“I'm sure you are all wondering why I've called you here today,” Twilight announced. She stood up straight and tall in front of the portal as if she were speaking at a podium to a captive audience. Her friends were all sprawled out on the grass in front of her, just like they were every afternoon after the bell rang.

On this day, Twilight had sent out a group text to all of her friends during their last class of the day, telling them that they should meet up at the portal after school. She had claimed it was urgent, and Twilight rarely sent the group messages that claimed to be urgent, unlike Rainbow Dash for example, who would use that word at the drop of a hat; the girls felt it was important to rush to the statue as soon as they heard the bell ring signifying the end of the day.

Even Starlight Glimmer, who still didn't fully understand how her cell phone worked, was dragged along by Applejack from their shared History class to the portal where they sat, a captive audience, waiting for their friend to further explain.

“So it took the rest of the lunch period, my study hall, and all of my gym class to figure out what was going on in this notebook, but I did it! I cracked the code!”

The seven girls relaxing on the grass erupted into cheers.

“We knew you could do it!” Pinkie yelled out.

“So what was it? What does it say?” Starlight asked, jumping up towards Twilight and beaming with excitement.

“Okay, so Starlight Glimmer was smart, really smart. I mean she basically encoded her notebook through two different ciphers.” She paused for dramatic effect, letting her friends bask in the surprise that there was so much work that had to be done. The excited smiles on their faces gave Twilight a little bit of pride to continue on with her explanation. “We'll go through it backwards. Each of the numbers on this page corresponds to a letter; at first I couldn't figure it out. You see, I was expecting that it would be a numerical value between one and twenty six just like the alphabet, but while doing research in the library I realized that it was actually ASCII! So that's why the numbers seemed so strange to me. Anyway once I figured that out and got a ton of random letters it was quite simple, most codes are just a simple Caesarian shift and that's what it was. All it took was a little fiddling around with it until I was able to create actual words out of the letters that the numbers spell out. So now this...”

Twilight pulled out the notebook as it originally was, jut a mess of numbers on a page that had puzzled all of the girls all day and then pulled out a sheet of loose leaf paper and handed it to Starlight Glimmer who was instantly crowded around by the other girls who desperately wanted to catch a glimpse of the final copy.

“...becomes this,” she finished.

“That just looks like a ton of web links. How does that help?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I was curious about that at first, but then I checked out the web site.” Twilight pulled out her phone and typed in the URL into her device's browser and the other girls looked at her phone quizzically.

“I still don't follow,” Starlight Glimmer admitted.

“Okay, so basically, I have a feeling that the other Starlight Glimmer is sort of tech savvy... I think, I'm going off of an educated guess here. Anyway, we saw a picture of this notebook and we assumed that it would hold all the answers and in a way it did, but it was really more like a key or more likely similar to a trail of breadcrumbs that led us to this website.”

“The website is just a moving picture of somebody running towards us and then falling over. That doesn't mean that Starlight Glimmer is stuck inside a phone, does it?” Starlight's eyes widened with worry. “Can that happen to somebody? I mean, you girls got stuck inside a mirror that one time, sure it was Equestrian magic that did that, but is it possible that Starlight Glimmer could she be stuck inside the phone?”

She tapped Twilight's phone tentatively to see if anything happened.

Nothing happened.

“No, no, and no. Also, by the way Starlight, it's called a GIF.” Starlight did not look any less confused by this revelation. “Basically, this website is more like Starlight's real diary. I was confused at first when I saw the GIF, but then I checked the source code.”

“Ya lost me,” Rainbow Dash spoke up.

“She never even had me,” Starlight mumbled.

“The source code is just a bunch of plain text used as computer instructions; basically it tells the computer and browser what the site looks like.”

“Oh... okay?” Starlight asked, sounding no less confused than she had been when Twilight started talking.

“However, the cool thing is that website creators can hide stuff in the source code. I mean, there are plenty of ways to sneak things in without any of the information showing up on the page, but it's still there under the surface. So, when somebody like me comes across this website, if I don't check the source code then the only thing that I will see is the GIF of somebody running, but when I do check it... she presses a button on her phone and then returns it to its previous position in front of the girls.

The phone now displayed a white screen with a ton of text, some of the words on the page didn't make sense until Twilight scrolled down slightly and then a whole block of text that seemed to read like a diary just appeared. The girls eyes all widened in surprise and Starlight took the phone in her hands and immediately started scrolling through it trying to make sense of all the information on the page.

“It's not in code,” she said with relief. “It's just in regular Equestrian... I mean, English.”

“Yup, and it basically reads like a diary, or I mean, it would read like your diary if your diary contained a detailed list of people who did you wrong and what they did to get on your bad side.”

“WHAT?!” came the surprised reply from all the girls as they all tried to grab at Twilight's phone to be the first to get a better view of the source code.

“Each link mentioned in her book, leads you to a hidden page on a website with all of the information. Each website is completely different, so it's not even like they are all in the same place or anything. She was very thorough and apparently had a vendetta against almost every person she had met. Seriously, there are a lot of names in this book.”

Twilight flipped through Starlight Glimmer's notebook quickly to further drive home her point, the girls looked on sadly as every page that passed them by was another page that was full of cyphers.

“Oh, it's going to take us forever to get through all these names!” Rarity cried out.

“She's got a point, Twi. I mean Starlight Glimmer is missing, we can't just count out anybody who is in that notebook. It could be anyone of these people,” Applejack pointed out.

“I realize that,” Twilight admitted. “However, I promise all of you right now that I am going to spend all of tonight working on decoding everything in this notebook. I will print out the information, and then I'll give everybody some of the papers. I bet if we split up every name in here, we can divide and conquer!”

The girls cheered.

“But, we do have a starting point,” Twilight pointed out with a relieved smile on her face. “This web page comes from the last page in the notebook. I decoded that one first because I figured it would give us the best insight into the last bits of information she left behind before she went missing and I was surprised to see that it was Abacus Cinch.”

She paused thoughtfully, “Well, I wasn't that surprised, actually; just a little surprised.”

Starlight raised her hand. “Who is Abacus Cinch? Yesterday, Miss Care mentioned that name to me while she was giving me some sort of strange pep talk. She said that I was lucky that Abacus Cinch didn't try to press charges against me, but she didn't elaborate as to why that was, how they even knew each other, or what had happened between Abacus Cinch and Starlight Glimmer. Do you girls know who that is?”

The girls nodded.

“She used to be my principal back when I went to school at Crystal Prep,” Twilight started.

Starlight's eyes widened. “Morning Dew said something about Crystal Prep this morning! I think that before she disappeared that was where Starlight Glimmer used to go to school.”

Twilight tilted her head and looked at Starlight Glimmer as if she were racking her brain for some kind of clue she had forgotten about. “I don't... I don't remember seeing you.”

“No offense, Twilight, but you also didn't realize that Crystal Prep had a dance studio. I don't quite think that you're the best judge of who did or didn't go to Crystal Prep,” Rarity said.

Twilight blushed. “Good point.”

“So what does that entry say about Abacus Cinch?” Starlight Glimmer asked trying to contain her excitement.

Abacus Cinch

Occupation: FORMER Principal of Crystal Prep

UPDATE: Ooops Former? I wonder what happened with that?! Ha

I get it. I don't think anybody I have ever met would ever say that I was the most easy-going person they've ever met or even the easiest person to get along with. I get it. I really do. I do my best to at least attempt not to hate people I come across. That being said, I don't think I have ever met somebody as rage inducing as Abacus Cinch or her crazy “important” reputation.

Freaking Morning Dew and Rondache thought that once they took me into their home that Crystal Prep would be the best place for me since Miss Care said that I was a “gifted student” that needed to be “kept busy.” I would have rather stayed at my old school, despite that schools' “colorful” reputation.

But no, I moved to a new town and tested into some preppy little school for wanna be Ivy League students. The only good part about this place is these people have been together their entire lives starting from whatever overpriced private elementary school they all started at to Crystal Prep and they have their “friend groups,” so they don't bother me about hanging out with them during lunch or after school.

The people here don't like “different.”

And from my past few weeks here, I've noticed that it is something that Principal Cinch really encourages. Like I said before, I don't mind that, I'd rather be a loner and spend my time in the Computer Lab instead of the dance studio or whatever else this school has, but Principal Cinch will just not let up. I'm never good enough in her eyes, not smart enough, not talented enough, and definitely not “normal” enough.

And then came her stupid little Equestria Games... Crystal Prep and their “friendly rivalry” with Canterlot High School. I wasn't even invited, but I watched anyway and it was quite the sight.

But you know what I thought was silly? While sitting in the stands waiting for that last game to start, I had the perfect view of Abacus Cinch and four of her “favorite students” practically attacking some other girl into cheating. I don't know who that girl is, but she basically ended up almost destroying the world. I got out of that situation in time, thankfully.

Seems very cut and dry, don't you think? School principal and her favorite students pick on an outcast, principal manipulated and pressures girl to do something, then girl freaks out and tries to destroy the world. Sounds like grounds for a disgraced departure to me.

And yet, when I returned to school on Monday there she was, standing in the doorway watching the students enter and looking pleased with herself.

It was absolutely disgusting. Apparently it is very difficult to dismiss a longstanding employee at a fancy private school no matter how much the school population and the rest of the faculty dislike you.

I couldn't let that stand.

And I didn't.

I let the world know what Principal Abacus Cinch did, especially what she did to that student.

I hacked the Crystal Prep website and plastered her face with the word “Bully” superimposed on her face. I found her personal information, printed out those images, and sent them to her home. Multiple at a time for days on end. I just stuffed them in her mailbox or taped them to her door or mailed them from dozens of phony addresses and it worked. Within the month, the board of directors voted to replace Principal Abacus Cinch with Dean Cadance.

It was all because of me. I did that. Justice didn't happen so I made it happen and I could have completely gotten away with it too if former Principal Cinch didn't have a camera at her house that caught me on tape in her yard.

That's okay though, I'll make sure she gets what else is coming to her.

“Oooo sounds sinister,” Pinkie Pie said once the girls got to the end of the entry.

“Okay, I know what she did was technically wrong, but that was totally awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “I mean, she totally took down Abacus Cinch and after what she did to Twilight, it was totally justified!

“Well, I guess I found out what this world's equivalent of enslaving an entire village and getting so angry at one person for foiling your plans that you try to go back in time to make sure she had no friends to begin with, is supposed to be,” Starlight muttered. Her friends looked at her sadly. “I'm so sorry girls, I didn't mean to bring anybody down, I just... I just hoped that this Starlight Glimmer was better than I was, but she's just as angry and vengeful as I am, but without any of the good influences I had in you girls. I hope that when or if we find her she will be able to change like I did.”

“Hey, it's okay,” Sunset said as she laid a hand on Starlight's shoulder. “We will figure it out, we always do.”

“Starlight Glimmer, why don't you and I go to Crystal Prep?” Twilight suggested. “We can ask around and see if any of the students or faculty there know anything about Starlight Glimmer; maybe we could even get some intel on the whole Abacus Cinch situation and see if that leads us on a path that will help us find Starlight. What do you say?”

Starlight shrugged. “I guess.”

“Oh! I should ask my brother to bring us to Crystal Prep. He's on break from college right now, so he has already promised my mom and dad to drop me off and pick me up from school. I'm sure he wouldn't mind driving us over there. After all, he always loves any opportunity he gets to visit his old stomping grounds. He adored his time at Crystal Prep.”

“Oh that's much nicer than taking the smelly old bus,” Rarity agreed.

Starlight still didn't seem enthused though, much to the other girls chagrin. She just sat down on the ground and opened up the notebook as if she were able to read it like a regular book.

“Starlight, it's okay,” Fluttershy assured her. “Everyone makes mistakes and the Starlight Glimmer in this world may have done some bad things, but that doesn't mean she's a terrible person. I bet once you find her and talk things out, you'll realize it isn't as bad as you think it is.”

Starlight sat up a little straighter and a small smile formed on her face. “Yea, maybe you're right, Fluttershy.”

“I mean, she did do a good thing. She did it the wrong way, but Principal Cinch was not a good person and it was good for her to be outed from Canterlot High School before she did something to another student just like she did to me,” Twilight said and the other six girls nodded in agreement.

“I guess you girls are right.”

“And maybe when we find the other Starlight we can show her the magic of friendship and she'll be all hunky-dory with us because we're a super forgiving group,” Pinkie said.

Starlight giggled. “That's true, you are.”

“So you'll come with me to Crystal Prep? You and I can get some information and we might be one step closer to helping to redeem the other Starlight Glimmer. How does that sound?”

“It sounds amazing. Let's do it!”

The group of friends hung out for a while while Twilight and Starlight waited for Shining Armor to come pick them up. Rarity and Fluttershy were the first two to leave, both claiming that the places they worked and volunteered at needed them that afternoon for a few hours and that began the slow dissipation of their group for the evening. One by one though, they began to head to their after school activities, whether it be work or a school club, until it was just Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle sitting in front of the statue, picking at the grass and watching the rest of the students slowly make their way away from the school.

“Look, Starlight, there's something that I have to tell you and I didn't want to do it while the other girls were around,” Twilight finally spoke up after she noticed that most of the CHS students had moved on, leaving them the only ones left in the courtyard.

Starlight deflated. “What else did you learn? Is it bad?”

Twilight looked down at the ground and concentrated on shifting her feet around awkwardly.

“Twilight?”

“I did go through a few more of the codes aside from Abacus Cinch,” she said slowly.

Starlight Glimmer leaned forward in nervous anticipation.

“Yea?”

“And, well, there was one other name that stuck out to me.”

“What was the name?”

“I just want to point out that I haven't fully had a chance to read everything. I started with Abacus Cinch because I thought that she was the more likely suspect, but I just want to let you know that one of the names in Starlight's notebook is Sunset Shimmer."

“Oh.”

“Yea. You can see why I was hesitant to say that in front of the rest of the girls, right? I mean, I know she's had a rough time at CHS before and I don't want to make it worse in our friend group by making it seem like she could have done something to the other Starlight Glimmer.”

“No, I understand. They already mentioned to me that they were hesitant about Sunset and I hanging out alone, apparently she used to be a little bit jealous of me when she found out that I was Princess Twilight's new student. I hope that she wasn't really that jealous of me and that whatever Starlight Glimmer wrote about her in that strange revenge diary of hers is something incredibly minor, especially compared to that Abacus Cinch thing.”

“I hope so too, but I'm worried that at this point we can't take any chances.”

“I know,” Starlight replied sadly.

“We'll start with Abacus Cinch though and work backwards. For now, I don't want to tell the girls about Sunset Shimmer being in the notebook, but...”

“But I'll keep an eye on her. Ya know, just in case.”

Author's Note

This is written for National Pony Writing Month (I've been sick so I'm a tad bit behind. Whoops) so I've gone over it a little bit to fix the obvious things and extend some parts, but please tell me if there are any other glaring mistakes!