That night, Sunset Shimmer was at Zak’s house cleaning dishes in the kitchen sink while he and his friends were enjoying themselves in the other room. While she was drying a drinking glass, she accidentally dropped it. It shattered into many tiny pieces when it hit the floor. The accident triggered a flashback of when her friends brutally accused her of being Anon-a-Miss and mercilessly abandoned her. When the flashback ended, Sunset staggered back a little and began shedding tears. She hadn’t noticed that Zak was standing in the doorway smoking a cigarette and had witnessed the entire thing, down to the last detail. Instead of flying into a rage and start yelling and hitting her like he usually did, a sinister grin formed on his face. He knew exactly what just happened and this gave him an idea. He walked into the kitchen toward Sunset until she finally noticed him.

“Zak?” Sunset said surprised and nervous. “It… it was an accident. I didn’t mean-”

“Looks like you were having one of those episodes again,” Zak said in a surprisingly calm tone. Sunset knew that whenever he spoke calmly, which was very rare, it meant he was up to something.

“Yes,” Sunset politely and nervously replied. “Yes, I did.”

“Your therapist says that’s a problem,” Zak stated. “Well, I know just the treatment to help get your little mind off those troubling things.”

Then he took her hand and led her into the living room. His grip wasn’t too tight but not too gentle either. It was strong enough just to let her know he wanted her to come.

“Guys, my girl’s had one of her episodes again,” Zak told his gang members. “Scratch, get the stuff.”

“With pleasure,” Scratch said with a devious chuckle that promised something malicious and got out of his chair to get something from another room. A moment later, he returned with a syringe, and it appeared to be filled with some kind of yellowish liquid.

“What is that?” Sunset asked nervously staring at the syringe.

“You could say it’s your medicine,” Zak answered her with a sinister smile on his face. “Now take it if you want to feel better.”

Knowing that it was a bad idea not to do as he said, Sunset walked over to Scratch and rolled up the sleeve of her right arm allowing Scratch to insert the syringe into her exposed flesh. Sunset cringed in pain as the needle pierced her skin. Scratch slowly pushed down on the needle’s plunger and injected the strange liquid into Sunset’s arm. She began to feel strange and dizzy. Her perspective of reality was becoming distorted, the world around her began to spin and flow like waves at the ocean. Her ability to think like a young adult began to decrease. Sunset collapsed on her hands and knees letting out heavy uncomfortable groans much to the pleasure and satisfaction of Zak and Scratch.

“Where am I?” Sunset asked nauseous and confused. “Who’s there?”

“It’s ‘daddy’, baby,” Zak replied with a sadistic grin.

“Daddy?” Sunset responded. “Daddy!” She wrapped her arms affectionately around Zak’s legs. She was acting and sounding like a little child.

“That’s right, baby. Daddy’s here,” Zak said smugly rubbing her head as if she were a dog. “Good girl.”

“Looks like it’s working, boss,” Scratch commented.

“Yes, if we keep pumping her with that shit she’ll eventually become perfect,” Zak said with a sinister chuckle as he continued petting Sunset’s head who was still high on what they forced into her. The rest of Zak’s gang started laughing with him.

The next day at CHS, the Five and the Crusaders were all sitting together at a table in the cafeteria during lunch with very glum expressions on their faces. The girls had allowed their younger sisters to sit with them to make sure that they weren’t harassed by anyone who was still sore about the Anon-a-Miss incident. Fluttershy was comforting Scootaloo who had received a black eye from an angry student earlier that day. But what they all wanted most of all was to get Sunset Shimmer out of her toxic relationship with Zak. But they were running low on ideas. Then they were approached by Flash Sentry, who was accompanied by Micro Chips, Sandalwood, Snips, Snails, the Diamond Boys, and Bulk Biceps.

“I take you’re all upset about Sunset,” Flash guessed reading the unhappy looks on their faces.

“We pride ourselves on our abilities to solve problems,” Applejack said. “But we’re at the end of our rope and not gettin’ anywhere.”

“We’ve tried talking with Sunset and even Zak,” Fluttershy explained. “But for some reason she feels she has to stay with him and he’s going to keep remorselessly yelling and beating her nonstop. Who knows what else he might do to her next.”

“Do any of you remember the old days when some punk would cause a girl at our school trouble and some of us guys would get together and kick his ass?” Flash asked with a tone that sounded like he was ready for action.

“That sounds really satisfying right about now,” Rainbow Dash said with a mischievous grin.

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s do it then,” Rover eagerly suggested. His two companions, Spot and Fido, voiced their agreement.

“I always believed violence never solved anything,” a reluctant Fluttershy disagreed.

“Well, trying to reason has failed so I honestly think of another alternative,” Rarity said.

“Then it’s settled!” Flash declared. “Boys of CHS, this is our time to shine! Tonight, we help Sunset Shimmer!”

The other guys cheered in agreement. Flash then led the group out of the cafeteria to begin their plan to liberate Sunset Shimmer from this despicable excuse of a guy. The Five and the Crusaders watched them leave with hope in their eyes.

“Do you think they’ll be okay?” a concerned Fluttershy wondered.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” Rainbow confidently replied.

“Flash looked like he had a plan,” Rarity added. “We should have faith that he’ll be able to do what we could not.”

“He’s got this,” Pinkie said.

“Now that the issue with Sunset and Zak is being taken care of, I think we can turn our attention to other important issues,” AJ said turning her attention to the Crusaders. “Like your problems.”

“What do you mean?” Apple Bloom asked confused.

“Your bully problems, darling,” Rarity answered.

The Crusaders suddenly had nervous looks on their faces. This was an issue that they didn’t want to get into.

“It’s nothing serious, honestly,” Sweetie Belle insisted.

“Yeah, you don’t need to trouble yourselves on our account,” Scootaloo added.

“Nonsense,” Pinkie said. “We’re all big sisters to you kids. So if your smiles are turned upside down, it’s our duty to turn them upside up again.”

“Come on, just tell us who’s giving you girls trouble and let us help you out,” Rainbow insisted.

The Crusaders could see that there was no possibility of talking the five older girls out of this.

“Okay,” Apple Bloom reluctantly agreed to let them help. “But ah don’t know what good it’ll do.”

“Great!” Rainbow said happily. “Now let’s get this done.” The five friends then started escorting the three younger girls out of the cafeteria.

“Just don’t expect this to be easy,” Scootaloo told them.

“I think it’s going to be practically impossible,” Sweetie Belle added, but the skepticism of the youngsters was ignored the five confidant teens.

The eight girls split up to search around the school for people who’ve been giving the Crusaders a hard time. Each Crusader went with her respective big sister; Apple Bloom with Applejack, Sweetie Belle with Rarity, and Scootaloo with Rainbow Dash.

The Apple sisters found a student named Aqua Blossom sitting at a table in the library reading a book. When the sisters approached the table, Aqua turned her attention from her book and looked up at them. Her facial expression made it very clear that she was not happy to see the younger Apple sister.

“Hello Aqua Blossom,” AJ greeted her.

“Hi Applejack,” Aqua politely replied.

“Ah hear you and my sister here have some issues between the two of yah,” AJ said gesturing to her nervous-looking sister.

“Her little Anon-a-Miss stunt cost me my relationship with me boyfriend,” Aqua bluntly and bitterly stated.

“Well, ah think she has something she’d like to say about that,” AJ said and gestured her sister to step forward and say what she needed to say while giving her a warm supportive smile.

For a moment, Apple Bloom became hesitant as she looked into Aqua Blossom’s glaring eyes. But regained a little of her composure after taking a deep breath.

“Ah’m very very sorry about what ah did ta you,” Apple Bloom said in her most timid and remorseful tone she could muster. But Aqua continued to glare at her.

“There, she apologized. So is everythin’ okay now?” Applejack hopefully asked. Aqua Blossom turned her angry eyes from Apple Bloom to AJ.

“Can you and your friends use your magic to rewind time and stop her and her friends from doing what they did last Christmas?” she bitterly asked.

“Uh… no. Sorry, our magic doesn’t work like that,” AJ replied honestly and regretfully.

“Then just tell her and her little friends to stay the heck away from me.”

“But Aqua…” AJ attempted to reason with her but was interrupted.

“Their little stunt last year cost me my relationship with the guy I loved,” Aqua said with pain and sadness in her eyes. “I had planned a wonderful party for the two of us on Christmas Eve. But now he’s gone, and no amount of apology is ever going to fix that.” With that, she got up from her seat and walked away leaving the two Apple siblings to think about what she said.

Apple Bloom lowered her head in shame while her elder sister placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

Rarity and Sweetie Belle were in the school gymnasium where they had found a student named Curly Winds was practicing some basketball. The two sisters had interrupted his practice to settle his issues with Sweetie Belle.

“And so, now you understand how truly sorry my sister is for what she did,” Rarity confidently said. “So can we put this whole messy business behind us?”

“Sorry Rarity,” Curly politely argued. “But because of your sister’s Anon-a-Miss fiasco, I lost my job at the sports store at the mall. Now I have to work at that lousy junk shop run by those two identical low lives. There’s no way I can truly forgive that.” After that, the athlete went back to his basketball practice.

Realizing that there was no getting through to him, Rarity was forced to leave with her sad sister.

In the hallway, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo had met up with a rocker named Cherry Crash and Rainbow seemed to be in a bit of an argument with her.

“Come on, Cherry,” Rainbow said. “She said she was sorry, what more do you want?”

“All my plans for the holiday were completely ruined by her little stunt,” Cherry argued. “Now you’re still cool in my book, Dash. But your little friend here is not allowed anywhere near me from now on, not after what she and her friends did. Sorry Dash, but that’s final. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m very busy.” The rocker turned and walked down the hallway away from the upset rainbow-haired athlete and her miserable younger companion.

Soon school hours had ended for the day, and students started returning home. The Five and the Crusaders were all walking home together. The expressions on their faces were clear indicators that the day had not gone well for them. They had been all over school that day trying to convince many students to resolve their issues with the Crusaders but to no avail.

“Did either of you have better luck than us today?” Rainbow asked Pinkie and Fluttershy.

“Uh… not exactly,” Pinkie reluctantly admitted.

“Sorry,” Fluttershy apologized. “But not a single person we’ve talked to is willing to forgive the girls.”

“And it’s all about the whole Anon-a-Miss thing,” Pinkie added.

Hearing that, the three Crusaders lowered their heads in shame.

“We’re never going to live that down,” Apple Bloom said miserably.

“Don’t worry, sugarcube,” AJ said putting a comforting hand on her sister’s shoulder. “We’ll just find another way to work this out.”

“Yes, where there’s a will there’s a way,” Rarity agreed.

“But how?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“What we did was unforgiveable,” Scootaloo added.

“We forgave you three,” Rarity reminded them.

“You’re our sisters, that’s different,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Cheer up,” Pinkie said in a warm and friendly tone. “Everything will turn out alright in the end.”

“Yeah, we’ll come up with something that’ll convince everyone to put that whole Anon-a-Miss business behind them,” Applejack said confidently.

“Yeah, I bet when we’re done you’ll hardly even remember that whole thing,” Rainbow supportively agreed.

There was a small moment of silence. The five older girls had confident and supportive looks on their faces as if waiting for the three younger girls to show their approval and happiness for their plan. However, their reactions were quite the opposite.

“That’s horrible!” Apple Bloom said visibly disgusted. The Five were completely surprised by this unexpected reaction.

“But don’t y’all want to put Anon-a-Miss behind yah?” a confused AJ asked.

“Yeah, but it’s never gonna happen,” Scootaloo answered.

“And trying to forget about it is not the answer,” Sweetie Belle added.

“But Sweetie Belle-” Rarity tried to reason with her sister.

“Listen, we all appreciate what yer tryin’ ta do fer us but here’s some advice,” Apple Bloom spoke in a serious tone. “We damaged a lot of lives with our little Anon-a-Miss stunt, and it’s not the kind of damage you can simply kiss or put a Band-Aid on and everythin’ll feel better. And our reasons for doing it might sound understandable ta you, but they were completely selfish to everyone else. The only thin’ worse than causing that kind of pain, is ta avert yer eyes from it.”

“When you really hurt someone, don’t ever forget them or what you did to them,” Sweetie Belle added.

“Because we promise you they’ll never forget it,” Scootaloo concluded.

The Five stood stunned and speechless by the Crusaders’ words. Neither of them knew how to respond to that.

“Please don’t worry about us,” Apple Bloom insisted.

“You five have more important things to be concerned about,” Scootaloo said.

The Crusaders started walking ahead of the Five who followed about ten feet behind leaving them to think about what was said to them. The three little girls’ words had made the Five feel something that they couldn’t say why they were feeling it, and that thing was guilt. Was it guilt for being unable to help their younger sisters or was it something else?

The next morning, the Five had returned to CHS and were walking down the hallway when they spotted Flash Sentry looking through his locker. Smiles formed on their faces as they hoped that his being here might bring them some good news. They rushed over to speak with him.

“Flash! Boy, are we happy to see you again,” Rainbow said excitedly as she and the others got closer. “So how did it go with Sunse-” but before she could finish her sentence, Flash closed his locker and revealed himself fully to the girls. Instantly, their excited smiles changed to looks of horror.

Flash’s face did not look good at all. His right eye was dark and swollen and he had a large cotton gauze taped to his left cheek.

“Flash, what happened?” Rarity asked concerned.

“I’m sorry, girls,” Flash apologized in a broken tone of voice full of despair while lowering his head in shame. “I failed.”

Author's Note

Next chapter will show exactly what happened to Flash.