Walk through the Storm

Chapter 3

*RING* *RING* *RING* *RING*

Sunset's alarm went off, and by reflex, Sunset woke up, despite being on the first floor. In a haze, Sunset rushed up the stairs and turned off her alarm clock. Her brain noticed that she was already ready for school (wearing clothes and coat) and decided to continue on her schedule, not noticing the blood stains, Sunset went down the stairs towards one of her sinks. Sunset tried to drink the water straight from the tap, her still dazed brain not noticing the water soaking and dripping through the gauze around her neck. After Sunset was done 'drinking', she went over to were her backpack lay, shoved everything haphazardly into it, and walked out the door.

It was snowing again, causing Sunset's sense to begin to return, but even so it was only until she had reached the school had she fully awaken. Outside the school entrance, Sunset hesitated, wondering if she could handle another day of hell. After a few minutes, she decided to head in, but with the sole purpose of finding out who stole her book and getting it back.

She opened the doors, prepared for the name calling, jeering, and other such ways of torment the other students normally do, only to met with silence. Every student was staring at her with wide eyes, constantly looking back to something on their phones, only one student moved, and that was to run down the hallway. After about a minute of being stared at, Sunset started to get irritated and uncomfortable, and started walking down the hallway, watching for anyone who would try to trip her, shoulder check her, towards her locker but stopped upon spotting the Humane Five.

Immediately deciding that she couldn't through with meeting her friends again, and decided to rush to class. As she walked through the hallways, she noticed that no one was trying to harass her in anyway, she started to think that maybe, they started to believe that she was telling the truth. At least until she ran into Trixie and her group of friends, while they don't have any real common interests, they all hate Sunset and that was all they needed to be friends.

"Well well well, if it isn't Anon-a-miss, I was just wondering how you were going to play this off." Trixie said as a smirk formed on her face. "Now I know you aren't stupid enough to think 'killing' yourself is a good idea. No no, you're smarter than that, instead you blackmail two little girls to take the blame."

Trixie walked towards her, the irritating smirk still on her face, and said, "But there was one flaw, they didn't have a photograph or any other kind of evidence to prove that you killed yourself or that they were Anon-a-miss. And without that, all we had to do is wait for 'surprising survival' and show everyone that you set it up from the beginning, just as you had with your reformation. So what do you got to say to that, she-demon."

Trixie had turned back to her supporters for the duration of her speech, so when she turned around, expecting to see Sunset in tears as all other attempts have been, she was caught completely off guard when a almost searing hot hand wrapped around her neck and lifted her off the ground.

"I say, that you should keep quite before you get yourself hurt." Sunset's eyes bored into Trixie's, Trixie noticing that the white of her iris was rapidly turning black and the skin around her eyes was turning red and was expanding across the rest of her body at a moderate pace. Now Trixie may be a bit egotistical (a lot actually), but even she knew that a wrong step in this situation could lead to Sunset turning into something a lot worse than Anon-a-miss, so she decided to oblige her. After she nodded to confirm her obedience, she went hurling through the air and into a locker, not causing any harm to her or the locker, but it still hurt a lot.

However, Dumb bell and Hoops were not nearly as intelligent as those around them, and charged Sunset the moment she threw Trixie away.

"You bitch!" Hoops said as he threw a punch right at Sunset's face, only for it to be caught by her palm. Holding it steady, Sunset proceeded to crush his hand with hers, creating a sickening crunch like noise that was followed by Hoops screaming.

"Don't worry Hoops, I'm on my way." Dumb bell drew some weights out his backpack and tried to clobber Sunset with them, only for her block them and Spartan kick him into the nearby lockers, indenting them upon impact, Dumb bell coughed up blood before passing out.

Sunset, now almost completely transformed, just lacking her wings, her tail, and her horn, turned to the crowd who came to watch Trixie and her goons harass her again and said, "Anyone else?"

That was when the screaming started.

Rainbow was sitting with the rest of the Humane five outside the principles office. It had been two days since Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both claimed that the CMC was actually Anon-a-miss, but Applebloom was denying vehemently against the accusations, but it seemed to be a losing battle for if what Principle Celestia had told Applejack yesterday meant anything.

Rainbow could still remember how she reacted to the news.

Rainbow was sitting with the rest of her friends at Sugarcube Corner, chatting about happenings at school, when all their phones dinged, signaling that Anon-a-miss had posted once again.

"Ugh, what did Sunset post now?" Rarity scoffed as she unlocked her phone as did everyone else.

"What the?" Rainbow said when she saw the title of the post.

It's time I Confessed

"Well it looks like Sunset is finally going to take responsibility for all this hupla." Applejack said, smirking at the thought.

"I don't now Applejack, Sunset isn't the type of person to do something like this, no matter how bad it got." Pinkie said, hand stroking her chin for extra thinking power.

"Well I can't think of any other reason for this post to labeled as such." Rarity said, huffing at the end.

"Maybe she's trying to get us to look at, you know that quite a bit of people have just stopped looking at the post because of all the pain it's been causing." Rainbow suggested, and she was right, a large amount of people had stopped responding or even looking into the Anon-a-miss post as an attempt to coax Sunset into stopping the posts altogether, unfortunately, it wasn't working. Most of the school still read the post, laughing at others or crying out in rage at their own.

"Well I hope that it's an actual confession." Fluttershy said, taking sips out of her milkshake.

Rainbow clicked play on the video.

The room was dark, but their was an outline of someone, an outline of Sunset. Rainbow smirked, looked like she was finally going to own up to what she did.

The figure reached up and pulled of the hair, everyone at the table gasped, and then the lights turned on. What followed next was echoed by several other student costumers at Sugarcube Corner.

"SWEETIE BELLE!"

"Hello, now as many of you may know, my name is Sweetie Belle, Rarity's little sister." Sweetie Belle's voice came from the phone, there was no tremble or hesitation, what she was saying was of her own freewill. " Now I know many of you are wondering why I'm on the Anon-a-miss post, and the answer is simple, the explanation however, not so much."

"This can't be happening, she has to be forced to do this, right Applejack." Rarity said, looking over to the aforementioned girl.

"Ah'm afraid that what she is saying up to this point is true Rares, Ah can't see any form of deceit on her, so I'm going to have tah say that she is telling the truth."

"The reason, well, I'm Anon-a-miss, well, not entirely, I had some help." Sweetie continued, earning the groups undivided attention once again. Sweetie looked to someone off screen.

Rainbow's eyes widen at the figure who walked in and sat next to Sweetie Belle. The new girl had purple hair, dark orange color skin, and purple eyes. Rainbow Dash knew who that girl was, she was the girl who used to live at the local orphanage, she was the girl who often got into trouble riding her scooter around school, she was the girl who cheered her on at all of her sports events, she was her adopted little sister, Scootaloo.

"Hey, my name is Scootaloo, and I'm Sweetie's friend, and as most people know, Rainbow's biggest fan." Scootaloo said, a small smile growing on her face before it was replaced with a look of sadness. "But as Sweetie said, we are Anon-a-miss, and as I'm sure you're all guessing right about now, 'Since these two are Anon-a-miss, what about that other girl they hang out with a bunch.' Yes, Applebloom, Applejack's sister, is also apart of Anon-a-miss, but the reason she is not here with us is because unlike us, she wishes to keep going with Anon-a-miss."

"WHAT!" Applejack screamed at the phone, desperately trying to find any form of deceit or signs of them lying, anything to disprove the newfound accusation against her little sister.

"The other question you might be asking is why we decided to confess, surely we could just stop and Sunset would take the fall, or until Applebloom gets caught." Sweetie said, despair showing on her face as she gulped, looked to her friend for support, who hugged her as a way to calm her down. "Me, Scoots, and Applebloom were walking home today, when we heard a gunshot."

Everybody in the store was watching the video rapt attention, even Mr. and Mrs. Cake were leaning over Pinkie's shoulder for a better view of the video, Sweetie was trying to continue speaking, but seamed to not be able to find the words, Scootaloo decided it was time she took over.

"After the gunshot, Sweetie ran to see what had happened, not one of her brightest ideas I'm afraid, forcing Applebloom and I to run after her." Scootaloo spoke, a calm levelheaded tone that implied something terrible was about to be revealed. "When we caught up to her, she was inside a nearby abandoned warehouse, or at least that was what it looked like on the outside."

"But inside, it looked like someone's home, of who's, we didn't know until a little bit later. But everything you'd need for a home to be home was there, chairs, coaches, a TV, running water and power, yadda yadda yadda, you get the point, it was obvious someone was living there." Scootaloo said, waving her hand dismissively. "There was a second floor and Sweetie was going up to it, so again we chased after her, she stopped at the top of the stairs, we caught up to her, wondering what had stopped her in her tracks, but the moment we saw it, we regreted it instantly, but understood how it happened."

Scootaloo took in a deep breathe, trying to reclaim her nerve so she could continue, Sweetie Belle was a sobbing mess, clinging onto Scootaloo. Scootaloo looked back into the camera and said. "We saw the owner of the house, or at least what was in it, she goes to our school, she used to be our sisters friend, that's right, Sunset Shimmer was living in the warehouse, alone, and now-"

"DEAD, SHE'S DEAD, SHE KILLED HERSELF, AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF US." Sweetie started crying her eyes out into Scootaloo's shoulder after her outburst.

Silence, not a single noise was made besides the crying coming from the devices people were watching the video on.

'Dead?' A million thoughts were running through Rainbow's head, desperately trying to make since of all this, how had this had gone from time with her friends to one of them being dead. 'No, you told her she wasn't your friend remember, you cheered on her daily beatings, laughed as teachers did their own way of showing how much they hated her, and even participated in that "Expel Sunset" campaign a couple days ago. If there's anyone else who simply left her alone, then they would have shown more loyalty to her than you did, miss Element of Loyalty.'

The same inner turmoil was shown on every face in the building, but they all snapped out of it when Sweetie Belle spoke again.

"After we recovered, we left the warehouse, and Sunset's body, I said that I was going to confess, but I wasn't going to let my friends take the fall with me if they didn't want to." Sweetie's voice trembled as she wiped tears out of her eyes, a small smile adorned her face as Scootaloo hugged her.

"I, of course, wouldn't let my friend take the fall like that, but one of us wanted to keep going, even after the result of what we had done." Scootaloo snarled as she said it.

"Applebloom wanted to wait till the day after to make a decision on what to do, which was completely reasonable, but after I affirmed that regardless of whether or not she agreed with my decision, I was going to confess today." Sweetie sent a knowing look at Scootaloo, who snarled again, remembering something unpleasant.

"What she did after wasn't though." Was all Scootaloo said for Sweetie's face to morph into one of fury and hate, shocking all who were watching, the normally kind hearted and Fluttershy-ish little girl who wouldn't hurt a fly without a good reason, looked as if she wanted to rip and tear her way to the object that caused her some much hate.

"What Applebloom threatened me with is no longer an issue as she doesn't have it anymore." Sweetie said through gritted teeth, trying to keep her cool.

"Doesn't change the fact that she threatened to destroy your sister's reputation and all opportunities for her dream job." Scootaloo said again, a downcast expression adorning her face.

"We'll discuss what we'll do about Applebloom after this, now is there anything else you wanted to mention." Sweetie turned to face Scootaloo, who shook her head showing that she was done. "Well then, I guess that we're done here, thank you for reading our post, sorry for all the pain we caused, or reasons for doing this will be given to Principle Celestia tomorrow at school, and if you wish for justice to be taken, I suggest not trying to 'take matters into your own hands' as that give us a lessened punishment, just something to keep in mind, good bye, once and for all."

The video ended, nobody moved, nobody spoke, everyone in the building felt guilty: The Cake's, who had turned Sunset away due to what was going on at the school, even threatening her on multiple occasions to call the authorities on her, the students who tormented her day in and day out, just because they now had a reason to, Teachers, who would fail every piece of homework, quiz, and test she took, to show her how much they hated her, other Staff members, who would harass her in any way they could, and finally, the Humane 5, the name now seeming ironic, they befriended a reforming bully, to show her that friendship is a far better route than one of isolation and anger, turned on her at the first piece of evidence that say she's guilty, despite how many holes in all of the pieces 'evidence' that were obtained.

With much shame and remorse, Pinkie Pie drew forth, a sun emblazoned book, the same one they use to talk to Princess Twilight Sparkle

"Now I know this may not be the time, but whose going to tell Twilight?" Pinkie asked, before wincing with all of her friends. How were they supposed to tell a pony princess, the one who saved them twice so far, that they assisted in the bullying of Sunset Shimmer, the same girl Twilight told them look after and help her learn the Magic of Friendship. How were they supposed to tell a god like being that they not only failed to do the one thing she asked of them, but also helped do the exact opposite. That thought plagued their mind, until the door opened, and in walked a middle schooler, she had butter yellow colored skin, cherry red hair, and a light pink bow.

The entire store was staring at her, they all knew exactly who she was, she was Applejack's little sister, the ring leader of the CMC, and the newly founded creator of Anon-a-miss, Applebloom, and she just can't understand why the moment she walked into Sugarcube Corner, she was met with a wave of hatred.

"Ahem" Applebloom turned to see her older sister Applejack, expecting to see the loving look in her eyes, instead only found coldness and anger, the same look she gave Sunset after Anon-a-miss became a thing.

"Applebloom, I think we need to talk." Applejack said, her voice void of emotion, confusing and scaring Applebloom further. "How about you start with your part in Anon-a-miss."

Applebloom's eyes widen, only for a second before she bit it back down in hopes that she could get out of this, but the change in posture showed her that a second was all that was needed for Applejack see that whatever she was told was in fact true. Applebloom began plotting ways to get out of this, but for some reason, she had a feeling that she had already lost.

It had gone about as to be expected, Applebloom denied everything, and is still continuing, and Principle Celestia had said that if Applebloom doesn't confess, she is planning on taking this incident to court, since Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had already confessed, while they would not be charged, their punishment would still be severe, but would not be dealt with by the police.

"Agh, this sucks." Rainbow Dash said as she raked her fingers through her hair.

"What is it this time, Dash?" Rarity sighed as she looked up from her magazine.

"This whole situation, two of the Crusaders confesses, the third rejects it, and all of them are refusing to tell us where Sunset Shimmer's body is, what happened that made everything go batshit crazy so fucking fast!" Rainbow panted at the end of her little rant, her anger started to cool off, only for it to be relit when she heard Rarity gasping.

"Rainbow Dash, you shouldn't use such vulgar words, they are unsightly and have been purposed to only hurt others." Rarity said, exasperated, only to shrink back at Rainbow's glare.

"Oh really, miss 'Beat that secret telling whore till her fucking traitorous mouth is sealed shut from bruising!', we shouldn't use vulgar words, they're only used to hurt people, huh." Rainbow hissed in unbridled fury.

"Now Rainbow Dash, I'm sure you know that it wasn't just me, if I remember it was only Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie who didn't participate in Sunset's *ahem* 'punishment', so I don't think you have the right be angry at me for that." Rarity said, hoping to at least give Rainbow enough reason to make not want to hit her.

"Yeah, I probably have no room to talk there," Rainbow said, her head hanging low in shame. "You know, I just wish that I could see her again, just so I could-"

"Applejack!" Lighting Dust burst through the office doors, gaining the attention of everyone instantly.

"What seems to be the problem Lighting?" Applejack said as she stood up.

"It's Sunset, she's alive." Lighting said, still panting.

"What! Quick girls, we got go find her!." Rainbow said as she burst out of her seat, and was about to run out the door when Lighting said.

"Wait!" Lighting grabbed Rainbow's arm, just barely keeping her in the office. "There's something else."

"Oh my, she isn't injured is she?" Fluttershy said, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Uh, well, she had bandages wrapped around her neck, but that's not it, she gone berserk and is attacking everybody!" lighting yelled, waving her arms around for dramatic affect.

A moment of silence had fallen upon the group, before they let out an loud "What!"