

When Sunset turned to face Apple Bloom again, she noticed that Apple Bloom had a stern, but patient look. Rather than trying to go back on her word, Sunset let out a sigh of resignation.

"Fine..." she said quietly, as she turned around and start heading to the back of the library. "Come."

Confused, yet curious with Sunset's mysterious behavior, Apple Bloom obeyed and followed behind Sunset.

"Um... where are we going?" Apple Bloom asked. "Yer not trying to dodge mah question, are ya?"

"I'm not," Sunset reassured without looking at her. "It's... easier if I show you as I explained."

Sunset's words only confused the young apple farmer further.

Show me what?

They continued to walked further down the back of the library without saying a word. They eventually reached the deep section of the library between a wall and a bookshelf, which Apple Bloom wasn't familiar with nor been in this section before. They entered and walked down that row until they've reached the corner area shortly afterwards. What Apple Bloom saw at that corner shocked her.

W-what da-!?

Right in front of her, was some of Sunset things laying around on the corner: Sunset's backpack, some food and... a toothbrush? But what really stood out the most was piles and piles of books lying around on the floor in giant rectangle shape with a few extra books at one end and a large thick blanket.

"What... what is all of this?" Apple Bloom uttered with a stunned expression. "W-were you having a major study session?"

"...I wish," Sunset sighed. "It's not the most comfortable bed in the world, but it'll have to do."

Apple Bloom's eyes widened. "Bed!?"

Suddenly, her mind put two and two together and her heart sank when she had a sudden realization.

"Wait... this is where you... sleep?" Apple Bloom asked quietly with dread.

Sunset paused for a moment and sighed. "Well... not all the time."

Apple Bloom frowned confusingly. "What do ya mean?"

"Sometimes I would sleep at a homeless shelter or... under a bridge somewhere downtown," Sunset responded.

"WHAT!?" Apple Bloom screeched in horror.

"But I rarely go there!" Sunset added quickly, assuring the young pre-teen. "It only happens if I was kicked out from the school's staff or if the homeless shelter is too full. Most of the time... this is where I go after school."

"H-how long have this been going on?" Apple Bloom asked softly.

"Ever since I first came to this world," Sunset answered. "It's not like a pony from another world could easily booked an apartment with different currency. Granted... I got a job as a cashier and a waitress for some sushi place at Canterlot's Mall, but I still couldn't afford to rent a place. So... I have to make due."

Apple Bloom couldn't believe what she was hearing. All this time, the former bully of the school was living in this library... and sometimes on the street. But something about Sunset's statement bothered the young farmer.

"Listen... Ah know it ain't mah business, but... why couldn't you just go back to your world where you came from?" She asked, both out of curiosity and concerned for the formal bully.

Sunset turned away from Apple Bloom and sighed heavily. "At the time... there was no way to get back. The portal to my world used to reactivate once every thirty moons for three days."

Apple Bloom opened her mouth to speak, but Sunset, knowing what the young girl was going to ask, beat her to it.

"Yes, Twilight from my world eventually figured out how to open the portal at any time. But even with that... I can't bring myself to go back... not right now."

Apple Bloom had a confused expression on her face. "What do ya mean?"

Sunset crossed her arms and sighed. "Back when I was a b–" Sunset paused. "Big Meanie... my mentor wanted me to make friends with others of my age, but instead... I just pushed others around and enjoyed being on top, figuring that associating with po– people was just a waste of time.

"When I... discovered something one day, I demanded my mentor to give me the same power as hers instead of earning it... but she refused... constantly. So... I did something forbidden in hopes to reach my goal further, but she found out about that and was furious at me. We fought for a while and... let's just say... we ended on a bad note and I decided to flee to this world." 

Sunset sadly looked down. "In hindsight... I regretted my actions and the terrible things I said to her and I wish that I could take it all back. But... I don't think she wants to see me right now."

Apple Bloom felt pity for the poor girl and had a sad look on her face. In a way, she and Shimmer were alike... besides the pony thing. They both had done something they thought it was right, but then immediately regretted once they realized the damaged they've caused. With Sunset, at least she was able to fix things and was more or less forgiven from her actions. But for Apple Bloom... she doesn't believe that her actions will ever be forgiven.

"What about yer family?" She asked quietly. "Can't you go to them?"

Sunset closed her eyes and sighed sadly through her nose. "My mentor... is the only family I got."

Apple Bloom widened her eyes in shock and horror. "You're... an orphan?"

"...I was," Sunset whispered with a pained expression. "I never knew who my mother and father was and how I ended up at the orphanage, but I was alone for a long time. At a young age, I used to be... an angry child and I hated everypo- everyone, especially at the kids of the orphanage after they got adopted... but not me."

Then, Sunset's face soften up a bit with a small smile. "But... when Prin- my mentor showed up one day, she sees some sort of potential in me and... grew fond of me the moment we met. I became her daughter and it was the best day of my life!"

Her smile then immediately vanished and sighed sadly. "I guess she's really disappointed in me after that stunt I pulled! She might even hate me now after hearing everything I've done here for all I know!"

"Maybe she doesn't," Apple Bloom spoke up, causing Sunset to look at her in disbelief. "From what yer telling me about yer mentor, she might actually be worried about ya and misses you too! If there's one thing Ah learned from mah past arguments with mah sis, one bad fight isn't enough fer yer mentor to hate you."

Sunset was in deep thought. It had crossed her mind that her mentor actually missed her and worried for her well-being, but she wasn't completely convinced. Their big argument from that day was still very painful to her... and maybe to her mother-figure too. Sunset felt that it was too soon to meet "her" again to apologize and make amends.

At least... for a while.

"Even so... I'm not ready to go back yet," Sunset said quietly. "There's still a lot of things I need to make up here... assuming that I'm able to with everyone at school hated me again."

Apple Bloom winced slightly at that statement, knowing that she was the cause of everything, but kept herself composed.

"What about Applejack... and the others, did they know that you don't have a home?"

"...no. I didn't tell them," Sunset said softly, much to Apple Bloom's dismay. "They went through everything to help me, despite how others sees me after... the Fall Formal debacle. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to worry them further... not that it mattered anymore." 

Sunset let out a defeated sigh. "Like I said, I've been alone all my life, so I'm used to it... even if it hurts more this time around." She sadly closed her eyes and let out a small tear. "Maybe that's my true punishment for everything I've done... and I guess I deserved it."

Apple Bloom's stared at Sunset with huge guilt in her eyes. She felt awful earlier after realizing what her actions have done to everyone, including Sunset Shimmer. But after learning more about the former bully... she felt ten times worse than before. She knew all too well of the pains of having no parents, but at least she have her sister, her brother her grandmother and the rest of the Apple family for their love and support. But Sunset Shimmer... she was all alone... and homeless to boot.

The only people Sunset had in her life who cared about her was the Rainbooms... including her sister.

Suddenly, it hit her like a bullet train when she remembered the words from her sister when she talked about Sunset Shimmer two weeks on the night when she created Anon-a-Miss.

"You have to understand, Sunset... had a hard life. While what she did in the past wasn't right and she nearly gone too far at the Fall Formal, but at the end of the day, she was just a lonely girl who made some really bad mistakes without anyone guiding her. And ever since we let her into our group, she had come a very long way. You would've seen it too if you give her another chance instead of keep turning her away like a stubborn mule."

Apple Bloom finally understood what her sister was talking about... and she really felt like a mule and then some. While her sister and her friends didn't know about Sunset's "living arrangements", they've sensed that Sunset was all alone for all her life. That was why they spent a lot of time with her. To not only let her know that she isn't alone, but also make her feel like she belonged to the group, and that they're family to her.

And Apple Bloom ruined it.

On top if that, Sunset is all alone for Christmas. A holiday when you're together with your friends and family. Sunset must have been alone on previous holidays before. But this year... may be Sunset's worst and loneliest one of them all.

Apple Bloom truly felt like she's the most rotten apple in the world. She was not just a monster, she was a selfish monster!

Apple Bloom felt her heart heavily and her whole body trembled in guilt.

What have ah done? she thought as she tried to held back from sobbing, but her tears still flowed down from her eyes. 

Her teeth clenched as her guilt increased when she remembered all the things she said and treated Sunset after the Fall Formal. When the memory of her creating Anon-a-Miss on that very night flashed through her mind, she felt sick to her stomach and wished that she could just go back in time and knocked some sense into herself. But she knew that it's impossible to do. The only thing she really wanted to do right now is to disappear. 

So that she wouldn't harm anyone ever again.

She suddenly felt a warm hand touched her shoulder. Despite her blurry version from her tears, Apple Bloom slowly looked up to see Sunset giving her a concern and guilt expression.

"Hey," Sunset said softly as she brushed Apple Bloom's tear away. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to make you upset. Please don't cry."

Before Sunset could react, Apple Bloom threw her arms around her and sobbed loudly as she buried her face into Sunset's chest.

"Ah'm sorry!" she wailed. "Ah'm sorry... for treating you so horribly... for not giving you a chance... for... for..."

Apple Bloom couldn't even speak anymore as she continued to sob loudly. Sunset just continued to held the crying pre-teen and shushed her gently.

"Hey hey... it's okay," Sunset soothed softly as she rubbed the top of Apple Bloom's head. "I understand why you acted that way. I don't blame you for not trusting me, especially after how badly I treated your sister back then."

Apple Bloom sniffed and looked up to Sunset, tears still flowing down from her face. "B–but... Ah... s–still..."

Sunset smiled softly before she engulfed her into a warm hug. "It's okay Apple Bloom, I forgive you!"

Apple Bloom eyes widened and her heart fluttered in shock, but returned the hug.

She forgave me! She forgave me... just like that! She really did changed!

She held Sunset much more tightly as guilt entered her heart again. But... will she forgave me... once she figured out who Anon-a-Miss really is?

They continued to hug each other for quite some time, with Sunset continued to cheer Apple Bloom up and Apple Bloom trying to come up with ways to confess to Sunset. After what it felt like an eternity, Sunset gently pulled away from the hug and looked down towards Apple Bloom.

"Hey... can I ask you a favor Apple Bloom?" Sunset asked quietly.

Apple Bloom sniffed and looked up. "W-what?"

"Will you... keep this conversation between the two of us?" Sunset asked. "I... don't want anyone else to know, not even Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna."

Apple Bloom wiped her eyes with her arm and gave Sunset her concerned look. "But Shim– Sunset, yer homeless! Ya can't just keep this to yerself! You need help!"

Sunset shook her head. "I told you, I can't! I'm already a burden enough as it is from my... former friends and Principals Celestia and Luna. I don't want to worry them." Her eyes than narrowed. "And besides... it's too risky right now with Anon-a-Miss still running around. Whoever this person is could use my... "living arrangements" to add more fuel to the fire of my already ruined reputation.

Apple Bloom frowned. If she were to somehow learned about this as Anon-a-Miss, she would never go that far. Heck, she wouldn't even started this whole mess if she knew about this from the start. She once again mentally kicked herself for acting like a fool and not listening to Applejack earlier. As Anon-a-Miss or not, she can't simply ignore this.

"But Sunset–!"

"Promise me Apple Bloom!" Sunset said sternly. "Better yet, Pinkie Promise me that you won't tell anyone about this... not even your sister!"

Apple Bloom wanted to argue, but she couldn't bring herself to do it under Sunset's pleaded eyes. Apple Bloom was in deep thought as she continued to stare at the former bully who was waiting for her answer. After about a minute, Apple Bloom looked down and sighed.

"Fine... Ah Pinkie Promised... that Ah won't mention this to anybody... while Anon-a-Miss is still on the loose!"

Sunset smiled. "Good!" she said, as she turned away. "Anyway... I should go."

"Go where?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Out back," Sunset answered as she picked up her backpack. "I usually leave school for a bit and then come back later every morning so that I don't draw any suspicion. Word of advice, try to leave before six-thirty, that's when the janitor usually shows up."

Apple Bloom titled her head. "Then... how did ya stay here after school undetected?"

"I usually come here and hid at this section of the library. No one seems to come here... including Ms. Cheerilee oddly enough." said Sunset as she put on her scarf and then began to walk away. "Anyway, I'll see you later Apple Bloom."

Apple Bloom's eyes widened. This was her big chance! She needed to confess, she needed to come clean, she needed to say that she was sorry for the cause of making her life miserable. She had to let Sunset know about everything she done... even if Sunset hates her forever for it.

"WAIT!" 

Sunset paused and turned her head partway towards Apple Bloom, patiently waiting for her to speak her mind. 

Apple Bloom sighed with a nervous look. "Shim- Sunset... Ah–"

"Oh, if it's about the window thing, don't worry about it!" Sunset reassured. "I won't say a word to anyone."

Apple Bloom shook her head. "No it's not dat!" 

Sunset frowned. "Then what is it?"

Apple Bloom gulped. "Ah..." She began hesitantly. "Ah... Ah wanted to say..." 

Even with Sunset giving her the patient look, Apple Bloom's nerves shot through the roof. Her mind was screaming at her to just get it over with it. After a moment of silence, Apple Bloom swallowed.

"Ah wanted to say... t-that even when everyone's against ya... you still got one friend on your side," she said as she pointed at herself. "S-so don't let this Anon-a-Miss break ya!"

Apple Bloom nearly cringed from her own words. While she really was telling the truth that she wanted to be Sunset's friend, but only so she could dodge from telling the real truth that she was the culprit. Despite all of that, Apple Bloom saw Sunset giving her a true smile for the first time in two weeks.

"Thank you Apple Bloom... that's the kindest thing anyone had ever said to me in a long time." Sunset said with a warm smile.

Apple Bloom felt a stab in her heart from Sunset's kind words and slightly turned away in shame. "D-don't mention it."

"Well... I'll see ya later!" said Sunset with a quick wave and then disappeared around the shelf.

Once she felt that Sunset was truly gone, Apple Bloom clenched her eyes shut and buried her head into her hands.

Ugh... Apple Bloom you coward! Ya blew it! She scolded as she let out a loud groan. 

Why is this so HARD!? Ah wish mah friends are still here with me...
> Chapter 13: The End of Anon-a-Miss (Apple Bloom)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some time had passed at CHS until the bell rang, signaling the final class of the day was over. Many students walked out of the classrooms without a sound, while Apple Bloom slowly walked down the hall with her head hanging low. She was unable to focus any of her classes today. Her mind was on her discovery of Sunset being alone with no family and living in the library (most of the time) all day. She couldn't believe that Sunset was living like that that this whole time and no one noticed... not even her sister. And just when Sunset was starting to get better and opened herself up to her friends... Apple Bloom had to ruined that by being such a shortsighted, spoiled little brat with a major tantrum. Her guilt was too much to bear and she scolded herself for backing out on her confession to Sunset.

She glanced at each student as she walked by and they almost had the same expressions: sadness, humiliated and anger. For the past couple of weeks, Apple Bloom ignored them and not let them distract her for the sake of her mission as Anon-a-Miss. But now, she couldn't ignore them anymore. And Apple Bloom felt more and more guilty as she saw the emotional pain coming from each student.

This wasn't supposed to happen! She inwardly moaned. Ah only wanted her to get away from my sister and send her back the way she came! Ah didn't mean for this to happen! Mah friends warned me about this, but Ah didn't listen! How can Ah be both stubborn and stupid!? She sighed as she rest her head on her head. Sunset was right there in front of me... and I'm too scared to tell her the truth. And yet... I started this madness through a computer screen! ...I'm so pathetic!

Suddenly, she heard someone run past her from around the corner. Apple Bloom looked up in time to see a familiar bacon-haired girl, who was running towards the school's entrance.

"Sun...set?" Apple Bloom whispered.

From what she could see briefly, Sunset had a book under her arm with a determined look on her face. And yet, Sunset also appeared to be distressed as well. There was also a tear coming from her right eye, as if she was crying eariler.

Before she could analyzed this further, she heard loud angry voices from around the corner.

"You better run Anon-a-Miss!"

Apple Bloom immediately turned around the corner where that person's voice was. To her shock, there was a whole crowd of students standing in the hallway, probably about half of the students of the entire school. Each student had a very angry expressions on their faces, more angry than usual which almost sends chills down through her spine. But what shocked Apple Bloom the most was all the comments that was thrown at Sunset's direction.

"Yeah, we all know it was you!"

"You're not fooling anybody!"

"Even your "friends" believed it was you!"

Apple Bloom's eyes widened further she heard more terrible comments from the students and continue to get worse.

"I always knew she was trouble!"

"Yeah, that girl never changed! Once a bully, always a bully!"

"You can act innocent all you want, we all know you are still evil!"

"Her actions really showed her true colors!"

"She's guilty of everything!"

"You should've been expelled a long time ago!"

"Or better yet, you should be sent to prison!"

"Or maybe even a zoo since you're a horse you freak!"

"Yeah! No one wants to hang out a freak who is also a She-Demon!"

Apple Bloom felt hurt and angry for Sunset as she kept hearing countless statements from other students. While she wrote many not nice comments as Anon-a-Miss (which she felt ashamed of in hindsight), those were nothing compared to those horrible words coming from their mouths that no person should talk that way to another... human or not.  But then, her anger had reached its boiling point when she saw a familiar person with blonde hair and freckles on his face. What he spoke next, was the most horrible thing that Apple Bloom had ever heard of in her life. 

"Face it DEMON, no one loves you! You better off just leave our school and never come back! Or better yet, you should just disappear and give our world– heck, our universe a favor! Filth like you belonged in the garbage!"

That person's remark was the last straw. With an enraged look, she stepped around the corner and glared fiercely at the crowd.

"SHUT UP!" She hollered, surprising all the students including the lead person, who turned out to be Garble.

As the students stood in shock at the angry pre-teen, Apple Bloom angrily berated them, not caring about the consequences.

"You all should be ashamed of yourselves! Pushing her around and treat her like she's trash! If anything, YOUR the ones who belong in the garbage!"

Garble narrowed his eyes at Apple Bloom in annoyance. "What do you mean? She's Sunset Shimmer! She did all the bad things to us in the past, so what we're doing to her is justified!

The crowd behind him voiced out in agreement while Apple Bloom just stared back in disbelief. 

"Justified!? JUSTIFIED!? Y'all telling me that by shoving her, tripping her, calling her names and downright BULLY her... was justified!? What's wrong with you people!? Can't you see that what you're doing to her was just as bad, if not worse!?"

Some students in the crowd looked at each other surely and had guilt expressions. Others like Garble just glared at Apple Bloom and wasn't affected by her words.

"But she's Anon-a-Miss!" Garble roared.

"Do you all have proof that it was her?" Apple Bloom challenged.

Garble opened her mouth to speak.

"Besides that profile from MyStable?" Apple Bloom added quickly.

Garble immediately shut his mouth and grunted angrily, who gave Apple Bloom a chance to speak up again.

"And even if she is Anon-a-Miss, Ah seen how you people treated her before and after her friends ditched her! Believe me... Ah was in the same position as you guys! Despising and resented Sunset for what she'd done in the past and wanted her to be punished. I thought for the past two weeks she deserved whatever punishments was coming her way, but really... she doesn't deserved any of that. In fact, she earned more than enough of her redemption! Y'all wanted to get back at her for treating you badly... and yet, you guys are doing the exact same thing to her like she had done to you pre Fall Formal! Don't y'all realized that?" 

"She's right!"

Apple Bloom slightly turned her head around from the newcomer's voice. Her eyes widened in shock to see who it was.

"S-Sweetie Belle?"

Sweetie Belle didn't acknowledged Apple Bloom as she walked pasted her on her right side and stared at the crowd with narrowed eyes.

"I also seen how you all treated her throughout these past two weeks! Some of you either used Anon-a-Miss as an excuse for revenge for her past wrongdoings or some of you just joined in this bandwagon for the sake of attacking her for no reason other than to make yourselves feel better... and that disgust me! I heard many of you said that you all hated how she bullied you and that you guys despite bullies in general! And yet... you all acted exactly how a bully acted towards Sunset and others, both in person AND behind the computer screens! And if you all think that what you did to Sunset for the past couple of weeks was "justified", then your badly mistaken!"

"Yeah!" A new voiced added.

Apple Bloom turned to her left and was nearly speechless of who she saw.

"S-Scootaloo?" Apple Bloom uttered.

She was even more shocked to see Scootaloo suddenly appeared by her left side as Scootaloo stood next to her and glared angrily at the students.

"Not to mention, I've read the comments from you guys on Anon-a-Miss' account, encouraging this person to do more and even made suggestions on who's dirt to reveal next! You all laughed when that person was hurt and humiliated, yet when any of your secrets was out, you all turned to blame Sunset... even though you all practically took part of this in the first place! You're all nothing but a bunch of hypocrites!"

Apple Bloom was in awe as her head turned side by side to towards each of her former friends to see if she wasn't dreaming. Her friends sudden appearance and stood by her side was unexpected, yet at the same time, she felt happy to see them again. While she wished she meet them again under better circumstances, but being together with them again felt like old times. Doing all kind of crazy things and fun times with her two best friends and stood up for each other or another person with occasion. If it weren't for the fact that they're all standing in front of an angry crowd, she would've hugged and apologize to them right then and there.

Unfortunately, she was brought back to reality when she heard that arrogant bully spoke up.

"Us? "Hypocrites"?" Garble scoffed with a laugh in his throat. "Don't make me laugh! Since when did I decided to use Anon-a-Miss to attack another student like some "coward" you made me out to be?"

Scootaloo crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Well why don't you ask Derpy Garble... or should I say, GarbleTheBeatPoet909!"

Garble's face went pale as the students were mumbling to one another in shock from behind him.

"By the way," Scootaloo added before Garble could speak up. "If you wanted to use your second account to hide your identity, here's a tip– scratch that, two tips: Don't use your real name as your username and try not to use the same profile image as your other one!"

Garble growled in rage and began to stomp aggressively towards them, causing the trio to flinch back in fear. Once he was close, he yanked Scootaloo by the collar of her shirt and brought her up to his level. Apple Bloom gasped in fear for her friend. But then she felt confused when she saw Scootaloo just looking at Garble with a calm expression on her face.

"How dare you expose me like that!" He seethed in his low voice. He then raised his fist over Scootaloo's face. "I don't know how you found out, but I'm going to teach you and your friends some lessons on not messing with–"

"Do that, and I'll guarantee that you'll get a one-way ticket to expelling from our school!"

Garble froze from the sound of an angry woman and immediately dropped Scootaloo. With a gulp, he turned and saw Principal Celestia who was standing there with hand on her hips and narrowed eyes. As for Apple Bloom, she now understood why Scootaloo was acting so calm. She realized that Scootaloo saw Principal Celestia came out of her office at some point and was baiting Garble to get himself caught in the act.

Clever girl! Apple Bloom thought.

"P-P-Principal Celestia!" Garble stuttered nervously as sweat was poring down from his face. "It... i-i-it's not what it's looks like! W-w-we we're just–"

"Save it Mr. Garble!" Principal Celestia said angrily. "I heard everything... including all your wonderful comments you and the others had said about Sunset. And I also knew how you all... "accidentally" bumped into her every time she walked down the halls. And just now... I saw you were about to punch one of those three young underclassman to the face! You're in serious trouble young man!" Principal Celestia then brought her face a little closer to the trembling bully. "I want you in my office at once! We will discuss about your unacceptable behavior... as well as your punishment!"     

She lingered her glare at Garble a little longer before she turned to address the crowd, who made each student trembled in fear.

"Don't think any of you are off the hook. I will call your names over the intercom and have a discussion with each of you tomorrow morning! The rest of you will go home at once! If I hear another incident involving bumping into a certain student or worse, well... let's just say, that you'll get to spend time in detection during winter break as your early Christmas gift! Am I clear?"

Not wanting to face their Principal's wrath any longer than necessary, everyone nodded.

"Good!" She stated firmly until she smiled in a pleasantly disturbing way. "Now... have a good day!"

The crowd immediately dispersed, leaving the school with their tails between their legs. Once the students left the scene, only Principal Celestia, Garble and the CMC's remained in the hallway. Principal Celestia turned towards the young trio and gave them her concerned expression.

"You girls okay?" she asked.

Apple Bloom nodded. "We're fine Principal Celestia... thanks for saving us!"

Principal Celestia smiled. "You're welcome Apple Bloom! But next time, try to report of what you saw and heard to me or any of the teachers, instead of confronting a mob of angry students head on!"

"...noted!" Apple Bloom answered with a sheepish smile while her friends nodded in union.

Principal Celestia then turned towards Garble with a deep frown, causing the latter to wince from her angry expression, and then pointed at the door behind her. "As for you! My office... NOW!"

Garble mumbled in defeat as he headed inside of Principal Celestia's office. Principal Celestia was about to follow after him, until she heard Apple Bloom spoke up. 

"Um... Principal Celestia?"

Principal Celestia turned towards the young pre-teen. "Yes Apple Bloom?"

Apple Bloom was about to say something, but backed out at the last second.

"Never mind... it was nothin'."

Principal Celestia just stared at Apple Bloom, not believing the young girls statement, until she sighed through her nose.

"Very well then," she relented. "But if you need anything, my door is always open!"

With a quick wave, Principal Celestia stepped into her office so she can begin having a "discussion" with Garble and closed the door behind her, leaving Apple Bloom alone with her two (former) friends.

While Apple Bloom was glad that the danger was over, but it left a major impact in her mind. She knew the state of the school was bad, but what she witnessed with the way the students acted towards Sunset just now was even worse than before. She can't let this go on any longer, she needed to put to stop to this madness once and for all. She just need to apologize to everyone she wronged before she can fix this mess... starting with her two former best friends.

Apple Bloom slowly turned to face her friends and winced from the way they were staring at her. Her reunion with her former best friends was... awkward, to say the least. Last time she saw and spoke to them was that day at the school's playground when she pushed Sweetie Belle to the ground and then threatened Scootaloo that she'll rat her out with the lockers. That particular memory not only made Apple Bloom cringe, but also made her feel extremely guilty from her behavior. She had a feeling that they didn't forget that day either and that they're still mad-- scratch that, furious at her for what she'd done to them. Despite that horrible memory, Apple Bloom needed to apologize and make amends with her friends, even if they decided to never forgive her.

"Um... thank you for backing me up Sweetie Belle... and Scootaloo," she said awkwardly with a grateful smile before giving them her guilt expression. "Listen, girls... Ah'm–"

"Save it Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo growled bitterly as she turned away from her. "Just because we saved you, that doesn't mean that we forgive you!"

Sweetie Belle said nothing and also turned away well. Unlike Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle didn't faced Apple Bloom out of spite, it was because she was still hurt and betrayed from their last encounter. Apple Bloom felt even more guilty as she watched Sweetie Belle held her arm where she was injured from the playground that day in a subconscious manner.

The way they rejected her apologies nearly broke her heart, but she couldn't blame them for that, considering from the way she acted and treated them throughout the Anon-a-Miss fiasco. Heck, she wouldn't even blame them of they decided to not speak to her ever again once this whole mess is over.

"...Ah understand," Apple Bloom sighed sadly, while trying to hold back her tears. "By the way... has any of ya seen where Sunset was heading? Ah need to find her so that Ah can apologize to her and finally undue this mess!"

Both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were staring at her with shocked expressions, which Apple Bloom took notice.

"...what?" She asked.

"N-nothing!" Scootaloo answered hastily before clearing her throat. "It's just... this is the first time I heard you addressed Sunset Shimmer by her first name for once!" 

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Y-yeah! Not only that... you decided to come clean and put a stop to Anon-a-Miss... even though you were dead set on continuing this madness the last time we spoke! ...what changed?"

"Let's just say... Ah had a self-reflection," Apple Bloom answered vaguely, which only confused her friends in the process. "A-anyway... she seems to be distressed after she was nearly attacked from the students... and Ah don't know where she went! Got any ideas?"

There was an awkward silence between the three of them for a moment until Sweetie Belle spoke up.

"Well... maybe she was looking for her friends?" Sweetie Belle guessed.

Apple Bloom stroked her chin with a thoughtful look. While Sweetie's idea where Sunset might be very logical, but also flawed. On one hand, after she spoke to Sunset, she made it clear that she won't be able to talk to them without getting proof of her innocence. And even if she did, it would be difficult for her to convince her sister and the rest of the Rainbooms to hear her out due to them believing that Sunset is the culprit. 

But on the other hand, they were having some doubts that Sunset is guilty and Apple Bloom noticed that their doubts grew stronger every day. If she could find her sister and the others, not only she'll be able to apologize to Sunset, but she can also apologize to her sister and the gang and cleared Sunset's name.

It's two birds with one stone!

"Well, it's a long shot... but Ah'll give it a try," said Apple Bloom. "Hopefully, Sunset is with them. Ah just need to know their location."

Sweetie gave Apple Bloom her confused expression. "Why don't just ask your sister through text?"

"Ah couldn't," Apple Bloom said sadly. "AJ is getting worse! She wouldn't talk to me or anybody in mah family to the point of keeping things to herself out of fear of trust. Which is why Ah had to fix this!" She grabbed Sweetie's shoulders with a pleaded look. "Do you know where yer sister is Sweetie Belle?"

Sweetie Belle sighed and looked down sadly. "No... Rarity haven't spoke to anybody either... including me! She's even more distinct from me now more than ever!"

Apple Bloom drooped in defeat. There was no way she could ever find them now.

"I know where they are."

Apple Bloom turned towards Scootaloo in shock.

"Y-you do?" she asked in hope.

"...I might," Scootaloo answered with a stone faced expression.

"Where?" Apple Bloom asked in desperation. "Where can Ah find them?"

Scootaloo was silent for a moment with the same expression, making Apple Bloom feel more anxious by the second. Before she could ask again, Scootaloo finally spoke.

"Before I answer... give me one good reason why I should tell you!" Scootaloo said coldly.

Both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stared at Scootaloo in shock. "Scootaloo! She said she was gonna–"

"Stay out of this Sweetie Belle! I need to hear it from her!" Scootaloo snapped while not taking her eyes off of Apple Bloom.

Sweetie Belle flinched from her Scootaloo's tone, but she reluctantly complied. Once she knows that Sweetie won't interrupt again, Scootaloo continued to press her former friend.

"Were you really telling the truth that you'll apologize to the people that you wronged and make up for everything you did... or are you lying just so you could get more dirt from them and make things worse?"

Apple Bloom stared at her friend's piercing gaze. While she could never blame her for being skeptical and not trusting her, but time was on the essence to find Sunset and fix her mess as fast as possible. But in order to do so, she has to convince Scootaloo that she really changed and that she really is sorry for everything. With a deep breath, Apple Bloom looked at Scootaloo right in the eye.

"Listen..." She began sadly. "Ah know what Ah did to you guys and this whole school was unforgivable! And you have every right to be angry at me... Ah've been a horrible friend! Creating Anon-a-Miss is the worst mistake Ah've made in mah life... and hurting you guys... is mah biggest regret... and Ah wished that Ah could take it all back! Ah thought Ah was trying to take out the biggest bully who deserved an overdue punishment! But instead... Ah became the biggest bully– NO... a monster! And everybody suffered because of me!" 

She sniffed. "You two were right... we–AH should've stopped this a long time ago! Dat's why Ah have to fix this! Ah'm confessing everything Ah've done and clear Sunset's name... but Ah want to apologize to Sunset... my sis... and the rest of her friends first before Ah tell Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna. Ah'll even leave you two out of this mess... but Ah can't do that without yer help!" 

Apple Bloom was crying at this point, but kept going. "And after dat... y-you and S-Sweetie Belle... c-can continue to h-hate me and you... you don't have to s-see me ever again.... and dat's fine. B-but know dat Ah... Ah'm so sorry... fer everthing..."

Unable to speak any more, Apple Bloom shut her eyes and sobbed. Sweetie Belle just stared at her grieving friend in concern while Scootaloo still had an unreadable expression on her face, but there were also some confliction from her eyes. After a moment of silence, Scootaloo spoke in a firm tone. 

"Apple Bloom... did you really mean everything you just said... that you're sorry for everything you have done... and wanted to make up for it?"

Apple Bloom sniffed as she wiped her eyes with her arms before looking directly at Scootaloo again.

"I meant every word! Ah rather turned mahself into stone... than to hurt everyone else, including you guys ever again!"

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo continued to stare at each other for a long time as if they've been staring for like an eternally. Scootaloo in particular was trying to see if she could find any deception from within Apple Bloom's eyes. Any signs of the possibility that Apple Bloom was lying throughout her long sappy apology.

There was none.

All Scootaloo could see within Apple Bloom's eyes was guilt, sadness and sincerity, instead of emotionless and uncaring eyes from days prior. She lingered her stare into Apple Bloom's eyes a little longer in deep thought, before she turned away with a sigh and crossed her arms.

"I overheard Rainbow Dash talking to Fluttershy about meeting the others to the usual place to hang out... or in this case, to sulk again as always," Scootaloo revealed quietly.

Apple Bloom blinked before she lightly facepalmed. "Of course... the Sweet Shoppe! Why didn't Ah think of this sooner!" She lowered her arm and gave both her former friends her grateful but sad smile. "Thanks you guys... Ah mean it! And Ah promise Ah'll make this right!"

Apple Bloom was going to say something else, but she figured she took enough of both her former friends time and probably wanted her gone. Plus, she had to go and find Sunset and the others right away.

"Well... Ah gotta go!" She said softly as she gave them her final wave and began to walk away. Before she could make a step, she was suddenly stopped from one of her friend's voice.

"Not so fast Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo exclaimed in an angry voice. 

When Apple Bloom turned to face her with a questioned and frighten look, Scootaloo marched over towards her with an angry expression. "While it's about time that you realized that you messed up big time and that you're going to face the music, but there's one thing in your sappy speech that I refused to let you do!" 

Scootaloo stopped in front of Apple Bloom and paused, confusing the young apple farmer further. Then, to Apple Bloom's surprise, Scootaloo revealed her playful smirk. "You're not apologizing and taking blame alone! I'm coming with you!"

Apple Bloom widened her eyes in shock. She wasn't expecting this from her former friend, especially from someone who supposed to hate her guts and refused to have anything to do with her. Before she could questioned Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle spoke up.

"Not without me! I'm coming too!" Sweetie Belle declared.

Apple Bloom stood there with her mouth agape, couldn't believe what she just heard. Just a few seconds ago, they were angry at her and refused to speak or even look at her. Now, they suddenly wanted to come with her and confessed to the others along side with her. Was it because they felt responsible for everything they done as well? 

Apple Bloom shook her head. "But girls, if ya confessed... you'll get in big trouble too! Besides... Ah was the mastermind! The blame should be on me!"

Scootaloo sighed and rubbed her arm. "Yeah, well... you're not the only one who made mistakes and regrets throughout this operation. I'm as bad as you are when I spread other students secrets. Heck, even when I tried to fix things by telling that one jerk off... which turned out to be Garble, I ended up making things worse! So... I want to fix things too... the right way this time!"

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Um... even though I was out of this scheme for the most part... I still played a major role of targeting the Rainbooms... just to spite my sister! And I also let things happen instead of putting more effort to try to talk you guys out of it... like how a friend should act! So... I wanted to set things right as well!"

Scootaloo gave Sweetie her apologetic look, who responded with a smile, before turning back to Apple Bloom.

"The point is Apple Bloom... we all started this... so now we're going to end it... together!"

Seeing her friends supporting looks, made Apple Bloom teared up.

"G...girls," Apple Bloom sniffed, wiping her eyes with her hand. "Does that mean... that y'all forgive me?"

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo turned and looked at each with unsure expressions. Their silence only made Apple Bloom nervous with some anticipation. A moment later, they both nodded and turned back to Apple Bloom.

"How about we focus on following through with apologizing to others and fixing everything first before we answer," said Scootaloo while Sweetie Belle nodded.

"Alright... fair enough," Apple Bloom sighed with a dejected look. It wasn't the answer she was hoping for, but at least they didn't say "no"... yet. Still, Apple Bloom swore to herself that she'll do everything in her power to make everything up to her two best friends.

Even if they decided to not be friends with anymore after this.

"Alright then... let's go!" Apple Bloom cried as she and the others rushed out of the school together and headed towards the shoppe.





After about twenty minutes of running, the trio eventually reached the Sweet Shoppe and watched Sunset talking to the Rainbooms through the entrance's windows. They can only hear parts of the conversation, but they all knew that she was trying to convince them again about her innocence. Judging from the skeptic looks from the Rainboom's faces, they only partly believed her.

The trio stood in front of the entrance for quite some time, feeling nervous, worried and scared about confessing their deeds to their respective sisters (sister-figure in Scootaloo's case) and Sunset Shimmer. They all knew that once they entered the building, they can't turn back and will have to face whatever consequences is coming their way. Despite their fears, they knew they can't stand outside forever and that everyone inside the building deserved to know the truth.

That... and it was also because it was freezing cold outside right now and they can't stay out any longer. On top of that, they also forgot to take their coats with them due to their haste, which made their predicament even worse.

Scootaloo turned her head towards Apple Bloom. "W-we're r-r-really d-d-doing this... a-a-aren't we?" Scootaloo asked with a bit of stammer from her voice, whether she was nervous for the upcoming confession or shivering from the cold, Apple Bloom wasn't sure.

Apple Bloom was quiet for a moment before nodding. "Y-yes... we are." She let out a somber sigh. "It's time to finally come clean with everything we've done... starting with our sisters and Sunset."

"E-even if they... ended up hating us after this?" Sweetie Belle asked timidly.

"...even if they hated us," Apple Bloom responded somberly.

As Apple Bloom continued to watched the scene in front of her, with Sunset now showing off that same book she carried from earlier, a small part of her tempted her to just back out and let the Rainbooms continue to believe that Sunset is to blame and have her sister to stay with her forever. But then, all the memories of what happened in the past two weeks flashed through her mind.

The memories of her creating Anon-a-Miss and then posted her sister's secret for the first time. The memories of the faces of each student's anger and suffering each time she walked by. The memories of her horrible treatment and betrayal towards her best friends. The memories of her witnessing Diamond and Silver Spoon's friendship falling apart. Her memories of her sister's emotional suffering throughout this whole mess. Her memories of meeting her demon self from her dream. And of course, the memories of Sunset's endless amount of emotional torment... all because of her.

Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes with determination. She had made her choice.

"...let's do this," she said.

With a deep breaths, the trio pushed through the doors and entered the shoppe, alerting the Rainbooms and Sunset Shimmer. The older teens turned towards their direction with shocked expressions on their faces, except for Sunset Shimmer, who had a mixture of knowing and a disappointed expression. Sweetie Belle crossed her arms with a sad expression as she looked up at her sister and Scootlaloo awkwardly held the back of her neck and looked down in shame, not wanting to meet her idol's face. As for Apple Bloom, she sighed sadly through her nose and looked up towards the Rainbooms, particularly at Applejack and Sunset Shimmer, with a deep guilt expression.

"Yeah... it was us."
> Chapter 14: The Verdict (CMC)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Present Day...


"We confessed everythin' to them," Apple Bloom concluded with a sigh. "They forgive us, but they chewed us out afterwards, including our folks. After grounding us, our families then called you over the phone about what we did and... you know the rest."

There was nothing but tense silence from within Principal 's Celestia's office. Apple Bloom looked down towards her lap and stared at her lap with a guilt expression, no longer wanting to meet either the adults in the eye. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo just stared at their farmer friend in silence. They have so many mixed emotions as they listened to Apple Bloom after they left her from the playground. As much hurt and anger they felt towards Apple Bloom, they mostly felt concern towards their friend as they heard her suffering and self-loathing from her voice. They just don't know what to make of it and where they still stand.

As for the Principal Celestia, she never felt so disappointed in her students all in her life. She had dealt with some trouble students who had done bad things before, but none of those incidents could ever top what those three have done for the past couple of weeks, not even when Sunset Shimmer turned everyone into mindless zombies. She felt rage building from her chest as the three described many awful deeds they done to the students and to each other. Despite her anger and a huge frown on her face, she kept herself calm and composed as she patiently waited for them to finish.

Vice Principal Luna on the other hand, was livid. She wanted to explode and lash out at the three of them multiple times when they she heard one terrible thing after the other, especially what they done to Sunset. But to her credit (and after receiving her sister's silent warning glare), she kept her mouth shut and composed so that she wouldn't frightened them any more then she had done already. But that doesn't stop her from glaring at the three girls the whole time as if she was daring them of ever trying to come up with a lie on the spot.

Even after the story was concluded, both sisters were staring right at them longer then they should as they processed everything they heard. The three freshman girls felt more and more uncomfortable as time passed under their Principals gaze, silently wishing for them to just say something already and not continue with their silent torture. Finally, after so much time have passed, Principal Celestia finally spoke in a calm but a very low tone.

"There are... so many things I wanted to say to you three... but I just couldn't find the right words. While I commend you for doing the right thing at the end, but that still doesn't excuse you for not only cyber bulling your sister, but also cyber bulling almost every student in our school and almost single-handily ruined Sunset's life after she tried so hard to get herself back up again from the Fall Formal incident!" 

"Not to mention, breaking into the school's gym lockers and into our school's library after hours through the window several times up until now... both which are illegal by the way!" Vice Principal Luna added with a growl before glaring angrily at them, making them all flinch. "What do you have to say for yourselves!"

No one said a word. Either they felt too ashamed or scared to answer Luna's question. With a bit of courage, Apple Bloom decided to be the one to answer. 

"Ah have nothing to say except... Ah'm sorry," she said quietly. "Ah'm sorry for hurtin' everyone because of mah stupid and petty idea to get mah sister to spend time with me... including my sister... Sunset... and mah friends." As Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo was taken aback from Apple Bloom's statement, Apple Bloom slowly lifted her head up and looked at Celestia right in the eye with her sad expression. "Ah know that a simple apology won't fix everythin' and that there would be consequences to mah actions, but Ah'll gladly take any punishments coming mah way and be responsible for mah actions... if you do one thing fer me in return."

Luna scoffed at the young girl in disbelief. "You're kidding right? You're on thin ice enough as it is! You're not in a position to nego–"

Celestia stretched her arm out in front of Luna, signaling her sister to stop speaking.

"Let her talk Luna," Celestia said calmly before addressing to Apple Bloom. "What is it that you want?"

Apple Bloom let out a sigh before answering with her serious expression.

"If yer going to punish someone... punish me... and leave mah friends out of this!"

Celestia and Luna was surprised from Apple Bloom's request, while Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo gasped at her in shock.

"WHAT!?" Scootaloo shouted.

"APPLE BLOOM!?" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

"I told you girls," Apple Bloom spoke up as she turned towards them with her guilt expression. "This whole thing was mah fault! Ah started this, Ah made things worse... and Ah became a monster in the process. And besides, once the word gets out, the students will come after me! So Ah'm taking all the blame, while you girls will be safe and yer lives won't be ruined because of me!"

Scootaloo growled angrily as she suddenly stood up from her chair. "LIKE HECK I WILL LET YOU DO THAT!" She screamed. "I'm far from innocent from this either! I was the one who made things worse with spreading secrets and put someone in danger! You're not taking all the blame!"

"Y-yeah!" Sweetie Belle added loudly. "And things wouldn't have gone worst if I didn't post those pictures of Rarity's slumber party on MyStable! So I'm responsible too!"

"This is not up fer discussion!" Apple Bloom shouted as she stood up from her chair as well. "Ah'm taking the hit and that's final!"

"We are so discussing this!" Scootaloo argued. "You can't just keep making decisions for us! Haven't you learned anything for the past two weeks!"

"That's different!" Apple Bloom retorted. "Ah'm basically giving you a "Get Out of Jail Free" card while Ah'm getting the heat. So don't be an idiot and just accept it!"

"I'm the idiot!?" Scootaloo shouted, offended from Apple Bloom's words. "What about you "making it up" for us? You leaving us out without our consent was your idea of "making up" to us!?"

"Don't you dare twisting mah words against me!" Apple Bloom screamed. "I was only trying to–"

"ENOUGH!" Celestia shouted angrily, who was finally running out of patience.

Both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo jumped from Celestia's loud voice and turned towards her in shock to see their Principal with a very angry expression on her face. Even Luna was shocked to see her sister, who was usually calm and kind hearted, lost her cool for once.

"I will not hear another word of your behaviors in my office!" Celestia shouted before pointing at Sweetie Belle. "And you both made your friend very upset right now!"

The two turned towards Sweetie Belle, who was still sitting on her chair, and their anger disappeared from the sight of her. They saw Sweetie Belle weeping into her hands, face hidden from view as her whole body was shaking like a leaf. They both realized that she was both scared and upset when seeing them arguing with each other as if she was re-living that day from the playground. Their hearts filled with guilt for unknowingly making their friend upset and they both went up to her.  

"Aw... shoot! Ah'm so sorry Sweetie Belle!" said Apple Bloom as she hugged Sweetie Belle's left side.

"I'm sorry too Sweetie Belle!" said Scootaloo as she hugged Sweetie's right side. "That was so uncool of me!"

Their moment was interrupted when they heard Principal Celestia loudly cleared her throat.

"And besides," Celestia continued, now slightly calmed down from before. "As noble your reasoning was... I'm afraid that I can't grant you your request Apple Bloom," Her eyes narrowed. "You three equally caused so much damage to this school for the last couple of weeks, that there was no way for any of you to dodge your responsibilities!"

Realizing that there was no way to delay the inevitable, both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo returned to their seats while Sweetie Belle stopped crying somewhat.

When she was sure that the three girls was giving her their undivided attention, Celestia spoke with an authorized tone. "In light of everything that happened while you three played as Anon-a-Miss and every other offensives around it... I'm afraid that I have no choice but to–"

Suddenly, the phone was sitting on Celestia's desk started ringing. Principal Celestia let out a small groan.

"Figures... one moment girls," she said sternly to the three as she picked up the phone. 

"Yes?" she answered, only to perked up to whoever was on the phone. "Oh hello there–" 

While they don't know who it is, the three girls heard someone speaking to their Principal with an urgent like tone.

"Yes, they explained everything... yes, I heard from everyone's side of the story including yours... No, I didn't give them their punishments yet. In fact, I was ready to–"

The voice on the other end then said something which caused Celestia eyes to widened in shocked. 

"Wait what? Are you serious–" The trio heard the voice taking some more until Celestia spoke up. "Okay, okay. Hold on a moment!"

She place her hand over the speaker and turned to her sister.

"Luna, would you please lead the girls out and have them wait outside until I'm done with this phone call?"

Vice Principal Luna cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "Can't this wait?"

"I'm afraid that this is important!" Celestia responded. "And "she" also wanted to talk to you too!"

Luna widen her eyes in understanding before she nodded. "Very well sister." She then turned to the three girls with a stern expression. "Follow me girls!"

Confused with this sudden turn of events, but they obeyed as they stood up from their chairs and followed Luna. Luna opened the door for the tree of them to step out of Celestia's office and then directed them to sit on the chairs outside of the doors.

"You three wait out here until we call you back in," she ordered before narrowing her eyes. "And don't even think about eavesdropping, got it?"

After receiving nods from them, Luna stepped back into the office and closed the door behind her, leaving the three girls alone.

There was awkward silence between the three of them. With the exception of their shouting match a few moments ago, they haven't spoke to each other since yesterday when they decided to confess to Sunset and their families about them being the true culprits. On top of that, her friends didn't answer her question if they forgive her or not. She wanted to ask them a few times if they have made up their minds yet, but she didn't want to push her luck in fear of them angering them further and then possibly hating her as a result. 

They barely took glances of each other or made any sounds as they continued to wait outside by the Principal's office until they were allowed back inside and wait for their fated verdicts. As time slowly ticked away, Apple Bloom felt like she really needed to clear the air with her (ex?) friends and find out where they stand once and for all, even if she was terrified at the possibility of loosing them forever.

Apple Bloom softly cleared her throat. "Well... that was something, huh girls?"

"...yeah," Scootaloo grunted, while not looking at her.

"Uh huh," Sweetie Belle responded quietly.

Apple Bloom frowned at their lack of responses, so she decided to try again with some small talk.

"Um... Ah bet outside is... pretty cold out right now, huh girls?" Apple Bloom asked lamely.

"...yeah," Scootaloo grunted.

"Uh huh," Sweetie Belle uttered.

Not giving up just yet, Apple Bloom continued to do her small talk.

"Um... I heard we're getting snow later tonight," Apple Bloom said with a small smile. "Ah hope we'll get a snow day tomorrow from school and build some cool snowmen and sledding!"

"...yeah," Scootaloo grunted with a much more annoyed tone.

"Hmm..." Sweetie Belle hummed quietly.

Apple Bloom frowned with a forlorn sigh. Her small talk wasn't working. Neither one of them are going to talk. Whether it was because they were still angry, awkward or just scared like she was, Apple Bloom was not certain. What she does know for sure was that she and her two friends will never move forward unless they sort out their differences. With a small sense of dread and guilt, Apple Bloom finally decided to bring up the topic.

"Girls... Ah really am sorry... fer everything!" She began quietly. "Ah know what Ah did and the way Ah acted towards ya was... unforgivable, but... Ah wanted to make up for everything Ah've done, including you girls... even if... y-you girls... not wanted... to be mah f-friend... anymore."

She looked down towards her lap and sniffed, letting a small tear trailed down her right cheek. She felt her heart hurting at the thought of her friends rejecting her and leaving her alone. But if they decided to not to forgive and wanted nothing to do with her, then she guessed that's all she deserved.

"Apple Bloom."

Apple Bloom looked up when someone called her name. To her surprise, it was Sweetie Belle, who had a serious, but sad expression.

"We all said and done some things that we regretted... back at the playground," Sweetie said with a sigh. "I was hurt and angry when you said things about me and my sister. I use my anger towards you to not only make myself feel better, but to hurt you too. But deep down... I knew you were right. I regretted that I brought up your... parents... and I deserved getting shoved to the ground."

Apple Bloom shook her head. "Ah shouldn't have shove you in the first place! Ah could've really hurt you!"

"Except for that bruise and some scrapes, you didn't," Sweetie Belle pointed out. "But regardless, I was also out of the line... and I'm sorry for hurting you too. Can you forgive me?"

"...only if you forgive me... for acting like a monster," Apple Bloom responded.

Sweetie Belle smiled. "You're not a monster Apple Bloom. You're just a girl who made really, really bad and stupid mistakes... just like Sunset Shimmer!"

Apple Bloom chuckled. "Yeah... that was pretty dumb of me!"

Apple Bloom then turned to her other friend who still refused to look at her.

"Scootaloo... what about you?"

For what it felt like minutes, Scootaloo hadn't said a word, making Apple Bloom nervous. Just when she was about to ask again, Scootaloo spoke in a low volume.

"Why should I?" She asked angrily.

Before Apple Bloom couldn't answer, Scootaloo suddenly turned towards her with an angry expression.

"You didn't care about how we felt throughout the whole thing and more about having your revenge against an ex-bully who doesn't deserve it in the first place!" 

Apple Bloom was about to open her mouth but Scootaloo cut her off. 

"Yes, I also wanted revenge against Sunset too at first, but at least I immediately realized how wrong this is and I wanted to stop our scheme. But you Apple Bloom..." She growled as she clenched her fist. "You just didn't care! You just wanted to keep going, even hurting us from the playground that day! You threatened to squeal on me about breaking into the team's lockers. And worse of all... you pushed Sweetie to the ground... and you didn't help me to get Sweetie's medical attention... that you caused! All because you cared more about your stupid scheme then your friends!"

Apple Bloom flinched at Scootaloo's angry rant, but she knew she deserved it. She watched as Scootaloo look down, seething at her lap.

"I get why you did this, especially after revealing your secret earlier. But that's still no excuse! I was so... furious at you... I wanted to hate your guts... I don't even want to look at you without me doing something that I'll regret! And yet..." She swallowed and her expression changed to somber. "I... still wanted to be your friend. I didn't want to lose you or Sweetie because of yours... and my mistake. But how could I forgive you for that!?" She clenched her eyes shut to keep herself from crying. "How would I know... that you won't betray us again?"

Feeling shame and remorse Apple Bloom immediately got up from her seat, rushed over to Scootaloo and hugged her tightly. Scootaloo was surprised from Apple Bloom's actions, but didn't resist the hug.

"Yer right Scootaloo," Apple Bloom said tearfully, burying her face onto Scootaloo's shoulder. "Ah acted horribly towards ya and Sweetie Belle! Ah was so blind and pig-headed from my anger... and denial, Ah became something far worse than Sunset... or any bully in our school! And it costed my friendship with you two. Ah'm sorry for hurting you and Sweetie! And Ah'm sorry for the way Ah'm acting! Ah know words alone won't do much, which is why Ah wanted to be the one to get punished. Ah drag y'all into this and Ah made some of the biggest mistakes of my life... including betraying you two which is mah biggest regret! Ah can't go back and undo everything, but Ah wanted to make up to everyone for my foolish scheme... and most importantly, making up to you guys... for being the biggest meanie in the universe! Ah don't care if it'll take me years or even if you don't forgive me... Ah just wanted y'all to know that Ah love you both... like sisters Ah never have."

Sweetie Belle felt her tears flowing from her eyes after hearing Apple Bloom's declaration. But despite of her tears, she smiled and was touched that they ment so much to Apple Bloom. Scootaloo meanwhile couldn't hold back her tears anymore and nearly let out a sob.

"Dangit Apple Bloom! Why do you have to be so sappy!" She exclaimed, as she rubbed her eyes with her arm. "I hate it when I cry!"

Apple Bloom grasped both of Scootaloo's shoulders and looked directly at her eyes.

"So can we... start over and be friends again?"

"After everything we been through... no way!" Scootaloo shouted angrily. Apple Bloom looked down sadly, until she heard Scootaloo added with a tender smile, "Cause there's no need to start over... we're still best friends!" 

Scootaloo then turned to Sweetie Belle. "All three of us!"

With a happy smile, Sweetie Bell got up from her seat and joined her friends into a hug.

"CMC forever?" Apple Bloom asked.

"CMC FOREVER!" Her two friends declared.

But their little moment had come to an end when Vice Principal Luna popped out from the office's doors.

"Alright girls! You can all come in now!" she said sternly before ducking herself back into the room.

Apple Bloom glance at the office doors for a brief moment before facing her friends with a sad sigh. "Well... Ah guess this is it! Are you sure you girls don't wanna back out?"

Scootaloo scoffed with a smirk. "Do you really need to ask? We're in this together and we will not let you face the music alone!"

Sweetie Belle nodded with a smile. "Yeah, you won't get rid of us that easily!"

Apple Bloom gave each of her friends with her watery smile. "...thank you Sweetie Belle... and Scootaloo!"

They slowly entered Principal's office and headed back to their seats, with Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna waiting for them with unreadable expressions.

"Sorry to keep you waiting girls," Celestia simply stated. "And judging from your expressions, was everything okay with you three?"

"Yeah..." Apple Bloom answered for the group. "We talked it over and... we made up." She then bowed her head slightly in shame. "And we're sorry for causing a scene earlier, it won't happen again."

Her two other friends nodded, agreeing alongside with her.

"Well I'm glad that the three of you reconcile with each other," said Celestia before frowning and narrowing her eyes. "But nonetheless... we have yet to discuss your... punishments."

The girls were scared from their Principal's cold tone, but they said nothing as they silently accepted whatever punishments she has in store for them.

"After hearing what happened from Sunset Shimmer, your sisters, some other students and you three just now about our current situation," Celestia began. "All I can say is... I'm very disappointed in you three... and that's the understatement."

"That's why we have decided that your punishments for your actions are as follows!" Vice Principal Luna added before listing things off with her fingers. "One: we'll have a school assembly later today, which will take place at our school's auditorium. From there, you three will clear the air once and for all that you are Anon-a-Miss and not Sunset! And you will apologize to all the students for your actions!"

The three nodded. They expected that they will have to come clean to the people that they wronged at some point, but they are not looking forward to it.

Especially when they have to deal with the wrath of many angry students afterwards.

"Two!" Luna continued. "Once the assembly is over, we'll have you three to take down that cursed MyStable webpage immediately afterwards, ending Anon-a-Miss for good, so that no one will use it to hurt others on and off our school grounds ever again!"

The three nodded. Again, they expected that they'll be ordered to permanently remove Anon-a-Miss' web page from the Principals once they confessed. Even if they didn't, they were planning to remove that MyStable page anyway since that is what caused all this mess in the first place.

"And finally," Celestia stated. "The biggest punishment of all for the three of you is..."

The three tensed, waiting for their final and worse punishment to them, silently kissing their High School careers goodbye.

"...to have six months of detention... starting after winter break!"

The three blinked once. 

Then twice. 

Then three times.

The three girls then looked at each other with confused expressions, wondering if they heard it right.

"Wait... that's it?" Apple Bloom spoke up for the group. "That's our punishment? Ah thought it was going to be much worse punishments then dat!"

"Well, your original punishment was getting expelled from our school and then get sent to juvenile," Luna said casually, scaring the young trio before glaring at them. "Would you rather have that?"

"Luna!" Celestia exclaimed.

Luna shrugged. "Just saying!"

Celestia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose before addressing to the girls.

"As Luna said, your punishment was going to be... much worse, but after we spent some time in consideration, we have decided to give you three another chance." Her eyes narrowed. "But make no mistake, you'll be doing much more during your detention than just sitting in the classroom for two hours!"

Celestia eyes set on Sweetie Belle. "For you Sweetie Belle, despite not completely involved with Anon-a-Miss except for your post about your sister's slumber party, you caused a lot of heartbreak between her, her friends and Sunset Shimmer. Therefore, I'll have you spend six months of organizing our record files in our offices and the library that was dated from the beginning of this school's first opening to now."

Sweetie nodded. While not looking forward to spend her time working on endless amount of filing, but she silently accepted her fate as of means to start making up for what she did.

Celestia then turned towards Scootaloo with narrowed eyes. "For you Scootaloo, for spreading other student's secrets and breaking into the gym lockers of our school team, you will spent six months of cleaning the locker room along with our school janitor everyday and you are also banned from your junior soccer team and other sport activities for the rest of the school year!"

Scootaloo grimaced. She enjoyed playing soccer as much as her idol, but having been removed from her team was devastating to her. Not to mention, she'll end up cleaning the whole locker room along side with the Wondercolts players, who will no doubt be furious at her and will probably give her a hard time for a long time. But if it means to show to everyone and her sister-figure that she's sorry, then she'll be able to put up with it.

Celestia then turned towards Apple Bloom and gave her the coldest expression than any of the three girls combined.

"Finally, there was you Apple Bloom," Celestia stated with no trace of warmth from her voice. "For starting this operation and caused a huge mess in our school, as well as harming many innocent students including your sister and Sunset Shimmer... I will have you assist the janitor to clean almost the entire school... including windows, floors and toilets. And since this is winter season, you will also be assisting to shovel the snow off the walk-path and stairs from our front and back entrance every morning except on weekends, and you will help repair any broken appliances around our school, including that window near the library that you all so loved to break in for the past few months!"

Apple Bloom shrunk into her chair with a grimace expression. She figured that she'll get the most punishment for starting this whole thing, but to do all these tough chores during detention and before school started for six months sounded insane. She almost wished that she got expelled from school as punishment instead.

Key word: almost.

But despite these harsh punishments, she was willing to go through with it if it means to get everyone's forgiveness and make up for what she did.

"Additionally," Celestia added as she eyed all three of them. "On your first day of detention, I'll have the three of you to watch a special three-hour documentary movie about cyber bullying! After that, I'll have you all write a two thousand and five hundred to three thousand word essay about what you learned about cyber bullying and why it was wrong to do so. 

"And as of right now, you three are banned to use any computers and cell phones on our school grounds unless you have adult supervision for school work only! You three are also banned for all school activities, including your club for the rest of the school year!" She stated, making all the CMC members winced at the thought of not doing their club activities for the rest of the year. Celestia then leaned forward with narrowed eyes. "Any questions?"

With great reluctance and defeat, the three wordlessly shook their heads.

"Good," said Celestia with a nod. "Now while we prepare for the assembly, Vice Principal Luna will take you three to the teachers lounge and you will all wait there until we call you three over to the assembly. Dismissed!"

With their meeting over, Vice Principal Luna walked over to the office door and opened it.

"Let's go girls!" Luna ordered, gesturing them to follow her without any argument.

The CMCs obeyed as they stood up and followed Luna out the door. As Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walked out if the office, Apple Bloom stayed behind and looked back at her Principal who was busy doing her paperwork.

"Um... Principal Celestia?" Apple Bloom spoke up with some hesitation.

Celestia stopped writing and immediately looked up. "Yes Apple Bloom?"

Apple Bloom shifted her body awkwardly with a nervous expression. "Um... Ah still don't think that we... AH deserved this, but... thank ya for giving us another chance and not expelling us, or... worse."

Celestia stared at the young girl with an unreadable expression. "Don't thank me Apple Bloom. Like I said earlier, Luna and I were originally going to give you three a much worse punishment even when you all first entered my office... until we changed our minds," Before Apple Bloom could ask, Celestia beat her to it. "If you must know, the person you should be thanking for giving you these light sentences... was Sunset Shimmer!"

Apple Bloom's eyes widened in shock. "She... really did that?... fer us!?" She asked quietly. "But... why? We're the ones who ruined her life! Why she stick up for us?"

Celestia was silent for a moment before she let out a sigh. "I'm afraid this is something you should be asking her yourself if you want to know the answer!" Her head then faced down towards her paperwork and resumed writing it again. "Now go with Luna and head to the teacher's lounge and wait until the assembly!" 

Realizing that their conversation was over, Apple Bloom made a beeline towards the door and followed the others. As Apple Bloom made her way to the teacher's lounge, she couldn't help but wonder why would someone, who she and her friends hurt so badly, would go out of her way to save them from an even harsher punishment? Apple Bloom have decided right then and there that if she and her friends somehow made it out alive after today, she will go look for Sunset and hopefully get the answers she seek.

But first... she and her friends have the assembly to prepare for.
> Epilogue: The Long Road of Redemption Pt. 1 (Sweetie Belle)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was late in the afternoon when the final bell had rung for the school. Many students walked out through the main doors and heading outside so they can head home for the winter break, including Sweetie Belle, who was slowly dragging herself with her head hang low. After she and her friends told everyone what they had done and apologized to them from the auditorium, things were slowly going back to normal. While Sweetie Belle still see most of the students with miserable faces, only this time it was out of guilt for their part of the mess, for hurting their own friends and most importantly, for they way they've treated Sunset Shimmer.

Some of the friendships from within the school were slowly restored. Lyra and Bon Bon reconciled immediately after the CMCs public apology and vowed to never to break apart again. Trixie also apologized to Bulk Biceps by giving him a collector's edition of a three movie set of his favorite show as a gift. In turn, Bulk Biceps created a mini night light of Trixie's logo so she wouldn't be scared of the dark anymore (even though it was still embarrassing to Trixie). Big Mac and Sugar Belle went back together after they both realized that this was all a misunderstanding no thanks to Anon-a-Miss. Even Vinyl (DJ PON-3) and Octavia were doing okay despite that their relationship was known to the public. In fact, most of the school were very supportive of their relationship, even Octavia's parents much to her relief.

While the damage was still fresh on everyone's mind, Sweetie Belle was glad to see that everyone was reconciling with each other and that Sunset was no longer public enemy number one. But in turn, everyone's anger was now directly at her and her friends. She couldn't help but shiver whenever she felt someone glaring daggers at her or when she heard hushed insults behind her when they thought that she couldn't hear them. At some point, she thought she saw someone from the hallway was coming up to her with rage in that person's eyes, who wanted to give Sweetie a piece of their minds. Luckily, a teacher was nearby when that happened and glared at that person, causing that student to quickly back down. Of course, that still doesn't save her from all the students anger from one class to another. By the time when school was finally over, Sweetie Belle was mentally exhausted, and that was just their first day after their confession.

She shuddered what the rest of her school days was like after winter break.

Sweetie Belle reached the bottom of the stairs and headed to the parking lot, where her sister was waiting for her with her crossed arms and a stoic expression.

"...hey Rarity," Sweetie greeted timidly.

"...Sweetie Belle," Rarity greeted back, without a trace of warmth from her voice, causing Sweetie to flinch. While her sister forgave her since her confession with her friends, but that doesn't mean that Rarity's anger will immediately go away overnight. When her sister learned that she was the one who posted pictures from their slumber party and putting the blame on Sunset, her sister refused to talk to her for the rest of the day and earlier this morning. Even after her parents grounded her after hearing about Anon-a-Miss, Sweetie still couldn't get her sister's anger and hurt expression out of her mind. Sweetie was starting to wonder if her sister actually forgave her at all. Even if she didn't, Sweetie wouldn't blame her if she ever to decide not to speak to her again.

Even if it hurts so much.

"I would ask how's your day was," Rarity continued. "But by the look of your face... it was anything but good."

Sweetie let out a depressing sigh. "No... it wasn't. Everyone was glaring at me and whispering behind my back all day! It felt terrible!"

Rarity narrowed her eyes. "Well, you girls posted all their embarrassing secrets online for everyone to see for the past couple of weeks, so of course you'll be facing at a lot of angry people! And keep in mind, this is what Sunset had to deal with after the Fall Formal, so it won't be easy! Maybe then you girls will truly understand her better!"

Sweetie Belle couldn't help but feel stung from Rarity's words. She balled her hands into fists and looked up at her sister with a frustrated look. "I know what we did was wrong, but the students from this school were sending secrets to us too!"

"Yes... they did," Rarity conceded with a nod. "And thanks to you three giving their emails addresses to Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna, those who were involved got punished for that too. Those getting detention for minor offenses... to getting suspended or even expelled for major offenses like that brute Garble."

Speaking of Garble, after their confession, Sweetie and her friends learned a lot more about this terrible bully involving the "crossed-eye" girl. As it turns out, Garble was this girl's ex-boyfriend. From what she heard, when they first got "together," he was using her just to show off to his buds, making her serve all those tasks for him like homework or projects without thanking her and worse of all, he emotionally abused her all the time. Thankfully, she got away from him and then she got together with some other guy who was much nicer and called himself "the doctor" shortly afterwards. But Garble however, didn't take this too kindly. So he sent out a lot of sensitive secrets about that girl and her little sister to Anon-a-Miss as revenge for dumping him. Sweetie and her friends were so disgusted with this guy that he made Sunset (back in her bulling days) an angel in comparison. Thankfully, not only his revenge blew up in his face, but he is going to be facing some serious repercussions, both in and outside of school.

It's safe to say that they won't be seeing him back at school again anytime soon.

"But even so," Rarity continued. "The students who are being punished will also be mad at you for getting them in trouble. But because Celestia ordered the staff to monitor the three of you in and between classes, you should count yourself lucky that angry glares and insults will be the only thing you're receiving from them!"

Sweetie sighed heavily. As much as she hates this, but her sister has a point. She and her best friends couldn't change the past and the damage is done. She had no other choice but to keep going and she hoped, with effort on their part, that many will forgive them in time.

Even if her path is rough from here on out.

"Hey!"

Sweetie looked up to see Rarity, who still had a stoic expression. She then knelt down to Sweetie's eye level. "While I'm still mad at you for what you did to the school, for what you did to Sunset and what you did to me... I could never bring myself to hate you Sweetie Belle. After all... you're still my little sister." Rarity's expression then changed to a sad soften expression, much to Sweetie's surprise. "Although, considering you becoming Anon-a-Miss and tearing the whole school apart... I don't think I did a very good job of being your older sister you wanted me to be. I guess I'm a failure for not being a true friend to Sunset..." A lone tear dripped out from Rarity's left eye. "...and for being for big sister."

Seeing her sister so sad and hurt because of her, it was enough to finally break down from her guilt. Her tears were now flowing down from her cheeks like waterfall.

"RARITY!" she sobbed loudly. She immediately ran to hug Rarity as tightly as she could, while Rarity hugged her back. "I'm so sorry sis! I'm so so sorry for everything!" she wailed as she burried her face into her sister's shoulder.

"I know darling... I know," Rarity whispered as she let a few tears fell from her face, not caring that her tears was ruining her mascara. "And I'm sorry too, for making you feel so alone!"

They stayed together, hugging each other for a long time as if it was an eternally. To Sweetie Belle, she doesn't care. This was the first time they've hugged like this in a long time and she never wanted to end. Sadly, as if fate ignored her pleas, both sisters heard a honk from behind them, which turned out to be car belonging to one of their parents. 

Rarity sighed as she stood up and offered Sweetie her handkerchief to wipe her eyes, while Rarity used her second handkerchief for her own eyes.

"Come Sweetie Belle," she declared. "Let's go home and get ourselves ready to head over to Sweet Apple Acres for the Apple's Christmas Party!"

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened in shock. "Wait... I'm invited?"

"Yes. You and your friends!" Rarity answered with a nod. "While you're still grounded, you can still at least have a little fun with us at the party so you won't feel left out again." She then gave Sweetie her teasing grin as they were walking towards the car. "Just... don't post anymore pictures of me wearing my most hideous clothes designs again."

For the first time in a long while, Sweetie smiled happily as she felt her heart filled with joy. 

"Deal!"
> Epilogue: The Long Road of Redemption Pt. 2 (Scootaloo)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Sure glad that's over!" Scootaloo muttered as she slowly walked down the hallway after getting chewed out from Coach Iron Will from her actions at the locker room weeks back. She was kept in his office, discussing (mostly yelling) about her punishment after Winter Break for about a half hour before he finally let her go. Even before she was forced to see Coach Iron Will, she was already drained from a long day of school she had gone through.

Scootaloo was having... a rough time, to put it mildly. After she and her friends' confession to the school earlier from the auditorium, she received nothing but open hostile from other students all day, especially after learning that she was the one who did all the postings. Of course, Scootaloo took all their insults and anger without any protest since she felt like she deserved it. But the one thing that keeps making her mad was that everyone labeled her as the one responsible for posting everyone's secrets and almost ruined everyone's lives, even though some of the accusation was from the very people who were also responsible as well.

Hypocrites! she thought bitterly. Blaming me for posting them when they are the ones who send them to me to post! Sure glad that me and my friends aren't the only ones to get punished from all of this!

Even back at home, while her Aunts didn't hate her after hearing the truth (much to her relief), but they were very disappointed in her actions. As a result, she was grounded for six months. From then on, her time with her friends was cut short for the time being and focus on her homework, she was never allowed to use her laptop unless it's for school (with her Aunts supervision), and must do extra chores around the house as directed before she could play, even on weekends!

Additionally, she dealt with a few students who personally walked up to Scootaloo and gave her a piece of their minds, which were lots of angry screaming, berates and promises to make her life miserable. They probably could've done a lot more to express their anger if they weren't being watched by other teachers. After their confession, Principal Celestia ordered the faculty of the school to keep a close eye on the school to keep everyone from fighting again, especially in case if anyone tries to harm the CMC. But even with that new arrangement, Scootaloo knew that it was only a matter of time before her luck ran out the moment when she is all alone and vulnerable for those vengeful students to strike.

Just like what they did to Sunset.

What really surprised Scootaloo the most was when she ran into the 'misaligned eyes' girl earlier today. Scootaloo felt extremely guilty when she saw her since that girl was the one that Scootaloo had hurt the most. At first, Scootaloo thought that she was going to say a few angry words and insults to her like the others. Unlike everyone else, Scootaloo felt like she deserved all that hate coming from that girl. 

But to Scootaloo's surprise, she didn't.

Instead of being mad like the others, she just calmly explained how much Scootaloo actions have hurt her and was still upset by it. But despite all of that, she just smiled and said that she forgives the young daredevil for everything she had done. That girl's actions and words alone nearly made the young girl cry. The fact that this girl forgives her despite everything, just made Scootaloo feel a whole lot worst about herself. Despite that girl's reputation of being a total clutz, she was truly the most innocent person with a heart of gold.

Scootaloo still couldn't believe that she was willing to hurt a person like that.

"Hey Scoota-BRAT!"

Scootaloo let out a tired sigh, annoyed that she was about to deal with the eighth student who wanted to express their anger on her. Decided to get this over with, she turned to see an angry blonde girl with dark purple eyes. She wore a purple and white sport jacket with a red skirt, purple boots with red socks and a purple and red hairband that held her hair into a long ponytail.

"What do you want Cloudy Kicks?" Scootaloo asked in a dull tone.

"What do I want?" Cloudy repeated in her mocking tone before shouting angrily. "I want to give you a piece of my mind for humiliating me with your MyStable page... Anon-a-Miss!"

Scootaloo groaned inwardly. What Cloudy Kicks was referring to was an image of her freaking out a tiny spider (which turned out to be a toy which was placed by one of her teammates) that was hidden in her locker due to her huge fear of spiders. Naturally, Scootaloo posted that picture along with the others just to keep up with the act as Anon-a-Miss. And after her and her friends' confession earilier, Scootaloo was already dealing with her consequences by getting called out, chewed out and even insulted by the very student they've done wrong.

Just like the first seven times. 

"Look..." Scootaloo sighed as she rubbed her temples. "Me and my friends had already apologized to everyone, including you of what we done! What more do you want from me!"

Cloudy immediately went up to Scootaloo and lifted her up by her shirt, surprising the young pre-teen. Cloudy then brought Scootaloo's face to hers with an angry sneer.

"How about... getting even!"

Despite slightly nervous of how Cloudy acted differently than the others and the danger she was in, Scootaloo stared at Cloudy with a calm expression.

"Like how you tried to get even with Sunset alongside with Garble from the hallway the other day?" Scootaloo retorted. "And by the way, did YOU apologized to Sunset for attacking her after mistaking her for Anon-a-Miss or was that an excuse to get back at her like some kind of a hypocrite? Oh... and your breath stinks!"

Scootaloo's statement only angered Cloudy further and brought her fist back."You little BRAT! I'm gonna–"

"You're gonna... what, Cloudy Kicks?"

Cloudy felt chills so far down her spine after hearing a voice she knows so well. She slowly turned around and she felt her heart nearly stopped at the sight of her captain of the Wondercolts soccer team, Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash had her arms crossed with a disapproving anger like a parent who just caught her child for doing something nasty.

Cloudy gulped. "R-Rainbow Dash!? I... I was just–"

"About to let her go, right?" Rainbow finished with a growl.

"But, but she's the one who was spreading secrets!" Cloudy complained angrily while pointing at Scootaloo in question.

Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "Weren't you the one who commented about how Fluttershy sounded like a sick animal when she sings and should just live in the zoo?"

Cloudy recoiled in fear that her captain caught her for being the one who insulted one of the kindest and most popular student of the school from online. What was even worse for her was the captain also happens to be friends with the person who she insulted.

"I want to mop the floor with you for insulting my best friend for that!" She continued angrily. "But my best friend wouldn't let me do that. So instead, I'll make you do one hundred laps around the track during our next practice as punishment... after you apologized to her!" Before Cloudy could sigh in relief, Rainbow added, "Now as for Scootaloo, she was already being punished, so there's no need to give her more! So unless you want me to ban you from any of our next games, I kindly suggest you scram and leave her alone!"

Cloudy's eyes narrowed. "And what if I don't?"

"Keep hanging around and find out!" Rainbow threatened with a low voice.

There was a silent stand off between the two athletes. After about a minute Cloudy reluctantly placed Scootaloo down, but now before giving Scootaloo her hateful glare.

"This isn't over!" she whispered harshly before she turned and stomped away.

As Cloudy retreated down the halls, Rainbow noticed many students were watching them out of interest. Whether they were hoping to see Scootaloo get a taste of revenge or not wanting to get involve, Rainbow wasn't certain. However, the sight of peering eyes from others annoyed her greatly and glared at them.

"What are you all looking at!? Show's over!" she barked.

With a blink of an eye, the students immediately carried on with their day, pretending that event ever happened.

After Scootaloo sighed in relief of avoiding danger, she looked up at Rainbow. "Um... thanks Rainbow Dash! I'm glad that your–"

"Save it Scoots!" Rainbow barked, making the young dare devil flinch. Rainbow sighed heavily and turned her head away from Scootaloo. "...we need to talk!"

Scootaloo frowned with nervousness. After her confession along with her friends at the shoppe last night, Rainbow Dash hasn't spoken to her since. She figured that she was very mad at her for betraying her, but she doesn't blame her for it. While she was willing to take responsibility for what she'd done along with her friends, she was scared that her idol won't speak to her again at the cost of it just like what she did to Sunset. She really didn't know what to do if Rainbow wanted nothing to do with her life anymore and downright disown her. She scolded herself for making many stupid mistakes to get her idol to be closer to her, only to push her away instead.

"Why?"

Scootaloo snapped herself out of her thoughts from her idol's raspy voice. "W-what?"

"Why did you do it?" Rainbow asked softly, still looking away from Scootaloo. "Why did you do all those postings to hurt everyone in school? To hurt Sunset? To hurt... me?"

Scootaloo felt huge twinge of guilt from her stomach. She looked down towards the ground, not wanting to meet her idol's eyes due to shame. 

"It's... because of a lot of things," Scootaloo answered lamely.

"What kind of 'things'?" Rainbow asked bluntly with a bit of impatientness.

"It's because... I was jealous," Scootaloo admitted with a waver from her voice. "We used to spend so much time together like sisters and you always find the time just for me, despite your busy schedule as a captain for all sport teams! But ever since Sunset... joined your group, you didn't spend as much time for me anymore. And I was also confused as to why you let someone like her be your friend despite everything she did! I didn't think she was punished enough, so I joined Apple Bloom just to get back at Sunset and to get you to spend time with me again. But as days go by and after our talk... I realized just how wrong I am and how misguided my sense of justice was. I wanted to end it, I really do, but because of all those messages I've received, threatening me to continue or else... I was so scared! I tried fixing it by telling our "fans" off, but I made it so much worse! I never wanted this to happen... and I never wanted to hurt anybody!"

"But you did it anyway!" Rainbow pointed out.

"I know!" Scootaloo cried as she shut her eyes and tears were pouring out from her eyes. "And I regret all of it! I'm no better than any bully I've ever known! I'm sorry for hurting your friends! I'm sorry for hurting Sunset! And I'm sorry for hurting you! I don't deserve to be your sister!"

Scootaloo continued to silently weeping in front of her idol. Normally she wouldn't want to cry in front of her idol so she doesn't look like a wimpy sap, but at this point she doesn't care anymore. For all she knew, her relationship with Rainbow Dash is as considered to be over. She wouldn't care if it was from another angry student, but if it was from her idol, it will destroy her. She silently waited for Rainbow Dash to berate and scream at her, all while announcing that she will never speak to her again.

Even if it hurts a lot.

"Scootaloo... look at me," Rainbow said softly.

Despite her tears were still leaking, Scootaloo opened her eyes and slowly raised her head at her idol who had a stern but soft expression. 

"Squirt... what you and your friends done to me and my friends... hurts me!" Rainbow Dash stated calmly. "It really does! What really hurts me the most was that you, who I considered you as my sister, made me turn against my best friend for something she didn't do! Do you have any idea how that affected me, how much I hurt my best friend, who spent a long time trying to prove herself to us, only to toss her away without a second thought? She'll have a hard time trusting us again no matter how many times we assured her that it won't happen again, I'm sure of it! And not to mention, do you have any idea how much damaged you caused to other people? Like Soarin? My teammates spent hours trying to convince him to come back to school! While we had succeeded of convincing him to return, Soarin was now hesitant to eat a single pie since! And do I even need to mention about Dinky and her sister?" Scootaloo flinched as Rainbow continued to press. "Are you proud that you hurt innocent people just to get what you want, despite that wasn't the correct way in doing so?"

"N-no! I'm not proud at all!" Scootaloo cried as her tears were now flowing down her cheeks. "If anything, I felt terrible! I wanted to fix this, but I don't know how!"

Rainbow let out a long sigh. "Kid... even though you acknowledged your mistakes and trying to make it up to everyone you wrong, but it takes more than a simple apology to fix all of this! In fact, you may not be able to fix this completely! There may be some people who are willing to forgive you in time, but the others..."

Rainbow didn't finish, but Scootaloo understood the gist of her message.

Scootaloo sniffed. "W-what about... you?"

Rainbow Dash was quiet for a moment, making the young pre-teen nervous and scared for her response. After what it felt like an eternally, Rainbow finally answered.

"Right now Scoots... I'm very disappointed in you! Part of me felt like... I shouldn't be near you right now. You nearly ruined my chances of ever becoming a personal soccer player because you posted my science paper."

Scootaloo sadly bowed her head, distraught that her relationship with Rainbow Dash has come to an end.

"...but!"

Scootaloo quickly raised her head back up to Rainbow Dash with a bit of confusion and a shimmer of hope.

"If there's one thing I learned throughout all this mess... is that there's nothing good of ever throwing someone away because of your friend's actions." She then looked away with a bit of look of shame herself. "I admit... even I screwed up badly for the past two weeks. Not that I'm making an excuse, but I guess a small part of me was still resentful of what Sunset had done in the past, even though we're both cool now. But when you three... created that site,–" Scootaloo badly cringed from Rainbow's icy tone, as Rainbow continued. "I suddenly became distrustful with her again and believed she have gone back to her old ways! I even believed that she was pretending to be our friend this entire time despite my heart telling me that something was up!"

She sighed sadly. "But after everything that happened with Sunset... I realized I should've been more loyal to her. NO... a better friend. And I also... should've kept my temper in check. Even though that she forgives us, but the damage was done. I still have a lot to make up for her." She turned her head back towards Scootaloo again, but with a look of guilt and remorse. "I also felt that it was my fault... for giving you the wrong impression on what justice is. I should've tried to convinced you further that Sunset really changed. Heck! I should've been a better role model to you! I felt like that you learned all of my habits, both good and the bad! If I done better... you would have made a better choice of handling things and come talk to me... instead of doing something drastic like that. So in a way... I'm mad at myself for making you act this way. So... I get the most blame."

"That's not true!" Scootaloo exclaimed, now openly crying. "Everything that happened was MY choice, just like how you made your choices with Sunset! I'm the one who let you down!"

Rainbow looked down. "But it was because that I wasn't always around you is what lead you to this!"

"Yes, but that was still on me!" Scootaloo cried. "So if you're going to hate someone for ruining your friendship with Sunset... than hate me! I know that my chances of ever repairing our friendship is gone. So... just say that you hate me and never wanted to see me again and leave! Just... just do it..."

She sobbed but kept her head now. Rainbow haven't said anything for a while to the point that Scootaloo was sure that she was torturing her feelings. Before Scootaloo could say anything, she suddenly felt arms wrapping around her. Despite that her eyes were filled with tears, she looked up to see Rainbow Dash who was giving her a sad smile.

"Heh... guess we both screwed up big time, huh?" She joked weakly before her expression became serious. "I could never hate you squirt! And if you think for one second that I'll ditch you for this, then you are wrong kid! I won't abandon you!"

Scootaloo eyes widened in shock, couldn't hardly believe what her idol said. "R-really?"

"Really!" Rainbow answered with a soft smile. "Like I said, I learned a lot for the past two weeks. I won't make the same mistake again like I did with Sunset. I won't leave anyone including you hanging again!"

Scootaloo sniffed with a much hopeful expression. "So... does that mean... you forgive me?"

Rainbow's face became neutral. "Well... yes... and no."

After seeing Scootaloo's sad, yet confused expression, Rainbow explained further. "While I can tell that you're sorry, but you still hurt me Scoots! But if you're really sorry and wanted to make up to me and everyone else, you have to work hard to regain my trust. Understood?"

Scootaloo nodded. "I understand! I swear, I'll do anything to fix our trust and become your sister again!"

Rainbow shook her head. "There's no need to do all of that Scoots! While I am still mad at you and mistrust you right now..." She knelt down in front of Scootaloo, placed her hands on her shoulders and then gave her a caring smile. "But you're still my little sister to me... even if we're not related by blood."

Scootaloo's eyes began to water again, but with happiness instead of sadness. She threw her arms over Rainbow's neck and sobbed. Rainbow Dash simply hugged back with a smile and stay there for a long time, not caring if anyone from the hallway saw them. Eventually, they broke the hug.

"Alright... enough with the sappiness," said Rainbow as she stood up, ruffled Scootaloo's hair and then began to walk down the hall. "Now come along Scoots!" 

Scootaloo followed her idol with a questioning look. "Where are we going?"

"To the track," Rainbow Dash answered simply.

Scootaloo immediately halted and widened her eyes. "But... the track is filled with snow!"

"Yes, but it'll give us a slight challenge for what we're doing now!" Rainbow replied nonchalantly before she stopped and faced Scootaloo with a stern expression. "You say that you wanna spend more time with me? Then I want you to run around the track with me by my side. We're gonna keep running around the track until you can't run any more!"

Scootaloo gulped, both out of fear and anticipation. "Is... is this your way of giving me punishment?"

"In a way," Rainbow Dash responded. "But... I'm also training myself for the upcoming Friendship Games in a couple of months, so I need to keep myself in shape. And since everyone is busy... I could use a tracking buddy to help me out. So are you up for it?"

Scootaloo eyes widened in shock from her idol's offer before she nodded her head vigorously. "Y-yes! I wanna help you out!"

Rainbow let out a huge grin. "Great! Once we're done, we'll be heading to Applejack's for our major holiday sleepover and you three are invited!" She then turned and started heading down the hall "Now lets get to that track and start jogging... sis!"

With her tearful eyes, Scootaloo smiled widely before following her sister-figure.

"You got it... sister!"
> Epilogue: The Long Road of Redemption Pt. 3 (Apple Bloom)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apple Bloom sighed heavily as she grabbed her things from her locker before going home for her Winter Break. Her day had not been so easy ever since she and her friends confession to the students about their actions for the past two weeks. Out of all of her friends, she received the most hostile from the students due to her being the ringleader of Anon-a-Miss. Even with the supervison from the teachers, the students held nothing back. They've been throwing insults at her whenever they see her, throwing paper balls and erasers at the back of her head during classes, purposly tripping or bumping into her, there was even someone from her class poured a small carton of milk over her head (then was sent to detention by a teacher as a result) during lunch. Despite all the abuse she was getting from the students, she took every single one of them as retribution for ther actions. She silently mulled if this is what Sunset had to go through after the events of the Fall Formal and throughout two weeks during Anon-a-Miss fiasco.

After putting on her winter coat, Apple Bloom grabbed her backpack, closed her locker and walked down the hallway, while ignoring many hateful glares from other students. As she was walking by, she spotted two familar people; Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. She watched as the two of them were having a conversation, although Diamond appeared to be emotional while Silver's expression was skepical and full of doubt. Apple Bloom felt guilt filling her heart for being the one to split Diamond's and Silver's friendship apart. She doesn't want this to happen because of her, so she was determined to fix this. Even if they never wanted to forgive her, she can at least bring the two of them back together.

With a sigh, Apple Bloom walked up to the two of them. As she got closer, the pair noticed the farmer girl. Diamond had a neutral but calming expression, while Silver Spoon had an hostile and anger look on her face and crossed her arms as soon as she saw Apple Bloom. By the time Apple Bloom reached them, Silver Spoon spoke before Apple Bloom could utter a single word.

"What do you want?" Silver Spoon spat. "Haven't you done enough damage already, Anon-a-Miss?"

"Silver!" Diamond exclaimed.

"No it's okay... Ah deserved that," said Apple Bloom with a tired sigh. "Ah want to apologize... to the both of ya. We, especially me, let our jealousies got the best of us when our sisters spent more time with her than us. We posted everyone's secrets and made it look like it was Sunset in hopes to get our sisters back... which turned out to be a terrible mistake!"

"That's putting it mildly!" Silver scoffed with her piercing glare, causing Apple Bloom to flinch somewhat.

"Okay... it was beyond terrible," Apple Bloom corrected meekly. "Still, we all regretted for what we did to our sisters, to Sunset Shimmer... and to you guys. We really did not mean to let things escalate like this... especially for causin' yer friendships between the two of you to split apart." Apple Bloom sighed sadly. "If y'all lookin' fer someone to blame... than blame me. Even if you both hate me forever after this, I hope y'all find it in your hearts to forgive me someday."

No one said a word. Diamond appeared to be in deep thought while Silver's glared angrily at Apple Bloom in rage, making the young farmer fidget in he place. Finally, after a moment of painful silence, Diamond spoke.

"Well... to be honest Apple Bloom... I have... mixed emotions from you," Diamond said calmly. "On the one hand... I'm angry– no... furious with you three for what you done to me and Silver! You nearly single-handedly destroyed my friendship with Silver with that photo you posted online for everybody to see!"

"Well technically... that was Scootaloo's fault for posting that," Apple Bloom responded, only to wince when she saw Silver scowled at her. "B-but that's no excuse!" Apple Bloom added quickly. "We all felt terrible for that and we didn't want you guys to stop being friends again because of us!"

"Yeah well, you should feel bad for it you secret exposing hick!" Silver shouted,

"Silver! That's enough!" Diamond scolded. "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say it!"

"Fine! You know what? I'm getting my things from my locker!" Silver snapped as she stopped away from them, but not before she shoved Apple Bloom out of her way. "Go talk to me when your done talking with that... jerk face!"

Apple Bloom was hurt from Silver's comment, but she knew she deserved it. Quite frankly, she knew that Silver will react that way even after she apologized. What hurts her the most was that they just decided to be friends after helping Diamond, only for Silver to despite her again after her stunt. It is going to take more than a simple apology until Silver decided to forgive her.

If she forgives her that is.

"I'm sorry about that Apple Bloom," Diamond sighed. "Silv is still upset after finding out that you and your friends... well... you know."

Apple Bloom nodded. "Ah understand. Like Ah said... Ah deserved it. Ah expected that she won't forgive me right away... or ever."

"Just... give her time," Diamond advised. "She'll eventually come around. I mean, she dealt with me after all," she joked, attempting to lighten up the mood. Her expression changed to much more serious. "Anyway, Silver's... unnecessarily outbursts aside, what you three really did hurt me... and it's hard for me to forgive you."

Her expression than soften a little. "But on the other hand... I can't really held it out against you either for doing that to us. After all... I was a horrible bully to you three for years until recently. I'm not surprised that you still have some resentment towards me and Silvs."

Apple Bloom wanted to assure Diamond that it wasn't true, but she couldn't bring herself to do it especially after everything that happened. Instead, she sighed and looked at her friend in the eye with a guilt expression.

"Well... to tell ya the truth, part of me had some doubts that you've changed for the past few months," she answered truthfully. "Sometimes... Ah figured you were secretly waiting to get back at us when our defenses are down. But after Ah get to know ya, especially at the mall a few days back... Ah was wrong. You are actually a lot of fun to hang out and Ah can see that you are a good person now." She sighed sadly. "Still... even before our hang out, Ah didn't gave ya a fair chance just like how Ah didn't give Sunset a chance. Fer that... Ah'm sorry for not only hurting you... but for doubting you too."

"Apology accepted," she responded softly, but her eyes looked sad. "Again... I don't blame you, but it still hurts though. I really wanted to be your friend, but... I'm not sure I'm ready to forgive you... at least not right now."

Apple Bloom frowned sadly, but she nodded. "Ah understand. Ah knew it may take some time, but Ah wanted to make up to both you and Silver and hopefully... we can start over, wiping our slates clean." Apple Bloom took her backpack off of her back and started to dig through it, looking for something. "While this may not be enough to make up for everythin' we... Ah done... but Ah hope that this'll be enough to start."

She eventually found the thing she was looking for and she slowly took the item out of her bag. Once the item took out was in view, Diamond let out a huge gasp.

"My necklace!" she cried at the site of the necklace. "Silver's necklace!" she corrected. 

Apple Bloom handed the necklace over to Diamond for her to examine the item for any damages from her fight with Silver, only to find none. In fact, it looked like it was brand new like it came from a store.

"But... how!?" she exclaimed as she looked at her friend with wide eyes. "It was destroyed after Silv and I pulled it apart!"

Apple Bloom chuckled. "Well first off, Ah was forced to picked up every single piece of that necklace by that mall security after your fight with Silver."

Diamond blushed both from guilt and embarrassment. "O-oh! I'm sorry about that!"

"It's fine. Ah was planning to pick them up mahself anyway," Apple Bloom reassured. "Anyway, I kept these fer a while until the night we confessed to our sisters about... you know," she explained. "Ah asked Pinkie Pie if one of her sisters could fix the necklace. You see, her sister is a real expert when it comes to rocks, including jewelry! She sometimes likes to create many rock themed necklaces as a hobby. To mah amazement, she managed to fix this necklace as exactly how it was and good as new almost overnight!" Her expression than became nervous. "So... does it look okay?"

Diamond gave Apple Bloom her astonished look. "Okay!? This is amazing!" she cried happily. "Apple Bloom I... I don't know what to say!"

"You don't have to say anythin'," Apple Bloom responded softly. "Just know that your friendship really means a lot to me... and Ah hope you know that someday."

Apple Bloom threw her backpack over her shoulder and then she turned and headed down the hallway towards the school's entrance. She only took a few steps until Diamond called her.

"Apple Bloom!"

As Apple Bloom turned around, she was suddenly engulfed into a hug by Diamond.

"...thank you," Diamond whispered. She then immediately broke her hug and ran down the hallway towards Silver's locker.

Apple Bloom watched as Diamond caught up to Silver, who still had a skeptic expression, and started talking to her again. Apple Bloom then witnessed Silver's shocked expression as Diamond showed her the repaired necklace and placed it on Silver's hands. After a few more words were exchanged, the two hugged each other tightly with tears in their eyes and huge smiles on their faces. Apple Bloom smiled at the sight, happy to see them mending their friendship, before she continued on her way towards the front entrance.

She was then outside into the snow, as tiny snowflakes slowly descending from the sky. Apple Bloom went down the stairs and walked down the sidewalk until she was at the parking lot, where Applejack was waiting for her near her pickup truck.

"Hey," Applejack greeted, but lack of any warmth from her voice.

"...hey," Apple Bloom responded meekly.

Even after her sister forgives her, Applejack is still angry at her for not only humiliating her with the nickname she posted online, but also nearly cost her best friend due to her stunt. The rest of her family wasn't so happy with what she had done either, so as a result, she was grounded for six months. Additional punishments includes her laptop was confiscated until further notice, her phone was replaced with an old flip phone (so she can use it to call instead of going online) for the time being and have to do extra work around the farm. While Apple Bloom was glad that Applejack is somewhat back to her normal self, but Applejack was still distant, but only from Apple Bloom instead of her friends. It hurt Apple Bloom a lot that her sister is a lot more distant to her than ever, but she have no one to blame but herself.

"So... bad day?" Applejack asked, eyeing Apple Bloom's sticky hair from the milk earlier today.

"...you could say that," Apple Bloom replied with a dejected sigh. "Everyone tortured me nonstop ever since we confessed this mornin'! Even apologizin' to them personally doesn't stop them fer hating me!"

"Yeah... Ah noticed," Applejack stated. "This was somethin' that Sunset had to go through after the Fall Formal... but much worse."

Apple Bloom winced. She remembered a few days after the Fall Formal, Sunset tried to apologized to everyone and even tried to be friendly, only to get turned away and treated badly from all the students... including herself. Back then, Apple Bloom thought that it was justified and satisfaction that Sunset gets everything she deserved and doesn't deserved forgiveness. But now, after going through what possibly be the worse day of her life, she realized how Sunset must have felt about trying to make things right, but no one gives you a chance. This only added more guilt to her never ending pile of shame.

"And yer not the only one who's trying to make up sis," Applejack added. "After everything that happened... Ah learned fer the past two weeks is dat Ah shouldn't let mah doubts and fears held me back... and that Ah should listen to my friends... instead of jumping to conclusions and not giving them a chance like a stubborn mule." She sighed sadly. "Even after Sunset forgave us... Ah sensed that Sunset is weary of us and acted much more cautiously as if we're ready to accuse her... not that Ah could blame her." She then gave Apple Bloom a very harsh glare. "Our whole point for our planned slumber parties was to make her feel comfortable and make her feel like she belonged with us! But thanks to yer stunt, she felt more isolated than before!"

Apple Bloom felt like she just got punched in the stomach from the way her sister was talking to her. "Ah really didn't think Applejack!" She exclaimed. "I just wanted to be part of the fun too, but yer never around much anymore!"

Applejack crossed her arms. "You know you could've wait until Christmas Eve when everyone's at our place, including your friends! You three were invited you know!"

Apple Bloom flinched. Due to her anger and stubbornness of trying to separate Sunset from her sister, she had completely forgotten that they're having a group get together on Christmas Eve with her being included with them. Meaning, she would've been able to spend a lot of time with her sister and her friend's actives regardless. Heck, she would have spend time with her sister on Christmas day. With that revelation, she now realized just how stupid her plan really was, if not already. 

"Okay in hindsight... Ah didn't think things through," Apple Bloom mumbled, feeling embarrassed with herself.

"Did ya ever think at all when you were posting secrets to humiliate everyone... including me!?" Applejack yelled.

Stung by her sisters words, she looked down with her eyes clenched shut, and her tears of sadness were leaking out despite her efforts.

Seeing her younger sister looking so miserable, Applejack expression soften and tilted her stetson hat slightly downward. "Ah already reported all those incidents with those kids harassin' ya to Principal Celestia. They'll take care of 'em!"

What Applejack just said caught Apple Bloom off-guard to the point that she nearly stopped crying. 

"You... are?" she asked quietly with a sniff. "But... Ah thought you hated me right now."

Applejack sighed heavily. "Apple Bloom... look at me!"

When Apple Bloom looked up to her sister with watery eyes, Applejack spoke to her in a way as a caring parent to her child.

"Ah could never hate you Apple Bloom," Applejack said with a smile. "You're mah sister and Ah'll always love you!" She then frowned. "But what you did really hurt me, mah friends, the students of this school and most of all, Sunset Shimmer! Ah'm hesitant to trust you or share anything with you now. It will take a lot of time, but you need to work hard and do a lot of making up in order to earn mah trust back."

Apple Bloom sighed sadly but she looked down and nodded. "Ah understand Applejack."

To Apple Bloom's surprise, she felt she was engolfed into a hug. She looked up to see her sister who was beaming down at her.

"Hey, chin up!" she said softly. "It won't be forever! As long as you put into a lot of effort to make up to people, things will get better in time! You'll see!" Applejack then broke her hug and gave her sister a wink. "Now, y'all really to head on home?"

With a hopefull and happy smile, Apple Bloom nodded. 

Just as she was following her sister to the pickup truck, she spotted something from the corner of her eye. She saw Sunset Shimmer walking down the sidewalk away from the school while trying to be discretely. From what Apple Bloom have heard, Sunset received nothing but apologizes from almost every student since the CMC's confession. Apple Bloom wasn't sure if Sunset have forgiven any of them (although knowing Sunset, she probably did), but what she does know that Sunset received a lot of attention again as a result, but at least it was more positive this time around. 

Sunset haven't spoken to them since last night. She wondered if Sunset truly have forgiven them or is she resentful now that she knew who was the identity of Anon-a-Miss. Not to mention, Apple Bloom remembered what she learned from Principal Celestia earlier that Sunset was the one who pulled some strings to give her and her friends another chance. While she could just wait until the party later to ask Sunset about it, but Apple Bloom decided not to wait any longer.

Plus, there was something else she needed to do to clear the air with Sunset.

"Um... Applejack, Ah'm actually gonna walk home today," Apple Bloom announced to her sister as she subtly pointed her head towards Sunset's direction.

Applejack finally noticed who was her sister pointing to and gave her sister her warning glare. "Apple Bloom!"

"Ah'm just gonna talk her!" Apple Bloom explained while holding her hands up in defense. "Ah won't do anythin' bad to her! Ah promise!"

Applejack continued to stared at her sister, making sure that her sister was not lying to her again. Shortly after that, she relented.

"Alright then," said Applejack before looking at her sister sternly. "Be sure to be back at the house with Sunset! Ya hear?"

Apple Bloom nodded. "Thanks AJ! Ah'll see ya later!"

As Apple Bloom ran off after Sunset, Applejack watched her sister with a smile.

"Good luck Sugarcube," she whispered before getting into her truck.

Apple Bloom tried to catch up to the fiery haired girl as quick as she can, despite that she had to slow down a few times due to some ice on the sidewalk. When she eventually got closer to Sunset, Apple Bloom called out to get her attention.

"SUNSET!"

Thankfully, Sunset stopped walking and turned around towards her. When she laid eyes on Apple Bloom, Sunset frowned deeply.

"Oh... what is it Apple Bloom?" Sunset said dully.

Apple Bloom nearly flinched from Sunset's tone, but she expected that Sunset was not going to be happy to see her. Not wanting to ware Sunset's patience, Apple Bloom immediately started a conversation.

"Sunset, are ya... mad at me?" Apple Bloom asked nervously, nearly winced at herself at her lame opening.

Sunset frowned deeper. "Yes... I am."

Apple Bloom swallowed, while fidgeting in place. "Listen, Sunset Ah'm--"

"No! Let me get this out of my system!" Sunset nearly shouted, scaring Apple Bloom in the process. "I'm very upset with you Apple Bloom! I let my guard down for one moment to you, only for you to stab me in the back! I never felt so betrayed in my entire life!"

Apple Bloom sighed sadly, ashamed of herself for her actions that harmed Sunset. "Yer right Sunset... what we-- Ah did was horrible... and you deserved to be angry at me. But... Ah wanted to make up to ya for hurting ya so much... even if you don't forgive me!"

"Well it's too late for that Apple Bloom," Sunset retorted.

Apple Bloom felt her eyes watering up. "Sunset, Ah--"

"You broke our Pinkie Promise!" Sunset accused.

"Listen Ah understand if ya--"

Apple Bloom paused, processing what Sunset had said to her. "Wait... wat?"

"You promised- no, you pinkie promised that you won't tell my friends that I'm homeless!" Sunset said with a huff. "I thought we were cool!"

Apple Bloom blinked as she stared at Sunset with a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

"Wait... dat's what you were mad at me about?"

"Well, yeah!" Sunset responded with a confused look of her own. "What else was I referring to?"

"Um... about me and mah friends are actually Anon-a-Miss and that we framed ya?" Apple Bloom clarified.

"You're still on that?" Sunset asked in her surprised tone. "I mean yeah, I'm disappointed with you three for doing this... and I may be uncomfortable being around you for a while, but I have already forgiven you girls."

Apple Bloom stared at Sunset in shock. She couldn't believe that despite everything that happened. Sure, she admitted that she was now hesitant to be near her right now, but Sunset was still willing to forgive her and her friends, even if her heart tells her that she doesn't deserved Sunset's forgiveness. Before she could ask, she saw Sunset frowned again.

"While I've forgiven you for your stunt for the past two weeks, that still doesn't change the fact that you broke our promise! Pinkie promise no less!"

To Sunset's shock, Apple Bloom smirked. "Ah made no such promise!" Before Sunset could call her out, Apple Bloom lifted up her index finger. "For one thing, if I really break that promise, Pinkie Pie would've come after me!"

"She's right you know!"

Apple Bloom screamed in fright while Sunset startled from the sudden voice. They turned around behind them, only to see Pinkie Pie, who was poking out from the snowy bush while were her winter outfit.

"Pinkie!? Where did you come from!?" Sunset exclaimed.

Pinkie giggled. "From this bush silly!"

Sunset groaned in exasperation. "I meant how you got here?"

Pinkie's eyes lit up. "Oh! The author of this story wanted me here as a cameo appearance, just to make the ending of this story a little more lighter!" She then turned towards your direction with an irritated look. "I mean seriously, we have way too many downer stories like this based off from our official holiday comic! I mean jeez, what were the comic writers were thinking!?" She then turned back towards her confused friends with her usual bubbly self again. "Anywho, I gotta go and prepare for our biggest sleepover party at Applejack's! See you two there!"

Before either of them could blink, Pinkie dived into the bush, disappearing from view. Apple Bloom quickly checked into the bush to find the energetic cotton candy haired girl, but she couldn't find a single trace of her. Apple Bloom faced Sunset with a very perplexed look.

"How--"

"It's best not to question it!" Sunset advised. "Trust me! Even during my bully days, I still can't quite figure her out!"

"...she scares me sometimes!" Apple Bloom muttered nervously before quickly changing the subject. "Anyway... back on topic. Ah said that Ah won't tell anyone while Anon-a-Miss is still around! But because she, or should Ah say, "we", as in me and mah friends, officially stopped Anon-a-Miss, Ah'm allowed to tell Applejack and your friends." Apple Bloom smiled slyly. "So technically... Ah did exactly as promised!"

Sunset said nothing as she stared intensely at Apple Bloom, making the young Apple nervous. Then she dropped her stern look and let out a small chuckle.

"I'm not sure if I should be impressed or annoyed that you cleverly came up with a loop hole of our promise," Sunset commented, shaking her head in disbelief.

Apple Bloom rubbed the back of her neck in a nervous manner. "So... are ya still mad?"

Sunset sighed, as a small puff of fog escaped from her mouth due to the cold. "I'm still upset that they know now. But to tell you the truth... I'm sorta glad that I don't have to hide it from them anymore. Ever since they found out, they are being more supportive and caring than usual. I guess it was because... they really felt guilty for how they've treated me and... for being bad friends for not knowing everything about me. They even went as far to offer me to take turns sleeping over at their houses so that I don't have to sleep in the library or on the streets." She then frowned and closed her eyes. "While I'm touched that they showed that they cared and wanted to help me... but I knew deep down that they couldn't keep up forever. And I didn't want to impose on their family."

"You never imposed them Sunset!" said Apple Bloom. "As much as Ah hate to say this, but you meant so much to mah sis and your friends to the point that they went above and beyond to make up to ya during our winter break."

Now it was Sunset's turn who had a perplexed look on her face. "Wha-- what do ya mean?"

Apple Bloom grinned. "Let's just say... that you sleeping over at their houses for a week was only part one of their gift!"

Sunset's eyes widened. "Part one? What's the other part?"

"Ah'm not telling ya!" Apple Bloom teased.

Apple Bloom remembered last night after Sunset parted ways from them, she told her sister and the Rainbooms about Sunset being homeless and where she slept the entire time. Not only the Rainbooms were horrified, but they also felt extremely guilty for not knowing about their friend's condition, especially with how they treated her throughout two weeks of nightmare.

It was why they all agreed to help out Sunset by taking turns to offer Sunset to sleep over at their houses as their first gift to Sunset. But the second part of their gift is the most special one. After talking over with their own families and Principal Celestia, they all combined their funds together so they could purchased an apartment complex for Sunset, which happened to be a few blocks away from Canterlot High. The payment for the apartment will officially be finalized after seven days, hense why they want Sunset sleeping over at their houses for a while.

Boy would Sunset be in it for a surprise!

"Anyway, Ah need to ask ya somethin' Sunset," said Apple Bloom with her determined, yet confused look. "Principal Celestia told me that you were the one who gave me and mah friends a lighter sentence. Not that Ah'm not grateful, but... Ah still don't think that we... that Ah deserved it. So... why? Why did you stick yer neck out fer us?"

Sunset was silent for a moment as she furrowed her brows. Then, she crossed her arms and had a stern expression.

"Before I answer that, I would like to know why you really go after me?"

"W-what are ya talking about?" Apple Bloom asked nervously, not liking that their conversation was suddenly turned against her.

"When you confessed to us last night, I sensed that you were still holding back as you explained your reason of becoming... you-know-who!" Sunset deducted. 

Apple Bloom opened her mouth to argue. 

"I'm not saying that you're lying," Sunset quickly clarified. "But I felt that you were mostly telling the truth, but held the rest back." Sunset then frowned. "Were you really upset with me just because your sister spent more time with me than you... or was there more to this?"

Apple Bloom couldn't help but sensed a déjà-vu after hearing that question. Her dark demon self asked that question in a mocking way while she was still in denial. Hearing that question now was almost surreal, except Sunset asked that in a curious and caring way and Apple Bloom's mind was now more clearer. Realizing that she can't held back anymore, for the second time today, she decided to spill the beans.

"Well... that's only part of the reason," Apple Bloom revealed with a sigh. "Truth is... Ah'm not just upset that you took mah sister from me... you also took mah mom too!"

"W... what?" Sunset exclaimed with a stunned expression. Of all the possible answers Apple Bloom have given her, this was the most unexpected.

Seeing that Sunset was taken aback from her bombshell, Apple Bloom decided to explain herself further.

"Now Ah don't mean she's really mah mom," she clarified. "Is just that she always raised me like my mother... if dat makes any sense. Ah know Granny Smith and Big Mac was there fer me too, but Applejack... she was the one who took care of me the most... even around Christmas." She sighed sadly as she looked down. "Ah... hardly remembered mah ma and pa. All Ah know about them from mah sis was that they were great folks! They were stong, friendly and the kind of people who stands up to the people they've cared about, including our family! But on the year when they... you know..." Apple Bloom swallowed, trying to keep her emotions at bay. "Ah was barely one year old when that happened."

Sunset gave the youngest Apple member her look of sympathy. She knew how sensitive the topic was when it comes to Applejack's, Big Mac's and Apple Bloom's parents. She was going to tell Apple Bloom that she didn't have to go further, but Apple Bloom continued on anyway.

"Everyone in the Apple Family, including Big Mac, Applejack and Granny Smith, was stricken with grief when dat happens," Apple Bloom said quietly. "And our farm was in a tough pitch shortly after they're gone, and worse of all... it happened around weeks before Christmas... mah first Christmas."

Apple Bloom sighed. "But... despite how sad my sister was... Applejack was determined to make mah first Christmas the best Christmas Ah ever have. She did all those things she done with me that our ma had done with her. Decorate the house, the tree, bake gingerbread cookies, watching Christmas specials and movies, and she even went as far as to put together a whole Christmas feast on Christmas day... in honor of our parents!"

Apple Bloom smiled with admiration. "Applejack... was able to turn our most depressing time... into our most happiest time of our lives. My sis told me... that it was because of me... is what motivated her to make everythin' happen!" She then sighed through her nose. "After dat, things went better for us and we got used to how we run the farm. By next Christmas, my sis did the exact same thing with me like mah first Christmas. And it became our family holiday tradition since." Her expression then became somber. "...until now."

Sunset stared at Apple Bloom with an awe expression, feeling a new sense of admiration to Applejack after hearing that story. "Wow... that's amazing! No wonder you were looking forward to those traditions AJ was talking about!"

Apple Bloom widened her eyes from Sunset's revelation. "She... told you about our traditions?"

Sunset nodded. "Yeah, she told me during our first sleep over at Pinkie Pie's. In fact, she told me that after her argument with you on that night, she was planning on making up with you for making you upset by doing those traditions on... Christmas... Eve."

As Sunset realized that she unintentionally brought up the night of when that whole mess started, Apple Bloom looked down in guilt.

So mah sis didn't forgot about me! Apple Bloom thought. She was gonna do all our family traditions with me on Christmas Eve. But that's all ruined now because of my stupidity...

Seeing Apple Bloom looked upset, Sunset awkwardly cleared her throat. "I... I'm sorry I brought it up. I didn't mean to–"

"No it's alright," Apple Bloom said quietly. "Ah'll be fine."

She then brought her head up again and quickly went back to topic.

"Anyway... ever since that Christmas, AJ pretty much decided to take responsibility to take care of our farm and our family... including takin' care of me. She helped me with homework, took care of me when Ah'm sick or hurt, she even tucked me to bed almost every night. 

"She did everythin' she could to give me the best childhood Ah have as she took care of me, as if she was trying to fill in the void that was left from our ma. She may be overprotective at times, but AJ is always there for me and took care of me that... Ah come to view her more as my mom than my own sister. 

Apple Bloom sighed. "And on top of that, mah memories of mah original parents were fading away every year to the point that when Ah tried to close mah eyes and think of mah ma..." She sadly closed her eyes. "The only face Ah could see... was Applejack's... that's why means so much to me!"

Sunset stared at Apple Bloom with her stunned expression. All those times she received huge amount of anger and dislike from Apple Bloom's suddenly made a whole lot of sense.

"I... I had no idea," Sunset said quietly. "Did anyone else know about this?"

Apple Bloom shook her head. "No... just Principal Celestia, Vice Principal Luna, my two best friends, and now... you."

"...why are you telling me all of this?" Sunset questioned.

"For everything Ah have done to you... you deserved to know," Apple Bloom sniffed, tears welled up in her eyes. "Ah know now that is was selfish... a-and it was p-petty and stupid... b-b-but every time Ah tried to at least talk to mah sister, it was always 'Sunset this' and 'Sunset that'! Sunset, Sunset, Sunset! She was so busy spending time with you, she had forgotten about ME! Heck, Ah hardly see her anymore! Ah just... just... Ah just wanted to spend time with mah sister fer like we used to... even on Christmas! That's all Ah wanted!"

Apple Bloom silently wept, as tears flowed down past her cheeks. No matter how many times she wiped her face, her tears never seemed to end. She then suddenly noticed a handkerchief right in front of her, which was held by Sunset.

"Here, blow your nose," she said kindly.

The pre-teen obeyed as she took it from Sunset and blowed into it. After awhile of blowing her nose and wiping her eyes clean from her tears, she looked up to Sunset.

"Ah'm sorry... Ah probably sounded like a major brat right now!" Apple Bloom said quietly, feeling ashamed with herself at the way she behaved.

"It's okay Apple Bloom," Sunset responded with an empathetic expression. "In fact, I understand where you're coming from... more than you know."

Apple Bloom blinked with a sniff. "Y-you do?"

"Yeah," Sunset answered. "You remember, back at the library, when I told you that my mentor is like a mother to me?"

Apple Bloom nodded.

"I meant that both figuratively... and literally!" Sunset revealed, much to Apple Bloom's shock.

Sunset let out a huge sigh. "Up until our... biggest fight, I was really attached to her and looked up to her. Because of who she is... I wanted to do everything to make her proud of me... which was why I wanted so much power. But because of my ambition, I grew cold, cruel... and I lost my true sight along the way. At some point, when I had access to go back to my world, a part of me wanted to see how things have been without me, and maybe... to check to see if my mentor really missed me. 

"When I finally decided to vist... I've seen a lot has changed since my departure. Her sister returned, the Crystal Empire returned along with the crystal ponies, the Elements of Harmony appeared and most of all..." Her frown deepened. "My mentor found a new personal student."

"Princess Twilight?" Apple Bloom asked with widened eyes, realizing where this was going.

"...yes," Sunset said softly, reliving the hurt she felt from that memory. "Twilight Sparkle accomplished a lot more than I could ever done! She and her friends saved the world many times, discovering new magic, became a princess, many other things that I wished to be... if I wasn't so foolish! And worse of all... I've seen how my mentor treated her as her own daughter... as much if not more... than me!"

Sunset then smiled sadly, despite the pained look from her eyes. "I guess other than wanting to become the most powerful princess in Equestria... I was also jealous of Twilight for taking my mother away from me as well."

"...Ah see," said Apple Bloom as she looked down with a thoughtful frown. "Ah guess we both have something in common than Ah thought!"

"We are. Which was why I asked Principal Celestia to give you guys a lighter sentence," Sunset revealed, surprising the young Apple farmer. "What you three did was awful, but you're also so young and still have so much life ahead of you! Leaving this school with a record of your actions and then got expelled for it will ruin your life!"

Apple Bloom felt her stomach tied itself into a knot. She never really thought of it. If she and her friends really did get kicked out from CHS, they would have a much harder time to get in another school again, or live their lives for that matter with a serious mark on their records. Apple Bloom felt extremely guilty for nearly ruined her friends lives because of her. But even after Sunset managed to softened the blow, Apple Bloom and her friends are far from forgiven and forget from the eyes of the people they've hurt.

"I was in that same position months back when I thought my life is over, both this world and my own," Sunset continued. "But both Twilight and Principal Celestia were mercy enough to gave me the one chance to turn it around and become a better person! It was hard for me since then, going through day after day of walking through the halls while everyone either gave me bad looks, yelling at me, ridiculing me, or... did various ways to get back at me as revenge."

Apple Bloom winced. She remembered all the times she have seen other students harassing and openly insulted her days after the formal, making her life miserable. Looking back, she herself was ashamed to be part of the Sunset hate bandwagon by openly calling her a "Demon" at every opportunity, both during school and at home whenever Sunset came over to visit to hang out with her sister. Apple Bloom's guilt intensified as she recalled many hurt experiences from Sunset because of her. She wished she could just go back in time so that she could knock herself in the head for the way she was behaving.

"There were a few times that I wanted to give up, considered moving to another school like Crystal Prep or hide somewhere until the portal starting working again so that I can flee back to my home," Sunset admitted. "But there is one thing that keeps me from giving up completely."

"And wat's dat?" Apple Bloom asked curiously.

"...my friends!"

Apple Bloom's eyes widened in shock. "Really? You still considered mah sis and the others yer friends? Even after they... ditched ya?"

Sunset closed her eyes and sighed heavily out of bitterness. "I'll admit... It hurts that they accused me and not giving me a chance. Even after everything we been through and I helped stopped the Dazzlings from taking over our school... a part of me felt that all my efforts to prove to everyone that I changed... hardly even matters."

Apple Bloom gave Sunset her guilt expression and was about to say something.

"I know they were sorry!" Sunset interjected. "You wouldn't believe how many times they've apologized to me today... and the day before for that matter, since your confession! But it takes more than just an apology after weeks of being alone throughout this torment!"

Sunset stuffed her hands to her coat pockets and looked down with a gloomy expression. "But granted... I can't bring myself to be angry at them either. I was so horrible to them... and everyone else here too back when I was a queen bee. I can't really blame them for thinking I went back to my evil ways. Which was why I forgive them as well. But even so..." 

She sniffed, wiping a few tears away from her eyes. "I felt like I was back to square one with them. They've told me they've considered me their best friend! They've told me that I'm family to them! So how should I know that they won't turn me away again when something else goes wrong when it involves me? I just... I just can't handle being alone again."

If Apple Bloom wasn't feeling bad right now, she felt horrible. While Sunset have forgiven Applejack and the others for leaving her, she was still having doubts and traumatized from the events no thanks to Apple Bloom and her friends. The old Sunset would never felt upset about being alone. But Apple Bloom wasn't talking to the old Sunset, she was talking to a new and much nicer Sunset who doesn't deserved all that emotional abuse. She wasn't sure how she could ever fix this, but she wasn't going to let Sunset suffer any longer.

"Sunset... listen to me," Apple Bloom requested, getting Sunset's attention. "Ah'm probably the last person who you should be listening advice from, but please hear me out!" 

She stepped closer to Sunset and sighed through her nose. "During our time when mah friends and Ah were running... 'you-know-who', Ah did something to mah friends that was so bad, that it was unforgivable! By the time Ah finally come to mah senses... ah thought Ah was too late... especially after I meet them in the hallway right before we confessed to you guys. Ah was scared to bring it up to them, but Ah also knew that it could lead things worse if Ah don't. So... Ah finally talked to them about it. There was a lot of accusing, screaming and even crying throughout our conversation... but at the end, it was worth it. Sure, Ah still have a lot to make up to mah friends, but Ah felt we've became a lot closer since then!"

Sunset frowned, brushing the last of her tears away. "What's your point, Apple Bloom?"

"My point is, you should definitely go talk to your friends and tell them how you feel!" Apple Bloom advised. "You guys might end up reopening some wounds in the process, but once you guys understand each other, not only you'll restore each other trust, but you and your friends will be closer than ever! But you just have to take the first step!"

Sunset simply stared at Apple Bloom for like a minute, taking in Apple Bloom's words. She then smirked and shook her head.

"Since when you're being so wiseful?" she chuckled before smiling slightly. "But... I'll think about it."

Apple Bloom frowned. "So... are ya truly forgiving us? ...forgiving me? Even with all the punishments Ah've received from home and school, Ah still felt that her giving me a slap on da wrist! Ah still wanted to make up for the wrongs Ah done to ya! Ah'll..." She sighed remorsefully. "Ah'll even let ya punch me! Even in the face! Dat way... Ah'll know that we're even! Ah'm not even going to dodge... ah promise.

Sunset had a blank look on her face as if she was gathering her thoughts. The suspension of silence was almost killing the the young farmer. Then, Sunset slowly lifted up her right hand.

Expecting that Sunset was taking up her offer, Apple Bloom clenched her eyes shut, waiting for the oncoming impact. 

But nothing happened.

Confused, Apple Bloom slowly opened her eyes, only to see Sunset holding up three fingers with a stern expression.

"If you truly wanted to make up to me, I'll forgive you completely under three conditions." said Sunset as she lowered all but one finger. "One, you will swear to me that if you ever have a problem, then try to talk to us, especially your sister! And if there is something that I've done to upset you, then come to me!"

Apple Bloom nodded. After scolded endlessly by others, she definitely learned her lesson to be communicate with only the people who cared about her whenever she had a problem, instead of taking things with her own hands. She already swore to them and herself to never resorted into doing that out of jealousy or revenge ever again.

"Two," Sunset continued. "I want you to use this chance I give you and work hard to redeem yourself! It may take you days, months or even years! But with time, you'll earn the trust back to everyone you have hurt and then maybe... they'll forgive you. Not only from me, your sister or the students... but from yourself as well! Just like I have to go through!"

Apple Bloom nodded again. She and her friends already have work cut out for them when it comes to apologies and making up to everyone. But if they could ever be truely forgiven in the eyes of others, then they're willing to everything they can to earn them.

Even if it takes a long time.

"And finally," said Sunset. "I want you to tell Applejack that secret. The same one you just told me!"

Apple Bloom's eyes widened in horror. "WAT!? But... but Ah can't tell her dis! Things were awkward enough between me and mah sister already since mah confession! Ah don't want to make things worse between us, especially when it comes to our mother!"

"Didn't you just tell me earlier that by talking about it? That you'll be a lot closer and understanding to the people that you care?" Sunset pointed out.

"...touché," Apple Bloom muttered, slightly annoyed that Sunset used her own words against her.

Sunset smiled assuringly. "And who knows, maybe by telling her one of your secrets could be your first stepping stone of gaining her trust back."

Apple Bloom was still hesitant on the idea of telling her sister her most guarded secret. Not only this could upset her sister further, but also a little embarrassing when Applejack learned how she viewed her. On the other hand, by telling her, her sister may be more understanding and she and her sister will possibly get closer than ever as Sunset said. She was already in deep trouble, so what do she got to lose?

"Alright," Apple Bloom conceded. "Ah'm still not sure about this, but Ah'll go talk to Applejack about mah issues." Her eyes than narrowed at Sunset. "But only if you tell yer friends about yers! Deal?"

Sunset grinned and stretched her hand out towards Apple Bloom. "Deal!"

The two smiled and shook hands on it, making their deal official.

"So where ya headin' to Sunset!" Apple Bloom asked.

Sunset grinned. "Well... I was planning to take a walk around the neighborhood, but... I think I'll take your sister's offer and head over to Sweet Apple Acres so we can have a sleepover until the day after Christmas!" She frowned, worried for offending Apple Bloom of staying over for the holidays. "That is... if you don't mind that is."

Apple Bloom blinked before giving Sunset her welcoming smile. "Ah don't mind at all Sunset! After all..." She then gently grasped Sunset's hand. "You the member of mah family now!"

Sunset teared up, touched from Apple Bloom's words before the two hugged. They eventually broke their hug, but still hand in hand, the two headed down towards the sidewalk leading towards Sweet Apple Acres, as the sun sets over the horizon.

As Applejack once said, Apple Bloom thought, grasping Sunset's hand a little more tightly. 'No matter how big yer family is... 

'There's always room fer more!'


THE END