Sunset's friends apologise to her for hurting her over the winter holidays
When the culprits of Anon-a-miss was uncovered, Sunset still does not want to forgive her friends, who have hurt her badly and wants to return to Equestria.
Her friends help her see that they still care and to convince her to stay.
Sunset Shimmer walked into the school compound, taking a deep breath as she braced herself for what was about to happen. She knew what was going to happen. After all, it had been the same as the last few days in school. The only difference this time was that Sunset knew who exactly the culprit behind Anon-a-miss was.
The CMCs were the ones behind this. They were the cause of all her pain, hurt and abuse that Sunset had endured the last few days. Now, Sunset was going to principal Celestia to tell her the news. She, after all, was the only person who believed Sunset.
Sunset had given up all hope on her 'friends' who she had tried to convince she was innocent that day at Sugar cube corner.
Sunset walked into Sugar cube corner, a smile on her face. "Hey girls! I finally found out who Anon-a-miss is!" She had said. "Oh! So you FINALLY admit that it was you all along?" Rainbow had snapped back, causing Sunset to step back in surprise. "No, I mean...It's Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo! They are the ones behind all this!" The moment Sunset had made that remark, she had felt a rough punch and kick by Rainbow.
"How dare you push the blame to them!" She shouted. "Yeah! They ain't in the wrong! You are!" Applejack had said. Sunset felt her eyes fill with tears as she tried to explain why she thought they were the culprits, only to be cut off by Rarity. "Sweetie did not do anything to you! WHY would you blame her?!" Sunset choked on her words.
"No, no. I...." But before she could finish her sentence, Pinkie Pie stepped forward and pushed her out through the doors. "I don't wanna hear it!" She screamed at Sunset, sending Sunset running home, with tears streaming down her face.
Sunset had learnt something that day, Her friends were not what they claim to be. I thought REAL friends would always give each other the benefit of the doubt no matter how much the evidence points to them. Sunset whipped away a stray tear as she walked into the principal's office.
"Good morning Sunset!" Celestia greeted her happily. Sunset took a seat next to her and inhaled deeply. "Celestia, I think, no...I know who is anon-a-miss."
After an hour of explaining to the principal about the matter, Celestia was fuming mad. "Thank you, Sunset, I would take it from here..." She reached her hand out to the speaker to make an announcement. "Good morning CHS! I would like to see Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo in my office now!" Sunset just stared into space, to dead to even smirk that the culprits were getting scolded.
As soon as the announcement was made, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo knew that they were in trouble. They looked at each other with worry etched in their eyes. As they walked to office they talked to each other with hushed voices. "Do you think it's anon-a-miss?" Apple Bloom said. "Yeah." It has to be, why else would we be called all together?" Scootaloo said as they entered the office, their suspicions answered when they saw saw Sunset in the room, along with a very angry principal.
After the school day was over, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had already made a public apology to everyone in the school compound, leaving everyone, especially the five formal friends of Sunset Shimmer in utter disbelief. "We.....we accused her of something that she did not do!" Fluttershy had whispered with tears in her eyes.
"What have we done?" Rainbow had gasped when she heard the news.
Throughout the whole of the winter holidays, the five of them had been scolding, bullying and hurting Sunset for nothing. For the rest of the day, the group of five had been looking for Sunset all over the school. "We really do owe Sunset an apology now, huh?" Applejack said as she met with her friends outside the school gates.
"Yeah, we do...." Rainbow said. "Specifically me. I punched and kicked her real hard back there...." Everyone knew that Rainbow meant it as the girl was not one to easily own up to her mistakes. "Where is she anyway? We haven't seen her since the accident at sugar cube corner." Rainbow added.
"Why don't we head over to her place, we are bound to find her there." Rarity suggested. "We can all head there now!" The girls nodded as they started running towards the direction of Sunset's house.
Upon reaching, the girls knocked on Sunset's front door, panting as they waited for an answer. Soon, the door opened. Sunset stood in front of them, her face streaked with tear stains. The moment Sunset saw the five girls, she slammed the door shut, leaving them in a daze.
"Sunset darling?" Rarity pushed the door open, realizing that it was unlocked, the group walked into the apartment, all eyes were on Sunset as she walked up to the couch and sat down.
"What, Rarity?" Sunset said, not looking at the girls that intruded her house. "By the way, show said I invited you guys in?" She looked at them. "What do you want so much that you had to come in?"
Rainbow walked up to Sunset. "We just wanted to say we're sorry...." She said. "We really should have listened to you...."
Sunset rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you guys, really should have." She said. "Well, I really should have trusted you guys as friends than." Sunset replied sarcastically. She crossed her arms. "That's all? What do you want me to say before you guys leave? I forgive you?" Sunset stood up as she walked up the stairs to her bed.
"Sunset...." Rarity said. "Whoa...." She said as she looked to where Sunset was. "Why is your bed so messy?" She asked. "Not like you...."
Sunset looked down at her formal friends. "You guys don't know so much about me, and not that it's your bushiness, but I'm going back to Equestria, where people actually trust each other. I'm leaving on Friday, two more days to go." Sunset said. "I already told Twilight."
"And she agreed?" Applejack asked.
"Course she did." Sunset answered. "Why do you think I'm packing now?"
Rainbow faced Sunset as she walked back down. "Please, you have to stay, we do trust you!" Sunset rolled her eyes. "Really, we do. And we do view you as our friend!"
"Yeah, friends who abandoned me when I needed your help the most! Friends who didn't even want to listen to my side of the story!!?" Sunset yelled, her eyes filling with tears again.
"Just forget it, you guy don't even care about me, why should I stay?" Sunset wiped her tears away and resumed to packing.
"What?!" Rainbow said. "Of course we care!" She stepped up and held Sunset's hand. "Okay, maybe we did get a little carried away, you know, with insulting you and everything, but we're sorry!"
"We truly are darling." Rarity added. "If we had known...."
"If you had known?" Sunset said softly. "If you had known?! If you had known, I won't be in this state!" Well, if you were sorry, you wouldn't have even doubted me in the first place!" Sunset shook her hand out of Rainbow's grasp and stood up.
"Do you even know how much pain I went through?!" She was shouting now.
"These few days, no...weeks! I have been shouted at by other students who got hurt by your sisters!" She looked directly at Applejack, Rarity and glanced slightly at Rainbow. "And you guys just immediately assumed it was me based on my what's that? Past experiences?! You didn't even care about what I had to say! You didn't even think for a moment that I could have been framed!"
"You weren't even by my side when I needed you most! You just went along with all the other students, shouting and kicking me every, single, day!"
"You didn't even care...." Sunset felt tears sting her eyes once more. "And you think one 'sorry' is gonna fix it?!" She kneeled down, grabbing and shoving items into a small suitcase. "Good thing she agreed, now all I have to care about is apologising to Celestia, I don't have to care about some people like you. At least I'll have one friend over there."
Rainbow took a few steps back. "Sunset..."
Sunset stood up. "Now if you guys would get out of my house, I need to get some rest before I leave!" She opened the door and shoved them out. "And stay out!"
Sunset slammed the door shut as she zipped up the case. She walked up to her bed, sitting down. She glanced over at old guitar, the one that she had used to play at one of the Rainbooms' performances. She remembers how much she enjoyed playing, how much she enjoyed her friends' company. Now, she was going away.
This is what i wanted right? Sunset laid down . Then why do i feel that something is missing....? She shrugged, closing her eyes. I mean, sure they accused me for what I didn't do, but they had their reasons and....yeah, they do seem like they didn't mean to hurt me...
.<>.<>.<>.<>.<>.<>.<>.<>.<>.
It was a quiet journey, from Sunset's front door to Sugarcube Corner as the five girls quietly made their way to a nearby booth.
"Guys, what are we gonna do about Sunset?!" Rainbow asked, finally breaking the silence.
"For once..." Pinkie said. "I have no idea how to make someone smile..." Her tone was as flat as she hair that hung from her head. "I don't know....how anymore..."
"Me neither." Fluttershy said. "I never thought that it would have hurt Sunset that bad....."
"Remember when we sat here?" Rainbow asked, looking around. "Before the battle of the bands? When we were talking to Twilight about the sirens?" Rainbow pointed to the table. "This was the exact same spot where we sat....and now, because of a stupid little mistake we made, we are never gonna see them again!"
The group nodded. "Now we will never see Twilight or Sunset again...." Fluttershy said. "I remember how hard she worked to change, all of it....how the whole school trusted her and how happy she looked..."
It was true. The battle of the bands was just the first step that Sunset took to make the students see the new side of her. From then on, it took many days for Sunset to gain the trust of her fellow classmates. With the help from the Rainbooms, Sunset could finally live through a school day without getting picked on.
That was until she (Anon-a-miss) came. It was but a matter of seconds that all Sunset had done fell apart. Seconds.
The group sat at the booth, awfully quiet for some reason, thinking.
"Wait..." Rarity raised her head and stared at the group. Everyone looked up at Rarity expectantly , hoping that there was, indeed still a way to fix it "Hm...we could...no no, that...no...." She scratched her chin before looking towards her friends. "Do you still remember the song we recently sang? The one we sang at the stadium after we battled the sirens?"
"Shine like Rainbows?" Pinkie asked. "Yup, I remember. Do you guys?"
Nod
"I may have a plan about that...." Rarity said. "Now who has a recorder?"
Back in Canterlot
The front doors of the castle swung open as a certain purple alicorn made her way inside, bowing slightly.
"Princess."
"You wanted to see me?"
"Yes....it's important, if not I would not have came here today."
"What is it Twilight?"
"It's about Sunset, something has happened to her....."
"With this, perhaps." Celestia said as she used her magic, removing a journal from Twilight's bag. "I never thought that Sunset would ever use this again, I never thought that she would even keep it...."
"She did, and before anything happens, I just want to say that Sunset is really sorry for what happened between the both of you, here! You can read it..."
"Yes, I know..." Celestia interrupted. "I know Sunset has changed."
"So you want to help her?" Twilight asked.
"I do, but...."
"Yes?" Twilight pressed. It seemed that Celestia would always tense up and try to change the subject whenever Sunset was mentioned. "Why not?"
"You see..." Celestia started, sitting back down. "Sunset and I used to be really close, like you and me. She lived in a more...how to say, unvisited part of Equestria. She had many siblings, too many that her parents could no longer support her."
"But she was talented indeed, much like you." Celestia pointed to the journal. "She used to be shy, disliked talking. So I gave her that, for her to write instead of talking."
"You did?" Twilight asked.
"Yup. But with time, Sunset became more confident in front of me and the royal guards." Celestia said. "She then quickly picked up many magic abilities even I found was difficult, and that you are yet to master."
"What?!" Twilight practically screamed.
"She was one gifted unicorn she was, but she was much like you, distancing herself from other ponies. She grew power hungry and only thought of herself. One day, when she came across a book...she...."
"Realised that there was another dimension, one that she could easily access, one that she would be able to gain power in?" Twilight asked.
"Yes." Celestia said. "She wanted to learn more about it, but being foolish as I am, I disagreed, causing her to find out on her own and...."
"I wasn't your fault." Twilight said.
"But it was, I let her go."
"And look what good came out of it!" Twilight said. "She made friends! She learned friendship. Just like how you taught me, by letting me go. Sure there were some bumps and twists in Sunset's road, but she made it in the end!" Twilight smiled. "And it is all because you let her go and find out herself."
"Thank you Twilight." Celestia said, smiling slightly. "Now, why does she need to return?"
"Given what Sunset told me, you might not be very pleased with her new-found friends at all..." Twilight said. "Sunset told me, that shortly after the battle with the sirens, the one I told you about a few days ago? Her friends and schoolmates were finally accepting her for who she was inside and that she has changed."
"So they each had slumber parties, the six of them, given that Sunset had left all her family behind. But after each party, the secrets that they all held to themselves and embarrassing moments that only they knew of, were all posted online." Twilight explained.
"Online?"
"Erm, let's just say that...I accidentally caused Spike to send letters to you about information that other ponies want to keep private, but instead of sending them all to you, I send them to the whole of Equestria, so all other ponies everywhere know secrets about each other." Twilight said.
"Ah. I see."
"So this user, called 'Anon-a-miss' posted all sorts of secrets that only Sunset and her friends knew about each other, such as pictures. The user also made everyone think that Sunset was the culprit by placing their profile following Sunset's hair colours and body shape. All the students assumed it was her, bullying her and hurting her from that day on." Twilight said. "But that was not all..."
"Sunset's friends, my friends were the ones that really hurt her. They stopped talking to her entirely. And when she tried to explain, they ignored her, even going to the extent of physical harm on her."
"What?!" Celestia said. "How could they?"
"I know, Sunset couldn't take it anymore either. She was damaged." Twilight said. "So she decided to return here. But shortly after her decision, the culprits were exposed."
"Who was it?" Celsita asked. "Anyone familiar?"
"Yes, actually..." Twilight answered.
"Who?"
"3 students, who you may know here, as the CMCs" Twilight said.
"Them?" Celestia said.
"Yes, the reason behind it was that they felt left out, their sisters partying with Sunset and all and they sorta....kinda...stole Sunset's phone to access the pictures...?" Twilight said. "They then posted it for everyone to see..."
"So Sunset's was...framed?" Celestia asked.
"Yes she was." Twilight said. "And she was hoping that you would agree to let her stay and forgive her."
