Christmas At the Witch's House

It was a glum day at Canterlot High. The once happily anticipated holiday season had become a time of bitterness and misery. Most of the students were either walking around with embarrassed and miserable expressions on their faces or arguing and fighting amongst themselves. A group of drama students were walking down a hall together bitterly talking about their exposed secrets.

“I can’t believe she posted that!” a drama girl named Watermelody yelled angrily looking at her cellphone.

“I should say I’m not surprised, considering this is Sunset Shimmer we're talking about,” a drama boy named Indigo Wreath bitterly added. “But I never thought she’d stood this low and on such a grand scale.”

“I knew she was still a no good troublemaker,” Octavia angrily declared. “I knew it!”

“Just goes to show you, some people really can’t change,” Trixie said smugly.

Then a group consisting of an athlete girl named Cloudy Kicks and two rocker girls named Cherry Crash and Mystery Mint approached the drama group.

“Hey, Anon-a-Miss just uploaded an embarrassing video of one of my teammates during soccer practice,” Cloudy Kicks angrily said. “Do any of you know where Sunset Shimmer is? I need to get some payback.” She pounded her right fist into her left palm.

“No, I’m afraid we haven’t seen her,” Indigo Wreath answered.

“Now that you mention it, none of us have seen Sunset at all today,” Watermelody said suspiciously.

“That’s strange, think she’s hiding someplace like the coward she is?” Cherry Crash asked.

“Hey, I hear you all are looking for Sunset Shimmer, correst?” an eco-girl named Paisley approached the two groups. They all nodded. “I heard none of the teachers in her classes have seen her at all today.”

“That’s weird,” Mystery Mint said confused.

“A school attendant checked her locker recently and it was completely cleard out. They say she’s probably run away.”

“So, she decided to flee instead of facing the music,” Octavia said bitterly.

“See, Trixie told you she was guilty,” Trixie said with a proud smile.

“Shame I won’t be able to give her what she rightfully deserves,” Cloud Kicks said disappointed. “Oh well, good riddens.”

As the two groups moved on down the hall to their next classes, three younger girls who had been hiding behind a corner eavesdropping on their conversation were visibly horrified by what they heard. There three girls were known as the Crusaders; their names were Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. They were the younger sisters of three of Sunset’s former friends.

“Did ya hear that, girls?” Apple Bloom nervously asked her two friends.

“Sunset’s gone,” Sweetie Belle said extremely distraught.

“What are we going to do?” Scootaloo asked nervously.

“This whole thing has gone too far now,” Apple Bloom declared.

Sunset’s five former friends were all gathered in the music room to practice their instruments. However, none of them seemed really in the mood to play any music and just sat around miserably testing the sounds of their instruments.

“So, how long do you think it’ll be till Sunset finally confesses and apologizes?” Fluttershy asked breaking the silence.

“I think we should make her work to earn our forgiveness this time,” Rainbow Dash angrily suggested.

“I don’t think that’ll be possible,” Pinkie Pie bitterly said. “I heard rumors that she packed her things and hit the road.”

“I knew it, the innocent never run,” Rarity angrily added.

“Ah’ won’t lie to y’all, ah’m actually pretty surprised this all happened,” Applejack told them. “Ah’ actually thought she had really changed since the Fall Formal. After she helped defeat the Sirens, and all that stuff about her family back in Equestria. It was all so convincin’.”

“Well, I’m not so surprised,” Rarity said. “This is Sunset Shimmer we’re talking about. She’s lied and manipulated us in the past. This was probably one big ruse to trick us again.”

“If Twilight were here, she wouldn’t be too happy to find out that our new friend was still evil,” Pinkie added.

Suddenly, the Crusaders burst into the room.

“Applejack,” Apple Bloom called to her big sister.

“What is it, Apple Bloom?” AJ asked surprised to see her sister.

“There’s somethin’ ah’ gotta tell yah’,” Apple Bloom nervously said. “Remember when ah’ told ya ah’ thought Sunset Shimmer might be Anon-a-Miss?”

“Yeah, and you were right. Ta think ah’ thought she was our friend.”

“Yeah, well-” Apple Bloom tried to continue but was interrupted.

“Do you all remember how patheticaly she tried to plead her false innocence?” Rainbow asked the others who nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, but-” Apple Bloom tried to speak up but was interrupted again.

“And now she’s chosen to run away instead of owning up to what she did,” Rarity said disappointed. “So unladylike.”

“Would all of you just shut up and listen!” Scootaloo yelled unable to take anymore. The older girls were shocked by her sudden outburst, but they finally quieted down and gave the Crusaders their undivided attention.

“Ya see, ah’ might’ve shifted the blame on that one,” Apple Bloom said guiltfully.

“You what?!” AJ said in disbelief.

“Anon-a-Miss, the one who posted the ‘Piggly-Wiggly’ story about you on the internet, it was me,” Apple Bloom shamefully confessed.

“What?!” the five older girls said in shock.

“Apple Bloom, how could you?!” AJ couldn’t believe her own sister would do something like that.

“And I was the one who posted Rainbow Dash’s failed science paper,” Scootaloo told them with regretful eyes. “The junior team was practicing the same time Dash’s team had soccer practice, so it was a good opportunity to get at the paper.”

Rainbow’s jaw dropped in disbelief. “You mean to tell us that it was you three this whole time?!”

“But, the pictures,” Rarity spoke in both denial and horror. “They were the same pictures Sunset took with her phone.”

“But when everyone was asleep, I took her phone and downloaded them to the internet,” Sweetie Belle remorsefully confessed.

“Then people started sending us more secrets and we posted everything,” Scootaloo added.

“And you made it look like Sunset did it!” Fluttershy concluded visibly horrified.

“But why, Sweetie Belle? Why?!” Rarity asked almost in hysterics.

“Because you were spending more time with Sunset Shimmer than with us!” Sweetie said beginning to tear up.

“Ever since ya’ll became friends with Sunset, you’ve been hangin’ out less with yer families,” Apple Bloom sadly explained. “We thought if ya’ll thought Sunset was Anon-a-Miss then you’d hang out less with her.”

“But things got out of hand,” Scootaloo stepped in. “Everyone reacted worse than we expected.”

“We’re so sorry,” Sweetie apologized with tears running down her cheek.

The five girls were in complete shock. Sunset wasn’t Anon-a-Miss. She was innocent. They were wrong.

“Sunset was innocent all along!” Fluttershy said in utter horror.

“I can’t believe we did this!” Rarity said totally ashamed.

Rainbow Dash was too shocked to speak and held her hand over her mouth. She felt like her own words were being forced down her throat, and they tasted horrible.

“If Twilight were here, she’d be so disappointed in us!” Pinkie said as her poofy hair deflated.

“We shoulda’ known,” Applejack said directing her shame-filled eyes to the floor.

“We misjudged her… badly,” Rainbow finally summoned the courage to speak, but feeling like a complete disgrace.

“When we heard that Sunset had run away, we realized that this had gone to far. But unfortunately, it was too late,” Apple Bloom said with tears in her eyes.

“No, we have to find her!” Fluttershy said looking like she was about to panic.

“We will!” AJ said with determination in her voice. “But first, we have ta tell everyone,” she said turning her attention back to the Crusaders with tearful pleading eyes.

The three girls knew what they were being asked to do, they would surely get into a lot of trouble for it. But they knew it was the right thing to do and respectfully nodded their heads in agreement.

Later on, the five friends led the Crusaders to the cafeteria where all the students were having lunch. Once they’d gotten everyone’s attention, the Crusaders confessed everything to the entire student body. They even used their phones to log into the Anon-a-Miss account to prove it.

“YOU DID WHAT?!” everyone yelled in disbelief.

“Yes, ah’m afraid it’s true,” Apple Bloom guilt fully said.

“You’re the ones who’ve been making our lives miserable?!” a fashionista named Blueberry Cake angrily asked.

“You little-” a rocker named Crimson Napalm said shaking his fist.

“Then that means Sunset was-” Octavia said turning to her friend Vinyl Scratch who sadly nodded her head. Octavia’s eyes then filled with dread. “Oh my lord! I regret so much now.”

“Sunset was telling the truth after all!” an athlete named Curly Winds said visibly upset.

“Looks like the Great and Powerful Trixie has made an error in judgement,” Trixie said with great remorse in her voice.

So many other students also looked very regretful about how they treated Sunset Shimmer now that they knew the truth.

“Now we know a lot of you are feelin’ pretty bad about all this,” Applejack said getting everyone’s attention. “Trust me, we know. But we can’t just sit around feelin’ sorry for ourselves.”

“Sunset didn’t run away because she was guilty, we drove her away with our animosity,” Fluttershy stepped in.

“The point is we need to work together to help find her,” Rainbow said.

“We also need to throw her a big apology party when we do,” Pinkie added.

“We all want to go look for our friend, but we need your help,” Rarity pleaded.

“We know we have no right to ask anything of any of you after what we did,” Apple Bloom spoke. “But Sunset is out there all because of us. We need your help to find her.”

“We need to make things right with her,” Sweetie said in a begging tone.

“We all need to,” Scootaloo added.

Although the other students were pretty mad at the Crusaders for what they did, they knew they were also right. They all needed to make amends with Sunset.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Flash Sentry shouted. He was followed by all sorts of yelling in agreement.

“But first, I think we need to tell Principal Celestia about this as well,” Scootaloo nervously said to her other two friends who looked just as nervous as her. They knew Celestia wouldn’t happy with them.

Later, the five girls and the Crusaders went to Principal Celestia’s office and confessed everything to her and her sister, Vice Principal Luna.

“This is an outrage!” Celestia declared as she struggled to hold back her full anger. “This is the worst form of bullying there is. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.”

The Crusaders all shamefully nodded. They were very ashamed of themselves.

“I take it you all are planning to go looking for Sunset Shimmer?” Luna asked.

The five girls and their sisters all nodded.

“We have to,” Fluttershy said with sorrow in her eyes.

“Please, you’ve gotta let us undo what we’ve done,” Rainbow pleaded.

“Very well,” Celestia reluctantly agreed. She could see the pain in their eyes and knew that letting them search for their missing friend was the right thing to do. “We’ll contact the authorities and notify them of Sunset’s disappearance. You may take as many students as you need to look for her.”

“Thank you so much,” Rarity said with tearful gratitude.

“When this is over, you three will answer for what you’ve done,” Luna sternly told the Crusaders.

“Understood,” Apple Bloom sadly acknowledged.

“Come ya’ll. We’re gonna find Sunset, and we’re gonna give her the best darn holiday season she’ll ever know!” Applejack declared with determination in her voice.

With that, the eight girls left the principal’s office to gather their winter gear and begin their search for their friend and their redemption.